New sound navigation technology enables the blind to navigate - challenging Nobel Prize winning theory and providing hope for slowing down dimentia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

REICHMAN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PROF. AMIR AMEDI, DIRECTOR OF THE BRAIN COGNITION AND TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE view more 

CREDIT: GILAD KVALARCHIK

New Sound Navigation Technology Enables the Blind to Navigate - challenging Nobel Prize Winning Theory and Providing Hope for Slowing Down Dimentia

A new study by researchers at Reichman University’s Brain Cognition and Technology Institute directed by Prof. Amir Amedi has shown that visual navigation areas in the brain can be activated using sound. By traversing mazes using sound information instead of visual information after training, visual navigation areas were activated. This finding has numerous exciting implications, among them the findings chip away at the Nobel Prize winning theory of critical periods and provide new avenues for cognitive training to potentially detect and prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

 

The team conducted a series of studies over the past years that challenge conventional beliefs about the human brain's functioning; claiming that the brain is divided by tasks, rather than the commonly accepted division by senses (seeing area, hearing area, etc...). These studies utilized Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs), which are remarkable tools that transfer sensory information from one sense through another sense. For example, SSDs can help visually impaired individuals "see" by converting visual information into sounds. Following training, individuals can identify shapes, object locations, words, letters, and even faces when represented through sound. Training on SSDs has been shown to be effective on people even in their 40’s - 60’s+, calling to question the idea that there are critical periods for development of senses. The classic theory of critical periods suggests that the senses can only be developed early in life, during childhood, through exposure to sights, sounds, and so on. And if they do not develop during this period, they cannot be used later in life. The fact that SSDs can be used for effective training well into adulthood, suggests that the theory of critical periods needs to be revised. Taking this to the extreme, this body of research has shown that the brain can be reprogrammed through this training so that visual areas in the brain can be activated even in people with zero visual experience.

 

These non-invasive devices, SSDs, offer researchers unique opportunities to observe how different brain regions respond when relevant information comes from another sense. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri), the researchers in this new study examined the impact of using SSDs on visual retinotopically organized areas of the brain, in this case specifically Area V6, which is responsible for visual navigation and motion perception. The results of this study indicate that through short training with the EyeCane, an SSD that conveys spatial information about the visual surroundings through sounds, even those who are congenitally blind can develop selective activation in Area V6. The study further supports the idea that, despite years or a lifetime of blindness, the brain has the potential to process visual tasks and properties if the right technologies and training are employed. Additionally, the study found that the area contains motor neurons responsible for egocentric navigation.

Importantly, the findings from this study may have implications for improving detection and prevention of Alzheimer's disease. Spatial deficits are a common early symptom of Alzheimer's disease and navigation and spatial cognition rely on V6 among other brain regions. The fact that V6 can develop its selectivity for navigation in the absence of visual experience, as seen in the congenitally blind participants using the EyeCane SSD, suggests that there may be ways to train and enhance navigation abilities in individuals at risk for Alzheimer's disease, such as older adults or those with mild cognitive impairment. Furthermore, by better understanding the neural mechanisms underlying development and functioning of spatial navigation, we may be able to identify early biomarkers and targets for interventions aimed at preventing or slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.025 

Grant fuels project to highlight untold history across Appalachia

The Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project is part of a $250 million initiative that the Andrew Mellon Foundation launched in 2020 to support public projects across the United States.

Grant and Award Announcement

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: EMILY SATTERWHITE (AT LEFT) POINTS OUT AREAS OF APPALACHIA ON A MAP THAT SHE EXPECTS TO HIGHLIGHT AS PART OF A $3 MILLION PROJECT TO COMMEMORATE THE REGION'S NEGLECTED HISTORY. SATTERWHITE AND KATRINA POWELL (AT RIGHT), BOTH FACULTY IN THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND HUMAN SCIENCES, ARE LEADERS OF THE PROJECT. PHOTO BY MARY CRAWFORD FOR VIRGINIA TECH. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY MARY CRAWFORD FOR VIRGINIA TECH.

From working with Appalachian communities to examining issues of displacement for refugees, two Virginia Tech faculty have made it their life and scholarly mission to recognize the people that society often overlooks.

Now a prestigious national foundation is giving them significant resources to tell the hidden historical stories of communities throughout Southwest Virginia, an opportunity to put their passion into action.

Emily Satterwhite and Katrina Powell received a $3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a three-year project to work with communities across the state’s Appalachia region to commemorate neglected histories.

Their project, Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia, is part of a $250 million initiative that the New York-based nonprofit foundation launched in 2020 to support public projects across the United States. The focus of the foundation’s Monuments Project is to commemorate stories of populations that have been denied historical recognition.

The foundation, with an endowment of approximately $8.2 billion in 2020, awards grants in four areas: arts and culture, humanities in place, public knowledge, and higher learning.

Examples of other Monuments Projects across the country include the completion of Freedom Park in North Carolina, which honors the history of Black North Carolinians, and the expansion of artist Judith Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles, a large mural depicting the city’s history.

Now, Virginia Tech joins the work to recognize Appalachia.

“There’s so much attention right now to monuments, what's out there and what stories they tell and what other stories deserve to be told,” said Satterwhite, an associate professor and director of Appalachian Studies in the Department of Religion and Culture. “People are already talking about what’s been hidden that needs to be made visible and to be passed on to the next generation, and what stories might otherwise be lost. We are telling more complex stories about Appalachia and its history to help people reimagine it not as a white, static, simple, rooted place but as dynamic, with migration being central to its story and many groups of people being central to its story.”

For the next three years, Powell and Satterwhite plan to meet with community groups, nonprofits, government officials, and many others first to pinpoint untold stories and then help to create projects that represent them.

The idea is not to do all of the work themselves but to work alongside the organizations and faculty partners.

“It’s a mindset of how to work with the community, not coming in and saying, ‘This is how you should build a monument to your history,’ but as a university, we have resources and we’d like to work with you on what you see is important to your community,” said Powell, a professor of rhetoric and writing in the Department of English, and founding director of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies at Virginia Tech.

Powell and Satterwhite have worked with the Council on Virginia Tech History. The group  explores how the university might recognize and acknowledge its history in the context of the Beyond Boundaries vision for the future.

With this new project, Powell and Satterwhite’s work could take a variety of forms — from public art or historical markers to theatrical performances or festivals. They hope to build on relationships that informed existing public exhibits, such as The Land Speaks, a digital exhibition hosted by University Libraries at Virginia Tech about the history of the Monacan Indian Nation.

Ultimately, the Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project aims to “reimagine what a monument is, not necessarily a big statue in the middle of town, but something that might be located in our everyday experiences of our communities,” said Powell.

Project awards will be made in two phases. First round projects will be proposed in June by faculty who work closely with community collaborators. Second round projects will be community-initiated, with initial proposals due in early 2024. Communities throughout Appalachian Virginia are eligible to participate, as are representatives for Eastern Siouan Indigenous peoples whose relationship with these lands predate colonization.

Likely project themes will include the diversity of Appalachian communities, movement across the landscape via migration and population displacement, and struggles for social justice including feminist, anti-racist, environmental justice, and pro-labor movements.

Currently, Powell and Satterwhite are circulating calls for faculty and community participation and building their team, which will include a project coordinator, postdoctoral fellow, communications manager, undergraduate and graduate students, and an advisory board.

“This award is a powerful testament to the fierce commitment to Appalachian communities that Drs. Powell and Satterwhite have made a defining focus of their professional careers and personal lives,” said Laura Belmonte, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. “Our region is replete with stories of incredible courage, resilience, and creativity that will be honored and made more visible thanks to the marvelous grant from the Mellon Foundation. Their generosity will significantly advance the innovative work in the humanities at Virginia Tech that is occurring in the classroom, in scholarly output, and in our larger communities.”

Some of their work will be weaved into the classroom, depending on the course.

Satterwhite said the foundation’s grant validates the importance of Appalachia.

“Oftentimes there’s a stigma attached to Appalachia,” she said. “So for a cultural institution as prestigious as Mellon to say these people matter and their histories matter, and for Mellon to recognize that other kinds of traditions and practices and beliefs have merit and deserve appreciation and attention, that’s really cool. Hopefully it helps some people rethink their judgments.”

Ultimately, the project uplifts Virginia Tech’s mission.

“It fulfills what we believe to be the land-grant university mission, education for all publics, not a certain kind of public, including those publics on whose land we are sitting,” Powell said. “I hope the project can exemplify the way Virginia Tech can be a great partner with communities.”

Augmenting the human body with a wearable robotic arm

Approaching the cognitive challenges of equipping healthy individuals with an extra robotic arm.

Meeting Announcement

ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE

Washington, AAAS Annual Meeting. Imagine having a third arm –  a robotic one – to assist you with daily living. Silvestro Micera from EPFL, Switzerland, is engineering the human nervous system to make this a possibility.

For decades, professor Silvestro Micera of EPFL has dedicated his research to helping people with sensory and motor deficits to re-gain independence and quality of life by developing wearable and implantable technologies. But this is changing, as he begins to explore what it means to augment the human body.

The neuroengineer has thus far avoided the subject of transhumanism, which is a movement to enhance the human body and cognition with the help of technology. Now, this year AAAS in Washington, Micera will be presenting his “third arm” research that aims to equip health individuals with a robotic arm, essentially giving them a third arm to control.  The third-arm project aims to provide a wearable robotic arm to assist in daily tasks, using non-invasive techniques. The challenges are both technical and cognitive, but he believes that third-arm control is no longer a thing of the future.

“Research on three arm control could help us understand how learning is achieved in activities of daily living but these devices could also be used in logistics to facilitate complicated tasks,” explains Micera.

Micera is known for being the first to provide sensory feedback –  in real-time – to an amputee, with a bionic hand, during clinical trials that took place in 2013 with results that were published in 2014. This bionic technology relied on providing sensory feedback via transversal electrodes that were surgically implanted into major nerves in the amputee’s arm. Since then, he and colleagues have been building on that technology, providing improved touch resolution of textures with a bionic fingertip, improved embodiment of the prosthetic limb, and working towards a permanent, wearable prosthetic hand. This technology will be soon used to restore other motor and sensory function in other cases such as spinal cord injury or stroke.

While Micera’s initial work about intelligent neuroprosthetics continue in parallel, one cannot help but imagine a future that is entering the realm of science-fiction. Will we be equipping healthy individuals with transversal electrodes with sensory feedback, allowing them to control a third robotic arm as an extension of their own body?

https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2023/meetingapp.cgi/Session/29964

https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2023/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/30741

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News you can use—to better predict food crisis outbreaks

Machine-learning model analyzes articles’ content and frequency to make precise predictions on where next hunger scourge will occur

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: EACH OF THE ILLUSTRATION’S BOXES CONTAIN AN EXAMPLE OF A SENTENCE IN WHICH THE MODEL DETECTED A RELEVANT KEYWORD (HIGHLIGHTED IN COLOR). THE 167 TEXT FEATURES PREDICTIVE OF FOOD INSECURITY EPISODES ARE GROUPED INTO 12 CATEGORIES OF RISK FACTORS INDICATED IN THE LEGEND AND MAPPED INTO A NETWORK. A NODE’S SIZE IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE TEXT FEATURE’S FREQUENCY IN NEWS ARTICLES, AND AN EDGE’S WIDTH ENCODES THE SEMANTIC PROXIMITY BETWEEN NODES. view more 

CREDIT: SAMUEL FRAIBERGER AND ALICE GRISHCHENKO

A team of researchers has developed a machine learning model that draws from the contents of news articles to effectively predict locations that face risks of food insecurity. The model, which could be used to help prioritize the allocation of emergency food assistance across vulnerable regions, marks an improvement over existing measurements. 

“Our approach could drastically improve the prediction of food crisis outbreaks up to 12 months ahead of time using both real-time news streams and a predictive model that is simple to interpret,” says Samuel Fraiberger, a visiting researcher at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, a data scientist at the World Bank, and an author of the study, which appears in the journal Science Advances. 

“Traditional measurements of food insecurity risk factors, such as conflict severity indices or changes in food prices, are often incomplete, delayed, or outdated,” adds Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, a professor at the Courant Institute and one of the paper’s authors. “Our approach takes advantage of the fact that risk factors triggering a food crisis are mentioned in the news prior to being observable with traditional measurements.”

Food insecurity threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the number of undernourished increased from 624 million people in 2014 to 688 million in 2019. Conditions, the paper’s authors note, have deteriorated since then due to the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and armed conflicts—in 2021, between 702 and 828 million people worldwide faced hunger. Moreover, severe food insecurity increased both globally and in every region in 2021. 

Despite the acute and widespread nature of this affliction, current methods to detect future food crises rely on risk measures that are insufficient, hindering efforts to address them. 

In working to develop a better model, the paper’s authors, who also included Ananth Balashankar, a Courant doctoral graduate, considered the possibility that news coverage, which offers real-time, on-the-ground accounts of local developments, could serve as an early-warning system for impending food crises. 

The researchers collected text from more than 11 million news articles focused on nearly 40 food-insecure countries that were published between 1980 and 2020. They then developed a method to extract particular phrases in these articles related to food insecurity and in ways that capture journalistic assessment in notable detail. Specifically, the tool accounts for nearly 170 text features in order to correctly gauge the semantics of the phrases pertaining to food insecurity and to mark when the articles appear. The following is an example from South Sudan, which outlines both location and risk factors: “Famine may return to some parts of the country, with eastern Pibor county, where floods and pests have ravaged crops, at particular risk.” 

They then considered data on a range of food-insecurity risk factors—such as conflict fatality counts, rainfall, vegetation, and changes in food prices—to determine if there was correlation between news mentions of these factors and their occurrence in the studied countries and regions. Here, they found a high correlation between the nature of the coverage and the on-the-ground occurrences of these factors, indicating that news stories are an accurate indicator of the studied conditions.

But to determine if news articles were, in fact, a good predictor of subsequent food crises, the team needed to know if the nature of the coverage was a viable indicator of future crises and if these stories did so more accurately than traditional measurements. Using a smaller set of news stories, the researchers found that from 2009 to 2020 and across 21 food-insecure countries, news coverage yielded more accurate predictions at the local level of food insecurity—and did so up to 12 months ahead of time—than traditional measurements that did not include news story text. Notably, they also found that supplementing traditional predictive measures with news coverage further improved the accuracy of food-crisis predictions, suggesting the value of “hybrid” models.

The researchers also see potential larger uses for their work.

“News indicators could be extended to the prediction of disease outbreaks and the future impact of climate change,” observes Balashankar.

An image depicting the work is available on Google Drive.

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm3449

# # #

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abm3449 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Predicting food crises using news streams

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Mar-2023

Detecting anaemia earlier in children using a smartphone

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Researchers at UCL and University of Ghana have successfully predicted whether children have anaemia using only a set of smartphone images.

The study, published in PLOS ONE, brought together researchers and clinicians at UCL Engineering, UCLH and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana to investigate a new non-invasive diagnostic technique using smartphone photographs of the eye and face.

The advance could make anaemia screening more widely available for children in Ghana (and other low- and middle-income countries) where there are high rates of the condition due to iron deficiency, as the screening tool is much cheaper than existing options and delivers results in one sitting.

The paper builds on previous successful research undertaken by the same team exploring use of an app – neoSCB - to detect jaundice in newborn babies.

Anaemia is a condition causing a reduced concentration of haemoglobin in the blood, which means oxygen is not transported efficiently around the body.

It affects two billion people globally and can have a significant impact on developmental outcomes in children, increasing their susceptibility to infectious diseases and impairing their cognitive development.

The most common cause of anaemia globally is iron deficiency, but other conditions such as blood loss, malaria and sickle-cell disease also contribute.

First author, PhD candidate Thomas Wemyss (UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering) said: “Smartphones are globally popular, but research using smartphone imaging to diagnose diseases shows a general trend of experiencing difficulty when transferring results to different groups of people.

“We are excited to see these promising results in a group which is often underrepresented in research into smartphone diagnostics. An affordable and reliable technique to screen for anaemia using a smartphone could drive long-term improvements in quality of life for a large amount of people.”

Traditionally, diagnosis of anaemia requires blood samples to be taken, which can be costly for patients and healthcare systems. It can create inequalities related to the expense of travelling to hospital for a blood test. Often families need to make two trips, to have a blood sample taken and then to collect their results, due to samples being transported between the clinic and the laboratory for analysis.

In the 1980s a handheld device, the HemoCue, was developed to provide more immediate results, but this carries significant upfront and ongoing costs, as well as still needing a finger-prick blood sample.

The researchers knew that haemoglobin has a very characteristic colour due to the way it absorbs light, so aimed to develop a procedure to take smartphone photographs and use them to predict whether anaemia is present.

They analysed photos taken from 43 children aged under four who were recruited to take part in the study in 2018. The images were of three regions where minimal skin pigmentation occurs in the body (the white of the eye, the lower lip and the lower eyelid).

The team found that when these were evaluated together to predict blood haemoglobin concentration, they were able to successfully detect all cases of individuals with the most severe classification of anaemia, and to detect milder anaemia at rates which are likely to be clinically useful.

Principal investigator Dr Terence Leung (UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering) said: “Since 2018, we’ve been working with University of Ghana on affordable ways to improve healthcare using smartphones. Following our success in screening neonatal jaundice, we are so excited to see that the smartphone imaging technique can also apply to anaemia screening in young children and infants.”

Senior author Dr Judith Meek (UCLH) added: “Anaemia is a significant problem for infants, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and we hope this sort of technology will lead to earlier detection and treatment in the near future.”

The study was funded by the EPSRC via the UCL Global Challenges Research Fund and UCL Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent, Integrated Imaging in Healthcare.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0281736 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Feasibility of smartphone colorimetry of the face as an anaemia screening tool for infants and young children in Ghana

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Mar-2023

Israel: the origin of the world's grapevines

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ARIEL UNIVERSITY

A recent study on the genetic makeup of grapevine has revealed fascinating insights into its domestication and evolution. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests that the harsh climate during the Pleistocene era resulted in the fragmentation of wild ecotypes, which paved the way for the domestication of grapevine about 11,000 years ago in the Near East (Israel) and the Caucasus.

The research team sequenced the genomes of 3525 grapevine accessions (2503 V. vinifera (domesticated) and 1022 V. sylvestris (wild) accessions of grapevine, to identify the genetic changes that occurred during domestication and evolution of grapevine in Euro-Asia.

According to the study, the Near East (Israel) wild grapevine population (Syl-E1) is the source for the domestication of table grapes, which then dispersed into Europe with early farmers, introgressed with ancient wild western ecotypes, and diversified into unique western wine grape ancestries by the late Neolithic.

Furthermore, the study shows that hybridization with local V. sylvestris was common in creating extant European wine grapes. However- when these introgression events occurred, remain unknown.

Dr Elyashiv Drori, Head of the Samson Family Grape and Wine Research Centre at Ariel University and Eastern Regional R&D Center says, "Our findings provide important insights into the domestication and evolution of grapevine, which is a religiously, culturally and economically important crop.

The indigenous grapevine population we have collected in the last 12 years, containing both wild and domesticated subpopulations, have central importance in this research. The Israeli wild grapevines (Syl -E1) were found to be the source of domestication for all the cultivated group of table grapes (CG1), which includes the Israeli domesticated grapevines. This initial group of grapevine varieties then were dispersed to eastern and western Europe, to form most of the known winegrapes.  We now aim to deeply study the characteristics of Israel's indigenous grapevine, which were developed in the dry and harsh conditions of the Levant, and may pose a repository for resistance genes.

With climate change and emerging diseases threatening vineyards worldwide, the study's findings may help in developing new strategies to protect and sustain the wine industry for future generations.

Prof Ehud Weiss, head of the archaeobotanical lab at Martin (Szuss) Department of Land of Israel, Bar Ilan University, a specialist in the domestication of crops and archaeobotany, gave important insights as to the domestication history. Prof Weiss adds "this is a research breakthrough in the field of the beginning of agriculture as well. The accepted view was that annual crops, like wheat, barley, and legumes, were domesticated some 10,000 years ago, while perennials were domesticated thousands of years later. Current research changes this view and demonstrates these transitions occurred simultaneously, and moreover, with the same species, some 1,600 kilometers apart – a phenomenon we have never met."

Two Israeli scientists collaborated with Dr. Drori's team in this project. Prof Ehud Weiss collaborated with Dr. Drori to identify the varieties used by ancestors in the land of Israel using genetic and morphological tools. Dr. Sariel Hubner from Migal is a bioinformatician. Dr. Hubner is working with Dr. Drori's group on the population genetics of the Israeli wild and domesticated grapevines. This collaborative research group published the first research paper describing the possible local domestication of grapevine in Israel in 2021 (Sivan 2021). 

This is a ground-breaking study also in the field of the beginnings of agriculture. This is the first research proof that the domestication of a perennial plant happened at the same time as the domestication of annuals, wheat, barley, legumes, and flax. Until today, it was common to say that fruit trees were domesticated several thousand years later. In addition, the double domestication of the same species into two varieties, in our case the edible grape variety and the wine grape variety, happened at the same time in two separate geographical centers - a phenomenon we had not known until now. 

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.add8655 

ARTICLE TITLE

Dual domestications and origin of traits in grapevine evolution

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Mar-2023

Researchers study how underserved farmers can improve crop, impact climate change

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

University of Houston researchers are developing a program to teach small-scale, underserved and limited resources (SULR) farmers how to improve their crop production by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon removal.

The work is supported by a nearly $5 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service. Researchers will partner with colleagues from Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M University and Michigan Aerospace Corp. to study how best to implement a Climate-Smart Sustainability Certificate program for SULR farmers. UH research projects will receive almost $700,000 during the funding period.

“These farmers are the most disadvantaged in the current agricultural system and most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change,” said Abdul Latif Khan, assistant professor in the UH College of Technology’s Department of Engineering Technology.

The study will allow the USDA to track the success of Climate-Smart farming practices. The team will quantify the benefits and costs of growing specialty crops under precision technology-assisted climate-smart practices and compare them with conventional production practices. In addition, the study will provide information on sustainable farming practices.

“Climate changes hinder the desired natural plant productivity and threaten food security,” said Venkatesh Balan, associate professor of engineering technology at UH. “For example, higher temperature stress will significantly limit plant growth, biomass and yield. It also influences soil health and moisture flux.”

According to Khan, estimations are that an increase of 3-4 degrees (Celsius) would reduce plant productivity by 15%-35% before the end of the 21st century.

Through this project, the researchers from partnering institutions will collect data on three central Climate Smart interventions that sequesters carbon dioxide – silicon, algae and rock powder. In addition, SULR farmers will learn practices like adding rock dust to the soil to speed up the chemical reactions that sequester carbon.

The project will also focus on existing practices that protect the soil from erosion, pests, weeds and diseases, while increasing soil fertility and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. When the harvest is over, crop cover will be grown to protect the soil from erosion. In addition, farmers will employ new water management practices and reduce soil tilling.

“The results of these interventions and strategies will educate SURL farmers and encourage them to implement climate-smart production practices on working lands,” said Ram Ray of Prairie View A&M University, a partner in the project.

“We will measure, monitor, report and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas reduction benefits,” added Xiaonan Shan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at UH Cullen College of Engineering.

The team will share results with farmers to provide data-driven evidence in support of adopting climate-smart practices.

“Farmers will be given incentives at a specified rate for practicing interventions during the duration of the project,” Ray said.

The team believes farmers will embrace Climate-Smart sustainability practices when they see the increased crop production that results from their efforts.

—Dennis Spellman

Sea level rise poses particular risk for Asian megacities

New research highlights both natural climate variability, warming temperatures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH/UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

Sea level rise this century may disproportionately affect certain Asian megacities as well as western tropical Pacific islands and the western Indian Ocean, according to new research that looks at the effects of natural sea level fluctuations on the projected rise due to climate change.

The study, led by scientists at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and University of La Rochelle in France and co-authored by a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), mapped sea level hotspots around the globe. The research team identified several Asian megacities that may face especially significant risks by 2100 if society emits high levels of greenhouse gases: Chennai, Kolkata, Yangon, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila.

Scientists have long known that sea levels will rise with increasing ocean temperatures, largely because water expands when it warms and melting ice sheets release more water into the oceans. Studies have also indicated that sea level rise will vary regionally because shifts in ocean currents will likely direct more water to certain coastlines, including the northeastern United States.

What’s notable about the new study is the way it incorporates naturally occurring sea level fluctuations caused by such events as El Niño or changes in the water cycle (a process known as internal climate variability). By using both a computer model of global climate and a specialized statistical model, the scientists could determine the extent to which these natural fluctuations can amplify or reduce the impact of climate change on sea level rise along certain coastlines.

The study showed that internal climate variability could increase sea level rise in some locations by 20-30% more than what would result from climate change alone, exponentially increasing extreme flooding events. In Manila, for example, coastal flooding events are predicted to occur 18 times more often by 2100 than in 2006, based solely on climate change. But, in a worst-case scenario, they could occur 96 times more often based on a combination of climate change and internal climate variability.

Internal climate variability will also increase sea level rise along the west coasts of the United States and Australia.

The study drew on a set of simulations conducted with the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model that assume society this century emits greenhouse gases at a high rate. The simulations were run at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.

The paper stressed that the estimates of sea level rise come with considerable uncertainties because of the complex and unpredictable interactions in Earth’s climate system. But the authors said it’s critical for society to be aware of the potential of extreme sea level rise in order to develop effective adaptation strategies.

“The internal climate variability can greatly reinforce or suppress the sea level rise caused by climate change,” said NCAR scientist Aixue Hu, who co-authored the paper. “In a worst-case scenario, the combined effect of climate change and internal climate variability could result in local sea levels rising by more than 50% of what is due to climate change alone, thus posing significant risks of more severe flooding to coastal megacities and threatening millions of people.” 

The study was published in Nature Climate Change. It was supported by the French Research Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

About the article

Title: Increased exposure of coastal cities to sea-level rise due to internal climate variability
Authors: M. Becker, M. Karpytchev, and A. Hu
Journal: Nature Climate Change

On the web: news.ucar.edu
On Twitter: @NCAR_Science

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01603-w 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Increased exposure of coastal cities to sea-level rise due to internal climate variability

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Mar-2023

Connect to protect

Sustainability and resilience in the Eastern Tropical Pacific: what will it take?

Business Announcement

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

On Mar. 2, the first evening of the Our Ocean Conference in Panama City, Panama, a distinguished group hosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Bezos Earth Fund, Re:wild and Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy gathered at Panama’s BioMuseo to celebrate their commitment to conserve a sustainable and resilient Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP). 

 

The event recognized significant contributions by the public sector—especially the governments of Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador; the private sector; civil society, the scientific sector; together with generous philanthropists, to take ambitious steps to conserve interconnected ecosystems across the Tropical Eastern Pacific from Cocos Island in Costa Rica to the Galapagos.  

 

The event kicked off with a video announcing that a coalition of individuals, organizations, governments, indigenous groups, and scientific researchers has pledged to find $150 million in private and public funds to conserve this vibrant seascape and address daunting challenges: pollution; illegal, unlawful, and unreported (IUU) fishing; climate change; and invasive species. 

 

The Honorable John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, shared the stage with Joshua Tewksbury, Ira Rubinoff Director of the Smithsonian in Panama (STRI); Janaina Tewaney Mancomo, Panama’s Minister of Foreign Affairs; Gustavo Enrique Miranda, Ecuador’s Minister of the Environment; and Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund; Zdenka Piskulich, Director of Enduring Earth; and master of ceremonies, Patricia Leon, Joint Program Manager for ETP, Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund. 

 

“Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica have shown the best example of management of the global commons,” said Janaina Tewaney, who added that she considers Panama’s ethnic and biological diversity as the country’s biggest treasure, and that the livelihood of all Panamanians is intimately linked to the ocean. She thanked the United States for their support and the young people who participated in the Our Ocean conference who renewed her hope for the future. 

 

Special Envoy Kerry thanked the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for supporting the conference organizers and the BioMuseo for hosting the evening’s event. “Getting four nations to come together spontaneously to engage in multinational co-management of a resource as valuable as what those four nations—Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and, of course, Panama, share...is really remarkable.” He went on to introduce U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse; to mention that United States signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with CMAR at the Summit of the Americas for regional ocean conservation; and that US Navy and Coast Guard will offer their help. “We will make this happen.” 

 

Tewksbury thanked the sectors who come together—"not as one, but as everyone”—to conserve the Eastern Tropical Pacific: civil society, the public sector—the governments, the private sector, the philanthropists, and the scientific community: “We are honored at STRI to have been a part of every proposal for marine protected areas that Panama put together over the last two decades: now 54% of all territorial waters. But we do not do this work alone, CMAR did not become a reality without all the science coming together across the region. Twenty-five years ago, it was just a theory that underwater mountain ranges connect these four countries, but now we know this is true. Thank you Héctor Guzmán and others.” 

 

A new research vessel is needed in the region for the region so that scientists can work from Cocos to Coiba to Mapelo and the Galapagos and connect with communities along the coast. The Smithsonian will build brand new marine facilities to house this effort and will train the next cohort of ocean science leaders. 

 

Ecuador’s Minister of the Environment, Manrique Miranda emphasized the importance of governance and upcoming national elections in the countries of the region, but also celebrated CMAR for its longevity and consistency even as administrations have changed. But CMAR has persevered through many governments: “8 presidents in Ecuador…5 presidents in Costa Rica, 5 presidents in Colombia and 4 presidents in Panama…CMAR belongs to the people…and CMAR is stronger than ever, and one of our most important roles is to inspire.” CMAR has big plans: for a biosphere reserve, for 9 protected areas, for a fund to support conservation in perpetuity. 

 

In the same vein, Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund said, “Why would 15 donors, in the space of a few months, decide to give $118 million dollars to support this amazing thing?... Philanthropists have very sharp pencils: they know what they’re looking for: And when they see 10 years of brilliant science, when they see an inclusive process that takes local communities, local fishers into account and includes them in decision making, when they see leaders who are willing to struggle with extremely difficult issues and be honest about it and encourage each other…then we’re in. People sometimes say that there is not enough money to support nature, but that is not true. Money will come out of the closet very quickly if we see the kind of leadership, we see here.” 

 

And Zdenka Piskulich, Director of Enduring Earth, summed up: Two years ago, when the presidents made this commitment in Glasgow, we thought the stars had aligned. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the stars are aligning right now in this universe and the commitments that have been made in the last two days, for me, are an alignment of all the stars.” The Government of Ecuador announced an 8-mile protected area along the entire coast of the country. The Government of Costa Rica announced the creation of a blue fund for the expansion of a new marine protected area. The government of Panama led the way to expand its marine protected areas to 54 percent of its waters. CMAR expanded its area to include Clipperton Atoll. The government of Colombia has reached their 2030 goal before the deadline. Public and private supporters have committed $118 million to conservation of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. 

 

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, USA. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical biodiversity and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems.  

 

...and more information about the co-hosts of this event: 

 

The Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project 

 

The Pew Charitable Trusts and Dona Bertarelli created the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, with the shared goal of establishing the first generation of ecologically significant, large, and effective marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world. Today, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project also seeks to connect MPAs and help conserve key migratory species and entire marine ecosystems. These efforts build on more than a decade of work by Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation, led by Dona Bertarelli, to create large-scale highly or fully protected MPAs. Between them, they have helped to obtain designations or commitments to safeguard 12.6 million square kilometers (4.8 million square miles) of ocean by working with communities, local leaders, philanthropic partners, Indigenous groups, government officials, and scientists. Dona Bertarelli is a philanthropist, investor, sportswoman, and strong advocate for ocean conservation. The Pew Charitable Trusts addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects including the need for effective marine conservation. 

 

Re:wild 

 

Re:wild protects and restores the wild. We have a singular and powerful focus: the wild as the most effective solution to the interconnected climate, biodiversity and human wellbeing crises. Founded by a group of renowned conservation scientists together with Leonardo DiCaprio, Re:wild is a force multiplier that brings together Indigenous peoples, local communities, influential leaders, nongovernmental organizations, governments, companies and the public to protect and rewild at the scale and speed we need. Learn more at rewild.org.

 

Bezos Earth Fund 

 

The Bezos Earth Fund is Jeff Bezos’ $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and other actors who will drive climate and nature solutions. By allocating funds creatively, wisely, and boldly, the Bezos Earth Fund has the potential for transformative influence in this decisive decade. Funds will be fully allocated by 2030—the date the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals must be achieved.