Saturday, August 20, 2022

Anti-Black racism linked to lower support for some gun rights

Racial resentment leads some to associate gun rights with white people, study finds

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Racially resentful white Americans are less likely to support some gun rights if they believe Black people are exercising those rights more than white people, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

White Americans who expressed high levels of anti-Black sentiments associated gun rights with white people and gun control with Black people, the study found. Those research participants were quicker to match photos of white people to gun rights phrases (e.g., self-protection, National Rifle Association) and photos of Black people to gun control phrases (e.g., waiting period, weapons ban).

While Republicans were more likely to make racially biased assumptions about gun rights than white Democrats, anti-Black views had a greater impact on the findings than party affiliation, the study found. The research was published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

The study examined only racial resentment toward Black people, expressed as the belief that racial inequities are due to Black Americans not working hard enough to succeed and unfairly receiving entitlements to promote racial equity.

Guns are both symbolically and practically tied to power in the U.S., said lead researcher Gerald Higginbotham, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Virginia. “Gun rights are just one of the many rights we have in the United States, like voting, that a large number of white Americans have both knowingly and unknowingly racialized as being for white citizens, and especially not for Black citizens,” he said.

As more people take notice that Black Americans are legal gun owners, too, race and racism may play an increasingly explicit role in debates over gun rights and gun control reforms, Higginbotham said.

Since January 2019, 7.5 million people, or almost 3% of the U.S. adult population, bought guns for the first time, according to a recent study. Black people, who accounted for 20% of the first-time purchases, make up about 12% of the U.S. population.

The current research was made up of three online studies with more than 850 white participants, including one nationally representative sample. In two of the three studies, the participants were equally divided into two groups, with one group reading a real Fox News article accurately reporting that Black Americans were obtaining concealed-carry gun permits at a greater rate than white Americans. The second group read an identical article except the races were reversed, with white Americans obtaining permits faster.

Racially resentful participants – as measured by responses to four questions – expressed less support for concealed-carry permits when they perceived Black Americans as obtaining them at a greater rate. However, their support for gun rights unrelated to concealed-carry was not impacted. This provides some evidence that racial bias accounted for the lessened support for concealed-carry permits because it was the specific gun right Black people were described as exercising more than white people.

Higginbotham said the findings mirror the racist motives behind historical efforts to limit gun rights for Black people, dating from before slavery to the Jim Crow era and onward to the Mulford Act, a California law approved in 1967. The National Rifle Association, which today opposes most gun control reforms, supported the Mulford Act’s statewide ban on open carry of loaded firearms. The act was spurred by opposition to Black Panther Party members who carried loaded guns in a protest at the California state capitol, and in their neighborhoods, meant to protect residents from police brutality.

The researchers emphasized that their findings don’t support the use of anti-Black racism as a means of building support for gun control reforms. “An attempt to politically weaponize racist beliefs expressed toward Black lawful gun owners would be shortsighted and could dangerously infringe upon the rights of Black people instead of focusing on saving lives from gun violence,” Higginbotham said.

The research did not examine potential intersections between racism and other gun rights or gun control measures, such as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Article: “When an Irresistible Prejudice Meets Immovable Politics: Black Legal Gun Ownership Undermines Racially Resentful White Americans Gun Rights Advocacy,” Gerald Higginbotham, PhD, University of Virginia, and David Sears, PhD, and Lauren Goldstein, PhD, University of California Los Angeles. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published online Aug. 25, 2022.

Contact: Gerald Higginbotham, PhD, may be contacted via public.affairs@apa.org.

JOURNAL

Journal of Experimental Psychology

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

When an Irresistible Prejudice Meets Immovable Politics: Black Legal Gun Ownership Undermines Racially Resentful White Americans Gun Rights Advocacy

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2022

Historical rates of enslavement predict modern rates of American gun ownership

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

The higher percentage of enslaved people that a U.S. county counted among its residents in 1860, the more guns its residents have in the present, according to a new analysis by researchers exploring why Americans’ feelings about guns differ so much from people around the globe.
More than 45% of the world’s civilian-owned firearms are in the United States, where just 5 percent of the world’s people live. This disparity may have something to do with the way the majority of American gun owners view gun ownership.
“Gun culture is one case where American Exceptionalism really is true,” says Nick Buttrick, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of psychology. “We are really radically different even from countries like Canada or Australia, places that have similar cultural roots.”
Pew Research Center surveys show two-thirds of Americans who own guns say it’s a way to keep themselves safe, while in other countries, people are more likely believe the presence of a gun adds risk and danger to their lives, considering, for example, the far higher rates of homicide and suicide in households with guns. Gun culture scholars have also explored the role of race in American gun attitudes for some time, Buttrick says, and the two may be linked.
In a study published recently in the journal PNAS Nexus, Buttrick and co-author Jessica Mazen, a psychology graduate student at the University of Virginia, describe a shift in sentiment away from the predominant, pre-Civil War idea of guns as tools for hunting and sport. In the post-Civil War South, the belief that a gun was necessary to protect family, property and a way of life grew prominent among white southerners. This was driven by a flood of surplus military weapons, the rise of armed, white-supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, and elite rhetoric that Reconstruction governments would not protect the interests of white southerners from newly freed and politically-empowered Black people.

The researchers compared county-level population data from the 1860 census to gun ownership patterns in the present. Because there is no national record of gun ownership, the study uses a widely accepted proxy — the proportion of suicides in a county that involved a firearm, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality records from 1999 to 2016.
“What we see is a strong correlation between the number of slaves in a county in 1860 and the number of guns there now, even after we control for variables like personal politics, crime rates, and education and income,” says Buttrick, who produced the study while working as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, before joining the UW–Madison faculty this year.
This correlation was strong even when the researchers focused only on white gun owners, narrowing their proxy for gun ownership to firearm suicides involving only non-Hispanic white victims.
The study further pinpoints a particularly Southern root for the American belief that guns keep people safe.
“The extent to which people feel unsafe only predicts gun ownership in counties in the South, where the more unsafe people feel, the more likely they are to own a gun,” Buttrick says. “If you look in areas that didn't have any slaves in the 1860s, whether people feel unsafe there today does not predict today’s county-level gun ownership.”

Additionally, areas in the North and West with more guns in the present day are home to people that are more likely to have Facebook friends that live in parts of the South that had higher historical rates of slavery. In these areas, as in the South, feeling unsafe is more likely to predict increased gun ownership. The researchers say this suggests that social transmission of beliefs about guns is at work.
“The question is, how do these ideas about guns get to the rest of the country?” Buttrick says. “As people move, they bring with them the culture that formed them. We can see the remnants of those moves and the lingering connections to family and community in people’s social media connections, and it lines up with the slavery-gun-ownership pattern.”
The results may give researchers a clearer sense of how gun culture has developed and evolved differently across the country – why some parts of the country still retain a hunting culture, while others are dominated by a gun culture based around personal protection.
“It helps to elucidate some things — why is it that race and guns are so tightly tied together? Why is it that guns are so present in the public mind and discussion for white people and not for Black people?” Buttrick says. “And it does help make sense of why protective gun ownership is such a popular idea in the United States, but not elsewhere.”
###
— Chris Barncard, barncard@wisc.edu

JOURNAL

PNAS Nexus

DOI

10.1093/pgac117

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Historical prevalence of slavery predicts contemporary American gun ownership

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-Aug-2022

Climate change likely to raise wheat prices in food-insecure regions and exacerbate economic inequality

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

Wheat harvest season in North China Plain — IMAGE: WHEAT HARVEST SEASON IN NORTH CHINA PLAIN view more
CREDIT: HUIRU PENG

Wheat is a key source of nutrition for people across the globe, providing 20% of calories and protein for 3.4 billion people worldwide. Even if we meet climate mitigation targets and stay under 2°C of warming, climate change is projected to significantly alter the yield and price of wheat in the coming years. Researchers publishing in the journal One Earth on August 19 predict that wheat yield is likely to increase at high latitudes and decrease in low latitudes, meaning that prices for the grain are likely to change unevenly and increase in much of the Global South, enhancing existing inequalities.

“Most studies primarily focus on how modelling climate change impacts on wheat yields,” says lead author Tianyi Zhang, an agro-meteorologist with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Science. “This is indeed important, but crop yields do not provide a holistic vision of food security. In the real world, many countries, especially developing countries, heavily rely on agribusiness.”

The team has developed a new climate-wheat-economic ensemble modeling approach. This improved model system allows the researchers to explicitly look at impacts of both climate mean conditions and extreme events on wheat yields, price and global supply-demand chain. “We know from previous research that extreme events do not necessarily respond in the same way as the mean conditions, and because these extreme events are the most impactful on societies, this is an important step forward,” says co-author Karin van der Wiel, a climate scientist in the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

The model predicts that yield will increase in high latitude regions—countries like the United States, Russia, and much of northern Europe. In countries like Egypt, India, and Venezuela, however, wheat yields are likely to drop—in some areas by more than 15%. “With this change in yields, the traditional trade position of the wheat market could be deepened, and this may cause the wheat-importing regions located in low latitudes, such as Southern Asia and Northern Africa, to see more frequent and steeper wheat price spikes than wheat exporting countries,” says Zhang.

Not only could these changes mean that countries already facing food security issues pay even more for a pivotal food crop, but wheat prices on the global market could become more volatile and exacerbate existing inequalities. “Trade liberalization policy under 2° warming could stabilize or even increase farmers’ income in wheat-exporting countries but would reduce income for farmers in wheat importing countries,” says Zhang. “This may create new economic inequality between farmers in wheat -exporting and -importing countries.”

Zhang and his team hope that their predictions about wheat prices and volatility will prompt global action. “Helping improve the grain food self-supplies in developing countries is crucial for global food security,” says Zhang. “This is worthy of discussion between countries in future international agricultural collaboration policy.”

###

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China, JPI-Belmont Forum, and European Union Horizon 2020.

One Earth, Zhang et al. “Increased wheat price spikes and larger economic inequality with 2oC global warming” https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(22)00371-2

One Earth (@OneEarth_CP), published by Cell Press, is a monthly journal that features papers from the fields of natural, social, and applied sciences. One Earth is the home for high-quality research that seeks to understand and address today’s environmental Grand Challenges, publishing across the spectrum of environmental change and sustainability science. A sister journal to Cell, Chem, and Joule, One Earth aspires to break down barriers between disciplines and stimulate the cross-pollination of ideas with a platform that unites communities, fosters dialogue, and encourages transformative research. Visit http://www.cell.com/one-earth. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

JOURNAL

One Earth

DOI

10.1016/j.oneear.2022.07.004

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Increased wheat price spikes and larger economic inequality with 2oC global warming

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Aug-2022

Comparing prevalence of HPV infection

JAMA Health Forum

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: Researchers compared the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) among women born in the 1980s versus the 1990s and a pre-HPV vaccination period (2005-2006) versus a recent vaccination period (2015-2016).

Authors: Ashish A. Deshmukh, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health in Houston, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2706)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

# # #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2706?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=081922

About JAMA Health Forum: JAMA Health Forum has transitioned from an information channel to an international, peer-reviewed, online, open access journal that addresses health policy and strategies affecting medicine, health and health care. The journal publishes original research, evidence-based reports and opinion about national and global health policy; innovative approaches to health care delivery; and health care economics, access, quality, safety, equity and reform. Its distribution will be solely digital and all content will be freely available for anyone to read.

JOURNAL

JAMA Health Forum

FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE

Out-of-pocket cost of naloxone may keep may uninsured from using life-saving treatment

Study finds costs rise 500% for uninsured while falling for those with health insurance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RAND CORPORATION

The cost of buying the opioid antidote naloxone is out of reach for many uninsured Americans, a hurdle that may keep the treatment from saving more people who overdose on opioids, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

While laws making it easier to prescribe and obtain naloxone have increased use of the medication, the out-of-pocket cost of the drug for the uninsured has risen sharply even while falling for many who are insured.

The study found that the average out-of-pocket cost per naloxone prescription among those who have health insurance declined by 26% from 2014 to 2018, while out-of-pocket costs increased by more than 500% for people who are uninsured. Uninsured Americans are a vulnerable population that represent about 20% of adults with an opioid-use disorder and nearly one-third of opioid overdose deaths.

The findings are published in the latest edition of the journal JAMA Health Forum.

“The price of naloxone is almost certainly an impediment to more widespread adoption among the uninsured,” said Evan Peet, the study’s lead author and an economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “Policymakers who want to further expand access to naloxone -- particularly among the uninsured and vulnerable -- need to pay greater attention to the out of-pocket costs.”

Among the strategies adopted by federal and state policymakers to battle the opioid crisis is increasing the distribution of naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose if given to a person promptly.

While many states have adopted laws to make it easier to prescribe and dispense naloxone, less attention has focused on potential financial barriers to naloxone access.

Researchers from RAND and the University of Southern California examined more than 700,000 prescription records from 2010 to 2018 for both generic and name-brand naloxone to examine trends in out-of-pocket costs. The sample included information from more than 70% of the nation’s retail pharmacies.

Prescriptions filled for naloxone increased sharply over the study period. While the sample saw 11,432 naloxone prescriptions filled during 2010, the number grew to 386,249 in 2018.

Despite legal changes that make it easier to buy naloxone and pharmaceutical innovations that have enabled laypersons to administer naloxone, the increase in naloxone prescriptions were not equally distributed. While naloxone distribution rose substantially starting in 2017 among the insured, naloxone access among the uninsured did not experience similar gains.

Researchers say cost is likely one important factor in the lower use among the uninsured. As use of naloxone increased, the out-of-pocket costs fell for most people with health insurance, while it increased for those who are uninsured.

In 2014, the average out-of-pocket cost per naloxone prescription among insured people was $27, while it was $35 for those who were uninsured.

By 2018, the average out-of-pocket cost per prescription for naloxone among the uninsured was $250. The same year, the average out-of-pocket per naloxone prescription for the insured was $18.

“Federal and state policies have regularly targeted legal barriers to accessing naloxone, with less emphasis on financial barriers,” Peet said. “These results provide evidence that while naloxone access has improved, out-of-pocket costs remain a significant impediment, particularly for the uninsured.”

Researchers say that in order to increase the use of naloxone and prevent opioid overdose deaths, policymakers could consider implementing price subsidies for naloxone purchases, regulating co-pays for the insured and issuing coupons targeting the uninsured.

Support for the study was provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Other authors of the study are David Powell of RAND and Rosalie Liccardo Pacula of the University of Southern California.

RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.

JOURNAL

JAMA Health Forum

DOI

10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2663

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Trends in Out-of-Pocket Costs for Naloxone by Drug Brand and Payer in the US, 2010-2018

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Aug-2022

Out-of-pocket costs for naloxone

JAMA Health Forum

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: In this observational study of nearly 720,000 pharmacy claims data, out-of-pocket cost of naloxone had been an increasingly substantial barrier to naloxone access for uninsured patients, potentially limiting use among this population, which constituted approximately 20% of adults with opioid use disorder.

Authors: Evan D. Peet, Ph.D., of the RAND Corporation in Pittsburgh, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2663)

# # #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2663?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=081922

JOURNAL

JAMA Health Forum

E-learning training program better than no training for nurse knowledge and skills, researchers find

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY

Adults self-report their pain on a one to 10 numerical score, while children can point to an equivalent face scale — from a green smiling face to a red crying face — to indicate their pain. Newborns, however, cannot say a number or point to a face, leaving it up to their caregivers to identify and evaluate any pain they may be in. Until the turn of this century, a significant number of clinicians did not recognize that neonates could even experience pain, resulting in infrequent, nonstandard training for medical workers. Now, researchers are reporting that a flexible e-learning program improves neonate pain management knowledge and skills for nurses.

They published the results of their randomized, controlled study on July 30 in Pain Management Nursing.

“Continuing education is essential to maintain and increase nurses’ proficiency in neonatal pain assessment and treatment,” said corresponding author Mio Ozawa, associate professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Science at Hiroshima University. “Our results showed that e-learning programs were more effective as compared to no training.”

The researchers randomly divided recruited certified neonatal intensive care nurses from across Japan into two groups. One group received four weeks of online training in pain measurement, using structured scales designed for pre-term newborns, called the e-Pain Management of Neonates program. The other group did not receive training. Participants in both groups took a pre- and post-test. While there were no differences in knowledge or skill in the pre-test scores between the two groups, the e-learning group scored higher for both knowledge and skill.

The research builds on a prior pilot study, in which 52 nurses completed the e-learning program and improved their test scores. However, without a control group for comparison, the evidence was not sufficient to illustrate the intervention’s effectiveness, according to Ozawa.

“In the current study, we tested the e-learning program with a randomized control trial, a more powerful research design than used with the pilot study,” Ozawa said. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such trial that investigates the effects of e-learning on the knowledge and skill in neonatal pain measurement for certified nurses across NICUs across multiple hospitals.”

The e-learning program consists of four modules, each of which takes about 15 minutes to complete. Participants could save their progress and return at any point, as well as review as many times as they wanted. While more nurses were more likely to access the program in the middle of the day or late at night on a weekday, participants still accessed the program at odd hours and over the weekend.

“An e-learning program may be a more efficient method as nurses can participate in the program at their own convenience,” Ozawa said. “In comparison with other health care professionals, NICU nurses stay at the bedside of newborns for the longest time to provide care, including invasive procedures. It is vital for nurses to be educated and train in using the neonatal pain management scale.”

Ozawa emphasized that while this study did not demonstrate e-learning’s superiority as a learning method compared to traditional approaches, such as in-person training, it does indicate that e-learning can improve skills and knowledge.

“Learning in this program would allow nurses to acquire knowledge and skills concerning

newborn pain, which is preferred over no education,” Ozawa said. “Further research is needed to determine how nurses’ training through e-learning programs is related to patient outcomes, such as more frequent pain assessment of infants by nurses and improved pain management.”

Other contributors include Kotomi Yamashita, assistant professor, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Okayama University, and Reo Kawano, associate professor, Clinical Research Center in Hiroshima, Hiroshima University Hospital.

The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science supported this research.

JOURNAL

Pain Management Nursing

DOI

10.1016/j.pmn.2022.07.002

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Effectiveness of a Virtual Program on Nurses’ Pain-Related Knowledge and Pain-Measurement Skills

Compost to computer: Bio-based materials used to salvage rare earth elements

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

What do corncobs and tomato peels have to do with electronics? They both can be used to salvage valuable rare earth elements, like neodymium, from electronic waste. Penn State researchers used micro- and nanoparticles created from the organic materials to capture rare earth elements from aqueous solutions.

Their findings, available online now, will also be published in the November issue of Chemical Engineering Journal.

“Waste products like corncobs, wood pulp, cotton and tomato peels often end up in landfills or in compost,” said corresponding author Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering. “We wanted to transform these waste products into micro- or nanoscale particles capable of extracting rare earth elements from electronic waste.”

Rare earth metals are used to manufacture strong magnets used in motors for electric and hybrid cars, loudspeakers, headphones, computers, wind turbines, TV screens and more. However, mining these metals proves challenging and environmentally costly, according to Sheikhi, as large land areas are required to mine even small amounts of the metals. Instead, efforts have turned to recycling the metals from electronic waste items like old computers or circuit boards.

The challenge lies in efficiently separating the metals from refuse, Sheikhi said.

“Using the organic materials as a platform, we created highly functional micro- and nanoparticles that can attach to metals like neodymium and separate them from the fluid that surrounds them,” Sheikhi said. “Via electrostatic interactions, the negatively-charged micro- and nano-scale materials bind to positively-charged neodymium ions, separating them.”

To prepare the experiment, Sheikhi’s team ground up tomato peel and corncob and cut wood pulp and cotton paper into small, thin pieces and soaked them in water. Then, they chemically reacted these materials in a controlled fashion to disintegrate them into three distinct fractions of functional materials: microproducts, nanoparticles and solubilized biopolymers. Adding the microproducts or nanoparticles to neodymium solutions triggered the separation process, resulting in the capture of neodymium samples.

In this most recent paper, Sheikhi improved upon the separation process demonstrated in previous work and extracted larger sample sizes of neodymium from less concentrated solutions.

Sheikhi plans to extend his separation mechanism into real-world scenarios and partner with interested industries to further test the process.

“In the near future, we want to test our process on realistic industrial samples,” Sheikhi said.

“We also hope to tune the selectivity of the materials toward other rare earth elements and precious metals, like gold and silver, to be able to separate those from waste products as well.”

In addition to Sheikhi, Mica Pitcher, Penn State doctoral student in chemistry and first author on the paper; Breanna Huntington, Penn State undergraduate student in agricultural and biological engineering; and Juliana Dominick, Penn State undergraduate student in biomedical engineering, contributed to the paper.

Penn State supported this work.

CAPTION

After soaking the materials in water (as shown in middle column), Penn State researchers chemically reacted shredded wood pulp, cotton paper and ground corncob and tomato peels to convert them into microproducts, nanoparticles and solubilized biopolymers (third column). Adding these microproducts or nanoparticles to solutions containing the rare earth element neodymium triggered the separation process, allowing for capture of the neodymium.

CREDIT

Credit: Sheikhi Research Group

JOURNAL

Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cej.2022.137418

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Highly functional bio-based micro- and nano-structured materials for neodymium recovery

Scientists take a deep dive into how sharks use the ocean

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Tagging — IMAGE: SAMANTHA ANDRZEJACZEK, A POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW AT STANFORD’S HOPKINS MARINE STATION, (SECOND FROM RIGHT) TAGGING A TIGER SHARK. view more
CREDIT: ALEX KYDD

Using sophisticated electronic tags, scientists have assembled a large biologging dataset to garner comparative insights on how sharks, rays, and skates – also known as “elasmobranchs” – use the ocean depths. While some species spend their entire lives in shallow waters close to our shores on the continental shelf, others plunge hundreds of meters or more off the slope waters into the twilight zone, beyond where sunlight penetrates. This new understanding of how elasmobranchs use the ocean will enable policymakers and resource managers the opportunity to examine the threats these animals face, and guide future management and conservation plans.

A study published Aug. 19 in Science Advances, led by Stanford University and ZSL (Zoological Society of London) researchers, is the largest global investigation of where and when a diverse group of elasmobranchs move vertically. A team of 171 researchers from 135 institutions across 25 countries brought together two decades of data from satellite and archival tags that remotely tracked the movements and behaviors of 38 species in oceans across the globe.

“For the first time, we have a standardized, global database that we used to fill important knowledge gaps about the diving behaviors of sharks and rays,” said Samantha Andrzejaczek, co-lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. “This will enable better understanding of what fisheries interact with elasmobranchs and how to improve management of many of these long-lived animals.”

Movement in three dimensions

Scientists already have a wealth of movement data about many marine species that inhabit the near-surface spaces of the coastal ocean. Drones, scuba divers, and other methods, for example, survey marine communities and populations to a depth of about 50 meters, but animal movement in three dimensions, especially in the deeper, vertical spaces of the ocean, is far less understood.

“Sharks and rays are iconic but threatened ocean species. Key to their effective management is an understanding of their basic ecology,” said David Curnick, head of the Ocean Predator Lab at ZSL and co-lead author of the paper. “Yet, for many species, we know relatively little about their fundamental behavior, and what we do know is often restricted to what we can observe in surface waters.”

Over the past 20 years, a variety of electronic tags have come of age that provide the opportunity to tag numerous elasmobranch species. Scientists at Stanford have been at the forefront of biologging tag development and applying these technologies on sharks and rays.

One of the common vertical movements among elasmobranchs appears to match up with the ocean’s diel (twice a day) vertical migration. At daybreak, tiny fish and invertebrates – followed by the animals that prey on them – begin migrating from the bright, uppermost ocean layer to the relative safety of darker, deeper water. At night, they return to the surface to feed.

“We think that sharks and rays in their diel migrations are following food resources up and down the water column,” said Andrzejaczek.

The study found that about one-third of species frequently dive to depths where the water is cold, often low on oxygen due to biological activity related to productivity, and visibility is limited. Sensor records show that white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) dive deeper than 1200 meters while whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) have reached 1896 meters, which is near the pressure limit of 2000 meters for today’s sensors.

“Deep divers might be looking for food in deeper water or avoiding hunters themselves as potential prey,” said Andrzejaczek. “Some sharks and rays are small, and some of the biggest sharks and rays will feed on them. We found that 13 species had individuals that dive to more than 1000 meters, which is extremely deep.” Some may require cooling-off periods while at depth. “When large sharks spend too long in the warm surface waters, they may have to dive to cool down, a form of behavioral thermoregulation,” she added.

The researchers also identified overlaps among species in the same vertical spaces. Whale sharks, tiger sharks, and oceanic manta rays showed strikingly similar vertical distributions, although they have very different evolutionary histories. Predator-and-prey relationships likely drive this proximity. “The oceanic manta ray and whale shark both feed on plankton, and the tiger shark has been known to predate on both those species,” said Andrzejaczek.

A foundation for future management

The photic zone or epipelagic – the ocean region receiving sunlight – stretches from the surface to about 200 meters and can potentially be a dangerous area for elasmobranchs. That is where they are most likely to be exposed to fishing gear as either target species or as bycatch. Of the 38 species in the study, researchers found that 26 spent more than 95% of their time in the top 250 meters of the water column.

More than one-third of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

“These data provide the foundation for future management of global elasmobranch resources, and it has taken a team of scientists thousands of hours tagging and tracking the sharks with global satellite and biologging systems to make this possibility happen,” said Barbara Block, the Prothro Professor of Marine Sciences at Stanford, whose tagging programs such as TOPP, contributed 25% of the data set.

Understanding how elasmobranchs use vertical habitats is crucial to understanding their current and future ecological roles in the ocean and their risks to various threats. Scientists could utilize this and future databases to investigate how changing ocean temperature and oxygen levels may influence species’ distributions and create new conditions and threats.

“Human beings are unaccustomed to thinking of habitat in the vertical dimension,” said Andrzejaczek. “We hope this study can make people realize that we need management strategies that incorporate this overlooked dimension of elasmobranch behavior. For example, we could use these data to better understand how sharks and human fisheries interact.”

This three-year study brought together data from increasingly sophisticated and more accurate tags with sensitive sensors that can withstand the rigors of the environment while riding along on a shark or ray and function in deep water, as well as improved analytical tools to incorporate different types of movement data. The key ingredient has been cooperation among biologging scientists from around the world.

“Large-scale scientific studies like this one are not possible without a monumental collaborative effort,” said Curnick. “We reconcile the collective knowledge and expertise of researchers from around the world. The result is far greater than any one researcher or institution could achieve on their own.”

This work was led by Stanford University and the Zoological Society of London. Additional Stanford co-authors include graduate student Maurice Goodman; research data analyst Mike Castleton; research scientist Jonathan Dale; and researcher Robert Schallert. Former Stanford graduate students and postdoctoral scholars George Shillinger, Andre Boustany, Kevin Weng, Taylor Chapple, and Sal Jorgensen are also co-authors. Block is also a professor of biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

This research was funded by the Bertarelli Foundation, the Moore Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, the Darwin Initiative, the Georgia Aquarium, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, and the Whitley Fund for Nature.

JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abo1754

ARTICLE TITLE

Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Aug-2022

Shark depredation impacts support for shark conservation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

Conflict between shark populations and fishing communities is reported to be rising within one of the world’s first shark sanctuaries.

Fishers say increasing shark populations have reduced catch and income, according to Newcastle University research.

Shark populations around the world are in rapid decline, with 24% of all shark species at risk of extinction. While efforts to protect sharks vary, 17 countries have declared their waters as ‘shark sanctuaries’, typically banning commercial shark fishing. In some regions this has led to increasing reports of negative fisher-shark interactions, particularly depredation – when a shark preys on a fishers catch.

New research led by Newcastle University presents a unique overview of fisher-shark interactions, focusing on fisher perspectives within the Maldives shark sanctuary. Their results show that most fishers reported an increase in shark depredation, with substantial catch and income losses (>21%) reported by reef fishers. They also found that those experiencing greater losses due to depredation showed reduced support for the Maldives shark sanctuary.

Mapping exercises with fishers and underwater camera stations (BRUVS) were used to identify areas of high shark abundance and ‘conflict hotspots’ where sharks and fishing activity overlapped. This provided valuable information as to why fishers believe depredation is increasing despite stable populations in the region.

Published in the journal Conservation Letters, the findings suggest that management of shark depredation needs to be addressed sensitively to avoid negative implications for fisher welfare and shark population recovery.

Study lead author, Dr Danielle Robinson, of Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, said: “The study highlights the importance of more inclusive approaches to help us understand and manage depredation conflicts. Research and conservation frameworks tend to focus on commercial fisheries due to their economic value, yet our findings highlight the urgent need to consider and manage negative perceptions of small-scale fisheries when developing policy solutions”.

“Fishers and sharks are competing for the same thing – fish – and I think a really exciting aspect of this study is that we were able to collect spatial data from fisher interviews and underwater cameras (BRUVS) at the same spatial scale to map areas with high conflict potential”.

The study is one of few in the field to shed light on the socio-economic costs of shark sanctuaries and the importance of accounting for diverging perceptions among fisher groups.

Findings raise important issues relating to trade-offs between policies to protect biodiversity and those related to human welfare.

Reference

Robinson, D., Newman, S. P., Whittingham, M. J., Francksen, R. M., Adam, M. S., & Stead, S. M. (2022). Fisher–shark interactions: A loss of support for the Maldives shark sanctuary from reef fishers whose livelihoods are affected by shark depredation. Conservation Letters, 00, e12912. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12912

JOURNAL

Conservation Letters

DOI

10.1111/conl.12912

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Fisher–shark interactions: A loss of support for the Maldives shark sanctuary from reef fishers whose livelihoods are affected by shark depredation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Aug-2022