Nature-based management is making rivers more resilient

Research paper in Nature Communications Earth and Environment shows progress in Australia towards United Nations goals, making rivers more able to recover from flood, drought and other impacts.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A CHANGE OF SCENERY: WOLLOMBI BROOK AT WARKWORTH PRE- AND POST-RECOVERY view more 

CREDIT: DPI WATER ARCHIVE/NICK COOK

In July 2022, the 120-kilometre Wollombi Brook, which flows north into the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, suffered one of its biggest floods on record. And it held up remarkably well, says Professor Kirstie Fryirs of the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University. “Yes, there was widespread inundation, but the flood waters were slower and the vegetation prevented large scale erosion and sediment movement.

“All the hard work that a very active community put into nature-based rehabilitation for more than 20 years, such as continuous streamside revegetation, played a role in this outcome.” It is one of the best examples in Australia of sustainable environmental restoration in the management of rivers, she says.

It represents the sort of transformation Professor Fryirs and research fellow Dr Kathryn Russell of the University of Melbourne think the multi-billion-dollar river management industry worldwide should be working towards.

“It’s important,” says Dr Russell, “as part the worldwide effort to achieve river sustainability and resilience to drought, fire and flood.” More specifically, the researchers say, Wollombi Brook encapsulates the sort of changes we need to make to meet river health goals set by the United Nations in its Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to 2030.

Adopting the UN environmental goals as principles in river management will be essential to conserve and improving river health, make effective use of diverse and traditional knowledges, integrate grassroots to the global action, improve the robustness and cost efficiency of restoration efforts, and secure river resilience to climate change and natural disasters.

Accelerating and upscaling

Dr Russell is lead author and Professor Fryirs second author of a paper recently published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment. Nine additional authors from a diversity of backgrounds also contributed. The paper does not investigate river management directly, but rather how the industry behind it in Australia has been changing to meet those goals. The verdict is that progress has been solid but patchy.

“We’re doing a lot of good things at the local level,” Professor Fryirs says, citing several examples in eastern NSW. Dr Russell provided urban examples of Norman Creek in Hanlon Park/Bur’uda across the river from the University of Queensland in Brisbane and the Sunbury Integrated Water Management Plan, which will protect creeks and safeguard water supplies in western Melbourne.

“But this work needs upscaling and better resourcing – from short sections of river to corridors to catchments – if we are going to get anywhere close to achieving some of the UN’s global goals,” Professor Fryirs says. “Australia seems to have reached a pivotal point with fires, floods and droughts. If we don’t get this right at this time, then we may well have lost that moment.”

Analysis and recommendations

The authors analysed the spread of papers delivered to the long-running Australian Stream Management (ASM) conference over the 25 years between 1996 to 2021. From their analysis they extracted information on how the structure and the approaches of Australia’s river management industry have changed over time, and what the successes and failures have been.

They found that the river management industry has matured over those 25 years, with increasing diversity and collaboration between its different components. However, there has been little measurable expansion of the participation of local communities and of the use of adaptive management or ‘learning by doing’ and ‘learning from mistakes’.

In contrast to parts of the world where expensive engineering solutions – big dams, channels and pipelines – are still prevalent, such as China, India and South America, the researchers say that what they have found in Australia is typical of much of the developed world like Europe and North America. “The trends are quite similar,” says Dr Russell. “While our analysis is local, our recommendations are global.”

On the basis of their analysis the authors made five recommendations to support sustainable development – that practitioners from different areas of management should work together and with communities (including First Nations communities) holistically; that nature-based, rather than engineering solutions should be implemented; that greater resources should be devoted to adaptive river management; that knowledge and understanding should be preserved by institutions; and that practitioners should have more influence in formulating government policy.

Professor Kirstie Fryirs works on river geomorphology and management in Macquarie University’s School of Natural Sciences.

Dr Kathryn Russell works on the impacts of urbanisation on stream physical form and function in the University of Melbourne’s School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences.

Their co-authors are from the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Water Technology Pty Ltd, Streamology Pty Ltd, Alluvium Consulting Pty Ltd, Hydrobiology, and Melbourne Water.

Abstract

Globally, river management is a multi-billion-dollar industry. The United Nations (UN) Decade of Ecosystem Restoration calls for accelerated action towards integrated, participatory, and adaptive water resources management. Here we test whether the required shifts are occurring in the Australian stream management industry, an environmental management industry in a developed western nation. We undertook structured review and topic modelling of 958 peer-reviewed papers presented at the national stream management conference from 1996-2021. We investigated trends in collaboration, transdisciplinary knowledge, diversity of input and perspectives, adaptive management, interaction with policy, and responses to natural events. We found that the industry has matured over the past 25 years, with increasing collaboration, diversity and interdisciplinarity. However, there was no measurable increase in on-ground community participation or use of adaptive management. The findings highlight opportunities for the industry to mature further to achieve UN 2030 goals for integrated water resource management and ecosystem restoration.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00748-y

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JOURNAL

Communications Earth & Environment

DOI

10.1038/s43247-023-00748-y 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Evolution of a river management industry in Australia reveals meandering pathway to 2030 UN goals

Scientists develop new way to measure wind

Using data from two NOAA satellites, University of Arizona researchers developed an algorithm for measuring wind via water vapor

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

 

IMAGE: SCIENTISTS USE SATELLITES TO TRACK WATER VAPOR MOVEMENT IN THE ATMOSPHERE TO MEASURE WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION. view more 

CREDIT: NONE REQUIRED

Wind speed and direction provide clues for forecasting weather patterns. In fact, wind influences cloud formation by bringing water vapor together. Atmospheric scientists have now found a novel way of measuring wind – by developing an algorithm that uses data from water vapor movements. This could help predict extreme events like hurricanes and storms.

A study published by University of Arizona researchers in the journal Geophysical Research Letters provides, for the first time, data on the vertical distribution of horizontal winds over the tropics and midlatitudes. The researchers got the water vapor movement data by using two operational satellites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the federal agency for weather forecasting.

Wind brings everything else in the atmosphere together, including clouds, aerosols, water vapor, precipitation and radiation, said Xubin Zeng, co-author of the study and the director of the Climate Dynamics and Hydrometeorology Collaborative at UArizona. But it has remained somewhat elusive.

"We never knew the wind very well. I mean, that's the last frontier. That's why I'm excited," Zeng said.

Thanks to more advanced algorithms, Zeng said, the researchers were able to do the estimation of horizontal winds not just at one altitude, but at different altitudes at the same location.

"This was not possible a decade ago," Zeng said.

Wind measurement typically is done in three different ways, Zeng explained. The first is through the use of radiosonde, an instrumental package suspended below a 6-foot-wide balloon. Sensors on the radiosonde measure wind speed and direction, and take measurements of atmospheric pressure, temperature and relative humidity. The downsides of radiosonde balloons, Zeng said, is the cost. Each launch could cost around $400 to $500, and some regions, such as Africa and the Amazon rainforest, have limited radiosonde stations. The other limitation is that radiosondes are not available over oceans, Zeng said.

Another way to measure wind is using cloud top, which is the height at which the upper visible part of the cloud is located, Zeng said. By tracking cloud top movement using geostationary satellite data, weather experts monitor wind speed and direction at one height. But Zeng said cloud tops exist most of the time below 2 miles or above 4 1/2 miles above Earth's surface, depending on whether the clouds are low or high. This means wind information is usually not available in the middle, between 2 and 4 1/2 miles.

Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, is a method that precisely measures wind movements at different elevations, and it provides very good data, Zeng said. But with lidar, measurements can be acquired only in one vertical "curtain," with measured wind typically in the east-west direction, he added.

Nowadays, Zeng said, to study topics like air quality and volcano ash dispersion, which are directly influenced by wind, experts use weather forecasting models to ingest measurements from different sources rather than using direct measurements of wind. But model outputs are not good enough when there is rainfall, Zeng said.

In their study, Zeng and his team avoided using data from models. They instead used data from the movement of water vapor recorded by the two NOAA satellites. The satellites moved in the same direction separated by a 50-minute interval, and they detected the water vapor movement through infrared radiation.

While our eyes cannot detect the minute movements of water vapor in the atmosphere, lead study author Amir Ouyed, a member of Zeng's research group, used machine-learning algorithms that do better image processing to track water vapor.

"For decades, people were saying, 'You have to move the cloud top or water vapors enough so that you can see the difference of the pattern.' But now, we don't need to do that," Zeng said.

"The resolution of the data is coarse, with a pixel size of 100 kilometers. It's a demonstration of the feasibility for our future satellite mission we are pursuing where we hope to provide the 10-kilometer resolution," Zeng said.

Zeng and his collaborators at other institutions are planning to pursue a new satellite wind mission in which they envision combining water vapor movement data and measurements from wind lidar to provide better wind measurements overall.

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JOURNAL

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2022GL101830 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Global Three-Dimensional Water Vapor Feature-Tracking for Horizontal Winds Using Hyperspectral Infrared Sounder Data From Overlapped Tracks of Two Satellite

New specimens and species of the Oligocene toothed baleen whale Coronodon from South Carolina and the origin of Neoceti

The five new skulls represent two new species: Coronodon planifrons and Coronodon newtonorum, and young juveniles of Coronodon havensteini

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON

 

IMAGE: NEW SPECIES OF FOSSIL TOOTHED BALEEN WHALES view more 

CREDIT: ROBERT W. BOESSENECKER

A new study published in the journal PeerJ by Robert W. Boessenecker (CofC), Brian L. Beatty (NYIT), and Jonathan H. Geisler (NYIT) reports a wealth of new fossils of the early toothed baleen whale Coronodon from Oligocene (23-30 million years old) rock layers near Charleston, South Carolina. These include five new skulls, representing two new species: Coronodon planifrons and Coronodon newtonorum, and young juveniles of Coronodon havensteini – first named from a single skull by this team in 2017. Coronodon is one of the most primitive members of the group that includes living baleen whales – its name translate to “crown tooth” referring to the large, multi-cusped teeth that overlap in the mouth. An ongoing scientfic controversy concerns whether these teeth were used for cutting, filter-feeding, or a combination of both. 

The two new species, Coronodon planifrons and Coronodon newtonorum, are found in the same rock layer and date to the same time period (late Oligocene; 25-23 myo). Coronodon havensteini (30-28 myo) is older and is a possible ancestor of these two species. Coronodon planifrons is named after a skull with a flat ‘forehead’ and possibly an extra tooth relative to the other species. Coronodon newtonorum is also known from a single skull and mandible, with slightly smaller teeth and an unusual shaped mouth that made it look like it was permanently ‘smiling’. 

New specimens of Coronodon havensteini include an old adult and two calves, and providing a rare window into the early growth and development of an Oligocene whales. Unlike modern dolphins and baleen whales, the snout stays the same length during growth – rather than being shorter in juveniles. The early growth of the snout is probably related to its large teeth, and underscores how important the teeth are to understanding this early whale. 

These new specimens and species indicate that Coronodon had a proportionally large head relative to its skeleton, swam in a style much like modern baleen whales, and likely had a flexible chin and joints in the skull that are typically associated with filter feeding. However, Coronodon appears to have lacked baleen. Reconstruction of the evolutionary tree of baleen whales places Coronodon as its earliest branch and this key to understanding the transition from feeding with teeth to feeding with baleen. 

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JOURNAL

PeerJ

DOI

10.7717/peerj.14795 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

New specimens and species of the Oligocene toothed baleen whale Coronodon from South Carolina and the origin of Neoceti

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Apr-2023

Tastes differ – even among North Atlantic killer whales

Detailed overview of orca diets provides insight into potential impacts on Arctic food webs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MCGILL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE FEEDING HABITS OF ORCAS VARY DEPENDING ON LOCATION AND INDIVIDUAL. view more 

CREDIT: RUNE DIETZ

Killer whales (also known as orcas) are intelligent predators. While it’s known that killer whales in the Pacific Northwest exploit widely different food types, even within the same region, we know much less about the feeding habits of those found throughout the North Atlantic. Thanks to a new technique developed by a research team led by McGill University, it is now possible to quantify, for the first time, the proportion of different prey that killer whales in the North Atlantic are eating by studying the fatty acid patterns in their blubber.

In the largest study of its kind, this approach was used to look more closely at the diets of killer whale from the eastern and northern coasts of Canada all the way to northern Norway. It provides the most detailed overview of North Atlantic killer whales diets to date. As climate change leads to a northward redistribution of killer whales, the results have implications not only for the health and survival of these killer whales, but also in terms of potential impacts on sensitive species within Arctic ecosystems.

A new tool to keep track of shifting diets

“In a context of climate change, it becomes increasingly urgent to understand and be able to quantify killer whale diets and how they are changing so that we can foresee the potential impacts on local food webs,” says Anaïs Remili, a PhD candidate in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University and the first author on a paper published in Journal of Animal Ecology.  “By measuring the composition of the fatty acids of approximately 200 killer whales and of 900 of their prey of different species, we were able estimate the specific proportions of each prey species in the whales’ diets. This means that scientists can potentially keep track of any shifts in these diets in the future.”

Orca food habits vary – by region and individual

The team found that killer whales have very different diets throughout the North Atlantic. In some areas, killer whales prefer to consume other whales: belugas and narwhals in the Eastern Canadian Arctic and baleen whales and porpoises in Eastern Canada.  

Killer whales feed predominantly on fish, especially herring in the Eastern North Atlantic (Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland), and in the Central North Atlantic (Greenland) they primarily eat seals.

Interestingly, however, the McGill researchers also found that not all the whales in any given location feed on the same prey. For example, in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, half of the whales eat mainly belugas and narwhals, while the other half consume mainly ringed seals. In Greenland, killer whales consumed a mixture of all available prey. Lastly, in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, most whales are herring eaters, but a small number of whales in Norway and Iceland also consume a substantial proportion of marine mammals such as porpoises and seals. It is the first time that researchers have been able to detect individual diet preferences with this level of detail.

“Quantifying the diets of killer whales and other top predators is crucial in a context of changing environments, because it can provide insights into how these animals adapt to shifts in their prey populations and habitat conditions,” adds Melissa McKinney, the senior author on the paper, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill and the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Change and Environmental Stressors. “Our results also point to the need for further research on the ecology of the individuals since we found such large differences among individuals of the same populations.”

The study:

“Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis reveals a high level of dietary specialization in killer whales across the North Atlantic by Anaïs Remili et al. in Journal of Animal Ecology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13920

CAPTION

The diets of killer whales in the North Atlantic vary by location and by individual. To find out more, watch the video: https://youtu.be/qJh-1XRxTq8

By measuring the fatty acid of killer whales in different locations, researchers have been able to gain insight into their eating habits.

CREDIT

Anais Remili

JOURNAL

Journal of Animal Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2656.13920 

ARTICLE TITLE

Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis reveals a high level of dietary specialization in killer whales across the North Atlantic

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Apr-2023

Clinical staff MRSA carriage and environmental contamination by other “superbugs” found in Portuguese veterinary practices

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

**Note: the release below is from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story**

Examination tables, scales and other surfaces in small animal veterinary practices are frequently contaminated with multidrug-resistant “superbugs”, the results of a Portuguese study suggest.

The research, which is being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, (15-18 April) found that 19% of surfaces harboured at least one multidrug-resistant bacterium.

Dogs, cats and other pets are known to contribute to the spread of multidrug-resistant pathogens that can cause human disease. Small animal veterinary practices (SAVPs) are a potentially important link in the spread of these pathogens and, with numbers of SAVPs growing in Portugal, it is important to determine the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in this part of the veterinary sector.

Joana Moreira da Silva and colleagues from the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health (CIISA), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal studied eight SAVPs, all of which were in Lisbon and the outskirts. 

Critical surfaces, including surgical tables, shearing blades, examination tables and weighing scales were swabbed and nasal swabs were obtained from the vets, veterinary nurses and other staff.

The swabs were tested for the presence of multidrug-resistant bacteria.

At least one multidrug-resistant bacterium was found on 18.9% (34/182) of the surfaces tested.  These include Acinetobacter spp. and Staphylococci, including S. pseudintermedius. These bacteria are responsible for highly resistant clinical infections in both human and veterinary medicine.

In one of the veterinary practices, 18.2% of the tested surfaces (4/22) were positive for OXA-23-producing Acinetobacter spp. These bacteria, which were found on several different surfaces, are resistant to carbapenem antibiotics.  Carbapenems are prohibited in veterinary medicine by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)1 and play vital role in human medicine, where they are part of the last line of treatment when other antibiotics have failed.

Together with previous studies which found carbapenem-resistant infections in pets2, this highlights the possibility that SAVPs may play a role in the dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria into the community.

No methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was found on any of the surfaces tested.

Approximately 23% of workers were carrying MRSA. While MRSA is not common in veterinary medicine, nasal carriage is common in human healthcare settings and in the community.

However, if MRSA gets deeper into the body, via wounds or catheters, for example, it cause lung, skin and other infections, some of which can be life-threatening. The bacterium is on the World Health Organisation’s list of antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens” – meaning it is among the bacteria judged to pose the greatest risk to human health.3

Ms Moreira da Silva, a PhD student, says: “Our findings highlight the need to implement and monitor infection, prevention and control (IPC) guidelines in small animal veterinary practices.

“The inclusion of monitoring of workers for the nasal carriage of MRSA is also important to consider when designing IPC guidelines. Such measures might prevent the dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria into the community.

“People should not be afraid to take pets to the vet – it is still by far the best place for them to receive care.”

Joana Moreira da Silva, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal T) +351 21 365 2837 E) jmsilva@fmv.ulisboa.pt

Professor Constança Pomba, Team leader of the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal. T) +351 21 365 2837 E) cpomba@fmv.ulisboa.pt

Alternative contact: Tony Kirby in the ECCMID Media Centre. T) +44 7834 385827 E) tony@tonykirby.com

Notes to editors:

References:

1. European Medicines Agency (EMA). (2019). Categorisation of antibiotics in the European Union. 31(12 December 2019). https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/report/categorisation-antibiotics-european-union-answer-request-european-commission-updating-scientific_en.pdf

2. Moreira da Silva, J., Menezes, J., Mendes, G., Santos Costa, S., Caneiras, C., Poirel, L., Amaral, A. J., & Pomba, C. (2022). KPC-3-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Sequence Type 392 from a Dog’s Clinical Isolate in Portugal. Microbiology Spectrum, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00893-22

3. https://www.who.int/news/item/27-02-2017-who-publishes-list-of-bacteria-for-which-new-antibiotics-are-urgently-needed

Conflicts of interest: institutional grants and research support.

This project was funded by CIISA and FCT Project UIDB/00276/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020 – AL4AnimalS. This project was funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia I.P., within the project 2022.08669.PTDC. JMS, JM and LF were supported by a Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) PhD fellowship (2020.06540.BD; 2020.07562.BD; UI/BD/153070/2022, respectively).

This press release is based on abstract 279 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting. The material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee.  There is no full paper at this stage.

For full abstract click here

For full poster click here

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ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Apr-2023

COI STATEMENT

Conflicts of interest: institutional grants and research support. This project was funded by CIISA and FCT Project UIDB/00276/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020 – AL4AnimalS. This project was funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia I.P., within the project 2022.08669.PTDC. JMS, JM and LF were supported by a Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) PhD fellowship (2020.06540.BD; 2020.07562.BD; UI/BD/153070/2022, respectively).

UK-Portuguese study shows antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” are being passed between dogs and cats and their owners, study strongly suggests

People in UK and Portugal carrying same multidrug-resistant bacteria as their pets; call for dogs and cats to be included in assessments of antibiotic resistance

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

**Note: the release below is from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story**

Evidence that multidrug-resistant bacteria are being passed between pet cats and dogs and their owners will be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April).

Six pets in Portugal and one in the UK were carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria similar to those found in their owners, a Portuguese study found.

The finding underlines the importance of including pet-owning households in programmes to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Antibiotic resistance is reaching dangerously high levels around the world. Drug-resistant infections kill an estimated 700,000 people a year globally and, with the figure projected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classes antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.

Dogs, cats and other pets are known to contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that can cause human disease.  Juliana Menezes and colleagues from the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal wanted to find out if pets being treated with antibiotics for infections are sharing such pathogens with their owners.

The researchers tested faecal samples from dogs and cats and their owners for Enterobacterales (a large family of bacteria which includes E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) resistant to common antibiotics.

They focused on bacteria resistant to third generation cephalosporins (used to treat a broad range of conditions, including meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis, they are classed among the most critically important antibiotics for human medicine by the World Health Organisation) and carbapenems (part of the last line of defence when other antibiotics have failed).The prospective longitudinal study involved five cats, 38 dogs and 78 humans from 43 households in Portugal and seven dogs and eight humans from seven households in the UK.  

In Portugal, one dog (1/43 pets, 2.3%) was colonised by a strain of multidrug-resistant OXA-181-producing Escherichia coli. OXA-181 is an enzyme that confers resistance to carbapenems.

Three cats and 21 dogs (24/43 pets, 55.8%) and 28 owners (28/78, 35.9%) harboured ESBL/Amp-C producing Enterobacterales.  These are resistant to third generation cephalosporins.

In eight households, two houses with cats and six with dogs, both pet and owner were carrying ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria. In six of these homes, the DNA of the bacteria isolated from the pets (one cat and five dogs) and their owners was similar, meaning these bacteria were probably passed between the animals and humans.  It is not known whether they were transferred from pet to human or vice versa. 

In the UK, one dog (1/7,14.3%) was colonised by multidrug-resistant E. coli producing NDM-5 and CTX-M-15 beta-lactamases. These E. coli are resistant to third generation cephalosporins, carbapenems and several other families of antibiotics.

ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacterales were isolated from five dogs (5/7, 71.4%) and three owners (3/8, 37.5%).

In two households with dogs, both pet and owner were carrying ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria.   In one of these homes, the DNA of the bacteria isolated from the dog and owner was similar, suggesting the bacteria probably passed from one to the other. The direction of transfer is unclear.

All of the dogs and cats were successfully treated for their skin, soft tissue and urinary tract infections.

The owners did not have infections and so did not need treatment.

Ms Menezes, a PhD student, says: “In this study, we provide evidence that bacteria resistant to a third generation cephalosporins, critically important antibiotics, are being passed from pets to their owners.

“Dogs and cats may aid the spread and persistence of such bacteria in the community and it is vitally important that they are included in assessments of antimicrobial resistance.

“Owners can reduce the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria by practising good hygiene, including washing their hands after collecting their dog or cat’s waste and even after petting them.”

Juliana Menezes, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon,  Portugal.  T) +351 21 365 2837  E) julianamenezes@fmv.ulisboa.pt

Professor Constança Pomba, Team leader of the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal. T) +351 21 365 2837 E) cpomba@fmv.ulisboa.pt

Alternative contact: Tony Kirby in the ECCMID Media Centre. T) +44 7834 385827 E) tony@tonykirby.com

Notes to editors:

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

The work was supported by JPIAMR/0002/2016 Project—PET-Risk Consortium and by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia IP (UIDB/00276/2020); JM and JMS were supported by a PhD fellowship (2020.07562.BD; 2020.06540.BD, respectively).

 

This press release is based on oral presentation 208 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting. The material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee.  There is no full paper at this stage and, as it is an oral presentation, there is no poster.

Ancient DNA reveals the multiethnic structure of Mongolia’s first nomadic empire

The Xiongnu dominated the Eurasian steppes two millennia ago and foreshadowed the rise of the Mongol Empire

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

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IMAGE: THE XIONGNU BUILT A MULTIETHNIC EMPIRE ON THE MONGOLIAN STEPPE THAT WAS CONNECTED BY TRADE TO ROME, EGYPT, AND IMPERIAL CHINA. ARTIST RECONSTRUCTION OF LIFE AMONG THE XIONGNU IMPERIAL ELITE BY GALMANDAKH AMARSANAA. view more 

CREDIT: © DAIRYCULTURES PROJECT

Long obscured in the shadows of history, the world’s first nomadic empire - the Xiongnu - is at last coming into view thanks to painstaking archaeological excavations and new ancient DNA evidence. Arising on the Mongolian steppe 1,500 years before the Mongols, the Xiongnu empire grew to be one of Iron Age Asia’s most powerful political forces - ultimately stretching its reach and influence from Egypt to Rome to Imperial China. Economically grounded in animal husbandry and dairying, the Xiongnu were famously nomadic, building their empire on the backs of horses. Their proficiency at mounted warfare made them swift and formidable foes, and their legendary conflicts with Imperial China ultimately led to the construction of the Great Wall.

However, unlike their neighbors, the Xiongnu never developed a writing system, and consequently historical records about the Xiongnu have been almost entirely written and passed down by their rivals and enemies. Such accounts, largely recorded by Han Dynasty chroniclers, provide little useful information on the origins of the Xiongnu, their political rise, or their social organization. Although recent archaeogenetics studies have now traced the origins of the Xiongnu as a political entity to a sudden migration and mixing of disparate nomadic groups in northern Mongolia ca. 200 BCE, such findings have raised more questions than answers.

To better understand the inner workings of the seemingly enigmatic Xiongnu empire, an international team of researchers at the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and Geoanthropology (MPI-GEO), Seoul National University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University conducted an in-depth genetic investigation of two imperial elite Xiongnu cemeteries along the western frontier of the empire: an aristocratic elite cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor and a local elite cemetery at Shombuuzyn Belchir.

“We knew that the Xiongnu had a high degree of genetic diversity, but due to a lack of community-scale genomic data it remained unclear whether this diversity emerged from a heterogeneous patchwork of locally homogenous communities or whether local communities were themselves genetically diverse,” explains Juhyeon Lee, first author of the study and PhD student at Seoul National University. “We wanted to know how such genetic diversity was structured at different social and political scales, as well as in relation to power, wealth, and gender.”

The rise of a multiethnic empire

Researchers found that individuals within the two cemeteries exhibited extremely high genetic diversity, to a degree comparable with that found across the Xiongnu Empire as a whole. In fact, high genetic diversity and heterogeneity was present at all levels – across the empire, within individual communities, and even within individual families - confirming the characterization of the Xiongnu Empire as a multiethnic empire. However, much of this diversity was stratified by status. The lowest status individuals (interred as satellite burials of the elites, likely reflecting a servant status) exhibited the highest genetic diversity and heterogeneity, suggesting that these individuals originated from far-flung parts of the Xiongnu Empire or beyond. In contrast, local and aristocratic elites buried in wood-plank coffins within square tombs and stone ring graves exhibited lower overall genetic diversity and harbored higher proportions of eastern Eurasian ancestries, suggesting that elite status and power was concentrated among specific genetic subsets of the broader Xiongnu population. Nevertheless, even elite families appear to have used marriage to cement ties to newly incorporated groups, especially at Shombuuzyn Belchir.

“We now have a better idea of how the Xiongnu expanded their empire by incorporating disparate groups and leveraging marriage and kinship into empire building,” says senior author Dr. Choongwon Jeong, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University.

Powerful women in Xiongnu society

A second major finding was that high status Xiongnu burials and elite grave goods were disproportionately associated with women, corroborating textual and archaeological evidence that Xiongnu women played especially prominent political roles in the expansion and integration of new territories along the empire’s frontier. At the aristocratic elite cemetery of Takhiltyn Khotgor, researchers found that the elite monumental tombs had been built for women, with each prominent woman flanked by a host of commoner males buried in simple graves. The women were interred in elaborate coffins with the golden sun and moon emblems of Xiongnu imperial power and one tomb even contained a team of six horses and a partial chariot. At the nearby local elite cemetery of Shombuuzyn Belchir, women likewise occupied the wealthiest and most elaborate graves, with grave goods consisting of wooden coffins, golden emblems and gilded objects, glass and faience beads, Chinese mirrors, a bronze cauldron, silk clothing, wooden carts, and more than a dozen livestock, as well as three objects conventionally associated with male horse-mounted warriors: a Chinese lacquer cup, a gilded iron belt clasp, and horse tack. Such objects and their symbolism convey the great political power of the women.

“Women held great power as agents of the Xiongnu imperial state along the frontier, often holding exclusive noble ranks, maintaining Xiongnu traditions, and engaging in both steppe power politics and the so-called Silk Road networks of exchange,” says Dr. Bryan Miller, project archaeologist and Assistant Professor of Central Asian Art & Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Children in Xiongnu society

Genetic analysis also provided rare insights into the social roles of children in Xiongnu society. “Children received differential mortuary treatment depending upon age and sex, giving clues to the ages at which gender and status were ascribed in Xiongnu society,” says senior author Dr. Christina Warinner, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Researchers found, for example, that although adolescent Xiongnu boys as young as 11-12 years old were buried with a bow and arrows, in a manner resembling that of adult males, younger boys were not. This suggests that the gendered social roles of hunter and warrior were not ascribed to boys until late childhood or early adolescence.

The legacy of the Xiongnu today

Although the Xiongnu empire ultimately disintegrated in the late 1st century CE, the findings of the study point to the enduring social and cultural legacy of the Xiongnu. “Our results confirm the long-standing nomadic tradition of elite princesses playing critical roles in the political and economic life of the empires, especially in periphery regions - a tradition that began with the Xiongnu and continued more than a thousand years later under the Mongol Empire,” says Dr. Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, project archaeologist and Mongolian Archaeology Project: Surveying the Steppes (MAPSS) project coordinator at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology. “While history has at times dismissed nomadic empires as fragile and short, their strong traditions have never been broken.”

Excavation of the Xiongnu Elite Tomb 64 containing a high status aristocratic woman at the site of Takhiltiin Khotgor, Mongolian Altai.

Excavation of the Xiongnu Elite Tomb 64 containing a high status aristocratic woman at the site of Takhiltiin Khotgor, Mongolian Altai.

CREDIT

© Michel Neyroud

Archaeological excavation at the Shombuuziin Belchir Xiongnu cemetery, Mongolian Altai.

CREDIT

© J. Bayarsaikhan

An Egyptian-style faience bead worn as part of a necklace by a young woman buried with an infant in Grave 19 of the Shombuuziin Belchir cemetery. Such beads, depicting the phallus of the Egyptian god Bes, are associated with the protection of children.

CREDIT

© Bryan K. Miller

Golden icons of the sun and moon, symbols of the Xiongnu, decorating the coffin found in Elite Tomb 64 at the Takhiltiin Khotgor site, Mongolian Altai.

CREDIT

© J. Bayarsaikhan

Child’s bow and arrow set from Grave 26 at the Shombuuziin Belchir cemetery.

CREDIT

© Bryan K. Miller

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adf3904 

ARTICLE TITLE

Genetic population structure of the Xiongnu Empire at imperial and local scales

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Apr-2023