Global study details microplastics contamination in lakes and reservoirs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

 

IMAGE: REBECCA KESSLER SAMPLES WATER FOR MICROPLASTICS IN CLINTON LAKE, LAWRENCE. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY TED HARRIS.

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Around 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. But that is not the only water source where plastic represents a significant intrusion.

“We found microplastics in every lake we sampled,” said Ted Harris, associate research professor for the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research at the University of Kansas.

“Some of these lakes you think of as clear, beautiful vacation spots. But we discovered such places to be perfect examples of the link between plastics and humans.”

Harris is one of 79 researchers belonging to the international Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON), which examines processes and phenomena occurring in freshwater environments. Their new paper, titled “Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs,” reveals that concentrations of plastic found in freshwater environments are actually higher than those found in so-called “garbage patches” in the ocean. The article is published in Nature.

For his role, Harris teamed with Rebecca Kessler, his former student and recent KU graduate, to test two Kansas lakes (Clinton and Perry) and the Cross Reservoir at the KU Field Station.

“That entailed us going out, tolling a net with tiny little holes in it, dragging it for about two minutes, then collecting those samples of microplastics and sending them off to (the lead researchers),” Kessler said.

The research project was designed and coordinated by the Inland Water Ecology and Management research group of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy (headed by Barbara Leoni and Veronica Nava). The team sampled surface waters of 38 lakes and reservoirs, distributed across gradients of geographical position and limnological attributes. It detected plastic debris in all studied lakes and reservoirs.

“This paper essentially shows the more humans, the more plastics,” Harris said. “Places like Clinton Lake are relatively low in microplastics because — while there are many animals and trees — there aren’t a lot of humans, relative to somewhere like Lake Tahoe where people are living all around it. Some of these lakes are seemingly pristine and beautiful, yet that’s where the microplastics come from.”

Harris said that many of the plastics are from something as outwardly innocuous as T-shirts.

“The simple act of people getting in swimming and having clothing that has microplastic fibers in it leads to microplastics getting everywhere,” he said.

The GLEON study cites two types of water bodies studied that are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination: lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized areas; and those with elevated deposition areas, long water retention times and high levels of anthropogenic influence.

“When we started the study, I didn’t know a lot about microplastics versus large plastics,” Harris said.

“When this paper says ‘concentrations as much or worse than the garbage patch,’ you always think of the big bottles and stuff, but you’re not thinking of all that smaller stuff. You don’t see a huge garbage patch in Lake Tahoe, yet it’s one of the most impacted lakes when it comes to microplastics. Those are plastics you can’t really see with the naked eye, and then you get underneath a scope at 40,000x, and you see these little jagged pieces and other particles that are the same size as algae or even smaller.”

Part of Harris and Kessler’s enthusiasm for taking part in this project was to highlight a region of the U.S. that is often overlooked.

“In this study, there’s one dot in the middle of the country, and that’s our sample,” he said. “In Iowa, Missouri and Colorado, there’s this huge swath of area that has water bodies, but we often don’t get them into those massive global studies. So it was really important for me to put Kansas on the map to see and contextualize what these differences are in our lakes.”

Harris has worked at KU since 2013, where his research focuses on aquatic ecology. Kessler graduated KU in 2022 with a degree in ecology, evolutionary & organismal biology.

“The biggest takeaway from our study is that microplastics can be found in all lakes,” Kessler said. “Obviously, there are different concentrations. But they are literally everywhere. And the biggest contributing factor to these microplastics is human interaction with the lakes.”

Top photo: Rebecca Kessler samples water for microplastics in Clinton Lake, Lawrence. Photo by Ted Harris.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06168-4. 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Jul-2023

Chemical odyssey: First global analysis shows how pesticides leach into the environment

Study reveals pesticides travel far and wide after initial agricultural application, leaching into aquifers, rivers, oceans and soils

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

 

IMAGE: PESTICIDE CONCENTRATION IN RIVERS AND DISCHARGE TO OCEANS GLOBALLY view more 

CREDIT: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR FEDERICO MAGGI, DR FRANCESCO TABIELLA, DR FIONA TANG.

Chemical odyssey: First global analysis shows how pesticides leach into the environment

• Study reveals pesticides travel far and wide after initial agricultural application, leaching into aquifers, rivers, oceans and soils
• Researchers recommend pesticide reduction and increased global monitoring

Sydney – About three million tonnes of agricultural pesticides are used across the globe each year, yet little is known about where or in which environments these chemicals end up after their initial application.

A global study published today in Nature, which analysed the geographic distribution of 92 of the most commonly used agricultural pesticides, found that approximately 70,000 tonnes of potentially harmful chemicals leach into aquifers each year, impacting ecosystems and freshwater resources. 

Associate Professor Federico Maggi, the study’s lead author from the University of Sydney’s School of Civil Engineering, said: “Our study has revealed that pesticides wander far from their original source. In many cases these chemicals end up a long way downstream and often, though in much smaller amounts, all the way to the ocean.” 

The study showed that about 80 percent of applied pesticides degrade into daughter molecules – or byproducts – into soil surrounding crops. 

“This degradation of pesticides often occurs as a ‘cascade’ of molecules into the surrounding environment, which can persist in the environment for a long time and can be just as harmful as the parent molecule or applied pesticide. One such example is glyphosate. Although it is highly degradable, it breaks down into a molecule known as AMPA that is both highly persistent and toxic,” said Associate Professor Maggi.

While the study found that only a fraction of pesticides enter river systems after field application, once in the water most of the active ingredients end up in the ocean, with potential negative impacts on marine wildlife and coral reefs. This puts at risk the very basis of marine and freshwater food chains. 

“On paper, 0.1 percent leaching into fresh waterways might not sound like much,” said Associate Professor Maggi. “But it only takes a tiny amount of pesticides to have a negative impact on the environment.” 

The study showed that 730 tonnes of pesticides enter rivers each year, with about 13,000 kilometres of rivers reaching chemical concentrations above safety limits for a number of aquatic plants and invertebrates, with poorly understood consequences on rivers’ ecosystems. 

Dr Fiona Tang, a lecturer in water engineering at Monash University and paper co-author said: “Just because we don’t see pesticide residues in soil and water doesn’t mean they’re not there, impacting critical systems on land, rivers and oceans.”

Paper co-author, Dr Francesco Tubiello, Senior Environmental Statistician at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation said: "We must urgently adopt sustainable management strategies to promote reductions in field applications of harmful pesticides and set in place systems to effectively monitor their use under the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.”

The research team used a large collection of publicly accessible geospatial data to conduct the study. 

However, the authors say the paper is a conservative estimate because not all pesticides were included in the analysis. They did not analyse legacy pesticides and those used in aquaculture, private dwellings and public spaces, meaning the risk exposure of ecosystems and people to these chemicals could be higher.

 

Associate Professor Maggi last week co-authored a separate paper in Nature Ecology and Evolution that outlined recommendations to reduce pesticide use, including calling for a reliable set of indicators and improved monitoring.

He and the paper’s co-authors argue that targets for lowering pesticide pollution should be focused on decreasing risk, including reducing amounts and toxicity, because some organisms are at high risk from very toxic pesticides, even when used in low quantities. 

"It is important that national authorities disclose statistics on the use of agricultural inputs, be they fertilisers or pesticides, given the effect they have on the environment and ecosystem service,” he said.

Associate Professor Maggi said a global reduction in pesticide use while maintaining food security was possible as long as such initiatives were designed and implemented in consultation with food producers.

“Globally, there is a lot of room to increase efficiencies and yield while still supporting an abundant food supply through new technology and modern crop management practices,” he said. 

DISCLOSURE:

The authors declare no competing interests. The study published in Nature was supported by the Australian Government’s National Computation Infrastructure and was accessed through the Sydney Informatics Hub HPC Allocation scheme, which is supported by the University of Sydney’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Office NCMAS Allocation Scheme. 

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06296-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Agricultural pesticide land budget and river discharge to oceans

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Jul-2023

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare no competing interests. The study published in Nature was supported by the Australian Government’s National Computation Infrastructure and was accessed through the Sydney Informatics Hub HPC Allocation scheme, which is supported by the University of Sydney’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Office NCMAS Allocation Scheme.

 21ST CENTURY SPAGYRIC HOMEOPATHY

New study using human fibroid cells supports use of green tea compound as treatment for uterine fibroids

Fibroids are the most common benign uterine tumors and about 25% of patients experience significant symptoms, driving the need for preventative measures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE

In a pre-clinical, proof-of-concept study from Johns Hopkins Medicine, researchers found that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a green tea compound with powerful antioxidant properties, could be promising for both treating and preventing uterine fibroids. Results of the study, first posted online May 25 in Scientific Reports, add to growing evidence that EGCG may reduce fibroid cell growth. The study was specifically designed to identify the biochemical mechanisms responsible for EGCG action in fibroid cells.

The investigators emphasize that their study involves human fibroid cells grown in the laboratory and treated with EGCG extract to explore the possibility of oral EGCG supplementation as a therapy, rather than just drinking cups of green tea as a preventative measure for uterine fibroids.

“The purpose of this study was to examine how EGCG works to treat and prevent uterine fibroids,” says James Segars Jr., M.D., professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “There is no standard protocol for uterine fibroid disease management or prevention, no tools to prevent their growth, so finding a safe nonsurgical therapy is important.”

Uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumors of the uterus. Made up of smooth muscle cells and a large matrix of connective tissue, the fibroids range in size from nearly microscopic to bulky masses that can enlarge and distort the uterus.

An estimated 77% of women will develop fibroids in their lifetime, most of them by age 50. Black and Hispanic women develop them at 1.5 to two times the rate of white women. 

While many people with uterine fibroids are without symptoms, about 25% experience significant symptoms including heavy uterine bleeding, pelvic pain and infertility. Uterine fibroids are the leading cause of hospitalizationhysterectomy in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to complete removal of the uterus, surgical treatment may include various means of removing fibroid tumors from the uterine wall.

For the new study, researchers used laboratory cultures of uterine fibroids collected from living patients. Because uterine fibroid cells have a large extracellular matrix (the network of macromolecules and minerals in tissues that support, but are not part of, cells) compared to normal cells, researchers designed their experiments to see if treatment of cells with EGCG affects protein expression associated with this matrix. Specifically, they studied fibronectin, a matrix protein; cyclin D1, a protein involved with cell division; and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) protein.

Cells were dosed with 100 micromoles (a micromole is 1 millionth of a mole) per liter of EGCG in growth media for 24 hours, and then a Western blot — a laboratory technique used to detect a specific protein in a blood or tissue sample — was performed. In this study, researchers looked for levels of cyclin D1 and CTGF proteins in EGCG-treated fibroid cells compared to untreated cell.

They found that EGCG reduced protein levels of fibronectin by 46% to 52%, compared with an untreated control group of fibroid cells. They also found that EGCG disrupted pathways involved in fibroid tumor cell growth, movement, signaling and metabolism, and they saw up to an 86% decrease in CTGF proteins compared with the control group.

“The results from this study show that EGCG targets many signaling pathways involved in fibroid growth, particularly the extracellular matrix,” says study lead author Md Soriful Islam, Ph.D., M.Sc., a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “EGCG supplements could be an easily accessible and natural way to relieve symptoms and slow fibroid growth.”

These results lend support to the FRIEND (Fibroids and Unexplained Infertility Treatment With Epigallocatechin Gallate; A Natural Compound in Green Tea) study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT05364008), an ongoing clinical trial of EGCG in women with fibroids who are seeking pregnancy. While results from this study show promise, researchers caution that more studies need to be done, and consumers should not try to self-dose with green tea supplements. Future research on EGCG will include clinical trials with large and diverse patient groups to determine optimal doses as well as possible side effects of EGCG supplementation.

Other scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who contributed to this research are Maclaine Parish, Joshua Brennan and Briana Winer. 

Segars has been a primary investigator on research sponsored by Bayer, Abbvie, BioSpecifics Technologies Corp., Allergan and Myovant Sciences. All other authors have no conflicts to disclose.  

This research was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Howard W. and Georgeanna Seegar Jones Endowment.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

Disclaimer: AAAS and Eure

New study reveals evidence of diverse organic material on Mars

Scientists, including UF astrobiologist Amy Williams, gain vital insights into Mars’ history and potential for supporting life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

A new study featuring data from the NASA Mars Perseverance rover reports on an instrumental detection potentially consistent with organic molecules on the Martian surface, hinting toward past habitability of the Red Planet. The research, led by a team of scientists that includes UF astrobiologist Amy Williams, was recently published in the journal Nature.

Scientists have long been fueled by the possibility of finding organic carbon on Mars, and while previous missions provided valuable insights, the latest research introduces a new line of evidence that adds to our understanding of Mars. The findings indicate the presence of a more intricate organic geochemical cycle on Mars than previously understood, suggesting the existence of several distinct reservoirs of potential organic compounds.

Notably, the study detected signals consistent with molecules linked to aqueous processes, indicating that water may have played a key role in the diverse range of organic matter on Mars. The key building blocks necessary for life may have persisted on Mars for a far more extended period than previously thought.

Amy Williams, an expert in organic geochemistry, has been at the forefront of the search for life’s building blocks on Mars. As a participating scientist on the Perseverance mission, Williams’ work centers on the quest for organic matter on the Red Planet. She aims to detect habitable environments, search for potential life materials, and uncover evidence of past life on Mars. Eventually, the on-site samples collected by Perseverance will be sent back to Earth by future missions, but it will be a complex and ambitious process spanning many years.

“The potential detection of several organic carbon species on Mars has implications for understanding the carbon cycle on Mars, and the potential of the planet to host life throughout its history,” said Williams, an assistant professor in UF’s Department of Geological Sciences.

Organic matter can be formed from various processes, not just those related to life. Geological processes and chemical reactions can also form organic molecules, and these processes are favored for the origin of these possible Martian organics. Williams and the team of scientists will work to further examine the potential sources of these molecules.

Until now, organic carbon had only been detected by the Mars Phoenix lander and the Mars Curiosity rover by using advanced techniques like evolved gas analysis and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The new study introduces a different technique that also potentially identifies simple organic compounds on Mars.

The chosen landing site for the rover within Jezero crater offers a high potential for past habitability: As an ancient lake basin, it contains an array of minerals, including carbonates, clays, and sulfates. These minerals have the potential to preserve organic materials and possible signs of ancient life.

“We didn’t initially expect to detect these potential organics signatures in the Jezero crater floor,” Williams said, “but their diversity and distribution in different units of the crater floor now suggest potentially different fates of carbon across these environments.”

The scientists used a first-of-its-kind instrument called the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) to map the distribution of organic molecules and minerals on rock surfaces. SHERLOC employs deep ultraviolet Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy to simultaneously measure weak Raman scattering and strong fluorescence emissions, providing crucial insights into the organic composition of Mars.

The findings mark a significant step forward in our exploration of the Red Planet, laying the groundwork for future investigations into the possibility of life beyond Earth.

“We are just now scratching the surface of the organic carbon story on Mars,” Williams said, “and it is an exciting time for planetary science!”

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06143-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

Diverse organic-mineral associations in Jezero crater, Mars

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Jul-2023

New radar technique lets scientists probe invisible ice sheet region on Earth and icy worlds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

 

IMAGE: A HELICOPTER EQUIPPED WITH AN ICE-PENETRATING RADAR REFUELS ON THE ICE AT THE ARCTIC’S DEVON ISLAND. RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS INSTITUTE FOR GEOPHYSICS HAVE DEVELOPED A RESOLUTION-BOOSTING TECHNIQUE FOR THE INSTRUMENT. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS INSTITUTE FOR GEOPHYSICS/COREY SKENDER

Scientists at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) have developed a radar technique that lets them image hidden features within the upper few feet of ice sheets. The researchers behind the technique said that it can be used to investigate melting glaciers on Earth as well as detect potentially habitable environments on Jupiter’s moon Europa.

The near-surface layers of ice sheets are difficult to study with airborne or satellite ice-penetrating radar because much of what’s scientifically important happens too close to the surface to be accurately imaged. That has left scientists relying on ground instruments that give only limited coverage, or extracting ice cores — a difficult and time-consuming operation currently impossible to do on other planets.

The new radar technique combines two different radar bandwidths and looks for discrepancies as a way of boosting the resolution. Because the instruments are carried on airplanes or satellites, scientists can quickly survey vast regions of ice.

To test the new technique, the team flew radar surveys over the Devon Ice Cap in the Canadian Arctic where they mapped a slab-like layer of impermeable ice near the surface. Further analysis suggested that the ice layer is redirecting surface melt from the ice cap’s snow-packed surface into water channels downhill. The research was published May, 2023, in the journal The Cryosphere.

According to Kristian Chan, a graduate student at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences who devised the technique, the study’s findings about the ice slab layer could help scientists predict the future of the ice cap and its contribution to sea level rise.
 
“If you have only relatively thin ice layers then the firn [snow-packed surface layers] has the ability to absorb and retain surface meltwater,” Chan said. “But if these impermeable slabs are widespread then the contribution of surface melt to sea level rise is enhanced.”

Surface melt is normal on ice sheets during summer months. As the top of the previous winter’s snow warms up, meltwater sinks in and refreezes deeper in the snow, forming thin ice layers.

Most of the ice layers on Devon Ice Cap, however, are much thicker than expected, some forming slabs as much as 16 feet thick over several miles. That makes them very effective at redirecting meltwater, which the researchers confirmed when they matched the location of the thickest ice slabs with that of meltwater rivers.

Chan said the findings demonstrate what scientists can accomplish with the new technique.

“We used an airborne radar to find ice slabs on Devon Ice Cap, but the same thing applies for detecting layers with an orbiting radar at ice-covered ‘ocean’ worlds like Jupiter’s moon Europa,” he said.

Chan is part of a UTIG group, led by Senior Research Scientist Don Blankenship, that is developing a radar instrument called REASON, which will launch aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper in 2024. Along with a European Space Agency spacecraft that launched this year, scientists will soon have two ice-penetrating radar instruments investigating Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede. Both radar systems are compatible with Chan’s technique. 

With the new technique, scientists will be able to peer into the upper few feet of the icy shells where they might find frozen brine, cryovolcanic remnants or even plume fallout deposits. All are either potential habitats or clues about habitable environments in the subsurface, said coauthor Cyril Grima, a UTIG research associate who is also part of the REASON team. 

“Kristian has given us the ability to see things in this hidden part just beneath the surface that is potentially accessible to future landers,” Grima said. “It’s really improved the reconnaissance ability of those radars.”

The research was supported by the NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium at UTIG, and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation. UTIG is a research unit of the UT Jackson School of Geosciences.

Devon Island is located in the Canadian Arctic. Its ice cap lies within the marked study area.

CREDIT

University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

The Devon Ice Cap in the Canadian Arctic. The map shows the extent of an ice layer buried among the ice cap’s snow packed surface. Analysis by researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics revealed that the thickest portions of the ice layer can channel meltwater into surface rivers (blue streaks), reducing the ice cap’s ability to hold water.

CREDIT

University of Texas Institute for Geophysics/Kristian Chan

Kristian Chan, a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, operating an ice-penetrating radar during an aerial survey of an Antarctic ice sheet. Chan developed a technique that boosts the radar’s normally low resolution, allowing it to image hidden features in the ice sheet’s upper layers.

CREDIT

University of Texas Institute for Geophysics/Jamin Greenbaum

NASA Europa Clipper with REASON 

An illustration of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft approaching Jupiter’s moon Europa. The spacecraft, which is planned to launch in 2024, will carry an ice-penetrating radar instrument developed by scientists at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

CREDIT

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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JOURNAL

The Cryosphere

DOI

10.5194/tc-17-1839-2023 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Spatial characterization of near-surface structure and meltwater runoff conditions across the Devon Ice Cap from dual-frequency radar reflectivity

How the immune system can alter our behavior

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YALE UNIVERSITY

New Haven, Conn. — Simply the smell of seafood can make those with an allergy to it violently ill — and therefore more likely to avoid it. The same avoidance behavior is exhibited by people who develop food poisoning after eating a certain meal.

Scientists have long known that the immune system played a key role in our reactions to allergens and pathogens in the environment, but it was unclear whether it played any role in prompting these types of behaviors towards allergic triggers.

According to Yale-led research published July 12 in the journal Nature, it turns out that the immune system plays a crucial role in changing our behaviors.

“We find immune recognition controls behavior, specifically defensive behaviors against toxins that are communicated first through antibodies and then to our brains,” said Ruslan Medzhitov, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and senior author of the study.

Without immune system communication, the brain does not warn the body about potential dangers in the environment and does not try to avoid those threats, the study shows.

A team in the Medzhitov lab, led by Esther Florsheim, at the time a postdoctoral researcher at Yale and now an assistant professor at Arizona State University, and Nathaniel Bachtel, a graduate student at the School of Medicine, studied mice that had been sensitized to have allergic reactions to ova, a protein found in chicken eggs. As expected, these mice tended to avoid water laced with ova, while control mice tended to prefer ova-laced water sources. The aversion to ova-laced water sources in sensitized mice lasted for months, they found.

The team then examined whether they could alter the behavior of sensitized mice by manipulating immune system variables. They found, for instance, that mice allergic to ova lost their aversion to the protein in their water if Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, produced by the immune system, were blocked. IgE antibodies trigger the release of mast cells, a type of white blood cell that, along with other immune system proteins, plays a crucial role in communicating to areas of the brain that control aversion behavior. Without IgE as an initiator, the transmission of information was interrupted, so that mice no longer avoided the allergen.

Medzhitov said that the findings illustrate how the immune system evolved to help animals avoid dangerous ecological niches. Understanding how the immune system memorizes potential dangers, he added, could one day help suppress excessive reactions to many allergens and other pathogens.

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JOURNAL

Nature

Eliminating public health scourge can also benefit agriculture

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, IN A STUDY RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN NATURE, FOUND THAT REMOVING INVASIVE VEGETATION AT WATER ACCESS POINTS IN AND AROUND SEVERAL SENEGALESE VILLAGES REDUCED RATES OF SCHISTOSOMIASIS BY ALMOST A THIRD. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that causes organ damage and death, affected more than 250 million people worldwide in 2021, according to the World Health Organization.

One of the world’s most burdensome neglected tropical diseases, schistosomiasis occurs when worms are transmitted from freshwater snails to humans. The snails thrive in water with plants and algae that proliferate in areas of agricultural runoff containing fertilizer. People become infected during routine activities in infested water.

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame, in a study recently published in Nature, found that removing invasive vegetation at water access points in and around several Senegalese villages reduced rates of schistosomiasis by almost a third. As a bonus, the removed vegetation can also be used for compost and livestock feed.

“Disease, food, energy, water, sustainability and poverty challenges intersect in many ways, but are typically addressed independently,” said lead author Jason Rohr, the Ludmilla F., Stephen J. and Robert T. Galla College Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. “We sought to break down these silos and identify win-win solutions, while demonstrating their cost effectiveness so that residents would hopefully adopt them widely.”

Rohr and his team spent seven years on the project, with research conducted in 23 villages and clinical trials in 16. They found that villages with substantial fertilizer use had more submerged vegetation. These villages had more snails and a higher prevalence of schistosomiasis infection in children, said Rohr, who is affiliated with the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative and the Eck Institute for Global Health.

Researchers hypothesized that removing vegetation could reduce infections while providing greater access to the open water that is crucial for daily activities and recreation. So, they conducted a three-year randomized controlled trial in 16 communities, where children were treated for their infections and the researchers removed more than 400 metric tons of vegetation in water access points from half the villages. These removals resulted in a decline in snail abundance as well as schistosomiasis infection rates being nearly a third lower than those observed in control villages.

Rohr’s team also tried to profitably improve food production by partly closing the nutrient loop, returning nutrients captured in the removed plants back to agriculture. So, they worked with local farmers to compost the vegetation for use on pepper and onion plants, increasing their yields, and demonstrated that the vegetation could be effectively used as cattle, sheep and donkey feed. Alexandra “Lexi” Sack, who worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Rohr’s lab from 2021 to 2023, assisted Senegal’s in-country team with the care and design of the sheep-feeding trials, and performed much of the analysis of the vegetation removal results.

“This is important work because it encompasses many different disciplines by combining schistosomiasis prevention and food security,” Sack said. “Often these interventions are separate when the neglected tropical diseases, which includes schistosomiasis, are contributing both to and resulting from poverty.”

With the expertise of co-authors Christopher B. Barrett, an economist at Cornell University, and Molly Doruska, a doctoral student also at Cornell, the research team demonstrated that the benefits of removing the vegetation and using it in agriculture were nearly nine times higher than the costs.

“We took this public nuisance, which is reducing health, and converted it into a private good that improves income,” Rohr said.

The team was also able to illustrate how to scale the project using artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to identify snail habitat and thus hotspots for schistosomiasis, which will allow them to target their intervention training to areas that need it the most.

Villagers helped with removing vegetation once they understood the public health benefits of the intervention, but in the long run, relying on voluntary labor may not be as effective as the researchers removing the vegetation.

“In the next steps, sociologists and economists on the project will quantify how the innovation affects quality of life and whether it is biased based on wealth, gender and/or age,” Rohr said.

The team will also investigate how biodigesters might be implemented to turn the aquatic vegetation into fertilizer and gas that can be used for cooking or to fuel generators for electricity production. Rohr said they hope to leverage investments by the Swiss government, which has committed to installing 60,000 biodigesters in Senegal for carbon credits.

The ongoing research could not be accomplished without all of the partners who contributed, especially the Senegalese citizens, Rohr said.

Christopher Haggerty, a postdoctoral student at Notre Dame during the study, contributed to this research. A complete list of co-authors can be found on the paper at Nature.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and a Stanford seed grant.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06313-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

A planetary health innovation for disease, food and water challenges in Africa

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Jul-2023

Rosé renaissance: Spanish study uncorks ultrasound for superior wine quality

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Since the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) approved the use of ultrasound to promote the extraction of grape compounds back in 2019, its application for obtaining superior red wines has been studied extensively.

Now researchers are turning their attention to rosé – an expanding market which has seen strong growth over the past 15 years. A team from the University of Castilla-La Mancha and the University of Murcia in Spain used high-power ultrasound technology to treat Monastrell crushed grapes – a process known as sonication – and compared the resulting rosé to wine obtained after a four-hour maceration period.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture a research team describes the improvements to the colour and sensory profile of the sonicated wine, compared to the macerated sample.

Prof. Encarna Gomez Plaza from the University of Murcia, Spain, and corresponding author of the study explained the importance of the research for the wine industry. Speaking to SCI, she said: 

‘The application of ultrasound was primarily designed for reducing maceration time in red winemaking. However, experiences with white wines showed that the aroma fraction could be increased by sonicating crushed grapes. Therefore, we decided to study the effect of ultrasound in rosé wines, something which has not been done before.’

Traditionally, the maceration process has played a crucial role in the production of rosé wines, allowing for the extraction of essential aromatic compounds and colour-enhancing components. The process, in which the crushed grape skins are left in the juice, can last anywhere from a couple of hours to two days, prior to the grapes being pressed and fermented.

However, whilst it increases the rosé colour, extended maceration can cause oxidation of certain compounds in the wine, resulting in a bitter taste and other undesirable effects. This is where ultrasound comes in. Sonication by ultrasound causes the breakdown of grape skin cells, allowing desirable compounds to be extracted within a significantly shorter maceration time, thereby reducing the negative effects of oxidation.

Sensory analysis of the wines carried out by a trained panel with years of experience in wine sensory evaluations revealed the ultrasound-treated rosé wine to have a superior aroma.

‘Sonication gave rise to wines with intense red berry and flowery odours, with scores higher than those of wine from macerated grapes’, noted the authors.

Analysis of the chemical composition supported this – ultrasound treatment enhanced the extraction of several volatile compounds that improve aroma, such as terpenes, which can emit a floral or citrusy fragrance.

The team hopes that this study draws attention to the potential of ultrasound technology for producing high-quality rosé wines. They are now looking to other applications of high-power ultrasound in the wine industry.

‘We want to increase our knowledge on the effect of ultrasound in wineries. We are researching how to solve problems that sometimes appear during winemaking and the chemistry behind this behaviour’ noted Prof. Gomez Plaza.

 

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

DOI

10.1002/jsfa.12757 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

The technology of high-power ultrasound and its effect on the color and aroma of rosé wines