Pollinators make a big impact on edamame marketability

UMD study provides evidence to guide emerging edible soybean market

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

 

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A BEE VISITS AN EDAMAME FLOWER

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CREDIT: KATHLEEN C. EVANS/ UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Soybeans can pollinate themselves, but a new study by UMD researchers shows that pollen from multiple plants can greatly increase their yields. What’s more, the addition of a strip of wildflowers near rows of soybeans amplifies the effect. The information could help farmers of one of Maryland’s top commodities increase production and marketability of their crop.

The research was published December 15, 2023, in the Journal of Pollination Ecology.  

Soybeans represent an important crop in the U.S., but scientists don’t completely understand their pollination and reproduction strategies. 

“Our study has shown that cross pollination is important for improving soybean production, and suggests that increases of biodiversity near edamame fields can affect production in market-relevant ways,” said Kathleen Evans, lead author on the paper and a graduate student in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland.

The researchers focused their study on edamame, which is the same species of soybean grown in the U.S. for animal feed, but harvested earlier for human consumption. That means the study’s findings are applicable to both edamame and feed soy, but understanding how pollination strategies affect the size and quality of soybeans is especially important for the growing edamame market, where consumer acceptance and number of seeds per pod are important for sales.

Although soybeans are globally cultivated, no formal tests had previously been evaluated whether flowers receiving their own pollen (self-pollination) or a different soybean flower (cross-pollination) affects beanpod quality. 

To answer that question, Evans and her colleagues used three different methods to pollinate soy plants in a 16 x 16-meter experimental plot at the University of Maryland Central Maryland Research and Education Center (CMREC) at Beltsville, MD. They also planted a strip of wildflowers native to the Mid-Atlantic region along one end of the plot.

The researchers covered the flowers of some plants with a fine mesh that prevented pollinators from visiting. Those flowers would be self-pollinated. They also carefully pollinated a secondgroup of flowers by hand with pollen from a separate donor plant. A third group of flowers was left open and untreated to be pollinated naturally, which means they were likely cross-pollinated by insects.

The researchers found that, compared to self-pollination, hand cross-pollination and open pollination led to more market grade-A quality pods, but open-pollinated flowers had more grade-A beans than either of the other two treatments. In addition, the harvest from plants that had been left open was 17% heavier than self-pollinated and hand-pollinated plants. 

They also found that open-pollinated soybean plants grown closer to flower strips had greater yield. The researchers believe more pollinators, and/or predators of pests may have visited those soybean plants on their way to or from the wild flowers, suggesting that a greater biodiversity near and in the fields could increase yields in this crop.

 

Other co-authors from the University of Maryland Department of Entomology include Assistant Professor Anahí Espíndola, Professor Cerruti Hooks, and Master’s student Jenan El-Hifnawi.

A japanese beetle eating an edamame flower. Research suggests a strip of wildflowers near edamame rows may increase bean pod yield by attracting predators of such edamame pests. 

Lead author Kathleen Evans, a researcher at University of Maryland stands in the experimental soybean plot at CMREC in Beltsville, MD.

CREDIT

Courtesy Kathleen Evans / University of Maryland

JOURNAL

Journal of Pollination Ecology

DOI

10.26786/1920-7603(2023)728 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

BENEFITS OF CROSS-POLLINATION IN VEGETABLE SOYBEAN EDAMAME

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Dec-2023

ICYMI

Pesticides and adjuvants disrupt honey bee’s sense of smell

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CARL R. WOESE INSTITUTE FOR GENOMIC BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

 

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GRADUATE STUDENT WEN-YEN WU CONDUCTS AN ELECTROANTENNOGRAPHY (EAG) ASSAY—A METHOD TO MEASURE HOW INSECTS RESPOND TO DIFFERENT ODORS BY RECORDING ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY IN THEIR ANTENNAE.

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CREDIT: LING-HSIU LIAO

It has long been known that exposure to pesticide sprays is harmful to honey bees. In a new study, researchers have uncovered the effect of such sprays on the sense of smell in bees, which could disrupt their social signals.

Honey bees live in dynamic communities and constantly communicate with each other using chemicals that serve as social cues. For example, nurse bees—that are responsible for taking care of larvae that ultimately become queens and worker bees—constantly monitor the larvae using in the dark using pheromones. The larvae emit brood pheromones to indicate that they need food. There are also alarm pheromones that workers produce to warn the other bees of danger. If these cues are dampened or not perceived properly, the colony may fail to thrive.

Since 2007, scientists have known that honey bees have been in trouble. One of the stressors that have raised concerns are insecticides, which affect honey bee health. Because these are usually used in combination with other chemicals, the resulting mixture can become unexpectedly toxic to bees.

“For many years, it was assumed that fungicides do not have an adverse impact on insects because they are designed for fungal targets,” said May Berenbaum (GEGC/IGOH), a professor of entomology. “Surprisingly, in addition to insecticides, fungicides also have an adverse effect on bees and combining the two can disrupt colony function.”

For more than a decade, reports originating from almond orchards, where two-thirds of the U.S. honey bees are transported every year when the flowers are in bloom, implicated pesticide spray mixtures. In particular, the problem lies in the use of supposedly inactive chemicals called adjuvants, which increases the “stickiness” of the insecticide so it stays on the plants.

Because adjuvants have long been considered to be biologically benign, they are not subject to the same level of safety testing as other insecticidal agents. “Recently, researchers have shown that adjuvants alone or when used in combination with fungicides and insecticides are toxic to bees,” Berenbaum said.

Nurse bees are especially vulnerable to these combinations. “The health of the queens is paramount,” Berenbaum said. “If healthy queens are not produced, the colony can suffer.”

To understand how combinations affect nurse bees, the researchers tested their effect on the olfactory system of honey bees using the adjuvant Dyne-Amic, the fungicide Tilt, and the insecticide Altacor.

The researchers divided bees into four groups of ten bees and for a week exposed them to either untreated commercial pollen or to pollen that had been treated with either Dyne-Amic, or Tilt and Altacor, or all three together. The bees were then anesthetized on ice and one antenna was carefully removed from each bee. The researchers then exposed the antenna to chemical mimics of brood and alarm pheromones and recorded the antenna’s response using a technique called electroantennography.
 
With this method, Ling-Hsiu Liao, a research scientist, and Wen-Yen Wu, a graduate student, in the Berenbaum lab, found that when nurse bees had consumed pollen contaminated by the three chemicals, their antennal responses to some brood pheromones and alarm pheromones were altered. Their finding suggests that these commonly-used pesticides can interfere with honey bee communication.

How these chemicals interact and influence the bees is still unclear. “There are many possible explanations for how consuming these chemicals can affect the sensory responses of bees,” Liao said. “The antenna detects and triggers the response to olfactory signals. In this study we did not look at what other changes are triggered, particularly changes in behavior.”

In addition to parsing out the underlying molecular pathways that are affected, the researchers are also interested in testing other mixtures of commonly used pesticides as well as looking at the response of bees in other populations. They hope that their work can help beekeepers rethink how they manage and protect their colonies.

The study “Effects of pesticide-adjuvant combinations used in almond orchards on olfactory responses to social signals in honey bees (Apis mellifera)” was published in Scientific Reports and can be found at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41818-7. The work was supported by the Almond Board of California, the USDA-AFRI National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

 

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-41818-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of pesticide-adjuvant combinations used in almond orchards on olfactory responses to social signals in honey bees (Apis mellifera).

 

Study shows exposure to household chemicals can lower odds of getting pregnant

Findings from UMass Amherst researcher adds to evidence of the health impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals

IT ALSO IMPACTS WOMEN CLEANERS/JANITORS

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

 

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Carrie Nobles IS AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES IN THE UMAS AMHERST School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

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CREDIT: UMASS AMHERST

Exposure to phthalates, a group of plasticizing and solvent chemicals found in many household products, was linked to a lower probability of getting pregnant, but not to pregnancy loss, according to research by a University of Massachusetts Amherst environmental and reproductive epidemiologist.

The study, published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, also noted an association between preconception exposure to phthalates and changes in women’s reproductive hormones, as well as increased inflammation and oxidative stress.  

“Phthalates are ubiquitous endocrine disruptors and we’re exposed to them every day,” says lead author Carrie Nobles, assistant professor of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

Phthalates are found in such common products as shampoo, makeup, vinyl flooring, toys and medical devices. People are exposed primarily by ingesting food and liquid that has come in contact with products containing the chemicals, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet. 

Nobles and team analyzed data from a “unique cohort” of women in the preconception time-to-pregnancy study known as EAGeR (Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction), which evaluated the effect of low-dose aspirin on live-birth rates. The study includes detailed information on 1,228 participants during six menstrual cycles when they are attempting to get pregnant. The women who became pregnant were followed through pregnancy.

“We were able to look at some environmental exposures like phthalates and how that relates to how long it takes to get pregnant. There was detailed data for each menstrual cycle, so we had a good handle on the date of ovulation and the timing of pregnancy when that happened,” Nobles says. 

The body breaks down phthalates into metabolites that are excreted in urine and can be analyzed. The researchers measured 20 phthalate metabolites in urine samples taken when the participants enrolled in the study.

“We found there were three parent compounds that seem to be most strongly associated with taking longer to get pregnant, although we saw a general trend toward it taking longer to get pregnant across the phthalates we looked at,” Nobles says. “As exposure got higher, we saw more and more of an effect.”

The researchers also looked at a global marker of inflammation, C-reactive protein, and found the women who had higher levels of phthalates exposure also had higher levels of inflammation and oxidative stress, which can lead to organ and tissue damage and ultimately to disease. 

In addition, women who showed higher levels of phthalates had lower estradiol and higher follicle-stimulating hormone across the menstrual cycle, which play an important role in ovulation and the early establishment of pregnancy. 

“This profile – estradiol staying low and follicle-stimulating hormone staying high – is actually something that we see in women who have ovarian insufficiency, which can happen with age as well as due to some other factors,” Nobles says. “Ovulation just isn't happening as well as it used to.”

While women can check consumer product labels and look for phthalate-free options, the ubiquitous nature of the chemicals makes it difficult for an individual to control their exposure.

In Europe, certain phthalates are banned or severely restricted in their use, but the U.S. has no formal prohibitions. Nobles says the research findings add to the evidence that phthalates exposures have a negative impact on women’s reproductive health and can be used to help inform policy making.

“Maybe we want to think differently about our regulatory system and how we identify important exposures that are having adverse effects on whether people can get pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy,” Nobles says.  

 

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JOURNAL

Environmental Health Perspectives

DOI

10.1289/EHP12287 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Preconception Phthalate Exposure and Women’s Reproductive Health: Pregnancy, Pregnancy Loss, and Underlying Mechanisms

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Dec-2023

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in menstrual products including tampons, pads, and liners 

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can interfere with human hormones and cause medical issues

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

The average menstruator will use over 11,000 tampons or sanitary pads in their lifetime. Vaginal and vulvar tissue that touch pads and tampons is highly permeable. Through this permeable tissue chemicals are absorbed without being metabolized, which makes endocrine-disrupting chemicals potentially dangerous when found in menstrual products. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can interfere with human hormones and cause medical issues, including gynecological conditions such as endometriosis and uterine fibroids. 

Joanna Marroquin, a Mason PhD in Public Health student, and Associate Professor Anna Pollack, reviewed studies conducted since 2103 that measured chemicals in menstrual products and that measured human biomarkers of chemical exposure and determined that endocrine-disrupting chemicals were found in menstrual products including tampons, pads, and liners. 

“Identifying chemicals in menstrual products that menstruators regularly use is important because exposure through these products can impact menstruators’ reproductive health,” said Marroquin, the paper’s first author.  

The study found that menstrual products contain a variety of endocrine-disrupting chemicals including phthalates, volatile organic compounds, parabens, environmental phenols, fragrance chemicals, dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. 

This issue is even more relevant thanks to the Robin Danielson Menstrual Product and Intimate Care Product Safety Act of 2023, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in October 2023. The Act would establish a program of research regarding the risks posed by the presence of dioxins, phthalates, pesticides, chemical fragrances, and other components in menstrual products and intimate care products. 

This literature reviewed 15 papers published between 2013 and 2023 that tested menstrual products in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. The researchers note that there are few publications available that measure chemicals in menstrual products.  

Additionally, though forever chemicals (PFAS) have been found in menstrual underwear, there is a lack of peer-reviewed research on menstrual underwear and other newly-popular-in-the-U.S. products such as menstrual cups and discs. 

Chemicals in menstrual products: A systematic review was published in BJOG, an international journal of obstetrics and gynecology in September 2023. Additional authors include Marianthi-Anna Kiomourtzoglou from Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and Alexandra Scranton from Women's Voices for the Earth.  

The research was supported by Pollack's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences R01ES31079 award.  

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JOURNAL

BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology

DOI

10.1111/1471-0528.17668 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Chemicals in menstrual products: A systematic review

Menstrual cycles affect day-to-day suicide risk, UIC researchers find

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO

Female patients with a history of suicidality experience an increased risk of suicidal ideation or suicidal planning in the days surrounding menstruation, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago.  

In the first longitudinal study of how suicidal thoughts and related symptoms fluctuate across the menstrual cycle, UIC researchers identified when some female patients are at the highest risk, offering new guidance for clinicians about when to focus interventions with suicidal patients.

“As clinicians, we feel responsible for keeping our patients safe from a suicide attempt, but we often don’t have much information about when we need to be most concerned about their safety,” said Tory Eisenlohr-Moul, associate professor of psychiatry at UIC and senior author of the paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry. “This study establishes that the menstrual cycle can affect many people who have suicidal thoughts, which makes it one of the only predictable recurring risk factors that has been identified for detecting when a suicide attempt might occur.” 

The American Journal of Psychiatry study, which is co-led by postdoctoral researcher Jaclyn Ross and MD/PhD student Jordan Barone, followed 119 patients who completed a daily survey to track suicidal thoughts and other mental health symptoms over at least one menstrual cycle. The design allowed the researchers to collect detailed data on changes in patients’ mental health over the course of their cycle. Previous research did not have this sort of tracking and only worked to estimate the timing of a person’s menstrual cycle status with a single timepoint after a suicide attempt.  

Those past studies observed a pattern where suicide attempts increased in the days just before or after the onset of menses — the “perimenstrual” phase. The new UIC study replicated this pattern, finding that suicidal ideation was more severe and suicidal planning was more likely to occur during this point in the cycle compared to other phases. 

The daily data also allowed the researchers to delve deeper into differences between individuals in how the cycle affects symptoms and suicidality.

“Previously, there haven’t been good predictors for why or when Person A is likely to make a suicide attempt versus when Person B is going to make an attempt,” Barone said. “Not everyone is hormone sensitive to the cycle in the same way, and we were able to statistically show the value of including individual differences in our models.” 

Most patients in the study reported significant elevation of psychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety and hopelessness in the premenstrual and early menstrual phases, while others reported emotional changes at different times of their cycle. Individuals also varied in the specific psychiatric symptoms that appeared alongside suicidal thoughts. 

“People differed in which emotional symptoms were most correlated with suicidality for them,” Eisenlohr-Moul said. “Just because the cycle makes somebody irritable or have mood swings or feel anxious, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s going to have the same effect on creating suicidality for each person.” 

That observation fits with the broader research focus of Eisenlohr-Moul’s group, the CLEAR lab. The laboratory also studies premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a condition associated with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Observational studies and clinical trials led by Eisenlohr-Moul have found that PMDD may result from some people’s heightened sensitivity to the reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone — and stabilizing those hormones may lessen symptoms. 

Similar dynamics of hormone sensitivity may be at play in the influence of the menstrual cycle upon suicidal thoughts in people without PMDD, the authors said. But more research is needed to determine how these factors affect each other in individual patients, and how that information could best be used clinically to prevent suicide attempts. 

One idea is for patients to keep track of their mental health symptoms over the course of their cycle — as subjects did in the current study — to enable their clinicians to make personalized recommendations about their care. 

“We’re excited to use the best methods out there to try to create individual prediction models for each person, so that we’re not putting people into a box,” Eisenlohr-Moul said. “We want to really figure out: does the cycle matter for this person, and then exactly how does it matter and how we can best intervene based on that information.”

Written by Rob Mitchum

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Psychiatry

DOI

10.1176/appi.ajp.20230303 

ARTICLE TITLE

Predicting Acute Changes in Suicidal Ideation and Planning: A Longitudinal Study of Symptom Mediators and the Role of the Menstrual Cycle in Female Psychiatric Outpatients With Suicidality

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Dec-2023

North America’s first people may have arrived by sea ice highway

New research suggests some early Americans may have travelled on winter sea ice down the coast from Beringia as long as 24,000 years ago

Meeting Announcement

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

SAN FRANCISCO — One of the hottest debates in archeology is how and when humans first arrived in North America. Archaeologists have traditionally argued that people walked through an ice-free corridor that briefly opened between ice sheets an estimated 13,000 years ago.  

But a growing number of archeological and genetic finds — including human footprints in New Mexico dated to around 23,000 years old — suggests that people made their way onto the continent much earlier. These early Americans likely traveled along the Pacific coastline from Beringia, the land bridge between Asia and North America that emerged during the last glacial maximum when ice sheets bound up large amounts of water causing sea levels to fall.  

Now, in research to be presented Friday, 15 December at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting (AGU23) in San Franciso, paleoclimate reconstructions of the Pacific Northwest hint that sea ice may have been one way for people to move farther south.  

The idea that early Americans may have traveled along the Pacific Coast isn’t new. People were likely south of the massive ice sheets that once covered much of the continent by at least 16,000 years ago. Given that the ice-free corridor wouldn’t be open for thousands of years before these early arrivals, scientists instead proposed that people may have moved along a “kelp highway.” This theory holds that early Americans slowly traveled down into North America in boats, following the bountiful goods found in coastal waters.  

Archeologists have found evidence of coastal settlements in western Canada dating from as early as 14,000 years ago. But in 2020, researchers noted that freshwater from melting glaciers at the time may have created a strong current that would make it difficult for people to travel along the coast. 

Ice highway over dangerous water 

To get a fuller picture of ocean conditions during these crucial windows of human migration, Summer Praetorius of the US Geological Survey and her colleagues looked at climate proxies in ocean sediment from the coast. Most of the data came from tiny, fossilized plankton. The abundance and chemistry of these organisms help reconstruct ocean temperatures, salinity and sea ice cover.  

Praetorious’ presentation is part of a session on the climate history and geology of Beringia and the North Pacific during the Pleistocene, the current ice age, at AGU23. The week-long conference has brought 24,000 experts from across the spectrum of the Earth and space sciences to San Francisco this year and connected 3,000 online attendees.  

Praetorious’ team used climate models and found that ocean currents were more than twice the strength they are today during the height of the last glacial maximum around 20,000 years ago due to glacial winds and lower sea levels. While not impossible, to paddle against, these conditions would have made traveling by boat very difficult, Praetorius said. 

However, the records also showed that much of the area was home to winter sea ice until around 15,000 years ago. As a cold-adapted people, “rather than having to paddle against this horrible glacial current, maybe they were using the sea ice as a platform,” Praetorius said.  

Arctic people today travel along sea ice on dog sleds and snow mobiles. Early Americans may also have used the ‘sea ice highway’ to get around and hunt marine mammals, slowly making their way into North America in the process, Praetorius said. The climate data suggest conditions along the coastal route may have been conducive to migration between 24,500-22,000 years ago and 16,400-14,800 years ago, possibly aided by the presence of winter sea ice.  

While proving that people were using sea ice to travel will be tricky given most of the archeological sites are underwater, the theory provides a new framework for understanding how humans may have arrived in North America without a land bridge or easy ocean travel.  

And the sea ice highway isn’t mutually exclusive with other human migrations further down the line, says Praetorius. The team’s models show , the Alaskan current had calmed down by 14,000 years ago, making it easier for people to travel by boat along the coast.  

“Nothing is off the table,” she said. "We will always be surprised by ancient human ingenuity." 

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Presentation abstract: PP51A-05 Did a “Sea-ice Highway” facilitate early human migration from Beringia into North America along the coastal route? 

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SFU and UBC researchers receive $1.25 million to study cumulative effects on B.C. salmon

Grant and Award Announcement

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: 

SALMON SWIM THROUGH A WATERSHED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

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CREDIT: WATERSHED FUTURES INITIATIVE

Salmon researchers from British Columbia are embarking on a three-year study to understand and help mitigate the cumulative threats affecting the vulnerable species in the province’s watersheds.

The Watershed Futures Initiative, which includes researchers from Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia and University of Montana, has received $1.25 million from the federal and provincial governments – through the joint British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund – to tackle the combined impacts of logging, mining, urban development, agriculture, climate change and other factors on salmon.
 
While the devastating effect of these risks are studied in isolation, there is an urgent need to improve both the science and management of cumulative effects in B.C. to prevent a “death by a thousand cuts,” according to project lead Jonathan Moore.
 
“Many salmon populations are struggling. We are asking a lot of our salmon ecosystems – from logging to water withdrawals to development to climate change,” says SFU biological sciences professor Moore. “It is a large and multi-pronged problem, and we are hoping that this initiative can help contribute to positive steps forward.”
 
The initiative will address high-priority knowledge gaps. Researchers will explore ongoing changes in salmon watersheds using remote sensing, synthesize scientific information to inform benchmarks and management targets, help identify potential paths forward, and connect groups working to improve the climate resilience of B.C.'s salmon watersheds.
 
“The effective stewardship of salmon ecosystems entails integrating the best science on cumulative effects with priority management actions and good governance to ensure actions are implemented in a timely and cost-effective manner,” says project co-lead Tara Martin, a professor of forest and conservation sciences at UBC.
 
In addition to research and recommending policies, building social networks and sharing promising success stories is a key objective of the initiative. This will be achieved through several events that bring together a diverse group of leaders, managers, technicians, and scientists to learn from each other.
 
“Salmon are of critical importance and they are suffering,” says Robert Chamberlin, chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance and a member of the expert advisory panel guiding the project. “Watershed Futures Initiative is tackling the wicked problem of cumulative effects and doing so in a good way.”
 
In addition to the government funding announced this week, a contribution from the Sitka Foundation is also helping support this work.
 
See www.watershedfuturesinitiative.com for more information and to subscribe to its monthly newsletter for updates.

 

A new tool to better model future wildfire impacts in the United States

Study finds radar tech could improve current wildfire prediction systems

Reports and Proceedings

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

SAN FRANCISCO – Wildfire management systems outfitted with remote sensing technology could improve first responders’ ability to predict and respond to the spread of deadly forest fires.

To do this, researchers at The Ohio State University are testing the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, to help with wildfire detection.

For many ecosystems, fires are vital tools that help to clear away plant waste, provide safer habitats for smaller species and burn off disease. Yet as Earth continues to experience warmer, drier conditions, the likelihood and severity of large, uncontrolled fire incidents that result in widespread environmental damage has steadily increased. 

Between 2020 and 2023, wildfires across the U.S. burned over 25 million acres of land. At the same time, millions of people who reside near these at-risk areas are likely impacted by plumes of wildfire smoke, heightened flooding risks and property damage. 

These effects underscore the need for better detection systems, said Dustin Horton, lead author of a new study on the subject and a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State. His work revolves around improving traditional strategies for sensing large blazes and improving wildfire-related land management policies.  

“There's a variety of prediction models that the government and different agencies use to predict and assess what an area might look like each wildfire season,” said Horton. “But a lot of those programs in recent history rely on a variety of remote sensing methods, such as optical sensors that have a lot of inherent disadvantages.”

For example, systems that use optical sensors to study targets, like LiDAR, can be occluded by wildfire smoke or other atmospheric changes like clouds or light from the sun. Other passive sensors can be less useful at night. Ultimately, these limitations diminish their effectiveness at collecting accurate measurements during a quickly evolving situation, and such setbacks could have disastrous effects on agencies aiming to gauge the number of resources or emergency service personnel needed to safely handle a large fire, said Horton. 

The research was presented in a poster session today (Dec. 15, 2023) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The poster suggests that one technique that could be used to supplement wildfire prediction models like the National Fire Danger Rating System, which allows users to estimate the next few days of fire danger in a given region, is to combine them with SAR. 

Unlike optical or satellite infrared sensors, SAR utilizes radar to create high-resolution two-dimensional or three-dimensional reconstructions of terrain, making it an especially effective device for environmental mapping research. Additionally, since SAR remote sensing technologies can operate successfully during the day, night and inclement atmospheric events, it provides scientists the ability to finely measure an area’s surface geophysical, hydrological and meteorological properties at key spatial distances with ease, said Horton. 

During the presentation, researchers noted that using SAR as an alternative wildfire sensing method also holds much potential for tracking the entire life-cycle and aftermath of a wildfire, as well as discerning and monitoring other factors that may contribute to creating flame-prone areas, such as the level of soil moisture in the region or various kinds of nearby vegetation.

The study concluded by noting how useful aerial SAR-based platforms could be to studying wildfires and other Earth processes across greater scales in the future. One such endeavor, planned to launch in early 2024, is the NISAR mission, a joint collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission’s objective will be to map the entire Earth in an effort to provide the public with refined data about the effects of climate change on the planet’s crust. 

Horton said that his team hopes to use the data the mission collects to continue building on their own wildfire-prediction algorithms, but will continue testing SAR as a next-generation wildfire assessment tool. In the meantime, Horton said that much of the responsibility for better understanding and stopping wildfires lies in combining both new technologies and tried-and-true fire services. 

“Scientists can now identify areas with conditions where everything is perfect for a burn, all the models say it will and sometimes it just doesn’t,” said Horton. “Because the whole wildfire process is extremely complex, a lot of the heavy lifting still relies on the mitigation work of firefighters.” 

Co-authors of the poster include Joel Johnson and Mohammad Al-Khaldi of Ohio State, Ismail Baris of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Jeonghwan Park of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Global Science and Technology Inc., and Rajat Bindlish of Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research. 

#

Contact: Dustin Horton, Horton.378@osu.edu

Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.ed