Thursday, November 13, 2025

Reducing the risks of wildlife corridors

Peer-reviewed. Literature Review. Ecology.

University of Leeds news

Efforts to join up isolated plant and animal habitats across the world should also protect against unintentionally harming them, new research shows.

The paper, led by the Universities of Leeds and Oxford and published today in Nature Reviews Biodiversity journal, states that work to connect fragmented wildlife habitats is essential - but it may also pose ecological risks including the unintentional spread of wildlife diseases and invasive species.

Wildlife or ecological corridors are areas of land connecting isolated habitats, allowing animals and plants to move, adapt and survive. They are essential for promoting biodiversity and enabling populations to breed and increase in number and diversity. Examples include the European Green Belt, a 12,500km corridor of habitats linking protected areas across 24 countries, and Banff National Park’s wildlife crossings in Canada, where a network of overpasses and underpasses has reduced vehicle collisions with elk and deer by more than 95%, allowing them to move safely between areas.

Lead author Dr Josh Firth, Associate Professor of Behavioural Ecology in the University of Leeds’ School of Biology, said: “Building a well-connected world is essential for biodiversity. But when making decisions about how best to protect, restore and create habitat links, we need to incorporate potential risks so that we can prioritise the links that deliver the strongest overall gains for nature.”

Using several recent studies, the authors assessed emerging evidence of the potential negative impacts of connecting habitats for wild populations.

Previous research has linked increasing habitat connectivity with the spread of diseases such as amphibian chytridiomycosis. Caused by chytrid fungus, it is threatening amphibian species across Europe and North America.

Senior author Dr Sarah Knowles, in the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology, said: “Connectivity often helps populations persist, yet it can also create pathways for pathogens. Recent studies on African swine fever in wild boar show that disease can move more quickly through linked landscapes, illustrating the importance of considering transmission risks.”

The authors also point to a variety of other risks that creating habitat connections can bring, such as wildfire spread, where corridors act as ‘fuel pathways’ that elevate fire frequency and extent.

The researchers make several recommendations of cost-reduction strategies for consideration when designing and implementing biodiversity corridors in high-risk settings.

Prevent disease by building in basic disease surveillance and hygiene including the ability to temporarily close corridors during outbreaks and using carcass removal or vaccination strategies.

Inhibit invasive species by treating proposed new links as potential invasion pathways, and running pre-project risk checks as well as planning early detection and rapid responses. Where suitable, using habitat filters that favour native species and deter likely invaders.

Avert disturbances such as wildfires in high-risk areas by designing corridors with breaks and buffers, less-flammable strips, and use local risk modelling (including seasonal patterns) to avoid creating spread.

The paper states that the same tools already used to plan habitat links, such as modern mapping, animal tracking and large-scale biodiversity monitoring, can also flag where extra care is needed, and calls for further work to improve understanding of when and where costs arise.

Co-author Dr Ivan Jarić, of Université Paris-Saclay, said: “Reconnecting areas brings clear ecological benefits, but as environments change various risks can emerge. For instance, removing dams to restore connectivity in the Elwha River in Washington, USA, has helped biodiversity including by reviving native fish populations, but it has also increased the downstream spread and growth of several invasive plant species. It’s a useful example of how new connections can sometimes open routes for unwanted species, and why strategies should be considered to mitigate negative effects.”

Further information
Contact University of Leeds press officer Lauren Ballinger with media enquiries via email on l.ballinger@leeds.ac.uk or by phone on 0113 3438059.

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Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the tenth year running, and number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

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Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing around £16.9 billion to the UK economy in 2021/22, and supports more than 90,400 full time jobs.

Journal

Nature Reviews Biodiversity

DOI

10.1038/s44358-025-00110-4

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Consider the costs of connectivity when creating a well-connected Earth

Article Publication Date

12-Nov-2025

Model construction and dominant mechanism analysis of Li-ion batteries under periodic excitation

Beijing Institute of Technology Press Co., Ltd

image:
Fig. 1. Schematic of the P2D electrochemical model.
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Credit: Space: Science & Technology

The lithium-ion battery is a new energy storage device widely employed in various fields such as mobile power, electric vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and spacecrafts due to its high energy, high efficiency, lightweight, and environmental friendliness. Understanding the internal mechanism of the battery is of utmost importance. The electrochemical model provides detailed insights into the internal mechanism of lithium batteries and encompasses the single-particle model and the P2D model, as well as enhancements such as thermal coupling, mechanical stress coupling, and electric double-layer capacitive coupling. However, the dispersion effect of capacitors in solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film capacitors and porous electrodes has been basically ignored, which is essential for analyzing the internal mechanism and managing energy conversion in lithium batteries experiencing short-term effects. Furthermore, the determination of the dominant order of the Faraday process and non-Faraday process within a short time period is essential for accurately predicting the lifespan of lithium batteries subjected to high-frequency periodic excitation and assessing performance degradation. While the frequency range of these two processes can be roughly delineated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the precise transition time of their dominant positions remains uncertain. In a research article recently published in Space: Science & Technology, researchers from National Active Distribution Network Technology Research Center (NANTEC), Beijing Jiaotong University established for the first time a P2D-coupled non-ideal double-layer capacitor (P2D-CNIC) model which can be used for mechanism analysis under high-frequency periodic signal excitation, taken the generally neglected electric double-layer capacitance and its dispersion effects into consideration.

First, the construction of the P2D-CNIC model is presented, which encompasses P2D model, thermal model, and electric double-layer capacitance model.

Figure 1 demonstrates a schematic diagram of the P2D model. The mathematical expression of the P2D model is generally composed of five nonlinear partial differential algebraic equations (PDAEs), which can be divided into three parts: mass conservation, charge conservation, and electrochemical reaction. Mass conservation comprises two processes: dispersion in the solid phase of the electrode’s active material and concentration distribution in the solution phase of the electrolyte. In solid, active material can be described by Fick’s law in r direction. The solution phase concentration in the electrolyte is given by mass balance. Charge balance depicts the potential distribution of solid and solution phases, where the variation of the solid electrode potential can be expressed by Ohm’s law and the spatiotemporal dynamics of the electrolyte potential is defined concerning the molar flux. In electrochemical reaction, the Butler–Volmer kinetics provides the relationship between the intercalation overpotential, η, and the molar flux, jLi(x,t).

In the thermal model, the energy balance equation is written as ρCp∂T/∂t = ∂(k·∂T/∂x)/∂x + Qirr + Qr + q0. The temperature of the battery calculated according to the thermal model mainly affects the electrochemical reaction rate constant, solid-phase dispersion coefficient, and electrolyte parameters, and the higher the temperature, the greater the impact. This relationship is described by the Arrhenius rate law equation.

In the electric double-layer capacitance model, the current density at the solid/liquid interface includes the non-faradaic current in addition to the faradaic current generated by the electrochemical reaction, as shown in Fig. 2. The non-faradaic current comes from the transient change of charging and discharging of the electric double-layer capacitor. In addition, the dispersion effect of capacitance has a great influence, and the capacitance is non-ideal, thus jCap(x,t) = as ∂((Φs – Φe – (jLi + jCap)Rfilm)Cap·ων–1)/∂t where the angular frequency ω = 2πf and f is the frequency of the applied periodic excitation signal.

Then, experiment and model validation are conducted. The subject of this experiment is a pouch cell, with NMC532 and graphite as cathode and anode material, respectively. The electrolyte used is EC:DMC (1:1, w/w), where EC is ethylene carbonate and DMC is dimethyl carbonate. The thickness of the battery is 10.8 mm, the length is 309 mm, and the width is 102 mm. The rate capacity of designed battery at 1 C was 37 Ah. The experimental platform achieves pulse discharge conditions of different frequencies by controlling the on and off time of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). Results are compared among the traditional P2D model, P2D-CIC model, and the proposed P2D-CNIC model. Results (Fig. 3) show that under the influence of the dispersion effect of the electric double-layer capacitance, the voltage response of the electrochemical model exhibits not only variations in value but also important phase changes that should not be overlooked; these differences in both amplitude and phase become more pronounced as the dispersion effect coefficient increases. Capsei also has an undeniable effect on the voltage response of the model in terms of amplitude and phase, and this effect increases with the increase of dispersion effect coefficient. Its impact on battery heat generation cannot be ignored, and this impact will also increase with the increase of dispersion effect coefficient. The traditional P2D model, the P2D-CIC model, and the proposed P2D-CNIC model were compared and analyzed under periodic high-rate pulse discharge conditions (see Fig. 4). It was observed that the voltage response of the traditional P2D model failed to accurately match the actual behavior, lacking a buffering stage during voltage changes. On the other hand, the traditional P2D-CIC model exhibited excessive buffering effect, resulting in higher voltage amplitudes compared to the actual scenario. In contrast, the proposed P2D-CNIC model presented in this paper aligns well with the actual voltage changes. Moreover, three models exhibit important differences in heating. This difference is crucial for analyzing the heating in lithium batteries under the influence of high-frequency periodic signals.

Last, dominant sequence analysis of Faraday processes and non-Faraday processes is presented. Authors applied a half cycle angular frequency of 200π(rad/s) and amplitude of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 C charging and discharging current excitation to the model at 50% SOC, and observed the dominant order of the mid-Faraday process and the non-Faraday process during the charging and discharging processes. Results (in Fig. 5 for cathode and Fig. 6 for anode) show that under short-period signal excitation, the initial dominance is observed by the non-faradaic process of the electrode, which then gradually transitions to the Faraday process. In contrast to the cathode, the anode exhibits a more intricate evolution process divided into three stages. The first stage involves the non-faradaic process of the electric double-layer capacitance of the SEI film. The second stage encompasses the non-faradaic process of the electric double-layer capacitance of the electrode particles, while the third stage entails the faradaic process of the electrode particles.

In conclusion, building upon the verification of the model’s correctness and reliability, this paper focuses on examining the dominant order of the Faraday process and the non-Faraday process of the electrode during high-frequency excitation. The dominant time scales of the behavior of different mechanisms can be clearly observed by the current composition. Such analysis offers valuable insights into the feasibility of studying battery aging and damage under high-frequency periodic excitation, and lays the foundation of long battery life and reliable aerospace batteries.

Caption

Fig. 2. The reaction process of electrode particles during discharge.

Credit

Space: Science & Technology

DOI

10.34133/space.0129

1st death linked to ‘meat allergy’ spread by ticks

University of Virginia Health System

University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have identified the first death caused by what is commonly called the “meat allergy” being spread by ticks.

A healthy 47-year-old man from New Jersey died abruptly four hours after consuming beef. The cause of his death had been a mystery until UVA Health’s Thomas Platts-Mills, MD, PhD, investigated. A world-renowned allergist, Platts-Mills discovered the allergy and remains the foremost expert on it.

The allergy is caused by the bite of the Lone Star tick. Bites can sensitize people to alpha-gal, a sugar found in mammalian meat. People who become sensitized to the sugar can have allergic symptoms such as rash, nausea and vomiting after eating beef, pork or lamb. Researchers have feared that deadly anaphylaxis was possible in severe cases but had not confirmed a fatality from the allergy until now.

“The important information for the public is: First, that severe abdominal pain occurring 3 to 5 hours after eating beef, pork or lamb should be investigated as a possible episode of anaphylaxis; and, second, that tick bites that itch for more than a week or larvae of ticks often called ‘chiggers’ can induce or increase sensitization to mammalian-derived meat,” said Platts-Mills, former chief of UVA Health’s Division of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology. “On the other hand, most individuals who have mild to moderate episodes of hives can control symptoms with an appropriate diet.”

About the Meat Allergy Death

The New Jersey man, whose name was not released, had gone camping with his wife and children in summer 2024. One night they ate a late steak dinner at 10 p.m. The man woke at 2 a.m. with severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting. He recovered by morning, but he told his son he had thought he was going to die.

Two weeks later, still unaware he had contracted the meat allergy, he ate a hamburger at a barbeque. He started feeling ill after 7 p.m., and his son found him collapsed in the bathroom at 7:37.

An autopsy was inconclusive, with the cause reported as “sudden unexplained death.”

The man’s wife, however, remained unsatisfied. She asked a doctor to review the autopsy report; the doctor contacted Platts-Mills’ team to see if alpha-gal could have played a role.

Platts-Mills obtained samples of the man’s blood that had been collected post-mortem and found that he had been sensitized to alpha-gal. Further, the blood indicated the man had had an extreme reaction, in line with what is seen in fatal anaphylaxis.

When asked about his history of tick bites, the man’s wife said he had none this past year but had 12 or 13 chigger bites around his ankles this summer. Platts-Mills realized that many “chigger bites” in the Eastern United States are actually bites from Lone Star tick larvae.

Platts-Mills and his colleagues suspect that several factors may have contributed to the severity of the man’s reaction, including having a beer with his burger, exposure to ragweed pollen and having exercised that afternoon. Platts-Mills noted that the man’s family reported that he ate red meat very sparingly.

In the wake of the man’s death, Platts-Mills is urging physicians to be on the lookout for people who have developed the allergy or are at risk of exposure. He noted that the deer population is exploding in many states, and these animals are prime breeding grounds for the Lone Star tick that spreads the allergy.

“It is important that both doctors and patients who live in an area of the country where Lone Star ticks are common should be aware of the risk of sensitization,” Platts-Mills said. “More specifically, if they have unexpected episodes of severe abdominal pain occurring several hours after eating mammalian meat, they should be investigated for possible sensitization to the oligosaccharide alpha-gal.”

Findings Published

Platts-Mills and his colleagues have published the details of the case in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. The paper is open access, meaning it is free to read. It was written by Platts-Mills, Lisa J. Workman, Nathan E. Richards, Jeffrey M. Wilson and Erin M. McFeely.

The researchers obtained permission from the man’s widow before publishing their findings.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.

DOI

10.1016/j.jaip.2025.09.039

Manganese is Lyme disease’s double-edge sword

New vulnerability discovered in the bacteria that causes the disease

Northwestern University

For decades, Lyme disease has frustrated both physicians and patients alike. Caused by the corkscrew-shaped bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, the infection, if left untreated, can linger for months, leading to fever, fatigue and painful inflammation.

In a new study, Northwestern University and Uniformed Services University (USU) scientists have uncovered a surprising — and ironic — vulnerability in the hardy bacterium. By exploiting this vulnerability, researchers could help disarm B. burgdorferi, potentially leading to new therapeutic strategies for Lyme disease.

The Northwestern and USU team discovered that manganese, which helps shield B. burgdorferi against its host’s immune system, is simultaneously also a crack in its armor. If B. burgdorferi is either starved of or overloaded with manganese, the bacteria become highly vulnerable to the host’s immune system or treatments they would otherwise resist.

The study will be published on Thursday (Nov. 13) in the journal mBio.

“Our work shows that manganese is a double-edged sword in Lyme disease,” said Northwestern’s Brian Hoffman, who co-led the study with USU’s Michael Daly. “It’s both Borrelia’s armor and its weakness. If we can target the way it manages manganese, we could open doors for entirely new approaches for treating Lyme disease.”

Hoffman is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry and molecular biosciences at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He also is a member of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. Daly is an emeritus professor of pathology at USU.

Since the 1980s, the occurrence of Lyme disease has increased dramatically across North America and around the globe. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 476,000 people in the United States are diagnosed annually. Currently, there are no approved vaccines against the disease, and long-term use of antibiotics is problematic.

“Although antibiotics harm B. burgdorferi, they also kill beneficial gut bacteria,” Daly said. “Lyme disease is transmitted through tick bites and — if not treated promptly — can cause lingering effects by attacking the patient’s immune, circulatory and central nervous systems.”

In a series of previous studies, Hoffman and Daly collaborated to understand the role of manganese in Deinococcus radiodurans, a radiation-resistant bacteria known as “Conan the Bacterium” for its extraordinary ability to survive harsh conditions. Now, they wanted to see if manganese played a role in B. burgdorferi’sdefenses.

To conduct the study, the team used a new tool called electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging to characterize the atomic composition of manganese inside the living bacteria. To add even finer detail, the team harnessed electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy to examine the atoms surrounding manganese. Together, the technologies created a molecular map, showing which forms of manganese were present, where they were located and how they changed under stress.

The “map” revealed a two-tier, manganese-based defense system comprising an enzyme called MnSOD and a pool of manganese metabolites. To withstand bombardment from the host’s immune system, the bacteria first use MnSOD, which acts like a shield. If any oxygen radicals slip past this shield, they are met with the metabolite pool, which acts like a sponge to soak up and neutralize those toxic molecules.

“Our study demonstrates the power of EPR and ENDOR spectroscopies for uncovering hidden biochemical mechanisms in pathogens,” Hoffman said. “Without these tools, B. burgdorferi’s defense system and weak spots would have remained invisible.”

The scientists found the bacteria constantly juggle where to send the manganese — to the MnSOD enzymes or the metabolite pool. Too little manganese and the bacteria lose their defense mechanisms. But, as the microbes age, their metabolite pools dramatically shrink, leaving them exposed to damage and stress. At this point, too much manganese becomes toxic because the bacteria can no longer store it safely.

This discovery holds potential for new Lyme disease therapies. Future drugs could starve the bacterium of manganese, disrupt its ability to form protective manganese complexes or even push it into toxic overload. Any of these approaches would leave B. burgdorferi wide open to attack by the immune system.

“By disrupting the delicate balance of manganese in B. burgdorferi, it may be possible to weaken the pathogen during infection,” Daly said. “Manganese is an Achilles’ heel of its defenses.”

The study, “EPR spectroscopy reveals antioxidant manganese defenses in the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi,” was supported by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs’ Tick-borne Disease Research Program (award number TB180110) and the National Institutes of Health (award number GM111097). Additional funds were from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (award number HDTRA1620354) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (award numbers R01AI080615 and P01AI138949). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.