Saturday, July 03, 2021

Global network transforming tropical forest research

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

A huge global network of researchers is working together to take the pulse of our global tropical forests.

ForestPlots.net, which is co-ordinated from the University of Leeds, brings together more than 2,500 scientists who have examined millions of trees to explore the effect of climate change on forests and biodiversity.

A new research paper published in Biological Conservation explains the origins of the network, and how the power of collaboration is transforming forest research in Africa, South America and Asia.

The paper includes 551 researchers and outlines 25 years of discovery in the carbon, biodiversity and dynamics of tropical forests.

Professor Oliver Phillips, of Leeds' School of Geography, said "Our new paper shows how we are linking students, botanists, foresters and policy-makers with the ForestPlots.net technology developed at Leeds.

"This drives a new model of collective research. This is helping to transform scientific understanding of how tropical forests work - and how they are helping to slow climate change.

"In this new synthesis we outline how this collaboration has been built, and trace the exciting potential of collaborative science that reaches across the world's tropical forests to embrace colleagues from all countries and backgrounds."

ForestPlots.net provides a unique place to measure, monitor, and understand the world's forests, and especially the tropical forests.

Established in 2009, it has grown fast to track 5,138 plots in 59 countries, with a network of 2,512 people.

The collaboration, funded by UK NERC and the Royal Society, aims to promote cooperation across countries and continents, and enable partners to access, analyse and manage the information from their long-term plots.

Professor Phillips said: "Our core approach links long-term, grassroots researchers to generate robust large-scale results.

"This global, diverse community is measuring thousands of forests tree-by-tree in long-term plots.

"By connecting tropical researchers together and valuing the key role of the data originator in scientific discovery, our Social Research Network model of research seeks to support the key workers who make 21st century big data science possible."

ForestPlots.net hosts data from many individual researchers and networks including AfriTRON, ECOFOR, PPBio, RAINFOR, TROBIT and T-FORCES.

Working together equitably, the network has shown that long-term monitoring of forests on-the-ground is irreplaceable, making scientific discoveries across the globe.

Through large scale analysis, ForestPlots.net researchers discover where and why forest carbon and biodiversity respond to climate change, and how they help control it with a billion tonne annual carbon sink.

The new research paper, Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots, provides a vision for more integrated and equitable monitoring of Earth's most precious ecosystems.

The collaborative paper is particularly timely as it also highlights the impact Leeds and research partners have made to the understanding of carbon dynamics in tropical forests ahead of the global climate conference COP26, which takes place in Glasgow in November.

CAPTION

Amazon Forest canopy at dawn in Brazil

CREDIT

Peter van der Sleen

Further information

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108849

For image and video requests, or to arrange interviews, please contact Ian Rosser in the University of Leeds press office i.rosser@leeds.ac.uk

Energy production at Mutriku remains constant even if the wave force increases

The EOLO group has developed a statistical model that relates the power generation of the Mutriku wave farm to wave energy

UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

Research News

IMAGE: GABRIEL IBARRA AND AN IMAGE OF THE DOCK THAT HOUSES THE MUTRIKU FACILITIES FOR TRANSFORMING WAVE ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL POWER view more
CREDIT: MITXI. UPV/EHU

The Mutriku wave power plant was built on the Mutriku breakwater, a site with great wave energy potential, and has been in operation since 2011. With 14 oscillating water columns to transform wave energy, it is the only wave farm in the world that supplies electricity to the grid on a continuous basis. In general, technologies that harness the power of the waves to produce electricity are in their infancy, and this is precisely what is being explored by the UPV/EHU's Research Group EOLO, which focusses on Meteorology, Climate and Environment, among many other aspects.

Gabriel Ibarra, researcher in the group and lecturer in the UPV/EHU's Department of Energy Engineering, explained that "one thing is the energy the waves produce, the hydraulic energy they have, and another thing is the amount of electrical power obtained from them". This is what they have been working on over the last few years. "After identifying some of the key aspects of the operation of the Mutriku facilities a few years ago, we have now developed a methodology that allows us to find out the impact of climate change on the output at Mutriku. We have used it to reconstruct the daily electrical power that would have been generated if the Mutriku wave farm had been operational during the entire 1979-2019 period, and this will help us to predict what might happen in the future," explained Ibarra.

The researcher affirmed that "we have found that there has been a growing trend in the strength of the waves in the Bay of Biscay as a result of climate change, from 1900 to the present day. The aim was therefore to analyse how the Mutriku facilities responded to this trend. In this respect, while taking into account the evolution of the waves over the last four decades, we developed a methodology that allows us to determine how this increase may affect generation at Mutriku".

Wave energy increases, but not electricity output

The research group found that "in the Mutriku area this upward trend in wave energy is not as high as in other areas of the Bay of Biscay, and that this trend would be dampened and electricity output would remain constant at the Mutriku facilities as a result of the way they function, their regulation system". It follows that the energy flow levels off above a certain threshold and is therefore more stable than the wave energy flow; consequently, they determined that moderate long-term changes in wave energy cannot directly affect wave power installations consisting of oscillating water columns. In Ibarra's opinion, much stronger waves would be needed to increase electricity production.

In the study, they identified ten main types of sea state with which a distinctive pattern of electrical power generation has been associated on a daily scale. This has allowed them to reconstruct the daily electrical power that would have been generated if the Mutriku wave farm had been operational during the entire 1979-2019 period and, consequently, to assess the impact that the observed changes in the wave climate and the associated energy flow would have had on electrical power output.

So, "the next step is to consider the future that climate change will bring and make a forecast; we believe that this upward trend will continue and we want to see, firstly, whether this trend will be on a large or small scale, and secondly, what impact this will have in the future, over the coming decades, on output at Mutriku. All the research carried out at the Mutriku facilities is hugely useful in advancing this type of technology, as it is the only facility in the world that supplies energy continuously to the grid", said Ibarra. The research has therefore shown that highly reliable feasibility and economic studies of wave power facilities can be carried out, as the future uncertainties of the resource itself will not have a significant impact on the electrical power performance of the installations throughout their life cycles.

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Solar hydrogen for Antarctica -- study shows advantages of thermally coupled approach

A team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Ulm University, and Heidelberg University has now investigated how hydrogen can be produced at the South Pole using sunlight, and which method is the most promising

HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM BERLIN FÜR MATERIALIEN UND ENERGIE

Research News

IMAGE: IN POLAR REGIONS AND AT HIGH ALTITUDES THE CONVERSION OF SOLAR RADIATION INTO HYDROGEN COULD CERTAINLY BE WORTHWHILE. view more
CREDIT: ENERGY&ENV.SCIENCE. DOI: 10.1039/D1EE00650A.

When environmental physicist Kira Rehfeld, from Heidelberg University, visited Antarctica for her research, she was struck by the intense light there. "It's always light in summer. This solar radiation could actually be used to supply the research infrastructure with energy", she observes. However, generators, engines, and heaters in these remote regions have mostly been powered until now by fossil fuels delivered by ship, such as petroleum or petrol, which cause global warming. Besides the high associated economic costs, pollution from even the smallest spills is also a major problem threatening the especially sensitive ecosystem.

Fossil fuels could be replaced by hydrogen, though, a versatile energy medium that in addition is able to be stored extremely well at low temperatures. "Our idea was therefore to use solar modules to produce climate-neutral hydrogen on site during the Antarctic summer by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis", says May, then a postdoc at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin Institute for Solar Fuels. Rehfeld and May applied for funding from the Volkswagen Foundation to investigate whether hydrogen can be generated using sunlight even at sub-zero temperatures, and which method is best suited for this. Low temperatures can considerably reduce the efficiency of electrolysis, though cold actually increases the efficiency of most solar modules.

May and his HZB colleague, Moritz Kölbach, have now empirically compared two different approaches: a conventional setup in which the photovoltaic module is thermally and physically separated from the electrolysis tank, and a newer, thermally coupled setup in which the photovoltaic module is in close contact with the wall of the electrolysis tank, promoting thermal diffusion. To simulate Antarctic conditions, Kölbach obtained a freezer, cut a hole in the door, installed a quartz window, and illuminated the inside of the cabinet with simulated sunlight. He filled the electrolysis container with 30 per cent sulphuric acid (also known as battery acid) that has a freezing point around -35 degrees Celsius and conducts electricity well.

Kölbach then set up the experimental cells, and carried out the series of measurements. During operation, it became apparent that the cell with the thermally coupled PV modules produced comparatively more hydrogen, since the illuminated PV modules pass their waste heat directly to the electrolyser. "We were even able to increase the efficiency by adding additional thermal insulation to the electrolyser. As a result, the electrolyte temperature climbed during illumination from -20 to as high as +13.5 degrees Celsius", says Kölbach.

The results of this study confirm that thermally coupled systems have potentially higher efficiency than thermally decoupled ones. Whether these advantages can be exploited economically, however, remains to be seen. "Therefore, in the next phase we want to test prototypes under realistic conditions. That will certainly be exciting and we are currently looking for partners for this", says May.

Locally generated solar hydrogen could be an option for replacing fossil fuels and eliminating the associated pollution danger to the environment and CO2 emissions, not only at the South Pole, but also in other extremely cold and sparsely populated regions of the world. This could include the high Alps, Canada and Alaska, the Andes, and other mountainous regions like the Himalayas.

"Perhaps solar-generated hydrogen will be economically viable initially in these kinds of remote regions of the world", says May, recalling the triumphant advance of photovoltaics, which first began supplying power to satellites in space about 60 years ago.

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The study was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation under their "Experiment!" funding initiative ("Solar Hydrogen for Antarctica: Water Splitting under Extreme Conditions").

CAPTION

The experiment is located in the freezer. Light comes through a window and generates via solar cells the voltage needed for electrolytical water splitting.

CREDIT

M. Kölbach/HZB

CAPTION

Efficiency increases, when the photovoltaic module is in close contact with the wall of the electrolysis tank.

CREDIT

M. Kölbach/HZB

Waste hop stem in the beer industry upcycled into cellulose nanofibers

YOKOHAMA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Research News

Some three quarters of the biomass in hop plants used in beer-making ends up in landfills. But a group of Japanese researchers has developed a technique that 'upcycles' that waste hop into cellulose nanofibers (CNFs). A paper describing the technique was published in the journal ACS Agricultural Science & Technology on June 11.

In the past few years, craft beer-making has exploded in popularity around the world, including many beer styles that make use of many more and different types of hops than conventional commercial beers. A traditional preservative in beer, hops also add a rich bitterness and impart floral or citrus aromas and flavors. As a result, hop production hit a record high in 2019.

However, only the flower of the hop plant is used in beer making. The stems and leaves, which make up about 75 percent of the biomass produced in hop cultivation, are typically burned or tossed in a landfill after harvest. As some 75% of hop plants end up in landfills, the technique should reduce the beer industry's growing waste and land footprint while also cutting back on petroleum feedstocks.

A group of researchers have developed a technique that 'upcycles' these waste products by using hop stems as raw material to extract CNFs. Since the 2000s, there has been increasing interest in CNFs due to their outstanding properties, including low weight and high strength and stabilization. Thanks to those advantages, CNFs are expected to be used as excellent plant-derived materials for reducing the amount of petroleum based plastics in various industrial applications such as automotive and housing industries as well as food and cosmetic fields.

"This really would deserve a hearty 'cheers' if we managed to reduce dependence on petroleum while also radically reducing the agricultural waste from the beer industry," said Izuru Kawamura, associate professor in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Yokohama National University and the lead researcher on the project.

CNFs had been extracted successfully from wood and from agro-industrial wastes such as pineapple leaves, banana stems, grapefruit peels, and even spent coffee grounds from cafes.

"But until now, no attempt had been made to isolate CNFs from hop stems," Kawamura added.

Plant cell walls are made of cellulose microfibrils, or very small and slender fibers, in a matrix composed of lignin and hemicellulose. The particular chemical compositions of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin vary widely depending on the source of the fibers.

Generally, CNFs are extracted from wood pulp via a series of purification steps followed by refinement via treatment with chemicals or enzymes. Previously, a technique involving application of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical (described more simply as 'TEMPO) to pretreated cellulose from wood followed by a gentle mechanical disintegration in water had obtained CNFs of 3-4 nanometers in width.

The researchers used the TEMPO technique, but also reduced the pretreatment processes for removing lignin and hemicellulose in hop stems which is considered as lignocellulose fibers prior to the TEMPO step. Even without the pretreatments, they could obtain CNFs with a median of about 2 nanometers. Using the chemical composition analysis, they were able to conclude that the hop stems contained a proportion of cellulose that is almost equal in proportion to that of wood.

This means that not only could this technique replace petroleum, but in a third environmental win, hop waste could also be used instead of wood as an alternative source for CNFs.

"You might even say 'three cheers' for CNFs from hops."

As a next step, the team wants to actually prepare some emulsions stabilized by hop stem-derived CNFs and demonstrate to industry their feasibility. If successful, they should lead to a significant reduction in the amount of conventional synthetic surfactants used.

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Yokohama National University (YNU or Yokokoku) is a Japanese national university founded in 1949. YNU provides students with a practical education utilizing the wide expertise of its faculty and facilitates engagement with the global community. YNU's strength in the academic research of practical application sciences leads to high-impact publications and contributes to international scientific research and the global society. For more information, please see: https://www.ynu.ac.jp/english/

Air pollution during pregnancy may affect growth of newborn babies

A study by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country analyses the relationship between atmospheric pollution during pregnancy and the level of thyroxine in newborns

UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

Research News

IMAGE: AIR POLLUTION AFFECTS THE THYROID GLANDS, AND THYROID HORMONES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR REGULATING FOETAL GROWTH AND METABOLISM AND PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN NEUROLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. view more
CREDIT: BERNAT ALBERDI

According to studies in recent years, air pollution affects the thyroid. Thyroid hormones are essential for regulating foetal growth and metabolism, and play an important role in neurological development. Thyroxine (T4) is the main thyroid hormone that is circulating and the thyroid-stimulating hormone is TSH. At 48 hours newborn babies undergo a heel prick test in which thyroxine and TSH levels in the blood are measured. In fact, if the balance of these thyroid hormones is not right, the risk of developing serious diseases increases. That is why, "this study set out to analyse the relationship between atmospheric pollution during pregnancy and the level of thyroxine in the newborn", explained Amaia Irizar-Loibide, a researcher in the UPV/EHU's Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter less than 2.5 micra in diameter (PM2.5) are two of the main pollutants related to air pollution and vehicle traffic. PM2.5 particles for example are very fine and easily enter the respiratory tract. "In this work we specifically analysed the effect of maternal exposure to these fine particles and to nitrogen dioxide during pregnancy and the link existing with thyroxine levels in newborn babies. We have been monitoring on a weekly basis, as the development of the foetus varies greatly from one week to the next. So we tried to conduct the most detailed research possible in order to find out which the most sensitive weeks of pregnancy are", added the UPV/EHU researcher.

So the sample of the INMA (Environment and Childhood) project in Gipuzkoa was analysed. Data on the air pollutants PM2.5 and NO2, data on TSH and T4 levels from neonatal heels, etc. collected in the project were also used.

According to Amaia Irizar, "the results obtained in this study have revealed the direct relationship between exposure to fine particles during pregnancy and the level of thyroxine in newborns. However, we have not observed a clear link with exposure to nitrogen dioxide". These results therefore coincide with the limited previous research. "What we have seen in this work," stressed Irizar, "is that exposure during the first months of pregnancy has a direct influence on the balance of thyroid hormones. These babies tend to have a lower level of thyroxine. As the pregnancy progresses, we found that this relationship gradually diminishes, i.e. the mother's exposure gradually becomes less important. In late pregnancy, however, this link becomes apparent again, but displays an opposite effect: as the concentration of these fine particles increases, we have seen that the level of thyroid hormones also increases, which has the opposite effect on the balance". "It is not clear what mechanism lies behind all this. In any case, we have come to the conclusion that the most sensitive periods of pregnancy in terms of atmospheric pollution are the early and late months," the UPV/EHU researcher stressed.

"The next task would be to study the mechanisms by which these fine particles cause opposing effects in early and late pregnancy. In fact, these particles are nothing more than small spheres made up of carbon, and it is not clear whether the effect these spheres exert is because they pass from the placenta to the baby, whether other components attached to the particles are released once they have entered the body...," she explained. "We need to continue to investigate whether exposure during pregnancy affects not only thyroid hormones, but also other aspects such as neuropsychological development, growth, obesity, etc.," explained Amaia Irizar.

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INMA - Environment and Childhood Project

INMA (Environment and Childhood) is a research project that aims to analyse early exposure to environmental pollutants and their impact on infant health.

HEY KENNEY

Lottery-based incentives do not increase COVID-19 vaccination rates

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

(Boston)--Would you be more willing to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus if you could participate in a lottery for cash and prizes? The answer was surprisingly no, according to Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers who found that Ohio's "Vax-a-Million" lottery-based incentive system, intended to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates, was not associated with an increase in COVD-19 vaccinations.

Prior reports in the media had suggested that the Ohio lottery increased COVID-19 vaccinations, leading other states to use COVID-19 vaccine incentive lotteries in an attempt to increase slowing vaccination rates. "However, prior evaluations of the Ohio vaccine incentive lottery did not account for other changes in COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States, such as those that may have been due to expansion of vaccination to ages 12-15," explained corresponding author Allan J. Walkey, MD, MSc, professor of medicine at BUSM.

Using data from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control to evaluate trends in vaccination rates among adults 18 and older, the researchers compared vaccination rates before and after the Ohio lottery versus other states in the U.S. that did not yet have vaccine incentive lottery programs. Vaccination rates in other states served as a "control" for vaccination trends measured in Ohio, allowing the researchers to account for factors besides the Ohio lottery (such expanding vaccine eligibility to adolescents) throughout the country.

"Our results suggest that state-based lotteries are of limited value in increasing vaccine uptake. Therefore, the resources devoted to vaccine lotteries may be more successfully invested in programs that target underlying reasons for vaccine hesitancy and low vaccine uptake," said Walkey, a physician at Boston Medical Center.

The researchers believe identifying interventions that can successfully increase COVID-19 vaccination rates is a critical public health issue necessary to curb the pandemic. "It is important to rigorously evaluate strategies designed to increase vaccine uptake, rapidly deploy successful strategies, and phase out those that do not work," Walkey said.

Although Walkey and his colleagues were sorry to see that state lottery incentives were not associated with an increase COVID-19 vaccinations, they hope their findings will lead to a shift in focus away from ineffective and expensive lotteries, and on to further study of other programs that may more successfully increase vaccine uptake.

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These findings appear online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Allan J Walkey was funded by NIH R01HL139751, NIH R01HL151607, NIH R01HL136660, and NIH OT2HL156812-01. Anica C Law was funded by NIH K23HL 153482. Nicholas A Bosch was funded by NIH 1F32GM133061-01.

Gulf Of Mexico: ‘Eye Of Fire’ Doused, Environmentalists Criticise Mexico’s Fossil Fuel Policy

Mexico's state-owned oil company said Friday that an undersea gas pipeline ruptured near a drilling platform in the Gulf.

Associated Press (AP)04 July 2021,

Greenpeace Mexico said the accident Friday appeared to have been caused by the failure of an underwater valve and that it illustrates the dangers of Mexico policy of promoting fossil fuels.

Environmentalists criticized Mexico's state-owned oil company Saturday after a gas leak at an underwater pipeline unleashed a subaquatic fireball that appeared to boil the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Greenpeace Mexico said the accident Friday appeared to have been caused by the failure of an underwater valve and that it illustrates the dangers of Mexico policy of promoting fossil fuels.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has bet heavily on drilling more wells and buying or building oil refineries. He touts oil as "the best business in the world."

Greenpeace wrote in a statement that the fire, which took five hours to extinguish, "demonstrates the serious risks that Mexico's fossil fuel model poses for the environment and people's safety."

Climate activist Greta Thunberg reposted a video clip of the massive fireball on her Twitter account.

"Meanwhile the people in power call themselves climate leaders' as they open up new oilfields, pipelines and coal power plants - granting new oil licenses exploring future oil drilling sites," Thunberg wrote. "This is the world they are leaving for us."

Mexico's state-owned oil company said Friday that an undersea gas pipeline ruptured near a drilling platform in the Gulf.

Petroleos Mexicanos dispatched fire control boats to pump more water over the flames.

Pemex, as the company is known, said nobody was injured in the incident in the offshore Ku-Maloob-Zaap field.

The leak near dawn Friday occurred about 150 yards (meters) from a drilling platform. The company said it had brought the gas leak under control about five hours later.

It was unclear how much environmental damage the gas leak and oceanic fireball had caused.

THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THE SMOKE SMELL

Over 170 wildfires rage across Western Canada as forensic team arrives in Lytton

Canadian officials have sent military crews to cities affected by the more than 170 wildfires raging across western Canada as it experiences a record heatwave. Photo by NASA / EPA-EFE

July 3 (UPI) -- A forensic team arrived Saturday in the Canadian town of Lytton to investigate two deaths caused by wildfires raging across western Canada. Canadian officials have sent military crews to cities affected by more than 170 ongoing wildfires.

British Colombia's chief coroner told BBC Friday that 719 sudden deaths happened this week, triple the number during the same period in previous years. Wildfires sparked by lightning strikes are burning across western Canada following a record-breaking heatwave.

"This number is preliminary and subject to increase as additional reported deaths are entered into our system," Lisa Lapointe said.

Experts say that climate change is the cause of the sudden heatwave and wildfires, and that the frequency of extreme weather events would continue to increase.

Lytton ordered a community-wide evacuation after fires broke out this week. Jacob Chapman told CBC News that his parents, both in the 60s, were killed after a power line fell on them as they tried hiding from the flames.

On Friday evening, Canadian Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan announced that an emergency response base would be set up in Edmonton, Alberta.

"We will position more air resources in Edmonton as quickly as is possible, including a Hercules aircraft & two Chinook medium-heavy lift helicopters. They can be used to provide airlift of firefighters and equipment into & out of affected areas & support evacuations of residents," Sajjan posted on Twitter.

Scientists find unexplained collection of fossilized shark teeth in Jerusalem

Researchers found a collection of 80-million-year-old Squalicorax shark teeth from an Iron Age archaeological site in Jerusalem. Photo by Omri Lernau

July 3 (UPI) -- Scientists have uncovered a mysterious cache of shark teeth in the City of David in Jerusalem. The teeth were discovered at least 50 miles from where similar fossils might be unearthed by paleontologists.

Researchers detailed the discovery of the unexplained fossil collection this weekend at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference.

The teeth were found buried in a material used to fill the basement of an Iron Age house for conversion into a larger dwelling.

"These fossils are not in their original setting, so they have been moved," lead researcher Thomas Tuetken said in a press release.

"They were probably valuable to someone; we just don't know why, or why similar items have been found in more than one place in Israel," said Tuetken, a geoscientist and paleontologist at the University of Mainz.

Scientists found ancient food waste, including fish bones, and pottery fragments near the shark teeth cache.

Researchers also recovered hundreds of bullae, clay seals used on confidential letters and packages. Those materials were determined to be 2,900 years old.

At first, the researchers assumed the shark teeth were contemporary with the other artifacts, but an archaeologist working on the excavation suggested the fossil teeth might belong to a Late Cretaceous shark.

Researchers analyzed the organic matter, elemental composition and crystallinity within the shark teeth and determined they were indeed ancient fossils, not Iron Age food scraps.

"Their strontium isotope composition indicates an age of about 80 million years," Tuetken said. "This confirmed that all 29 shark teeth found in the City of David were Late Cretaceous fossils -- contemporary with dinosaurs."

"More than that, they were not simply weathered out of the bedrock beneath the site, but were probably transported from afar, possibly from the Negev, at least [49.7 miles] away, where similar fossils are found," Tuetken said.

Since the discovery, separate archaeological excavations have yielded similarly displaced shark teeth caches in Maresha and Miqne.

"Our working hypothesis is that the teeth were brought together by collectors, but we don't have anything to confirm that," Tuetken said.

"There are no wear marks which might show that they were used as tools, and no drill holes to indicate that they may have been jewelry. We know that there is a market for shark's teeth even today, so it may be that there was an Iron Age trend for collecting such items," Tuetken said.

Paleontologists determined the shark teeth belonged to Squalicorax, or crow shark, an extinct genus of the mackerel shark family that lived during the Cretaceous period.

A paper describing the discovery was published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

The City of David and the sharks' teeth mystery

GOLDSCHMIDT CONFERENCE

Research News

IMAGE: FOSSILISED SQUALICORAX TOOTH NR. #07815 FROM THE JERUSALEM SITE. view more
CREDIT: OMRI LERNAU

Scientists have found an unexplained cache of fossilised shark teeth in an area where there should be none - in a 2900 year old site in the City of David in Jerusalem. This is at least 80 km from where these fossils would be expected to be found. There is no conclusive proof of why the cache was assembled, but it may be that the 80 million-year-old teeth were part of a collection, dating from just after the death of King Solomon*. The same team has now unearthed similar unexplained finds in other parts of ancient Judea.

Presenting the work at the Goldschmidt Conference, lead researcher, Dr. Thomas Tuetken (University of Mainz, Institute of Geosciences) said:

"These fossils are not in their original setting, so they have been moved. They were probably valuable to someone; we just don't know why, or why similar items have been found in more than one place in Israel".

The teeth were found buried in material used to fill in a basement before conversion to a large Iron-Age house. The house itself was situated in the City of David, one of the oldest parts of Jerusalem, found nowadays in the largely Palestinian village of Silwan. They were found together with fish bones thrown away as food waste 2900 years ago, and other infill material such as pottery. Intriguingly, they were found together with hundreds of bullae - items used to seal confidential letters and packages - implying a possible connection with the administrative or governing class at some point. Normally archaeological material is dated according to the circumstances where it is found, and so at first it was assumed that the teeth were contemporary with the rest of the find. Dr. Tuetken said:

"We had at first assumed that the shark teeth were remains of the food dumped nearly 3000 years ago, but when we submitted a paper for publication, one of the reviewers pointed out that the one of the teeth could only have come from a Late Cretaceous shark that had been extinct for at least 66 million years. That sent us back to the samples, where measuring organic matter, elemental composition, and the crystallinity of the teeth confirmed that indeed all shark teeth were fossils. Their strontium isotope composition indicates an age of about 80 million years. This confirmed that all 29 shark teeth found in the City of David were Late Cretaceous fossils - contemporary with dinosaurs. More than that, they were not simply weathered out of the bedrock beneath the site, but were probably transported from afar, possibly from the Negev, at least 80 km away, where similar fossils are found".

Since the first finds, the team have found other shark teeth fossils elsewhere in Israel, at the Maresha and Miqne sites. These teeth are also likely to have been unearthed and moved from their original sites.

Dr. Tuetken said:

"Our working hypothesis is that the teeth were brought together by collectors, but we don't have anything to confirm that. There are no wear marks which might show that they were used as tools, and no drill holes to indicate that they may have been jewellery. We know that there is a market for shark's teeth even today, so it may be that there was an Iron Age trend for collecting such items. This was a period of riches in the Judean Court. However, it's too easy to put 2 and 2 together to make 5. We'll probably never really be sure".

The shark teeth which have been identified come from several species, including from the extinct Late Cretaceous group Squalicorax. Squalicorax, which grew to between 2 and 5 metres long, lived only during the Late Cretaceous period (which was the same period as the late dinosaurs), so acts as a reference point in dating these fossils.

Commenting, Dr. Brooke Crowley (University of Cincinnati) said:

"This research by Dr. Tuetken and colleagues is an excellent example of why it is so important to approach a research question with as few assumptions as possible, and how sometimes we have to revisit our initial assumptions. It also highlights how beneficial it can be to apply multiple tools to answer a research question. In this case, the authors used both strontium and oxygen isotopes, as well as x-ray diffraction and trace element analysis to establish most likely age and origin of the fossil teeth. It was a monumental of work but these efforts have revealed a much more interesting story about the people who lived in this region in the past. I am very excited by this work and hope that one day, we might be able to unravel the mystery of why these fossil teeth are being recovered from cultural deposits".

CAPTION

Artist's impression of a Squalicorax shark

CREDIT

Dimitri Bogdanov

Dr. Crowley was not involved in this work. The work relating to the Jerusalem finds has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8:570032 (https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.570032), Dr. Crowley edited this paper for the journal. This press release contains additional material not mentioned in the publication.

Notes

This work is presented on 6th July, but is being released to the press early.

*The find dates from the time of the immediate descendants of King Solomon; Rehoboam, Abija, Assa, and Jehoshapat.

The Goldschmidt Conference is the World's main geochemistry conference. It is hosted alternately by the European Association of Geochemistry (Europe) and the Geochemical Society (USA). The 2021 conference (virtual) takes place from 4-9 July, https://2021.goldschmidt.info/. The 2022 conference takes place in Hawaii.

WE DON'T NEED MORE NUKES
Raytheon to develop Long Range Standoff nuclear missiles in $2B contract

Raytheon Technologies Corp. was awarded a $2 billion contract to develop a new nuclear cruise missile, the Pentagon announced this week, which may eventually be launched from B-52 bombers, pictured, among other aircraft. Photo by Sgt. Angelita Lawrence/U.S. Air Force

July 2 (UPI) -- The Pentagon this week awarded Raytheon a contract worth up to $2 billion to develop a new nuclear cruise missile.

The contract, announced Thursday, calls for development of the new missiles through 2027, when a first flight could occur and a decision about production may be made.

The series of air-launched, Long-Range Standoff weapons would replace the Air Launched Cruise or AGM-86, missile first put in service in 1982.

"The ALCM was fielded in the early 1980s with a 10-year design life," the Air Force said Thursday in a press release.

The Air Force has indicated it would purchase up to 1,000 LRSO weapons, and the deal announced by the Defense Department on Thursday indicates that modernizing the U.S. military's ability to deliver nuclear weapons remains a Pentagon priority, Air Force Magazine reported.

The missiles could be accommodated by the B-52 and under-development B-21 bombers as an element in U.S. military strategy known as the nuclear triad, the capability to launch nuclear missiles from land, sea and air assets.

Raytheon became the highly classified program's "sole source contractor" in the Technology, Maturation and Risk Reduction [TMRR] phase in April.

Announcement of the contract came while the Defense Department is conducting a Nuclear Posture Review, the fifth in a series of processes, since 1994, to determine what the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. security strategy should have.

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