Capturing Ecology – Winning images of British Ecological Society photography competition announced

Grant and Award Announcement

BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: OVERALL WINNER: KUMLIEN'S GULL & FRIENDS, REBECCA NASON view more 

CREDIT: REBECCA NASON

A close up of a Kumlien's Gull’s eye, with speckled markings that aren’t quite what they appear, taken by Rebecca Nason, has been awarded Overall Winner in the British Ecological Society’s annual photography competition, ‘Capturing Ecology’.

The winning images and an additional eight highly commended images, taken by international ecologists and students, celebrate the diversity of ecology, capturing flora and fauna from across the planet.

Subjects range from a blood red snail feeding on dead man's fingers (a fungus found in the rainforests of India) to a rare sighting of the ‘fairy of the Valencian forests’, a recently discovered cave-dwelling bug in Spain.

The winning images from this year’s will be displayed in our immersive virtual exhibition, which is sponsored by Wiley. The exhibition will be made freely available to everyone when the embargo lifts.

Overall winner: Kumlien's Gull & Friends, Rebecca Nason:

On her winning image, Rebecca Nason - an ecologist and photographer living in Britain’s most northerly harbour town of Lerwick, Shetland - said: “In April 2021, I came across a scarce Kumlien's Gull as I fed bread to a growing number of Herring Gull sheltering from a Spring storm. A beautiful gull, these birds breed in the Arctic regions of Canada & winter from Labrador west across the Great Lakes.

“When the Kumlien's gull approached to a good distance to allow for closer full frame shots. I started photographing the eye detail, noting a gorgeous granite coloured iris with dark speckled plumage detail around the eye. It was only when I got home I realised that the speckled patterns were in fact lice clustered around the eye, the Kumlien's Gull hadn't travelled alone!

“I am thrilled to win such a prestigious photography competition after entering for the first time this year. I have had a very symbiotic relationship between ecology work & bird photography in my career, so for both to come together in this way to win a competition with a gull image taken on my local patch, is just the icing on the cake.”

Overall student winner: Hidden Lynx, Dani Davis:

The overall student winner is Dani Davis, a graduate student at Florida State University. Dani’s image captures a green lynx spider with its bumblebee catch in the Apalachicola National Forest, North Florida. Green lynx spiders can change colours to match their background plant, a trait which they use when lying in wait for visiting pollinators. When their prey comes close, they pounce, like their namesake cat.

Dani Davis said: “Green lynx spiders are majestic yet voracious predators. Able to take down relatively large prey. With a quick bite, the lynx can subdue their cumbersome prey and feast in peace. Despite hearing of their ferocity, I was amazed to see this lynx with a bumblebee that matched her in size!

“A culmination of experiences in the field surrounded by incredible photographers and naturalists taught me how to tell natural history stories through images. With enormous thanks to those who spent time outside with me, I'm honoured to be the overall student winner for Capturing Ecology.”

Professor Jane Memmott, President of the British Ecological Society, said:

"This year's photos are of a very high standard and are a pleasure to look through. Overall, the photographs capture a broad swath of biodiversity - from tiny mosses to giant bears. The winner is a beautifully composed photograph of a gull's eye - it's visually arresting, pin sharp and very beautiful, hitchhiking lice included!"

Competition judge, Laura Dyer:

The independent judging panel included six highly respected photographers including eminent ecologists and award-winning wildlife photographers. Among them was Laura Dyer, a South African born wildlife photographer, who has an affinity for animal portraits.

Laura said: “Wildlife and nature photography is so vital today, as it helps to showcase parts of the natural world which would otherwise remain hidden from the view of most of us. And it is only by seeing the beauty of nature that we will be inspired to protect and conserve it. These images from British Ecological Society members and students alike help to showcase these wonders.

“The three overall winners this year demonstrate completely different styles of photography and all so beautifully captured. The spider, which at first glance, is almost unnoticeable in 'Hidden Lynx' - you can imagine the surprise of the bumblebee as he met his end. The detail in the gull, and how at first glance the parasites appear to be feather markings. The delicate lighting and dancing nature of the image of the recently discovered 'Fairy of the Forest'. These are worthy winners.”

Full list of winners:

Overall winner: Rebecca Nason

Kumlien's Gull & Friends: When taking full frame pictures of a Kumlien's gull, the photographer noticed a dark speckled plumage detail around the eye. It was only when they got home they realised that the speckled patterns were in fact lice clustered around the eye, the Gull hadn't travelled alone.

Overall runner-up: Roberto Garcia Roa, University of Valencia

The fairy of the forests: One of the few images of Valenciolenda fadaforesta ("fairy of the Valencian forests"), a cave-dwelling bug recently discovered in a few Spanish caves. Wonderful evidence of the extraordinary biodiversity hidden in the dark of cave ecosystems.

Overall student winner: Dani Davis, Florida State University

Hidden Lynx: A green lynx spider (Peucetia viridans) rests on a budding Liatris with its bumblebee catch. Seen in a bog in the Apalachicola National Forest in North Florida, USA. Green lynx spiders are masters of disguise. Able to change colours to match their background plant, they wait for visiting pollinators and then pounce on their prey, like their namesake cat.

Category 1 – Up Close and Personal
An image displaying the intricacy of nature using close-up or macro photography.

Winner: Alicia Hayden, University of the West of England

Beautiful Bryophyte: With the colours of the sunset in the background, the whole scene of this moss growing on a wall in Cornwall looks like something from a tropical rainforest. It shows the extraordinary macro world all around us, and how there is beauty in the smallest of living things.

Student winner: Jack Marcus Smith, University of Cambridge

Beauty in the (Mini)Beast: The image is a high magnification portrait of a blowfly. The photpgrapher wanted to reveal the intricacy and beauty of what many consider a pest. The blowfly is perfect for illustrating complexity in miniature and here they have captured the elaborate nature of each individual microstructure.

Category 2 – Dynamic Ecosystems
Demonstrating interactions between different species within an ecosystem.

Winner: Vijay Karthick, Nature Conservation Foundation, India

It's finger lickin' good: Indrella ampulla, an endemic species of snail is an important soil invertebrate that breaks down organic matter in the rainforest floors of the Western Ghats mountain range in India. Here, its feeding on Xylaria sp. fungi, commonly known as dead man's fingers.

Student winner: Dani Davis, Florida State University

Quick Catch: A tiny Phidippus regius (Regal Jumping Spider) sits perched with a freshly caught Sulphur butterfly. Observed while visiting a bog near Sumatra, Florida. Jumping spiders abound in this habitat. The photographer stared with curiosity at this regal jumping spider doused in yellow scales, holding the butterfly it had just caught.

Category 3 – Individuals and Populations
A unique look at a species in its environment, either alone or as part of a population.

Winner: Roberto Garcia Roa, University of Valencia

Fleeting race: A large flock of gulls performed short but very quick flights to move around a field of rice during the first hours of the morning. The fog in the environment and the fast movements of each individual allowed me to capture this dynamic but also frozen image of such a chaotic situation.

Student winner: Alwin Hardenbol, University of Eastern Finland

Master of the reeds: Bearded Reedlings (Panurus biarmicus) are strongly connected to reedbeds. In wintertime, this species eats reed seeds as shown in this image. The photograph took this picture in Espoo, Finland, aiming to depict how the bird’s weight bends the reed.

Category 4 – People and Nature
An interesting and original take on the relationships between people and nature.

Winner: Molly Dunn, Florence Institute of Design International

Tsunami, Dormant ivy vines reach across a roadside wall blackened at the bottom by car exhaust. The photograph was taken on a small, neighbourhood street in Florence, Italy in the early spring of 2021.

Student winner: John Benjamin Owens, Bangor University/Captive & Field Herpetology Ltd.

Nature's Landmine, The Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii) often resides within rice paddies. Accidentally stepped upon by agricultural workers, this viper is frequently involved in human-snake conflict, resulting in death and life changing injuries for millions of Indian people, annually. Something to think about when next buying rice in the supermarket?

Category 5 – Ecology in Action
Showcasing the practice of ecology in action

Winner: Pete Hudson, Penn State University

Bat OneHealth: While many of us are suffering with vaccines and regular swabs, the poor bats are also being sampled. At the start of the pandemic, our team were in Bangladesh sampling fruit bats near locations where Nipah virus had infected humans and recording virus and new viral sequences.

Student winner: Joshua Powell, Zoological Society of London, UCL & Seoul National University

Reintroduction in action: Conservation translocations – such as species reintroductions, or reinforcements – are increasingly important tools in conservation ecology. In South Korea, vets from the Korea National Park Service prepare to transport a female Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) in Jirisan National Park.

Category 6 – The Art of Ecology
A creative and original take on photography denoting ecology

Winner: Raul Costa-Pereira, The University of Campinas

Amazonian mosaic: In tropical rainforests, plants are often colonized by an astonishing diversity of organisms that grows on the surface of their leaves, such as epiphyllous mosses, lichens, and fungi. The photo shows the colourful mosaic of biodiversity on the leaves of an Amazonian palm tree in a forest near Manaus, Brazil.

Student winner: Alicia Hayden, University of the West of England

Spotlight: This spider was spending a lot of time repairing its web, and the streetlamp highlighted the movement of its legs as I took the photo. This illustrates the urban wildlife which is not usually acknowledged, showing the great diversity of wildlife in our urban spaces.

- Ends -

CAPTION

Overall student winner: Hidden Lynx, Dani Davis

CREDIT

Dani Davis

CAPTION

Runner up: The fairy of the forests, Roberto Garcia Roa

CREDIT

Roberto Garcia Roa

CAPTION

Category winner: It's finger lickin' good, Vijay Karthick. a red snail feeding on dead man's fingers (a fungus found in the rainforests of India).

CREDIT

Vijay Karthick

Increased temperatures contributed to more than 200,000 cases of kidney disease in 15 years in Brazil alone, world’s largest study finds

World’s largest study of the impact of temperature changes and kidney disease reveals that 7.4 per cent of all hospitalisations for renal disease can be attributed to an increase in temperature

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MONASH UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PROFESSOR YUMING GUO view more 

CREDIT: MONASH UNIVERSITY

Today the world’s largest study of the impact of temperature changes and kidney disease reveals that 7.4 per cent of all hospitalisations for renal disease can be attributed to an increase in temperature. In Brazil – where the study was focused – this equated to more than 202,000 cases of kidney disease from 2000-2015.

The study, led by Professor Yuming Guo and Dr Shanshan Li, from Planetary Health at Monash University and published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas journal, for the first time quantifies the risk and attributable burden for hospitalizations of renal diseases related to ambient temperature using daily hospital admission data from 1816 cities in Brazil.

The study comes as the world focuses on the impact of climate change at the COP26 conference in Glasgow from 31 October.

In 2017, a landmark article in The Lancet declared renal diseases a global public health concern, estimating that almost 2.6 million deaths were attributable to impaired kidney function that year. Importantly the incidence of death from kidney disease had risen 26.6 per cent compared to a decade previously, an increase that this study may indicate was, in part, caused by climate change.

The study looked at a total of 2,726,886 hospitalizations for renal diseases recorded during the study period. According to Professor Guo, for every 1°C increase in daily mean temperature,  there is an almost 1 per cent increase in renal disease, with those most impacted being women, children under 4 years of age and those 80+ years of age.

The associations between temperature and renal diseases were largest on the day of the exposure to extreme temperatures but remained for 1–2 days post-exposure.

In the paper the authors – who are also from the University of Sao Paulo – argue that the study “provides robust evidence that more policies should be developed to prevent heat-related hospitalisations and mitigate climate change.”

“In the context of global warming, more strategies and policies should be developed to prevent heat-related hospitalizations.”

The authors advise interventions should be urgently incorporated into government policy on climate change, including particularly targeting specific individuals, including females, children, adolescents, and the elderly, as they are more vulnerable to heat with regard to renal diseases.

“Moreover, attention should be paid to low- and middle-income countries like Brazil, where reliable heat warning systems and preventive measures are still in need,” Professor Guo added.

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Regional Health - Americas

DOI

10.1016/j.lana.2021.100101. 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association between Ambient Temperature and Hospitalization for Renal Diseases in Brazil during 2000–2015: A Nationwide Case-Crossover Study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

31-Oct-2021

COI STATEMENT

None

 

Methane Observatory launched to boost action on powerful climate-warming gas (UNEP / European Commission)

Reports and Proceedings

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

 

IMAGE: THE INTERNATIONAL METHANE EMISSIONS OBSERVATORY (IMEO) IS RELEASING ITS FIRST ANNUAL REPORT ON SUNDAY 31 OCTOBER 2021. THE RELEASE COINCIDES WITH THE G20 SUMMIT IN ROME AND TAKES PLACE JUST A FEW DAYS AHEAD OF THE BEGINNING OF THE 2021 UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE (COP26) IN GLASGOW. THIS REPORT DESCRIBES HOW STATE ACTORS CAN TAKE ACTION TO CURB METHANE EMISSIONS FROM THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY, AND WHAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE AS PART OF THE DECARBONIZATION PROCESS, PARTICULARLY IN THE ENERGY SECTOR. IMEO’S ANNUAL REPORT SEEKS TO PROVIDE DECISION MAKERS WITH A FRAMEWORK OF ACTION TO TRACK AND MONITOR METHANE EMISSIONS TO PLAN TARGETED AND AMBITIOUS ACTION FOR THEIR MITIGATION. view more 

CREDIT: UNEP

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), with support from the European Union, today launched a new Observatory to drive action on reducing methane emissions – a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for at least a quarter of the current climate warming. 

The International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) was launched at the G20 Summit, on the eve of the latest round of climate talks, known as COP26 in Glasgow.

IMEO will improve the reporting accuracy and public transparency of human-caused methane emissions. IMEO will initially focus on methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector, and then expand to other major emitting sectors like agriculture and waste. 

The recently published UNEP-CCAC Global Methane Assessment states that zero or low net-cost reductions could almost halve anthropogenic methane emissions and proven measures could shave 0.28 degrees Celsius from the forecasted rise in the planet’s average temperature by 2050.

IMEO will provide the means to prioritize actions and monitor commitments made by state actors in the Global Methane Pledge – a US- and EU-led effort by over two dozen countries to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. 

Methane: over 80 times more potent than CO2

To stay on track to reach the Paris Agreement goal of limiting climate change to 1.5°C, the world needs to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes that if the world is to achieve the 1.5°C temperature target, deep methane emissions reductions must be achieved over this time. 

“As highlighted by IPCC, if the world is serious about avoiding the worst effects of climate change, we need to cut methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry. But this is not a get-out-of-jail free card: methane reductions must go hand in hand with actions to decarbonize the energy system to limit warming to 1.5°C, as called for in the Paris Agreement,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

Methane released directly into the atmosphere is more than 80 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year time horizon. However, as methane’s atmospheric lifespan is relatively short – 10 to 12 years – actions to cut methane emissions can yield the most immediate reduction in the rate of warming, while also delivering air quality benefits. 

EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said, “Methane has accounted for roughly 30 per cent of global warming since pre-industrial times, and today its emissions are increasing faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s. Existing systems do not allow us to determine precisely enough where emissions happen across the global and in what volumes. Once better data is available, countries can take swift and well-targeted action. In the EU, we will already propose pioneering legislation to cut methane emissions this year. This includes mandatory leak detection and repair and limiting venting and flaring.”

The fossil fuel industry is responsible for one-third of anthropogenic emissions and is the sector with the highest potential for reductions. The wasted methane, the main component in natural gas, is a valuable source of energy that could be used to fuel power plants or homes. 

IMEO: an independent and trusted entity 

The Observatory will produce a global public dataset of empirically verified methane emissions – starting with the fossil fuel sector - at an increasing level of granularity and accuracy by integrating data principally from four streams: reporting from the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0),  direct measurement data from scientific studies, remote sensing data, and national inventories. This will allow IMEO to engage companies and governments around the world to utilize this data to target strategic mitigation actions and support science-based policy options.

Critical to this effort are data collected through OGMP 2.0, launched in November 2020 in the framework of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. OGMP 2.0 is the only comprehensive, measurement-based reporting framework for the oil and gas sector, and its 74 member companies represent many of the world’s largest operators across the entire value chain, with assets that account for over 30 per cent of all oil and gas production.

IMEO: First Annual Report 

In a report released to coincide with the launch, IMEO laid out its Theory of Change, at the heart of which is the need for an independent and trusted entity to integrate these multiple sources of heterogenous data into a coherent and policy-relevant dataset. The report also includes the analysis of the first reports submitted by the company members of the OGMP 2.0. During this first year, most companies put significant effort into reporting and outlined ambitious 2025 reduction targets. Out of the 55 companies that set targets, 30 meet or exceed the recommended targets of 45% reduction or near-zero methane intensity, and 51 have submitted plans that provide confidence the accuracy of their data will improve in the next 3-5 years.

Hosted by UNEP, IMEO is budgeted at EUR 100 million over five years. To maintain its independence and credibility, it will receive no industry funding. Instead, IMEO will be entirely funded by governments and philanthropies, with core resources provided by the European Commission as a founding member.

About the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

About the European Commission

The European Commission is the European Union’s politically independent executive arm. It is alone responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. 

For more information on the EU-US Global Methane Pledge

Joint EU-US Statement on the Global Methane Pledge (europa.eu)

New release! Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT) website

Business Announcement

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

 

IMAGE: NEW AP-PLAT WEBSITE WAS REDESIGNED TO PROVIDE BETTER USER EXPERIENCE. view more 

CREDIT: CCCA, NIES

Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform (AP-PLAT) website is accessible at https://ap-plat.nies.go.jp/

 

1. Background of the website

The Climate Change Adaptation Centre is responsible for developing an international information sharing system on climate change and other related issues, as stipulated in the Climate Change Adaptation Act of Japan. We have been operating our website since June 2019 with the aim of disseminating information in the Asia Pacific region, but now we have created and published scientific tools and redesigned the entire website to expand its content.

 

2. Major website contents

ClimoCast

ClimoCast is an online tool that allows users to check future regional climate projections based on the latest climate data (CMIP6 data). It was developed by the Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Platform (AP-PLAT) Center for Climate Change Adaptation (CCCA) with a mission to make climate projections accessible to all individuals, including those that lack a similar academic background. Users can compare four major emission scenarios (SSP126–585), compare the results of ten different climate models, and download the corresponding data.

 

Climate Impact Viewer

The Climate Impact Viewer shows the results of climate change impact assessment in various sectors, including existing climate, water resources, vegetation, agriculture, and health. Users can visually compare global projections across different sectors and time scales.

 

ClimoKit

ClimoKit is a database of free online resources that can be utilized in climate impact assessments and adaptation planning. Users can rapidly find the most relevant data or tools in their sectors or regions by applying search filters. Some resources are designed for general public use, while others require specific knowledge or skills.

 

Capacity development

Capacity development content provides self-paced online learning videos and the most updated scientific tools to support various stakeholders in developing effective policies and planning relevant activities. It aims to build capacity for better climate adaptation in the region. Functioning as a regional hub, this platform also promotes knowledge exchange in collaboration with key partners of capacity development in climate change adaptation.

  

CAPTION

ClimoCast is an online tool that allows users to check future regional climate projections based on the latest climate data (CMIP6 data). It was developed by the Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Platform (AP-PLAT) Center for Climate Change Adaptation (CCCA) with a mission to make climate projections accessible to all individuals, including those that lack a similar academic background. Users can compare four major emission scenarios (SSP126–585), compare the results of ten different climate models, and download the corresponding data.

CREDIT

CCCA, NIES

Others

The website also provides regular updates on the latest developments in adaptation in countries, cities and international organisations, as well as information on the status of adaptation planning.

 

3. Future prospects

We will continue to conduct adaptive research, collect and analyse information, develop new tools and enhance each content. We will also consider how we can enhance the content based on feedback from users and stakeholders.

 

4. Other

The launch of the redesigned website will also be announced at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which opens on Sunday, 31 October and closes on Friday, 12 November 2021 in Glasgow, UK.

 

We are looking forward to seeing you back on our renewed website in November!

CAPTION

The Climate Impact Viewer shows the results of climate change impact assessment in various sectors, including the existing climate, water resources, vegetation, agriculture, and health. Users can visually compare global projections across different sectors and time scales.

CREDIT

CCCA, NIES

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

Pandemic solitude was positive experience for many

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF READING

Time spent alone during the pandemic led to positive effects on well-being across all ages, new research has found.

The study of more than 2000 teenagers and adults, published in Frontiers in Psychology today, found that most people experienced benefits from solitude during the early days of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

All age groups experienced positive as well as negative effects of being alone. However, the researchers found that descriptions of solitude included more positive effects than negative. On average, well-being scores when participants were alone were 5 out of 7 across all ages, including adolescents aged 13-16.

Some study participants talked about worsening mood or wellbeing, but most described their experiences of solitude in terms of feeling, competent and feeling autonomous. 43% of all respondents mentioned that solitude involved activities and experiences of competence – time spent on skills-building and activities, and that was consistent across all ages. Meanwhile, autonomy – self-connection and reliance on self – was a major feature particularly for adults, who mentioned it twice as often as teenage participants.

Working age adults recorded the most negative experiences with more participants mentioning disrupted well-being (35.6% vs 29.4% in adolescents and 23.7% in older adults) and negative mood (44% vs 27.8% in adolescents and 24.5% in older adults). Experiences of alienation, or the cost of not interacting with friends, were twice as frequent among adolescents (around one in seven, or 14.8%) as when compared to adults (7%) with older adults mentioning it most infrequently (2.3%).

Dr Netta Weinstein, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Reading and lead author of the paper said:

“Our paper shows that aspects of solitude, a positive way of describing being alone, is recognised across all ages as providing benefits for our well-being.

“The conventional wisdom is that adolescents on the whole found that the pandemic was a negative experience, but we see in our study how components of solitude can be positive. Over those first few months of the pandemic here in the UK, we see that working adults were actually the most likely to mention aspects of worsening well-being and mood, but even those are not as commonly mentioned as more positive experiences of solitude.

“We conducted the research in the summer of 2020 which coincided with the end of the first national lockdown in the UK. We know that many people reconnected with hobbies and interests or increasingly appreciating nature on walks and bike rides during that time, and those elements of what we describe as ‘self-determined motivation’, where we choose to spend time alone for ourselves are seemingly a critical aspect of positive wellbeing.

“Seeing working age adults experience disrupted well-being and negative mood may in fact be related to the pandemic reducing our ability to find peaceful solitude. As we all adjusted to a  ‘new normal’, many working adults found that usual moments of being alone, whether on their commute or during a work break where disrupted. Even for the most ardent of extroverts, these small windows of peace shows the important role of time alone for our mental health. “It also suggests that certain experiences of solitude are learned or valued increasingly with age, having an effect to reduce the impact of negative elements of loneliness and generally boosting well-being. Equally, it suggests that casual inferences about loneliness based on age and stage miss the reality of our nuanced lived experiences.”

The results come from a series of in-depth interviews where participants from the UK answered open questions about their experiences of solitude. The team of researchers coded the answers to find shared experiences and measured quantitative data about two aspects of wellbeing associated with solitude, self-determined motivation (the choice to spend time alone) and peaceful mood.

The researchers note that the findings were taken from one phase of the Covid-19 pandemic during the summer of 2020, and recommend that follow up data looks at experiences of solitude during challenging periods such as this one, and also more commonplace periods where daily solitude may look and feel different.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Psychology

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.714518 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

What Time Alone Offers: Narratives of Solitude From Adolescence to Older Adulthood

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Nov-2021

3D printing frames a restoration for coral

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

 

IMAGE: KAUST SCIENTISTS ARE 3D PRINTING BESPOKE CALCIUM CARBONATE SURFACES THAT CORALS CAN GROW ON, WHICH MAY SPEED UP CORAL RESTORATION. view more 

CREDIT: © 2021 KAUST; ANASTASIA SERIN.

Coral restoration could become easier and quicker with the use of 3D printing. As the technology matures, it could be used to rapidly and reliably create support structures for corals to grow on.

 

Coral reefs around the world are suffering from warming oceans and increasing pollution. Reef restoration efforts employ concrete blocks or metal frames as substrates for coral growth. The resulting restoration is slow because corals deposit their carbonate skeleton at a rate of just millimeters per year.

Charlotte Hauser and her team are exploring the use of 3D printing to speed up the process. “Coral microfragments grow more quickly on our printed or molded calcium carbonate surfaces that we create for them to grow on because they don’t need to build a limestone structure underneath,” says Hamed Albalawi, one of the lead authors of the study. In essence, the idea is to provide the corals with a head start so the reef can recover faster.

 

The idea itself is not new. Researchers have tested several approaches to print coral support structures. However, most efforts have used synthetic materials, though work is being done to use hybrid materials. The team developed and tested a new approach called 3D CoraPrint, which uses an ecofriendly and sustainable calcium carbonate photo-initiated (CCP) ink that they also developed. Tests in aquariums have shown that CCP is nontoxic, though the researchers are planning longer-term tests.

 

Unlike existing approaches, which rely on passive colonization of the printed support structure, 3D CoraPrint involves attaching coral microfragments to the printed skeleton to start the colonization process. It also incorporates two different printing methods, both of which start with a scanned model of a coral skeleton. In the first method, the model is printed, and the print is then used to cast a silicon mold. The final structure is produced by filling the mold with CCP ink. In the second method, the support structure is printed directly using the CCP ink.

 

The two approaches offer complementary advantages. Creating a mold means the structure can be easily and quickly reproduced, but the curing process limits the size of the mold. Direct printing is slower and lower resolution, but it allows for individual customization and the creation of larger structures.

 

“With 3D printing and molds, we can get both flexibility and mimicry of what’s already going on in nature,” says Zainab Khan, the study’s other lead author. “The structure and process can be as close as possible to nature. Our goal is to facilitate that.”

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JOURNAL

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c04148 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Coral Restoration through 3D Printing and Fabrication

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Sep-2021

THE SECRET CHEMISTRY THAT MAKES HONEY A SCIENTIFIC WONDER

The benefits of the sweet stuff go well beyond simply nourishing the hardworking insects in the hive.

BERLY MCCOY AND KNOWABLE MAGAZINE
10.30.2021

IT SHOULD COME as no surprise that bees know a lot about honey. They aren’t only honey producers — they are also consumers and pretty sophisticated ones at that. Offer a sick bee different varieties of honey, for example, and it will choose the one that best fights off its infection.

People, on the other hand, have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to the nutritional nuances of honey. Just a few decades ago, most lists of “functional foods” — those that offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition — failed to mention it, says entomologist May Berenbaum. “Even beekeepers — and certainly bee scientists — considered it nothing more than sugar water.”

Since that time, a large body of research has revealed that honey is chock-full of plant chemicals that influence honeybee health. Components in honey can help bees live longer, boost their tolerance to harsh conditions such as intense colds, and heighten their ability to fight off infections and heal wounds. The findings hint at ways to help bees, which have been hit hard in recent years by parasites, pesticide exposure, and habitat loss.

“It’s just such a remarkable substance, and I think people maybe still don’t quite appreciate it,” says Berenbaum, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Brothers91/E+/Getty Images

A DIVE INTO THE HIVE — It’s tasty on toast or stirred into tea, but honey is much more than a sweetener. Certainly, the viscous liquid is mostly sugar, which hive members use for sustenance, but it also harbors enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and organic molecules that give each honey its uniqueness and confer a slew of health benefits to bees.

A variety of insects can produce honey — bumblebees, stingless bees, even honey wasps — but only honeybees (Apis species) produce enough to stock grocery store shelves. This ability didn’t happen overnight; it was millions of years in the making.

Bees made the split from wasps around 120 million years ago, during a surge in the evolution and spread of flowering plants. This floral diversity — along with a shift in bee behavior of feeding pollen, rather than insects, to bee larvae — spurred the evolution of the approximately 20,000 bee species known today.

Becoming an expert honey-maker took a few more behavioral and chemical tricks. Bees started adding a bit of nectar to the pollen, which molded it into more transportable bundles. They also developed wax secretion glands, which provided a way to separately store the liquid nectar and solid pollen.

“The wax allows for a very flexible building material,” says Christina Grozinger, an entomologist at Penn State University, who studies mechanisms underlying bee social behavior and health. When forming a honeycomb, honeybees mold wax into hexagons, which turns out to be the most efficient shape to store something, since hexagons pack tightly together. “It’s an engineering feat,” Grozinger says.


A close up of bees ‘n’ honey. Ramlan Jalil / EyeEm/EyeEm/Getty Images

WHY HONEY IS MEDICINE TO BEES

Nectar is what led Berenbaum to honey, an interest that first blossomed in the mid-1990s. She knew that nectar was infused with a ton of plant chemicals, called phytochemicals: compounds that deter pests and help with plant growth and metabolism. She had a hunch that these phytochemicals were coming along for the ride when bees turned nectar into honey. And if they were, she wanted to know what they might be doing for the bees.

So Berenbaum began probing the diversity of chemicals in honey. In 1998, her team found that different kinds of honey contained different levels of antioxidants depending on the honey’s floral origin.

“That piqued my interest,” she says. Her group later found that honeybees fed sugar water mixed with two honey phytochemicals — p-coumaric acid and the potent antioxidant quercetin — tolerated pesticides better than ones that just got the sugar water. On top of that, the bees that received the water laced with phytochemicals lived longer than the bees that did not, she and her colleagues reported in 2017 in Insects.

Other research has unearthed the effects of additional phytochemicals in honey:
Abscisic acid boosts bees’ immune response, improves wound-healing time, and tolerance to cold temperatures, studies show

Other phytochemicals blunt the impact of parasites, one of the major causes of honeybee decline
For example, giving fungus-infected honeybees a syrup containing thymol, a phytochemical from thyme plants, cut the number of fungal spores by more than half
Phytochemicals have even been shown to inhibit the bacteria that cause European and American foulbrood, the latter of which is so devastating and contagious that burning whole hives is recommended to prevent its spread

Some phytochemicals seem to do their stuff by enhancing the activity of genes related to detoxification and immunity. When bees are fed nectar phytochemicals such as anabasine, for example, a gene in charge of making antimicrobial proteins dialed up production, a team reported in 2017 in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

And phytochemicals might confer health by keeping happy the microbial communities that live in and on honeybees: their microbiomes. Caffeine, gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, and kaempferol all improve the diversity and quantity of honeybee gut microbes, researchers reported last year in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. Healthy gut microbiomes in honeybees have been linked to lower intensities of multiple parasitic infections.

Honeybees even choose a health-improving variety of honey when they’re sick. Entomologist Silvio Erler and his team presented parasite-infected honeybees with four honey types. “We simply gave them a choice,” says Erler, now at the Julius Kühn-Institut in Germany. The sick bees preferred sunflower honey, which was also the best medicine for the infection and had the highest antibiotic activity, the team reported in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

But bees are able to build up their honey pharmacy only if the right flowers are available — not just in numbers and diversity, but throughout the growing season, says Berenbaum, who coauthored an overview of honey’s impact on bee health in the 2021 Annual Review of Entomology. This biodiversity is lacking in the large crop fields that bees are shipped to each year to pollinate staples like almonds, apples, pumpkins, and pears.

Improving the floral diversity does make for healthier bees, says Arathi Seshadri, an entomologist at the United States Department of Agriculture Honey Bee Health Lab in Davis, California. And the USDA incentivizes landowners to convert sections of cropland into wildlife areas through the Conservation Reserve Program. “Agriculture has to go on,” Seshadri says. “But it also has to sustain pollinators.”

Better bee nutrition won’t solve all the problems bees face. But making sure that honeybees have access to their own medicine may help, Erler says. Beekeepers, he suggests, could leave portions of the honey made from various blooms in the hive so that bees have a well-stocked honey pharmacy all year long.

And Berenbaum, who began her investigations years ago because she didn’t think honey was getting nearly enough research respect, says that the accumulating knowledge is a step in the right direction. “I’m glad,” she says, “to see it’s finally attracting some attention.”

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

Mexico City Comes Alive For Day Of Dead Parade

By Jean Luis Arce
10/31/21 

Giant skeletons, colorful costumes, mariachi music and dancers filled downtown Mexico City on Sunday as the Day of the Dead parade returned for the first time since the pandemic began.

Thousands of people, including locals and tourists, lined the route through the capital for a glimpse of the procession, which was canceled last year due to the coronavirus.

Thousands of people lined the route in Mexico City for a glimpse of the Day of the Dead procession Photo: AFP / CLAUDIO CRUZ

Like many, Yadira Altamirano came with her face painted as "Catrina," a skeletal representation of death that has become a symbol of one of Mexico's most important festivals.

"Last year I wanted to come, but it was canceled," said the 38-year-old Mexican, who has lived in the United States since she was a child.

"Now we have our chance," said Altamirano, an enthusiastic practitioner of the Day of the Dead traditions.

People take part in Mexico City's Day of the Dead parade, which returned in 2021 for the first time since the pandemic began Photo: AFP / CLAUDIO CRUZ

"I'm the only one in my family who always puts out an altar, and we always have dinner on November 2 at midnight," she said.

The parade began in the Zocalo, the capital's main square, where city authorities dedicated the event to medical workers on the pandemic frontline, as well as to the victims.

While the Day of the Dead is one of Mexico's most important festivals, the parade itself was inspired by the opening scene of the 2015 James Bond movie "Spectre" Photo: AFP / CLAUDIO CRUZ

The country of 126 million has an official Covid-19 death toll of more than 288,000 -- one of the highest in the world.

But with most adults in the capital now vaccinated against the virus, and daily deaths trending lower, the authorities gave the green light for the parade to go ahead this year.

Mexican authorities dedicated the Day of the Dead event to medical workers and victims of the pandemic Photo: AFP / CLAUDIO CRUZ

"It feels great, although of course with the proper precautions against Covid," said Conchis Garcia, 52, who came with his family from the eastern state of Veracruz.

The dancers and floats paid tribute to Mexican culture and tradition, from street food vendors to authors, icons of cinema and the painter Frida Kahlo.

With its bright colors and cartoonish skeleton costumes, the Day of the Dead has become an internationally recognized symbol of Mexican culture.

From November 1-2, people across the country normally deck their homes, streets and relatives' graves with flowers, candles and colorful skulls.

The festival, which in 2003 was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, centers around the belief that the living and the dead can commune during the brief period.

The street procession is a relatively recent addition to the celebrations.

First held in 2016, it was inspired by the opening scene of the 2015 James Bond movie "Spectre."

In the movie, the British agent played by Daniel Craig goes after a bad guy through a parade featuring giant skeletons floating among people dancing with their faces painted as skulls.

Authorities decided to recreate the procession to boost tourism.

Last year, it was canceled as the government urged people to stay at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus, and many graveyards were shut to prevent crowds gathering.
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