Sunday, May 26, 2024

West Coast seabird study shows how they might one day share the air with wind turbines

by JoAnna Wendel, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

One day, wind turbines may float off the coasts of California and southern Oregon, providing clean, renewable energy to millions of homes. But before construction can start, researchers are studying how to minimize the potential wind farms' impact on local wildlife.

Researchers from the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and environmental consulting firm H. T. Harvey & Associates recently deployed technology off the West Coast in one of the first efforts to understand how high seabirds fly and whether they might interact with wind turbines and other infrastructure.

They published the research on April 24 in Frontiers in Marine Energy.

"This is an important step in understanding seabird behavior at the height of offshore wind turbines on the West Coast," said Shari Matzner, computer scientist at PNNL and co-author on the paper. Data from scientists on research vessels have provided estimates of how high birds fly, depending on wind strength, but "this is really the first time we've had real-time, quantified flight height data for these birds," Matzner said.

Tracking birds

Scientists have studied impacts of wind turbines in Europe and on the East Coast, which have a more mature offshore wind industry. Previous studies have found very low rates of collisions between birds and offshore wind turbines.

But deep waters off the West Coast host a much different community of seabirds than both those places, said Scott Terrill, paper co-author and principal senior avian expert at H. T. Harvey. Out there, birds like albatross, shearwater, and petrels hunt for food and depend on the same strong winds that make these waters ideal for generating power.

These birds spend much of their lives in the air. To stay aloft using the least amount of energy, the birds hitch rides on strong gusts of wind to gain altitude and then coast downwards in a flight pattern known as "dynamic soaring."

Researchers want to know whether dynamic soaring—and other flight behavior—might bring these birds to the height of offshore wind turbine blades, which would stretch from 25–260 meters (82–853 feet) above the water.

"Certain kinds of seabirds actually need wind for effective, or even any, flight. They have long, narrow wings like glider aircraft. It's important to quantify the degree to which seabirds and offshore wind turbines might overlap," Terrill said.

During the summer of 2021, DOE and PNNL, along with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, launched a buoy fitted with PNNL's ThermalTracker-3D (TT3D), a stereo camera system that uses a pair of thermal cameras to track birds as they fly overhead.

Researchers have already used TT3D on land to monitor birds as well as bats as they navigate around land-based wind turbines, but this is the first time the technology has been deployed at sea. After deployment, the H. T. Harvey team evaluated the bird flight data.

Bobbing on a buoy around 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the northern Californian coast, TT3D monitored the sky for nearly 2,000 hours over the summer of 2021. The instrument spotted more than 1,400 birds flying both day and night.

Out of the 1,400 birds tracked, 79% of them flew in the first 25 meters (82 feet) above sea level, with most activity concentrated in the first 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level—far below hypothetical turbine blades.

Of the remaining birds tracked, 21% flew at heights that overlapped with hypothetical turbine blades, while fewer than 1% flew higher. No birds were tracked flying higher than 316 meters (1,036 feet) above sea level (the detection range of the system is limited to around 400 meters, or 1,312 feet).

Where the day length was about 14 hours, most birds were spotted during the day, but TT3D also tracked activity at dawn, dusk, and overnight.

"These data add to the baseline understanding of bird behavior and will help us better understand how any future wind turbines may affect seabirds," said Matzner, who led the development of TT3D at PNNL.

Protecting from environmental impacts

The latest work adds to a bulk of research from PNNL that aims to minimize the impact of renewable energy projects on wildlife.

To complement data from TT3D, PNNL researchers are also working on a system that uses radar to track bird flight at sea. While TT3D can generate details about flight patterns and provide some data to help researchers identify species, it doesn't "see" long distance.

Radar, on the other hand, doesn't offer fine detail, but its detection range would allow for tracking the behavior of a population of birds around places intended for wind turbines, Matzner said.

This year, TT3D will also be deployed to study birds on the East Coast, as a part of the Wind Forecast Improvement Project, a PNNL-led project to improve weather forecasts for utilities.

The Frontiers study won't be the last of its kind on the West Coast, Matzner said. Although TT3D can spot birds, the ability to tell what species they are is still a work in progress.

Researchers also need to understand how birds might be affected aside from collision risk; some studies show that bird populations will completely avoid areas with wind farms, for example.

More data will be needed to fully understand how birds use the air they may one day share with wind turbines.

More information: Stephanie R. Schneider et al, Autonomous thermal tracking reveals spatiotemporal patterns of seabird activity relevant to interactions with floating offshore wind facilities, Frontiers in Marine Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1346758

Journal information: Frontiers in Marine Science

Provided by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

System provides clearer picture of avian activity around wind turbines

Artificial geysers can compensate for our mineral shortages

by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

By imitating nature, it may be possible to recover seabed minerals by extracting hot water from the Earth's crust. We can harvest green energy and be sensitive to the environment—all at the same time.

Seabed minerals: Here's something you probably don't know. The copper found in the Norwegian mines at Røros and Løkken, and which once made the country very wealthy, was formed from smoking "chimneys" on the ocean floor.

In the Earth's remote past, this copper was carried up through the crust by seawater that had originally been drawn downwards into the scorching depths. If we humans can learn to imitate part of this process, it may be possible to apply it to sensitively recover a variety of minerals from the oceans offshore Norway.

At SINTEF, we believe that seabed minerals should only be recovered if we can develop methods that minimize any negative environmental impacts. We are now in the process of identifying one such method.

Or, in other words, of obtaining the "building blocks" being called for by the green transition. At the same time, we can obtain valuable geothermal heat that we can convert into emissions-free energy.

From the scorching depths to the deck of a platform

In the heated debate currently raging about seabed minerals, now fueled once again by WWF's recent notification to sue the Norwegian state, many people have expressed their fear of negative ecological consequences resulting from the exploitation of these resources.

Our idea is to transport the mineral-rich water and bypass the process of precipitation on the seabed, recovering the minerals directly from the scorching depths in the Earth's crust from where they originate. Extraction will take place on the deck of an offshore platform.

Water heated by molten rock

Below the sea surface, some distance from land, there are several locations where so-called black smoker geysers eject mineral-rich waters brought up from the depths of the crust.

This phenomenon is the result of water first having been drawn down into fractures in the volcanic rocks of the seabed and then all the way down into the mantle, which is the layer of molten rock lying beneath the crust. Here, the water is subject to intense heat and is able to take up particles of metals and minerals. These are exactly the materials we need to make our batteries, wind turbines and electric vehicle engines.

Then, the mineral-rich water rises from the mantle, through the crust, and up to the seabed, where it is ejected from the black smoker geysers.

Electricity from steam

At SINTEF, we are working on the idea of imitating part of this process by constructing artificial geysers. Firstly, by drilling wells for sending seawater down into the mantle—and then others for transporting the mineral-rich water back to the surface.

This water will be transported in pipes up to platforms where the particles will be separated.

The pressure at the Earth's surface will cause the water to boil. Our idea is to use the steam to generate electricity, which will then be sent onshore. The revenues from selling the electricity will be used to pay for parts of the mineral recovery process.

Discovered in the 1970s

SINTEF has been here before—demonstrating that imitating nature can be a very fruitful venture. Specifically, that the properties of underwater shales are ideal for dealing with abandoned oil wells.

The phenomenon that we are seeking to imitate today—these "black smokers" on the seabed—was discovered in the 1970s in an area of the Pacific Ocean at the boundary between two tectonic plates.

Many underwater geysers of this type have been identified on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Norwegian waters. These are locations where molten magma still occurs close to the seabed. Some of them are probably still active today.

Sulfide minerals

The smoker chimneys are made up of particles that are precipitated when the hot, mineral-rich water is ejected from the geysers into the cold seawater. Other fractions of the ejected mass of particles have sunk to the seabed, forming great mounds of gravel at the base of the chimneys.

As time passes, many of the chimneys stop ejecting. They seal up and die, tipping over onto the "piles of gravel."

These gravel piles represent the biggest and most concentrated occurrences of sulfide minerals on the seabed. The sulfide family is one of the two main groups of seabed minerals known from Norwegian oceans.

Key metals

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, the natural geysers have deposited minerals containing key metals such as zinc, cobalt, nickel, vanadium, tungsten and silver. Not to mention copper, which occurs in concentrations much greater than those we encounter in mines onshore.

Our idea assumes that humans will succeed in drilling wells that can withstand the temperatures they will encounter close to bodies of molten rock. Experts are already working on this problem..

"Our concept will not be put into practice tomorrow, but it may not be too far into the future either. The timing will depend on the efforts that we are prepared to put into developing the idea. We still need more data about the subsurface, combined with some smart technological innovations.

Supply security for the green transition

If our idea succeeds, this will help the European Parliament, the Norwegian government and everyone else who is looking to safeguard supply security for the green transition.
We have great faith that our concept represents a sensitive and realistic approach to minerals recovery, and are looking forward to continuing with its development.
Provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Norway greenlights deep-sea mining exploration

Australian study proves 'humans are planet's most frightening predator'

Kangaroos and wallabies fear human 'super predator' more than dogs, devils or wolves

Date: May 22, 2024

Source: University of Western Ontario

Summary:

A new study demonstrates that kangaroos, wallabies and other Australian marsupials fear humans far more than any other predator.

FULL STORY

Australia lacks fearsome large carnivores like lions and wolves, and the relative lack of fear that marsupials like kangaroos and wallabies show to dogs (and other introduced carnivores) has been attributed to a lack of evolutionary experience with large mammalian predators. This, however, overlooks the 50,000-year-long presence in Australia of the world's most fearsome predator -- the human 'super predator.'

A new study conducted by Western University biology professor Liana Zanette, in collaboration with Calum Cunningham and Chris Johnson from the University of Tasmania, demonstrates kangaroos, wallabies and other Australian marsupials fear humans far more than any other predator. Findings of the study, were published May 21 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

These results greatly strengthen findings from similar studies by Zanette and her collaborators, and others, conducted in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, which show wildlife worldwide fear the human 'super predator' far more than lions, leopards, cougars, bears, wolves or dogs.

For this new study, Zanette and her colleagues worked in the eucalypt forest in Tasmania and experimentally demonstrated that kangaroos, wallabies and other marsupials were 2.4 times more likely to flee in response to hearing human voices compared to hearing dogs, Tasmanian devils or wolves. Every species in the marsupial community, moreover, demonstrated the same pattern, being roughly twice as likely to flee from humans as the next most frightening predator, which in each case was dogs, and all were most vigilant to humans.

"These results greatly expand the growing experimental evidence that wildlife worldwide perceive humans as the planet's most frightening predator," said Zanette, a renowned wildlife ecologist. "The very substantial fear of humans demonstrated here, and in comparable recent experiments, can be expected to have dramatic ecological consequences, because other new research has established that fear itself can reduce wildlife numbers, and fear of humans can cause cascading impacts on multiple species throughout entire landscapes."

To conduct their experiment, the team deployed hidden automated camera-speaker systems that, when triggered by an animal passing within a short distance (approximately 10 meters, or 30 feet), filmed the response to humans speaking calmly, dogs barking, Tasmanian devils snarling, wolves howling or non-threatening controls, such as sheep bleating.

"Global surveys show humans kill prey at much higher rates than other predators, making humans a 'super predator,' and the profound fear of humans being revealed in wildlife everywhere is wholly consistent with humanity's unique lethality," said Zanette. "Humans are 'the invisible killer' insofar as we do not often think of ourselves as a major predator, let alone the most dangerous, but wildlife clearly think differently -- and recognize us for what we are."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Western Ontario. Original written by Jeff Renaud. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:Katherine McGann, Christopher N. Johnson, Michael Clinchy, Liana Y. Zanette, Calum X. Cunningham. Fear of the human ‘super predator’ in native marsupials and introduced deer in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2024; 291 (2023) DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2849

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University of Western Ontario. "Australian study proves 'humans are planet's most frightening predator'." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 May 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240522130457.htm>.

UK study finds lack of compliance with consumer law guidance on fertility clinic websites

by Queen Mary, University of London

Earlier this year, revelations surfaced indicating that women who freeze their eggs are being misled by some U.K. clinics about their chances of having a baby. Now a recent investigation from Queen Mary University of London, sheds light on the disparities in information provision regarding Time-lapse Imaging (TLI) on U.K. fertility clinic websites.

Published in Human Fertility, the study, led by Dr. Manuela Perrotta of Queen Mary University of London's School of Business and Management, scrutinized 106 fertility clinic websites to evaluate the clarity, accuracy, and quality of information pertaining to TLI.

The findings reveal significant discrepancies:

Misrepresentation of Costs: While 67% of the clinics claimed to offer TLI, the study found disparities in cost disclosure. Approximately 29.6% of websites omitted pricing entirely, while others ranged from £300 to £850, with 35.8% disclosing costs.
Questionable Claims: Despite current evidence assessments showing no difference, a staggering 90.1% of the websites made claims or implied TLI's superiority in improving clinical outcomes through enhanced embryo selection.
Lack of Regulatory Information: Alarmingly, almost half (47.9%) of the websites failed to mention or provide links to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) rating system, vital for patients' decision-making process.

Dr. Manuela Perrotta emphasized the critical importance of providing patients with clear, accurate, and transparent information. "In a sector where patients bear significant financial responsibilities, ensuring they can make fully informed decisions about fertility treatment is imperative," she stated.

In the era of rapidly advancing fertility treatments, ensuring patients receive accurate and transparent information is paramount. The study underscores the pressing need for greater transparency and accountability within the fertility industry.

As fertility clinic websites serve as the primary source of information for patients, the findings raise concerns about the reliability and accuracy of the information presented.

More information: Manuela Perrotta et al, Analysing adherence to guidelines for time-lapse imaging information on UK fertility clinic websites, Human Fertility (2024). DOI: 10.1080/14647273.2024.2346595

Provided by Queen Mary, University of Londo

New research shows how IVF patients view medical evidence differently

US Army doubles down on laser tag with $95M for prototyping

Recently confirming first use of energy weapons in the field, military now wants bigger, better systems

Brandon Vigliarolo

THE REGISTER
Wed 22 May 2024

It hasn't been using them for long, but the US Army is apparently pleased enough with its early directed energy (i.e. laser) weapons systems that it's investing another $95.4 million in improved versions.

BlueHalo, makers of the LOCUST counter-drone laser system, announced its R&D bankrolling by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command yesterday. The company said it would use the funds, awarded as part of the Laser technology Research Development and Optimization (LARDO) program, to improve size, weight, and power of its laser weapons.

Current LOCUST systems are outfitted with AI able to track, identify, and engage targets with a laser that BlueHalo describes as a "hard-kill" high-energy laser.

Hard-kill systems, in military jargon, are those that destroy enemy weapons, craft, and personnel, as opposed to soft kills, which disable the aforementioned. The advantage to using laser weapons for hard kills over kinetic weapons is that drones or vehicles can be disabled with far less noise, destruction, and potential for collateral damage.

In order to kill airborne enemies – particularly drones, LOCUST's primary purpose – LOCUST can output a beam with as much as 20 kW of output power.

All that power means LOCUST is relatively stationary. It can be dropped in place and used modularly, as the unit is self-contained, but doesn't appear to be usable on the move. Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, has demoed its own 50 kW DEIMOS system that is designed for mounting on a Stryker combat vehicle.

In other words, BlueHalo will need those funds if it intends to put more bang behind its pew-pew. These systems, however, have already been reportedly proven in combat.

The Army has fielded LOCUST units in the Middle East since 2022, where it's been using them to take down drones, missiles, and mortar shells. According to Forbes earlier this month, LOCUST is able to melt sensitive drone parts in seconds, destroying them; the report marks the first time the US military has confirmed its use of laser weapons in the field.

And it's not like we haven't been dreaming of laser weapons for decades. According to the DoD, its research into the weaponization of lasers has been ongoing since the technology was invented in 1960. Multiple efforts over the years have failed to get a true directed energy weapon out of the laboratory stage, but here we are: Actually in the laser warfare age.

It's unknown what sort of future laser weapons will come out of BlueHalo's research grant. It hopes to improve automation, efficiency, and performance as well as make the units more rugged, but whether we can expect to be carrying around something as small as a laser rifle anytime soon is far less clear.

Of course we asked. We just haven't heard back yet. ®

Conservation of nature's strongholds needed to halt biodiversity loss

Researchers argue for scaling-up area-based conservation to maintain ecological integrity

Date: May 21, 2024

Source: PLOS

Summary: To achieve global biodiversity targets, conservationists and governments must prioritize the establishment and effective management of large, interconnected protected areas with high ecological integrity, researchers argue in a new essay.

FULL STORY

To achieve global biodiversity targets, conservationists and governments must prioritize the establishment and effective management of large, interconnected protected areas with high ecological integrity, John G. Robinson from the Wildlife Conservation Society, US, and colleagues argue in an essay publishing May 21 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), signed at the 2022 Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, recognized the importance of protecting large areas of natural habitat to maintain the resilience and integrity of ecosystems.

To halt biodiversity loss, these protected and conserved areas need to be in the right places, connected to one another, and well managed.

One of the GBF targets is to protect at least 30% of the global land and ocean by 2030, known as the 30x30 target.

To achieve GBF targets, the authors propose prioritizing large, interconnected protected areas with high ecological integrity, that are effectively managed and equitably governed.

They emphasize the importance of conserving landscapes at scales large enough to encompass functioning ecosystems and the biodiversity they contain.

In many cases, this will require interconnected groups of protected areas that are managed together.

Effective governance means that the diversity of stakeholders and rights holders are recognized and that the costs and benefits are shared equitably between them.

The authors argue that protected and conservation areas that meet all four criteria -- which they name "Nature's Strongholds" -- will be disproportionately important for biodiversity conservation.

They identify examples of Nature's Strongholds in the high-biodiversity tropical forest regions of Central Africa and the Amazon.

By applying the four criteria presented in this essay to identify Nature's Strongholds around the world, governments and conservationists can coordinate their efforts to best address threats to biodiversity, the authors say.

The authors add, "'Nature's Strongholds' -- large, interconnected, ecologically intact areas that are well managed and equitably governed -- are identified in Amazonia and Central Africa. The approach offers an effective way to conserve biodiversity at a global scale."

Story Source:

Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:John G. Robinson, Danielle LaBruna, Tim O’Brien, Peter J. Clyne, Nigel Dudley, Sandy J. Andelman, Elizabeth L. Bennett, Avecita Chicchon, Carlos Durigan, Hedley Grantham, Margaret Kinnaird, Sue Lieberman, Fiona Maisels, Adriana Moreira, Madhu Rao, Emma Stokes, Joe Walston, James EM Watson. Scaling up area-based conservation to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 30x30 target: The role of Nature’s Strongholds. PLOS Biology, 2024; 22 (5): e3002613 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002613

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PLOS. "Conservation of nature's strongholds needed to halt biodiversity loss." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 May 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240521204330.htm>.

Cement recycling method could help solve one of the world's biggest climate challenges

Date: May 22, 2024

Source: University of Cambridge

Summary:

Researchers have developed a method to produce very low emission concrete at scale -- an innovation that could be transformative in the transition to net zero. The method, which the researchers say is 'an absolute miracle', uses the electrically-powered arc furnaces used for steel recycling to simultaneously recycle cement, the carbon-hungry component of concrete.

FULL STORY

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a method to produce very low emission concrete at scale -- an innovation that could be transformative in the transition to net zero.

The method, which the researchers say is "an absolute miracle," uses the electrically-powered arc furnaces used for steel recycling to simultaneously recycle cement, the carbon-hungry component of concrete.

Concrete is the second-most-used material on the planet, after water, and is responsible for approximately 7.5% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions. A scalable, cost-effective way of reducing concrete emissions while meeting global demand is one of the world's biggest decarbonisation challenges.

The Cambridge researchers found that used cement is an effective substitute for lime flux, which is used in steel recycling to remove impurities and normally ends up as a waste product known as slag. But by replacing lime with used cement, the end product is recycled cement that can be used to make new concrete.

The cement recycling method developed by the Cambridge researchers, reported in the journal Nature, does not add any significant costs to concrete or steel production and significantly reduces emissions from both concrete and steel, due to the reduced need for lime flux.

Recent tests carried out by the Materials Processing Institute, a partner in the project, showed that recycled cement can be produced at scale in an electric arc furnace (EAF), the first time this has been achieved. Eventually, this method could produce zero emission cement, if the EAF was powered by renewable energy.

"We held a series of workshops with members of the construction industry on how we could reduce emissions from the sector," said Professor Julian Allwood from Cambridge's Department of Engineering, who led the research. "Lots of great ideas came out of those discussions, but one thing they couldn't or wouldn't consider was a world without cement."

Concrete is made from sand, gravel, water, and cement, which serves as a binder. Although it's a small proportion of concrete, cement is responsible for almost 90% of concrete emissions. Cement is made through a process called clinkering, where limestone and other raw materials are crushed and heated to about 1,450°C in large kilns. This process converts the materials into cement, but releases large amounts of CO2 as limestone decarbonates into lime.

Over the past decade, scientists have been investigating substitutes for cement, and have found that roughly half of the cement in concrete can be replaced with alternative materials, such as fly ash, but these alternatives need to be chemically activated by the remaining cement in order to harden.

"It's also a question of volume -- we don't physically have enough of these alternatives to keep up with global cement demand, which is roughly four billion tonnes per year," said Allwood. "We've already identified the low hanging fruit that helps us use less cement by careful mixing and blending, but to get all the way to zero emissions, we need to start thinking outside the box."

"I had a vague idea from previous work that if it were possible to crush old concrete, taking out the sand and stones, heating the cement would remove the water, and then it would form clinker again," said first author Dr Cyrille Dunant, also from the Department of Engineering. "A bath of liquid metal would help this chemical reaction along, and an electric arc furnace, used to recycle steel, felt like a strong possibility. We had to try."

The clinkering process requires heat and the right combination of oxides, all of which are in used cement, but need to be reactivated. The researchers tested a range of slags, made from demolition waste and added lime, alumina and silica. The slags were processed in the Materials Processing Institute's EAF with molten steel and rapidly cooled.

"We found the combination of cement clinker and iron oxide is an excellent steelmaking slag because it foams and it flows well," said Dunant. "And if you get the balance right and cool the slag quickly enough, you end up with reactivated cement, without adding any cost to the steelmaking process."

The cement made through this recycling process contains higher levels of iron oxide than conventional cement, but the researchers say this has little effect on performance.

The Cambridge Electric Cement process has been scaling rapidly, and the researchers say they could be producing one billion tonnes per year by 2050, which represents roughly a quarter of current annual cement production.

"Producing zero emissions cement is an absolute miracle, but we've also got to reduce the amount of cement and concrete we use," said Allwood. "Concrete is cheap, strong and can be made almost anywhere, but we just use far too much of it. We could dramatically reduce the amount of concrete we use without any reduction in safety, but there needs to be political will to make that happen.

"As well as being a breakthrough for the construction industry, we hope that Cambridge Electric Cement will also be a flag to help the government recognise that the opportunities for innovation on our journey to zero emissions extend far beyond the energy sector."

The researchers have filed a patent on the process to support its commercialisation. The research was supported in part by Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Cambridge. Original written by Sarah Collins. The original text of this story is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:Cyrille F. Dunant, Shiju Joseph, Rohit Prajapati, Julian M. Allwood. Electric recycling of Portland cement at scale. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07338-8

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Ukraine war caused migrating eagles to deviate from their usual flight plan, study

finds

Date: May 20, 2024

Source: Cell Press

Summary:

When migrating through Ukraine in 2022, Greater Spotted Eagles were exposed to multiple conflict events that altered their migratory course, according to a new study.

When migrating through Ukraine in 2022, Greater Spotted Eagles were exposed to multiple conflict events that altered their migratory course, according to a study reported on May 20 in the journal Current Biology. Greater Spotted Eagles are large raptors that are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"Armed conflicts can have wide-ranging impacts on the environment, including changes in animal behavior," says Charlie Russell of the University of East Anglia, UK. "Our study provides the first quantitative evidence of this, showing how migrating eagles made deviations to avoid conflict events and spent less time refueling at stopover sites. It also indicates that there are potentially many human activities, beyond wars, that likely change or impact animal behavior."

Researchers from The Estonian University of Life Sciences University, British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and their in-country partners started tagging Greater Spotted Eagles that were breeding in Belarusian Polesia in 2017. Although the eagles are no longer found in most of Europe, Polesia remains a stronghold for the species. The goal was to track the raptors and identify important areas that the species relies on to inform future conservation efforts.

Then, on February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. On March 3, the first of 21 tagged Greater Spotted Eagles crossed into Ukraine on their usual migration. By that time, the conflict had spread from Kyiv and eastern regions to most major cities.

"We did not expect to be following these birds as they migrated through an active conflict zone," Russell says.

While they may not have expected it, the researchers recognized an opportunity to document the effects of human conflict on wildlife. It's clear that such human activities must have major impacts, but the effects are usually hard to quantify, especially in conflict zones.

Using GPS tracking and conflict data, the researchers quantified changes in the eagles' expected behavior. In comparison to earlier and more peaceful years, they found that Greater Spotted Eagles used stopover sites less. Stopover sites are essential places to get food, water, and shelter for migrating birds during their long journeys. The eagles also made large deviations from their earlier routes.

The changes to their migratory behavior patterns delayed their arrival to the breeding grounds and likely increased the energetic costs to the birds in detrimental ways. Although all the tagged birds survived, the researchers suspect their experience may continue to affect them into the breeding period and possibly beyond.

"Similar responses have been recorded for birds residing in military training zones, but these new findings that show an impact for migratory species means that disturbance events can have more far-reaching impacts across many more individuals, over greater distances," says Adham Ashton-Butt of BTO. "The size of the effect on migratory behavior was also quite large, substantial enough to be detected in a relatively small sample size."

The findings serve as an important reminder that the effects of armed conflicts are wide ranging and stretch beyond the immediate humanitarian crisis, the researchers say. As such, they note, post-conflict recovery also should consider the environmental impact on species and whole ecosystems. The findings also raise important questions about how the conflict in Ukraine -- as well as other extreme disturbances caused by humans -- may affect many different species, including hundreds of threatened species and millions of migratory birds.

This work was supported by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Cell Press. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:Charlie J.G. Russell, Aldina M.A. Franco, Philip W. Atkinson, Ülo Väli, Adham Ashton-Butt. Active European warzone impacts raptor migration. Current Biology, 2024; 34 (10): 2272 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.047

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Opinon: Conservation areas stand between needs of local communities and preserving natural resources

by Shaun Smillie, Wits University

For centuries the Makuleke community lived in the northeastern corner of South Africa, close to the modern-day border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But by the beginning of the 20th century, the squeeze on a disenfranchised community had begun, as they were forced to make way for the private game reserves that were springing up in the Lowveld.

In 1912, the Singwidzi Game Reserve displaced several Makuleke villages, followed by the establishment in 1933 of the Pafuri Game Reserve.

The limited number of game rangers policing the area meant that the community still had limited access to their former lands, but this changed in 1969 when Pafuri was incorporated into the Kruger National Park and the Makuleke were forcibly removed.

The South African government was not alone in removing communities from newly-established conservation areas. Other countries including the United States had also displaced communities as they carved out pristine wilderness areas that became the preserve of wealthier tourists.

But more recently, over the last several decades, there has been a change in thinking. The old idea of wildlife reserves as exclusive domains fell away and was replaced by a more inclusive model that took into consideration the needs of those communities living adjacent to these areas.

South Africa joined this global movement and shortly after the advent of democracy, the Makuleke made history. Under the Restitution of Land Rights Act, in 1997, they reached the first successful settlement of a land restitution claim involving a South African national park.

Benefitting from conservation

Through the settlement, the Makuleke chose to keep the land as a joint management venture between themselves and the Kruger National Park to generate funds and jobs for their community. Today, there are five-star lodges and educational programs running aimed at uplifting the community on the 22,000 hectares of land.

The Makuleke are not alone; across the country, communities are benefitting from conservation thanks to changes in policy and legislation.

In addition to the more than 2,000 jobs created by the Kruger National Park, peripheral services such as car washes and emergency towing services at camps have been outsourced to entrepreneurs from the neighboring communities.

The recent South African National Parks (SANParks) Resource Use Policy of 2019 allows for a number of renewable and non-renewable resources to be harvested in their parks annually, including thatch harvesting, the collection of medicinal plants and even the picking of mopani worms, all done under the watchful eye of an armed ranger.

"In a post-apartheid South Africa, the point is that those national reserves actually belong to the people and those who were disadvantaged by the establishment of these conservation areas should not still be disadvantaged by the continued existence of these parks. As citizens, they should be the first line of stakeholders who should be benefitting from conservation," says Wayne Twine, Associate Professor in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences.

It is not just state-run reserves; many private reserves have community outreach programs and are addressing the needs of communities within their areas with job opportunities and ancillary services which are outsourced to small, local businesses.

But Twine warns that addressing the needs of both is often a complex balancing act that requires the building of good relationships and honest communication. SANParks has used forums to communicate with the various communities.

"It's really important that you don't wait until you have a crisis before you reach out to neighboring communities," says Twine. Also, it's important that expectations are kept realistic. "It's about balances and trade-offs," he adds.

Data-driven decision-making

It is not just about providing economic opportunities. Recently the people living alongside the Kruger National Park between Numbi Gate and Matsulu complained of elephants venturing onto their land. SANParks said in a press release that they were in discussion with affected communities to work together on the construction of a fence, which is expected to take about eight months to complete.

But protecting ecosystems that better serve both communities and conservation requires gathering data that can help in the making of future policy decisions. This is what the Future Ecosystems for Africa Program, a partnership between scientists, policy makers and land users and led by academics at Wits, provides.

"If we get good data, we can find ways to enable people to derive the benefit of the land's resources while maintaining healthy ecosystems," says Professor Sally Archibald, the Principal Investigator at the Future Ecosystems for Africa Program in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences.

Their research is also helping to dispel some preconceptions held by the Global North about conservation in the developing world. One example of this is afforestation programs that involve planting trees in areas that evolved as open, grassy savannah systems with their own unique biodiversity. Although the aim is to help mitigate the impact of climate change, scientists like Archibald have argued that this would destroy these ecological areas, reduce water supplies and do little to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels.

Combating the 'wilderness philosophy'

The 'wilderness philosophy' is something that was brought to Africa with colonialism and is exemplified by fortress conservation—the idea that protected areas can only exist by excluding humans from the land.

However, recent research done by Archibald in the Mozambique Niassa Special Reserve in collaboration with Claire Spottiswoode and David Lloyd Jones from the University of Cape Town is showing that people can live in such protected areas while leaving a minimal imprint on the ecosystem.

The research involved studying honey hunters who live in the park and who, in order to calm the bees and access the hives, light fires at the base of trees and then chop them down.

"Many people, with a more 'wilderness philosophy' would think that this is shocking, and the activity needed to be stopped. But we have shown that they are harvesting a very small proportion of the total tree population and that the rates of tree recovery make these activities sustainable. Our student, Rion Cuthill, has done great work in showing that, yes, sometimes, honey hunting does cause wildfires, but they often happen at times of the year when it is recommended that you burn," says Archibald.

In 2022, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework" which set a 2030 deadline for one third of the planet being under effective conservation management.

"The Framework had pushback from Africa and South America over not just who was going to fund this, but also what it means to conserve. Can we consider landscapes conserved if they have people living on them and are managed in a sustainable way?" asks Archibald.

To help international organizations best fund projects in Africa, together with colleagues Barnie Kgope in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Odirilwe Selomane from the University of Pretoria, Archibald is developing a checklist that provides guidance on how projects should be funded in Africa.

"This is so that we not only become the recipients of funding, but so we can also guide that funding towards activities that really will benefit our biodiversity and people. Otherwise, we are always going to be fighting, telling people you can't plant trees on grasslands," explains Archibald.

But while much has been done to democratize the relationships between communities and conservation areas, the future looms with challenges, and climate change and a growing population will make resources even more scarce.

"There are certainly going to be challenges, and that is why going forward it is important to find innovative ways of creating economic opportunities for communities through conservation—rather than conservation being pitted against development," says Twine.

Provided by Wits University South Africa's conservation model: Why expanding the use of biodiversity to generate money is a good idea

Iron Age Woman May Have Been Sacrificed in England

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

(Bournemouth University)

DORSET, ENGLAND—According to a BBC News report, researchers from Bournemouth University examined the 2,000-year-old remains of a woman unearthed in 2010 in southwestern England’s site of Winterborne Kingston and determined that she had been stabbed in the neck. Forensic and biological anthropologist Martin Smith said that the woman’s skeleton had been found lying face down in a pit on top of an arrangement of animal bones. He added that analysis of her bones indicates that she was in her late 20s when she died, she had broken ribs, and her spine showed evidence of hard labor, while isotopic analysis of her teeth shows that she grew up more than 20 miles away from the site where she was buried. When taken together, Smith concluded, the evidence suggests that the woman had been ritually killed and deposited in the pit as part of an offering. To read about Iron Age roundhouses uncovered in northwest England, go to "Hail to the Chief."

Residue Analysis Identifies Possible Uses

of Pottery Vessels

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

(State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt, Matthias Zirm)

HALLE, GERMANY—According to a statement released by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology (LDA) Saxony-Anhalt, a new study has identified specific functions for several types of pottery vessels unearthed in central Germany. Residues from more than 100 pottery vessels of different sizes, shapes, and contexts were analyzed by researchers from the LDA and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The scientists found that the increase of consumption of dairy products during the fourth millennium B.C. by the Baalberge Culture was linked to the development of small handled cups. The researchers think these cups may have been used to scoop milk products from larger vessels. Carinated beakers, which feature a rounded base and inward sloping sides, are thought to have been used by Bell Beaker populations of the third millennium B.C. to serve dairy products as well. Beakers recovered from Corded Ware Culture graves dated to the third millennium B.C., however, were found to contain a variety of plant and animal fats. The analysis of the animal fats indicates that pigs were widely consumed. It had been previously suggested that these Corded Ware Culture funerary containers held beer. In contrast, the highly standardized pottery of the Bronze Age Únĕtice Culture (2200–1550 B.C.) was found to contain a greater variety of animal and plant residues, indicating that the pottery was multifunctional in design. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. To read about early evidence of cheese making recovered from pottery found on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast, go to "When Things Got Cheesy."