The first prehistoric wind instruments discovered in the Levant

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CNRS

 

IMAGE: THE SEVEN AEROPHONES DISCOVERED AT EYNAN-MALLAHA view more 

CREDIT: © LAURENT DAVIN

Although the prehistoric site of Eynan-Mallaha in northern Israel has been thoroughly examined since 1955, it still holds some surprises for scientists. Seven prehistoric wind instruments known as flutes, recently identified by a Franco-Israeli team1, are the subject of an article published on 9 June in Nature Scientific Reports. The discovery of these 12,000 -year-old aerophones is extremely rare – in fact, they are the first to be discovered in the Near East. The “flutes”, made from the bones of a small waterfowl, produce a sound similar to certain birds of prey (Eurasian sparrowhawk and common kestrel) when air is blown into them. The choice of bones used to make these instruments was no accident – larger birds, with bigger bones that produce deeper sounds, have also been found at the site. The Natufians, the Near Eastern civilisation that occupied this village between 13,000 and 9,700 BC, deliberately selected smaller bones in order to obtain the high-pitched sound needed to imitate these particular raptors. The instruments may have been used for hunting, music or to communicate with the birds themselves. Indeed, it is clear that the Natufians attributed birds with a special symbolic value, as attested by the many ornaments made of talons found at Eynan-Mallaha. The village, located on the shores of Lake Hula, was home to this civilisation throughout its 3,000 years of existence. It is therefore of vital importance in revealing the practices and habits of a culture at the crossroads between mobile and sedentary lifestyles, and the transition from a predatory economy to agriculture. This work2 was supported by the Fyssen Fondation and the ministère des Affaires étrangères.

 

Notes

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1. The team is co-directed by Laurent Davin (post-doctoral researcher at the Fyssen Fondation) and José-Miguel Tejero (University of Vienna, University of Barcelona) and includes scientists from the Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université/ministère de la Culture), the laboratoire Technologie et ethnologie des mondes préhistoriques (CNRS/Université Panthéon-Sorbonne/Université Paris Nanterre), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Institute of Archaeology), Israel Antiquities Authority, Virginia Commonwealth University (Department of Forensic Science), École Nationale Vétérinaire (Laboratoire d’Anatomie comparée, Nantes), the laboratoire Archéologies et sciences de l’Antiquité (CNRS/ministère de la Culture/Université Panthéon-Sorbonne/Université Paris Nanterre) and the l’Institut d’ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative (CNRS/Université Aix-Marseille).
2. Excavation of the Eynan-Mallaha site is still ongoing, under the direction of CNRS researcher Fanny Bocquentin and Israel Antiquities Authority researcher Lior Weisbrod.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-35700-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The first prehistoric wind instruments discovered in the Levant

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jun-2023

VCU forensic science professor Tal Simmons, team discover 12,000-year-old flutes made from bird bones

Found in northern Israel, they are the first prehistoric sound instruments identified from the Near East – and the oldest imitating a bird call from any ancient civilization.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY

A team of researchers, including a Virginia Commonwealth University professor, has discovered rare prehistoric instruments made from the bones of birds dating back more than 12,000 years, according to findings published Friday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The seven flutes, or aerophones, found at the Eynan-Mallaha site in northern Israel belonged to the Natufians, who lived between 13000 B.C. and 9700 B.C. and were some of the last hunter-gatherers known in the Levant, or Near East region, during that time.

Tal Simmons, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Forensic Science at VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences and a co-author of the Scientific Reports paper, identified 1,112 bones from 59 species of birds found at the site. Her research guided the team’s understanding of what time of year the nomadic hunter-gatherers occupied the site and what species’ bones were most frequently found there.

“Although bone ‘flutes’ or ‘aerophones’ are known from other archaeological sites elsewhere in the world, they are quite rare and have been found mostly in Europe. These are the first to ever be identified from the Near East and date to circa 12,000 years ago,” Simmons said. “The flutes actually make the sounds of other birds of prey that were hunted at the site.”

The discovery marks the first time a prehistoric sound instrument from the Near East has been identified, and it is the oldest that imitates a bird call from any ancient civilization.

One aerophone is fully intact, complete with finger holes and a mouthpiece. When played, the flute sounds like a raptor call – or, as Simmons said, “a high-pitched ‘screeching’ call, very much like a smaller bird of prey up in the treetops.”

“All seven were intentionally made by grooving and rotational scraping with small stone blades into the long bones of two types of birds – the Eurasian teal and the Eurasian coot. They all show microscopic use-wear indicating they were, in fact, used or played,” Simmons said. “They are also really unique because the sound they produce is very similar to that of two specific birds of prey that were hunted by the people living at the site where they were discovered, namely the kestrel and the sparrowhawk.”

The researchers believe the aerophones may have been used in hunting, in communication or in music-making in spiritual practices.

“Because these are some of the earliest aerophones, it sheds light on the role of music in Natufian culture – and perhaps on the relationship of Natufian peoples with birds of prey,” Simmons said.

“It may have been as a duck call – to try to lure the birds so that they could be hunted. However, it may also have been an attempt to spiritually commune or communicate with these birds of prey; they were important to Natufian – and earlier – cultures in the Levant, as seen in the disproportionate number of raptor talons in archaeological bird-bone assemblages. These may have been worn by the prehistoric people as ritual ‘jewelry’ and may even have been ‘totem’ animals.”

The aerophones currently are in the zoological collections at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the Givat Ram campus.

The Scientific Reports paper’s authors include archaeologists, archaeozoologists and ethnomusicologists from three continents: first authors Laurent Davin of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and José-Miguel Tejero of the University of Vienna, with co-authors Simmons of VCU; Dana Shaham and Rivka Rabinovich of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Aurelia Borvon, Olivier Tourny, Anne Bridault, Marion Sindel, Hamudi Khalaily and François Valla of CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research).

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

ARTICLE TITLE

Bone aerophones from Eynan-Mallaha (Israel) indicate imitation of raptor calls by the last hunter-gatherers in the Levant

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jun-2023

Children in Chile saw 73% fewer TV ads for unhealthy foods and drinks following trailblazing marketing restrictions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

Chilean policies aimed at reining in unhealthy food marketing are succeeding in protecting children from the onslaught of television advertisements (TV ads) for these products, according to new research. The country’s multi-phased regulations, which began in 2016, have led to a 73% drop in children’s exposure to TV ads for regulated foods and drinks (those that exceed legal thresholds for calories, sugar, salt or saturated fat) by 2019. During this time, the number of ads for unhealthy foods dropped 64% on all TV programs and 77% during children’s programming. Researchers also found that 67% fewer unhealthy food ads used child-directed creative content such as cartoons, characters, toys or contests, which are also prohibited under the country’s laws.

These and other findings from researchers at the University of Chile, Diego Portales University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill underscore both the potential and need for strict rules around marketing to build healthier eating habits. The study also highlights the importance of a key policy addition contributing to the regulations’ success: The initial Law of Food Labeling and Advertising in 2016 limited child-directed creative content in any marketing and prohibited companies from placing TV ads for regulated products during programs attracting a child audience. In 2018, Chile extended this prohibition to a full “daytime” ban across all TV from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. While researchers saw a decline in advertising for unhealthy foods during earlier phases of the law (in 2017 and early 2018), the significantly greater drop following the full daytime ban is noteworthy.

“Focusing on child-directed ad content and child-directed programming to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food advertising does work to an extent, based on what we’ve seen in Chile, but children are simply exposed to much more than this,” said Francesca Dillman Carpentier, PhD, W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and the study’s first author. “To markedly reduce the amount of unhealthy food promotions children view, we see that it takes a bold move like Chile’s 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. ban to be effective. The number of unhealthy food ads on TV, as well as kids’ exposure to them, was greatly reduced after Chile added the daytime ban on these ads.”

This study’s findings underscores a weakness of nearly all governmental restrictions on TV advertising for unhealthy foods worldwide: Most focus on very narrow windows of time or programming, leaving children exposed most of the day and night to targeted ads for unhealthy foods and drinks. (See below.) This study provides evidence that countries could significantly strengthen existing policies by expanding TV restrictions to complete bans. Countries considering introducing policies to regulate food marketing can also learn from the Chilean experience to protect children more effectively from ad exposure.

Chile enacted marketing controls in 2016 as part of an ambitious, comprehensive policy package aimed at reducing childhood obesity and other health risks by creating a healthier food environment. The Law of Food Labeling and Advertising also mandated “stop sign” warning labels on packages for unhealthy foods and banned their sale or promotion in schools. This remains one of the most ambitious regulatory frameworks in the world aimed at tackling rising nutrition-related diseases and soaring health care costs, and many policymakers and public health advocates worldwide have been watching to gauge the policy package’s effectiveness.

Other studies evaluating the combined effects of Chile’s marketing restrictions, warning labels and school ban have yielded similarly promising results: A study of household grocery purchases found a 24% drop in calories purchased in the first year (during the most lax period of the law’s three-phased nutritional criteria) and a 37% reduction in sodium purchased. Focus groups indicate that parents are being encouraged by their children to avoid buying foods with warning labels. Students reduced their sugar, saturated fat and sodium intake in schools — albeit with some evidence of compensation outside of school settings. And marketing restrictions also led to the removal of child-directed marketing strategies from nearly 50% of breakfast cereals to just 15% in the first year of the law.

“The Chilean experience has shown us that rigorous food marketing regulations work to reduce kids’ exposure to TV food advertising,” said co-author Lindsey Smith Taillie, PhD, associate professor and associate chair of academics in the Department of Nutrition at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings Global School of Public Health.

“Looking to the future, we need to figure out how to monitor and regulate the digital food marketing environment, as kids increasingly shift their attention to smartphones and other online content.”

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

DOI

10.1186/s12966-023-01454-w 

ARTICLE TITLE

Restricting child-directed ads is effective, but adding a time-based ban is better: evaluating a multi-phase regulation to protect children from unhealthy food marketing on television

Lingering effects of Neanderthal DNA found in modern humans

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Recent scientific discoveries have shown that Neanderthal genes comprise some 1 to 4% of the genome of present-day humans whose ancestors migrated out of Africa, but the question remained open on how much those genes are still actively influencing human traits — until now.

A multi-institution research team including Cornell University has developed a new suite of computational genetic tools to address the genetic effects of interbreeding between humans of non-African ancestry and Neanderthals that took place some 50,000 years ago. (The study applies only to descendants of those who migrated from Africa before Neanderthals died out, and in particular, those of European ancestry.)

In a study published in eLife, the researchers reported that some Neanderthal genes are responsible for certain traits in modern humans, including several with a significant influence on the immune system. Overall, however, the study shows that modern human genes are winning out over successive generations. 

“Interestingly, we found that several of the identified genes involved in modern human immune, metabolic and developmental systems might have influenced human evolution after the ancestors’ migration out of Africa,” said study co-lead author April (Xinzhu) Wei, an assistant professor of computational biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. “We have made our custom software available for free download and use by anyone interested in further research.”

Using a vast dataset from the UK Biobank consisting of genetic and trait information of nearly 300,000 Brits of non-African ancestry, the researchers analyzed more than 235,000 genetic variants likely to have originated from Neanderthals. They found that 4,303 of those differences in DNA are playing a substantial role in modern humans and influencing 47 distinct genetic traits, such as how fast someone can burn calories or a person’s natural immune resistance to certain diseases.

Unlike previous studies that could not fully exclude genes from modern human variants, the new study leveraged more precise statistical methods to focus on the variants attributable to Neanderthal genes.

While the study used a dataset of almost exclusively white individuals living in the United Kingdom, the new computational methods developed by the team could offer a path forward in gleaning evolutionary insights from other large databases to delve deeper into archaic humans’ genetic influences on modern humans. 

“For scientists studying human evolution interested in understanding how interbreeding with archaic humans tens of thousands of years ago still shapes the biology of many present-day humans, this study can fill in some of those blanks,” said senior investigator Sriram Sankararaman, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “More broadly, our findings can also provide new insights for evolutionary biologists looking at how the echoes of these types of events may have both beneficial and detrimental consequences.”

The other co-lead author on the study is Christopher Robles, postdoctoral researcher at UCLA. Additional authors are UCLA doctoral student Ali Pazokitoroudi; Andrea Ganna of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Alexander Gusev and Arun Durvasula of Harvard Medical School; Steven Gazal of USC; Po-Ru Loh of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and David Reich of Harvard University. 

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, with additional funding from an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellowship and a gift from the Okawa Foundation. Other authors received funding support from the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, the John Templeton Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Next Generation Fund at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

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JOURNAL

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.80757 

Why certain fish are left off the hook

New study finds that rhetoric about ‘underfishing’ in US waters may be misguided

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY LED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE’S KIMBERLY OREMUS FOUND THAT WHILE THE MAGNUSON-STEVENS ACT — WHICH WAS MODERNIZED IN 1996 TO FOSTER THE LONG-TERM BIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF MARINE FISHERIES — IS SOMETIMES BLAMED FOR BEING TOO STRINGENT, LEADING TO WHAT SOME POLITICIANS CALL "UNDERFISHING," THE ACT IS NOT CONSTRAINING MOST FISHERIES, AND THERE ARE VARIOUS OTHER REASONS THAT LEAD TO CERTAIN FISH SPECIES BEING LESS FISHED. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

As warming waters threaten fish populations and disrupt fisheries around the world, it is critical to find ways to sustain fisheries while at the same time allowing those fisheries to remain economically viable to those who depend on them for their livelihoods. In the United States, commercial fishing employs 1.2 million Americans and generates more than $165 billion annually. 

The primary way that the United States has protected its fisheries is through the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was modernized in 1996 to foster the long-term biological and economic sustainability of marine fisheries. However, the reauthorization of this act has been stalled in Congress for a decade, as some politicians blame the law for being too stringent, leading to what they call
"underfishing."

The University of Delaware’s Kimberly Oremus recently served as a lead author on a paper published in Science that examined U.S. fishing policy. The paper found that the Magnuson-Stevens Act is not constraining most fisheries, and that there are various other reasons that lead to certain fish species being less fished. 

Oremus, assistant professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy, and Eyal Frank, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, served as the lead authors on the paper. 

The researchers examined two decades of data on 170 U.S. fish stocks. These 170 managed fish stocks represent 85% of the U.S. marine commercial fish landings. 

In the study, Oremus, Frank, and their other co-authors examined the assertion of critics of U.S. fishing law that it is too stringent and unnecessarily leaves too many fish in the water. 

They found that the main reason about half of the fish stocks in the U.S. are considered "underfished" is due to pure economics — fishers are not harvesting the fish because there is not enough demand for them.

Just four fish species — the Eastern Bering Sea walleye pollock, Atlantic sea scallop, Gulf of Mexico brown shrimp and Gulf of Mexico white shrimp — make up the majority of the revenue of those stocks that the researchers characterized as potentially less utilized and fished. Of those, the majority of the revenue came from just one species: the walleye pollock, the catch of which is not constrained by the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Other, healthy fish stocks are being left in the water because they could not be profitably caught without also catching other fish species that are depleted. 

“Some healthy stocks are constrained by the Magnuson-Stevens Act because they are often caught with other stocks that are depleted,” Oremus said. “Some stocks are constrained by other laws such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act or the Pacific Halibut Treaty with Canada. Some stocks are constrained by both market forces and policies, such as our Gulf of Mexico shrimp stocks that are struggling to compete with the price of imported shrimp coming from less regulated countries.”  

While political rhetoric has focused on laws that protect fisheries — such as the Magnuson-Stevens Act — as the main culprit in underfishing, the researchers said it is important to take a nuanced view of the picture and view fisheries on a case-by-case basis. 

“Targeting the Magnuson-Stevens Act will not change some of these outcomes,” Frank said. “It is important to understand the multitude of factors involved. Simply relaxing fishery management targets under the law will most likely fail to increase utilization in many of the marine fisheries that appear to be underutilized at face value.”

With changes to the environment and overfishing still a big concern in other parts of the world, it is critical to have science-based fisheries laws in place in order to sustain fish stocks moving forward, Oremus said. 

“On average, we find that less fished stocks were less fished six years before the law was passed in 1996, and their share of revenue has remained steady from 1990-2015,” Oremus said. “Though no law is perfect, the law appears to be attempting to balance the needs of fishers, other stakeholders, and the long-term conservation of the resource.”

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf5595 

For pet dogs, ‘running with the pack’ may be the best prevention to promote healthier living

Dog Aging Project survey of 21,000 dogs reveals more social support tied to healthier outcomes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE DOG AGING PROJECT AIMS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND HEALTHIER AGING FOR PEOPLE’S BELOVED CANINE COMPANIONS. MORE THAN 45,000 DOGS OF ALL BREEDS AND SIZES HAVE ENROLLED IN THE STUDY. view more 

CREDIT: DOG AGING PROJECT, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

What exactly makes for a fit Fido? And how does a dog’s environment factor into their dog years?

 

“People love their dogs,” said ASU School of Life Sciences assistant professor Noah Snyder-Mackler.  “But what people may not know, is that this love and care, combined with their relatively shorter lifespans, make our companion dogs a great model for studying how and when aspects of the social and physical environment may alter aging, health and survival.”

 

Now, the largest survey and data compilation of its kind--- from more than 21,000 dog owners--- has revealed the social determinants that may be tied to healthier aging for people’s beloved canine companions. Among them, a measurement of the amount of a dog’s social support network proved to have the greatest influence and association on better health outcomes–5 times the effect of financial factors, household stability or the age of the owner.

 

Led by Snyder-Mackler, PhD student Bri McCoy, and MSc student Layla Brassington, they carried out a comprehensive analysis of a detailed survey of dog owners, which totaled a breathtaking number, 21,410 dogs. The study attempted to find key social aspects for healthy lifestyles to help explore the science behind dog years in a large, community-science endeavor called the Dog Aging Project. The Dog Aging Project is a partnership led by the University of Washington and Texas A&M schools of medicine that includes more than a dozen member institutions–including ASU–around the nation.

 

The main goal of the Dog Aging Project is to understand how genes, lifestyle, and the environment influence aging and disease outcomes. More than 45,000 dogs are now enrolled in the project across the U.S.

 

“This study illustrates the incredibly broad reach of the Dog Aging Project,” said Daniel Promislow, project co-director and principal investigator. “Here, we see how dogs can help us to better understand how the environment around us influences health, and the many ways in which dogs mirror the human experience. Just as with people, dogs in lower resource environments are more likely to have health challenges. Thanks to the richness of the data the Dog Aging Project is collecting, follow-up studies will have the potential to help us understand how and why environmental factors affect health in dogs.”

 

McCoy, Brassington, Snyder-Mackler, and team drew on a large survey that asked each owner questions about themselves and their pup: ranging from physical activity, environment, dog behavior, diet, medications and preventatives, health status, and owner demographics. Using these questions, they identified 5 key factors (neighborhood stability, total household income, social time with children, social time with animals, and owner age) that together, helped explained the makeup of a dog's social environment and were associated with dog wellbeing.

 

They found that the dog’s lived and built environment predicted their health, disease diagnoses, and physical mobility–even after controlling for the dog’s age and weight. More specifically: Financial and household adversity was linked to poorer health and reduced physical mobility, while ore social companionship, such as living with other dogs, was associated with better health. These effects of each environmental component were not equal: the effect of social support was 5 times stronger than financial factors.

 

“This does show that, like many social animals–including humans, having more social companions can be really important for the dog’s health,” said ASU graduate student McCoy.

 

Among the more surprising results were: 1) a negative association of the number of children in the household and dog health, and 2) that dogs from higher income households were diagnosed with more diseases.

 

“We found that time with children actually had a detrimental effect on dog health,” said Brassington. “The more children or time that owners dedicate to their children, likely leads to less time with their furry children.”

 

“You can think of it as a resource allocation issue, rather than kids being bad for dogs,” said McCoy.

 

The second counterintuitive finding points to the role that finance plays in the opportunities for disease diagnosis. Dogs from wealthier households have better access to medical care, leading inadvertantly to more disease diagnosis. Because the dogs who live in households with wealthier owners might seek veterinary care more frequently, and their owners have the funds to pay for additional tests, this leads to more diseases identified.

 

Their results remained largely consistent when accounting for health and diseases differences between pure and mixed breed dogs, as well as among specific breeds.

 

One important caveat and cautionary note on the data is due to the nature of surveys. Since these are owner-reported, there may be some error, bias, and/or misinterpretation of survey questions.

 

Their next steps will begin to explore if there are any links between the survey and underlying physiology.

“We now want to understand how these external factors are getting under the skin to affect the dog’s health–how is the environment altering their bodies and cells?,” said Snyder-Mackler.

 

A subset of the dogs, about 1,000 are part of a more focused cohort where Snyder-Mackler and his collaborators are collecting blood and other biological samples over many years to uncover these clues.

 

“In future research, we will look at electronic veterinary medical records, molecular and immunological measures, and at-home physical tests to generate more accurate measures of health and frailty in the companion dog,” said Snyder-Mackler.

 

“But the take home message is: Having a good network, having a good social connectedness is good for the dogs that are living with us,” said McCoy. “But the structure and equities that are in our society also have a detrimental effect on our companion animals as well. And they are not the ones thinking about their next paycheck or their health care.”

 

And what is good for dogs may just echo what may be a good prescription for people to live healthier lives.

“Overall, our study provides further evidence for the strong link between the social environment and health outcomes that reflects what is known for humans,” said Snyder-Mackler.  “We need to focus more attention to the role of the social environment on health and disease, and continued investigation of how each environmental factor can contribute to more years of healthy living (i.e., “healthspan”) in both companion dogs and humans.”

 

The study was published in the advanced online early edition of the journal Evolution, Medicine & Public Health.

Arizona State University School of Life Sciences MSc student Layla Brassington (left) and PhD student Bri McCoy (right), helped carry out a comprehensive analysis of a detailed survey of dog owners, which totaled a breathtaking number, 21,410 dogs. The study attempted to find key social aspects for healthy lifestyles to help explore the science behind dog years in a large, community-science endeavor called the Dog Aging Project.

CREDIT

Dr. Noah Snyder-Mackler, ASU School of Life Sciences

JOURNAL

Evolution Medicine and Public Health

DOI

10.1093/emph/eoad011/7161464 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Social determinants of health and disease in companion dogs: A cohort study from the Dog Aging Project

Seaweed farming may help tackle global food insecurity

Researchers at the Friedman School see significant income-boosting potential in the sustainable superfood

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TUFTS UNIVERSITY

To help solve hunger and malnutrition while also slowing climate change, some farmers could shift from land to sea, suggests a recent study from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. The study was published in Global Food Security.

Producing and selling seaweed could boost incomes for farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in coastal regions of Africa and Southeast Asia, said Patrick Webb, the Alexander McFarlane Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School and senior author of the study. The other authors were Natalie Somers, N23, and Shakuntala Thilsted, who works for the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research and won a 2021 World Food Prize for research and innovation in aquaculture and food systems. The team reviewed research papers, existing databases, United Nations and World Bank Group reports, and more.

A more sustainable alternative to raising livestock, seaweed cultivation requires no land, freshwater, or chemical fertilizers, and could become particularly profitable as demand for nutrient-rich seaweed products grows around the world, the study found. Those profits would mean more buying power for those households and communities who produce, process, package, and export the microalgae, which in turn would translate into healthier diets.

“One of the biggest problems of food insecurity in LMICs is the unaffordability of healthy diets,” said Webb, who also serves as director for the Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab at Tufts. “There are roughly 3.5 billion people in the world who can’t afford a healthy diet even if they choose local foods at local prices. For many of those people, cultivating and selling seaweed would lead to higher incomes and improved nutrition through purchases on the market.”

Easy and environmentally friendly

A friendly crop for both farmers and the environment, seaweed has been grown in parts of Asia for centuries using fairly simple techniques, according to the study.

To start, farmers attach long lines of rope to the roots of the algae, which nourish the plant by absorbing nutrients from the water. Six to eight weeks later, they gather the seaweed by hand and dry it in the sun. “A lot of what we're looking at on the farming side is not about finding new crops or different kinds of crops. It’s about what’s already being grown that could be scaled up cost-effectively,” Webb said.

On top of being relatively easy to grow, seaweed has a miniscule carbon footprint, and may even help lower the ocean’s carbon levels. Though little is yet known about how much CO2 seaweed releases during harvest, research has found that perennial brown algae farms absorb up to ten tons of CO2 per hectare of sea surface per year. In addition to its “carbon sinking” powers, when added to livestock feed, seaweed could help dramatically reduce methane gas emissions.

“Unless we get significant warming of the oceans, cultivating seaweed offers a way that is not just climate friendly, but climate proof,” said Webb. “We don’t know how soon the industry will start to experience the negative effects of climate change, but the potential looks good. By farming seaweed, it’s not going to accelerate those negative effects. Whereas cutting down trees and adding more livestock certainly would.”

The challenges of production and processing

But while seaweed farming helps the environment, climate change itself may present barriers to growing more of it. Ocean water is becoming increasingly acidic, which is not ideal for growing healthy, edible seaweed, the authors said.

Additionally, seaweed’s primary value as an export would be for its extracts as ingredients, rather than as a sea vegetable to be eaten whole, according to the study. And while countries with higher average incomes that produce and export brown, green, and red seaweeds in large quantities already have the infrastructure needed to effectively process, test, and regulate what may eventually land on consumers’ plates, most LMICs do not.

Research into processing bottlenecks is limited, and what little data exists on factors such as consumer patterns is owned by the food companies who collect it, Webb said—which means governments and entrepreneurs in many LMICs have had few resources or incentives to invest in aquatic plant farming.

“The steps taken between the farm and the fork, that’s what we need to focus on,” Webb said. “We need to work more closely with governments and the private sector to figure out where the bottlenecks are and how to overcome them.”

A bounty for the taking

If those obstacles can be addressed, the opportunities of seaweed aquaculture are boundless, the authors said. The industry has flourished in Indonesia, where seasonal labor is steadily available and farms can achieve industrial-level economies of scale (in contrast to the family-run farms of, for example, India and Tanzania). Indonesia is now a key exporter of two seaweed species from which carrageenan, a thickener found in nut milks and meats, is extracted.

“There are many different types of seaweed, and they all require somewhat of a different environment in which to grow. The vast coasts of Africa and Asia, not all of it will be prime real estate,” Webb said. "But much of it will be.”

For seaweed farming to expand in these places, governments must take it seriously and create food safety regulations and an overall environment where it can happen, Webb said. Local and international investment interest will also be key. “If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, with the right conditions, it could happen the day after tomorrow,” Webb said.

It’s early days for seaweed production in LMICs, but Webb is confident about its promise for farmers. “The Ministry of Agriculture, or even the Ministry of Fisheries in these countries probably never discusses seaweed,” he said. “What if they did? They might discover a goldmine.”

The lead author received financial support from the United States Agency for International Development as part of the Feed the Future Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the United States Agency for International Development.

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JOURNAL

Global Food Security

DOI

10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100686 

ARTICLE TITLE

Seaweed's contribution to food security in low- and middle-income countries: Benefits from production, processing and trade

Wild mammals moved farther during severe COVID-19 lockdowns

Human behaviour changed dramatically during lockdowns in the first months of the global COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in behavioural changes of land mammals.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN

 

IMAGE: WILDLIFE DURING COVID view more 

CREDIT: MARK GOCKE

Tucker and 174 colleagues, including members of the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative, analysed global data from land mammals tracked by GPS devices. Tucker: “There were many media reports that nature was recovering during those first lockdowns. For example, cougars were roaming the streets of Santiago, Chile, but we wanted to know: is there any evidence of this? Or were people simply paying more attention to everything while being at home?” 

Movements of mammals

Tucker and colleagues collated data from the movements of 43 different species of land mammals from around the world. In total, more than 2,300 individuals were included: from elephants and giraffes to bears and deer. The researchers compared the mammals' movements during the first period of lockdowns, from January to mid-May 2020, with movements during the same months a year earlier. “We saw that during strict lockdowns, animals travelled up to 73 percent longer distances in a period of 10 days than the year before, when there were no lockdowns. We also saw that animals occurred on average 36 percent closer to roads than the year before. This is probably because those roads were quieter during strict lockdowns,” said Tucker.  

There are several explanations for these results: there were fewer people outside during strict lockdowns, giving animals the opportunity to explore new areas. “In contrast, in areas with less strict lockdowns, we saw that animals travelled shorter distances. This may have to do with the fact that during those lockdowns, people were actually encouraged to go into nature. As a result, some nature areas were busier than before COVID-19,” says Thomas Mueller, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Goethe University Frankfurt, who designed the study together with Tucker.

Unique opportunity

The lockdowns provided a unique opportunity to study the effects of an abrupt change in human presence on wildlife. “Our research has shown that animals can respond directly to changes in human behaviour. This offers hope for the future, because in principle this means that making some adjustments to our own behaviour could have a positive effect on animals,” says Tucker. 

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abo6499 

ARTICLE TITLE

Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jun-2023

Three sopranos discuss their roles in Strauss’s most complex opera

By MIKE SILVERMAN

AP

yesterday

This image released by the San Francisco Opera shows, from left, Linda Watson as the Nurse, Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, and Camilla Nylund as the Empress in Richard Strauss’ "Die Frau Ohne Schatten." (Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera via AP)


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Part fairy tale, part psychodrama, Richard Strauss’s “Die Frau Ohne Schatten” (The Woman Without a Shadow) calls for three big-voiced sopranos who can do justice to a long and difficult score.

That’s one reason the opera, which premiered in 1919, is a relative rarity, though many consider it Strauss’s masterpiece. Now the San Francisco Opera is presenting it for the first time in 34 years with a cast that includes three leading Wagner and Strauss singers: Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, Camilla Nylund as the Empress and Linda Watson as the Nurse.

Another reason the work is a challenge is Hugo Hofmannsthal’s libretto, which mixes fantastical events with psychological insights.

In the story, the Empress, who comes from the spirit world, must acquire a shadow (enabling her to bear children) or else her human husband will be turned to stone in three days. She and her Nurse try to entice the unhappy wife of Barak the Dyer to give up her shadow and thus remain childless in exchange for a life of luxury. But gradually, the Empress learns to appreciate humanity and changes her mind. And the Dyer’s Wife pulls back from the brink of trading away her shadow. Everything ends happily for the two couples.

The day after the production opened on June 4 (performances continue through June 28), the AP sat down with the three sopranos to talk about the challenges and rewards of their roles. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation:


This image released by the San Francisco Opera shows, from left, Linda Watson as the Nurse, Nina Stemme as the Dyer’s Wife, and Camilla Nylund as the Empress in Richard Strauss’ "Die Frau Ohne Schatten." (Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera via AP)

AP: The story is so complicated and laden with murky symbolism that even its admirers sometimes scratch their heads. What do you say when someone asks you what this opera is about?

NYLUND (the Empress): It’s a fairy tale for adults. Hofmannsthal and Strauss were influenced by the situation of women in their society, and especially the empresses in Europe. They had to marry and they had to bear children. That was their job. And that’s still a big issue for women: Are you going to have children, are you not going to have children, how does that affect your position, your life.

WATSON (the Nurse): It’s very complicated. I tell people to read the synopsis five times and then just go see it. I’ve done this piece for 20 years and somebody came up to me last night and said, OK, we understand most of it, but how DID the Empress get a shadow? And I was like, I don’t know.

STEMME (the Dyer’s wife): Hofmannsthal and Strauss, they loved to leave questions like this. I mean, who is ‘Die Frau’? The Empress doesn’t have a shadow at the beginning, and the Dyer’s Wife loses hers for a moment. Is it important? No, because I also think the opera is about relationships. And I’m intrigued by my character being based on Strauss’s own wife. But to tell the story, no, nobody can really do it.

AP: How do the relationships between each married couple play out in the opera?

WATSON: It’s about the miscommunication that happens in any marriage, any relationship between two people in love. Their goals may be the same but they fall out for the wrong reasons.

NYLUND: The Empress and the Emperor, they don’t have any communication at all when the opera begins. Only at the end, when she has to save him because of her strength and the development she has gone through. She becomes a human being, she understands what is empathy, what is love.

STEMME: I think that the Dyer’s Wife wants to move up through this marriage, so she wants more. She’s really trying to make her husband understand that she is about to leave him if he doesn’t change and start to see her. Of course she doesn’t see him for his struggles and what he is either. Until she goes too far and he tries to kill her. She finally gets a reaction from Barak that she never got before and it makes her begin to understand him.

NYLUND: It’s really fantastic that two men have written this opera and it says so much about how a woman thinks and acts. Its really something very, very special.

AP: The vocal parts for all three of you are notoriously difficult. What challenges did you encounter when you first started to sing your roles?

STEMME: I fell in love with the character, but not exactly with the music, because this role requires a range of 2½ octaves. It took a long time to learn. It’s very tricky and the tonality is complicated, just like her personality. I understand why he composed it like this, to explore the complexity of her personality and also to show that she doesn’t understand herself as a person.

WATSON: It’s excruciating. I had sung the Dyer’s Wife, and when I decided to switch I thought, ah, OK, I’ll sing a mezzo role and this will be one step easier, lower. And that’s a joke. Is it a mezzo role? It is, and it’s not. It’s very high, and very low, down to a low E-flat. If you don’t have the technique, you can ruin your voice in a second. You’re just going to yodel through the whole piece.

NYLUND: When I first started studying my role I thought, Oh my God, what is he doing here? Because you have to start like some kind of coloratura with a really light top that goes up to high D, and then you have to also have power in your voice, so the role is very complex.

AP: What do you imagine happens to your character after the opera ends?

WATSON: I think she dies. The Empress rejects her and she is sent off to live among “mankind,” which she detests. It’s death for her.

NYLUND: I see her living happily ever after. The Emperor has finally noticed that they are equal, because of what she did for him. They can communicate on the same level now.

STEMME: Maybe not happily ever after, but Barak and his wife will start to talk, communicate. Because they have found each other as human beings.

Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten - Opera in three acts (HD 1080p)