Recording the seasons in nature's notebook

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

The proliferation of citizen science platforms has allowed for widespread collection of data in countless disciplines, including phenology, the study of the timing of seasonal events in plants and animals. Writing in BioScience, Theresa Crimmins of the USA National Phenology Network (NPN) and colleagues survey the research and applied scientific advances made using the Network’s digital platform, Nature’s Notebook.

According to the authors, since the platform launched in 2009, community members throughout North America have contributed over 30 million phenological records. Drawing on previous surveys, the authors were able to detect patterns in usership: first, individuals tend to use the platform for personal enjoyment and record observations, but the majority only contribute data for one season. Members of preexisting organized groups, such as schools, tend to contribute much more consistently and frequently, but on a more limited diversity of organisms. Other users are natural resource professionals and researchers. Data on the timing of seasonal events is critical for natural resource management, and data from Nature’s Notebook is increasingly employed for these purposes. For example, The US Fish and Wildlife Service engages the southern Arizona public to track the timing of flower resources used by the migratory lesser long-nosed bat, a species recently removed from the US Endangered Species List.

To conclude, the authors find that the platform is well-suited for asking and answering well-defined questions, but has limitations for answering unplanned questions as a result of spatial and temporal unevenness and species biases in data collection. They propose more structure in the data collection process as a solution to expand the potential uses of the data. However, they note that the NPN is "well positioned to drive phenology data collection across the country." The authors also touch on how to partner with Indigenous communities in the study of phenology with respect for data sovereignty, especially related to data on the locations of certain plants and animals.

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JOURNAL

BioScience

DOI

10.1093/biosci/biac061 

ARTICLE TITLE

Science and Management Advancements Made Possible by the USA National Phenology Network's Nature's Notebook Platform

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Aug-2022

Experts to discuss 'tipping points' alliance

Meeting Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Experts will meet next month to discuss catastrophic climate "tipping points" – and the power of positive tipping points to avert the climate crisis.

The meeting, from 12-14 September at the University of Exeter, is intended as a "call to action" to build an alliance that can improve early warnings and accelerate positive change.

The world faces a growing threat of climate tipping points – thresholds which, once crossed, trigger irreversible changes such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest or the West Antarctic ice sheet.

But positive tipping points offer hope, and the meeting will consider ways to trigger these across sectors, communities and countries.

Speakers will include Professors Ricarda Winkelmann and Johan Rockström, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Kate Raworth, author of "Doughnut Economics"; Dr Laura Pereira, from the University of Witwatersrand; and Keywan Riahi, from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

The meeting will be hosted by Exeter's Global Systems Institute (GSI).

Professor Tim Lenton, Director of the GSI, said: "The world seems to be crying out for this kind of joined-up thinking and action agenda.

"Attendees will have the opportunity to shape future research and positive action to address tipping points risks and opportunities."

Professor Rockström said: "The global tipping points conference comes at a critical juncture for humanity.

"We need a dramatic acceleration of progress, or we risk crossing irreversible tipping points.

"Join Tim Lenton and myself and other leading thinkers on tipping points at the conference to discuss how transformational change can be generated."

Scarlett Benson, Director at SYSTEMIQ and the Food and Land Use Coalition, said: "Understanding the potential for these positive tipping points is extremely empowering, since it is clear that many different actors have important roles to play.

"The conference in September will be an amazing opportunity for researchers, academia, civil society, policymakers, business and beyond to identify accelerated pathways for triggering systemic change towards sustainable transformation."

The event is open to anyone working on or interested in tipping points.

Speakers will be from academia, industry, government and NGOs to highlight the need for rapid and transformative solutions, as well as the risks and early warning requirements on negative tipping points.

There will be active engagement in a series of breakout workshops designed to co-develop new approaches for triggering positive tipping points for a socially just transformation.

The breakouts will work on opportunities for positive tipping points in finance, landscape restoration, food systems, finance, communications, behaviour change and on the role of social movements.

Most of the meeting will take place in person, with a small number of talks live-streamed for virtual audiences.

It has been organised by the Global Systems Institute, Earth Commission, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, World Climate Research Programme and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

For more information – including how to register or become a sponsor – visit: https://global-tipping-points.org/

Standard registration will close on August 8. Late registration opens on August 9 and closes on August 21.

NCAR study identifies where coral reefs may be buffered against warming oceans

Interactive global atlas can aid conservation efforts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH/UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

As warming ocean temperatures threaten the existence of coral reefs, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have successfully used an extremely high-resolution computer simulation of ocean circulation to identify possible “thermal refugia” where these biodiverse ecosystems are more likely to survive.

The research team has published an interactive, freely available online global atlas with the locations of these areas, where ocean dynamics and cooler waters combine to provide possible havens for coral reefs. 

“We hope this work serves as a starting point for other scientists who are interested in reefs,” said NCAR scientist Scott Bachman, who led the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. “We invite researchers to look at our website, identify where refugia may be, and then go observe the health of the reefs.”

The research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor. The study was co-authored by scientists at the University of Tasmania and the University of Auckland.

Waves of cooler water

Climate change poses such a threat to coral reefs worldwide that the majority are expected to be lost in less than three decades, with warming ocean waters bleaching the reefs and leaving behind lifeless skeletons. The loss of coral reefs has far-reaching ramifications for the environment and society. They are home to almost a third of marine species and support hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Reefs generate an estimated global economic value of $10 trillion per year, and the protection they provide to shorelines from storm and flood damage is worth billions of dollars each year, according to NCAR scientist and study co-author Joan Kleypas. 

However, scientists have found that some reefs do fare better than others. In some regions of the ocean, for example, cooler water, lifted from the deep ocean by subsurface oscillations known as internal ocean gravity waves, can lap over the reefs and buffer them from increased heat.

“These gravity waves are everywhere, and under special conditions, they can bring cooler water near the surface of the ocean where reefs are,” Bachman said. “You need powerful waves with large amplitudes to collide with physical obstacles, like a seamount, to force the waves to slosh upwards.”

Scientists have understood for some time that this gravity wave phenomenon exists in select places. For example, a combination of the tides and the deep basins of the Coral Triangle — a marine area that includes the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other nearby countries — create conditions that favor gravity waves bringing cooler water to the surface. But it has been difficult to determine all the places across the globe where similar conditions could exist, in part because the gravity waves may not bring the water all the way to the surface and therefore cannot be identified by satellites.

Without the ability to observe the thermal refugia from space, scientists are left with computer modeling as a tool to identify them globally. The main obstacle for models, however, is scale. Coral reefs are relatively tiny compared to the vastness of the ocean, and running a simulation at high enough resolution over the entire globe to capture how gravity waves interact with a specific reef requires massive computational resources.

However, one such simulation exists. NASA’s Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) Project simulated the entire ocean at a resolution of about 2 kilometers and saved data at hourly time steps, frequent enough to accurately capture how internal gravity waves behave. To do the analysis that was necessary to identify thermal refugia, Bachman downloaded a staggering 400 terabytes of data from the ECCO Project.

“This type of study is not uncommon on a local scale,” Bachman said. “But it’s rare on a regional scale, and until now, it’s never before been done on a global scale.”

The resulting atlas offers some hope, according to Kleypas, who has conducted pioneering research into the effects of climate change on coral reefs.

“Coral reefs are not doing well, and we’ve all been going through a period of mourning,” Kleypas said. “This study highlights where there is cause for hope. We’re not saying that this atlas will solve everything, but it can help us be smarter about our approach to conserving the reefs that have the best chance of survival.”

This material is based upon work supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

 

About the article

Title: “A global atlas of potential thermal refugia for coral reefs generated by internal gravity waves”

Authors: Scott D. Bachman, Joan A. Kleypas, Mark Erdmann, and Edy Setyawan

Journal: Frontiers in Marine Science

 

On the web: news.ucar.edu

On Twitter: @NCAR_Science

 

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Marine Science

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2022.921879 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A global atlas of potential thermal refugia for coral reefs generated by internal gravity waves

New York City switch to clean buses cut air pollution

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

The transition of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus fleet in New York City to cleaner fuels and engines was followed by declines in air pollution, particularly nitrous oxide. The study was led by scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia Irving Medical Center, and Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. The findings are published in the Journal Of Exposure Science And Environmental Epidemiology.

Beginning in 2000, the MTA began deploying compressed natural gas, hybrid electric, and low-sulfur diesel buses to reduce urban air pollution. In addition, existing buses were retrofitted with diesel particulate filters. The Federal Clean Air Act of 1990 set standards for all new bus purchases. Select cities, including New York City, were mandated to purchase clean fuel buses.

The researchers examined air pollution concentrations in 9,670 300mx300m grid cell areas across the five boroughs, as measured by the New York City Community Air Survey, between 2009 and 2014, as the MTA transitioned its fleet to clean buses. Data were assessed alongside depot- and route-specific data on the fleet transition and bus traffic sourced from publicly-available data and FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests.

The researchers found declines in nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and black carbon (BC), even in the 40 percent of cells without bus service. Declines in concentrations of NO and NO2 were greater in areas with more bus service and with higher proportional shifts toward clean buses, adjusted for truck route presence and total traffic volume.

Shifts toward clean bus service were associated with slower declines in BC concentration. This finding may be explained by the fact that hybrid diesel buses can produce more particulate matter than their conventional counterparts due to their smaller engine size. Alternately, it may be because the study was better attuned to measures of fresh combustion emissions such as NO, for which exposure rapidly decreases with distance to busy roadways.

“Our results provide evidence that the New York City clean bus program impacted concentrations of air pollution,” says first author Gina Lovasi, PhD, associate dean for education and Dornsife associate professor of urban health at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. “It is likely that similar changes have happened or could be realized in other cities.”

“Air pollution is harmful to everyone, particularly children, and is known to raise risk for a host of health problems, from asthma to cognitive and behavioral problems,” adds study co-author Frederica Perera, PhD, director of translational research at Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health and professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Additional co-authors include Isha Shah, Alique Berberian, and Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health; Christian Treat, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons; and Dustin Fry and Jane Clougherty, Drexel University School of Public Health.

Funding support was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (ES09600), the NIEHS Center for28 Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (ES009089), the John and Wendy Neu Family Foundation, and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Foundation. The authors confirm no conflicting financial interests.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology

DOI

10.1038/s41370-022-00454-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Clean fleets, different streets: evaluating the effect of New York City’s clean bus program on changes to estimated ambient air pollution

Anthroponumbers.org compiles data about human-environment interactions into one website

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

IMAGE: THE HUMAN IMPACTS DATABASE view more 

CREDIT: PATTERNS/CHURE ET AL.

Countless studies have sought to quantify various aspects of human impacts on the planet, but sorting through that data to get answers about the effect we're actually having can be a challenge for researchers, policymakers, and the public alike. A team of researchers has centralized over 300 key figures in the Human Impacts Database, hosted at Anthroponumbers.org. In a paper publishing in the journal Patterns on August 3, the authors outline the kinds of data they have gathered—and how they hope it helps people make sense of the climate crisis.

“Writing from California, as several of the authors are, where we now have a “wildfire season” and a multi-decadal drought, we wanted to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which human activities might have produced such dramatic and consequential changes in our local and global environment,” say the authors, led by Griffin Chure, an NSF postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. “In our search for answers…, we often encountered the same challenges: disparate technical studies written for expert audiences must be understood, evaluated, and synthesized just to answer simple questions. It seemed to us that a referenced compendium of ‘things we already know’… would be very useful for us and others.”

The Human Impacts Database provides information ranging from global plastic production (4 x 1011 kg/year), to the total standing livestock population (4.6 x 10^10 animals), to global annual mean sea level rise (3.4 (-0.44, + 0.47) × 10-3 m/year). The data is broken into five main categories: water, energy, flora & fauna, atmospheric & biogeochemical cycles, and land, and then into 20 subcategories. When available, the database includes timeseries to help illustrate how these numbers have changed.

“We view this database as an accessory, rather than a replacement, for the myriad scientific databases that exist and are publicly available on the internet,” write the authors. “While these databases are invaluable resources for accessing scientific data, the Human Impacts Database is built from the ground-up with the intention of being broadly accessible to scientists and the curious general public alike to help build the collective quantitative literacy of the Anthropocene.”

###

Patterns, Chure et al. “Anthroponumbers.org: A Quantitative Database of Human Impacts on Planet Earth” https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(22)00157-X

Patterns (@Patterns_CP), published by Cell Press, is a data science journal publishing original research focusing on solutions to the cross-disciplinary problems that all researchers face when dealing with data, as well as articles about datasets, software code, algorithms, infrastructures, etc., with permanent links to these research outputs. Visit: https://www.cell.com/patterns. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

Patterns

DOI

10.1016/j.patter.2022.100552 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Anthroponumbers.org: A Quantitative Database of Human Impacts on Planet Earth

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Aug-2022

Disclaimer: AAAS and E

Why are some birds more intelligent than others?

Brain size is only part of the answer – and time in the nest may be key

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MCGILL UNIVERSITY 

video Grackle dips dog pellets to so [VIDEO] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases

VIDEO: A CARIB GRACKLE AT THE BELLAIRS RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN BARBADOS DUNKS DOG PELLETS TO MAKE THEM MORE EDIBLE. view more 

CREDIT: LOUIS LEFEBVRE

If you’ve ever seen a grackle steal your dog pellets or a starling peck open a garbage bag, you get a sense of that some birds have learned to take advantage of new feeding opportunities – a clear sign of their intelligence. Scientists have long wondered why certain species of birds are more innovative than others, and whether these capacities stem from larger brains (which intuitively seems likely) or from a greater number of neurons in specific areas of the brain.

It turns out that it’s a bit of both, according to a recent study by an international team that included members from McGill University published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

More neurons in the right place tied to greater intelligence in birds

The researchers used a new technique to estimate the number of neurons in a specific part of the brain called the pallium in 111 bird species. The pallium in birds is the equivalent of the human cerebral cortex, which is involved in memory, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving, among other things. When these estimates about neuron numbers in the pallium were combined with information about over 4,000 foraging innovations, the team found that the species with the higher numbers of neurons in the pallium were also likely to be the most innovative.

Longer development time in nest a key factor

“The amount of time fledglings spend in the nest as their brains develop might also play a crucial role in the evolution of intelligence,” says McGill University Emeritus Professor Louis Lefebvre who spent more than 20 years gathering examples of foraging innovations. “Larger species of crows and parrots, that are known for their intelligence, spend longer in the nest, which allows more time for the brain to grow and accumulate pallial neurons.”

The results of the study help to reconcile previously opposed views of the evolution and significance of brain size and show how a life-history perspective helps to understand the evolution of cognition.

“Neuron numbers link innovativeness with both absolute and relative brain size in birds” by Sol D., Olkowicz, S., Sayol, F. et al in Nature Ecology and Evolution

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01815-x

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-022-01815-x 

ARTICLE TITLE

Neuron numbers link innovativeness with both absolute and relative brain size in birds

Research suggests that change in bird coloration is due to climate change

The study was carried out over a 15-year period in the south of France through a partnership between scientists from the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country and the Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE-CNRS) in Montpellier

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

 

IMAGE: MORE THAN 5,800 OBSERVATIONS ON THE COLOURING AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BLUE TITS LIKE THIS ONE WERE MADE BETWEEN 2005 AND 2019 view more 

CREDIT: DAVID LÓPEZ-IDIÁQUEZ.

The work, which was conducted over a 15-year period (2005-2019) through a partnership between scientists from the UPV/EHU and the Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive in Montpellier (CEFE-CNRS), focused on two populations of blue tits in the south of France, one located on the outskirts of Montpellier and the other in the northwest of the island of Corsica. 

Each year between 2005 and 2019, all breeding blue tits in each population were captured. As a result, researchers from the two institutions were able to gather more than 5,800 observations on the colouring and other characteristics of the blue tits.  

The blue tit is characterised by its striking colouring: a blue crest and a yellow breast. The results obtained in the study show a decrease in both populations of blue and yellow colouration between 2005 and 2019. In other words, the blue crests and yellow breasts of blue tits in these two populations are on average less colourful right now than when the research began.  

“Our work suggests that environmental changes, and specifically climate change, could be the main reason why birds such as the blue tit are undergoing a change in their physical features, more specifically in the brightness and intensity of their colouration,” said David López-Idiáquez, researcher in the UPV/EHU's Department of Plant Biology and Ecology.   

“A negative trend in terms of brightness and intensity of plumage colouration in both sexes and populations has been observed, although in Corsica this change is more associated with climate,” explained López.” The change in plumage colour seems to be the result of a combination of a rise in temperature (1.23ºC) and a fall in rainfall (0.64 mm), so climate change would be the potential cause of this difference,” he said.   

Change in species mating patterns 

It may appear to be a purely aesthetic change, but just the opposite is true, as this change in plumage may have an effect on the “mating patterns” of the species. “In these birds, traits such as colouring function as signals to indicate to other individuals the quality of the specimen, which are decisive, for example, when it comes to breeding,” explained David López. 

“This study was possible thanks to the continuous monitoring of the two blue tit populations for more than 15 years, which highlights the importance of long-term studies to understand the effects of climate change on the ecosystems around us,” he said. 

When there is a variation in the territory, animal populations have 4 options: the first is to undergo genetic change; the second is to undergo plastic change (change in physical characteristics without genetic changes); the third is to migrate; and the last, to disappear. “It is important to stress that this change is not genetic but plastic, one of the ways of adapting to new environmental conditions,” he pointed out. 

Change in our environment 

“Given that our environment is quite similar, albeit less hot, our birds may be undergoing the same change,” surmised David. “In any case, there are only four studies of this type in the world, and none of them has been carried out in the Basque Country; I think it would be very interesting to carry out more research like this not only on a Basque level, but also on a national level,” he added.  

David López-Idiáquez (Villajoyosa, 1988) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of the Basque Country and at the Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive in Montpellier. His research interests focus on understanding how the heterogeneity of environmental conditions alters evolutionary dynamics, especially in ornamental traits. After graduating from the UPV/EHU, he was awarded a PhD in Ecology from the Autonomous University of Madrid in conjunction with the Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid. 

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JOURNAL

The American Naturalist

DOI

10.1086/719655 

ARTICLE TITLE

Long-Term Decrease in Coloration: A Consequence of Climate Change?

New study reveals that climate change will severely impact bird species by 2080

For immediate release: Wednesday 3 August 2022

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DURHAM UNIVERSITY

-With pictures-

Bioscientists from Durham University, UK and Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Germany have predicted in their latest research that bird communities will change worldwide in 2080 due to climate change, largely as result of shifting their ranges.

For the projections of the bird communities to the year 2080, the team of scientists related past bird distributions to climate data and then applied these relationships to two future climate scenarios – based on low and medium greenhouse gas emissions – to predict changes in species distributions.

The team looked not only at changes in numbers of species in areas but also at the types of species that would occur. To summarise changes in species types they calculated something called phylogenetic diversity that summarises how many different types of birds would occur.

For example, a community that had a lot of closely-related species, such as insect-eating songbirds, would have a much lower phylogenetic diversity score than a community that included a mix of more distantly-related species, for example songbirds plus other species such as birds of prey, partridges or gulls.

They investigated how the communities of birds all over the world could change in the future and discovered that that climate change will not only affect species numbers but will also have profound effects on phylogenetic diversity and community composition.

Examples of bird species that are currently increasing phylogenetic diversity in the UK, probably largely driven by climate change, include European bee-eaters, a type of insect-eating bird, black-winged stilts and spoonbills, all of which normally breeds further south in Europe but now occasionally breeds in the UK. Bee-eaters are only distantly related to other current UK-breeding bird species. Similarly, newly breeding species such as spoonbills and black-winged stilts have added to the phylogenetic diversity of birds in the UK in recent years.

The researchers evaluated data for a total of 8,768 bird species globally to predict how many different lineages could be lost regionally, or added, as species respond to climate change by shifting their distributions.

Although the researchers project species losses to be most common in tropical and subtropical areas, phylogenetic restructuring of species communities is expected to occur around the world.

Their study emphasise that preservation of local phylogenetic diversity can be a key to the resilience of biological diversity to environmental changes.

Their full study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“In our study, we examined the effects of global warming on the regional distribution of terrestrial birds around the world. The focus was on the effects on species richness as well as on various aspects of phylogenetic diversity, primarily how closely related the species are to each other”, said lead author of the study, Dr. Alke Voskamp of Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre.

Co-author of the study, Professor Stephen Willis of Durham University, said: “The diversity of lineages is very often related to the diversity of traits that species possess and thus to their roles and functions in ecosystems. For example, species from more distant lineages often have different beak types, and hence eat different types of food. Change means that the ecosystem functions that birds perform in an area may also change in the future, with potential consequences for food webs, seed dispersal and plant pollination.”

The research highlights the importance of considering diverse measures in climate impact assessments. It has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Arts, German Research Foundation and Leibniz Association and stems from initial work funded by Durham University. 

ENDS

Media Information

Professor Stephen Willis of Durham University is available for interview and can be contacted on s.g.willis@durham.ac.uk.   

Alternatively, please contact Durham University Communications Office for interview requests on communications.team@durham.ac.uk.

Source information

‘Projected climate change impacts on the phylogenetic diversity of the world's terrestrial birds: more than species numbers’, (2022), A. Voskamp, C. Hof, M. Biber, K. Böhning-Gaese, T. Hickler, A. Niamir, S. Willis and S. Fritz, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Full paper can be accessed here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.2184

Graphics

Associated image is available via the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qs8ftp9nu8bkwqb/AAD_qxoC4a-yluR3zet12djea?dl=0

Credit: Kieran Lawrence

Useful Web Links 

Professor Stephen Willis staff profile: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/s-g-willis/

Department of Biosciences: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/biosciences/

Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre: https://www.senckenberg.de/en/institutes/sbik-f/

About Durham University

Durham University is a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research based in historic Durham City in the UK.

We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world.

We conduct boundary-breaking research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2023).

We are a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive UK universities and we are consistently ranked as a top 10 university in national league tables (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide and The Complete University Guide).

For more information about Durham University visit: www.durham.ac.uk/about/

END OF MEDIA RELEASE – issued by Durham University Communications Office.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

SCI FI JOURNAL

IOP Publishing announce Nuclear Fusion will become fully Open Access

Business Announcement

IOP PUBLISHING

 

IMAGE: IOPP ANNOUNCE JOURNAL NUCLEAR FUSION WILL BECOME FULLY OPEN ACCESS FROM 2023 view more 

CREDIT: N/A

IOP Publishing (IOPP) has announced that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) journal Nuclear Fusion (NF) will become fully open access to reflect the increasing demand for more accessible and open science and funders’ mandates requiring authors to publish their work in open access (OA) journals. 

From January 2023, all articles published in NF, the world-leading journal specialising in nuclear fusion, will be made open access making the content immediately and openly accessible to scientists and the public alike. 

Since 2002, IOPP has co-published the journal with the IAEA, the world’s central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the nuclear field. Since then, NF has published more than 6,000 articles, received submissions from over 50 countries, and has been cited nearly 19,000 times. The journal is a central platform for the dissemination of high-quality, peer-reviewed research in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion. 

Miriam Maus, publishing director at IOP Publishing says: “We believe conducting science more openly can accelerate scientific discovery. IOP Publishing’s commitment to open access dates back to 1998, with the launch of the world’s first fully open access physics journal. We look forward to establishing a viable and affordable open access publication route for the nuclear fusion community.” 

Under the fully gold open access model, NF will provide authors with the widest possible global audience, increasing the reach and impact of nuclear fusion research. The journal will continue to support authors and reviewers to publish excellent research and deliver rigorous and timely peer review. 

OA publishing in NF will be funded through Article Publication Charges of £2000 per article. However, IOPP is committed to greater inclusivity of researchers and acknowledges the importance of author choice. Supporting researchers from low and lower-middle income economies, as categorised by the World Bank, IOPP offers a 75% hardship waiver for researchers whose institutions are facing financial difficulties and would not otherwise be able to publish in the journal. 

More information about this change to NF, fees and discounts, and what it means for authors are available here. 

Pandemic has put long-haul pilots in a stressful tailspin

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Stress levels among commercial airline pilots have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting their mental health at risk, according to a new study by the University of South Australia.

Survey data collected from 49 commercial pilots in the Asia Pacific region, Europe and North America reveals that 75.5 per cent of pilots are stressed about their uncertain futures, anti-social working hours and the “divergence in values” between pilots and management.

The findings should be a wake-up call to the aviation industry to install targeted workplace measures to support pilots and mitigate pilot stress, the researchers told a recent conference

UniSA Senior Lecturer in Aviation, Dr Silvia Pignata, says pilots have traditionally been reluctant to talk about their stress levels, mainly due to concerns about medical certifications that require them to be both physically and mentally healthy*.

Grounded planes during the pandemic and the ongoing disruption to flight schedules have added to pilots’ stress, with between 46-82 per cent of pilots impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The issue of work stress has been neglected by the aviation industry, even before the pandemic,” Dr Pignata says.

“Due to consumer demand for travel, airlines strive to keep their fleet in the air for as long as possible. Higher turnover rates mean more flight legs, increased workloads and higher stress levels for pilots. The uncertainty around the industry and conflicts with management over the past two years has just added to their stress.”

Prior studies have highlighted the mental fatigue that short haul pilots experience due to flying multiple routes in a typical day, where pilots’ heart rates can reach 88bpm during landing. Repeated take-offs and landings may exacerbate this stress.

Long-haul flights also play havoc with pilots’ body clocks, flying across multiple time zones and working irregular hours. The UniSA study reveals that long haul pilots reported the highest levels of stress and medium haul pilots reported the lowest stress levels. While long haul pilots were stressed by quarantine restrictions and enforced distance from family, some short haul pilots who were temporarily grounded due to the industry shutdown reported that they enjoyed time with their family, improving their wellbeing.

Notes for editors

“Is There a Relationship Between Pilot Stress and Short- and Long- Haul Flights?” was presented to the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in June 2022.

The authors of the paper are Dr Silvia Pignata, and aviation students Khai Sheng Sew, Kin Wing Lo and Lucus Yap, all from the University of South Australia

*In 2015, a Germanwings pilot who had kept his mental illness from his employer, committed suicide by deliberately taking down a plane with 150 passengers on board.

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DOI

10.1007/978-3-031-06086-1_33 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Is there a relationship between pilot stress and short- and long- haul flights?