1.5°C temperature rise can cause significant changes in coastal species

Marine species on exposed rocks in Bude, Cornwall

A temperature increase of around 1.5°C – just under the maximum target agreed at the COP23 Paris meeting in 2017 – can have a marked impact on algae and animal species living on UK coastlines, new research has found.

The study, by ecologists at the University of Plymouth, examined how increases in rock surface temperature were affecting the quantity and behavior of species commonly found on the shorelines of Devon and Cornwall.

It focused on two sites on the region’s north coast (at Bude and Croyde) and two on the south coast (Bantham and South Milton Sands), all of which have deep gullies with both north-facing and south-facing surfaces.

Their findings showed the average annual temperature on the south-facing surfaces at low tide was 1.6°C higher than those facing north and that temperature extremes (i.e. > 30°C) were six-fold more frequent on south-facing aspects.

Across the four sites, these differences had a significant effect on species abundance with 45 different species found on north-facing sites during the summer of 2018 compared to 30 on south-facing ones.

In winter, the figures were 42 and 24 respectively, while some species – including the red seaweed Plumaria plumosa and sea cauliflower (Leathesia marina) – were restricted to north-facing surfaces.

The different temperatures also had an impact on species’ breeding patterns with five times more dog whelk (Nucella lapillus) eggs found on north-facing surfaces than south-facing ones.

Poor water quality and trawling take toll on seagrass

Ecosystems under the sea, such as seagrass, cannot be easily observed like forests or prairies on the land.

A team of researchers led by Griffith University used data from the places where seagrass trends have been assessed to calculate for all the world’s oceans where risks to this ecosystem are greatest.

This will help to target monitoring geographically and ultimately focus conservation actions where they are most needed.

The researchers found that poor water quality and destructive fisheries practices such as trawling are contributing to the global decline of seagrass meadows, which are vital habitats and food sources for marine species and act as climate regulators.

Published in PNAS, researchers from the Australian Rivers Institute and Coastal and Marine Research Centre modelled the trajectories of seagrass meadows in response to anthropogenic pressures at 395 sites around the world between 2000 and 2010.

Seagrass meadows off Australian coastlines were among these sites, where meadows ranged from being increasing to rapidly declining.

The authors assessed the impacts of eight factors and predicted the regions at greatest risk of seagrass meadow decline. The results suggest that water quality and destructive trawl and dredge fishing had the strongest associations with rapid seagrass meadow decline.

‘Live’ brain models used in hunt for Alzheimer’s treatment

Alzheimer plaques in human stem cell derived neurons

Studying tiny ‘live’ models of the human brain has helped researchers understand its ageing and find a key to potential treatments for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

University of Queensland scientists have found different cellular mechanisms that can either accelerate or reduce brain cell deterioration.

Professor Ernst Wolvetang studied organoids, models that closely mimic the human brain, at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

“We have found that human brain organoids can be used to study the molecular mechanisms that drive brain ageing processes,” Professor Wolvetang said.

“This opens the way for testing many molecules that could become potential therapeutic drugs for a host of neurodegenerative diseases.”

Using the organoids, Professor Wolvetang and Dr Julio Aguado found DNA leakage accelerated ageing in the rare neurodegenerative disease Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T).

In another research project, Professor Wolvetang and Dr Mohammed Shaker found that increasing levels of the ‘anti-ageing’ protein klotho reduced the deterioration in brain cells associated with age and dementia.

Why the right sequence of policies is essential to slow deforestation

Newly planted oil palm trees on a plantation in northern Colombia.  Paul Furumo

Knowing the steps is not the same thing as knowing how to dance. Similarly, policy interventions to stop deforestation are most effective when enacted in a certain order, according to a new Stanford study.

The first-of-its-kind analysis, published in Global Sustainability, provides a blueprint for public and private interventions that could help empower countries around the world to reverse the destruction of a precious global resource.

“Stopping deforestation is a classic collective action problem,” said study lead author Paul Furumo, a postdoctoral research fellow in Earth system science at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). “While it is encouraging to see new public and private actors making commitments, we need to accelerate progress.”

Despite a slew of corporate commitments, national laws and international financial support aimed at slowing deforestation, the opposite has occurred. Forest loss over the past decade was greater than the previous decade, and the Amazon rainforest has seen a record level of destruction this past year.

“Deforestation is a wicked problem that eludes easy solutions,” said study coauthor Eric Lambin, a professor of Earth system science in Stanford Earth. “Targets, strategies and progress depend on a wide range of variables, such as geographic context, and stakeholders with diverse motivations, land uses and values. This has led to a messy mix of strategies that may be redundant or outright antagonistic.”

Climate change will triple impacts to world’s “life zones” unless emission rates are dramatically reduced

 Karukinka region in Tierra del Fuego
Credit: Cristian Samper/WCS

A new study from WCS and multiple partners that modeled changes in the world’s 45 different “life zones” from climate change revealed that climate impacts may soon triple over these areas if the earth continues “business-as-usual” emissions.

Life zones are distinct biogeographic regions characterized by biotemperature, precipitation, and aridity representing broad-scale ecosystem types.

The study revealed that the world’s life zones have already changed from the early 1900s until present day across all biomes, most notably in Boreal Forests, Temperate Coniferous Forests, and Tropical Coniferous Forests. This includes impacts to 27 million square kilometers (10.4 million square miles) or 18.3 percent of earth’s land. Boundaries between life zones have shifted poleward and towards higher elevations, leading to expansions of zones associated with equatorial climates and contractions of zones associated with temperate climates.

Anticipated future changes are expected to accelerate rapidly, particularly if the world does not act on reducing emissions. This includes potential impacts to an additional potential of 62 million square kilometers (24 million square miles) or 42.6 percent of earth’s land under ‘business-as-usual’.

Life zones associated with subpolar rain tundra, wet tundra, and moist tundra are projected to experience the largest decreases while tropical wet forest, tropical rain forest, and cool temperate moist forest are projected to experience the largest increases. Boreal and polar latitudes are projected to experience substantial losses of area, although their vast extent will help compensate for some of these expected losses.

Said Dr. Paul Elsen, WCS Climate Adaptation Scientist and lead author of the study: “The likely future changes in the world’s life zones is likely to have a substantial impact on people livelihoods and biodiversity. Large areas of the world are getting hotter and drier and this is already impacting the earth’s life zones.”

Dr. Hedley Grantham, WCS Director of Conservation Planning and coauthor of the study said: “COP26 is our best chance of countries committing to reducing emissions and putting us on a better future pathway for climate change and its impacts.”

Source/Credit: Wildlife Conservation Society

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Mongooses give bullies the cold shoulder

A dwarf mongoose. Image Credit: Shannon Wild

Dwarf mongooses remember which groupmates have picked fights with others during the day and later shun the aggressors during pre-bedtime socializing sessions, according to new research.

Management of within-group conflict is a key feature of human lives and those of many social animals, with contestants known to adopt various strategies in the immediate aftermath to minimize costs. The study, published today in the journal eLife by a team at University of Bristol, shows that individuals not involved in the altercations can both track the aggressive behavior of others and act on that information at a later time.

Lead author Dr Amy Morris-Drake, from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “Conflict management strategies have evolved to keep the peace in species as varied as chimpanzees, ravens and domestic dogs. Our work demonstrates that dwarf mongooses have sufficient cognitive ability to monitor vocal cues about aggressive interactions and to remember who the bullies are, refusing to groom with them later.”

By working with wild groups of mongooses habituated to their close presence, the research team could collect detailed observations and test their ideas experimentally in natural conditions.

Better models of atmospheric ‘detergent’ can help predict climate change

In the Earth’s atmosphere, hydroxyl radical (OH) plays a dominant role in removing pollutants—but the OH molecule is difficult to measure. New research from Rochester scientist Lee Murray and his colleagues explains why the computer models used to predict future levels of OH have traditionally produced widely varying forecasts.

New research from Rochester scientist Lee Murray will aid in building more accurate computer models of the hydroxyl radical (OH), an important ‘detergent of the atmosphere.’

Earth’s atmosphere has a unique ability to cleanse itself by way of invisible molecules in the air that act as minuscule cleanup crews. The most important molecule in that crew is the hydroxyl radical (OH), nicknamed the “detergent of the atmosphere” because of its dominant role in removing pollutants. When the OH molecule chemically interacts with a variety of harmful gases, including the potent greenhouse gas methane, it is able to decompose the pollutants into forms that can be removed from Earth’s atmosphere.

It is difficult to measure OH, however, and it is not directly emitted. Instead, researchers predict the presence of OH based on its chemical production from other, “precursor” gases. To make these predictions, researchers use computer simulations.

Antibody Treatment Prevents Inflammation in Lungs, Nervous System in Macaques With SARS-CoV-2

Monoclonal antibodies protected aged, diabetic rhesus macaque monkeys from disease due to SARS-CoV-2 and reduced signs of inflammation, including in cerebrospinal fluid, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis. The work is published in the journal Cell Reports.

The data show that neutralizing antibodies prevent the adverse inflammatory consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the authors said. The results help explain how antibodies, whether induced by vaccines or after infection, or given as a treatment, can affect the course of disease. They also suggest that antibodies could be given as a preventative treatment to people at high risk, such as elderly residents during an outbreak in a nursing home.

“COVID-19 is more severe in elderly people and those with pre-existing conditions,” said Smita Iyer, associate professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Center for Immunology and Infectious Disease, and a core investigator at the California National Primate Research Center.

“The elderly and diabetics tend to be immunosuppressed, but if you can get antibody levels high enough, you can prevent severe infection,” she said. Immune responses induced by vaccines are very effective at preventing severe disease and death. But an overwhelming inflammatory immune response could also be responsible for much of the damage of severe infections.

Immune responses induced by vaccines are very effective at preventing severe disease and death. But an overwhelming inflammatory immune response could also be responsible for much of the damage of severe infections.

Climate change impacts on crops expected within 10 years

Photo by Balázs Benjamin from Pexels

Using advanced climate and agricultural models, scientists found that the change in yields is due to projected increases in temperature, shifts in rainfall patterns, and elevated surface carbon dioxide concentrations from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. These changes would make it more difficult to grow maize in the tropics, but could expand wheat’s growing range.

“We did not expect to see such a fundamental shift, as compared to crop yield projections from the previous generation of climate and crop models conducted in 2014,” said lead author Jonas Jägermeyr, a crop modeler and climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and The Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. The projected maize response was surprisingly large and negative, he said. “A 20% decrease from current production levels could have severe implications worldwide.”

To arrive at their projections, the research team used two sets of models. First, they used climate model simulations from the international Climate Model Intercomparison Project-Phase 6 (CMIP6), followed by an ensemble of biophysical crop growth models to estimate yield implications of the changing climate. Each of the five CMIP6 climate models used for this study runs its own unique response of Earth’s atmosphere to greenhouse gas emission scenarios through to 2100. These responses differ somewhat due to variations in their representations of the Earth's climate system.

The research team then used the climate model simulations as inputs for 12 state-of-the-art global crop models that are part of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), an international partnership coordinated by Columbia University. IIASA involvement in the study was twofold: first, on the climate data acquisition and processing side, researchers from the Advancing Systems Analysis and Biodiversity and Natural Resources programs, carried out the data transformation from the original format to the format suitable for feeding the institute’s Environmental Policy Integrated Model (EPIC), which contributed crop growth modeling data to the study. Second, and most importantly, the IIASA teams also carried out biophysical simulations informing (among other variables) the yield projections corresponding to the CMIP6 data.

Scientists identify genes behind tusklessness in African elephants

Shane Campbell-Staton, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. with an elephant at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. The elephant has been anesthetized for the collection of tissue samples for genomic and dietary analyses, and to be fitted with a GPS collar. 
Photo by Rob Pringle

In regions of Africa wracked by heavy poaching, people have observed an increased incidence of African elephants without their iconic white tusks, which are prized in the multibillion-dollar wildlife black market. But there has been no direct genetic evidence indicating how this was happening, or why this trait was occurring exclusively in female elephants.

Shane Campbell-Staton, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. with an elephant at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. The elephant has been anesthetized for the collection of tissue samples for genomic and dietary analyses, and to be fitted with a GPS collar.

A team led by Princeton University researchers has now implicated two genes associated with tooth development in mammals to be at the center of the tuskless elephant phenomenon, according to a study published in the journal Science. One of these genes is connected to the X chromosome and is lethal to males, while humans who have the same gene mutation exhibit similar teeth defects.

“Elephants are such an iconic species that is so important for the savanna ecosystem and now we have a better understanding of how human activity is impacting them,” said co-first author Shane Campbell-Staton, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton and associated faculty in Princeton’s High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI).