Sunday, July 23, 2023

Impacts of climate change on animals will be “multi-faceted,” study in CABI Reviews reveals

A new study published in CABI Reviews suggests that the impact of climate change on animals will be “multi-faceted” with “cascading effects” across five welfare domains including nutrition, environment, behaviour, physical and mental health.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CABI

A new study published in CABI Reviews suggests that the impact of climate change on animals will be “multi-faceted” with “cascading effects” across five welfare domains including nutrition, environment, behaviour, physical and mental health.

The research, highlights how researchers need to carefully consider which domains are immediate and future priority to safeguard the welfare and longevity of animals for food, as domestic pets and those for conservation in nature reserves and zoos.

Animals at risk from the impacts of climate change highlighted in the review include bats, zebrafish, stony creek frogs, koalas, African elephants, chickens and dairy cows.

It is argued in the review that although there are variations in how animals respond biologically to stress, in general, the five domains model provides a robust tool for research use, and to evaluate the proximate effects of climatic variability on animals.

The study provides a broad overview of the impacts of climate change in animal welfare, drawing on examples from various animal groups across terrestrial and aquatic habitats, encompassing both wildlife and domesticated species.

Dr Edward Narayan, lead author and Senior Lecturer of Animal Science in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at The University of Queensland, Australia, said, “While researchers have extensively examined the effects of climate change on animals, the direct correlation between climate change and animal welfare, particularly in the context of wild animals, remains relatively scarce in existing studies.

“In this review, our research group – The Stress Lab – presents a series of wildlife and domesticated animals examples from various countries, across both aquatic and terrestrial systems and provide an overview of the impacts of climate change on each of the five domains of animal welfare.

“We hope that future researchers will apply the animal welfare domains to evaluate how climate change impacts on animals, and further research will pave the way to the protection of animals from the catastrophic impacts of climate change.”

The review highlights research that shows how heat stress, for example, in dairy cows has resulted in a 35% reduction in milk production. Heat stress significantly impacts lactation performance, immune function, and calf health.

However, monitoring cows' activity and rumination time helps detect heat stress, and appropriate heat dissipation strategies such as sunshades and sprinklers can mitigate its effects, the researchers suggest.

It also argues that broiler chickens kept under hot conditions for four days showed higher cases of necrosis – reducing quality of their life and meat. The welfare of birds, especially mature broilers, under warmer conditions is of great concern.

Birds have a limited capacity for heat regulation as they lack sweat glands, and regulate temperature by panting, limiting their activity and drinking more. Accordingly, air conditioning units may be required to maintain an optimal production temperature.

Drought and scarcity of resources are also key contributors to the death of elephants, the scientists highlight. They argue that as the largest extant terrestrial mammal, the African elephant has significant daily food and water needs.

But as droughts become more frequent and predictable, the availability of water and vegetation cover declines, increasing elephant heat and nutrition stress, contributing to the elevated elephant mortality currently being witnessed.

The study also stresses that climate change has been recognised as a major factor in driving population decline across many species of marsupial, including the koala.

Increasing mean temperatures mean species such as the koala will be required to expend more energy to maintain body temperature, using a food source that is reduced in quality due to current climate change projections.

And even the domestic cat and dog is affected by climate change, according to the scientists. They say, for instance, that certain breeds of dog are susceptible to heat stroke while heat-related diseases are a leading cause of death in military working dogs.

Around half of all dogs in the UK are overweight with insufficient exercise being a factor and weather conditions can be a potential hindrance to dog walking. The review highlights that 87% of owners report that they exercise their dogs less during hot weather. The gradual increase in global temperature has the potential to decline the level of welfare for dogs which, the scientists say, may also lead to changes in the role of dogs in human society.

Dr Narayan added, “As climate change drives more wild populations to ecological limitations, there will be potential welfare consequences and considerations to explore; for example, when vulnerable species would need to be transferred to new environments (e.g., captive breeding), should food and habitat become limiting resources.

“Likewise, production animals and other domesticated species will be impacted by the extreme environmental changes with consequences on each of the dimensions within the five domains of animal welfare.”

Additional information

Main image: With incidents of increased drought and higher temperatures caused by climate change, elephants will have to find other way to regulate their body temperatures while also meeting their water and nutritional needs with reduced access to water and foliage (Credit: Pixabay).

Full paper reference

Joseph, Joe; Charalambous, Renae; Pahuja, Harsh; Fox, Dylan; Jeon, Jiwoo; Ko, Ning-Yuan; Rao, Nishit; Wang, Zhiheng; Nerurkar, Sneh; Sherekar, Sharvari; Yang, Yifei; Dutton-Regester, Kate; Narayan, Edward, ‘Impacts of climate change on animal welfare,’ CABI Reviews, 21 July (2023). DOI: 10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0020

The paper can be read open access from 00:01hrs UK time 21 July, 2023, here: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0020

Media enquiries

For more information and an advance copy of the paper contact:

Dr Edward Narayan, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland, Australia – email: e.narayan@uq.edu.au

Wayne Coles, Senior PR Manager, CABI – email: w.coles@cabi.org

About CABI Reviews

CABI Reviews is a reviews journal covering agriculture, global health, nutrition, natural resources and veterinary science.

About CABI

CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

Through knowledge sharing and science, CABI helps address issues of global concern such as improving global food security and safeguarding the environment. We do this by helping farmers grow more and lose less of what they produce, combating threats to agriculture and the environment from pests and diseases, protecting biodiversity from invasive species, and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge. Our 49-member countries guide and influence our core areas of work, which include development and research projects, scientific publishing and microbial services.

We gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation, and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). Other sources of funding include programme/project funding from development agencies, the fees paid by our member countries and profits from our publishing activities which enable CABI to support rural development and scientific research around the world.

JOURNAL

CABI Reviews

DOI

10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0020

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Impacts of climate change on animal welfare

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Jul-2023

Disclaimer: AAAS an

Penn State researchers examine how environmental chemicals affect gut microbiome

$7 million award will support research on mechanisms that exacerbate inflammatory disease

Grant and Award Announcement

PENN STATE

Andrew Patterson — IMAGE: ANDREW PATTERSON, PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR TOXICOLOGY AND THE JOHN T. AND PAIGE S. SMITH PROFESSOR IN THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, RECEIVED A $7 MILLION AWARD FROM THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH TO STUDY HOW ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL EXPOSURE IMPACTS THE GUT MICROBIOME TO EXACERBATE CHRONIC DISEASES. view more
CREDIT: COURTESY ANDREW PATTERSON

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Worldwide, high rates of obesity and other inflammatory conditions are associated with increased risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Investigating how environmental chemical exposure impacts the gut microbiome to exacerbate these conditions is the goal of a new $7 million grant awarded to Andrew Patterson, professor of molecular toxicology and the John T. and Paige S. Smith Professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded the funding under its Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental health Research, or RIVER program. According to the institute’s website, the RIVER program provides support for “outstanding environmental health sciences researchers who demonstrate a broad vision” and “gives them intellectual and administrative freedom, as well as sustained support, to pursue their research in novel directions in order to achieve greater impacts.”

“Risk factors such as diet and lifestyle, as well as rare examples of genetic predisposition, can’t entirely explain this rapidly growing public health problem,” Patterson said. “There is compelling scientific evidence that exposure to environmental chemicals through the diet — in particular, persistent environmental chemicals — may play an important role in these chronic diseases.”

Patterson, who also holds an appointment as professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Eberly College of Science, pointed out that levels of these chemicals increasingly are found in humans. He said research is urgently needed to study the mechanisms associated with environmental chemicals and to evaluate their connection with chronic diseases like obesity and inflammatory bowel disease.

“Our bodies have receptors that respond to our diet, the environment and the gut microbiome, and these receptors can impact our metabolism and the effectiveness of our immune system,” Patterson said. “Previous research has shown that one of these receptors — the aryl hydrocarbon receptor or AHR — is a key factor that facilitates communication between the host and gut microbiome and is a pivotal regulator of the immune system.”

He said his group will begin by building on its studies of the AHR and the gut microbiome and will transition to examine other key receptors, with an eye toward identifying the mechanisms by which environmental chemicals influence host-microbiome interactions to exacerbate chronic disease.

Patterson will lead an interdisciplinary team consisting of experts in biochemistry, enzymology, immunology, metabolism, microbiology and toxicology. He credited the supportive and collaborative environment fostered by the College of Agricultural Sciences, the Eberly College of Science, the Penn State Cancer Institute and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences for providing the intellectual and scientific environment enabling the team to pursue its broad visions supported by the RIVER program.

Cutting across three main themes, Patterson explained, the researchers will:

— Examine how early-life exposure to environmental chemicals alters the gut microbiome to impact health outcomes — such as metabolic disorders or acute and chronic inflammatory bowel disorders — later in life.

— Investigate how environmental chemicals directly impact commensal, or beneficial, bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract including their metabolic activities and their potential to modulate human health.

— Explore pathways involved in how environmental chemicals control and influence human health.

Patterson said each theme addresses important questions related to environmental chemicals and the gut microbiome, and he anticipates that advances made within one theme may impact the direction of the others.

“The RIVER program will provide us the flexibility to rapidly adapt to new data and observations, and to pivot quickly to test new, innovative hypotheses,” he said.

Research supporting increased crop growth published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

NORMAN, OKLA. – An article describing research conducted by John Peters, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, and fellow researchers, has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The article “Structural insights into redox signal transduction mechanisms in the control of nitrogen fixation by the NifLA system” explores the way bacteria regulate the expression of genes related to nitrogen fixation – the conversion of nitrogen in the air into ammonia that can help plants grow.

“Using small angle X-ray scattering and mass spectrometry-coupled surface labeling, we revealed how a protein can sense the levels of oxygen, nitrogen and energy in the (plant’s) cell and, in response, regulate the expression of genes that support nitrogen fixation,” Peters said.

NifA is a protein that turns on these genes, while NifL is a protein that controls NifA by changing its shape in response to signals from the cell. Understanding the structure of NifL and how it changes in response to signals from the cell can help researchers develop new ways to engineer bacteria and biofertilizers in the form of ammonia in soils that can enable crop plants to grow better. With nitrogen composing 78% of the atmosphere, this could lead to a significantly improved yield, especially in poor soils.

“We are excited to see this article published because it answers a lot of questions about the way NifL works and enables a new line of research,” Peters said. “It also illustrates how to obtain detailed structural information about proteins that are recalcitrant to more traditional methods for structure characterization.”

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About This Project

The article, “Structural insights into redox signal transduction mechanisms in the control of nitrogen fixation by the NifLA system,” will be published July 21, 2023, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI no. 10.1073/pnas.2302732120.

About the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships

The University of Oklahoma is a leading research university classified by the Carnegie Foundation among the nation's highest tier of research universities. Faculty, staff and students at OU are tackling global challenges and accelerating the delivery of practical solutions that impact society in direct and tangible ways through research and creative activities. OU researchers expand foundational knowledge while moving beyond traditional academic boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and globally with other research institutions as well as decision-makers and practitioners from industry, government and civil society to create and apply solutions for a better world. Find out more at ou.edu/research

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. OU serves the state, region and nation's educational, cultural, economic and healthcare needs. For more information, visit www.ou.edu.