It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
EU research program to increase shelf-life of berries
Berries are an essential source of bioactive compounds with significant benefits to human health. Their consumption contributes to maintaining a balanced diet, rich in nutrients, which benefits health and the proper functioning of the human body but the seasonality of this produce leads to a significant food surplus.
Now, an innovative €2.5million European research programme titled FRIETS, is looking at ways to increase the shelf-life of berries using high-precision agriculture and innovative processing methods but whilst still maintaining their high quality.
The four-year project titled ‘Sustainable optimisation of the value chain of fresh and dried value-added berries through the integration of Precision Agriculture strategies and innovative methods of dehydration and edible coating’ comprises of 13 partners from five different countries: Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Romania and England and will see researchers taking part in a total of 116 knowledge and research exchange trips between the partners involved.
These exchanges promote mobility between researchers of the European Union and contribute to the transfer of knowledge and experience between universities and companies, as well as the exchange of experience and work mentality between people.
Dr Athanasios Angelis-Dimakis is a Reader in Chemical Engineering and is leading the University of Huddersfield’s involvement in the project that is being funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme Marie Sklodowska-Curie.
“The project is now nearing the end of its second year, and we have already noticed the benefits of co-operation between universities and industry. The strong links created have resulted in innovative research, strengthening this project’s research and development output,” he said.
One such output of research has discovered that by modifying osmotic dehydration methods, using alternative osmotic agents, conventional salts and sugars can be replaced leading to healthier foods. In addition, the development of edible coatings is also being studied as a methodology to extend the shelf life of the final products.
Life Cycle Analysis and Life Cycle Cost Analysis is being studied throughout the value chain, by various partners including the University of Huddersfield, to determine the environmental impacts and identify the points that cause the most serious environmental burdens, providing sustainable solutions at a reasonable cost.
During the first year alone the results of the research were shared in three scientific publications and one conference presentation, with further outputs expected soon.
“The researchers taking part in the FRIETS project gain an in-depth understanding of industry requirements that transforms knowledge into next-generation products and services,” explained Dr Angelis-Dimakis.
“The companies involved will also reap the benefits as this research will enhance and add value to their products and processes and potentially expand the companies’ product catalogue and list of services, as well as broaden their intellectual property rights,” he added.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101007783.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
News article
New study illustrates unique genetic landscape in Newfoundland and Labrador with links to Ireland and England
IMAGE: A NEW STUDY BY RCSI UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES, BASED IN DUBLIN, IRELAND, AND SEQUENCE BIO, A GENOMICS AND PRECISION MEDICINE COMPANY BASED IN ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR (NL), CANADA, HAS PRODUCED THE MOST DETAILED GENETIC ANALYSIS OF PEOPLE LIVING IN THE CANADIAN PROVINCE TO DATE, DEMONSTRATING A UNIQUE FOUNDER POPULATION STRUCTURE THAT COULD BE USED FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND STUDY OF HEALTH-RELATED GENETIC VARIANTS.view more
CREDIT: SEQUNCEBIO
Dublin, Ireland | St. John’s, Canada – Monday, 15, May 2023: A new study by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, based in Dublin, Ireland, and Sequence Bio, a genomics and precision medicine company based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada, has produced the most detailed genetic analysis of people living in the Canadian province to date, demonstrating a unique founder population structure that could be used for the identification and study of health-related genetic variants.
The study, titled ‘Newfoundland and Labrador: A mosaic founder population of an Irish and British diaspora from 300 years ago’, has been published in the Nature journal Communications Biology.
By studying the genetic profiles of 1,807 volunteering individuals from Sequence Bio’s Newfoundland and Labrador Genome Project (NLGP), and comparing the resulting fine-scale genetic structure of NL to reference datasets for Ireland and England, scientists showed that a significant proportion of the European-derived population of NL can be traced back to settlers who primarily migrated from South-East Ireland and South-West England around three centuries ago.
“In looking at the ways Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are genetically related to each other, and to present day Irish and English individuals, we were able to show that European ancestry in NL is mainly descended from Irish and English settlers in the time of the late 1700s to early 1800s,” explains Dr Edmund Gilbert, a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences in RCSI and FutureNeuro, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases.
Dr Gilbert, the first author on the study, used well-characterised population reference datasets like the Irish DNA Atlas to link English and Irish ancestry in NL to specific regions in Ireland, and to track how social and geographical isolation influenced NL communities at the level of their DNA.
Dr Gerald Mugford, Director of Research at Sequence Bio commented on the study: “Through this expert collaboration with RCSI, we now have a much deeper understanding of the ancestry of the current NL population and the origins of genetic variants that could be meaningful for disease gene discovery in the province”.
Further analysis of the genetic data also shows multiple population bottlenecks, or reductions in population size, happening independently in the region around 300 years ago due to geographical isolation and tendency for people to settle with others from the same country of origin and religious affiliation.
Professor Gianpiero Cavalleri, Professor of Human Genetics at RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Science and Deputy Director of the SFI FutureNeuro Research Centre, helped lead the comparative study of genomes from Canada, Ireland and England. He said, “The genetic analysis supports the historical accounts that around 25,000 European settlers came to NL in the 18th and 19th centuries, mainly from Ireland - predominantly Waterford, Wexford, south Kilkenny, southeast Tipperary, and southeast Cork - and from Dorset and Devon in England as well as fishing ports such as Dartmouth, Plymouth, or Southampton.
“In the study, we could see that Catholic background in Newfoundland and Labrador is still today strongly associated with Irish genetic ancestry as is Protestant background with English genetic ancestry.”
Dr. Michael Phillips, the study’s Senior Author commented: “Our findings support NL’s population structure as a unique genetic landscape with founder effects.” He also noted the potential clinical and health-related importance of these patterns. “Because NL resembles that of other isolated island populations, there may be an opportunity to study the genetic makeup of specific subpopulations in NL to identify rare genetic variants that contribute to the risk and severity of certain diseases.”
The study was produced in collaboration with researchers from the Genealogical Society of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, the US National Human Genome Research Institute, and the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford.
About RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences is a world-leading university for Good Health and Well-being. Ranked in the world top 50 for its contribution to UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2022, it is exclusively focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide.
RCSI is an international not-for-profit university, headquartered in Dublin. It is among the top 250 universities worldwide in the World University Rankings (2023). RCSI has been awarded Athena Swan Bronze accreditation for positive gender practice in higher education.
Visit the RCSI MyHealth Expert Directory to find the details of our experts across a range of healthcare issues and concerns. Recognising their responsibility to share their knowledge and discoveries to empower people with information that leads them to better health, these clinicians and researchers are willing to engage with the media in their area of expertise.
About Sequence Bio
Sequence Bio is a genomics and precision medicine company based in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The company’s platform leverages Newfoundland’s founder effect to power discovery cohorts for novel target identification across numerous disease indications. Sequence Bio collaborates with the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, and partners with leading pharma and biotech, to help accelerate the development of new medicines for global unmet medical needs. For more information, please visit www.SequenceBio.com
Sequence Bio would like to thank all volunteering participants who consented to participate in the NL Genome Project for enabling this research.
About FutureNeuro
FutureNeuro is the SFI Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases led by RCSI Professor David Henshall (Director) and RCSI Professor Gianpiero Cavalleri (Deputy Director) www.futureneurocentre.ie. In partnership with the national clinical network for neurology, the centre contributes to improving the health and health-care of people with neurological disease. FutureNeuro’s unique approach is to explore multiple related aspects of brain disease across the themes of diagnostics, therapeutics and eHealth.
IMAGE: SOMTO CHIKE-OBUEKWE HAS BEEN BESTOWED THE MARTIN LAWLOR RESEARCH BURSARY AWARD, A PRESTIGIOUS BURSARY CONFERRED BY MARTIN LAWLOR’S FAMILY AND SUPPORTED BY THE UK’S LEADING RESEARCH PROGRAMME INTO SUICIDE PREVENTION IN CLINICAL SERVICES, THE ‘NATIONAL CONFIDENTIAL INQUIRY INTO SUICIDE AND SAFETY IN MENTAL HEALTH’ (NCISH) AND THE MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY 'STATE OF MIND SPORT’.view more
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD
An international PhD student from the University of Huddersfield ’s Department of Pharmacy in the School of Applied Sciences has won a prestigious award for her research on how community pharmacies can contribute to preventing suicide in low and middle-income countries, in particular within her home country of Nigeria.
Dr Martin Lawlor was a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist who specialised in self-harm and suicide research and was a friend and colleague of the NCISH. The award supports early career researchers in the UK and Ireland to expand their knowledge and improve wider understanding of and practice in self-harm or suicide prevention and provides an opportunity to engage with other researchers in self-harm and suicide prevention.
Somto will be using the award to attend the 32nd World Congress by the ‘International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)’ in Piran, Slovenia from 19 - 23 September 2023 and said she is looking forward to presenting her findings on the contribution of community pharmacists in suicide prevention in Nigeria with delegates at the conference.
The role of community pharmacy teams
The judging panel noted how Somto is the first researcher to consider the role of community pharmacy teams in suicide prevention in Nigeria, or indeed any low or middle-income country and that she recently collaborated with global experts in suicide prevention and pharmacy to submit a symposium for the IASP on the role of pharmacy in suicide prevention.
“My research aims to raise awareness of suicide and prompt the training of pharmacists to become knowledgeable about suicide signs and its risk factors. Community pharmacists are one of the easily accessible health care professionals and are stationed in the heart of the community, so they have the advantage of encountering those with suicide ideation” explained Somto.
In it she reveals how low and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Nigeria, account for 77% of global suicide mortality, with limited resources for its prevention. Following her PhD, Somto hopes to be able to influence the Nigerian government and policymakers in order to improve Nigeria’s suicide prevention strategy and include suicide prevention training in the pharmacy curriculum.
We now know exactly what happens in nature when we fell forests
Deforestation is the biggest threat to the planet's ecosystems, and new research has now mapped out exactly what happens when agriculture replaces forestry
IMAGE: HEAT, RECURRING RAIN AND VOLCANIC SOIL MAKES THE NATURE ON THE AZORES EXTREMELY FERTILE. IN FACT FARMERS CAN HARVEST YEAR-ROUND ON THE ISLANDS - AND A GREAT DEAL OF THE FRUIT WE EAT IN EUROPA COMES FROM THE AZORES. MANY ANIMALS GRAZE ALSO PASTURES ON THE ISLANDS. THIS PICTURE IS FROM THE ISLAND OF TERCEIRA, SNAPPED CLOSE TO SOME FAMOUS VULCANIC TUNNELS.view more
CREDIT: PHOTO: JULES VERNE TIMES TWO / CREATIVE COMMONS
Humans first started farming about 12,000 years ago. On the shores of the Euphrates and the Tigris, in what is now Iraq and Syria, small groups of people started to grow peas, lentils and barley independently of each other. They felled trees to make space for fields and animals, and in so doing began to shape nature according to the needs of humans.
Back then, our ancestors already knew that, after the forest was felled and the fields were established, some of the animals and plants that had previously thrived would disappear. Today, we know that modern, intensive agriculture is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity on the planet.
However, we actually know very little about what specifically happens to plants, insects and animals in the ecosystem when a forest is felled and the soil is ploughed and planted.
Therefore, Gabor Lovei from the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University and a number of Portuguese colleagues decided to investigate. On the island of Terceira in the Azores, there is still a part of the original forest. For this reason, the island made a good place to study how agriculture affects original nature.
However, when Gabor Lovei saw his results, he was a little surprised.
"The changes in the ecosystem were less extensive than I’d imagined. True enough, there were fewer large and small animals in the fields, but on a number of other parameters, activity in the ecosystem had actually increased," he says.
The unique nature on the Azores Until 1427, very few people had set foot on the Azores. Recent archaeological findings suggest that the Vikings perhaps visited the islands many hundred years before the Portuguese, but it was not until the 15th century that humans settled there permanently.
For thousands of years, the Azores were left untouched and lush in the middle of the Atlantic. Deep-green trees and plants thrived because of the islands' combination of high heat, frequent precipitation and volcanic soil.
After Portuguese sailors accidentally discovered the forested mountains in the middle of the Atlantic in 1427, everything changed.
Smallholders, who were tired of the royal favours poured on manor houses in Portugal, packed their picks, shovels and hoes and sailed out to the Azores. They felled the forest and planted wheat and other crops.
Unlike at home on the mainland, the farmers reaped huge yields at harvest. Rumours spread and farmers poured to the islands. Large parts of the forest quickly disappeared and were replaced by agricultural land. Only the parts of the forest in the most mountainous and inaccessible areas, where the soil was too difficult to cultivate, were spared.
And it was precisely this original forest that Gabor Lovei could use in his research.
"In Denmark – and most other places in Europe – the forest is not original. It has been felled, replanted and changed by humans for thousands of years. In the Azores, on the other hand, there is completely original forest – and it’s gold for this type of research," he says.
Gabor’s clever trick Normally, when entomologists or ornithologists study how agriculture affects different species, they jump into their hiking boots and go out into fields, meadows and forest fringes to record everything they find. They do so systematically, at different times of the day and repeatedly.
However, the method does not tell us as much about how the entire ecosystem reacts to changes. Only about the animal populations.
So when Gabor Lovei set out to investigate how the entire ecosystem reacted to forest felling and field establishment, he had to use other methods.
First, he planted a number of full-grown lettuces in an original forest, on cultivated fields, and on grazing fields for cows. The plants were left for two weeks. After the two weeks, he recorded the area covered by the lettuce, and how much had been eaten. In this way, he could measure the extent of the plant-eating activity in the ecosystem.
He repeated the same process with larvae to determine the scope of the hunt for insects. The more larvae eaten, the more animals – e.g. birds, rodents and frogs – lived in the area. He also put out small boxes of seeds to see how many disappeared. He dug teabags ten centimetres into the soil to examine the activity of the microorganisms in the soil that break down organic matter.
And finally, he planted strawberries to learn more about the pollination in the different areas.
Together, all these small experiments formed a picture of how the ecosystem as a whole changes when forest is felled and fields are planted.
Fewer animals in the fields Of all the parameters Gabor Lovei studied, the greatest difference was in the number of insects eaten. In the forest, significantly more larvae disappeared than in the cultivated field and grazing areas.
This suggests that there is more wildlife in the forest, he explains.
“Larvae are typically eaten by rodents, birds and lizards. Our findings suggest that there were significantly more of them in the forest, because more larvae disappeared between the trees,” he says.
The seeds also disappeared more quickly in the forest.
"The humidity is higher in the forests, and this means that several different invertebrates can live there. Animals like snails and beetles, which eat seeds.”
With regard to pollination and the number of microorganisms in the soil, he did not find any difference. In fact, plant pollination was slightly higher on the maize fields than in the forest. However, this does not necessarily mean that there are many different species of bee. There are usually only a few plant types on cultivated fields. For this reason, the same few bee species are responsible for pollination.
What can farmers do? When local farmers fell forest, biodiversity is lost. Gabor Lovei has clearly demonstrated this in his experiments. But can his results also say something about what farmers can do to get some of the biodiversity back on their fields?
Yes, he explains. They can. The results provide a completely new understanding of which parts in the ecosystem will be affected.
"We clearly see that snails and beetles have a hard time on the fields. To get them back, farmers can leave small pockets of natural vegetation in the fields. For example, they can leave roots from dead trees to rot. This will attract many kinds of beetles,” he says.
Another problem with the fields is that we humans bring with us animals, plants and microbes that do not belong there naturally when we grow our crops. For example, rats invaded and displaced a large part of the indigenous fauna on the Azores.
"By making space for small pockets of non-cultivated nature in and around the fields, we know that the native species will survive more easily. They’re simply more resistant to invading species,” he explains.
Can the results be transferred to Denmark? Nature in the Azores is very different from Denmark. Denmark is colder, the soil is different, and we have virtually no original nature left.
Nevertheless, the results from the Azores can be transferred to Danish conditions, according to Gabor Lovei.
"Such comprehensive experiments have never been conducted on the European mainland, but some of the parameters have been studied in other European countries. The pattern was roughly the same. Therefore, we can assume that Danish nature reacts more or less in the same way to deforestation and cultivation," he says.
“However, agriculture is not all that threatens biodiversity. Cities and gardens also restrict where animals can live. That’s why it's important to do something in our own backyard,” he concludes.
Sowing flowers and trees that belong naturally in Denmark – and not exotic plants – can make a big difference. Plant Danish trees and Danish flowers and stop mowing the lawn. This will make a huge difference for many species.
Part of the Azores is covered by ancient, native forest. This photo is from a protected area on the island of Terceira. The same island that Gabor Lovei did his experiments.
CREDIT
Samuel Monteiro Domingues (Creative Commons)
Gabor Lovei and his colleagues have plotted the locations of their experiments in on this map. The green dots show the locations. Furthermore the map shows which parts of the island are cultivated, which parts are grazed by farm animals and which parts are covered in ancient forest.
CREDIT
Basic and Applied Ecology
Large parts of the Azores are cultivated or are grazed by animals. This photo shows pastures on Terceira. These areas contains less biodiversity than they original forest.
IMAGE: FIRST IMAGE OF FILAMENTOUS PHAGE STRUCTURE, BASED ON GOLD ET AL, NATURE COMMUNICATIONSview more
CREDIT: DR VICKI GOLD
New insights into the structure of phages will enable researchers to develop new uses for the viruses in biotechnology.
Phages are viruses that infect bacteria, which enables them to be exploited as tools in biotechnology and medicine. Now, for the first time, researchers at the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Massey University and Nanophage Technologies, New Zealand, have mapped out what a commonly-used form of phage looks like, which will help researchers design better uses in future.
One common use for phage is phage display, which is a useful tool in drug discovery. Phage display works by linking a gene fragment of interest to a phage gene that makes one of the phage coat proteins. The new coat protein with the linked protein of interest appears on the surface of the phage, where it can be assayed and tested for biological activity.
Billions of types of phages exist. Phage display often uses a type of phage known as filamentous, so called because they are long and thin, making the display of many proteins across its surface possible. Although phage display and other applications have proved successful, until now, scientists have not known what this type of phage looks like.
For the first time, Dr Vicki Gold at the University of Exeter, has revealed the structure of a filamentous phage, in research published in the journal Nature Communications. She said: “Phages form part of a very exciting and growing area of research, with a range of current and potential applications. Yet until now, we’ve not had a complete picture of what filamentous phages look like. We’ve now provided the first view, and understanding this will help us improve applications for phage into the future.”
Because filamentous phages are so long, scientists have previously failed to capture an image of their entirety. To image the phage, researchers created smaller versions, which are around 10-fold shorter, which look like straight nanorods rather than entangled spaghetti-like filaments. This mini version was small enough to be imaged in its entirety using high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy.
NIH/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES
IMAGE: INTERNATIONAL IONIZING RADIATION WARNING SYMBOLview more
CREDIT: NONE
WHAT: A first-in-human clinical trial of an experimental oral drug for removing radioactive contaminants from inside the body has begun. The trial is testing the safety, tolerability and processing in the body of escalating doses of the investigational drug product HOPO 14-1 in healthy adults. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is funding the Phase 1 trial, which is sponsored and conducted by SRI International of Menlo Park, California.
Internal radioactive contamination occurs when radioactive elements are absorbed through wounded skin, inhaled or ingested. This could happen as the result of a nuclear power plant accident or the detonation of a “dirty bomb” or nuclear weapon. As the atoms of radioactive elements decay, they emit ionizing radiation, which can damage DNA, tissues and organs. One method for reducing the risk of this damage is to remove the radioactive elements from the body as soon as possible after contamination occurs.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved two products for removing internal radioactive contamination. These drugs, both based on diethylenetriamine pentaacetate (DTPA), are administered intravenously by a healthcare provider and can remove three radioactive elements: plutonium, americium, and curium.
In contrast, HOPO 14-1 has been formulated as an oral capsule, which would be easier than an intravenous drug to stockpile and to deploy and administer during an emergency. Preclinical research has shown that HOPO 14-1 can effectively remove many radioactive contaminants, including uranium and neptunium in addition to plutonium, americium and curium. These studies also have found that HOPO 14-1 is up to 100 times more effective than DTPA at binding and removing these radioactive elements.
NIAID has funded the discovery and development of HOPO 14-1 since 2006. The active pharmaceutical ingredient in the drug is called 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO).
The clinical trial is taking place at a site in Plymouth, Michigan, under the leadership of Sascha N. Goonewardena, M.D., a physician investigator at SRI’s Clinical Trials Unit and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. The study team will enroll 42 healthy participants ages 18 to 65 years in seven groups of six. Each participant in the first group will receive a 100-milligram (mg) dose of HOPO 14-1. The subsequent groups will receive increasingly higher doses of the study drug up to 7500 mg in the final group, if lower doses are deemed safe. Participants will undergo intensive safety monitoring and will be followed for 14 days to measure the absorption, distribution and elimination of the study drug. Results are expected in 2024.
WHO: Andrea DiCarlo-Cohen, Ph.D., director of the Radiation and Nuclear Countermeasures Program in the NIAID Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation, is available to respond to media inquiries about the trial.
CONTACT: To schedule interviews, please contact Laura Leifman, (301) 402-1663, NIAIDNews@niaid.nih.gov.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.
IMAGE: RESEARCHERS SHOWN WITH A WHITESPOTTED EAGLE RAY (AETOBATUS NARINARI), A HIGHLY MOBILE ANIMAL WITH A MIGHTY JAW AND PLATE-LIKE TEETH.view more
CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY/HARBOR BRANCH OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE
Clam leases are designated underwater locations used to produce hard clams of all sizes from littlenecks to chowders. Clam production or aquaculture can be a risky business due in part to unwanted marine intruders. Among them, stealthy and highly mobile rays.
The Indian River Lagoon is one key location used for hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) aquaculture operations along Florida’s Atlantic coast. Clam fishermen have anecdotally reported seeing rays in clam leases and suspect that their interactions could result in damaged aquaculture gear and crushed clams. After all, some species of rays are equipped with mighty jaws and plate-like teeth that make them highly capable culprits.
Inspired by clammer reports, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and collaborators, used passive acoustic telemetry to gauge the interactions between two highly mobile animals, whitespotted eagle rays (Aetobatus narinari) and cownose rays (Rhinoptera spp.) in two clam lease sites and four other sites in Sebastian, including the Sebastian Inlet and the Saint Sebastian River mouth. Since visual observations can be challenging and unpredictable, this technology enabled researchers to monitor the tagged rays in the wild over two years.
“We wanted to understand how often and when rays visited these clam leases, how long they stayed there, and if it was seasonal or year-round,” said Matt Ajemian, Ph.D., senior author, an associate research professor and director of the Fisheries Ecology and Conservation Lab at FAU Harbor Branch. “We tagged them, set them on their way and logged 17,014 unique visits to the leases derived from 38 different rays.”
Findings from the study, published in PLOS ONE, provide both good news and bad news for clammers. Rays spent even more time in these clam lease sites than clammers reported or suspected, but it’s not necessarily where they prefer hanging out. For example, whitespotted eagle rays spent only 6.2 percent of their time near clam lease locations and cownose rays 13.2 percent.
Predicting when and for how long rays visit the clam leases also was complicated as it depended on the species, time of day, season, and even certain environmental conditions. Despite less frequent use when compared to other reference receiver locations, both species of rays exhibited longer visits at clam lease sites than some locations considered and were periodically observed within the clam lease regions for extended periods of time. The longest continuous duration spent at the northern and southern clam leases were 387.5 and 207.1 minutes, respectively. This shows that rays can remain within these areas for hours at a time, which increases the likelihood in which they are interacting with, and potentially foraging upon, the clam leases.
“Since 84 percent of all visits were from whitespotted eagle rays and their visits were significantly longer at night, this information suggests that observed interactions with the clam leases are potentially underestimated, given most clamming operations occur during daytime,” said Brianna Cahill, corresponding author, an FAU Harbor Branch marine science and oceanography graduate, and a research technician at Stony Brook University. “Results from our study justify the need to continue monitoring mobile predators in the region, including more studies to assess their behaviors such as foraging at the clam lease sites.”
Cownose rays and whitespotted eagle rays have different migratory patterns, but in both cases their tendency to be mobile may limit their impacts on clammers.
“Additional good news for clammers is that rays did not use the clam lease sites year-round, and their visits varied seasonally, with substantially fewer detections and visits during the summer months,” said Ajemian. “This suggests that clammers need only deploy anti-predator protections against rays, if needed, for a portion of the year.”
Findings from the study also highlight the need to understand if clam leases are situated within rays’ natural foraging habitats and if rays are actively interacting with the clam leases or if they may be attracted to other organisms nearby.
“It’s possible that rays may be feeding on other organisms that are attracted to the clams in the clam lease sites, as bivalve aquaculture farms have been known to change community structure and attract a wide variety of predatory snails, that may be an alternative attractant for cownose and whitespotted eagle rays given their diets,” said Cahill.
Study co-authors represent the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; Bonefish and Tarpon Trust; Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; and Dalhousie University in Canada.
- FAU -
About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute: Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/hboi.
About Florida Atlantic University: Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
