What causes disease outbreaks?

Contaminated water has been the most common driver

Peer-Reviewed Publicatio

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Since 1974, contaminated water has been the most common driver of large-scale zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks, according to new research from the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases (CEID) at the University of Georgia. The next two greatest drivers are unusual weather patterns and changes in the abundance of disease vectors such as mosquitos and ticks.

Zoonotic diseases occur when pathogens are transmitted from animals to humans—prominent recent outbreaks include Ebola hemorrhagic fever and COVID-19. However, most zoonotic disease outbreaks involve fewer than 100 cases and are quickly brought under control. So what factors drive large-scale outbreaks?

In a study published in the Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions B, researchers investigated over 4,400 zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks. They identified the 100 largest in terms of numbers of human cases, all of which infected thousands to hundreds of thousands of people. From the full list they also selected 200 outbreaks at random to serve as “case controls.” The majority of these control outbreaks included 43 or fewer cases. They then compared the characteristics of large-scale and control outbreaks, particularly how the primary causes of infection and disease spread varied between them.

Lead author Patrick Stephens, an associate research scientist with the Odum School of Ecology and CEID, said that this research is one of the first peer-reviewed studies to quantify the variation of infectious disease outbreak drivers across the globe.

“In the age of COVID-19, it is understandable that many people may not realize how many outbreaks of other infectious diseases are caused by complex, intertwined ecological and socioeconomic conditions,” he said. “We know that factors like exposure to wild mammals, habitat disruption, international trade and travel and contact with contaminated food and water are important considerations. Our research was designed to understand what proportion of outbreaks various drivers contributed to. To our knowledge, this study is the first to do so for a global sample of outbreaks of many diseases.”

Stephens worked with CEID researchers Nicole Gottdenker of the College of Veterinary Medicine and John Drake, Annakate Schatz and John Paul Schmidt of the Odum School to compile a list of contemporary zoonotic infectious diseases documented in peer reviewed scientific literature. They identified and scored 48 specific infectious disease drivers related to the large-scale and control outbreaks in ecological, environmental and socioeconomic categories.  
 

Water contamination is a key driver of disease outbreaks

Both large-scale and control outbreaks were associated with water contamination, which was the most common driver of large outbreaks and the second most common driver of the smaller control outbreaks. Examples of these water-associated diseases include hepatitis E, typhoid and shigellosis (dysentery). The remaining drivers differed, however.

In addition to water contamination, large outbreaks were most often associated with unusual weather patterns, changes in the abundance of vectors—carriers of disease like mosquitos or ticks—and sewage management.

Large outbreaks were also much more likely to be caused by viral pathogens such as SARS coronavirus, influenza virus and Japanese encephalitis virus than were smaller outbreaks. The typical smaller outbreaks were associated with food contamination, local livestock production and human-animal contact. Finally, individual large outbreaks tended to be driven by a greater variety of factors than control outbreaks.

“There is still a lot of work to do to understand how large-scale infectious disease outbreaks can be avoided and controlled,” Stephens said. “Perhaps two-thirds of future infectious disease outbreaks are expected to be caused by zoonotic pathogens, and the number of these diseases is growing worldwide. Our research is an extremely important first step to better understand global variation in the drivers of outbreaks.”

This research was funded by the NSF (DEB 1316223, Research Coordination Network: Macroecology of Infectious Diseases, P.R.S.), NIH (R01Al156866) and a UGA presidential SEED grant. The study is part of a special issue of Philosophical Transactions B devoted to infectious disease macroecology, edited by Stephens, Shan Huang of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Maxwell Farrell of the University of Toronto. The issue includes papers by researchers from across the globe, covering topics such as spatial patterns of parasite diversity, changes in host-parasite associations over time, and likely sources of future zoonotic disease outbreaks.

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JOURNAL

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B )

DOI

10.1098/rstb.2020.0535 

ARTICLE TITLE

Characteristics of the 100 largest modern zoonotic disease outbreaks

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Sep-2021

Scientists enable blind woman to see simple shapes using brain implant

Preliminary experimental results with the Moran|Cortivis Prosthesis support efforts to restore useful vision for the blind.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

 

VIDEO: USING THE EXPERIMENTAL MORAN|CORTIVIS PROSTHESIS, FULLY BLIND BERNA GÓMEZ SUCCESSFULLY IDENTIFIES THE BOUNDARIES OF A HORIZONTAL LINE DEPICTED ON A PIECE OF CARDBOARD. view more 

CREDIT: MIGUEL HERNANDEZ UNIVERSITY, SPAIN

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—Newly published research details how a team of scientists from the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah and Spain’s Miguel Hernández University successfully created a form of artificial vision for a blind woman using a prosthesis hardwired into her brain.

Publishing “Visual percepts evoked with an Intracortical 96-channel Microelectrode Array inserted in human occipital cortex” in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Moran researcher Richard A. Normann, PhD, and Spanish collaborator Eduardo Fernández, MD, PhD, detail how the Moran|Cortivis Prosthesis produced a simple form of vision for 60-year old Berna Gómez. The team conducted a series of experiments with Gómez for six months in Elche, Spain, that represent a leap forward for scientists hoping to create a visual prosthesis that could increase independence for the blind.

A neurosurgeon implanted a microelectrode array invented by Normann, the Utah Electrode Array (UEA), into the visual cortex of Gómez to both record and stimulate the electrical activities of neurons. Gómez wore eyeglasses equipped with a miniature video camera; specialized software encoded the visual data collected by the camera and sent it to the UEA. The array then stimulated neurons to produce phosphenes, perceived by Gómez as white points of light, to create an image.

A former science teacher fully blind for 16 years at the time of the experiments, Gómez had no complications from the surgery and researchers determined that the UEA did not impair the function of neurons in close proximity to the electrodes or affect the function of the underlying cortex. Gómez was able to identify lines, shapes, and simple letters evoked by different patterns of stimulation. To help her practice using the prosthesis, researchers created a video game for Gómez to play using a character from the popular television show The Simpsons. Thanks to her precise descriptions of visual perceptions and importance to the research, Gómez is a co-author on the study.

“These results are very exciting because they demonstrate both safety and efficacy,” said Fernández, who has collaborated with Normann for more than 30 years and is an adjunct professor at Moran. “We have taken a significant step forward, showing the potential of these types of devices to restore functional vision for people who have lost their vision.”

Normann and colleague Gregory Clark, PhD, first used the UEA in amputees to evaluate its safety and efficacy. The UEA allowed the amputees to control artificial limbs simply with their desire to move a finger or hand. The Spain experiments were the first to implant the UEA into the visual cortex.

The team’s neurosurgeon placed just one 4 mm by 4 mm UEA in Gómez’s brain, but published research conducted by Normann indicates between seven and 10 arrays in the visual cortex, working together, could produce more detailed images for useful vision. University of Utah neurosurgeons and neuroscientists John D. Rolston, MD, PhD, and Tyler Davis, MD, PhD, collaborated on the research.

“One goal of this research is to give a blind person more mobility,” said Normann. “It could allow them to identify a person, doorways, or cars easily. It could increase independence and safety. That’s what we’re working toward.”

The research team hopes the next set of experiments will use a more sophisticated image encoder system, capable of stimulating more electrodes simultaneously to reproduce more complex visual images.

Authors on the paper are: Eduardo Fernández, Arantxa Alfaro, Cristina Soto-Sánchez, Pablo Gonzalez-Lopez, Antonio Lozano, Sebastian Peña, Maria Dolores Grima, Alfonso Rodil, Bernardeta Gómez, Xing Chen, Pieter R. Roelfsema, John D. Rolston, Tyler S. Davis, and Richard A. Normann.

Funding was provided by grant RTI2018-098969-B-100 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades, by grant PROMETEO/2019/119 from the Generalitat Valenciana, by the Bidons Egara Research Chair of the University Miguel Hernández, by the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah, the University of Utah Department of Neurosurgery, and by an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, New York, NY, to the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah.

About the John A. Moran Eye Center

The John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah serves as the largest ophthalmology clinical care and research facility in the Mountain West, with more than 60 faculty members, 10 satellite clinics, and 15 research laboratories. Physicians provide comprehensive care in all ophthalmic subspecialties and Moran is a major referral center for complex cases with over 145,000 patient visits and about 7,000 surgeries annually. CEO and Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Randall J Olson, MD, leads more than 500 employees working to achieve the Moran Eye Center’s vision that no person with a blinding condition, eye disease, or visual impairment should be without hope, understanding, and treatment.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Clinical Investigation

DOI

10.1172/JCI151331 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Visual percepts evoked with an Intracortical 96-channel microelectrode array inserted in human occipital cortex

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Oct-2021

Coffee and the effects of climate change

A collaborative study looks at how changing climate conditions might be affecting the taste, aroma, and overall quality of coffee

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TUFTS UNIVERSITY, HEALTH SCIENCES CAMPUS

Whether you prefer notes of berry and citrus or chocolate and nuts, dark roast or light, a good cup of coffee can be a simple pleasure. You probably would notice if some of your morning brew’s brightness disappeared, or if the familiar fruity aroma dulled a little. Changes like these might not stem from when the beans were roasted or ground, but from growing conditions.   

Coffee is grown on more than 27 million acres across 12.5 million largely smallholder farms in more than 50 countries. Many coffee-producing regions are increasingly experiencing changing climate conditions, whose impact on coffee’s taste, aroma, and even dietary quality is as much a concern as yields and sustainability. 

A new research review says that coffee quality is vulnerable to shifts in environmental factors associated with climate change. The review, led by researchers from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts and Montana State University, also finds that some current adaptation strategies to combat these effects provide hope for positive outcomes.  

“A subpar cup of coffee has economic implications as well as sensory. Factors that influence coffee production have great impacts on buyers’ interest, the price of coffee, and ultimately the livelihoods of the farmers who grow it,” says Sean Cash, an economist and the Bergstrom Foundation Professor in Global Nutrition at the Friedman School and senior author on the study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science.

“Climate change impacts on crops are already causing economic and political disruption in many parts of the world,” he says. “If we can understand the science of these changes, we might help farmers and other stakeholders better manage coffee production in the face of this and future challenges.”

In their analysis, the researchers looked at the effects of 10 prevalent environmental factors and management conditions associated with climate change and climate adaptation, respectively, across 73 published articles. 

The most consistent trends the team found were that farms at higher altitudes were associated with better coffee flavor and aroma, while too much light exposure was associated with a decrease in coffee quality. A synthesis of the evidence found that coffee quality is also susceptible to changes due to water stress and increased temperatures and carbon dioxide, although more research on these specific factors is needed.

Some current efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, including shade management to control light exposure, selection and maintenance of climate-resilient wild coffee plants, and pest management, show promise and feasibility, but innovative solutions to support bean growth at all elevations need to be devised, the team says.   

“These strategies are giving some hope that coffee quality can be maintained or improved and will ultimately help farmers consider how to design evidence-based interventions to support their farms,” says Selena Ahmed, an ethnobotanist in the Food and Health Lab at Montana State University, who earlier was a postdoctoral scholar in the Tufts IRACDA program. “These impacts on crops are important to study in general, not just for coffee. Our food systems support our food security, nutrition and health.”

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Plant Science

DOI

10.3389/fpls.2021.708013 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Climate Change and Coffee Quality: Systematic Review on the Effects of Environmental and Management Variation on Secondary Metabolites and Sensory Attributes of Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Oct-2021

Kick-start of a new generation of climate scientists

Meeting Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: 15 INTERNATIONAL PHD STUDENTS ARE TRAINED IN AN INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF 11 LEADING UNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS ACROSS EUROPE SUPPORTED BY 8 ADDITIONAL PARTNERS IN ACADEMIA, INDUSTRY, GOVERNMENTAL- AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS. view more 

CREDIT: NBI/HP

The study of critical transitions or tipping points in the Earth system involves increasingly complex mathematical techniques and understanding of the Earth system. CriticalEarth, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Innovative Training Network programme for young scientists, aims to prepare the next generation of climate scientists for this important task. The training of 15 PhD international students at 17 European research institutions begins this week, with a kick-off meeting in Denmark, hosted by Critical Earth partner the University of Copenhagen (Department of Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth at the Niels Bohr Institute).

 

Climate tipping is a worrying concept. Abrupt transitions lead to accelerated climate change because the climate system or parts of it move from one stable state to another. Assessing the risk of encountering climate tipping points due to anthropogenic global warming is one of the most urgent challenges in climate science today.

 

Analyzing a complex system as the Earth's climate to a high enough precision for the prediction of critical transitions involves very different mathematical concepts like stochasticity, chaos theory and dynamical systems theory. The demand for expert understanding of the physical behaviour of the climate system is equally pressing.

 

The study of tipping points and critical transitions is therefore leading climate science into a field of increasingly advanced mathematics and physics, creating a need for highly-trained specialists. The upstart of the CriticalEarth project will hopefully aid this essential task.

 

CriticalEarth’s network of 15 PhD Fellows will be trained in new research methods for assessing the mechanisms and associated risks of critical transitions in the climate.

 

The focus will be on investigating how complex mathematics can be used to predict and avoid irreversible climate change. The positions will offer the students an excellent experience, working within a strong, cross-disciplinary network among 11 leading Universities and research institutions across Europe, and supported by 8 additional partners in academia, industry, governmental- and non-governmental institutions.

 

Professor Peter Ditlevsen, who is the leader of the CriticalEarth project : “It is extremely important that we fill the knowledge gap in the mathematical understanding of tipping points and abrupt climate change. This is a deep scientific challenge for the next generation of climate scientists and the reason for the European Commission in investing in the education of 15 excellent young researchers. I am really excited about the project and thrilled to see the development of these great young scientists and the buildup of the international scientific network in CriticalEarth.”

 

A Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Innovative Training Network is one of the most prestigious and competitive science programmes under the EU Horizon 2020 which fund CriticalEarth with more than 4 million Euros.

 

For more information, contact Peter Ditlevsen, pditlev@nbi.ku.dk or Henrik Prætorius henrik.praetorius@nbi.ku.dk.

 

CriticalEarth (grant agreement 956170) is funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Actions Research networks ITN - Innovative Training Networks For details please refer to:

ITN https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/actions/get-funding/innovative-trainingnetworks

 

Contributing universities and science institutions.

 

The Niels Bohr Institute, The University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Department of Mathematics, Technische Universität München, Germany.

Department of Mathematics, Norges Arktiske Universitet, Norway.

Department of Physics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Department of Mathematics, University of Exeter, Great Britain.

Department of Physics, University of Reading, Great Britain.

Department of Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Torina, Italy.

Department of Atmospheric Science, Koninklijk Meteorologisch Instituut, The Netherlands.

Laboratoire de physique, ENS de Lyon, France.

Department of Earth Physics and Astrophysics, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain.

Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany.

 

Partner organisations

 

Department Mathematics and Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, France

Danish Meteorological Institute, Denmark

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany
Climate Risk Analysis, Mudelsee, Germany
Amigo Climate, Italy

David Trads Consulting & Management, Denmark

Penn Medicine’s Pavilion marks a healthcare ‘first’ with prestigious LEED Gold Building Certification for Sustainability

New Penn hospital becomes largest LEED Healthcare certified project in the world to achieve this recognition for green design and construction

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

 

IMAGE: PAVILION view more 

CREDIT: PENN MEDICINE

PHILADELPHIA – Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion on the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s campus has broken new ground for sustainable healthcare construction and design with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Healthcare Gold Certification. Incorporating sustainability efforts since the beginning of its development, the 17-story, future-ready patient facility is the largest certified project in the world to achieve Gold certification or higher in LEED Healthcare. At 1.5 million square feet, the Pavilion—which will open October 30—is also the first hospital in the United States of more than 1 million square feet to achieve certification in LEED Healthcare.

“At Penn Medicine, implementing sustainability measures in our buildings has been a key area of our leadership in the health care field, to not only conserve energy but also improve the way patient care is delivered,” Kevin B. Mahoney, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, said. “Our workforce is deeply committed to climate stewardship, and in the Pavilion, they can be proud to be part of a new era in conservation that puts medicine on the map as a force for improving the health of our planet.”

LEED, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and an international symbol of excellence. The LEED Healthcare rating system focuses on green initiatives at inpatient, outpatient and licensed long-term care facilities, medical offices, assisted living facilities, and medical education and research centers. To become LEED certified, a building must earn a threshold of points across multiple measurements for green building excellence, from sustainable site development to energy efficiency and water savings.

Conservation initiatives during the Pavilion project included recycling materials that were collected after the demolition of Penn Tower, which formerly stood on the new hospital’s site, including 291 tons of scrap steel and 17,000 tons of concrete. In addition, during the Pavilion’s construction, about 25 percent of materials were prefabricated and manufactured off-site, including more than 570 mechanical/electrical/plumbing racks and all 504 bathrooms for each patient room. This process minimized on-site waste, reduced traffic impact and site congestion, increased quality, and lowered cost.

Overall, the energy efficiency efforts in the Pavilion are anticipated to save more than 14 percent in annual energy costs compared to merely a code-compliant hospital. The building itself also uses 100 percent outside air through its HVAC system, using energy recovery wheels to capture and repurpose waste energy.

Along with saving energy, the facility was constructed to cut 30 percent of typical indoor water use through the installation of select fixtures and designs that use significantly less water, such as low-flow and low-flush toilets, sinks, and showers. In addition, more than 20 percent of the water required for the building’s HVAC equipment is provided by water captured and reused on site, such as rainwater, condensate, and foundation dewatering. Two cisterns, to help supply the chilled water system, are projected to process 7 million gallons of captured non-potable water each year.

The Pavilion’s property also includes an acre of greenery through landscaping surrounding the facility—including ground-level greenery that helps “bring the outside in” to patients and employees through abundant windows—and green roofs. Landscaped areas will feature native and hardy species that require minimal watering and maintenance.

The facility’s eco-friendly finishes extend to enabling green transit options for the thousands who will work and visit the Pavilion each day. In the 690-space underground parking garage, 2 percent of parking spaces have access to electric vehicle recharging stations, and to promote cycling and walking, 352 new bicycle parking spots have been installed at various locations surrounding the Pavilion. A new pedestrian pathway connecting the facility to Penn Medicine Station makes for easily accessible train travel for staff and visitors who use public transportation.

Design and planning for the Pavilion was orchestrated by PennFIRST, an integrated project delivery (IPD) team comprised of Penn Medicine employees, health care design firm HDR, architects Foster + Partners, engineering firm BR+A, and construction managers L.F. Driscoll and Balfour Beatty.

“An integral part of Penn’s campus development plan is to mindfully consider how our projects respond to our sustainability goals. In earning a LEED Gold designation, the Penn Medicine Pavilion exceeds this important consideration while adding to the transformation of our spectacular urban campus,” said Anne Papageorge, Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services at the University of Pennsylvania.

Every new building and major renovation project currently under design at Penn is registered with the USGBC and is targeting LEED Silver rating or higher. The Pavilion is one of nearly 40 Penn buildings to achieve LEED certification, including Penn Medicine’s Valley Forge location, Penn Medicine Radnor, the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, and Penn Medicine’s University City Office Tower.

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $8.9 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $496 million awarded in the 2020 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities include: the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center—which are recognized as one of the nation’s top “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report—Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; and Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is powered by a talented and dedicated workforce of more than 44,000 people. The organization also has alliances with top community health systems across both Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, creating more options for patients no matter where they live.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2020, Penn Medicine provided more than $563 million to benefit our community.

Eureka! A cost effective and quick way to find groundwater in arid regions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Water is a scarce commodity in many countries worldwide, but new cost-effective technology pioneered by researchers in Australia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia could ensure sustainable water supplies for decades to come.

University of South Australia researcher Dr Alaa Ahmed and colleagues from the Desert Research Centre in Egypt, and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, have used the iconic Flinders Ranges to demonstrate how precious groundwater can be found without expensive drilling.

Using satellite imagery, geospatial techniques and adding information on drainage, rock types, fractures, topography and rainfall, Dr Ahmed has mapped the Hawker region in the Flinders Ranges into three distinct classifications for groundwater stored in fractured rock aquifers: good, moderate and low.

His study indicates that the most effective groundwater recharge zones (where surface water collects as it moves downwards) are located where there are numerous rock fractures, low drainage and a gentle slope.

Conversely, the least effective areas to find groundwater are underlain by shale and siltstone.

“The remote sensing doesn’t cost us anything because existing satellites located above Australia are already taking photos of the topography. We also have the software – GIS – to analyse and map all the data,” Dr Ahmed says.

Existing methods to assess groundwater sources involve extensive drilling, which is expensive, time consuming and often inaccurate.

Using a combination of remote sensing, GIS and information and other geological factors, hydrologists should be able to find precise groundwater locations at a fraction of the cost, he says.

“Groundwater makes up approximately 17 per cent of Australia’s available water resources, 30 per cent of its consumption and is found across 60 per cent of the continent.

“But prolonged droughts have led to higher salinity and pumping costs and fewer groundwater sites.

“We urgently need to find faster and cheaper ways to locate groundwater because water supplies are limited in so many parts of the country. By creating satellite maps showing where groundwater is more likely to be found, we can go a long way towards improving our water resources,” he says.

Groundwater is the main source of fresh water in the Flinders Ranges and is affected by the type, thickness and structural fabric of the underlying rocks, erosion, topography, drainage and the climate.

While the central Flinders Ranges lies north of Goyder’s Line, deemed unsuitable for cropping, sheep and cattle farming still needs a reliable source of water, as do the townships of Hawker and Parachilna.

Both towns are reliant on groundwater from fractured rock aquifers for their water supply and are dependent on limited production wells.

While this study was undertaken in South Australia, the same technique could be used to detect groundwater in any arid region across the world, including Egypt, where Dr Ahmed has carried out similar research.

“Water shortages and high salinity affect many countries. With global warming, we can expect to see more droughts and so water will become an even scarcer resource. Hopefully this technology will help ensure we have sustainable water supplies for decades to come.

“It will enable policymakers to decide potential sites for recharging the groundwater aquifers without depleting or harming the environment,” he says.

Dr Ahmed’s study has been published in the journal Water, with contributions from colleagues in the Desert Research Centre, Egypt, and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia.

 

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JOURNAL

Water

DOI

10.3390/w13182571 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Identification of Groundwater Potential Recharge Zones in Flinders Ranges, South Australia Using Remote Sensing, GIS, and MIF Techniques

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Sep-2021

Gardening for wildlife enhances bird diversity beyond your own back yard

Peer-Reviewed Publication

USDA FOREST SERVICE - NORTHERN RESEARCH STATION

 

IMAGE: A USDA FOREST SERVICE SCIENTIST WAS PART OF A TEAM THAT EXPLORED THE VALUE OF THE BIGGEST CHUNK OF GREEN SPACE FOUND IN CITIES - RESIDENTIAL YARDS - AS WILDLIFE HABITAT. PHOTO SHOWS COREOPSIS, BEE BALM, AND PURPLE CONEFLOWER NEAR A RESIDENTIAL MAILBOX. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY DAVID MIZEJEWSKI, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION.

MADISON, WI, Oct. 25, 2021 — Households manage their yards in diverse ways and new research has found that their landscaping and management decisions have the potential to increase wild bird habitat and influence bird biodiversity in their yard and also at the neighborhood and city scale.

Across the United States, bird populations are declining due to decreases in availability of habitat.  Recently, a team of scientists explored the value of the biggest chunk of green space found in cities – residential yards –as wildlife habitat.  A new study, “Residential yard management and landscape cover affect urban bird community diversity across the continental USA,” was published this month in the journal Ecological Applications.  The research was co-led by USDA Forest Service Research Ecologist Susannah Lerman and Post-Doctoral Researcher Desirée L. Narango from City University of New York and University of Massachusetts.  Together with partners they conducted bird diversity observations in four residential yard types and in natural parks in six cities with distinctly different climate conditions: Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; and Phoenix, AZ.  The researchers found similar patterns in all six cities; although urban parks support more species of conservation concern (an official designation of species whose long-term persistence is in question) compared with yards, yards certified as wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation’s certification program support a wider variety of bird species compared with more traditional yard landscaping (e.g., lawn-dominated yards.) This suggests that landscape management for wildlife can contribute to region-wide bird diversity. The study also considered public interest levels based on Google searches and bird sightings and found that yards supported more popular species compared with parks.

“This study shows that when people landscape with wildlife in mind, householders can contribute to conservation right in their own back yards,” said Lerman, who is with the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. “And our yards often support some of our most beloved backyard birds.”

“Scientists are finding that we can’t study cities in isolation.  It will improve bird conservation efforts if we can understand which management practices are effective across regions and nationally, and which are effective at a more local level, “ said Narango.

In addition to Lerman and Narango, co-authors include Meghan L. Avolio, Johns Hopkins University; Anika R. Bratt, Duke University and Davidson College; Jesse M. Engebretson, University of Minnesota; Peter M. Groffman, City University of New York and Cary Institute; Sharon J. Hall, Arizona State University; James B. Heffernan, Duke University; Sarah E. Hobbie, University of Minnesota; Kelli L. Larson, Arizona State University; Dexter H. Locke, USDA Forest Service; Christopher Neill, Woodwell Climate Research Center; Kristen C. Nelson, University of Minnesota; Josep Padullés Cubino, University of Minnesota and Masaryk University; and Tara L. E. Trammell, University of Delaware.

 

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

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JOURNAL

Ecological Applications

DOI

10.1002/eap.2455 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Residential yard management and landscape cover affect urban bird community diversity across the continental USA

Warmer water, less nutrition

The nutritional value of giant kelp decreases as sea temperatures increase

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

As a foundational species, giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is vital to the ecosystem of the temperate, shallow, nearshore waters where it grows. When the kelp flourishes, so do the communities that rely on the fast-growing species for food and shelter.

Giant kelp has proven resilient (so far) to some stressors brought on by climate change, including severe storms and ocean heatwaves — an encouraging development for those interested in the alga’s ability to maintain the legions of fish, invertebrates, mammals and birds that depend on it for their survival. But in a recent study published in the journal Oikos, UC Santa Barbara researchers reveal that giant kelp’s ability to take a temperature hit may come at the cost of its nutritional value.

“The nutritional quality, or the amount of nutrients in the kelp tissue seems to be changing,” said the study’s lead author Heili Lowman, a biogeochemist with the University of Nevada, Reno, who conducted this research as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara. “We found that those changes were associated or correlated with changing seawater temperatures. From a big-picture standpoint, that’s pretty important because there are a lot of things that rely on kelp as the primary food source.”

“I guess you could call it one of the more hidden effects of ocean warming,” said study co-author and graduate student researcher Kyle Emery. “We haven’t necessarily lost kelp in places that have had these big temperature increases, but the kelp there has declined in terms of its nutritional content. So although it’s still there, it’s not able to provide the same function as when temperatures are lower.”

These findings of ocean warming’s hidden effects on kelp come from long-term data gathered at UCSB’s Santa Barbara Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research (SBC-LTER) site, which consists of several kelp forests located in the Santa Barbara Channel. Thanks to data collected over almost two decades, researchers have been able to track patterns of nutrient content, which fluctuate seasonally, and identify significant trends.

“The temperature of the seawater and nutrient availability are really closely coupled in the Santa Barbara Channel, and we’ve known that for some time,” Lowman said. Generally, the cooler temperatures bring nutrient-rich waters up from the deep, but during the warmer seasons, nutrients in the shallows and upper ocean — particularly nitrogen — become more scarce.

“Physiologically, kelp plants can’t store nitrogen for longer than a couple weeks, so whatever’s happening around them in the water they’re going to respond to very quickly because they need a constant supply of nitrogen to grow, and to continue to reproduce,” she said.

Knowing this pattern, the researchers then sought out how nutrient content might play out over a longer period of time, as ocean temperatures rose. They did so by looking at data from the primary productivity sampling that is conducted in the waters at the SBC LTER on a monthly basis.

“As part of that sampling, kelp blades are collected from these sites, brought back to the lab and then processed for carbon and nitrogen content,” Emery explained.

Over the 19-year period covered by the SBC LTER, according to the paper, nitrogen content of the giant kelp tissue declined by 18%, with a proportional increase in carbon content, according to the paper.

This apparent decline in nutritional content does not bode well for the consumers of kelp in and around the Santa Barbara Channel, which include sea urchins and abalone in the water, and intertidal beach hoppers and other invertebrates that consume the kelp wrack that washes up on the shore.

“As a result, urchins, for example, might go in search of a lot more kelp and that could cause a shift in certain places, potentially from a kelp forest to an urchin barren, if they’re just mowing down the reef looking for more food,” Lowman said. Animals that feed on kelp might also expend more energy trying to eat enough to fulfill their nutritional requirements.

While urchins have the ability to go searching for more food, Emery added, the consumers on the shore are stuck with what they get.

“If you have greater demand, but there’s not more kelp coming in, that poses a pretty challenging situation for them, whether it’s being underfed or through population declines,” he said.

In both cases, the effects could ripple out to the rest of the food web, the researchers said: Lower-nutrition kelp could mean smaller, fewer, perhaps less healthy beach hoppers, for instance, which would lead to less food for the shorebirds that eat them. In the water, less nutrition for urchins and abalone could mean less food for their consumers, including fish, lobster, sea otters and humans.

“Our results raise a lot of really interesting open-ended questions and suggest a lot of far-reaching effects,” Emery said.

Having explored the potential relationships of seawater temperature to nutritional content, the researchers are considering broadening the spatial scale of the study.

“The next step would be thinking about what all is playing into determining the nutritional content and then how might we then be able to predict it into the future,” Lowman said.

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JOURNAL

Oikos

ARTICLE TITLE

Nutritional quality of giant kelp declines due to warming ocean temperatures

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Oct-2021