What role did fear play in Europe's population growth?

Fear of conflict may have influenced the development of prehistoric European societies as much as the conflicts themselves, according to a recent study by the Complexity Science Hub (CSH)

Complexity Science Hub

 

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Visualisation of situation around 3700 BCE

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Credit: Magistrat der Stadt Hofheim; LEIZA-Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Architectura Virtualis 2020 www.leiza.de/kapellenberg

[Vienna, August 26 2024] – Since the end of the last Ice Age, growth of human population was far from uniform, marked instead by periods of rapid expansion followed by sharp declines. The reasons behind these fluctuations remain only partially understood. Previous research by CSH scientists Peter Turchin, Daniel Kondor, and an international team of collaborators, demonstrated that social conflicts, rather than – or in addition to – environmental factors, could have significantly impacted these patterns. Now, they add another piece to the puzzle.

Wars and conflicts not only cause direct casualties but also create an atmosphere of distress and fear. This fear, by affecting where and how people settle, could have influenced substantially how the population in Europe developed, as shown in a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Flight And Overpopulation

“Globally, scientists have extensively studied and debated the presence and role of conflicts in prehistory. However, estimating their effects, such as those on population numbers is still difficult,” explains Daniel Kondor from CSH. “This is even more complicated by potential indirect effects, like people who, out of fear, leave their homes or avoid certain areas.”

These indirect impacts of conflict could have caused significant, long-term population fluctuations in non-state societies, such as in Neolithic Europe (circa 7,000 BC to 3,000 BC), according to the study’s findings. “Our model shows that fear of conflict led to population declines in potentially dangerous areas. As a result, people concentrated in safer locations, such as hilltops, where overpopulation could lead to higher mortality and lower fertility,” Kondor explains. 

Match Archaeological Evidence

The ongoing threat would prevent the settlement of much of the remaining land. Co-author Detlef Gronenborn from the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology (LEIZA) in Mainz, Germany, adds: “The results from the simulation studies nicely match empirical evidence from archaeological field work, like for instance the Late Neolithic site of Kapellenberg near Frankfurt, dating to around 3700 BCE. Like there, we have many instances of a temporal abandonment of open agricultural land, associated with a retreat of groups to well-defendable locations and considerable investments in large-scale defense systems like ramparts, palisades and ditches.”

“This concentration of people in specific, often well-defended locations could have led to increasing wealth disparities and political structures that justified these differences,” adds Peter Turchin from CSH. “In that way, indirect effects of conflict might have also played a crucial role in the emergence of larger political units and the rise of early states.”

Complexity Science Meets Archaeology

To simulate population dynamics in Neolithic Europe, the researchers developed a computational model. To test the model, they utilized a database  of archaeological sites, analyzing the number of radiocarbon age-measurements from various locations and time periods, under the assumption that this reflects the scale of human activities, and thus, ultimately, population numbers. “This allows us to examine the typical amplitudes and timescales of population growth and decline across Europe,” Kondor explains. “Our goal was for our simulation to reflect these patterns.”

In the future, the model could help interpret archaeological evidence, such as signs of overpopulation or land use patterns, which in turn can provide necessary context and data for further refinements to modeling. This is a typical example of interdisciplinary collaboration that CSH aims to foster. “Using complexity science methods, we develop mathematical models to analyze the rise and fall of complex societies and identify common factors,” Turchin explains. This involves collecting vast amounts of historical data, managed in specialized databases like the Seshat Global History Databank. “For the most complete picture possible, direct collaboration with archaeologists is immensely important. This study is a great example of the potential that such interdisciplinary collaboration can have,” Kondor emphasizes.

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About CSH

The Complexity Science Hub (CSH) is Europe’s research center for the study of complex systems. We derive meaning from data from a range of disciplines – economics, medicine, ecology, and the social sciences – as a basis for actionable solutions for a better world. Established in 2015, we have grown to over 70 researchers, driven by the increasing demand to gain a genuine understanding of the networks that underlie society, from healthcare to supply chains. Through our complexity science approaches linking physics, mathematics, and computational modeling with data and network science, we develop the capacity to address today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.

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Journal

Journal of The Royal Society Interface

DOI

10.1098/rsif.2024.0210 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Landscape of Fear: Indirect effects of conflict can account for large-scale population declines in non-state societies

Article Publication Date

28-Aug-2024

Study finds limits to storing CO2 underground to combat climate change

  CARBON CAPTURE IS PETRO BUSINESS GREENWASHING  

Imperial research has found limits to how quickly we can scale up technology to store gigatonnes of carbon dioxide under the Earth’s surface. 

Current international scenarios for limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees by the end of the century rely on technologies that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Earth’s atmosphere faster than humans release it. This means removing CO2 at a rate of 1-30 gigatonnes per year by 2050. 

However, estimates for the speed at which these technologies can be deployed have been highly speculative. Now, findings from a new study led by Imperial College London researchers show that existing projections are unlikely to be feasible at the current rate of growth. 

The study found that it might be possible by 2050 to store up to 16 gigatonnes of CO2 underground each year. However, reaching this target would require a huge increase in storage capacity and scaling over the coming decades, which is not anticipated given the current pace of investment, development and deployment. 

With the UK Government aiming to position Britain as a clean energy superpower and scale up and invest in carbon capture and storage, the study underscores the importance of aligning ambitious initiatives with realistic objectives for how quickly CO2 can be safely stored underground. 

The results are published today in Nature Communications. 

 

Realistic goals 

The team from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering created models showing how quickly carbon storage systems can be developed and deployed, accounting for the availability of suitable geology, and technical and economic limitations to growth. 

While the results suggest it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions at a huge scale, they also suggest that the path to achieving this and the contribution from key regions might differ from what current models project, including those from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. 

Lead author Yuting Zhang, from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: “There are many factors at play in these projections, including the speed at which reservoirs can be filled as well as other geological, geographical, economic, technological, and political issues. However, more accurate models like the ones we have developed will help us understand how uncertainty in storage capacity, variations in institutional capacity across regions, and limitations to development might affect climate plans and targets set by policymakers.” 

Co-author Dr Samuel Krevor, also from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: “Although storing between six to 16 gigatonnes of CO2 per year to tackle climate change is technically possible, these high projections are much more uncertain than lower ones. This is because there are no existing plans from governments or international agreements to support such a large-scale effort. 

“However, it’s important to keep in mind that five gigatonnes of carbon going into the ground is still a major contribution to climate change mitigation. Our models provide the tools to update current projections with realistic goals for how and where carbon storage should be developed in the next few decades.” 

 

Existing projections unlikely to be feasible 

In their analysis, the researchers found that the IPCC included results from integrated assessment models (IAMs) – tools combining different sources of information to predict how carbon storage methods can impact our climate and economy – that often overestimate how much CO2 can be stored underground. 

In particular, the analysis suggests that projections from IPCC reports for Asian countries including China, Indonesia and South Korea, where current development is low, assumed unrealistic rates of deployment – which means existing projections are unlikely and unreliable. 

Co-author Professor Christopher Jackson, also from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: “While integrated assessment models play an important role in helping climate policymakers make decisions, some of the assumptions they make when it comes to storing large amounts of carbon underground appear unrealistic.” 

Global benchmark 

The team’s calculations suggest that a more realistic global benchmark is in the range of 5-6 gigatonnes of storage per year by 2050. This estimate aligns with how existing, similar technologies have been scaled up over time. 

Their modelling approach uses growth patterns observed in real-world data from different industries, including mining and renewable energy. By looking at how these industries have grown in the past, and combining existing amounts of stored CO2 with a flexible framework to explore different scenarios, the new approach offers a reliable way to make attainable, long-term projections for underground CO2 storage and could be a valuable tool for policymakers. 

Dr Krevor said: “Our study is the first to apply growth patterns from established industries to CO2 storage. Existing predictions rely on speculative assumptions, but by using historical data and trends from other sectors within the industry, our new model offers a more realistic and practical approach for predicting how quickly carbon storage can be scaled up – helping us set more attainable targets.” 

 

This study was funded by Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, part of UK Research and Innovation, UKRI) and the Royal Academy of Engineering. 

 

For more information contact:  

Caroline Brogan  

Imperial College London  

caroline.brogan@imperial.ac.uk   

+44(0)20 7594 3415  

+44(0)7745 650 147  

Out of hours press officer mobile: +44 (0)7803 886248 

 

Notes to Editors: 

1. “The feasibility of reaching gigatonne scale CO2 storage by mid-century” by Zhang et al., published 28 August 2024 in Nature Communications. 

1. To download early embargoed version of paper see: https://imperialcollegelondon.box.com/s/bwm7e4s2fvkip938h2d779cp0vmnuorn  

1. About Imperial College London  

We are Imperial – a world-leading university for science, technology, engineering, medicine and business (STEMB), where scientific imagination leads to world-changing impact.    

As a global top ten university in London, we use science to try to understand more of the universe and improve the lives of more people in it. Across our nine campuses and throughout our Imperial Global network, our 22,000 students, 8,000 staff, and partners work together on scientific discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Their work navigates some of the world’s toughest challenges in global health, climate change, AI, business leadership and more.   

Founded in 1907, Imperial’s future builds on a distinguished past, having pioneered penicillin, holography and fibre optics. Today, Imperial combines exceptional teaching, world-class facilities and a habit of interdisciplinary practice to unlock scientific imagination. 

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Journal

Nature Communications

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

The feasibility of reaching gigatonne scale CO2 storage by mid-century

Article Publication Date

28-Aug-2024

 

Alternatives in car and aircraft construction: New joining and additive manufacturing processes allow adhesive-free joining of wood and metal

Using 3D printing technology and ultrasonic joining technique, researchers at Graz University of Technology succeeded in attaining an extremely strong joining of the renewable raw material wood with metal and polymer composite.

Graz University of Technology

 

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In Ultrasonic Joining, wood and the base component are joined by frictional heat.

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Credit: Wolf - TU Graz

The renewable raw material wood is climate-neutral and at the same time light and strong, making it fundamentally attractive for use in vehicle manufacturing. One challenge to date has been joining the wood and the other materials in the vehicle, such as metals and polymer composites, in a robust way. The research team led by Sergio Amancio from the Institute of Materials Science, Joining and Forming of Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) - Gean Marcatto, Awais Awan, Willian Carvalho and Stefan Herbst - has now successfully tested two techniques by which extremely strong joints can be achieved without using adhesives or screws. The application of the techniques to wood is patent pending and could be used in the aircraft, automotive and furniture industries.

Joining technology and additive manufacturing enable wood to replace less sustainable materials

The two novel manufacturing techniques are suitable for their own areas of application. Beech, oak, carbon fibre-reinforced polyamide and polyphenylene sulphide, stainless steel 316L, and Ti-64 alloys, were used as test materials. “Our motivation is clearly environmental protection,” says Sergio Amancio. With new manufacturing processes, the renewable raw material wood could replace components made from energy-intensive or difficult-to-recycle materials.

AddJoining: 3D printing leads to joining via the wood pores

With the AddJoining technique, a component made of polymer composite is affixed to and printed directly onto a surface – in this case wood – using a 3D printing process. The printed material penetrates into the wood pores, where a chemical reaction occurs, similar to the reaction of glue with wood. The resulting connections were highly successful in mechanical load tests. “After the joint fractured, we were able to find polymer in the wood pores and broken wood fibres in the polymer, which suggests that the fracture occurred in the wood and polymer, but not at the joint,” explains Gean Marcatto, who works on this process as a postdoc at the institute. These successful tests were carried out on the untreated wood surface. Even more durable joints could be achieved by introducing a micro- or nano-structure into the wood through laser texturing or etching, which increases the pores and enhances the bonding surfaces. “But we wanted to work with as few steps as possible and, above all, without chemicals,” says Sergio Amancio, explaining the underlying idea. “We can use this technology particularly well with complicated 3D geometries because the components are printed directly onto the surface – in whatever geometry is required.”

Ultrasonic joining ensures a stable spot joint

In Ultrasonic Joining, high-frequency vibration with low amplitude is applied to the wooden component using a sonotrode. In contact with the base component – in this case, polymer or a polymer composite material – the friction generates heat at the interface which melts the surface of the polymer part. Molten polymer infiltrates into the naturally porous surface of the wood. In this way, a very stable spot joint can be achieved, from a mixture of mechanical interlocking (because the melted plastic solidifies again in the wood) and adhesion forces. “This technique is particularly suitable for large components and 2D structures since we achieve a precisely localized spot joint,” explains Awais Awan, who dedicated his doctorate to joining technology using ultrasonic energy. These spot joints were also mechanically tested with great success. The joints could also be further strengthened by pre-treatment of the wood surface such as laser texturing.

In future, the team would like to work with partners from the automotive, aircraft and furniture industries to further refine the technologies.

This research area is anchored in the Field of Expertise Advanced Materials Science, one of five strategic focus areas of TU Graz.

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Method of Research

Experimental study

Addjoining uses 3D printing to print a component made of plastic composites onto wood.

Credit

Wolf - TU Graz

 

What microscopic fossilized shells tell us about ancient climate change

New research led by University of Utah geologists links rapid climate change 50 million years ago to rising CO2 levels

University of Utah

 

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Images of foraminifera fossils created by a scanning electronic microscope.

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Credit: Dustin Harper

At the end of the Paleocene and beginning of the Eocene epochs, between 59 to 51 million years ago, Earth experienced dramatic warming periods, both gradual periods stretching millions of years and sudden warming events known as hyperthermals.

Driving this planetary heat up were massive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases, but other factors like tectonic activity may have also been at play.

New research led by University of Utah geoscientists pairs sea surface temperatures with levels of atmospheric CO2 during this period, showing the two were closely linked. The findings also provide case studies to test carbon cycle feedback mechanisms and sensitivities critical for predicting anthropogenic climate change as we continue pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere on an unprecedented scale in the planet’s history.

“The main reason we are interested in these global carbon release events is because they can provide analogs for future change,” said lead author Dustin Harper, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geology & Geophysics. “We really don't have a perfect analog event with the exact same background conditions and rate of carbon release.”

But the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, suggests emissions during two ancient “thermal maxima” are similar enough with today’s anthropogenic climate change to help scientists forecast its consequences.

The research team analyzed microscopic fossils—recovered in drilling cores taken from an undersea plateau in the Pacific—to characterize surface ocean chemistry at the time the shelled creatures were alive. Using a sophisticated statistical model, they reconstructed sea surface temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels over a 6-million-year period that covered two hyperthermals, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, 56 million years ago and Eocene Thermal Maximum 2, ETM-2, 54 million years ago.

The findings indicate that as atmospheric levels of CO2 rose, so too did global temperatures.

“We have multiple ways that our planet, that our atmosphere is being influenced by CO2 additions, but in each case, regardless of the source of CO2, we're seeing similar impacts on the climate system,” said co-author Gabriel Bowen, a U professor of geology & geophysics.

“We’re interested in how sensitive the climate system was to these changes in CO2. And what we see in this study is that there's some variation, maybe a little lower sensitivity, a lower warming associated with a given amount of CO2 change when we look at these very long-term shifts. But that overall, we see a common range of climate sensitivities.”

Today, human activities associated with fossil fuels are releasing carbon 4 to 10 times more rapidly than occurred during these ancient hyperthermal events. However, the total amount of carbon released during the ancient events is similar to the range projected for human emissions, potentially giving researchers a glimpse of what could be in store for us and future generations.

First scientists must determine what happened to the climate and oceans during these episodes of planetary heating more than 50 million years ago.

“These events might represent a mid- to worst-case scenario kind of case study,” Harper said. “We can investigate them to answer what’s the environmental change that happens due to this carbon release?”

Earth was very warm during the PETM. No ice sheets covered the poles and ocean temperatures in the mid-90s degrees Fahrenheit.

To determine oceanic CO2 levels the researchers turned to fossilized remains of foraminifera, a shelled single-cell organism akin to plankton. The research team based the study on cores previously extracted by the International Ocean Discovery Program at two locations in Pacific.

The foram shells accumulate small amounts of boron, the isotopes of which are a proxy reflecting CO2 concentrations in the ocean at the time the shells formed, according to Harper.

“We measured the boron chemistry of the shells, and we're able to translate those values using modern observations to past seawater conditions. We can get at seawater CO2 and translate that into atmospheric CO2,” Harper said. “The goal of the target study interval was to establish some new CO2 and temperature records for the PETM and ETM-2, which represent two of the best analogs in terms of modern change, and also provide a longer-term background assessment of the climate system to better contextualize those events.”

The cores Harper studied were extracted from Shatsky Rise in the subtropical North Pacific, which is an ideal location for recovering ocean-bottom sediments that reflect conditions in the ancient past.

Carbonate shells dissolve if they settle into deep ocean, so scientists must look to underwater plateaus like Shatsky Rise, where the water depths are relatively shallow. While their inhabitants were living millions of years ago, the foraminifera shells record the sea surface conditions.

“Then they die and sink to the sea floor, and they're deposited in about two kilometers of water depth,” Harper said. “We're able to retrieve the complete sequence of the dead fossils. At these places in the middle of the ocean, you really don't have a lot of sediment supply from continents, so it is predominantly these fossils and that's all. It makes for a really good archive for what we want to do.”

 

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The study “Long- and short-term coupling of sea surface temperature and   atmospheric CO2 during the late Paleocene and early Eocene,” was published Aug. 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS. Funding came from National Science Foundation. The research was conducted in collaboration with colleagues at Columbia University, University of California Santa Cruz, Vassar College, Utah State University and University of Hawaii

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2318779121 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Long- and short-term coupling of sea surface temperature and atmospheric CO2 during the late Paleocene and early Eocene

Article Publication Date

26-Aug-2024

 

Are crops worldwide sufficiently pollinated?

A Rutgers-led study shows diminished crop yield is globally common but low yields could be addressed by increasing the number of pollinators

Rutgers University

 

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Rutgers researchers detected inadequate pollination in 25 crop species, including sunflowers. More frequent visitation from bees like this Melissodes trinodis could reduce roughly two-thirds of observed yield deficits. 

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Credit: Max McCarthy, Winfree Laboratory, Rutgers University

A team of researchers led by Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientists has analyzed crop yields of more than 1,500 fields on six continents, and found that production worldwide of important, nutritionally dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes is being limited by a lack of pollinators.

The results, detailed in Nature Ecology & Evolution, showed that across diverse crops and locations, one-third to two-thirds of farms contain fields that aren’t producing at the levels they should be due to a lack of pollinators. The phenomenon of a low crop yield because of insufficient visits by insects is known as pollinator limitation.

The study is especially timely given recent concern about global declines in insect abundance.

“Our findings are a cause for concern and optimism,” said Katie Turo, an author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “We did detect widespread yield deficits. However, we also estimate that, through continued investment in pollinator management and research, it is likely that we can improve the efficiency of our existing crop fields to meet the nutritional needs of our global population.”

The scientists reached their conclusions by conducting a statistical analysis of more than 200,000 “bee visitations” to crop flowers, contained within one of the most comprehensive databases on crop pollination in the world. Rachael Winfree, the senior author on the study and a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, collaborated with several colleagues from Europe and South America to compile the most comprehensive database of crop pollination studies in the world. The open-source database incorporates three decades of field observations of bees and other pollinators visiting plants.

The recent Rutgers study doesn’t apply to major food crops, such as rice and wheat, which don’t require pollinators to reproduce. But pollination by bees and other animals is critical to the proliferation of what Turo describes as “nutrient-dense and interesting foods that we like and are culturally relevant,” such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes.

“If you look through a list of crops and think about which fruits and vegetables you’re most excited to eat— like summer berries or apples and pumpkins in the fall—those are the crops that typically need to be pollinated by insects,” Turo said.

Pollination is the process of transferring pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part, which allows a plant to become fertilized and produce seeds, fruits and young plants. Pollen can be moved by wind, water or pollinators such as honeybees and wild bees and other insects and other animals, such as bats.

Pollinators support the reproduction of about 88 percent of the world's flowering plants and 76 percent of the leading global food crops, according to previous research by Rutgers professor Rachael Winfree and other scientists. Bees are generally considered the most effective pollinators because Rutgers scientists identified that blueberry, coffee and apple crops were most frequently affected by pollinator limitation. they visit more flowers and carry more pollen than other insects.

Researchers found yield deficits for 25 unique crops and in 85 percent of the countries evaluated.  

On the bright side, Turo said that scientists believe current yield deficits could be remediated with realistic increases in pollinator visitation across individual crop fields. The study revealed in some cases an adequate number of bees were already visiting some fields.

If field managers could improve consistency across high- and low-yield fields, much of the observed yield problems could be addressed, she said.

“The findings are significant because crop yields, which measure the amount of crops grown per unit area of land, are relevant to assessing the adequacy of the world’s food supply relative to its population,” Winfree said. “Our findings show that by paying more attention to pollinators, growers could make agricultural fields more productive.”

James Reilly, a data analyst in the Rutgers Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, also was an author on the study. Other authors included Ainhoa Magrach of the Basque Centre for Climate Change in Leioa, Span, and Thijs P. M. Fijen of Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.

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Journal

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-024- 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Insufficient pollinator visitation often limits yield in crop systems worldwide

 

Women in global fisheries industry fall through the safety net

University of East Anglia

Millions of women who work in the fisheries industry are being left behind as technologies develop to counter the effects of climate change and economic pressures. 

New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) looks specifically at post-harvest fisheries and aquaculture, where women constitute 50 per cent of the total workforce. Despite their significant contributions women often remain invisible, are unpaid or underpaid, their work seen as an extension of household work. 

The findings, ‘A systematic review of the impact of post-harvest aquatic food processing technology on gender equality and social justice’, are published today in Nature Food.  

Fisheries and aquaculture are an important source of livelihood, food and nutrition for many of the world’s poorest, supporting worldwide about 67 million people directly and about 492 million people indirectly. Fisheries and aquaculture provide about 17 per cent of animal-source protein for human consumption, yet more than a third of global fisheries and aquaculture harvest is lost or wasted. 

Prof Nitya Rao, UEA Professor of Gender & Development and Director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, is the lead author. She said: “Given the large number of people, in particular women, engaged in post-harvest activities globally, this review sought to better understand how processing technology and technical change have impacted those engaged in this sector, and how labour, resources, power and decision making are influenced and change in this process.  

“In the context of climate change and other economic pressures, we are witnessing a rapid development of post-harvest technologies to enhance productivity and efficiency, reduce loss and waste, and ensure quality. Yet without addressing the social justice dimensions of these changes, there is a risk that this may exacerbate pre-existing and persistent inequalities.”  

Women are disadvantaged across both traditional and improved technologies, especially regarding control over resources. Women are often unable to access social protection benefits including minimum wages, health insurance, housing and transport, due to their concentration at the lower levels of the labour hierarchy. 

As enterprises expand and adopt more capital-intensive technologies, women frequently report less agency and lower equity outcomes due to a combination of resource constraints, individual characteristics such as education, social norms and care responsibilities. 

In the larger-scale, factory-based settings using advanced technologies, women and migrant workers tend to have lower status; often temporary, lower-paid jobs that are culturally stereotyped as ‘women’s work’; experience gender pay gaps, lack of access to worker rights and managerial roles; and are exposed to occupational health hazards. Labour divisions are stark, reinforced by social norms. 

Whilst power and control of resources is more unequal in factory settings, it is not necessarily equal in traditional contexts either, despite offering greater flexibility. While sometimes less productive, these technologies usually allow greater agency for women. Here one confronts a trade-off between enhanced productivity, income, and gender equality as seen in women’s control over resources and decision-making agency. 

Dr Julie Bremner of the UK Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, and paper co-author, said: “Aquatic food is a key component of our global food system, particularly for seafood-reliant nations such as the large ocean states, and demand for aquatic products is forecast to grow. Sustainability of these foods depends not just on their environmental and economic footprints, but also on their social equity footprint.  

“Our review shows there is a way to go yet on the equity element, but there are opportunities waiting to be grasped.” 

The review makes several recommendations for policy, research and practice: 

• The focus of fisheries’ policymaking needs to embrace the entire aquatic food system, moving beyond capture fisheries and aquaculture to post-harvest processing, storage and consumption.  

• More rigorous and comparative research is needed to examine the impacts of a range of technologies on different groups of people including women and men, young and elderly, migrant and non-migrant, and formally consider intersectionality.  

• Diverse voices, especially women’s and migrant worker voices, should have a place in policymaking and investment decisions around post-harvest processes at local, national and global levels in the process of developing and rolling out improved technologies. 

The research team, which included other UEA and Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development colleagues, reviewed 42 studies covering 55 locations in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Philippines, Japan, Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Norway, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.  

‘A systematic review of the impact of post-harvest aquatic food processing technology on gender equality and social justice’, is published 27 August 2024 in Nature Food.

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Journal

Nature Food

DOI

10.1038/s43016-024-01034-6 

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A systematic review of the impact of post-harvest aquatic food processing technology on gender equality and social justice

Article Publication Date

27-Aug-2024

Russia's FSB launches criminal case against DW reporter

Russia's security service says a journalist working for DW had illegally crossed the border to film a report inside the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kursk region.

DW's Nick Connolly is among several journalists to be investigated for entering Kursk

Russia's domestic intelligence service, the FSB, on Tuesday announced criminal proceedings against two journalists, including DW's Kyiv correspondent Nick Connolly, for entering the Kursk region.

The FSB said Connolly, who reported from the town of Sudzha in the Ukrainian-held part of Russia's Kursk region last week, had crossed the border illegally.

While in Kursk, Connolly was embedded with Ukrainian troops. He interviewed ordinary Russian civilians about their experiences and also spoke to Ukrainian military personnel.

Connolly said on DW TV on Tuesday that Russia's move had not come as a surprise.

"I think that was all to be expected. They had done this to other journalists that had gone there. This is just par for the course, basically. If you want to report on this war in Ukraine, you can’t realistically go to Russia as well," Connolly said.

"Even those media that are still operating in Russia, they have one team operating in Moscow, another here in Ukraine, because reporting on the facts on the ground here in Ukraine is enough to provoke a charge of discrediting the Russian army, according to Russian law."

"We are operating and reporting from Ukraine and occasionally there [Russia] as part of a Ukrainian embed so nothing changes for us. I think the bigger issue is that increasingly there are just bigger and bigger blind spots, because there are so many areas affected by this war where journalists can't get to."

Ukraine's Kursk incursion

Ukraine's incursion into Kursk, which western allies like the US and Germany said came as a surprise, began on August 6 when Ukrainian troops crossed the border.

Last week, the FSB launched a similar criminal case against Nick Paton Walsh, a British citizen who works as US broadcaster CNN's chief international security correspondent.

Russia has said it intends to prosecute all journalists entering the country this way and has so far launched seven such cases against foreign reporters.

The maximum penalty for individuals found guilty of illegally crossing the Russian border is five years in jail.

The Ukrainian military has been fending off Russia's full-scale invasion since February 2022 and Russia continues to occupy large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

In Russia's Sudzha, mainly the elderly stay behind 04:42

Russia banned DW from broadcasting in Russia, leading to the Moscow bureau's closure, in early 2022. Soon after, it labeled DW a "foreign agent." Currently, lawmakers in the Duma parliament are recommending banning the broadcaster's operations and content across the country and labeling it "undesirable."

rc/msh (DW sources)

Kolkata protesters clash with police at rally against rape

Indian police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters who gathered in Kolkata to demand justice for a female medic who was raped and killed earlier this month.


Police have arrested several demonstrators and accused them of trying to orchestrate large-scale violence

Image: Prabhakar Mani Tewari/DW

Thousands of protesters in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata were dispersed with tear gas and water cannon on Tuesday, as they marched over the rape and killing of a female doctor earlier this month.

Protesters are demanding the resignation of Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state, for what they describe as the mishandling of the investigation into the case.

They have also accused Banerjee's government of creating an unsafe environment for women that allowed for the doctor's murder to occur.

So far, one man has been detained over the crime. The suspected attacker had worked as a civic volunteer with the local police.

But the family of the victim has alleged it was a gang rape case and that more individuals were likely involved.

At Tuesday's rally, police officers pushed back the demonstrators, firing tear gas and water cannon. Several student activists were arrested ahead of the protest, police said.

They have been accused of trying to orchestrate large-scale violence.
What do we know about the case?

The 31-year-old doctor's body was discovered at a state-run hospital in Kolkata on August 9. She was reportedly found in the hospital's seminar hall, suggesting she had gone there for a break during her 36-hour shift.

The murder sparked huge protests, with police clashing with demonstrators from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) angry at the state government, which is run by the opposition party.

Doctors' associations in many cities across India launched strikes in response to the crime. The actions cut off nonessential services, though medical professionals have since returned to work.

The murder has triggered widespread outrage in India, where an average of nearly 90 rapes are reported each day in 2022, in a country with 1.4 billion people.

jcg/nm (AP, AFP)