AUSTRALIA

Endangered wallaby population bounces back after ferals fenced out

UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Research News

 

IMAGE: A BRIDLED NAILTAIL WALLABY JOEY IN ITS MOTHER'S POUCH. view more 

CREDIT: ALEXANDRA ROSS/UNSW SYDNEY

A population of bridled nailtail wallabies in Queensland has been brought back from the brink of extinction after conservation scientists led by UNSW Sydney successfully trialled an intervention technique never before used on land-based mammals.

Using a method known as 'headstarting', the researchers rounded up bridled nailtail wallabies under a certain size and placed them within a protected area where they could live until adulthood without the threat of their main predators - feral cats - before being released back into the wild.

In an article published today in Current Biology, the scientists describe how they decided on the strategy to protect only the juvenile wallabies from feral cats in Avocet Nature Refuge, south of Emerald in central Queensland, where they numbered just 16 in 2015.

Article lead author Alexandra Ross says juvenile wallabies under 3kg - or smaller than a rugby football - are easy prey for feral cats.

"Previous studies have shown that more than half of these young bridled nailtail wallabies were killed by feral cats before they could reach adulthood," Ms Ross says.

"But when you look at the numbers of adults, the survival rate goes up to 80 per cent - which shows that size is a good predictor of survival.

"So we figured if we can just get them through that tough period - when they're still little and an easy size for a cat to prey on - by putting them in feral-free protected areas, then we could make a positive difference to the population numbers."

The results more than confirmed the scientists' hunches. Of the 56 bridled nailtail wallabies that were raised within the headstart enclosure between 2015 and 2018, 89 per cent survived to be large enough to be let back into the wild. The 11 per cent that didn't make it included one that needed to be euthanised due to injury, two found dead from accidents or unknown causes and four killed by birds of prey.

LESS EXPENSIVE, MORE EFFECTIVE

Professor Mike Letnic, a co-author on the article, says headstarting is a cost-effective intervention when compared to other more complex strategies involving the creation of large nature reserves after complete eradication of feral animals, like the one created in Sturt National Park in 2019.

"Aly's [Ms Ross's] headstarting project involved fencing off an area about 10 hectares which was big enough to hold about 30 or 40 wallabies at a time," Prof. Letnic says.

"We're basically growing them from football size to medicine ball size before releasing them back into the wild, which can take anywhere from a few months to a year.

"For the most part they're fending for themselves in the headstart exclosure just like they do in the wild, except without the threat of feral animals. But they're not completely protected - they can still get eaten by eagles which means there is still some predator recognition."

Double the size

Ms Ross says the population of the bridled nailtail wallabies more than doubled following the three years of headstarting in Avocet Nature Refuge, which is the largest increase that had been observed in this particular population since monitoring began in 2011.

"Before we started the headstarting strategy, we estimated the core Avocet population at 16 individuals. When we did a recount in 2018 after three years of gradually releasing headstarted wallabies that had reached the right size, the estimate of the total population of bridled nailtail wallabies - both inside and outside the headstarting exclosure - was 47.

"This clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the headstart exclosure as a conservation strategy."

Worryingly, when Ms Ross and her fellow researchers crunched the numbers on how the population would fare without, or with varying lengths of headstarting scenarios - none, five years, 10 years, 20 years and 50 years - the projections found that extinction resulted once headstarting ceased - within a timeframe of two to 52 years.

"What this tells us is that until we find a way to eliminate feral cats in the wild, headstarting may be the only way to keep this population at a sustainable level."

But the team's implementation of the first headstarting project for a land-based mammal raises new hope for other potential endangered species in Australia - and potentially around the globe - where size of young may be factor in population survival.

"One of the great things about headstarting is it's relatively cheap, doesn't interfere too much with animals' awareness of predators, and can get good results in a short time," Ms Ross says.

"And there are plenty of other mammal species around the world that could benefit. Any species that is particularly vulnerable in the early life stage could potentially thrive under a headstarting strategy."

Up until now, headstarting has been used with some success with birds, fish, reptiles, and seals, and there's no reason why it shouldn't also be implemented for terrestrial mammals, Ms Ross and Prof. Letnic argue.

PREDATOR AWARENESS

Prof Letnic says one of the drawbacks with separating animals for longer periods in feral-free enclosures is that they unlearn their fear of predators on the outside. "After only a few years of being in a protected zone, evolution kicks in and animals start developing new ways to compete with one another. They tend to become bolder in an attempt to be first to the food. If they were then to be released back into the wild among feral animals, the bold ones end up getting eaten because they've lost that cautious awareness of predators."

However, Ms Ross believes that headstarting could avoid this problem, as animals are only separated from predators for a few months or a year at the most. There is also minimal human interaction and the animals are still preyed upon by their natural predators, like eagles and snakes, ensuring they retain some predator awareness.

Her next study will examine the behaviour of the bridled nailtail wallabies once released from the headstarting exclosure and the length of time it took for them to fully integrate back into the wild.

BRIDLED NAILTAIL WALLABY - VITAL STATS

The bridled nailtail wallaby is a small macropod that grows up to a metre in length, half of which is the tail. It takes its name from the white 'bridle' line that runs down the back of the neck and shoulders and a tail spur about 3 to 6mm in length.

Bridled nailtail wallabies live mostly on succulent grasses, can grow to a weight of 8kg, with an average life-span of around six years in the wild.

Once the most common macropods at the time of European settlement, these nocturnal animals are now in critically low numbers in the wild after being hunted extensively for their fur in the early 1900s, and more recently, preyed upon by feral cats and foxes.

The species was even believed extinct from 1937 until 1973. It was only when a fencing contractor reported he'd seen a population of the wallabies living on a property near Dingo, Queensland - after reading about it in an article published in Woman's Day - that the species was rediscovered.

After the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service confirmed its existence, the property near Dingo eventually became a nature reserve to ensure its ongoing survival.

There are believed to be only 500 of the animals living in the wild, and more than 2000 in captivity.

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UH OH

Oregon State University research shows two invasive beachgrasses are hybridizing

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: ALL THREE AMMOPHILA BEACHGRASSES, BOTH PARENT SPECIES AND A RECENTLY IDENTIFIED HYBRID, OCCUR AT SUNSET BEACH, OREGON. view more 

CREDIT: OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Two species of sand-stabilizing beachgrasses introduced to the Pacific Northwest starting in the early 1900s are hybridizing, raising new questions about impacts to the coastal ecosystems the non-native plants have been engineering for more than a century.

Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Science identified the hybrid in a paper published in Ecosphere.

In addition to their ecological implications, the findings are important in the context of coastal vulnerability to the effects of climate change, including increasing danger from flooding and erosion from storms and rising water.

An OSU collaboration led by integrative biology Ph.D. candidate Rebecca Mostow and professor Sally Hacker employed multiple analytical techniques to show that the beachgrasses that dominate the Northwest's dunes, Ammophila arenaria and A. breviligulata, have hybridized.

A. arenaria is a European species and A. breviligulata an American species. Scientists say the hybrid's traits fall between its parent species in many ways, but the hybrid is taller, which is particularly important because shoot height is an indicator of dune-building potential.

"Understanding the ecological and population genetic consequences of the hybridization is critical in a system where any change in dominant beachgrass species can have large effects on both biodiversity management and coastal protection," Hacker said.

Dunes comprise nearly half of the combined coastline of Oregon and Washington and a quarter of California's. Starting in the early 20th century, the intentional planting of Ammophila beachgrasses has been used as a tool to stabilize an otherwise shifting sand environment.

Beachgrasses grow in stiff, rugged clumps capable of reaching 4 feet tall. Their strong rhizome mat - the mass of underground stems - helps stabilize the sand and allows for fast colonization. These clumps are able to capture sand and build dunes at rates of up to 3 feet per year.

"By the 1950s, Ammophila arenaria had spread from Mexico to Canada while building tall, continuous coastal foredunes," Mostow said. "Midway through that spread, in the 1930s, Ammophila breviligulata was planted in dunes near the Columbia River. Over the next 50 years, it moved north and dominated the sandy Washington coast. And there's no doubt the spread of these beachgrasses has had a positive impact on development by stabilizing the ground and building dunes that protect the coastline."

As with many introduced species, though, the beachgrasses come with ecological costs to the native flora and fauna. Resistant to pests and grazing, the hardy, densely growing plants have changed the ecology of dunes by displacing native plants and animals, including pink sand verbena and the endangered western snowy plover.

The OSU researchers say the hybrid of A. arenaria and A. breviligulata has been found at a total of 12 locations in Washington and Oregon. Plant morphology - what they look like and how they are put together - are consistent with hybridization, and genotyping and genome-size comparisons show the hybrid is a first-generation blend of the two introduced beachgrasses whose ranges overlap.

"Novel hybrid zones are an ecologically important upshot of species introductions and invasions," Mostow said. "Hybridization between different species can lead to gene flow between parent species or produce novel taxa that can alter invasion dynamics or ecosystem services. As far as we know, the Pacific Northwest is the only place in the world where the two Ammophila species have had the opportunity to hybridize."

A. breviligulata, Hacker notes, is better than A. arenaria at establishing its place in an ecosystem - it competes better - but A. arenaria builds taller dunes. The strengths and weaknesses trace to differences in grass density, morphology and growth form and their effects on sand capture.

"If the hybrid exceeds its parents in traits associated with dune-building, which it very possibly could, then its spread could affect dune shape and size and have huge, ecosystem-scale consequences," she said. "Hybridization could end up resulting in a really invasive taxon or increasing the invasive potential of either parent species."

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Also collaborating on this research was Felipe Barreto, assistant professor in the OSU College of Science.

The study was supported by Oregon Sea Grant, the National Science Foundation and the Washington Native Plant Society.

Ongoing research includes a citizen science component in which beachgoers are invited to look for and photograph specimens of the hybrid. Details are available at iNaturalist.

 

Surge in nitrogen has turned sargassum into the world's largest harmful algal bloom

FAU Harbor Branch unique historical baseline (1983-2019) reveals dramatic changes in composition of sargassum

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

Research News

VIDEO: SARGASSUM, FLOATING BROWN SEAWEED, HAVE GROWN IN LOW NUTRIENT WATERS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN FOR CENTURIES. SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED DRAMATIC CHANGES IN THE CHEMISTRY AND COMPOSITION OF SARGASSUM, TRANSFORMING... view more 

CREDIT: BRIAN LAPOINTE, PH.D.

For centuries, pelagic Sargassum, floating brown seaweed, have grown in low nutrient waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, supported by natural nutrient sources like excretions from fishes and invertebrates, upwelling and nitrogen fixation. Using a unique historical baseline from the 1980s and comparing it to samples collected since 2010, researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and collaborators have discovered dramatic changes in the chemistry and composition of Sargassum, transforming this vibrant living organism into a toxic "dead zone."

Their findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that increased nitrogen availability from natural and anthropogenic sources, including sewage, is supporting blooms of Sargassum and turning a critical nursery habitat into harmful algal blooms with catastrophic impacts on coastal ecosystems, economies, and human health. Globally, harmful algal blooms are related to increased nutrient pollution.

The study, led by FAU Harbor Branch, in collaboration with the University of South Florida, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Florida State University, was designed to better understand the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus supply on Sargassum. Researchers used a baseline tissue data set of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and molar C:N:P ratios from the 1980s and compared them with more recent samples collected since 2010.

Results show that the percentage of tissue N increased significantly (35 percent) concurrent with a decrease in the percentage of phosphorus (42 percent) in Sargassum tissue from the 1980s to the 2010s. Elemental composition varied significantly over the long-term study, as did the C:N:P ratios. Notably, the biggest change was the nitrogen:phosphorus ratio (N:P), which increased significantly (111 percent). Carbon:phosphorus ratios (C:P) also increased similarly (78 percent).

"Data from our study supports not only a primary role for phosphorus limitation of productivity, but also suggests that the role of phosphorus as a limiting nutrient is being strengthened by the relatively large increases in environmental nitrogen supply from terrestrial runoff, atmospheric inputs, and possibly other natural sources such as nitrogen fixation," said Brian Lapointe, Ph.D., senior author, a leading expert on Sargassum and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch.

A total of 488 tissue samples of Sargassum were collected during various research projects and cruises in the North Atlantic basin between 1983-1989 and more recently between 2010-2019, and included seasonal sampling offshore Looe Key reef in the lower Florida Keys (1983 and 1984) and a broader geographic sampling (1986 and 1987) offshore the Florida Keys, Gulf Stream (Miami, Charleston and Cape Fear), and Belize, Central America. Oceanic stations included the northern, central and southern Sargasso Sea.

The highest percentage of tissue N occurred in coastal waters influenced by nitrogen-rich terrestrial runoff, while lower C:N and C:P ratios occurred in winter and spring during peak river discharges. The overall range for N:P ratios was 4.7 to 99.2 with the highest mean value in western Florida Bay (89.4) followed by locations in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. The lowest N:P ratios were observed in the eastern Caribbean at St. Thomas (20.9) and Barbados (13.0).

Because of anthropogenic emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), the NOx deposition rate is about five-fold greater than that of pre-industrial times largely due to energy production and biomass burning. Production of synthetic fertilizer nitrogen has increased nine-fold, while that of phosphate has increased three-fold since the 1980s contributing to a global increase in N:P ratios. Notably, 85 percent of all synthetic nitrogen fertilizers have been created since 1985, which was shortly after the baseline Sargassum sampling began at Looe Key in 1983.

"Over its broad distribution, the newly-formed Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt can be supported by nitrogen and phosphorus inputs from a variety of sources including discharges from the Congo, Amazon and Mississippi rivers, upwelling off the coast of Africa, vertical mixing, equatorial upwelling, atmospheric deposition from Saharan dust, and biomass burning of vegetation in central and South Africa," said Lapointe.

Long-term satellite data, numerical particle-tracking models, and field measurements indicate that the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has recurred annually since 2011 and extended up to 8,850 kilometers from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, peaking in July 2018.

"Considering the negative effects that the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is having on the coastal communities of Africa, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and South Florida, more research is urgently needed to better inform societal decision-making regarding mitigation and adaptation of the various terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric drivers of the Sargassum blooms," said Lapointe.

Sargassum removal from Texas beaches during earlier, less severe inundations was estimated at $2.9 million per year and Florida's Miami-Dade County alone estimated recent removal expenses of $45 million per year. The Caribbean-wide clean-up in 2018 cost $120 million, which does not include decreased revenues from lost tourism. Sargassum strandings also impact marine life and cause respiratory issues from the decaying process and other human health concerns, such as increased fecal bacteria.

"Human activities have greatly altered global carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles, and nitrogen inputs are considered now 'high risk' and above a safe planetary boundary," said Lapointe. "Based on scientific research, population growth and land-use changes have increased nitrogen pollution and degradation of estuaries and coastal waters since at least the 1950s. Despite decreases in nitrogen loading in some coastal watersheds, N:P ratios remain elevated in many rivers compared to historic values. The trend toward higher N:P ratios in the major rivers in the Atlantic basin parallel the increased N:P ratios we now see in Sargasum."

CAPTION

A photo taken this week shows Sargassum piled up on a beach in Palm Beach County, Florida.

CREDIT

Brian Lapointe, Ph.D.

Study co-authors are Rachel Brewton, a research coordinator, and Laura Herren, a research biologist, both at FAU Harbor Branch; Chuanmin Hu, Ph.D., a professor of optical oceanography, University of South Florida; Mengqui Wang, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in the College of Marine Science, University of South Florida; Dennis McGillicuddy, Jr., Ph.D., senior scientist and department chair of applied ocean physics and engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Scott Lindell, a research specialist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Frank J. Hernandez, Ph.D., an assistant professor, Division of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi; and Peter Morton, Ph.D., Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University.

This research was funded by the U.S. NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program (NNX14AL98G, NNX16AR74G) and Ecological Forecast Program (NNX17AE57G), NOAA RESTORE Science Program (NA17NOS4510099), National Science Foundation (NSF-OCE 85-701 15492 and OCE 88-12055) and a Red Wright Fellowship from the Bermuda Biological Station.

CAPTION

Brian Lapointe, Ph.D., senior author, a leading expert on Sargassum and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch, emerges from Sargassum at Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys in 2014.

CREDIT

Tanju Mishara

- FAU -

About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute:

Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit http://www.fau.edu/hboi.

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit http://www.fau.edu.

Dental crowding: Ancient baleen whales had a mouthful

CT scans of a 25 million year-old fossil skull show the Aetiocetus weltoni had both teeth and baleen, unlike modern whales

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

3D digital reconstruction of Aetiocetus weltoni skull.

CREDIT: ERIC EKDALE, SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY

A strange phenomenon happens with modern blue whales, humpback whales and gray whales: they have teeth in the womb but are born toothless. Replacing the teeth is baleen, a series of plates composed of thin, hair- and fingernail-like structures growing from the roof of their mouths that act as a sieve for filter feeding small fish and tiny shrimp-like krill.

The disappearing embryonic teeth are testament to an evolutionary history from ancient whales that had teeth and consumed larger prey. Modern baleen whales on the other hand use their fringed baleen to strain their miniscule prey from water, hence the term filter feeding.

A new study that utilized high-resolution computed tomography (CT) to scan a 25 million year-old fossil whale skull found neurovascular evidence that Aetiocetus weltoni, an evolutionary "cousin" of today's baleen whales (Mysticeti), had both teeth and baleen simultaneously in adulthood, making for a very crowded mouth.

The Oligocene age mysticete fossil was discovered along the coast of Oregon by graduate students with the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley, and loaned to biologist and lead author Eric Ekdale with San Diego State University and paleontologist Thomas Deméré with the San Diego Natural History Museum for the study.

Since baleen decomposes and is rarely preserved intact in fossils, the scientists relied on digital reconstructions with CT imaging to search for evidence of baleen in Aetiocetus. The study revealed grooves and holes on the roof of the mouth that connect internally with a vascular canal in a fashion consistent with the pattern of blood vessels that lead to baleen in modern mysticetes.

What that demonstrates is that the blood supply for the teeth was co-opted for a new function, to support the growth of baleen in living baleen whales, the authors said.

The study also revealed separate connections between the major internal canal and smaller canals that would have delivered blood to the upper teeth, which is consistent with the pattern of blood supply to teeth in living toothed whales such as sperm whales and killer whales, porpoises, dolphins, and terrestrial mammals.

"We have found evidence that supports a co-occurrence of teeth and baleen, indicating the tooth-to-baleen transition occurred in a stepwise manner from just teeth, to teeth and baleen, to only baleen," Ekdale said.

Shift in food habits

"Our study provides tangible fossil evidence of a major shift in feeding behavior from a raptorial carnivorous feeding mode to a bulk filter-feeding mode for obtaining food, among the largest animals that have ever lived in earth's oceans," Ekdale said. "Krill are around 1/600th the size of blue whales. That's like us humans eating nothing larger than sesame seeds floating in a pool."

The four main living groups of baleen whales each pursue different diets and use their baleen filter in different ways, so they divide up ocean resources rather than compete with each other for the same prey.

The study will be published with open access May 24 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, part of the Oxford University Press family of journals.

Anatomical distinction

In the case of Aetiocetus, which was less than half the size of a living gray whale, what puzzles some researchers in the field is how the whale managed to process its food, if it had both baleen and teeth, since the baleen might get in the way of teeth in the mastication process. However, the position of the holes observed in Aetiocetus suggests that the baleen was not in the "line of fire" and unlikely to result in interference between the teeth and baleen.

The study establishes that "while the tiny holes on the palate of Aetiocetus may look similar at a superficial level to other mammals, we can clearly demonstrate that this anatomy is related to baleen in baleen whales," Deméré said.

Ancestors of whales evolved for hundreds of millions of years, first on land as terrestrial mammals, and began their invasion of the sea around 53 million years ago. It's this transition and the subsequent diversification of fully aquatic whales that fascinates Ekdale and Deméré, and discoveries such as theirs indicate how remarkable is the history of life on our planet.

CAPTION

Artist's reconstruction of Aetiocetus weltoni, a 25 million year old baleen whale, with teeth and baleen. Co-occurrence of teeth and baleen side-by-side allow the animal to eat single prey, such as small fish, with their teeth, as well as large accumulations of small crustaceans with their baleen.

CREDIT

Art by C. Buell, used with permission from J. Gatesy.

Impact of school nutrition policies in California varies by children's ethnicity

US SCHOOLS DELIVER SOCIAL WELFARE

EDUCATION NOT SO MUCH

PLOS

Research News

 

California state school nutrition policies and federal policies for school meals have mixed impacts on childhood obesity in children of Pacific Islander (PI), Filipino (FI) and American Indian/Alaska native (AIAN) origins, according to a new study published this week in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Mika Matsuzaki of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, and colleagues.

Children of PI, FI and AIAN origin are some of the most understudied subgroups experiencing high rates of overweight/obesity. California has enacted policies on foods and beverages available in schools through a series of standards beginning in 2004, and federal policies in 2010 also sought to improve school nutrition standards. In the new study, researchers used data on demographics, body composition and fitness that were collected by the California Department of Education on students in 5th and 7th grade each year between 2002 and 2016 as part of the state Physical Fitness Testing program.

Overall, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was higher among PI (39.5-52.5%), FI (32.9-36.7%), and AIAN (37.7-45.6%) children in comparison to White (26.8-30.2%) students. During the baseline period of the study, the overweight/obesity prevalence increased among nearly all students, with the steepest increases for PI and AIAN students. After California state policies went into effect, from 2002 to 2004, the overweight/obesity rates decreased for almost all groups, with the largest fall seen among PI girls in 5th grade (before: log odds ratio = 0.149 (95%CI 0.108 to 0.189; p<0.001); after: 0.010 (-0.005 to 0.025; 0.178)). When both the California and federal nutrition policies were in effect, after 2010, additional declines in the overweight/obesity prevalence were seen among White and FI students but not for PI or AIAN students. As the study was only conducted in California, without a comparison group unaffected by the policies, the researchers could not establish that all changes in prevalence of overweight/obesity were solely attributable to the policies.

"There remain wide racial/ethnic disparities between these racial/ethnic minority subgroups and their White peers," the authors say. "Additional strategies are needed to reduce childhood obesity and related disparities among these understudied racial/ethnic populations."

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Research Article

Peer reviewed; Observational study; Humans

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003596

Funding: The study was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (https://www.rwjf.org/ 74375, ESV), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/ K01HL115471 and 1R01HL136718, ESV; and R01-HL131610 and P01ES022844 BNS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Citation: Matsuzaki M, Sánchez BN, Rebanal RD, Gittelsohn J, Sanchez-Vaznaugh EV (2021) California and federal school nutrition policies and obesity among children of Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Filipino origins: Interrupted time series analysis. PLoS Med 18(5): e1003596. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003596

PRIVATIZED HEALTHCARE

Study finds health insurance disruptions associated with worse healthcare access

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY

Research News

 

ATLANTA - MAY 24, 2021 - A new study underscores the importance of health insurance coverage continuity in access to and receipt of care and care affordability in the United States. Researchers found that health insurance coverage disruptions were consistently associated with worse healthcare access and problems with care affordability. The study appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Decades of research has demonstrated that health insurance coverage is associated with better access to care and health outcomes in the U.S. However, less research has addressed coverage disruptions (i.e., periods without insurance) among adults with current coverage and the relationship of disruptions with care access, receipt of recommended preventive services, and affordability. To learn more, investigators led by Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA of the American Cancer Society conducted a comprehensive examination of insurance coverage disruptions among adults aged 18 to 64 years from the 2011-2018 National Health Interview Survey using multiple measures of access and affordability, and evaluated the effects of the duration of coverage disruption among currently insured and uninsured.

The study found that prior disruptions in insurance coverage were relatively common among adults aged 18-64 years in the U.S. Among currently insured adults, 5.0% with private insurance and 10.7% with public insurance reported a coverage disruption in the prior year, representing nearly 9.1 million adults in 2018. Among currently uninsured adults, 24.9% reported coverage loss within the prior year, representing nearly 8.1 million adults in 2018. Compared to adults with continuous health insurance coverage, adults with coverage disruptions were less likely to receive recommended preventive services and more likely to forgo any needed care because of cost and report medication non-adherence because of cost.

Longer coverage disruptions were associated with worse care access and affordability. The magnitude of associations between coverage disruptions and care access and affordability was similar among adults with either current private or current public coverage. Currently uninsured adults, especially with longer uninsured periods, reported significantly worse care access, receipt, and affordability than currently insured adults with coverage disruptions or continuous coverage.

"Our findings highlight the importance of health insurance coverage continuity related to access to care and affordability. This is especially relevant with recent increases in unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread loss of employer-based private coverage, the primary source of private coverage in the working-age population," said the authors.

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Article: Yabroff R, Zhao, J, Halpern M, Fedewa S, Han X, Nogueira L, Zheng Z, Jemal A. Health insurance disruptions and care access and affordability in the US. AJPM: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2021.02.014.

URL upon embargo: https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(21)00178-1/fulltext

Babies with seizures may be overmedicated

Study suggests that keeping newborns on longer term antiseizure medication may not prevent continued seizures or epilepsy or change development.

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

 

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Newborns who experience seizures after birth are at risk of developing long term chronic conditions, such as developmental delays, cerebral palsy or epilepsy.

Which is why all of these babies receive medication to treat the electrical brain disturbances right away.

While some babies only receive antiseizure medicine for a few days at the hospital, others are sent home with antiseizure medicine for months longer out of concern that seizures may reoccur.

But according to a new multicenter study, continuing this treatment after the neonatal seizures stop may not be necessary.

Babies who stayed on antiseizure medications after going home weren't any less likely to develop epilepsy or to have developmental delays than those who discontinued the medicines before leaving hospital, suggest findings in JAMA Neurology.

"There is wide variability in how different hospitals and physicians manage care for newborns with seizures," says senior author Renée Shellhaas, M.D., M.S., pediatric neurologist at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

Although neonatal seizures usually resolve within 72 hours, longer term medication is often prescribed out of caution, according to co-principal investigator and lead author for the study, Hannah C. Glass, MDCM, MAS.

"Our findings suggest that staying on antiseizure medication after leaving the hospital doesn't protect babies from continued seizures or prevent epilepsy and it does not change developmental outcomes," says Glass, a pediatric neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital.

The study involved about 300 babies born at nine different centers over a three-year period who all developed seizures in their first days to weeks after birth. Two-thirds of babies stayed on medication after discharge from the hospital - averaging four months of treatment. But a third had antiseizure medicine discontinued before they went home - after just a few days of treatment.

Thirteen percent of babies developed epilepsy but there were no associations with medication duration.

Overmedication risks

Among the biggest concerns for longer term use of antiseizure medicine is that it may expose babies to potentially neurotoxic effects, which research indicates may be associated with lower cognitive scores.

The most commonly used medication for neonatal seizures is phenobarbital, which slows down brain activity but causes sedation.

Newborns who are prescribed this kind of medication for seizures may also have more trouble waking up to feed and engaging in other types of activities important to growth and development.

"We really need to balance the risks of continued medication with benefits to babies' health," Shellhaas says. "If it's not necessary, then keeping them on medicine could do more harm than good."

"Most of the babies in this study went home on antiseizure medications, which suggests we need to re-think standard practice," adds Glass. "We've never had such robust data from multiple centers to support this type of change for newborns with seizures."

Previous small, single-center studies have also suggested that early discontinuation of antiseizure medication isn't harmful.

More than 16,000 newborns in the U.S. experience neonatal seizures each year, with nearly half developing long-term health problems, according to nonprofit organization PCORI, which supported the new study.

Shellhaas, Glass and their colleagues will continue to follow this cohort of infants up to school age to assess development, including sensory processing, IQ and potential learning disabilities through research supported by the National Institutes of Health.

"We want to continue to track these children to watch for any subtle differences that may emerge over time," Shellhaas says.

"We hope this research will help drive decisions about caring for newborns with seizures and help us improve their outcomes over the course of their lives."

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Study Cited: "'Safety of Early Discontinuation of Antiseizure Medication After Acute Symptomatic Neonatal Seizures," JAMA Neurology, Doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.1437.

 

MALE Infertility poses major threat to biodiversity during climate change, study warns

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

Research News

 

A new study by University of Liverpool ecologists warns that heat-induced male infertility will see some species succumb to the effects of climate change earlier than thought.

Currently, scientists are trying to predict where species will be lost due to climate change so they can plan effective conservation strategies. However, research on temperature tolerance has generally focused on the temperatures that are lethal to organisms, rather than the temperatures at which organisms can no longer breed.

Published in Nature Climate Change, the study of 43 fruit fly (Drosophila) species showed that in almost half of the species, males became sterile at lower than lethal temperatures. Importantly, the worldwide distribution of these species could be predicted much more accurately by including the temperature at which they become sterile, rather than just using their lethal temperature. To give an example, Drosophila lummei males are sterile four degrees below their lethal limit. To put that in context, four degrees is the temperature difference between summer in northern England and the south of France.

Dr Steven Parratt, lead researcher from the University of Liverpool, said: "Our findings strongly suggest that where species can survive in nature is determined by the temperature at which males become sterile, not the lethal temperature.

"Unfortunately, we do not have any way to tell which organisms are fertile up to their lethal temperature, and which will be sterilised at cooler temperatures. So, a lot of species may have a hidden vulnerability to high temperatures that has gone unnoticed. This will make conservation more difficult, as we may be overestimating how well many species will do as the planet warms."

The researchers went on to model this for one of the Drosophila species using temperature predictions for 2060 and found more than half of areas with temperatures cool enough to survive will be too hot for the males to remain fertile.

Dr Tom Price, senior researcher from the University of Liverpool, commented: "Our work emphasises that temperature-driven fertility losses may be a major threat to biodiversity during climate change. We already had reports of fertility losses at high temperature in everything from pigs to ostriches, to fish, flowers, bees, and even humans. Unfortunately, our research suggests they are not isolated cases, and perhaps half of all species will be vulnerable to thermal infertility.

"We now urgently need to understand the range of organisms likely to suffer thermal fertility losses in nature, and the traits that predict vulnerability. We must understand the underlying genetics and physiology, so we can predict which organisms are vulnerable, and perhaps produce breeds of livestock more robust to these challenges."

Head of Terrestrial Ecosystems at the Natural Environment Research Council Dr Simon Kerley said: "This is a highly exciting piece of work that turns on its head our thinking and assumption of the role, rate, and impact of climate change. It really starts to shed light on the hidden and subtle impact of the changing conditions on the myriad of animals that we perhaps take for granted and have not previously considered 'at risk' from our changing climate. Importantly, it alerts us to the understanding this risk could occur sooner than we thought.

"This piece of work takes biology, at its most fundamental level, and explores it in a well-known and understood laboratory animal, but then takes that crucial extra step of relating it to the real world and the potential impact if may have on global biodiversity.

"With the COP15 and COP26 conferences taking place this year, this study serves as a timely reminder of the need to research and better understand the relationship between climate change and biodiversity loss. The Natural Environmental Research Council will continue to fund this vital research, and UKRI as a whole will work as part of the global effort to safeguard the natural environment for generations to come."

The study involved collaborators from the University of Leeds, University of Melbourne, University of Zürich and Stockholm University and was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

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 ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE REVIVED

Storytelling reduces pain and stress, and increases oxytocin in hospitalized children

New research shows robust evidence that telling stories can increase the quality of life of children in ICUs

D'OR INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Research News

 

A new research, carried out by the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) and the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), has shown for the first time that storytelling is capable of providing physiological and emotional benefits to children in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official scientific journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. The study was led by Guilherme Brockington, PhD, from UFABC, and Jorge Moll, MD, PhD, from IDOR.

"During storytelling, something happens that we call 'narrative transportation'. The child, through fantasy, can experience sensations and thoughts that transport him or her to another world, a place that is different from the hospital room and is, therefore, far from the aversive conditions of hospitalization", affirms Guilherme Brockington, PhD, and lead author of the study.

Storytelling is an immemorial practice of humanity. Legends, religions, and social values have spanned millennia through orality and writing. The most current best-selling cinematographic scripts and novels captivate the audiences through the same mechanism: listening to a good story is moving from one reality to another. This movement, driven by imagination, can create empathy for events and characters that fluctuate according to the interpretation of each individual.

"Until now, the positive evidence for storytelling was based on 'common sense' and taken at face value, in which interacting with the child may distract, entertain and alleviate psychological suffering. But there was a lack of a solid scientific basis, especially with regard to underlying physiological mechanisms", explains Dr. Moll.

Considering the psychological and biological processes that occur during, and after listening to a story, the study investigators came up with the idea of seeking scientific evidence for the effects of storytelling on critically hospitalized children.

In total, 81 children were selected, aged between 2 and 7 years and with similar clinical conditions, such as respiratory problems caused by asthma, bronchitis, or pneumonia. The children were admitted to the ICU at Rede D'Or São Luiz Jabaquara Hospital, in São Paulo, Brazil, and were randomly divided into two groups: 41 of them participated in a group in which storytellers read children's stories for 25 to 30 minutes, while in a control group, 40 children were told riddles offered by the same professionals and during the same length of time.

To compare the effects of the two interventions, saliva samples were collected from each participant before and after each session to analyze the oscillations of cortisol and oxytocin - hormones related to stress and empathy, respectively. In addition, the children took a subjective test to evaluate the level of pain they were feeling before and after participating in the activities. They also performed a free word association task by relating their impressions about 7 cards illustrated with elements from the hospital context (Nurse, Doctor, Hospital, Medicine, Patient, Pain, and Book).

The outcomes were positive for all groups, as both interventions reduced the level of cortisol and increased the production of oxytocin in all the children analyzed, while the sensation of pain and discomfort was also mitigated, according to the evaluation of the children themselves. However, a significant difference was that the positive results of the children in the storytelling group were twice as good as those in the riddles group. These findings led the researchers to conclude that the narrative activity was substantially more effective.

"Another highlight of this study is that it was not performed in an artificial environment, but rather within the routine of the pediatric ICU. The storytelling was done individually; the child chose which story would be told. Among the books offered, we chose titles available in ordinary bookstores and without a pre-defined emotional bias, so that the story would not influence the child's reaction so much after the activity", highlights Dr. Brockington.

Even though storytelling was already being adopted in many children's hospitals, this is the first time we are presented with robust evidence of its physiological and psychological impacts. This contributes to seeing the activity as an effective and low-cost therapeutic method, which can make a great difference in the quality of life for children in intensive care units.

"I consider this study to be one of the most important I have participated in, due to its simplicity, rigor, and potential direct impact on practices in the hospital environment, aiming at the relief of human suffering. As it is a low-cost and highly safe intervention, it can potentially be implemented in the entire public system, once larger-scale studies verify its reproducibility and effectiveness. We intend to extend and replicate it in other settings and patient groups and to support volunteering dedicated to the noble activity of storytelling, now with more solid scientific evidence ", points out Dr. Moll.

The emotional impacts of storytelling were also revealed in the results of the free word association test, done at the end of each intervention. Children in the storytelling group reported more positive emotions than in the control group, when exposed to the Hospital, Nurse, and Doctor words. For example, the children in the control group responded to the card with the drawing of a Hospital saying: "this is the place that people go when they are sick". Children in the storytelling group reported for the same card as: "this is the place that people go to get better". 

For the illustrations of a nurse and a doctor, the same pattern was observed. Children in the control group remarked "This is the bad woman who comes to give me an injection", while those who were told the stories said phrases such as: "This is the woman who comes to heal me".

Although the research had the support of trained volunteer storytellers from the Brazilian non-profit association "Viva e Deixe Viver", the authors state that storytelling is an activity that can be equally practiced by parents and educators, thus providing space for children to participate in the choice of the book and to interact with the story. In addition to reducing anxiety and stress, the activity enables the strengthening of bonds between the child, the narrator, and the other people present in the environment.

The authors also remarked that the findings of this research on storytelling point to additional potential applications for children experiencing environmental stress, such as the disruption caused by the pandemic. Storytelling by parents, relatives and friends may be a simple and effective way to improve the wellbeing of a child and is accessible to all families.

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About the D'Or Institute for Research and Education

Founded in 2010, the D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) is a non-profit organization that aims to promote scientific advancement, qualification, dissemination of knowledge, and innovation in Healthcare. IDOR develops studies aimed at both applied science, that is, with direct clinical impact in the short term, as well as fundamental science, which seeks deeper knowledge about biological, physiological, and pathological mechanisms. The importance of bringing basic and clinic science closer together was evidenced in research involving the Zika virus, in which IDOR researchers played a key role in proving the relationship between the virus and microcephaly. The results had a wide international reach and were published in Science, one of the most prestigious scientific journals worldwide.

About Viva e Deixe Viver

It is a private non-profit entity, created in August 1997, and is formed by volunteers - mostly storytellers - who provide their service free of charge. Through the art of storytelling, the Association forms citizens aware of the importance of welcoming and acceptance, producing well-being based on human values such as empathy, ethics, and affection. Viva e Deixe Viver gathers more than a thousand active volunteers and is present in hospitals in São Paulo and other states and cities in Brazil.