Thursday, November 30, 2023

New York Opens Fourth Offshore Wind Solicitation Reflecting Industry Issues

NY wind solicitation — New York is calling for proposals by January and decision by February 2024 in the next round of wind energy projects (file photo)

New York State as scheduled officially opened its fourth solicitation today for offshore wind projects as well as land-based renewables. It is part of the state’s efforts to accelerate its efforts in renewable energy while also seeking to reflect changes in the industry and make up for recent setbacks.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul launched a 10-Point Action Plan last month that she said included plans to overcome macroeconomic and inflationary challenges that have impacted the renewable energy sector. New York’s progress toward its goal of producing 70 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, with 9 GW of offshore wind energy by 20235, was endangered by recent decisions. Planned projects by Ørsted, BP and Equinor petitioned state regulators to permit them to reset pricing on the power purchase agreements reflecting the financial pressures on the industry. The regulators rejected the proposals prompting the developers to threaten to walk away from their projects which represent up to 5 GW of wind energy.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) released the new solicitation saying it was designed to expedite the process and build on momentum for the industry. They highlighted that conditional awards include three offshore wind and 22 land-based renewable energy projects totaling 6.4 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power 2.6 million New York homes and deliver approximately 12 percent of New York’s electricity needs once completed. New York’s first large offshore wind farm, Ørsted’s South Fork (132 MW) is expected to generate its first power in the coming days and be completed around the beginning of 2024.

The new call is open to all bidders and provides greater flexibility according to NYSERDA. It sets a minimum size of 800 MW for the proposals. The maximum size that will be considered is 1.4 GW of capacity that is not already under contract.

Critically the solicitation includes provisions for a variety of proposals, including the opportunity for projects that currently hold power contracts to participate, allowing the companies to re-bid their projects as a means of resetting the pricing. NYSERDA notes that the companies must commit to conditional termination and that the process includes an updated policy to permit the terminations. The developers that recently lost their request to NYSERDA were waiting for the release of the new process before determining their actions.

NYSERDA is also reporting that steps were taken to streamline the process compared to the previous solicitation. Beyond the increased flexibility they are also reducing the bid fees due with the proposals. As with the previous round, they are also offering the option of incorporating a price structure into the proposal that permits a one-time adjustment to reflect changes in certain price indices. NYSERDA says this will help to ensure the long-term viability of the projects.

Other provisions include a minimum U.S. iron and steel purchase requirement for all projects awarded to encourage domestic steel production. They write that this will also provide opportunities for U.S.-based steel suppliers to participate in the growing offshore wind industry. The new solicitation also adds a provision requiring proposals to understand the benefits and burdens to disadvantaged communities as well as the standing requirements for environmental mitigation, fisheries mitigation, engagement, and New York workforce plans.

Reflecting the efforts to accelerate New York’s renewable energy efforts, final proposals for the offshore wind solicitation are due by January 25, 2024, with award announcements expected to be made by the end of February 2024. The separate land-based component seeks proposals by the end of January 2024 and expects to announce results by April. The goal for the wind projects is to execute contracts by the second quarter of 2024.

Equinor Emphasizes "Perseverance" on West Coast Offshore Wind

Despite the serious financial headwinds facing the U.S. offshore wind industry, oil major Equinor has reiterated its commitment to a future two-gigawatt megaproject off the coast of California, which will use a floating platform technology that is more expensive than the bottom-fixed foundations found on the U.S. East Coast.

Equinor holds a prime lease area about 50 nautical miles off Morro Bay, California, one of the premier areas for wind development in the state. There are several recent developments in its favor: California's government has approved a central buyer agency for wind power, and it has smoothed the path for local permitting and power transmission, improving the odds of commercial viability. Still, given elevated local construction costs, California's transmission grid limits, and the economic difficulties facing even less-costly developments on the other side of the nation, clean power advocates acknowledge that West Coast offshore wind faces a challenging path and a longer timeline to market.

Equinor announced Wednesday that it has named its future Morro Bay wind project Atlas, in hopes of projecting an image of resilience.

"Atlas is a symbol of strength and fortitude, and most importantly perseverance, as we bring tested, world-class technology to California’s Central Coast,” says Molly Morris, President Equinor Renewables Americas. “Courageousness is one of our company’s core values and Atlas is a perfect representation of forward momentum."

Equinor's existing Empire and Beacon Wind projects on the U.S. East Coast face substantial headwinds due to inflation and interest rate hikes, and they are believed to be under review for commercial viability. Project partner BP - which paid Equinor $1.1 billion in 2020 to take a 50 percent stake in these projects - recently declared that the U.S. offshore wind business model is "fundamentally broken" after recording a $540 million impairment on the two developments. Equinor booked a smaller writedown of $300 million on Empire and Beacon early this month.

Empire Wind 1 originally bid for a New York State power purchase auction at a strike price of $118 per MWh, and BP/Equinor unsuccessfully sought permission to raise that rate to $160. For Beacon Wind, they sought to increase the price from $118 per MWh to more than $190, a jump of more than 60 percent. Since the state has denied permission to raise prices for either one, analysts see a possibility that the projects may be canceled and rebid. In anticipation of this scenario, New York's governor has announced a future auction round early next year to replace projects that withdraw from their contracts.

IKEA Store Operator Invests in Offshore Wind and Hydrogen to Restore Baltic

offshore wind farm — Ingka Group reports it produces more renewable energy than energy it uses operating 482 IKEA stores (Ingka Group)

The largest operator of IKEA stores, Ingka Group which accounts for about 90 percent of IKEA’s worldwide retail sales, is increasing its investments in offshore wind as part of a company-wide Energy Transformation commitment. Ingka announced its third offshore investment with OX2, a Swedish renewable energy company.

Ingka will acquire for an initial payment of approximately $22 million a 49 percent stake in two next-generation Swedish offshore wind projects currently under development. The transaction includes the offshore projects Pleione located east of Gotland and Neptunus located southeast of Blekinge, which amounted to 2.4 GW in OX2’s development portfolio in Q3 2023. Following successful permitting for the projects, OX2 will in addition receive a pre-agreed deferred consideration of approximately $68,0000 per MW for 49 percent of the planned capacity. Following the completion of the transaction, the development costs for the projects will be shared according to the respective party’s ownership.

In addition to the offshore wind farms, the companies highlight that they will investigate the establishment of offshore hydrogen production facilities. They are exploring these facilities and how this can enable artificial oxygenation of the Baltic and thereby bring back marine life to parts of the Baltic that suffer from anoxic conditions.

OX2 and Ingka Investments are also currently exploring future opportunities in the Swedish market including the project Ran located near Pleione. Today’s transaction is the third investment by Ingka with OX2. In June they acquired a 49 percent stake in three offshore projects in Finland and in 2022 invested in three offshore projects in Sweden. Separately in October, Ingka Investments purchased a 20 percent stake in a 10GW offshore wind energy to electric and hydrogen production portfolio from UK-headquartered Source Galileo.

The investments are part of the company’s energy strategy for its operations and overall contribution to decarbonization. It follows a similar strategy to other large corporations such as Amazon which are also investing in renewable energy to power their operations.

“Today we produce more renewable energy than we consume across our operations and we are going one step further with our renewable energy commitment,” said Juvencio Maeztu, Deputy CEO and CFO of Ingka Group (IKEA).

Briefing investors he highlighted the offshore wind investment is part of an additional €1 billion investment commitment made today in the company’s energy transformation. It is in addition to previous commitments to invest €6.5 billion in renewable energy. In addition to the recent investments in wind farms and offshore wind development, the company is investing in solar parks with its renewable energy investments spanning Australia, Finland, and Italy.

Ingka is the largest franchise operator of IKEA with retail operations in 31 markets and encompassing 482 stores. For the stores, shopping centers, warehouses, distribution centers, officers, and other buildings they are investing in retrofits with renewable heating and cooling systems. The company also recently launched its first-ever battery storage project at a location in Texas.

A mixed origin made maize successful

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

A mixed origin made maize successful — IMAGE:
MAIZE (CORN) IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT STAPLE CROPS AND HAS GREAT CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE AMERICAS. NEW WORK BY JEFFREY ROSS-IBARRA AT UC DAVIS AND INTERNATIONAL COLLEAGUES SHOWS HOW MAIZE WAS DOMESTICATED FROM TWO WILD VARIETIES.
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CREDIT: SASHA BAKHTER, UC DAVIS

Maize is one of the world’s most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research, published Dec. 1 in Science, shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant was first domesticated.

The work has implications both for improving one of the world’s most important crops and for understanding how the histories of people and their crops influence each other.

“It’s a new model for the origins and spread of maize, and how it became a staple across the Americas,” said Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis and senior author on the paper.

For the last few decades, the consensus has been that maize (Zea mays) was domesticated once from a single wild grass – called teosinte -- in the lowlands of southwest Mexico about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Known as corn in the United States, maize is not only a staple of diets around the globe, but also can be processed into sweeteners,ethanol fuel and other uses.

More recently, though, it’s become clear that the genome of modern maize also contains a hefty dose of DNA from a second teosinte that grows in the highlands of central Mexico.

Ross-Ibarra and collaborators in the U. S., China and Mexico analyzed the genomes of over a thousand samples of maize and wild relatives. They found that about 20 percent of the genome of all maize worldwide comes from this second highland teosinte.

New model for spread of maize

These new findings suggest that, though maize was domesticated around 10,000 years ago, it was not until 4,000 years later, when it hybridized with highland teosinte, that maize really took off as a popular crop and food staple. This is also supported by archaeological evidence of the increasing importance of maize around the same time.

The new crop spread rapidly through the Americas and later worldwide. Today, about 1.2 billion metric tons is harvested each year globally.

The hunt for why highland teosinte enabled maize to become a staple is still underway, Ross-Ibarra said. The researchers did find genes related to cob size – perhaps representing an increased yield potential – and flowering time, which likely helped maize, a tropical crop, to grow at higher latitudes with longer days.

Hybridization may also have brought “hybrid vigor,” where a hybrid organism is more vigorous than either of its parents. The researchers observed that genomic segments from highland teosinte contained fewer harmful mutations than did other parts of the genome.

While the initial hybridization may have been accidental, it’s likely that indigenous farmers recognized and took advantage of the novel variation introduced from highland maize, Ross-Ibarra said. Even today, he said, “If you talk to Mexican farmers, some will tell you that letting wild maize grow near the fields makes their crops stronger.”

NSF grant

A team led by Ross-Ibarra with Professor Graham Coop at UC Davis, archaeologists at UC Santa Barbara and geneticists at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences was recently awarded a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the co-evolution of humans and maize in the Americas. They will use genetics to look at how humans and maize spread across the continent and how populations of both maize and humans grew and shrank as they interacted with each other.

“We will incorporate human genetic data, maize genetics and archaeological data in an effort to answer many of the questions raised by our new model of maize origins,” Ross-Ibarra said.

Coauthors on the Science paper are: at UC Davis, Erin Calfee, Sowmya Mambakkam, Mitra Menon, Carl Veller and Daniel Runcie; Ning Yang, Yuebin Wang, Minliang Jin, Lu Chen, Songtao Gui, Wenqiang Li, Jingyun Luo, Shenshen Wu, Siying Wu, Yingjie Xiao and Jianbing Yan, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan; Xiangguo Liu, Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Miguel Vallebueno-Estrada, Laboratorio Nacional de Genómica para la Biodiversidad, CINVESTAV Irapuato, Guanajuato, México; Brian Dilkes, Purdue University; Xingming Fan, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Thomas Harper, Pennsylvania State University; Samantha Snodgrass, Iowa State University; Douglas Kennett, UC Santa Barbara; Yanli Lu, Sichuan Agricultural University; Xiaohong Yang, China Agricultural University; and Michelle C. Stitzer, Cornell University.

The work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adg8940

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Two teosintes made modern maize

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Dec-2023

Carbon dioxide becomes more potent as climate changes, study finds

New study shows potency of the greenhouse gas increases with increased concentrations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ROSENSTIEL SCHOOL OF MARINE, ATMOSPHERIC, AND EARTH SCIENCE

Carbon Dioxide Becomes More Potent as Climate Changes, Study Finds — IMAGE:
IN THIS STUDY, THE RESEARCHERS USED STATE-OF-THE-ART CLIMATE MODELS AND OTHER TOOLS TO ANALYZE THE EFFECT INCREASING CO2 HAS ON A REGION OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE — KNOWN AS THE STRATOSPHERE — THAT SCIENTISTS HAVE LONG KNOWN COOLS WITH INCREASING CO2 CONCENTRATIONS. THEY FOUND THAT THIS STRATOSPHERE COOLING CAUSES SUBSEQUENT INCREASES IN CO2 TO HAVE A LARGER HEAT-TRAPPING EFFECT THAN PREVIOUS INCREASES, CAUSING CARBON DIOXIDE TO BECOME MORE POTENT AS A GREENHOUSE GAS.
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CREDIT: NASA

Thursday, 30 November 2023.

A team of scientists found that carbon dioxide becomes a more potent greenhouse gas as more is released into the atmosphere.

The new study, led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, Science, was published in Science and comes as world leaders meet in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28.

“Our finding means that as the climate responds to increases in carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide itself becomes a more potent greenhouse gas” said the study’s senior author Brian Soden, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the Rosenstiel School. “It is yet further confirmation that carbon emissions must be curbed sooner rather than later to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change.”

In this study, the researchers used state-of-the-art climate models and other tools to analyze the effect increasing CO2 has on a region of the upper atmosphere — known as the stratosphere — that scientists have long known cools with increasing CO2 concentrations. They found that this stratosphere cooling causes subsequent increases in CO2 to have a larger heat-trapping effect than previous increases, causing carbon dioxide to become more potent as a greenhouse gas.

The amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere from a proportionate increase in CO2, which scientists refer to as radiative forcing, has long been thought of as a constant that does not change over time.

“This new finding shows that the radiative forcing is not constant but changes as the climate responds to increases in carbon dioxide,” said Ryan Kramer, a physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and alumnus of the Rosenstiel School.

Carbon dioxide leads to global warming by trapping heat energy in the climate system.

“Future increases in CO2 will provide a more potent warming effect on climate than an equivalent increase in the past,” said the study’s lead author Haozhe He, who completed the work as part of his Ph.D. studies at the Rosenstiel School. “This new understanding has significant implications for interpreting both past and future climate changes and implies that high CO2 climates may be intrinsically more sensitive than low CO2 climates.”

The work was conducted using a suite of climate model simulations provided by The Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects (CMIP), which provide a series of coordinated experiments performed by dozens of the world’s most comprehensive climate models, in support of the IPCC assessments. To make their work conclusive beyond the simulated world of climate models, the research team also performed numerous “offline” radiative flux calculations with highly accurate radiative transfer models as well as analytical models.

The study, titled “State-dependence of CO2 forcing and its implications for climate sensitivity,” was published in the Dec. 1 issue of the journal Science. Nadir Jeevanjee from NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory is also a coauthor of the study.

The research was supported by NOAA grants NA18OAR4310269 and NA21OAR4310351) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Science of Terra, Aqua and Suomi-NPP NASA grant 80NSSC21K1968).

ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

The University of Miami is a private research university and academic health system with a distinct geographic capacity to connect institutions, individuals, and ideas across the hemisphere and around the world. With more than $413 million in research and sponsored program expenditures annually, the University of Miami is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU).

The University’s vibrant and diverse academic community comprises 12 schools and colleges serving more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students in more than 180 majors and programs. Located within one of the most dynamic and multicultural cities in the world, the University is building new bridges across geographic, cultural, and intellectual borders, bringing a passion for scholarly excellence, a spirit of innovation, a respect for including and elevating diverse voices, and a commitment to tackling the challenges facing our world.

Founded in 1943, the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science has grown into one of the world’s premier marine and atmospheric research institutions. Offering dynamic interdisciplinary academics, the Rosenstiel School is dedicated to helping communities to better understand the planet, participating in the establishment of environmental policies, and aiding in the improvement of society and quality of life.

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq6872

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

State-dependence of CO2 forcing and its implications for climate sensitivity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Nov-2023

Commonly used pesticides are still harming bees

A new study has confirmed that pesticides, commonly used in farmland, significantly harm bumblebees. Data from 106 sites across 8 European countries show that despite tightened pesticide regulations, more needs to be done

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

A simplified view of landscape exposure and resulting pesticide risk to bees — IMAGE:
PESTICIDE USE CREATES POTENTIAL HAZARD FOR NON-TARGET ORGANISMS. FOR BEES IN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES, PESTICIDE RISK RESULTS WHEN THEIR ACTIVITY EXPOSES THEM TO THIS HAZARD (TOP LEFT PANEL). WITHOUT THE CO-OCCURRENCE OF HAZARD AND EXPOSURE WE EXPECT NO RISK (REMAINING PANELS). OF COURSE, THE DEGREE OF HAZARD AND EXPOSURE WILL DEPEND ON PESTICIDE PROPERTIES (E.G., TOXICITY, ENVIRONMENTAL FATE, PRODUCT FORMULATIONS, USE PATTERNS) AND BEE TRAITS (E.G., FORAGING RANGE, SOCIALITY, BODY SIZE, DETOXIFICATION PATHWAYS). MOREOVER, REAL-WORLD EXPOSURE OCCURS AT LANDSCAPE SCALES (SEE INSETS), BECAUSE BEES CAN INTEGRATE MULTIPLE SOURCES OF EXPOSURE BY VISITING SPATIALLY SEPARATED PATCHES THAT VARY IN THE IDENTITY, AMOUNT, TIMING AND TOXICITY OF HAZARD. WE USE THE COLONY POLLEN STORES COLLECTED BY BUMBLE BEES (*BOMBUS TERRESTRIS*) TO QUANTIFY PESTICIDE RISK RESULTING FROM THIS LANDSCAPE EXPOSURE. WE QUANTIFY EXPOSURE AS THE CONCENTRATIONS (ΜG/KG) OF 267 SUBSTANCES IN THE POLLEN WHILE HAZARD IS QUANTIFIED BY THE SUBSTANCES’ TOXICITIES (LD50S). SCALING CONCENTRATIONS BY TOXICITIES AND SUMMING THESE TOXICITY-WEIGHTED CONCENTRATIONS PROVIDES A RELATIVE MEASURE OF PESTICIDE RISK TO BEES.
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CREDIT: NICHOLSON, C.C., KNAPP, J., KILJANEK, T. ET AL. PESTICIDE USE NEGATIVELY AFFECTS BUMBLE BEES ACROSS EUROPEAN LANDSCAPES. NATURE (2023). HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1038/S41586-023-06773-3

“When you step outside the laboratory, a challenge of ecotoxicology is to capture effect of real-world practices at organism-relevant scales.” said Dr. Charlie Nicholson, co-lead author and postdoc at Lund University. “With the largest experimental field deployment of any pollinator, we see that bumblebees encounter multiple pesticides in agricultural landscapes, resulting in fewer offspring. On top of this, pesticides do more harm in landscapes with less habitat.”

The findings published in the journal Nature show that despite claims of the world's most rigorous risk assessment process, the use of approved pesticides in European agricultural landscapes still negatively affects non-target organisms – significantly reducing the colony performance of bumblebees, a key wild and commercial pollinator.

Dr. Jessica Knapp, co-lead author, now at Trinity College Dublin, said: “The data also show us how bumblebees perform when we use less pesticides. These “healthier” colonies that experience less pesticide risk help us generate a baseline to show that 60% of our bumblebee colonies would fail proposed pollinator protection goals.”

This study forms a key output of PoshBee – a pan-European project seeking to monitor and improve bee health. “The scale of this work provides a step-change in our understanding of the impact of agrochemicals on pollinator health. It was possible through EU funding that supported the project involving 13 countries. Bumblebees, and other animals, do not recognise international borders, and to protect them, we need to take a similarly international approach.” – PoshBee coordinator Prof. Mark Brown, Royal Holloway University of London.

Prof. Jane Stout at Trinity College Dublin and fieldwork coordinator, added, “This work was possible because of the collaboration and dedication of the transdisciplinary field teams in each country and the partnership with the labs that conducted the common analyses. Researchers, beekeepers, and farmers worked together to implement common protocols to collect these unique data.”

Colony performance was related to pesticide risk in pollen - a metric enabled by the pesticide analysis coordination of Dr. Marie-Pierre Chauzat at ANSES. “The analyses benefited from the coordinated work of five labs for pesticide screening and pollen identification – data that will be publicly available. Coordination was the keyword for generating this dataset.”

The study findings support the need for sustainability goals to reduce pesticide use and risk – critical challenges highlighted at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP 15 meeting and in the European Green Deal – with potential benefits to bees and their pollination services.

Dr. Maj Rundlöf, senior author and researcher at Lund University, concluded: “Our work supports the development of landscape-level environmental risk assessment and post-approval monitoring of bees’ pesticide exposure and effects. However, there is also a need to better understand how the wider pollinator community is exposed to and potentially impacted by pesticide use.”

The paper can be read at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06773-3.

JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06773-3

ARTICLE TITLE

Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Nov-2023

Illuminating the benefits of marine protected areas for ecotourism, and vice versa

New research provides strong evidence of the benefit of marine protected areas for the scuba diving industry in Southern California, highlight that diving community should be considered a key stakeholder in decision-making about the future of MPAs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

Diver and Kelp — IMAGE:
A SCUBA DIVER SWIMS THROUGH GIANT KELP
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CREDIT: NPS

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — As California, the U.S. and the world work to make good on commitments to conserve 30% of oceans and lands by 2030, all strategies are on the table — and under the microscope. When it comes to the ocean, one valuable tool is marine protected areas (MPAs), regions that are defined, designated and managed for long-term conservation. Among other benefits, MPAs protect habitats and promote species diversity. They also hold value for communities and industries.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute have published a new study on the impact of MPAs on the recreational scuba diving industry in California’s Northern Channel Islands. Their conclusions provide strong evidence of the benefit of MPAs for the scuba diving industry in Southern California and highlight that the diving community should be considered a key stakeholder in decision-making about the future of MPAs.

“UCSB has a strong history of conducting marine science in the Channel Islands,” noted first author Molly Morse, senior manager with the campus-based Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. “We hope this research contributes to that legacy of highlighting the measurable value of these ecosystems not only as a critical resource to fishers but also to those of us that place significant value in experiencing and exploring the ‘Galapagos of North America’ with our mask and fins.”

To conduct their study, the team analyzed patterns from millions of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data points from for-hire scuba diving vessels to glean long-term insight into how MPAs shape ecotourism at large. (AIS is an onboard vessel broadcast system that shares high-resolution vessel location and behavioral information.) Based on a set of behavioral criteria confirmed through interviews with for-hire dive vessel captains, the researchers were able to identify vessel behaviors linked to non-extractive ecotourism (e.g., underwater wildlife viewing, photography) versus recreational lobster fishing, and to compare the location of these activities within MPAs, on the MPA borders, or outside of MPAs.

They found that from 2016-2022, dive vessels engaged in ecotourism prefer MPAs, and that dive vessels primarily conducting recreational lobster fishing prefer MPA border zones. Specifically, a high proportion of the most popular ecotourism dive sites (38%) were located in MPAs, a large proportion of the total number of unique ecotourism dive events (45%) were conducted within MPAs, and vessels engaged in ecotourism diving exhibited high selection of MPAs.

Meanwhile, scuba diving vessel behavior in the lobster scenario, in which vessels were putatively engaged largely in recreational lobster fishing, showed quite different patterns. The majority of the lobster fishing dive events (78%) occurred outside of the MPAs, but these dive vessels exhibited preferential selection for the buffer zones around the MPAs. Of owner/operator survey respondents, 83% said they noticed that hunting (i.e., spearfishing, lobster fishing) was better near an MPA due to the so-called “spillover effect,” where species are so abundant and productive in an MPA that they spill over into surrounding areas – like interest yielded from a savings account.

That effect is partly what attracts divers to these particular MPAs, according to Morse. But the biggest draws?

“People come from around the state and around the world to dive the Channel Islands, drawn by playful sea lions, underwater cathedrals of emerald kelp forests and giant sea bass weighing four times more than the divers themselves,” she said. “The dive captains we interviewed stated that the MPAs of the Northern Channel Islands — Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel — enabled more of these experiences for their clientele.”

Past considerations about the establishment of new MPAs or changes to existing MPA management have tended to focus on engagement with fishers (large- and small-scale) and evaluations of how this management tool affects fishing. “Given the significant role of the scuba sector in the blue economic portfolio of small and large coastal communities,” Morse added, “it is important to understand how this stakeholder community relates to and is influenced by MPAs. Ocean ecotourism is a fast-growing sector of coastal economies with a significant stake in the health of coastal biodiversity and the future of coastal planning.”

This study’s focus on scuba diving — an important sector of the Southern California marine ecotourism industry — is unique. Ecotourism is among the largest sectors in the ocean economy, constituting some 50% of all global tourism, equal to $4.6 trillion, the authors note. Yet it is an understudied benefit of marine protected areas.

“We stand at a critical time in history as state, national and world leaders contemplate how to achieve goals of protecting 30% of land and water by 2030,” said co-author Douglas McCauley, a professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology and director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. “Research like this sheds light on the diverse benefits that marine protected areas create for our local communities and economy. And these MPAs are only 20 years old; I think we can conjecture based on other research that these benefits will only increase as these protected areas mature.”

JOURNAL

Marine Policy

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Nov-2023

Sea fireflies synchronize their sparkle to seek soulmates

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In sea fireflies’ underwater ballet, the males sway together in perfect, illuminated synchronization, basking in the glow of their secreted iridescent mucus.

“It’s extreme,” said Nicholai M. Hensley, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “It’s an illustration of convergent evolution and a striking example of synchronized bioluminescent mating displays. The males are putting it all out on the dance floor. It’s a big bright display.”

Hensley is the lead author of new research unwrapping the vivid mating ritual of minute crustaceans called ostracods, which was published Nov. 29 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Ostracods are tiny crustaceans – the size of sesame seeds – found just offshore in the sandy seagrass and reef areas of marine waters. Males of the shrimplike species, called “entraining grassbed downer” or EGD for short, create distinct patterns of bioluminescence to attract females by secreting packets of protein from a specialized gland. In response, the females angle themselves to the bright blue luminous displays and swim toward the males.

“It starts with one male secreting a little ball of glowing mucus,” Hensley said. “Then repeats this several times while swimming and it creates a kind of Morse code pattern of light in the water. Then other males start their synchronous luminous displays and soon underwater – when it is dark – it looks like stars blinking with tiny trails of light.”

The synchronized swim doesn’t happen randomly, the scientists noticed. In fact, the mating dance sequence only happens after sunset at nautical twilight when the moon isn’t bright in the night sky.

The ostracod species EGD was first discovered in 2017 by James Morin, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology (A&S) and Todd Oakley, professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, while they explored near the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Bocas del Toro island research station in Panama.

Morin, who has studied the mechanisms of bioluminescence in marine organisms since 1980, said there are more than 100 species of signaling ostracods in the Caribbean.

“What’s really remarkable about EGD is the duration, the brightness and the density,” Morin said. He recounted while diving at night how a cloudy wave of glowing ostracods moved past him. “It was a remarkable experience. They really jump out at you. I’ve worked with ostracods for years and this species is spectacular.”

Ostracod shared a common ancestor with fireflies about 500 million years ago during the Cambrian era, Hensley said, but courtship using the light likely evolved about 20 million years ago.

But why should sea firefly males go through these gyrations? Other scientific evidence shows that synchronous male behavior entices groups of females, Hensley said. “We’re not sure about the function of synchrony itself,” he said. “All we know now is that these displays are used to attract mates.”

Hensley conducted this research as a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to authors Hensley and Oakley, the co-authors on this paper, “Collective Synchrony of Mating Signals Modulated by Ecological Cues and Social Signals in Bioluminescent Sea Fireflies,” were Trevor J. Rivers, Ph.D. ’07, assistant teaching professor at the University of Kansas; Gretchen A. Gerrish, Ph.D. ‘07, director, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Raj Saha, Roux Institute, Northeastern University, Portland, Maine.

The National Science Foundation funded this research.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2023.2311

Snake skulls show how species adapt to prey

Habitat and diet are strongly correlated to skull shape in dipsadine snakes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

Dispadine snakes — IMAGE:
*THERE ARE MORE THAN 800 SPECIES OF DIPSADINE SNAKES, RANGING FROM LESS THAN 12 INCHES TO MORE THAN 9 FEET IN LENGTH*
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CREDIT: GREGORY PANDELIS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

By studying the skull shapes of dipsadine snakes, researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have found how these species of snakes in Central and South America have evolved and adapted to meet the demands of their habitats and food sources.

The research, conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan, was published in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Ecology and Evolution.

“We now have evidence that this group of snakes is one of the most spectacular and largest vertebrate adaptive radiations currently known to science,” said Gregory Pandelis, collections manager at UTA’s Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center. “We found that both habitat use and diet preferences are strongly correlated to skull shape in this group of snakes, indicating these are likely factors driving cranial evolution for these species.”

There are more than 800 species of dipsadine snakes, ranging from less than 12 inches to more than 9 feet in length. This subfamily of snakes is usually harmless to humans and survives on a wide range of foods—from larger creatures like birds, lizards and frogs to smaller, slimier prey like frog eggs, worms and slugs. Some species specialize in consuming specific prey—like snails—while others are generalists.

Researchers focused on skull evolution because skull shape has important functional consequences for snakes, including prey acquisition and ingestion, habitat use, mate choice and defense against predators. Snakes, of course, don’t have limbs, so their skulls play a critical role in moving through their habitat and catching and eating prey much larger than their body size would suggest is possible.

To examine the evolution of skull shape, researchers created 3D digital reconstructions for the skulls of 160 species of dipsadine snakes using X-ray microcomputed tomography-scanning technology (CT scanning) of preserved museum specimens. They then quantified their shape using geometric morphometrics and paired this with data they collected in the field on how these snakes lived and what they ate to explore the relationship between skull shape and ecology.

“Our research shows that snakes that are aquatic (water) or fossorial (underground dwellers) seem to have the strongest selective pressure on their skulls, and evolutionary convergence is rampant among these groups,” Pandelis said. “There are only a few good evolutionary solutions to the difficult problems of trying to move through dirt and water efficiently. This study provides important insights into how snakes adapt to their highly unique ways of eating and inhabiting their environments, although there is much that we still don’t know about these enigmatic and fascinating animals.”

Gregory Pandelis, collections manager at UTA’s Amphibian and Reptile Diversity Research Center

CREDIT

The University of Texas at Arlington

JOURNAL

BMC Ecology

DOI

10.1186/s12862-023-02157-3

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Ecological correlates of cranial evolution in the megaradiation of dipsadine snakes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Sep-2023

COI STATEMENT

Data collection and analysis was supported by a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship to Daniel Rabosky and the oVert TCN project (oVert TCN; NSF DBI-1701714). Fieldwork was also supported by a Schweitzer Honor Travel Grant and EEB Summer Research and Travel Award to Gregory Pandelis.