Transmission risk of COVID-19 from sewage spills into rivers can now be quickly quantified

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

Scientists have identified that the COVID-19 virus could be transmitted through faecal contaminated river water.

A team of researchers, including water quality, epidemiology, remote sensing and modelling experts, led by Dr Jamie Shutler at the University of Exeter, have developed a fast and simple way to assess the potential risk of water-borne transmission of the COVID-19 virus, posed by sewage spills into open and closed freshwater networks.

The new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology - Water, identifies the relative risk of viral transmission by sewerage spills, across 39 different counties.

The study used information on the environment, a population's infection rate, and water usage to calculate the potential potency of viral loads in the event of a sewerage spill.

The research team believe the new study could provide fresh impetus in identifying new ways in which to prevent the spread of the virus amongst communities and the environment.

Dr Jamie Shutler, lead author of the study and at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall said: "it's important to identify and break all viable transmission routes if we want to stop any future outbreaks".

Airborne water droplets have previously been highlighted as the main route for transmission of the virus which causes COVID-19, but we know that other forms of transmission are likely to exist.

Previous studies have shown that COVID-19 viral pathogens can be found in untreated wastewater, in concentrations consistent with population infection rates. While studies are still relatively early in relation to COVID-19, other human coronaviruses are documented to survive in wastewater, with colder water temperature likely to increase viral survival.

Using this knowledge and existing methods, the research team identified how the transmission risk from water contaminated with sewage reduces over time.

This issue is likely to be especially problematic in parts of the world with a large proportion of temporary settlements, such as shanty towns, favellas or refugee camps, which are less likely to have safe sanitisation systems. Or any densely populated region that has high infection rates that also suffers from a sewage spill.

Modifying established pollution analysis methods, the team were able to estimate the viral concentration in rivers after a sewage spill. This meant they could calculate the relative transmission risk posed to humans by contaminated waterways for 39 countries.

These methods, the team argue, provides a fast way to assess the transmission risk associated to sewage spills through the use of easily available population, infection rate and environmental data, allowing evidence based guidance following a spill.

Dr Shutler added: "we hope that water companies or NGOs will use our simple spreadsheet calculator, that is freely available, to estimate the transmission risk after a spill. They can then use this information to advise the public."

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This research was partially funded by the European Union project Aquasense, which is focussing on novel methods to study and monitor water quality.

The research resulted from a collaboration between the University of Exeter in Cornwall, the University of Glasgow, the ?ukasiewicz-Institute of Electron Technology in Poland, and the University of Agriculture in Kraków, Poland.

The fully open access paper is available here:
Shutler et al., (2021) Rapid Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Risk for Fecally Contaminated River Water, Environmental Science and Technology Water.

Lake turbidity mitigates impact of warming on walleyes in upper Midwest lakes

PENN STATE

Research News

IMAGE: SLIGHTLY HIGHER WATER TEMPERATURES IN SOME UPPER MIDWEST LAKES HAVE RESULTED IN INCREASED GROWTH RATES FOR YOUNG WALLEYES LIKE THESE, BUT IF WATER TEMPERATURES CONTINUE TO RISE, INFLUENCED BY A... view more 

CREDIT: GRETCHEN HANSEN, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Because walleyes are a cool-water fish species with a limited temperature tolerance, biologists expected them to act like the proverbial "canary in a coal mine" that would begin to suffer and signal when lakes influenced by climate change start to warm. But in a new study, a team of researchers discovered that it is not that simple.

"After analyzing walleye early-life growth rates in many lakes in the upper Midwest over the last three decades, we determined that water clarity affects how growth rates of walleyes change as lakes start to warm," said Tyler Wagner, Penn State adjunct professor of fisheries ecology. "In some lakes, warming actually led to increased walleye growth rates, in others there essentially was no change, and in others, growth rates declined. The different responses of growth rates to increasing water temperatures across lakes appear to be influenced by water turbidity."

The research is significant, Wagner explained, because walleye fisheries in the upper Midwest are important not just ecologically, but also from an economic and cultural perspective. Because walleye fishing is a valued social activity in Minnesota and Wisconsin and hundreds of thousands of walleye fingerlings are stocked there to bolster wild populations, the region is the ideal place to study the effect of warming conditions on the fish.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Midwest has gotten warmer, with average annual temperatures increasing over the last several decades. Between 1900 and 2010, the average air temperature increased by more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the region.

"The rate of increase in air temperature has accelerated in recent decades, and this increase in air temperature will affect the thermal habitat for fishes across the region," Wagner said. "Temperatures are projected to continue increasing across the Midwest -- with the greatest increases in average temperature expected in northern areas -- so we wanted to know what was happening with walleye populations in the upper Midwest."

Using data provided by the Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of Natural Resources, researchers quantified annual walleye early-life growth rates from 1983 to 2015 in 61 lakes in the upper Midwest. Then they estimated the relationship between early-life growth rates and water growing degree days -- an indicator of the temperature the fish are exposed to -- over those 32 years. Importantly, they also examined how water turbidity influenced growth rates across the 61 lakes, correlated to an increased number of growing degree days.

Their findings, published Feb. 23 in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, showed that, on average, early-life growth rates increased with increasing growing degree days in turbid lakes, remained more or less unchanged in moderately clear lakes, and decreased in very clear lakes. This suggests that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to managing walleye populations across a broad landscape may not be effective, according to Wagner.

"Rather, lake-specific characteristics likely will be important in determining how walleye populations respond to climate change," he said.

The analysis also indicated that walleye growth rates varied among lakes of different sizes, explained lead researcher Danielle Massie, who graduated from Penn State in 2020 with a master's degree in wildlife and fisheries science.

"Walleye early-life growth rates, on average, were significantly greater in larger lakes," she said. "Our results provide insights into the conservation of cool-water species in a changing environment and identify lake characteristics in which walleye growth may be at least somewhat resilient to climate change."

The results of the research were surprising, Wagner conceded, because researchers expected to see walleye growth rates in most lakes decrease with more growing degree days -- since walleyes prefer cool water. But that did not happen in most of the lakes they studied.

"It sounds counterintuitive at first, but if we think about fish growth, we can think about it as a performance curve, where growth increases with increasing temperature to a certain point," he said. "But as the lake warms past that optimum temperature, the curve descends, and we'll see declining growth as the temperature increases beyond that point."

Slightly higher water temperatures in some upper Midwest lakes have resulted in increased growth rates for walleyes, but if water temperatures continue to rise, influenced by a warming climate, walleye populations in the region will suffer, predicted Wagner, assistant leader of Penn State's Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, housed in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

"We're going to reach a water temperature tipping point where growth will decline, and then we'll see deleterious effects," he said. "This is why understanding what factors, such as turbidity and lake size, influence how fish populations respond to warming is critical for informing management and conservation efforts."

CAPTION

The findings of this research suggests that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to managing walleye populations across a broad landscape may not be effective. Rather, lake-specific characteristics likely will be important in determining how walleye populations respond to climate change.

CREDIT

Gretchen Hansen, University of Minnesota

Also involved in the research were Gretchen Hansen, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota; Yan Li, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, North Carolina Department of Environment Quality; and Greg Sass, Escanaba Lake Research Station, Office of Applied Science, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Sea Grant Program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supported this research.

 

Plant clock could be the key to producing more food for the world

Night time clock helps plants know when to grow

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Research News

 

IMAGE: PLANTS CAN'T STUMBLE TO THE FRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IF THEY GET HUNGRY SO THEY HAVE TO PREDICT THE LENGTH OF THE NIGHT SO THERE'S ENOUGH ENERGY... view more 

CREDIT: GETTY

A University of Melbourne led study has established how plants use their metabolism to tell time and know when to grow - a discovery that could help leverage growing crops in different environments, including different seasons, different latitudes or even in artificial environments and vertical gardens.

Published in the PNAS journal, Superoxide is promoted by sucrose and affects amplitude of circadian rhythms in the evening, details how plants use their metabolism to sense time at dusk and help conserve energy produced from sunlight during the day.

Lead researcher Dr Mike Haydon, from the School of BioSciences, said while plants don't sleep as humans do, their metabolism is adjusted during the night to conserve energy for the big day ahead of making their own food using energy from sunlight, or photosynthesis.

"Getting the timing of this daily cycle of metabolism right is really important because getting it wrong is detrimental to growth and survival," Dr Haydon said. "Plants can't stumble to the fridge in the middle of the night if they get hungry so they have to predict the length of the night so there's enough energy to last until sunrise; a bit like setting an alarm clock."

Dr Haydon and collaborators had earlier shown that the accumulation of sugars produced from photosynthesis give the plant important information about the amount of sugar generated in the morning and sends signals to what's known as the circadian clock, to adjust its pace.

"We have now found that a different metabolic signal, called superoxide, acts at dusk and changes the activity of circadian clock genes in the evening," said Dr Haydon. "We also found that this signal affects plant growth. We think this signal could be providing information to the plant about metabolic activity as the sun sets."

Researchers hope the study will be invaluable in the world producing more food, more reliably.

"As we strive to produce more food for the increasing global population in the face of changing climate, we may need to grow crops in different environments such as different seasons, different latitudes or even in artificial environments like vertical gardens," Dr Haydon said.

"Understanding how plants optimise rhythms of metabolism could be useful information to allow us to fine-tune their circadian clocks to suit these conditions and maximise future yields."

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UNESCO reveals largest carbon stores found in Australian World Heritage Sites

Australia's marine World Heritage Sites are among the world's largest stores of carbon dioxide according to a new report from the United Nations, co-authored by an ECU marine science expert.

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Australia's marine World Heritage Sites are among the world's largest stores of carbon dioxide according to a new report from the United Nations, co-authored by an ECU marine science expert.

The UNESCO report found Australia's six marine World Heritage Sites hold 40 per cent of the estimated 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide stored in mangrove, seagrass and tidal marsh ecosystems within UNESCO sites.

The report quantifies the enormous amounts of so-called blue carbon absorbed and stored by those ecosystems across the world's 50 UNESCO marine World Heritage Sites.

Despite covering less than 1 per cent of the world's surface, blue carbon ecosystems are responsible for around half of the carbon dioxide absorbed by the world's oceans while it is estimated they absorb carbon dioxide at a rate about 30 times faster than rainforests.

Australia a 'Blue Carbon' hotspot

Report author and ECU Research Fellow Dr Oscar Serrano said Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Coast and Shark Bay World Heritage areas contained the vast majority of Australia's blue carbon ecosystems.

"We know Australia contains some of the world's largest stores of blue carbon due to the enormous size and diversity of our marine ecosystems," he said.

"However here in Australia and around the world, these ecosystems are under threat from human development and climate change.

"While they're healthy, blue carbon ecosystems are excellent stores of carbon dioxide, but if they are damaged, they can release huge amounts of carbon dioxide stored over millennia back into the atmosphere."

Climate change turns up the heat on seagrass

In 2011 seagrass meadows in the Shark Bay World Heritage Site in Western Australia released up to nine million tons of stored carbon dioxide after a marine heatwave devastated more than 1000sqkm of seagrass meadows.

The UNESCO Report's authors have outlined the potential for the countries including Australia to use the global carbon trading market to fund conservation and restoration efforts at marine World Heritage Sites including here in Australia.

Dr Serrano said both Shark Bay and the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems are at risk due to climate change and human development.

"There are significant opportunities for both the Great Barrier Reef and Shark Bay to be protected and restored to ensure they survive and thrive in the future," he said.

"Australia also has plenty of marine ecosystems in need of protection not contained within a World Heritage Site which are worthy of our attention.

Money to be made in carbon market

Dr Serrano's previous research has highlighted the millions of dollars in potential conservation and restoration projects of blue carbon ecosystems while also helping Australia and other countries achieve their commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement.

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The report was led by Professor Carlos Duarte and a team of collaborators from Australia, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, the United States, Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The UNESCO Marine World Heritage report is titled 'Custodians of the globes' blue carbon assets' and can be accessed at the UNESCO webpage.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accur

Dinosaur species: 'Everyone's unique'

Paleontologists from the Universities of Bonn and Liverpool examined 14 skulls of Plateosaurus trossingensis

UNIVERSITY OF BONN

Research News

 

IMAGE: ON LOAN FROM THE FRICK DINOSAUR MUSEUM, ON DISPLAY AT THE ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH MUSEUM ALEXANDER KOENIG (ZFMK) IN BONN. view more 

CREDIT: © VOLKER LANNERT/UNI BONN

"Everyone's unique" is a popular maxim. All people are equal, but there are of course individual differences. This was no different with dinosaurs. A study by researchers at the University of Bonn and the Dinosaur Museum Frick in Switzerland has now revealed that the variability of Plateosaurus trossingensis was much greater than previously assumed. The paleontologists examined a total of 14 complete skulls of this species, eight of which they described for the first time. The results have now been published in the scientific journal "Acta Palaeontologica Polonica".

Plateosaurus lived during the Late Triassic, about 217 to 201 million years ago. "With well over 100 skeletons, some of them completely preserved, it is one of the best known dinosaurs," says Dr. Jens Lallensack, who researched dinosaur biology at the University of Bonn and has been working at Liverpool John Moores University (UK) for several months. The herbivore had a small skull, a long neck and tail, powerful hind legs and strong grasping hands. The spectrum is considerable: Adult specimens ranged from a few to ten meters in length, weighing between about half a ton and four tons.

The first bones of Plateosaurus were found as early as 1834 near Nuremberg, making it the first dinosaur found in Germany, and one of the first ever. Between 1911 and 1938, excavations unearthed dozens of skeletons from dinosaur "graveyards" in Halberstadt (Saxony-Anhalt) and Trossingen (Baden-Württemberg). A third such cemetery was discovered in the 1960s in Frick, Switzerland. "It's the only one where there are still digs every year," Lallensack says. The material from Frick, which is described in detail for the first time, includes eight complete and seven fragmentary skulls excavated by Swiss paleontologist and dinosaur researcher Dr. Ben Pabst and his team.

CAPTION

of Plateosaurus trossingensis (top) and a reconstruction of the skull with the different bones highlighted in colour (bottom).

CREDIT

© Jens Lallensack

Natural variation between individuals

Dinosaurs have been preserved for posterity mainly through bones. Paleontologists rely on anatomical details to distinguish different species. "A perpetual difficulty with this is that such anatomical differences can also occur within a species, as natural variation between individuals," Lallensack reports. Researchers at the University of Bonn and the Dinosaur Museum Frick (Switzerland) have now been able to show that Plateosaurus anatomy was significantly more variable than previously thought - and the validity of some species needs to be re-examined. These findings were made possible by analyses of 14 complete and additional incomplete skulls of Plateosaurus. "Such a large number of early dinosaurs is unique," says paleontologist Prof. Dr. Martin Sander of the University of Bonn.

Can all these fossils from Germany and Switzerland really be assigned to a single species? Answering this question has become all the more urgent since Martin Sander and Nicole Klein of the University of Bonn published in "Science" in 2005. According to this, Plateosaurus was probably already warm-blooded like today's birds, but was able to adapt its growth to the environmental conditions - something that today can only be observed in cold-blooded animals. "This hypothesis is of great importance for our understanding of the evolution of warm-bloodedness," reports Lallensack. However, until now the observed individually distinct growth patterns could alternatively be explained by the assumption that there was not only one, but several species present. The current study debunks this.

CAPTION

of a Plateosaurus trossingensis skull deformed by loading during fossilisation.

CREDIT

© Jens Lallensack

Bone deformations during fossilization

The researchers have now carefully documented the variations in skulls of different sizes. A significant portion of the differences can be attributed to bone deformation during fossilization deep below the Earth's surface. Individual variations must be distinguished from this: The posterior branch of the zygomatic bone, which is sometimes bifurcated and sometimes not, appeared most striking to the researchers. A strongly sculptured bone bridge over the eye was also present only in some skulls. The relative size of the nasal opening also varies.

"It becomes apparent that each skull has a unique combination of features," Lallensack notes, emphasizing the distinct individuality of these dinosaurs. The uniquely large number of skulls studied made it possible to show that the differences in characteristics were variations within a species and not different species. "Only if as many finds as possible are excavated and secured will we obtain the high quantities needed to prove species affiliation and answer fundamental questions of biology" says Sander.

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Funding:

The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project received financial support for the excavation and preparation from the municipality of Frick and the Canton of Aargau (Swisslos Fund) of Switzerland.

Publication: Lallensack, J.N., Teschner, E.M., Pabst, B., and Sander, P.M.: New skulls of the basal sauropodomorph Plateosaurus trossingensis from Frick, Switzerland: Is there more than one species? Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00804.2020; http://app.pan.pl/article/item/app008042020.html

 

Neandertals had the capacity to perceive and produce human speech

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

Research News

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IMAGE: 3D MODEL AND VIRTUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EAR IN A MODERN HUMAN (LEFT) AND THE AMUD 1 NEANDERTAL (RIGHT). view more 

CREDIT: MERCEDES CONDE-VALVERDE

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Neandertals -- the closest ancestor to modern humans -- possessed the ability to perceive and produce human speech, according to a new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including Binghamton University anthropology professor Rolf Quam and graduate student Alex Velez.

"This is one of the most important studies I have been involved in during my career", says Quam. "The results are solid and clearly show the Neandertals had the capacity to perceive and produce human speech. This is one of the very few current, ongoing research lines relying on fossil evidence to study the evolution of language, a notoriously tricky subject in anthropology."

The evolution of language, and the linguistic capacities in Neandertals in particular, is a long-standing question in human evolution.

"For decades, one of the central questions in human evolutionary studies has been whether the human form of communication, spoken language, was also present in any other species of human ancestor, especially the Neandertals," says coauthor Juan Luis Arsuaga, Professor of Paleontology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and co-director of the excavations and research at the Atapuerca sites. The latest study has reconstructed how Neandertals heard to draw some inferences about how they may have communicated.

The study relied on high resolution CT scans to create virtual 3D models of the ear structures in Homo sapiens and Neandertals as well as earlier fossils from the site of Atapuerca that represent ancestors of the Neandertals. Data collected on the 3D models were entered into a software-based model, developed in the field of auditory bioengineering, to estimate the hearing abilities up to 5 kHz, which encompasses most of the frequency range of modern human speech sounds. Compared with the Atapuerca fossils, the Neandertals showed slightly better hearing between 4-5 kHz, resembling modern humans more closely.

CAPTION

Reconstructed hearing patterns in modern humans, Neandertals and the Sima de los Huesos based on their ear anatomy. Compared with their ancestors from the Sima de los Huesos, the Neandertals more closely resemble modern humans in showing a heightened sensitivity between 3.5-5 kHz, a frequency range that contains acoustic information related to consonant production in human spoken language.

CREDIT

Mercedes Conde-Valverde

In addition, the researchers were able to calculate the frequency range of maximum sensitivity, technically known as the occupied bandwidth, in each species. The occupied bandwidth is related to the communication system, such that a wider bandwidth allows for a larger number of easily distinguishable acoustic signals to be used in the oral communication of a species. This, in turn, improves the efficiency of communication, the ability to deliver a clear message in the shortest amount of time. The Neandertals show a wider bandwidth compared with their ancestors from Atapuerca, more closely resembling modern humans in this feature.

"This really is the key," says Mercedes Conde-Valverde, professor at the Universidad de Alcalá in Spain and lead author of the study. "The presence of similar hearing abilities, particularly the bandwidth, demonstrates that the Neandertals possessed a communication system that was as complex and efficient as modern human speech."

"One of the other interesting results from the study was the suggestion that Neandertal speech likely included an increased use of consonants," said Quam. "Most previous studies of Neandertal speech capacities focused on their ability to produce the main vowels in English spoken language. However, we feel this emphasis is misplaced, since the use of consonants is a way to include more information in the vocal signal and it also separates human speech and language from the communication patterns in nearly all other primates. The fact that our study picked up on this is a really interesting aspect of the research and is a novel suggestion regarding the linguistic capacities in our fossil ancestors."

Thus, Neandertals had a similar capacity to us to produce the sounds of human speech, and their ear was "tuned" to perceive these frequencies. This change in the auditory capacities in Neandertals, compared with their ancestors from Atapuerca, parallels archaeological evidence for increasingly complex behavioral patterns, including changes in stone tool technology, domestication of fire and possible symbolic practices. Thus, the study provides strong evidence in favor of the coevolution of increasingly complex behaviors and increasing efficiency in vocal communication throughout the course of human evolution.

The team behind the new study has been developing this research line for nearly two decades, and has ongoing collaborations to extend the analyses to additional fossil species. For the moment, however, the new results are exciting.

"These results are particularly gratifying," said Ignacio Martinez from Universidad de Alcalá in Spain. "We believe, after more than a century of research into this question, that we have provided a conclusive answer to the question of Neandertal speech capacities."

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The study, "Neandertals and modern humans had similar auditory and speech capacities," was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

First ever detailed description of a volcanic eruption from Sierra Negra

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Research News

 

A volcanic eruption in the Galápagos Islands has given scientists a fresh insight into how volcanoes behave and provided vital information that will help to predict future hazards on the islands.

Irish scientists, based at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) and Trinity College Dublin respectively, were members of an international research team from Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, France and Ecuador that made the discovery.

The research published today (02.03.21) in Nature Communications reveals the first ever detailed description of a volcanic eruption from Sierra Negra - one of the world's most active volcanoes - found on Isabela Island, the largest of the Galápagos archipelago and home to nearly 2,000 people.

The new understandings developed from the research will allow Ecuadorian volcanologists to track the evolution of unrest for future eruptions in the Galápagos Islands, and communicate it to local authorities and the public.

The research process

The eruption in June 2018 began after 13 years of earthquakes and uplift of the surface marked the gradual accumulation of molten rock (magma) under the volcano. They were amongst the largest signals ever recorded before an eruption. Strong earthquakes allowed new fissures to open in the shield volcano, feeding lava flows that extended 16 km to the coast, and were active for nearly two months.

When the eruption finished, the hills within the 10 km wide caldera of the volcano were nearly two metres higher than at the start. This phenomenon, known as 'caldera resurgence', is important for understanding when and where eruptions happen, but is rare and had never been observed in such detail.

Despite their significance, the Galápagos Islands' remote location means that this is the first eruption there to have been recorded by modern monitoring instruments, including seismometers and GPS. Consequently, there have been no previous multidisciplinary studies into the volcanic processes behind Galápagos Island volcanism.

The international research team combined the latest data recorded by instruments on the ground, by satellites, and by analysis of the chemical composition of the erupted lava. They showed how ascending magma permanently uplifted a 'trapdoor' in the floor of the caldera, raising the surface, and triggering large earthquakes.

Comments from the research team

Professor Chris Bean, Head of the Geophysics Section and Director of the School of Cosmic Physics at DIAS, who was a member of the research team said:

"It was fantastic to represent DIAS on this international research team, we managed to examine the Sierra Negra volcano with an unprecedented level of detail which has produced some ground-breaking results. Although the volcano had been slowly inflating for over a decade, the final trigger to the eruption was a violent earthquake strong enough to make anything that wasn't tied down hop clear off the ground. Stress changes related to this event unzip subterranean fractures through which magma flowed to the surface in a spectacular eruption."

Dr Michael Stock, Assistant Professor of Geology at Trinity College Dublin, who was also a member of the research team, said:

"This is a genuinely multidisciplinary study which brought together a diverse team of international scientists to produce one of the most detailed records of pre-eruptive processes at an active volcano to date. The data will be invaluable in improving volcano monitoring in Galapagos, where eruptions pose a risk to the unique and fragile ecosystem. However, it also has far-reaching global implications, demonstrating that not all volcanoes are created equally - our current understanding of volcano monitoring data is largely based on well-studied eruptions in Iceland and Hawaii and may need to be urgently reassessed to effectively manage volcanic hazards in other locations."

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Further information about the project is available at http://www.dias.ie/geo-recent-research-activities/ .

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Lead up to volcanic eruption in Galapagos captured in rare detail

PENN STATE

Research News

 

IMAGE: FIELD CREW DOWNLOADING DATA FROM A CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING GLOBAL POSITIONING STATION IN THE SIERRA NEGRA CALDERA, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR. view more 

CREDIT: KEITH WILLIAMS (UMAVCO, INC).

Hours before the 2018 eruption of Sierra Negra, the Galápagos Islands' largest volcano, an earthquake rumbled and raised the ground more than 6 feet in an instant. The event, which triggered the eruption, was captured in rare detail by an international team of scientists, who said it offers new insights into one of the world's most active volcanoes.

"The power of this study is that it's one of the first times we've been able to see a full eruptive cycle in this detail at almost any volcano," said Peter La Femina, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State. "We've monitored Sierra Negra from when it last erupted in 2005 through the 2018 eruption and beyond, and we have this beautiful record that's a rarity in itself."

For nearly two months in 2018, lava erupted from the volcano, covering about 19 square miles of Isabela Island, the largest island in the Galápagos and home to about 2,000 people and endangered animal species like the Galápagos giant tortoise.

"The 2018 eruption of Sierra Negra was a really spectacular volcanic event, occurring in the 'living laboratory' of the Galápagos Islands," said Andrew Bell, a volcanologist at the University of Edinburgh. "Great teamwork, and a bit of luck, allowed us to capture this unique dataset that provide us with important new understanding as to how these volcanoes behave, and how we might be able to better forecast future eruptions."

While Sierra Negra is among the world's most active volcanos, its remote location previously made monitoring difficult. Scientists now use networks of ground-based seismic and GPS monitoring stations and satellite observations to observe the volcano.

"Based on constant monitoring of activity of Galapagos volcanoes, we detected a dramatic increase of seismicity and a steady uplift of crater floor at Sierra Negra," said Mario Ruiz, director of the Ecuador Geophysical Institute, the country's national monitoring agency. "Soon we contacted colleagues from the United Kingdom, United States and Ireland and proposed them to work together to investigate the mechanisms leading to an impending eruption of this volcano. This research is an example of international collaboration and partnership."

The scientists captured data over 13 years as the volcano's magma chamber gradually refilled following the 2005 eruption, stressing the surrounding crust and creating earthquakes. This continued until June 2018, when an earthquake occurred on the calderas fault system and triggered the subsequent eruption, the scientists said.

"We have this story of magma coming in and stressing the system to the point of failure and the whole system draining again through the eruption of lava flows," La Femina said. "This is the first time anyone's seen that in the Galápagos to this detail. This is the first time we've had the data to say, 'okay, this is what happened here.'"

Often during volcanic eruptions, as magma chambers empty the ground above them sinks and forms a bowl-like depression, or a caldera. But Sierra Negra experienced a caldera resurgence, leaving this area higher in elevation than it was before the eruption, the scientists said.

Inside the Sierra Negra caldera is a "trap-door fault," which is hinged at one end while the other can be uplifted by rising magma. The scientists found the fault caused hills inside of the six-mile-wide caldera to lift vertically by more than 6 feet during the earthquake that triggered the eruption.

Caldera resurgence, important to better understanding eruptions, had not been previously observed in such detail, the scientists reported in the journal Nature Communications.

"Resurgence is typical of explosive calderas at volcanoes like Yellowstone, not the kind of shield volcanoes we see in the Galápagos or Hawaii," La Femina said. "This gives us the ability to look at other volcanoes in the Galápagos and say, 'well that's what could have happened to form that caldera or that resurgent ridge.'"

The scientists said the findings could help their counterparts in Ecuador better track unrest and warn of future eruptions.

"There are people who live on Isabella Island, so studying and understanding how these eruptions occur is important to manage the hazards and risks to local populations," La Femina said.

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Other Penn State researchers on the project were Machel Higgins and Andres Gorki Ruiz, doctoral students, and Nathan Meier, a former undergraduate student.

Scientists from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Cambridge, the University of Miami, Tulane University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory also contributed to the study.

The National Science Foundation, NASA and the Nature Environment Research Council funded this res

Adverse childhood and combat experiences may drive veterans' suicidal thoughts

PENN STATE

Research News

 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The rate of suicide among post-9/11 military veterans has been rising for nearly a decade. While there are a number of factors associated with suicide, veterans have unique experiences that may contribute to them thinking about killing themselves.

"Compared to their civilian peers, veterans are more likely to report having experienced traumatic adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as physical and emotional abuse," stated Keith Aronson, associate director of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State and the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). "Veterans also engage in life-threatening combat and witness the corollaries of combat such as seeing colleagues killed or wounded."

A recent study of nearly 10,000 post-9/11 veterans sought to determine if traumatic childhood and combat experiences were associated with suicidal thinking.

The research published on Feb. 24 in the Journal of Community Psychology.

Compared to veterans who had no ACEs or combat exposure (reference group), male and female veterans who had experienced one ACE but no combat were two-and-a-half times more likely to report thoughts of suicide. Females who experienced three or more ACEs but no combat were five times more likely to think of suicide, while males were three times more likely compared to the reference group.

"This data shows that veterans' suicidal thinking and mental well-being is influenced by factors that happen both before and during military," noted Daniel Perkins, principal scientist at the Clearinghouse and professor of Family and Youth Resiliency and Policy in the College of Agricultural Sciences who is also an SSRI cofunded faculty member.

Female veterans who were exposed to three or more ACEs and corollaries of combat were more than five times more likely and males were more than three times more likely to have thoughts of suicide compared to the reference group.

Female veterans who only were exposed to combat were nine times more likely to have thoughts of suicide, while males were four times more likely. Female veterans exposed to one or more ACEs and combat were more than eight times more likely to think about suicide than females in the reference group. Males exposed to one or more ACEs and combat were between two and five times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than male veterans in the reference group.

There was no association between suicidal thinking and exposure to the corollaries of combat irrespective of exposure to ACEs.

"Clearly exposure to ACEs and combat increase the odds that post-9/11 veterans will think about suicide," said Nicole Morgan, assistant research professor at the Clearinghouse. "Female veterans appear particularly vulnerable to suicidal thinking and they likely need enhanced support and programs to decrease their suicidality and work to resolve their childhood and combat traumatic experiences through appropriate evidence-based treatment."

The study is a part of The Veterans Metrics Initiative (TVMI). The initiative focuses on understanding veterans' use and non-use of VA and non-VA resources designed to support healthy reintegration over the first three-years of military disconnection.

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The Veterans Metrics Initiative (TVMI) research was managed by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., and it was collaboratively sponsored by the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Health Net Federal Services, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc. (HJF), Lockheed Martin Corporation, Marge and Philip Odeen, May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, National Endowment for the Humanities, Northrop Grumman, Prudential, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Rumsfeld Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service, Walmart Foundation, and Wounded Warrior Project Inc.

About the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness

The Clearinghouse is an applied research center committed to advancing the health and well-being of service members and their families. The Clearinghouse takes a solution-oriented approach that includes conducting applied research studies, building workforce expertise through training and resource provision, implementing and evaluating evidence-informed programs and practices, and delivering objective data and policy-relevant findings so that decisions are based on the best science and evidence available. The Clearinghouse is located within Penn State's Social Science Research Institute.

About HJF

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. is a global nonprofit organization with the mission to advance military medicine. HJF's scientific, administrative and program operations services empower investigators, clinicians, and medical researchers around the world to make medical discoveries in all areas of medicine. With more than 35 years of experience, HJF serves as a trusted and responsive link between the military medical community, federal and private partners, and the millions of warfighters, veterans, and civilians who benefit from military medicine.