New start-up develops aquafarms for macroalgae

AWI and Carbonwave spin-off: Large algae simultaneously bind CO2 and create raw materials for the chemical industry

Business Announcement

ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE, HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH

 

IMAGE: THE MACROALGA SARGASSUM NATANS BELONGS TO THE GENUS OF THE SO-CALLED GULFWEED (SARGASSUM). view more 

CREDIT: ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT, FRANZISKA ELMER

It all started with the idea of using natural ocean resources to develop new climate-friendly raw materials for industry. To this end, committed researchers from AWI, Carbonwave, GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the start-up Seafields joined forces, with the support of BASF. In January 2022 they founded the project "C-CAUSE" (Chemical CARBON Utilization through Sargassum Economy). A short time later, in May 2022, they won a grant of 700,000 euros as part of the "Carbon to Value Challenge" of the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND).

In this first funding phase a novel value chain was developed: starting with the cultivation of free-floating macroalgae (Sargassum fluitans and natans) in open-ocean aquafarms, biological and renewable carbon feedstocks will be produced for the chemical industry. The goal is to contribute to the decarbonization of the chemical industry while creating products that store carbon over long time periods.

In order to drive further development activities in a second SPRIND funding phase and technical upscaling in an even more agile way, the company MACROCARBON SL was spun out of AWI and Carbonwave on March 23, 2023 and now has received further funding of 2.3 million euros from SPRIND to further develop its innovation. Regarding the goals of the AWI and Carbonwave spin-off, founder and MACROCARBON CEO Dr. Mar Fernández Méndez explains: "MACROCARBON will develop integrated supply chains for the cultivation and processing of Sargassum seaweed. Because Sargassum itself floats, we do not need expensive longlines to be stretched out in the water for this purpose. In addition, the algae grows quickly and thrives in many regions. It binds CO2 very efficiently through natural photosynthesis."

After harvesting the algae, the carbon-rich biomass will be processed into raw materials for the chemical industry (such as bio-naphtha), which will replace products previously derived from fossil fuels. In this way, MACROCARBON aims to contribute to decarbonization, sequestering 100 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2040 and one gigatonne by 2050.

AWI, Carbonwave and its spin-off MACROCARBON plan to continue cooperating with each other. To this end, AWI will contribute its biological process understanding to monitor carbon fluxes and environmental sustainability, thus supporting MACROCARBON in building an innovative value chain.  Carbonwave will develop processing methodologies based on their existing operations and production of valuable products from Sargassum in the Caribbean.

Las Palmas, on Gran Canaria, was chosen as the company's headquarters, mainly because its location in the subtropical Atlantic where Sargassum thrives well and because MACROCARBON has access to an ocean platform with a test environment (Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands, PLOCAN) here. This platform is suitable for large-scale experiments and tests of pilot processing plants. The location in the Atlantic Ocean is also easy to reach and at the same time offers the necessary marine high seas conditions. The Canary Islands belong to the EU, which is relevant for SPRIND funding and possible further EU funding. Furthermore, they offer - especially in the context of the so-called Blue Bioeconomy - an attractive start-up "ecosystem".

In addition to the funding from SPRIND, the two companies Carbonwave and Seafields plan to participate in MACROCARBON. It is also expected that Jason Cole, currently Head of Innovation at Carbonwave, will join MACROCARBON's founding team. Seafields and Carbonwave are already involved in aquaculture and the utilization of Sargassum seaweed, respectively, and can contribute valuable experience to the company.

The AWI spin-off MACROCARBON was invited to present itself at the Investor Day of the four non-university research organizations Helmholtz, Max Planck, Fraunhofer and Leibniz in Munich at the end of March. At the event, 39 selected start-ups presented themselves in front of 100 investors. For MACROCARBON this was a very good opportunity to introduce itself to investors and to exchange ideas with other spin-offs from non-university research organizations. As the lively discussion following the MACROCARBON pitch and numerous inquiries from investors at the poster stand showed, the concept is extremely interesting, not only ecologically but also economically.

"For me as a marine biologist, this company foundation is a very exciting but also challenging process. I also learned a lot at this investor event," says Mar Fernández Méndez. "It's good that we are accompanied in this by a dedicated SPRIND coach and the AWI technology transfer office." She adds: "In its latest synthesis report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change again pointed out the great urgency to finally take action. This motivates me to move into broad commercial application by upscaling our research results."

 

Links:

Video zur SPRIND Carbon-to-Value-Challenge: https://www.sprind.org/en/challenges/carbon-to-value (C-CAUSE ab 10:28)

C-CAUSE: https://www.awi.de/ueber-uns/service/presse/presse-detailansicht/default-0f90dfdb88-1.html

Helmholtz YIG SiDe-EFFECT of Mar Fernández Méndez: https://www.awi.de/forschung/biowissenschaften/polare-biologische-ozeanographie/arbeitsgruppen/helmholtz-nachwuchsgruppe-side-effect.html

Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN): https://plocan.eu/en

Carbonwave: https://carbonwave.com/

Seafields: https://www.seafields.eco/

You can find printable images in the online version of this press release: https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/service/press.html

Follow the Alfred Wegener Institute on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AWI_Media), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/awiexpedition/) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/AlfredWegenerInstitute).

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and oceans of the high and mid-latitudes. It coordinates polar research in Germany and provides major infrastructure to the international scientific community, such as the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctica. The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the 18 research centres of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organisation in Germany. 

Scientists discover antibiotic resistance genes in clouds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL

Québec City, April 27, 2023–The atmosphere is a large-scale dissemination route for bacteria carrying antibiotic-resistance genes. A research team from Université Laval and Université Clermont Auvergne has shown that these genes can be transported by clouds. 

"This is the first study to show that clouds harbor antibiotic resistance genes of bacterial origin in concentrations comparable to other natural environments," says Florent Rossi, first author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in the team of Caroline Duchaine, a professor at Université Laval's Faculty of Science and Engineering and a researcher at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute-Université Laval. 

To observe this phenomenon, the team sampled clouds at the Puy de Dôme summit, a dormant volcano in France's Massif Central. At an atmospheric research station perched 1,465 meters above ground, the scientists conducted 12 cloud sampling sessions over two years using high-flow rate "vacuums."  

Analysis of these samples revealed that they contained about 8,000 bacteria per milliliter of cloud water, on average. "These bacteria usually live on the surface of vegetation or soil. They are aerosolized by the wind or by human activities, and some of them rise into the atmosphere and participate in the formation of clouds," explains Florent Rossi. The concentrations are variable: they range from 330 to more than 30,000 bacteria per milliliter of cloud water. Between 5% and 50% of these bacteria could be alive and potentially active. 

Various sources 

With all their data, the scientists measured the concentration of 29 subtypes of antibiotic-resistance genes carried in atmospheric air masses. The clouds contained, on average, 20,800 copies of antibiotic-resistance genes per milliliter of cloud water.  

"Oceanic clouds and continental clouds each have their signature of antibiotic resistance genes. For example, continental clouds contain more antibiotic resistance genes used in animal production," explains Florent Rossi. 

Although airborne transport of antibiotic resistance genes is a natural phenomenon, the widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture and medicine has contributed to the proliferation of these resistant strains and their dissemination in the environment.   

"Our study shows that clouds are an important pathway for antibiotic-resistance genes spreading over short and long ranges. Ideally, we would like to locate emission sources resulting from human activities to limit the dispersal of these genes." 

The health effect of the spread of these antibiotic-resistant genes will be something to investigate in future research. 

The study was published in the journal Science of The Total Environment. The authors are Florent Rossi, Raphaëlle Péguilhan, Nathalie Turgeon, Marc Veillette, Jean-Luc Baray, Laurent Deguillaume, Pierre Amato, and Caroline Duchaine. 

About Université Laval   

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JOURNAL

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161264 

ARTICLE TITLE

Quantification of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in clouds at a mountain site (puy de Dôme, central France)

University of Cincinnati research examines the role of genetics in opioid use disorder

Study identifies genetic variants that could provide therapeutic targets in the future

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

New research out of the University of Cincinnati examines the association between genetics and the presence of opioid use disorder (OUD). The study identified six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or genetic variants that are linked to OUD.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

“We are trying to identify some of the genetic variants that might play into OUD,” says Caroline Freiermuth, MD, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the UC College of Medicine and principal investigator for the study. “Patients received an oral swab that gets put inside their cheek, and those swabs were sent off for genetic testing looking for 180 single nucleotide polymorphisms.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, more than 107,000 people in the U.S. died in 2021 from drug overdose, with overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids increasing 23% from the year before. The economic cost of OUD and opioid-related overdose mortality exceeds $1 trillion annually in the United States.

The study enrolled about 1,300 patients within three large urban emergency departments in Ohio, which has ranked in the top five for opioid overdose deaths since 2014.

“We wanted to determine for any random person who comes to the emergency department what their genetic link might be and do they now or did they ever have opioid use disorder in their life, and do we think their genetics have played a role in that,” says Freiermuth. “We found that there were quite a few single nucleotide polymorphisms that seem to be associated with opioid use disorder.”

The study found that although genetics play a role in disease, there is also significant interaction from the environment. Freiermuth says further study is needed to highlight the true impact of the genetic variants and how external factors contribute to the development of OUD. Further exploration of biogeographical genetic ancestry groups and their association with OUD is warranted, the study concluded,

“I think this is really exciting because it should help us try to figure out who is truly at risk when they are exposed to opioids and that could make it easier for us to decide who we can and can’t prescribe opioids to,” Freiermuth says. “This could help determine who might need further monitoring in the future instead of just blanket saying ‘nobody should ever get more than a certain amount."

 

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JOURNAL

Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics

DOI

10.1002/cpt.2864 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Genetic Variants Associated With Opioid Use Disorder

New pilot study enhances understanding of situational fear

Policy paper from City, University of London reveals lived experiences of students and methodology for measuring triggers of fear.

Reports and Proceedings

CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON

 

IMAGE: WELCOME MESSAGE FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE CITY LIFE CHATBOT EXPERIMENT. view more 

CREDIT: DR MICHAEL SAKER, CITY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Research from experts at City, University of London’s Department of Sociology and Criminology suggests that although women students feel largely safe while on campus,universities have a responsibility that extends beyond campus and encompasses surrounding areas and commuter routes into and out of study areas.

The research, captured the lived experiences of 24 women students at City across a two-week period using a chatbot app, City Life, which was developed for the purposes of the study. The project concluded with a series of semi-structured interviews.

City Life recorded lived experiences both during and outside of university contact hours with the aim of gaining a more situated understanding of fear. Students were given the opportunity to chart their emotions while travelling in and out of university, moving around campus and socialising.

Key findings from the study include:

• For women students, the experience of fear is closely associated with mobility on campus (in effect, moving between buildings). This fear was more pronounced at darker times of day and when there was little company.
• Women students experienced more fear while moving through the wider environment outside of campus. Accordingly, non-campus universities are significant here, as students have greater distances to travel between buildings and locations, as well as more complex public transport routes. Public transport and the sharing of enclosed spaces was also a major factor in students’ encountering of fear.
• Students frequently carry expensive equipment, including laptops, phones and tablets on their person. This generally exacerbated the fear felt by some participants of the study when travelling to and from university.
• City Life made participants more cognisant of their surroundings and how they experienced these surroundings – a sense one participant described as “safety in knowledge”.

The study was led by Dr Michael Saker, Senior Lecturer in Digital Sociology and Societal Change with Dan Mercea, Professor of Digital and Social Change and Dr Carrie-Anne Myers, Reader in Criminology at City.

Having successfully gathered data and established the feasibility of the chatbot app, the researchers now plan to build a more sophisticated, upscaled system with the aim of rolling out to other institutions and a far wider pool of students.

Dr Saker said he hoped the feasibility of the study would help upscale the operation and further develop City Life to better comprehend fear of crime, and that this comprehension could be parlayed into more suitable policy.  

“High-profile incidents in the news have highlighted the fear many women and women students encounter in their everyday lives,” he said.

“Previous research indeed tells us that it prompts them to avoid certain areas and activities which directly and indirectly evoking emotions of fear – such as forgoing evening classes and social activities in favour of travelling home during sociable or lighter hours.

“Our study shows the feasibility of exploring situations of fear using technology such as an app. The next step is to develop our system further and grow it into a more enhanced tool for wider engagement and awareness.”

Professor Mercea commented that the report could help universities understand and mitigate the triggers of fear to improve overall student experience.

“Students generally carry expensive possessions – laptops, tablets, phones – on their person, while being focused within an area of space. Carrying such items around can evoke a level of fear in itself.

“Although our pilot shows that City’s campus is widely regarded as a safe place, universities must recognise the external triggers in their institutional designs and safeguarding initiatives. Doing so will help them provide a more inclusive experience where students can take part in extracurricular activities without the fear of experiencing crime.”

Dr Myers said a study of this kind was highly topical to current trends in higher education.

“The post-Covid environment means students are returning to campus, while a cost of living crisis is forcing many to commute longer distances to their university.

“This increases the likelihood of encountering ‘off-campus’ fear, such as on train journeys and walking to and from terminals.

“Providing students with the means to report feelings of fear – as our chatbot app did – creates the opportunity for institutions and local authorities to form a situated understanding of what students see as safer environments.”

About the study

City Life is a chatbot app developed by the research team using the FlowXO chatbot software, and distributed using Telegram.

Twenty-four participants used the app over a two-week period, completing eight tasks that pertained to university life and their relationships with the emotion of fear. Participants were women aged between 18 and 40, with a mean age of 25.

ENDS

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Locating Fear: A pilot study examining the use of a chatbot app to surface embodied experiences of fear in situ.

Improving the mapping, predictability of landslides

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: PHOTO OF A LANDSLIDE-PRONE AREA IN THE OUACHITA MOUNTAINS. view more 

CREDIT: PROVIDED BY THE OKLAHOMA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

Netra Regmi, Ph.D., hazards geologist for the Oklahoma Geological Survey at the University of Oklahoma, is leading a study funded by NASA using remote sensing data and machine learning to improve scientists’ understanding and predictability of landslides. Remote sensing data helps scientists detect and monitor changes on the Earth’s surface over time.

According to NASA's Earth Science Division, landslides are one of the major geohazards that cause thousands of fatalities and billions of dollars in damages each year across the world. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that landslides cause more than $1 billion in damages and about 25 to 50 deaths each year in the United States. Landslides occur in every state and U.S. territory and pose significant hazards in eastern Oklahoma’s Ouachita and Ozark mountains.

Regmi, with Oklahoma Geological Survey researchers Nicholas Hayman and Jacob Walter, and School of Geosciences assistant professor Junle Jiang, are building on previous research that mapped a large number of landslides in eastern Oklahoma. Using expanded data sets, the research team is now looking to better understand the causes, mechanics and associated hazards of these landslides.

“Using Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar data and LiDAR topographic data, we are looking at patterns of hillslope deformation over time – all the different types of landslides going from slow-moving landslides (soil creep) to rapid landslides that can be catastrophic,” Regmi said. “We’re trying to understand the distribution, causes, triggers and mechanics of these landslides.”

Many factors can contribute to landslides, from atmospheric conditions like severe weather, precipitation and humidity to seismic activity, human activities that modify slopes such as mining and construction, and more.

Using machine learning techniques and relating what is known about landslide occurrences with additional data related to the potential contributing factors, the research team plans to develop a high-resolution landslides susceptibility map to attempt to forecast future landslides in eastern Oklahoma. The map and information resulting from this study could be used to help local emergency managers and others improve safety and hazard communication for those most at risk in landslide-prone areas.

“It is advanced science because looking at the soil creep and their progression into rapid landslides, not too much work has been done worldwide,” Regmi said.

Learn more about the Oklahoma Geological Survey at https://www.ou.edu/ogs and about the project at https://netraregmi.oucreate.com/recent-projects/.

Photo of a landslide-prone area in the Ouachita Mountains.

CREDIT

Photo provided by the Oklahoma Geological Survey, University of Oklahoma.

About the Project
The project, “Monitoring Hillslope Dynamics Using SAR Time Series and Machine Learning,” is funded by NASA, award no. 80NSSC22K1723.

About the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships 

The University of Oklahoma is a leading research university classified by the Carnegie Foundation in the highest tier of research universities in the nation. Faculty, staff and students at OU are tackling global challenges and accelerating the delivery of practical solutions that impact society in direct and tangible ways through research and creative activities. OU researchers expand foundational knowledge while moving beyond traditional academic boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and globally with other research institutions as well as decision makers and practitioners from industry, government and civil society to create and apply solutions for a better world. Find out more at ou.edu/research

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information visit www.ou.edu.

Light-based computing scheme reduces power needed to mine cryptocurrencies

New photonic blockchain could make cryptocurrencies more accessible and enable low-energy optical computing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OPTICA

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED A NEW LIGHT-BASED COMPUTING SCHEME CALLED LIGHTHASH THAT REDUCES THE ENERGY NECESSARY FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY AND BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATIONS. FIRST AUTHOR SUNIL PAI IS PICTURED WITH THE OPTICAL SETUP USED FOR THE NEW RESEARCH. view more 

CREDIT: STANFORD UNIVERSITY

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new light-based computing scheme that uses a photonic integrated circuit to reduce the energy necessary for cryptocurrency and blockchain applications. Mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin—a process of verifying transactions and adding new cryptocurrency to the blockchain—consumes up to 1% of the world’s energy. This energy expenditure is expected to grow as cryptocurrency and blockchain applications become increasingly mainstream.

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies created using encryption algorithms. These alternative currencies require a blockchain—a type of digital ledger that records information such as transactions in a way that is difficult or impossible to change or hack.

“Currently, cryptocurrency mining is only accessible to those that have access to highly discounted energy—below $0.05/kWh,” said first author Sunil Pai, who performed the research at Stanford and is now at the quantum computing company PsiQuantum. “Our low-energy chips will make it possible for individuals all over the world to participate in mining profitably.”

In Optica, Optica Publishing Group’s journal for high-impact research, the researchers detail their new scheme called LightHash, which uses a photonic integrated circuit to create a photonic blockchain. With further development, the researchers predict that this approach, if implemented on a large scale, could produce a roughly ten-fold improvement in energy use compared to the best modern digital electronic processors. David A.B. Miller co-led the Stanford University research team with Shanhui Fan and Olav Solgaard.

“Our approach to photonic blockchain could also be used for applications beyond cryptocurrency such as securely transferring data for medical records, smart contracts and voting,” said Pai. “This work paves the way for low-energy optical computing, which, ultimately, can reduce data centers’ energy consumption.”

Greener mining with silicon photonics

Growing concerns about the large amount of energy required to mine cryptocurrencies have caused some popular ones such as Ethereum to shift to unproven and potentially insecure schemes to minimize their carbon footprint.

To find a more eco-friendly approach while maintaining a high level of security, Pai and colleagues use silicon photonics to reduce the energy requirements of cryptocurrency networks. LightHash improves upon a scheme the team previously developed called HeavyHash that is currently used in cryptocurrency networks such as Optical Bitcoin and Kaspa.

“The major motivation for LightHash was HeavyHash’s high sensitivity to hardware error,” said Pai. “Since analog computers, including photonic ones, struggle to achieve low error rates, we designed LightHash to maintain all the security properties of HeavyHash, while improving its robustness to error.”

Securely creating Bitcoin or operating its computing network requires computing a hash function like SHA256 or Heavyhash to transform input data into a single output number in a way that is too complex to be undone, which accounts for the bulk of Bitcoin’s energy use. In the new work, the researchers modified Heavyhash to work with a co-designed silicon photonic chip carrying a 6x6 network of programmable interferometers. This enabled low-energy optical processing of matrix multiplications, which forms the bulk of the computation in Lighthash.

To evaluate the feasibility of using LightHash for matrix multiplication, the researchers built an optical rig to control and track the propagation of light by tuning heating elements and imaging grating spots onto an infrared camera. They also implemented an error mitigation algorithm and established feasibility criteria for scaling the technology.

The new scheme creates a photonic blockchain using a photonic integrated circuit, the small metallic rectangle.

CREDIT

Stanford University

Precise, lower-power computation

The experimental results achieved with the silicon photonic chip matched those obtained using simulated error predictions. “Our results suggest that LightHash can be feasibly computed at scale using current silicon photonic chip technology,” said Pai. “Essentially, we have devised a way to use analog optical circuits to perform multiplications at near zero power dissipation yet precisely enough for use in a digital encryption scheme.”

For LightHash to demonstrate considerable advantages over digital equivalents, it must be scaled up to 64 inputs and outputs. The researchers are also working to further reduce energy consumption by designing low-power electromechanical tuning elements and energy-efficient converters to turn the optical signals into electrical signals.

They say that because the new chip accelerates matrix multiplication, the most computationally intensive operation for AI applications, it could also help make training and application of photonic neural networks more energy efficient compared to conventional digital implementations.

“It will be interesting to see how cryptocurrency technology evolves and to what extent photonics can contribute to the increasingly mainstream role of decentralized ledgers in society today,” said Pai.

Paper: S. Pai, T. Park, M. Ball, B. Penkovsky, M. Dubrovsky, N. Arebe, M. Milanizadeh, F. Morichetti, A. Melloni, S. Fan, O. Solgaard, D. A. B. Miller, “Experimental evaluation of digitally-verifiable photonic computing for blockchain and cryptocurrency,” 10, 4 (2023).

DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.476173

About Optica

Optica is an open-access journal dedicated to the rapid dissemination of high-impact peer-reviewed research across the entire spectrum of optics and photonics. Published monthly by Optica Publishing Group, the Journal provides a forum for pioneering research to be swiftly accessed by the international community, whether that research is theoretical or experimental, fundamental or applied. Optica maintains a distinguished editorial board of more than 60 associate editors from around the world and is overseen by Editor-in-Chief Prem Kumar, Northwestern University, USA. For more information, visit Optica.

About Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA)

Optica Publishing Group is a division of the society Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide. It publishes the largest collection of peer-reviewed content in optics and photonics, including 18 prestigious journals, the society’s flagship member magazine, and papers from more than 835 conferences, including 6,500+ associated videos. With over 400,000 journal articles, conference papers and videos to search, discover and access, Optica Publishing Group represents the full range of research in the field from around the globe.

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JOURNAL

Optica

DOI

10.1364/OPTICA.476173 

ARTICLE TITLE

Experimental evaluation of digitally-verifiable photonic computing for blockchain and cryptocurrency

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Apr-202

School of Science researchers use AI to innovate insect discovery

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS SCHOOL OF SCIENCE

INDIANAPOLIS — A team of researchers at the IUPUI School of Science have developed an innovative use of Artificial Intelligence to discover new species of insects.

The group, led by Dr. Christine Picard, a professor of Biology, and Dr. Murat Dundar, a professor of Computer Science aims to reduce the amount of time it takes to discover species. The process of insect discovery is currently time consuming because of how few experts there are in the field, and with factors such as climate change and habitat destruction, scientists are running out of time.

“Only about 20% of insect species have been described, as in people know they exist,” Picard said. “There are 80% of insect species that remain unknown. That’s a big problem. We’re losing species before we can identify them, and we don’t know what their impacts are in the ecosystem.”

Picard and Dundar’s team found the solution in AI by successfully leveraging a combination of state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning techniques, along with a vast amount of insect image and DNA data, to distinguish between known and unknown insect species.

Dundar says their approach was designed to tackle the real-world challenges of insect identification whereas current traditional methods are limited to recognizing only known species. The AI was trained to not only identify known species but then also distinguish them from unknown ones.

"In the past, such AI mechanisms would have classified any unknown specimen as an outlier, indicating that it doesn't belong to anything that exists. Our method can now accurately categorize these specimens, providing insight into where they fit within the existing taxonomy," said Dr. Sarkhan Badirli, the lead author of the study conducted during his time as a graduate student at IUPUI.

Other members of the team include IUPUI graduate student Frannie Richert, Dr. George Mohler, a professor of Computer Sciences at IUPUI, and Dr. Zeynep Akata, a professor of Computer Science at University of Tübingen.

The research, titled “Classifying the unknown: Insect identification with deep hierarchical Bayesian learning,” was recently featured in the peer reviewed journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

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JOURNAL

Methods in Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1111/2041-210X.14104 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Classifying the unknown: Insect identification with deep hierarchical Bayesian learning

Early-nesting ducks at increased risk due to changes in climate, land use

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

 

IMAGE: THE RESEARCHERS FOCUSED ON NINE DUCK SPECIES THAT HAVE TRADITIONALLY USED THE PRAIRIE POTHOLE REGION AS THEIR BREEDING GROUNDS: AMERICAN WIGEON, BLUE-WINGED TEAL (SHOWN HERE), CANVASBACK, GADWALL, MALLARD, NORTHERN PINTAIL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, REDHEAD AND RUDDY DUCK. view more 

CREDIT: DELTA WATERFOWL

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Each year approximately 10 million waterfowl fly north to their breeding grounds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, but the landscape that greets them has changed. Weather patterns and agricultural practices have significantly transformed the pothole-dotted native grasslands that waterfowl have used for thousands of years.

These changes have resulted in some waterfowl proliferating while others decline. According to a new study by a Penn State-led research team, nesting date is an important factor in determining winners and losers in the Prairie Pothole Region.

Waterfowl nest in a variety of habitats in the region, including idle grassland, cropland and over water, according to team leader Frances Buderman, assistant professor of quantitative wildlife ecology.

“But when early nesting ducks arrive in the Prairie Pothole Region, many fields are covered in debris left from the previous fall’s harvest, mainly stubble from cereal grains,” she said. “Although this habitat looks inviting, the eventual replanting of these fields, as opposed to leaving them fallow, makes the ducks more vulnerable to predators and often results in their nests being destroyed by agricultural activities such as tilling and planting.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service have monitored spring population abundances for North American waterfowl using the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey since 1955 — producing one of the largest datasets on vertebrate populations in the world.

These ducks are adapted to nest in mixed-grass prairie, and as that wild habitat has largely been replaced by agriculture in the Prairie Pothole Region, the birds are confused, Buderman explained.

“Last year’s stubble looks good to them from the air, but in reality, it does not offer the same advantages and protections that the grass does,” she said. “Over time, on a large scale, this association with cropland can lead to lower reproductive success and declining population numbers for early nesting ducks that breed in the region.”

In earlier research, Buderman’s research group in the College of Agricultural Sciences focused on northern pintail ducks, a species that has been in decline since the 1980s. They identified the proclivity of northern pintails to nest in agricultural fields as an “ecological trap” because the number of pintail the following year — a product of demographic processes, such as reproduction and survival — declined with increasing use of cropland.

However, the researchers were left wondering if the response of northern pintail was unique, possibly providing an explanation for the diverging trends in abundance among waterfowl in the region.

In findings published on April 24 in the Journal of Animal Ecology, Buderman and colleagues report that the timing of nesting is a key factor in determining the effect of nesting in cropland on demographic processes. Early nesting ducks had the strongest negative demographic responses to agricultural fields.

“This isn’t to say that all early nesting waterfowl are going to struggle,” Buderman said. “Early nesting ducks that don’t nest in cropland, and diving ducks such as canvasbacks, nest over water and are not likely to be impacted by this trap. Climate change, which may allow farmers to till and plant earlier in the spring, could make matters worse. An earlier spring warm-up could also lead to a mismatch between nesting activities and food availability.”

To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed data from the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey from 1958 to 2011 and focused on nine duck species that have traditionally used the Prairie Pothole Region as their breeding grounds: American wigeon, blue-winged teal, canvasback, gadwall, mallard, northern pintail, northern shoveler, redhead and ruddy duck.

The researchers estimated species-specific responses to climate and land-use variables in the region, which has changed from mixed-grass prairie to fields of cereal grain, oil crops, corn, wheat, sunflower and soybean.

They first estimated the effects of changes in climate and land-use variables on habitat-selection and population dynamics for the nine species, evaluating species-specific responses to environmental change. This allowed the researchers to see patterns in species-level responses and identify where species selected for variables that were detrimental to their population dynamics (such as northern pintail and cropland).

They found that northern pintail, American wigeon and blue-winged teal often had extreme responses to changes in habitat, although not always in the same way, Buderman pointed out.

 “Each of the species we studied reacted a bit differently to changes in climate and land-use,” she said. “We observed species-level differences in the demographic and habitat-selection responses to climate and land-use change, which would complicate community-level habitat management. Our work highlights the importance of multi-species monitoring and community-level analysis, even among closely related species.”

Contributing to this research were James Devries, Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, Ducks Unlimited Canada, and David Koons, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University.

This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Delta Waterfowl, California Department of Water Resources and the James C. Kennedy Endowment for Wetland and Waterfowl Conservation at Colorado State University.

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Researchers say not all early nesting waterfowl are struggling. Early nesting ducks that don’t nest in cropland, diving ducks such as canvasbacks (shown), nest over water and are not likely to be impacted by what could be a growing problem.

CREDIT

Delta Waterfowl

The Prairie Pothole Region, which spans the northern Great Plains of the United States and Canada, is the most important breeding area for many duck species on the continent.

CREDIT

Penn State

JOURNAL

Journal of Animal Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2656.13919 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A life-history spectrum of population responses to simultaneous change in climate and land use