It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, August 30, 2021
Promoting nitric oxide electroreduction to ammonia over electron-rich Cu modulated by Ru doping
Schematic illustration for promoting nitric oxide electroreduction to ammonia over by Ru doping. Credit: Science China Press
As an important nitrogen-containing chemical, ammonia plays a vital role in the production of fertilizers, explosives and fine chemicals. At present, ammonia has been mainly manufactured from H2 and N2 under high temperature (300-500 oC) and high pressure (200-300 atm). This process consumes huge amounts of energy and discharges vast amounts of greenhouse gas. Thus, electrochemical ammonia synthesis (EAS) has attracted intensive attention.
Presently, EAS mainly focuses on the electrochemical reduction of N2. However, the inherent inertness of N2 severely limits the Faradaic efficiency and yield rate of ammonia. Simultaneously, massive nitric oxide (NO) is discharged and causes serious environmental concerns. The present commercial treatment technologies aim to convert NO into environmental-friendly but useless N2.
From the view of "turning waste into wealth", developing novel EAS strategies by adopting NO as a nitrogen source is a win-win opportunity. But, the development of this technology is retarded by the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. Moreover, identifying intermediates and unveiling the reaction mechanism of NO electroreduction reaction (NOER) is critical for the design and construction of advanced electrocatalysts.
Recently, Prof. Bin Zhang and colleagues in Tianjin University constructed a series of Ru-doped Cu materials through in situ electroreduction of the corresponding metal hydroxides. The optimized Ru0.05Cu0.95exhibited superior electrocatalytic performance for ammonia synthesis by using NO/Ar (1/4, n/n) as the feedstocks (Faradaic efficiency: 64.9%, Yield rate: 17.68 µmol cm-2 h-1), obviously outperforming Cu counterpart (Faradaic efficiency: 33.0%, Yield rate: 5.73 µmol cm-2 h-1). The alternating-N pathway of NOER over Ru0.05Cu0.95 was confirmed based on the detected intermediates from electrochemical in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and online differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS).
Experimental and theoretical simulations unveiled that the decreased d-band center of surface Cu caused by Ru doping reduced the reaction energy of the rate-limiting hydrogenation step and the desorption energy of NH3, inducing the improvement of NOER performance. This work may open a new avenue for rational design and construction of efficient electrocatalysts for NO-to-NH3 conversion.
More information:Jiangwei Shi et al, Promoting nitric oxide electroreduction to ammonia over electron-rich Cu modulated by Ru doping,Science China Chemistry(2021).DOI: 10.1007/s11426-021-1073-5
New concept for identifying chemical combinations with potential health effects
by BfR Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
About 350,000 chemicals are registered worldwide. Some of these can contribute to human exposure to substances and mixtures via products, applications or food. In order to protect people in everyday life and at work from potentially dangerous chemicals, the legislature has established a comprehensive legal framework. Notably the corresponding acts and regulations mainly cover the evaluation of individual substances and defined mixtures within their respective regulatory silos.
Effects that may result from possible co-exposures, e.g. the simultaneous use of substances across different regulations or due to background exposures from the environment, on the other hand, are more difficult and usually only accessible in retrospect.For the majority of these scenarios, neither an increased toxicity of the relevant substance combinations nor an insufficient protection by the existing regulatory framework can be assumed. In a recently published article, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) now proposes for the first time a research-based concept for the generic identification of chemical combinations with potential health relevance. The concept addresses the following questions: 1) Which chemicals actually do realistically occur together and 2) Which of these combinations pose potential health-relevant effects not adequately covered by existing assessment concepts? The aim of the new approach is to provide a feasible approach of identifying potentially health relevant mixtures and background exposures.
The legislator has established a comprehensive legal framework to provide protection from potentially dangerous chemicals and mixtures. Currently, existing legislation provides extensive information on the respective substances within their respective scope of application. However, the corresponding assessments are mostly regulation-specific and deal predominantly with the evaluation of individual substances and defined mixtures as well as possible effects of foreseeable co-exposures within their respective legal scope or clearly defined areas of application only.The assessment of effects that may result from potential co-exposure, such as for example simultaneous use of substances subject to multiple areas of regulation or environmental background exposure, is more difficult and usually addressed at best retrospectively. However, for most scenarios such co-exposure will not necessarily result in increased toxicity to such an extent that it would not be sufficiently covered by the existing regulatory framework.
Yet, in the interest of continuously improving consumer health protection, there is a need to identify possible substance combinations and unpredictable co-exposures that are potentially relevant to health.The BfR now proposes for the first time a concept for the prospective identification and assessment of such combinations of chemicals. In a first step the concept requires the development of a comprehensive exposure and use matrixacross regulatory silos.This matrix can then be examined for possible instances of co-exposure. The substances and mixtures identified therein will subsequently be examined with regard to their toxicological properties and potential for effect-enhancement. The respective hazard ranking and assessment is performed on the basis of existing data, as well as on the basis of data generated with so-called New Approach Methods and suitable high-throughput bioassays.
By integrating the newly generated data with the verified classic toxicological information, it is possible to identify those substances and mixtures for which unexpected effects may occur and which are potentially relevant for human health.The proposed concept enables a research- and data-base didentification of health-relevant mixed substance exposures across regulatory silos. Put to practice the concept would thus help to evaluate existing protections levels as well as to identify potential additional regulatory needs.
More information:T. Tralau et al, A prospective whole-mixture approach to assess risk of the food and chemical exposome,Nature Food(2021).DOI: 10.1038/s43016-021-00316-
The project team continues to follow up research of the Hyväntoivonpuisto carbon sequestration park in Helsinki according to the principles outlined in the policy brief. Credit: Priit Tammeorg
How to design efficient demo areas for urban carbon sequestration? In the latest policy brief research groups from the University of Helsinki and Aalto University focus on the main principles of urban demonstration areas using biochars for carbon sequestration.
Furthermore, the policy brief provides lessons learnt from a co-creation process of one suchpark, Hyväntoivonpuisto, in Helsinki, Finland.
In order to achieve the goals of carbon neutrality within next 20 years, municipalities worldwide need to increasingly apply negative emission technologies. Long-term negative carbon emissions technologies, such as biochars, will be increasingly important in future as the biomass carbon is fixed there for hundreds to thousands of years. This results from the high amount of aromatic carbon forms in biochar occurring from heating the otherwise quickly-degradable biomass in oxygen-free conditions. The biomass, e.g. urban greenwaste chips, that is heated without oxygen in temperatures around 500 °C, will be much harder for the microbes to degrade than if the same biomass would be added to soil directly.
The joint research team led by Professor Mikko Jalas at the Aalto University with the AgriChar team, led by Adj. Professor Priit Tammeorg at the University of Helsinki found that the demonstration sites of urban carbon sinks in public parks must be safe, visible and scientifically sound for reliable and cost-effective verification of carbon sequestration.
"The policy brief shows also that different interests can be arbitrated and synergy that emerges from co-creation of urban carbon sink parks between stakeholders i.e. scientists, city officials, companies, and citizens, can result in demo areas with maximized potential for impact, dissemination and consideration of principles of scientific experimentation," says lead-author of the policy brief Priit Tammeorg from the AgriChar research group from the University of Helsinki.
Tammeorg continues: "Raising public awareness of the carbon sequestration is one of the key objectives of the urban carbon sink parks. The parks themselves, no matter how well planned, will have only a very limited capacity to absorb carbon—thus, it is highly important to inspire people to carry out their own actions elsewhere—in private gardens or summer cottages. We hope these guidelines will help cities worldwide to get inspired!"
The research was published in Frontiers in Environmental Science.
More information:Priit Tammeorg et al, Co-Designing Urban Carbon Sink Parks: Case Carbon Lane in Helsinki,Frontiers in Environmental Science(2021).DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2021.672468
Geoffrey Abers, the William and Katherine Snee Professor in Geological Sciences, deploys a temporary seismometer on Kodiak Island in August. Credit: Cornell University
When an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chignik, Alaska, on July 29, geophysicist Geoffrey Abers did the logical—if not simple—thing.
He raced to Alaska with a group of collaborators to record its aftershocks.
The data they collect could provide new insight into the mechanics of crustal faults and possibly help researchers understand and anticipate future earthquake clusters.
"This was the biggest earthquake in the U.S. since 1965," said Abers, the William and Katherine Snee Professor in Geological Sciences and chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the College of Engineering. "There are very few good recordings of earthquakes this large anywhere on the planet. So that's a big motivation for trying to understand the sequence as sort of an archetype. We know enough about the area and its past history that we can put it in context."
Because Alaska rests atop a subduction zone, where it is regularly jarred by shifting tectonic plates, the country is a wellspring of seismic activity, and Abers has been studying its earthquakes for three decades.
In 2017, he led the Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment (AACSE), a $4.5 million project that deployed 105 high-end seismometers along a 435-mile-long stretch of the Alaska peninsula's coast.
The July 29 quake had a whiff of déjà vu. It occurred in almost the exact same spot as the AACSE research.
"I thought if anybody's going to figure this out, it's us, because we know the logistics of it," he said.
Unfortunately, the AACSE seismometers had been collected in 2019 to harvest the data, which meant Abers and his collaborators needed to acquire new instrumentation more or less from scratch. On the plus side, they knew precisely where to put it all. They just needed to get there quickly.
"You're racing against time because every day there are fewer aftershocks on average. That happens less and less the longer you wait," he said.
Abers reconnected with his main AACSE collaborator, Jeff Freymueller, a geodesy specialist at Michigan State University, and researchers with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of Colorado, Boulder. The team received a $154,000 rapid grant from the National Science Foundation, which had funded the AACSE. For their equipment, they turned to the IRIS Program for the Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) instrument center, an NSF-supported user facility at New Mexico Tech.
"This all happened really fast. It's kind of a blur," Abers said. "Almost literally at the 11th hour, we were still assembling the team of people."
The researchers began arriving in Alaska on Aug. 8. Abers spent several days deploying five temporary seismometers on Kodiak Island. Each seismometer consists of a sensor, roughly the size of a large coffee mug, that is buried about two feet underground and connected by cable to a data logger, which converts electrical signals to digital bits and stores them on a disk. The units are powered by air-alkaline technology that keeps the seismographs running all year. The electronics and batteries are housed in sturdy aluminum boxes, specially designed to resist the prying paws of the numerous brown bears on the island.
Freymueller's group traveled further out on the Alaska Peninsula to install continuous GPS sites that will record post-seismic movements with precise timing, as well as additional seismometers.
The team also revived their old AACSE blog to document their efforts.
By Aug. 18, the researchers were returning home. They won't be able to analyze their data until they travel to Alaska in late spring to collect the instruments. Their data will be sent to the IRIS Data Management Center, where it will be publicly accessible for anyone interested.
"The Alaska peninsula section has been especially interesting," Abers said. "These plates are steadily converging. The stresses are building up. This is the place it's been the longest since the last big earthquake (circa 1938), so seems like the most likely for the next one."
Abers once thought of earthquake prediction as a "fool's errand," but he's become more optimistic that by understanding how stresses can spread to other segments, seismologists may be able to develop a mechanism for specific causal prediction.
While the team must wait until next year to reap the full rewards of their research, they did experience seismic activity in real time. At least some of them did.
"There was a 6.9 aftershock while we were up there," Abers said. "But it was the middle of the night, so I slept through it."
New birth of a mountain gorilla in DRCongo's Virunga park
Virunga National Park's new arrival.
DR Congo's famed Virunga National Park announced Friday the birth of a mountain gorilla in this tourist region threatened by armed groups
The birth of a new baby male occurred on the morning of August 22," the park's communication officer Olivier Mukisya told AFP.
The discovery was made by "a team of eco-guards" during a routine monitoring visit to the home of the gorillas in the Kibumba area of North Kivu in the east of the country, Mukisya explained.
The national park said that the new baby belonged to the Baraka family of gorillas which was 'currently composed of about 18 individuals".
The Baraka family records its first birth of the year and this last one brings the number to 13 since January 2021," from all the gorilla families in the region, said Mukisya.
Situated on DR Congo's borders with Rwanda and Uganda, Virunga covers around 7,800 square kilometres of the North Kivu province, of which Goma is the capital.
Inaugurated in 1925 it is the oldest nature reserve in Africa and a sanctuary for the rare mountain gorillas, which are also present in neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.
The total population of mountain gorillas in the region covering the three countries is estimated at 1,063, according to the last full count in 2018.
The gorillas Virunga retreat has also become a hideout for local and foreign armed groups that have operated in eastern DR Congo for around 25 years.
The eco-guards regularly clash with rebels and militias in the area.
Thousands rally to 'hug' Spain's dying Mar Menor lagoon
'Politicians you let the Mar Menor die' proclaims a banner on the beach.
Tens of thousands of people formed a human chain around Spain's crisis-hit Mar Menor lagoon on Saturday in a show of mourning after tonnes of dead fish washed ashore, organisers and officials said.
One of Europe's largest saltwater lagoons, the Mar Menor has long been a draw for tourists but is slowly dying as a result of agricultural pollution, with millions of fish and crustaceans dying over the past fortnight.
Images of dead fish have traumatised this southeastern coastal region, with locals and tourists turning out to join the mass mourning.
Footage from the scene showed huge lines of people, many in beachwear, holding hands along the waterfront on Alcazares beach, which stretches six kilometres and other part of the lagoon's 73-kilometre (45-mile) shoreline.
"It was an act of mourning for the death of the animals... we wanted people to somehow ask their forgiveness for the barbarity we've inflicted on them," Jesus Cutillas, one of the organisers told AFP.
"For days, we've witnessed the death of millions and millions of fish and seeing all that unnecessary death hurts.
"The aim was to express our regret for what has happened and show our determination that it never happens again."
Many people wore black, others held up banners reading: SOS Mar Menor.
Organisers estimated up to 70,000 people joined the protest.
15 tonnes of fish, algae
Experts say the fish suffocated due to a lack of oxygen caused by hundreds of tonnes of nitrates from fertilisers leaking into the waters, causing a phenomenon known as eutrophication which collapses aquatic ecosystems.
On Monday, regional officials said they had removed 4.5-5.0 tonnes of fish, but by Saturday that had risen threefold to 15 tonnes of fish and algae.
"The 15 tonnes of dead fish and biomass (removed from the shore) show that this is indeed an environmental catastrophe and emergency. We need immediate help for the ecosystem," tweeted Noelia Arroyo, mayor of the nearby town of Cartagena.
Pedro Garcia, director of regional conservation organisation ANSE, said this week that environmental groups feared the marine death toll was more than twice the figure given on Monday by the authorities.
"Within that 15-tonne figure, there will certainly be at least two or three tones of dead vegetation, but we have no way of knowing for sure," he told AFP on Saturday.
At the lagoon on Wednesday, Environment Minister Teresa Ribera accused the regional government of turning a blind eye to farming irregularities in the Campo de Cartagena, a vast area of intensive agriculture that has grown tenfold over the past 40 years.
Benin's rare swamp forest 'at risk of disappearing'
by Josué Mehouenou
The freshwater swamp forest of Hlanzoun is one of the last of its kind in Benin and is at risk of disappearing.
In the freshwater swamp forest of Hlanzoun in southern Benin, majestic trees hum with chirping birds and playful monkeys.
Home to once bustling flora and fauna, experts now warn that the fragile environment, one of the last of its kind in the West African country and accessible only by canoe, is at risk of disappearing.
The 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of forest, which takes its name from the river Hlan, is home to 241 plant and 160 animal species including the rare red-bellied monkey, the marsh mongoose and the sitatunga, a swamp-dwelling antelope.
Perched at the top of a gigantic tree squawks a hornbill—a big bird known for its long, down-curved and colourful bill, similar to toucans.
"Hornbills feed on insects and fruits. They like to follow monkeys around because they force insects to come out when they move around, making it easier for hornbills to catch," explains Vincent Romera, a French ornithologist and photographer.
With his binoculars, Romera admires a family of monkeys jumping from tree to tree, while keeping a clear distance.
"The animals here have become fearful," he says. He's considering using camera traps to try to photograph them, but also to count the forest's animal population.
The 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of forest, named after the river Hlan, is only accessible by canoe.
"The numbers are in freefall," he says.
Sometimes, the forest's noisy concert is interrupted by gun shots, he says, probably from poachers.
Logging
Communities living around the forest "need money, so those who can shoot go and kill animals," explains Roger Hounkanrin, a local tourist guide.
Despite steady economic growth in recent years, poverty is widespread in Benin, especially in rural areas, and 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line according to World Bank data.
On the side of the road that lines Hlanzoun forest, lizards, crocodiles and snakes killed by hunters are sold and bought. Monkeys, too, are sometimes sold for meat.
But even more than poaching, excessive logging threatens the forest.
Between 2005 and 2015, Benin's forest cover was slashed by more than 20 percent according to the World Bank, and the deforestation rate continues to be high at 2.2 percent annually.
Between 2005 and 2015, Benin's forest cover was slashed by more than 20 percent, according to the World Bank.
Trees are cut down for firewood, and the fermented sap of palm trees is used to make a local alcohol, sodabi.
The damaging practice of slash-and burn agriculture has also become more prevalent, warns Josea Dossou Bodjrenou, director of Nature Tropicale, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that works on environmental issues in Benin.
The destruction of the forest habitat reduces areas where animals can thrive, forcing them towards farms to find food and exposing them to poachers.
"This is a location that is at risk of disappearing," says local agricultural economist Judicael Alladatin.
"It's a poor area and we can't blame people for wanting to feed themselves," Alladatin says, urging authorities "to create conditions for alternative sources of income."
The government does not officially recognise Hlanzoun forest despite the lobbying efforts of several NGOs and scientific papers on the forest since 2000.
The government does not officially recognise Hlanzoun despite lobbying efforts.
But it has started to recognise the importance of safeguarding forests in general, according to the World Bank.
In Hlanzoun, the state "must act quickly" said Bodjrenou, and "support forest communities so that they can continue to make profit... but in a different way" by developing agriculture, trade and sustainable tourism.
A smoking clearing after a forest fire in Brazil. Deforestation and wildfires in the Amazon basin create feedback loops that harm the environment as well as human health. Credit: Felipe Werneck/Ibama, CC BY 2.0
Wildfires are increasingly common, and their smoky emissions can wreak havoc on human health. In South America, fires may cause nearly 17,000 otherwise avoidable deaths each year. Fire frequency in the Amazon basin has been linked to climate—drier conditions result in more fires—but direct human action, such as deforestation, drives up fire frequency as well.
Deforestation can cause wildfires that spread out of control because of humans burning vegetation. Smoke from these fires also interacts with clouds and the Sun to reduce further rainfall, which creates dry, fire-prone conditions. Perhaps most subtly, deforestation breaks up the massive rain forest ecosystem, disrupting the forest's effect on climate and creating a drier environment with greater fire risk.
The number of fires—and the amount of fire-generated air pollution—in the Brazilian Legal Amazon has closely shadowed the deforestation rate over the past 2 decades. In the early 2000s, high deforestation rates led to frequent fires and accompanying air pollution. Over time, the Brazilian government enacted policies to protect large sections of the rain forest, and the deforestation rate dropped. In the past decade or so, however, the rate of deforestation has been slowly climbing again, bringing with it increased fire and health risks.
In a new study, Butt et al. model the year 2019 under different deforestation scenarios to understand the link between these events in the rain forest and public health.
The researchers found that if 2019 had matched the year in the last two decades with the least deforestation, regional air pollution would have been substantially lower that year, resulting in 3,400 fewer premature deaths across South America. If, on the other hand, deforestation rates in 2019 had matched those of the early 2000s, before government regulations brought the rates down, the number of fires would have increased by 130%, and the number of deaths would have more than doubled to 7,900.
More information:Edward W. Butt et al, Large Air Quality and Public Health Impacts due to Amazonian Deforestation Fires in 2019,GeoHealth(2021).DOI: 10.1029/2021GH000429
The sketch map of study site and experimental design. C: control treatment plot; L: light harvest intensity treatment plot; M: medium harvest intensity treatment plot; H: high harvest intensity treatment plot; S: severe harvest intensity treatment plot. Credit: DOI: 10.1186/s40663-021-00332-w
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are very important for local forest dwellers to increase their income. The growing demand for NTFPs resources with high economic value may lead to disorderly utilization and over-exploitation
Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently revealed how harvest intensity affects the sustainable utilization of NTFPs by experimentally designing different harvest intensity levels to verify which harvest intensity is optimum for sustainable harvesting of NTFPs in a montane region of Northeast China.
They found that harvest activities could increase the yield of both two important NTFPs species (Acanthopanax senticosus and Aralia elata). Light harvest intensity (harvest 25% leaves) was favorable for the sustainable harvesting of Acanthopanax senticosus, and high harvest intensity (harvest all terminal buds) was beneficial to sustainable harvesting of Aralia elata.
These results highlight the role of harvest intensity in the sustainable utilization of NTFPs, and provide practical guidance and theoretical basis for forest managers to harvest and manage NTFPs resources.
Relevant results have been published in Forest Ecosystems, titled "Effects of harvest intensity on the marketable organ yield, growth and reproduction of non-timber forest products (NTFPs): implication for conservation and sustainable utilization of NTFPs."Forest harvesting in Europe threatens climate goals: study
More information:Ting Zhang et al, Effects of harvest intensity on the marketable organ yield, growth and reproduction of non-timber forest products (NTFPs): implication for conservation and sustainable utilization of NTFPs,Forest Ecosystems(2021).DOI: 10.1186/s40663-021-00332-w
It takes more than athletic talent to play varsity sports in college, at least for most young people, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that U.S.high-schoolathletes were much more likely to play sports in college if they came from higher-income families with well-educated parents and attended wealthier schools.
About 14% of 10th grade students whose families were in the top 20% in terms of socioeconomic status played sports in college—compared to fewer than 4% of those in the bottom 20% of socioeconomic status.
Among those who became 12th grade athletes in high school, a marked difference still remained: 23% of the most privileged students played college sports compared to 9% of the least privileged students.
The results contradict the traditional story of how sports often help underprivileged kids succeed in American society, said James Tompsett, co-author of the study and graduate student in sociology at The Ohio State University.
"The idea of sports as a true meritocracy where the best athletes on the field will succeed is largely a myth," Tompsett said.
"A privileged background helps students succeed in sports just as it does in other parts of life."
Tompsett conducted the study with Chris Knoester, associate professor of sociology at Ohio State. Their research was published Aug. 27, 2021 in the Sociology of Sport Journal.
Most sports fans can rattle off the names of star professional athletes who have had great success despite coming from impoverished backgrounds, Knoester said.
"These are heartwarming stories, but they are not representative of the vast majority of college athletes, nor are they indicative of who is able to make it to the highest levels of sports, typically," he said.
This is the first study to comprehensively look at the factors, from family situations to high school experiences to school conditions, that impact the likelihood of individual high-school students becoming college athletes.
Researchers used data on 7,810 students, just over half of whom reported playing sports in 10th grade in 2002. The ELS conducted follow-up surveys in 2004, 2006 and 2012. In the 2006 survey, participants were asked whether they were participating in college varsity athletics.
The survey also collected information on each student's family socioeconomic status in 10th grade, which was based on family income and parents' education and occupations. Information on the schools the participants attended was also available.
Overall, about 8% of the students indicated that they played varsity sports in college when they were surveyed in 2006.
The fact that students from the most privileged backgrounds were more than three times as likely to be college athletes as those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds is no surprise, the researchers said. It is in line with previous research that found poorer youths don't have access to the same athletic and academic resources as their more fortunate peers.
"Students whose families can afford private training, who can enroll in private club sports, have a big advantage over students whose families can't provide that for their children," Tompsett said.
And students from wealthier families have academic advantages that make them more likely to be able to attend college, including greater expectations that they will continue their education.
Findings showed that students attending financially poorer schools were also less likely to play college sports, independent of their family's situation.
One reason is that more wealthy schools provide better academic preparation, Knoester said. But they also have better athletic facilities and tend to offer more opportunities and sports, such as lacrosse, that aren't available at other schools.
"Students from wealthier families, on average, are given more academic and athletic resources, have higher expectations of going to college, are more likely to be expected to go to college by others, and are situated in a more optimal school environment, all of which make it more likely they will go on to play sports in college," Knoester said.
All of this doesn't mean that athletic ability and merit in high school don't matter, he said. Results showed clearly that athletic merit was a strong predictor of participating in collegiate sports.
"But even at equal levels of athletic merit, those students from a more advantaged background are more likely to become college athletes," Knoester said. "Socioeconomic status matters."
Sports are often viewed as a particularly important way for Black people and other minorities to achieve success, he noted.
But this study showed that, even for Black students, those who come from more advantaged backgrounds were more likely to play sports in college.
Most of the examples of Black athletes rising from poverty to become sports stars come from football and basketball, sports which only a small proportion of all college athletes play. In addition, most college athletes compete outside of the top division that attracts most of the attention of the media and sports fans, Knoester said.
"There will be individual cases of athletes rising from poverty to become successful sports stars, but they are a tiny minority," he said.
"Wealth and privilege are important to succeeding in sports just as they are in other parts of society."
More information:James Tompsett et al, The Making of a College Athlete: High School Experiences, Socioeconomic Advantages, and the Likelihood of Playing College Sports,Sociology of Sport Journal(2021).DOI: 10.1123/ssj.2020-0142
