Most Earth System Models are missing key piece of future climate puzzle

Funding challenges, complexity have kept permafrost processes out of models that inform global climate targets

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER

 

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MAP DEPICTING CURRENT EXTENT OF PERMAFROST IN NORTHERN HEMISPHERE (LIGHT BLUE) AND PROJECTED EXTENT OF PERMAFROST IN 2070 (DARK BLUE) UNDER RCP 4.5 SCENARIO. 

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CREDIT: GREG FISKE / WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER

The way science is funded is hampering Earth System Models and may be skewing important climate predictions, according to a new comment published in Nature Climate Change by Woodwell Climate Research Center and an international team of model experts.

 

Emissions from thawing permafrost, frozen ground in the North that contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere does and is thawing due to human-caused climate warming, are one of the largest uncertainties in future climate projections. But accurate representation of permafrost dynamics is missing from the major models that project future carbon emissions. 

 

Only two of the eleven Earth System Models (ESMs) used in the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report include permafrost carbon cycling at all, and those that do currently use over-simplified approximations that don’t capture the fully dynamic ways that permafrost carbon can be released into the atmosphere as the climate warms. Processes that researchers have observed in the field, such as the way abrupt permafrost thaw can create ponds and lakes and change surface hydrology, run counter to these approximations but have large implications for permafrost carbon and its potential impact on the global climate. 

 

“What happens to the carbon in permafrost is one of the biggest unknowns about our future climate,” said Christina Schaedel, senior research scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center and lead author of the report. “Earth System Models are critical to predicting where, how and when this carbon will be released, but modeling teams currently don’t have the resources they need to depict permafrost accurately. If we want more accurate climate predictions, that needs to change.”

 

Earth System Models, the supercomputer-driven programs that can forecast future carbon emissions and climate dynamics, can predict only the processes that they represent. And as scientists learn more about the complex physical and biogeochemical interactions that make up the Earth system, ESMs have grown in complexity, encompassing more and more processes. In practice, that means years of highly technical code development, integrating observational data, and parameterizing and testing the model.

 

But most science research funding operates on a three-year funding cycle and is structured around projects that tackle novel science questions. This relatively short cycle is too brief a time to train up model developers or to complete key and complex model development steps before teams turn over, the authors say. 

 

“As these modeling systems are becoming increasingly complex, it is hard—and getting harder—for a graduate student or postdoc to ‘come up to speed' quickly enough to really understand the full scope of the model development needs and wrap up a development project on the typical three-year timeline of a proposal,” said David Lawrence, who co-leads the Community Terrestrial Systems Model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Unfortunately, that leaves many projects unfinished.” Lawrence, who co-authored the report, said that while the collaborative modeling teams he works with are making advances in depicting complex permafrost processes, limited funding means that “the pace at which improvements get ingested back into the core CTSM codebase is relatively slow.” 

 

“Substantial funding, on the order of multiple millions of dollars per ESM, is needed to provide the necessary infrastructure and support needed for model development,” the authors write. Such targeted funding and highly skilled software developers and programmers, they contend, can help speed the model improvement that’s underway.

 

“In recent years, Arctic research has become very collaborative and complex—scientists are not just studying one plant in one location anymore,” said Schaedel. “And while the need for long-term data and complex model development has become ever more apparent, the funding availability has not kept up. We’d like to see funding opportunities match the climate challenges that we’re facing.” 

 

“Our understanding of how permafrost is thawing and emitting carbon has drastically improved over the last 15 years,” said Brendan Rogers, associate scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center and co-lead of the Permafrost Pathways project. “Funding Earth System Models to represent permafrost thaw would ensure those gains are realized in the models, and that critical climate targets and carbon budgets are being based on the best science we have.”

 

***

This comment was authored by scientists from Woodwell Climate Research Center, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, The Met Office Hadley Centre, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Northern Arizona University. Authors received funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy and Permafrost Pathways through the TED Audacious Project.

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01909-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Earth system models must include permafrost carbon processes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

 

When energy doesn’t add up: 200 US cities will fall short of sustainable energy goals despite pledging to transition to renewable sources by 2050

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOP PUBLISHING

 

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SOLAR PANEL ARRAY.

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CREDIT: IOP PUBLISHING

200 US communities will fail to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050 despite their pledges to do so, according to a new study published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability.   

The study shows that by 2050 gas will firmly remain the primary source of energy in the US given that the current infrastructure plans for implementing renewable energy cannot provide sufficient energy output. Recent projections suggest that renewable energy generation will need to triple to meet even a 45% share of energy production. The results indicate that in many instances renewable energy is used as an additional source to meet growing energy needs, instead of a transitional tool away from fossil fuels. 

The study provides a unique insight into the energy consumption on a city level based on an energyshed framework. An energyshed is a holistic framework covering a geographic area that contains the land, infrastructure, people, profits, and environmental impacts and how these elements impact energy consumption. 

Based on this method the researchers at Baylor University examined a cross section of US cities including Boston, Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, Columbia, and San Diego that have committed to adopting fully renewable energy sources by 2050, finding that these cities are predicted to meet just 10% of their targets in the next 30 years. 

Dr Kayla Garrett, author of the study and Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Science at Baylor University, says: “The Energyshed method shows that while the need for this transition is clear, the best pathways to achieve it are greatly debated. Many areas are faced with conflicting sustainability goals such as changes to infrastructure, energy storage, land and resource use, biodiversity, economic development, and more. This can lead to ‘analysis paralysis’ which is one of the major blockers for decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” 

Garrett continues: “The energysheds approach shows much overlap between the needs and goals of neighbouring communities and how they can work together. This knowledge can foster cooperation for funding, land acquisition, infrastructure, distribution, and storage for renewable energy. Conversations are needed between those who apply the market approach to supply and demand versus those with sociopolitical approaches.” 

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Infrastructure and Sustainability

DOI

10.1088/2634-4505/ad0fef 

ARTICLE TITLE

When energy doesn’t add up: Use of an energyshed framework in assessing progress towards renewable energy transitions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

 

Scientists uncover new marine source of carbon emissions into atmosphere, finding bottom trawling contributes to global warming

Landmark study finds bottom trawling responsible for injecting up to 370 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year; reveals trawling in East China, Baltic, North Sea and Greenland Sea have largest climate footprints

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PRISTINE SEAS

(WASHINGTON, DC) 18 JANUARY 2024 — Bottom trawling is a previously unaccounted for source of atmospheric carbon emissions, scientists reveal in a study published today. As the world scrambles to slash emissions caused by fossil fuels, deforestation and other sources, the study finds bottom trawling — the act of dragging a heavy fishing net across the ocean floor and resuspending some of the carbon in the seafloor sediment — to be a significant source of atmospheric carbon pollution. A previous study found that part of that disturbed sediment carbon turns into carbon dioxide underwater. Today’s study finds that 55%-60% of the carbon dioxide produced underwater by bottom trawling will make it into the atmosphere within nine years.

The amount of carbon released by bottom trawling into the atmosphere each year is estimated to double the annual emissions from fuel combustion of the entire global fishing fleet — about 4 million vessels.

“We have long known that dragging heavy fishing nets — some as large as ten 747 jets — across the ocean floor destroys sea life and habitats,” said Dr. Trisha Atwood of Utah State University and National Geographic Pristine Seas. 

“Only recently, we have discovered that bottom trawling also unleashes plumes of carbon, which otherwise would be safely stored for millennia in the ocean floor. Our study is the very first to show that over half the carbon released by bottom trawling eventually escapes into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide over the span of about ten years, contributing to global warming. Much like destroying forests, scraping up the seafloor causes irreparable harm to the climate, society and wildlife.”

The study, Atmospheric CO2 emissions and ocean acidification from bottom-trawling, was conducted by a global team of climate and ocean experts from Utah State University, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the University of California Santa Barbara, Columbia University, James Cook University and National Geographic Pristine Seas.

The researchers used data on bottom trawling carried out globally between 1996-2020 and sophisticated models to calculate how much of the carbon dioxide produced by bottom trawling ultimately enters the atmosphere. This study builds on recent foundational research finding that the amount of carbon dioxide released into the ocean from bottom trawling is larger than most countries’ annual carbon emissions and on the same order of magnitude as annual carbon dioxide emissions from global aviation.

The new research identifies ocean areas where carbon emissions from bottom trawling are especially high, including the East China Sea, the Baltic and the North Seas, and the Greenland Sea. The researchers conclude that Southeast Asia, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, parts of Europe and the Gulf of Mexico are also likely major sources of carbon emissions due to trawling, but we currently lack sufficient data on the extent and intensity of bottom trawling in these areas.

“Right now, countries don’t account for bottom trawling’s significant carbon emissions in their climate action plans,” said Dr. Enric Sala, National Explorer in Residence and Executive Director of Pristine Seas. “Our research makes it clear that tackling these and other ocean emissions is critical to slowing the warming of the planet, in addition to restoring marine life. The good news is that reducing bottom trawling carbon emissions will deliver immediate benefits. The bad news is, delaying action ensures that emissions from trawling will continue seeping into the atmosphere a decade from now.”

The new study also assesses what happens to the carbon that remains trapped in ocean waters after bottom trawling takes place. It concludes that between 40%-45% of the total carbon dislodged from the ocean floor by trawling remains in the water, leading to greater localized ocean acidification. This increased acidity damages plant and animal life in the area where the fishing activity takes place.

“There are more issues with bottom trawling than just the impacts from carbon — biodiversity and sustainability for instance,” said Gavin A. Schmidt, the Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “But this ‘marine deforestation’ is large enough to be noted and assessed. Hopefully, this can lead to policy efforts that can try to maximize benefits across all of the impacts.”

 

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Marine Science

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2023.1125137 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Atmospheric CO2 emissions and ocean acidification from bottom-trawling

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

 

Study reveals a universal pattern of brain wave frequencies

Across mammalian species, brain waves are slower in deep cortical layers, while superficial layers generate faster rhythms

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Throughout the brain’s cortex, neurons are arranged in six distinctive layers, which can be readily seen with a microscope. A team of MIT neuroscientists has now found that these layers also show distinct patterns of electrical activity, which are consistent over many brain regions and across several animal species, including humans.

The researchers found that in the topmost layers, neuron activity is dominated by rapid oscillations known as gamma waves. In the deeper layers, slower oscillations called alpha and beta waves predominate. The universality of these patterns suggests that these oscillations are likely playing an important role across the brain, the researchers say.

“When you see something that consistent and ubiquitous across cortex, it’s playing a very fundamental role in what the cortex does,” says Earl Miller, the Picower Professor of Neuroscience, a member of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and one of the senior authors of the new study.

Imbalances in how these oscillations interact with each other may be involved in brain disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the researchers say.

“Overly synchronous neural activity is known to play a role in epilepsy, and now we suspect that different pathologies of synchrony may contribute to many brain disorders, including disorders of perception, attention, memory, and motor control. In an orchestra, one instrument played out of synchrony with the rest can disrupt the coherence of the entire piece of music,” says Robert Desimone, director of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and one of the senior authors of the study.

André Bastos, an assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, is also a senior author of the open-access paper, which appears today in Nature Neuroscience. The lead authors of the paper are MIT research scientist Diego Mendoza-Halliday and MIT postdoc Alex Major.

Layers of activity

The human brain contains billions of neurons, each of which has its own electrical firing patterns. Together, groups of neurons with similar patterns generate oscillations of electrical activity, or brain waves, which can have different frequencies. Miller’s lab has previously shown that high-frequency gamma rhythms are associated with encoding and retrieving sensory information, while low-frequency beta rhythms act as a control mechanism that determines which information is read out from working memory.

His lab has also found that in certain parts of the prefrontal cortex, different brain layers show distinctive patterns of oscillation: faster oscillation at the surface and slower oscillation in the deep layers. One study, led by Bastos when he was a postdoc in Miller’s lab, showed that as animals performed working memory tasks, lower-frequency rhythms generated in deeper layers regulated the higher-frequency gamma rhythms generated in the superficial layers.

In addition to working memory, the brain’s cortex also is the seat of thought, planning, and high-level processing of emotion and sensory information. Throughout the regions involved in these functions, neurons are arranged in six layers, and each layer has its own distinctive combination of cell types and connections with other brain areas.

“The cortex is organized anatomically into six layers, no matter whether you look at mice or humans or any mammalian species, and this pattern is present in all cortical areas within each species,” Mendoza-Halliday says. “Unfortunately, a lot of studies of brain activity have been ignoring those layers because when you record the activity of neurons, it's been difficult to understand where they are in the context of those layers.”

In the new paper, the researchers wanted to explore whether the layered oscillation pattern they had seen in the prefrontal cortex is more widespread, occurring across different parts of the cortex and across species.

Using a combination of data acquired in Miller’s lab, Desimone’s lab, and labs from collaborators at Vanderbilt, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, and the University of Western Ontario, the researchers were able to analyze 14 different areas of the cortex, from four mammalian species. This data included recordings of electrical activity from three human patients who had electrodes inserted in the brain as part of a surgical procedure they were undergoing.

Recording from individual cortical layers has been difficult in the past, because each layer is less than a millimeter thick, so it’s hard to know which layer an electrode is recording from. For this study, electrical activity was recorded using special electrodes that record from all of the layers at once, then feed the data into a new computational algorithm the authors designed, termed FLIP (frequency-based layer identification procedure). This algorithm can determine which layer each signal came from.

“More recent technology allows recording of all layers of cortex simultaneously. This paints a broader perspective of microcircuitry and allowed us to observe this layered pattern,” Major says. “This work is exciting because it is both informative of a fundamental microcircuit pattern and provides a robust new technique for studying the brain. It doesn’t matter if the brain is performing a task or at rest and can be observed in as little as five to 10 seconds.”

Across all species, in each region studied, the researchers found the same layered activity pattern.

“We did a mass analysis of all the data to see if we could find the same pattern in all areas of the cortex, and voilà, it was everywhere. That was a real indication that what had previously been seen in a couple of areas was representing a fundamental mechanism across the cortex,” Mendoza-Halliday says.

Maintaining balance

The findings support a model that Miller’s lab has previously put forth, which proposes that the brain’s spatial organization helps it to incorporate new information, which carried by high-frequency oscillations, into existing memories and brain processes, which are maintained by low-frequency oscillations. As information passes from layer to layer, input can be incorporated as needed to help the brain perform particular tasks such as baking a new cookie recipe or remembering a phone number.

“The consequence of a laminar separation of these frequencies, as we observed, may be to allow superficial layers to represent external sensory information with faster frequencies, and for deep layers to represent internal cognitive states with slower frequencies,” Bastos says. “The high-level implication is that the cortex has multiple mechanisms involving both anatomy and oscillations to separate ‘external’ from ‘internal’ information.”

Under this theory, imbalances between high- and low-frequency oscillations can lead to either attention deficits such as ADHD, when the higher frequencies dominate and too much sensory information gets in, or delusional disorders such as schizophrenia, when the low frequency oscillations are too strong and not enough sensory information gets in.

“The proper balance between the top-down control signals and the bottom-up sensory signals is important for everything the cortex does,” Miller says. “When the balance goes awry, you get a wide variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.”

The researchers are now exploring whether measuring these oscillations could help to diagnose these types of disorders. They are also investigating whether rebalancing the oscillations could alter behavior — an approach that could one day be used to treat attention deficits or other neurological disorders, the researchers say.

The researchers also hope to work with other labs to characterize the layered oscillation patterns in more detail across different brain regions.

“Our hope is that with enough of that standardized reporting, we will start to see common patterns of activity across different areas or functions that might reveal a common mechanism for computation that can be used for motor outputs, for vision, for memory and attention, et cetera,” Mendoza-Halliday says.

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The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. National Eye Institute, the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, the Picower Institute, a Simons Center for the Social Brain Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship.

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Neuroscience

DOI

10.1038/s41593-023-01554-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

A ubiquitous spectrolaminar motif of local field potential power across the primate cortex

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

 

Shiyu discovery reveals East Asia’s advanced material culture by 45,000 years ago

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

 

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RECONSTRUCTION OF SHIYU "HORSE-HUNTERS"

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CREDIT: GUO XIAOCONG

A team of researchers from China, Australia, France, Spain, and Germany has revealed advanced material culture in East Asia by 45,000 years ago.

The new study was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution on Jan. 18.

The researchers examined a previously excavated archaeological collection from the Shiyu site, located in Shanxi Province.

"Our new study identified an Initial Upper Palaeolithic archaeological assemblage from the Shiyu site of North China dating to 45,000 years ago that includes blade technology, tanged and hafted projectile points, long-distance obsidian transfer, and the use of a perforated graphite disk," said associate Prof. YANG Shixia, first and corresponding author of the study and a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

This discovery uncovered a treasure trove of cultural and technological innovations. Together with the recovery of a now lost human cranial bone, it sheds light on the ancient migration of Homo sapiens into East Asia around 45,000 years ago.

The researchers dated three animal bone samples recovered during the original 1963 excavation, and these were shown to be humanly modified as indicated by cut marks. Radiocarbon methods precisely dated the main cultural layer of Shiyu to between 45,800 and 43,200 years ago.

Integrated scientific studies on the archaeological findings at Shiyu revealed an advanced material culture dating to 45,000 years ago. This includes Levallois points, tanged and hafted projectile points with evidence of impact fractures, long-distance transfers of obsidian from sources hundreds of kilometers away, a perforated graphite disk, and well-shaped bone points.

The results of the taphonomic analysis of the mammal fossils, combined with use-wear analysis of the stone tools, indicated that the Shiyu inhabitants were "horse hunters" equipped with tanged and hafted projectile points, thus having the ability to hunt and selectively cull adult equids.

Shiyu provides us with an opportunity to look into the life of the skillful hunters from northern China 45,000 years ago. The people inhabiting the region had a remarkably advanced toolkit, with a range of innovative tools from the Upper Palaeolithic, including end-scrapers, awls, and tools of former times, including Middle Palaeolithic Levallois points, various tanged tools, denticulates, and borers.

The unique set of stone tool artefacts, in combination with the shaped graphite disc and bone tools, shows that early peoples had a rich culture. The long-distance transport of obsidian from sources hundreds of kilometers away also indicates advanced and long-distance resource procurement strategies and migration abilities.

Shiyu reflects a process of cultural creolization—through contact between societies and relocated peoples—whereby inherited traits blended with novel innovations, thus complicating the traditional understanding of Homo sapiens' global expansion.

Shiyu Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefacts 

a) Levallois points (1–3); b) other tool types including denticulate on blade (1, 2), denticulate on flake (3), and end scraper (4); c) tanged tools showing the locations of notched retouching (red) and thinning of the tangs (light blue)

Long-distance transferred obsidian 

a) scatterplot of Rb, Sr, and Zr measurements for the Shiyu obsidian artefacts and obsidian sources across East Asia; b) the four obsidian lithics from Shiyu; c) SY20-314 endscraper on obsidian. 1–2, transport wear observed at 200x and 100x magnification

Graphite disc and bone tool

CREDIT

IVPP

JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-023-02294-4 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

 

Australian researchers warn of global threat to crops as insecticide resistance emerges in bluegreen aphids

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

 

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BLUEGREEN APHID ON LEAF

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CREDIT: CESAR AUSTRALIA

For the first time, researchers in Australia have documented insecticide resistance in field-collected populations of bluegreen aphids, Acyrthosiphon kondoi - a worldwide pest of pulses and other legume crops. The study, published in Pest Management Science, serves as a warning to growers globally and highlights the need for new strategies to manage this pervasive pest.

Evatt Chirgwin, evolutionary biologist at Cesar Australia and corresponding author of the study, explained that the research was prompted by reports of conventional insecticides failing to control A. kondoi populations.

‘Our primary motivation was to help Australian growers understand an emerging pest management challenge,’ said Chirgwin. ‘Australian growers have traditionally relied upon two types of insecticides (organophosphate and carbamates) to protect their legume crops from A. kondoi. However, in recent years, multiple growers in Southern Australia reported these insecticide sprays were no longer controlling A. kondoi, which indicated this pest may have evolved insecticide resistance for the first time.’

A. kondoi is an agricultural pest in the USA, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia. Chirgwin explained that they damage crops by feeding on upper leaves, stems and terminal buds. ‘A. kondoi also causes indirect damage by spreading plant viruses, including cucumber mosaic virus and bean yellow mosaic virus,’ he noted.

The team collected A. kondoi populations from lentil and alfalfa paddocks where insecticide control failures have recently been reported, across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. The populations were exposed to different insecticides in bioassays, revealing moderate resistance to three insecticide groups: organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids.

Explaining the impact of resistance at this level to Australian growers, Chirgwin said, ‘On a practical level, growers cannot rely on organophosphates and carbamates (at the registered rate) to confidently control these newly evolved A. kondoi populations. Still, the low-to-moderate levels (20-40 fold) of resistance shown by A. kondoi in this study is less than some other aphid species (i.e., >100 fold) have been able to evolve to these chemicals.’

Chirgwin noted that the discovery of pyrethroid-resistant A. kondoi populations was unexpected – the use of pyrethroids to control A. kondoi in Australia is relatively restricted and therefore the authors did not think the insects would be under enough selection pressure to evolve resistance. ‘We now suspect that A. kondoi populations are regularly exposed to pyrethroid-based insecticides because this chemical is widely used in pulse and pasture seed crops to control other pests (e.g. mirids, Helicoverpa, and other aphids) that often occur alongside A. kondoi,’ he explained.

The researchers found no evidence of resistance to another insecticide – flupyradifurone. This was unsurprising given the chemical was only introduced into the Australian market in 2016 and is not registered against A. kondoi in the country. Whilst the authors conclude that flupyradifurone may therefore provide a new chemical option for A. kondoi control in Australia, Chirgwin provided a note of caution and stressed the importance of integrated pest management strategies to restrict the emergence of further cases of insecticide resistance:

‘If registered, flupyradifurone should only provide one part of the A. kondoi management strategy in Australia. Overreliance on one (or a small number of) insecticides will place A. kondoi populations under consistent and strong selection pressure that favours increased resistance to evolve. Rotating between different types of insecticides can help ease the selection pressure placed on pest populations. As such, growers require multiple chemical options to rotate between for A. kondoi control and for these chemicals to be available at an economical rate.’

‘Greater support of non-chemical control options can also provide alternative avenues to manage A. kondoi and reduce selection for insecticide resistance. Natural enemies (e.g., ladybirds & parasitoid wasps) provide an effective biocontrol option for many aphids. Alternatively, growers may use some crops (e.g., medics), where cultivars have been bred with plant resistance to aphid feeding. More novel, endosymbionts (a type of bacteria hosted by many animals) have revolutionised how some mosquito disease vectors are managed, and similar endosymbiont-based interventions are currently being researched as a new avenue to manage agricultural pests.’

With funding from AgriFutures Australia and the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Chirgwin and the team are continuing to research A. kondoi control strategies.

‘We are attempting to map where insecticide-resistant populations of A. kondoi have spread so we can provide growers with more regionally specific management recommendations. We are also exploring what naturally occurring biocontrol options available for this pest and how endosymbionts can offer a new avenue to mitigate the damage this pest causes to crops,’ noted Chirgwin. 

Bluegreen aphids on Petri dishes containing alfalfa leaves in 1% (w/v) agar

Bluegreen aphids on leaf

CREDIT

Cesar Australia

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JOURNAL

Pest Management Science

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Discovery of insecticide resistance in field-collected populations of the aphid pest, Acyrthosiphon kondoi Shinji

Former VP Al Gore unveils new global database serving as pollution watchdog: ‘They have simply ignored lots of emissions that we can measure’

Benjamin Rosenthal
Tue, January 16, 2024

Former U.S. vice president and onetime presidential hopeful Al Gore and his global coalition, Climate TRACE, have created a way to help decarbonize supply chains. Big-name companies are already taking notice, including Boeing, Tesla, Polestar, and General Motors.

According to Bloomberg’s Michelle Ma, the expansive database can track “global greenhouse gas emissions, down to the individual polluter.”

Gore unveiled the new watchdog database during the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which ran from Nov. 30 to Dec. 13 in Dubai. Gore said he felt this year’s conference, also called “COP28,” as the 28th “Conference of the Parties” in the Paris Agreement, was particularly important because it was a year during which countries’ progress toward meeting the agreement’s goals would be measured, using a term called a “stocktake.”

“Climate TRACE is really the only independent comprehensive source of accurate data on which a stocktake can be made,” Gore added.

Through machine learning, satellites, and other technology, Climate TRACE can “show steel and aluminum supplier emissions in stunning detail.” In fact, the host country of this year’s climate conference, the United Arab Emirates, “underestimated its own emissions by over 100 million tons.” The UAE reported its 2019 figures at 225 million tons, but Climate TRACE put the total at over 350 million tons.

“They have no explanation for the discrepancy,” Gore said. “A stocktake has to be a truthful stocktake, and they have simply ignored lots of emissions that we can measure and report.”

As the Climate TRACE website explains, their inventory includes “every country and territory in the world, every major sector of the global economy, and nearly every major source of greenhouse gas emissions.”

It surely won’t just be the UAE that finds its figures grossly underreported when put under the microscope. But as more and more companies get on board — with power plants, steel mills, and mining operations the lowest hanging fruit — and gain access to this tracking data, it can only mean good things as countries around the world collectively look to decrease air pollution.

Gore was vocally critical of the overall outcome from the UN conference, saying “the influence of petrostates is still evident in the half measures and loopholes included in the final agreement.”
While Gore has been quieter politically in recent years, he did also speak up recently in support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which created tax rebates and incentives for consumers to buy vehicles and appliances that support cleaner energy usage, among other things.