People who purchased guns during buying surge more likely to have suicidal thoughts

Rutgers study points to need for policies on safe storage, waiting periods and suicide risk screening

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MICHAEL ANESTIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW JERSEY GUN VIOLENCE RESEARCH CENTER AT RUTGERS AND AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT RUTGERS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: RAYMOND CLINKSCALE, RUTGERS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

People who purchased firearms during the 2020–2021 purchasing surge – particularly first-time buyers – were more likely to have thoughts of suicide, according to a Rutgers study.

The study appears in JAMA Network Open.

The researchers surveyed 6,404 adults from New Jersey, Minnesota and Mississippi and found that surge purchasers were more likely than other firearm owners and non-firearm owners to report suicidal thoughts during their lifetime, the previous year and previous month. Although firearm access is associated with a risk for suicide, the study found that first-time firearm owners who purchased a gun during this period were more likely than established firearm owners to report lifetime and past-year suicidal ideation.

According to the study, about 6 percent of U.S. residents purchased a firearm between March 2020 and mid-July 2020. Of these, 34 percent were first-time buyers, a rate higher than typical. The states in the study were chosen due to their difference in geography, demographics, political climate, firearm ownership rates, firearm purchasing laws, gun violence rates and culture.

This unprecedented surge in firearm sales over the last year throughout the United States was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the contentious election season and the racial justice movement after the death of George Floyd.

The Rutgers study found that 56 percent of surge purchasers have experienced lifetime suicidal thoughts compared to 32 percent of non-firearm owners and 28 percent of other firearm owners. Over the past year, 42 percent of surge purchasers reported suicidal thoughts versus 23 percent of non-firearm owners and 18 percent of other firearm owners. Also, 20 percent of surge purchasers reported suicidal thoughts in the past month compared to 11 percent of non-firearm owners and 7 percent of other firearm owners. Almost 40 percent of these buyers store at least one firearm unlocked.

Surge purchasers were more likely than other firearm owners to use locking devices (36 percent vs. 26 percent), but less likely to store firearms unloaded in a closet or drawer (22 percent vs 30 percent). Among surge purchasers, first-time firearm owners were less likely than established firearm owners to use gun safes (39 percent vs. 52 percent) or store loaded firearms hidden in a closet or drawer (11 percent vs. 18 percent).  In contrast, first-time firearm owners were more likely to use locking devices (42 percent vs. 29 percent).

“These findings highlight that individuals who made the decision to become firearm owners during the purchasing surge exhibit a higher risk for suicidal thoughts than typical firearm owners,” said lead author Michael Anestis, executive director, New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers and an associate professor at Rutgers School of Public Health. “The fact that suicidal thoughts were particularly common among surge purchasers who became first time firearm owners is an important consideration given data demonstrating an elevated suicide rate in the months following the first acquisition of a firearm.”

The study illustrates the need to implement policies and interventions that increase safety among firearm purchasers, such as safe firearm storage and temporary storage of firearms away from home during times of stress, as well as policies that promote different forms of protection, such as home alarm systems.\

“This approach needs to be supplemented with practical tools such as information on different options for safe firearm storage, incentives for both retailer and consumer to purchase safe storage equipment and information on where firearm owners can legally and temporarily store firearms outside the home,” Anestis said. He also called for better legislation on safe storage, waiting periods and mandating of suicide risk screening questions during firearm purchases.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.32111 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Oct-2021

 

Association of Racial Disparity of Cannabis Possession Arrests Among Adults and Youths With Statewide Cannabis Decriminalization and Legalization

Brynn E. Sheehan, PhD^1,2; Richard A. Grucza, PhD^3,4; Andrew D. Plunk, PhD⁵

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Health Forum. 2021;2(10):e213435. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.3435

Key Points

Question  How are statewide cannabis policies (eg, legalization, decriminalization, no policy change) associated with cannabis arrest rate racial disparities among adults and youths?

Findings  In this case-control study of 43 US states with and without cannabis policy changes, decriminalization and legalization were associated with large reductions in race-based arrests among adults; however, the timing of effects suggests differential policy effects. Among youth, only decriminalization was associated with reductions in arrests and arrest disparities; cannabis arrests for adults and youth increased over time in states that did not implement a cannabis policy change.

Meaning  The study findings suggest that increases in arrest rate disparities in states without legalization or decriminalization highlight the need for targeted interventions to address racial injustice.

Abstract

Importance  Despite calls for cannabis decriminalization and legalization, research investigating the association of policy with arrest rates and racial disparities is scarce.

Objectives  To examine racial differences in cannabis arrest rates among adults and youths after statewide decriminalization, legalization, and no policy changes.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This case-control study used race-based arrest data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results county-level population data from January 2000 through December 2019. Data were analyzed in July 2021. Event-study analyses based on the arrest rates from 43 US states were conducted to compare preimplementation and postimplementation differences in arrest rates for states with decriminalization, legalization, and no policy changes.

Exposures  Nine states implemented legalization, 8 implemented decriminalization, and 26 had no policy change.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Outcome measures were cannabis arrest rates for Black and White adults and youths per year and by state, while controlling for several covariates.

Results  Rates were reported per 100 000. When comparing absolute differences in arrests from January to December 2008 (before policy changes) to January to December 2019, legalization was associated with 561 and 195 fewer arrests and decriminalization with 448.6 and 117.1 fewer arrests for Black and White adults, respectively. States without a policy change saw reductions of 47.5 and 33.0 arrests for Black and White adults, respectively. Among youth, legalization was associated with 131.1 and 131.2 fewer arrests and decriminalization with 156.1 and 124.7 fewer arrests for Black and White youths, respectively. Among states without a policy change, arrests reduced by 35 and 52.4 for Black and White youths, respectively. Plotted trends of the arrest ratios from January 2000 through December 2019 suggests racial disparities remained over time. Event-study analyses suggest that decriminalization was associated with an arrest rate reduction for Black and White adults and youths. The timing of reductions suggests differential policy effects. Arrest disparities increased in states that did not have a cannabis policy change.

Conclusions and Relevance  In this case-control study of states with and without cannabis decriminalization and legalization policies, increased arrest rate disparities in states without either policy highlight the need for targeted interventions to address racial injustice.

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JAMA Health Forum – Health Policy, Health Care Reform, Health Affairs | JAMA Health Forum | JAMA Network

This squirrel watches its neighbor's back

Barbary ground squirrels look for predators together as a survival strategy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER ANNEMARIE VAN DER MAREL STUDIES THE BEHAVIOR OF BARBARY GROUND SQUIRRELS IN THE CANARY ISLANDS. view more 

CREDIT: ANNEMARIE VAN DER MAREL

Just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean everything isn’t actually trying to kill you.

Ground squirrels have few natural defenses against predators, so they rely on an early warning system to identify threats and alert others to run for cover.

But unlike meerkats that take individual turns standing watch while the rest forage, ground squirrels found off the coast of Africa keep watch together — a behavior called synchronous vigilance, according to a new study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Lead author Annemarie van der Marel, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cincinnati, spent three winters studying Barbary ground squirrels, an invasive species introduced to the Canary Islands from Morocco on Africa’s mainland. The almond-eyed, striped rodents with bushy tails live in colonies and take shelter underground in a network of burrows like other ground squirrels.

“They’re pretty cute. People had them as pets and that’s how they were introduced to the Canary Islands in 1965,” she said.

“I looked at whether and why they were social. I began studying the strategies for how they evade predation and increase survival. That’s how I got to the question of the synchronous vigilance of the species,” she said.

Prey animals such as kangaroos and wild boar also use synchronous vigilance to stay safe, van der Marel said.

Co-author Marta López Darias, a researcher with the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology in Spain, said the synchronized behavior increased with the size of the group, similar to observations made in other species that use this defense mechanism.

Unusual for ground squirrels, the populations found in the Canary Islands are as comfortable in the trees as on the ground, she said. They seem to prefer high vantage points such as the old rock walls above the fields and ravines where they can scan all angles of their surroundings. On the Canary Islands’ Fuerteventura, the squirrels face daily threats from domestic cats and birds of prey like buzzards and common kestrels.

“When they forage, they’re most vulnerable,” van der Marel said. “So the squirrels have to balance the time spent foraging and being vigilant. Their main defense mechanism is being watchful and alerting other group members to escape predation.”

To find food, the squirrels set out daily from their underground dens to forage for roots, seeds and fruit. Active in the day, they rely on their keen vision to detect threats from the air and land. The alarm call of a nearby squirrel will alert others and may send some running for the safety of rock piles or the nearest burrow. Often, other squirrels will join in the watchful vigil.

The animals can’t look for food and be on high alert for predators at the same time. So throughout the day they stop what they’re doing to scan the environment together, often from a higher vantage point, van der Marel said.

Virtually all the squirrels spend time standing watch during the day. About one-third of the time, they do so alone. But 40% of the time, they have company. And when a predator is observed, multiple squirrels stop to stand watch 60% of the time, the study found.

Researchers found that squirrels that spent more time watching still found enough food to remain in good physical condition. Likewise, their extended vigilance did not affect their overall survival rates.

“There are plentiful resources and less predation pressure, so they don’t have to forage as much,” she said.

CAPTION

Barbary ground squirrels were introduced to the Canary Islands in 1965.

CREDIT

Annemarie van der Marel

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JOURNAL

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

DOI

10.1007/s00265-021-03094-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Barbary ground squirrels do not have a sentinel system but instead synchronize vigilance

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Oct-2021

COI STATEMENT

No conflicts of interest or competing interests.

Drones, bots and self-driving cars: How this new Kanata North innovation centre will help drive the future of autonomous vehicles

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

“It’s a place of limitless imagination,” says uOttawa professor Burak Kantarci about the Faculty of Engineering’s new Smart Connected Vehicles Innovation Centre, which opened its doors in October. Located in uOttawa’s Kanata North campus, in the heart of Canada’s largest technology park, the centre will help the tech industry accelerate the autonomous vehicle innovation.

The term “autonomous vehicle,” or “smart vehicle,” refers to any vehicle equipped with decision-making systems and sensors that allow it to perceive its surroundings. Self-driving cars typically come to mind, but drones and bots are also part of this ecosystem.

“What excites me most is that we’re essentially envisioning the future of this technology, which will soon be ubiquitous and indispensable to society,” says Kantarci. “We’re working with industry on different topics simultaneously and finding solutions to problems that the tech world is facing. It’s never just a single problem or a single solution, so it requires a lot of imagination.”

The centre offers rapid, low-cost experimentation for connected and autonomous vehicles, including self-driving car prototypes, drones and certain types of ground bots. Its research will focus primarily on problem-solving issues related to the connectivity, physical and cyber security, decision making and sustainability of vehicles and networks.

“In other words, we design experiments to assess how these vehicles talk to each other and their connected units, making sure they maintain healthy communication, making sure sensors aren’t compromised, so they don’t break down,” Kantarci says. “We try to anticipate where anomalies can occur in the platforms and find ways to reconfigure networks to avoid these anomalies happening in the first place, so there is no service disruption for the end user.”

What makes the centre unique is that it’s an open access research facility. Not only is it embedded in one of Canada’s largest technology development hubs, but it is also positioned to bring together experts from various fields — social scientists, economists, ethics and compliance specialists, and decision-makers, alongside engineers and computer scientists — to maximize innovation.

“The Smart Connected Vehicles Innovation Centre is vital to realizing our vision of building a successful technology ecosystem in Kanata North,” says Sylvain Charbonneau, vice-president, research at the University of Ottawa. “Its forward-looking research will be a valuable asset to the development of real-life applications in this rapidly growing industry.”

“This new, highly relevant research infrastructure, complemented with some of our brightest talent, offers a compelling advantage to our industry partners looking to de-risk and accelerate prototyping of their solutions for faster time to market,” says Veronica Farmer, director, partnerships and commercialization, at uOttawa Kanata North.

The centre’s indoor experimental test bed has been paired with state-of-the-art computing infrastructure for collecting vast amounts of data, along with powerful workstations for running advanced machine-learning models.

“One of the biggest challenges starting out in this field was finding data,” says Kantarci. “Through our experiments, we will be able to generate this data in real time and for any scenario. And that’s what’s most valuable. It’s going to be our fuel of the next decade.”

Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through its Alliance grants program, Kantarci’s research team and its collaborators recently developed a strategy to send AI-driven autonomous vehicles serving as COVID-19 rapid testing facilities into vulnerable, at-risk communities to help them reduce the spread of the virus.

First, they used mobility data to identify where infected populations might be located. Then they assessed the risk levels for different regions or communities, to map out optimal trajectories and use their mobile testing facilities to identify individuals who had contracted the virus as early as possible.

The AI-driven decision models could also help health officials and supply chain solution providers make more effective decisions amid the current pandemic or a future health crisis.

“For a long time, vehicles were not much more than a means of transportation,” says Kantarci. “But from now on, and in the future, connected autonomous vehicles are going to be used for everything, everywhere.”

A better way to raise chickens for low-intensity, small stakeholders

Researchers introduce new production model to improve Rwandan broiler industry

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE

 

IMAGE: USING IMPROVED BREEDS AND MODERN PRACTICES, RWANDAN FARMERS ARE EMPOWERED TO RAISE 100-BIRD FLOCKS AS A SOURCE OF INCOME AND NUTRITION. view more 

CREDIT: UTIA

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – How can rural producers in Rwanda better produce chicken for both household consumption and profit? University of Tennessee researchers are suggesting a hybrid model for the Rwandan broiler industry, among other improvements, in a new journal article. 

“Strengthening smallholder engagement and integration in the Rwandan commercial broiler value chain” delves into the broiler industry in Rwanda. Through a four-year pilot project with the Smith International Center, researchers partnered with a Rwandan feedmill, Zamura Feeds Ltd., to test a poultry production model with smallholders. Through this project, the US and Rwandan teams examined the broiler supply chain, and identified ways to improve the broiler industry in Rwanda. The effort was funded under the umbrella of a Global Development Alliance (GDA), which leverages public-private partnerships, in this case between: USAID/Rwanda; a US-based foundation, the African Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP); a Rwandan animal feed company, Zamura Feeds Ltd.; and a U.S. land-grant institution, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA). 

The pilot project employed a private extension model to train, supply resources for, and support 500 smallholder households to successfully produce broiler chickens to modern industry standards for consumption and market sale. Trained farmers raise broilers in their own bio-secure 100 sq. ft. coop, with 100 birds on a 45-day grow-out cycle. Through the provision of micro-loans for capital and recurring expenses and guaranteed broiler chicken buyback at the end of each grow-out cycle, the goal was to create a sustainable model for small-scale broiler production that can be scaled up throughout Rwanda and the surrounding region. 

“Smallholders in Rwanda make up over 80% of farmers and cultivate less than 2.2 acres of land on average. Many farmers already raise chickens in traditional backyard settings, primarily for home consumption,” said Hans Goertz, the project administrator and co-author of the article. “In a densely populated, mountainous country such as Rwanda, intensifying poultry production presents an avenue for households to diversify and improve their income and nutrition.”

Currently, the Rwandan broiler industry consists of smallholders and large poultry operations. The smallholders operate most farms in Rwanda, but they are limited to low-intensity, village poultry production. Large operations and importers supply the commercial meat market in East Africa.

However, hybrid asset-building broiler operations are a third production model that provide an entry point for smallholders in the broiler industry. Integrating this method would allow the small operations to increase production and profitability.

To scale up this model, the researchers had several suggestions across the broiler value chain, including: reducing the recurring costs of production; providing value chain trainings; facilitating microfinancing; reducing post-harvest costs; increasing local demand for broiler meat; and strengthening policies in support of smallholders.

“Hybrid production models like the one described in this article provide a way for smallholder farmers to start broiler enterprises and compete with larger producers in the market,” Goertz said, “We hope that this body of research contributes to a more vibrant, inclusive broiler sector that provides economic opportunities and affordable animal protein for East African communities.”

Researchers on the project are Tom Gill, Smith Chair in International Sustainable Agriculture; Regis Nisengwe, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, UTIA; Hans Goertz, project development specialist, and David Ader, assistant director, both with the UTIA Smith International Center; Katie McGehee, director of the African Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP); Ritah Nshuti, chief operations officer, Zamura, Ltd.; Alon Gumisiriza, poultry technician manager, Zamura, Ltd.; Mike Smith, professor of animal science, UTIA (retired); and Emily Urban, graduate student, School of Integrative Plant Science Soil and Crop Sciences Section, Cornell University. 

The full journal article, “Strengthening smallholder engagement and integration in the Rwandan commercial broiler value chain” was published October 8, 2021, in World's Poultry Science Journal. 

Through its mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. utia.tennessee.edu.

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JOURNAL

World s Poultry Science Journal

ARTICLE TITLE

Strengthening smallholder engagement and integration in the Rwandan commercial broiler value chain

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Oct-2021

Honeybees use social distancing to protect themselves against parasites

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

 

VIDEO: HONEYBEE ALLOGROOMING BEHAVIOUR (UPPER LEFT) AND TROPHALLAXIS (FEEDING, CENTRE) view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: DR MICHELINA PUSCEDDU, UNIVERSITY OF SASSARI

Honeybees increase social distancing when their hive is under threat from a parasite, finds a new study led by an international team involving researchers at UCL and the University of Sassari, Italy.

The study, published in Science Advances, demonstrated that honeybee colonies respond to infestation from a harmful mite by modifying the use of space and the interactions between nestmates to increase the social distance between young and old bees.

Co-author Dr Alessandro Cini (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, UCL Biosciences) said: “Here we have provided the first evidence that honeybees modify their social interactions and how they move around their hive in response to a common parasite.

“Honeybees are a social animal, as they benefit from dividing up responsibilities and interactions such as mutual grooming, but when those social activities can increase the risk of infection, the bees appear to have evolved to balance the risks and benefits by adopting social distancing.”

Among animals, examples of social distancing have been found in very different species separated by millions of years of evolution: from baboons that are less likely to clean individuals with gastrointestinal infections to ants infected with a pathogenic fungus that relegate themselves to the suburbs of anthill society.

The new study evaluated if the presence of the ectoparasite mite Varroa destructor in honeybee colonies induced changes in social organisation that could reduce the spread of the parasite in the hive. Among the stress factors that affect honeybees, the Varroa mite is one of the main enemies as it causes a number of harmful effects on bees at individual and colony level, including virus transmission.

Honeybee colonies are organised into two main compartments: the outer one occupied by the foragers, and the innermost compartment inhabited by nurses, the queen and brood. This within-colony spatial segregation leads to a lower frequency of interactions between the two compartments than those within each compartment and allows the most valuable individuals (queen, young bees and brood) to be protected from the outside environment and thus from the arrival of diseases.

By comparing colonies that were or were not infested by the Varroa mite, the researchers found that one behaviour, foraging dances, that can increase mite transmission, occurred less frequently in central parts of the hive if it was infested. They also found that grooming behaviours became more concentrated in the central hive. The researchers say it appears that overall, foragers (older bees) move towards the periphery of the nest while young nurse and groomer bees move towards its centre, in response to an infestation, to increase the distance between the two groups.

Lead author Dr Michelina Pusceddu (Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Sassari) said: “The observed increase in social distancing between the two groups of bees within the same parasite-infested colony represents a new and, in some ways, surprising aspect of how honeybees have evolved to combat pathogens and parasites.

“Their ability to adapt their social structure and reduce contact between individuals in response to a disease threat allows them to maximise the benefits of social interactions where possible, and to minimise the risk of infectious disease when needed.

“Honeybee colonies provide an ideal model for studying social distancing and for fully understanding the value and effectiveness of this behaviour.”

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The study involved researchers from UCL, the University of Sassari, the University of Turin and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany).

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abj1398 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Honey bees increase social distancing when facing the ectoparasite <em>Varroa destructor</em>

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Oct-2021

Morro Bay seagrass loss causes change in fish populations

Areas once covered with lush seagrass meadows and unique fish species are now home to muddy-seafloor-loving flatfish.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE STAGHORN SCULPIN IS ONE OF THE MUDDY-SEAFLOOR-LOVING FLATFISH SPECIES THAT HAS INCREASED IN MORRO BAY FOLLOWING A LOSS OF SEAGRASS HABITAT. SEAGRASS-SPECIALIST FISH SPECIES HAVE DECREASED. view more 

CREDIT: ILIANA ARROYOS

The loss of seagrass habitat caused a dramatic shift in fish species in Morro Bay. Areas once covered with lush seagrass meadows and unique fish species are now home to muddy-seafloor-loving flatfish, according to a paper by Cal Poly researchers published in the October 2021 print edition of Estuaries and Coasts.

Seagrass meadows were previously common throughout the Morro Bay estuary but nearly disappeared over the last decade.

"Seagrass, like the eelgrass in Morro Bay, is important because it supports a range of marine life," said Jennifer O'Leary, who led the research as a California Sea Grant extension specialist based at Cal Poly. O'Leary is now the Western Indian Ocean coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society. "It's like the trees in a forest--these underwater plants provide food, structure, and shelter to many of the marine animals that live in the bay."

Underwater seagrass meadows are one of the main habitats in coastal estuaries, and represent one of the most biologically productive biomes on our planet. Yet seagrass habitats are being lost at an alarming rate, and their decline now rivals those reported for tropical rainforests, coral reefs, and mangroves. Loss is usually the symptom of a larger problem, and seagrasses are therefore considered "coastal canaries." Their decline signals important losses to biodiversity and often impacts the communities that depend on them.

Morro Bay, one of 28 estuaries that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated as critical to the economic and environmental health of the nation, has seen a dramatic loss in its seagrass habitat. Once dominated by a common California eelgrass (Zostera marina), seagrass at this site has declined by more than 95 percent, from covering 344 acres in 2007 to less than 15 acres in 2017.

Seagrass meadows are a multifaceted habitat that secure sediments with their root systems, and provide food, shelter and nurseries for many types of fish and invertebrates. When seagrass meadows are lost, they are often replaced with a less dynamic, muddy seafloor habitat.

O'Leary and colleagues found that seagrass loss did not result in fewer fish but rather led to changes in the types of fish that live in the bay. The research team saw decreasing numbers of some seagrass-specialist fish species, such as the bay pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhynchus). With long thin bodies and olive green coloration, bay pipefish are adapted to hide among the seagrass blades.

In contrast, researchers observed an increase in flatfishes like the speckled sanddab (Citharichthys stigmaeus) and staghorn sculpin (Leptocottus armatus). These fish have flat bodies that are ideal for life along the muddy seafloor and are common residents in California bays and estuaries. These species have moved into the former eelgrass habitats and now make up the majority of the fish species present in Morro Bay.

The loss of eelgrass habitat along the California coast presents a larger problem for species that depend on seagrass, like the bay pipefish. If seagrass doesn't recover, then the surviving meadows will be further apart and have a more fragmented, or patchy, distribution. This distance and patchiness of habitat may impact specialists, like pipefish, by impairing their ability to move to a new habitat to find food or mates. This community isolation may alter the genetic structure and diversity of the overall pipefish population over time.

"The relatively sudden and near complete collapse of eelgrass in Morro Bay has not only changed fish populations, but it has also resulted in substantial changes to estuary physics and geomorphology," said study coauthor Ryan Walter, a Cal Poly physics professor who has been studying eelgrass loss through a California Sea Grant-funded research project that was launched in 2018.

Walter, O'Leary and other Cal Poly researchers, in conjunction with the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, continue to study the cause and consequences of the eelgrass decline. In another study, the team recently found that the loss of eelgrass in Morro Bay led to widespread erosion, or loss of sediment, throughout the estuary.

The new research sheds additional light on changes within Morro Bay that may inform how scientists learn about seagrass communities throughout California. There has not been an eelgrass decline on the United States Pacific Coast of this magnitude, making Morro Bay a novel event that may help predict future estuarine change.

A multifaceted approach to protect and enhance the remaining seagrass will be essential, said the researchers There is hope for the future as the remaining eelgrass is slowly expanding with protection and local planting initiatives, including successful transplant efforts led by the Morro Bay National Estuary Program. Walter and O'Leary have used drone-based surveys to document natural expansion and recovery of eelgrass in areas where it was lost. The mere 9.4 acres of seagrass left in Morro Bay in 2017 expanded to 36.7 acres by 2019. The researchers are still analyzing data from 2020 but are optimistic that the seagrass acreage continues to slowly increase.

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JOURNAL

Estuaries and Coasts

DOI

10.1007/s12237-021-00917-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of Estuary-Wide Seagrass Loss on Fish Populations

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Oct-2021

Is it worth trying to sway the most staunch climate deniers?

Boston University researcher finds some people who are receptive to disinformation about climate change are still open to the science

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOSTON UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: BOSTON UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER FINDS SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE RECEPTIVE TO DISINFORMATION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE ARE STILL OPEN TO THE SCIENCE view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY CALLUM SHAW ON UNSPLASH

Thanks to algorithms that learn about social media users’ content preferences, Facebook timelines, Twitter feeds, suggested YouTube videos, and other news streams can look startlingly different from one person’s online account to the next. Media and communication experts often wrestle with how to rein in the forces that further polarize people with different views, especially people who sit on opposite sides of the political aisle. When it comes to online content that contains disinformation—inaccurate messages or propaganda intended to deceive and influence readers—why are some people more likely to believe falsehoods often spread via social media and the internet?  

Arunima Krishna, a Boston University College of Communication researcher who studies public perceptions of controversial social issues, is studying the spread of disinformation, specifically related to climate science—an issue that has been manipulated by climate change deniers for decades. In her latest study, Krishna surveyed 645 Americans about their beliefs on climate change—whether or not those beliefs are informed by fact or fiction—to assess their communication behaviors about climate change.

“I think a lot of folks don’t see how close to home climate change is. Even though we’re seeing climate refugees, [worsening] hurricanes, and other [natural] disasters, there is still a level of distance from the problem,” says Krishna, a College of Communication assistant professor of public relations. 

She points out that physical distance from the effects of climate change could be partly why some people find it is easier to separate themselves from the climate crisis. Plus, climate solutions are often things many people don’t readily want to do, like eating less meat, using less plastic, and buying less material goods. Fossil fuel companies and lobbyists for the industry have also worked extremely hard to deceive the public from knowing the full extent of the damaging impact of burning fossil fuels, she says.

According to Krishna’s survey of Americans, 7 in 10 people who are susceptible to believing climate disinformation self-identified as politically conservative. In contrast, 8 in 10 Americans who self-identified as liberal were found to be immune to disinformation about climate change. Those findings double down on past research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, which found liberals and Democrats are significantly more worried about climate change than conservatives and Republicans, and are more likely to believe humans are causing the climate crisis.

Krishna also detected a difference in age between those who were more susceptible to disinformation and those who weren’t. More than half of the respondents immune to false information about climate were under 45. Those more receptive to climate disinformation were, on average, over the age of 46.

Diving deeper into the respondents’ responses, Krishna categorized the survey results into four different groups. The first segment, made up of people she calls the “disinformation immune,” have not accepted any disinformation about climate change and humans’ role in it, and they likely never will. The second group, the“disinformation vulnerable,” have negative attitudes about how humans are influencing climate. While they haven’t yet accepted disinformation, some of their responses to facts about climate change—as well as their attitudes and motivations—indicate they could possibly believe climate disinformation in the future. The third group, the “disinformation receptive,” have accepted false information about climate change already. Lastly, the fourth group, the “disinformation amplifying,” is made up of people who hold extremely negative attitudes about climate change and doubt humans’ role in accelerating it, have already accepted disinformation, and are highly motivated to spread the disinformation they believe. 

“My study found that [disinformation amplifiers] are more likely to spread their opinions about climate change compared to everybody else in the survey,” Krishna says. The amplifiers are known as what Krishna calls “lacuna publics,” a term she coined in 2017 when she was researching vaccine hesitant groups. (The word “publics” refers to groups connected by issue-specific motivation, and “lacuna” means a gap in knowledge.) Though the disinformation amplifiers, or lacuna publics, are in the minority, they are different from groups that are disinformation vulnerable or receptive because of their willingness to spread disinformation. 

The United States has more climate skeptics than anywhere else in the world, Krishna says, but their ranks have started to shrink. Climate scientists around the world have found unequivocally that the more we continue to emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the worse the consequences will be for humans, most species, and ecosystems on Earth. 

Though there is no single solution to stopping the spread of climate disinformation, Krishna emphasizes the importance of engaging with people most vulnerable to believing disinformation. Lacuna publics, or amplifiers, however, might be difficult or impossible to sway.

“It might not be worth using resources to try to reach the lacuna publics,” Krishna says. “Research tells us that one-on-one interaction can often be more effective than mass media messages…so perhaps that’s the best way to [elevate] voices who are disinformation immune.”

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JOURNAL

Journal of Public Relations Research

DOI

10.1080/1062726X.2021.1944155 

ARTICLE TITLE

Lacuna publics: advancing a typology of disinformation-susceptible publics using the motivation-attitude-knowledge framework

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Aug-2021