New data reveal US space economy's output is shrinking—an economist explains in 3 charts

by Jay L. Zagorsky, The Conversation

The ‘space economy’ isn’t just rockets and space suits – satellite data, radio and TV are 

all part of a broadly-defined space economy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The space industry has changed dramatically since the Apollo program put men on the

moon in the late 1960s

Today, over 50 years later, private companies are sending tourists to the edge of space and building lunar landers. NASA is bringing together 27 countries to peacefully explore the moon and beyond, and it is using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time. Private companies are playing a much larger role in space than they ever have before, though NASA and other government interests continue to drive scientific advances.

I'm a macroeconomist who's interested in understanding how these space-related innovations and the growing role of private industry have affected the economy. Recently, the U.S. government started tracking the space economy's size. These data can tell us the size of the space-related industry, whether its outputs come mainly from government or private enterprise, and how they have been growing relative to the economy at large.

Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic made up over 80% of the U.S. space economy in 2021. The government held a 19% share of space spending, up from 16% in 2012—mostly thanks to an increase in military spending.

Ways to measure the space economy

On July 14, 2023, India launched a rocket as part of its Chandrayaan-3 mission to put a lander and rover on the south pole of the moon.

There are many ways to measure economic success in space.

One way is the economic impact. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which tracks the nation's gross domestic product and other indicators, recently began to monitor the space economy and published figures from 2012 to 2021. The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated the impact of space using both broad and narrow definitions.

Credit: The Conversation

The broad definition comprises four parts: things used in space, like rocket ships; items supporting space travel, like launch pads; things getting direct input from space, like cell phone GPS chips; and space education, like planetariums and college astrophysics departments.

In 2021, the broad definition showed that total space-related sales, or what the government calls gross output, was over US$210 billion, before adjusting for inflation. That number represents about 0.5% of the whole U.S. economy's total gross output.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis also has a narrow definition that excludes satellite television, satellite radio and space education. The difference in definitions is important because back in 2012 these three categories represented one-quarter of all space spending. However, by 2021, they only represented one-eighth of spending because many people had switched from watching satellite TV to streaming movies and shows over the internet

Space's share of the economy

A closer look at the data shows that space's share of the U.S. economy is shrinking.

Using the broad definition and adjusting for inflation, the relative size of the space economy fell by about one-fifth from 2012 to 2021. This is because sales of space-related items—everything from rockets to satellite TV—have barely changed since 2015.

Credit: The Conversation

Using the narrow definition also shows the space economy is getting relatively smaller. From 2012 to 2021, the space sector's inflation-adjusted gross output grew on average 3% a year, compared with 5% for the overall economy. This suggests space is not growing as fast as other economic sectors.

Space jobs

The number of jobs created by the space economy has also declined. In 2021, 360,000 people worked full- or part-time space-related jobs in the private sector, down from 372,000 about a decade earlier, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Credit: The Conversation

The Bureau of Economic Analysis could not track all space-related government jobs since spy agencies and parts of the military don't provide much information. Nevertheless, it has tracked some since 2018. The military's Space Force, which is the smallest branch, adds about 9,000 workers. NASA has about 18,000 employees, which is half of its 1960s peak.

Combining these government workers plus all private workers results in just under 400,000 people. To give some perspective, Amazon's U.S. workforce is over twice as big and Walmart's is four times bigger than reported U.S. space-related employment.

Growing competition in space

The U.S. has long dominated the space economy, especially in terms of government spending.

The U.S. government spent a little more than $40 billion in 2017, compared with about $3.5 billion spent by Japan and less than $2 billion by Russia.

Moreover, most of the top private space companies are based in the U.S., led by Boeing, SpaceX and Raytheon, which gives the U.S. a leg up in continuing to play a leading role with the rockets, satellites and other stuff needed to operate in space.

The U.S. also published more than twice the amount of space research in 2017 as its next nearest rival—China.

But China is catching up and has narrowed the gap in recent years as top Chinese officials decided success in space is a national priority. Their goal is reportedly to surpass the U.S. as the dominant space power by 2045. China recently put a large space station called the Tiangong into orbit and aims to put people on the moon.

China's not the only one joining the 21st century space race. India is expanding its space economy rapidly, with 140 space-tech startups. India launched a rocket on July 14, 2023, designed to put a lander and rover on the moon. And the European Space Agency's Euclid spacecraft plans to map parts of the universe to study dark matter. The ESA released the craft's first test images at the end of July 2023.

The U.S. has a strong foothold in space. But whether it can maintain its lead—as the space race moves into a new frontier of space mining and missions to Mars—remains to be seen.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Kenya to launch first operational satellite next week

 

Diverse teams can improve engineering outcomes, but recent affirmative action decision may hinder diversity efforts

by Lorraine Dowler, The Conversation

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

It may seem intuitive that teams made up of people with a diversity of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds lead to more effective and inclusive outcomes. But the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to curb affirmative action in higher education could hinder progress toward increasing diversity in the science and engineering fields.

As a geographer and feminist scholar, my work centers on how diverse engineering teams can create space for better collaborations and outcomes. The first step to creating diverse teams is having diverse people with relevant engineering backgrounds, but this Supreme Court decision may create more roadblocks for people from underrepresented backgrounds pursuing the sciences.

Affirmative action

Affirmative action is the practice of universities giving special consideration to historically excluded groups, such as racial minorities and women. In addition to addressing past discrimination, the practice, born out of the 1960s civil rights movement, ensures public institutions such as universities represent the populations they serve.

Even with affirmative action, Black and Hispanic workers are already underrepresented in STEM fields. A 2021 study found they made up only 9% and 8%, respectively, of the total STEM workforce in the United States. At the same time, Black people and Hispanic people accounted for 14% and 19%, respectively, of the national population.

Even prior to the court's decision, higher education pipelines underrepresented women and people of color in engineering.

Engineering offers high salaries and job stability, but it also lags far behind other STEM fields in integrating diversity and creating inclusive company cultures. Diverse teams can help make sure a company's products and services are relatable to a wide range of customers.

A pipeline issue in engineering

Still, it is challenging to create genuinely inclusive cultures. And to have diverse engineers, you first need diverse engineering students.

A diverse engineering team has historically been one that includes different talents—engineers, but also designers, architects and so on. However, now when experts like me point out a pipeline issue in engineering, we're prioritizing social diversity. This includes gender, race, ethnicity, nationality and other identities.

The percentage of engineering bachelor's degrees awarded to women and people of color in the United States has grown little since 1998. Women account for 22% of bachelor's degrees in engineering. Less than 4% of all engineering degrees went to African American, Hispanic and Native American women. Hispanic and Black/African American students account for 11.4% and 4.2% of engineering bachelor's degrees, respectively.

Diverse teams in engineering can lead to outcomes that work for more groups of people.

Students cite hostile climates and racist and sexist stereotyping as reasons for leaving the major.

Diverse teams in practice

Despite these challenges, a year ago I joined three senior women guiding an intergenerational, diverse group of engineering researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Penn State University.

The exceptionality of our project's all-female engineering leadership offers a rare on-the-ground opportunity to evaluate how diverse engineering teams can enhance innovation and teamwork. Our early study findings—which have not yet been peer-reviewed—suggest that a diverse team creates a place for an array of opinions and strategies to flourish.

Compared with experiences with mostly homogeneous groups, members of this multigenerational team reported less hierarchy in group discussions, stronger self-assurance and a sense of solidarity and shared vision. Senior members fostered belonging, while early career members felt mentored and supported.

For example, our project focuses on designing customized pediatric masks and other medical devices. The members of this team reported feeling that their peers all shared a drive to improve quality of life for patients.

Diverse engineering teams bring a range of problem-solving skills together, which leads to more creative outcomes. In teams where members have a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, experts see more collaboration, productivity and a focus on socially beneficial outcomes.

Allowing all team members to contribute equally results in higher productivity, boosts retention rates and creates smoother interactions. All this results in faster, more effective problem solving.

Homogeneous or non-diverse teams are more likely to experience groupthink. During groupthink, members lapse into consensus thinking and agree with each other rather than bringing more ideas forward. Groupthink happens more often when stakes are high or there's uncertainty.

On the other hand, diverse teams tend to focus more on facts and may process them more carefully than homogeneous teams. This is due to the diversity of different experiences that accompanies diverse workplaces. Carefully processing all the facts and considering multiple points of view can provide safer, more inclusive outcomes.

Diversity in human judgment, empathy and creativity is good for business, but it also benefits the common good. Creating opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds and experiences prepares all students—regardless of race or gender—for success in an increasingly diverse nation.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

National network of biomedical engineers offer a six-step roadmap to diversify faculty hiring

 

Attempted suicide during depression linked to higher all-cause mortality

by Karolinska Institutet

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

New research from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Psychiatry shows how suicide attempts among people with depression is associated with higher mortality and impaired functionality.

According to the WHO, some 5% of the global adult population suffered from depression in 2021, and depression is associated with higher mortality. Suicidal ideation and attempted suicide are two of several diagnostic criteria for depression, which commonly recurs in month- or year-long episodes during a sufferer's life.

"But our knowledge of how the group of patients who actually attempt suicide differs from the others is insufficient, both at a patient level and in societal terms," says the study's first author Johan Lundberg, professor of psychiatry at the Department of clinical neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet.

The results of the population-based observational study show that the patients with depression who had also attempted suicide during the depressive period under study had over twice the mortality rate, regardless of cause, of those with no registered suicide attempt.

"These findings tell us that the care provided for this particular group needs to be developed," says Professor Lundberg.

Those who attempted suicide were younger

The study also shows that patients with depression who had also attempted suicide were younger and more commonly suffering other psychiatric comorbidities, such as anxiety and addiction. Important risk factors for suicidal acts within a year after the onset of a depressive episode were previous suicide attempts, substance use disorder, anxiety and sleeping disorders.

"The care services should systematically evaluate the effect of treatments like lithium, which can be expected to reduce the risk of death in this patient group," says the study's last author Clara Hellner, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and director of RDE for Health Care Provision, Stockholm County.

More information: Johan Lundberg et al, Determinants and Outcomes of Suicidal Behavior Among Patients With Major Depressive Disorder, JAMA Psychiatry (2023). DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.2833

Journal information: JAMA Psychiatry 

Provided by Karolinska Institutet New research identifies risk factors for suicide attempt among soldiers

Off Alaska coast, research crew peers down, down, down to map deep and remote ocean

by Joshua A. Bickel

In this photo provided by NOAA Ocean Exploration, a lone sunstar rests among many brittle stars taken from the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska on July 24, 2023, while exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. 

Credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration via AP

For the team aboard the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska, exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands is a chance to surface new knowledge about life in some of the world's deepest and most remote waters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel is on a five-month mission aboard a reconfigured former Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps. The ship, with a 48-member crew, is outfitted with technology and tools to peer deep into the ocean to gather data to share with onshore researchers in real time. The hope is that this data will then be used to drive future research.

"It's so exciting to go down there and see that it's actually teeming with life," said expedition coordinator Shannon Hoy. "You would never know that unless we were able to go down there and explore."

Using a variety of sonars and two remotely operated vehicles—Deep Discoverer and Serios—researchers aboard the ship are mapping and collecting samples from areas along the Aleutian Trench and Gulf of Alaska. High-resolution cameras that can operate at depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) allow researchers to document and immediately share their findings. The ship can also livestream dives to the public.

Shannon Hoy, an expedition coordinator, stands in front of control room screens inside the NOAA Okeanos Explorer, Friday, June 23, 2023, in Kodiak, Alaska. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. Credit: AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

Many factors, such as depth, speed and sonar capability, influence how much sea floor can be mapped. In 2 to 4 weeks, the Okeanos Explorer can map as much as 50,000 square kilometers (31,069 square miles), Hoy said.

During these dives, Hoy said the team plans to investigate some of the area's cold seep communities—places where gases from under the sea floor rise through cracks and where plants don't rely on photosynthesis for food production.

"We're also going to be looking through the water column to see what interesting animals and fauna that we can see there," she said.

Kasey Cantwell, the ship's operations chief, said the data will help researchers and the public better understand these remote stretches of ocean, including marine life and habitats in the area. That could inform management decisions in fisheries. Data could also help detect hazards and improve nautical charts.

The NOAA Okeanos Explorer sits at a dock on Friday, June 23, 2023, in Kodiak, Alaska. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. Credit: AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

"It's really hard to care for things you don't understand, to love things you don't understand," Cantwell said.

The deep ocean off Alaska's Aleutian Islands is one of the least mapped places in the U.S., partly due to its remoteness. Modern mapping standards have covered just 34% of the sea floor around Alaska, which has one of the nation's largest coastal ecosystems, and only a fraction of that has been seen, according to the expedition's web site.

Closing these gaps is a mission priority, and will help meet a goal of mapping all of the United States' deep waters by 2030 and near-shore waters by 2040, according to Emily Crum, a communications specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But the data collection process is laborious.

Thomas Morrow, a physical scientist on the ship, likened the effort to "walking the length of several city blocks in complete darkness with a tiny flashlight."

The main camera of the remote operated dive vehicle Deep Discoverer is visible aboard the NOAA Okeanos Explorer, Friday, June 23, 2023, in Kodiak, Alaska. The vehicle, which is designed to explore the deep sea and sea floor, can reach depths depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet). Credit: AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

In this photo provided by NOAA Ocean Exploration, a sunstar eats an unknown prey taken from the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska on July 24, 2023, while exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. Credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration via AP

Captain Colin Little explains how he controls the NOAA Okeanos Explorer during a tour, Friday, June 23, 2023, in Kodiak, Alaska. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. Credit: AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

The remotely operated dive vehicle Deep Discoverer is visible aboard the NOAA Okeanos Explorer, Friday, June 23, 2023, in Kodiak, Alaska. The vehicle, which is designed to explore the deep sea and sea floor, can reach depths depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet). Credit: AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

In this photo provided by NOAA Ocean Exploration, a brisingid sea star taken from the Okeanos Explorer off the coast of Alaska on July 19, 2023, while exploring the mounds and craters of the sea floor along the Aleutian Islands. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. Credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration via AP

Andy O'Brien explains how he pilots the remotely operated dive vehicle Deep Discoverer during a tour, Friday, June 23, 2023, in Kodiak, Alaska. The ship, a reconfigured former U.S. Navy vessel run by civilians and members of the NOAA Corps, is specially outfitted with technology and tools needed to access deep into the ocean, and to share that data with the public and on-shore researchers in real-time. Credit: AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

Nevertheless, all these small looks add up to a better understanding of what lies in the deepest parts of the sea.

In the expedition's first two months, researchers recorded methane seeps and saw a Brisingid sea star at a depth of 2,803 meters (9,200 feet) that had not been documented in the Aleutians before. At least two potential new species have also been discovered.

Earlier this year while on an expedition off the coast of Washington state, researchers aboard the ship documented a jellyfish floating in the deep, and soon had a call from an excited scientist who told them the jellyfish was behaving in ways not seen before.

"The feeling of wonder that sometimes happens in that control room is so palpable," he said.

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.


Explore furtherScientists discover three new hydrothermal vent fields on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

 

New clubroot strains continue to emerge in Western Canada

by Bev Betkowski, University of Alberta

New strains of clubroot continue to emerge in fields across the prairies—including several 

strains capable of infecting canola plants bred to resist the disease, according to U of A 

research. Credit: University of Alberta

New strains of clubroot, a disease that can kill canola crops, continue to emerge in Western Canadian fields, according to a recent study published in the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology by University of Alberta researchers.

A sampling of more than 250 fields in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba conducted in 2019 and 2020 identified 25 unique clubroot pathotypes, including seven new strains—six of them capable of infecting canola plants bred to resist the disease.

"The findings really underscore how quickly pathotype shifts are occurring and how quickly we are finding new pathotypes. And it is likely we will continue to find new ones," says study lead Keisha Hollman, a Ph.D. candidate in plant science in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences.

Clubroot is caused by a parasite that infests field soil with resting spores that can survive up to 20 years. Canola and related plants such as cabbage that are grown in the infested soil develop tumors on the roots, which block water and nutrient uptake, causing stunted growth, yellowing, wilting and in worst cases, death of the plant.

Listed under Alberta's Agricultural Pests Act, clubroot can cause anywhere from 60% to 90% canola crop yield loss in one of Canada's most valuable cash crops.

An ever-evolving adversary

The disease is continuing to evolve, according to the study.

In 2019 alone, 23 pathotypes were documented in prairie canola fields, showing "the most diversity we have ever found in a single year," Hollman says.

Along with that discovery, the research revealed that more resistance-breaking strains of clubroot are becoming predominant, meaning they are the most commonly found. Of the five most common pathotypes identified in Alberta as of 2020, three overcome genetic resistance.

The finding brings the total number of known clubroot pathotypes to 43, some of which were identified in an earlier U of A study that documented 36 unique strains on the prairies by 2018.

Though most of the pathotypes are found in only a handful of fields, their increasing diversity and continued emergence means relying less heavily on genetic resistance, Hollman suggests.

"Seed breeders can only keep up with so much change and diversity," she says, noting that it can take up to a decade to develop a clubroot-resistant plant.

Canola producers must continue to manage the risk through "integrated management strategies" that help take the pressure off genetic resistance alone, Hollman says.

Measures include sanitizing farm and other field equipment between fields, and rotating crops. A 2019 U of A study, for example, showed that after a two-year break from growing canola, the number of clubroot spores decreased by about 90% in field soil.

Soil treatments such as liming also provide potential options for managing the disease, Hollman notes.

Promising research could also help, including U of A exploration of molecular marker identification to speed up pathotype testing.

"That will help give a better idea of clubroot diversity and spread in Alberta," she says.

And with canola breeders developing new varieties with "second-generation" resistance to clubroot, having multiple management strategies is going to be more important than ever, she adds.

"That genetic stewardship could help prolong the longevity of new cultivars."

Standardizing labeling could help

The study will help inform continued clubroot management efforts in Western Canada, and along with similar U of A research, also contribute to a new resistance labeling initiative for commercial canola varieties, says co-author Stephen Strelkov, a U of A plant pathologist who supervised Hollman's research.

The collaborative effort, led by a cross-industry expert group chaired by the Canola Council of Canada, aims to create a standardized product label system that helps canola growers easily determine and compare the resistance available in particular varieties.

Multiple labels currently being used in the marketplace provide grower information in different ways, which can cause confusion when choosing a canola seed that will be effective against a particular pathotype in the field, he says, noting that not all varieties are resistant to all of the pathotypes.

"The recommendations for which pathotypes to start with in the initiative are based on our work, and will ultimately help farmers make informed decisions when managing clubroot resistance."

More information: Keisha B. Hollman et al, Characterization of Plasmodiophora brassicae pathotypes from western Canada in 2019–2020, Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology (2023). DOI: 10.1080/07060661.2023.2212639

Provided by University of Alberta Study shows that adding silicon to soil could help protect canola from clubroot

Baghdad zoo animals suffer as mercury hits 50 degrees

by Salam Faraj

A grey parrot drinks water from a bottle as temperatures soar in Baghdad.

A pair of Siberian tigers pant incessantly beside a pond at their zoo enclosure in the scorching summer heat of the Iraqi capital.

Temperatures on Monday breached 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in Baghdad for the second day in a row—making life outdoors unbearable for both humans and animals.

The orange, striped felines from far-eastern Russia are more suited to living "where temperatures drop to as low as minus 20 degrees" than in one of the hottest cities in the world, said Wassim Sarih, the veterinarian at Baghdad's only zoo.

Underfunded and run down by years of unrest and mismanagement, the zoo's dilapidated facilities make matters worse for its roughly 900 animals, including lions, exotic birds, bears and monkeys.

Most of the enclosures are open air and "suit animals that live in hot climates", said Sarih. "We don't have ones for animals accustomed to the cold."

In an attempt to lower the temperature, air coolers have been installed in front of the lion cages, and pools are provided for the bears and tigers.

Iraq is unable to provide sufficient electricity to meet domestic needs and is consequently plagued by power cuts that can last up to 10 hours a day.

Brown bears are also kept at Baghdad Zoo.

Baghdad Zoo hasn't seen major renovations since the 1970s, said its director Haider al-Zamili, who is forced to make do with the meager funds the authorities allocate.

Under such conditions, Sarih said "the lifespan of our animals is shorter compared to other zoos".

The zoo's Siberian tigers live for 17 or 18 years while their counterparts in other zoos have a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years, with the heat making the difference, he said.

The veterinarian said the zoo has lost bears, lions and birds in recent years, some of them because of the soaring temperatures caused by climate change.
Years of drought

The United Nations says Iraq is one of the five countries in the world most touched by the effects of climate change.

Currently the country is facing its fourth consecutive year of drought.

Not a single visitor was seen at the zoo as it's far too hot to venture outside. Only the cries of monkeys and singing of birds can be heard.

A pair of white lions lie in their cage amid sweltering temperatures at Baghdad Zoo.

A Siberian tiger cools off amid sweltering temperatures at Baghdad Zoo.

Karrar Jassem, a zoo employee, is one of the few people seen wandering around the garden under the punishing sun as he feeds the animals.

Like the many outdoor workers in Iraq exposed to the heat, the 32-year-old said he must provide for his family.

He earns only 250,000 Iraqi dinars a month (about $165 or 150 euros).

Employees' wages are "very low and don't correspond to the hazards they face, such as potential injuries or joint pains", said Sarih.

The veterinarian said he had contacted the authorities, including the municipality of Baghdad, which is responsible for the zoo, but had yet to come across "any receptive ears".

Sarih predicted the zoo will soon have to close its doors in the absence of an ambitious renovation plan.

"Then the whole community will be a loser," he said.

© 2023 AFP


Explore furtherIraq's extreme temperatures a 'wake-up call' for world: UN

 

Bee populations at risk of one-two punch from heat waves, pathogen infection

by Adrienne Berard, Pennsylvania State University

A blue orchard bee (Osmia lignaria) is one of two species of solitary bees studied by a team of researchers led by Penn State. It was the first study to examine how extreme heat waves affect the host-pathogen relationship between solitary bees and a protozoan pathogen (Crithidia mellificae). Credit: Robert Webster

The historically high heat waves that gripped the southwest United States and southern Europe this summer are causing problems for more than just humans. Extreme heat waves affect pollinators and the pathogens that live on them, creating a mutual imbalance that could have major economic and public health consequences.

A global research team led by Penn State was the first to study how extreme heat waves affect the host-pathogen relationship between two species of solitary bees (Osmia cornifrons and Osmia lignaria) and a protozoan pathogen (Crithidia mellificae). The researchers recently published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

The researchers found that the one-two punch of extreme heat exposure and prior infection led solitary bees, which account for over 90% of the roughly 4,000 species of bees in North America, to be less likely to forage for food. If bees don't forage, they don't eat, and importantly for humans, they don't pollinate crops that are vital to the global economy and food security.

"We are now experiencing the highest temperatures in recorded history," said Mitzy Porras, a postdoctoral researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and lead author of the study. "These heat waves are lasting three, or even four days, which is a long period of heat tolerance for bees. Then, when you combine that with prior infection from a pathogen, we're looking at two factors that can severely negatively impact pollinator populations."

The researchers devised an experimental method for testing that Porras calls "thermal boldness," the amount of heat a bee can withstand in order to move to a food source. The bees were placed in a tunnel. On one side of the tunnel was a chamber with temperatures akin to what would be experienced in a summer heat wave, and on the other side of the hot chamber was a meal of sugar water and pollen. The team found that bees, which had previously been infected with a common protozoan pathogen, were far less tolerant of heat and much less likely to take the risk of passing through the chamber to eat.

In general, they found that the heat negatively impacted both the bee host and its pathogen, but the host bore the brunt of it. Exposure to heat decreased the bees' thermal boldness and their heat tolerance, whereas the pathogen's growth rate was only slightly negatively affected by heat.

"These asymmetrical relationships between organisms are often overlooked when studying climate impacts, but they are essential if we want to understand what is really going on," Porras said. "When we looked at the host and pathogen in tandem, we found that infection greatly reduces heat tolerance in the host—a finding we wouldn't have discovered if we had only been studying bees."

The researchers found that a healthy bee could tolerate a heat wave of 109.4 degrees Fahrenheit, but after infection its tolerance was reduced to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Our results shed light on the implications of extreme heat waves on host–pathogen dynamics under a warmer world," said co-author Ed Rajotte, professor emeritus of entomology at Penn State. "We're not going to see a simple, linear change as the climate warms. Every organism will respond differently and the relationships between organisms will be fundamentally altered. If we're going to try to predict the impacts of climate change, relationships matter. There are real consequences to changes in our ecosystems and we must understand the subtleties if we are going to prepare ourselves for the reality of a changing climate."

Solitary bees, often called the workhorses of the pollinator world due to their high foraging capacity, live for roughly a year, but are only active outside their nests for two to four weeks, for example, in early spring. They do a lifetime of pollinating in less than a month, Rajotte explained.

For humans, a three or four-day heat wave may just be an uncomfortable blip, but for a solitary bee, it can represent a quarter of the total time they are active outside their nests—and can severely affect their fitness for mating, pollinating and producing offspring. The researchers demonstrated that their health is even further jeopardized if they have been previously infected with a pathogen.

The team concluded that extreme heat exposure reduces the bees' heat tolerance generally, but heat waves exacerbated the adverse effects of infection on the bees' thermal physiology and ultimately affected their behavior.

"We have to think about the big picture," Porras said. "Climate change is not just impacting species; it is impacting the relationships between species and that could have huge implications for human health and the planet as a whole."

Other Penn State co-authors on the paper are David Biddinger and Sharifa Crandall. The other authors are Carlos Navas and Gustavo Agudelo-Cantero of the University of São Paulo; Michel Geovanni Santiago-Martínez of the University of Connecticut; and Volker Loeschcke and Jesper Givskov Sørensen of Aarhus University in Denmark.

More information: Mitzy F. Porras et al, Extreme heat alters the performance of hosts and pathogen, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1186452

Journal information: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 

Provided by Pennsylvania State University Study finds carrying pollen heats up bumble bees, raises new climate change questions

 

New satellite-based measurements reveal vegetation response to drought across the globe

by Max Planck Society

Example for the summer drought in 2018 at the Polder Zarnekow, Germany.

 Credit: Torsten Sachs, imageo.egu.eu

Vegetation can respond to drought through different mechanisms, including changes in the plants' structure and physiology. A new study led by Dr. Wantong Li and Dr. Rene Orth at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany, has now disentangled drought response pathways across the globe.

By analyzing state-of-the-art satellite-derived datasets with explainable machine learning methods, they showed that the vegetation's physiology in many ecosystems has deviated from its structure under drought on a global scale. Their findings, recently published in Nature Communications, represent a significant leap forward in our understanding of how the Earth's ecosystems respond to water scarcity.

Soil moisture drought is increasing in many areas worldwide, both in terms of their duration and intensity. It affects vegetation functioning e.g. by increasing the risk of carbon starvation and hydraulic failure, ultimately leading to plant death. Vegetation responses to drought in turn feed back to climate in different ways.

Traditionally, the large-scale impact of drought on vegetation has been assessed by analyzing changes in plant structure. For example, satellite data provide measures for the overall surface of leaves and for the vegetation coverage and density, measured as greenness, on larger scales.

In the new study, the international research team around Wantong Li analyzed novel satellite-based measurements with explainable machine learning methods. This allowed them to isolate changes in plant functioning, termed physiology, from that of plant structure in response to drought. The study used satellite data at high spatial resolution collected between 2018 and 2021, years with intense drought events, thus providing a comprehensive global perspective.

By focusing on severe droughts, the team successfully characterized physiological responses to water scarcity related to photosynthesis, evaporation and water content. They found that two plant functions are effected most. First, the exchange rates of CO2 and water vapor regulated by the stomata, tiny fine-controlled openings on the leave surface, and second the efficiency of how solar radiation is used for photosynthesis or absorbed otherwise by the leaves.

"Plant physiologists have shown before that individual plant species respond to drought in ways that go beyond simple changes in structural appearance," explains Wantong Li. "Our study now confirmed this for the vegetation as a whole, on a global scale and for many species included."

The advantage of the new approach is several-fold. First, including the global effects of drought stress on the biological functioning of the plants provides a better picture of the vegetation drought response than just looking at the structural or outer appearance. Also, the former approach likely underestimates the timing, the scale and the severity at which vegetation is actually affected by drought.

Secondly, the vegetation's physiology typically responds faster to stress than its structural appearance. Drought impacts may thus be recognized earlier. For example, while a brownish meadow may easily be recognized as suffering from drought, other plants, in particular trees, may look normal but in fact already experienced serious drought-induced physiological changes.

The results also showed that vegetation in semi-arid and arid regions were affected the most, indicating a strong relationship between background climate and physiological responses. In wetter regions the scientists observed that vegetation is still green or even greener during drought events. Nevertheless, their functioning was reduced, leading to a clear discrepancy between functional and structural changes that can be detected during severe drought.

Dr. René Orth, co-author and head of the research group at MPI-BGC, emphasizes, "Understanding how vegetation functioning responds to drought is critical for predicting and mitigating the effects of climate change. These findings provide a more accurate basis for the biological and environmental feedback mechanisms of ecosystems, which play an important role in shaping the future of our planet."

More information: Wantong Li et al, Widespread and complex drought effects on vegetation physiology inferred from space, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40226-9

Journal information: Nature Communications 

Provided by Max Planck Society Global variations in critical drought thresholds that impact vegetation

 

How to grow rhinos in a lab: The science that could save an endangered species

by Ruth Appeltant and Rita L. Sousa, The Conversation

An overview of the focus of different initiatives around the world to save the northern white

 rhino. Credit: Ruth Appeltant

There are several parallel projects running across the world to save the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum), one of Africa's captivating and iconic wildlife species. With the death of last male in 2018 and with only two females alive, the species is functionally extinct.

The most famous of these projects is an international research consortium called BioRescue. It was founded in 2019 by a team of scientists and conservationists under the leadership of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany.

In one of its research lines, the BioRescue team collects mature eggs—scientifically called oocytes—from one of the only two northern white females. They reside in Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a privately run wildlife sanctuary. These eggs will be fertilized with frozen sperm that were collected from several northern white male rhinos before their death.

The two remaining females, Najin and Fatu, are not capable of delivering offspring anymore. Najin's back legs are too weak to carry a pregnancy and Fatu has problems with her uterus. Therefore, the resulting embryos from the fertilized eggs will be transferred into surrogate mothers.

The most suitable surrogate mother would be a southern white rhino as it is the closest related species. But, placing a northern white rhino embryo in a southern white female rhino isn't an easy task. However, there was promising news in May 2023. Next to the addition of five more northern white embryos—which brings the total to 29—two wild southern white rhinos were identified as suitable surrogates, as they can still get pregnant and are able to carry the pregnancy through.

The goal of producing a new northern white rhino calf now seems more realistic than ever before.

Sometimes people question the funding and effort spent on one species, but the science behind the rhinoceros story is much bigger. Any species going extinct has huge consequences on the ecosystem, and people's survival depends on resources provided by this same ecosystem. As a recognizable, impressive and majestic animal, rhinos certainly have a role as a flagship of conservation efforts.

Further, joint efforts on one species can provide scientific knowledge that allows for a multi-species conservation approach. These techniques would not only save the northern white rhinoceros, but also other rhino species, related species with a common ancestor, and all other creatures in need.

Different approaches

Despite the great scientific strides made in efforts to save the northern white rhino, the success rate of embryo transplantation followed by pregnancy to term is extremely low. Parallel initiatives focusing on different conservation approaches are indispensable to ensure the future of this species.

While BioRescue is collecting matured eggs after hormonal stimulation, the Rhino Fertility Project at the University of Oxford in the UK is focusing on growing follicles, which are structures found in the ovary containing an immature egg surrounded by a few layers of supporting cells. These supporting cells provide signals and components essential for the development of the eggs. The idea is to make use of the much greater potential of the ovary by collecting the very small follicles and growing them all in a petridish in the lab.

This would bypass atresia, which is the degradation of follicles that occurs during a natural hormonal cycle. As member of this project, one of us, Ruth Appeltant, was hopeful that this method had the potential to quickly provide a vast number of in vitro-grown oocytes, or mature eggs.

Unfortunately, it became clear that the ovarian tissue of older rhinoceroses contained extremely few to no oocytes. These eggs were needed as the starting material for the project. Without eggs, there is nothing to grow. Ongoing efforts are now looking to establish ways to localize and process the few remaining follicles in old ovarian tissue.

This bottleneck led us to the area of stem cell technologies. At the Gamete Research Centre of the University of Antwerp in Belgium, our group is aiming to produce eggs outside the body from stem cells. These could be used to conserve endangered species like the rhinoceros.

The BioRescue project and a research group at the San Diego Zoo in the US are also aiming to produce artificial eggs from body cells present in tissues.

The common thread is turning cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, which are immature cells generated from mature cells, and that can in turn differentiate into eggs. In fact, this process can transform a skin cell into an egg. The procedure has so far been completed successfully in mice and could already provide a kind of precursor to oocytes in the northern white rhino.

The collection of oocytes is a really tricky process due to the technical difficulties in reaching the site of the ovaries in living animals. Advanced artificial reproductive techniques using body cells, such as skin cells, introduce a spectrum of new possibilities. Most biological samples stored to date consist of small skin samples, but not of oocytes.

A downside to this approach is the fact that scientists first need to succeed in producing stem cells in the species of interest.

At the University of Antwerp's Gamete Research Centre, we're not only interested in developing stem cell technologies based on induced pluripotent stem cells, but are currently establishing the in vitro gametogenesis—or "in vitro oocyte-creation" technique—based on stem cells present in the ovary. Due to a scarcity of tissues from endangered species, we are using the pig as a large animal model. This will give us more in-depth knowledge on how to approach egg creation from stem cells already present in the animal, termed endogenous stem cells.

What next?

When we do not have eggs, let's create them. When we have stem cells, let's use them. Researchers now know that samples of the northern white rhino individuals currently stored in biobanks have enough genetic variability to establish a viable and sustainable population.

A decade ago, we would have never imagined eggs could be produced from other cells. This is becoming a reality that gives us hope, motivation and energy to save the northern white rhino.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Five new embryos and new surrogate mothers added to northern white rhino rescue project