Climate extremes: The energy required for adaptation calls for stronger mitigation efforts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CMCC FOUNDATION - EURO-MEDITERRANEAN CENTER ON CLIMATE CHANGE

 

IMAGE: ENERGY USE VARIATION FOR ADAPTATION TILL 2100 WITH CURRENT CLIMATE POLICIES view more 

CREDIT: WWW.ENERGY-A.EU

A new study published today in Nature Communications by researchers from the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the European Institute on Economics and the Environment and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine finds that adapting to climate change will require more energy than previously estimated, leading to higher energy investments and costs. Avoiding this additional energy burden is another important benefit of ambitious mitigation that so far has remained neglected in the academia, the public debate and the international negotiations.

This new study sheds light on a blind spot of the energy transition and of the implementation of climate policies: adaptation needs will reduce the effectiveness of climate mitigation policy, and it is therefore necessary to revise those policies accounting for the evident changes in climatic conditions. The researchers involved examined how responses to climate change will affect energy systems, and therefore the achievement of mitigation goals, including their economic costs. Estimating the size of future energy needs for adaptation to climate change has important implications for the transition towards sustainability and decarbonized economies.

Francesco Pietro Colelli, lead author of the study, points out that “adapting to climate change by means of adjustments in energy habits, as we did in the past, will increase the global demand for electricity by 7% by 2050 and by 18% in 2100. Since a lot of our energy still comes from coal, gas, and oil, there is a risk such an increase will lead to more physical capital being locked into fossil fuels, corresponding to around 30-35 new large gas-fired plants and 10-15 new large coal- and oil-fired plants each year between now and 2050.”

In Europe, the increase in electricity demand for cooling will be more than compensated by the decrease in fuels demand for heating, leading to a 6% reduction in the final energy demand by the end of the century. Still, between now and 2050, under current climate policies, an additional €235 billion of investments and operational expenses in power generation and transmission are needed to provide the additional electricity needed for cooling.

Enrica De Cian, co-author of the study, and leader of a European ERC project dedicated to the cooling crisis, ENERGYA, explains that “adaptation through air conditioning would also require more resources for grid investments and power generation. Overall electricity generation costs, including investments in capacity, grids, fuel, operation & maintenance costs,  will rise by 21% throughout the century. The additional supply-side costs will be passed on to consumers through increases in the price of electricity around 2%-6% due to the adaptation-energy feedback in different regions. Ambitious mitigation policies can cut by more than half the increase in the costs of the energy system induced by adaptation, depending on the stringency of the climate target. Because of the benefits in terms of reduced adaptation needs, the costs to decarbonize the power system in ambitious mitigation scenarios would be lower than previous estimates, and they would turn negative in well-below-2-degree scenarios, pointing at net gains in terms of power system costs.”

Colelli stresses lastly that “adaptation induces variations in the energy markets that ultimately result in a shift in global and regional greenhouse gas emissions of about 7% cumulatively from 2020 to 2100. As a consequence of the variation in emissions, ambitious mitigation pathways see an increase in the global carbon price between 5% and 30%.” This aspect can and should have important implications for the international negotiations on climate change.

Technical details

By integrating the “adaptation-energy feedback loop” into the World Induced Technical Change Hybrid model – WITCH, the study is one of the first to fully integrate the energy needs for adaptation endogenously into mitigation pathways, so that climate policy design is directly influenced by adaptation energy needs. The findings indicate that climate adaptation can lead to higher energy demand, power system costs and carbon prices, with mitigation’s benefits compensating decarbonization costs.

Link to the scientific article:

Colelli, F.P., Emmerling, J., Marangoni, G. et al. Increased energy use for adaptation significantly impacts mitigation pathways. Nat Commun 13, 4964 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32471-1

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-32471-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Increased energy use for adaptation significantly impacts mitigation pathways

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2022

China’s cities leading the way on carbon reduction - Study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Thirty-eight Chinese cities have reduced their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) despite growing economies and populations for at least five years - defined as proactively peaked cities, a new study reveals.

A further 21 cities have cut CO2 emissions as their economies or populations have ‘declined’ over the same period - defined as passively emission declined cities.

The experts discovered that ‘emission peaked’ cities, such as Beijing and Taizhou (Zhejiang province), achieved emission decline mainly due to efficiency improvements and structural changes in energy use, whilst ‘declining’ cities, such as Fuxin (Liaoning province) and Shenyang (Liaoning province), are likely to have reduced emissions due to economic recession or population loss.

They recommend that instead of using a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, emission targets of cities need to be set individually considering cities’ resources, industrialisation levels, socio-economic characteristics, and development goals.

Super-emitting cities with outdated technologies and lower production efficiency should develop stringent policies and targets for emissions reduction, while less developed regions could have more emission space for economic development.

Publishing their findings in Science Bulletin, an international team of scientists, led by the Universities of Birmingham (UK), Groningen (Netherlands), and Tsinghua University (China) analyses comprehensive CO2 emission inventories of 287 Chinese cities from 2001 to 2019. The authors thank the data contribution from over 190 participants to the Summer School organised by the Carbon Emission Accounts and Datasets for Emerging Economies (CEADs) at Nanjing Normal University (2017) and Tsinghua University (2018 & 2019).

All the emission inventories of cities can be downloaded free-of-charge from CEADs–Carbon Emission Accounts and Datasets for emerging economies (www.ceads.net). CEADs gathers experts from the UK, USA, and China to work on China and other emerging economies’ emission accounting methods and applications. The resource provides accurate and up-to-date carbon emission, socio-economic and trade data for academics, policy stakeholders, and public.

The first author Dr. Yuli Shan, Associate Professor in Sustainable Transitions at the University of Birmingham and subject leader of CEADs team, commented: “The experiences and lessons learned from those 59 Chinese cities which have reduced their CO2 emissions cities can be used as benchmarks for other cities. The achievements of these cities are notable for countries around the globe, as China is the world’s most significant emitter of CO2.

“The impact of emission drivers varies among these cities. Growing cities which have reduced emissions should lead in setting precedents for China to reach the Dual-Carbon goals of achieving carbon emission peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060.”

The scientists recommend that ‘declining’ cities with reduced emissions face the fact that the drop in emissions is mainly caused by a recessive economy, exhausted natural resources, insufficient competitiveness of industry or even shrinking population, rather than vigorously promoting low-carbon actions.

Prof. Klaus Hubacek, one of the co-authors from the University of Groningen comments: “Cities often struggle with economic decline and dwindling resources but at the same time need to keep an eye on mitigation goals and look for synergies to achieve the energy and resource transition.”

Corresponding author and founder of CEADs dataset Professor Dabo Guan from Tsinghua University comments: “It is not easy to reduce every ton of emissions and the reduction strategy must be individualized. China is playing an increasing role in global climate change mitigation, and local authorities need more city-specific information on the emissions trends and patterns when designing low-carbon policies.”

The researchers note that cities are at the heart of climate change mitigation - emission and development hotspots with urban economic activity accounting for 80% of global GDP, 60-80% of energy consumption, and 75% of carbon emissions. However, cities have the administrative capacity to carry out targeted emission reduction measures.

Although more than 500 cities world-wide have committed to low-carbon and carbon neutrality goals, agreement is still lacking on how to best account for emissions and achieve decarbonisation at the city level.

ENDS

For further information, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)782 783 2312 or t.moran@bham.ac.uk. Out-of-hours, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165. Dr. Shan can also be contacted on y.shan@bham.ac.uk

 

Notes for editors

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 9,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• ‘City-level emission peak and drivers in China’ - Yuli Shan, Yuru Guan, Ye Hang, Heran Zheng, Yanxian Li, Dabo Guan, Jiashuo Li, Ya Zhou, Li Li, Klaus Hubacek is published in Science Bulletin.
• Participating institutions include:
  • University of Birmingham, UK
  • University of Groningen, Netherlands
  • Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
  • University College London, UK
  • Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
  • Shandong University, Weihai, China
  • Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China

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JOURNAL

Science Bulletin

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Aug-2022

Long-term relationship with owner reduces horses’ stress reactions in new situations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

 

IMAGE: OCÉANE LIEHRMANN GUIDES A HORSE TO A SOFT, UNFAMILIAR SURFACE, ON WHICH THIS HORSE HAS NEVER WALKED ON. view more 

CREDIT: VEERA RIIHONEN

A new study shows that horses can be more reluctant in new situations if they have multiple riders, have had several owners or the horse has been with its current owner only for a short period of time. The results of the international research group that studied the interaction between horses and humans also indicate that it takes time to build a good interactive relationship with a horse. 

Horses have been living with humans for thousands of years. Following this long co-evolution, horses today demonstrate impressive social skills during their interactions with humans: they are receptive to human emotions and are very good at understanding human demands.

“Domestic horses may spend several hours daily in close contact with humans, which can affect horse welfare, physiology, and behaviour. Therefore, it is important to understand which factors can influence the horses’ emotions during interactions with humans and what shapes their relationship – particularly in novel situations that can be very stressful to the animals”, says the lead author of the study, Doctoral Researcher Océane Liehrmann from the Department of Biology at the University of Turku, Finland.  

An international research team from the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki in Finland, and the INRAE of Nouzilly in France, studied interaction between horses and humans as well as how horses react in new situations. The researchers recruited 76 privately owned leisure horses from the Turku area (Finland) to perform two behavioural tests.

In these tests, the researchers observed and analysed the horses’ reactions to novel objects. In addition, the researchers studied whether the horse reacted differently when if faces the new object with a familiar owner or with a stranger, i.e. the researcher.

In the research situation, the horses were led to walk on two surfaces that were new to them, a white tarp, and a fluffy blanket.  They were led to one of the surfaces by their owner and to the other one by an unfamiliar researcher. Second, the horses were presented with a fluffy stuffed toy either by their owner or by an unfamiliar researcher. The horse had one minute to freely come and interact with the toy and then the person approached the horse and tried to touch its neck with the toy.

“Interestingly, horses with an exclusive relationship with their owner were the calmest when approaching the novel surfaces and easily agreed to be touched with the toy. Horses that are regularly ridden or trained by different persons showed more stress behaviours in the test situations,” describes Océane Liehrmann.

Horses that had spent their whole life with their owner agreed more often to be touched with the new toy than horses that had had several owners during their life. These horses presented more stress behaviours and refused more often to be touched with the toy.

“Horses often have to change ownership, which restricts their ability to make a long-term bond with specific humans.  We were particularly interested in studying how the length of the relationship between the horse and the owner affects the horse’s behaviour in new, potentially stressful situations,” says Océane Liehrmann.

The results showed that horses with shorter relationships with their owner were more reluctant in novel situations and presented more stress behaviours when asked to interact with novel objects and surfaces. On the contrary, horses that had at least 6 to 8 years of relationship with their owner, were mostly very calm when introduced to the surfaces or the stuffed toy. 

Horses older than 17 years old refused more often to step on the tarp or the blanket when they were led by a stranger, while they almost all agreed to do it when they were led by their owner. 

“Geriatric horses often suffer from poorer eyesight, and it has been shown that they may feel more anxiety towards new situations than younger horses. Therefore, older horses may perceive someone familiar as a secure base, feeling safer to walk over an unknown material when led by a familiar person.”

The study shows that having a shorter relationship with the owner, multiple handlers and numerous owner-changes can increase the horse’s reluctance to novel objects and surfaces and therefore may negatively impact the horse-human interactions in new situations. 

“Our findings suggest that a positive horse-human relationship may take time to develop as it is shaped by multiple factors, such as the horse’s previous interactions with humans. Overall, the results show that animals’ relationships with their human caretakers should be better considered in animal welfare and its research,” Liehrmann concludes.

CAPTION

Océane Liehrmann observes the horse’s reaction when it is touched with an unfamiliar stuffed toy.

CREDIT

Veera Riihonen

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JOURNAL

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

DOI

10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105709 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Multiple handlers, several owner changes and short relationship lengths affect horses’ responses to novel object tests

The talking dead: burials inform migrations in Indonesia

New light shed on burial practices and migration of the earliest humans in island Southeast Asia by researchers from the Australian National University

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: DR SOFIA SAMPER CARRO FROM THE ANU SCHOOL OF CULTURE, HISTORY AND LANGUAGE WITH BONES FROM ALOR ISLAND, INDONESIA. view more 

CREDIT: TRACEY NEARMY/ANU

The discovery by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) of three bodies on Indonesia’s Alor Island, dating from 7,500 to 13,000 years ago, sheds new light on burial practices and migration of the earliest humans in island Southeast Asia. 

Author of a new paper published by PLOS ONE, Dr Sofia Samper Carro, said the three burials are significant because the positioning of each body shows a different mortuary practice.

Dr Samper Carro said this might relate to multiple migratory routes through the area from thousands of years ago.

“Burials are a unique cultural manifestation to investigate waves of migration through the terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene period in Southeast Asia,” Dr Samper Carro said.

“Our results provide significant new data for understanding the evolution and diversification of burial practices in mainland and island Southeast Asia, contributing to a growing body of literature describing prehistoric socio-cultural behaviour in this region.”

Dr Samper Carro and the international team of researchers from ANU and the Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia uncovered more than 50,000 bones. This included the three bodies, one with extremities that were intentionally removed before burial, and two more individuals placed in a seated, and flexed (on side) positions.

“Our first excavations in 2014 revealed fish hooks and a human skull that was more than 12,000 years old,” Dr Samper Carro said.

“When the Australia-Indonesian team returned in 2018 to excavate the original burial, they found two more bodies buried in different positions above each other.

“The three quite unusual and interesting burials show different mortuary practices, which might relate to recent discoveries of multiple migratory routes through the islands of Wallacea from thousands of years ago.”

Dr Samper Carro said while the process of studying every item included delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wait has been worthwhile.

“Once we realised we had uncovered such unique findings, I had a very long process of studying each and every piece. We called this paper The Talking Dead because of the stories each pieces tells,” Dr Samper Carro said.

“We’re very pleased to present a paper that shows how burial practices can complement data on genetic diversity from one of the current research hotspots in Southeast Asia.”

Dr Samper Carro completed her research on the Tron Bon Lei burials through a Gerda Henkel research scholarship. Fieldwork in Alor was funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage.

Read the researchers’ paper in full: Talking Dead. New burials from Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia) inform on the evolution of mortuary practices from the terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene in Southeast Asia.

 

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0267635 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Human tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

The talking dead: burials inform migrations in Indonesia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2022

COI STATEMENT

Research funded by a Gerda Henkel research scholarship and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage.

How can WhatsApp save your relationship?

A new study has found that Gen X couples’ WhatsApp correspondence can benefit their relationship by providing “another place to fight”

REICHMAN UNIVERSITY

image: Dr. Gali Einav view more 

Credit: Gabriel Baharlia

Herzliya, whereas young people were born into the digital world, older generations have had to learn how to adapt to it. One such age cohort is Generation X (those born between 1965-1980), who acclimated to the digital world relatively late in life and are referred to as “digital immigrants.”

A new study conducted by researchers from Reichman University – Dr. Gali Einav, researcher and faculty member of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, and Tal Nadel-Harony and Prof. Yair Galili from the Sammy Ofer School of Communications – examined how we conduct our relationships via WhatsApp, and whether it is similar or different from the way we handle them in real life. The study was published in New Media & Society, one of the leading journals in the field of communications (https://bit.ly/3C7zkqE).

The researchers found that the way we conduct our relationships offline is mirrored on WhatsApp, and that the app in fact offers an additional platform for conducting relationships – in other words, another place to fight and make up. Moreover, say the researchers, “Correspondence over WhatsApp not only offers another venue to conduct the relationship, but it can also  help save it.”

The scholar John Gottman, a clinical psychologist and mathematician, recognized the importance of fighting in a relationship, and claimed that the ability to deal with conflicts is the foundation of a stable relationship. He also identified three patterns of conflict management in a relationship that can also help predict its stability.

The study’s findings, that we replicate these patterns in our WhatsApp discourse, strengthen the conclusions drawn by Gottman. The researchers identified three patterns of conflictual behavior, reflected in WhatsApp communications, in stable relationships, corresponding with Gottman’s distinctions:

(1)       Avoidance – the “avoiders” displayed little interaction via WhatsApp in the day-to-day, and an absence of interaction during conflict. This behavior also reflected the partners’ separate areas of interest and corresponded with the first category in Gottman's findings, characterized by the low level of interdependence that exists in relationships between couples who avoid conflict. WhatsApp may be used by “avoidant” couples as an independent activity that they engage in separately from one another.

For example, in describing conflicts with his partner, A. from Tel Aviv told the researchers, “We fight in silence.” E. from the Sharon region said that she “almost goes crazy” when her partner purposely does not respond to her on WhatsApp. T. from the south of the country said, “At home we don't fight, we go to sleep... and, in parallel, on WhatsApp it's a cold peace.” In all  these cases, the couple maintains active social interactions via the app with friends and family. The couple’s avoidance of interaction during a fight, and low degree of availability to each other during routine, reflect a paucity of common interests and a reluctance to listen to one another other.

(2)       Emotional – couples who had emotional conflicts tended to correspond more frequently both on a daily basis and during disagreements. These couples described mutual persuasion attempts that were conducted simultaneously on WhatsApp and face to face. This behavior corresponds to the second category in Gottman's findings, which is characterized by blurred boundaries between the shared and the personal space in the relationship.

H. from the south said that “When I fight with L. face to face, I shout and scream for the whole world to hear, and on WhatsApp I just don't let go... I can send endless messages and quite a lot of exclamation marks.” Couples who described emotionally-charged arguments recounted how a fight that began in the morning at home can continue over WhatsApp, and sometimes even manifest in the family group chat. Cases were also described in which explosive topics that came up in the couple's WhatsApp correspondence spilled over into face-to-face interaction.

(3)       Rational – Gottman’s third category describes the ability of the spouses to listen to each other during a conflict. The moderate and balanced graph of the couple's correspondence on WhatsApp, depicted in the body of the study, reflects this pattern, though conflicts that the couples chose not to deal with on WhatsApp may be absent from this category.

A. and A. from Modi'in explained that they learned how to fight over two decades of being together. “Our correspondence via WhatsApp is a language we have developed, and it helps us find a way to resolve things... sometimes by laughing at the fight with the right emoji, or at least putting it in proportion.” R. from the north of the country added, “Sometimes re-reading the correspondence (during a fight) helps me understand my partner's motivation.” In these cases, there is a high probability that the couple will also use the app during their attempts at reconciliation.

The graphic models (4, 5 and 6) that appear on the following pages offer a conceptual portrayal of the development of conflict between partners, both face-to-face and via WhatsApp. An in-depth look at the communication graph on WhatsApp shows a seismograph, which records fluctuations in the relationship, and a metronome, which records changes in the “pace” of the couple's dynamics. Observing the couple's interactions on WhatsApp along with their face-to-face communication may teach us something about the role we play in the relationship and help us achieve relationship stability through positive gestures and expressions of emotion.

The study’s research method included interviews, conducted over a year,  with 18 couples aged 35-50, who have been in a relationship for over five years. The interviewees were Israelis from different regions of the country and from various backgrounds (religious, secular, same-sex). The analysis of the content of the interviews focused on the ways in which the couple used WhatsApp; the researchers identified technical, practical, casual and emotional relationship patterns.

The article cites WhatsApp’s potential for behavioral observation and the possibility of using it to change relationship dynamics.

 

Consortium to develop fully implantable brain-computer interface to enable communication for people with paralysis

Project will push the boundaries of real-time brain-to-speech decoding with artificial intelligence algorithms and a miniaturized, wireless device.

Grant and Award Announcement

WYSS CENTER FOR BIO AND NEUROENGINEERING

 

IMAGE: BUILDING ON THE WYSS CENTER'S PREVIOUS CLINICAL STUDY ENABLING BCI COMMUNICATION, THE PROJECT WILL USE THE FULLY IMPLANTABLE WIRELESS ABILITY SYSTEM (PICTURED) CONNECTED TO CUSTOMIZED ELECTRODE GRIDS TO RECORD FROM A LARGER AREA OF THE BRAIN. IT WILL ALSO EXPLORE NEW DECODING ALGORITHMS THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO TACKLE IMPORTANT CLINICAL AND SOCIAL NEEDS FOR PEOPLE WITH PARALYSIS. view more 

CREDIT: WYSS CENTER FOR BIO AND NEUROENGINEERING

Geneva, Switzerland - A research consortium led by the UMC Utrecht Brain Center (the Netherlands) in collaboration with Graz University of Technology (Austria), the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering (Switzerland) and CorTec (Germany) is to receive a grant through the EIC Pathfinder Challenge mechanism.

The researchers aim to develop a unique fully implantable Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system for people with locked-in syndrome (LIS) - a condition in which paralysis severely limits communication. The BCI will be unprecedented in its small size, wireless and powered via induction so will not require batteries. Suitable for use at home, it will be capable of decoding speech in real-time to enable people with LIS to communicate with family and caregivers.

The project will further develop the Wyss Center’s fully implantable wireless ABILITY system to connect to customized electrocorticography (ECoG) electrode grids, developed by CorTec, that detect brain signals from the surface of the brain. The ambitious timeline aims for full implant development and verification in the first two years of the project, with the second two years focusing on clinical studies and algorithm improvements to restore communication in locked-in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or brainstem stroke. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease in which people gradually lose the ability to move and talk, eventually all means of communication are lost, leaving patients isolated. Brainstem stroke can render people unable to speak or move, without recovery.

“As a first step to enable the patients to interact with the system, we will set up the decoding for mouse clicks and cursor control from intended movements, which we have shown to be feasible in previous research,” explains Prof. Dr. Gernot Müller-Putz, Head of the Institute of Neural Engineering and its associated Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces at the Graz University of Technology.  

“Our BCI system will go far beyond current technology,” says Prof. Nick Ramsey from the UMC Utrecht Brain Center, the Netherlands, who coordinates the project. “We want to create a sustainable, high-resolution BCI by combining state-of-the-art hardware and software based on artificial intelligence (AI).”

“This new project builds on the promising preliminary data from our clinical study enabling communication with a completely locked-in participant, and our pre-clinical study currently underway with the wireless, implantable ABILITY device.” said Dr. Jonas Zimmermann, Senior Neuroscientist at the Wyss Center. “In this project we will record from a larger area of the brain and explore new decoding algorithms that have the potential to tackle important clinical and social needs for people with ALS but also for those with other neurological conditions that impair movement and communication.”

Dr. Tracy Laabs, Chief Development Officer at the Wyss Center, is excited: “After several years of prototype developments, this project will allow us to make the crucial final steps that will bring our system to the patient”.

The BCI system will be trialed in two people with locked-in syndrome in the home environment. The brain surface-lining electrode grids will collect high resolution neural data that will be decoded using AI algorithms to translate the brain signals to computer speech in real-time. The research project

‘Intracranial Neurotelemetry to Restore Communication’ (INTRECOM) is part of the EIC Pathfinder Challenge program in which the European Innovation Council supports visionary, entrepreneurial researchers who have bold ideas for radically new technologies. The Swiss participants receive support from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

ENDS

 

Caption: Building on the Wyss Center's previous clinical study enabling BCI communication, the project will use the fully implantable wireless ABILITY system connected to customized electrode grids to record from a larger area of the brain. It will also explore new decoding algorithms that have the potential to tackle important clinical and social needs for people with paralysis.

Credit: Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, Geneva

 

About the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering, Geneva, Switzerland

The Wyss Center is an independent, non-profit, research and development organization that advances our understanding of the brain to realize therapies and improve lives. 

The Wyss Center staff, together with the Center’s academic, clinical and industrial collaborators, pursue innovations and new approaches in neurobiology, neuroimaging and neurotechnology.

Wyss Center advances reveal unique insights into the mechanisms underlying the dynamics of the brain and the treatment of disease to accelerate the development of devices and therapies for unmet medical needs.

The Wyss Center was established by a generous donation from the Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss in 2014. Additional resources from funding agencies and other sources help the Wyss Center accelerate its mission.

www.wysscenter.ch/

REDLINING

Climate change exacerbated hurricane Harvey’s flood damage, hitting low-income and Latinx neighborhoods disproportionately harder

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

New research published today shows that if it were not for the impact of climate change, up to 50 percent of residences in Houston’s Harris County would not have been flooded by Hurricane Harvey five years ago. The study, published in Nature Communications, coincides with the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in 2017, causing massive flooding in Houston.

“We already know that climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of extreme weather events,” said Kevin Smiley, the study’s lead author and LSU Department of Sociology assistant professor. “But now researchers are able to pinpoint the extent of damage from a specific extreme weather event such as Hurricane Harvey and the resulting floods.”

Fifty percent less residences impacted equates to about 50,000 fewer homes damaged and billions of dollars saved in residential damage. 

“This means that we have quantified the contribution of climate change to the suffering of people who live there,” said Michael Wehner, the study’s co-author and senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The research, a first of its kind investigation into potential disparities between those impacted by the climate change-induced flooding, finds patterns of racial and economic disparities.

“Part of the reason why low-income neighborhoods flooded has to do with the historical development of Houston along its waterways and surrounding petrochemical corridor,” Smiley said. “There’s a clear climate and environmental justice story as to where these neighborhoods are located.”

How do researchers study the impacts of climate change?

Climate change attribution, which ascertains the connection between climate change and extreme weather events, involves running computational models to estimate how much these changes in climate make extreme weather events, like hurricanes, more severe. Scientists can compare these estimates without climate change to what actually happened to see the difference. 

“This is the first end-to-end impact attribution study of a specific weather event following on our previous studies showing a significant increase in Harvey’s precipitation and the resulting flooding increase because of climate change,” Wehner said.  

Although popular discussion tends to center around climate change forecasts for the future, the study underscores the fact that climate change is impacting life now. 

“Climate change is happening right now with real and substantial costs,” Smiley said. “Three to five extra inches of rainfall from climate change can make the difference between your lawn getting soaked and your house getting flooded leaving it uninhabitable.” 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-31056-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Social inequalities in climate change-attributed impacts of Hurricane Harvey

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2022

Citizen science: Empowering citizens to address global challenges

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

Citizen science is increasingly recognized as an important vehicle for democratizing science and promoting the goal of universal and equitable access to scientific data and information. IIASA researchers actively contribute to the development of this scientific approach and have recently published a primer aimed at both established and aspiring practitioners of citizen science to highlight key issues and how to address them.

Citizen science has a long history and interested volunteers have participated in scientific inquiry for centuries, leading to some of the most extensive datasets and sources of information on among others, public health, pollution monitoring, and ecology and biodiversity tracking. Today, it offers unique opportunities to join science and research across the globe, empowering people to participate in the scientific process, to gather and share data and information, and to be equipped to contribute to collective action to address important challenges that we face locally and globally today.

IIASA is well known for developing innovative research methods to address global problems and citizen science is no exception. A new IIASA-led article just published in Nature Methods Reviews Primers, highlights how citizens can contribute meaningfully to scientific research, thereby becoming an integral part of integrated and evidence-based knowledge creation needed to address some of today’s most pressing challenges, including environmental pollution, food security, biodiversity loss, or the climate crisis. The authors also call attention to the impacts and great potential of citizen science for monitoring progress on ambitious global efforts like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), large-scale data collection, and as a viable means to close data gaps and support inclusive decision-making.

“Nature Methods Reviews Primers articles are high-quality, introductory review articles describing the current state-of-the-art for applying a specific scientific method. Being invited to write a primer on citizen science is important in two main ways. First, it underlines that the field is earning recognition within the scientific establishment as a valid and valuable approach. Secondly, it offers the opportunity to showcase the breadth and depth of citizen science possibilities to a wide range of scientists and researchers who are not yet familiar with it,” explains co-lead author Gerid Hager, a researcher in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program.

One of the big advantages of citizen science is the fact that it promotes open data practices. In this way, the approach contributes to science innovation by opening science up to society and advancing collaborations between various actors, including citizens, which helps to make science more participatory and inclusive.

“When designed optimally, beyond addressing the data gaps to create effective policies and achieve sustainable development, citizen science can help establish more inclusive data ecosystems that empower individuals and communities, especially those that are hard-to-reach and marginalized,” notes co-lead author Dilek Fraisl, a researcher in the same group at IIASA.

In conclusion, the authors point out that the fields of application for citizen science methods and approaches continue to broaden in terms of subject matter and deepen in terms of the advancement of methodologies as more examples of citizen science research enter the mainstream scientific literature. The principles described in their primer have been successfully applied to a wide range of research domains, particularly in biodiversity research, earth observation and geography, climate change research, or environmental monitoring, which in turn contribute further to the development of both best practice and novel approaches within the ecological and environmental sciences.

Reference

Fraisl, D., Hager, G., Bedessem, B., Gold, M., Hsing, P-Y., Danielsen, F., Hitchcock, C.B., Hulbert, J.M., Piera, J., Spiers, H., Thiel, M., Haklay, M. (2022). Citizen science in environmental and ecological sciences. Nature Methods Reviews Primers DOI: 10.1038/s43586-022-00144-4

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JOURNAL

Nature Methods

DOI

10.1038/s43586-022-00144-4 

ARTICLE TITLE

Citizen science in environmental and ecological sciences

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2022

Significant increase in freshwater entering Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

SOLOMONS, MD (August 25, 2022)—A new study has confirmed that over the past 30 years the volume of freshwater flowing through Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean has increased by 40-50%, which means that the Arctic Ocean is becoming less salty. This could impact sea ice formation, regional and global ocean circulation, and ecosystems.

“Our analysis indicates that the Arctic Ocean is becoming less salty in part because the water flowing north through the Bering Strait is becoming less salty,” said lead author Lee Cooper of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “This could have a lot of downstream implications for how the Arctic Ocean works and connects with climate and related processes, including the intensity of mixing in the North Atlantic.”   

Researchers used a new tracer approach to look at the oxygen isotope composition of water samples collected throughout the Bering and Chukchi shelves to assess the change in saltiness. The study evaluated more than one thousand water samples collected over the extensive continental shelf and the results provide a strong confirmation of increasing freshwater. The significance of the Bering Strait for freshwater is that it is the single largest point source of freshwater to the Arctic Ocean.

Less saline water is quicker to freeze and less likely to mix with deep water, resulting in less nutrient-rich deeper water being upwelled, ultimately decreasing biological productivity. Ultimately it also may interfere with deep water mixing in the North Atlantic that is climate-sensitive. 

The study, “Changes in the oxygen isotope composition of the Bering Sea contribution to the Arctic Ocean are an independent measure of increasing freshwater fluxes through the Bering Strait”, authored by Lee Cooper and Jacqueline Grebmeier of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Cédric Magen of the University of Maryland, is part of a group of papers published as a special issue in PLOS One focused on the internationally coordinated Distributed Biological Observatory, supported by the US National Science Foundation, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and other agencies, as well as science agencies in Korea, China, Japan, and Canada.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science leads the way toward better management of Maryland’s natural resources and the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. From a network of laboratories located across the state, UMCES scientists provide sound evidence and advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment, and prepare future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.  www.umces.edu  

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Changes in the oxygen isotope composition of the Bering Sea contribution to the Arctic Ocean are an independent measure of increasing freshwater fluxes through the Bering Strait