MSU discovery advances biofuel crop that could curb dependence on fossil fuel

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER MAURICIO TEJERA-NIEVES STUDIES SWITCHGRASS NEAR A RAINFALL EXCLUSION SHELTER BUILT BY THE GREAT LAKES BIOENERGY RESEARCHER CENTER AT MICHIGAN STATE’S W.K. KELLOGG BIOLOGICAL STATION LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH SITE. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: COURTESY MAURICIO TEJERA-NIEVES

Highlights: 

• A new paper from MSU researchers in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science reveals why switchgrass stops photosynthesis in the middle of its growing season, limiting its potential as a biofuel crop. 

• As a perennial, low-maintenance crop, switchgrass shows promise as a low-cost and sustainable biofuel source. But its drop-off in photosynthesis lowers the ceiling on its ability to add biomass that’s used to make fuel. 

• This photosynthetic stoppage is rooted in a conservative strategy the plant has evolved to store its food to survive winter months. 

• With this discovery, the MSU team has moved the research community one step closer to overcoming this limitation and breeding switchgrass that not only survives winter, but also shows “an insatiable appetite for photosynthesis.” 

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University researchers have solved a puzzle that could help switchgrass realize its full potential as a low-cost, sustainable biofuel crop and curb our dependence on fossil fuels. 

Among switchgrass’s attractive features are that it’s perennial, low maintenance and native to many states in the eastern U.S., including Michigan. But it also has a peculiar behavior working against it that has stymied researchers — at least until now.  

Berkley Walker’s team in MSU’s Department of Plant Biology has revealed why switchgrass stops performing photosynthesis in the middle of the summer — its growing season — limiting how much biofuel it yields.  

This knowledge, published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, is a key piece to overcoming this quirk and getting the most out of switchgrass.  

“We want bigger plants, period, so being able to crack this and lift this limitation, that is the goal,” said Mauricio Tejera-Nieves, a postdoctoral researcher and the lead author of the team’s study. 

Tejera-Nieves, Walker and their colleagues discovered the explanation for this limitation in switchgrass’s rhizomes. These are little knobby structures that live underground among the plant’s roots. If you’ve ever sliced or shredded ginger, you’ve held a rhizome.  

Rhizomes store food in the form of starch to help plants survive winter, and that starch is made from the sugars produced by photosynthesis. Once switchgrass rhizomes are full of starch, they signal the plant to stop making sugars and adding biomass through photosynthesis.  

Tejera-Nieves compared the rhizomes to a bank, albeit a slightly unusual one. 

“Imagine getting a call from your bank and they tell you, ‘Hey, your account is full. You can take a vacation, go on sabbatical, do whatever you want. Just stop working because we’re not storing any more money,’” Tejera-Nieves said. “It’s a very conservative strategy, but it’s one that works for switchgrass. The longer it’s doing photosynthesis in nature, the more likely it is that an animal will eat it or something else bad will happen.” 

Although this evolutionary strategy has worked to the plant’s advantage in nature, it is a disadvantage for humans who want to ferment switchgrass’s biomass into biofuel. By understanding the root cause of this behavior, though, researchers can start looking for ways around it. 

“Now we can start looking for breeding solutions,” said Walker, an assistant professor in the College of Natural Science who also works in the MSU-Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory. “We can start looking for plants that have an insatiable appetite for photosynthesis.” 

By Matt Davenport  

Read on MSUToday.  

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Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world's leading research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges. 

For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews. 

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DOI

10.3389/fpls.2022.1023571 

Bales of switchgrass are gathered for transport at a Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center biofuels scale-up site at Michigan State’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research site.

Credit: J. E. Doll/Michigan State University

Switchgrass, a biofuel crop studied at Michigan State University, on a June morning.

Credit: B. Krasean/W.K. Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research

A photo of the Walker lab team at Michigan State University. In the front row, left to right: postdoctoral scholars Binod Basyal and Xinyu Fu, Assistant Professor Berkley Walker and graduate student Kaila Smith. In the back row, left to right: laboratory technician Heather Roney, graduate student Luke Gregory and postdoctoral scholars Kelem Gashu Alamrie and Mauricio Tejera-Nieves

Credit: Emily Walker 

Ancestral variation guides future environmental adaptations

The humble sea campion flower can show us how species adapt

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BANGOR UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A CLUMP OF SEA CAMPIONS NEXT TO SOME THRIFT OR SEA PINKS. view more 

CREDIT: BANGOR UNIVERSITY

The speed of environmental change is very challenging for wild organisms. When exposed to a new environment individual plants and animals can potentially adjust their biology to better cope with new pressures they are exposed to - this is known as phenotypic plasticity.

Plasticity is likely to be important in the early stages of colonising new places or when exposed to toxic substances in the environment. New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, shows that early plasticity can influence the ability to subsequently evolve genetic adaptations to conquer new habitats.

Sea campion, a coastal wildflower from the UK and Ireland has adapted to toxic, zinc rich industrial-era mining waste which kills most other plant species. The zinc-tolerant plants have evolved from zinc-sensitive, coastal populations separately in different places, several times.

To understand the role of plasticity in rapid adaptation, a team of researchers lead by Bangor University conducted experiments on sea campion.

As zinc-tolerance has evolved several times, this gave the researchers the opportunity to investigate whether ancestral plasticity made it more likely that the same genes would be used by different populations that were exposed to the same environment.

By exposing the tolerant and sensitive plants to both benign and zinc contaminated environments and measuring changes in the expression of genes in the plant’s roots, the researchers were able to see how plasticity in the coastal ancestors has paved the way for adaptation to take place very quickly.

Dr Alex Papadopulos, senior lecturer at Bangor University explained:

“Sea campion usually grow on cliffs and shingle beaches, but mining opened up a new niche for them that other plants weren’t able to exploit. Our research has shown that some of the beneficial plasticity in the coastal plants has helped the mine plants to adapt so quickly.”

Alex added,

“Remarkably, if a gene responds to the new environment in a beneficial way in the ancestral plants, it is much more likely that that gene will be reused in all of the lineages that are independently adapting to the new environment. Phenotypic plasticity may make it more likely that there would be the same evolutionary outcome if the tape of life were replayed. If we understand the plastic responses that species have to environmental change, we may be better equipped to predict the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.”

A sea Campion seen against a gritty backdrop

A sea camion in its natural habitat on the coast.

CREDIT

Bangor University

JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-022-01975-w 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Genetic assimilation of ancestral plasticity during parallel adaptation to zinc contamination in Silene uniflora

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jan-2023

Evaluation of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality by Race and Ethnicity Among Pregnant and Recently Pregnant Women in the US, 2019 to 2020

Research Letter 

Obstetrics and Gynecology

January 27, 2023

Jeffrey T. Howard, PhD¹; Jessica K. Perrotte, PhD²; Caleb Leong, BSA¹; et alTimothy J. Grigsby, PhD³; Krista J. Howard, PhD²

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(1):e2253280. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.53280

Introduction

Research has suggested trends of worsening maternal health associated with depression,¹ substance use,² and severe maternal morbidity³ in the US over the past decade. All-cause and drug/alcohol poisoning mortality rates for pregnant and recently pregnant women also increased in the US from 2015 to 2019.⁴ We examined all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates among pregnant and recently pregnant women from 2019 to 2020 and compared mortality rates by race and ethnicity.

Methods

Because this cross-sectional study used deidentified data, the University of Texas at San Antonio Institutional Review Board deemed it exempt from review, and informed consent was waived. The study followed the STROBE reporting guideline.

Deidentified Multiple Cause of Death files were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS; 2019-2020).⁵ Live birth counts were obtained from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention WONDER database.⁶ Recently pregnant women were defined as (1) pregnant at time of death or (2) died within 1 year of pregnancy end.⁴ Female biological sex was determined from death certificates. Death and live birth counts were aggregated by year (2019 and 2020), age group (10-14, 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, or 45-54 years), and race and ethnicity (as defined by WONDER and NCHS⁵ and obtained from death certificates). The International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes and manner of death indicated causes of death as pregnancy associated, accidental drug poisoning, motor vehicle collision, homicide, or suicide (eTable in Supplement 1).

Mortality rates per 100 000 live births were estimated using Poisson regression models with denominators as live births with 95% CIs. Mortality rate ratios (MRRs [95% CIs]) were used to compare total mortality rates between 2019 and 2020 and to compare racial and ethnic groups. P < .05 (2-sided) was considered statistically significant. Data were analyzed between October 4 and October 8, 2022, using R, version 4.2.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing).

Results

Of 4535 total deaths from 2019 to 2020, 2904 (64%) were women aged 34 years or younger. With regard to race and ethnicity, 107 women (2.4%) were American Indian or Alaska Native, 127 (2.8%) were Asian or Pacific Islander, 671 (14.8%) were Hispanic, 1276 (28.1%) were non-Hispanic Black, 2291 (50.5%) were non-Hispanic White, and 63 (1.4%) were multiple races or ethnicities. The all-cause mortality rate for recently pregnant women increased by 29% (MRR, 1.29 [1.21-1.37]; P < .001) from 53.9 to 69.6 per 100 000 live births (Table 1). Mortality rates increased by 22% (MRR, 1.22 [1.12-1.32]) from 27.5 to 33.6 per 100 000 live births for pregnancy-associated causes and by 36% (1.36 [1.24-1.48]; P < .001) from 26.4 to 36.0 per 100 000 live births for nonpregnancy causes. Mortality rates increased significantly for drug poisoning (MRR, 1.42 [1.22-1.63]; P < .001), motor vehicle collision (1.31 [1.02-1.58]; P = .007), and homicide (1.33 [1.03-1.60]; P = .01). Suicide mortality rates did not increase.

Compared with non-Hispanic White women, American Indian or Alaska Native women had significantly higher mortality rates across all causes of death (Table 2). Non-Hispanic Black women had significantly higher mortality rates for all causes except drug poisoning and suicide. Hispanic women had lower mortality rates for causes including all, all nonpregnancy, drug poisoning, motor vehicle collision, and suicide. Asian or Pacific Islander women had lower mortality rates across all causes. Multiracial women had a higher mortality rate for homicide.

Discussion

In this cross-sectional study, mortality rates among recently pregnant women increased across all causes of death except suicide from 2019 to 2020. Pregnancy-associated causes were the leading cause of death, followed by drug poisoning. Limitations of this study include the potential for misclassification of causes of death and inaccuracies in pregnancy checkbox data.

Racial and ethnic disparities in mortality among recently pregnant women were evident by cause of death. Compared with non-Hispanic White women, mortality rates were 3- to 5-fold higher among American Indian or Alaska Native women for every cause, including suicide. Likewise, these findings suggest that non-Hispanic Black women experienced significantly higher mortality rates across causes, with the highest rates for homicide. Enhanced surveillance and intervention for these vulnerable groups may be warranted.

Back to top

Article Information

Accepted for Publication: December 8, 2022.

Published: January 27, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.53280

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2023 Howard JT et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Jeffrey T. Howard, PhD, Department of Public Health, College for Health, Community and Policy, University of Texas at San Antonio, 1 UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249 (jeffrey.howard@utsa.edu).

Author Contributions: Dr J. T. Howard had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: J. T. Howard, K. J. Howard.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: J. T. Howard, Perrotte, Leong, Grigsby.

Drafting of the manuscript: J. T. Howard, Grigsby, K. J. Howard.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: J. T. Howard, Perrotte, Leong, Grigsby.

Statistical analysis: J. T. Howard, Leong.

Obtained funding: J. T. Howard.

Administrative, technical, or material support: J. T. Howard.

Supervision: J. T. Howard, K. J. Howard.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Funding/Support: This study was funded in part by the Lutcher Brown Endowed Fellowship through the University of Texas at San Antonio (Dr Howard) and was supported by award K01AA029473 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Dr Perrotte).

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Data Sharing Statement: See Supplement 2.

References

1.

Pearson  RM, Carnegie  RE, Cree  C,  et al.  Prevalence of prenatal depression symptoms among 2 generations of pregnant mothers: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.   JAMA Netw Open. 2018;1(3):e180725. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.0725
ArticlePubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

2.

Rodriguez  JJ, Smith  VC.  Epidemiology of perinatal substance use: exploring trends in maternal substance use.   Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2019;24(2):86-89. doi:10.1016/j.siny.2019.01.006PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

3.

Hirai  AH, Owens  PL, Reid  LD, Vladutiu  CJ, Main  EK.  Trends in severe maternal morbidity in the US across the transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS from 2012-2019.   JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(7):e2222966. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.22966
ArticlePubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

4.

Howard  JT, Sparks  CS, Santos-Lozada  AR, Olowolaju  SA, Janak  JC, Howard  KJ.  Trends in mortality among pregnant and recently pregnant women in the US, 2015-2019.   JAMA. 2021;326(16):1631-1633. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.13971
ArticlePubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

5.

National Center for Health Statistics.  All County Multiple Cause of Death Mortality Microdata File, 2019-2020. National Center for Health Statistics; 2022.

6.

National Center for Health Statistics Division of Vital Statistics. CDC WONDER: Natality, 2007-2019. 2020. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://wonder.cdc.gov/natality-current.html

Novel technique developed to obtain key chemical industry input without emitting CO2

Hydrogen peroxide is used to sterilize medical equipment, to bleach fabric, pulp and paper, and whiten teeth, among other applications

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

A study published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, a journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a novel method of producing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) without emitting carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the main greenhouse gases and one of the world’s most widely produced chemicals.

Hydrogen peroxide is used to bleach fabric, pulp and paper, and to whiten teeth. It is also used as a thruster fuel for satellite attitude control, and as a disinfectant or sterilizing agent by hospitals. Some 2 million metric tons of the compound are produced annually.

“To understand the impact of our findings, it’s important first and foremost to bear in mind the significance of H2O2 in the chemical industry and the way it’s currently produced,” said Ivo Freitas Teixeira, a professor of chemistry at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in São Paulo State, Brazil. He has a PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of São Paulo (USP) and was a Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, between 2019 and 2021.

“All this peroxide is produced by a process that involves anthraquinone [a compound derived from hydrolysis of anthracene, a toxic substance]. In this process, anthraquinone is reduced and then oxidized to make H2O2. The drawbacks of the method are the high cost of anthraquinone and the use of precious metals such as Pd [palladium], and H2 [hydrogen] as reducing agents. This hydrogen is produced by steam-methane reforming, which involves high temperatures and releases CO2, contributing to global warming,” he said.

In the study, the researchers produced peroxide from oxygen (O2) using photocatalysis to guide the process. In photocatalysis, the catalysts (substances that accelerate the chemical reaction) are activated by visible light instead of high temperature or pressure. Another advantage of their method was the use of carbon nitride as a photocatalyst. This material consists only of carbon and nitrogen, both of which are abundant in Earth’s crust, and can be activated in the visible region, which corresponds to about 45% of the solar spectrum. It is therefore probable that sunlight can be used instead of artificial lighting, making the process more cost-effective.

After testing different reaction conditions, the researchers arrived at a system with an excellent rate of H2O2 production. “We achieved O2 reduction via a photocatalytic route in which the hydrogen source was the water in the reaction medium or the sacrificial reagent, typically glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production,” Teixeira explained.

In this system, carbon nitride is used as a semiconductor to separate charges when bathed in light, promoting reduction and oxidation reactions. The O2 is reduced to H2O2 and the sacrificial reagent (glycerol) is oxidized. The H2O2 is obtained without the need to use H2 and hence without CO2 emissions.

“The road we had to travel in our investigation until we arrived at the results described in the published article was a long one because we discovered that at the same time as H2O2 was produced on the surface of the photocatalyst, it could also be degraded,” Teixeira said. “We had to perform several tests and keep modifying the photocatalyst in order to promote the formation of H2O2 and avoid its decomposition. Understanding the mechanism whereby H2O 2 decomposes on the surface of carbon nitride was extremely important to enable us to develop the ideal photocatalyst for this reaction.”

Teixeira leads a research team at UFSCar supported by FAPESP. He is last author of the article, which is also signed by Andrea Rogolino (University of Padua, Italy); Ingrid Silva, Nadezda Tarakina and Markus Antonietti (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany); and Marcos da Silva and Guilherme Rocha (UFSCar).

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe

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JOURNAL

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

DOI

10.1021/acsami.2c14872 

ARTICLE TITLE

Modified Poly(Heptazine Imides): Minimizing H2O2 Decomposition to Maximize Oxygen Reduction

The future of robotics is soft and tactile – TUD startup teaches robots to feel

Business Announcement

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT DRESDEN

 

IMAGE: APPLE POWERON view more 

CREDIT: POWERON

. The next generation of robotics will feature sensory skins, fabricated muscles and artificial neurons printed on flexible materials, opening up new fields of application. “We’re observing a drastic upward trend in automation across all areas of industry and will soon see more of this in our everyday life,” says Dr. Markus Henke, Junior Research Group Leader at TU Dresden’s Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems and CEO of PowerON.

The start-up uses the results of collaborative research conducted by TU Dresden and the University of Auckland in New Zealand, where Markus Henke completed a two-year postdoc fellowship after earning his doctorate at our Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In close cooperation with TU Dresden, he and the local team explored the scientific foundations of multifunctional dielectric elastomers in soft robotics as part of a Marie Curie Fellowship awarded by the European Commission. Upon his return to TU Dresden, he and his colleagues founded PowerON with the help and support of the dresden | exists start-up service start-up grant and venture capital funding. In addition, Dr. Markus Henke acquired an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the Chair of Microsystems, which studied the foundations of bioinspired robotics based on dielectric elastomers.

“Once the technology is advanced enough, we expect to encounter robots not just in the industry but also in our daily lives.” To this end, the PowerON team wants to use its very first product – a type of sensory fingertip for industrial robots – to substantially expand on robots’ fields of application and allow conventional robot grippers to perform more delicate tasks. These could prove useful for handling fragile items such as eggs or test tubes, removing rubber products from injection molds, harvesting fruits and vegetables, or even being implemented at home and in medical care. With a view to the decreasing number of skilled workers, researchers see great potential in this area. The initial practical tests are set to begin in the coming weeks. The first demonstrator to exhibit the interplay of touch-sensitive skin, manufactured muscles and artificial neurons has already been completed. It is a gripper that is exclusively powered by artificial muscles, which are, in turn, controlled by artificial neurons. The gripper is a 3D print of flexible materials, does not feature any conventional joints and is equipped with a tactile skin that can feel how and where an object is gripped.

PowerON works closely with TU Dresden and is a partner in the large-scale research project “6G-life.” “This partnership is a testament to the cooperation potential between science and industry and how such collaborative projects can contribute to quickly transferring scientific findings into commercial products,” says Prof. Andreas Richter, Chair of Microsystems and Director of the Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems.

Video
The demonstrator was introduced at the first SAXONY! TechTalks on December 6, 2022, in cooperation with the Saxony Trade & Invest Corporation. You can view a recording of the event on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aFgCMhPWjXc

Emmy Noether Junior Research Group MEiTNER: https://tu-dresden.de/ing/elektrotechnik/ihm/ms/forschung/meitner-nfg

PowerON spin-off: https://www.poweron.one

Farming more seaweed to be food, feed and fuel

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

 

IMAGE: UNDERWATER SPLIT SHOT OF THE SEAWEED GARDEN ON THE ISLAND OF NUSA PENIDA, BALI, INDONESIA. view more 

CREDIT: DUDAREV MIKHAIL

A University of Queensland-led study has shown that expanding global seaweed farming could go a long way to addressing the planet’s food security, biodiversity loss and climate change challenges.

PhD Candidate Scott Spillias, from UQ’s School of Earth and Environmental Science, said seaweed offered a sustainable alternative to land-based agricultural expansion to meet the world’s growing need for food and materials.

“Seaweed has great commercial and environmental potential as a nutritious food and a building block for commercial products including animal feed, plastics, fibres, diesel and ethanol,” Mr Spillias said.

“Our study found that expanding seaweed farming could help reduce demand for terrestrial crops and reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by up to 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year.”

Researchers mapped the potential of farming more of the 34 commercially important seaweed species using the Global Biosphere Management Model.

They estimated the environmental benefits of a range of scenarios based on land-use changes, GHG emissions, water and fertiliser use, and projected changes in species presence by 2050.

“In one scenario where we substituted 10 per cent of human diets globally with seaweed products, the development of 110 million hectares of land for farming could be prevented,” Mr Spillias said.

“We also identified millions of available hectares of ocean within global exclusive economic zones* (EEZs), where farming could be developed.

“The largest share of suitable ocean was in the Indonesian EEZ, where up to 114 million hectares is estimated to be suitable for seaweed farming.

“The Australian EEZ also shows great potential and species diversity, with at least 22 commercially viable species and an estimated 75 million hectares of ocean being suitable.”

Mr Spillias said many native species of seaweed in Australian waters had not yet been studied from a commercial production perspective.

“The way I like to look at this is to think about ancestral versions of everyday crops – like corn and wheat – which were uninspiring, weedy things,” he said.

“Through thousands of years of breeding we have developed the staple crops that underpin modern societies and seaweed could very well hold similar potential in the future.”

UQ study collaborator Professor Eve McDonald-Madden said the seaweed solution would have to be carried out with care, to avoid displacing problems from the land to the ocean.

“Our study points out what could be done to address some of the mounting problems of global sustainability facing us, but it can’t be implemented without exercising extreme caution,” she said.

This research was published in Nature Sustainability.

UQ acknowledges the collaborative efforts of researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, CSIRO and the University of Tasmania.

*An area of the sea in which a sovereign state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-01043-y