EU funding in the millions to study element formation in neutron star fusions — ERC Synergy Grant goes to international research team with GSI/FAIR participation

Grant and Award Announcement

GSI HELMHOLTZZENTRUM FÜR SCHWERIONENFORSCHUNG GMBH

 

IMAGE: THIS ARTIST’S IMPRESSION SHOWS TWO TINY BUT VERY DENSE NEUTRON STARS AT THE POINT AT WHICH THEY MERGE AND EXPLODE AS A KILONOVA. view more 

CREDIT: PICTURE: UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK/MARK GARLICK/ESO

The European Union has awarded a total of 11.3 million euros over a period of six years to the HEAVYMETAL research project, which aims to investigate the synthesis of chemical elements in neutron star mergers. Privatdozent Dr. Andreas Bauswein, a researcher in the Theory Department of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, is part of the four-member international team that receives the funding as part of an ERC Synergy Grant. At GSI, currently the international accelerator center FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) is under construction. In the future, states of matter as they occur in the interior of stars, stellar explosions and neutron star mergers will be studied in the laboratory at FAIR.

Neutron stars are remnants formed during stellar collapse in a supernova explosion. They have extremely strong gravitational fields, exceptionally intense magnetic fields, and consist of matter with very high density, making them important natural laboratories for fundamental physics. In binary systems consisting of two neutron stars, mergers of these extreme objects can occur: The two high-density stars collide at about 20% of the speed of light, leading to temperatures of several 100 billion kelvin. During the collision, considerable amounts of neutron-rich matter are expelled, in which heavy chemical elements such as silver, gold, platinum and many more are formed. The ejected matter evolves into a fireball, which is visible as a so-called kilonova.

“Kilonova science is emerging as a new field in astrophysics, offering an enormous discovery potential for understanding neutron stars, the origin of the heavy elements in particular, the physics of exotic heavy nuclei, and the phases of hot, ultra-dense, and exotic matter”, Bauswein explains his research focus. “The increasing sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors, also providing improved sky localisations for follow-up observations, and the next generation of telescopes, means that we expect an abundance of new kilonovae observations in the coming years. I look forward to exploring the research field in the best possible way together with my colleagues within the framework of the ERC Synergy Grant.”

The research project HEAVYMETAL (How Neutron Star Mergers make Heavy Elements) aims to make a big step in explaining kilonova explosions by spectroscopically dissecting their emissions and connecting them quantitatively to the physical properties of the neutron star merger. In doing so, HEAVYMETAL will probe the origin of the heavy elements, and delineate the nuclear and astrophysical pathways that created them — the so-called “r-process”. The research team will try to decipher the details of the observed spectra and use that information to gain unprecedented insight into the physical processes of the neutron star merger.

HEAVYMETAL brings together experts from different fields related to kilonova research who, by working together, can exploit synergies in the ambitious goal of explaining element synthesis: Andreas Bauswein and his team at GSI/FAIR have a long and high impact track record in connecting advanced hydrodynamical simulations to r-process nucleosynthesis, kilonova modelling and the properties of high-density matter. Already in 2017, Bauswein succeeded in securing an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros with his project GreatMoves on the simulation of neutron star mergers. In addition to Bauswein, Professor Darach Watson, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Professor Padraig Dunne, University College Dublin, Ireland, and Dr. Stuart Sim, Queen's University, Belfast, UK, are also members of the research team funded by the ERC Synergy Grant.

Watson has been a key player in gaining and interpreting kilonova data and has worked in observational astronomy for two decades. Dunne is a leading experimental physicist in the area of laser plasma spectroscopy with a focus on laser plasmas of heavy elements. Sim is an expert in the modelling of radiation in explosive environments and in the development of codes designed to simulate detailed radiation-matter interactions and photon transport in rapidly expanding matter ejecta.

“We are very proud to have gained the support of the European Union for this cutting-edge research project,” says Professor Paolo Giubellino, Scientific Managing Director of GSI and FAIR. “International and interdisciplinary collaboration has always played a major role in our work. The implementation of many scientific projects is hardly conceivable without worldwide collaborations and the use of synergies between researchers. This starts with individual research areas such as the study of kilonovae in this group of experts and continues with the construction of our future research facility FAIR, which is being built in international collaboration between many researchers and nations.” FAIR is currently under construction in Darmstadt and will be connected to the GSI accelerator facility. In the future, it will be possible at FAIR to study states of matter similar to those occurring in the interior of stars, stellar explosions and neutron star mergers in the laboratory, which directly links to the HEAVYMETAL project.

ERC Synergy Grants are awarded by the European Union to research groups of two to a maximum of four scientists in any research area, exclusively on the basis of scientific excellence. The decisive factor for the grant is that the research in question cannot be carried out by the individual researchers alone, but only through joint cooperation.

Colorcoded is the density in the equatorial plane.

Matter is ejected from these violent collions expanding with several 10% the speed of light.

CREDIT

Simulation and visualization: G. Lioutas, GSI/FAIR

World-class research into Greenland's oldest ice and the Universe's densest stars win very large EU grants

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: THE GREEN2ICE TEAM. FROM THE LEFT: ANDERS SVENSSON, DORTHE DAHL-JENSEN, PIERRE-HENRI BLARD AND FRANÇOIS FRIPIAT (CREDIT: DORTHE DAHL-JENSEN) view more 

CREDIT: DORTHE DAHL-JENSEN

When was Greenland actually green? And how does the Universe make gold, platinum and uranium? Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have just received 11.4 million euro to answer these big questions. The prestigious ERC Synergy grant from the European Research Council has been awarded, among others, to the ice physicists Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Anders Svensson, and the astrophysicist Darach Watson.

The first ice cores were drilled in Greenland in 1955. But many an unsolved mystery remains in the oldest, deepest ice. For example, when was Greenland last carpeted by forest? And, when was the ice sheet formed? Niels Bohr Institute ice physicists will use a unique collection of old ice cores alongside freshly drilled ones to find answers from the past that will enlighten us about climatic change in the future.

"The answers ensconced in the oldest ice will point to the future and provide us with knowledge that is far more accurate than what we have today with regards to how much our oceans stand to rise and as to when the ice sheet will no longer be able to be saved. So, this isn't just exotic basic research, it is important knowledge about the ice sheet's robustness in the face of climate change," explains Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen of the Niels Bohr Institute.

Professor Dahl-Jensen heads GREEN2ICE, a large-scale research project that has just received a rare DKK 103 million (13.9 million euro) Synergy Grant from the European Research Council. Just over DKK 63 million (8.5 million euro) will go to the University of Copenhagen.

"This is a dream project for me - something I've been thinking about messing around with for many years. When we drill ice cores, we gain access to fascinating material from the depths, in the form of rocks, soil, small plant fossils and gases encased in air bubbles. These demonstrate that Greenland was once forested. By looking at these materials, we will be able to find out when this was, what type of forest existed and what sort of temperatures allowed for the forest to grow," explains Dorthe Dahl-Jensen.

Among other things, the researchers will be able to measure when gas in the small air bubbles in the ice was trapped. Other measurements will look at how long it has been since the stones found in the ice cores were shined upon by the sun.

Because the material is both rare and difficult to obtain, the researchers have stored it away in a freezer for many years, explains associate professor and ice physicist Anders Svensson, the other UCPH researcher involved with the project:

"We only have one chance. Indeed, the ice cores contain so little of this material and it can only be used once. That's what makes handling it is so risky and why we have never dared to do so until now, as methods have improved. But there is an enormous amount to gain if we succeed."

The experts' best guess as to when Greenland was last completely ice-free is about a million years ago. Using the new methods, the research team will test this hypothesis. Until now, it has only been possible to date ice back roughly 130,000 years.

In addition to Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Anders Svensson, the GREEN2ICE research team consists of François Fripiat of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and Pierre-Henri Blard from CNRS-Université de Lorraine, France. Other GREEN2ICE project partners are GEUS, DTU and the University of Manitoba.

An explosion of heavymetal

It's gold and platinum. It is tin and uranium. It is the vital iodine we have in our blood. It is the molybdenum that all living organisms need to use. The heavy elements are an important part of the world around us. However, it has always been a major mystery how these elements were created.

Research points to the heaviest elements in the periodic table being created in the gigantic explosion that occurs when two neutron stars collide – a phenomenon that only occurs once every 100,000 years in our galaxy. The only time the phenomenon has been observed in detail was in 2017. But how it happens physically has so far not been possible to answer.

The researchers in the second ambitious project for which the University of Copenhagen has received an ERC Synergy grant now aim to do just that. The HEAVYMETAL project has received almost DKK 84 million (11.3 million euro), of which almost 22 million kroner (2.9 million euro) has been awarded to Darach Watson from the Niels Bohr Institute, who leads the project.

“Neutron star collisions are a treasure trove of information that potentially allow us to answer some of the biggest open questions in physics and cosmology. First of all, about how a large number of the elements are created. But they have been extremely difficult to investigate. However, I believe it is possible with the outstanding team we have assembled here," says astrophysicist and associate professor Darach Watson.

The key is to decipher the spectroscopic data from the explosion, which was created during the neutron star collision in 2017. In this way, the research team will be able to see in detail the newly created heavy elements that are blown out in a radioactive fireball when neutron stars collide.

However, it first and foremost requires being able to model the very complex atomic structures of the heavy elements, which is extremely difficult.

"We expect to be able to measure both where and how the heavy elements are formed, how they are distributed, how much matter is ejected and more. We will dissect the explosion itself and then try to map in detail the nuclear physics of that process,” explains Darach Watson.

And it may also be possible to provide answers to several other important questions, such as how fast the Universe is expanding and how black holes are created.

HEAVYMETAL has assembled four different groups that work together as an international team of world-leading experts in each of their fields. In addition to Darach Watson who is the leader of the Copenhagen team, Andreas Bauswein leads the group at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Germany, Padraig Dunne the group from University College Dublin in Ireland, while Stuart Sim leads the Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland group.

"For me, this is a dream team. Normally, as a researcher, you sit a lot by yourself. The fact that we can make such direct use of each other's different expertise will make a huge difference and really turbo-charge the research so that we can reach new results much faster," concludes Darach Watson.

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

CREDIT

Emilie Thejll-Madsen

The four PIs of HEAVYMETAL (left to right): Darach Watson, Stuart Sim, Padraig Dunne, Andreas Bauswein

CREDIT

Darach Watson

Global change may foster short-term evolutionary adaptation in microbes

This is the main conclusion of an ICM study that considers the latest DNA sequencing techniques, which make it possible to detect mutations on short time scales in the natural environment

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUT DE CIÈNCIES DEL MAR (ICM-CSIC)

 

IMAGE: VIDAREBEFORDRAT MEDDELANDE. SOURCE: OPENAI view more 

CREDIT: VIDAREBEFORDRAT MEDDELANDE. SOURCE: OPENAI

A new study led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona suggests that global change is promoting the short-term evolutionary adaptation of the Earth microbiome, which constitutes ~15% of the total planetary biomass. This could have direct implications for the society, since we rely on microbes for so many important processes.

For example, fisheries rely substantially on microbial activity to sustain the marine food web. Also, marine microbes, which constitute ~70% of the marine biomass, contribute to climate regulation by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere, and are responsible for 50% of the primary production of the planet. Thus it is critical that we understand how current ocean features may affect microbial evolution, and what could happen if conditions change.

The study, just published in the journal Trends in Microbiology, focuses on the evolution of microbes over short time-scales such as years or decades, which had not been analysed directly in the wild before. This is especially relevant nowadays, as we have the technological capacity to investigate genomic changes in wild microorganisms, and can help predict the impact that environmental changes may have on the ecosystem services provided by the microbiome.

“It is important to consider the evolution of wild marine microbes in order to make accurate predictions of how they will change under future global change, yet most studies so far have focused on investigating short-term responses, using model organisms, but our theoretical approach is completely different”, explains Georgina Brennan, co-author of the study.

For his part, the other co-author, Ramiro Logares, adds that “these contemporary evolutionary processes are a consequence of rapid adaptation to biotic or abiotic factors (e.g., temperature), which may be changing fast due to climate change”.

Move, adapt or die

When confronted with environmental change, organisms have three possible reactions: move, adapt, or die. Evolution can occur at different time scales depending on factors such as the reproduction rate or population size. The fact that microbes evolve to environmental change much faster than other animals is well known thanks to several studies developed in the laboratory. For example, they have revealed that under elevated temperatures, some species can grow faster. However, reactions in the wild have been very little studied.

This requires DNA sequencing to detect mutations, although this has not been economically feasible in nature until the last decade. "We now have the resources and technology to understand how the ocean microbiome will evolve under future global climate change," indicate the authors.

According to them, it is necessary to establish genomic observatories, that is, stations monitoring microbial evolution, in different ocean regions and depths, including both pristine and degraded areas, in order to generate long DNA time-series that will allow for tracking of contemporary microbial evolution and its potential impacts on ecosystem function and health.

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DOI

10.1016/j.tim.2022.09.001 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Tracking contemporary microbial evolution in a changing ocean

Highly emotional people drawn to cats for stress relief programs

Study finds high level of interest in adding cats to university-based animal assisted interventions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Cats are often left out of university-based animal assisted interventions aimed at reducing stress, but new research shows many people, especially those with strong and highly reactive emotions, want and would benefit from feline interactions.

Universities implementing animal-assisted interventions like “Pet Your Stress Away” events has proven benefits, but more than 85% of them only include dogs, according to researchers. A new paper published in the journal Anthrozoös found a high level of interest in adding cats to the mix.

The study found that several factors shaped a positive response to a cat visitation program and revealed that the personality trait of emotionality played an important role. Emotionality, part of a well-established psychology model called the Big Five personality traits, indicates a person has strong emotions and is highly reactive to them.

“Emotionality is a pretty stable trait; it doesn’t fluctuate and is a quite consistent feature of our personalities,” said co-author Patricia Pendry, a professor in Washington State University’s Department of Human Development. “We found that people on the higher end of that scale were significantly more interested in interacting with cats on campus. Given that prior research has shown that such individuals may be more open to forming strong attachments to animals, it makes sense they would want cats to be included in these programs.”

Pendry and lead author Joni Delanoeije, from Belgian university KU Leuven, explored the level of interest in adding cats to the interventions, plus how human characteristics may influence that interest. The scientists also examined whether university employees, who are commonly excluded from such programs, would be interested in participating.

“Anecdotally, we’ve always been told that cat people are different from dog people, and that most students are not interested in interacting with cats,”Pendry said. “Our results revealed that students are interested in interacting with cats and that this interest may be driven by personality traits.”

The researchers surveyed more than 1,400 university students and staff for the paper from over 20 universities.

The link between personality and openness to interacting with cats mattered even after accounting for openness to a dog visitation program, being a cat owner and identifying as female. The researchers also accounted for negative influences such as having a cat allergy or cat phobia, which logically reduced participants’ interest in interacting with felines.

One reason university interventions tend to be dog-focused is the larger number of canine therapy animals available and a common view that cats may be unsuitable for therapy roles, Pendry said.

“There’s a perception that dogs exist to please people,” said Pendry, who classifies herself as a dog and a cat person. “While I may describe cats as ‘discerning,’ they are often perceived as unpredictable, aloof, or finicky—traits that can be difficult for some to be around.”

In previous studies where results weren’t divided into different animal species, Pendry said it was easy to tell cat people from dog people.

“Some people came in and made an immediate beeline for cats and others for dogs,” she said. “I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were interested in interacting with cats, which made me interested in learning more about why they made those choices.”

Researchers included faculty and staff, in addition to students, and found no differences between the groups.

“We think of college student populations as being unique, and in several ways they are,” Delanoeije said. “But when we looked at university employees, the results were very similar: Personality mattered more than being a student or employee. That shows there would be interest in having animal interventions in non-university settings and other workplaces.”

Having the option of being able to choose an interaction with a cat or dog, or both, may increase the number of people interested in attending an animal-assisted intervention, which is shown to lower stress and make people feel better. That’s the whole point for the scientists.

“Our study shows that we may be able to reach a larger audience by offering interventions that include dogs and cats. People who are on the higher end of the emotionality trait may be more likely to participate and benefit from these interactions,” Pendry said. “We’re looking for ways to help more people reduce their stress levels. Adding cats may be another way to reach a broader audience.”

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JOURNAL

Anthrozoös

DOI

10.1080/08927936.2022.2109290 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

University Cats? Predictors of Staff and Student Responsiveness Toward On-Campus Cat Visitations

People who struggle to cope with stressful situations could benefit from owning a pet, research finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KINGSTON UNIVERSITY

Having a pet can help people who are less resilient cope with the stresses of everyday life, new Kingston University research has found. Where owners consider their animals to be more important than the friends in their lives, however, it can contribute to increased feelings of loneliness.

Psychology student Ece Beren Barklam, who is completing a PhD in pet ownership and human-animal interactions, explored whether having a pet was linked to better mental wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study took into account owners' perceptions of their own resilience levels and how emotionally attached they were to their animals.

The research, published in human-animal relations journal Anthrozoös, was carried out through two surveys of more than 700 people from the UK and around the world, one during the early stages of the pandemic in May 2020 and another in September 2021.

Overall, the study found pets had a mostly positive effect on the lives of their owners during the pandemic. Increased exposure to their animals – such as taking them out for walks or playing with them more often – was linked to better mental health, with owners who spent more time interacting with their animals during this time reporting being happier than those who did not.

The research also looked at how emotionally attached an owner was to their pet. It found that unhealthy attachments were linked to poorer mental health, whereas healthy attachments were found to improve wellbeing among individuals with low resilience.

"It's commonly believed pets are good for humans. While research partly supports this, I wanted to understand what role people's individual characteristics such as resilience play in the relationship between pet ownership and positive or negative mental health," the PhD student said.

"Where the owner considers their pet to be more important than the people in their lives, the study found they were lonelier, unhappier, and less resilient. They also scored lower when it came to overall mental wellbeing. This type of attachment may reflect an unhealthy bond, where the owner treats their pet as if it has human motives and traits, which could be a kind of anthropomorphism."

Ms Barklam's PhD supervisor, associate professor in neurocognition and aesthetics Dr Fatima Maria Felisberti, said research of this nature had an important role to play in helping understand the role pets play in people's everyday lives. 

"We tend to over-simplify our view of why people have pets," Dr Felisberti said. "Beren's research highlights the complexities involved in such relationships."

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JOURNAL

Anthrozoös

DOI

10.1080/08927936.2022.2101248 

ARTICLE TITLE

Pet Ownership and Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Importance of Resilience and Attachment to Pets

We need to stop thinking of insects as ‘creepy crawlies’ and recognise their keystone role in ecosystems, say scientists

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY (VANESSA CARDUI) ON KNAPWEED view more 

CREDIT: DR PHILIP DONKERSLEY

We need to stop thinking of insects as creepy crawlies and focus on the huge benefits they bring to people and the natural environment, scientists say.

The widespread and deeply engrained cultural perception of insects as creepy crawlies is a key factor holding back the public’s appreciation of the role they play within ecosystems. This perception is in part reflected in government biodiversity policy inaction across the globe, they argue.

This point is among a range of actions highlighted as part of a new paper published in Ecology and Evolution produced by an international team of entomologists which outlines a ‘battle plan’ including steps needed to prevent further insect losses across the globe.

Led by Dr Philip Donkersley of Lancaster University and co-authored by scientists from the University of Hong Kong, the Czech Academy of Sciences and Harper Adams University, the paper is a call to action targeted at other entomologists to step up advocacy for insects.

Despite 30 years of intergovernmental reports highlighting biodiversity targets, global insect abundance, biomass and diversity continues to decline. The paper considers the lack of progress in protecting insects and why meaningful change has not happened.

“Biodiversity, including insect, declines are often unintended consequences of human activities with human wellbeing nearly always trumping nature conservation, and this is likely to continue until we reach a point where we see flat-lining ecosystems are detrimental to our own species,” said Dr Donkersley. “Intergovernmental action has been slow to respond, kicking in only when change becomes impossible to ignore. If we are to see political attitudes and actions change then first societies’ perception of insects needs to be addressed.”

The paper highlights the range of benefits that insects bring, including some that are lesser known. These benefits include fundamental roles within ecosystems through interactions with plants including as pollinators, as a food for other animals, and as a food source for people in many parts of the world. Other benefits the authors highlight include insects’ contributions to wellbeing, culture and innovation, such as the benefits people derive from seeing butterflies in parks and gardens, their inclusion in poetry and literature, and their inspiration for a range of technologies, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) on ragwort

CREDIT

Dr Philip Donkersley

The researchers have outlined strategic priorities in their action plan to help support the conservation of insects. These include:

• to proactively and publicly address government inaction
• highlighting the technological developments we owe to the insects, and that there is a lot still to be discovered
• aligning with bird, plant and mammal conservation groups to show species interdependencies and knock-on benefits insect conservation has for other animals
• Engage public and school students with the wonders of the insect world to counter perceptions of insects as threatening ‘creepy crawlies’

 

“The benefits we gain from the insect world are broad, yet aversion of phobias of invertebrates are common and stand firmly in the path of their conservation,” said Dr Donkersley. “We need to move beyond this mindset and appreciate the huge role they play in ecosystems, foodchains, mental health, and even technological innovation.

“This perception change is a crucial step, alongside other measures we outline in this paper. Immediate and substantial actions are needed to protect insect species in order to maintain global ecosystem stability.”

The steps are outlined in the paper ‘Global insect decline is the result of wilful political failure: A battle plan for entomology’.

Authors on the paper are Dr Philip Donkersley, Lancaster University, Dr Louise Ashton, University of Hong Kong, Dr Greg Lamarre, Czech Academy of Sciences, and Dr Simon Segar, Harper Adams University.

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JOURNAL

Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1002/ece3.9417 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Global insect decline is the result of wilful political failure: A battle plan for entomology

Biodiversity information conference brought 400 scientists from 41 countries to Bulgaria to fast-forward what we know about life on Earth

Meeting Announcement

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: PROF. LYUBOMIR PENEV (PENSOFT) AND DEBORAH PAUL (TDWG) AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE TDWG 2022 CONFERENCE, WHICH TOOK PLACE ON 17.10.2022 IN SOFIA, BULGARIA. view more 

CREDIT: PENSOFT

Between 17th and 21st October, about 400 scientists took part in a hybrid meeting dedicated to the development, use and maintenance of biodiversity data, technologies, and standards used across the world.

For the 37th time, the global scientific and educational association Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) brought together experts from all over the globe to share and discuss the latest developments surrounding biodiversity data and how they are being gathered, used, shared and integrated across time, space and disciplines.

This year, the conference was hosted by Pensoft - an international scholarly publisher and technology provider based in Sofia - in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History (Bulgaria) and the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

This was the first time the event happened in a hybrid format. It was attended by 160 people on-site, while another 235 people joined online. The conference abstracts, submitted by the event’s speakers ahead of the meeting, provide a sneak peek into their presentations and are all publicly available in the TDWG journal Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS).

Amongst the conference participants, there were scientists in the fields of natural sciences, as well as many data scientists, informaticians, computer scientists, and software engineers. Many attendees have affiliations with key natural history museums and institutions across the globe. 

Put simply, the main task and dedication of the TDWG association is to develop and maintain standards and data-sharing protocols that support the infrastructures (e.g., The Global Biodiversity Information Facility - GBIF), which aggregate and facilitate use of these data, in order to inform and expand humanity’s knowledge about life on Earth.

Biodiversity data may include classification of organisms, their biology, genetics and distribution, as well as the whole chronology of their existence, traced back through time with information about who collected the specimens and observation data, the names of scientists involved, and their related scholarly work and publications.

The standards developed and maintained by TDWG provide a foundation to enable the creation, maintenance and development of a wide range of digital platforms, tools and workflows in the biodiversity data domain. All these technologies allow biodiversity scientists to build on the knowledge of their predecessors and make data freely accessible for use in policy decisions and further avenues of scientific inquiry.

Let’s imagine that there is a scientist who is interested in studying the distribution of a threatened animal species. While on a field trip, she spots what looks or acts like her target species, but the colouration of these particular animals is different. The question arises whether she has just found a little known variation of the species or could it be that it is a new, yet undescribed species? If the latter is true, it could change the whole picture we have so far painted for the ecosystem in question.

To answer the question, the scientist will need to be aware of what has already been published about the species of interest, and explore the related data spread across dozens of specialised platforms and databases. She will also need to take various distinct characters, e.g. morphology, physiology, DNA and behavioural traits, analyse them and compare them with those of related species. Not until the results are out, will the researcher be able to confirm whether this recently identified population indeed belongs to the species of initial interest, or whether it is totally new to science.

But why is it so important that we know if there is one or multiple species of seemingly the same animal in a given habitat? Suffice it to say, each and every species: be it an animal, a plant or a fungus, plays a key role in the ecosystem, while all living creatures—including humans—depend for their very survival on the well-being of their ecosystem. Given their strong interconnectedness and interdependability, we need to understand and closely monitor their presence, distribution and interactions with each element of the environment.

So, here is where the role of biodiversity data comes into play: biodiversity data underlie everything we know about the natural world around us. Even we, as individuals, are heavily dependent on what we know (or don’t know) about the other organisms in our ecosystem.

It is the goal of everyone volunteering their time and expertise to TDWG to enable the scientists interested in the world’s biodiversity to do their work efficiently and in a manner that can be understood, shared and reused by others.

If there are optimised and universal standards in the way researchers store and disseminate biodiversity data, all those biodiversity scientists will be able to find, access and use the knowledge in their own work much more easily. As a result, they will be much better positioned to contribute new knowledge that will later be used in nature and ecosystem conservation by key decision-makers.

“We are proud to have been selected to be the hosts of this year’s TDWG annual conference and are definitely happy to have joined and observed so many active experts network and share their know-how and future plans with each other, so that they can collaborate and make further progress in the way scientists and informaticians work with biodiversity information,” said Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev. 

“As a publisher of multiple globally renowned scientific journals and books in the field of biodiversity and ecology, at Pensoft we assume it to be our responsibility to be amongst the first to implement those standards and good practices, and serve as an example in the scholarly publishing world. Let me remind you that it is the scientific publications that present the most reliable knowledge the world and science has, due to the scrutiny and rigour in the review process they undergo before seeing the light of day,” he added.

“It’s wonderful to be in the Balkans and Bulgaria for our Biodiversity Information and Standards (TDWG) 2022 conference! Everyone’s been so welcoming and thoughtfully engaged in conversations about biodiversity information and how we can all collaborate, contribute and benefit,” said Deborah Paul, Chair of TDWG, a biodiversity informatics specialist and community liaison at the University of Illinois, Prairie Research Institute's Illinois Natural History Survey and also an active participant in the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), the Entomological Collections Network (ECN), ICEDIG, the Research Data Alliance (RDA), and The Carpentries.

“Our TDWG mission is to create, maintain and promote the use of open, community-driven standards to enable sharing and use of biodiversity data for all,” she added.

Group photo of the in-person participants at this year’s TDWG hybrid conference, which took place between 17th and 21st October 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

For a whole week between 17th and 21st October 2022, the TDWG conference, held in Sofia, Bulgaria, saw a lot of networking and hundreds of engaging and fruitful discussions between biodiversity 

CREDIT

Vibe Systems http://www.vibe-systems.com/

Following the week-long conference in Sofia, a good many of the participants set off straight for another Bulgarian city and another event hosted by Pensoft. Between 22nd and 24th October, the General Assembly of the Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL (abbreviation for Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library) took place in Plovdiv. The project involves many of the active participants in the TDWG community, including Pensoft, who is the project coordinator.

BiCIKL’s goal is to create a centralised place to connect all key biodiversity data by interlinking 15 research infrastructures and their databases. The 3-year European Commission-supported initiative kicked off in 2021 and involves 14 key natural history institutions from 10 European countries.

See highlights from the event on Twitter via the conference hashtag #TDWG2022.

Additional information:

About TDWG:

Historically known as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, today's Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) is a not-for-profit, scientific and educational association formed to establish international collaboration among the creators, managers and users of biodiversity information and to promote the wider and more effective dissemination and sharing of knowledge about the world's heritage of biological organisms.

To achieve its goals, TDWG develops, ratifies and promotes standards and guidelines for the recording and exchange of data about organisms; and also acts as a forum for discussing all aspects of biodiversity information management through meetings, online discussions, and publications.

About Pensoft:

Pensoft is an independent academic publishing company, well-known worldwide for its innovations in the field of semantic publishing, as well as for its cutting-edge publishing tools and workflows. In 2013, Pensoft launched the first ever end to end XML-based authoring, reviewing and publishing workflow, as demonstrated by the Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT) and the Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ), now upgraded to the ARPHA Publishing Platform. The platform currently hosts over 60 journals, including all journals of Pensoft, such as Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), One Ecosystem, ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, PhytoKeys, MycoKeys, and many society and institutional journals published under their own brand.

 

About Pensoft’s and TDWG’s partnership:

In 2017, TDWG teamed up with Pensoft and ARPHA to launch its own journal, aptly named Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS), to provide an innovative open-access journal, where participants at the annual TDWG events began to publish—and thus permanently preserve and make available—their conference abstracts in a full-featured, mini-paper format. The journal also welcomes full-length research articles that demonstrate the development or application of new methods and approaches in biodiversity informatics in the form of case studies.