NASA images reveal important forests and wetlands are disappearing in Belize

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

Research News 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS USED SATELLITE IMAGES FROM NASA'S LANDSAT ARCHIVE TO QUANTIFY LAND-USE AND LAND-COVER (LULC) CHANGES THAT OCCURRED IN BELIZE'S ORANGE WALK DISTRICT SINCE THE 1980S. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE FROM THE LANDSAT 8 ARCHIVE, NASA/USGS.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Using NASA satellite images and machine learning, researchers with The University of Texas at Austin have mapped changes in the landscape of northwestern Belize over a span of four decades, finding significant losses of forest and wetlands, but also successful regrowth of forest in established conservation zones that protect surviving structures of the ancient Maya.

The research serves as a case study for other rapidly developing and tropical regions of the globe, especially in places struggling to balance forest and wetland conservation with agricultural needs and food security.

"Broad-scale global studies show that tropical deforestation and wetland destruction is occurring rapidly, which contributes to climate change in multiple ways such as through greenhouses gas increases," said Timothy Beach, the study's co-author and professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at UT Austin. "These also lead to more runoff and water pollution in much of the Global South. Belize has served as our long-term environmental research laboratory for this global dilemma."

In a study published in Remote Sensing, the team led by UT Austin graduate student Colin Doyle used satellite images from NASA's Landsat archive to quantify land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes that occurred in Belize's Orange Walk District in 1984-1987, 1999-2001 and 2014-2016. The periods were chosen to correspond with rapid changes in the agricultural system and conservation initiatives.

The Landsat program, which has been recording images of Earth since 1972, is currently on its eighth satellite. To study such broad periods, the authors used images from Landsat 8 and earlier satellites and employed a multitemporal approach, creating composite images from wet and dry seasons over several years for each period. They then trained an algorithm to identify eight distinct land types, including several varieties of forest and wetlands. From this, they generated maps illustrating the LULC for each of the three periods.

During the first period (1984-1987), deforestation was limited to small patches resulting from milpa farming -- a system of rotating crops and allowing previous plots to lie fallow in between use to maximize yields.

CAPTION

Map shows Belize's Orange Walk District's conservation zones.

CREDIT

Courtesy of Colin Doyle, the University of Texas at Austin

Several protected areas were established in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By the second period examined (1999-2001), forests in these protected areas had regrown but losses to wetlands continued, as did the conversion of nonprotected land to agriculture.

The third period mapped (2014-2016) followed a shift to industrial agriculture in the 2000s and showed "alarming" losses to both forest (7.5% loss) and wetlands (28.2% loss) outside of protected areas, said co-author Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, the founding director of the university's Water Quality & Environmental Hydrology Lab.

Population growth contributed to the increase in land used for agriculture. However, it was a greater factor between the first and second periods, when the population nearly doubled, than between the second and third periods, when population grew more slowly, indicating that changes in farming practices had a greater impact on land use.

The maps also revealed the importance of conservation efforts in maintaining forests. Of the remaining forest in the study area, 76% is estimated to be on protected lands. These habitats are crucial in housing native flora and fauna and also contain structures from the Maya civilization important to the region's cultural heritage.

"These ecosystems provide many services such as aiding in the water cycle and preventing flooding," Doyle said. "The conversion of forest to pastureland and industrial agriculture is also a major contributor to increasing greenhouse gas emissions across the tropics."

CAPTION

Aerial view capturing deforestation in Belize's Orange Walk District, 2012.

CREDIT

Photo by Timothy Beach, The University of Texas at Austin.

Three bacterial strains discovered on space station may help grow plants on Mars

FRONTIERS

Research News

 

In order to withstand the rigors of space on deep-space missions, food grown outside of Earth needs a little extra help from bacteria. Now, a recent discovery aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has researchers may help create the 'fuel' to help plants withstand such stressful situations.

Publishing their findings to Frontiers in Microbiology, researchers working with NASA described the discovery and isolation of 4 strains of bacteria belonging to the family Methylobacteriaceae from different locations aboard the ISS across two consecutive flights.

While 1 strain was identified as Methylorubrum rhodesianum, the other 3 were previously undiscovered and belong to a novel species novel. The rod-shaped, motile bacteria were given the designations IF7SW-B2T, IIF1SW-B5, and IIF4SW-B5 with genetic analysis showing them to be closely related to Methylobacterium indicum.

Methylobacterium species are involved in nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, abiotic stress tolerance, plant growth promotion and biocontrol activity against plant pathogens.

Potential for Mars missions

Now, in honor of the renowned Indian biodiversity scientists Dr Ajmal Khan, the team has proposed to call the novel species Methylobacterium ajmalii.

Commenting on the discovery, Dr Kasthuri Venkateswaran (Venkat) and Dr Nitin Kumar Singh of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, (JPL), says that the strains might possess " biotechnologically useful genetic determinants" for the growing of crops in space.

However, further experimental biology is needed to prove that it is, indeed, a potential game-changer for space farming.

"To grow plants in extreme places where resources are minimal, isolation of novel microbes that help to promote plant growth under stressful conditions is essential," they said.

Along with JPL, other researchers collaborating on this discovery are based at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Cornell University and the University of Hyderabad in India.

With NASA one day looking to take humans to the surface of Mars - and potentially beyond - the US National Research Council Decadal Survey recommends that the space agency use the ISS as a "test-bed for surveying microorganisms", according to Venkat and Singh.

"Since our group possess expertise in cultivating microorganisms from extreme niches, we have been tasked by the NASA Space Biology Program to survey the ISS for the presence and persistence of the microorganisms," they add.

"Needless to say, the ISS is a cleanly-maintained extreme environment. Crew safety is the number 1 priority and hence understanding human/plant pathogens are important, but beneficial microbes like this novel Methylobacterium ajmalii are also needed."

Expanding the ISS lab

As part of an ongoing surveillance mission, 8 locations on the ISS are being monitored for bacterial growths and have been for the last 6 years. These sample areas include where the crew assembles or where experiments are conducted, such as the plant growth chamber.

While hundreds of bacterial samples from the ISS have been analyzed to date, approximately 1,000 samples have been collected from various other locations on the space station but are awaiting a trip back to Earth where they can be examined.

According to Venkat and Singh, the eventual goal is to bypass this lengthy process and potentially find new novel strains using molecular biology equipment developed and demonstrated for the ISS.

"Instead of bringing samples back to Earth for analyses, we need an integrated microbial monitoring system that collect, process, and analyze samples in space using molecular technologies," Venkat and Singh said.

"This miniaturized 'omics in space' technology - a biosensor development - will help NASA and other space-faring nations achieve safe and sustainable space exploration for long periods of time."

What happens in your brain when you 'lose yourself' in fiction

Study examines fans of 'Game of Thrones' characters

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - If you count yourself among those who lose themselves in the lives of fictional characters, scientists now have a better idea of how that happens.

Researchers found that the more immersed people tend to get into "becoming" a fictional character, the more they use the same part of the brain to think about the character as they do to think about themselves.

"When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves," said Timothy Broom, lead author of the study and doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.

The study was published online recently in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

The study involved scanning the brains of 19 self-described fans of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" while they thought about themselves, nine of their friends and nine characters from the series. (The characters were Bronn, Catelyn Stark, Cersei Lannister, Davos Seaworth, Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow, Petyr Baelish, Sandor Clegane and Ygritte.)

Participants reported which "Game of Thrones" character they felt closest to and liked the most.

"Game of Thrones" was a fantasy drama series lasting eight seasons and concerning political and military conflicts between ruling families on two fictional continents. It was ideal for this study, Broom said, because it attracted a devoted fan base and the large cast presented a variety of characters that people could become attached to.

One of the key findings involved participants in the study who scored highest on what is called "trait identification." In a questionnaire they completed as part of the study, these participants agreed most strongly with statements like "I really get involved in the feelings of the characters in a novel."

"People who are high in trait identification not only get absorbed into a story, they also are really absorbed into a particular character," Broom said. "They report matching the thoughts of the character, they are thinking what the character is thinking, they are feeling what the character is feeling. They are inhabiting the role of that character."

For the study, the participants' brains were scanned in an fMRI machine while they evaluated themselves, friends and "Game of Thrones" characters. An fMRI indirectly measures activity in various parts of the brain through small changes in blood flow.

The researchers were particularly interested in what was happening in a part of the brain called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC), which shows increased activity when people think about themselves and, to a lesser extent, when thinking about close friends.

The process was simple. While in the fMRI, participants were shown a series of names - sometimes themselves, sometimes one of their nine friends, and other times one of the nine characters from "Game of Thrones." Each name appeared above a trait, like lonely, sad, trustworthy or smart.

Participants simply said "yes" or "no" to whether the trait described the person while the researchers simultaneously measured activity in the vMPFC portion of their brains.

As expected, the vMPFC was most active when people were evaluating themselves, less active when they evaluated friends, and least active when they evaluated "Game of Thrones" characters.

But for those who were high in trait identification, the vMPFC was more active when they thought about the fictional characters than it was for participants who identified less with the characters. That brain area was especially active when they evaluated the character they felt closest to and liked the most.

The findings help explain how fiction can have such a big impact on some people, said Dylan Wanger, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State.

"For some people, fiction is a chance to take on new identities, to see worlds though others' eyes and return from those experiences changed," Wagner said.

"What previous studies have found is that when people experience stories as if they were one of the characters, a connection is made with that character, and the character becomes intwined with the self. In our study, we see evidence of that in their brains."

###

Robert Chavez, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and former postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State, was also a co-author.

When English and French mix in literature

New study explores the value of bilingual children's books in second language learning

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Research News

Do children learning French as a second language see benefits from reading bilingual French-English children's books?

A study recently published in the journal Language and Literacy found that bilingual books, which are not often used in French immersion classrooms, are seen by students as an effective tool for second language learning.

To find out more on this topic, we spoke with the co-author of the paper, Joël Thibeault, Assistant Professor of French education at uOttawa's Faculty of Education.

What is the topic of your research?

"My research focuses on the educational value of bilingual children's books in the teaching of French as a second language. To highlight this value, I zeroed in on elementary students in French immersion and asked them whether they perceived the utility and inutility of this medium. In other words, I asked them how the interaction of French and English within the same book could help them learn how to read."

What was your research method?

"Ian A. Matheson, Professor at Queen's University and co-author on this paper, and I wanted the students taking part in the study to have the opportunity to interact with and be exposed to bilingual books before sharing their perceptions. This is why we asked them to read aloud passages from two different bilingual books before we interviewed them.

"In the first one, the same text appears in French and English. In the second one, passages in French are not identical to those in English. This meant the reader had to have some knowledge of both languages to completely understand the book's content.

"After each read-aloud session, we conducted one-on-one interviews that allowed us to describe how our participants perceived the utility of each book.

"Data collection took place in the spring of 2019. We interviewed French immersion students in Grades 3 and 4, in Saskatchewan, which is an interesting setting because it is Anglo-dominant. This means that school is often the only space where students are exposed to French."

What are your study's main conclusions?

"Our participants were able to identify more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to reading bilingual books. They notably pointed out that bilingual books could help them learn French vocabulary.

"Some students also noted that having French in the book could help them develop knowledge related to English vocabulary.

"Moreover, the students were able to suggest ways to integrate this bilingual literature in immersion classes. For example, some mentioned that it could be used for collaborative reading tasks, when two students have different proficiency levels in French and English. They felt this process could enable a co-construction of meaning where everyone could make use of their knowledge of the languages interacting in the book."

Could your results help change teaching practices?

"Yes, because in immersion, we often opt for monolingual teaching practices; French is the only language allowed. However, we increasingly acknowledge that second language learning relies on the languages that students already know. With that in mind, it could be quite useful to get learners to use their full linguistic repertoire when they learn a second language.

"This study is coherent with this perspective as it explores the positive perceptions that students have regarding bilingual children's books. Thus, it helps to highlight the utility of this novel teaching tool and recognizes the value of the diversified linguistic repertoire that students in immersion have."

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

"One might think that when reading a bilingual book, students would tend to only read the passages in the language they know best. However, our data does not support this idea. While they were reading, students equally focused on French and English. One-on-one interviews also confirmed students fully recognize the advantages related to having two languages in interaction within the same book.

"Of course, it is possible that participants did not want to admit to the researcher that they would only focus on the language they know best if they had read the book by themselves -- this is what we call in research 'social desirability.' However, for now, there is nothing in our study, as well as in those carried out by other researchers before us, that would allow us to state that young bilingual readers would tend to mainly read the passages in the language they know best.

"It would be interesting to conduct further research in different reading environments (in class, at the library, at home, etc.). This could add to the work we have begun by documenting with greater precision how students engage with bilingual books."

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The article "How do Elementary Students Perceive the Utility of Dual-Language Children's Books? An Exploratory Study in French Immersion" is published in the journal Language and Literacy.

Women veterinarians earn $100K less than men annually

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

ITHACA, N.Y. - Women veterinarians make less than their male counterparts, new research from Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine has found ¬- with an annual difference of around $100,000 among the top quarter of earners.

The disparity predominantly affects recent graduates and the top half of earners, according to the research, the first overarching study of the wage gap in the veterinary industry.

"Veterinarians can take many paths in their careers, all of which affect earning potential," said the paper's senior author, Dr. Clinton Neill, assistant professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences.

"Similar to what's been found in the human medicine world, we found the wage gap was more prominent in the beginning of their careers but dissipates after about 25 years. This has large implications for lifetime wealth and earnings, as men will consequently have a larger sum of wealth at the end of their careers because of this."

Neill and his collaborators examined practice ownership income, experience and specialty certification.

The reasons for the earning inequality are challenging to identify. The researchers cite unconscious bias, size of practices, less external financing and societal expectations as potential factors.

The industrywide effects of this bias can be linked to some common misconceptions, Neill said. While they did find an ownership disparity, this didn't account for the wage gap as a whole.

Their analysis showed that type of ownership also plays a role. Partnerships, for example, are more beneficial for women's income earning potential than sole proprietorships, while any form of ownership benefits men's incomes. When it comes to the number of years worked, the study found that men move into higher income brackets at lower levels of experience than women.

While the paper aimed to lay the groundwork for more solution-oriented studies, the researchers suggested that measures such as industrywide income transparency could help close the gap.

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The paper was published March 15 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and is also the first peer-reviewed publication for the newly established Center for Veterinary Business and Economics.

For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle s

Immigrants in ICE detention face high risks in COVID-19 pandemic

UC Davis research finds detainees suffer underlying health issues

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

Research News

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IMAGE: IMMIGRANTS IMPRISONED IN IMMIGRATION FACILITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY FACE HEALTH CONDITIONS AND OFTEN HAVE CHRONIC ILLNESSES THAT WOULD EXPOSE THEM TO GREATER RISK WITH COVID-19. view more 

CREDIT: CAITLIN PATLER

Immigrants imprisoned in immigration facilities across the country face health conditions and often have chronic illnesses that would expose them to greater risk with COVID-19, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests.

"The research is clear: immigration detention is not only unnecessary for facilitating a just immigration system, but also causes extensive harm to detained people, perhaps especially to those facing chronic health conditions," said the study's lead author, Caitlin Patler, professor of sociology. "This is particularly alarming in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government must act quickly to permanently reduce reliance on this overly punitive and systematically unjust practice."

The study was published earlier this month in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.

"Even beyond the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration detention harms people's health by disrupting the continuity of their medical care," added the study's co-author, Altaf Saadi, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "The vast majority of people have a stable place to stay and would be able to receive better health care if not detained."

The report cites the May 2020 death of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, the first person in ICE custody to die from COVID-19. "Health and legal professional have raised alarm that many detainees may be similarly imperiled by COVID-19 infection [in detention]," authors wrote.

Researchers looked at health data of more than 500 people detained in 2013-14 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, at hundreds of facilities across California. This data is the only publicly available health information for ICE detainees. Researchers said the detainees' health conditions are likely similar to a current population.

Of the individuals detained in 2013-14, at least 42 percent had at least one chronic condition, combined with other health issues, and additionally face disruption in care upon entering the facility.

The vast majority, or 95.6 percent, reported having access to stable housing in the country.

"Even one chronic condition can increase risk for severe consequences from COVID-19," the authors said. One study of COVID-19 patients, they said, revealed that more than 80 percent had more than one underlying medical condition. These risks are heightened if health conditions are not adequately managed and there is disruption of pre-existing health care because they are incarcerated, researchers said.

"...Decision-makers must consider every available option to mandate release from the congregate setting of detention centers in which social distancing is almost impossible even under ideal conditions," researchers concluded in their study. "Release can be easily facilitated through existing Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs in which individuals can be released to their families and communities as they continue with their immigration legal proceedings."

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Link to the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01173-z

 

Autism online: A review of how autistic people communicate virtually

A systematic review of information and communication technology use by autistic people from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute

DREXEL UNIVERSITY

Research News

Prior to COVID-19, communication via the internet was already a regular feature of everyday interactions for most people, including those on the autism spectrum. Various studies have shown how autistic people use information and communication technology (ICT) since the early 2000s, some finding that autistic people may prefer to communicate using the internet instead of in-person. However, no systematic review has been conducted to summarize these findings.

To understand what has been discovered so far, researchers from Drexel University's A.J. Drexel Autism Institute collected and reviewed published research about how autistic youth and adults use the internet to communicate and provide a framework for understanding contributions, gaps and opportunities in online autistic communities.

Lead author Elizabeth McGhee Hassrick, PhD, an assistant professor in the Autism Institute, and her co-authors cast a wide net searching across five databases that list studies investigating how autistic people use the internet to communicate. Filtering for specific criteria, they read 32 articles, collected their most important findings and looked for patterns.

Of those 32 studies, 19 used closed-ended survey questions, 12 studies used open ended interviews and looked for patterns and connections among participants and one was a mixed methods study. In total, 3,026 autistic youth ages 10-17 and adults participated in the studies they reviewed.

Three main themes emerged from the review: differences in the ways that autistic youth and adults used the internet to communicate, benefits and drawbacks experienced during internet communication and the engagement of autistic youth and adults in the online autism community.

The review found some of the benefits of social media for autistic people include more control over how they talk and engage with others online and a greater sense of calm during interactions. Social media provides opportunities for autistic people to find others on the autism spectrum and form a stronger identity as part of the autism community. However, findings also suggest that some autistic people continue to be lonely and desire in-person relationships despite cultivating social media friendships.

"Further exploration of the positive social benefits that autistic people gain participating in online autism communities would allow for the development of strengths-based interventions," said McGhee Hassrick. "For example, additional research on how autistic people navigate sexuality and ICTs is needed to identify ways for reducing vulnerability online."

McGhee Hassrick added that this study can help identify gaps and opportunities for new research, support the importance of online autistic communities and suggest possible training opportunities about how to support autistic people when they use the internet for communication.

"We learned that the evidence base is emerging, meaning that more rigorous, high-quality studies are needed," said McGhee Hassrick. "Also, many autistic people were underrepresented in the study. There is little research about autistic women, autistic transgender people, autistic racial/ethnic minorities or autistic people from lower socioeconomic groups."

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The study, "Benefits and Risks: A Systematic Review of Information and Communication Technology Use by Autistic People," was recently published in Autism in Adulthood. Co-authors include Laura Graham Holmes, PhD, of CUNY Hunter College; Jessica Walton of Drexel University; Collette Sosnowy, PhD, of Brown University; and Kathleen Carley, PhD, of Carnegie Mellon University.

Internet-access spending improves academic outcomes, according to study of Texas public schools

RICE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: SCHOOL COMPUTER LAB view more 

CREDIT: 123RF.COM/RICE UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON - (March 15, 2021) - Increased internet-access spending by Texas public schools improved academic performance but also led to more disciplinary problems among students, a study of 9,000 schools conducted by a research team from Rice University, Texas A&M University and the University of Notre Dame shows.

Whether students benefit from increased internet access in public schools has been an open question, according to the researchers. For example, some parents and policy advocates contend it increases children's access to obscene or harmful content and disciplinary problems. Others believe it promotes personalized learning and higher student engagement.

To address these policy questions, the research team created a multiyear dataset (2000-14) of 1,243 school districts representing more than 9,000 Texas public schools. The team measured internet-access spending, 11 academic performance indicators and 47 types of school disciplinary problems. It used econometric techniques to develop causal estimates linking internet-access spending to academic performance and disciplinary problems. Using student earning, the researchers calculated the economic impact of increased annual internet spending.

To date, this is the largest and most comprehensive study linking school internet-access spending to academic and disciplinary outcomes, the researchers said.

The team found that increased school district internet spending is associated with not only improved graduation rates, but also higher numbers of students meeting SAT/ACT criterion and completing advanced courses. It also led to an improvement in commended performance in math, reading, writing and social studies. Interestingly, the researchers noted these improvements were stronger for students who lived in counties with greater internet access (as measured by the number of broadband providers).

On the flip side, increased school district internet spending also led to higher rates of disciplinary problems at schools, they said.

The team also calculated how much economic benefit a school district's internet access will bring students during their lifetimes. It found that a $600,000 increase in annual internet-access spending produces a financial gain of approximately $820,000 to $1.8 million per school district, together with losses from disciplinary problems totaling $25,800 to $53,440.

In other words, investments in internet access are well worth the costs.

"We are proud that Texas public schools can serve as a live learning case for understanding education policy," said study co-author Vikas Mittal, a professor of marketing at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business. "Investments in internet access provide clear and meaningful academic benefits. Yet, schools need to implement policies to address increased disciplinary issues such as cyberbullying.

"K-12 education has transformed into virtual learning due to COVID-19," he continued. "Our research conclusions apply to a setting where physical learning is supplemented by internet access."

However, Mittal cautioned that these benefits cannot be expected to hold if physical learning is completely supplanted by internet-based learning.

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The paper, "Investigating the Academic Performance and Disciplinary Consequences of School District Internet Access Spending," which appeared in the February issue of the Journal of Marketing Research, was co-authored by professors Shrihari Sridhar of Texas A&M and Yixing Chen of Notre Dame. It can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243720964130.

To schedule an interview with Mittal or to request a copy of the study, contact Jeff Falk, director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Related materials:

Mittal bio: https://business.rice.edu/person/vikas-mittal

Jones Graduate School of Business: http://business.rice.edu

Follow the Jones Graduate School of Business on Twitter @Rice_Biz.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceU

University of Utah scientists plumb the depths of the world's tallest geyser

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE OUTLINE OF THE STEAMBOAT AND CISTERN PLUMBING SYSTEMS WITH TWO VIEWING ANGLES. THE STRUCTURE, COLOR-CODED BY THE DEPTH, DELINEATES THE OBSERVED SEISMICALLY ACTIVE AREA DURING THE ERUPTION CYCLES. THE... view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF SIN-MEI WU/UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

When Steamboat Geyser, the world's tallest, started erupting again in 2018 in Yellowstone National Park after decades of relative silence, it raised a few tantalizing scientific questions. Why is it so tall? Why is it erupting again now? And what can we learn about it before it goes quiet again?

The University of Utah has been studying the geology and seismology of Yellowstone and its unique features for decades, so U scientists were ready to jump at the opportunity to get an unprecedented look at the workings of Steamboat Geyser. Their findings provide a picture of the depth of the geyser as well as a redefinition of a long-assumed relationship between the geyser and a nearby spring. The findings are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth.

"We scientists don't really know what controls a geyser from erupting regularly, like Old Faithful, versus irregularly, like Steamboat," says Fan-Chi Lin, an associate professor with the Department of Geology and Geophysics. "The subsurface plumbing structure likely controls the eruption characteristics for a geyser. This is the first time we were able to image a geyser's plumbing structure down to more than 325 feet (100 m) deep."

Meet Steamboat Geyser

If you're asked to name a Yellowstone geyser and "Old Faithful" is the only one that comes to mind,  then you're past due for an introduction to Steamboat. Recorded eruption heights reach up to 360 feet (110 m), tall enough to splash the top of the Statue of Liberty.

"Watching a major eruption of Steamboat Geyser is quite amazing," says Jamie Farrell, a research assistant professor with the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. "The thing that I remember most is the sound. You can feel the rumble and it sounds like a jet engine. I already knew that Steamboat was the tallest active geyser in the world, but seeing it in major eruption blew me away."

Unlike its famous cousin, Steamboat Geyser is anything but faithful. It's only had three periods of sustained activity in recorded history--one in the 1960s, one in the 1980s and one that began in 2018 and continues today. But the current phase of geyser activity has already seen more eruptions than either of the previous phases.

Near Steamboat Geyser is a pool called Cistern Spring. Because Cistern Spring drains when Steamboat erupts, it's been assumed that the two features are directly connected.

"With our ability to quickly deploy seismic instruments in a nonintrusive way, this current period is providing the opportunity to better understand the dynamics of Steamboat Geyser and Cistern Spring which goes a long way to help us understand eruptive behavior," says Farrell.

Giving the geyser a CT scan

For several years now, U scientists have been studying the features of Yellowstone National Park, including Old Faithful, using small, portable seismometers. The football-sized instruments can be deployed by the dozens wherever the researchers need for up to one month per deployment in order to get a picture of what's happening under the ground. Each slight small movement of the ground, even the periodic swells of crowds on Yellowstone's boardwalks, is felt and recorded.

And just as doctors can use multiple X-rays to create a CT scan of the interior of a human body, seismologists can use multiple seismometers recording multiple seismic events (in this case, bubbling within the geyser's superheated water column) to build a sort of image of the subsurface.

In the summers of 2018 and 2019, Farrell and colleagues collaborated with the National Park Service and placed 50 portable seismometers in an array around Steamboat Geyser. The 2019 deployment recorded seven major eruptions, with a range of inter-eruption periods of three to eight days apart, each providing a wealth of data.

Plumbing the depths

The results showed that the underground channels and fissures that comprise Steamboat Geyser extend down at least 450 feet (140 m). That's much deeper than the plumbing of Old Faithful, which is around 260 feet (80 m).

The results didn't show a direct connection between Steamboat Geyser and Cistern Spring, however.

"This finding rules out the assumption that the two features are connected with something like an open pipe, at least in the upper 140 meters," says Sin-Mei Wu, a recently graduated doctoral student working with Lin and Farrell. That's not to say that the two features are totally separate, though. The fact that the pool drains when Steamboat erupts suggests that they are still connected somehow, but probably through small fractures or pores in the rock that aren't detectable using the seismic signals the researchers recorded. "Understanding the exact relationship between Steamboat and Cistern will help us to model how Cistern might affect Steamboat eruption cycles," added Wu.

Will scientists eventually be able to predict when the geyser will erupt? Maybe, Wu says, with a better understanding of hydrothermal tremor and a long-term monitoring system. But, in the meantime, Wu says, this study is really just the beginning of understanding how Steamboat Geyser works.

"We now have a baseline of what eruptive activity looks like for Steamboat," Lin pointed out. "When it becomes less active in the future, we can re-deploy our seismic sensors and get a baseline of what non-active periods look like. We then can continuously monitor data coming from real-time seismic stations by Steamboat and assess whether it looks like one or the other and get a more real-time analysis of when it looks like it is switching to a more active phase."

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Find the full study here.

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AMELIORATING CAPITALI$M

Marketplace literacy as a pathway to a better world: evidence from field experiments

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

IMAGE: DR. NITA UMASHANKAR view more 

CREDIT: SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

If you are a consumer and/or entrepreneur who can make decisions based on cost, competition, supply and demand, you probably possess an element of marketplace literacy.

"Marketplace literacy" is defined as the knowledge and skills that enable individuals to participate in a marketplace both as consumers and entrepreneurs. San Diego State University marketing professor Nita Umashankar, along with professors Madhubalan Viswanathan (Loyola Marymount University), Arun Sreekumar (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) and Ashley Goreczny (Iowa State University), explored the impact on marketplace literacy on approximately 1,000 people in 34 remote villages in India and Tanzania.

The four researchers set out to find how marketplace literacy would affect the villagers' psychological wellbeing, consumer confidence and decision-making ability, as well as the entrepreneurial outcomes for those with limited marketplace access. Their research, titled "Marketplace Literacy as a Pathway to a Better World: Evidence from Field Experiments in Low-Access Subsistence Marketplaces," was published in the Journal of Marketing in February 2021. This was the first research of its kind to demonstrate the effect of marketplace literacy on multiple forms of wellbeing.

"While many multinational companies have increased their efforts to engage subsistence consumers like those in our study, we found a disconnect in the consumers' ability to participate in the marketplace efficiently and in a manner that offers them maximum benefit," said Umashankar. "Without marketplace literacy, consumers are often cheated by marketers. They buy higher-priced and lower quality products, and they cannot advocate for themselves. In addition, as entrepreneurs, they lack the skill to attract customers, distribution expertise, and the ability to learn from other entrepreneurs."

Entrepreneurship Arises Out of Necessity

According to the research, marketplace literacy is important to subsistence consumers like those involved in the study because consumption and entrepreneurship are deeply intertwined within the culture. "Consumers in subsistence environments face chronic resource constraints including the lack of access to financial resources and technical skills while they may be subject to periodic surges in household expenses," said Umashankar. "With this in mind, subsistence consumers become microentrepreneurs out of necessity to meet unexpected expenses. For example, they may sell fruits and vegetables, create handicrafts or manage a pop-up restaurant to gain additional capital, but their lack of marketplace literacy may compromise their profitability, product quality or ability to make impactful business decisions."

To test their hypotheses, the researchers worked with an established field team in a rural area of the state of Tamil Nadu, India, to test the effect of marketplace literacy on the psychological wellbeing of 392 women farmers in 18 different villages in the area. Half of the women participated in two half-day marketplace literacy education sessions, while the other half attended no sessions, or they attended educational sessions that were not focused on marketplace literacy. All participants were surveyed about their psychological wellbeing, their consumer confidence, and their existing marketplace literacy before the educational intervention process and again nine weeks afterward.

Both groups reported similar survey results prior to participation. However, after the educational intervention, those receiving the marketplace literacy education reported higher levels of psychological wellbeing, greater consumer confidence, and greater marketplace literacy. This is especially the case for participants who lacked easy access to a marketplace. In other words, the most remote participants benefitted from the most from marketplace literacy.

In the second phase of the research (field experiment 3), the setting was moved to Tanzania where the team identified four tribal villages that ranged from 0 to 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) from a weekly marketplace. In this case, 248 men and women participated in the research trials with half the participants engaging in a marketplace literacy program while the others (the control group) participated in a sustainability literacy program. As in the Indian study, the Tanzanian participants were surveyed prior to the administration of the educational program as well as three weeks afterward, however, in this case, consumer decision-making ability and entrepreneurial behavior of the Tanzanian participants were measured as opposed to the psychological factors for the Indian participants.

Those Who Benefit Most from Marketplace Literacy

When the results of the post-education survey were tabulated, the researchers found that not only did those with marketplace literacy engage in greater entrepreneurial behavior, but that many of the participants started their own enterprise three weeks after the educational programs. The benefits of marketplace literacy for those who started income-generating microenterprises were greatest for those who had access to a marketplace. They also found that those receiving the marketplace literacy education said they were now able to assess a product's quality and negotiate for a better price and that the educational programs had their greatest positive impact on the participants that lived the furthest from the weekly marketplace.

At the conclusion of the research, the researchers determined that:

• Improvements in marketplace literacy can improve wellbeing, which could have broad ripple effects
• Marketplace literacy in subsistence environments can improve individuals' lives and livelihoods
• Marketplace access must be considered in improving long-term positive outcomes

While the research was conducted in India and Tanzania, the findings also had implications in the U.S. as well. "During the COVID-19 crisis, many Americans have become micro-entrepreneurs out of necessity. They've become Lyft or Uber drivers, started selling products on Etsy or eBay, or have picked up construction or cleaning jobs to make ends meet," says Umashankar. "However, most Americans lack the marketplace literacy to operate a business. They don't know how to efficiently sell products or services, how to attract consumers, how to provide quality service and how to address consumer needs."

Potential remedies to improving marketplace literacy, according to Umashankar and the other researchers, is to scale up educational programs by advocating for policies that reward organizations for adhering to consumer protection standards. They also recommend that additional research be carried out in developing economies that further explore issues like gender roles, income, market access level and education, and how those attributes may contribute to the effectiveness of marketplace literacy.

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Note: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this research.