1,000 years of glacial ice reveal ‘prosperity and peril’ in Europe

Evidence preserved in glaciers provides continuous climate and vegetation records during major historical events

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS’ ICE CORE DRILLING CAMP ON COLLE GNIFETTI IN 2015. TWO ICE CORES EXTRACTED FROM THIS AREA PRESERVED A CONTINUOUS ONE-THOUSAND-YEAR RECORD OF EUROPEAN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION. view more 

CREDIT: MARGIT SCHWIKOWSKI

This press release and accompanying multimedia are available online at:
https://news.agu.org/press-release/1000-years-of-glacial-ice-reveal-prosperity-and-peril-in-europe/

AGU press contact:
Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-4 hours)

Contact information for the researchers:
Sandra Brugger, Desert Research Institute, sandra.brugger@dri.edu (UTC-7 hours)

WASHINGTON—Europe’s past prosperity and failure, driven by climate changes, has been revealed using thousand-year-old pollen, spores and charcoal particles fossilized in glacial ice. This first analysis of microfossils preserved in European glaciers unveils earlier-than-expected evidence of air pollution and the roots of modern invasive species problems.

A new study analyzed pollen, spores, charcoal and other pollutants frozen in the Colle Gnifetti glacier on the Swiss and Italian border. The research found changes in the composition of these microfossils corresponded closely with known major events in climate, such as the Little Ice Age and well-established volcanic eruptions.

The work was published in Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

The industrialization of European society also appeared clearly in the microfossil record and, in some cases, showed up sooner than expected. Pollen from the introduction of non-native crops was found to go back at least 100 years ago and pollution from the burning of fossil fuels shows up in the 18th century, about 100 years earlier than expected.

Existing historical sources such as church records or diaries record conditions during major events like droughts or famines. However, studying data from the glaciers contributes to the understanding of climate and land use surrounding such events, providing non-stop context for them with evidence from a large land area. Precisely identifying the timing of these events can help scientists better understand current climate change.

“The historical sources that were available before, I don’t think [the sources] got the full picture of the environmental context,” said Sandra Brugger, a paleoecologist at the Desert Research Institute in Nevada and lead researcher on the study. “But also, with the ice core, we couldn’t get the full picture until we started collaborating with historians on this. It needs those two sides of the coin.”

Evidence on high

The new study analyzed microfossils frozen in two 82- and 75-meter-long ice cores pulled from the Colle Gnifetti glacier, which are the first two ice cores from the continent of Europe studied for microfossils. Similar studies have sampled ice cores in South America, Central Asia and Greenland, but those regions lack the breadth of written historical records that can be directly correlated with the continuous microfossil data in ice cores.

Over the centuries, wind, rain and snow carried microfossils from European lowlands, the United Kingdom and North Africa to the exposed glacier. Ice in this glacier site dates back tens of thousands of years, and the altitude of Colle Gnifetti — 4,450 meters above sea level — means the ice was likely never subjected to melting, which would mix the layers of samples and create uncertainty in the chronology of the record.

“They can actually pinpoint and identify the relationships between what’s happening on the continent with climatic records inherent in the ice,” said John Birks, a paleoecologist at the University of Bergen who was not associated with the study. “They can develop, in a stronger way, this link between human civilization and change and climate, particularly in the last thousand years or so where conventional pollen analysis is rather weak.” 

Evidence of pollution due to fossil fuel combustion also appeared earlier in the chronological record than expected. The researchers found evidence of the early burning of coal in the United Kingdom around 1780, much earlier than the expected onset of industrialization around 1850, which could have implications for global climate change modeling.

The records also showed evidence of pollen from non-native European plants from 100 years ago, showing a long legacy of the existing ecological problems created by invasive species transported across continents through trade.

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Notes for Journalists:
This research study is published with open access and is freely available. Download a PDF copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Paper title:
“Alpine Glacier Reveals Ecosystem Impacts of Europe's Prosperity and Peril Over the Last Millennium”

Authors:

• Sandra Brugger (corresponding author), Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, USA
• M. Schwikowski, E. Gobet, C. Schwörer, C. Rohr, M. Sigl, C. Pfister, T. M. Jenk, W. Tinner, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
• S. Henne, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
• P. D. Henne, U.S. Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Denver, CO, USA

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JOURNAL

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2021GL095039 

ARTICLE TITLE

Alpine Glacier Reveals Ecosystem Impacts of Europe's Prosperity and Peril Over the Last Millennium

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Sep-2021

Rare boomerang collection from South Australia reveals a diverse past

by Flinders University

Rare boomerang collection from Cooper Creek (Kinipapa) near Innamincka in South

 Australia's far north-east. Credit: Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Traditional Land Owners

 Aboriginal Corporation

New research has analyzed a rare collection of non-returning boomerangs from Kinipapa (Cooper Creek), near Innamincka in South Australia's far northeast.

The four boomerangs and one wooden fragment were discovered in the creek bed during drought conditions in 2017 and 2018 by Jason Litherland from National Parks and Wildlife South Australia and Katheryn Litherland, a traditional owner.

The project to analyze the artifacts was a collaborative venture initiated by the Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Traditional Landowners (Aboriginal Corporation).

They partnered with Australian Heritage Services, Flinders University and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation to carefully document the objects and to conduct radiocarbon dating to determine their ages.

The results of radiocarbon dating revealed that the boomerangs range in age from circa 1650–1830 AD, a time that spans the two centuries leading up to European incursions into the region by explorers such as Sturt, Burke, and Wills.

Documenting the boomerangs to conduct radiocarbon dating to determine their ages. 

Credit: Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Traditional Land Owners Aboriginal Corporation

"The assemblage reveals a variety of form and function representative of the diverse cultural activities and daily lives of the Aboriginal people who lived near significant waterholes in the Cooper Creek region during this period," said Professor Amy Roberts of Flinders University.

The authors concluded that in addition to their likely use as projectiles, the boomerangs were probably used for fighting, hunting, digging, fire management and possibly in ceremonies.

Credit: Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Traditional Landowners Aboriginal Corporation

"This range of activities goes well beyond the stereotype of the returning boomerang known to most Australians," said co-author Dr. Daryl Wesley from Flinders University.

"For Yandruwandha and Yawarrawarrka people, the finds provide another example of how their Country continues to tell the stories of their ancestors, as well as affording a tangible connection to the knowledge passed down from their families," said Joshua Haynes, a Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka traditional owner and co-author.

"We will continue to protect and preserve our artifacts on Country, that's what our ancestors would want us to do. When you see them old people in whirly winds you know they are here watching and protecting our Country," said Katheryn Litherland, a Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka traditional owner and co-author.

The four boomerangs and one wooden fragment were discovered in the creek bed during drought conditions in 2017 and 2018 by Jason Litherland from National Parks and Wildlife South Australia and Katheryn Litherland, a traditional owner. Credit: Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka Traditional Land Owners Aboriginal Corporation

Predictions for climate change in the region threaten to alter the conditions that allowed the preservation of these artifacts, which may affect the potential survival of other wooden objects that remain in the environment.Boomerangs return with greater insights into ample uses

More information: Amy Roberts et al, Morphological Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating of Non-Returning Boomerangs from Cooper Creek/Kinipapa, Australian Archaeology (North-East South Australia) (2021). DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2021.1994685

Provided by Flinders University 

World's largest whales eat more than previously thought, amplifying their role as global ecosystem engineers

by Smithsonian

To crack the conundrum of just how much food 30- to 100-foot whales eat, scientists used 

data from 321 tagged whales spanning seven species living in the Atlantic, Pacific and

 Southern Oceans collected between 2010 and 2019. Each of these tags, suction-cupped

 to a whale’s back, is like a miniature smartphone—complete with a camera, microphone, 

GPS and an accelerometer that tracks movement. The tags track the whales’ movements 

in three-dimensional space, allowing scientists to look for telltale patterns to figure out how 

often the animals were engaged in feeding behaviors. By braiding this line of evidence with

 other data the research team collected, the scientists could generate the most accurate

 estimates to date of how much these gargantuan mammals actually eat each day and, by

 extension, each year. 

Credit: Duke University Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing under NOAA permit 14809-03 and ACA permits 2015-011 and 2020-016

New research co-authored by Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, shows evidence that the world's largest whales have been sold short. The study, published today in the journal Nature, finds that gigantic baleen whales—such as blue, fin and humpback whales—eat an average of three times more food each year than scientists have previously estimated. By underestimating how much these whales eat, scientists may also have been previously underestimating the importance of these undersea giants to ocean health and productivity.

Since whales eat more than previously thought, they also poop more, and whale poop is a crucial source of nutrients in the open ocean. By scooping up food and pumping out excrement, whales help keep key nutrients suspended close to the surface where they can power blooms of the carbon-absorbing phytoplankton that form the base of ocean food-webs. Without whales, those nutrients more readily sink to the seafloor, which can limit productivity in certain parts of the ocean and may in turn limit the capacity of ocean ecosystems to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide.

The findings come at a pivotal moment as the planet faces the interconnected crises of global climate change and biodiversity loss. As the planet warms, the oceans absorb more heat and become more acidic, threatening the survival of food sources that whales need. Many species of baleen whales also have not recovered from industrial whaling during the 20th century, remaining at a small fraction of their pre-whaling population sizes.

"Our results say that if we restore whale populations to pre-whaling levels seen at the beginning of the 20th century, we'll restore a huge amount of lost function to ocean ecosystems," Pyenson said. "It may take a few decades to see the benefit, but it's the clearest read yet about the massive role of large whales on our planet."

Surprisingly, some basic biological questions remain unanswered when it comes to the world's biggest whales. Marine ecologist and Stanford University postdoctoral fellow Matthew Savoca, one of Pyenson's collaborators and lead author of the study, found himself confronted by one of these remaining mysteries: how much the massive filter-feeding baleen whales ate each day.

Savoca said the best estimates he encountered from past research were guesses informed by few actual measurements from the species in question. To crack the conundrum of just how much food 30- to 100-foot whales eat, Savoca, Pyenson and a team of scientists used data from 321 tagged whales spanning seven species living in the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern Oceans collected between 2010 and 2019.

Video and 3D-motion tags that are deployed on large whales with suction cups.

 Credit: Goldbogen Lab

Savoca said each of these tags, suction-cupped to a whale's back, is like a miniature smartphone—complete with a camera, microphone, GPS and an accelerometer that tracks movement. The tags track the whales' movements in three-dimensional space, allowing the team to look for telltale patterns to figure out how often the animals were engaged in feeding behaviors.

The data set also included drone photographs of 105 whales from the seven species that were used to measure their respective lengths. Each animal's length could then be used to create accurate estimates of its body mass and the volume of water it filtered with each mouthful. Finally, members of the team involved in this near-decade-long data collection effort used small boats equipped with echo-sounders to race to sites where whales were feeding. The echo-sounders use sound waves to detect and measure the size and density of swarms of krill and other prey species. This step was crucial empirical grounding for the team's estimates of just how much food the whales might be consuming.

By braiding these three lines of evidence together—how often whales were feeding, how much prey they could potentially consume while feeding and how much prey was available—the researchers could generate the most accurate estimates to date of how much these gargantuan mammals eat each day and, by extension, each year.

Because whales eat more than previously thought, they also poop more, and whale poop

 is a crucial source of nutrients in the open ocean. By scooping up food and pumping out 

excrement, whales help keep key nutrients suspended close to the surface where they 

can power blooms of the carbon-absorbing phytoplankton that form the base of ocean 

food-webs. Without whales, those nutrients more readily sink to the seafloor, which can

 limit productivity in certain parts of the ocean and may in turn limit the capacity of ocean

 ecosystems to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide. 

Credit: Elliott Hazen under NOAA/NMFS permit 16111

For example, the study found an adult eastern North Pacific blue whale likely consumes 16 metric tons of krill per day during its foraging season, while a North Atlantic right whale eats about 5 metric tons of small zooplankton daily and a bowhead whale puts down roughly 6 metric tons of small zooplankton per day.

To quantify what these new estimates mean in the context of the larger ecosystem, a 2008 study estimated that all of the whales in what is known as the California Current Ecosystem, which stretches from British Columbia to Mexico, required about 2 million metric tons of fish, krill, zooplankton and squid each year. The new results suggest that the blue, fin and humpback whale populations living in the California Current Ecosystem each require more than 2 million tons of food annually.

To demonstrate how more prey consumption by whales increases their capacity to recycle key nutrients that might otherwise sink to the seafloor, the researchers also calculated the amount of iron all this extra whale feeding would recirculate in the form of feces. In many parts of the ocean, dissolved iron is a limiting nutrient, meaning that there might be plenty of other key nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus in the water, but a lack of iron prevents potential phytoplankton blooms. Because whales eat so much, they end up ingesting and excreting substantial amounts of iron. Prior research found whale poop has around 10 million times the amount of iron found in Antarctic seawater, and because whales breathe air they tend to defecate near the surface—just where phytoplankton need nutrients to help power photosynthesis. Using past measurements of the average concentrations of iron in whale poop, the researchers calculated that whales in the Southern Ocean recycle roughly 1,200 metric tons of iron every year.

Field measurements informing baleen whale prey consumption and nutrient recycling.

 Photos taken under NOAA permits 16111, 14809, 23095, and ACA permits 2015-011 and

 2020-016. Credit: Alex Boersma

These surprising findings led researchers to investigate what their results might tell them about the marine ecosystem before industrial whaling slaughtered 2 to 3 million whales over the course of the 20th century. Based on whaling industry records of animals killed in the waters surrounding Antarctica in the Southern Ocean, the researchers used existing estimates of how many whales used to live in the region combined with their new results to estimate how much those animals likely ate.

According to the analysis, minke, humpback, fin and blue whales in the Southern Ocean consumed some 430 million metric tons of krill annually at the beginning of the 1900s. That total is double the amount of krill in the entire Southern Ocean today and is more than twice the total global catch from all human wild-capture fisheries combined. In terms of the whales' role as nutrient recyclers, the researchers calculate that whale populations, before losses from 20th-century whaling, produced a prodigious flow of excreta containing 12,000 metric tons of iron, 10 times the amount whales currently recycle in the Southern Ocean. 

These calculations suggest that when there were a lot more whales chowing down on krill, there must have been a lot more krill for them to eat. Savoca said that the decline of krill numbers following the loss of so many of their biggest predators is known to researchers as the krill paradox and that the decline in krill populations is most pronounced in areas where whaling was especially intense, such as the Scotia Sea between the Southern Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean southeast of South America.

"This decline makes no sense until you consider that whales are acting as mobile krill processing plants," Savoca said. "These are animals the size of a Boeing 737, eating and pooping far from land in a system that is iron-limited in many places. These whales were seeding productivity out in the open Southern Ocean and there was very little to recycle this fertilizer once whales were gone."

The paper posits that restoring whale populations could also restore lost marine productivity and, as a result, boost the amount of carbon dioxide sucked up by the phytoplankton—which are eaten by krill. The team estimates that the nutrient cycling services provided by pre-whaling populations at the start of the 20th century might fuel a roughly 11% increase in marine productivity in the Southern Ocean and a drawdown of at least 215 million metric tons of carbon, absorbed and stored in ocean ecosystems and organisms in the process of rebuilding. It is also possible these carbon reduction benefits would accrue year over year.

"Our results suggest the contribution of whales to global productivity and carbon removal was probably on par with the forest ecosystems of entire continents, in terms of scale," Pyenson said. "That system is still there, and helping whales recover could restore lost ecosystem functioning and provide a natural climate solution."

Pyenson said he, Savoca and others are pondering what the impact of whales might be if the team had been less conservative with their estimates, as well as a potential line of research comparing the relatively recent losses of large mammals in the sea to those lost on land, such as the American bison. Though based at Stanford, Savoca will continue his work this fall at the Smithsonian collecting samples from its extensive baleen whale collections.Study suggests climate change could prevent recovery of southern right whales

More information: Matthew Savoca, Baleen whale prey consumption based on high-resolution foraging measurements, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03991-5. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03991-5

Journal information: Nature 

Provided by Smithsonian 

History of insect invasions offers insight into the future

by USDA Forest Service

Spotted lanternfly is a destructive insect that feeds on a wide range of fruit, ornamental, 

and hardwood trees, including grapes, apples, walnut, and oak; a serious threat to the 

United States' agriculture and natural resources. Credit: USDA / Lance Cheung.

Over the past two centuries, thousands of non-native insects have hitchhiked to the United States in packing material, on live plants, and in passenger baggage. Scientists with two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies and their partners used the history of live plant imports and invasion by a common group of insects to estimate the rate at which new insects are arriving and how many new insect species may yet be in store for U.S. forests and agricultural fields.

Findings suggest that efforts to reduce biological hitchhiking on live plant imports, often referred to as "biosecurity," are working. However, more than a century of invasion by Hemiptera insects also suggests that increased trade might offset the effects of improved biosecurity. As many as 25 percent of invading Hemiptera insects may have yet to be detected in the nation's forests and agricultural fields.

The study, "Hidden patterns of insect establishment risk revealed from two centuries of alien species discoveries," was published recently in the journal Science Advances. The study's lead author, Matthew MacLachlan, a research economist with the USDA Economic Research Service, and co-author Andrew Liebhold, a research entomologist with the USDA Forest Service, examined records from 1854 to 2012; they found that 930 non-native species of plant-feeding insects in the Hemipter order have invaded the United States. The research team was able to identify the origins of 770 of those species.

"Our work quantifying the establishment risk posed by imports from distinct regions and how these risks have changed with the accumulation of trade history and time gives policy-makers a better picture of the risks of insect invasion per unit of import and region," MacLachlan said.

Hemiptera are small, plant-feeding insects (the order includes true bugs, aphids, and scales), and many of these species cause considerable damage to agricultural and forest plants. The Hemiptera order includes more than 80,000 insect species, and accidental transport of live plants or plant products is the main pathway by which most Hemiptera move among continents.

"Data on historical discoveries of non-native Hemiptera in the United States helped us estimate rates of new species establishments that may occur as a result of plant imports from various world regions today," Liebhold said.

Co-authors include Takehiko Yamanaka of the Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, NARO (NIAES) in Japan and Michael R. Springborn of the University of California, DavisPlants can prepare for insect attack sequence

More information: Matthew J. MacLachlan et al, Hidden patterns of insect establishment risk revealed from two centuries of alien species discoveries, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj1012

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by USDA Forest Service 

As-needed pesticide use brings wild bees, increases watermelon yield without reducing corn profits

by Elizabeth K. Gardner, Purdue University

A team of researchers at Purdue University found as-needed pesticide use increased 

pollination from wild bees and increased watermelon yield. 

Credit: Purdue University / Tom Campbell

Many farmers rent bee hives to pollinate crops, but they could tap into the free labor of wild bees by adopting an as-needed approach to pesticides, a new proof-of-concept study shows.

A multiyear study of commercial-scale fields in the Midwest found this approach led to a 95% reduction in pesticide applications, while maintaining or increasing crop yield for corn and watermelon. The findings are detailed in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"An as-needed approach to pesticide treatment can benefit farmers," said Ian Kaplan, professor of entomology at Purdue University, who led the project. "With reduced pesticide use, we saw within the first year wild bees returned to the fields, and our findings showed an average 26% increase in watermelon yield."

The team of researchers from Purdue's College of Agriculture studied fields at five different locations in Indiana and the Midwest over a period of four years to compare conventional pest management with an integrated pest management, or IPM, approach. The IPM approach relied on scouting the fields and applying pesticides only when pest levels reached previously established thresholds for damage that would lead to economic losses.

In the last few decades, pesticides have been used preemptively, beginning with treated seed and followed by applications on a set schedule, said Christian Krupke, professor of entomology and member of the research team.

"Using these potent insecticides, more often, increases the potential for unintended consequences and harm to insects, animals and human health. This study shows that we may not need such powerful weapons to control pests, and at a minimum, we don't need to use them as frequently as we do," Krupke said.

Agricultural sustainability and the benefits of IPM are gaining attention. Walmart recently announced a policy requiring all global fresh produce and floral providers to adopt IPM practices by 2025.

"It is important for people to know that there is another option between conventionally grown produce and organic produce," said Kaplan who leads Purdue's Insect Ecology Lab. "IPM can greatly reduce the amount of pesticides used to grow food without taking the tool entirely away from farmers or putting the food supply at risk."

Midwest growers also are attuned to the issue and want solutions to protect their crops and their pollinators, said Laura Ingwell, assistant professor of entomology. Indiana is one of the major watermelon production states in the U.S. and the pollinator-dependent crop accounts for an average of 7,000 acres of land annually.

"Unfortunately, it is hard to find untreated corn or soybean seed," she said. "Across the Midwest watermelon fields are like islands in a sea of corn and soybeans. We need to understand how the management of one impacts the other because many Indiana farmers have all of these crops in rotation."

The team worked with farm staff at the Purdue research fields to grow both corn, which is wind pollinated, and watermelon, which is insect pollinated, to replicate a real agricultural ecosystem in Indiana. Each site had a pair of 15-acre fields, one with untreated seed and using IPM, and the other using treated seed and conventional pest management practices like calendar-based insecticide sprays. The crops were rotated over the course of the study, and the different locations allowed the team to examine the impact of different soil types and environmental conditions, said Jacob Pecenka, a graduate student who performed much of the study.

"We used weekly scouting to monitor pests at the IPM fields, which means we would go into the field, look for pests and take a sample count of the numbers of different pests present," he said. "It was surprising that the pests rarely reached the established threshold for economic risk to the crops. Only four times during the course of the study did pests reach a threshold that triggered pesticide application. That is a huge reduction from the 97 treatments of the conventionally managed fields."

Pecenka and his team also monitored the flowers and counted the number of visits by bees in the watermelon fields.

"The IPM fields had a 130% increase in the number of flower visits over the conventional fields," he said. "The biggest players in pollination were native, wild bees. They are efficient pollinators and serious foragers."

Due to watermelon crops being grown in the middle of the cornfields, any wild pollinators had to travel at least 100 feet to get to the watermelon flowers. Despite this challenge, wild pollinators made up 80% of the flower visits while honeybees were only 20%, even though their colonies were placed within a few feet of the watermelon field, Pecenka said.

"We don't have a great understanding of the biology of many wild bee species, but this study suggests they are important and resilient," he said. "Within the first year these bees were a significant presence in the fields with low levels of pesticide, which can kill the bees, confuse their navigation and repel them."

The team also observed an increase in the number of beneficial insects in the IPM fields, Ingwell said.

"Wasps, ladybugs and other natural predators of watermelon pests step in when the pest levels rise," she said. "It is tempting to pretreat with pesticides as an insurance policy for your crop, but this study shows we can trust the natural system most of the time. Weekly scouting in the watermelon crop is enough to maintain the yield and benefit the insect community in terms of pest suppression and pollination."

Resources for pollinator protection, and fruit and vegetable growers are available through the Purdue Extension offices.

The team, which also included professor emeritus Rick Foster, next plans to scale up the study using 50-acre commercial fields.More support needed for pollination services in agriculture

More information: Jacob R. Pecenka et al, IPM reduces insecticide applications by 95% while maintaining or enhancing crop yields through wild pollinator conservation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2108429118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by Purdue University 

Study reveals 'extensive network' of industry ties with healthcare

by British Medical Journal

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The medical product industry maintains an extensive network of financial and non-financial ties with all major healthcare parties and activities, reveals a study published by The BMJ today.

This network seems to be mostly unregulated and opaque, and the researchers call for enhanced oversight and transparency "to shield patient care from commercial influence and to preserve public trust in healthcare."

Although the medical product industry is a critical partner in advancing healthcare, particularly in developing new tests and treatments, their main objective is to ensure financial returns to shareholders.

In an influential 2009 report, the Institute of Medicine described a multifaceted healthcare ecosystem rife with industry influence.

Yet most studies of conflict of interests related to pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies have focused on a single party (eg. healthcare professionals, hospitals, or journals) or a single activity (eg. research, education, or clinical care). The full extent of industry ties across the healthcare ecosystem is therefore still uncertain.

To address this gap, a team of US researchers set out to identify all known ties between the medical product industry and the healthcare ecosystem.

They searched the medical literature for evidence of ties between pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies and parties (including hospitals, prescribers and professional societies) and activities (including research, health professional education and guideline development) in the healthcare ecosystem.

Data in 538 articles from 37 countries, along with expert input, was used to create a map depicting these ties. These ties were then verified, cataloged, and characterized to ascertain types of industry ties (financial, non-financial), applicable policies on conflict of interests, and publicly available data sources.

The results show an extensive network of medical product industry ties—often unregulated and non-transparent—to all major activities and parties in the healthcare ecosystem.

Key activities include research, healthcare education, guideline development, formulary selection (prescription drugs that are covered by a health plan or stocked by a healthcare facility), and clinical care.

Parties include non-profit entities (eg. foundations and advocacy groups), the healthcare profession, the market supply chain (eg. payers, purchasing and distribution agents), and government.

For example, the researchers describe how opioid manufacturers provided funding and other assets to prescribers, patients, public officials, advocacy organizations, and other healthcare parties, who, in turn, pressured regulators and public health agencies to quash or undermine opioid related guidelines and regulations.

And they warn that many other examples of harm from industry promoted products remain unexplored.

The results show that all party types have financial ties to medical product companies, with only payers and distribution agents lacking additional, non-financial ties.

They also show that policies for conflict of interests exist for some financial and a few non-financial ties, but publicly available data sources seldom describe or quantify these ties.

The researchers acknowledge that their findings are limited to known or documented industry ties, and that some data might have been missed. However, they say their strategy of systematic, duplicative searching and feedback from an international panel of experts is unlikely to have missed common or important ties.

As such, they conclude: "An extensive network of medical product industry ties to activities and parties exists in the healthcare ecosystem. Policies for conflict of interests and publicly available data are lacking, suggesting that enhanced oversight and transparency are needed to protect patients from commercial influence and to ensure public trust."

Financial ties between researchers and drug industry linked to positive trial results

More information: Mapping conflict of interests: scoping review, BMJ (2021). DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2021-066576

Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ) 

Provided by British Medical Journal 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M WAGE THEFT

More than 140,000 Amazon drivers to be repaid nearly $60 million in alleged withheld tips

by Keira Wingate, Usa Today

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Over 140,000 Amazon drivers are being repaid nearly $60 million in tips that the company allegedly withheld from them, the Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday.

The FTC and Amazon reached a settlement in February, with the company agreeing to pay more than $61.7 million, the full amount the tech giant allegedly withheld which will be used by the FTC to compensate Amazon Flex drivers.

The FTC said in February that Amazon Flex Drivers were told they would be paid $18 to $25 an hour, with many statements saying things such as "you will receive 100% of the tips you earn while delivering with Amazon Flex."

"Rather than passing along 100% of customers' tips to drivers, as it had promised to do, Amazon used the money itself," Daniel Kaufman, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in February.

The FTC is sending out 139,507 checks and 1,621 PayPal payments to drivers. The average check for Amazon Flex drivers included in the settlement will be $422, but 19,980 drivers will receive checks for more than $600. The highest amount going to a single Amazon Flex driver is $28,000.

Amazon Flex is different from the regular Amazon delivery drivers. Flex drivers are independent contractors who can download an app that will allow them to select different orders they want to deliver, and they need a personal vehicle like a 4-door, mid-sized sedan or larger vehicle, such as a truck, to make the deliveries.

Flex drivers deliver goods and groceries ordered through Amazon Prime Now and AmazonFresh programs, according to the FTC. These allow for customers to tip their drivers.

Affected drivers should deposit or cash their checks before Jan. 7, 2022.

FTC says Amazon took $62 million in tips from drivers

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