The shape of dogs' heads affects their sleep

Flat-faced dogs' popularity comes at a high cost in terms of health: shortened skulls are associated with deteriorative brain morphology changes, breathing difficulties and sleep problems.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY

 

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FLAT-FACED DOG BREEDS ARE POPULAR ALL OVER THE WORLD. IN THE USA AND IN HUNGARY, THE FRENCH BULLDOG IS CURRENTLY THE MOST COMMON BREED. HOWEVER, THEIR POPULARITY COMES AT A HIGH COST IN TERMS OF HEALTH: SHORTENED SKULLS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH DETERIORATIVE BRAIN MORPHOLOGY CHANGES, BREATHING DIFFICULTIES AND SLEEP PROBLEMS. ACCORDING TO RECENT findings BY HUNGARIAN RESEARCHERS, FLAT-FACED DOGS SLEEP MORE BECAUSE THEIR BREED-SPECIFIC SLEEP APNEA INCREASES DAYTIME SLEEPINESS, THEIR REM SLEEP PHASE IS LONGER THAN NON-REM SLEEP, AND THEIR SLEEP EEG PATTERNS SHOW SIGNS OF WHITE MATTER LOSS.

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CREDIT: PHOTO: ENIKŐ KUBINYI

Flat-faced dog breeds are popular all over the world. In the USA and in Hungary, the French Bulldog is currently the most common breed. However, their popularity comes at a high cost in terms of health: shortened skulls are associated with deteriorative brain morphology changes, breathing difficulties and sleep problems. According to recent findings by Hungarian researchers, flat-faced dogs sleep more because their breed-specific sleep apnea increases daytime sleepiness, their REM sleep phase is longer than non-REM sleep, and their sleep EEG patterns show signs of white matter loss.

Despite being a health hazard, the large, round head may be an attractive dog feature for many people. Extremely flat-faced dogs, such as French and English bulldogs and pugs, live on average 3 to 4 years less than other dogs and often do not live to adulthood. Even in their short lives, they suffer from many ailments and undergo surgery to correct musculoskeletal, eye and respiratory problems. The abnormal shortening of the skull is also associated with a distorted, rounded brain, but it is not yet known how this affects neural functioning.

Hungarian researchers studied the sleep of 92 family dogs using EEG. "In the sleep lab, dogs spend about three hours with their owners. As nothing exciting happens, the dogs fall asleep quickly. Meanwhile, we conduct the electrical potential generated by the brain activity with electrodes glued to their scalps," says Anna Kis, a pioneer in the study of sleeping dogs and a researcher at the HUN-REN Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology.

"We wanted to investigate whether flat-faced dogs sleep differently from other dogs, as they are known to suffer from oxygen deprivation due to respiratory problems and therefore have poorer quality sleep. We found that the

flat-faced dogs slept more in the three hours given to them during the study. More daytime sleep is probably compensation for insufficient sleep at night.

But, when we studied the EEG patterns, we got more exciting results than that," continues Zsófia Bognár, a PhD student who has been researching breeds of dogs with shorter noses, scientifically known as brachycephalic dogs, for many years.

When studying cognitive functions, special attention is devoted to the REM phase during sleep, also known as paradoxical sleep, because of high frequency brain activity similar to wakefulness accompanied by muscle atonia. For example, it is known from previous research that the amplitude of beta and delta brain waves (measured via EEG) during REM sleep is associated with learning success in dogs and intelligence in humans.

"In the present study, we found that brachycephalic dogs had decreased beta waves and increased delta compared to dogs with longer noses. The frequency of sleep spindles increased. This pattern has previously been associated with poorer learning in dogs and loss of white matter in humans," says Ivaylo Iotchev, first author of the study published in the journal Brain Structure and Function.

"There may be several reasons for our results. The most interesting of these is that it seems as if the flat-faced dogs have retained the sleep pattern of puppyhood, similarly to newborns who spend more time in REM sleep.

It is widely assumed that brachycephalic dogs are selected for infant-like traits.

They have large heads and eyes, high foreheads and small noses because we humans find these traits irresistibly attractive. That's how babies get us to care for them. It is possible that the selection of dogs to be infant-like in appearance has also infantilized their brain function," says Enikő Kubinyi, professor and head of the MTA-ELTE Lendület “Momentum” Companion Animal Research Group and ELTE NAP Canine Brain Research Group. "But this is a bold assumption for now. What is very likely, however, is that breeding for brachycephalic heads leads to potentially harmful changes in brain function."

  

Flat-faced dog breeds are popular all over the world. In the USA and in Hungary, the French Bulldog is currently the most common breed. However, their popularity comes at a high cost in terms of health: shortened skulls are associated with deteriorative brain morphology changes, breathing difficulties and sleep problems. According to recent findings by Hungarian researchers, flat-faced dogs sleep more because their breed-specific sleep apnea increases daytime sleepiness, their REM sleep phase is longer than non-REM sleep, and their sleep EEG patterns show signs of white matter loss.

CREDIT

Photo: Oszkár Dániel Gáti

Flat-faced dog breeds are popular all over the world. In the USA and in Hungary, the French Bulldog is currently the most common breed. However, their popularity comes at a high cost in terms of health: shortened skulls are associated with deteriorative brain morphology changes, breathing difficulties and sleep problems. According to recent findings by Hungarian researchers, flat-faced dogs sleep more because their breed-specific sleep apnea increases daytime sleepiness, their REM sleep phase is longer than non-REM sleep, and their sleep EEG patterns show signs of white matter loss.

CREDIT

Photo: Enikő Kubinyi

Original paper: Iotchev, I.B., Bognár, Z., Tóth, K. et al. Sleep-physiological correlates of brachycephaly in dogs. Brain Struct Funct 228, 2125-2136 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-023-02706-y

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JOURNAL

Brain Structure and Function

DOI

10.1007/s00429-023-02706-y 

ARTICLE TITLE

Sleep-physiological correlates of brachycephaly in dogs

 MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

UTSA names Department of Defense leader David Brown as NSCC Executive Director

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

 

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THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO TODAY ANNOUNCED THE SELECTION OF DAVID BROWN AS THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ITS NATIONAL SECURITY COLLABORATION CENTER (NSCC) AND PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE. BROWN WILL JOIN UTSA WITH DECADES OF EXPERIENCE LEADING COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ECOSYSTEMS SUPPORTING U.S. NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGIES.

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CREDIT: THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

The University of Texas at San Antonio today announced the selection of David Brown as the new executive director of its National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC) and professor of practice. Brown will join UTSA with decades of experience leading collaborative research and development ecosystems supporting U.S. national defense strategies.

Brown is a trusted, well-connected leader in civilian and military communities nationwide who has especially strong relationships within U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, laboratories and commands and has gained national recognition for his transformative leadership in federal research and development (R&D) initiatives and projects. He will join UTSA from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where, as an employee of Battelle Memorial Institute, he served in senior defense program leadership, government affairs and laboratory strategy roles.

“As we continue to expand our knowledge enterprise and grow our R1 culture, the NSCC will play a critical role in realizing federal opportunities in research, workforce and economic development to elevate UTSA as a national security leader,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “Dave’s extensive experience, paired with his vision for the future of the NSCC, aligns exceptionally well with our strategic destination to become a great public research university. I look forward to collaborating with him and witnessing the center's evolution under his leadership.”

The NSCC is Texas’ largest hub for government, university and industry partners in national security. Members of the center advance research and innovation in forensics, visualization, cybersecurity, data analytics, post-quantum cryptography, attack and threat modeling and mitigation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and software, hardware and platform integrity. Additional areas of collaboration include training and exercise evaluation, workforce development and educational opportunities for students and the broader military community.

At the same time, the NSCC provides experiential learning opportunities for UTSA students who are interested in national defense careers. This living laboratory is one of the ways that UTSA is developing a highly competitive talent pipeline that is well-prepared to solve society’s evolving security challenges.

“We’re excited to welcome Dr. Brown to UTSA as the NSCC’s newest leader. His broad experience developing new research areas of national importance creates an ideal foundation for developing opportunities for faculty, staff and students while advancing the NSCC’s mission,” said JoAnn Browning, UTSA interim vice president for research, economic development, and knowledge enterprise. “Under Dave’s leadership, we will continue to grow UTSA’s reputation nationally as a trusted research partner and a sandbox for innovative R&D solutions in cybersecurity and national defense.”

As the NSCC’s director, Brown will shape an enhanced strategy that aligns with UTSA’s recently refreshed strategic plan and is deeply connected with partners in the federal landscape. In collaboration with university leadership, he will extend the center’s educational and programmatic offerings, develop deeper and broader partnerships with innovators in the national defense sector, and further position UTSA as a prominent thought leader in national and international security.

San Antonio is home to the largest concentration of cybersecurity experts and industry leaders outside of Washington, D.C., which uniquely positions the city and UTSA to lead the nation in cybersecurity research and workforce and economic development.

“San Antonio’s rich history and unbounded future, paired with the drive and support of UTSA’s entrepreneurial spirit and Tier One culture, provide an exceptional foundation for the NSCC’s success,” said Brown. “I’m eager to join the NSCC to establish new partnerships that build upon the university’s cyber prominence, tackling the leading national security challenges of our time. Abundant opportunities lie ahead for UTSA and NSCC on this exciting journey.”

UTSA is one of the few universities to hold all three National Center of Excellence designations from the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. It also houses the No. 1 cybersecurity program in the nation and is ranked for best academic support for an online cybersecurity degree by Intelligent.com.

Brown will begin his new role at UTSA on January 22, 2024.

 

Nourishing communities: neighborhood restaurants as social infrastructure

Study of a single Tokyo neighborhood reveals how local eateries serve important economic, social, and political roles in fostering social sustainability

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOPHIA UNIVERSITY

 

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A CITY WITH A RICH HISTORY AND CONTINUED LEGACY, COMMERCIAL EATERIES ARE A DEFINING FEATURE OF TOKYO’S URBAN LIFE. THIS STUDY, FOCUSING ON A CULINARY NEIGHBORHOOD IN TOKYO, SHOWCASES THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH LOCAL RESTAURANTS SUPPORT THEIR COMMUNITIES FOR SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY.

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CREDIT: JAMES FARRER FROM SOPHIA UNIVERSITY, JAPAN

Studies on sustainability inevitably touch on food-related topics like food security, culinary heritage, and the sustenance of vulnerable people. Social sustainability is one of the three pillars of sustainability, alongside environmental and economic sustainability, and has become a pivotal topic in various research fields. It includes concerns about social justice, resource distribution and recognition, and political participation of marginalized groups at the local community level.

Very few studies of social sustainability have looked at urban foodways in terms of social and cultural infrastructure. More often than not, scholars in Japan have been concerned with how communities preserve culinary heritage, including traditional foods and eateries, especially in the face of globalization and modernization. In short, the question has been one of how communities preserve their foodways.

But what if we flipped the question? In a recent study published online on 05 October 2023 in Food, Culture & Society, Professor James Farrer of Sophia University, Japan, did this precisely by focusing on how commercial foodways (as spots for social interaction and integration) help sustain their communities. To this end, he undertook an ethnographic investigation in Nishi–Ogikubo (also known as “Nishiogi”), a culinary neighborhood in Tokyo, home to a high density of small eateries. The idea was to understand how independent restaurants in this busy neighborhood support community life, particularly when redevelopment and corporatization are destroying these aspects of city life. “In Tokyo, I observed that neighborhood restaurants, particularly small independent restaurants, serve as social infrastructure for communities. Beyond grabbing a meal and helping someone make a living, they also serve to support the social and cultural life of the community in important ways,” explains Prof. Farrer.

Prof. Farrer considered Nishiogi, a single neighborhood in Suginami district, as the study’s unit of analysis to generate insights that could be extended to the rest of Tokyo and other cities of the world. To gather information for his qualitative analyses, he focused on multiple small-scale and independently owned restaurants in Nishiogi over the course of seven years. With the help of research assistants, Prof. Farrer interviewed over 70 stakeholders in the community, including business owners and local realtors.

After a comprehensive analysis of all the gathered data, Prof. Farrer arrived at some important conclusions about the role of neighborhood eateries with respect to social sustainability. First, he observed that eateries in Nishiogi are an important economic resource for employers, workers, and customers. These places serve as a source of livelihood not only for dozens of Japanese families but also for migrants from around the world. Notably, neighborhood restaurants proved to be an effective entry point for low-resource people, including disadvantaged minorities, single mothers, and youth, into business ownership.

Second, neighborhood eateries provide a space for social organization, integration, and networking, making it possible to create and deploy social capital. By enabling customers and workers to form new social ties, the community becomes more tightly knit, which is helpful from the point of view of social sustainability. For example, social ties and capital established can serve as a safety net for vulnerable patrons or crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Third, the study revealed that eateries can become important spaces for political mobilization. This includes not only formal movements like merchant associations but also diverse informal social movements and activism addressing local causes and issues. Interestingly, because eateries now play an important role in generating social capital, customers become central to these movements, with diverse people like women, youngsters, and newcomers getting involved in decision-making.

In summary, these findings suggest that small neighborhood eateries, especially local and independently owned ones, can be instrumental in fostering social sustainability and cohesion. Protecting them from the threats of urbanization is, therefore, essential. “It is important for Tokyo urban planners and citizen groups to understand how neighborhood eateries serve as social infrastructure, particularly, the role of independent restaurants in supporting the community economically, socially, and politically. This is because with rapid urban redevelopment, aging, and the rise of corporate restaurant chains, Tokyo is at a risk of losing this social infrastructure,” adds Prof. Farrer.

Prof. Farrer is optimistic about these findings and hopes that they can contribute to helping Tokyo sustain a dense and diverse ecology of independent eateries, which, in turn, could become a model for other cities around the world.

We hope to see these findings act as a stepping stone towards truly sustainable societies in the future!

 

Reference

【Title of original paper】Urban foodways and social sustainability: neighborhood restaurants as social infrastructure

【Journal】Food, Culture & Society

【DOI】10.1080/15528014.2023.2262191

【Authors】James Farrar

【Affiliations】Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University

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JOURNAL

Food Culture & Society

DOI

10.1080/15528014.2023.2262191 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Urban foodways and social sustainability: neighborhood restaurants as social infrastructure

 

Safeguarding the health of astronauts at Northumbria University

Space health experts at Northumbria University have won a global competition that will enable them to explore blood flow restriction training among astronauts during spaceflight

Grant and Award Announcement

NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

 

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DR LUKE HUGHES AT THE 2023 HUMANS IN SPACE CHALLENGE

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CREDIT: NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

Space health experts at Northumbria University have won a global competition that will enable them to explore blood flow restriction training among astronauts during spaceflight.

Professor Nick Caplan and Dr Luke Hughes, from Northumbria’s Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory, have won the 2023 Humans in Space Challenge, run by South Korean health technology company, Boryung, in partnership with Axiom Space and Aurelia. 

Funding from the competition will allow Professor Caplan and Dr Hughes to develop a space-ready version of the Delfi Personalised Tourniquet System for Blood Flow Restriction, which is used to perform Blood Flow Restriction Exercise (BFRE). It involves applying a surgical-grade tourniquet cuff to an individual’s limb and inflating it to compress the limb and reduce blood flow and oxygen supply to muscle and bone tissue during exercise.

BFRE has been shown to mitigate loss of muscle and bone mineral in individuals following surgery and during limb immobilisation here on Earth.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and private space exploration companies have identified BFRE as a potential countermeasure to improve astronaut health during spaceflight, particularly in exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon during which limited time and equipment will be available for exercise. However, currently no BFRE device exists that can be qualified and approved for crewed spaceflight research.

Northumbria’s research project aims to develop a proof-of-concept design for an innovative Personalised Tourniquet System for spaceflight that can be qualified and approved for future spaceflight missions.

Professor Caplan and Dr Hughes will work with Western Clinical Engineering, in Canada, as the owners and manufacturers of the commercially available device, and Kayser Space, who specialise in developing and qualifying hardware for scientific research in space – to develop this space-ready version of the Delfi Personalised Tourniquet System.

“We are already investigating the Delfi Personalised Tourniquet System in simulated reduced gravity in our lab,” said Professor Caplan. “Having the funding to now develop this hardware for actual spaceflight will open up many possibilities for further research in space.”

Astronauts suffer loss of muscle and bone mineral in space due to the absence of gravity and these deficits can persist long after return to Earth.

According to Dr Hughes, current exercise hardware and protocols used on the International Space Station (ISS) are unable to completely mitigate these changes, and future missions to the moon and beyond will require smaller and less exercise equipment to be taken on board spacecraft.

“Blood Flow Restriction Exercise has been shown to mitigate loss of muscle and bone mineral in individuals following surgery and during limb immobilisation,” said Dr Hughes. “It requires minimal exercise equipment and is performed at low intensities.

“Our research will develop an innovative exercise device that meets the constraints of future missions and enables BFRE to be performed during spaceflight, with the goal of mitigating loss of muscle and bone in astronauts.”

The Humans in Space Challenge is a global competition for researchers and innovators from relevant fields. Based on the three carefully selected themes — “Human Healthcare,” “Human Lifestyle” and “Human Place”. For the competition, participants identified various challenges faced by humanity in space and proposed solutions to address them.

The Challenge winners were awarded investments and research awards alongside opportunities to participate in tailored mentorship programs led by space experts and engage with an expansive network of prominent venture capitals, space agencies, national research institutions and industries.

Renowned space figures from NASA, ESA, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Stanford University actively engaged in the evaluation process and will support the growth of Challenge winners.

 

Create your own sky map, find the weirdest stars and explore the surface of the Moon with the EXPLORE astronomy toolkit

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPLANET

 

VIDEO: 

SKY MAP ANIMATION SHOWING THE CONCENTRATION OF DUST IN THE MILKY WAY ABOVE THE SKIES OF BRUSSELS THROUGH THE DAY AND NIGHT.

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CREDIT: EXPLORE CONSORTIUM. THE STAR CATALOGUE USED FOR THE CONSTELLATIONS IS COPYRIGHT 2005-2020, MARC VAN DER SLUYS, HEMEL.WAARNEMEN.COM AND USED UNDER (CC BY 4.0) LICENCE.

A new set of tools for astronomers and planetary explorers use interactive visual analytics and machine learning to reveal and contrast properties of objects in our galaxy. From identifying the ‘weirdest’ outliers in a population of stars to creating maps of the dusty Milky Way, or combining datasets for an immersive exploration of the lunar surface, the open-source tools are designed to help astronomers investigate, annotate and work together on interesting results in a collaborative online environment.

The EXPLORE toolkit, which has been developed with funding from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, was presented last month at the Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS) XXXIII conference and during a technology workshop at the Italian Space Agency’s headquarters.

EXPLORE’s lunar tools allow users to navigate a 3D model of the Moon and upload, display and compare multiple datasets from lunar missions. Zooming in on a location, users can overlay basemaps with contours, visualisations at different wavelengths and spectral information on the mineralogy of the surface.  Pre-trained deep learning models help identify craters and map features. A ‘pedestrian view’ enables users to visualise themselves standing and moving around the lunar surface through digital elevation models.

Tools for stellar research are designed to investigate the properties of stars in the Milky Way observed by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission and in other large databases. Assigning a ‘weirdness score’ to spectral data can help astronomers find unusual stars, or groupings that have similar characteristics, within a population of a million stars.  Comparisons of the brightness of stars at different wavelengths can reveal information on the temperature, age, size and amount of energy stars produce. When applied to a census of all the stars in the Milky Way, these collective results can help unravel the overall composition of our galaxy, and how it was built up.

Galactic tools enable users to look at dusty objects and the distribution of dust in the Milky Way in one, two or three dimensions. Slicing through the galaxy in any orientation can reveal where dust is densely clumped and where there are windows that offer potential sightlines to objects of interest. Interactive sky maps show how the dust band at the core of the Milky Way passes overhead through the day and night at any given location on Earth.

Nick Cox, the coordinator of EXPLORE, said: “These EXPLORE science applications are demonstrators for astronomers working in a broad range of fields, including stellar spectroscopy, galactic archaeology and lunar exploration. Both the EXPLORE tools and the platform they are deployed on are very flexible and can be adapted to other areas of astronomy and planetary science.”

Manuela Rauch, of the Know Center, who led the development of the visualisation tools and user interface, said: “Our goal for EXPLORE is to supply methodologies, tools and inspiration for others to create their own web apps and services!”

Giacomo Nodjoumi, of Constructor University, who developed the lunar exploration tools, said: “These new tools for the scientific community are completely open source, modular, expandable and scalable, with no installation required.”

The EXPLORE lunar tools include a ‘pedestrian view’ for visualising the exploration of the lunar surface.

Using the EXPLORE lunar tools, basemaps of visible imagery of the lunar surface can be overlaid by spectral data that indicate the mineralogy of rocks present.

With the EXPLORE lunar tools, pre-trained deep learning models help identify craters and map features.

CREDIT

EXPLORE Consortium/TerriaJS/NASA/GSFC/ASU/LROC Team/USGS.

Screenshot of interface to create your own sky map showing the concentration of dust in the Milky Way overhead at your chosen location and time of day or night.

CREDIT

EXPLORE consortium; the star catalogue used for the constellations is copyright 2005-2020, Marc van der Sluys, hemel.waarnemen.com and used under (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Taking a slice through regions of the Milky Way shows where there are dense clumps of dust and potential sightlines to interesting objects.

The stellar tools reveal information on the temperature, age, size and amount of energy stars produce for a population of a million stars in the Milky Way.

CREDIT

EXPLORE Consortium.

 

How forests smell – a risk for the climate?

New study on the link between biodiversity and climate

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR TROPOSPHERIC RESEARCH (TROPOS)

 

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MEASUREMENTS ON THE MYDIV AREA IN BAD LAUCHSTÄDT IN SEPTEMBER 2022.

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CREDIT: LOREEN ALSHAABI, TROPOS

Leipzig. Plants emit odours for a variety of reasons, such as to communicate with each other, to deter herbivores or to respond to changing environmental conditions. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Leipzig University, the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) carried out a study to investigate how biodiversity influences the emission of these substances. For the first time, they were able to show that species-rich forests emit less of these gases into the atmosphere than monocultures. It was previously assumed that species-rich forests release more emissions. The Leipzig team has now been able to disprove this assumption experimentally. Their study has been published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Plant odours penetrate the atmosphere
Plants produce a variety of organic compounds to communicate with each other and with their environment. These are known as biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), such as terpenes, which give plants their characteristic scent and help to repel pests. As well as acting as chemical signals, these substances play a role in regulating climate, air quality and atmospheric chemistry. This is because these BVOCs emitted by plants form biogenic secondary organic aerosols (BSOAs) in the air, i.e. particles in the atmosphere. These aerosols in turn affect air quality, cloud formation and the climate.

 

MyDiv Experiment: Measurements in plots with different tree species
But how do emissions and concentrations of aerosols in the air change as biodiversity declines or plants are stressed by drought? The interdisciplinary team led by scientists Dr Anvar Sanaei and Professor Alexandra Weigelt from Leipzig University and other researchers from TROPOS and iDiv investigated this question. The scientists collected the data at the MyDiv tree diversity experimental site. The site, near Bad Lauchstädt in Saxony-Anhalt, covers around two hectares and has 80 plots with ten tree species growing together in monocultures or mixtures of different species. For the study, the team spent almost two weeks collecting air samples from ten of the 11x11 metre plots, which grow four tree species – rowan, wild cherry, common ash and sycamore – in different combinations.

 

Fewer plant odours, fewer risks
“In the field, we measured BVOCs and BSOA compounds in ten plots of varying tree diversity. Our results show that the amount of BVOCs decreases with increasing biodiversity in most cases,” says Dr Anvar Sanaei, first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University. It is estimated that global BVOC emissions from vegetation will increase by around a third as a result of climate change and higher temperatures. “There are considerable uncertainties here: these precursor gases can form particles, which in turn can become cloud droplets. Whether BVOCs ultimately cool or warm the atmosphere depends on many factors and is difficult to predict. However, more biodiversity and fewer BVOCs would reduce the changes in the atmosphere and thus also the risks of climate change – including changes in precipitation,” adds Professor Hartmut Herrmann from TROPOS. The second part of the study shows how difficult it is to investigate these complex processes in the field: the team was unable to establish any clear correlations for BSOAs, which could be partly due to environmental influences, as the conversion of BVOC gases into BSOA particles takes a certain amount of time. At just under two weeks, the measurement campaign was also comparatively short. That is why the team wants to continue the research – not least because many questions remain unanswered.

 

More stress, more plant odours?
Previously, it was thought that species-rich forests and grasslands released more gases into the atmosphere than species-poor ones. The reason for this was thought to be that species-rich systems produce more biomass because they can utilise resources such as light, water and nutrients more efficiently. More biomass then also means more leaf surface area from which the gases can be emitted. “Our new results, however, suggest that the situation may be due to the fact that plants in species-rich forests and grasslands are under less stress. Compared to monocultures, they face fewer herbivores and less heat and drought. But this is just a hypothesis for now. Much more research is needed to better understand how biodiversity affects the atmosphere, where we need to look more closely at the microclimate, above- and below-ground stress on plants, and many other factors in long-term experiments,” says Professor Nico Eisenhauer from iDiv.

 

Biology + climate research + chemistry = A team fit for the future
What made this study so special was that different disciplines worked together, combining atmospheric and biological measurements. “Only with knowledge from biology, climate research and atmospheric chemistry can we decipher how plant emissions are linked to biodiversity and the atmosphere. Our study highlights the need for experiments at the local and regional scales and the development of models to improve our understanding of biosphere-atmosphere interactions,” says senior author Professor Alexandra Weigelt from the Institute of Biology. She adds that this is a prime example of the Breathing Nature research project, for which the University submitted a draft proposal back in May as part of the Excellence Strategy. After all, answers to the pressing questions of our time can only be found by transcending disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
Katarina Werneburg / Tilo Arnhold

Measurements on the MyDiv area in Bad Lauchstädt in September 2022.

Measurements on the MyDiv area in Bad Lauchstädt in September 2022.

  

Measurements on the MyDiv area in Bad Lauchstädt in September 2022.

CREDIT

Loreen Alshaabi, TROPOS

Links:

Breathing Nature: https://www.uni-leipzig.de/forschung/exzellenz-in-der-forschung/breathing-nature

MyDiv Experiment: https://www.idiv.de/de/research/platforms-and-networks/mydiv.html

TROPOS Department Chemistry of Atmosphere: https://www.tropos.de/en/institute/departments/atmospheric-chemistry

Biogenes Aerosol: https://www.tropos.de/en/institute/departments/modeling-of-atmospheric-processes/biogenes-aerosol

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JOURNAL

Communications Earth & Environment

DOI

10.1038/s43247-023-01113-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Changes in biodiversity impact atmospheric chemistry and climate through plant volatiles and particles.