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Building better blackberries

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The Human Genome Project is one of the greatest scientific feats in history.  It was launched in 1990 and completed in 2003.  The international group of researchers wanted to comprehensively study all of the DNA – the genome – from a select set of organisms, foremost of which being that of human beings.  The results accelerated the study of human biology and has led to improvements in the practice of medicine.

Every living thing – animal, plant, fungus, and various single-celled organisms – has a genome – a genetic blueprint.  A recent study by researchers at the University of Florida has done genome sequencing of blackberries with the hope of being able to achieve more efficient and targeted breeding.

Over the past 20 years, consumer demand for blackberries has increased leading to farmers growing more of the fruit in the United States.  The U.S. produces 37 million pounds of processed blackberries and almost 3 million pounds of fresh berries each year.

The Florida researchers made use of a large collection of DNA sequences to computationally piece together the entire genome of the blackberry variety in the study.  The genome study uncovered the secrets behind key traits that could lead to growing blackberry plants with no thorns and increasing the production of anthocyanin, which affects the color and health benefits of the fruit. 

For Florida, the southeastern United States and regions with similar climates, the genetic research holds the promise of accelerating the process to create blackberry varieties that are better suited to local growing conditions, enhancing both the yield and the quality of the increasingly popular fruit.

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Decoding blackberry DNA: UF study paves way for enhanced breeding strategies

Photo, posted September 18, 2016, courtesy of Theo Crazzolara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Toxic algae and West Coast marine life

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Over the first several months of this year, hundreds of sea lions, dolphins, and seabirds have fallen ill or died after eating sardines or anchovies that had been feeding on an algal bloom along the California coast since winter.  The biotoxin in the algae accumulates in the feeder fish.

Two cases of whales dying from the biotoxin have been confirmed by two nonprofit organizations tasked with testing dead mammals.  These were a humpback that washed ashore in Huntington Beach in January and a minke whale found dead in Long Beach in April.

This is the fourth year a row that California has experienced major algal blooms.  Warmer waters are causing blooms to be bigger and more damaging than they have been before.  They enter into new areas and contaminate the food web for longer.  The warmer waters accelerate algae growth that is further fueled by nutrients that rise to the surface from deeper colder waters driven by winds that blow parallel to the coast.  This year’s algae event started earlier than usual and is lasting longer than normal.

More than a dozen animal rescue and rehabilitation groups that form NOAA’s West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network are providing resources to try to respond to the situation.  At the Marine Mammal Care Center in Los Angeles, more than 80 sea lions and seals were being treated for domoic acid poisoning, the result of ingesting algae neurotoxin.  Since February, it has cared for more than 300 poisoned animals.

Marine mammals are sentinel species for humans who also consume seafood.  The West Coast ocean ecosystem is currently filled with toxins.

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California Toxic Algal Bloom Blamed for Months-long Marine Life Poisoning

Photo, posted March 26, 2025, courtesy of Marnee Jill via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar on farmland

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New studies have found that devoting a small percentage of U.S. farmland to producing solar power would benefit both the country’s energy system and its farmers.

Currently, about 46,000 square miles of farmland – about the area of Pennsylvania – is being used to grow corn to make ethanol.  One study looked at the impact of using some of this land for solar power instead of corn ethanol.

Not much of all this farmland is close enough to electrical transmission lines to be practical for utility solar power.  In fact, only about 1,500 square miles fits the bill.  But if even this small fraction of the corn growing land was used instead for solar power, it would generate as much energy each year than from all of the farms growing corn for fuel.

Solar installations on farms are helpful for farmers as well.  The land beneath the panels can be used to grow wildflowers that attracts the bees, wasps, and other insects needed to pollinate crops in the nearby fields.  In addition, the solar arrays provide a steady income stream for farmers.

In some places, farmers can earn substantially more from leasing their land for solar than from growing crops.  But a study of farms in California suggests that the best option is to do both.  Farmers who both grow crops and host solar arrays can have more financial security than those who do just one or the other.  The income from solar arrays is pretty predictable and is paid throughout the year.  Income from crops can drop off from, for example, a seasonal drought, or from extreme weather events.

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To Help Growers and the Grid, Build Solar on Farmland, Research Says

Photo, posted June 9, 2016, courtesy of Matt Lavin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A starfish to the rescue

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Beginning in 2013, a mysterious disease associated with a marine heatwave decimated the population of sunflower sea stars.  Those huge, colorful 24-armed starfish thrived along the Pacific Coast between Alaska and Baja California.  But in fairly short order, nearly six billion of the creatures perished, amounting to 94% of the global population.  California lost 99% of its sea stars to the wasting disease.

The result was an ecological disaster.  Sunflower sea stars are carnivorous and purple urchins are the mainstay of their diet.  Without sea stars to balance the food web, the urchin population exploded.  Urchins devour kelp and over the past decade, 96% of the region’s kelp forests vanished.  Kelp forests serve as shelter and food for a vast array of marine life and kelp sequesters carbon as much as 20 times more than terrestrial forests.

Researchers in California and Alaska are breeding sunflower sea stars in captivity to try to produce enough of the creatures to support reintroduction.  The first successful spawning of sea stars took place last year at the Birch Aquarium at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  But all of these are siblings, which is not a desirable breeding stock for a new population.  So, they are now working with the Alaska SeaLife Center, which has the largest collection of the animals in the world.  The center will provide animals to introduce genetic diversity to the growing population in captivity.

The hope is to be able to reintroduce sea stars to the Pacific region within three to five years.

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A rare, giant starfish could hold the key to restoring kelp forests on the California coast

Photo, posted November 11, 2007, courtesy of Patrick Briggs via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Americans breathe unhealthy air

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According to the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air report, at least 156 million Americans – 46% of the population – live with unsafe levels of ozone, particulate pollution, or both.

The report analyzed ozone and particulate pollution levels between 2021 and 2023, during which the worst wildfire season on record took place in Canada.  The report ranked pollution levels in counties and cities across the country on a grading scale from A to F.  At least 156 million people live with air that got the poorest grade of F for at least one of three pollutants.   At least 42 million people live in counties that failed all three pollutant standards measured.

While the report attempts to provide a complete picture of air quality around the country, about two-thirds of counties lack air quality monitoring for ozone or particulate pollution. 

The wildfires in Canada are responsible for much of the increase in air pollution in the past several years.  However, climate projections suggest that the conditions that fueled those fires are likely to become increasingly common.

Air quality standards in the United States have generally been improving since the Clean Air Act was enacted by Congress in 1970.  Since that time, levels of key pollutants have dropped by nearly 80%.  But millions of Americans are still breathing polluted air, leading to both acute and chronic health conditions.

Plans by the Trump administration to loosen environmental regulations and cut funding for air quality research are likely to only make matters worse.

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Almost Half of Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air, Report Finds

Photo, posted June 8, 2023, courtesy of Anthony Quintano via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Defeating climate apathy

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Slowing human-caused climate change requires decisive action.  But according to psychologists, the gradual rise in global temperatures can lead to climate apathy, especially among those who don’t face frequent climate disasters.

Climate apathy is a general indifference or lack of emotional or behavioral response to climate change and environmental issues.  People experiencing climate apathy may feel disconnected, overwhelmed, powerless, or simply uninterested in climate issues, leading them to avoid taking action or engaging in conversations about it.

A new study by researchers from UCLA and Princeton University looked into ways to effectively communicate about climate change.  The research team found that presenting people with continuous data, like rising temperatures in a town, gave them only a vague sense of gradual change.  But showing them binary data—like whether a lake froze or not each winter—illustrated the change more effectively. 

In the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the researchers showed participants either temperature graphs or lake-freezing data for fictional and real towns in order to measure how each format affected their perceptions of climate impact. Participants who saw whether lakes froze rated climate change as more impactful—12% higher on average—than those who saw only temperature data. 

By focusing on the increasing rate of once-rare events, the researchers hope that the same temperature data that once led to climate apathy may instead help communities care more about the climate crisis.

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UCLA study: How to break through climate apathy

Photo, posted November 20, 2008, courtesy of Brad Saunders via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Saharan dust and solar power

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The world is a big place but even things that are far away can have serious local consequences.  The effects of distant Canadian wildfires on air quality in Florida is a good example.

Europe is increasingly becoming reliant on solar energy to meet its targets for climate change mitigation and energy security.   According to new research by four Hungarian universities, mineral dust carried on the wind from the Sahara Desert is not only reducing electricity generation from solar power across Europe but it is also making it harder to predict what gets generated.

The Sahara releases billions of tons of fine dust into the atmosphere each year.  Tens of millions of tons reach European skies where the tiny particles scatter and absorb sunlight, reduce the amount of light reaching the surface, and even promote cloud formation.   All of these things reduce the output of photovoltaic systems.

In addition, conventional weather forecasting tools don’t consider the effects of Saharan dust events, so that scheduling of solar power for the energy system becomes less reliable.  Incorporating these events into new forecast models will be essential.

Apart from the atmospheric effects of the dust, there are also long-term impacts due to dust contaminating and eroding the physical infrastructure of solar panels thereby further reducing their efficiency and increasing maintenance costs.

Over time, south-to-north transport of Saharan dust is likely to become more pronounced due to a steeper thermal gradient.  Currently, the quantities of atmospheric dust, the dynamics of its transport, and the physical properties of the dust itself are not very well understood.  Understanding these things will be crucial for Europe’s energy future.

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The shadow of the wind: photovoltaic power generation under Europe’s dusty skies

Photo, posted March 11, 2023, courtesy of Mark Wordy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A biostimulant for wheat

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Feeding a global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by mid-century is a massive challenge.  Wheat provides a fifth of the calories in the global human diet and is a significant source of protein, minerals, vitamins, and fiber.  Finding ways to increase the yield of wheat crops has great value.  However, wheat has complex genetics, which makes it difficult to improve yields by traditional breeding methods or even by genetic engineering.

Researchers at Oxford University and the nearby Rosalind Franklin Institute have developed a biostimulant that can deliver increased wheat yields of up to 12%.  It is applied as a spray and a four-year study in Argentina and Mexico demonstrated that it delivers major yield improvements irrespective of weather conditions.

The biostimulant is based on trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P), which is a natural molecule that regulates the plant equivalent of blood sugar.  T6P prompts plants to produce more starch and increases the rate of photosynthesis.

Naturally occurring T6P cannot be applied topically because it cannot cross cell membranes.  The researchers developed a membrane-permeable precursor of T6P that releases T6P into a plant in the presence of sunlight.

The biostimulant can be manufactured on an industrial scale and would be inexpensive to use. 

The researchers have created SugaROx, a spinout company whose mission is “to increase the productivity, resilience, sustainability, and profitability of crop production” using active ingredients inspired by powerful natural plant molecules.

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New biostimulant treatment significantly boosts wheat yields, field studies confirm

Photo, posted July 28, 2014, courtesy of Brad Higham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Parks for bugs

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Urban areas can have a variety of green spaces:  gardens, parks, and roadside and median plantings.  It turns out that these spaces can serve as pollinator refuges.

A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia found that reducing lawn mowing and creating pollinator meadows – essentially parks for bugs – significantly boosts pollinator diversity and creates healthier and more resilient ecosystems.

The 3-year study surveyed pollinators in 18 urban parks across the city of Vancouver.  It compared parks where meadows were planted and mowing was restricted with parks that were kept as standard turfgrass lawns.

Parks with meadows saw an immediate increase in pollinator species – from 21 to 47 more wild bee and hoverfly species – compared to parks without meadows.  These increases continued over the entire three-year study period.

The researchers identified more than 100 species of wild bees and hoverflies and 35 of them were only found in parks with meadows.

People think of urban landscapes as poor environments for biodiversity, but this study demonstrated that even relatively small changes can have significant impacts.  Even a patchwork of small habitats can allow species to move freely and settle into multiple areas quickly.

The researchers had advice for urban residents as well.  They suggest that people reduce mowing, plant native flowering shrubs and trees, create diverse habitats that incorporate a variety of plants that bloom at different times, avoid pesticide use, and leave natural nesting sites for pollinators.

Preserving pollinators is an important task and having a few parks for bugs can really help.

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How ‘parks for bugs’ boost pollinators in Vancouver

Photo, posted September 19, 2011, courtesy of Eric Bridiers / U.S. Mission Geneva via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Airplanes and climate change

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The aviation industry is a powerful force in the global economy.  In fact, according to some estimates, the industry transports the equivalent of nearly half the world’s population every year.  But the world’s airports were largely designed for an older era – a cooler one.

As air warms, it becomes less dense, which makes it harder for airplanes to generate lift, which is the force that enables them to fly.

According to a new study by scientists from the University of Reading in the U.K., rising temperatures due to climate change may force aircraft at some airports to reduce passenger numbers in the coming decades.

The research team examined how warmer air affects aircraft performance during takeoff at 30 sites across Europe.  The study, which was recently published in the journal Aerospace, focused on the Airbus A320, which is a common aircraft used for short and medium-distance flights across Europe.

By the 2060s, the research team found that some airports with shorter runways may need to reduce their maximum take-off weight by the equivalent of approximately 10 passengers per flight during summer months.

Of the sites included in the study, Chios in Greece, Pantelleria and Rome Ciampino in Italy, and San Sebastian in Spain will be the four most affected popular tourist destinations.

Climate change is also making air travel increasingly turbulent, and the aviation industry itself remains a growing contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Taking meaningful action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, including those from the aviation industry, is one of the most crucial ways to mitigate global climate change.

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Holiday flights could carry fewer passengers as world warms

Photo, posted September 29, 2017, courtesy of Hugh Llewelyn via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Bees and urban wildflowers

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Post-industrial cities often have large numbers of vacant lots, left behind as people have moved out of the area.  Local residents are often tempted to plant wildflowers to make these deserted spaces more attractive. 

Wildflowers are an important food source for bees.  Pollinators like bees play a vital role in food production and attracting them with food sources is a good idea.  However, a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK found that there are dangers associated with planting wildflowers in some urban settings.

Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic, and other metal contaminants from the soil.  These metals have previously been shown to damage the health of pollinators that ingest the metals in the nectar as they feed.

The Cambridge study was carried out in Cleveland, Ohio, which has nearly 34,000 vacant lots.  Cleveland was previously the site of iron and steel production, oil refining, and car manufacturing.  The researchers tested the nectar from flowering plants growing on disused land throughout the city.  Lead was the contaminant found in the highest concentrations.  They also found that different species of plants accumulate different amounts and different types of metals.

The goal of the study was not to discourage the planting of wildflowers in towns and cities.  It is to highlight the importance of growing the right species of wildflowers as well as to encourage testing soils for metals before planting wildflowers and to clean up pollution.  Wildflowers are important for pollinators, but it is also important that they don’t contribute to the decline of pollinator populations that has already been happening for a number of reasons.

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Growing wildflowers on disused urban land can damage bee health

Photo, posted August 26, 2012, courtesy of RJP via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A giant plane for giant wind turbines

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Wind turbines have been getting bigger all the time.  Larger turbines have real advantages.  They can operate at lower speeds so they can be deployed in more places.  They capture more wind, so they make more power.  Large wind turbines can have blades more than 200 feet long and even larger ones are on the way.  An offshore wind farm in China has turbines with 400-foot blades.

Giant wind turbines face a thorny problem:  getting the blades to where they are to be installed.  The enormous blades can’t be easily shipped across aging roads and bridges.   Tunnels are too narrow, bridges are too low, and roads can be too tight to allow turns when transporting these massive turbine parts.  Some developers have actually had to build special roads for wind projects.

For nearly a decade, a Boulder Colorado company called Radia has been working on what would be the world’s largest plane.  The WindRunner aircraft would have a dozen times the cargo volume of a Boeing 747.  The WindRunner will be 356 feet long and 79 feet tall.  While its primary purpose would be transporting wind turbine blades, the plane could also be used to aid the military or businesses that are thinking really big.  Product developers often don’t even try to invent really big things because there is no way to transport them.  Radia expects the WindRunner to be rolled out before the end of the decade.

The wind industry is currently facing strong opposition from the Trump administration, but wind energy is not going away and bigger and better wind turbines will ultimately be built and will have to be transported.

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Building the World’s Biggest Plane to Help Catch the Wind

Photo, October 10, 2013, courtesy of Allan Der via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The oceans are warming faster

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A new study has shown that the rate of ocean warming has more than quadrupled over the past 40 years.  The study, by researchers at the University of Reading in the UK, helps to explain why there have been unprecedented ocean temperatures in 2023 and 2024.

Global ocean temperatures hit record highs for 450 days straight in 2023 and early 2024.  Some of this unusual warmth came from the El Niño that was taking place at the time, but the rest of the increased temperature came from the sea surface warming up more quickly over the past 10 years than in previous decades.  In the late 1980s, ocean temperatures were rising at a rate of 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade.  According to the recent research, they are now increasing at 0.27 degrees per decade.

The acceleration of ocean warming is driven by growth in the Earth’s energy imbalance, meaning that more energy from the sun is being absorbed by the Earth than is escaping back into space.  This energy imbalance has roughly doubled since 2010 as a result of two factors:  increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and reductions in the Earth’s albedo.

Earth’s albedo, the measure of how much sunlight is reflected back into space, has been declining since the 1970s, primarily due to the decrease in snow and ice cover, especially in the Arctic. 

The overall rate of ocean warming observed over recent decade is likely to only increase.  This underscores the urgency of reducing fossil fuel burning to avoid even more rapid temperature increases in the future.

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Ocean-surface warming four times faster now than late-1980s

Photo, posted January 18, 2007, courtesy of Alexey Krasavin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Vegetation and climate change

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Temperatures have been steadily rising around the world as a result of the increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.  This warming trend has led to more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, and other extreme weather events.  Rising temperatures are also impacting human health, leading to increased risks of heat-related illnesses and a higher number of fatalities during extreme heat events.

One simple but effective way to reduce the health risks from extreme heat is to increase urban vegetation.  According to new research led by scientists from Monash University in Australia, increasing urban vegetation by 30% could save more than one-third of all heat-related deaths.  The study, which was recently published in The Lancet Planetary Health, examined more than 11,000 urban areas and found that increasing greenery could have saved up to 1.16 million lives worldwide between 2000 and 2019.

The impact of increasing urban vegetation on heat-related deaths varies by climate, greenness, socioeconomic, and demographic factors, with the greatest benefits seen in Southern Asia, Eastern Europe, and Eastern Asia. 

Vegetation has a cooling effect on temperature.  Vegetation helps regulate the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which helps to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Vegetation also cools the environment through shading, moisture release, and evapotranspiration, which reduces temperatures and mitigates heat-related health risks.

Incorporating more vegetation into urban areas is a powerful solution to mitigate the impacts of climate change and protect human health.

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Increasing urban vegetation could have saved over 1.1m lives in two decades

Photo, posted July 1, 2023, courtesy of Lauri via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Modeling geoengineering

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As the impacts of climate change continue to mount up, there is increasing interest in radical intervention measures designed to keep a lid on rising global temperatures.  Such measures are fraught with potential dangers and unintended consequences but there is no guarantee that one or another of them might still be attempted in the future.  Increasing international interest in geoengineering as a potential strategy for mitigating climate change has created a pressing need to consider its impact before any potentially irreversible actions are taken.

The Natural Environment Research Council in the UK is funding four research projects aimed at understanding the potential consequences of solar radiation modification (SRM) being deployed in the real world.

SRM consists of methods to reflect some of the Sun’s radiation back into space instead of allowing it to reach and warm the earth. 

One approach is stratospheric aerosol intervention in which particles such as sulfates are introduced into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight thereby producing a dimming effect.   The idea is to mimic the effects of large volcanic eruptions, which naturally send sulfates into the atmosphere.

A second approach is marine cloud brightening, which increases the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean by spraying very small droplets of sea water into the air.  The fine particles of sea salt enhance cloud condensation nuclei, producing more cloud droplets and making clouds more reflective.

The research aims to deliver independent risk analyses to inform policymakers about the potential environmental impacts of SRM.

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Scientists to model the impact of controlling Earth’s temperature by reflecting solar radiation

Photo, posted May 6, 2009, courtesy of Denys Zadorozhnyi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Volcano monitoring

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Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological Survey have developed a radar-based volcano monitoring system.  The purpose is to provide situational awareness of volcano behavior and identify volcanoes that are becoming restless before other more obvious indications like earthquake activity occur.

The system is called VolcSARvatory and makes use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar to detect ground movement changes as small as one centimeter.  It utilizes two or more radar images from satellites taken at different times.  The images are used to create a time series of data from a single location.

The system has been in operation since early 2022 and proved to be valuable in studying the unexpected activity at the long-quiet Mount Edgecumbe volcano near Sitka, Alaska where conventional monitoring was not taking place.

According to the researchers, the technology has evolved to the point where it can be operational at a national level.  The goal is to provide a consistent approach to monitoring active volcanoes.

Volcanoes are not a rare and unlikely source of potential danger in this country.  The volcanoes of Hawaii are the best-known active volcanoes in the United States, but Alaska has about 140 volcanoes that are technically classified as active, with more than 50 that have been active within the past 300 years.  In total, 169 U.S. volcanoes are classified as active including ones in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

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Alaska-developed volcano monitoring system will expand across U.S.

Photo, posted March 18, 2013, courtesy of Jeffrey Wickett / USFS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Finding peatlands

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Peatlands are a special kind of wetland that have enormous potential for helping to mitigate climate change.  They are great at capturing carbon because their constantly soggy soils deprive decomposer organisms of the oxygen they need to break down dead plants.  Living plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporate the carbon into their tissues.  When plants die, decomposers like bacteria digest the plant matter and release the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz found that the average per-area carbon densities in peatlands in Colombia are four to ten times higher than those in the Amazon rainforest.  This agrees with other studies around the world.  On a global scale, peatlands cover only 3% of land areas but store more carbon than all the world’s trees.  Peatlands are unsung heroes helping to reduce the impact of fossil fuel emissions.

Peatlands can only store carbon if they remain constantly wet.  When they are drained for agriculture or other development, decomposer organisms get back to work digesting organic matter and releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

A major challenge in protecting peatland is finding them.  They are often hard to distinguish from other types of wetlands. 

The Santa Cruz researchers have been identifying and locating peatlands in Colombia, where decades of civil war had made many parts of the country inaccessible for research.  Finding and protecting peatlands there and in many other places around the world is an important task in the battle against climate change.

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Colombia’s peatlands could be a crucial tool to fight climate change. But first we have to find them.

Photo, posted January 2, 2018, courtesy of Roni Ziade / U.S. Forest Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

More eco-friendly desalination

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There are about 16,000 operational desalination plants, located across 177 countries, which generate an estimated 25 billion gallons of fresh water daily.

For every gallon of drinking water produced at a typical desalination plant, one and a half gallons of brine are produced.  Much of it is stored in ponds until the water evaporates, leaving behind solid salt or concentrated brine for further treatment.  There are various other techniques for concentrating brines, but they are energy-intensive and environmentally problematic.  The process called electrodialysis uses electrified membranes to concentrate salts. 

Water flows into many channels separated by membranes, each of which has the opposite electrical charge of its neighbors.  Positive salt ions move towards negatively charged electrodes and negative ions move toward positive electrodes.  Two streams result, one containing purified water and one containing concentrated brine.

This eliminates the need for evaporation ponds, but existing electrodialysis membranes either result in leakage of salts into the environment or are too slow, making the process impractical for large-scale use.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new kind of membrane for electrodialysis.  The new membranes don’t leak and are ten times more conductive than those on the market today which means that they can move more salt using less power.  The membranes can be customized to suit a broad range of water types, which may help make desalination a more sustainable solution to the world’s growing water crisis.

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Making desalination more eco-friendly: New membranes could help eliminate brine waste

Photo, posted February 4, 2012, courtesy of David Martinez Vicente via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tracking atmospheric mercury

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Atmospheric mercury is a toxic pollutant released into the air from natural sources—such as volcanoes and wildfires—and from human activities like coal burning and gold mining.  Once in the atmosphere, mercury can travel long distances before settling onto land or into water, transforming into toxic forms that threaten ecosystems and human health.

But tracking atmospheric mercury is a costly and challenging endeavor, requiring specialized equipment and trained personnel. Active monitors, which pump air to collect mercury, are expensive and need electricity, while passive samplers, using activated charcoal for remote areas, cost up to $100 each.

Researchers from Cornell University have found a cheap method for tracking toxic atmospheric mercury near gold mining sites throughout the Global South: wild fig trees.  In the study, which was conducted in the Peruvian Amazon and recently published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, the research team found that the rings in wild fig trees can serve as natural archives of atmospheric mercury, capturing and preserving historical pollution levels over time.

The technique itself is not actually new.  Previous studies have used tree rings to track mercury pollution from coal combustion, particularly in Canada. But the research team wanted to test this method in regions of the Global South, where mercury emissions from gold mining are widespread.

According to the research team, wild fig trees might soon serve as an important biomonitoring tool, helping scientists better understand how mercury disperses across landscapes and through time.

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Tree rings track atmospheric mercury cheaply

Photo, posted November 13, 2012, courtesy of Steve Kessler via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fighting honey fraud

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Honey fraud is a significant issue for the food industry.  What is honey fraud?  Typically, it involves mislabeling where honey was produced or what types of flowers the bees collected nectar from.  Honey made from a single type of flower is often more expensive because of the unique flavor it provides or from potential health benefits.  Sometimes even cheap alternatives like sugar syrups are labelled as honey.  It turns out that honey is one of the most fraud-prone commodities in global trade, with fraud estimated to occur in up to 10% of the honey traded internationally.  Honey from some countries, such as China and India, has had 30% or more of samples found to be fraudulent.

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal have developed an AI-powered method to verify the origin of honey thereby ensuring that what is on the label corresponds to what is in the jar.

The McGill method can determine what kind of flowers the bees visited to produce a particular sample of honey.  Previous honey authentication involved pollen analysis, which is ineffective for honey that was processed or filtered.  The new method uses high-resolution mass spectrometry which captures a unique chemical “fingerprint” from the honey.  Machine learning algorithms read the fingerprint to identify the honey’s origin.

The researchers tested their methodology on a variety of honey samples which they then compared with honey from known botanical sources.  Using previous methods for honey authentication can take days.  The McGill method takes only minutes and works regardless of how the honey was processed.

According to the researchers, people deserve to know that the honey they buy is what it claims to be, and honest honey producers deserve protection from fraudulent competitors.

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Fighting honey fraud with AI technology

Photo, posted May 6, 2012, courtesy of Emma Jane via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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