Massive eruption of Ontong Java Plateau is younger than previously thought

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

New high-precision argon isotope dating of the Ontong Java Plateau indicates that it is 10 million years younger than previously thought, according to Peter Davidson and colleagues. The Ontong Java Plateau is part of a massive underwater volcanic eruption – possibly the largest in Earth’s history – that took place in the Cretaceous Period in the equatorial western Pacific Ocean. This huge igneous emplacement has been proposed as the cause of Ocean Anoxic Event (OAE) 1a – a short period of severely reduced oxygen in the ocean - but the new dates for the eruption suggest it happened after OAE 1a. Some researchers think that events like OAE 1a are caused by huge submarine volcanic events that flood the oceans with carbon dioxide and nutrients, leading to explosive biological growth and subsequently a sharp reduction in oxygen. Davidson et al. determined new dates for the Ontong Java Plateau through 40Ar/39Ar dating of plagioclase mineral separates from drill sites and dredge locations along the plateau. The new ages range from 116.85 to 107.05 years ago, which make them about 10 million younger than previous estimates, and well after the timing of OAE 1a at 120 million years ago. The Ontong Java Plateau may be implicated in another anoxic event called OAE 1b, which occurred between 114.5 and 110.4 million years ago, the authors say.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.ade8666 

ARTICLE TITLE

A younger and protracted emplacement of the Ontong Java Plateau

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Jun-2023

Massive underwater plateau near Solomon Islands is younger and its eruption was more protracted than previously thought, research suggests

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Ontong Java Plateau, a volcanically-formed underwater plateau located in the Pacific Ocean north of the Solomon Islands, is younger and its eruption was more protracted than previously thought, new research led by Oregon State University suggests.

The findings, just published in Science, also cast doubt on long-held assumptions that the formation of the plateau, which is roughly the size of Alaska, was the cause of a global deposit of black shale throughout the world’s oceans.

“This type of shale is formed when there is very limited oxygen in the ocean. This layer was formed about 120 million years ago and can be found preserved everywhere around the world in geological formations,” said Anthony Koppers, a professor of marine geology in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and a co-author of the study.

“A massive volcanic eruption like the one that formed Ontong Java Plateau could deplete the ocean of oxygen, and it was believed that this massive volcanic activity and the shale deposits were connected. But our findings suggest that is not the case.”

Ontong Java Plateau covers roughly 1% of the Earth’s surface. The plateau is a fragment of the Ontong Java Nui, a superplateau that broke apart shortly after its formation, creating Ontong Java, Manihiki Plateau and Hikurangi Plateau.

Between 1973 and 2000, researchers drilled cores into the sediment and underlying basalt basement – amongst the thickest and oldest rock that form the Pacific oceanic crust – from several sites in the region and collected samples to study. The cores were collected using the scientific ocean drilling vessels Glomar Challenger and JOIDES Resolution during the Deep Sea Drilling Project and Ocean Drilling Program funded by the National Science Foundation. 

Past research using these cores suggested that Ontong Java was formed in a single, relatively short volcanic event about 120 million years ago, around the time of the shale deposit. But there have been concerns about the accuracy of the data used to make that determination, said Koppers, an international expert in large-scale geodynamic processes who also serves as associate vice president for research advancement and strategy in OSU’s research office.

“Understanding the timing of these volcanic eruptions is essential to establishing a link between the eruptions themselves and the formation of the black shales,” Koppers said. “Establishing this causality is important to understanding large changes in ocean chemistry, similar to what is happening today through climate change due to human activity.”

Koppers and the study’s lead author, Peter Davidson, who worked on the project as a doctoral student and just completed his degree at Oregon State, replicated the original 1993 dating studies to see if they could achieve the same results while also taking advantage of major improvements in scientific techniques and in mass spectrometry equipment used in chemical analysis.

Using several of the same core samples from the original drilling projects, Davidson ran 40 experiments to try to replicate the earlier findings. Of the 40, a surprisingly large number – 38 – failed when applying modern-day data quality standards.  

“The new results showed that the original samples were greatly affected by an unwanted process during the irradiation of the samples, which causes the ages to appear to be too old,” Davidson said. “This irradiation issue, called recoil, is a problem that could not easily be seen with the older equipment used decades ago, but our new, highly sensitive instrumentation can easily identify this problem.”

Davidson then ran another set of dating experiments, applying the same analysis on another mineral phase of the original samples – a type of feldspar, or rock-forming mineral, called plagioclase.

“The data from the plagioclase is much higher resolution than past data and more importantly, it is entirely devoid of the recoil issue that skewed the original ages for the Ontong Java Plateau that were based on the basalt,” Koppers said.

The new tests showed that Ontong Java was up to 10 million years younger than expected and likely formed over several million years.

“All of the tests showed a high level of internal consistency in the ages measured and a remarkable reproducibility between multiple samples from the same volcanic eruptive units, providing us with a tremendous degree of confidence,” Davidson said. “These results mean we can’t connect Ontong Java anymore to the anoxic event that led to the shale deposits. The dates no longer line up.”

The data also suggests that Manihiki Plateau is several million years older than Ontong Java, raising questions about theories that the two were once connected and broke apart. Instead, the findings suggest that volcanic activity may have started under the Manihiki Plateau and migrated hundreds of kilometers across the Pacific over time.

The finding is likely to cause some head-scratching among scientists, Koppers noted, because there is no longer an explanation for the large oxygen-depletion event that left shale deposits around the world.

There is also a possibility that lower portions of Ontong Java are older, he said. The available samples from Ontong Java were drilled only into the top couple hundred meters of the plateau, whereas the plateau is a geologic megastructure up to 35 kilometers thick, with the top 8 to 9 kilometers considered the eruptive portion.

“In that sense, we have only scratched the surface of Ontong Java,” Koppers said.

Davidson hopes to continue the research by hunting down samples of older portions of the plateau and running new analyses using these modern techniques. There are some areas in the Solomon Islands where up to four kilometers of the top of the plateau are exposed and could potentially be accessible.

“We hope that by targeting further samples from deeper in the volcanic stratigraphy, we can uncover potentially even older portions of the Ontong Java Plateau,” Davidson said. “It might be possible that these older portions of the plateau did cause the black shale deposition, but they might not.”

“These future studies should further help us understand Ontong Java, which is the largest volcanic feature on Earth’s surface, and how volcanic eruptions of this magnitude can potentially cause global environmental disruptions.”

Additional co-authors are Takashi Sano of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tsukuba, Japan and Takeshi Hanyu of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Yokosuka, Japan.

 

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.ade8666 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A younger and protracted emplacement of the Ontong Java Plateau

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Jun-2023

Climate change likely led to violence in early Andean populations

UC Davis archaeological study points to potential competition for limited resources

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

Climate change in current times has created problems for humans such as wildfires and reduced growing seasons for staple crops, spilling over into economic effects. Many researchers predict, and have observed in published literature, an increase in interpersonal violence and homicides when temperatures increase.

Violence during climatic change has evidence in history. University of California, Davis, researchers said they have have found a pattern of increased violence during climatic change in the south central Andes between A.D. 470 and 1500. During that time, which includes the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (ca. A.D. 900-1250), temperatures rose, drought occurred, and the first states of the Andes collapsed.

Climate change and potential competition for limited resources in the south central Andes likely led to violence among people living in the highlands at that time, researchers suggest in a new paper. Their study looked at head injuries of the populations living there at that time, a commonly used proxy among archaeologists for interpersonal violence.

“We found that decreased precipitation predicts increased rates of cranial trauma,” said Thomas J. Snyder, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology’s Evolutionary Wing and the primary author of the study.

“This observation suggests that climate change in the form of decreased precipitation exerted a significant effect on rates of interpersonal violence in the region.”  

The study was published June 5 in Quaternary Research, Cambridge University Press. Co-author of the paper is Randall Haas, formerly of the same lab at UC Davis and currently a professor at Wayne State University.

Violence not found in coastal, mid-elevation regions

The same results were not found in coastal and mid-elevation regions, indicating they chose nonviolent solutions to climate change or were not affected by it, researchers said. There was also more agricultural and economic diversity there, potentially buffering against the onset of climate change. Drought-induced resource scarcity in the highlands, however, seems like a likely explanation for the violence there, researchers said.

Snyder said looking at the history of people’s interaction with nature is important when considering possible effects of current climate change challenges and people’s interaction with their climate.  

“Our findings reinforce the idea that people living in already marginal environments are the most likely to be hit hardest by climate change,” he said. “Archaeological research can help us predict how best to handle the challenges faced by people in precarious positions in a rapidly changing climate.”

UC Davis researchers recorded violence during early years in the Andes by analyzing existing data of nearly 3,000 skeletal fractures of humans found at 58 archaeological sites — comparing them to ice accumulation at the time at the Quelccaya glacier — in what is now Peru, Chile and Bolivia. At the same time, there was widespread abandonment of Wari and Tiwanaku sites in the region, indicating a sociopolitical unraveling after the onset of the centuries-long global climate changes.

The archaeology of the Andes provides an excellent opportunity to study the human response to climate change given the region’s extreme climatic variability, incredible archaeological preservation and robust records, researchers said. In this study, researchers found that on average, for every 10-centimeter decrease in annual ice accumulation at the Quelccaya glacier, the likelihood of interpersonal violence more than doubled.

JOURNAL

Quaternary Research

DOI

10.1017/qua.2023.23 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

To boost supply chains, scientists are looking at ways to recover valuable materials from water

From the oceans to geothermal brines, water is an underexplored resource for providing various materials

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

For many materials critical to supply chains that will help enable America’s decarbonization transition, resources are limited. Traditional mining is fraught with challenges, so advancing clean energy depends on finding new ways to reliably access critical materials.     

Promoting national security and economic competitiveness will require America’s researchers to find new ways to obtain the materials that we need for many technologies. These include batteries, magnets in electric motors, catalysts, nuclear reactors and other essential carbon-free energy technologies. 

Water represents one underexplored avenue of acquiring these materials. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have recently published a comprehensive review detailing the various mechanisms by which critical materials can be extracted from diverse water streams. 

Different types of water offer different kinds of material resources, said Seth Darling, chief science and technology officer for Argonne’s Advanced Energy Technologies directorate. ​“The oceans are such a tremendous resource because the total quantities of many valuable and important materials are vast, but they are also highly dilute,” he said. ​“Wastewater has also been in need of reframing — we want people to see that wastewater is not truly waste, rather, it’s rich with all sorts of valuable stuff.” 

Darling also pointed to groundwater aquifers and geothermal brines as other possible sources of valuable materials. These materials include lithium, which is increasingly in demand for electric vehicle batteries and could be used to help decarbonize our economy. ​“Lithium is in the ocean and in geothermal brines; you’d extract it differently from these two sources but it’s important to understand which is cheapest, has the smallest environmental impact, and enables secure supply chains,” Darling said. ​“For many other materials, water is underexplored as a source, and that’s something we’re paying increasingly more attention to.” 

The technologies that Darling and his colleagues are exploring to extract critical materials from different types of water range from the traditional (like membranes) to the innovative (like interfacial solar steam generators).  

Omar Kazi, a Ph.D. student in molecular engineering at the University of Chicago working with Darling, is studying methods to concentrate wastewater streams to recover valuable materials. ​“Getting rid of the water through evaporation is an energy-intensive and slow process,” Kazi said. ​“In geothermal brines, it can take years for water to evaporate to be able to recover the lithium that’s contained in them, which creates a huge bottleneck. The question we are asking is ​‘how we can make the water evaporate faster?’” 

One way to do that could be through the use of porous photothermal materials, which convert light to heat efficiently. These light absorbers act like a black T-shirt that heats up on a sunny day. That heat is transferred to the water directly at the interface with the surrounding air, significantly accelerating evaporation. 

Overall, Darling noted, Argonne has rich capabilities in supply chain, life cycle and technoeconomic analyses. In addition, the laboratory specializes in the materials, chemistry and process engineering relevant to critical material extraction. This uniquely positions the lab to help achieve a more secure and circular economy of materials, especially when it comes to getting more out of water streams.  

A paper based on the study, ​“Material design strategies for recovery of critical resources from water,” appeared online in Advanced Materials on March 31. 

In addition to Darling and Kazi, other authors of the study include Argonne’s Wen Chen, Jamila Eatman, Feng Gao, Yining Liu, Yuqin Wang, and Zijing Xia. 

This work was supported as part of the Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences at Argonne National Laboratory. 

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

---

JOURNAL

Advanced Materials

DOI

10.1002/adma.202300913 

ARTICLE TITLE

Material Design Strategies for Recovery of Critical Resources from Water

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals may raise risk of cognitive disorders in future generations, animal study finds

Reports and Proceedings

THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

Adverse cognitive effects linked to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) exposure, a type of endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC), have the potential to be passed down through generations, according to an animal study being presented Thursday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

PCBs can mimic the effect of the hormone estrogen on the body, contributing to a variety of neuroendocrine, metabolic and reproductive problems.

“Endocrine-disrupting chemicals present in our food, air, water and personal products may cause cognitive-behavioral disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or overeating in future generations,” said Emily N. Hilz, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

To explore this further, Hilz and colleagues administered a common PCB mixture called Aroclor 1221 to pregnant female rats. The adults (n=40), their offspring (n=80), and their future grandchildren (n=80) were all tested on behavioral tasks to assess pleasure-seeking, ability to pay attention, and cognitive flexibility.

“The grandchildren of rats exposed to EDCs while pregnant performed significantly worse on these tasks, showing impaired cognitive function and increased pleasure-seeking,” Hilz said. “This suggests EDCs program potential cognitive disorders or behavioral problems that only emerge in later generations.”

Grandchildren of rats that were exposed to the PCB mixture were more interested in eating for pleasure, according to the results of the sucrose preference test. While all of the tested animals preferred the sucrose solution to water, the grandchildren of mothers exposed to the PCB mixture consumed more of the sucrose solution.

The same rats had an impaired ability to switch between tasks or learn new rules. However, only the male grandchildren were more likely to become fixated with a visual cue, which is common in disorders such as ADHD.

The PCB mixture impaired different aspects of cognitive behavior between male and female rats, depending on the life stage when they were exposed. It’s not yet clear which biological systems might be driving this.

“Our findings suggest regulating EDCs in industrial and consumer products could reduce the prevalence of certain cognitive or behavioral disorders in the future,” Hilz said.

Hilz is scheduled to present at the Society’s ENDO 2023 endocrine-disrupting chemicals news conference at 10 AM Central on Saturday, June 17. Register to view the news conference livestream at endomediastream.com. 

Exposure to dioxins can worsen thyroid function

Reports and Proceedings

THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

CHICAGO—Exposure to dioxins can negatively impact thyroid function, according to a study presented Thursday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

Dioxins are highly toxic compounds that are primarily produced by industrial processes, and their persistence in the environment makes them a significant public health concern. They are produced through a variety of incineration processes, including improper municipal waste incineration and burning of trash. They can be released into the air during natural processes, such as forest fires and volcanoes. Strict regulatory controls on major industrial sources of dioxin have greatly reduced emissions into the air.

Today people are exposed to dioxins primarily by eating food, in particular animal products, contaminated by these chemicals. Dioxins are absorbed and stored in fat tissue and, therefore, accumulate in the food chain. More than 90 percent of human exposure is through food, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Recently, scientists have begun to study the potential impact of exposure to environmental chemicals, such as dioxins, on thyroid function. Thyroid dysfunction affects a significant portion of the population and can have a range of adverse health effects.

Previous studies of the relationship between dioxin exposure and thyroid function have produced inconsistent results, according to researcher Cheng Han, M.D., of the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in Boston, Mass.

In the new study, the researchers used three different statistical methods to investigate the combined effects of 20 environmental dioxins on thyroid function. They used data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007 to 2010.

A total of 20 dioxins and levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were measured in the blood of 2,818 adults. The researchers found that dioxins were significantly associated with high TSH. A high TSH level indicates that the thyroid gland is not making enough thyroid hormone.

“Although more research on how dioxins affect thyroid function is needed, efforts to reduce exposure to dioxins and other toxic chemicals could help to reduce the risk of thyroid dysfunction and improve public health outcomes,” Han said.

Prenatal exposure to phthalates may impact future fertility differently in males and females, animal study finds

Reports and Proceedings

THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

Prenatal exposure to chemicals called phthalates, which are used in hundreds of products, may lead to hormonal changes in females that could affect their future fertility, suggests a study in mice being presented Thursday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

The study found female mouse embryos exposed to phthalates during gestation had lower testosterone levels than those not exposed to the chemicals. Immediately after birth, female mice exposed to phthalates during gestation had lower levels of the hormone estradiol than those not exposed.

“These changes in hormone levels occurred during critical times in their development and could eventually lead to greater problems with fertility,” said lead researcher Mary Bunnell of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Ill.

During the middle of gestation and during the period right after birth, the body develops and changes significantly. At these times, elevated sex hormones are crucial for proper reproductive development and function. In males, the primary sex hormone is testosterone, which is associated with penile and testicular growth and the masculinization of neurons. In females, the primary sex hormone is estradiol, which stimulates breast tissue and acts as a growth hormone for the reproductive organs. The rise in levels of these hormones allows for the maturation of the sexual organs and creates the basis for future fertility.

“The level of sex hormones during the fetal and neonatal periods are critical, and disruptions in the levels at these times can cause reproductive abnormalities that may not be evident until adulthood,” Bunnell said.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as phthalates are ubiquitous in our environment, so it is extremely difficult to avoid exposure. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, phthalates are used in the manufacture of toys, vinyl flooring and wall covering, detergents, lubricating oils, food packaging, pharmaceuticals, blood bags and tubing, and personal care products, such as nail polish, hair sprays, aftershave lotions, soaps, shampoos and perfumes. They can leach from packaging and into the food we consume.

Ongoing research has revealed many health concerns linked with phthalate exposure, particularly of the reproductive system and other endocrine systems. Prepubescent children are especially at risk. It has been shown that phthalates can cross the placenta, putting the developing fetus at risk of gestational exposure to these dangerous chemicals during a sensitive period of development, Bunnell said.

In the new study, researchers studied two groups of mice. In one group, the researchers mimicked human exposure to phthalates by orally dosing pregnant mice with a phthalate mixture formulated to reflect the levels of phthalates found in humans. In the second group, pregnant mice were not exposed to phthalates. They measured fetal and newborn hormones of the offspring in both groups.

During gestation, female embryos exposed to phthalates had lower testosterone levels than non-exposed females. Female newborns had lower estradiol than non-exposed females.  However, they did not find such changes in males. The results show that prenatal phthalate exposure had sex-dependent effects on hormonal levels at critical times of development. Follow-up study indicates that those sex-dependent hormonal changes are not due to the impact on gonadal sex steroid production in males and females, but a sex-dependent impact on the liver’s metabolic capacity.

“This study initiates a new perspective on the reproductive toxicity of phthalates, placing the liver as the primary target,” Bunnell said. “It provides a unique approach to understanding sex-dependent effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and it could pave the way for the development of clinical strategies to mitigate the effects of phthalate exposure.”

Bunnell is scheduled to present at the Society’s ENDO 2023 endocrine-disrupting chemicals news conference at 10 AM Central on Saturday, June 17. Register to view the news conference livestream at endomediastream.com. 

# # #

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.

https://libcom.org/article/our-synthetic-environment-murray-bookchin

Our Synthetic Environment - Murray Bookchin - Libcom.org\ 

Our Synthetic Environment was one of the first books of the modern period in which an author espoused an ecological and environmentalist worldview. It predates ...

IIASA analysis underpins new 2040 climate targets by EU Advisors

Reports and Proceedings

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

In two new reports, IIASA researchers, with support from colleagues at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), examined the feasibility and fairness of emissions targets and considerations for the European Climate Law. Keywan Riahi, a member of the 15-strong EU Advisory Board and IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program Director, took the lead in conducting the analyses.

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change is an independent board entrusted with the crucial responsibility of providing transparent and scientific guidance to the EU on setting a new emissions reduction target to be achieved by 2040, as well as budgets for greenhouse gas emissions within the EU from 2030 to 2050. This guidance should align with other global commitments, including the Paris Agreement.

“The Advisory Board has recommended that the EU should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90-95% by 2040 relative to 1990 levels, having identified pathways that are fair, feasible, and consistent with the EU’s climate commitments. The feasibility and fairness of the Advisory Board’s advice have been substantially informed by two IIASA reports published this week and builds on a long history of hosting climate, emissions, and energy data for the research community, and transparently supporting scientific assessments and policy advice such as the latest IPCC report,” states Riahi, who is also the lead author of various IPCC reports.

“From a total of 63 scenarios that were compatible with the target of 1.5°C and the European Climate Law, 27 scenarios were identified with high feasibility concerns. This left us with 36 scenarios that were recommended for further analysis by the Advisory Board,” says author Elina Brutschin, a researcher in the Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program.

The database and evaluation of different scenarios form a solid and transparent foundation for the Advisory Board’s recommendations to the EU on reducing emissions. These recommendations are expected to become a part of EU law later this year. IIASA researchers have additionally released a report examining the fairness and equity considerations to the EU’s mitigation challenge.

“There are long-standing debates surrounding countries’ historical responsibility for global warming, as well as vulnerability to impacts and the ability to pay for mitigation. The analysis supports a discussion of Europe’s “fair share” and responsibility, that will help determine the EU’s climate ambition both within the EU as well as in international climate negotiations in alignment with the normative principles to which the European Union ascribes,” says Setu Pelz, a researcher in the same group at IIASA.

“The findings presented in these reports underscore the importance of ambitious emissions reductions and climate leadership by the EU in responsibly mitigating emissions and limiting the impacts of climate change. This will bring significant and transformative changes to how people live, the economy, and the environment in the EU,” concludes author Edward Byers, a researcher in the Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group.

 

References

Byers, E., Brutschin, E., Sferra, F., Luderer, G., Huppmann, D., Kikstra, J., Pietzcker, R., Rodrigues, R., & Riahi, K., 2023. Scenarios processing, vetting and feasibility assessment for the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg.  https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/18828

Pelz, S., Rogelj, J., Riahi, K., 2023. Evaluating equity in European climate change mitigation pathways for the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg. https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/18830

About IIASA:

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

---

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Scenarios processing, vetting and feasibility assessment for the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jun-2023

A newly identified protein confers drought tolerance to plants

Researchers at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), have characterized for the first time the function of AtMC3, a protein of the metacaspase family that is involved in drought tolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURAL GENOMICS (CRAG)

 

IMAGE: THE MODEL PLANT ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA USED IN THE STUDY (CREDIT: CRAG). view more 

CREDIT: CRAG

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• CRAG researchers have discovered that AtMC3 protein is exclusively located in a specific part of the plant vascular system.
• Increased levels of AtMC3 are able to confer enhanced tolerance to severe water scarcity conditions, without affecting plant yield.
• This knowledge will contribute to find tools to cope with increasing drought phenomena due to climate crisis.

 

Bellaterra (Barcelona), 16 June 2023

 

Researchers led by Núria Sánchez-Coll, CSIC researcher at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), have characterized for the first time the function of AtMC3, a protein of the metacaspase family that is involved in drought tolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

The work, published in the New Phytologist journal in collaboration with several international research centers and universities, highlights the importance of vascular tissue for plants to cope with adverse conditions associated with water scarcity and osmotic stress.

Plants, as sessile organisms that cannot move like animals do, have evolved ways to endure water scarcity and periods of drought stress. However, increasing drought phenomena due to climate crisis pose a serious threat to agricultural productivity.

 

The importance of the plant vascular system

Plants rely on their vascular system connecting distantly separated organs to coordinate an efficient response to water deprivation at the organismal level. The primary components of vascular tissue are the xylem and phloem, tissues which transport fluids and nutrients internally. While the xylem transports water and nutrients upwards from roots to stems and leaves, phloem distributes the soluble organic compounds made in the leaves during photosynthesis to the rest of the plant.

In this work, CRAG researchers have found for the first time that the AtMC3 protein is exclusively located in the phloem. More specifically AtMC3 is found in a particular cell type of the vasculature, called companion cells which are metabolically supporting the main phloem transport cells (sieve elements), as observed by fluorescence microscopy images of the tip of the root.

When facing drought stress, several signalling molecules such as the plant stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) are synthesized and transported to all plant tissues to trigger a series of physiological responses that will protect the plant. The present study describes that plants lacking AtMC3 are less sensitive to ABA and hence their ability to cope with drought stress is diminished. Moreover, altered levels of the AtMC3 protein lead to differential accumulation of stress-related proteins as well as defects in vascular development under stress conditions. This suggests that AtMC3 plays an important role for plants to respond adequately to osmotic stress and points out a possible new role for companion cells in stress sensing. Furthermore, phloem plasticity emerges as a useful tool to study and manipulate, in order to elucidate the plant responses to drought stress.

 

Tolerance to severe drought stress

When researchers increased the levels of AtMC3, plants increased survival rate and their ability to maintain their photosynthetic capacity in water scarcity conditions, indicating that AtMC3 alone can confer enhanced drought tolerance. More importantly, the altered levels of this protein did not cause any detrimental changes in plant growth, which «is a key finding to be able to fine-tune early drought responses at the whole plant level without affecting growth or yield in crops», states Eugenia Pitsili, first author of the study and former CRAG researcher, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology in Belgium.

This specific role of AtMC3 in drought stress aligns with the function of previously reported metacaspases, which have been linked to other stress responses such as those caused by pathogens or wounding.

This work opens the door to further studies to elucidate the exact mechanism of action of this protein to be able to understand the whole process in more depth and to evaluate whether it could have an application in crops.

Understanding the tissue specific mechanisms underlying the complex process of response to water scarcity is key to develop new tools to translate this knowledge into biotechnological and breeding solutions. These new tools will be crucial to improve crop performance in the field in a context of climate crisis.

 

 

Reference Article: Pitsili, E., et al. A phloem-localized Arabidopsis metacaspase (AtMC3) improves drought tolerance. New Phytol. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19022

About the authors and funding of the study: Research in the NSC-MV lab is funded by project PID2019-108595RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, TED2021-131457B-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by the “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR”, and and through the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” (SEV-2015-0533 and CEX2019-000902-S funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033). This work was also supported by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. EP and JS-L were supported by fellowships BES-2016-077242 and BES-2017-080210, respectively, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”. NR and RdP were supported by fellowships FPU2019-03778 and FPU2018-03285, respectively, funded by Ministerio de Universidades. The AR-V lab was funded by the Swiss National Foundation, Stavros-Niarchos/ETH-Foundation (EK) and a Swiss government fellowship (RRT). MJH and CD were supported by the University of Nottingham. The authors acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).

About the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG): CRAG is a centre that forms part of the CERCA system of research centres of the Government of Catalonia (Spain), and which was established as a partnership of four institutions: the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Barcelona (UB). CRAG’s research spans from basic research in plant and farm animal molecular biology, to applications of molecular approaches for breeding of species important for agriculture and food production in close collaboration with industry. In 2020, CRAG was recognized for the second time as a "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

 

 

Images:

• 1_Arabidopsis-plant_CRAG.jpg: The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana used in the study (Credit: CRAG).
• 2_Arabidopsis-drought_CRAG.jpg: Example of one of the experiments, where several Arabidopsis thaliana plants have been grown in water scarcity conditions (Credit: CRAG).
• 3_Root-fluorescence_CRAG.png: Fluorescence microscopy image of the tip of the root of Arabidopsis thaliana showing specific expression of the protein AtMC3 (green) in the companion cells of the phloem vascular tissue (Credit: CRAG).
• 4_Scheme-AtMC3.jpg: Scheme of the localization of the protein AtMC3 in the root (Credit: CRAG).

Images can be dowloaded here: https://tuit.cat/66et5

  

Example of one of the experiments, where several Arabidopsis thaliana plants have been grown in water scarcity conditions (Credit: CRAG).

Fluorescence microscopy image of the tip of the root of Arabidopsis thaliana showing specific expression of the protein AtMC3 (green) in the companion cells of the phloem vascular tissue (Credit: CRAG).

Scheme of the localization of the protein AtMC3 in the root (Credit: CRAG).

CREDIT

CRAG

JOURNAL

New Phytologist

DOI

10.1111/nph.19022 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A phloem-localized Arabidopsis metacaspase (AtMC3) improves drought tolerance

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Jun-2023

Sickle cell disease is 11 times more deadly than previously recorded

8 million people suffer from the hereditary disease which disproportionately impacts children, adolescents, and young adults

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION

• A new analysis provides a more complete picture of sickle cell disease mortality burden by combining disease prevalence data in different age groups and trends in overall survival when factoring in resulting secondary conditions.
• When looking across all deaths, sickle cell disease is a leading cause of mortality in children under 5 years as well as in youth 5–14 years and adults 15–49 years.
• Half a million babies were born with sickle cell disease in 2021, and 79% of these infants were in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The largest increases in total deaths due to sickle cell disease since 2000 were in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with the rise driven by population growth.
• Data gaps and high burden in regions with historically elevated rates of sickle cell disease highlight the urgent need for universal newborn screening systems and increased access to sickle cell disease treatment.

 

SEATTLE, Wash. June 15, 2023 — A new study suggests the number of deaths due to sickle cell disease is 11 times higher than what is indicated from mortality data sources alone. Sickle cell disease is not just underdiagnosed, but it also increases risk of infection and of death from conditions like stroke, heart problems, kidney problems, and pregnancy complications. This means that the doctor taking care of a sickle cell disease patient who died from stroke may not even know that person had sickle cell disease or may not know that sickle cell disease can cause stroke, both of which could lead the doctor to not list sickle cell disease as a cause of death for that person.

When other sources of data on prevalence and birth incidence were combined with mortality data in epidemiological modeling, in 2021, the “total mortality burden” of sickle cell disease was 373,000 deaths, compared to 34,600 sickle-cell-only deaths, or “cause-specific deaths.” The increase was especially pronounced in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where the fatality figures were 67 times higher and nine times higher, respectively.

The study analyzed global health data from 2000 to 2021 and is published today in The Lancet Haematology journal. The research is part of the Global Burden of Disease 2021 study coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.

“Our research reveals the stark reality that sickle cell disease is far deadlier than its textbook description,” says senior author Dr. Nicholas Kassebaum, Adjunct Associate Professor at IHME. “The number of babies born with sickle cell disease is rising, which means a very difficult early childhood. Patients are more susceptible to infections and other severe conditions, so early detection is key for treatment.”

In 2021, half a million babies were born with sickle cell disease, and more than three-quarters of these births were in sub-Saharan Africa. Under the analysis of total mortality burden (including secondary conditions), sickle cell disease was the 12th leading cause of death globally for children under the age of 5 years. However, total sickle cell disease mortality burden was among the top three causes of death in Portugal, Jamaica, Libya, Oman, and San Marino.

“Improved data collection is critical to tracking progress on sickle cell disease. In order to overcome this data limitation, instead of using mortality data alone to estimate total sickle cell disease deaths, we used a mathematical algorithm that also takes input data from birth incidence, survival over time, and prevalence, and ensures these measures are internally consistent,” explains Azalea Thomson, first author and IHME researcher on the Neonatal and Child Health Team. “By making use of all available data, we were able to strengthen our understanding of the true burden of sickle cell disease and better contextualize it alongside other leading causes of death. For example, in 2021, in kids under 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa, total sickle cell disease deaths exceeded those from malnutrition, measles, or syphilis.”

The research also underscores the need for policymakers and public health advocates to address the largely underrecognized burden of sickle cell disease. Universal newborn screening, case monitoring through public registries, and early intervention treatment can alleviate suffering for some 8 million people living with sickle cell disease.

“Universal newborn screening is essential for early diagnosis and management of sickle cell disease,” says Dr. Theresa McHugh, scientific writer at IHME who focuses on neonatal and child health. “In low- and middle-income countries, the newborn screening process is fragmented. In the US, newborn screening is universal, but a national registry does not yet exist. Increased global awareness and adoption of health policies that expand neonatal screening and make treatment more accessible will go a long way in improving health outcomes.”

The study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The study team included researchers from IHME and GBD 2021 collaborators from around the world.

IF YOU WISH TO PROVIDE A LINK FOR YOUR READERS, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING, 

  http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhae/article/PIIS2352-3026(23)00118-7/fulltext

---

JOURNAL

The Lancet Haematology

DOI

10.1016/S2352-3026(23)00118-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Global, regional and national prevalence and mortality burden of sickle cell disease, 2000-2021: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jun-2023