6% of nations provide for citizens in just, sustainable manner

Study measures ecological and social impact of water, carbon use

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a framework for quantifying how well countries around the world are doing at providing adequate food, energy and water to their citizens without exceeding nature’s capacity to meet those needs. 

They found that only 6% of 178 countries provide for all their citizens in an ecologically sustainable way in both carbon sequestration and water consumption.

The study found that while 67% of nations operate safely and sustainably in regard to water use, only 9% do in regard to carbon sequestration, or reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. 

The study showed the United States was among the majority of countries that was able to safely and justly provide water to its citizens. While it provides for its citizens in regard to carbon use, it is not doing so in an ecologically sustainable manner.

The study was published recently in the journal One Earth.

For a country to be self-sufficient, its population needs access to food, water and energy, resources that can often only be provided by the surrounding ecosystem. Yet because human activities tend to cause unintended side effects like global warming or ozone depletion, said Bhavik Bakshi, co-author of the study and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State, it’s imperative that experts look for ways to develop society in an ecologically sustainable manner. At the same time, in order to be socially just, countries need to secure resources to meet the basic needs of all of its citizens. 

“Most engineering disciplines traditionally ignore the role that nature plays in supporting our activities and more broadly, our well-being,“ said Bakshi, who has been working to advance the concept of sustainable engineering – the practice of designing products or systems with nature-positive decisions in mind – for decades. “In this study, we sought to ensure we could quantify these challenges in a way engineers could use to make better decisions.” 

This study’s framework was created using a system called the framework of planetary boundaries and the concept of a “safe and just operating space,” which identifies a country’s ecological ceiling, or the scope human activities must work within to reduce the risk of causing irreparable damage to the Earth.

Ideally, human activities should exist between the limits of a society’s ecological ceiling and its social foundation, a boundary that describes the resources necessary to avoid critical human deprivation of food, water or energy, said Bakshi. 

“If you are exceeding the ecological ceiling, then you're not sustainable from an environmental perspective,” he said. “If you’re below the social foundation, then you’re not meeting basic human needs, and that can be frustrating from an equity point of view.”

Using recent water and carbon sequestration data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and other international agencies, Bakshi and his co-author and former PhD student Yazeed Aleissa analyzed how the needs of 178 nations around the world stacked up against their regions’ ecosystems. 

The team found that the majority of countries emit far more than their national ecosystem can handle in terms of carbon, but tend to operate close to their water supply limits.

Sometimes countries do not have much of a choice. Findings showed that 37% of countries do not have the ability to provide for their citizens in a safe and just way in terms of carbon sequestration, and 10% lack the ability to do that with regard to water.

While the socioeconomic status of countries is often related to how well they can provide for their citizens in a sustainable manner, it doesn’t always work that way, the researchers said. “There are rich countries that are doing well and there are also some poor countries that are doing well, but the reasons for their successes are very different,” Bakshi said. 

These differences often come down to how a nation deals with supply and demand.

Take Canada, a large, rich country with a relatively low population that has a large supply of natural capital like forests and lakes that can capture carbon. Because it has more than enough resources for its population, consumption levels would meet the safe and just limits of the framework.

On the other hand, poor countries such as Gabon have adequate natural capital to support more activities that improve human well-being, Bakshi said.

Other countries, such as those in the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, cannot meet safe and just requirements for carbon because they lack vegetation to help carbon sequestration – capturing the carbon the country emits. Essentially, they need to rely more on carbon capture technologies and global trade.

Despite the study’s potentially bleak outlook, the researchers believe their work offers a glimmer of hope in combating the environmental risks of human development. The team’s results imply that many nations could secure the necessary resources they need to thrive at a much lower demand than current levels suggest.

One way to do this would be to adopt more renewable energy resources, introduce more plant-based diets into our food cycles, and change the way we produce certain goods and services to develop a sustainable circular economy instead of a linear one, said Bakshi. 

Furthermore, if implemented when considering future engineering projects, the study suggests the framework could be used to guide technology, policy and trade decisions to better assist nations to meet their needs in a more safe and just fashion.

“From a positive perspective, our work provides opportunities for engineers and other professions to innovate and come up with new ways of doing things right,” said Bakshi. “Whoever is going to figure that out is going to be the future of a more sustainable and just world.”

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Contact: Bhavik Bakshi, Bakshi.2@osu.edu

Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.ed

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JOURNAL

One Earth

DOI

10.1016/j.oneear.2023.03.008 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Possible but rare: Safe and just satisfaction of national human needs in terms of ecosystem services

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Apr-2023

New bean genome unveils potential to boost food security and resilience in drought-prone regions

Results pave way for genetic improvements of native legume to promote widespread cultivation that could yield nutritional and economic benefits

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: LABLAB IN BLOOM view more 

CREDIT: CHRIS JONES/ILRI

NAIROBI, Kenya, 20 April 2023_An international team of researchers, led by Africans, has fully sequenced the genome of a climate resilient bean that could bolster food security in drought-prone regions.

The sequencing of the hyacinth bean or ‘lablab bean’ [Lablab purpureus] paves the way for wider cultivation of the crop, bringing nutritional and economic benefits, as well as much needed diversity to the global food system.

The plant is native to Africa and is cultivated throughout the tropics producing highly nutritious beans, which are used for food and livestock feed. It’s extremely drought-resilient and thrives in a range of environments and conditions, contributing to food and economic security, and improving soil fertility by fixing nitrogen. Lablab is also used medicinally in some areas and contains bioactive compounds with

Diversifying the global food system

The lablab bean is one of a long list of ‘orphan crops’: indigenous species that play an important role in local nutrition and livelihoods, but that receive little attention from breeders and researchers.

The three major crops that currently provide over 40 percent of global calorie intake – wheat, rice, and corn – receive the bulk of breeding and crop improvement efforts. With so little diversity in crop cultivation, the global food system is vulnerable to environmental and social instabilities. Underutilised crops like lablab hold the key to diversified and climate-resilient food systems and genome-assisted breeding is one promising strategy to improve their productivity and adoption.

Oluwaseyi Shorinola, another of the study’s lead authors from the International Livestock Research Institute, and a visiting scientist at the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom, said, “The first green revolution was achieved with major crops like wheat and rice. Orphan crops like lablab could pave the way for the next green revolution.”

African-led research

The research process itself was ground-breaking not only for its inclusivity but also for its leadership by African scientists. “Although many African indigenous crops have been sequenced in the past few years, in most of that work African scientists have been underrepresented, and when we’ve been involved we have been in the back seat,” said Meki Shehabu, another co-author of the study and a scientist at ILRI in Ethiopia. “What makes this project special is that it is led by African scientists, in collaboration with scientists from international institutes.”

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Notes for Editors

 

1. For further information and interviews with Chris Jones or Meki Shehabu at the International Livestock Research Institute, please contact: David Aronson, Media Relations, d.aronson@cgiar.org +254 717 868916.
2. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works with partners worldwide to enhance the roles that livestock play in food security and poverty alleviation, principally in Africa and Asia. ILRI’s mission is to improve food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock—ensuring better lives through livestock. www.ilri.org
3. The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2023). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk

The John Innes Centre is an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology.  Our mission is to generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research, to train scientists for the future, to apply our knowledge of nature’s diversity to benefit agriculture, the environment, human health, and wellbeing.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-37489 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Lab-produced tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

Chromosome-level genome assembly and population genomic resource to accelerate orphan crop lablab breeding

New bean genome unveils potential to boost food security in drought-prone regions

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

An international team of researchers has fully sequenced the genome of a climate resilient bean that could bolster food security in drought-prone regions.

The sequencing of the hyacinth bean or ‘lablab bean’ [Lablab purpureus] paves the way for wider cultivation of the crop, bringing nutritional and economic benefits, as well as much needed diversity to the global food system.

The plant is native to Africa and is cultivated throughout the tropics producing highly nutritious beans, which are used for food and livestock feed. It’s extremely drought-resilient and thrives in a range of environments and conditions, contributing to food and economic security, and improving soil fertility by fixing nitrogen. Lablab is also used medicinally in some areas and contains bioactive compounds with pharmacological potential.

The plant’s adaptability suggests high genetic diversity, which means it's possible to select different adaptive genotypes for different environments and climatic challenges. But lablab’s potential for genetic improvement to boost its productivity and facilitate wider cultivation – especially in drought-prone areas – has yet to be fully exploited.

“When it comes to valuing a crop, people often focus on its global market value in US dollars,” said Chris Jones, Program Leader for Feed and Forage Development at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) based in Kenya, and one of the lead authors of a new study in Nature Communications that shares the findings of the work. “However, for farmers who struggle to produce enough food, the value of a crop like lablab is incredibly high. Although it may be cultivated on a smaller scale compared to major crops, its impact on food security can be significant, and we need to recognize that.”

Important genetic traits

The researchers identified the genomic location of important agronomic traits relating to yield and seed/plant size. They documented the organisation of the trypsin inhibitor genes, which inhibit a key enzyme in the digestion process in humans. This provides opportunities for targeted breeding to reduce these anti-nutritional properties.

They also tracked the history of lablab’s domestication, confirming that this occurred in parallel, in two different places. Mark Chapman, another lead author of the study and Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, said: “This is an exciting finding, and it opens the door to studying whether agronomic traits can evolve more than once using the same genes, or if different pathways can evolve to give the same outcome. Compiled, this information offers a valuable resource for genetic improvement.”

Diversifying the global food system

The lablab bean is one of a long list of ‘orphan crops’: indigenous species that play an important role in local nutrition and livelihoods, but that receive little attention from breeders and researchers.

The three major crops that currently provide over 40 percent of global calorie intake – wheat, rice, and corn – receive the bulk of breeding and crop improvement efforts. With so little diversity in crop cultivation, the global food system is vulnerable to environmental and social instabilities. Underutilised crops like lablab hold the key to diversified and climate-resilient food systems, and genome-assisted breeding is one promising strategy to improve their productivity and adoption.

Oluwaseyi Shorinola, another of the study’s lead authors from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and a visiting scientist at the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom, said, “The first green revolution was achieved with major crops like wheat and rice. Orphan crops like lablab could pave the way for the next green revolution.”

African-led research

The research process itself was also ground-breaking for its inclusivity. “Although many African indigenous crops have been sequenced in the past few years, in most of that work African scientists have been underrepresented, and when we’ve been involved we have been in the back seat,” said Meki Shehabu, another co-author of the study and a scientist at ILRI in Ethiopia. “What makes this project special is that it is led by African scientists, in collaboration with scientists from international institutes.”

To make this happen, the project had to overcome contextual constraints such as the continent’s relative lack of sequencing facilities and high-performance computing infrastructure, as well as the bioinformatics capacity required. The researchers addressed these challenges by using new low-cost portable sequencing platforms, carrying out in-depth capacity building (including an Africa-based eight-month residential bioinformatics training), and working carefully to facilitate equitable international collaboration.

Looking forward, the team anticipates that the resource will inspire genetic improvement work on lablab – and other under-utilised indigenous crops – with the aim of increasing food and feed availability on the African continent and beyond.

Chromosome-level genome assembly and population genomic resource to accelerate orphan crop lablab breeding is available online in Nature Communications.

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-37489-7 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Chromosome-level genome assembly and population genomic resource to accelerate orphan crop lablab breeding

Artificial photosynthesis for environmentally friendly food production

TUM researchers produce important amino acid from greenhouse gas CO2

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH (TUM)

• Growing demand for food in the world
• Biotechnological process via methanol as intermediate product
• Less ground required than for plant cultivation

Ensuring the supply of food to the constantly growing world population and protecting the environment at the same time are often conflicting objectives. Now researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have successfully developed a method for the synthetic manufacture of nutritional protein using a type of artificial photosynthesis. The animal feed industry is the primary driver of high demand for large volumes of nutritional protein, which is also suitable for use in meat substitute products.

A group led by Prof. Volker Sieber at the TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability (TUMCS) has succeeded in producing the amino acid L-alanine, an essential building block in proteins, from the environmentally harmful gas CO2. Their indirect biotechnological process involves methanol as an intermediate. Until now, protein for animal feed has been typically produced in the southern hemisphere with large-scale agricultural space requirements and negative consequences for biodiversity.

The CO2, which is removed from the atmosphere, is first turned into methanol using green electricity and hydrogen. The new method converts this intermediate into L-alanine in a multi-stage process using synthetic enzymes; the method is extremely effective and generates very high yields. L-alanine is one of the most important components of protein, which is essential to the nutrition of both humans and animals.

Prof. Sieber, of the TUM Professorship for Chemistry of Biogenic Resources, explains: "Compared to growing plants, this method requires far less space to create the same amount of L-alanine, when the energy used comes from solar or wind power sources. The more efficient use of space means a kind of artificial photosynthesis can be used to produce the same amount of foodstuffs on significantly fewer acres. This paves the way for a smaller ecological footprint in agriculture."

Bioeconomy and hydrogen economy in combination

The manufacture of L-alanine is only the first step for the scientists. "We also want to produce other amino acids from CO2 using renewable energy and to further increase efficiency in the realization process," says co-author Vivian Willers, who developed the process as a doctoral candidate at the TUM Campus Straubing. The researchers add that the project is a good example of how bioeconomy and hydrogen economy in combination can make it possible to achieve more sustainability.

Publication:

The article "Cell-free enzymatic L-alanine synthesis from green methanol" recently appeared in the journal Chem Catalysis from Cell Press.
Vivian Pascal Willers, Manuel Döring, Barbara Beer, Volker Sieber. Cell-free enzymatic L-alanine synthesis from green methanol. Chem Catalysis, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2023, 100502.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.checat.2022.100502

Further Information:

• Chair of Chemistry of Biogenic Resources https://cbr.cs.tum.de/?lang=en
• TUM School of Life Sciences https://www.ls.tum.de/en/ls/home/
• Background on photosynthesis https://www.150.tum.de/en/anniversary-story/photosynthesis/
• Agricultural Sciences https://www.ls.tum.de/en/ls/studies/courses-and-programs/agricultural-and-horticultural-sciences-bsc/
• Study programs at TUM School of Life Sciences https://www.ls.tum.de/en/ls/studies/application/

Editorial service:

Image Download: http://go.tum.de/058005

JOURNAL

Chem Catalysis

DOI

10.1016/j.checat.2022.100502 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Cell-free enzymatic L-alanine synthesis from green methanol

British Ecological Society announces journal prize winners

Grant and Award Announcement

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: THE WINNERS OF THE BES JOURNAL AWARDS. TOP L-R PAULA PRIST, LUKE POTGIETER, AYA PERMIN, MICHELLE EVANS. BOTTOM ROW L-R: TANYA STRYDOM, ANGELA ILLUMINATI, PABLO AUGUSTA ANTIQUEIRA view more 

CREDIT: PLEASE CREDIT RESEARCHERS IN THE IMAGE.

Today the British Ecological Society (BES) has announced the winners of its journal prizes for research published in 2022. The prizes are awarded for the best paper by an early career researcher in seven of the BES journals: Journal of Applied Ecology, Ecological Solutions and Evidence, Functional Ecology, People and Nature, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Ecology and Journal of Animal Ecology.

The winning papers are selected by the Senior Editors of the journals and the awards will be presented to the winners at the BES Annual Meeting in Belfast at the end of the year.

The winners receive a prize of £250, membership of the BES, a year’s subscription to the respective journal, and free attendance to the BES Annual Meeting to present their work and receive their award from the President of the BES.

This year’s exceptional winning papers span topics as diverse as mapping mosquito borne diseases, the importance of under-threat mosses in tropical mountain cloud forests, and mapping the areas sensitive to plant invasions.

The journal prize winners are as follows:

The Southwood Prize: Paula Prist, EcoHealth Alliance

The Southwood Prize is awarded each year for the best paper in the Journal of Applied Ecology written by an early career author at the start of their research career.

Dr. Paula Prist from EcoHealth Alliance has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: Roads and forest edges facilitate yellow fever virus dispersion

In their winning study, Paula and co-authors explored how landscape structure affects yellow fever virus dispersion through its vector, mosquitoes. Understanding this can aid better landscape planning and better organisation of vaccination campaigns.

Paula and co-authors found that yellow fever virus disperses on average 1.42 km every day and uses roads adjacent to forest areas and forest edges along agricultural areas to disperse. In contrast, core areas of forest regions were found to be important barriers for virus movement.

 

The Georgina Mace Prize: Luke Potgieter, University of Toronto Scarborough

The Georgina Mace Prize is awarded each year for the best paper in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence written by an early career author at the start of their research career.

Luke Potgieter from the University of Toronto Scarborough has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: Prioritizing sites for terrestrial invasive alien plant management in urban ecosystems

Luke’s winning study combined aspects of social science, geography and ecology to pinpoint which areas across the Toronto region are most sensitive to plant invasions. The analysis revealed high priority sites as those of significant biodiversity conservation value, and that a large proportion of these priority areas are already heavily invaded.

Research like Luke’s is important as there is an urgent need to protect and manage areas impacted by biological invasions. What’s more, limited resources call for the strategic prioritisation of these areas.

 

The Haldane Prize: Aya Permin, University of Copenhagen

The Functional Ecology Haldane Early Career Researcher Award is given is given each year to the best paper in the journal from an early career author.

Aya Permin from the University of Copenhagen has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: High nitrogen-fixing rates associated with ground-covering mosses in a tropical mountain cloud forest will decrease drastically in a future climate

Aya’s research reveals the importance of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) as a nitrogen source in tropical mountain cloud forests. Nitrogen is a critical nutrient for plant productivity growth but its availability is often limited. This has led to the evolution of mutualistic partnerships between certain plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Until now, the role of bryophytes in ecosystem nitrogen cycling has been largely overlooked.

Worryingly, the findings from Aya’s research suggest that predicted future declines in precipitation in tropical mountain cloud forests will reduce nitrogen inputs from bryophytes. Research in this area, like Aya’s, can help inform conservation efforts to preserve these critical ecosystems.

 

The Rachel Carson Prize: Michelle Evans, University of Georgia

This award is given each year for the best paper in the journal People and Nature written by an early career author at the start of their research career. The winner is selected by the Senior Editors of the journal.

Michelle Evans from the University of Georgia has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: Socio-ecological dynamics in urban systems: An integrative approach to mosquito-borne disease in Bengaluru, India

Michelle’s research combined field sampling of mosquitoes with in depth-interviews of local people in Sarjapur, India, an area experiencing a high burden of mosquito borne diseases. The research showed that people’s everyday experiences of mosquitoes were influenced by how they moved around and used outdoor space.

The study’s combination of ecological and social approaches gives insight into how communities can manage mosquito-borne diseases. Michelle hopes that the study will demonstrate the benefits gained from integrative ecological work and will serve as the impetus for similar projects in the future.

 

 

The Robert May Prize: Tanya Strydom, University of Montreal

The Methods in Ecology and Evolution Robert May prize is awarded annually to the best paper submitted by an early career author at the start of their research career.

Tanya Strydom from the University of Montreal has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: Food web reconstruction through phylogenetic transfer of low-rank network representation 

Tanya’s winning research utilised knowledge from one network of organisms to make predictions for what a network in a completely different location might look like. This is useful to ecologists as there is a shortage of interaction data, mostly because sampling interactions in the field is hard.

In the paper, Tanya and co-authors used the known interactions for European mammals and used this knowledge to construct a network of probabilities for Canadian terrestrial mammals. The hope is that the framework developed in this study will help ecologists to use the interaction data we do have, to create plausible networks for less well studied areas.

 

The Harper Prize: Angela Illuminati, University Rey Juan Carlos

The John L Harper Early Career Researcher Award is given each year to the best paper in the Journal of Ecology by an early career author at the start of their career.

Angela Illuminati from the University Rey Juan Carlos has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: Coordination between water uptake depth and the leaf economic spectrum in a Mediterranean shrubland

Angela’s research provides a new perspective on the links between water and nutrient use in a semiarid Mediterranean plant community.

Understanding plant functional strategies related to water and nutrient use is especially relevant in dryland environments. The low availability of soil resources are a strong limiting factor for plant survival in these areas and is a main driver of species competition and coexistence.

 

The Elton Prize: Pablo Augusto Antiqueira, University of Campinas

The Elton Prize is awarded each year for the best paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology written by an early career author at the start of their research career.

Pablo Augusto Antiqueira from the University of Campinas has been awarded this year’s prize for their paper: Warming and top predator loss drive direct and indirect effects on multiple trophic groups within and across ecosystems

Little is known about how climate change and biodiversity loss will impact specific interactions within ecosystems. To increase our understanding of this, Pablo’s winning study looked at tank-bromeliads, a neotropical plant that supports a rich fauna of microorganisms, making them a natural microecosystem.

The study evaluated how an increase in temperature and top predator loss would impact different areas of the food web in this micro-ecosystem. Pablo and co-authors found impacts at each level of the food web. The results provide new evidence for how anthropogenic changes predicted for the following decades could affect different groups of organisms across ecosystems.

-ENDS-

Are the least social animals the most innovative?

Dromedaries and goats, the most skilled

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA

 

IMAGE: ÁLVARO LÓPEZ CAICOYA, FIRST AUTHOR OF THE STUDY. view more 

CREDIT: BIBIANA ÁLVAREZ

Innovating, i.e. the ability to find solutions to new problems or innovative solutions to known problems, it provides crucial benefits for the adaptation and the survival of human beings as well as for animals. What are the characteristics that make specific species or animals to be innovative? A study by the University of Barcelona has analysed this cognitive skill in ungulates, a group of mammals such as dromedaries, horses and goats, characterized by walking on the tip of their toes or hooves. The results show that those individuals that are less integrated in the group and those that are more afraid of new objects were the best at solving a challenge posed by the researchers: opening a food container.  

 

“These findings are in line with recent scientific literature about wild and captive primates, and they show that less socially integrated individuals are less likely to obtain resources such as food, but they are more likely to overcome neophobia —aversion to new things—, to improve their situation. Also, this confirms that ungulates are a promising taxon to test evolutionary theories with a comparative approach”, says Álvaro López Caicoya, predoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) of the UB and first author of the article.

Regarding this issue, the researcher states that most comparative studies on the evolution of cognitive abilities have been conducted on birds and primates, but that evolutionary pressures to which these are subjected may be different from those of other species. Therefore, including other taxa —such as ungulates— in future studies is “essential for understanding the limits and the generalization of specific evolutionary hypotheses”.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, includes the participation of Montserrat Colell, lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology and researcher at UBneuro, together with other experts from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Leipzig (Germany).

An experiment with a hundred animals in captivity

The experiment was carried out on 111 animals from 13 different species, among which there were goats, dromedaries, Przewalki horses, giraffes, llamas, sheep and deer, among other ungulates, which lived in captivity in the zoos of Barcelona, Barbent (France), Nuremberg and Leipzig (Germany). Each of these groups of animals had to deal with a test, consisting opening a type of container they did not know and which contained their favourite food.   

All the animals had previously been classified according to several aspects that could have an impact on their ability to solve problems, such as the fear of new objects, the diet and the social integration in the group. The aim was to identify the individual and socio-ecological characteristics of the animals that were most successful when working on the challenge the researchers had prepared.

Dromedaries and goats, the most skilled

The participation in the experiment varied between species: while 100% of the dromedaries approached the container, only 33% of the sheep did. But the species that showed the most interaction were the domesticated ones and those with a greater fission-fusion dynamic (those belonging to complex groups that go together or separate depending on the environment and the time). However, these characteristics were not indicators of a higher ability to solve the challenge they encountered. “The domestication process could have specifically selected specifically the traits and features that facilitate interactions with humans (and human artefacts), but not the cognitive skills that allow for a more efficient problem solving”, note the researchers. 

Finally, out of the hundred animals that participated in the experiment, only 36% could open the container and access the food at least once. “Species with a higher percentage of individuals that escaped were dromedaries and goats, with 86% and 69%, respectively”, highlights Álvaro López Caicoya.

 In successful cases, the researchers assessed the diversity of resources used to solve the challenge. “Most of them opened the containers using their nose, muzzle or lips; only nine out of these forty animals used more than one strategy to solve the challenge, such as lifting the cover gently with their lips or throwing the cup to the floor”.

A pioneering study

This paper is a pioneering study in the research on the ungulates’ cognition, since “there are barely a handful of similar studies” with these species. “Traditionally, they have been considered cattle and their behaviour or their understating have not been of interest. Thanks to this and other studies, we are starting to see these are animals with complex behaviours which that are worth studying”, stresses Álvaro López Caicoya. 

In this sense, the UB researcher highlights the need for more studies that include more species and individuals, both in captivity and wild ones, and more complex challenges, to generalize the findings. “The ungulates are an exceptional model for the comparative research and this study is only a first approach to the cognition of these species”, he concludes. 

  

Each group of animals had to open a container having their favourite food.

CREDIT

UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2022.2384 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Innovation across 13 ungulate species: problem solvers are less integrated in the social group and less neophobic

El Niño–Southern Oscillation correlates well with following-summer cloud-to-ground lightning in China

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: DOUBLE-TERMINATION NEGATIVE CLOUD-TO-GROUND LIGHTNING CAPTURED BY HIGH-RESOLUTION CAMERA (BINZHOU, CHINA) view more 

CREDIT: KEY LABORATORY OF MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT OBSERVATION (LAGEO), IAP, CAS, BEIJING, CHINA

Large-scale circulation anomalies are a key factor in the transportation of water vapor and changes in climate. For tropical and subtropical regions, an atmospheric circulation field not only determines the characteristics of the weather situation but also influences the atmospheric circulation in the middle and high latitudes, as well as the global climate, through the transport of energy and angular momentum. At the same time, whilst lightning can serve as a global tropical “thermometer” and an indicator of water vapor in the upper troposphere, the driving role of the circulation situation for it needs to be further analyzed.

In a paper recently published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, Prof. Xiushu Qie and Dr. Mingyi Xu from the Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, attempt to address this issue. They present new evidence for El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) correlating well with following-summer cloud-to-ground lightning in China.

Firstly, the time-lagged correlation between monthly cloud-to-ground lightning anomalies over China’s land areas (2010–20) and the Oceanic Niño Index (the main index for tracking the oceanic part of ENSO) was analyzed.

“Interestingly, the correlation coefficients, which were statistically significant at the 90% confidence level, revealed good correlation between ENSO and subsequent cloud-to-ground lightning in China. In addition, the ENSO phenomenon—especially La Niña events—correlate well with subsequent cloud-to-ground lightning flashes in land areas of China. When the sea surface temperature anomaly caused by ENSO is more obvious, the spatial distribution characteristics of cloud-to-ground lightning are also more obvious,” explains Prof. Xiushu Qie.

When the sea surface temperature of the East Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean warms abnormally and the sea surface temperature of the Northwest Pacific becomes abnormally cold, a cyclonic circulation is stimulated over the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and tropical West Pacific region of China, thereby enhancing the easterly wind on the north side and the westerly wind on the south side, bringing water vapor from the Northwest Pacific to North China and Northeast China.

Affected by the abnormally high pressure, the corresponding cloud-to-ground lightning activities in North China and Northeast China are weak. However, the water vapor then moves southwards, where it converges with water vapor derived from the Bay of Bengal in South China, and ascending motion strengthens here, thus enhancing the cloud-to-ground lightning activity of this area. As the water vapor continues to move southwards, the water vapor divergence and descending motion in southern Guangdong give rise to weak cloud-to-ground lightning activities there.

“Therefore, the ENSO phenomenon might serve as a climatic driver of subsequent cloud-to-ground lightning activity occurring over the land areas of China,” adds Dr. Xu.

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JOURNAL

Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters

DOI

10.1016/j.aosl.2023.100338 

ARTICLE TITLE

Distribution of lightning spatial modes and climatic causes in China