PROCESSED FOODS!

Increased meat consumption associated with symptoms of childhood asthma

THE MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL / MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

Substances present in cooked meats are associated with increased wheezing in children, Mount Sinai researchers report. Their study, published in Thorax, highlights pro-inflammatory compounds called advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) as an example of early dietary risk factors that may have broad clinical and public health implications for the prevention of inflammatory airway disease.

Asthma prevalence among children in the United States has risen over the last few decades. Researchers found that dietary habits established earlier in life may be associated with wheezing and potentially the future development of asthma.

Researchers examined 4,388 children between 2 and 17 years old from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a program of the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is designed to evaluate the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States through interviews and physical examinations.

The researchers used NHANES survey data to evaluate associations between dietary AGE and meat consumption frequencies, and respiratory symptoms. They found that higher AGE intake was significantly associated with increased odds of wheezing, importantly including wheezing that disrupted sleep and exercise, and that required prescription medication. Similarly, higher intake of non-seafood meats was associated with wheeze-disrupted sleep and wheezing that required prescription medication.

"We found that higher consumption of dietary AGEs, which are largely derived from intake of non-seafood meats, was associated with increased risk of wheezing in children, regardless of overall diet quality or an established diagnosis of asthma," said Jing Gennie Wang, MD, lead author of the study, and a former fellow in Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

"Research identifying dietary factors that influence respiratory symptoms in children is important, as these risks are potentially modifiable and can help guide health recommendations. Our findings will hopefully inform future longitudinal studies to further investigate whether these specific dietary components play a role in childhood airways disease such as asthma," said Sonali Bose, MD, senior author, and Assistant Professor of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and Pediatrics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

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About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality care--from prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty by U.S. News & World Report.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Inflammatory compounds found in cooked meat linked to childhood wheeze

AGEs are by-products of high temperature cooking, such as grilling, frying, or roasting

BMJ

Research News

 

Inflammatory compounds found in cooked meat are linked to a heightened risk of childhood wheeze, finds research published online in the journal Thorax.

The compounds, known as advanced glycation end products, or AGEs for short, are by-products of high temperature cooking, such as grilling, frying, or roasting, with cooked meat a major dietary source.

AGEs lock on to particular 'danger signal' cells in the body, which are particularly abundant in the lungs, triggering an inflammatory immune system response. But it's not clear how they might influence the development of respiratory symptoms.

To explore this further, the researchers looked at the potential impact of dietary AGE intake and meat consumption on respiratory symptoms, drawing on responses to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for the years 2003 to 2006.

NHANES is a nationally representative annual survey assessing the health and nutrition of the US population.

The researchers included 4388 children aged 2-17 years, for whom information on dietary patterns, assessed by the 139-item Food Frequency Questionnaire, and respiratory symptoms were available. The quantity of AGEs consumed was calculated from the responses to the Food Frequency Questionnaire.

Some 537 (13%) of the children said they had experienced wheezing over the past year. After accounting for potentially influential factors, such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, household income, weight (BMI), and asthma, higher AGE scores were significantly associated with increased odds of wheezing (18%).

They were also associated with increased odds of disturbed sleep due to wheezing (26%) at least once; wheezing during exercise (34%); and wheezing requiring medication (35%) over the past year.

Similarly, higher intake of all types of meats was associated with a more than doubling in the odds of sleep disrupted by wheezing and the need for medication to ease symptoms.

This is an observational study and so can't establish cause, added to which there is no validated method of measuring AGE intake, caution the researchers. But the findings back those of other research linking a proinflammatory dietary pattern and wheezing, they say.

"As several cohort studies have suggested an adverse effect of meat consumption on paediatric airways health, confirmation of a positive correlation between AGE intake and non-seafood meat consumption in our cohort strengthens our a priori hypothesis that dietary AGEs may have an important role in airway inflammation in children," they write.

The Western dietary pattern, characterised by high levels of AGE-rich foods--meats and saturated fats, may promote an inflammatory cascade, so contributing to airway inflammation and possibly the development of asthma, they explain.

In a linked editorial, Professor Jonathan Grigg, Centre for Child Health, University of Queen Mary, London, observes that a growing body of evidence implicates AGEs in the development of asthma.

"Although we are far from having enough evidence to recommend changes in meat consumption in children in order to reduce asthma, a focus on adverse respiratory effects of consuming large amounts of cooked meats resonates with wider agendas," he suggests.

This includes the 2020 UK Health Alliance on Climate Change report which concluded that red meat consumption will need to be halved if the food system is to stay within sustainable environmental limits.

"Irrespective of the adverse health effects of AGEs, it may therefore now be time to advocate a diet with smaller amounts of higher-quality and more sustainable cooked meat," he concludes.

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Externally peer reviewed? Yes

Evidence type: Survey data; opinion

Subjects: Children

Global disparities in vaccination persist and leave many children at risk

Challenges of providing childhood vaccinations in hard-to-reach populations, emergence of vaccine hesitancy in less wealthy countries & other contributors to global vaccination inequalities addressed in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

ELSEVIER

Research News

 

Ann Arbor, December 22, 2020 - There has been continual progress in expanding immunization programs over time, but even before the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of children worldwide were not receiving basic doses of vaccines. New research finds that there continue to be significant disparities in childhood vaccination, and poorer children from under-represented and minority groups in most countries are more likely to be less fully vaccinated with all the recommended immunizations. A special supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, looks at the barriers and challenges that limit or prevent access to vaccines in vulnerable children.

"Improving access and receipt of immunizations for all children everywhere are key to achieving the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Sustainable Development Goal of realizing continued progress in reducing global mortality in children under five," explain Guest Editors Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH, and Abram Wagner, PhD, MPH, both of the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, and Global Institute for Vaccine Equity, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. "It's going to require a more sustained effort and investment on the part of governments worldwide to close the inequalities gap in childhood vaccination."

Dr. Boulton and Dr. Wagner observe that understanding who gets vaccinated can help us plan targeted programs to prevent future outbreaks of preventable disease like COVID-19. However, it is not just who gets vaccinated; vaccine timeliness also matters. Delays in vaccination leave children vulnerable to disease. An analysis of children in Sub-Saharan Africa looked at on-time vaccination and inequalities by household wealth, maternal education, and place of residence. Researchers report that over half the children received one or more vaccinations over a month late. On-time vaccination was consistently higher in children of educated mothers, in the richest households, and in urban areas.

"Our findings suggest that to reduce inequality in on-time vaccination coverage, health providers and policy makers should design health interventions that include an equality lens," says lead investigator Martin K. Mutua, PhD, African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya. "There should be more awareness campaigns in areas where the poorest live and in rural areas. Mobile health clinics with flexible hours targeting these populations may help reduce the inequality gap."

Health interventions generally have a "pro-rich" pattern: they are more commonly adapted among wealthy than among poor individuals. However, loss of public confidence in vaccines and the rising attention to antivaccination movements are more commonly associated with higher-income countries. "Vaccine hesitancy" is one of the top 10 health threats identified by the WHO and may play a larger role in the future. Investigators sought to determine if vaccine hesitancy may be emerging among the wealthy in low and middle income countries, and what the impact might be on immunization coverage.

"We found that the classical pro-rich inequality pattern, in which the wealthy present better coverage than the poor, appears to be changing, especially in upper-middle income countries. The number of countries exhibiting the classical pro-rich inequality pattern declined as national income increased. This shift may be due to vaccine hesitancy among wealthy families," suggests lead investigator Cesar G. Victora, MD, International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil. "Every vaccine demands a minimum level of coverage to secure community immunity. Special attention to prevent vaccine hesitancy in low and middle income countries is needed." Vaccine hesitancy is not limited to the wealthy; elsewhere in the supplement, studies address vaccine hesitancy based on religious beliefs and among lower income migrants to an urban area.

Dr. Boulton and Dr. Wagner note that insuring access to COVID-19 vaccines for historically marginalized groups, including persons of color, will be important to ensure the universal coverage needed to eradicate the pandemic. "Inequitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine will further reinforce and entrench existing disparities and contribute to the substantial gaps we currently see globally in pandemic-related illness and death," says Dr. Wagner.

The Guest Editors suggest that the research published in this supplement can inform current and future discussions about global vaccine equity and contribute to the achievement of the WHO's vision of a world in which everyone can benefit from vaccines to improve health and well-being.

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Bait and switch

ASU study looks at environmental effects of purchasing, consuming mislabeled fish

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Perhaps that sauteed snapper you enjoyed last evening at your neighborhood restaurant was not snapper at all. Perhaps it was Pacific Ocean perch, cloaked in a wine sauce to disguise its true identity. The same goes for that grouper you paid a handsome price for at your local fishmonger's and cooked up at home. Instead, you may have been feasting on a plateful of whitefin weakfish and been none the wiser.

Seafood is the world's most highly traded food commodity, and reports of seafood mislabeling have increased over the past decade. However, proof of the environmental effects of mislabeled seafood has been scant as has research. So, Arizona State University researcher Kailin Kroetz and her colleagues analyzed the impact of seafood mislabeling on marine population health, fishery management effectiveness, and habitats and ecosystems in the United States, the world's largest seafood importer.

The results of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study found that approximately 190,000 to 250,000 tons of mislabeled seafood are sold in the United States each year, or 3.4% to 4.3% of consumed seafood. What's more, the substituted seafood was 28% more likely to be imported from other countries, which may have weaker environmental laws than the United States.

"In the United States, we're actually very good at managing our fisheries," said Kroetz, assistant professor in ASU's School of Sustainability. "We assess the stock so we know what's out there. We set a catch limit. We have strong monitoring and enforcement capabilities to support fishers adhering to the limit. But many countries we import from do not have the same management capacity."

The authors used the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch scores for wild-caught product pairs to assess marine population health and fishery management effectiveness.

"Although we would like to do a global assessment in the longer run, we focused on the U.S. first because Seafood Watch assesses about 85% of U.S. seafood consumed," Kroetz explained. "The data we were able to access in the U.S. were much more detailed than what we could access on the global scale."

The study found that substitute species came from fisheries that performed worse in terms of population impacts 86% of the time. The population impact metric accounted for fish abundance, fishing mortality, bycatch and discards -- that is, fish thrown back to sea after being caught. In addition, 78% of the time the substituted seafood fared worse than the expected products listed on the label when it came to fishery management effectiveness.

Prior studies have focused on the rates at which specific seafood is mislabeled. But it's the quantity of substituted fish consumed that is key to determining environmental impacts.

"The rates themselves don't tell us the full story about the impact of mislabeling," Kroetz said. That's because some fish that have high rates of substitution have low levels of consumption and vice versa. In fact, the majority of pairs have relatively low rates of substitution and low consumption.

Good examples are shrimp and snapper. The researchers found that giant tiger prawns are substituted for white leg shrimp more than any other seafood product -- and Americans eat more shrimp than any other type of seafood, opening the door to potentially substantial environmental impacts. Meanwhile, snapper has a higher rate of mislabeling, but Americans consume much less of it than shrimp.

At the very minimum, mislabeling fish undermines good population management, and in turn, sustainable fisheries.

Mislabeling can shake consumer confidence in their quest to eat only sustainable, local seafood. That's because substituted fish is more likely to be imported and come from poorly managed fisheries, thereby creating a market for fish that shouldn't be liberally consumed.

For example, you might think you're getting this wonderful local blue crab, supporting local fisheries, and experiencing local cuisine, but in reality, you could be eating something that was imported from Indonesia. Learning about mislabeling might reduce the amount you'd pay for blue crab in the future or result in you not consuming it at all.

"The expected species is often really well managed," Kroetz said. "Consuming fish from a fishery shouldn't have a negative impact in terms of the population now or in the future if the management is good. But if you're consuming fish from poorly managed fisheries, that's not sustainable."

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This study was funded by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation and Resources for the Future. The work was also supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center under funding received from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Additional study authors include Patrick Lee, Katrina Chicojay Moore and Andrew Steinkruger, Resources for the Future; Gloria Luque, Advanced Conservation Strategies; Jessica Gephart, American University; Sunny Jardine, University of Washington; Cassandra Cole, Harvard University; and C. Josh Donlan, Advanced Conservation Strategies and Cornell University.

Perspective: Why opioids cannot fix chronic pain

Researchers say that emotional pain and chronic pain are related, and painkillers, ultimately, make things worse.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON HEALTH SCIENCES/UW MEDICINE

Research News

 

A broken heart is often harder to heal than a broken leg. Now researchers say that a broken heart can contribute to lasting chronic pain.

In a reflections column published Dec. 21 in the Annals of Family Medicine, pain experts Mark Sullivan and Jane Ballantyne at the University of Washington School of Medicine, say emotional pain and chronic physical pain are bidirectional. Painkillers, they said, ultimately make things worse.

Their argument is based on new epidemiological and neuroscientific evidence, which suggests emotional pain activates many of the same limbic brain centers as physical pain. This is especially true, they said, for the most common chronic pain syndromes - back pain, headaches, and fibromyalgia.

Opioids may make patients feel better early on, but over the long term these drugs cause all kinds of havoc on their well-being, the researchers said.

"Their social and emotional functioning is messed up under a wet blanket of opioids," Sullivan said.

The researchers said new evidence suggests that the body's reward system may be more important than tissue damage in the transition from acute to chronic pain.

By reward system, they are referring, in part, to the endogenous opioid system, a complicated system connected to several areas of the brain, The system includes the natural release of endorphins from pleasurable activities.

When this reward system is damaged by manufactured opioids, it perpetuates isolation and chronic illness and is a strong risk factor for depression, they said.

"Rather than helping the pain for which the opioid was originally sought, persistent opioid use may be chasing the pain in a circular manner, diminishing natural rewards from normal sources of pleasure, and increasing social isolation," they wrote.

Both Sullivan and Ballantyne prescribe opioids for their patients and say they have a role in short-term use.

"Long-term opioid therapy that lasts months and perhaps years should be a rare occurrence because it does not treat chronic pain well, it impairs human social and emotional function, and can lead to opioid dependence or addiction," they wrote.

What Sullivan recommends is if patients are on high-dose long-term opioids and they are not having clear improvement in pain and function, they need to taper down or switch to buprenorphine. If available, a multidisciplinary pain program using a case manager to monitor their care and well-being, similar to those for diabetes and depression care, may be of benefit.

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Survival of the thickest: Big brains make mammal populations less dense

Brain size shown to influence mammal abundance in local areas for the first time

UNIVERSITY OF READING

Research News

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IMAGE: A BARBARY MACAQUE (MACACA SYLVANUS) IN GIBRALTAR view more 

CREDIT: MANUELA GONZALEZ-SUAREZ/UNIVERSITY OF READING

Mammals with big brains tend to be less abundant in local areas than those with smaller brains, new research has shown.

The University of Reading led an international team of scientists in considering the effect of brain size for the first time in studying why populations densities of land mammals like mice, monkeys, kangaroos and foxes vary so widely in local areas, even among similar creatures.

Using statistical models to test different scenarios for hundreds of species, they found an overall trend of mammals with larger brains occurring at lower densities. Where different species had similar diets and body masses, brain size was found to be the deciding factor.

Dr Manuela González-Suárez, associate professor in ecological modelling at the University of Reading, who led the study, said: "Although they are associated with being smarter, we found that bigger brains may actually hold mammals back from becoming the most abundant organisms in an area. This may be because bigger brains require more food and other resources, and therefore more space, to sustain them.

"Understanding which animals are more abundant in different areas is important for conservation. Low densities make species more likely to become extinct, while higher local abundance can increase exposure to some threats like roads.

"Brain size is not the only thing that influences mammal abundance. Different environments have different levels of stability and competing species, so these will also have an impact. Further research is required to see how the effect of brain size varies in these different environments.

"There are also some exceptions to the rule. For example, humans appear to have used their advanced intelligence to overcome resource limitations, through agriculture and food production. We can import foods from halfway round the world to allow us to theoretically live almost anywhere in large numbers. Some other brainy species may also be able to partially overcome these limitations."

Although body size and diet are known to influence population densities, scientists had previously disagreed over whether bigger brains increased population densities in local areas by allowing creatures to exploit new resources, or decreased them due to requiring additional resources.

In the new study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, the team tested the relationship between brain size, body mass, diet and population density for 656 non-flying terrestrial mammal species.

Analysis revealed larger mammals with bigger brains and specialised diets were likely to be less locally abundant. The trend was particularly strong for primates and meat-eating mammals, but less clear in rodents and marsupials.

Examples from the study included the Barbary macaque - the species of monkey found in Gibraltar - which has an average body weight of 11kg and a brain weighing 95g, and whose average population density is 36 individuals per square kilometre. This density is nearly three times greater than the siamang - a species of gibbon - which has the same average body weight and diet but a larger brain weighing 123g, and an average population density of 14 individuals per square kilometre.

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Table showing the body and brain size and the abundance of some of the species studied by the researchers

Highest levels of microplastics found in molluscs, new study says

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Research News

 

Mussels, oysters and scallops have the highest levels of microplastic contamination among seafood, a new study reveals.

The research - led by researchers at Hull York Medical School and the University of Hull - looked at more than 50 studies between 2014 and 2020 to investigate the levels of microplastic contamination globally in fish and shellfish.

Scientists are still trying to understand the health implications for humans consuming fish and shellfish contaminated with these tiny particles of waste plastic, which finds its ways into waterways and oceans through waste mismanagement.

Study author, Evangelos Danopoulos, a postgraduate student at Hull York Medical School said: "No-one yet fully understands the full impact of microplastics on the human body, but early evidence from other studies suggest they do cause harm.

"A critical step in understanding the full impact on human consumption is in first fully establishing what levels of microplastics humans are ingesting. We can start to do this by looking at how much seafood and fish is eaten and measuring the amount of MPs in these creatures."

The study shows microplastic content was 0-10.5 microplastics per gram (MPs/g) in molluscs, 0.1-8.6 MPs/g in crustaceans, 0-2.9 MPs/g in fish.

The latest consumption data in the research shows China, Australia, Canada, Japan and the US are amongst the largest consumers of molluscs, followed by Europe and the UK.

Molluscs collected off the coasts of Asia were the most heavily contaminated with researchers suggesting that these areas are more heavily polluted by plastic.

Evangelos Danopoulos added: "Microplastics have been found in various parts of organisms such as the intestines and the liver. Seafood species like oysters, mussels and scallops are consumed whole whereas in larger fish and mammals only parts are consumed. Therefore, understanding the microplastic contamination of specific body parts, and their consumption by humans, is key."

Plastic waste generated worldwide is expected to triple to 155-265 million metric tonnes per year by 2060. Once the plastic finds its way into oceans, lakes and rivers it has the potential to end up as microplastic inside shellfish, fish and marine mammals.

The research points to the need to standardise methods of measuring microplastic contamination so that different measurements can be more readily compared. Researchers said more data is needed from different parts of the world to understand how the issue varies between different oceans, seas and waterways.

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The paper, "Microplastic contamination of seafood intended for human consumption: a systematic review and meta-analysis" is published in Environmental Health Perspectives

Caspian crisis: Sinking sea levels threaten biodiversity, economy and regional stability

The water levels of the Caspian Sea will be 9 to 18 meters lower than they are now, German and Dutch researchers calculate. In the Nature-journal Communications Earth & Environment they urge the world to act.

UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

Research News

IMAGE: INFOGRAPHIC SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF WATER LEVEL CHANGE IN THE CASPIAN SEA AREA. view more 

CREDIT: NATURALIS

The water levels of the Caspian Sea will be 9 to 18 meters lower than they are now, German and Dutch researchers calculate. In the Nature-journal Communications Earth & Environment they urge the world to act.

Coastal nations are rightly worried about a sea level rise, but in the countries around the Caspian Sea over a hundred million people are facing the opposite problem: an enormous drop in sea level. Technically, this sea is a land-locked lake, but it is the largest on the planet (371.000 km2), and quite salty.

The largest lake in the world is getting smaller every year, though. Since the 90's, the water level has been dropping a few centimeters every year. This drop will accelerate during the upcoming decades, scientists from the German universities of Gießen and Bremen calculated, together with Dutch geologist Frank Wesselingh.

Nine to eighteen metre drop

"If the North Sea would drop two or three meters, access to ports like Rotterdam, Hamburg and London would be impeded. Fishing boats and container giants alike would struggle, and all the countries on the North Sea would have a huge problem", Wesselingh says. "Here, we are talking about a decrease of no less than nine meters - in the best case scenario." In the worst case scenario, the drop will be eighteen meters, and the Caspian Sea will lose over a third of its surface area.

In the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the three scientists are calling for action. Increased evaporation and the loss of sea ice in the winter will accelerate water level drop, they explain. This will affect the unique ecosystems in the area, with their migratory birds, beluga and the endemic Caspian seal, that raises its puppies on the sea ice in the North of the Caspian Sea. It will also have dire consequences for the millions of people living near the sea, or around the rivers that run into it.

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Map showing the exact locations of Caspian Sea surface change.

Politically tense region

These problems also play in a region that is already politically tense. Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan all share a piece of the Caspian Sea, and would have to make new agreements on borders and fishing rights. Wesselingh and his German colleagues urge the formation of an international task force, led by the United Nations Environmental Programme, that would coordinate the mitigation of this problem.

"This aspect of climate change - falling levels of lakes -could be similarly devastating as global sea level rise", the three researchers write in their article. "Immediate and coordinated action is required to make up for valuable time lost. The shrinking Caspian Sea might serve as a poster child of the problem, and will help to galvanize such actions."

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The Caspian Sea is the natural habitat of the Caspian seal, whose pups can only survive on ice. The parts of the sea that freeze over will diminish by 98% over the course of the 21st centur

Climate crisis is causing lakes to shrink

Authors of scientific article call for more attention to regions with falling water levels

MARUM - CENTER FOR MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF BREMEN

Research News

 

While global sea levels are rising due to the climate crisis and threatening near-coastal infrastructures, higher temperatures in other areas are having exactly the opposite effect. The water levels are falling and also causing massive problems. Although the consequences are equally serious, however, declining water levels are receiving less attention according to Matthias Prange, Thomas Wilke of the Justus Liebig University in Gießen, and Frank P. Wesselingh of the University of Utrecht and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden (the Netherlands).

"The Caspian Sea can be viewed as representative of many other lakes in the world. Many people are not even aware that an inland lake is dramatically shrinking due to climate change, as our models indicate," says Matthias Prange. The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also failed to mention lakes, and disregarded the social, political and economic consequences of global warming on the affected regions. "This has to change. We need more studies and a better understanding of the consequences of global warming in this region." The goal must be to raise awareness of the consequences of climate change for inland seas and lakes so that appropriate strategies can be developed, including approaches for other large lakes and regions facing similar challenges.

Because of its size (it is the largest lake in the world) and because of its relatively high salinity of about one per cent, which is about one-third of the salt concentration in the oceans, the Caspian has been named a 'Sea'. Its largest inflow is the Volga River and it has no natural connection to the ocean. The water level is determined by the proportional influences of inflow, precipitation and evaporation. Global warming is causing increased evaporation, which results in a declining water level.

The Caspian Sea is an important regional water reservoir and, despite its salt content, a biological and commercial center. It is bounded by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Depending on the degree of global warming in the future, the water level could fall by 9 to 18 meters during this century. "This would affect not only the biodiversity, various species, and habitats that would disappear. The economies of all the bordering countries would be impacted, including harbors, fisheries and fish farming." For this reason, the authors argue that in the future the Caspian Sea should be used as an example in scientific research to assess the vulnerability of certain regions to falling water levels. Because no nation can solve the resulting conflicts alone, they propose a global task force to develop and coordinate strategies. The article suggests that "international climate funds" could offer a possibility for financing projects and adaptation measures if changes in the lake level are attributed to climate change.

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Original publication: Matthias Prange, Thomas Wilke, Frank P. Wesselingh: The other side of sea level change. Communications Earth & Environment 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s43247-020-00075-6

Contact: Dr. Matthias Prange
Geosystem Modelling
Phone: +49 421 21865430
Email: mprange@marum.de

Participating Institutions:
MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen (Germany)
Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, Justus Liebig University, Gießen (Germany)
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden (The Netherlands)
Department Earth Sciences, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)

MARUM produces fundamental scientific knowledge about the role of the ocean and the seafloor in the total Earth system. The dynamics of the oceans and the seabed significantly impact the entire Earth system through the interaction of geological, physical, biological and chemical processes. These influence both the climate and the global carbon cycle, resulting in the creation of unique biological systems. MARUM is committed to fundamental and unbiased research in the interests of society, the marine environment, and in accordance with the sustainability goals of the United Nations. It publishes its quality-assured scientific data to make it publicly available. MARUM informs the public about new discoveries in the marine environment and provides practical knowledge through its dialogue with society. MARUM cooperation with companies and industrial partners is carried out in accordance with its goal of protecting the marine environment.

 

Ancient wolf pup mummy uncovered in Yukon permafrost

CELL PRESS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THIS PHOTO SHOWS AN X-RAY VIEW OF THE WOLF PUP. view more 

CREDIT: GOVERNMENT OF YUKON

While water blasting at a wall of frozen mud in Yukon, Canada, a gold miner made an extraordinary discovery: a perfectly preserved wolf pup that had been locked in permafrost for 57,000 years. The remarkable condition of the pup, named Zhùr by the local Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in people, gave researchers a wealth of insights about her age, lifestyle, and relationship to modern wolves. The findings appear December 21 in the journal Current Biology.

"She's the most complete wolf mummy that's ever been found. She's basically 100% intact--all that's missing are her eyes," says first author Julie Meachen, an associate professor of anatomy at Des Moines University. "And the fact that she's so complete allowed us to do so many lines of inquiry on her to basically reconstruct her life."

One of the most important questions about Zhùr that the researchers sought to answer was how she ended up preserved in permafrost to begin with. It takes a unique combination of circumstances to produce a permafrost mummy.

"It's rare to find these mummies in the Yukon. The animal has to die in a permafrost location, where the ground is frozen all the time, and they have to get buried very quickly, like any other fossilization process," says Meachen. "If it lays out on the frozen tundra too long it'll decompose or get eaten."

Another important factor is how the wolf died. Animals that die slowly or are hunted by predators are less likely to be found in pristine condition. "We think she was in her den and died instantaneously by den collapse," says Meachen. "Our data showed that she didn't starve and was about 7 weeks old when she died, so we feel a bit better knowing the poor little girl didn't suffer for too long."

In addition to learning how Zhùr died, the team were also able to analyze her diet. As it turns out, her diet was heavily influenced by how close she lived to water. "Normally when you think of wolves in the Ice Age, you think of them eating bison or musk oxen or other large animals on land. One thing that surprised us was that she was eating aquatic resources, particularly salmon."

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This photo shows the wolf pup as she was found.

Analyzing Zhùr's genome also confirmed that she is descended from ancient wolves from Russia, Siberia, and Alaska, who are the ancestors of modern wolves as well. Although analyzing Zhùr gave the researchers many answers about wolves of the past, there remain some outstanding questions about Zhùr and her family.

"We've been asked why she was the only wolf found in the den, and what happened to her mom or siblings," says Meachen. "It could be that she was an only pup. Or the other wolves weren't in the den during the collapse. Unfortunately, we'll never know."

The specimen holds special significance for the local Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in people, who have agreed to place Zhùr on display at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse. She is cleaned and conserved so she will stay intact for years to come, allowing her to travel to other Yukon locations as well. And the research team predicts there may be more and more permafrost mummies found in the coming years.

"One small upside of climate change is that we're going to find more of these mummies as permafrost melts," says Meachen. "That's a good way for science to reconstruct that time better, but it also shows us how much our planet is actually warming. We really need to be careful."

CAPTION

This photo shows a closeup of the wolf pup's head, showing her teeth

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This work was supported by the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust awarded to Dr. Matthew Wooller at UAF.

Current Biology, Meachen et al.: "A mummified Pleistocene gray wolf pup (Canis lupus) from Yukon Territory, Canada" https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31686-9

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists.

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How to be happier in 2021

Toss out your usual list of New Year's resolutions and do things that make the world a better place

UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER

Research News

 

So you want to look trimmer, be smarter, and successful next year? You strive to exercise and call your friends more, and spend less?

You are not alone. New Year's resolutions are as ubiquitous as they are difficult to keep. Does it even make sense to set such lofty goals for the new year, hoping anew each January first that this time really is the charm?

Any motivational researcher would have "ambivalent feelings" about New Year's resolutions, says Richard Ryan, an international expert on motivational research and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Rochester. "The evidence shows that most of the time people aren't successful at them."

But don't throw in the towel quite yet. Ryan, who is also a clinical psychologist, says that any occasion that gives us an opportunity to reflect on our lives is ultimately a good thing. It doesn't have to be on New Year's. "Whenever that happens, if it's really a reflective change--something that you put your heart behind--that can be good for people."

And he has another tip: what proves most satisfying, and may also be what's most needed as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, are goals that involve giving to others.

"Think of how you can help," says Ryan. "There's a lot of distress out there: If we can set goals that aim to help others, those kinds of goals will, in turn, also add to our own well-being."

His advice is grounded in decades of research. Together with Edward Deci (also a University of Rochester professor emeritus of psychology) Ryan is the cofounder of self-determination theory (SDT), a broad framework for the study of human motivation and personality. Developed by the duo over nearly 40 years, the theory has become one of the most widely accepted frameworks of human motivation in contemporary behavioral science. Its starting point is the idea that all humans have the natural--or intrinsic--tendency to behave in effective and healthful ways.

According to Ryan, who is also a professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University, acts of willingly helping others satisfy all three of the basic psychological needs identified in SDT research: the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy in this context means that you can engage in activities in which you feel true volition and find personal value. Competence means feeling effective and having a sense of accomplishment. Finally, relatedness means working with and feeling connected to others.

"If you want to make a New Year's resolution that really makes you happy, think about the ways in which you can contribute to the world," says Ryan. "All three of these basic needs are fulfilled. The research shows it's not just good for the world but also really good for you."

Q&A: Why New Year's resolutions (often) don't work

What's the problem with most New Year's resolutions?

The saddest part is that most people don't succeed at their January 1 resolutions. But that is because most of these midnight resolutions look more like pressure coming from the outside--an attempt to look better, relieve guilt, or meet the standards of others. Losing weight, for example, is one of the most common New Year's goals and one that people tend to do poorly at. Part of the reason for that is where it's coming from: it's often coming from internal or external pressure--as opposed to a goal that's something that you might intrinsically value such as having more health or vitality. If the goal is one that is not "authentic" and not really coming from your own values or interests, the energy for it fades fast.

Are any resolutions particularly toxic?

There are many goals that even when achieved will not bring people more happiness. A goal of making more money, for example, may get a person working harder, but may actually leave them less connected to others, or feeling less autonomy on a day-to-day basis. It could make the person less happy. Goals that work are ones where we can find real satisfaction in achieving them.

It's intuitive that giving to others is satisfying. But how does that work on a psychological level?

We found that when people are focused on giving to others they experience deeper satisfactions than when their goals are more self-oriented. For example, experiments show that doing something benevolent for others, even when you will never meet the beneficiary, increases your positive mood and energy. Most recently, we published a study [in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology] about what we call people's "integrative span." We discovered that your happiness increases as your focus of concern and care gets wider. If your main concerns and cares are narrow and selfish--just about "me and the people very close to me," versus about "my family and my community," versus about "the larger world and everything in it"-- the less happy you are prone to be. A broader scope of caring and concern for others, in contrast, predicts a higher well-being.

How do we make any resolution more likely to stick?

Beyond the focus of your goals, there are some key elements to success at any resolution you might make. First, make sure your goal is one you truly embrace--that you are fully behind and care about. An achievable goal is also one that is not abstract, like "improve my health" but concrete--such as "increase my daily step count" or "drink sparkling water rather than sugared soda at lunch." These latter goals are clear and achievable in a way that a vague global resolution can never be. Once having a clear aim, the next step is making a realistic plan on how and when it will be implemented.

Just as important, research shows that the more you can make achieving your resolution fun and "intrinsically motivated" the more you'll persist. For example, a plan to increase your step count might include a walk each day with a good friend--which will both achieve your step goal and satisfy relatedness needs. By finding an activity that both gets you to your goal and that you actually enjoy--or at least don't find aversive--you'll be more likely to carry on.

Finally, successful resolutions are usually built upon optimal challenges. Setting the bar too high will feel discouraging and lead to disengagement. Keep in mind that with almost any long-term goal the best strategy is to set small incremental goals--not "I'm going to climb Everest" but rather "I'm going to take these first few steps toward base camp."

Any special advice for 2021?

The past year has been tough; you can make the new one kinder. Any new goals you set that involve changing habits or lifestyles will inevitably involve some setbacks, lapses, and failures. So when failures happen, remember to be a compassionate self-coach. Forget the harsh judgments and instead take interest in what you can learn from the setback and where you got stuck. And then restart with that much more wisdom in hand.

How do I find the goal I ultimately most care about?

For most of us, if we give ourselves occasional moments of reflection-taking the time to really think about what's going well in our lives and what really matters-we can usually identify some things we could change. Often that means listening to that little nagging feeling about the things that we know would improve our lives. It means allowing ourselves to tune into that inner signal in an open, non-defensive way and to consider the possibilities and the choices that you really have. In truth, there are always ways to make life better, but the road upward need not be a painful one--if you are going in the right direction.

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