Saturday, August 19, 2023

Using big data on livestock farms could improve antimicrobial resistance surveillance

chicken farm — Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new study suggests that using big data and machine learning in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance in livestock production methods could help inform interventions and offer protections against germs that are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Over two and a half years, researchers at the University of Nottingham analyzed microbiomes from chickens, carcasses and environments. The resulting network of correlations between livestock, environments, microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance suggests multiple routes for improving antimicrobial resistance surveillance in livestock production.

The research, led by Dr. Tania Dottorini, Professor of Bioinformatics, used a data-mining approach based on machine learning in ten large-scale chicken farms and four connected abattoirs from three provinces in China—one of the largest consumers of antimicrobials. The use of antimicrobials used to prevent and treat infections in livestock production on farms is associated with the rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) infections.

The study, published in Nature Food, identified several antimicrobial resistant genes (ARGs) that were shared between chickens and the farms they lived on that are potentially highly transmissible.

The findings also show that a core subset of the chicken gut microbiome, featuring clinically relevant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes correlates with AMR profiles of E. coli, colonizing the gut. Notably, this core, which contains clinically high transmissible ARGs shared by chickens and environments, is influenced by environmental temperature and humidity, and correlates with antimicrobial usage.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity according to the World Health Organization. AMR threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi.

Around 600 million cases of food-borne disease, resulting in approximately 420,000 deaths, occurs worldwide every year. Within this, nearly 300 million illnesses and 200,000 deaths are caused by diarrheagenic E. coli globally.

In many countries, chickens are housed in sheds that do not have an effective climate control system, and therefore experience substantial temperature and humidity variations. The study results indicate that the core features of the gut microbial community and resistome, found to be correlated with resistance in E. coli, are also correlated with changes in temperature and humidity in chicken housing.

The associations between environmental variables, and the species and genes associated with AMR, present opportunities for the development of novel AMR monitoring solutions, especially in low-middle-income countries where these variables are not controlled and pose a risk to the animals that are exposed to changes in them.

Dr. Dottorini says, "The spread of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms and AMR at the human-animal-environment level and food interface is a major global concern. The transmission of AMR can take place through different routes and pathways, and the food chain, either indirectly via food consumption or directly through contaminated food-animal handling and manure or fecal contamination is a relevant one.

"We have demonstrated how methodologies can be developed that can associate a wide array of microbial species and genes with observable AMR, and further assessed how those are associated with the environmental variables of temperature and humidity. Next, we must consider all relevant and interconnected AMR datasets in a 360° approach, which will deepen our understanding and control of AMR spread.

"This is an exciting moment. We are ready to invest in new AI-powered AMR integrated surveillance approaches to identify the drivers and the mechanisms underlying the insurgence and spread of AMR, and of new genetic variants of resistant pathogens across animals, environment, humans, and food. This will be ground-breaking."

More information: Michelle Baker et al, Machine learning and metagenomics reveal shared antimicrobial resistance profiles across multiple chicken farms and abattoirs in China, Nature Food (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s43016-023-00814-w

Journal information: Nature Food

Provided by University of Nottingham

Scientists use machine learning to help fight antibiotic resistance in farmed chickens

UK

Bibby Stockholm: Legionella is not the only health threat on the asylum barge

by Amy Clair, The Conversation

Just days after being moved in, people seeking asylum were removed from the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge due to legionella bacteria on board. Dorset council, where the barge is located, has raised concerns that delays in removing people increased their risk of exposure to the potentially fatal bacteria.

Even before this development, the use of the barge to house people seeking asylum was controversial. This is both because of the impact on the local community, and conditions for the people living on board. The barge has been used in the past to house workers, including military personnel. But when being used for asylum seekers, the cabins on the barge—originally designed for one person and only "slightly larger" than a prison cell—will be used to house at least two.

People seeking asylum will be expected to share their small accommodation with a stranger. This is a situation that few would find desirable. It does not meet the government's own bedroom standard, which is itself not overly generous.

Crowded conditions such as these are associated with a range of negative health consequences including anxiety, depression and psychological distress. They are also associated with increased risk of respiratory illness, including COVID-19 and tuberculosis, as well as infectious disease.

These diseases include diarrhea and gastroenteritis. We often hear stories of norovirus, a common cause of gastroenteritis, spreading through other high-density spaces such as cruise ships and resorts. However, these are usually much less densely populated than the Bibby Stockholm is expected to be.

The effect of crowding on health is notable. A review of evidence found that around one-fifth of hospital admissions due to infectious disease in New Zealand were attributable to crowded conditions in the home.

Links between crowding and mental health problems have been established among the general population, but risks are likely higher for those that have recently fled their home country due to the trauma that they have already experienced.

Life in lockdown

Another important difference between the experience of asylum seekers on the barge compared to others that have lived onboard is the restricted movement and high security they will experience. Residents will be unable to freely leave the barge or the nearby containment area.

Like most asylum seekers in the UK, they are prohibited from working, and the very low levels of financial support they receive would severely limit any activities they could take part in. They will probably spend much of their time onboard in their small, cramped rooms (with disconnected TVs) or the limited space onboard.

The lockdowns of the COVID pandemic demonstrated the importance of safe, secure and suitable housing for protecting our health and well-being as well as the challenges of restricted movement. People seeking asylum and housed on the Bibby Stockholm will experience lockdown-like conditions, and evidence suggests that lockdown had greater negative effect on those in smaller homes and without outside space.

The facilities on the Bibby Stockholm are not just bleak, but dangerous. The Fire Brigades Union has raised concerns about fire safety on board the vessel, a worry familiar to those that spent lockdown in homes covered in flammable cladding identified after the Grenfell Tower fire.

Further, there are concerns about a lack of life jackets. This worry is likely to be particularly severe for people who may not be able to swim. And for those who may have arrived via a dangerous sea-crossing journey, simply being housed on the water could be traumatic.

Savings, at what cost?

The government has argued that the Bibby Stockholm is needed to save money on housing asylum seekers as it works through the backlog of applications. But there is little evidence for this—and the potential health costs of housing people on the barge could easily wipe out any savings.

Among the general population, the health effects of poor housing in England are thought to cost the NHS £1.4 billion a year. Overcrowding is the third highest contributor to this figure.

While conditions on the barge are particularly likely to harm the health of people living there, many of the issues will also apply to other asylum seeker "containment sites." The Bibby Stockholm is the latest in a long history of housing asylum seekers in the poorest conditions, including more recent trends of using "quasi-detention" sites, which are isolated, have high security and reduce people's access to privacy, freedom and legal advice.

Government ministers have said that the use of hotels as temporary housing is a "pull factor" for asylum seekers, attracting them to Britain. Housing is a basic, essential need and shouldn't be used punitively—as a deterrent or punishment. In fact, any deterrent is unlikely to work, so long as the push factors forcing people to seek asylum in the first place remain.

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

High self-harm rates among detained asylum seekers prompts calls for action

Racial disparity persists in National Football League promotion practices, according to research

by JT Godfrey, University of Michigan

The lack of people of color in organizational leadership positions in the National Football League persists due to "valuative bias"—a difference in rewards for equivalent performance on the basis of social identity, according to a University of Michigan researcher and others.

The study, "Racial Disparity in Leadership: Evidence of Valuative Bias in the Promotions of National Football League Coaches," explores the connection between valuative bias and the racial representation of high-level coaches in the NFL. It was recently published in the American Journal of Sociology.

Co-author Chris Rider, an entrepreneurial studies professor at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, previously researched racial disparities and employment practices in the corporate law sector after the financial crisis of 2008–09.

After being introduced to the data on NFL coaches collected by his former colleagues at Emory University, Rider joined the research team of Jim Wade of George Washington University, Anand Swaminathan of Emory and Andreas Schwab of Iowa State University, and developed an equity analytics framework for documenting racial disparity in promotion rates and understanding its root causes.

In the research, Rider and co-authors express the elements that create racial disparities and present frameworks for analyzing and categorizing them. In analyzing the factors behind racial disparities, the researchers distinguished between allocative and valuative biases: biases affecting who works in which job and how they are rewarded for their contributions.

"I think a big challenge that organizations are still grappling with is they know they have a gap, but they're not sure what is the appropriate solution given the nature of the gap they have," Rider said. "For example, in the NFL you can generate a gap in multiple ways. One of which is tracking coaches of color into positions with lesser upward mobility prospects, running backs coach as opposed to quarterbacks coach. You could also get coaches in the same position who are promoted at different rates despite equivalent performance.

"It turns out that organizations face two different kinds of challenges: One is the allocation of personnel to the position and the other is how their contributions are valued."

The research's distinction between allocative and valuative bias allows organizations, particularly the NFL, to address unique challenges within employment practices with more targeted strategies. In the case of the NFL, the researchers had access to make it particularly straightforward to evaluate career data and distinguish between the biases in promotion practices.

"We're not introducing a new type of bias to the literature; we're systematically evaluating valuative bias' influence on the gap in ways that's never been done before," Rider said.

In their examination of all 32 NFL teams between 1985 and 2015, the researchers show that although allocative bias was prevalent and a significant challenge to the successful placement of coaches of color in high-trajectory roles, valuative bias had a substantial effect on the coaches of color's ability to successfully attain high-level positions, such as offensive/defensive coordinator and head coach.

Due to their unique use of data and career history analyses, Rider and colleagues challenged many common misconceptions in the NFL. One common presumption that awareness of valuative bias challenges is the idea of meritocracy.

The NFL often promotes itself as a meritocratic employment market in which coaches' individual career ascension is entirely based on performance and success. However, the analysis indicates that coaches who perform equivalently—on many performance metrics—nevertheless differ in their promotion rates on the basis of racial identity. Although the goal is meritocracy and there are performance indicators, they may be applied subjectively.

The study, Rider says, simulates various gap-closing interventions and identifies what must be done to achieve parity in representation at the head coach level and, consequently, maintain notions of meritocratic promotions in the NFL. Only if coaches with observationally equivalent performance are promoted at the same rate from lower-level positions can the league achieve parity in representation at the head coach level.

The researchers had access to data before and after the addition of the Rooney Rule in NFL promotion practices. The Rooney Rule, implemented in 2003, dictates that NFL decision-makers must interview at least one woman and one member of a marginalized group for every high-level position search.

The Rooney Rule has faced its critics, primarily that it hasn't affected the representation of coaches of color in leadership positions, particularly as the talent pool of coaches has become more diversified. In the case of Rider's research, the equity analytics framework can be used to advocate for policies to make the Rooney rule more effective.

"From our perspective, the most important insight is not whether or not we can definitively answer if the Rooney Rule was effective," he said. "Rather, what we can say is that both before and after the Rooney Rule, there has been a major advantage for white coaches in getting promoted to the coordinator position."

The researchers shared their equity analytics with the Fritz Pollard Alliance to inform changes to the Rooney Rule. One advocate was Cyrus Mehri, a legendary civil rights attorney who worked with the NFL to adopt the Rooney Rule in 2003.

The researchers' position is that the Rooney Rule will have the highest impact when applied as early as possible in the coaching hierarchy. Focusing on roles where coaches build the credentials for career ascension has more long-term opportunities to reduce future racial disparity in high-level positions.

Besides the implications on NFL hiring and promotion practices, Rider and colleagues say their framework can be used in any industry where allocative and valuative biases are present.

"As much as our research focuses on the NFL and shows there's a pretty strong and persistent racial disparity there, I think we also have to give the NFL credit: At any given point in time, you typically have more head coaches of color among the 32 teams in the NFL than you have CEOs of color among the Fortune 500," Rider said. "When we think about that comparison, it tells us there's probably a lot that can be done in large multinational corporations to really affect the prevalent disparities at all career stages.

"My co-authors and I are really looking to work with organizations that want to analyze the data, use equity analytics to identify gaps, understand what causes them, and start designing interventions to close them."

More information: Christopher I. Rider et al, Racial Disparity in Leadership: Evidence of Valuative Bias in the Promotions of National Football League Coaches, American Journal of Sociology (2023). DOI: 10.1086/725389

Journal information: American Journal of Sociology

Provided by University of Michigan Why 30 out of 32 NFL head coaches are white—behind the NFL's abysmal record on diversity

The enduring mystery of mass whale strandings

by Kerri Duncan, Particle

On 18 July 2023, 97 pilot whales became stranded near Albany, WA.

It didn't take long for hundreds of people to rush to Cheynes Beach and offer their help. Despite the combined efforts of wildlife experts and volunteers, all the whales died. The only solace for distraught witnesses is the hope of learning something from the tragedy.

Fishing for clues

Scientists currently don't know why whales beach themselves in large numbers. "It's been a question for us for so many years," says Dr. Chong Wei, Research Associate at Curtin University's Center for Marine Science and Technology.

Scientists from across Australia are examining the pilot whale carcasses in Albany for clues. "We've got a big team working on it," says Chong. A WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) spokesperson says the tests may take several months to complete.

It's getting loud in here

One theory behind the cause of whale strandings is acoustic trauma. "Toothed whales rely on sound for major life functions," says Chong. "They send out sounds and listen to echoes to detect and navigate the environment around them." Loud underwater noises—like military sonar—can potentially mess with the whales' echolocation systems.

"Human activities could cause enormous interference," says Chong. "[The whales] might lose their direction, which could cause beachings."

Holy hearing

Chong's team will search for evidence of acoustic trauma in the beached pilot whales via computed tomography (CT) scans of their heads.

His team has previously performed the same tests on fish to examine the damage caused by noise.

"When fish experience intense noise for a period of time, it will cause physical damage," says Chong. "Very tiny holes in the membranes of the otoliths can cause hearing loss."

"First, we'll do medical CT scans of the entire [whale] heads to check internal structures. Then we'll do micro CT scans of the ears to provide a much higher resolution. Based on these scans, we can … simulate the sound production and reception processes that occur inside the animals' heads."

"Then we can assess whether noise could be a reason for the strandings."

Pilot whales gathered near Cheynes Beach before becoming stranded. Credit: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions

Testing, testing

Disease is another theory behind mass whale strandings. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development will run histopathology tests to check whale tissue samples for evidence of disease.

Flinders University in South Australia will test for viral or bacterial illnesses via dry swab samples. The University of Western Australia will analyze DNA to "help understand population dynamics and potential genetic vulnerabilities," according to the DBCA.

DBCA staff will also take morphometric measurements, including length, gender and photo IDs. It's hoped that this will help us get a better understanding of the group's composition and demographics.

Some experts suggest whales' strong social connections may be a contributing factor. Group strandings tend to involve only the most social families of toothed whales. When one of their pod becomes stranded, others may follow. Once beached, they may also refuse to leave their loved ones, hindering rescue efforts.

In an ABC interview about the pilot whales, Griffith University research fellow Olaf Meynecke said "It might just be that emotional connection to their peers that keeps them there."

Hot spots and booby traps

Thousands of whale strandings occur every year. New Zealand has recorded over 5000 strandings since 1840, while the UK has reported 17,850 strandings since 1990. Some of these sites share similarities in beach topography and environmental conditions. For example, Golden Bay and Cape Cod have a narrow land feature, long sloping beaches and large tidal variations.

It's thought the whales' echolocation systems may not work as effectively in these areas when the tide quickly recedes, effectively creating natural 'whale traps.'

Making data waves

Records of whale strandings have increased in recent decades. However, it's unclear whether this indicates a true increase in the frequency and scale of these events. Instead, it may simply reflect improved human awareness and recording efforts. "We're certainly collecting more data these days," says Chong. In some cases, higher numbers of stranded whales could even suggest a growth in the total number of whales, indicating healthier populations.

Since commercial whaling ceased in the 1980s, humpback whale populations have significantly increased, along with reports of strandings.
Mass whale strandings are still largely considered a "natural phenomenon," according to the DBCA. Until we determine why they do it, it's difficult to prevent.

On the plus side, strandings provide access to samples that are otherwise very difficult to collect. This precious data can inform scientists about how the whales live as well as their possible causes of death.

Understanding them better can help inform conservation efforts.

Provided by Particle

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.

Rescuers 'optimistic' for surviving stranded whales in Australia

Thousands of migratory birds will make NZ landfall in spring—will they bring a deadly bird flu with them?

by Jemma Geoghegan and Nigel French, The Conversation

A highly pathogenic bird flu is currently sweeping the world—and New Zealand could be better prepared for its potential arrival.

Over the past few years, more and more birds have come to harbor new strains of this deadly virus as it continues to evolve to infect new species. It is now causing a panzootic (a pandemic of animals) among wild aquatic birds.

The virus, known as highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, has likely already killed thousands of birds worldwide (the exact number is difficult to estimate). What's more, spillovers to non-avian hosts such as mammals are becoming increasingly common.

While only a few human cases have been reported, cats, foxes and sea lions are being infected at an alarming rate.

Despite intercontinental transmission of highly pathogenic bird flu variants during the past 20 years, no cases have been reported in New Zealand—yet. Australia is also considered free of the virus, although a few years ago a strain in chickens was thought to have evolved locally.

One reason we emphasize "yet" is because each spring, thousands of migratory birds arrive in Aotearoa New Zealand. Will they bring these deadly strains of avian influenza with them? An unwanted viral hitchhiker of this type could have devastating consequences for our biota and industries.

How bird flu could get to New Zealand

New Zealand is conventionally assumed to be at low risk from highly pathogenic avian influenza. We are thought to be too far away from other landmasses and not on routes that migratory waterfowl usually take.

Any migratory shore and seabirds that do usually make landfall in New Zealand are thought likely to die of the disease before reaching our shores.

But some wild birds might experience asymptomatic infections, even of strains that are typically highly pathogenic.

Also, the recent expansion of susceptible host species, including to marine mammals, increases the risk that some species might carry the virus here.

As for geography, research suggests wild bird migrations are responsible for transmitting the virus from Europe to the Americas across the Atlantic, as well as throughout Eurasia. So why not to New Zealand? Are we really just too far away?

How to prepare for an outbreak

If this highly pathogenic avian influenza virus were to arrive, New Zealand is not as prepared as it could be. The major reason is that we have very little active virus surveillance of wildlife.

New Zealand monitors livestock, including cows, sheep and poultry, for a range of diseases. But the impact of this virus on people and non-poultry livestock is likely to be minimal.

The first signs might be the death of seabirds or marine mammals. While perhaps not as iconic as a kiwi or kākāpō, New Zealand is home to a great many seabirds found nowhere else on the planet.

Some species, such as tara iti (or fairy tern) are critically endangered, with only about 50 individuals left. A virus such as this could directly drive the extinction of species with such low numbers.

Given this risk, the US took action to vaccinate the Californian condor against avian influenza—but only after finding 21 dead condors (4% of the remaining population) which had tested positive for the H5N1 strain.

What should New Zealand watch for and how can we be better prepared to detect any incursions early?

Raising awareness: unexpected deaths in animals are a red flag. Usually, such events are investigated by the Ministry for Primary Industries. But we must better inform the public about what to do if they spot a dead bird or sea lion.
Testing: ramp up active and targeted surveillance of known pathogens. Wild birds have been surveyed annually since 2004 for avian influenza. However, since 2010 the focus has shifted away from migratory birds to sampling resident wildfowl in the summer months, concentrating on a small number of coastal locations visited by migratory shorebirds. This is based on the lack of positive samples from migratory bird prior to 2010, but the global situation and consequences of an incursion warrant revisiting active migratory bird surveillance across more locations.
Genomics: use the viral genomics capabilities we have already established during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Europe, for instance, there are some circulating variants of avian influenza that seem to better infect mammals. If the virus arrives here, viral genomics can be used effectively to let us know what form we are dealing with, and inform our response.

It is clear that to first spot and then stop a virus such as this, we need to look at the entire ecosystem—that is, where humans, animals and the environment are interconnected. This is known as the "One Health" approach.

While this makes intuitive sense, the reality is that disease surveillance affecting humans, domestic animals and wildlife is largely siloed and under-resourced. There is limited integration of activities across these domains. The result is that we are currently ill-equipped to track and respond rapidly to this deadly virus were it to arrive in New Zealand.

We are advocating defragmentation of our surveillance for emerging pathogens. It is time to provide a more enhanced and integrated One Health surveillance system, involving expertise across universities, research institutes and government departments to re-evaluate our pandemic (and panzootic) preparedness.

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

Migrating birds could bring lethal avian flu to Australia's vulnerable birds

Climate change is bringing bushfires more often, but some ecosystems in Australia are suffering the most

by David Lindenmayer, Chris Taylor, Maldwyn John Evans and Philip Zylstra, The Conversation

Black Summer, Black Saturday, Ash Wednesday: these and so many other bushfire disasters are regular reminders of the fact Australia is among the most flammable continents on Earth.

Alarmingly, climate change is making bushfires more frequent. This is a huge concern, given the devastating effects of fire on both human communities, and the diversity of plants and animals.

As our new research shows, however, the trend is not uniform. We examined the frequency of wildfires in parts of Victoria over the past 40 years. We found fire frequency is increasing in all ecosystems we studied, but to varying extents. In some places, fires are occurring so often, entire ecosystems are at risk of collapse.

These nuances are important. They point to the urgent need to tackle climate change. They also have major implications for biodiversity conservation, and bushfire management and prevention, and cast further questions over the controversial practice of native forest logging.

Fires are becoming shockingly more frequent

To understand the effects of wildfires, it's not enough to focus on a single fire. We must examine successive fires in an area and how frequently they occur.

Our analysis focused on southeastern Australia—one of the most populated, heavily forested, and fire-prone parts of the continent.

Specifically, we homed in on six geographic areas in Victoria known as "bioregions". Bioregions vary in their climatic conditions, geological features, biodiversity and other characteristics. The six areas together cover 4.64 million hectares—much of it forest.

We excluded deliberate burns such as hazard reduction (or prescribed) burns lit by fire authorities. We also excluded places that had been logged, because they're known to be at a high risk of severe fire—and so including them would have skewed the results.

We found a major change in the frequency of wildfire over the past four decades. Between 2001 and 2020, there were substantially more fires in almost all bioregions than between 1981 and 2000.

In the earlier two decades, almost 667,000 hectares of forest burned. More than 36,000 hectares of this burned more than once.

In the latter two decades, 3.1 million hectares burned. About 1 million hectares burned more than once.

The change was most pronounced in the three bioregions at higher elevations—the Snowy Mountains, Victorian Alps, and South East Coastal Ranges (which lie southeast of the Snowy Mountains).

The least amount of change was found in Victoria's East Gippsland Lowlands. This area had more fires in 1981-2000 than the other areas we studied, but only a modest increase in number of fires between 2000 and 2020.

Fascinatingly, however, the story doesn't end there.

A complex picture

We found the changes in fire frequency were nuanced and complex. Across the study areas, the frequency of wildfires was very strongly affected by topographical features such as slope, as well as climate measures such as rainfall and temperature. However, the influence of these factors differed markedly between areas.

For example, in four bioregions we studied, wildfires became more frequent as rainfall declined. But the opposite was true in the other two bioregions.

The reasons for these complex findings remain unclear. Increased average rainfall may, in some cases, arrive in storm events with associated lightning (which can start fires). It can also lead to faster water runoff, meaning rainfall may not be as well retained in the soil as otherwise might be, and forests could become drier.

Similarly, fire frequency was also affected by the extent to which temperatures deviated from the long-term average. Generally, this deviation was toward hotter temperatures.

In some areas, this temperature variation was associated with less frequent fires. In others, it coincided with more frequent fires. Again, the reasons for these differences are not yet clear.

The increase in fire frequency is alarming. Some places where fire has been particularly frequent include wetter forests, such as those dominated by ash-type eucalypts. Consistent with earlier analyses, we found evidence of locations that have experienced up to four fires in the past 25 years.

Fires in ash-type ecosystems have historically occurred only once every 75 to 150 years. Fires occurring too often in these environments may lead to the entire ecosystem collapsing.

Our results have major implications for the native forest logging forestry industry. More frequent fires means many trees burn well before they've reached an age suitable for sawlogs. This suggests yields from native forest logging in south-eastern Australia will decline, making the practice even more financially precarious.

What must happen next?

Our results confirm wildfires are becoming more frequent in parts of fire-prone south-eastern Australia. And while climate change influences the frequency of fire, the effects vary across geographical areas.

Clearly, we must seek to limit the number of wildfires. An obvious response is to take more strident steps to tackle climate change. But even if humanity meets this huge global challenge, it will be a long time before we see demonstrable changes in climate conditions.

More immediate options include managing vegetation to reduce flammability. For example, activities such as logging and thinning can make forests more flammable, so such practices should be halted in these vulnerable ecosystems.

Greater efforts are needed to conserve biodiversity that is sensitive to fire, and to conserve ecosystems at risk of collapse. We must also embrace new technologies to detect wildfires as soon as they ignite, and suppress them as quickly as possible.

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

Research supports use of managed and prescribed fires to reduce fire severity

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