The impact of climate change in dry and hot periods in the Pyrenees

by University of Barcelona

Pyrenees view. Credit: B. Bonmatí

A team of the University of Barcelona has analyzed for the first time what the dry and hot periods could be like in the area of the Pyrenees depending on different greenhouse emission scenarios. The results, published in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, show that under an intermediate scenario, where these emissions that accelerate the climate change could be limited, there would not be a rise in long-lasting dry episodes, but temperatures would rise during these periods. On the other hand, if those emissions were not reduced during the 21st century, the summer no-rain periods would last an average of five more and, in addition, they would go with a rise of temperatures 6ºC over the current ones in the Pyrenees. According to the authors, these results would involve "a potential increase in environmental risks such as wildfires, crop yield losses, negative effects on biodiversity and water resources, etc.".

The study counts on the participation of the researcher Marc Lemus-Canovas, from the Climatology Groupof the UB, and the lecturer Joan Albert López-Bustins, from the Department of Geography. Both are members of the Water Research Institute of the UB.

Two variables that increase environmental risks

The study analyzed, on the one hand, whether the length of consecutive days without rain has increased or will increase in the future, and on the other, whether the highest temperatures during the long-lasting dry periods will be higher than the current ones. This is the first time these variables are studied together in the area of the Pyrenees, in an approximation that enables avoiding an underestimation of the risk these climate conditions bring to the area. "Plants are under a hydric stress due to a combination of a long-lasting dry periods and a high temperature, and the stress is higher than if we analyze one of the compounds. The concurrence of long-lasting dry periods and extremely hot temperatures can bring environmental risks such as wildfires, crop yield losses, and in general, serious problems regarding the biodiversity of this area, which would not be detected by considering only one of the variables," says Marc Lemus.

The study used climate data from several parts of the Pyrenees (Catalan Pyrenees, Aragon Pyrenees, etc.) from 1981 to 2015, in the information obtained from the work carried out at the Pyrenees Climate Change Observatory, thanks to the CLIMPY project, which enabled recovering a great part of climate series. "These data show that to date, the risk of the simultaneous concurrence of long-lasting droughts and extreme temperatures has been increased by the raise of one of these cmpounds: temperature. This has taken place similarly in spring and summer and over the general area of the Pyrenees," notes the researcher.

More and more extreme temperatures

In order to estimate the evolution of these two variables during the rest of the 21st century, the researchers considered two out of the future scenarios of greenhouse emissions established by the UN Representative Concentration Pathways group. "Under an intermediate scenario of emissions (RCP4.5), assuming that by the middle of the century the emissions will start a process of stabilization and that by 2100 there will not be a growing trend of gas emissions, the pattern will continue to be the same: temperatures will be more extreme when these dry spells occur, but the length of these dry periods will not increase," describes the researcher.

On the other hand, this situation would substantially change under a scenario of high emissions (RCP8.5), where the volume of emissions would continue to rise during the whole century. Under these conditions, the authors detected that there would be, in spring, an increase in the length of dry periods, mainly in the eastern side of the Pyrenees, and a strong increase in thermal extremes during these dry spells. "Regarding summer, the length of days without rain will increase notably in the northern side of the Pyrenees (the wettest area of this territory) and there will also be a rise of extreme temperatures. The less exposed area to this factor in both elements would be the western area, with a higher Atlantic influence," notes Marc Lemus. According to the researchers, these results highlight the importance of stopping the increasing trend of greenhouse emissions. "We saw it is not ideal in an intermediate scenario because the thermal increase is notable. However, a dramatic increase in the length of dry periods and in extreme temperatures at the same time could lead to a catastrophic scenario, due to the involvements it could have in a fragile area where the 59% of the surface is covered by forests," they warn.

In this sense, the research states that this study should provide "more arguments to the provision of public resources for the actors that work on forest and ecological management of the Pyrenees, in order to adapt it for the future. And mainly, to promote a mitigation policy on climate change which is our pending subject," he concludes.

Recently, the Climatology Group of the UB has received a favorable resolution from the Spanish Ministry on Science and Innovation for the grant of a research project titled Eventos compuestos secos y cálidos en la España peninsular, which will enable the team to receive resources to continue working on this research line for the next three years.

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More information: Marc Lemus-Canovas et al, Assessing internal changes in the future structure of dry–hot compound events: the case of the Pyrenees, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.5194/nhess-21-1721-2021

Provided by University of Barcelona 

 

Future snowmelt from Third Pole may decrease drastically

by Li Yuan, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Glaciers are iconic benchmarks of climate change, and their meltwater represents an important water resource downstream, particularly in spring and summer.

A study by researchers from Utrecht University and Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that the melting of seasonal snowpacks in Asia provides an even larger contribution to river streamflow. The water supply from snowmelt has changed considerably over the last 40 years and it will further diminish in the future under continued climate change, with potentially strong impacts on downstream water availability.

The study was published in Nature Climate Change on June 24.

The researchers developed a computer model that simulates snow and compared it with their previous estimates of glacier change. "We see that for all river basins that originate in the high mountains of Asia, the total amount of snowmelt is much larger than glacier melt, generally around three to five times as much," said lead author Philip Kraaijenbrink. "Changes to the region's snowpacks due to climate change can therefore have much stronger impacts on the water balance than retreat of its glaciers."

The scientists predicted that there will be considerable losses in the amount of snowmelt in Asia's rivers, but the degree of future climate change plays a key role. "If we are able to limit temperature rise by the end of the century to 1.5 degrees when compared to pre-industrial levels, as agreed upon in the 2015 Paris agreement, we will see region-wide reductions in snowmelt of only 6%," said co-author Walter Immerzeel, Professor in Mountain Hydrology at Utrecht University. "However, in more realistic scenarios, snowmelt will be reduced by 22% and for specific regions by even more than 50%. Such reductions in meltwater input into the rivers during spring can strongly affect people downstream that depend on that water for irrigation and hydropower."

How these results will impact local water availability remains a research challenge for the future according to the researchers. "This study helps us gain a fuller picture of the water cycle changes at the Third Pole," said co-author Prof. Yao Tandong, co-chair of Third Pole Environment (TPE), an international science program that enabled long-term international collaboration on this topic with support from the science project of Pan-TPE.

"Snow and glacier melt are only a part of the total water cycle. Climate change acts on many fronts and controls the changing water supply from the mountains, but there are also socioeconomic developments to consider that affect water demands," added Philip Kraaijenbrink. "Our future efforts are on quantifying all processes that impact the mountain water balance to ultimately fully understand the changing system and its impacts on society."

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Climate change and melting glaciers have widely varied impacts on Asian water supplies

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More information: Philip D. A. Kraaijenbrink et al, Climate change decisive for Asia's snow meltwater supply, Nature Climate Change (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01074-x

Journal information: Nature Climate Change 

Provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences 

 

Understanding bias in leadership assessments of women

by Christine Billau, University of Toledo

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new study conducted before COVID-19 busted open the leaky pipeline for women in leadership underscores the bias that men are naturally presumed to have leadership potential and women are not and highlights the increased efforts needed by organizations to address the incorrect stereotype post-pandemic.

The research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology highlights the continuing bias in leadership assessments of women, explores the contradictions between the perception and the reality of women's leadership, and shows why the slow rate of career advancement for women will likely continue at a snail's pace.

"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's career progression will likely be felt for years to come as many women stepped away from the workforce," said Dr. Margaret Hopkins, professor of management in The University of Toledo's John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation and lead author of the study. "This can only exacerbate the slow progress of women moving more fully into senior leadership roles—something that organizations and society must be fully attentive to correcting."

The contemporary view of effective leadership places a strong emphasis on social skills, flexibility and engaging others, behaviors typically associated with women.

But when women exhibit gender role behaviors such as teamwork and empathy, they also pay a price in their leadership performance assessments.

Based on data collected from a sample of 91 senior leaders in one U.S. financial services organization over three years, women were penalized in performance evaluations when they displayed those leadership characteristics.

On the other hand, women also were viewed negatively when exhibiting stereotypical masculine behaviors such as a competitive drive to achieve, task orientation and directing others. Men were positively evaluated for their leadership potential when exhibiting those same behaviors.

"Entrenched archetypes that define leadership as a masculine enterprise remain in spite of data that relates more stereotypical feminine behaviors to effective leadership," said Hopkins, an expert on women in leadership, executive coaching and emotional intelligence. "Our study found no evidence of acknowledging this more contemporary view of leadership when organizations actually assess women's performance and potential for leadership."

The researchers discovered that whether women demonstrated people-oriented, relational skills or whether they exhibited achievement-oriented behaviors, there was a negative effect on their leadership performance assessments and leadership potential appraisals. However, this was not the case for the male leaders in the study.

In order to change the dynamic, Hopkins said there are best-practice strategies that both women and organizations can take.

"My co-authors and I do not support the notion that the onus is on the women to change," Hopkins said. "Rather, organizational structures and systems must change to provide leadership opportunities for both women and men in equal measure."

She said organizational decision-makers can investigate organizational policies and practices to determine how they might be contributing to impediments for women in leadership roles.

Not only should leadership assessment instruments be examined for possible bias, but also the methods by which individuals conduct assessments of women leaders should be reviewed for inherent bias.

"Hiring procedures, training and development opportunities, benefits packages, leave policies, and performance, salary and promotional evaluations can all play a part in contributing to gender stereotypes," Hopkins said. "Organizational systems that rely on a limited framework for essential leadership behaviors will restrict their ability to recruit and develop outstanding leaders."

To help mitigate these inaccurate perceptions and biases of their leadership performance and potential, Hopkins suggests that women find both female and male allies and sponsors, create strategic networks, seek high-profile assignments to highlight their skills and abilities, and develop and communicate their individual definitions of career success.

The financial services organization at the focus of this study is one of the Top 100 U.S. Best Banks named by Forbes magazine. The sample of senior leaders included 26 women and 65 men, representative of the gender composition of the senior leadership team.

The researchers said a comparison of males and females in one organization ensured that any observed gender differences were not due to factors such as differences in industries or management hierarchies across organizations.

Researchers from UToledo, Bowling Green State University, Case Western Reserve University and San Diego Gas and Electric collaborated on the study.

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New study shows that men receive more actionable feedback than women in the workplace

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More information: Margaret M. Hopkins et al, Buried Treasure: Contradictions in the Perception and Reality of Women's Leadership, Frontiers in Psychology (2021). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684705

Journal information: Frontiers in Psychology 

Provided by University of Toledo 

 

How fishing communities are responding to climate change

by Wellesley College

Larger fishing trawlers are seen in Point Judith, Rhode Island. Communities of vessels have varying responses to shift in species' distribution, based in part on the relative size of vessels. Credit: Courtesy of Eva Papaioannou

What happens when climate change affects the abundance and distribution of fish? Fishers and fishing communities in the Northeast United States have adapted to those changes in three specific ways, according to new research published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Becca Selden, Wellesley College assistant professor of biological sciences, and a team of colleagues examined how fishing communities have responded to documented shifts in the location of fluke and of red and silver hake. The team found that fishers made three distinct changes to their approaches: following the fish to a new location; fishing for a different kind of fish; and bringing their catch to shore at another port of landing.

Selden began this research as a postdoctoral scholar at Rutgers University in New Jersey with Eva Papaioannou, now a scientist at GEOMAR. They combined quantitative data on fish availability from surveys conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a unique geographic information system database from fishing trip records developed for this project. The researchers then interviewed fishers in 10 ports from North Carolina to Maine.

They explored three dominant strategies, and found that fishers throughout the Northeast were more likely to shift their target species. In interviews, the researchers learned that targeting a mix of species is a critical option for adaptation. Doing so can be complicated, however, because in many cases regulations and markets (or the lack of a market) constrain fishers' ability to take advantage of a changing mix of species in fishing grounds. For example, in Point Pleasant, N.J., fishers can't capitalize on an increase in dogfish in the region because of strict conservation measures that have been in place since 1988, when the species was declared over-fished, and the resulting absence of a market for those fish.

"Most communities tend to fish where they have fished for generations, and therefore, for any fishery management plan to be more climate-ready in the future, it needs to take that into account," Selden said. "They're less likely to move where they fish, more likely to switch what they fish, but only if they can, and regulations play a big role in that being successful."

The researchers also learned about a previously undescribed strategy in which fishers change where they bring the fish ashore to sell. This is particularly common for vessels coming from northern fishing communities that sell fluke in Beaufort, N.C. "Had we not combined the quantitative data with the in-depth interviews with community members, we would have totally missed the phenomenon we saw come to light in Beaufort," Papaioannou said. "It made for such a powerful way of analyzing the data, so that we were really using it to influence the questions we would ask in each interview, and the interviews would drive what we would examine in the quantitative data. I think that approach really made for a much more complete look at the impact of changes in species distribution and fishers' adaptations."

Of the fishing communities they studied, only the one in Beaufort used the tactic of following fish to new grounds. Unlike communities in the north, fishers in Beaufort have targeted fluke heavily in the past, and because the port is on the southern edge of the range for this species they are more vulnerable as the species shifts north. "Beaufort fishers have gone to tremendous lengths to keep fishing fluke," Selden said, "and following fish to new grounds brings its own constraints and concerns." These include the cost of increased fuel use, safety issues due to vessel size, and the local environmental knowledge needed to fish successfully in new locations.

All of these responses are intertwined, Selden said, so as we learn more about the effects of climate change on the future of fishing, understanding, predicting, and planning for any one of them will require examining all three together.

The researchers focused on the Northeast because it has been a hotspot of recent ocean warming, especially in the Gulf of Maine, and in some ways it is a harbinger of what other areas might be experiencing soon, Selden said. Along the East Coast, she said, "you have species that have these state-by-state regulations, you're passing through different jurisdictions and three different fisheries management councils, and species are crossing boundaries all over the place. This all has an impact on fishers, their behavior, and their communities."

Selden plans to continue this work on the West Coast—where there are only three states and one fishery management council—to compare how stable their fishing grounds are and how much fishers are switching species versus shifting where they fish.

"Fisheries are really on the frontline of climate impacts," Selden said. "It's really a bipartisan issue, and there are stakeholders across party lines. That was my motivation to focus on how communities are adapting, how they've adapted to past change. We need to be able to understand how they might adapt to future change and potentially how we would need to change management to facilitate some of the adaptations that they are already demonstrating."

The team is building a website that fishers and communities can use to see some of these patterns and learn more about what their counterparts elsewhere are doing about them. Community leaders and fishery management officials could also use the information to promote a broader understanding of the issues and potentially prioritize fishery development projects or plan for where a species will go next.

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Climate change threatens commercial fishers from Maine to North Carolina

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More information: Eva A. Papaioannou et al, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost – Responses of Fishers' Communities to Shifts in the Distribution and Abundance of Fish, Frontiers in Marine Science (2021). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2021.669094

Journal information: Frontiers in Marine Science 

Provided by Wellesley College 

Advocates decry homeless sweeps ahead of MLB’s All-Star game

By COLLEEN SLEVIN and PATTY NIEBERG

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A paramedic from Denver Health wheels a gurney from an ambulance to tend to a homeless man Wednesday, July 7, 2021, during a city-sponsored carried out on an encampment of individuals living along Grant Street at Sixth Avenue south of downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)


DENVER (AP) — Ahead of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in Denver this week, city officials are facing scrutiny from advocates who accuse them of accelerating the clearing of homeless encampments near Coors Field as the sports world turns its attention to Colorado’s capital city.

Mayor Michael Hancock has emphatically denied that the All-Star Game influenced any clearing decisions, saying the city is just getting caught up after suspending cleanups at the beginning of the pandemic. It resumed regular cleanups last summer.

Officials knew before the city was chosen as the All-Star host that it faced a big cleanup effort, with more encampments than ever, Hancock said.

In cleanups, also called homeless “sweeps,” encampments are fenced off and the people living in tents there are told to pack up and leave so the area can be cleaned.

In March, just before Denver was chosen as a substitute host — Major League Baseball pulled it from Atlanta in April over objections to Georgia’s voting law that critics condemned as being too restrictive — data shows sweeps increased, with cleanups taking place over nine days. The previous peak over the past year was eight days, in October.

But the sweeps picked up even more in May and June with 17 scheduled cleanups taking 22 days, 11 days each month with two or three days of cleanups a week, according to public records obtained by The Associated Press, which were first reported by Denverite, an online news outlet that covers the city.

The city conducted sweeps for 17 weeks straight from early March to late June, a streak that was unmatched during any other period, according to cleanup notices provided to city councilors since December 2019.

The city used to conduct two or three cleanups a week before the pandemic began and has returned to that pace, said Evan Dreyer, Hancock’s deputy chief of staff.

The city’s position is misleading, said Ana Cornelius, an organizer for Denver Homeless Out Loud, who thinks the city has targeted its cleanups to push homeless people out before the All-Star Game. While the city used to clean up one encampment at a time, it has turned to multiday operations — targeting four or five encampments in a bigger area, dramatically increasing the number of people pushed out, she said.

People forced to leave an encampment near the stadium last week were told they could go to another one about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away and would be safe there until August, she said.

Patrick Shields, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, was among the people forced to pick up and leave during a recent sweep on a grass strip outside an office building about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from Coors Field. Shields, who has been on the street for eight months after being released from jail, was upset that he and residents he considered to be like family were being forced to move, when it would be cheaper to help them stay in one place.

“We have no hope, no direction because of situations like this,” he said.

The number of people without homes in the United States increased for the fourth straight year in 2020 based on a count conducted before the pandemic began, according to a U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development annual report. And the housing crisis was only exacerbated by the pandemic when many lost jobs.

Downtown Denver looks vastly different compared to the middle of the pandemic in 2020. Tents used by homeless people that lined streets near closed restaurants and shops are now gone, with businesses reopened and pedestrians roaming the streets.

Coors Field is set to host the All-Star Game on Tuesday.

David Corsun, director of the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management at the University of Denver, doesn’t know what role the game has played in Denver’s ongoing work on homelessness but said it’s common for cities to want to clean up and ensure visitors have positive experiences.

“Any time there’s a mass influx of people … it’s an opportunity to build brand and to create an impression: Denver is an amazing place to live and to visit,” Corsun said.

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Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

LGBTQ RIGHTS VS RELIGIOUS RITES

Protests erupt in Georgia after beaten journalist dies
yesterday


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Opponents of the march block off the capital's main avenue to an LGBT march in Tbilisi, Georgia, Monday, July 5, 2021. A protest against a planned LGBT march in the Georgian capital turned violent on Monday as demonstrators attacked journalists. Organizers of the Tbilisi March For Dignity that was to take place in the evening cancelled the event, saying authorities had not provided adequate security guarantees. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Several thousand people protested in front of the Georgian parliament on Sunday evening, demanding that the ex-Soviet nation’s prime minister resign over the death of a journalist who was attacked and beaten by anti-LGBT protesters.

Cameraman Alexander Lashkarava was found dead in his home by his mother earlier Sunday, according to the TV Pirveli channel he worked for. Lashkarava was one of several dozen journalists attacked last Monday by opponents of an LGBT march that had been scheduled to take place that day in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Organizers of the Tbilisi March For Dignity cancelled the event, saying authorities had not provided adequate security guarantees. Opponents of the march blocked off the capital’s main avenue, denounced journalists covering the protest as pro-LGBT propagandists and threw sticks and bottles at them.

Lashkarava, according to his colleague Miranda Baghaturia, was beaten by a mob of 20 people. Local TV channels later showed him with bruises on his face and blood on the floor around him. Media reports say he sustained multiple injuries and had to undergo surgery but was discharged from a hospital on Thursday.

The cause of his death was not immediately clear.

Police launched an investigation into Lashkarava’s death, which Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and President Salome Zurabishvili both described as “a tragedy.”

Animosity against sexual minorities is strong in the conservative Black Sea nation of Georgia.

The Tbilisi Pride group said Monday that opponents of the planned march were supported by the government and by the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Open Caucasus Media group published a photo of a man it said was a local TV journalist being pulled away from the scene in a headlock by an Orthodox priest.

Zurabishvili condemned the violence, but Garibashvili alleged the march was organized by “radical opposition” forces that he claimed were led by exiled former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

A large crowd of protesters that gathered in Tbilisi on Sunday demanded that authorities punish those responsible for the attack on journalists and urged Garibashvili to step down. Some protesters blamed the prime minister for enabling the violence by publicly denouncing the LGBT march.

 

Curiosity rover finds patches of rock record erased, revealing clues

by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

A self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). A Martian dust storm has reduced sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale Crater. Credit: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

A new paper enriches scientists' understanding of where the rock record preserved or destroyed evidence of Mars' past and possible signs of ancient life.

Today, Mars is a planet of extremes—it's bitterly cold, has high radiation, and is bone-dry. But billions of years ago, Mars was home to lake systems that could have sustained microbial life. As the planet's climate changed, one such lake—in Mars' Gale Crater—slowly dried out. Scientists have new evidence that supersalty water, or brines, seeped deep through the cracks, between grains of soil in the parched lake bottom and altered the clay mineral-rich layers beneath.

The findings published in the July 9 edition of the journal Science and led by the team in charge of the Chemistry and Mineralogy, or CheMin, instrument—aboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover—help add to the understanding of where the rock record preserved or destroyed evidence of Mars' past and possible signs of ancient life.

"We used to think that once these layers of clay minerals formed at the bottom of the lake in Gale Crater, they stayed that way, preserving the moment in time they formed for billions of years," said Tom Bristow, CheMin principal investigator and lead author of the paper at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "But later brines broke down these clay minerals in some places—essentially resetting the rock record."

This evenly layered rock photographed by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover shows a pattern typical of a lake-floor sedimentary deposit not far from where flowing water entered a lake. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mars: It Goes on Your Permanent Record

Mars has a treasure trove of incredibly ancient rocks and minerals compared with Earth. And with Gale Crater's undisturbed layers of rocks, scientists knew it would be an excellent site to search for evidence of the planet's history, and possibly life.

Using CheMin, scientists compared samples taken from two areas about a quarter-mile apart from a layer of mudstone deposited billions of years ago at the bottom of the lake at Gale Crater. Surprisingly, in one area, about half the clay minerals they expected to find were missing. Instead, they found mudstones rich with iron oxides—minerals that give Mars its characteristic rusty red color.

Scientists knew the mudstones sampled were about the same age and started out the same—loaded with clays—in both areas studied. So why then, as Curiosity explored the sedimentary clay deposits along Gale Crater, did patches of clay minerals—and the evidence they preserve—"disappear"?

The network of cracks in this Martian rock slab called "Old Soaker" may have formed from the drying of a mud layer more than 3 billion years ago. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Clays Hold Clues

Minerals are like a time capsule; they provide a record of what the environment was like at the time they formed. Clay minerals have water in their structure and are evidence that the soils and rocks that contain them came into contact with water at some point.

"Since the minerals we find on Mars also form in some locations on Earth, we can use what we know about how they form on Earth to tell us about how salty or acidic the waters on ancient Mars were," said Liz Rampe, CheMin deputy principal investigator and co-author at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Previous work revealed that while Gale Crater's lakes were present and even after they dried out, groundwater moved below the surface, dissolving and transporting chemicals. After they were deposited and buried, some mudstone pockets experienced different conditions and processes due to interactions with these waters that changed the mineralogy. This process, known as "diagenesis," often complicates or erases the soil's previous history and writes a new one.

The Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this mosaic as it explored the "clay-bearing unit" on Feb. 3, 2019 (Sol 2309). This landscape includes the rocky landmark nicknamed "Knockfarril Hill" (center right) and the edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, which runs along the top of the scene. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Diagenesis creates an underground environment that can support microbial life. In fact, some very unique habitats on Earth—in which microbes thrive—are known as "deep biospheres."

"These are excellent places to look for evidence of ancient life and gauge habitability," said John Grotzinger, CheMin co-investigator and co-author at the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, in Pasadena, California. "Even though diagenesis may erase the signs of life in the original lake, it creates the chemical gradients necessary to support subsurface life, so we are really excited to have discovered this."

By comparing the details of minerals from both samples, the team concluded that briny water filtering down through overlying sediment layers was responsible for the changes. Unlike the relatively freshwater lake present when the mudstones formed, the salty water is suspected to have come from later lakes that existed within an overall drier environment. Scientists believe these results offer further evidence of the impacts of Mars' climate change billions of years ago. They also provide more detailed information that is then used to guide the Curiosity rover's investigations into the history of the Red Planet. This information also will be utilized by NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover team as they evaluate and select rock samples for eventual return to Earth.

"We've learned something very important: There are some parts of the Martian rock record that aren't so good at preserving evidence of the planet's past and possible life," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist and co-author at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "The fortunate thing is we find both close together in Gale Crater, and can use mineralogy to tell which is which."

Curiosity is in the initial phase of investigating the transition to a "sulfate-bearing unit," or rocks thought to have formed while Mars' climate dried out.

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Glauconitic-like clay found on Mars suggests the planet once had habitable conditions

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More information: "Brine-driven destruction of clay minerals in Gale crater, Mars" Science (2021). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abg5449

Journal information: Science 

Provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

A ‘Galaxy’ of Islamic Burials Exhibits An “As Above, So Below” Concept

UPDATED 9 JULY, 2021 - 14:57 ASHLEY COWIE

Sudanese Islamic burial sites are not randomly located as was traditionally believed. Quite the opposite. Thanks to satellite technology , it has been discovered that contrary to the belief that these Islamic burials were scattered randomly across the ancient landscape, thousands of burial sites follow a “galaxy-like” distribution pattern.

Knowing this audience, I know I am safe to open this story with the deeply-gnostic statement: “As above, so below.” I am confident that a vast majority of you will understand the implications associated with that concept, and by the end of this article it will become perfectly clear why I chose this sentence to represent the findings of a new study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stefano Costanzo of the University of Naples “L’Orientale.”



Islamic burial qubbas scattered around the Jebel Maman in Sudan. (Costanzo et al. / PLOS ONE )
Discovering the Galaxy-Like Distribution Pattern of Tombs and Islamic Burials

The Kassala region of eastern Sudan hosts a wide range of funerary monuments which date back to anywhere between thousands of years ago right up to the Islamic tombs of modern Beja people. Sudanese Islamic burial sites are found scattered in patches throughout the area known as Jebel Maman and until now it was assumed that they were located randomly. However, the new study shows that they were distributed according to large-scale environmental factors and small-scale social factors, creating what is described as “a galaxy-like distribution pattern.”

Going Where Archaeologists Cannot, Spy Satellites Reveal Thousands of Forgotten Ancient Sites in Afghanistan
Satellite Imaging Exposes 4,000-year-old Tomb in the Dahshur Necropolis

According to a report in Live Science , professor Costanzo said archaeologists suspected that the location of these monuments was most likely influenced by geological and social factors. On this premise, the researcher set about unravelling any underlying patterns within the ancient the funerary landscape. His goal? To provide new insights into the “ancient cultural practices of the people who built them,” according to the new paper.



Satellite imagery depicting 1,195 qubbas, or Islamic burials, around and on top of a small rocky outcrop. (Costanzo et al. / PLOS ONE )
The Above and the Below: Using Satellite Imagery to Find Patterns

Getting back to the aforementioned “As above, so below.” In this new study Costanzo and his team used remote sensing satellite imagery to plot the locations of 10,000 funerary monuments across 4,000 km2 (1,544 sq mi). To analyze the data set they adopted a “Neyman-Scott Cluster model” that was originally developed to study spatial patterns within the clustering of stars and galaxies.

Thanks to this novel application, it was revealed that just like stars cluster around centers of high gravity, burial monuments in Kassala cluster by the hundreds around central “parent” points. The researchers think these parent points themselves likely represent older tombs of regional importance.


What then caused some sites to become parent points, or central regional sites of importance, over others? The authors hypothesize that the environment greatly influenced the larger scale distribution of tombs. The so-called “high-gravity” areas center on regions with “favorable landscapes and available building materials,” according the paper.

They also determined that smaller scale distribution was more of a “social phenomenon” and that tombs surrounded older central, or important, burial structures. Did you notice that I still haven’t answered that last question that I myself asked? Let’s ask it another way. Why then, were some burial sites more important than others, so much so that they became “parent” points in the new study?



An example of foothill tumuli in the Kassala region of eastern Sudan, which are simple stone raised structures which were widespread throughout African prehistory and history. (Costanzo et al. / PLOS ONE )

The Dawn of Cosmo-Archaeology

The answer to “why” some burial sites became more important remains unanswered. However, it is suspected that maybe more recent family burials have caused more intense clustering, or, that the predominance of burials increases around ancient burials of traditional importance. What is perhaps a greater discovery than the new fact that Sudanese Islamic burial sites are not randomly distributed, is that for the first time archaeologists have applied “advanced geospatial analysis” to unearth the environmental and societal influences underlying the funerary landscape of ancient eastern Sudan.

Essentially, what happened here was a change of resolution, and that change revealed hidden ancient secrets. Standing at any one cluster of burial sites looking across the horizontal plane the archaeologists mind has only a fraction of the spatial data required to appreciate any underlying distribution patterns. By using satellites, a whole new dimension was achieved, and so the clusters were identified. Thus, the new study represents the first time a cosmological approach has been applied to an archaeological problem in this way.
Pre-Columbian Amazon Was Not So Virgin After All
Old Satellite Images Reveal Lost Cities and Previously Unknown Ancient Sites

What this means is that the better our measuring technologies become the more we realize that in our universe, that which is above , really is reflected below. And on a more immediate level, the use of satellite technology in archaeology to ascertain that ancient burial mounds and Islamic burials cluster like stars in distant galaxies around central sites, represents the dawn of a whole new approach for delving into our ancient origins.

Top image: A landscape view of qubba tombs, a type of Islamic burial tomb or shrine, around an area known as Jebel Maman. (Costanzo et al. / CC-BY 4.0 )

By Ashley Cowie

Scientists have discovered a peculiar dinosaur that breathed differently than any other

Shane McGlaun - Jul 10, 2021, 8:17am CDT

Paleontologists have recently discovered something very interesting about an extinct dinosaur and the way it breathes. The image seen below depicts the creature, called the Heterodontosaurus tucki, breathing on a cool morning. Researchers found unusual rib and sternum bones in an extremely well-preserved fossil skeleton of the Heterodontosaurus tucki.

The creature was an ornithischian the size of a turkey and ate plants. Ornithischians are bird-hipped dinosaurs and include a group featuring duck-billed dinosaurs, frilled dinosaurs like the Triceratops, and armored dinosaurs like the Ankylosaurs. The fossils were discovered in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 2009. They were later x-rayed, allowing scientists to reconstruct the skeleton digitally.

The models revealed skeleton features unseen in previous ornithischians featuring rib and hip bones connected by muscles to help animal breathe in a new way. The dinosaur breathed through the expansion of its chest and belly. The creature measured about three feet long from nose to tail and roamed in portions of South Africa about 200 million years ago during the Jurassic period. It’s one of the earliest species to be included in the ornithischian group.

Since it’s one of the oldest creatures in the group, it gives scientists clues about the evolution of features common among ornithischians but different from other dinosaurs. The skeleton the team discovered was nearly complete, including a group of tiny, slender abdominal rib bones called gastralia. Ribs of that type are found in modern crocodiles and other modern reptiles and have a role in respiration.ADVERTISING

This creature is the first time they were discovered in ornithischians. Before discovering the skeleton, scientists thought that gastralia were absent from all ornithischians. Now they know that the features were lost in later ornithischians, and they know that early members of the group did something different with their bodies for respiration.

The Italian startup awarded at the world congress on artificial intelligence

Natasha Kumar July 10, 2021

AGI – ASC27 is the Italian startup winner of the European section of Shanghai World AI Congress (WAIC) and ranked among the top 10 in the world in the Best Practice Applied Algoritms section, thanks to an Artificial Intelligence capable of helping journalists improve their articles and reach a greater number of readers.

The Roman startup has in fact developed a deep learning system that learns from readers the elements of success of a story capable of going viral. The system, already purchased abroad by an important American entrepreneurial group, it could change the way journalists communicate suggesting to them the strengths and weaknesses of the articles.

How the program works

His name is Asimov, an artificial intelligence co-Bot designed to achieve better results in publishing and communication which, they tell ASC27, “will serve to build the new era of journalism – more efficient, precise and humane – by doing the tasks more repetitive and leaving room for the creative act of journalists so that they can have more time to work on the quality of the articles and information “.

The software is already used daily by over 2000 journalists in major magazines who are expanding their audience and revenues by leveraging Asimov AI.

The event

Presented in the European startup section, the company with Asimov obtained recognition from the important World Artificial Intelligence Congress (WAIC), the world congress on artificial intelligence that opened on 7 July in the presence of 1,000 speakers, including the winners of the Turing Prize, Joseph Sifakis and Yao Qizhi e the “father of Linux” Linus Torvalds, the CEO of Siemens Roland Busch, that of Qualcomm Cristiano Amon, the president of Huawei Ken Hu, and the leaders of Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu.

WAIC exhibition halls occupy over 40,000 square meters in the new Pudong area of ​​Xuhui district. In addition to talking about innovations and business, he addresses topics about reliable AI and sustainable development, the relationship of AI with the environment, privacy and algorithms, and how to avoid the digital divide around the world. The debate is attended by officials from the WHO, UNESCO, the ITU and other international organizations.

More than 300 exhibitors have brought their latest AI applications to WAIC and the hybrid conference, partly online, where they are shown will run until tomorrow 10 July.

The founder of the startup

In this context, the success of the Roman company, created by Nicola Grandis from Abruzzo and located in the heart of Rome, a few steps from St. Peter’s Square, confirms the creativity and value of Italian technological innovation.

“ASC27 aims to revolutionize the way of developing software – says Grandis – employs sixteen AI experts and among them there are some young hackers of national fame”. Our motto is “We create Knowledege – We create knowledge” and we do it using artificial intelligence techniques applied to Cybersecurity and vice versa using the principles of hacking to develop software for innovative solutions “.

The award ceremony – which includes a cash prize and other benefits – will follow the remote presentation of Asimov (due to the pandemic) by ASC27 at the 1st European Online Forum organized by Expand.hk and Sinofy Group, on behalf of the WAIC of Shanghai and the Chinese government in the presence of about 700 journalists, with the forecast of 250 million visitors online.