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Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Putting sharks on the map: A new standard to identify important habitats

A new set of global criteria will help identify important areas for sharks, rays, and chimaeras to secure the protection they desperately need in the face of extinction.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

Map of important conservation areas for endangered shark species — IMAGE: BASELINE MAP OF SHARK AREA-BASED CONSERVATION. view more
CREDIT: IMAGE: HYDE ET AL

To date, shark, ray, and chimaera species have not been sufficiently considered in the planning of marine protected areas. However, a publication in Frontiers in Marine Science by researchers from the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group, IUCN’s Ocean Team, and the IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Taskforce have developed a new framework to fundamentally change how sharks are considered in the design of protected areas and therefore support the protection they desperately need in the face of extinction.

Ms Ciaran Hyde, Consultant to the IUCN Ocean Team, explained: “We still have so much to learn about many shark, ray, and chimaera species, but unfortunately several studies indicate that many protected areas are failing to adequately meet their needs. However, Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) will help to identify areas for these species using criteria which have been specifically designed to consider their biological and ecological needs.”

As apex predators, sharks provide many vital functions for maintaining a balanced ecosystem. Sharks shape fish communities, ensure a diversity of species, and even help our oceans sequester more carbon by maintaining seagrass meadows.

“Losing sharks, rays and chimaeras will not only affect the health of the entire ocean ecosystem, but also impact food security in many countries,” highlighted Lynn Sorrentino, IUCN Ocean Team Programme Officer.

Vulnerable to human threats

However, their apex status makes them more susceptible to anthropogenic threats. Many of these species are impacted by fishing, especially in tropical and coastal areas where large communities live along the coast and depend upon fish as their main source of protein.

As Dr Rima Jabado, Chair of the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group explained: “Sharks are a long-lived species: many take a long time to reach sexual maturity and then only give birth to a few young. This makes them particularly susceptible to fishing pressure and with an estimated 37% of species with an elevated risk of extinction, they are facing a biodiversity crisis. Results from the ISRA project will inform policy and ensure that areas critical to the survival of sharks, rays, and chimaeras are considered in spatial planning.”

Developed by experts, conservation agencies, and governments

Work on the ISRA Criteria was supported by the Save Our Seas Foundation. They were developed through a collaborative process involving shark experts, conservation agencies, and governments and include four criteria and seven sub-criteria. These consider the complex biological and ecological needs of sharks, including areas important to threatened or range-restricted species, the specific habitats that support life-history characteristics and vital functions (eg, reproduction, feeding, resting, movement), distinctive attributes, and the diversity of species within an area.

Dr Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, co-chair of the IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Taskforce and Deputy Chair of the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group noted: “All efforts are being made to ensure that the ISRAs contain the best and most up-to-date place-based information that science can offer to decision makers, managers, and marine users. As the ISRA program proceeds by covering progressively the whole extent of the ocean (and relevant inland water) surface, a very broad involvement of the shark expert community world-wide is expected.”

By bringing together information from scientific publications, reports, databases and the expertise of individual shark experts, ISRAs are a powerful tool for governing bodies to develop policy and design protected areas.

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Marine Science

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2022.968853

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Putting sharks on the map: a global standard for improving shark area-based conservation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Sep-2022

Anthology highlights the value of pathways as cultural heritage

Book Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

Path in the woods — IMAGE: PATHWAYS LEAD US FORWARD AS WE WALK ALONG THEM AND ALSO TAKE US BACK IN HISTORY. THESE NARROW THOROUGHFARES ARE FOUND THE WORLD OVER AND ARE AS OLD AS HUMANKIND ITSELF. view more
CREDIT: LARS JOHANSSON

Human history and cultural heritage in various places are often well researched and documented.

A new anthology edited by three Swedish researchers explores what ties these places together – footpaths.

“They are unobtrusive remains, but with a very significant cultural footprint,” says Daniel Svensson, historian at Malmö University.

Pathways lead us forward as we walk along them and also take us back in history. These narrow thoroughfares are found the world over and are as old as humankind itself. But they are only preserved while they remain in use.

“Look but don’t touch is often the name of the game in museums that depict history or cultural heritage. But with pathways it’s the other way around: as long as we keep walking along these remains, they will still be there. Movement becomes part of a living cultural heritage,” says Daniel Svensson.

In the recently published anthology titled Pathways: Exploring the Roots of a Movement Heritage, Daniel Svensson has worked with Katarina Saltzman from the University of Gothenburg, and Sverker Sörlin from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, to gather texts that describe pathways from a range of perspectives. 15 researchers from countries including India, Israel and the UK have provided a broad range, which has been divided into three parts with history, storytelling and cultural heritage as their themes.

Intangible pathways and cow paths

Although pathways are often overlooked, there is research that has examined pathways as historical remains. There are church paths and school paths as testaments to old patterns of movement in daily life, and coexistence with animals in a past agrarian society can be seen in cow paths that were also used by people. The book includes a chapter that looks at the old English Rights of Way. These rights have also been enshrined in written law, where a pathway that has been used for more than 20 years is considered to be public.

“In another chapter, pathways high in high alpine terrain function as an exhibition space along a mountain pass on the Austrian/Italian border which was a scene of battle in the First World War,” says Daniel Svensson.

The storytelling part of the book draws on examples from pilgrim trails where stories and legends about what happened to the pilgrims live on. There are also descriptions of entirely intangible pathways in computer games. In the early versions of the Zelda computer game, you had to take a certain pathway to progress in the game. Modern computer game worlds are often very extensive, and it can be hard to get an overview of them; players choose to navigate and move between important locations using pathways that they create in those worlds.

“The cultural heritage section in the book is where we bring something new to the table. We have a great amount of material cultural heritage, but pathways remain overlooked. Just as an old building in Gothenburg is important cultural heritage to many, so too can the 8 km trail in Skatås be cultural heritage to those who like to run along it. The movement itself becomes a form of cultural heritage,” says Sverker Sörlin, intellectual historian at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Rising value

When the editors requested articles for inclusion in the anthology, there were many researchers who felt called on to write something. According to the editors, pathways are being valued more and more.

Many of the farms in the Forest of the Finns region in northern Värmland have been preserved, but the pathways that ran between them were at risk of falling into oblivion after roads for cars took over as the transport routes. Now some of the old pathways have been selected for inclusion in the hiking trails found there.

“Pathways are living traces of the past. As new pathways come into being while others disappear, we often continue to tread where others have gone before us. Nevertheless, pathways have rarely been regarded as valuable cultural heritage, possibly because they are so discreet and impermanent,” says Katarina Saltzman, ethnologist and landscape researcher at the University of Gothenburg.

Pathways will remain in the future, but their use may change. We have started cycling on pathways when the mountains above the treeline.

“It’s difficult to preserve pathways for the future in a static state because they have to be used. If their use changes, then so does the pathway,” says Daniel Svensson.

The antology´s cover.

CREDIT

White horse press

Self-reported Illness Experiences and Psychosocial Outcomes for Reservation-Area American Indian Youth During COVID-19

Key Points

Question How did American Indian youth who live on or near reservations experience the COVID-19 pandemic?

Findings This cross-sectional study among 2559 American Indian students in grades 6 through 12 found that approximately 14% of the sample reported having had a test result positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, a higher rate than for all cases nationally and for children nationally, and three-quarters of the sample reported someone close contracting COVID-19, while more than one-quarter reported someone close dying from COVID-19. Regarding perceived psychosocial impacts, COVID-19 was associated with strained friend relationships, lower school engagement, and less social connectedness, although more than 60% of students reported feeling no change or a decrease in negative emotions, such as sadness and anxiety.

Meaning These findings suggest that although COVID-19 mortality and morbidity rates were high on American Indian reservations, psychosocial impacts were complex and many students were resilient in the face of the pandemic.

Abstract

Importance Impacts of COVID-19 on reservation-area American Indian youth are unknown and may be substantial owing to the significant COVID-19 morbidity and mortality experienced by American Indian populations.

Objective To measure self-reported illness experiences and changes in psychosocial factors during the COVID-19 pandemic among reservation-area American Indian youth.

Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study included a random sample of US schools on or near US Indian reservations during Spring 2021, stratified by region, with students in grades 6 to 12 completing cross-sectional online surveys. All enrolled self-identifying American Indian students in grades 6 to 12 attending the 20 participating schools were eligible to be surveyed; participants represented 60.4% of eligible students in these schools. Data were analyzed from January 5 to July 15, 2022.

Exposures Onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Outcomes and Measures Outcomes of interest were COVID-19 self-reported illness outcomes for self and family and close friends; perceived changes in family and friend relationships, school engagement, social isolation, and other psychological factors since the COVID-19 pandemic began; and worry over COVID-19–related health outcomes.

Results A total of 2559 American Indian students (1201 [46.9%] male; 1284 [50.2%] female; 70 [2.7%] another gender; mean [SD] 14.7 [8.9] years) were included in the analysis. Approximately 14% of the sample reported having had a test result positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection (14.3% [95% CI, 11.4%-17.6%]), a higher rate than for all cases nationally at the time of the survey. Regarding prevalence of COVID-19 among family and close friends, 75.4% (95% CI, 68.8%-80.9%) of participants reported having at least 1 family member or friend who had contracted COVID-19, while 27.9% (95% CI, 18.8%-39.3%) of participants reported that at least 1 family member or close friend had died of COVID-19. Regarding psychosocial impacts, COVID-19 was associated with strained friend relationships (eg, 34.0% [95% CI, 28.4%-40.0%] of students reported worry over losing friends), lower school engagement, and less social connectedness (eg, 62.2% [95% CI, 56.7%-67.4%] of students reported feeling less socially connected to people), although more than 60% of students also reported feeling no change or a decrease in negative emotions. Males were less likely to report perceived negative impacts, especially for negative emotions such as sadness (29.2% [95% CI, 23.3%-35.9%] of males vs 46.1% [95% CI, 43.9%-48.3%] of females reported feeling more sad) and anxiety (21.8% [95% CI, 18.2%-25.8%] of males vs 39.2% [95% CI, 34.1%-44.6%] of females reported feeling more anxious).

Conclusions and Relevance This cross-sectional study provides novel insight into the perceived experiences of reservation-area American Indian youth, a population at uniquely elevated risk of poor health status and health care access, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although mortality and morbidity rates from COVID-19 were high on American Indian reservations, student reports of psychosocial impacts were complex and suggest many students were resilient in the face of the pandemic. These findings could be used to understand and address the challenges facing American Indian youth due to the pandemic and to guide future research that examines the factors and processes associated with the reported outcomes.

READ ON

Self-reported Illness Experiences and Psychosocial Outcomes for Reservation-Area American Indian Youth During COVID-19 | Adolescent Medicine | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

For the first time we can measure the thickness of Arctic sea ice all year round

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UIT THE ARCTIC UNIVERSITY OF NORWAY

Melting sea ice in the Arctic — IMAGE: THE IMAGE SHOWS MELTING SEA ICE IN THE ARCTIC PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE’S AIRBORNE SEA-ICE SURVEY ICEBIRD. view more
CREDIT: ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUTE / ESTHER HORVATH

Using satellites, we are now able to measure the ice thickness – also in the summer. This is of great importance for the shipping in Arctic and future weather and climate forecasts. The solution is developed by an international team, led by researchers at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the University of Bristol.

"The Arctic ice is melting faster than ever. We need knowledge about the thickness of the sea ice, both to reduce safety risks for businesses and shipping in the Arctic, but also to make forecasts for the future climate," says team leader Jack Landy at the Department of Physics and Technology at UiT who began the work while at the University of Bristol.

The research team has developed the first dataset showing the thickness of sea ice across the entire Arctic and through a whole year. The results are published in the journal Nature.

Satellites are dazzled by the melting ice

Satellites have been used to measure the thickness of ice in the Arctic since the 1980s. But the technique has only worked in winter, from October to March, when the ice and snow are cold and dry.

"In the summer months the satellites are dazzled by ponds of snow and ice meltwater that pool on the sea ice surface. Then they have been unable to distinguish between melting ice and water," says Landy.

Using AI to solve the problem

To solve the problem, the researchers have adopted Artificial Intelligence (AI) and examined previous data from the satellites. Now they know when the satellites register ice and when they register ocean.

In addition, the team has constructed a new computer model of the satellite sensor, to make sure it is measuring the correct height and thickness.

This is good news for the shipping industry.

Safer to sail in Arctic waters

Shipping in the Arctic has increased rapidly in recent years, because of the ice melting. Particularly in the Barents Sea and close to Svalbard the shipping activity is high during summer. To sail safely, the boats need information about where there is ice and how thick it is, in advance.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute provide sea ice forecasts for the Arctic but have lacked secure ice thickness data for the summer months.

“Using the new satellite data, we are finally able to make sea ice forecasts informed by the ice thickness, not only for the winter, but also for the summer. This will reduce safety risks for ships and fishing boats," says Landy.

"We can also predict whether there will be ice or not at a given location in September, by measuring the ice thickness in May," he says.

Increased understanding of the climate

According to Associate Professor Dr Michel Tsamados from University College London the findings are also of great importance for our understanding of the weather and the climate.

He is one of the researchers behind the study and explains that the new data can be used in advanced climate models to improve our weather and climate forecasts.

– When we use the new ice thickness data in advanced climate models, it will improve both our short-term forecasts for the weather at the mid-latitudes and the long-term forecasts that show what climate we will have in the future," he says.