As the pickleball craze grows, doctors urge players not to ignore injuries

As pickleball-related sprains, strains and overuse injuries rise, survey finds many forgo care for nagging sports injuries

Reports and Proceedings

ORLANDO HEALTH

 

VIDEO: PICKLEBALL: ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL SOMEONE GETS HURT view more 

CREDIT: ORLANDO HEALTH

Orlando, Fla - Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the country and has proven to be a great way to help millions stay active. And while it may seem like a fun game with a silly name, like any sport, it is not without risk. As doctors see more patients with pickleball-related injuries, a new national survey by The Harris Poll on behalf of Orlando Health finds many Americans are likely to forgo medical care for a nagging sports injury.

“Because pickleball is a relatively low impact activity, a lot of people think they won’t get hurt, but we’re seeing more and more people coming in with everything from broken bones and sprains to overuse injuries to the knees, shoulders and elbows,” said Luis Gandara, MD, a sports medicine physician at the Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute. “Any injury that doesn't seem to be getting better in a matter of a few days needs to be checked out by an orthopedic specialist to get a correct diagnosis and effective treatment.”

The survey found that while a third (33%) of Americans report avoiding participation in a sport or hobby because of a nagging injury, about half (49%) agree it’s not worth seeing a doctor for a sports injury they believe will heal on its own, something Gandara warns can exacerbate injuries and lead to more serious problems that are more difficult to treat.

“Playing through an injury that doesn’t resolve with rest, ice and elevation causes that injury to become increasingly unstable,” he said. “If a patient comes to us right away, there is a good chance we can treat them with less-invasive options to help common injuries like a strained ligament, torn muscle or a hairline fracture heal. But if an injury is left to worsen over time without intervention, a patient is more likely to require surgery and a longer and more difficult recovery.”

The survey also found 44% believe making a doctor’s appointment for an injury that is not too painful is too much work. That’s why the Jewett Orthopedic Institute opened several walk-in clinics, where patients can see an orthopedic specialist without an appointment or a referral, to ensure patients can get the care they need quickly and conveniently.

“Unlike going to the ER or an urgent care center, an orthopedic walk-in clinic is staffed with specialists who can assess sports injuries and immediately initiate effective treatment, whether that involves physical therapy and non-invasive treatments like injections or a same day referral to a specific type of surgeon,” Gandara said.

Robbin Murray fell in love with pickleball a decade ago. But as she played more frequently and competitively, she began to have issues with her knee that were painful enough to keep her off the court.

“I was hooked right from the start and would play as much as I could, all day long, eventually traveling to compete in senior tournaments,” Murray said. “It all added up and I started experiencing sharp pains that would take me down to the ground in the middle of a game.”

Robbin worried she would need knee replacement surgery, but after consulting with Dr. Gandara, has been able to safely participate in the sport she loves and manage her injury with a specialized brace, anti-inflammatory injections and physical therapy to strengthen and stretch the area.

Gandara encourages people to get out and enjoy pickleball or any healthy activity they enjoy, but emphasizes the importance of easing into any new activity, taking precautions like stretching and wearing supportive shoes and listening to your body when something doesn’t feel right.

B-ROLL, SOUND BITES, WEB ELEMENTS & HI-RES STILL PHOTOS - Including HD video available for free/unrestricted use by the news media: https://bit.ly/44yMLLB 
Courtesy: Orlando Health

For assistance in downloading, or if you have any questions, contact: allison@mediasourcetv.com or call: 423.742.5091.

Survey Method

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Orlando Health from June 15 - 20, 2023 among 2,076 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact allison@mediasourcetv.com. 

Luis Gandara, MD, examines a patient at The Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute who suffered an injury while playing the increasingly popular sport of pickleball. While he encourages patients to participate in active hobbies they enjoy, he stresses the importance of seeking care for nagging aches and pains to prevent injuries from worsening.

Pickleball is a great way to stay active, but like any sport, it comes with risks. A new national survey by Orlando Health finds many Americans are likely to forgo treatment for nagging sports injuries, something doctors warn can lead to more serious conditions and complicated treatments.

CREDIT

Orlando Health

About Orlando Health
Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $9.2 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. 

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for Central Florida’s only pediatric and adult Level I Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level II Adult Trauma Center in Pinellas County. It is the home of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care unit under one roof, the only system in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows. 

The 3,888-bed system includes 29 hospitals and emergency departments – 24 of which are currently operational with five coming soon. The system also includes nine specialty institutes, more than 100 adult and pediatric primary care practices, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility under the management of Acadia Healthcare, and more than 60 outpatient facilities that include imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. More than 4,750 physicians, representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 27,000 team members and more than 1,200 physicians. 

In FY22, Orlando Health served nearly 142,000 inpatients and 3.9 million outpatients. The healthcare system provided more than $782 million in total value to the communities it serves in the form of charity care, community benefit programs and services, community building activities and more in FY 21, the most recent period for which this information is available. Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.

---

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Marine fossils unearth story about Panama’s deep past

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: MOST OF THE SPECIMENS DESCRIBED IN THE NEW BIOLOGY LETTERS PAPER WERE COLLECTED BY CARLOS DE GRACIA FROM STRI AND JORGE VELEZ JUARBE FROM THE LOS ANGELES MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. view more 

CREDIT: ALDO B./JORGE V./CARLOS DE G.

Between 6.4 and 5.8 million years ago, most of the land bridge that connects North and South America had already emerged and the channels connecting both Pacific and Atlantic oceans were shallow. Recent fossil discoveries in the northern Panama Canal area suggest that marine species interchange persisted across these shallow waters during the final stages of formation of the isthmus.

In 2017 and 2019, Aldo Benites-Palomino was studying fossils collected in Caribbean Panama, when he came across some unexpected specimens. He was a biology student in Perú, where his training had been very classical. As an intern and later a fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), his mindset shifted. His mentor, STRI staff scientist and paleobiologist Carlos Jaramillo, encouraged his students to change their focus when looking at fossils: instead of thinking about specimens or methods, to think about the questions that the fossils could help answer.

“I wanted to go to STRI because it is the most important tropical biology center in the world,” said Benites-Palomino. “There I was able to learn a lot about the way biology and ecology is done in the modern world.”

The fossil remains belonged to small-sized cetaceans, a group of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins, and the specimens were new for the region. Most of them had been collected by Carlos de Gracia from STRI and Jorge Velez Juarbe from the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, both co-authors in a new paper published in Biology Letters. In the article, Benites-Palomino and his colleagues go beyond describing the specimens, they also unearth the story they reveal about the isthmus’ deep past.

The fossils belonged to the Late Miocene, around 6.4 to 5.8 million years ago, when the final stages of formation of the isthmus had already started. This event affected oceanic waters and marine currents across the globe and triggered speciation events, where species separated by the land bridge developed their own unique characteristics on either ocean.

However, these cetaceans found in Caribbean Panama shared similarities with other Late Miocene species from the North and South Pacific Ocean, particularly the Pisco Formation in Peru, suggesting that some organisms were still able to disperse via the shallowing seaway at a time when deep water interchange between both oceans was no longer occurring.

The lack of fossil marine mammals from the western Caribbean has thus far hampered understanding of the region’s deep past, so these new findings help strengthen current knowledge regarding the connectivity between the Pacific and Caribbean marine faunas during the final phases of formation of the isthmus.

“The marine vertebrate fossil record of Panama has been barely explored,” said Carlos Jaramillo, STRI staff scientist and co-author of the study. “There are still many specimens that need to be studied and many more still in the rocks waiting to be found.”

The fossils collected in the northern Panama Canal area belonged to small-sized cetacean specimens from the Late Miocene and were new for the region.

CREDIT

Jaime Bran

The cetacean specimens found in Caribbean Panama shared similarities with Late Miocene species from the Pacific Ocean, particularly the Pisco Formation in Peru.

CREDIT

Jorge Alemán/STRI

---

JOURNAL

Biology Letters

DOI

10.1098/rsbl.2023.0124 

ARTICLE TITLE

Bridging two oceans: small toothed cetaceans (Odontoceti) from the Late Miocene Chagres Formation, eastern Caribbean (Colon, Panama)

Hidden details of Egyptian paintings revealed by chemical imaging

On-site analysis of paint layering identifies history of alterations in ancient paintings

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: PORTRAIT OF RAMSES II IN NAKHTAMUN TOMB, CHIEF OF THE ALTAR IN THE RAMESSEUM (TOMB TT 341, POSSIBLY 20TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1100 B.C.). view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE CREDIT 1: MARTINEZ ET AL., CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Portable chemical imaging technology can reveal hidden details in ancient Egyptian paintings, according to a study published July 12, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Philippe Martinez of Sorbonne University, France in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Liège, Belgium.

Ancient Egyptian paintings are commonly thought to be the result of highly formalized workflows that produced skilled works of art. However, most studies of these paintings and the process that created them take place in museums or laboratories. In this study, Martinez and colleagues use portable devices to perform chemical imaging on paintings in their original context, allowing for analysis of paint composition and layering and for the identification of alterations made to ancient paintings.

Two paintings were analyzed in detail, both located in tomb chapels in the Theban Necropolis near the River Nile, dating to the Ramesside Period. On the first painting, researchers were able to identify alterations made to the position of a figure’s arm, though the reason for this relatively small change is uncertain. On the second painting, analysis uncovered numerous adjustments to the crown and other royal items depicted on a portrait of Ramesses II, a series of changes that most likely relate to some change in symbolic meaning over time.

Such alterations to paintings are thought to be rare among such art, but the researchers suggest that these discoveries call for further investigation. Many uncertainties remain about the reasoning and the timing behind the alterations observed, some of which might be resolved by future analysis. This study also serves to prove the utility of portable chemical imaging technology for studying ancient paintings in-situ.

The authors add: “These discoveries clearly call for a systematized and closer inspection of paintings in Egypt using physicochemical characterization.”

#####

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287647

Citation: Martinez P, Alfeld M, Defeyt C, Elleithy H, Glanville H, Hartwig M, et al. (2023) Hidden mysteries in ancient Egyptian paintings from the Theban Necropolis observed by in-situ XRF mapping. PLoS ONE 18(7): e0287647. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287647

Author Countries: France, Egypt, Netherlands, Belgium, USA

Funding: PW: DIM Analytics, project IMAPAT, Ile-de-France, https://www.dim-analytics.fr PW: ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02, National Research Agency under the program Future Investments (program POLYRE of Sorbonne Universités), http://anr.fr CD and DS: Prf-2019-060, The Belgian Federal Science Policy Office through the FED-tWIN program, http://www.belspo.be. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Hidden mysteries in ancient Egyptian paintings from the Theban Necropolis observed by in-situ XRF mapping

MA-XRF study of the painting of Ramesses II.

CREDIT

Martinez et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Philippe Walter and Catherine Defeyt taking measurements in the Noble Valley in Luxor (Egypt) using the portable scientific device.

CREDIT

David Strivay, University of Liege, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

---

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0287647 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Hidden mysteries in ancient Egyptian paintings from the Theban Necropolis observed by in-situ XRF mapping

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Jul-2023

Global study finds increased female and youth legislative representation may improve SDG performance

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The study also shows a divide in achieving socio-economic and environmental goals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OKINAWA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (OIST) GRADUATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MS. NOBUE AMANUMA AND DR. DEWI LANGLET, COAUTHORS OF A GLOBAL STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEMALE AND YOUTH PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION AND SDG PERFORMANCE view more 

CREDIT: OIST

As part of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology’s (OIST) SDG initiative, researchers from OIST and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) have studied the composition of national legislatures from more than 100 countries and found that those with higher female and youth representation perform better in achieving the 17 SDG goals and 169 targets.  

The study involved cross-disciplinary collaboration between researchers in marine ecology, environmental policy, and political science, and revealed the trade-offs between environmental and socio-economic SDGs in the policy making process, and the choices countries have made on the different paths towards achieving the global goals. 

The article titled “The relationship between female and younger legislative representation and performance on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” was recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters and coauthored by Dr. Dewi Langlet, a scientist in the Evolution, Cell Biology and Symbiosis Unit at OIST, together with Ms. Nobue Amanuma, Deputy Director, and Dr. Eric Zusman, Research Leader, at the Integrated Sustainability Centre at IGES.  

Females and youth are currently underrepresented in many parliaments, including Japan, which has one of the lowest numbers of female parliamentary members and a high average age of cabinet members. The authors hope that their results can help motivate countries to increase diversity in their legislatures and potentially achieve better SDG performance. 

The researchers also examined the performance of countries on different types of SDGs. “An interesting finding is that when we separate the environmental goals from socio-economic goals, we find that female and young parliamentarians do not have the same effect on achieving these two different types of SDG goals. For example, a greater percentage of female parliamentarians positively affects the performance of socio-economic goals, but doesn’t affect the performance of environmental SDGs,” Dr. Langlet explained.

“This means that there is a divide or trade-off between socio-economic SDGs and environmental SDGs, especially in developed countries that tend to have very high scores on social and economic goals, but lower scores for environmental goals,” Ms. Amanuma said. “It’s a big global challenge and it’s why countries need to turn trade-offs between these two into synergies.”

The researchers point out that if trade-off challenges are not properly resolved, increasing females and youth in parliaments will not necessarily mean that we can achieve the SDGs. Furthermore, as the 2030 deadline for achieving the SDGs approaches, we urgently need a more balanced approach to reach them, or even one in which environmental related SDGs such as those associated with climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable consumption and production, are prioritized. “Our study shows the limit to the current approach to sustainable development, where countries can cherry pick what to work on and what not to work on,” Ms. Amanuma stated. 

Further studies can explain why nations with a higher proportion of young and female legislators are more successful in achieving SDGS and explore how the increased presence of these demographics in local governments can impact sustainable development. Such research could reveal similar trends across different regions and promote stronger links between socio-economic and environmental objectives.

---

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/acca96 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The relationship between female and younger legislative representation and performance on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The ground is deforming, and buildings aren’t ready

First study to quantify effects of subsurface climate change on civil infrastructure

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: GEOLOGICAL LAYERS BENEATH THE CHICAGO LOOP view more 

CREDIT: ALESSANDRO ROTTA LORIA/NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

There is a “silent hazard” lurking underneath our major global cities, and our buildings were not designed to handle it.

A new Northwestern University study has, for the first time, linked underground climate change to the shifting ground beneath urban areas. As the ground heats up, it also deforms. This phenomenon causes building foundations and the surrounding ground to move excessively (due to expansions and contractions) and even crack, which ultimately affects structures’ long-term operational performance and durability. Researchers also report that past building damage may have been caused by such rising temperatures and expect these issues to continue for years to come.

Although rising temperatures do pose a threat to our infrastructure, the researchers also view it as a potential opportunity. By capturing the waste heat emitted underground from subterranean transportation systems, parking garages and basement facilities, urban planners could mitigate the effects of underground climate change as well as reuse the heat into an untapped thermal energy resource.

The study will be published on July 11, in Communications Engineering, a Nature Portfolio journal. It marks the first study to quantify ground deformations caused by subsurface heat islands and their effect on civil infrastructure.

“Underground climate change is a silent hazard,” said Northwestern’s Alessandro Rotta Loria, who led the study. “The ground is deforming as a result of temperature variations, and no existing civil structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these variations. Although this phenomenon is not dangerous for people’s safety necessarily, it will affect the normal day-to-day operations of foundation systems and civil infrastructure at large.

“Chicago clay can contract when heated, like many other fine-grained soils. As a result of temperature increases underground, many foundations downtown are undergoing unwanted settlement, slowly but continuously. In other words, you don’t need to live in Venice to live in a city that is sinking — even if the causes for such phenomena are completely different.”

Rotta Loria is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering.

What is underground climate change?

In many urban areas around the globe, heat continuously diffuses from buildings and underground transportation, causing the ground to warm at an alarming rate. Previous researchers have found that the shallow subsurface beneath cities warms by 0.1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius per decade.

Known as “underground climate change” or “subsurface heat islands,” this phenomenon has been known to cause ecological issues (such as contaminated ground water) and health issues (including asthma and heatstroke). But, until now, the effect of underground climate change on civil infrastructure has remained unstudied and little understood.

“If you think about basements, parking garages, tunnels and trains, all of these facilities continuously emit heat,” Rotta Loria said. “In general, cities are warmer than rural areas because construction materials periodically trap heat derived from human activity and solar radiation and then release it into the atmosphere. That process has been studied for decades. Now, we are looking at its subsurface counterpart, which is mostly driven by anthropogenic activity.”

Northwestern Ph.D. student Anjali Naidu Thota affixes a temperature sensor to a pipe in a basement beneath the Chicago Loop.

A smartphone receives data from the underground temperature sensors.

CREDIT

Northwestern University

Chicago as a living laboratory

In recent years, Rotta Loria and his team installed a wireless network of more than 150 temperature sensors across the Chicago Loop — both above and below ground. This included placing sensors in the basements of buildings, subway tunnels, underground parking garages and subsurface streets like Lower Wacker Drive. For comparison, the team also buried sensors in Grant Park, a greenspace located along Lake Michigan — away from buildings and underground transportation systems.

Data from the wireless sensing network indicated that underground temperatures beneath the Loop are often 10 degrees warmer than temperatures beneath Grant Park. Air temperatures in underground structures can be up to 25 degrees higher compared to the undisturbed ground temperature. When the heat diffuses toward the ground, it puts significant stress on materials that expand and contract with changing temperatures.

“We used Chicago as a living laboratory, but underground climate change is common to nearly all dense urban areas worldwide,” Rotta Loria said. “And all urban areas suffering from underground climate change are prone to have problems with infrastructure.”

A 3D rendering of the Chicago Loop. Colored dots mark the locations of the temperature sensors.

CREDIT

Alessandro Rotta Loria/Northwestern University

Slowly sinking

After collecting temperature data for three years, Rotta Loria built a 3D computer model to simulate how ground temperatures evolved from 1951 (the year Chicago completed its subway tunnels) to today. He found values consistent to those measured in the field and used the simulation to predict how temperatures will evolve until the year 2051.

Rotta Loria also modeled how ground deforms in response to increasing temperatures. Whereas some materials (soft and stiff clay) contract when heated, other materials (hard clay, sand and limestone) expand.

According to the simulations, warmer temperatures can cause the ground to swell and expand upward by as much as 12 millimeters. They also can cause the ground to contract and sink downward — beneath the weight of a building — by as much as 8 millimeters. Although this seems subtle and is imperceptible to humans, the variation is more than many building components and foundation systems can handle without compromising their operational requirements.

“Based on our computer simulations, we have shown that ground deformations can be so severe that they lead to problems for the performance of civil infrastructure,” Rotta Loria said. “It’s not like a building will suddenly collapse. Things are sinking very slowly. The consequences for serviceability of structures and infrastructures can be very bad, but it takes a long time to see them. It’s very likely that underground climate change has already caused cracks and excessive foundation settlements that we didn’t associate with this phenomenon because we weren’t aware of it.”

Ground temperatures measured throughout the Chicago Loop

CREDIT

Alessandro Rotta Loria/Northwestern University

Footage from the field [VIDEO] | 

Harvesting heat

Because urban planners and architects designed most modern buildings before underground climate change emerged, they did not design structures to tolerate the temperature variations we experience today. Still, modern buildings will fare better than structures from earlier time periods, such as the Middle Ages.

“In the United States, the buildings are all relatively new,” Rotta Loria said. “European cities with very old buildings will be more susceptible to subsurface climate change. Buildings made of stone and bricks that resort to past design and construction practices are generally in a very delicate equilibrium with the perturbations associated with the current operations of cities. The thermal perturbations linked to subsurface heat islands can have detrimental impacts for such constructions.”

Going forward, Rotta Loria said future planning strategies should integrate geothermal technologies to harvest waste heat and deliver it to buildings for space heating. Planners also can install thermal insulation on new and existing buildings to minimize the amount of heat that enters the ground.

“The most effective and rational approach is to isolate underground structures in a way that the amount of wasted heat is minimal,” Rotta Loria said. “If this cannot be done, then geothermal technologies offer the opportunity to efficiently absorb and reuse heat in buildings. What we don’t want is to use technologies to actively cool underground structures because that uses energy. Currently, there are a myriad of solutions that can be implemented.”

The study, “The silent impact of underground climate change on civil infrastructure,” was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant number 2046586). The wireless sensing network at the basis of this work, which also serves as a living laboratory for a course taught by Rotta Loria, was partially supported by the Murphy Society and the Alumnae of Northwestern University.

---

JOURNAL

Communications Engineering

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The silent impact of underground climate change on civil infrastructure

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Jul-2023

Amazon in the firetrap: Deforestation and warming lock rainforest in dry and damaged grassland state

Peer-Reviewed Publication

POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH (PIK)

Global warming and drastic deforestation could dry out the Amazon rainforest faster and enforce the risk of keeping it downright fire-trapped. A new study published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment shows: Fire can be a decisive factor for a potential tipping of the Amazon rainforest, as it is capable of locking large parts of the Amazon in a treeless state. While naturally not occurring in rainforests, fire can play an increasing role once the forest is damaged, thinned or completely lost, up to a status where fire is the dominating driver of the ecosystem.

“It turns out, fire is the important factor for locking the Amazon in a grassland state, preventing 56-86% of the Amazon from regrowing, depending on the strength of climate change”, lead author Markus Drüke from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) explains. “We know that reversing the Amazon forest loss becomes increasingly harder the more forest is lost, and our study shows that fire puts another lever onto this coherence."

Usually, the trees of the Amazon transport enormous amounts of water back to the atmosphere, which they originally received as rain. This water can form new rain locally or downwind in a process called moisture recycling basically forming “flying rivers”, not only stabilizing the Amazon as whole but also enabling it to extent into regions which would be too dry without this process. This coherence is the main reason why the Amazon is considered a tipping element of the Earth system. Global warming and deforestation can damage these flying rivers leading to a self-reinforcing feedback of forest loss. The new study now underlines how fire dynamics help to push and lock the Amazon towards and in a savanna-like or treeless state.

Fire plays key role in irreversible transition

In contrast, in simulations without fire, the forest was able to recover over a longer time period of within 250 years, which emphasizes the important role of fire for the irreversibility of tropical deforestation.

“For the first time, it has been possible to calculate the feedbacks between fire, rainforest and climate in a process-based manner using the Earth system model POEM (Potsdam Earth Model)”, adds co-author Kirsten Thonicke, Deputy Head of Research Department on Earth System Analysis and Working Group Leader on Ecosystem in Transitions at PIK. “Our results highlight the need to keep the Earth system within stable boundaries and limit climate change as well as tropical deforestation in order to prevent the tropical forest from crossing an irreversible fire-controlled tipping point”, she concludes.

Article: Markus Drüke, Boris Sakschewski, Werner von Bloh, Maik Billing, Wolfgang Lucht, Kirsten Thonicke (2023): Fire may prevent future Amazon forest recovery after large-scale deforestation. Nature Communications Earth and Environment. [DOI: 10.1038/s43247-023-00911-5]

Weblink to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00911-5

JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s43247-023-00911-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Fire may prevent future Amazon forest recovery after large-scale deforestation.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Jul-2023