Bangladeshi eggplant farmers reap rewards via genetics

CORNELL UNIVERSITY  RELEASE 29-MAY-2020

Farmers in Bangladesh achieved significantly higher yields and revenues by growing insect-resistant, genetically engineered eggplant, a new Cornell study has found.

The four genetically engineered (Bt) varieties yielded, on average, 19.6% more eggplant - known as brinjal in Bangladesh - than non-Bt varieties and earned growers 21.7% higher revenue, according to the study, published May 25 in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

The additional revenue per hectare (1 hectare is approximately 2 ½ acres) is the equivalent of around $664, a substantial sum for resource-poor farmers in Bangladesh.

The paper is the first to document the economic benefits of the four existing Bt brinjal varieties though the Bangladeshi market chain and their acceptability to farmers and consumers, said lead author Tony Shelton, professor of entomology and former director for the Feed the Future South Asia Eggplant Improvement Partnership based in Cornell's Department of Global Development. The study was based on a 2019 survey of Bt and non-Bt brinjal farmers.

Bt brinjal was developed by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in conjunction with Mahyco (an India-based agricultural company), Cornell and the U.S. Agency for International Development, in an effort to stop the losses caused by eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) larvae caterpillars, and reduce pesticide use.

"The EFSB causes between 30% and 60% yield loss, even when insecticides are frequently sprayed," Shelton said. "Farmers typically apply insecticides more than 80 times during the four- to five-month brinjal growing season, a process that is both expensive and harmful to farmers, who spray without protective equipment."

Of Bt brinjal growers, 83% were satisfied with the yields obtained and 80% were satisfied with the quality of the plant; 59% of non-Bt brinjal growers were pleased with their yields. Some 28% of the non-Bt farmers also indicated that a large portion of their fruit was infested with EFSB larvae. This was not a concern for Bt brinjal, because it provides genetically inherent resistance.

"Bt brinjal varieties provide farmers a more sustainable crop that protects food security and the environment," said Maricelis Acevedo, director of the project since March 2020. "This study provides more evidence that Bt brinjal is being accepted in the market, but more work is needed to develop new varieties better adapted to local conditions and market preferences."

Because of the higher yields, increased revenue and fruit quality, about three-quarters of Bt brinjal farmers said they planned to grow the crop again next season. Brinjal is the second-most important vegetable grown in Bangladesh, cultivated by about 150,000 resource-poor farmers on 50,955 hectares, and consumed by the public on a daily basis.

The survey was conducted in the five most important brinjal producing districts in Bangladesh - Rangpur, Bogra, Rajshahi, Jessore and Tangail - through face-to-face interviews with 195 Bt farmers and 196 non-Bt farmers. Farmers made their own choices about which crop to grow.

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Other authors include Sayed H. Sarwer and Md J. Hossain of the Feed the Future South Asia Eggplant Improvement Partnership; Graham Brooks of PG Economics, Stafford House, in the U.K.; and Vijay Paranjape of Sathguru Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. in Hyderabad, India.

A rising tide of marine disease? How parasites respond to a warming world

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

IMAGE: SEA STAR WASTING DISEASE, PICTURED HERE, IS LIKELY CAUSED BY THE SEA STAR ASSOCIATED DENSOVIRUS. view more 

CREDIT: OREGON STATE PARKS

Warming events are increasing in magnitude and severity, threatening many ecosystems worldwide. As the global temperatures continue to climb, it also raises uncertainties as to the relationship, prevalence, and spread of parasites and disease.

A recent study from the University of Washington explores the ways parasitism will respond to climate change, providing researchers new insights into disease transmission. The paper was published May 18 in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

The review builds upon previous research by adding nearly two decades of new evidence to build a framework showing the parasite-host relationship under climate oscillations. Traditionally, climate-related research is done over long timescales, however this unique approach examines how increasingly frequent "pulse warming" events alter parasite transmission.

"Much of what is known about how organisms and ecosystems can respond to climate change has focused on gradual warming," said lead author Danielle Claar, a postdoctoral researcher at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "Climate change causes not only gradual warming over time, but also increases the frequency and magnitude of extreme events, like heat waves."

Claar explained that both gradual warming and pulse warming can and have influenced ecosystems, but do so in different ways. Organisms may be able to adapt and keep pace with the gradual warming, but an acute pulse event can have sudden and profound impacts.

The 2013-2015 "blob" is one such extreme heat pulse event which has been linked to a massive die-off of sea stars along the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Canada. Many species of sea stars, including the large sunflower sea star, were decimated by a sudden epidemic of wasting disease. Five years later, populations in the region are still struggling to recover. The abnormally warm waters associated with the blob are thought to have favored the spread of the sea star-associated densovirus, the suggested cause of the disease.

The authors compare the prevalence of these marine diseases to a rising tide, an ebbing tide, or a tsunami. Disease transmission can rise or ebb in concert with gradual warming or a series of pulse warming events. However, a severe pulse warming event could result in a tsunami, "initiating either a deluge or drought of disease," as was observed with sea stars along the Pacific Northwest.

However, not all pulse heat events will cause the same response. What may benefit a particular parasite or host in one system can be detrimental in another. Warming can alter a parasite's life cycle, limit the range of suitable host species, or even impair the host's immune response. Some flatworms which target wildlife and humans cannot survive as long in warmer waters, decreasing their window for infecting a host. Another recent UW study found that parasites commonly found in sushi are on the rise with their numbers increasing 283-fold in the past 40 years, though the relationship between heat pulse events and their abundance is not yet clear.

"The relationships between hosts, parasites, and their corresponding communities are complex and depend on many factors, making outcomes difficult to predict," said Claar, who recommends researchers make predictions on a case-by-case basis for their individual systems.

The authors conclude that rather than a straightforward tidal prediction, they would expect pulse warming to cause "choppy seas with the occasional rogue wave."

"It is important that we are able to understand and predict how parasitism and disease might respond to climate change, so we can prepare for, and mitigate, potential impacts to human and wildlife health," said Claar.

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The paper's co-author is Chelsea Wood, a UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

This research was supported by the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by UCAR's Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS); the National Science Foundation; a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; a UW Innovation Award from the UW President's Innovation Imperative; and a UW Royalty Research Fund Award.

Grant numbers: NA18NWS4620043B (CPAESS), OCE-1829509 (NSF)

For more information, contact Claar at danielle.claar@gmail.com.

Heightened interaction between neolithic migrants and hunter-gatherers in Western Europe

Analyzing the first archaeogenetic data from the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Western Europe, a team of French and German researchers documents levels of admixture between expanding early Neolithic farmers and local hunter-gatherers seen nowhere els

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY

NEWS RELEASE 29-MAY-2020

 

IMAGE: THE BURIAL OF PENDIMOUN F2 (5480-5360 BC), WOMAN CARRYING ABOUT 55% OF HUNTER-GATHERER COMPONENT. view more 

CREDIT: HENRI DUDAY

The Neolithic lifestyle, including farming, animal domestication and the development of new technologies, emerged in the Near East around 12,000 years ago and contributed profoundly to the modern way of life. The Neolithic spread rapidly across Europe, mainly along the Danube valley and the Mediterranean coastline, reaching the Atlantic coast around 5000-4500 BCE. The existing archaeogenetic data from prehistoric European farmers indicates that the spread of farming is due to expanding populations of early farmers who mixed little, if at all, with indigenous hunter-gatherer groups. However, until now, no archaeogenetic data were available for France.

"France is where the two streams of the Neolithic expansion overlapped, so understanding how these groups interacted would fill in a big piece of the puzzle," says Wolfgang Haak, senior author of the study. "The data we're collecting suggests a more complex scenario than elsewhere in Europe, with more interaction between early farmers and hunter-gatherers."

These interactions seem to vary greatly from one region to another, attesting to a diverse cultural mosaic in early Neolithic Western Europe. In order to document the biological interactions during this transition period, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History teamed up with colleagues from the PACEA laboratory (1*) in Bordeaux, the CEPAM laboratory (2*), the RGMZ (3*), and other international partners (4*). The study, published in Science Advances, reports new genome-wide data for 101 prehistoric individuals from 12 archaeological sites in today's France and Germany, dating from 7000-3000 BCE

High levels of hunter-gatherer ancestry in early farmers from France

The new results showed evidence for a higher level of admixture, or the combination of genetic information from genetically distant populations, between early migrant farmers and local hunter-gatherers in France. The genetic mixture in this region is unprecedented in the rest of Europe for the early stages of the Neolithic expansion. The genetic contribution of hunter-gatherers is particularly high in the south of France, roughly 31% on average, compared with 3% in Central Europe or 13% in the Iberian Peninsula.

Intriguingly, in an individual from the Pendimoun site in Provence (5480-5360 BCE), the genetic contribution of local hunter-gatherers was as high as 55%. The team could show that the admixture in this individual occurred recently, about four generations before, shortly after the first Neolithic farmers settled on that part of the French coast. "These findings suggest continuous contacts between both groups for at least a century," says Maïté Rivollat, postdoc in the INTERACT project and lead author of the study.

Genetic evidence for the two routes of the Neolithic expansion

Leveraging the genetic substructure observed in European hunter-gatherers, the team was able to retrace the dynamics of admixture in various European regions. Neolithic farmers in central Europe carry a very small hunter-gatherer component, which had already been mixed in and brought in from southeastern Europe. This accounts for the rapid spread of Neolithic groups with a negligible amount of interaction with local hunter-gatherers. On the other hand, Neolithic farmers from west of the Rhine river (in France, Spain, Great Britain) carry a genetic component inherited from local Mesolithic groups, implying a process of late and local admixture.

The new data highlight the complexity and regional variability of biological and cultural interactions between farmer and hunter-gatherer communities during the Neolithic expansion. "This study shows that we can add a lot more detail with focused sampling and unravel the regional dynamics of the farmer-forager interactions," concludes Rivollat. "With the increasing amount of genetic data, we gain the much-needed resolution to investigate biological processes in the past and to understand their relations with observed cultural phenomena."

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(1*)de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie. Bordeaux, France

(2*)Cultures et environnements. Préhistoire, Antiquité Moyen Âge. Nice, France

(3*)Roemisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum / Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology. Mainz, Germany

(4*)See list of authors. This study was funded by the Fyssen Foundation (MR, post-doctoral fellowship, 2017-2018), the New Faculty Startup Fund of the National University of Seoul (CJ), the Max Planck Society, the French (ANR) and German (DFG) Research Foundations, via the INTERACT project, ANR-17-FRAL-0010, DFG-HA-5407/4-1, 2018-2021 (MFD, WH, MR), and the European Research Council (ERC, 771234 - PALEoRIDER (WH, ABR)).

Evolution of pandemic coronavirus outlines path from animals to humans

The virus's ability to change makes it likely that new human coronaviruses will arise

DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

DURHAM, N.C. -- A team of scientists studying the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, found that it was especially well-suited to jump from animals to humans by shapeshifting as it gained the ability to infect human cells.

Conducting a genetic analysis, researchers from Duke University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Texas at El Paso and New York University confirmed that the closest relative of the virus was a coronavirus that infects bats. But that virus's ability to infect humans was gained through exchanging a critical gene fragment from a coronavirus that infects a scaly mammal called a pangolin, which made it possible for the virus to infect humans.

The researchers report that this jump from species-to-species was the result of the virus's ability to bind to host cells through alterations in its genetic material. By analogy, it is as if the virus retooled the key that enables it to unlock a host cell's door -- in this case a human cell. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the "key" is a spike protein found on the surface of the virus. Coronaviruses use this protein to attach to cells and infect them.

"Very much like the original SARS that jumped from bats to civets, or MERS that went from bats to dromedary camels, and then to humans, the progenitor of this pandemic coronavirus underwent evolutionary changes in its genetic material that enabled it to eventually infect humans," said Feng Gao, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Duke University School of Medicine and corresponding author of the study publishing online May 29 in the journal Science Advances.

Gao and colleagues said tracing the virus's evolutionary pathway will help deter future pandemics arising from the virus and possibly guide vaccine research.

The researchers found that typical pangolin coronaviruses are too different from SARS-CoV-2 for them to have directly caused the human pandemic.

However, they do contain a receptor-binding site -- a part of the spike protein necessary to bind to the cell membrane -- that is important for human infection. This binding site makes it possible to affix to a cell surface protein that is abundant on human respiratory and intestinal epithelial cells, endothelial cell and kidney cells, among others.

While the viral ancestor in the bat is the most closely related coronavirus to SARS-CoV-2, its binding site is very different, and on its own cannot efficiently infect human cells.

SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a hybrid between bat and pangolin viruses to obtain the "key" necessary receptor-binding site for human infection.

"There are regions of the virus with a very high degree of similarity of amino acid sequences among divergent coronaviruses that infect humans, bats and pangolins, suggesting that these viruses are under similar host selection and may have made the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 able to readily jump from these animals to humans," said lead co-author Xiaojun Li from Duke.

"People had already looked at the coronavirus sequences sampled from pangolins that we discuss in our paper, however, the scientific community was still divided on whether they played a role in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2," said study co-lead author Elena Giorgi, staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"In our study, we demonstrated that indeed SARS-CoV-2 has a rich evolutionary history that included a reshuffling of genetic material between bat and pangolin coronavirus before it acquired its ability to jump to humans," Giorgi said.

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In addition to Gao, Li and Giorgi, study authors include, Manukumar Honnayakanahalli Marichannegowda, Brian Foley, Chuan Xiao, Xiang-Peng Kong, Yue Chen, S. Gnanakaran and Bette Korber

SARS-CoV-2 possibly emerged from shuffling and selection of viral genes across different species

Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 through recombination and strong purifying selection

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

 

A combination of genetic shuffling and evolutionary selection of near-identical genetic sequences among specific bat and pangolin coronaviruses may have led to the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and its introduction into humans, a new study suggests. The results also showed that the virus' entire receptor binding motif (RBM), a component that plays a key role in viral entry into host cells, was introduced through recombination with pangolin coronaviruses. The study joins ongoing efforts to identify the source of the virus that causes COVID-19, which is critical for informing efforts to establish proper animal models, discover new drugs and vaccines, and ultimately prevent the rise of future zoonotic diseases. While the precise origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains a mystery, this study makes clear "that reducing or eliminating direct human contact with wild animals is critical to preventing new coronavirus zoonoses in the future," the authors say. Proximity of different species in a wet market setting, for example, may increase the potential for cross-species spillover infections, by enabling recombination between more distant coronaviruses and the emergence of mutations, the authors say. By analyzing 43 complete genome sequences from three strains of SARS-CoV-2-like coronaviruses from bats and pangolins, Xiaojun Li and colleagues delineated which strains were most and least similar to the novel coronavirus, with a special focus on genes related to the virus' spike protein complex, a critical component that facilitates viral entry into host cells. They found evidence of strong evolutionary selection around the RBM - part of the spike's amino acid sequence that directly contacts host cell receptors - among the bat, pangolin, and human coronaviruses they studied. Amino acid sequences from these viruses and SARS-CoV-2 were identical or nearly identical in the regions adjacent to the RBM, suggesting that common evolutionary mechanisms shaped these distinct viral strains. The scientists also demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2's entire RBM was introduced through recombination with coronaviruses from pangolins. Together, evolutionary selection and frequent recombination among coronaviruses from bats, pangolins, and humans may have allowed the closely related viruses to readily jump between species, the authors postulate, leading to the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 in humans.

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Largest study of its kind of women in labor finds nitrous oxide safe, side effects rare

Additionally, women in labor who had a prior vaginal birth had low rates of converting to other pain management techniques such as epidural or opioids

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS

 

AURORA, Colo. (May 29, 2020) - Researchers at the University of Colorado College of Nursing and the School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology at the Anschutz Medical Campus found that the use of nitrous oxide (N2O) as a pain relief option for individuals in labor is safe for newborn children and laboring individual, and converting to a different form of pain relief such as an epidural or opioid is influenced by a woman's prior birth history and other factors.

The study, out today in Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, surveyed 463 women who used nitrous oxide during labor. The study is the largest and first of its kind in the United States to report rates of side effects from N2O use during labor, as well as reasons for women in labor after cesarean to convert to other forms of pain relief. Of the women who began using N2O as an initial pain relief technique, 31% used only N2O throughout labor and 69% transitioned to another pain relief method such as epidural and/or opioids. "Nitrous oxide is a useful, safe option for labor analgesia in the United States. And for some laboring mothers, that's all the pain relief they need. Understanding predictors of conversion from inhaled nitrous oxide to other forms of analgesia may assist providers in their discussions with women about pain relief options during labor," said lead author and Associate Professor with the University of Colorado College of Nursing Priscilla M. Nodine, PhD, CNM.

The reason most often cited (96%) for converting from N2O to an alternative therapy was inadequate pain relief. The odds of conversion from N2O increased approximately 3-fold when labor was augmented with oxytocin and when labor was induced. Also, those who had a history ofcesarean section and experienced labor post-cesarean had more than a 6-fold increased odds of conversion to neuraxial analgesia or epidural. The odds of conversion to neuraxial analgesia decreased by 63% for individuals who had given birth previously relative to those who were giving birth for the first time.

Approximately 4 million women in the United States give birth each year, and for many, coping with laborp is a significant concern. Epidurals and spinal blocks, also known as neuraxial analgesia, are the most frequently used pain management tools in the United States, with the main alternative being systemic opioids, which can be associated with both maternal and fetal adverse effects. Recently reintroduced as a pain relief option during labor in the United States, N2O has a long history of use in many developed nations and is increasingly available in the US. "While there is a fair body of anecdotal evidence of safety and effectiveness for how nitrous oxide affects pain during labor, few systematic analyses of outcomes are available from US-based cohorts," said Nodine.

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About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education, and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked hospitals that treat more than 2 million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, together we deliver life-changing treatments, patient care, professional training, and conduct world-renowned research powered by more than $550 million in research awards. For more information, visit http://www.cuanschutz.edu.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsi

New study finds cannibalism in predatory dinosaurs
NEWS RELEASE 28-MAY-2020

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE

IMAGE: BIG THEROPOD DINOSAURS SUCH AS ALLOSAURUS AND CERATOSAURUS ATE PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING -- INCLUDING EACH OTHER, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY. view more 

CREDIT: PLOS ONE

Big theropod dinosaurs such as Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus ate pretty much everything--including each other, according to a new study, "High Frequencies of Theropod Bite Marks Provide Evidence for Feeding, Scavenging, and Possible Cannibalism in a Stressed Late Jurassic Ecosystem," published last month in the journal PLOS ONE.

"Scavenging, and even cannibalism, is pretty common among modern predators," said lead author Stephanie Drumheller, a paleontologist in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. "Big theropods, like Allosaurus, probably weren't particularly picky eaters if it meant they got a free meal."

Researchers surveyed more than 2,000 bones from the Jurassic Mygatt-Moore Quarry, a 152-million-year-old fossil deposit in western Colorado, looking for bite marks. They found more than they were expecting.

There were theropod bites on the large-bodied sauropods whose gigantic bones dominate the assemblage, bites on the heavily armored Mymoorapelta, and lots of bites on theropods, too, especially the common remains of Allosaurus. There were hundreds of them, in frequencies far above the norm for dinosaur-dominated fossil sites.

Some were on meaty bones like ribs, but researchers discovered others on tiny toe bones, far from the choicest cuts. Pulled together, the data paints a picture of an ecosystem where dinosaur remains lay out on the landscape for months at a time--a stinky prospect, but one that gave a whole succession of predators and scavengers a turn at eating.

But why were there so many bites on the Mygatt-Moore bones? That question is a little harder to answer, at least without similar surveys from other dinosaur sites for comparison.

The Mygatt-Moore Quarry itself is a little unusual.

Volunteer members of the public have excavated most of the fossils found at the quarry. Julia McHugh, curator of paleontology with the Museums of Western Colorado and a co-author of the study, decided to continue this tradition of outreach by bringing students into the lab to help with the project. Now two of them, Miriam Kane and Anja Riedel, are co-authors on the new study as well.

"Mygatt-Moore is such a unique place," McHugh said. "Science happens here alongside hands-on STEM education with our dig program and volunteers."

Having so many marks on hand let the researchers really dig into details that are sometimes harder to study in smaller collections. For example, theropod teeth are serrated, and once in a while the tooth shape is reflected in the bite marks they make. Another co-author, Domenic D'Amore of Daemen College, had earlier figured out a way to translate those striated tooth marks into body size estimates.

"We can't always tell exactly what species were marking up the Mygatt-Moore bones, but we can say many of these marks were made by something big," D'Amore said. "A few may have been made by theropods larger than any found at the site before."

For more than 30 years, researches and others have worked the Mygatt-Moore Quarry intensively, but even after all that time, each season brings new discoveries in the field and in the lab. This snapshot of dinosaur behavior is proof that old bones can still hold scientific surprises.

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Read the full study online.

Amanda Womac (865-974-2992, awomac1@utk.edu)

Environmental groups moving beyond conservation

New study examines the role of NGOs in global environmental politics

MCGILL UNIVERSITY

Although non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become powerful voices in world environmental politics, little is known of the global picture of this sector. A new study shows that environmental groups are increasingly focused on advocacy in climate change politics and environmental justice. How they do their work is largely determined by regional disparities in human and financial resources.

To understand what these groups are doing and why, researchers from McGill University, the University of Georgia, and the Leibniz Centre of Tropical Marine Research analyzed data from 679 environmental NGOs worldwide in a study for PLOS ONE.

These organizations are usually thought to focus on environmental protection and conservation. However, in examining the mission statements of these groups, the researchers found that the importance of climate politics (engagement on climate change) and environmental justice (respect for nature and human rights) had been grossly underestimated in previous research. They calculated a power index for the NGOs based on their human and financial resources and found that more than 40% of the most powerful organizations focus on these areas in their mission.

"There are more powerful organizations working on climate issues than on issues of biodiversity loss or land degradation," says co-author Klara Winkler, a postdoctoral researcher from McGill University. "It is important to be aware that some environmental issues garner more attention than others because it means that these other issues risk being neglected or even forgotten."

The study also shows regional disparities in human resources and financial capacity. Environmental NGOs in Africa and Oceania have the lowest median number of employees and African NGOs have the lowest median annual budgets. While organizations in North America and Europe have the highest median financial capacity, Latin America and the Caribbean has the highest median number of employees.

According to the researchers, these differences likely reflect both labor costs and financial flows, where environmental NGOs in the Global South employ more people with less money while groups in the Global North handle more money with fewer employees. This disparity is also indicative of a global division of labor where Northern environmental NGOs act as donors or coordinators for large projects, while Southern organizations are subcontracted for implementation.

"The findings give us an indication of how feasible it is for NGOs to advocate and implement their agendas in practice. Seeing where the disparities and limitations are in different regions can help us better understand observed differences in environmental policies and politics," says co-author Stefan Partelow from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany.

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About the study

"Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations and Global Environmental Discourse" by Stefan Partelow, Klara Winkler, and Gregory Thaler is published in PLOS ONE.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232945

UNH researchers find wildfires can alter arctic watersheds for 50 years

UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

IMAGE: VIEW OF SIBERIAN WATERWAY AFTER A FOREST FIRE -- SMOKE AND SOOT LINGER IN THE AIR FOR SEVERAL DAYS EVEN AFTER RAINFALL. UNH RESEARCHERS FIND AFTEREFFECTS OF A BURN CAN... view more 

CREDIT: BIANCA RODRIGUEZ-CARDONA/UNH

DURHAM, N.H.-- Climate change has contributed to the increase in the number of wildfires across the globe especially in the Arctic where forest fires, along with increased permafrost thaw, can dramatically shift stream chemistry and potentially harm both ecosystems and humans. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found that some of the aftereffects of a burn, like decreased carbon and increased nitrogen, can last up to five decades and could have major implications on nearby vital waterways like the Yenisei River that drains into the Arctic Ocean, and other similar waterways around the world.

"Forest fires in this region of the Arctic used to happen about every hundred years and now we're seeing them every summer," said Bianca Rodríguez-Cardona '20G, who just received a Ph.D. in UNH's natural resources and Earth system sciences program. "This increase in fires leads to more input of inorganic solutes into local streams which can alter the chemistry and trigger issues like increased algae blooms and bacteria that can be harmful to humans who depend on these waterways for drinking water, fishing and their livelihood."

In the study, recently published in the journal Nature's Scientific Reports, UNH researchers collected stream water samples in the Central Siberian Plateau in Russia during the summer months of June and July from 2016 to 2018. They compared the concentration of nutrients and dissolved organic matter in the streams and found that inorganic nitrogen, or nitrate which is a nutrient important for cell development and growth in aquatic plants, remained elevated for 10 years after a burn. And, levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), major sources of energy, were substantially decreased and took 50 years to return to pre-burn levels.

Boreal forests, forests that grow in high latitudes at low temperatures, have been burning with greater frequency due to longer growing seasons, warmer temperatures and changing weather patterns adding additional uncertainty to how these ecosystems will be affected. While other studies have documented the effects of wildfires on stream chemistry, few have evaluated how these changes will impact the processing and export of nutrients from Arctic watersheds.

"Arctic rivers transfer large quantities of nutrients to the Arctic Ocean, and river water chemistry could be dramatically changed in the coming decades as permafrost thaws and wildfires become more frequent," said William McDowell, professor of environmental science and a co-author on the study. The researchers say even though responses of arctic watersheds can vary from region to region, this offers further understanding of what could happen in other areas of the Arctic, like Alaska, Canada, Norway or Sweden.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation's highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

PHOTOS FOR DOWNLOAD
Image: https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/watershed_n9.jpg
Caption: One of the smaller streams in the Central Siberian Plateau where the UNH team took samples.
Credit: Bianca Rodriguez-Cardona/UNH

Image: https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/kochechum_river.jpg
Caption: Kochechum River in the Central Siberian Plateau, a typical river view of landscape and sky without any smoke.
Credit: Bianca Rodriguez-Cardona/UNH

Image: https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/firesun.jpg
Caption: View of Siberian waterway after a forest fire - smoke and soot linger in the air for several days even after rainfall. UNH researchers find aftereffects of a burn can last up to five decades and could have major implications on vital waterways.
Credit: Bianca Rodriguez-Cardona/UNH

Image: https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/boreal_forest_n20.jpg
Caption: A boreal forest near one of the UNH control watersheds that burned over 100 years ago.
Credit: Bianca Rodriguez-Cardona/UNH

World's deepest octopus captured on camera

By Jonathan Amos

BBC Science Correspondent

29 May 2020

ATLANTIC PRODUCTIONS FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL
The octopus moves in to investigate the bait on the lander

The deepest ever sighting of an octopus has been made by cameras on the Indian Ocean floor.

The animal was spotted 7,000m down in the Java Trench - almost 2km deeper than the previous reliable recording.

Researchers, who report the discovery in the journal Marine Biology, say it's a species of "Dumbo" octopus.

The name is a nod to the prominent ear-like fins just above these animals' eyes that make them look like the 1940s Disney cartoon character.

The scientist behind the identification is Dr Alan Jamieson.

He's pioneered the exploration of the deep using what are called "landers".

These are instrumented frames dropped overboard from research ships.

They settle on the seabed and record what passes by.

FIVEDEEPS.COM
Dr Jamieson has discovered a host of deep-sea organisms using lander technology

New record for deepest fish

'Supergiant' found in deepest sea

Ocean trench: Take a dive 11,000m down

Dr Jamieson's equipment filmed two octopuses - one on a drop to 5,760m and a second to 6,957m. The individual animals were 43cm and 35cm in length.

They've been placed in the Grimpoteuthis family - the group commonly known as Dumbo.


Octopus fragments and eggs have been found at very great depths, but until this discovery, the previous deepest reliable sighting was at 5,145m down.

That was a black and white photo of an animal taken 50 years ago off Barbados.

ATLANTIC PRODUCTIONS FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL
A Dumbo octopus was seen on two separate dives

The significance of the Indian Ocean observations is that we now know that octopuses can find potentially suitable habitat across at least 99% of the global seafloor. But those animals that do live at depth will clearly need some special adaptations, says Dr Jamieson.

"They'd have to do something clever inside their cells. If you imagine a cell is like a balloon - it's going to want to collapse under pressure. So, it will need some smart biochemistry to make sure it retains that sphere," the scientist explained.

"All the adaptations you need to live at pressure are at the cellular level."

ATLANTIC PRODUCTIONS FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Victor Vescovo became the first person to reach all five major deeps on Earth

Dr Jamieson recorded the new octopus while working as chief scientist on the Five Deeps Expedition. This was the project that saw Texan financier Victor Vescovo take a submersible to the deepest sectors of the five major oceans on Earth.


While Mr Vescovo was setting human dive records, Dr Jamieson was conducting the tandem science investigations.

He hopes his findings can help dispel some of the misunderstandings about the deepest parts of the ocean.

"The laws of marine ecology and marine biology are actually much the same. And we need the Dumbo octopus out there to blur that line between the depths we think we care about and the depths we don't. This idea that only animals in a kind Victorian freak show live at depth isn't right."

Dr Jamieson is currently the CEO of Armatus Oceanic, a deep-sea consultancy. He's also affiliated to Newcastle University.

'Cannabis burned during worship' by ancient Israelites - study

29 May 2020

GETTY IMAGES Cannabis residue was found on an altar at the temple in Arad

Ancient Israelites burned cannabis as part of their religious rituals, an archaeological study has found.

A well-preserved substance found in a 2,700-year-old temple in Tel Arad has been identified as cannabis, including its psychoactive compound THC.

Researchers concluded that cannabis may have been burned in order to induce a high among worshippers.

This is the first evidence of psychotropic drugs being used in early Jewish worship, Israeli media report.

The temple was first discovered in the Negev desert, about 95km (59 miles) south of Tel Aviv, in the 1960s.

In the latest study, published in Tel Aviv University's archaeological journal, archaeologists say two limestone altars had been buried within the shrine.

Thanks in part to the dry climate, and to the burial, the remains of burnt offerings were preserved on top of these altars.GETTY IMAGES

It's believed cannabis was burned to induce a psychoactive effect in worshippers

Frankincense was found on one altar, which was unsurprising because of its prominence in holy texts, the study's authors told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

However, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) - all compounds found in cannabis - were found on the second altar.

The study adds that the findings in Tel Arad suggest that cannabis also played a role in worship at the Temple of Jerusalem.


This is because at the time the shrine in Arad was part of a hilltop fortress at the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Judah, and is said to match a scaled-down version of Biblical descriptions of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

The remains of the temple in Jerusalem are now inaccessible to archaeologists, so instead they study Arad and other similar shrines to help them understand worship at the larger temple.

NEWS RELEASE 28-MAY-2020

New research reveals Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Biblical Arad

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

   

IMAGE: FRONT VIEW OF THE SHRINE AT ARAD, REBUILT IN THE ISRAEL MUSEUM. THE TOP?DOWN VIEW OF THE ALTARS: ON WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE BLACK RESIDUE OF CANNABIS AND FRANKINCENSE... view more 

CREDIT: (COLLECTION OF THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY, PHOTO © THE ISRAEL MUSEUM, BY LAURA LACHMAN.

Analysis of the material on two Iron Age altars discovered at the entrance to the "holy of holies" of a shrine at Tel Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley, Israel, were found to contain Cannabis and Frankincense, according to new article in the journal, Tel Aviv.

Past excavations revealed two superimposed fortresses, dated to the 9th to early 6th centuries BCE, which guarded the southern border of biblical Judah. Highly important Iron Age finds were unearthed, including a well-preserved shrine that was dated to ca. 750-715 BCE.

Two limestone altars (the smaller altar is 40 cm high and about 20 × 20 cm at the top; the larger is about 50 cm high and 30 × 30 cm at the top) were found lying at the entrance to the "holy of holies" of the shrine.

Evidently, they had played an important role in the cult practices of the shrine. An unidentified black solidified organic material was preserved on the altars' surfaces. Past analysis of these materials failed to identify their content and this dark material was recently submitted to organic residue analysis by modern methods.

The study reveals that on the smaller altar cannabis had been mixed with animal dung to facilitate heating, while the larger altar contained traces of frankincense that was mixed with animal fat to promote evaporation.

These unique findings shed new light on cult practices in biblical Judah, suggesting cannabis was used here as a deliberate psychoactive, to stimulate ecstasy as part of cultic ceremonies.

Lead author Eran Arie from The Israel Museum in Jerusalem commented, "This is the first time that cannabis has been identified in the Ancient Near East; Its use in the shrine must have played a central role in the cultic rituals performed there."

Frankincense comes from Arabia. Therefore, the presence of frankincense at Arad indicates the participation of Judah in the south Arabian trade even before the patronage and encouragement of the Assyrian empire. Arad provides the earliest evidence for frankincense in a clear cultic context. Frankincense is mentioned as a component of the incense that was burned in the Temple of Jerusalem for its pleasant aroma.

The "fortress mound" of Tel Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley in southern Israel was excavated over 50 years ago under the direction of the late TAU Professor Yohanan Aharoni.

###

For an interview, please contact:

Eran Arie, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Email: eranar@imj.org.il

Or

Dvory Namdar, Volcani Center of Agricultural Research
Email: dvoran@volcani.agri.gov.il

For a copy of the paper, visit: https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/embargoed-releases/

For any other enquiries, please contact:

Krystina Sihdu, Press & Media Relations Executive
Email: newsroom@taylorandfrancis.com
Follow us on Twitter: @tandfnewsroom

The article will be freely available once the embargo has lifted via the following link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03344355.2020.1732046

About Taylor & Francis Group

Taylor & Francis Group partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world's leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works our content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Science, Technology and Medicine.

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French nonprofit warns 'COVID waste' could harm the environment

Opération Mer Propre, or Operation Clean Sea, is a nonprofit group that cleans the waters of France’s Mediterranean coast. In addition to the usual waste they find, they’re now picking up masks and gloves.

The World
May 29, 2020
Producer Lucy Martirosyan
Masks and gloves found in the Mediterranean Sea by members of Opération Mer Propre, or Operation Clean Sea, in mid-May, just after France lifted some of its coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Credit:Courtesy of Operation Clean Sea


As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions start to ease in France, more people are hitting the beaches in the south — and they’re leaving behind litter.

In addition to the usual fast-food wrappers, plastic bottles and cigarette butts littered across the Côte D’Azur, beach-goers may now find the waste of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, a group of marine divers of the French nonprofit group, Opération Mer Propre (Operation Clean Sea), discovered single-use masks and latex gloves in the waters of Antibes, a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea coast.

Related: Shutdowns have led to cleaner air quality. Is it sustainable?

The group, which routinely clears litter from bodies of water in France, was granted access to beaches to restart cleaning as soon as confinement measures started relaxing in France on May 11, said Joko Peltier, one of the cofounders.

The team found five masks and four pairs of gloves last Saturday. The next day, eight masks and six pairs of gloves.

“But the moment lockdown restrictions started easing up [in Antibes], and the waste was thrown on the ground, it all ended up in the sea the next day.”Joko Peltier, cofounder, Operation Clean Sea

“It’s not a lot,” Peltier told The World in French. “But the moment lockdown restrictions started easing up [in Antibes], and the waste was thrown on the ground, it all ended up in the sea the next day.”

In a Facebook video shared nearly 5,000 times, Laurent Lombard, another cofounder of OMP, scuba dives into the bed of the French Mediterranean, picking up tossed gloves and surgical masks. It looks like an eerie caution against this “future pollution of COVID waste,” as Peltier calls it.

Éric Pauget, a member of parliament who represents the region, agrees. He wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron urging the interior minister to issue fines of 300 euros, or about $332, to those who litter their protective equipment in public places. Used, thrown away masks are not only an environmental risk, he wrote, but a health concern during the pandemic.

“The presence of the virus potentially contaminates the surface of these thrown away masks,” Pauget wrote. “This presents a serious health threat to public cleaners and to children who could accidentally touch them. In addition, the friable polypropylene nanoparticles making up these masks that protect humans risk a lasting effect on our ecosystems and their biodiversity.”



Joko Peltier, cofounder of France's Operation Clean Sea, shows a toothbrush he found underwater while clearing litter.
Credit: Courtesy of Operation Clean Sea

On April 1, French Health Minister Olivier Véran said the government ordered over 1 billion single-use masks from China to meet the needs of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe unveiled plans Thursday to further lift confinement measures across the country. Starting June 2, beaches, parks and lakes will open to all. Parks and gardens will also open, but meetings of groups of more than 10 people will still be prohibited.

“The results are good regarding the health plan … Good, but not sufficiently good for everything to return to normal,” Philippe said, addressing the nation.

Meanwhile, Peltier says that people should keep raising awareness and educating themselves on the impacts of waste — and now, “COVID waste” — on the sea and the environment.

“We have to pay attention,” Peltier said. “This is the health of our children and our future.”