Sea urchins keep on trucking while other marine life languishes in the Florida Keys

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

 

IMAGE: ONE OF THE MOST EXTENSIVE SURVEYS OF ECHINOIDS YET CONDUCTED IN THE FLORIDA KEYS SUGGESTS THAT SAND DOLLARS, HEART URCHINS AND SEA BISCUIT POPULATIONS HAVE REMAINED STABLE FOR THE LAST SEVERAL DECADES. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGES FROM GRUN AND KOWALEWSKI, 2022

In the summer of 2020, Florida Museum researchers Tobias Grun and Michał Kowalewski dove into the shallow waters off the coast of the Florida Keys and scoured the ocean floor for sea urchins. Telltale tracks and dimples in the sediment alerted them to the presence of sand dollars, sea biscuits and heart urchins concealed just beneath the surface.

Between August and April of the following year, Grun and Kowalewski visited 27 sites along a 20-mile stretch of coast near Long Key. By the time they finished, their sea urchin survey was among the most extensive conducted in the region for the last several decades, and their results offer a bit of good news.

The researchers published an analysis of their survey last week in the journal PeerJ, which shows the number and diversity of sand dollars, sea biscuits and heart urchins appears to have remained relatively stable since researchers began keeping tabs on their populations in the 1960s.

“It was a pleasant surprise to find that they’re still widespread and abundant,” said study co-author Kowalewski, the Florida Museum Thompson Chair of Invertebrate Paleontology. “The Florida Keys are heavily impacted by human activity, with fishing, tourism and diving all occurring on a massive scale. On top of that, coastal ecosystems are subject to climate change, increasingly strong hurricanes and escalating stressors resulting from continuous urban development.”

Sea urchins are essential for healthy marine ecosystems

Sea urchins are echinoderms, the name derived from a mix of Greek and Latin meaning “spiny skin.” They’re closely related to starfish, brittle stars, sea lilies and sea cucumbers, and they include two types: regular and irregular.

Sea urchins of the first type are spherical in shape and covered in a formidable network of spines, giving them the appearance of medieval morning stars. Each spine can be pointed in the direction of a threat and provides a measure of protection as they graze on algae in open seagrass meadows, mangrove shoals and coral reefs.

Irregular echinoids, which include sand dollars, sea biscuits and heart urchins, are the unsung Roombas of the seafloor. Unlike their prickly surface-dwelling relatives, most sand dollars and sea biscuits are burrowers, with short, locomotive spines they use to crawl and deposit food in grooves along their skin, which run like conveyer belts directly to their mouths. Others, such as the cake urchin (Meoma ventricosa), simply scoop up anything in their path.

As they tunnel their way through sand, silt and mud in an endless quest for food, they clean, ventilate and enrich the sediment, making it more hospitable to other organisms.

By changing the landscape, they function as ecosystem engineers, explained lead author Grun, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum. “They’re essential for maintaining healthy environments. They feed on detritus and help oxygenate the sediment, which allows microorganisms to degrade waste,” he said.

There are also a lot of them. In certain areas, irregular urchins can be among the most abundant animals by volume on the seafloor. This is especially true in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, where dozens of species inhabit sprawling shelf platforms.

Sand dollars and heart urchins stand the test of time in deteriorating environments

Despite their importance and abundance, sea urchins are often given short shrift when it comes to marine surveys. In the denuded Florida Keys, considerable effort has been extended to document the decline of coral, fish, seagrass and manatees, but only a handful of widescale sea urchin surveys have been carried out over the last 60 years.

According to a 2020 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida’s coral reefs have become impaired in recent decades due to a combination of factors. Increased global temperatures have resulted in six mass coral bleaching events in South Florida since 1987, and in 2014, an outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease was reported on reefs near Miami. The disease has spread every year since and now affects the entirety of Florida’s barrier reef, from Martin County in central Florida to the furthest tip of the Florida Keys.

Delicate seagrass meadows are additionally reeling from the combined effects of climate change, pollution and the reduced influx of freshwater from the Everglades; Florida’s mangrove forests are at risk from increasingly intense tropical weather events; and a 2022 study determined that, of 15 grouper and snapper species popular among recreational fisheries, 85% were being harvested past the point of sustainability in the Florida Keys.  

Given the paucity of available data on sea urchins, it was unclear how their populations may have fared amid the degradation of the surrounding ecosystems.

“One of the reasons we conduct these surveys is to get a better numerical understanding of how important and abundant these organisms are because right now, that documentation is spotty,” Kowalewski said.

Grun and Kowalewski caution that this survey offers only a small snapshot of sea urchin diversity in the Florida Keys. But if their results are at all indicative of nearby benthic habitats, then sand dollars, sea biscuits and heart urchins seem to have mostly evaded the negative consequences of environmental change.

Irregular urchins were present at the majority (63%) of surveyed sites, from sheltered seagrass meadows along the coastline to deeper mudflats on the far side of the barrier reef. When they found living urchins, they often noted the waferlike discs of dead individuals disintegrating in the sediment, a sign that populations may have persisted in place for multiple generations.

According to Grun, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why sea urchins have remained unaffected, but he suspects the relative disregard people have for them might play a role. “These sea urchins are neither of commercial nor of recreational interest, and their sandy habitats are not often visited by fishers or divers,” he said.

Whether sea urchins in the Florida Keys will carry on unscathed as temperatures continue to rise and oceans become increasingly acidic remains an open question.

“We’re planning on looking more into the environmental factors that affect sea urchins, such as sediment and water composition, over the next years,” he said, stressing that the amount known about sea urchins is dwarfed by what’s left to be discovered. “We’re entering a new arena of research in which we’d really like to drive home the importance of these organisms and highlight their role as ecosystem engineers.”  

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JOURNAL

PeerJ

DOI

10.7717/peerj.14245 

ARTICLE TITLE

Spatial distribution, diversity, and taphonomy of clypeasteroid and spatangoid echinoids of the central Florida Keys

Neuron function is altered by the widely used anesthetic propofol

Rensselaer researchers found that propofol decreases intracellular transport

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: DR. MARVIN BENTLEY view more 

CREDIT: RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Propofol is the most commonly used drug to induce general anesthesia. Despite its frequent clinical application, it is poorly understood how propofol causes anesthesia.

In a new study published in Molecular Biology of the Cell, a team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers identified a previously unknown propofol effect in neurons. The study found that propofol exposure impacted the process by which neurons transport proteins, biomolecules that perform most cellular functions, to the cell surface.

Almost all animal cells, including human cells, are highly compartmentalized and rely on efficient movement of protein material between compartments. Proteins are moved from their site of synthesis to the location at which they perform their function in small carriers called “vesicles.” This transport must be efficient and highly specific to maintain cellular organization and function.

The research team was led by Dr. Marvin Bentley, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, whose laboratory studies vesicle transport in neurons. Neurons are particularly reliant on vesicle transport because axons — which are often organized in nerve bundles — can span distances of up to 1 meter in humans. Errors in vesicle transport have been linked to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

This new study found that propofol affects a family of proteins called kinesins. Kinesins are small “motor proteins” that move vesicles on tiny filaments called microtubules.

Dr. Bentley’s team observed that vesicle movement of two prominent kinesins, Kinesin-1 and Kinesin-3, was substantially reduced in cells exposed to propofol. The team then showed that propofol-induced transport delays led to a significant decrease of protein delivery to axons.

“The mechanism by which propofol works is not fully understood,” Bentley said. “What we discovered was unexpected: propofol altered the trafficking of vesicles in live neurons.”

Overall, the research contributes significantly to our understanding of how propofol works. Most studies that address the anesthetic mechanism of propofol have been focused on its interaction with an ion channel called the GABAA receptor, which inhibits neurotransmission when activated.

This new study demonstrates that vesicle transport is an additional mechanism that may be important for propofol’s anesthetic effect. Discovery of this new propofol effect has important applications for human health and may lead to the development of better anesthetic drugs.

“By using state-of-the-art live cell imaging technologies, Dr. Bentley’s team has furthered our understanding of the mechanism of action of a widely used drug that is already impacting human health on a daily basis,” said Curt M. Breneman, Dean of the School of Science. “Dr. Bentley’s research may pave the way for the development of related compounds that use these same mechanisms to target debilitating neurodegenerative diseases.”

In addition to Dr. Bentley, the study was co-authored by Dr. Susan P. Gilbert, Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Rensselaer, and doctoral students Madeline Frank and Alec T. Nabb.

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JOURNAL

Molecular Biology of the Cell

DOI

10.1091/mbc.E22-07-0276 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Propofol attenuates kinesin-mediated axonal vesicle transport and fusion

Analysis reveals increasing addiction and intensity of e-cigarette use by US adolescents

The recently released 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey data show that 2.55 million adolescents use e-cigarettes and 27.6% of adolescents use e-cigarettes daily.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

• Among U.S. middle and high school students, e-cigarette initiation age dropped, and intensity of use and addiction increased between 2014 and 2021

• By 2019 more e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within 5 minutes of waking—an indicator of addiction—than for cigarettes and all other tobacco products combined

BOSTON – A new analysis published in JAMA Network Open by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in collaboration with a retired UCSF professor reveals ongoing and worsening adolescent e-cigarette addiction in the United States.

In the analysis of data from the annual National Youth Tobacco Survey, a nationally-representative survey of middle and high school students in grades 6–12, researchers found that e-cigarette prevalence among youth peaked in 2019 then declined, but e-cigarette initiation age dropped between 2014 and 2021,and intensity of use and addiction increased after the introduction of protonated nicotine products

Protonated nicotine is created by adding acid to the e-cigarette liquid, which makes the nicotine easier to inhale. Since Juul pioneered protonated nicotine, it has been widely adopted by other e-cigarette companies.

Age at first use of e-cigarettes fell by 1.9 months per year, while age at first use of cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco did not change significantly. By 2017, e-cigarettes became the most common first tobacco product used.

E-cigarette nicotine addiction, measured as the odds of use within 5 minutes of waking, an indicator of addiction, increased over time. By 2019 more youth e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within 5 minutes of waking than for cigarettes and all other products combined. The percent of sole e-cigarette users who used e-cigarettes within 5 minutes of waking was around 1% through 2017, but then it increased every year, reaching 10.3% youth using their first e-cigarette within 5 minutes of waking by 2021.

Median e-cigarette use also increased from 3–5 days per month in 2014–2018 to 6–9 days per month in 2019–2020 and 10–19 days per month in 2021.

The recently released 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey data show that 2.55 million adolescents use e-cigarettes and 27.6% of adolescents use e-cigarettes daily. The comparable numbers reported in this paper for 2021 were 2.1 million and 24.7%.

“The increasing intensity of use of modern e-cigarettes highlights the clinical need to address youth addiction to these new high nicotine products over the course of many clinical encounters,” says senior author Jonathan P. Winickoff, MD, MPH, a pediatrician at MGH and a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. First author Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, a retired UCSF professor of medicine, adds, “In addition, stronger regulation including state and local comprehensive bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products such as voting YES on Proposition 31 on California’s November ballot, should be implemented.”

Abra Jeffers, PhD, is an additional coauthor.

This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In August 2022, Mass General was named #5 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America’s Best Hospitals."

This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40671 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Nicotine Addiction and Intensity of e-Cigarette Use by Adolescents in the US, 2014 to 2021

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Nov-2022

Nicotine addiction, intensity of e-cigarette use by adolescents

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: In this survey study of 151,000 students in grades 6 to 12, age at initiation of e-cigarette use decreased and intensity of use and addiction increased between 2014 and 2021. By 2019, more e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within 5 minutes of waking than users of cigarettes and all other tobacco products combined. These findings suggest that clinicians need to be ready to address youth addiction to these new highly addictive nicotine products during many clinical encounters, and stronger regulation is needed, including comprehensive bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Authors: Jonathan P. Winickoff, M.D., M.P.H., of Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston, 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/jamanetworkopen.2022.40671)

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.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40671?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=110722

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is the new online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

High levels of sweet and fruit-flavour chemicals in ‘tobacco-flavoured’ e-cig liquids

Recent trend coincides with restrictions on sale of flavours likely to appeal to young people

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

There are now high levels of sweet and fruit-flavoured chemicals likely to appeal to young people in e-cigarette liquids ostensibly marketed as ‘tobacco-flavoured’, compared with a decade ago, finds research published today in a special supplement* of the journal Tobacco Control.

This recent trend coincides with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban on the sale of cartridge based flavoured e-cigarettes–with the exception of menthol and tobacco flavours–in a bid to limit their appeal to young people. And it suggests that manufacturers are managing to get round the regulations, say the researchers.

E-liquid formulations have been evolving rapidly over the past decade, and flavour chemicals are particularly important because young people like fruit, candy, and sweet flavours, say the researchers. 

And disposable products, such as Puff, which are particularly popular with young people, aren’t covered by the FDA’s ban.

The researchers therefore wanted to find out if e-cigarettes marketed as ‘tobacco flavoured’ contained sweet and fruit flavour chemicals that would likely appeal to young people.

They drew on their extensive database (UCR/PSU Electronic Cigarette Data Collection) of e-liquid and aerosol flavour chemicals, acids, reaction products and metals, to identify any trends and changes in chemical composition and levels since 2010-11.

They compared the number and amount of flavour chemicals in 63 ‘tobacco-flavoured’ e-cigarette refill fluids purchased between 2011 and 2019 and 2 popular pod-style e-cigarette brands—JUUL and Puff. 

Tobacco-flavoured products purchased in 2010 and 2011 had very few flavour chemicals, overall, the levels of which were generally very low. 

Nearly two thirds (63%) of the refill fluids bought before 2019 had levels of flavour chemicals  below 2 mg/ml, and most (84%) were below 5 mg/ml.

But the total number and level of flavour chemicals in ‘tobacco flavoured’ refill fluids purchased in 2019 and in Puff Bar Tobacco e-cigarettes, were higher than expected. 

Among the 13 refill products bought in 2019, more than half (54%) had total flavour chemical levels above 10 mg/ml. Products with total flavour chemicals of more than 10 mg/ml contained 1 to 5 dominant flavour chemicals (each more than 1 mg/ml).  

The 5 most frequently used flavour chemicals in ‘tobacco flavoured’ e-liquids were predominantly fruity and caramellic: ethyl maltol (sweet or caramel, 60%); corylone (caramellic, maple, 44%); menthol (33%); vanillin (25%), maltol and triacetin (fruity, creamy, 24%). 

Nine sweet and fruit flavour chemicals, used mainly in products bought in 2016 and 2019, were at levels above 2 mg/ml.  

JUUL has marketed two tobacco flavours, ‘Classic’ and ‘Virginia’. Total flavour chemical levels for both these products were below 0.35 mg/ml, while levels of the individual chemicals were, in most cases, equal to, or less than, 0.05 mg/ml. 

Different flavour chemicals were used in the ‘Classic’ and ‘Virginia’ products, suggesting these were added intentionally to create distinct tastes for each product. 

Puff ‘Tobacco’, on the other hand, had 27 different flavour chemicals adding up to a total of 34.3 mg/ml. Individual chemicals ranged from 0.03 to 15 mg/ml. 

Four flavour chemicals (vanillin, ethyl maltol, ethyl vanillin and corylone), which were the highest (range 2.07–15 mg/ml), are typically used in sweet-flavoured e-cigarette products, such as Dewberry Cream, which is popular with young vapers, note the researchers.

For the dominant flavour chemicals found in both brands, levels of vanillin were 300 times higher in Puff than in JUUL, while ethyl maltol was 239 times higher, and corylone 41 times higher. 

The total number of flavour chemicals used in Puff Bar Tobacco was greater than those found in nearly all (94%) the refill fluids evaluated. 

“Concern has been raised previously about the safety of flavour chemicals when inhaled at these high concentrations,” point out the researchers.

 “Although these particular flavours are Generally Regarded As Safe by the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) for ingestion, FEMA has not evaluated them for inhalation toxicity.”

They conclude: “It is important for the FDA to identify and quantify flavour chemicals before authorising Premarket Tobacco Applications (PMTA) for two reasons. 

“First, flavour chemicals are often used in e-liquids without safety data at concentrations much higher than those found in other consumer products. Second, our data show that e-cigarette manufacturers are manipulating e-liquid formulations apparently to circumvent flavour chemical regulations.” 

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JOURNAL

Tobacco Control

DOI

10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2022-057484 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Ethyl maltol, vanillin, corylone and other conventional confectionery-related flavour chemicals dominate in some e-cigarette liquids labelled ‘tobacco’ flavoured

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Nov-2022

Starved yeast poisons clones

When starved of glucose, yeast kills its own clones and other surrounding microorganisms to survive in a newly discovered phenomenon named latecomer killing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

 

IMAGE: THERE ARE MORE THAN 1,500 KNOWN TYPES OF YEAST. SOME ARE ESSENTIAL FOR BAKING AND BREWING, WHILE OTHERS CAN CAUSE INFECTIONS WHICH AFFECT HUMAN AND ANIMAL HEALTH. view more 

CREDIT: 2022 ROHAN MEHRA

Yeast is not the simple single-celled microorganism we once thought, but a competitive killer. When starved of glucose, yeast releases a toxin that will poison other microorganisms that have entered its surrounding habitat, even its own clones. This venomous phenomenon was previously unknown and contributes to our understanding of unicellular microorganism behavior, the evolution of unicellular to multicellular organisms, as well as having potentially useful applications for the food industry.

Bread baking became a popular new hobby during the pandemic, so nowadays you’ll probably find a small packet of dried yeast stashed away in many a kitchen cupboard. For thousands of years, this little living fungus has been a staple part of our diet, enabling us to enjoy fluffy bread, sweet wine and frothy beer. Until recently, yeast was thought to be a simple unicellular (single cell) microorganism, but researchers at the University of Tokyo have now discovered it has a murderous survival strategy.

“In the critical survival situation of glucose starvation, yeasts release toxins into their habitat which kill other microorganisms while the yeast itself acquires resistance,” explained Assistant Professor Tetsuhiro Hatakeyama from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “We have called this phenomenon latecomer killing. We were even more surprised to find that the toxins produced by yeasts can also kill their nonadapted clones, so they are at risk of killing not only invading microorganisms but also their own offspring. Such seemingly risky and almost suicidal behavior had not previously been found in a single-celled organism or even considered to exist.” 

Although cooperative forms of behavior are well known in many bacteria and fungi, this research is the first prominent finding of competitiveness occurring in clonal cells in unicellular organisms. This has important implications for our understanding of the ecology of microorganisms, as well as why some specific microorganisms grow during fermentation while others do not. To make this discovery, the team grew clonal cells (i.e., derived from the same parental cell) separately under glucose-limited and glucose-rich conditions. When the cells were combined, their growth patterns showed that yeast cells which had already adapted to glucose starvation were able to poison latecomers and keep food resources for themselves.

“Our research reveals a surprisingly selfish side to yeast behavior,” said Hatakeyama. “The phenomenon we discovered is similar to a thought experiment proposed by the ancient Greek philosopher Carneades of Cyrene, called the plank of Carneades: If a sailor escapes from a shipwreck by holding on to a plank that is capable of supporting barely one person, and then pushes away another sailor who comes after him, will he be charged with murder?” The researchers suggest that this strategy may help yeast avoid mass starvation of the population, while also aiding selection of toxin-producing offspring that are more likely to continue their lineage. The strategy was observed in several different types of yeast — initially taken from beer, bread and wine — which could mean that this phenomenon may occur more widely across this diverse species.

This discovery could be used to develop useful growth control mechanisms for economically important species of yeast, such as those used in the food industry. Although not included in this study, it may also pave the way to better controlling types of yeast which can negatively affect human and animal health. The team would next like to explore the implications of this discovery for cell evolution. “For the development of multicellular organisms, not only mutual activation of cellular growth but also mutual inhibition of cellular growth or programmed cell death in clonal cells is required,” explained Hatakeyama. “Fungi are known to tend to an evolutionary transition between unicellularity and multicellularity more readily than other organisms, so we would like to unravel the relationship between the latecomer killing and the evolution of multicellular organisms. We hope this research will make a significant contribution to our understanding of ecosystem development and evolutionary transitions.”

CAPTION

Yeast cells poisoned by toxins made by clonal cells. Dead cells are marked using a dye.

CREDIT

2022 Oda et. al

Paper Title: Arisa H. Oda, Miki Tamura, Kunihiko Kaneko, Kunihiro Ohta, Tetsuhiro S. Hatakeyama "Autotoxin-mediated latecomer killing in yeast communities" PLOS Biology. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001844

Funding: This work was supported by the Osumi Foundation for Basic Sciences, the Sumitomo Foundation, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Project No. 19K16070), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Constraints and Directions of Evolution” (Project No. 17H06386, 20H04862), Japan Creative Research Promotion Agency (Project No. JPMJCR18S3) and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (JP20wm0325003).

Useful Links:

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: https://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng_site/

Department of Basic Science: http://www.dbs.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/index.html 

Research Center for Complex Systems Biology: http://rcis.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/

press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About the University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

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JOURNAL

PLoS Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pbio.3001844 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Autotoxin-mediated latecomer killing in yeast communities

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Nov-2022

Smithsonian receives $10 million donation to support research and education on climate resilience

The gift will establish the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative, a multi-year program to study tropical resilience and educate the public about the role of resilience.

Grant and Award Announcement

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Smithsonian has received a $10 million donation from business leader and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht to advance climate resilience research and education. The donation will launch the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative, a multi-year program to research tropical resilience and educate the public about the role resilience—the ability to prepare for and respond to global change—plays in shaping the world around us.
The donation will fund the establishment of a center for resilience and sustainability within the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. This center will study the resilience and sustainability connecting complex tropical systems, such as rainforests, and the people who depend on these systems. In addition, the center will build from resilience found in natural systems, working with partners and communities to devise and field-test solutions. Program areas will include scaling up of Smithsonian programs that restore and rewild natural rainforest communities, encourage more environmentally conscious fishing practices, and work to understand the risks, triggers and tipping points in tropical forests and reefs.
STRI also will develop a suite of bilingual educational and outreach tools focused on resilience. With the support of staff scientists, fellows, students, and partners, STRI will develop a collection of socio-ecological teaching case studies that can be used to develop courses for policy makers and field practitioners, aimed at improving the integration of rapidly evolving science findings in decision making.
“People and communities around the world are increasingly threatened by changing climates, and Adrienne’s generous donation will help the Smithsonian in its efforts to help find solutions,” said Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. “Her gift will strengthen the Smithsonian’s climate resilience research in Latin America and beyond, as well as create new opportunities to educate our children about the importance of sustainability, resilience and conservation.” 
This gift marks the first time Arsht has made a substantial donation to the Smithsonian. Arsht, Chair Emerita of TotalBank in Florida, has long supported the arts with donations to the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center in New York and the Center for Performing Arts in Miami. Arsht also has made two significant contributions to the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., where she funded and created the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.
“With Adrienne’s thoughtful and generous gift, we can conduct the research to make the planet more sustainable and help lead the country in discussions about what resilience means,” said Ellen Stofan, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science and Research. “All of us at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and our colleagues from across the Smithsonian, are energized and inspired by this important contribution,” added STRI’s director, Joshua Tewksbury.
“The Smithsonian Institution shares my vision on how to build a more resilient world where people and nature can thrive together,” Arsht said. “I am excited to see how this gift, combined with the Smithsonian’s 175-year history of data collection and educational leadership, helps the Institution inspire the next generation of leaders.”
Other new programs funded by this donation include the Smithsonian’s 15-stop virtual resilience tour, which will partner the Smithsonian’s science units with its arts and culture museums and programs to explore different interpretations of resilience. The tour targets young adults and includes virtual, 3D, augmented reality and in-person experiences focused on planetary sustainability. Another key component of this initiative is the Smithsonian Resilience Fund, an Institution-wide competitive grant program to foster and elevate resilience work across all Smithsonian museums and centers to seed the Institution’s vision for sustainability.
Overall, this initiative will serve as a catalyst and platform for promoting and conducting scientific research in Panama and across the tropics and increase the reach, relevance, and impact of research findings.

AT&T, FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory collaborate to launch climate risk and resilience portal for U.S. communities

Business Announcement

DOE/ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

The portal will help improve America’s preparedness for future climate extremes.

What’s the news?

AT&T, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory today announced the launch of the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR), which advances access to cutting-edge science for climate projections to help improve America’s preparedness for future climate extremes.

This announcement comes as world leaders gather for the United Nations climate change conference COP27.

“Argonne is excited to launch this cutting-edge climate portal with AT&T and FEMA, which will give communities across the country free and open access to actionable climate data.” — Argonne Director Paul Kearns

Using climate science modeling that is among the most sophisticated methodologies worldwide, ClimRR gives state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers and community leaders free access to localized data about future climate risks that can be used to explore strategies for resilience. Initial hazards included in ClimRR are temperature, precipitation, wind and drought conditions. Additional risks, such as wildfire and flooding, will be added in the coming months.

AT&T originally commissioned Argonne’s Center for Climate Resilience and Decision Science to produce the climate projections in ClimRR for the company’s own adaptation efforts. Through this collaboration, AT&T has made the data used in ClimRR publicly available.

Click for related video: "Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announces Climate Risk and Resilience Portal." 

Why is this important?

One in three Americans say they have been personally affected by an extreme weather event in the past two years. These climate impacts, which are becoming more frequent and intense, can vary not just from state to state, but even at the local level.

ClimRR provides peer-reviewed climate data sets in a nontechnical format and puts high-resolution, forward-looking climate insights into the hands of those who need them most. Community leaders and public safety officials can now understand how increasing climate risks will affect their populations. Access to this information will assist leaders as they strategically invest in infrastructure and response capabilities to protect communities for future generations.

What are people saying? 

“While fortifying the AT&T network against climate change is critical for the millions of people who rely on the connectivity we provide, resiliency can’t be built in a vacuum,” said Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer and SVP-Corporate Social Responsibility at AT&T. ​“Our world is interdependent. We want other organizations and communities to see where they’re potentially vulnerable to climate change and take steps to become resilient. That’s why we’re excited to make our data publicly available and to work closely with FEMA and Argonne to get it into the right hands.”

“FEMA works with a wide range of stakeholders across the public and private sectors to achieve the goals outlined in our 2022-2026 Strategic Plan,” said FEMA’s Acting Deputy Administrator, Victoria Salinas. ​“These goals include leading the whole of community in climate resilience as well as promoting and sustaining a ready FEMA and a prepared nation. ClimRR will help us make progress against these critical objectives.”

“Argonne is excited to launch this cutting-edge climate portal with AT&T and FEMA, which will give communities across the country free and open access to actionable climate data,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. ​“Harnessing the power of our supercomputers, we are making cutting-edge climate data available to the public sector and local planning officials to help them better understand local climate change risks and take the needed actions to become more climate resilient.”

What else should you know?

Climate projections from ClimRR can be overlayed with community and infrastructure information sourced from the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT). Combining data from ClimRR and RAPT allows users to understand local-scale climate risks in the context of existing community demographics and infrastructure, including the location of vulnerable populations and critical infrastructure.

AT&T assesses climate factors in its own operations to ensure the company’s infrastructure can meet customer needs in the face of increasing threats from climate change. Risks like flooding, wildfire, drought and wind are integrated into network resilience efforts and infrastructure planning processes. The company has accumulated years of experience interpreting the data. This expertise helped inform the creation of ClimRR to ensure the climate projections are actionable for local communities.

The data in ClimRR was produced by Argonne using the dynamical downscaling method, which simulates the many different processes affecting the atmosphere, ocean and land. This results in projections for a broader range of climate variables than the often-used statistical downscaling method and has the potential to improve estimates of extreme events at a local scale. 

How else does AT&T support FEMA? FEMA also selected AT&T to modernize its communications capabilities and enhance its ability to help people before, during and after disasters. FEMA is using FirstNet®, Built with AT&T — America’s public safety network built with and for first responders — to stay connected when it matters most.

More information about AT&T’s environmental sustainability efforts and goals can be found on the company’s website.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

Cities under strain: India's predicted urban boom
Author: AFP|Update: 08.11.2022 04:05


Mumbai, one of India's biggest cities, grew by about eight million people in the past 30 years -- equivalent to the entirety of New York City's population / © AFP

India is projected to see an explosion in its urban population in the coming decades, but its cities already cannot cope and climate change will make living conditions harsher still.

The metropolis of Mumbai, one of India's biggest, grew by some eight million people in the past 30 years -- the rough equivalent of the whole of New York City -- to a population of 20 million, and is forecast to add another seven million by 2035.

Like other Indian megacities, Mumbai's housing, transport, water and waste management infrastructure has not kept pace, with around 40 percent of people living in slums.

These crowded collections of ramshackle buildings, side by side with some of India's richest neighbourhoods, often have no regular water, power supply or proper sanitation.

As the world's population approaches eight billion, most of them in the developing world, it is a situation replicated globally.

A worker bathes outside a factory in the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, where water and waste management infrastructure have not kept pace with growth / © AFP

Those living on the outskirts of Mumbai commute for hours to work, with many hanging out of doors on packed trains, and others travelling by car or motorbike on clogged, pothole-filled roads that flood during the monsoon.

In the biggest slum, Dharavi of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame, where a million people live, Mohammed Sartaj Khan arrived from rural Uttar Pradesh as a teenager and works in a tannery.

"My childhood was wonderful in the village. It has a peaceful environment unlike the crowd here," Khan, now 35, told AFP in Dharavi's warren of lanes.

"When I came here, I saw people running like ants," he said. "The way ants keep walking in their lanes despite the crowd... Nobody cares about others."

But in his village, he added, "people don't have money".

At first, he earned 6,000 rupees ($70) a month in Mumbai but now operates a machine and makes four times that, most of which he sends back to his wife and children -- whom he can seldom afford to visit.

- Premature deaths -

India is projected to see an explosion in its urban population in the coming decades

 / © AFP

The UN projects that India's population will rise from its current 1.4 billion to overtake China's and peak at 1.7 billion in the 2060s, before dropping back to 1.5 billion by the start of the next century.

By 2040, 270 million more people will live in Indian cities, according to the International Energy Agency, driving carbon emissions higher from power generation and transport, and from the production of steel and concrete to house them.

Overcrowding, shoddy infrastructure and severe air, water and noise pollution are part of everyday life in India's megacities.

About 70 percent of the billions of litres of sewage produced in urban centres every day goes untreated, a government report said last year.

Every winter, the capital New Delhi, home to 20 million people, is cloaked in toxic air pollution that, according to one Lancet study, caused almost 17,500 premature deaths in 2019.

- Droughts and floods -

Children in Mumbai's Dharavi slums climb onto a window to catch a glimpse of a promotional event for a cartoon channel / © AFP

Millions of people in Indian cities have no regular running water and rely on deliveries by truck or train.

People in Delhi and elsewhere are digging ever-deeper wells as groundwater levels sink.

Chennai in southeastern India ran out of water in the summer of 2019, a crisis blamed on both insufficient rains and urban sprawl onto former wetlands.

At the same time, urban flooding is increasingly frequent.

The tech hub of Bengaluru -- formerly Bangalore -- has some of India's worst traffic congestion and saw inundations in September blamed on unauthorised construction.

Natural catastrophes are forecast to cause more and more misery for India's cities as the planet's climate warms and makes weather more volatile.

Scientists believe the annual monsoon rainy season is becoming more erratic and more powerful, causing more flooding and also more droughts.

Rising temperatures are making Indian summers ever more scorching, particularly in urban areas full of concrete trapping the heat. This year, India saw its hottest March on record.

And while Covid-19 did not affect India's slums as badly as some had feared, overcrowding puts them at risk in future epidemics.

Some experts believe more investment in India's rural economy could stem migration to already packed cities / © AFP

Poonam Muttreja from the Population Foundation of India said more investment in the rural economy could stem migration to cities, while new incentives could encourage people to move to smaller urban centres.

"Poor people, especially migrants in cities, are at the worst risk of climate change, whether it is the changes in the weather or flooding, jobs, lack of infrastructure," Muttreja told AFP.

"India has to have a paradigm shift. And instead of complaining, we need to start doing something."

Mexican state launches probe after prosecutors accused of covering up femicide


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -A Mexican anti-corruption authority said on Monday it had launched an investigation into the state attorney's office of Morelos, after a top official accused prosecutors there of covering up the killing of a young woman found on a highway last week.


Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters


FILE PHOTO: Mexico City’s Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum interviewed in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

Hours earlier, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum accused Morelos' state attorney's office of covering up the killing of 27-year-old Ariadna Lopez, after it ruled out evidence of violence and said she had died of alcohol intoxication.



Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

An investigation by Mexico City prosecutors later concluded Lopez had died of multiple force trauma, and revealed security footage showing a man who claimed to be Lopez's friend carrying a body from a Mexico City apartment after she disappeared on Oct. 30.

Cyclists found Lopez's body in neighboring Morelos state days later and shared photos online to help identify her.


The Morelos prosecutors' office could not be reached for comment.

"In this case it is evident the Morelos prosecutors' office wanted to hide the femicide, presumably because of links with the presumed killer," said Sheinbaum, who has been tipped to become Mexico's first woman president in a 2024 vote.



Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

"It was the duty of Morelos' prosecutors' office to carry out the investigation," she added. "Without the intervention from Mexico City, this femicide would have gone unpunished."

Morelos is a central state with one of the highest rates of femicide in a country where some 10 women on average are killed every day

Morelos' state anti-corruption prosecutors' office said later on Monday it had opened an investigation into "possible crimes" committed by employees of the attorney's office during the investigation into Lopez's death. It said it has begun its investigation autonomously to clarify the alleged acts of corruption.



Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

Mexican authorities said two people linked to Lopez's alleged killing were in police custody.

On Friday, authorities said five women were found dead in Morelos.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Sarah Morland, Aurora Ellis and Leslie Adler)