In Brazilian Amazon, savannization and climate change will expose 12 million to lethal heat stress

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FIOCRUZ PIAUÍ

São José dos Campos (1 October 2021) -- Large-scale deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, combined with climate change, will increase the number of people in northern Brazil who are exposed to extreme heat--with potentially deadly results and devastating economic impacts, according to a groundbreaking study released today by Brazilian researchers in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Extreme heat levels, which are physiologically intolerable to the human body, will profoundly affect regions where highly vulnerable populations, including Indigenous Peoples, reside. This is the first study to quantify the combined impacts of rampant forest loss—which would eventually transform the Amazon into a savanna--and climate change on human health and productivity.

According to the study, Deforestation and climate change project increased risk of heat stress in the Brazilian Amazon, there is a deforestation threshold in the Amazon, beyond which human survival is threatened. Crossing this threshold causes an “extreme health effect,” which by 2100 could expose approximately 12 million people living in the northern states of Pará and Amazonas in Brazil to extreme risk of heat stress.

“Extreme heat conditions induced by deforestation may have significant and long-lasting adverse effects on human health. If deforestation continues at its current rate, the effects for our civilization will be dramatic,” said report co-author Paulo Nobre, senior researcher at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). “In addition to impacts on human health and survival, these findings have serious economic implications far beyond crop damage.” Paulo Nobre wrote the report with Beatriz Alves de Oliveira, Marcus Bottino, and Carlos Nobre.

High temperatures and humidity weaken the body’s cooling capabilities, resulting in increased body temperature. Sustained exposure to such conditions results in dehydration and exhaustion, and, in more severe cases, tension and collapse of vital functions, which can lead to death. In addition, heat stress affects mood and mental illness, and reduces physical and psychological performance. 

Scientists already have a well-established understanding of how tropical deforestation contributes to global climate change through emitting carbon and reducing the ability of the world’s forests to take more carbon out of the atmosphere. A new body of research is emerging, showing how tropical deforestation has climate impacts beyond carbon: Deforestation immediately increases extreme heat locally and decreases regional and local rainfall.

In Brazil, this phenomenon is already apparent. Recent research has shown the combined effects of deforestation and climate change are being felt in the Amazon region, with the most extreme heat increases reported in large, deforested areas between 2003 and 2018.  The agriculture industry is already feeling the impacts of this extreme heat and low rainfall.

The new study released today is the first to closely examine how increases in extreme heat will impact people. The study researchers found that the combination of deforestation and global warming could increase heat risks outdoor workers, who are already exposed to increased temperatures.

Added to that, the study found that human activities responsible for large-scale forest loss in the Amazon, which include forest fires and the expansion of agricultural and mining lead to unplanned urbanization, lack of basic sanitary infrastructure, and more frequent informal work—all of which further impact vulnerable people

When all these factors are combined, deforestation and its impacts lead to increased inequality and vulnerability, which interact with climate change to increase the urgent need for health and social protection services in the Brazilian Amazon region.

The study shows that effects play out regionally, and the most severe direct impacts likely will take place in northern Brazil. Of Brazil’s 5,565 municipalities, 16% of them (equivalent to 30 million inhabitants) might be impacted by thermal stress due to the savannization of the Amazon. Of the impacted population, 42% reside in municipalities in Brazil’s northern region, which includes areas with high social vulnerability.

In this region, approximately 12 million people could be exposed to extreme risk of heat stress by 2100. The authors claim that, with the savannization of the Amazon and limited adaptation capabilities in northern Brazil, residents could face precarious survival conditions, intensifying such effects as mass migration.

Additionally, increased exposure to thermal stress could reduce labor productivity in several areas of the economy, if workers are exposed to fatal heat conditions. In Brazil, outdoor workers are already exposed to heat stress, and projections indicate increasingly high-risk exposure over the next decades.

By 2030, a projected 1.5 °C increase in global average temperatures could reduce working hours in Brazil by the equivalent of 850,000 full-time jobs, especially in the agricultural and construction sectors. In agriculture, high risk associated with intense work and heat overload has already been observed among sugarcane cutters.

The researchers emphasize the urgent need for coordinated measures to avoid harmful effects on vulnerable populations. “The local effects of land use changes are directly linked to forest sustainability policies and strategies, but changes are within society’s reach. For example, the health sector could be an important source of policy solutions to mitigate risk and vulnerability,” argues Beatriz Oliveira, researcher at the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz).

The researchers’ estimates did not consider population growth or changes in demographic structure or life expectancy. Thus, the results shown in the study reflect the isolated effects of climate change and savannization, and maybe interpreted to represent the effects observed if the current population were exposed to projected heat stress distributions.

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JOURNAL

Communications Earth & Environment

ARTICLE TITLE

Deforestation and climate change are projected to increase heat stress risk in the Brazilian Amazon

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Oct-2021

Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere teaches old oaks new tricks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM RESEARCHER ANNA GARDNER TAKING CO2 MEASUREMENTS IN THE FOREST CANOPY view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Mature oak trees will increase their rate of photosynthesis by up to a third in response to the raised CO2 levels expected to be the world average by about 2050, new research shows.

The results, published in Tree Physiology, are the first to emerge from a giant outdoor experiment, led by the University of Birmingham in which an old oak forest is bathed in elevated levels of CO2. Over the first three years of a ten-year project, the 175-year-old oaks clearly responded to the CO2 by consistently increasing their rate of photosynthesis.

Researchers are now measuring leaves, wood, roots, and soil to find out where the extra carbon captured ends up and for how long it stays locked up in the forest.

The increase in photosynthesis was greatest in strong sunlight. The overall balance of key nutrient elements carbon and nitrogen did not change in the leaves. Keeping the carbon to nitrogen ratio constant suggests that the old trees have found ways of redirecting their elements, or found ways of bringing more nitrogen in from the soil to balance the carbon they are gaining from the air.

The research was carried out at the Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility of the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) in close collaboration with colleagues from Western Sydney University who run a very similar experiment in old eucalyptus forest (EucFACE). BIFoR FACE and EucFACE are the world’s two largest experiments investigating the effect of global change on nature.

Birmingham researcher Anna Gardner, who carried out the measurements, said “I’m really excited to contribute the first published science results to BIFoR FACE, an experiment of global importance. It was hard work conducting measurements at the top of a 25 m oak day after day, but it was the only way to be sure how much extra the trees were photosynthesising.”

Professor David Ellsworth, EucFACE lead scientist, said “Previous work at EucFACE measured photosynthesis increased by up to a fifth in increased carbon dioxide. So, we now know how old forest responds in the warm-temperate climate that we have here in Sydney, and the mild temperate climate of the northern middle latitudes where Birmingham sits. At EucFACE we found no additional growth in higher CO2, and it remains to be seen if that will be the case for BIFOR as well.”

Professor Rob MacKenzie, founding Director of BIFoR, said “It’s a delight to see the first piece of the carbon jigsaw for BIFoR FACE fall into place. We are sure now that the old trees are responding to future carbon dioxide levels. How the entire forest ecosystem responds is a much bigger question requiring many more detailed investigations. We are now pushing ahead with those investigations.”

CAPTION

Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) Facility in Staffordshire, UK

CREDIT

University of Birmingham

JOURNAL

Tree Physiology

DOI

10.1093/treephys/tpab090 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Is photosynthetic enhancement sustained through three years of elevated CO2 exposure in 175-year old Quercus robur?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Oct-2021

The launch of the first open-source smartphone application to monitor drying events in river networks

Business Announcement

INRAE - NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT

 

IMAGE: INTERMITTENT ALBARINE RIVER IN FRANCE view more 

CREDIT: INRAE - B.LAUNAY

Citizens can play a major role in helping scientists to understand drying river networks, by reporting drying events in rivers and streams. To do so, DRYvER has created the DRYRivERS app, which citizens can use to map drying events. The collected data will improve scientific predictions of the future impacts of climate change in these ecosystems. Moreover, DRYRivERS will raise awareness of the importance of drying events in river networks.

Every smartphone user who enjoys nature and the outdoors can contribute by documenting wet and dry conditions in streams and rivers using the DRYRivERS app, which is available on Google Play and App Store, links available directly from the project website (http://www.dryver.eu/citizen-science). The app is open-source and easy to use. All you need to do is add (1) the location of the river site; (2) the in-channel conditions i.e., whether the channel contains flowing water, disconnected standing pools or is dry; and (3) a photo of the site. You can use your phone’s GPS to determine your location, or you can find existing spots on the map. The app caches all necessary data when it is running with Wi-Fi or mobile internet, so do not worry if you have no network coverage while finding a dry stream. After you record a new spot, you can simply save it and upload the information later once a network connection is again available.

All the observations made by citizens with the DRYRivERS app will be openly accessible and visualized on DRYvER website (https://www.dryver.eu/app).  

Using DRYRivERS will generate the first network of real-time observations of drying events across rivers and streams. Ultimately, a European atlas of drying river networks will be created, including all observations from DRYRivERS, as well as other sources. In turn, this information will inform the development of models that anticipate the effects of climate change on streams and rivers.

To upload freely the DRYrivERS app:

• On Google Play and AppStore
• Or on the website of the project: www.dryver.eu/citizen-science

More information on the video (English subtitles) : https://youtu.be/TZL4Rx_PxrY

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement n°869226

Erosion and river flow studied in the Vyatka river basin

A joint Russian-Norwegian paper appeared in Water.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KAZAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: CHANGES IN WATER DISCHARGE (WD) AND SUSPENDED SEDIMENT LOAD (SSL) OF THE VYATKA RIVER FROM 1940 TO 2018 (ACCORDING TO [21]). WDAV—AVERAGE ANNUAL WD (1), WDMAX—MAXIMUM AVERAGE MONTHLY WD (2, MOSTLY MAY; IN SOME YEARS, APRIL); SSLAV—AVERAGE ANNUAL SSL (3), SSLMAX—MAXIMUM AVERAGE MONTHLY SSL (4, MAY OR APRIL); ∆—RELATIVE CHANGE; R2—THE COEFFICIENT OF DETERMINATION OF A FOURTH-DEGREE POLYNOMIAL TREND (THE DASHED LINE). view more 

CREDIT: KAZAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

The densely populated European part of Russia has gone through significant changes in recent decades due to economic and political transitions in the country. With regards to agriculture and industry, it mostly comprised serious declines in production in the 1990s and a steady rise afterwards. So the researchers were interested in the effect which all this has had on river flow and erosion in the area.

“This pertains mostly to soil and gully erosion as the primary processes of mechanical denudation of the cultivated interfluve areas of the region. We studied the southern taiga region in the Vyatka river basin, which accounts for about 130 thousand square kilometers,” says co-author, Research Associate Artyom Gusarov.

As expected, the team found that soil and gully erosion has decreased almost twofold in the last decades, mostly because of reduced tillage and animal husbandry. In other results, the authors posit that climate change has not been a serious contributor to erosion changes in this area.

Artyom Gusarov hopes that further work can be done in the north of the East European Plain and the Ural Mountains.

Such statistics can have a vital impact in many areas, including agriculture planning, industrial development, residential construction, protection of water bodies, river transportation, and others.

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JOURNAL

Water

DOI

10.3390/w13182567 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Contemporary Trends in River Flow, Suspended Sediment Load, and Soil/Gully Erosion in the South of the Boreal Forest Zone of European Russia: The Vyatka River Basin

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Oct-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

WVU researchers hope to open an ocean of opportunities for the underserved

Grant and Award Announcement

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THIS IS A VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN FROM THE PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY. RESEARCHERS AT WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, ROBERT BURNS AND ROSS ANDREW, ARE LEADING A PROJECT AIMED AT CONNECTING UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS WITH AQUATIC RESOURCES. view more 

CREDIT: WVU PHOTO/APRIL KAULL

A beach vacation, shipwreck viewing experience or fishing excursion in the deep blue waters may seem like a relatively simple trip to make. But not all segments of the population have that luxury.

Two West Virginia University researchers, supported by a $686,462 National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator grant, want to change that narrative by leading a project that builds awareness and connection to aquatic resources for underserved populations.

“There is this blue economy that basically doesn't allow great access for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) people,” said Robert Burns, principal investigator and director of the WVU Division of Forestry and Natural Resources. “What we know from research is that people that look like me (white male) are often the ones using the National Marine Sanctuary system.”

Burns is joined on the project by Ross Andrew, a research assistant professor at the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design who specializes in human dimensions of aquatic resources, along with Danielle Schwarzmann and Mitchell Tartt, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

Aligned to the NSF Convergence Accelerator 2021 cohort, the Networked Blue Economy convergent research track, the overarching goal is to create better connections with underserved populations to the blue economy, which the World Bank defines as the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems.

“When we think about the blue economy, we think of shipping, transportation, seafood production or going on vacation,” Andrew said. “Or it could be working in an area that is supported by tourism to go whale watching.

“But there’s also a lot of cultural connections.”

CAPTION

A view overlooking beach houses and the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, Maryland.

CREDIT

WVU Photo/Jake Stump

Andrew noted the Gullah Geechee people of the southeastern coastal areas of the U.S.

“They are the descendants of people brought over here for slavery,” Andrew said. “They stayed in the area for generations and have a sort of different connection to the ocean and coastal resources that may not be captured in a standard assessment of the blue economy.”

Burns and Andrew hope to harness the power of massive datasets collected by agencies such as the NOAA to shed light on how to increase engagement with underserved communities. Researchers from Clemson University and the University of Florida will also collaborate with the group.

Burns has previously conducted research on the Florida Keys, where local weather and ocean conditions were primary drivers of visitation motivation and frequency. But the respondents within those samples were predominantly white with moderate- to high-income levels.

“If you go to Fort Lauderdale, you’ll see African-American and Hispanic people recreating on boats and on the shore,” Burns said. “But as soon as you go into the Florida Keys, the hotel and food costs triple, so people with lower incomes just don’t go there. It’s a lot like national parks. It’s easy for me because I have the time and money to go to Yosemite. But someone just trying to make ends meet can’t get there.”

Burns said the team will focus on increasing Hispanic engagement with the National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys, as well as targeting African-American recreation use in the Sanctuaries of the Great Lakes, with their proximity to Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee.

After collecting and analyzing data, the team will explore ways to package it in a way that encourages these traditionally underserved populations to utilize the blue economy, Andrew said. 

This could include:

• a web-based platform that aggregates data available to the public.
• interactive educational tools that use history and storytelling to connect cultures to water and increase commitment to conservation and blue economy linkages and
• workshops that build capacity and agency among underserved groups to extract. benefits from the blue economy.

“As part of the School of Natural Resources, I think we’ll have a bigger impact on society and the world as we think about things through the lens of people and how they can connect to resources better,” Andrew said. “That’s what this project is ultimately going to do. We’re really trying to put in the effort to make natural resources not only more accessible but also create an attachment for people.” 

Understanding and supporting these critical aspects of healthy aquatic resources and the blue economy is also a priority for the mission of ONMS.

“Cooperation between academia and government is more critical than ever for protection of America’s treasures to ensure the enjoyment and benefit from such resources within the blue economy for America’s diverse communities now and into the future,” said Mitchell Tartt, Chief of the ONMS Science and Heritage Division. 

Maryland scientists crack blue crab’s genetic code

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science publishes the first full reference genome for the blue crab

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR SOOK CHUNG, AN EXPERT IN CRAB BIOLOGY, LED THE PROJECT TO SEQUENCE THE BLUE CRAB AT THE INSTITUTE OF MARINE AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY IN BALTIMORE. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE/CHERYL NEMAZIE

BALTIMORE, MD (October 4, 2021)— Scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science have sequenced the genome of the blue crab. The best way to understand an organism is to understand its genetic makeup, also known as its genome. Once the code is understood, it reveals many secrets of how the organism works. Researchers plan to investigate the genetics of growth and reproduction, and the genome will be made publicly available so that scientists anywhere can study different aspects of the blue crab.

 

“What makes crabs successful is located in the chromosomes,” said University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Professor Sook Chung, an expert in crab biology who led the project at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore. “Knowing the full genome, we are several steps closer to identifying the genes responsible for growth, reproduction, and susceptibility to disease.”

 

Researchers determined that the blue crab had between 40 and 50 chromosomes, which is nearly double the amount found in humans. However, these chromosomes were very short, resulting in a genome that is approximately one third the length of the human genome, in terms of bases. Despite its relatively diminutive size, the blue crab genome is rich in gene diversity, containing approximately 24,000 genes, slightly more than the amount identified in humans.

 

Understanding how likely crabs are to reproduce successfully could aid in fisheries policies in places like Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, helping to maintain a healthy ecosystem and economy. Breeding particularly fertile females could help enable the production of blue crabs in aquaculture. The genome could also potentially be used for food source tracking to determine if the lump crab meat in the market came from Venezuela or Maryland’s coastal bays.

 

The genome is the DNA sequence of the chromosomes that give the instructions for how an organism grows and develops. Once the code is understood, it reveals many secrets of how the organism works. Once you understand the “blueprint” of an organism, you can understand what genetic traits make some crabs particularly successful at reproducing or others more adapted to changing water temperatures fueled by climate change.

 

Since the genome within a species varies by individual, any genome mapping project begins with choosing the best possible sample organism. In late October 2018, Chung went out on the Chesapeake Bay on a crabber’s boat and collected dozens of young female blue crabs to breed in the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology’s Aquaculture Research Center (ARC). One female grew to adulthood, mated, and successfully produced offspring, proving she had good genes for reproducing. Scientists isolated DNA from this crab’s daughter for sequencing.

 

The sequence of the genetic code determines how an organism will grow and develop. When the genetic code is sequenced, it is initially jumbled up from its proper order. The process of correctly ordering the code, or “assembly,” required a special computer running night and day for over six months.

 

“Imagine you take several volumes of an encyclopedia and you have a hundred copies of each volume. You put them all through a paper shredder and then you have to use that to reconstruct the original volumes of the encyclopedia,” said Associate Research Professor Tsvetan Bachvaroff, who was responsible for assembling the blue crab genome. “Once the encyclopedia, or genome, is back in the correct order, you can begin to identify genes and use it like a reference book, looking up genes to answer questions.”

 

The team of researchers led by Professor Sook Chung, a comparative molecular endocrinologist, included bioinformaticist and Associate Research Professor Tsvetan Bachvaroff; population geneticist and Associate Professor Louis Plough, and Associate Research Scientist Ryan McDonald, completed the project in four years.

 

“Sequencing an entire genome in just four years with four scientists was a major scientific feat,” said Russell Hill, executive director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology. “The genome will be made publicly available so that scientists anywhere can use it, and it will fuel decades of research on the blue crab and other crustaceans.”

 

The sequencing of the blue crab genome was funded by a novel approach, with funding provided by a small group of philanthropic Marylanders who are passionate about science, the Chesapeake Bay, and the blue crab. The sequencing was made possible by the support of the following generous donors: The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation, Mike and Trish Davis, Don and Cathy MacMurray, James J. Albrecht, Bertram and Debbie Winchester, Arnold and Alison Richman, Maryland Sea Grant, Arthur Jib Edwards, J. Sook Chung, Richard L. Franyo, Edward St. John Foundation, Tom and Nancy Reynolds, James E. Connell, Russell T. Hill, Bill and Chris Hufnell, David Balcom, J. Mitchell Neitzey, James and Jenny Corckran, Richard and Maureen Roden, and Nicholas L. Hammond.

 

The paper, "Chromosome-level Genome Assembly of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus," was published in G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics by University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science scientists Tsvetan Bachvaroff, Ryan McDonald, Louis Plough, and J. Sook Chung.

 

Located in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology is a strategic alliance involving scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the University of Maryland Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Scientists are engaged in cutting-edge research in microbiology, molecular biology and biotechnology, using marine organisms to develop new drug therapies, alternative energy and innovations to improve public health. IMET contributes to sustainable marine aquaculture and fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay and marine ecosystems and fosters early-stage companies and industry partnerships, contributing to economic development in Maryland.

 

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) is a leading research and educational institution working to understand and manage the world’s resources. From a network of laboratories spanning from the Allegheny Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, UMCES scientists provide sound advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment and prepare future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.

 

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JOURNAL

G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animal tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

Chromosome-level Genome Assembly of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2021

The case of the aquarium's disappearing medicine

Hungry microbes found responsible for stealing from Shedd Aquarium’s animals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: VISITORS ENJOY AN EXHIBIT AT CHICAGO'S SHEDD AQUARIUM. view more 

CREDIT: SHEDD AQUARIUM/BRENNA HERNANDEZ

For months, veterinarians put medicine into the animals’ quarantine habitats at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, ensuring that animals entering the building did not bring dangerous pests or pathogens with them. And for months, the medicine consistently kept disappearing. Where was it going? Who was taking it? And what was their motive?

To help solve this classic whodunnit mystery, researchers at Shedd Aquarium partnered with Northwestern University microbiologists to collect clues, follow leads and ultimately track down the culprit.

After conducting microbial and chemical analyses on samples from the saltwater aquarium systems, the team found it was not just one culprit but many: A family of microbes, hungry for nitrogen.

“Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorous are basic necessities that everything needs in order to live,” said Northwestern’s Erica M. Hartmann, who led the study. “In this case, it looks like the microbes were using the medicine as a source of nitrogen. When we examined how the medicine was degraded, we found that the piece of the molecule containing the nitrogen was gone. It would be the equivalent to eating only the pickles out of a cheeseburger and leaving the rest behind.”

The research was published online Saturday (Oct. 2) in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

An expert on indoor microbiology and chemistry, Hartmann is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering.

Safety first

When any new animal enters Shedd Aquarium, it first must undergo a quarantine process before entering its permanent residence. This allows the aquarium’s veterinarians to observe the animal for potentially contagious diseases or parasites without risking harm to other animals at the facility. 

“Shedd Aquarium’s quarantine habitats behind-the-scenes are a first stop for animals entering the building—allowing us to safely welcome them in a way that ensures outside pathogens are not introduced to the animals that already call Shedd home,” said Dr. Bill Van Bonn, vice president of animal health at Shedd Aquarium and a co-author of the study. “We are grateful to have partnered with Northwestern University to scientifically explore what’s happening in our quarantine habitats microbially to inform how we manage them and continue to provide optimal welfare for the animals in our care.”

Anti-parasitic drug was ‘mysteriously vanishing’

During this quarantine process, all animals receive chloroquine phosphate, a common anti-parasitic medicine. Veterinarians proactively add it directly to the water as a pharmaceutical bath to treat a variety of illnesses. After adding chloroquine to water, aquarists then measure the medicine’s concentration. This is when they realized something was off.

“They need to maintain a certain concentration in the habitats to treat the animals effectively,” Hartmann said. “But they noticed the chloroquine was mysteriously vanishing. They would add the correct amount, then measure it and the concentration would be much lower than expected — to the point where it wouldn’t work anymore.”

Aquarists from Shedd Aquarium collected water samples and swab samples and sent them to Hartmann’s laboratory. Swab samples were collected from the sides of the habitats as well as from the pipes going in and out of them. In total, the team found about 754 different microbes.

“There are microbes in the water, obviously, but there also are microbes that stick to the sides of surfaces,” Hartmann said. “If you have ever had an aquarium at home, you probably noticed grime growing on the sides. People sometimes add snails or algae-eating fish to help clean the sides. So, we wanted to study whatever was in the water and whatever was stuck to the sides of the surfaces.”

Studying ‘leftovers’ from the meal

By studying these samples, the Northwestern and Shedd Aquarium teams first determined that microbes caused the medicine to disappear and then localized the responsible microbes. Hartmann’s team cultured the collected microbes and then provided chloroquine as the only source of carbon. When that experiment’s results were inconclusive, the team performed sensitive analytical chemistry to study the degraded chloroquine.

“If the chloroquine was being eaten, we were essentially looking at the leftovers,” Hartmann said. “That’s when we realized that nitrogen was the key driver.”

The unusual suspects

Out of the 754 microbes collected, the researchers narrowed it down to at least 21 different guilty suspects — belonging to the phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi and Proteobacteria — living inside the habitats’ outlet pipes. Some of the microbes even appear to be brand new and never before studied.

“We couldn’t nail down a single culprit, but we could isolate the specific location,” Hartmann said. “Our findings determined that just flushing the quarantine habitats with new water would not be enough to fix the problem because the responsible microbes were clinging to the sides of the pipes.”

Hartmann said the pipes might need to be scrubbed or replaced in order to prevent chloroquine from disappearing in the future. Another potential solution might be to regularly switch between freshwater and saltwater because microbes are typically sensitive to one or the other.

“Everyone at Shedd Aquarium is obviously very committed to the health and wellbeing of the animals they house as well as really excited about research,” Hartmann said. “It was super cool to work with them because we were able to help the animals and possibly discovered some new organisms.”

The study, “Towards understanding microbial degradation of chloroquine in large saltwater systems,” was supported by the Searle Leadership Fund and the Helen V. Brach Foundation.

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DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150532 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Towards understanding microbial degradation of chloroquine in large saltwater systems

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Oct-2021

Water service fees can help pay for ecosystem preservation in Mexico

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: THIS SHADE-GROWN COFFEE FARM IN VERACRUZ COULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR PHS (PAYMENTS FOR HYDROLOGICAL SERVICES) FUNDS IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FARMER TO KEEP TREES ON THE LAND, ACCORDING TO UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS RESEARCH. view more 

CREDIT: SHADI ATALLAH, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

URBANA, Ill – The world’s ecosystems quietly keep human beings alive, and we largely do not notice their impacts until they are gone. Take forests, for example, whose services are valued at $4.7 trillion each year. Trees capture and filter water running through the landscape, which maintains aquatic habitat and improves water supplies for drinking and recreation.

Deforestation has diminished ecosystem services to the detriment of many communities, but policies like payments for hydrological services (PHS) can provide funds for preservation efforts. A new study from the University of Illinois explores ways to make these programs more effective, financially sustainable, and adapted to domestic user preferences.

The study focuses on the conservation of forestland to provide hydrological services in Veracruz, one of the most intensely deforested states in Mexico. The region struggles with both water quality and water regulation issues.

“PHS programs in Veracruz had many landowners sign contracts agreeing not to deforest their land, but there were always funding issues. One city had a fee in its water bill contributing to that fund but it was minuscule and not based on an economic study with households; another city had a voluntary fee,” explains Shadi Atallah, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and the Center for the Economics of Sustainability (CEOS) at Illinois, and co-author on the paper.

From 1993 to 2000, a combined 8.2 million ha (20.2 million acres) of forests were cleared to make way for agricultural fields and pastures in Mexico. Typically, upstream landowners bear the costs of conserving forest hydrological services, while the benefits go to the downstream water users. In 2001, the Mexican government introduced PHS programs, financed by residential water user fees, to support federal payments to private and communal farmers for forestland conservation.

Atallah and co-authors Ian McGinnis, FTI Consulting, and Ju-Chin Huang, University of New Hampshire, estimate how much residents of two Veracruz cities, Coatepec and Xalapa, are willing to pay for the outcomes of the PHS. They also evaluate households’ preferences for how the PHS is managed and the type of land that is eligible for the payments.  

“We found consumers have a significant willingness to pay for the outcomes of the PHS program, including improved water quality and regulated water quantity that leads to fewer floods and droughts,” Atallah explains.

“We also found people are willing to pay more for an NGO (non-governmental organization) to co-administer the program with the local government, and they want to include shade-grown coffee lands, not just forests.”

These results have the potential to vastly improve conservation efforts and enhance the long-term financial sustainability of PHS.

For example, expanding land eligibility to shade-grown coffee can increase the financial base of a PHS program and potentially incentivize coffee farmers to slow or avoid the transition of land from shade-grown coffee to intensive farming.

“This would preserve hydrological and other ecosystem services such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration,” Atallah says.  

Determining consumer preferences for PHS characteristics and their willingness to pay is an important step toward establishing new PHS programs and improving existing ones so they are financially sustainable in the long run.

“While we knew households want PHS programs to increase water quantity and regulation (that is, less drought and floods), it turns out they also care about who delivers the program and who gets the payments,” Atallah states.

The researchers say local governments could enhance their PHS programs by evaluating the preferences of their residents in program design and administration. They can use such evaluations to justify changing payment structures, expand eligible types of land, and determine how a PHS is managed for the benefit of the region.

Specifically, the two cities in the study can use the results to redesign their PHS programs. For instance, Coatepec can increase its land eligibility from forest only to shade-grown coffee farms, which can prevent or delay the conversion of these farms to intensive agriculture or pasture, therefore preventing detrimental impacts on hydrological services. Both cities can use the willingness-to-pay estimates in this study to re-define the forest conservation fee in their water bill.

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The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and the Center for the Economics of Sustainability (CEOS) are in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois.

The paper, “Households’ preferences for hydrological services in Veracruz, Mexico: The importance of outcomes vs. program design,” is published in Journal of Environmental Management. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113763]

Funding for the study was provided by the University of New Hampshire’s Collaborative Research Excellence Initiative.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Environmental Management

DOI

10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113763 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Households’ preferences for hydrological services in Veracruz, Mexico: The importance of outcomes vs. program design

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Sep-2021