Some patients with lung disease fare worse than others. Could sleep explain it?

Flare-ups in COPD linked to sleeplessness, UCSF-led study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

A study led by UC San Francisco researchers shows that insufficient or interrupted sleep may have more of an impact than smoking history in patients with a progressive lung disease. 
 
The researchers found that for patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), inadequate sleep may boost their risk of a flare-up by up to 95% compared to those with good sleep. Over time, these flare-ups, which manifest with worsening shortness of breath and cough, may cause irreversible lung damage, and accelerate disease progression and mortality.  
 
The findings appear online in the journal SLEEP on June 6, 2022. They may partially explain why African American patients with COPD tend to fare worse than white patients, said first author Aaron Baugh, MD, a clinical fellow at the UCSF Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine, and the Cardiovascular Research Institute.  
 
“African Americans are over-represented in low-income neighborhoods, where people are less likely to have good quality sleep. They may live in crowded spaces with multiple roommates, and have less comfortable sleeping conditions, such as a couch, and they may work in a job with a varying schedule that lends itself to sleep disruption,” said Baugh, noting that research shows sleep deprivation is associated with a drop in infection-fighting antibodies and protective cytokines.  
 
The researchers followed 1,647 patients with confirmed COPD, who were enrolled in the national, multi-center SPIROMICS study, designed to monitor the progression of the disease and evaluate effectiveness of treatments. Over a three-year duration, the researchers recorded flare-ups, defined as short-term worsening of symptoms requiring treatment, and compared their incidence with self-reported data on sleep quality. 
 
Poor Sleep Raises Risk of Flare-Ups From 25% to 95% 
 
At the start of the study, the average age of the participants was 65 and the average stage of the disease was moderate. Over half of the participants (57%) were male; 80% were white and 14% were African American. All were current or former smokers, who underwent at least one sleep evaluation at enrollment. The researchers found that compared to participants with optimal sleep, those at the base level of poor sleep had a 25% increased chance of a flare-up within the next year, rising to almost 95% within the next year for those with the worst sleep.  
 
This may amount to a more pronounced effect than the impact of smoking over a 40-year period, versus a 60-year period, said Baugh.  
 
As expected, more African Americans reported poor sleep than did white participants: 63% versus 52%. 
 
 “While factors like health insurance coverage or respiratory hazards may play important roles in severity of the disease, poor sleep may gain even more significance when African Americans’ social status improves,” said Baugh. “This can lead to a kind of paradox; in reducing one risk factor, a new risk factor – poor sleep – may take its place.” 
 
Yet-to-be published data will show that African Americans have worse sleep even when socio-economic factors and severity of COPD are accounted for, Baugh said.  
 
Senior author and pulmonologist Neeta Thakur, MD, of the UCSF School of Medicine said that questions about sleep are often overlooked by physicians evaluating patients with COPD. “Sleep hygiene and sleep aids may significantly improve their health,” she said. “Sleep should be considered both in the clinic and at the wider community/neighborhood level, where the structural factors that contribute to worse sleep can be addressed.”  
 

Co-Authors: Please refer to the paper. 

Funding: SPIROMICS was supported by contracts from the NIH/NHLBI (HHSN268200900013C, HHSN268200900014C, HHSN268200900015C, HHSN268200900016C, HHSN268200900017C, HHSN268200900018C, HHSN268200900019C, HHSN268200900020C), and grants from the NIH/NHLBI (U01 HL137880 and U24 HL141762). Please refer to the paper for full disclosures. 
 

About UCSF: The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF School of Medicine also has a regional campus in Fresno. Learn more at https://www.ucsf.edu, or see our Fact Sheet.

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Follow UCSF
ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf

 

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JOURNAL

SLEEP

Man vs. machine: New Leicester research to compare human eye-tracking with AI in first study of its kind

The human brain’s ability to track and process hazards will be pitted against an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tool in a new interdisciplinary research study at the University of Leicester

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

The human brain’s ability to track and process hazards will be pitted against an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tool in a new interdisciplinary research study at the University of Leicester.

Researchers in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences have combined efforts with visual perception experts from Leicester’s Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour to shape the study, which will track participants’ eye movements when faced with multiple fast-moving hazards simultaneously.

The research will be used to inform the next generation of a rail safety device being developed as part of an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Leicester experts and systems engineering specialists Synoptix.

The OPTIMUS prototype – installed at a Network Rail-operated level crossing near Cheltenham earlier this year – uses machine learning and an AI-based object detection system, hosted locally on the small edge-based device, to identify and quantify different types of traffic.

Now, this new interdisciplinary aspect of the project will allow researchers to compare both the accuracy and speed of its detection capability to a human completing the same task. It is believed that the study is the first of its kind in comparing humans and AI for the task of ‘visual census’ in this way.

George Leete is KTP Research Associate within the Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, and Modelling (AIDAM) Centre at the University of Leicester, and leads development of the machine learning aspect of the project under the supervision of Professor Ivan Tyukin. He said:

“The question was asked on the project ‘How good is good?’, in relation to the performance of the OPTIMUS system at the crossing. I’m confident that the results of this study will lend us some valuable insight into this question, firstly how good humans are at the current task, and secondly whether our current system holds up to human standards. We believe this is the first time an AI-based system will be validated against a standard in this way, opening the door for other systems to be validated via a similar method.”

Dr David Souto, Dr Doug Barrett and Dr Claire Hutchinson make up the team of Leicester psychologists lending their expertise to the study.

Dr Claire Hutchinson, Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology at the University of Leicester said:

“We are really excited to be involved in this interdisciplinary work. Comparing AI and human performance in this way will help us understand how the human brain identifies and weights visual information so that we can safely navigate the world around us.”

Stephen Measures, Project Lead at Synoptix, added:

“Synoptix are delighted to have the opportunity to work with both Leicester’s School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour on this breakthrough study. The results of this will be crucial to help our project team validate the performance and effectiveness of the Optimus prototype system and its AI model, when compared to a human based approach to object census.”

Justin Mountjoy, Programmes Director at Synoptix, adds:

“We feel very privileged to be part of this Collegiate working group as we seek to push the boundaries of this project which has the potential to be a market leader in AI and Data Analytics; not only will it have a huge impact on Artificial Intelligence technologies, but it has real significance in being a fully interactive element to increase safety across Network Rail’s infrastructure.”

According to Network Rail, which is responsible for the country’s rail infrastructure, there are around 6,000 level crossings in the UK. Figures for 2019/20 show that there were 316 near misses with pedestrians on UK level crossings, and two pedestrian fatalities.

The OPTIMUS prototype was installed at a site on the Cross Country Route in January 2022 and has already identified hundreds of thousands of movements on the crossing, including pedestrians, cyclists and other road traffic. As the identification and categorisation of users occurs locally on the device – and the only data transmitted is of traffic numbers and types – the privacy of crossing users is protected in line with data protection guidelines.

Synoptix provides multi-disciplinary systems engineering support across various technical industries. The organisation is certified by the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS) for the provision of Systems and Safety Engineering Consultancy to the Rail Industry. The KTP is funded by Innovate UK.

Scientists use multivalent cation additives to rid rechargeable batteries of a common pitfall

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: CAPTION: MULTIVALENT CATION ADDITIVES MODIFY THE SOLVATION STRUCTURE OF LITHIUM OR SODIUM CATIONS IN ELECTROLYTES AND CONTRIBUTE TO FLAT ELECTRODEPOSITION MORPHOLOGY. view more 

CREDIT: HONGYI LI

Researchers at Tohoku University have unearthed a means to stabilize lithium or sodium depositions in rechargeable batteries, helping keep their metallic structure intact. The discovery prevents potential battery degradation and short circuiting, and paves the way for higher energy-density metal-anode batteries.

Scientists are ever-seeking to develop safer, higher-capacity, and faster charging rechargeable batteries to meet our energy needs sustainably. Metal anodes show the highest promise to achieve that goal. Yet the use of alkali metals poses several problems.

In a rechargeable battery, ions pass from the cathode to the anode when charging, and in the opposite direction when generating power. Repeated deposition and dissolution of metal deforms the structures of lithium and sodium. Additionally, fluctuations in diffusion and electric fields in the electrolytes close to the electrode surface leads to the formation of needle-like microstructures called dendrites. The dendrites are weakly bonded and peel away from the electrodes, resulting in short circuiting and decreases in cycle capacity.

To solve this problem, a research team led by Hongyi Li and Tetsu Ichitsubo from Tohoku University's Institute for Materials Research added multivalent cations, such as calcium ions, that altered and strengthened the solvation structure of lithium or sodium ions in the electrolyte.

"Our modified structure moderates the reduction of lithium or sodium ions on the electrode surface and enables a stable diffusion and electric field," said Dr Li. The stabilized ions, in turn, preserve the structure of the electrodeposited metals.

Details of their research were published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science on May 20, 2022.

For their next steps, Li and Ichitsubo are hoping to improve the metal anodes' interfacial design to further enhance the cycle life and power density of the batteries.

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JOURNAL

Cell Reports Physical Science

DOI

10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100907 

ARTICLE TITLE

Dendrite-free alkali metal electrodeposition from contact-ion-pair state induced by mixing alkaline earth cation

Nano-sensor detects pesticides on fruit in minutes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET

 

IMAGE: FLAME NANOPARTICLE DEPOSITION WAS USED TO PRODUCE ROBUST NANO-SENSORS THAT CAN DETECT PESTICIDE RESIDUES ON APPLE SURFACES WITHIN MINUTES. view more 

CREDIT: ARTWORK BY HAIPENG LI AND GEORGIOS A SOTIRIOU.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a tiny sensor for detecting pesticides on fruit in just a few minutes. The technique, described as a proof-of-concept in a paper in the journal Advanced Science, uses flame-sprayed nanoparticles made from silver to increase the signal of chemicals. While still at an early stage, the researchers hope these nano-sensors could help uncover food pesticides before consumption.

“Reports show that up to half of all fruits sold in the EU contain pesticide residues that in larger quantities have been linked to human health problems,” says Georgios Sotiriou, principal researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s corresponding author. “However, current techniques for detecting pesticides on single products before consumption are restricted in practice by the high cost and cumbersome manufacturing of its sensors. To overcome this, we developed inexpensive and reproducible nano-sensors that could be used to monitor traces of fruit pesticides at, for example, the store.”

The new nano-sensors employ a 1970s discovery known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering, or SERS, a powerful sensing technique that can increase the diagnostic signals of biomolecules on metal surfaces by more than 1 million times. The technology has been used in several research fields, including chemical and environmental analysis as well as to detect biomarkers for various diseases. However, high production costs and limited batch-to-batch reproducibility have so far hindered widespread application in food safety diagnostics.

Flame spray technology

In the current study, the researchers created a SERS nano-sensor by using flame spray – a well-established and cost-effective technique for depositing metallic coating – to deliver small droplets of silver nanoparticles onto a glass surface.

“The flame spray can be used to quickly produce uniform SERS films across large areas, removing one of the key barriers to scalability,” says Haipeng Li, a postdoctoral researcher in Sotiriou’s lab and the study’s first author.

The researchers then finetuned the distance between the individual silver nanoparticles to enhance their sensitivity. To test their substance-detecting ability, they applied a thin layer of tracer dye on top of the sensors and used a spectrometer to uncover their molecular fingerprints. The sensors reliably and uniformly detected the molecular signals and their performance remained intact when tested again after 2,5 months, which underscores their shelf life potential and feasibility for large-scale production, according to the researchers.

Detected pesticides on apples

To test the sensors’ practical application, the researchers calibrated them to detect low concentrations of parathion-ethyl, a toxic agricultural insecticide that is banned or restricted in most countries. A small amount of parathion-ethyl was placed on part of an apple. The residues were later collected with a cotton swab that was immersed in a solution to dissolve the pesticide molecules. The solution was dropped on the sensor, which confirmed the presence of pesticides.

“Our sensors can detect pesticide residues on apple surfaces in a short time of five minutes without destroying the fruit,” Haipeng Li says. “While they need to be validated in larger studies, we offer a proof-of-concept practical application for food safety testing at scale before consumption.”

Next, the researchers want to explore if the nano-sensors can be applied to other areas such as discovering biomarkers for specific diseases at the point-of-care in resource-limited settings.

The research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC), Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) and the Swedish Research Council.

Publication: “SERS Hotspot Engineering by Aerosol Self-Assembly of Plasmonic Ag Nanoaggregates with Tunable Interparticle Distance.” Haipeng Li, Padryk Merkl, Jens Sommertune, Thomas Thersleff, and Georgios A. Sotiriou, Advanced Science, online June 7, 2022, doi: 10.1002/advs.202201133

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JOURNAL

Advanced Science

DOI

10.1002/advs.202201133 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

“SERS Hotspot Engineering by Aerosol Self-Assembly of Plasmonic Ag Nanoaggregates with Tunable Interparticle Distance"

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Jun-2022

Indigenous Borneans knew a tree was two distinct species— genetic analysis confirms they were right

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

IMAGE: THIS IMAGE SHOWS A LUMOK PINGAN FRUIT (LEFT) AND A LUMOK AMAT FRUIT (LEFT). view more 

CREDIT: GARDENER ET AL./CURRENT BIOLOGY

Over 200 years ago, a Spanish botanist described Artocarpus odoratissimus, a species of fruit-bearing tree found in Borneo and the Philippines. The Iban people, who are indigenous to Borneo, know the tree to have two different varieties, which they call lumok and pingan, distinguished by their fruit size and shape. Despite this knowledge, Western botanists have long considered the tree as a single species, but a genetic analysis, published June 6 in the journal Current Biology, confirms the Iban people were right all along.

To determine the correct taxonomy of the tree, which is in the same genus as the trees that produce the meaty jackfruit, scientists took DNA samples from trees in Malaysian Borneo and from historical herbarium specimens. They employed phylogenetic analyses and DNA microsatellites to show that while lumok and pingan are closely related, they are genetically distinct species. The scientists recommend that the trees be renamed to reflect this and suggest that it’s time to consider incorporating Indigenous names into taxonomic research.

“While the scientific endeavor has long benefitted from Indigenous knowledge, it has usually not engaged with it on equal footing,” write the authors, which include Malaysian scientists and Iban field botanists, led by Elliot M. Gardner (@elliotmgardner), a botanist at Florida International University. “While Linnaean taxonomy offers a broad framework for global comparisons, it may lack the detailed local insights possessed by Indigenous peoples.”

“Time is of the essence, because just as biodiversity is under threat of climate change, Indigenous knowledge—itself protected under Article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity—is threatened by societal change,” Gardner and colleagues say.

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This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Garden Club of America, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Botanical Society of America, the Systematics Association, the Linnean Society, EU-SYNTHESYS, and the Garfield Weston foundation.

Current Biology, Gardner et al: “Engagement with indigenous knowledge improves our understanding of biodiversity and promotes the conservation of both” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00680-7

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.062 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Engagement with indigenous knowledge improves our understanding of biodiversity and promotes the conservation of both

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Jun-2022

Exotic tree plantations can disturb local wildlife, researchers find

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

 

IMAGE: COPROPHANAEUS LANCIFER, THE LARGEST DUNG BEETLE SPECIES IN THE STUDY REGION view more 

CREDIT: HANNAH GRIFFITHS

Initiatives using non-native tree species can impact tropical insects in neighbouring forests, according to an international study.

Scientists at the University of Bristol and Federal University of Western Pará, in Brazil have found that Eucalyptus plantation edge effects radiates up to 800 meters into the interior of nearby Amazonian forests, when applied to ecologically important dung beetles.

As the world seeks to mitigate human-induced climate change, planted forests have become widespread restoration strategy across the globe. However the findings, published today in Forest Ecology and Management, suggest that while well-intentioned, exotic tree plantations can have a wider influence on the native biodiversity of hyperdiverse tropical forests.

In ecology, edge effect research investigates how biological populations or communities change at the boundary of two or more habitats.

To further understand the edge effect, the team of scientists travelled to the Amazon Rainforest and collected over 3,700 dung beetles from 49 species to evaluate how Eucalyptus plantations affect the insect biodiversity in neighbouring Amazonian forests.

“Our findings for dung beetles offer new insights into the importance of considering how proximity to exotic tree plantations can affect tropical forest biodiversity,” said Dr Filipe França of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, and co-supervisor of the lead author.

He said: “Importantly, edge effects varied across dung beetle responses and were species-specific. For example, we found more dung beetle species far away from Eucalyptus plantations, but some species also thrived and had higher abundances closer to plantation edges.”

This means that some dung beetles may be more sensitive to changes in forest environment closer to exotic tree plantations than others edge-affiliated and generalist species.

“Understanding multi-species responses to anthropogenic disturbances is crucial to tackle the current biodiversity crisis and our findings are vital for forest managers and conservation planners aiming to maintain forest-specialist biodiversity in native ecosystems across the tropics,” explained Professor Rodrigo Fadini from the Federal University of Western Pará.

  

CAPTION

Canthon fulgidus, a roller-dung beetle species in the study region

CREDIT

Dr Filipe França

Paper:

‘Edge effects from exotic tree plantations and environmental context drive dung beetle assemblages within Amazonian undisturbed forests’ by  Maria Katiane Costa, Filipe França, Carlos Brocardo, and Rodrigo Fadini in Forest Ecology and Management.

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JOURNAL

Forest Ecology and Management

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Edge effects from exotic tree plantations and environmental context drive dung beetle assemblages within Amazonian undisturbed forests

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Jun-2022

Beyond “plant trees!”: UMBC research finds tree plantations encroaching on essential ecosystems

Trees planted in the tropics as part of nations’ reforestation commitments can have unintended consequences, sometimes degrading biodiversity hotspots, damaging ecosystems like grasslands, or encroaching on protected areas

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY

 

IMAGE: TREES SUPPLY MANY BENEFITS, AND MANY NATIONS HAVE COMMITTED TO REFORESTING LARGE SWATHS OF LAND AS PART OF THEIR EFFORTS TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE. AS AN EXAMPLE, THIS IS A TEAK PLANTATION IN COSTA RICA. HOWEVER, NEW RESEARCH FROM UMBC FINDS THAT SOME TREES PLANTED IN THE TROPICS MAY DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD. THE AUTHORS FOUND THAT 92 PERCENT OF NEW TREE PLANTATIONS PLANTED IN THE TROPICS BETWEEN 2000 AND 2012 WERE IN BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS. FOURTEEN PERCENT WERE IN ARID BIOMES, WHERE TREES ARE UNLIKELY TO THRIVE AND LIKELY TO DAMAGE EXISTING ECOSYSTEMS LIKE GRASSLANDS, WHICH ARE HEROES OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN THEIR OWN RIGHT. TREE PLANTATIONS HAD ALSO ENCROACHED INTO 9 PERCENT OF ACCESSIBLE PROTECTED AREAS IN THE HUMID TROPICS, SUCH AS NATIONAL PARKS. “WE NEED TO BE COGNIZANT THAT NOT ALL TREE PLANTING IS BENEFICIAL FOR THE ECOSYSTEM INVOLVED,” SAYS MATTHEW FAGAN, THE LEAD AUTHOR ON THE NEW STUDY. “THE RIGHT TREE IN THE RIGHT PLACE IS THE RIGHT ANSWER.” view more 

CREDIT: MATTHEW FAGAN

Trees store carbon, filter the air, create habitat, and supply a host of other benefits for animals and people. Planting the right trees, in the right places, in consultation with local communities, can support goals like addressing climate change and improving lives. However, new research led by Matthew Fagan, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC, finds that some trees planted in the tropics may be doing more harm than good.

The study, published in Nature Sustainability, examined the increase in tree cover across the global tropics between 2000 and 2012. Fagan and colleagues found that, surprisingly, tree cover gains during that period were equally attributable to natural forest regrowth and the creation of tree plantations. The most common tree plantation species were rubber, eucalyptus, and oil palm.

Tree plantations are not always harmful to the environment, and even much-maligned oil palm can be farmed sustainably, Fagan explains. However, the study found that 92 percent of new tree plantations were in biodiversity hotspots, threatening a range of plant and animal species. Also, 14 percent of plantations were in arid biomes, where trees are unlikely to thrive and likely to damage existing ecosystems. And tree plantations had encroached into 9 percent of accessible protected areas in the humid tropics, such as national parks.

“Ecologists have been sounding the alarm on this for over a decade,” Fagan says. “But no one’s had a hard number about how much this is actually happening.”

When tree planting is lose-lose

In recent years, dozens of nations have committed to restoring large areas of forest. Tree plantations make up 45 percent of commitments to the Bonn Challenge, an international initiative to restore degraded and deforested landscapes. But Fagan is concerned that these plantations may have unintended consequences.

For example, China has undertaken a massive tree-planting effort at the edge of the Gobi desert, and many African countries have committed to planting trees at the transition between the Sahara desert and Sahel grassland. The goal is to prevent desert expansion, but the plantings can cause harm. Disturbing the soil releases carbon, and trees are water hogs. They end up “killing off the grassland that was there, and then they often die of drought,” Fagan says. In these situations, tree planting is lose-lose.

Similarly, in Brazil, soy farmers moved out of the Amazon and into the Cerrado, one of the world’s largest savannas. Pine and eucalyptus tree farms followed. The Cerrado supports a wealth of biodiversity, and the carbon it stores underground rivals rainforest carbon sequestration, Fagan explains. Tree crops in the Cerrado may count toward Brazil’s reforestation commitment, but could actually be a step backward in mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss.

“In the U.S., we have a huge area of relatively wet woods, and we tend to idolize planting trees as sort of the ultimate environmental act,” Fagan says. “But there’s a lot of value in grasslands and savannas that we don’t necessarily see. And when you plant trees, you essentially destroy that ecosystem.”

In response to his team’s new research, “I would really like to see governments around the world reassess their restoration plans,” Fagan says, “or at least be more transparent when their plans involve tree planting, especially in areas that may not be appropriate for planting trees.”

Park or plantation?

Fagan’s new paper also revealed the extent to which tree plantations are invading protected areas. The problem was so bad that he had to overhaul the algorithm his team used to differentiate between data representing natural forest regrowth and tree plantations.

Initially, the algorithm used park boundaries as a proxy for natural forest regrowth areas. But it wasn’t working. To figure out what was wrong, Fagan spot-checked 20 parks, and found that three had multiple plantations inside them. That got him curious.

Six weeks later, he had manually checked for plantations in every park in the tropics. When he found plantations, he either redrew the park’s boundaries or, if the park was too compromised, removed it from the data completely. Using the resulting new maps, the algorithm could detect natural forest regrowth versus tree plantations with more than 90 percent accuracy.

“It was very disturbing to see there were just so many parks that were compromised,” Fagan says.

The new maps allowed the team to find many more regrowth areas and plantations than expected from government estimates. Several UMBC undergraduates are authors on the paper because of their contributions to this data analysis. Each student manually checked at least 1,000 patches, some as many as 3,000.

“In the end, the tropics is a much more modified place than we were expecting,” Fagan says. “There’s a whole host of reasons that we see these encroachments, but they’re definitely happening all over the world. We see a steady erosion of these parks by plantations, and the industry is just getting started.”

Reason for hope

When setting out on this research, the team had a simple question: How many planted trees are there in the world? “It seemed like a strange thing not to know,” Fagan says. As the work progressed, they asked whether trees were being planted where they shouldn’t be and whether plantations were expanding into parks. They’ve found the results concerning, but they also have reason for hope.

Trees can do a lot of good, and planting more of them can be a significant factor in addressing the impacts of climate change. But it has to be done right. “This paper shows it’s possible to monitor natural forest versus plantation at a global scale,” Fagan says, “so we can encourage the results we want and discourage results we don’t want.”

He also hopes the results will inspire everyone to be more conscious of where their products—from paper to food to shampoo to tires—come from, and to demand that companies producing those products in tree plantations adopt more sustainable practices.

“If we make our choices en masse, it does shift the direction that these companies go in,” Fagan says. And despite our love for trees in the U.S., he notes, forests are not the only ecosystems that can help mitigate the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. Savannas and prairies also have an important role to play.

“We need to be cognizant that not all tree planting is beneficial for the ecosystem involved,” Fagan says. “The right tree in the right place is the right answer.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-00904-w 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The expansion of tree plantations across tropical biomes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Jun-2022

Hubble Space Telescope captures largest near-infrared image to find universe’s rarest galaxies

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

 

IMAGE: A PATCH OF SKY IMAGED BY 3D-DASH, SHOWING THE BRIGHTEST AND RAREST OBJECTS OF THE UNIVERSE LIKE MONSTER GALAXIES. view more 

CREDIT: GABE BRAMMER

TORONTO, ON – An international team of scientists today released the largest near-infrared image ever taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, enabling astronomers to map the star-forming regions of the universe and learn how the earliest, most distant galaxies originated. Named 3D-DASH, this high-resolution survey will allow researchers to find rare objects and targets for follow-up observations with the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during its decades-long mission.

A preprint of the paper to be published in The Astrophysical Journal is available on arXiv.

“Since its launch more than 30 years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope has led a renaissance in the study of how galaxies have changed in the last 10-billion years of the universe,” says Lamiya Mowla, Dunlap Fellow at the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study. “The 3D-DASH program extends Hubble’s legacy in wide-area imaging so we can begin to unravel the mysteries of the galaxies beyond our own.”

For the first time, 3D-DASH provides researchers with a complete near-infrared survey of the entire COSMOS field, one of the richest data fields for extragalactic studies beyond the Milky Way. As the longest and reddest wavelength observed with Hubble – just past what is visible to the human eye – near-infrared means astronomers are better able to see the earliest galaxies that are the farthest away.

Astronomers also need to search a vast area of the sky to find rare objects in the universe. Until now, such a large image was only available from the ground and suffered from poor resolution, which limited what could be observed. 3D-DASH will help to identify unique phenomena like the universe’s most massive galaxies, highly active black holes, and galaxies on the brink of colliding and merging into one.

CAPTION

Galaxies from the last 10 billion years witnessed in the 3D-DASH program, created using 3D-DASH/F160W and ACS-COSMOS/F814W imaging.

CREDIT

Lamiya Mowla

“I am curious about monster galaxies, which are the most massive ones in the universe formed by the mergers of other galaxies. How did their structures grow, and what drove the changes in their form?” says Mowla, who began work on the project in 2015 while a grad student at Yale University. “It was difficult to study these extremely rare events using existing images, which is what motivated the design of this large survey.”

CAPTION

Lamiya Mowla, Dunlap Fellow at the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study.

CREDIT

Courtesy of Lamiya Mowla

To image such an expansive patch of sky, the researchers employed a new technique with Hubble known as Drift And SHift (DASH). DASH creates an image that is eight times larger than Hubble’s standard field of view by capturing multiple shots that are then stitched together into one master mosaic, similar to taking a panoramic picture on a smartphone.

DASH also takes images faster than the typical technique, snapping eight pictures per Hubble’s orbit instead of one picture, achieving in 250 hours what would previously have taken 2,000 hours.

“3D-DASH adds a new layer of unique observations in the COSMOS field and is also a steppingstone to the space surveys of the next decade,” says Ivelina Momcheva, head of data science at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and principal investigator of the study. “It gives us a sneak peek of future scientific discoveries and allows us to develop new techniques to analyze these large datasets.”

3D-DASH covers a total area almost six times the size of the moon in the sky as seen from Earth. This record is likely to remain unbroken by Hubble’s successor JWST, which is instead built for sensitive, close-up images to capture fine detail of a small area. It is the largest near-infrared image of the sky available to astronomers until the next generation of telescopes launch in the next decade, such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and Euclid.

3D-DASH depth map (IMAGE)

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

CAPTION

Zoomed-in panels on the 3D-DASH depth map reveal the wealth of bright objects that can be studied.

CREDIT

Mowla et al. 2022

3D-DASH mosaicing video (VIDEO)

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

CAPTION

The Hubble Space Telescope captured the entire COSMOS field by stitching together multiple images into one master image, a process called mosaicing

CREDIT

Ivelina Momcheva

Until then, professional astronomers and amateur stargazers alike can explore the skies using an interactive, online version of the 3D-DASH image created by Gabriel Brammer, professor at the Cosmic Dawn Center in the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and European Space Agency (ESA). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

The full image is available at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

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JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.2c01204 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

3D-DASH: The Widest Near-Infrared Hubble Space Telescope Survey