Understanding greenhouse gases in oil palm plantations

Research team led by Göttingen University investigates nitrous oxide emissions in Jambi

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN

 

IMAGE: 

DRONE VIEW OF OIL PALM PLANTATION WITH TOWER TO MEASURE N2O EMISSIONS

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CREDIT: ANNAGGADIPA R. JAMBI

The rapid spread of oil palm plantations and associated high use of fertilizer raises concerns about the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful greenhouse gas. A new study by an international research team led by the University of Göttingen shows that oil palms’ photosynthesis and their response to meteorological and soil conditions play an important but still widely unexplored role in the amount of N2O produced by oil palm plantations. The results are important for strategies to reduce the negative impact of N2O emissions from oil palm cultivation by selecting appropriate locations and improving plantation management. The study was published in the journal Global Change Biology – Bioenergy.

During recent decades, rising global demand for cheap oils and fats has promoted the expansion of oil palm plantations in tropical regions. High yields of palm oil are typically achieved by a high use of fertilizer. However, high fertilizer levels or inappropriate timing of fertilizer application may cause environmental problems such as increased emissions of N2O. The scientists carried out their research in a mature plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, with the aim of quantifying N2O emissions in oil palm and assessing environmental and meteorological drivers of N2O emissions over different timescales.

“The timing and location of N2O emissions in oil palm plantations vary hugely, which means it is really difficult to estimate emissions. This has really hampered our understanding of cause-and-effect relationships,” says first author Dr Christian Stiegler from the Bioclimatology Group, University of Göttingen. “However, we found that variations in N2O emissions are strongly linked to oil palm metabolism and the oil palms’ response to meteorological and soil conditions. Over the course of the day, for instance, emissions were mainly related to oil palm photosynthesis. During the night, we could link the level of emissions to oil palm respiration and soil temperature. Over longer periods of time, meaning several days to several weeks, we found that changes in weather patterns, soil moisture and soil temperature directly impact oil palm photosynthesis, respiration and N2O production in the soil and therefore N2O emissions,” explains Stiegler. This multitude of drivers interacting over various time periods imposes high demands on how the effects could be measured. The study also shows that conventional measurement approaches that do not take into account how N2O is transported within individual oil palms risk underestimating N2O emissions from oil palm cultivation by 49%.

“The oil palm plantation that we studied is a strong local source of N2O, with up to 77% higher emissions compared to natural forest systems in Jambi province,” explains Professor Alexander Knohl, senior author and head of the Bioclimatology Group, University of Göttingen. “This research highlights how important it is to quantify N2O emissions in oil palm and to understand their dynamics and the controlling factors. This will allow farmers to develop optimal fertilizer management systems adapted to the age of the palms, nitrogen requirements of each plant, and local soil and climate condition for mitigating the negative impacts of oil palm cultivation by reducing N2O emissions.”

This research is part of the German-Indonesian Collaborative Research Centre “Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (EFForTS)”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Further information can be found here: www.uni-goettingen.de/efforts.

Original publication: Christian Stiegler et al. Temporal variation in nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from an oil palm plantation in Indonesia: an ecosystem-scale analysis. Global Change Biology – Bioenergy. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.13088

https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/544871.html

Ecosystem-scale measurement system and view from the tower over oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia.

CREDIT

Christian Stiegler

JOURNAL

GCB Bioenergy

DOI

10.1111/gcbb.13088 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Temporal variation in nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from an oil palm plantation in Indonesia: an ecosystem-scale analysis

 

Despite denouncements, conversion practices remain prevalent for sexual and gender minority individuals - with estimates centering on 1 in 10 - and prevalence differences by country, race and sex assignment at birth

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Despite denouncements, conversion practices remain prevalent for sexual and gender minority individuals - with estimates centering on 1 in 10 - and prevalence differences by country, race and sex assignment at birth

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Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0291768

Article Title: A systematic review of the prevalence of lifetime experience with ‘conversion’ practices among sexual and gender minority populations

Author Countries: Canada

Funding: TS, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PCS - 168193) https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0291768 

ARTICLE TITLE

A systematic review of the prevalence of lifetime experience with ‘conversion’ practices among sexual and gender minority populations

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Oct-2023

 

Prehistoric people occupied upland regions of inland Spain in even the coldest periods of the last Ice Age

15,000-21,000 years ago, inland Iberia may have been more populated than traditionally thought

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE CHARCO VERDE II ARCHEOLOGICAL DEPOSIT DURING THE 2021 EXCAVATION SEASON. view more 

CREDIT: ARAGONCILLO-DEL RÍO ET AL., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Paleolithic human populations survived even in the coldest and driest upland parts of Spain, according to a study published October 4, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Manuel Alcaraz-Castaño of the University of Alcalá, Spain, Javier Aragoncillo-del Rió of the Molina-Alto Tajo UNESCO Global Geopark, Spain and colleagues.

Research into ancient hunter-gatherer populations of the Iberian Peninsula has mainly focused on coastal regions, with relatively little investigation into the inland. A classic hypothesis has been that the cold and dry conditions of inland Iberia would have been too harsh for such populations to inhabit during the coldest periods of the Last Glacial, but recent findings have begun to challenge this view. In this study, researchers report new evidence for high-altitude human occupation from the Upper Paleolithic of Spain.

This evidence comes from a site called Charco Verde II, located in the Guadalajara province. This site is situated over 1,000 meters above sea level, in one of the coldest regions of Spain. Despite this, the abundance of tools and ornaments at the site reveals a recurring sequence of human occupation between around 21,000 and 15,000 years ago. This time span is especially notable since it includes two of the coldest periods of the Last Glacial.

This discovery further challenges the idea that Upper Palaeolithic humans avoided inland Iberia due to its harsh climate, and instead shows that the inland hosted complex and relatively dense settlements even during very cold and arid periods. These findings add to the growing evidence for Middle and Upper Paleolithic occupations throughout this region, altogether indicating that the historic lack of evidence for hunter-gatherer sites in inland Iberia is not an accurate reflection of prehistoric human distributions, but instead a result of modern research hitherto prioritizing study of coastal regions and neglecting the inland.

Selection of lithic artifacts collected at the Charco Verde II site. All come from Level 1 except number 3, which was found on the ground Surface of the archeological deposit, and number 6, recorded at the fluvial terrace below the slope. 1 & 4: Endscrapers on blades. 2, 3 & 6: Canted dihedral burins. 5 & 7: Large blades. 8: Unidirectional blade core. 9: Backed bladelet. 10: Denticulated backed bladelet. 11: Unidirectional bladelet core.

CREDIT

Aragoncillo-del Río et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0291516

Citation: Aragoncillo-del Río J, Alcolea-González J-J, Luque L, Castillo-Jiménez S, Jiménez-Gisbert G, López-Sáez J-A, et al. (2023) Human occupations of upland and cold environments in inland Spain during the Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1: The new Magdalenian sequence of Charco Verde II. PLoS ONE 18(10): e0291516. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291516

Author Countries: Spain

Funding: This research has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC) (https://erc.europa.eu/homepage) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 805478; MULTIPALEOIBERIA project: https://multipaleoiberia.com/; Principal Investigator: MA-C). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0291516 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Human occupations of upland and cold environments in inland Spain during the Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1: The new Magdalenian sequence of Charco Verde II

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Oct-2023

Analysis of grinding tools reveals plant, pigment and bone processing in Neolithic Northern Saudi Arabia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF GEOANTHROPOLOGY

 

IMAGE: 

RE-FIT OF A GRINDING STONE FROM JEBEL ORAF

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CREDIT: CERI SHIPTON

In recent years, studies have revealed that the now-arid region of northern Arabia was once much wetter and greener, providing Neolithic human populations with access to both water and game. The present aridity of the region, however, preserves little organic matter, making a reconstruction of the Neolithic lifestyle difficult.

Now, in a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Heritage Science (CNR ISPC), and University College London present use-wear analysis of grinding tools recovered from Jebel Oraf in the Nefud desert of Saudi Arabia, revealing new insights into this little-understood chapter of the human story. Use-wear analysis shows that grinding tools were used for the processing of bone, pigment and plants, and were sometimes re-used for different purposes during their life span, before finally being broken up and placed on hearths.

In the new study, researchers use high-powered microscopes to compare use-wear patterns on the archaeological tools with those on experimental tools. In experiments, the grinding of grains, other plants, bone or pigment produces distinctive macro- and micro-traces on the tools’ used surface, including fractures, edge rounding of individual grains, levelled areas, striations, and different types of polish. These distinctive traces were also identified on the Neolithic grinding tools, allowing the scientists to determine which materials were being processed. 

Although faunal remains have previously revealed that meat was cooked and consumed at Jebel Oraf, wear patterns indicate that meat and bones were first processed on grindstones, revealing the possibility that bones were broken to access bone marrow.

Grinding tools were also used to process plants. While there is no evidence for domesticated grains in northern Arabia in this period, the authors argue that wild plants were ground and perhaps baked into simple breads.

“The hearths where we found the grinding tools were extremely short-lived, and people may have been very mobile – breads would have made a good and easily transportable food for them,” says Maria Guagnin, researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and one of the study’s lead authors.

The researchers also found evidence of pigment processing, which they argue may be linked to Neolithic paintings. Their findings reveal that pigment was ground and processed on a much larger scale than previously assumed, suggesting there may have been more painted Neolithic rock art than the few surviving panels suggest.

“It is clear grinding tools were important for the Neolithic occupants of Jebel Oraf. Many were heavily used, and some even had holes in them that suggest they were transported. That means people carried heavy grinding tools with them and their functionality must have been an important element in daily life,” says Giulio Lucarini of the National Research Council of Italy, the study’s other lead author.

This type of analysis has only rarely been applied to archaeological materials from the Arabian peninsula, but can provide important information on the manufacture, use, and re-use of grinding tools, which in turn provides insight into the subsistence, economy, and art of the people who produced them.

Researchers involved in this study work in close partnership with the Saudi Ministry of Culture. Additional partners include King Saud University and key institutions in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0291085 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Plant, pigment, and bone processing in the Neolithic of northern Arabia – New evidence from use-wear analysis of grinding tools at Jebel Oraf

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Oct-2023

 

Early human migrants followed lush corridor-route out of Africa

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

 

IMAGE: 

ONE OF TWO FLAKES, OR HAND TOOLS, SEEN FROM THREE DIFFERENT ANGLES, DISCOVERED IN THE JORDAN RIFT VALLEY. THE FLAKES HELPED SCIENTISTS DATE HUMAN MIGRATION.

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CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

An international team of scientists has found early human migrants left Africa for Eurasia, across the Sinai peninsula and on through Jordan, over 80-thousand years ago.

Researchers from the University of Southampton (UK) and Shantou University (China), together with colleagues in Jordan, Australia and the Czech Republic(1), have proved there was a “well-watered corridor” which funnelled hunter-gatherers through The Levant towards western Asia and northern Arabia via Jordan.

Their findings, published in the journal Science Advances, support previous research conducted in Arabia suggesting this green, overland route, which is now desert, was favoured by travelling Homo sapiens heading north.

‘Modern’ humans evolved in Africa between 300 and 200 thousand years ago and dispersed out of the continent in several stages. It’s thought that over tens of thousands of years they went on to populate Asia and then Europe.

For this latest research, the team conducted fieldwork in the Jordan Rift Valley where they uncovered hand tools, known as ‘flakes’, on the edge of wadis – now dry river channels which, tens of thousands of years ago, were full of water. The scientists used luminescence dating techniques to help establish the age of the sediment the tools were buried in. This method estimates how long it has been since sediment was last exposed to light.

The results showed the tools were likely to have been used approximately 84 thousand years ago and then abandoned on the banks of the wadis and subsequently buried over time.

Paul Carling, Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Southampton, comments: “It’s long been thought that when the sea level was low, humans used a southern crossing, via the Red Sea from the horn of Africa, to get to southwestern Arabia. However, our study confirms there was a well-trodden passage to the north, across the only land-route from Africa to Eurasia.

“Our newly published evidence is a key piece of the puzzle that shows humans migrated using a northern route – using small wetland areas as bases whilst hunting abundant wildlife in the drier grasslands.   Although previous studies have looked for large lakes as potential watering holes, in fact small wetlands were very important as staging posts during the migration.”

Dr Mahmoud Abbas, the study’s lead author from Shantou University, China, said: “The Levant acted as a well-watered corridor for modern humans to disperse out of Africa during the last interglacial, and we have now demonstrated this is the case in the Jordan Rift Valley zone.

“The paleohydrological evidence from the Jordan desert enhances our understanding of the environmental setting at that time. Rather than dry desert, savannah grasslands would have provided the much-needed resources for humans to survive during their journey out of Africa and into southwest Asia and beyond.”

The researchers say their study demonstrates the intimate relationship between climate change, human survival and migrations.

Ends

Notes to Editors

1. The institutions partnering on this research project are Shantou University (China), University of Southampton (UK), Czech Academy of Sciences, Yarmouk University (Jordan), University of Jordan, Jiaying University (China), Griffith University (Australia), University of Queensland (Australia) and Smithsonian Institute (USA).
    
2. The paper ‘Human dispersals out of Africa via the Levant’ is due to be published in the journal Science Advances – DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi6838. More information, including a copy of the paper, can be found online at the Science Advances press package at https://www.eurekalert.org/press/vancepak/  
    
3. For interviews with Professor Paul Carling contact, Peter Franklin, Media Relations, University of Southampton. press@soton.ac.uk 07748 321087.
    
4. You can download images to accompany the embargoed press release and find captions and credits (in the jpg names) here: https://safesend.soton.ac.uk/pickup?claimID=bfGfUF8TfDZgHDgw&claimPasscode=F7YzqvjMJ8oNNntK&emailAddr=141258
    
5. The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2023). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk
    
6. For more about the School of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton visit: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/about/faculties-schools-departments/school-of-geography-and-environmental-science

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A second flake, or hand tool, seen from three different angles, discovered in the Jordan Rift Valley. The flakes helped scientists date human migration.

Dr Mahmoud Abass (Shantou University) on left, Professor Paul Carling (University of Southampton) in centre and Dr John Jansen (Czech Academy of Sciences) on right, in the field in Jordan Rift Valley.

CREDIT

University of Southampton

General view of Wadi Gharandal riverine wetland along the Jordan Rift Valley.

Sampling for luminescence dating from Wadi Hasa area.

CREDIT

Dr Mohammed Alqudah/Yarmouk University

JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adi6838 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Human dispersals out of Africa via the Levant

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Oct-2023

 

Study investigates Australian climate interventions including solar geoengineering, introductions of adapted corals to the Great Barrier Reef and cloud forest conservation, identifying both synergies and trade-offs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Study investigates Australian climate interventions including solar geoengineering, introductions of adapted corals to the Great Barrier Reef and cloud forest conservation, identifying both synergies and trade-offs.

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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000221

Article Title: Coral reefs, cloud forests and radical climate interventions in Australia’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef

Author Countries: Denmark, UK, USA

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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DOI

10.1371/journal.pclm.0000221 

ARTICLE TITLE

Coral reefs, cloud forests and radical climate interventions in Australia’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Oct-2023

 

Staying dry for months underwater

Researchers develop stable, long-lasting superhydrophobic surfaces

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD JOHN A. PAULSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: 

A AEROPHILIC SURFACE MADE FROM A COMMONLY USED AND INEXPENSIVE TITANIUM ALLOY WITH A LONG-LASTING PLASTRON KEEPS DRY DURING HUNDREDS OF DUNKS IN A PETRI DISH OF BLOOD. 

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CREDIT: CREDIT: ALEXANDER B. TESLER/FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN-NÜRNBERG

A species of spider lives its entire life underwater, despite having lungs that can only breathe atmospheric oxygen. How does it do it? This spider, known as the Argyroneta aquatica, has millions of rough, water-repellent hairs that trap air around its body, creating an oxygen reservoir and acting as a barrier between the spider’s lungs and the water. 

This thin layer of air is called a plastron and for decades, material scientists have been trying to harness its protective effects. Doing so could lead to underwater superhydrophobic surfaces able to prevent corrosion, bacterial growth, the adhesion of marine organisms, chemical fouling, and other deleterious effects of liquid on surfaces. But plastrons have proved highly unstable under water, keeping surfaces dry for only a matter of hours in the lab.

Now, a team of researchers led by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, and Aalto University in Finland have developed a superhydrophobic surface with a stable plastron that can last for months under water. The team’s general strategy to create long-lasting underwater superhydrophobic surfaces, which repel blood and drastically reduce or prevent the adhesion of bacterial and marine organisms such as barnacles and mussels, opens a range of applications in biomedicine and industry. 

“Research in bioinspired materials is an extremely exciting area that continues to bring into the realm of man-made materials elegant solutions evolved in nature, which allow us to introduce new materials with properties never seen before,” said Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at SEAS and co-author of the paper. “This research exemplifies how uncovering these principles can lead to developing surfaces that maintain superhydrophobicity under water.”

Aizenberg is also an associate faculty member of the Wyss Institute.

The research is published in Nature Materials. 

Researchers have known for 20 years that a stable, underwater plastron was theoretically possible but, until now, haven’t been able to show it experimentally.

One of the biggest issues with plastrons is that they need rough surfaces to form, like the hair of Argyroneta aquatica. But this roughness makes the surface mechanically unstable and susceptible to any small perturbation in temperature, pressure, or tiny defect. 

Current techniques to assess artificially made superhydrophobic surfaces only take into account two parameters, which don't give enough information about the stability of the air plastron underwater. Aizenberg, Jaakko V. I. Timonen and Robin H. A. Ras from Aalto University, and Alexander B. Tesler and Wolfgang H. Goldmann from FAU and their teams identified a larger group of parameters, including information on surface roughness, the hydrophobicity of the surface molecules, plastron coverage, contact angles, and more, which, when combined with thermodynamic theory, allowed them to figure out if the air plastron would be stable.

With this new method and a simple manufacturing technique, the team designed a so-called aerophilic surface from a commonly used and inexpensive titanium alloy with a long-lasting plastron that kept the surface dry thousands of hours longer than previous experiments and even longer than the plastrons of living species. 

“We used a characterization method that had been suggested by theorists 20 years ago to prove that our surface is stable, which means that not only have we made a novel type of extremely repellent, extremely durable superhydrophobic surface, but we can also have a pathway of doing it again with a different material,” said Tesler, a former postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and the Wyss Institute, and lead author of the paper. 

To prove the stability of the plastron, the researchers put the surface through the ringer — bending it, twisting it, blasting it with hot and cold water, and abrading it with sand and steel to block the surface remaining aerophilic. It survived 208 days submerged in water and hundreds of dunks in a petri dish of blood. It severely reduced the growth of E.coli and barnacles on its surface and stopped the adhesion of mussels altogether. 

“The stability, simplicity, and scalability of this system make it valuable for real-world applications,” said Stefan Kolle, a graduate student at SEAS and co-author of the paper. “With the characterization approach shown here, we demonstrate a simple toolkit that allows you to optimize your superhydrophobic surface to reach stability, which dramatically changes your application space.”

That application space includes biomedical applications, where it could be used to reduce infection after surgery or as biodegradable implants such as stents, according to Goldmann, senior author of the paper, and former Harvard fellow. It also includes underwater applications, where it could prevent corrosion in pipelines and sensors. In the future, it could even be used in combination with the super-slick coating known as SLIPS, the Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces, developed by Aizenberg and her team more than a decade ago, to protect surfaces even further from contamination. 

This paper was co-authored by Lucia H. Prado, Ingo Thievessen, David Böhringer, Lena Fischer, Mark Bruns, Anca Mazare, Ulrich Lohbauer, Sannakaisa Virtanen, Ben Fabry, Patrik Schmuki, and Wolfgang H. Goldmann of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany; and  Matilda Backholm, Bhuvaneshwari Karunakaran, Heikki A. Nurmi, Mika Latikka, Zoran M. Cenev, Jaakko V. I. Timonen and Robin H. A. Ras of Aalto University in Finland; and Shane Stafslien of North Dakota State University.

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JOURNAL

Nature Materials

 

Pandemic boosted gardening, hunting in NYS

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

A survey of New York state residents found that nearly half of respondents increased the amount of time they spent on wild and backyard food in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, confirming anecdotes about increases in activities such as sourdough baking, fishing and gardening. People also tended to eat the food they produced, researchers found, possibly buffering the generally less healthful eating that was common at the time.

“This was the period of 2020 when you couldn't find tomato cages, seeds were out of stock, and there were reports about record numbers of people hunting and fishing,” said Kathryn Fiorella, assistant professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University and senior author of “Wild and Backyard Food Use During COVID-19 in Upstate New York, United States,” published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

The researchers conducted a survey of more than 500 people across Broome, Cortland, Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga and Seneca counties. Participants reported on their production and consumption of wild and backyard foods – from gardening, poultry rearing, foraging and hunting and/or fishing – during the pandemic compared with the previous year. Because respondents were recruited in a convenience sample, they likely overrepresented interest in these activities. They also tended to be whiter, more educated and wealthier than average New Yorkers.

Results showed that only a small number of participants were new to wild and backyard food-related pursuits, and across different activities, 40% to 46% of people increased the amount of time they invested. Conversely, a notable minority of respondents reduced their activities.

The researchers were especially interested to see whether people also consumed the food they produced. Indeed, they did. While diets generally worsened during the pandemic, gardening and poultry rearing for meat and eggs may have contributed to buffering those effects in the study region.

“People were actually consuming really meaningful quantities,” Fiorella said, including home-produced eggs and meat, and backyard-grown fruits and vegetables.

“People reported harvesting and eating wild and backyard foods to have more control over food availability, a key dimension of food insecurity, compared to before the pandemic,” said doctoral student Jeanne Coffin-Schmitt. “This was true even though the people we surveyed were almost entirely considered food secure based on their responses. We think this could show how much anxiety about conventional food systems the pandemic inspired.”

 

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story. 

Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews.

 

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Nutrition

ARTICLE TITLE

Wild and backyard food use during COVID-19 in upstate New York, United States