It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Study finds record-breaking rates of sea-level rise along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts
Tulane researchers found rates of sea-level rise of about a half an inch per year since 2010 — three times higher than the global average over the same period
Sea levels along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts have been rapidly accelerating, reaching record-breaking rates over the past 12 years, according to a new study led by scientists at Tulane University.
In the study, published in Nature Communications, researchers said they had detected rates of sea-level rise of about a half an inch per year since 2010. They attribute the acceleration to the compounding effects of man-made climate change and natural climate variability.
“These rapid rates are unprecedented over at least the 20th century and they have been three times higher than the global average over the same period,” says Sönke Dangendorf, lead author and the David and Jane Flowerree Assistant Professor in the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering at Tulane.
The authors studied a combination of field and satellite measurements since 1900, pinpointing the individual contributors to the acceleration.
“We systematically investigated the different causes, such as vertical land motion, ice-mass loss, and air pressure, but none of them could sufficiently explain the recent rate,” said Noah Hendricks, co-author and undergraduate student in Dangendorf’s team at his former institution, Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
“Instead, we found that the acceleration is a widespread signal that extends from the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico up to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and into the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Seas, which is indicative for changes in the ocean’s density and circulation.”
Over the past 12 years this entire area, known as the Subtropical Gyre, has been expanding primarily due to changing wind patterns and continued warming. Warmer water masses need more space and thus lead to a rise in sea level.
The scientists suggest that the recent acceleration was an unfortunate superposition of man-made climate change signals and a peak in weather-related variability that lasted over several years. They conclude that the rates will likely return to the more moderate values as predicted by climate models in the coming decades.
“However, this is no reason to give the all clear,” said Torbjörn Törnqvist, co-author and the Vokes Geology Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane. “These high rates of sea-level rise have put even more stress on these vulnerable coastlines, particularly in Louisiana and Texas where the land is also sinking rapidly.”
Dangendorf said the “results, once again, demonstrate the urgency of the climate crisis for the Gulf region. We need interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts to sustainably face these challenges.”
Also collaborating on the study were Qiang Sun from Tulane, John Klinck and Tal Ezer from Old Dominion University, Thomas Frederikse from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California , Francisco M. Calafat from the National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool, UK, and Thomas Wahl from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
IMAGE: MODIFICATION OF RECONSTRUCTED PROPORTIONS OF SPECIMENS OF DUNKLEOSTEUS TERRELLI USING THE TOTAL LENGTHS ESTIMATED BY FERRON ET AL. (2017) USING UJP.view more
CREDIT: CC BY RUSSELL ENGELMAN.
A new study by Case Western Reserve University PhD student Russell Engelman published in PeerJ Life & Environment attempts to address a persistent problem in paleontology – what were the size of Dunkleosteus and other late Devonian arthrodire placoderms. Arthrodire placoderms are extinct fishes with had armor covering their head and part of their torso, but like sharks the rest of their skeleton was made of cartilage, meaning most of their body did not preserve when they became fossilized.
Previous size estimates for Dunkleosteus were largely based on this animal’s mouth and jaws, but these methods were never tested to see if they reliably estimated the size of placoderms. This study sought to test these methods by using data from modern sharks and other fishes and testing if they accurately predicted body size in Dunkleosteus and smaller arthrodire placoderms known from complete remains. Because these smaller species are known from complete remains, they could be used to test whether previous methods accurately predicted body size in arthrodires.
“Length estimates of 5–10 m have been cited for Dunkleosteus for years,” Engelman said, “but no one seems to have checked these methods statistically or tested if they produce reliable or reasonable results in arthrodires.”
It turned out mouth measurements of sharks did not accurately predict the body size of arthrodires. Complete arthrodires always had larger mouths at the same body length as sharks, and this caused mouth measurements of complete arthrodires to produce body length estimates 2–2.5 times their actual size. Dunkleosteus had an unusually large mouth even among arthrodires, further calling into question if the mouth and jaw parts of these smaller forms can be used to estimate the size of this Devonian giant.
Previously estimated lengths for Dunkleosteus also resulted in a biologically illogical body shape when applied to the known dimensions of the fossils. If previous lengths were accurate, the resulting fish would have had an extremely small, shrunken head and hyper-elongate torso even more longer than the proportions seen in most eels, at odds with a previous study published in PeerJ suggesting a shorter body more similar to pelagic sharks. The long shape implied by earlier studies would have also made the animal’s gills so small relative to its body the fish would have likely suffocated. No other arthrodires showed such extreme proportions, even though estimates based on mouth dimensions suggested they should, suggesting these prior length estimates are highly unlikely for Dunkleosteus.
Overall, this suggests mouth dimension in sharks cannot be used to predict the length of arthrodires and most previously cited lengths for large members of this group are overestimates, in agreement with the conclusions of a previous study by the same author. Arthrodires simply have much larger mouths relative to their body length than sharks, with relative mouth widths more similar to predatory catfishes
“Dunkleosteus has often been assumed to function like a great white shark,” Engelman said, “but as we learn more about this fish it might be more accurate to describe it as a mix of shark, grouper, viperfish, tuna, and piraiba [a type of giant predatory Amazonian catfish, well known to fans of Animal Planet’s River Monsters]"
However, although it may be disappointing that these giant Devonian fishes were not as giant as once thought, the recognition these animals have large mouths is still important. As apex predators of the Devonian, accurately estimating the body length and proportions of arthrodires is critical for reconstructing their life habits and the ecology of the Devonian in general. In fact, despite frequently being reconstructed based on sharks, this study notes the large mouths of arthrodires suggest arthrodires could attack much larger prey relative to their body size than living sharks. This suggests while arthrodires have often been reconstructed based on comparisons with sharks, the two may have behaved more differently than previously thought.
"Mouth size is probably the biggest factor in determining the largest prey a fish can eat," Engelman said, "the results of this study suggest arthrodires were hitting far above their weight class."
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Controversy surrounds the effects of policies to reduce opioid prescriptions on suicide rates. There are concerns that rapid reductions in prescription opioids might provoke increased suicide risk among people who become desparate after they are taken off opioids. According to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, however, changes in regional opioid prescribing and regional suicide rates tend to move in the same direction. This relationship held for rates of opioid prescribing, rates of high-dose prescribing and long-term prescribing, and having multiple opioid prescribers. Until now it was not known whether certain opioid prescribing patterns were associated with particularly elevated suicide risk.
Overall opioid prescribing declined for each of the measures during the 2009–2017 period and the overall rate of total suicide deaths increased from 13.80 to 16.36 per 100,000 persons. By evaluating regional changes, however, the researchers estimate that had opioid prescribing remained constant rather than decreased, the national rate of suicide would have risen even faster than it did.
The findings are published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Alternately, having any opioid prescriptions and having three or more opioid prescribers were each negatively associated with unintentional opioid-related deaths in people in the age ranges of 10- to 24 and 25- to 44. For some opioid prescribing measures, negative associations were also observed with unintentional overdose deaths involving opioids among younger people.
“The relationship between opioid prescribing and suicide risk is a complex one. This is particularly the case when people have their opioids tapered,” said Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology at Columbia School of Public Health and Elizabeth K Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. ”People can become desperate if their pain is not well controlled. Yet opioids also pose a greater risk of overdose than any other drug class and approximately 40 percent of overdose suicide deaths in the U.S. involve opioids. At a population-level, the national decline in opioid prescribing over last several years appears to have reduced the number of people who died of suicide.”
Analyses were based on data from the 2009–2017 U.S. national IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database and National Center for Health Statistics mortality data. Information was based on opioid prescription, with high-dose prescriptions (>120 mg/day morphine equivalents), with long-term prescriptions (>60 consecutive days), and with prescriptions from three or more prescribers. For geographic aggregation, the researchers used states and commuting zones as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The researchers looked at opioid prescribing measures for four age groups: 10–24, 25–44, 45–64, and 65 years or older, as well as males and females. Because length of opioid prescribing is strongly associated with persistent opioid use the researchers included a measure of percentage with opioid prescriptions for long-term opioid prescriptions measured at greater then or equal to 60 consecutive days. Also, because of the association between having multiple opioid prescribers and opioid overdose risk, Olfson and colleagues included a multiple prescriber measure as the percentage with three or more opioid prescribers during a year.
Among individuals in the 45- to 64-year age group, change in regional suicide deaths was positively associated with change in regional opioid prescriptions and change in percentage with at least one opioid prescription. Overall, the association with change in suicide deaths was significantly stronger in the West than in the East or the Midwest.
“If opioid prescribing per capita had held constant from 2009 to 2017, there would have been an estimated 10.5 percent more suicide deaths involving opioids in 2017,” noted Olfson. The corresponding estimated percentage increases in opioid-related suicide deaths were 15 percent, 9 percent, 9 percent, and 19 percent, respectively, for at least one opioid prescription, high-dose prescriptions, long-term prescriptions, and three or more opioid prescribers.
In the U.S., geographic regions with the greatest declines in people filling opioid prescriptions also tended to have the greatest declines in total suicide deaths. Had the national decline in opioid prescriptions between 2009 and 2017 not occurred, there would have been 3 percent more suicide deaths overall in the U.S. according to the research team. For four of five prescribing measures, decreasing regional opioid prescriptions were also related to declining total opioid-related overdose deaths.
“Although the present population-level research cannot establish that opioid prescriptions cause deaths by suicide, the results are consistent with the view that opioid prescription policies and practices should give careful attention to possible connections between prescription opioids and suicide risk,” noted Olfson.
Co-authors are Timothy Waidmann, and Vincent Pancini, Urban Institute, Health Policy Center, Washington, D.C.; Marissa King, University of Pennsylvania; and Michael Schoenbaum, NIMH, Bethesda.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, grant 1R01DA044981.
The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.
IMAGE: CO-LED BY SVETLA SLAVOVA AND JEFF TALBERT, RADOR-KY UTILIZE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO HELP PREDICT AND PREVENT OPIOID OVERDOSES.view more
CREDIT: ARDEN BARNES | UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY PHOTO.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 10, 2023)—University of Kentucky researchers are creating an innovative statewide surveillance system to inform prevention and response efforts aimed at reducing the burden of opioid use disorder in Kentucky.
The Rapid Actionable Data for Opioid Response in Kentucky (RADOR-KY) will use data from federal, state, and local sources to guide evidence-based practices aimed at preventing opioid overdoses in the Commonwealth. Phase one of the project is supported by a three-year $3.1 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and illegally manufactured fentanyl, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. increased to historic levels in 2021. Kentucky has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic. Overdose deaths reached an all-time high of 2,250, with 90% of those deaths involving an opioid.
Co-led by Svetla Slavova, Ph.D., associate professor in the College of Public Health, and Jeff Talbert, Ph.D., professor in the College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy, RADOR-KY will use a comprehensive set of data needed to effectively monitor and respond to the rapidly evolving opioid overdose crisis.
The system will use advanced algorithms to rapidly process data and help predict potential overdose surges using artificial intelligence.
“This unique, first-of-its-kind system will not only track and monitor overdose cases but use predictive analytics and dashboards for fast dissemination of analytical results to keep state agencies and local stakeholders on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic in Kentucky a step ahead,” said Slavova, who also serves as interim associate dean for research in the College of Public Health.
RADOR-KY will use data from multiple sources, including the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics, syndromic surveillance, emergency medical services, prescription drug monitoring, Medicaid claims and drug seizure records. It will also track measures related to evidence-based practices such as treatment for opioid use disorder, overdose education and the distribution of naloxone, a life-saving medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
“We’ve harnessed the power of our data processing capabilities at UK with the framework and experience gained from our work on the HEALing Communities Study, which has also shown that addressing this public health crisis requires working across disciplines,” said Talbert, who also directs the Institute for Biomedical Informatics.
“The HEALing Communities Study has been an exemplar of how a state and a university can work together and one of the deciding factors for receiving this award,” said HCS principal investigator Sharon Walsh, Ph.D., a professor in UK’s College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy and director for the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research.
Walsh leads the project’s substance use disorder team, which will advise on the content of evidence-based practices and state and local partners who are end users of the system.
Katherine Marks, Ph.D., a UK College of Medicine research assistant professor who serves as project director for the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, is the project’s state government liaison.
Marks says RADOR-KY’s faster data processing, predictive analytics and inclusion of evidence-based practices will help the state take more strategic action.
“The opportunity for state and community partners to have readily available access to data so we can take action and evaluate how we’re doing in our response is a remarkable innovation,” said Marks. “This is a wonderful demonstration of the collaborative potential between the state and university expertise. It’s also yet another example of how UK is working as the University for Kentucky.”
An end-user advisory group, including partners in state government and local communities, will also guide the development of RADOR-KY. To advance the efforts to mitigate the opioid epidemic across the U.S. the team also plans to share programming code and algorithms in a public repository.
This project is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01DA057605. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $501 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.
What is it good for? Absolutely one thing. Luna moths use their tails solely for bat evasion
IMAGE: THE LONG, TRAILING TAILS OF LUNA MOTHS APPEAR TO HAVE ONE, SINGLE FUNCTION AND FEW, IF ANY, DRAWBACKS.view more
CREDIT: BAT ILLUSTRATION FROM "VOYAGE DANS L'AMÉRIQUE MÉRIDIONALE" (1846-1847) BY ALCIDE D'ORBIGNY. MOTH ILLUSTRATION FROM "ILLUSTRATIONS OF EXOTIC ENTOMOLOGY," (1837) BY DRU DRURY.
In a pair of complementary studies, researchers took a close look at Luna moth (Actias luna) tails through the eyes of birds and female moths to test the tails’ role in predation and sexual selection. Scientists have known for about a decade that Luna moths — and other related silkmoths — use their long, trailing tails to misdirect bat attacks.
“They have projections off the back of the hindwing that end in twisted, cupped paddles,” said Juliette Rubin, a doctoral student at the Florida Museum of Natural History and lead author of both studies. “From experimental work with bats and moths in a flight room, we’ve found that these structures seem to reflect bat sonar in such a way that bats often aim their attacks at the tails instead of the main body.”
Traits that evolve for one specific function can often be co-opted by natural selection for another, and Rubin wondered whether the twisted tails of Luna moths might come with any additional benefits or hidden costs.
Male Luna moths doff their tails, retain their charm
Silkmoths have independently evolved tails on multiple occasions across three continents, and the appendages can vary significantly in length. Hind wings in some species can extend to more than twice the size of the moth’s wingspan, and the longer the tail, the more likely a moth will successfully thwart a prowling bat.
But far from being drab, utilitarian decoys meant only for sonar-sensing bats, silkmoth tails are often visually stunning, like decorative streamers trailing behind a kite. Across the animal and plant kingdoms, many of the most colorful and alluring structures are used to attract mates or pollinators, and scientists suspected the same might be true of silkmoth tails.
Luna moths have neither mouths to produce sound nor ears to hear it, but they do have sensitive eyes and powerful scent-detecting antennae. When female Luna moths are ready to mate, they perch in one place and emit a pheromone, a single molecule of which is enough to trigger a male antenna. The males of closely related Indian moon moths (Actias selene) can find females from more than six miles away by following the pheromone plume to its source.
“We don’t know how many males are traveling to a female each night,” Rubin said. “It’s entirely possible she’s able to call in multiple suitors and potentially have her pick.”
Rubin put this idea to the test, setting up mating experiments in which a female Luna moth was enclosed in a flight box with two males: one with normal hind wings, and one with its tails removed.
Initially, the data seemed to suggest that females preferred males whose wings remained intact, but additional controlled experiments demonstrated that this was more likely an incidental effect of the tail removal. During trials in which both males had their wings clipped, and one had the tails glued back on, there was no difference in their mating success.
Do tails make Luna moths invisible to bats but conspicuous to birds?
Having demonstrated tail wings likely weren’t conferring any additional benefits beyond survival, Rubin wanted to see whether they had any obvious drawbacks. Their long tails effectively throw off pursuing bats by creating a decoy target, but bats aren’t the only adversaries Luna moths have to avoid. Their electric green tails with bright, pink parfait borders might make Luna moths noticeable to birds and other visually oriented predators that hunt during the day.
Other organisms contend with similar tradeoffs. The bioluminescent displays of fireflies make it easier for males to locate potential mates, but it also makes them stand out to nocturnal frogs and geckoes.
Luna moths live incredibly short lives, during which they can afford to lose a tail or two. Once they emerge from their cocoons, the moths have about a week to find a mate and reproduce before dying. “This creates a very intense period of adulthood, where surviving the night is of the utmost importance,” Rubin said.
Luna moths are mostly inactive during the day, reducing their chances of being nabbed midair. If they don’t do a good enough job concealing themselves, however, they run the risk of not surviving to nightfall.
Rubin wanted to know if their visually elaborate tails put Luna moths at a disadvantage in this high-stakes game of hide-and-seek. To find out, she and her colleagues wrapped mealworms in pastry dough in the shape and size of Luna moth bodies, to which they attached real wings, half of which had tails. They partially hid these moth replicas among branches and leaves in an aviary, then introduced a succession of Carolina wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus), recording how many of the snacks the birds located and ate.
The results conclusively indicate that the tails had no effect on the birds’ ability to locate the fake moths. This might seem odd to us, Rubin said, because we’re such visually oriented animals. But there’s evidence that suggests birds might rely on search images when trying to distinguish food items from patterns in the background.
Humans do this too. When trying to complete a Where’s Waldo puzzle, people often look for the characteristic red, horizontal lines of Waldo’s shirt while scanning across the page. It’s possible that Luna moth tails don’t match the typical moth and butterfly mold that birds expect to see while foraging, the equivalent of Waldo wearing a solid red shirt rather than his signature stripes.
While not indicative of all silkmoths, the studies suggest that these stunning and complex structures evolved for a single function in Luna moths.
“When we see these really obvious physical features in animals, we’re often drawn into stories we’ve heard about them,” Rubin said. “One is that conspicuous traits are for attracting mates or competing with rivals, and another is that these very showy traits must come with a cost. Both of these studies show it’s really important to test those assumptions. A trait that’s obvious to us, as visual creatures, might not stand out to the predators that hunt them, and the traits that we think are dynamic and alluring might not seem that way to a potential mate.”
The studies were published in the journals Biology Lettersand Behavioral Ecology. Akito Kawahara of the Florida Museum of Natural History, and Nich Martin and Kathryn Sieving of the University of Florida are also co-authors.
IMAGE: FIELD WORK ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU.view more
CREDIT: WENGANG KANG
Mention fungi, and most people will probably think of the mushrooms they pick in fall, or maybe the yeast they add when baking or making wine. Others will perhaps recall last week’s mouldy bread – or cucumbers gone bad in the refrigerator. Indeed, mycologists have studied these fungi as sources of food and fermentation but also decay and disease for centuries.
But while we’re used to thinking of fungi as organisms that form physical structures such as fruiting bodies, or yeast-like life forms that we can grow in our kitchens or laboratories, it is gradually becoming clear that fungi don’t readily assort into only these two groups. DNA sequencing studies of environmental substrates such as soil are finding massive evidence of large groups of fungi that do not seem to form fruiting bodies and that we seem unable to grow in the lab – but that are there nonetheless. These groups are often called “dark fungi,” in analogy with the concept of “dark matter” in astronomy – something we know is out there, but that we cannot directly observe right now.
A new study in MycoKeys contrasts the accumulation of fungal species recovered using traditional mycological approaches with those recovered using environmental DNA sequencing over time. Even when allowing for various kinds of biases, the authors found that species discovery through environmental sequencing vastly outpaces traditional species recovery in a strongly increasing trend over the last five years. The authors conclude that dark fungi form a defining feature of the fungal kingdom.
“And that’s where it gets interesting”, Henrik Nilsson at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the lead author of the study, says. “Under the current rules of nomenclature, these fungi cannot be given scientific names – they cannot be described formally. And species and groups that cannot be named formally, well, they tend to fall between the cracks. They’re typically not considered in nature conservation initiatives. They are often left out from efforts to estimate the evolutionary history of fungi, and their ecological roles and associations are largely overlooked when we try to figure out how mass and energy flow in ecosystems. They’re essentially treated as if they didn’t exist.”
Second author Martin Ryberg at the University of Uppsala, Sweden chimes in, “And it’s not like we’re adding the few missing pieces to an otherwise nearly complete jigsaw puzzle. It seems to be the other way around. We’re talking about tens of large groups of fungi – and thousands upon thousands of species, some of which seem to be so common that we have yet to find a soil sample from which they’re absent. Indeed, we’re talking about what could well prove to be the dominant life style in the fungal kingdom.”
The mycological community has been debating whether the rules of fungal nomenclature should be modified to allow formal description of these dark fungi. So far, the matter has not been resolved in the affirmative. “I think our study shows that it’s time to stop that debate, like, right away,” Nilsson says. “What we should be debating is how we should describe them. What criteria must be fulfilled for a dark fungus to be given a formal scientific name? Clearly, formation of a fruiting body or growth in the laboratory can’t be part of those criteria.”
Co-author Alice Retter of the University of Vienna, Austria explains, “We figured we’d kickstart the how debate by listing criteria that we think make sense – criteria that would be stringent enough to allow for only particularly well-vetted dark fungi to be described, upholding a high level of scientific rigor and reproducibility in the process. We blended our own observations with suggestions from the mycological community, culled from depositing a preprint of the manuscript at bioRxiv. We’re certainly not claiming that our suggestions form the final word in the debate. It’s more like they’re the first. We’re thinking that the mycological community will jointly be able to come up with a set of sound guiding principles on the matter – and here comes an initial set of well-meaning observations for nucleation.”
The authors advocate gentle modifications to the nomenclatural rules governing the naming of fungi to allow giving formal names to at least the most well-documented species and groups of dark fungi. The suggested modifications would, at present, exclude many rare or otherwise less well-documented dark fungi from formal description.
“But you don’t have to have a theory of everything to have a theory of something,” senior author Kessy Abarenkov of the Tartu Natural History Museum, Estonia asserts. “By establishing rules for what’s needed to describe dark fungi, and specifying when we’ll have to refrain from describing such species at present, mycologists can do what they do best: doggedly gather enough research data to warrant naming of the dark fungi, group by group, and species by species. It’s what mycology has excelled at for hundreds of years. It’s just the setting that’s a bit new.”
Sten Anslan, University of Tartu, continues: “Much is at stake, obviously. The current rules governing the naming of fungi have served mycology well for a long time. We don’t want to upend or overthrow them. But we fear that if they’re not updated in this particular regard, there’s a risk that they grow increasingly obsolete over time. Having a book of rules that govern maybe only some few percent of the organisms it was originally conceived to govern – the fungal kingdom – would seem untenable in the long run.”
Marisol Sanchez-Garcia of the Swedish Agricultural University concludes: “The nomenclatural aspects of dark fungi will presumably be discussed at some length at next year’s international mycological congress in Maastricht, the Netherlands. We’re hopeful that the mycological community will reach meaningful agreement on integration of the dark fungi into the rules of nomenclature. After all, mycologists are used to negotiating and solving non-trivial questions on a day-to-day basis, and this one is hardly any different. Being part of tackling a huge, more or less unknown group of organisms where precious little is set in stone and where the rules will have to be adapted over time for the endeavour to stay attuned to recent developments, well, that’s what makes being a mycologist so interesting and rewarding in my eyes.”
Drying soil samples immediately upon collection under field conditions in Norway.
CREDIT
Sten Anslan
Sampling soil and sediments for fungal diversity not far from Göteborg, Sweden.
CREDIT
Henrik Nilsson
Getting ready for DNA extraction from soil samples.
CREDIT
Sten Anslan
Examining minute fungal fruiting bodies not far from Stockholm, Sweden.
CREDIT
Kristina Stenmarck
Field work in New Caledonia.
CREDIT
Sten Anslan
Field work in the German Alps.
CREDIT
Vanessa Schulz
Research article:
Nilsson RH, Ryberg M, Wurzbacher C, Tedersoo L, Anslan S, Põlme S, Spirin V, Mikryukov V, Svantesson S, Hartmann M, Lennartsdotter C, Belford P, Khomich M, Retter A, Corcoll N, Gómez Martinez D, Jansson T, Ghobad-Nejhad M, Vu D, Sanchez-Garcia M, Kristiansson E, Abarenkov K (2023) How, not if, is the question mycologists should be asking about DNA-based typification. MycoKeys 96: 143-157. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.96.102669
So, mushroom-zombies recently took over a fictional world, but in real life, they’re really not so scary. These fungi range in shape from broad, plate-like portobellos and gangly enokis to a version resembling a giant, shaggy lion’s mane. And now scientists are finding ways to grow mushrooms on new materials, as well as incorporate them in more sustainable products. Below are some recent papers published in ACS journals that report insights into additional applications for mushrooms. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org.
“Uptake of Ultrashort Chain, Emerging, and Legacy Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Edible Mushrooms (Agaricus spp.) Grown in a Polluted Substrate” Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry March 8, 2023 When food waste and manure are composted by microorganisms, they create gas that can be collected and burned to generate electricity. As a step toward a circular agricultural system, some people have suggested cultivating edible mushrooms on the final compost. However, the material could contain pollutants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This team found that two types of mushrooms grown on PFAS-containing compost accumulated small to negligible amounts of PFAS, and they’d still be considered safe for humans to consume.
“Self-Healing Properties of Fibers Constructed from Mushroom-Derived Chitinous Polymers” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Jan. 31, 2023 Here, researchers prepared textile fibers from dried white button mushrooms, Agaricus bisporus. They extracted chitin and glucan from the fungi and spun the resulting thick paste into long strands. In the presence of water, cut or damaged fibers repaired themselves in 30 seconds, returning to their original shape and strength, and woven fibers demonstrated larger-scale self-healing. This proof-of-concept study indicates that mushrooms are a potential feedstock for renewable fibers and sustainable textiles.
“Mushroom-Mediated Reductive Bioconversion of Aldehyde-Rich Essential Oils for Aroma Alteration: A Rose-like Floral Bioflavor from Citronella Oil” Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry Jan. 13, 2023 Naturally derived food and beverage flavorings are in high demand by consumers. To generate a new one, this group added edible mushroom cultures to citronella essential oil. In less than 12 hours, the Neofomitella polyzonata cultures transformed the original oil into a product with floral, sweet, fresh and rosy notes. When panelists drank water flavored with the rose-like oil, they indicated that it would be acceptable to consumers. Therefore, mushrooms could be a sustainable route for converting essential oils into commercially valuable flavorings or fragrances, the researchers say.
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