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Monday, August 29, 2022

UCI study examines distorted time perception during pandemic

May be an important risk factor to target with early interventions

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - IRVINE

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 23, 2022 — The passage of time was altered for many people during the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from difficulty in keeping track of days of the week to feeling that the hours themselves rushed by or slowed down. In prior work, these distortions have been associated with persistent negative mental outcomes such as depression and anxiety following trauma, making them an important risk factor to target with early interventions, according to a study by University of California, Irvine researchers.

The study, recently published online in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, documents how pervasive the experience, known as “temporal disintegration” in psychiatric literature, was in the first six months of the pandemic. The team also found that pandemic-related secondary stresses such as daily COVID-19-related media exposure, school closures, lockdowns and financial difficulties were predictors of distortions in perceived time.

“Continuity between past experiences, present life and future hopes is critical to one’s well-being, and disruption of that synergy presents mental health challenges,” said corresponding author E. Alison Holman, UCI professor of nursing. “We were able to measure this in a nationally representative sample of Americans as they were experiencing a protracted collective trauma, which has never been done before. This study is the first to document the prevalence and early predictors of these time distortions. There are relatively new therapies that can be used to help people regain a more balanced sense of time, but if we don’t know who is in need of those services, we can’t provide that support.”

Researchers assessed results of responses regarding distorted time perceptions and other pandemic related experiences from a probability-based national sample of 5,661 participants from the National Opinion Online Research Center AmericaSpeak panel. Surveys were conducted during March 18-April 18, 2020 and Sept. 26-Oct. 26, 2020 with respondents who had completed a mental and physical health survey prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Given that distortions in time perception are a risk factor for mental health problems, our findings have potential implications for public health. We are now looking at temporal disintegration, loneliness, and mental health outcomes over 18 months into the pandemic,” Holman said. “This will help us gain insight into how these common experiences during the pandemic work together, so we can better understand how to help people struggling with these challenges.”

The UCI team included Nickolas M. Jones, psychological sciences postdoctoral researcher; Roxane Cohen Silver, Distinguished Professor of psychological science, medicine and health; and Dana Rose Garfin, assistant adjunct professor of nursing and public health, who is now with the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Funding for this work was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant numbers SES 2026337 and SES 2049932; and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Award K01 MD013910.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists

JOURNAL

Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy

ARTICLE TITLE

Distortions in Time Perception During Collective Trauma: Insights From a National Longitudinal Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nitrous oxide emissions from Corn Belt soils spike when soils freeze, thaw

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

URBANA, Ill. – Nitrous oxide may be much less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but as a greenhouse gas, it’s a doozy. With a potency 300 times greater than CO2, nitrous oxide’s warming potential, especially via agriculture, demands attention.

University of Illinois and University of Minnesota researchers are answering the call. In a new study, they document an overlooked but crucial timeframe for nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in U.S. Midwest agricultural systems: the non-growing season.

“Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils have mostly been studied during the growing season. Previous research shows non-growing season N2O emissions can contribute up to 70–90% of annual emissions in some years, but it’s not clear how accurate that range is for the Midwest or what processes and management practices contribute to those emissions in the fall and winter,” says Yufeng Yang, the study’s lead author and doctoral student at U of M.

Yang and his co-authors used a computer simulation model known as ecosys to determine the hotspots and ‘hot moments’ for N2O emissions across the Midwest. Specifically, they teased out the climate and environmental factors contributing to N2O emissions on a county-by-county basis during non-growing seasons between 2001 and 2020. They also looked at the effects of fertilizer application timing and nitrification inhibitors.

“This validation study demonstrates the ecosys model can realistically simulate N2O emissions from agricultural soils in the non-growing season. It means we now have a robust way to quantify the contributions of environmental variables and nitrogen application timing to this important greenhouse gas,” says study co-author Kaiyu Guan, associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and founding director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center at U of I.

First, the researchers found the non-growing season in the Midwest accounted for a wide range of annual N2O emissions: 6 to 60%. The variation could be traced back to differences at the county level, with emission levels diverging for counties in the southeastern and northwestern extremes of the region.

For context, soil N2O emissions are the result of microbial processes converting nitrogen from one form to another. Environmental conditions, such as the amount of moisture and oxygen in the soil, soil temperature, or the amount of snowpack on the soil surface, affect how much and how quickly microbes can metabolize nitrogen, as well as the ability of gaseous nitrogen products to be released into the atmosphere.

The ecosys model detected these environmental drivers across the region, highlighting greater emissions in counties with more than 12 inches of non-growing season precipitation. But the researchers looked for even more detail to explain the pattern.

“More intensive freezing caused by decreased air temperature was the dominant driver leading to increased non-growing season N2O emissions in the southeastern Midwest. In the northwest, increased precipitation and increased air temperature during thawing cycles were the key drivers enhancing non-growing season N2O production,” Yang says.

The long-term outlook for these regional differences may shift under a changing climate, however. Yang simulated future climate scenarios and found less freezing and thawing, potentially dampening the spikes that currently occur under these conditions.

The team also found the effects of nitrogen fertilizer application timing also varied by county. Generally, emissions were greater under fall application than spring application.

“Results suggest that shifting fall application to spring application and applying nitrification inhibitors at either time point can greatly reduce annual N2O emissions at the regional scale, and can reduce nitrogen leaching as well,” says study co-author Ziyi Li, doctoral researcher studying under Guan at U of I.

But that effect wasn’t universal. Fields in the west of the study area saw fewer emissions with fall application.

“Scientists always suggest switching to spring fertilizer application, but it's not a black and white story. Our model enables farmers to receive targeted recommendations specific to their fields,” says Zhenong Jin, corresponding author, project leader, and assistant professor in the Digital Agriculture Group at U of M.

The researchers say the model could be used to evaluate the effects of additional management strategies, such as cover cropping and no-till, on N2O emissions.

“The bottom line is we now have a highly accurate method for estimating N2O emissions at the county scale in the Corn Belt. We have underestimated the non-growing-season, but it turns out to be a pretty significant portion of annual N2O emissions,” Jin says.

The article, “Distinct driving mechanisms of non-growing season N2O emissions call for spatial-specific mitigation strategies in the US Midwest,” is published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology [DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.109108]. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences is in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

DOI

10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.109108

Reconstructing ice age diets reveals unraveling web of life

Recreating 130,000 years of mammal food webs shows scope of biodiversity crisis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RICE UNIVERSITY

cheetahs preying upon an impala — IMAGE: A PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTION BETWEEN CHEETAHS AND AN IMPALA IN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA IN JUNE 2015. view more
CREDIT: EVAN FRICKE

HOUSTON – (Aug. 25, 2022) – Research published this week in Science offers the clearest picture yet of the reverberating consequences of land mammal declines on food webs over the past 130,000 years.

It’s not a pretty picture.

“While about 6% of land mammals have gone extinct in that time, we estimate that more than 50% of mammal food web links have disappeared,” said ecologist Evan Fricke, lead author of the study. “And the mammals most likely to decline, both in the past and now, are key for mammal food web complexity.”

A food web contains all of the links between predators and their prey in a geographic area. Complex food webs are important for regulating populations in ways that allow more species to coexist, supporting ecosystem biodiversity and stability. But animal declines can degrade this complexity, undermining ecosystem resilience.

Although declines of mammals are a well-documented feature of the biodiversity crisis — with many mammals now extinct or persisting in a small portion of their historic geographic ranges — it hasn’t been clear how much those losses have degraded the world’s food webs.

To understand what has been lost from food webs linking land mammals, Fricke led a team of scientists from the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Spain in using the latest techniques from machine learning to determine “who ate who” from 130,000 years ago to today. Fricke conducted the research during a faculty fellowship at Rice University and is currently a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Using data on modern-day observations of predator-prey interactions, Fricke and colleagues trained their machine learning algorithm to recognize how the traits of species influenced the likelihood that one species would prey on another. Once trained, the model could predict predator-prey interactions among pairs of species that haven’t been directly observed.

“This approach can tell us who eats whom today with 90% accuracy,” said Rice ecologist Lydia Beaudrot, the study’s senior author. “That is better than previous approaches have been able to do, and it enabled us to model predator-prey interactions for extinct species.”

The research offers an unprecedented global view into the food web that linked ice age mammals, Fricke said, as well as what food webs would look like today if saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, marsupial lions and wooly rhinos still roamed alongside surviving mammals.

“Although fossils can tell us where and when certain species lived, this modeling gives us a richer picture of how those species interacted with each other,” Beaudrot said.

By charting change in food webs over time, the analysis revealed that food webs worldwide are collapsing because of animal declines.

“The modeling showed that land mammal food webs have degraded much more than would be expected if random species had gone extinct,” Fricke said. “Rather than resilience under extinction pressure, these results show a slow-motion food web collapse caused by selective loss of species with central food web roles.”

The study also showed all is not lost. While extinctions caused about half of the reported food web declines, the rest stemmed from contractions in the geographic ranges of existing species.

“Restoring those species to their historic ranges holds great potential to reverse these declines,” Fricke said.

He said efforts to recover native predator or prey species, such as the reintroduction of lynx in Colorado, European bison in Romania and fishers in Washington state, are important for restoring food web complexity.

“When an animal disappears from an ecosystem, its loss reverberates across the web of connections that link all species in that ecosystem,” Fricke said. “Our work presents new tools for measuring what’s been lost, what more we stand to lose if endangered species go extinct and the ecological complexity we can restore through species recovery.”

Study co-authors include Chia Hsieh and Daniel Gorczynski of Rice, Owen Middleton of the University of Sussex, Caroline Cappello of the University of Washington, Oscar Sanisidro of the University of Alcalá, John Rowan of the University at Albany and Jens-Christian Svenning of Aarhus University.

The research was funded by Rice University, the Villum Foundation (16549) and the Independent Research Fund Denmark (0135-00225B).

-30-

Evan C. Fricke, Chia Hsieh, Owen Middleton, Daniel Gorczynski, Caroline D. Cappello, Oscar Sanisidro, John Rowan, Jens-Christian Svenning and Lydia Beaudrot

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/08/0825_FOODWEB-cheetah-lg.jpg
CAPTION: A predator-prey interaction between cheetahs and an impala in Kruger National Park, South Africa in June 2015. (Photo by Evan Fricke)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/08/0825_FOODWEB-aniH-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Illustration depicting all mammal species that would inhabit central Colombia (left), Southern California (middle) and New South Wales, Australia, (right) today if not for human-linked range reductions and extinctions from the Late Pleistocene to present. (Illustrations courtesy of Oscar Sanisidro/University of Alcalá)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/08/0825_FOODWEB-aniV-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Illustration depicting all mammal species that would inhabit Southern California (top), New South Wales, Australia, (middle) and central Colombia (left) today if not for human-linked range reductions and extinctions from the Late Pleistocene to present. (Illustrations courtesy of Oscar Sanisidro/University of Alcalá)

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abn4012

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Collapse of terrestrial mammal food webs since the Late Pleistocene

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Aug-2022

Veterinary: Doggy dementia risk increases with each added year of life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

For dogs older than ten years, each extra year of life increases the relative risk of developing the neurodegenerative condition Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD) by more than 50% and the risk of developing CCD is almost 6.5 times greater in inactive dogs compared to those who are very active. The new findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggest that lifespan estimates could inform veterinarians whether to screen dogs for CCD.

As with humans, cognitive function declines as dogs age and animals affected by CCD may show signs such as memory deficits, loss of spatial awareness, altered social interactions, and sleep disruption. Previous estimates of CCD rates in dogs have varied from 28% in 11- to 12-year-old dogs to 68% in 15- to 16-year-old dogs.

Sarah Yarborough and colleagues investigated the prevalence of CCD in a large sample of companion dogs participating in the Dog Aging Project, a longitudinal study of ageing in pet dogs in the USA. A total of 15,019 dogs were included in the sample. Between December 2019 and 2020, owners completed two surveys called the Health and Life Experience Survey (with information about health status and physical activity), and the Canine Social and Learned Behavior survey, which included questions to test for CCD such as whether the dog failed to recognise familiar people. Dogs’ lifespans were classified into quartiles, with 19.5% being in the last quartile of their life, 24.4% in the third quartile, and 27% and 29.1% in the second and first quartiles. 1.4% of dogs were classified as having CCD.

The authors report that when considering age alone among dogs aged more than ten years, the odds of being diagnosed with CCD increased by 68% for each additional year of age. When controlling for other factors such as health problems, sterilisation, activity levels, and breed type, the odds of a dog developing CCD increased by 52% for each additional year of life.

The authors also note that for dogs of the same breed, age, and health and sterilisation status, the odds of CCD were 6.47 times higher in dogs whose owners reported were not active compared to those whose owners reported were very active. However, the authors caution that their study does not show a causal relationship between inactivity and CCD due to its cross-sectional nature, and cognitive decline may in fact lead to reduced activity. They conclude that further research is needed to better understand CCD.

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-022-15837-9

ARTICLE TITLE

Evaluation of cognitive function in the Dog Aging Project: associations with baseline canine characteristics

CARROT GENE'S

The complex origins of Apiaceae and the current state of research

NANJING AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

Molecular structures of the main bioactive compounds of Apiaceae plants view more

Credit: None

Recently, scientists from Nanjing Agricultural University summarized the current state of Apiaceae research, including traditional and molecular breeding practices, bioactive compounds, medicinal applications, nanotechnology, and omics research. Current trends in Apiaceae application and research were also described, including the mining of new functional genes and metabolites using omics research, the identification of new genetic variants associated with important agronomic traits by population genetics analysis and genome-wide association studies, and the use of genetic transformation, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, and nanotechnology.

According to previous studies, the main nutraceuticals in Apiaceae plants include polyphenolic compounds, polyacetylenes, and terpenoids. Phenolic compounds contribute to the nutritional qualities of vegetables and medicinal plants, and the antioxidant activity of many Apiaceae plants has also been attributed primarily to phenolic compounds. Several polyacetylenes isolated from Apiaceae plants have high toxicity to bacteria, fungi, and mammalian cells, as well as neurotoxicity, inhibitory effects on platelet aggregation, and potential to cause allergic skin reactions. Some terpenoids are specifically distributed in Apiaceae plants. The antioxidant effects of terpenoids have led to their use in treating some diseases. Vegetables in the Apiaceae family can also produce many secondary metabolites such as carotenoids, anthocyanins, terpenes, and dietary fiber. Carotenoids are natural pigments that are widely distributed in photosynthetic organisms and may provide health benefits. Anthocyanins protect plants from UV radiation, contribute to plant adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses, and delay plant senescence. Terpenes are an important group of secondary metabolites and are widely distributed in many plants. The plant cell wall, which contains lignin and cellulose, is the source of most dietary fiber in plants. Hormones play important roles in lignin biosynthesis in celery and carrot, and transcription factors are important regulators of lignin biosynthesis in these species. Hypoxia caused by elevated CO2 concentration can also affect their lignin content.

Many diseases can cause fatal damage to Apiaceae vegetable crops; these include powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei), Alternaria radicina, early blight, late blight, and fusarium yellows disease. The selection of disease-resistant germplasm resources has been the most effective method of reducing disease occurrence in vegetables and other food crops. Some arthropod pests can also cause major economic losses in vegetable crops; examples include carrot fly (Chamaepsila rosae), carrot weevil (Listronotus oregonensis), celery fly (Euleia heraclei), aphids, cutworms, and beet armyworm. Modern molecular markers have been widely used in breeding members of the Apiaceae family. Many molecular markers have been used alone or in combination to explore genetic diversity. Agricultural biotechnologies use different techniques to produce genetically modified plants. Transgenic technology can be used to improve plant traits and solve agricultural problems. The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been used in plants for targeted mutagenesis, including gene knockout, multiplex gene editing, and insertion and deletion of large fragments. Based on previous studies, nanotechnology plays a vital role in agricultural production, especially for gene modification and pest control. It is necessary to reduce nutrient waste and increase crop yield through the use of nanomaterials.

Although members of Apiaceae have a wide geographic distribution and rich nutritional and medicinal value, little research has been performed on their genomes. Many studies have revealed that plant genomes contain abundant repetitive sequences. Genomic sequences and annotation have provided important information for studies on the functions of genes involved in regulating yield and quality traits of horticultural crops. Further study of important gene functions and breeding, as well as comparative genomic analysis of Apiaceae, will provide new methods for genetic and breeding research on Apiaceae vegetable crops and medicinal plants. The use of transcriptomics also allows researchers to explore phenotypic characteristics of Apiaceae vegetables and medicinal plants and physiological functions of Apiaceae genes. Transcriptome technology has been used in research on stress responses, root development, and lignin biosynthesis in carrot. Proteomics is now considered one of the most important ‘post-genomic’ approaches for better understanding gene function. Proteomics is widely used to study Apiaceae plants, and comparative proteomic analysis has provided new insights into gene mining in carrot. Metabolomics encompasses all chemical reactions occurring in cells, and plant metabolites have been used as chemical markers to distinguish differences among vegetables and medicinal plants in the Apiaceae family. Metabolomics analysis revealed that wild and cultivated carrots showed differences in metabolites that were consistent with their genotypes.

“Vegetables and medicinal plants are essential foods for human health and can provide various necessary nutrients and nutraceuticals. With the strengthening of people’s health consciousness, the diversification, quality, nutritional value, and medicinal value of vegetables and medicinal plants are increasing. Vegetable and medicinal plant research has become increasingly important,” Prof. Xiong said. This research provides a reference for basic and applied research on Apiaceae vegetable and medicinal plants.

###

Reference

Authors

Xiao-Jing Wang1, Qing Luo2, Tong Li3, Ping-Hong Meng2, Yu-Ting Pu1, Jie-Xia Liu3, Jian Zhang4, Hui Liu3, Guo-Fei Tan2,* and Ai-Sheng Xiong3,*

Affiliations

1 Key Laboratory of Plant Resource Conservation and Germplasm Innovation in Mountainous Regions (Ministry of Education), Guizhou University, Guizhou 550025, China

2 Institute of Horticulture, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guizhou 550006, China

3 State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

4 College of Agronomy, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 210095, China

About Professor Ai-Sheng Xiong

Professor Ai-Sheng Xiong works as a high-level talent at Nanjing Agricultural University and is mainly engaged in research on vegetable developmental biology, functional genomics, and genetic engineering.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

German chemical giants' herbicides infuse Argentina's soy

The "probably carcinogenic" herbicide glyphosate is used to spray massive soy fields in Argentina. The soybean meal is fed to livestock in Germany. But people who live near the soy fields are paying with their health.

Argentine soy is often sprayed with glyphosate, which WHO calls "probably carcinogenic"

Brother, what's wrong? Why don't you wake up?

They contaminate your food and serve it to you on the table

Injecting the seed against nature

Brother, what's wrong? Why don't you care?

...

I tell it to you, I sing it to you, I shout it to you: Monsanto out!

The song "Fuera Monsanto," by the Argentine punk band Perro Verde, is almost 10 years old and has even been covered by Manu Chao. It remains an anthem today.

The activist Norma Herrera has long tried to rid Argentina of glyphosate and other herbicides. "All over the world, glyphosate is being banned, but here they just keep spraying," Herrera said. "Many of my neighbors have died in recent years. People are still dying of cancer today. What the soy companies are doing here is nothing but ecocide!"

Herrera is one of the Mothers of Ituzaingo, which formed 20 years ago, after a number of cases of cancer and malformations emerged in the Ituzaingo district of Cordoba, the second-largest city in Argentina. Her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 3.

The mothers blamed the day-and-night spraying of soy fields the size of several soccer pitches not far from their homes. "When we started protesting 20 years ago, they called us names, saying we were just a couple of crazy mothers who had let the cleaning product go to their heads," Herrera said. "But, when they tested the tap water here, we knew we were being poisoned: They found a cocktail of bad sulfates, heavy metals, arsenic and lead."

In the neighborhood, every family has a story to tell: of leukemia, thyroid disease, asthma, kidney malfunction, neurodermatitis and miscarriages that they blame on this poisonous cocktail. Eventually, Herrera and the other mothers were able to force a court ruling that herbicides could only be sprayed at a distance of at least 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from residential buildings. A farmer and a pilot of a herbicide-spraying aircraft were even found guilty of spraying illegally near residential areas.

Pigs in Germany are fed soybean meal from Argentina

'Doing irreparable harm'

Each year, 200 million liters (50 million gallons) of herbicides and insecticides continue to be sprayed on land used to cultivate soy. Argentina has the highest per capita use of glyphosate in the world. But it is Germany, the largest meat producer in Europe, that is the main beneficiary. Pigs, cattle and chickens eat Argentine soybean meal.

"What would I say to the Germans?" Herrera said. "Any farmer who buys soy from here to feed to his pigs is doing irreparable harm. The more soy they buy in Germany, the more is produced here. But the main culprits are governments and multinational companies that are only interested in one thing: profit."

The soy is used to make meal that is fed to animals

One need only read the Pesticide Atlas of 2022, a 50-page report about the harmful effects of the industry published in Berlin in January, to get an idea about how devastating the situation is. More pesticides are being used than ever before and the annual number of agriculture workers who fall ill from pesticide poisoning has risen to at least 385 million globally. Furthermore, glyphosate and other such products are considered one of the main causes of the decline in biodiversity.

"Toxic pesticides that are not approved or authorized in the EU may still be exported, causing double standards in the countries of the Global South," said Inka Dewitz, the senior program officer for international food policy at the Heinrich Böll foundation, which co-published the report.

Argentina is the country that uses the most glyphosate per capita

Bayer, BASF benefit

The main beneficiaries are the German chemical giants Bayer and BASF, which dominate 70% of the world market along with the Chinese-owned agrochemicals group Syngenta and the US chemical and seed company Corteva. It's a lucrative business: In 2020, about half of the German companies' annual revenue was generated by herbicide sales. Bayer's tkae amounted to Є9.8 billion; BASF's reached Є5.5 billion.

"Bayer and BASF comply with respective national laws, and so, in principle, they think it is OK," Dewitz said. "But, in many countries, the regulations are much worse and weaker than in the EU. And they export to places where there is a greater likelihood that permits will be granted — especially countries in Latin America."

German chemicals giant is one of the main beneficiaries of profits from Argentina

There is no international agreement to prohibit the use of glyphosate, which the World Health Organization has classified as "probably carcinogenic" and, though there is a German proposal to ban the herbicide from being exported by 2024, this still has to be pushed through by the Green German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir. "There is supposed to be an EU strategy to explicitly ban double standards and regulate hazardous standards," Dewitz said. "However, it is still unclear which pesticides will be affected. France is the only country in Europe to have introduced legislation on exports, and this is now coming into force. The German government also has a duty to deliver."

This article was originally written in German.

Planning for the Aftermath: The Most Difficult Part of Regime Change Operations

August 29, 2022
By Alan Cunningham

By 2014, the Global War on Terrorism had gone into full swing. The United States had formally entered and intervened in the Syrian Civil War by launching an air campaign and had established a Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR). U.S. soldiers were stationed in Afghanistan, despite being declared formally over, and ISIS had claimed a substantial portion of Iraq under their control. Terrorism was (and still is to a large degree) one of the greatest threats the world as a whole faced in terms of national security and foreign policy.

In 2014, Max Boot, a Conservative journalist and historian, wrote an article for Foreign Affairs focusing on Counterinsurgency (COIN). Boot’s most insightful point is in his discussion of planning for what comes after a regime change operation occurs, describing how it is the most difficult part of such a military endeavor to pull off.

I agree with Boot that the aftermath of a military operation, in terms of U.S. operations, is forgotten, mismanaged, or nowhere near fully thought out by the time the initial combat operations are completed. As Boot mentions, this can be seen in various world events, notably with the Treaty of Versailles resulting in the sowing of the seeds of World War II, the lack of forethought in determining the outcome of the Korean War, and the blinded and deliberately manufactured entry into Iraq in 2003.

Due to the U.S.A’s history of being poor at having a solid plan for the aftermath of a military operation, this is the most insightful lesson from Boot’s article.

Planning for the afterword of a combat operation is essential. While winning the war is half the battle, ensuring a stable democracy is in place and that the civilians of that country have access to proper social services and the ability to freely decide what kind of country and government they wish to become is important. However, this is far easier said than done, as we have seen in Iraq and Vietnam that animosities between groups arise and result in tensions along ethnic and religious lines in addition to political ones. The best way to illuminate how disastrously a country can become without a solid, clear, and concise aftermath plan can be seen with Iraq.

The Aftermath of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

In the lead up to the conflict, there was much discussion about which battle plan the U.S. government was going to accept and follow, be it the “Generated Start” or the “Running Start” options; Gordon and Trainor’s seminal book on the conflict Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq documents heavily, easily over 100 pages, the entire planning process, from the morning of September 11th to the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square in April of 2003. In all of this, no one was discussing the aftermath of what to do with Iraq or how to go about making it into a viable democracy with a clear and strong leadership.

While the Bush administration tried to say that they had a clear aftermath after taking Baghdad, many military officials who were closely involved have said otherwise. As Thomas Ricks notes in his book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005, Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg (former director of communications and computers for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later Chief Operating Officer for the Coalitional Provisional Authority (CPA)) said, “There was no real plan [meaning what to do after toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime]. The though was, you didn’t need it. The assumption was that everything would be fine after the war, that they’d be happy they got rid of Saddam”. A Marine by the name of Nicholas Reynolds, a Colonel and official Corps historian, also told Ricks, “Nowhere in Centcom [sic]…has there been a plan for Phase IV that was like the plan for Phase III, let alone all of the preparations that accompanied it…”.

The only time a workable plan for Phase IV (the plan meant to rebuild Iraq and bring peace to the country) was even mentioned was in the immediate aftermath of 2003. Using the recollections of Colonel Alan King, the head of civil affairs for the 3rd Infantry Division, “On the night of April 8, Col. Sterling, the chief of staff of the 3rd ID, came to me and said, ‘I just got off the phone with the corps chief of staff, and I asked him for the reconstruction plan, and he said there isn’t one. So you’ve got twenty-four hours to come up with one”. Despite the administration’s multiple reassurances that a reconstruction plan would be available when the time was right, it ended up being developed in the middle of occupied Baghdad.

The result of this was the complete disintegration of order within the country, exacerbated by the CPA’s barring of any high to mid-level Ba’athist figures from government work in the new regime and the lack of broad, coordinated effort against an insurgency (the barring of former Ba’athist members too assisted in the creation of the insurgency). Despite the U.S. having begun this intervention nearly twenty years ago, Iraq is still incredibly volatile and is short of being a recognizable democracy.

Why Regime Change Failed in Iraq

The lack of a viable and effective Phase IV has led to much tension in the country and resulted in many deaths of Iraqis, Americans, and others involved in the coalition forces. This is why having a pre-made reconstruction plan is a necessity for any operation, before a government begins their military invasion. The need for decision-makers to realize that military operations must have a practical, already devised, rebuilding plan in place for utilization after major combat operations have ended is extremely vital to the success of any operation. Having input from academics with firsthand and historical knowledge of the country’s economic, social, political, military, and public works centers, input from business experts in re-developing destroyed financial markets and utilizing the country’s best assets to its advantage, and taking the advice of citizens of the country, the broad public, in devising a new form of government and an entirely new system of government is extremely necessary to the success of such an operation. However, the biggest challenge in doing this is having the right people in power.

With Iraq, those at the top of the planning (Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowtiz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage) were not thinking in terms of a reconstruction plan, only devising ways to ensure that Saddam was toppled and that the U.S. had control of the country. As General Anthony Zinni, the former Commander in Chief (CINC) of United States Central Command (CENTCOM – the command directly responsible for devising both the invasion, occupation, and rebuilding plans for Iraq), stated, “I think – and this is just my opinion – that the neocons [Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Armitage] didn’t really give a shit what happened in Iraq and the aftermath…I don’t think they thought it would be this bad. But they said…We’ve taken out Saddam. We’ve asserted our strength in the Middle East”. Having those in power who are thinking in a forward mindset and caring about long-term and strong solutions is the biggest help to ensuring that a viable reconstruction plan is in the works and is developed before a military operation is complete.

Some of this surely must be blamed on the perception by senior commanders that this would be a short conflict and would be an easy mission to undertake. It’s the common assumption that has often been encapsulated by commanders saying to those under their authority, “You’ll be home by Christmas”. As well, some officers likely were also anticipating this to be a short war based upon past and previous experiences in Iraq; most of those commanders who led divisional and combatant commands (Generals Jim Mattis, David Petraeus, Peter Schoomaker) had been involved in the 1991 Gulf War serving as Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels and saw firsthand how seemingly easy that victory was, the entire operation taking only six months.

Conclusion

The majority were not thinking in a long term mindset, instead being purely focused on taking Baghdad and Iraq and removing Saddam from power; no one, save for a few field grade officers and those truly experienced general officers who were shut out from the development process, was thinking about an insurgency or how to effectively fight one. Most likely, many of those in command were simply not thinking in a long-term mindset and were not considering that an insurgency would be as large of a problem as it had become. As well, some, certainly those in charge of the Defense Department and within the U.S. Intelligence Community, were blinded by their own personal desire to settle old scores and purely concerned with the desire to gain additional money and power through an invasion of Iraq.

If anything, the 2003 invasion of Iraq is a lesson for future policymakers, military officers, and civilians alike to avoid reckless or ill-thought out foreign policy and military endeavors and work to press for a more complete and well-formed answer from elected officials. While Americans have struggled in the past with learning lessons from foreign engagements and military disasters, like Vietnam and Korea, optimistically the next generation of Americans and Europeans can be able to learn from past regime change and stability operations and be able to effectively, justly, and democratically carry out such missions.

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Alan Cunningham is a graduate of Norwich University's Master of Arts in International Relations program. He is currently working as an AP U.S. History Teacher in San Antonio, but intends to join the U.S. Navy as an Officer in the Summer of 2022. He has been accepted to a PhD in History program with the University of Birmingham in the UK. He has been published in the Jurist, the U.S. Army War College's War Room, Security Magazine, and the Asia-Pacific Security Magazine, in addition to many others.

Fish kills in the Oder River: Interaction of climate change and systematic pollution

Martin Nowak

WSWS.ORG

In the past weeks, the public has been shocked by images showing masses of dead fish floating in the Oder River, on the German-Polish border. Recent reports speak of 150 to 200 tons of fish killed. As the fish kill continues to grow in scale, scientists are slowly unraveling the background to the ecological tragedy. The focus is on the explosive spread of a species of algae.

Dead fish in the Oder River [Photo by Hanno Böck / CC0]

Currently, there is concern of a second wave of die-off. Due to rainfall in the upstream Silesia region, the Oder rose briefly there by a meter. Now that wave of water is washing everything downstream that the otherwise low water levels had kept there. The wave could reach the lower course of the river within the next three days.

The dead fish collecting downstream are developing into a new death trap. Before the Oder River enters the Szczecin Lagoon, it branches into tributaries and Lake Dąbie, located near Szczecin. Disposal of the carcasses is carried out mainly by volunteers, local fire departments and authorities, who are unable to cover the extensive terrain.

Decomposition of large quantities of dead fish removes oxygen from the water and at the same time forms ammonia in saline water. Together with the typical summer oxidation, due to high water temperatures and slowed photosynthesis because of the turbidity of the water, there is a dramatic lack of oxygen with a simultaneous danger of ammonia poisoning. Near Szczecin, 0.6 milligrams of oxygen per liter were measured last weekend in the western arm of the Oder River. The normal level is 4 milligrams.

The Gazeta Wyborcza reported about the shocking conditions in Szczecin: The smell of death and decay lies over the Oder promenade. Hundreds of dead fish are floating in the water. Three fire department boats and the volunteer water rescue service try to haul in fish with landing nets, but their forces are too modest. The day before, the local anglers association reported having removed 20 tons in one day.

Fish that have so far survived the poisoning are now in danger of suffocating due to the decomposition of the dead fish. Currently, north winds are preventing rapid flow into Lake Dąbie, which has not yet been affected. Attempts are being made to artificially increase the oxygen level by means of around 30 pumps, aeration machines and an ozone maker from Warsaw. On Wednesday, the oxygen content at one point was 1.72 mg/l. But in the end, this is only a drop in the bucket, ensuring the survival of only a few fish.

The ensuing second wave of decay compounds the danger and could spoil the entire lake.

“Lake Dąbie is now the last bastion for surviving fish to find refuge. There is oxygen there, there is life! If the wave along the East Oder comes directly toward Dąbie, there is a serious risk that dozens of tons of dead fish and other organisms, including decomposing organisms, as well as other organic matter that consumes oxygen or releases toxins, will go directly into the lake. We can’t let that happen!” warned scientists Dr. Sylwia Horska-Schwarz of the University of Wroclaw and Mikołaj Adamczyk and Paweł Prus of the Institute of Inland Fisheries in Olsztyn.
Scientists uncover origins of die-off

While facing the threat of a growing disaster on the Oder River, scientists are steadily uncovering the origin of the original die-off.

In summer, the artificial supply of nutrients, especially from agriculture, often results in the rapid growth of algae, which deprives the water of too much oxygen and leads to fish kills. Recently, this happened in Lake Niepruszewskie, killing a half-ton of fish, and probably also caused the fish kill in the Stever River in North Rhine-Westphalia.

However, the Oder River is faced with a particular alga, the golden alga (Prymnesium parvum). The Polish Institute of Inland Fisheries detected its presence in the Oder, as announced by Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa on August 18. Later, the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) confirmed that a high concentration of the associated algal toxin Prymnesium had also been detected “beyond doubt and indeed in significant amounts in Oder River samples from various locations.”

“Since all samples were taken at an advanced stage of the algal bloom, a direct link to fish and mollusk mortality can be assumed,” said scientist Dr. Elisabeth Varga of the University of Vienna, where the mass spectrometry was performed.

According to Dr. Jan Köhler, head of the Photosynthesis and Growth of Phytoplankton and Macrophytes working group at IGB, the Oder River is “currently experiencing an extreme mass development of planktonic algae.” Prymnesium parvum has been very dominant in all samples since August 8, he said, with that alga accounting for at least half of the total algal biomass. Even after dilution by influx from the Warta River, at present it still makes up 36 percent, he said.

“To my knowledge, such a bloom has never been observed in our waters. It was probably made possible by salt discharges, abundant nutrients, high water temperatures and long residence times in barrages and in the developed river,” added the IGB scientist.

Although research is still needed on the toxicity of prymnesins, their lethal effects on fish and mollusks have been known for some time. In particular, the dissolution of the epithelial cells of the fish gills leads to asphyxiation of the fish. This explains the many reports of fish desperately wriggling in death agony at the water surface.

The alga Prymnesium parvum has been known for several decades to cause drastic fish mortality in the US, Scandinavia and China. But “we’ve never had them here,” Dr. Köhler of the IGB told the German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

The spread of the algae has been reconstructed with images from the Sentinel 2 satellite, which provides data for the European earth observation program Copernicus. Due to the colored chlorophyll, the concentrations along the Oder River are visible. While there was only a slight increase near the city of Opole at the end of July, the concentration suddenly jumped in August around Wroclaw and then shifted further downstream.

Salty brackish water is the normal habitat of the golden alga. However, due to the increase in near-stagnant waters created by barrages and dams, artificial lakes and ponds, it is becoming more widespread. The alga requires the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which enter the rivers through otherwise harmless sewage or enters through groundwater contaminated by overfertilization in agriculture. Low water levels due to prolonged droughts or water-intensive economies create ideal water conditions for the alga, especially in summer. Salinity, fed by wastewater, is also likely to have increased in the Oder due to currently low flow and water volume.

The final ingredient, according to Dr. Köhler, is time to grow, which was provided to the algae by barrages on the Polish side and the current slow flow rate of the river. The microorganisms are growing exponentially, he said. If a cell doubles every day, it multiplies eightfold in three days. In 10 days, the biomass grows a thousandfold. Growth depends very much on the time given to it, and this time is extended by human intervention.
Government plans to develop major shipping lane

Environmental groups have already pointed out that the Oder River would face these dangers if the Polish government were to follow through on its plans to develop it into a major Class 5 European shipping lane, accessible to 50-meter vessels and with a continuous depth of 2.5 meters.

In May, the conference “Time for the Oder, three countries—one river” of German, Czech and Polish environmental associations met in Wroclaw. There, Dr. Michael Tautenhahn from the Lower Oder National Park warned: “It is well known that the water of the Oder River is not sufficient for navigation, therefore locks and dams have to be built. After the expansion, the water flow will change and, as a result, the amount of toxic substances will increase.”

In addition to the effects of climate change, changes in the river’s flow due to construction and the harmless pollution of the waters in normal times, there is another factor: criminal pollution.

In a previous article we discussed the allegations against the Jack-Pol paper mill in Oława. Since then, the authorities have had to admit to illegal wastewater discharge on an enormous scale. For example, on August 18, the Polish water authority Wody Polskie published the results of a review of illegal waste discharges in Poland according to which there were 1,432 illegal discharges, 282 of them in the Oder River area.

In inspections previous to December 2021, 7,000 illegal discharges had been detected. The declared aim of the inspection was “not only to introduce sanctions, but also to give the owners of discharges the opportunity to legalize them.” Even though most of the cases were small private and non-industrial discharges, this obliging manner of the Polish authorities is significant. According to their own data, at that time only 10 percent of rivers in Poland were in good or very good ecological condition, 60 percent were in moderate ecological condition, and 30 percent were in poor or very poor ecological condition.

A new case of industrial pollution has been confirmed in the meantime in the Gliwice Canal, where the first dead fish were reported at the end of July. According to official data from the Polish Water Inspectorate on August 17, the salinity in the entire Oder River remains elevated by about a factor of two, and in the area of Gliwice and the Kędzierzyński Canal by a factor of five to six. The average water temperature was 25 to 27 degrees Celsius. Pollution with chemicals or heavy metals could no longer be detected.

One “legal” discharge was shown to have occurred downstream between July 29 and August 10. The Glogow copper smelter discharged large quantities of salt water from ore flotation into the Oder River. Environmentalists accuse the authorities of not issuing rules for low water levels.

Journalists have also reported cases of excessive pollutant concentrations. But they were not significant, according to water authority spokeswoman Małgorzata Zielonka. “Unfortunately, they are typical of surface waters in urbanized areas,” she said. High salt concentrations: chloride, sulfate and sodium are typical of the waters studied, as the Kłodnica River, which feeds both the Gliwice Canal and Lake Dzierżno Duże, is a recipient of saline groundwater from the drainage of nearby mines. It is similar for the Oder River, into which mine water from the southern part of our region is discharged through the Olza watershed.”

In other words, the authorities are aware of systematic pollution, and if now and then the limits are exceeded in the process, that is no reason for them to do more than file a memorandum. The Polish authorities have issued a reward of 1 million zloty for clues to the cause of the Oder pollution. They could transfer the money to themselves.

Heat-weary Chongqing, Sichuan now on flood alert amid torrential rain

BEIJING (Reuters) - A southwestern part of China that has suffered scorching temperatures this month is now on alert for flooding amid days of torrential rain.

An aerial view shows the Yangtze river that is approaching record-low

water levels during a regional drought in Chongqing

© Reuters/THOMAS PETER

Downpours in the sprawling manufacturing hub of Chongqing and nearby areas of Sichuan province follow severe power shortages in the same localities caused by heavy use of air conditioning and falling reservoir levels.

The rain began on Sunday and is forecast to extend into Tuesday. The government initiated an emergency flood-prevention response in Sichuan and Chongqing at 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the government declared a national drought emergency.

Many parts of southern China have seen temperatures exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) over the past few weeks, in what is widely considered the hottest period since the government began compiling information in 1961.

Chongqing suffered almost three weeks without rain and has been rationing electricity, crimping output from factories of major global companies.

Besides drought, extreme heat along the Yangtze River Basin has also threatened crops around many cities and localities. Pictures of scorched, mud-baked lakes and dried-up rivers have appeared on social media.

Chongqing and Sichuan have also battled forest fires.

The torrential rain of Monday and Tuesday is forecast to hit the eastern and southwestern parts of the Sichuan Basin and western and northern Chongqing.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Bradley Perrett)