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The Hunt For Marine Plastic | Earth Wise

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Estimates are that about 10 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year.  This is equivalent to a truckload of plastic being dumped into the sea every minute and the stuff is not easy to keep track of.  Some of it ends up in the  infamous ocean garbage patches.  But overall, researchers only know what happens to about 1% of it.

The European Space Agency has decided to find out whether it might be possible to detect and track floating plastic in the oceans using satellite monitoring.  Researchers have a variety of ideas about how best to do this and now the agency is testing some of those ideas.

The ESA maintains something called the Atlantic Basin Facility which is a 7000 square-foot tank equipped to simulate various types of waves and tidal currents.  It is the largest facility of its kind in the world.

Researchers place plastic in the basin consisting of typical items found at sea, such as bags, bottles, marine nets and ropes, plastic cutlery, and Styrofoam balls.  The plastic used in the study included material previously recovered from the sea through ocean cleanup campaigns.  Multiple research groups from European universities used specialized instrumentation to monitor the basin from above.  Techniques included radar remote sensing, something called GNSS reflectometry, and specialized optical instrumentation.

Initial results look promising in that under some circumstances teams received useable signals.  It will take further analysis to determine the ultimate utility of space-based monitoring of plastic entering the ocean.  Marine litter is a large and growing problem.  Figuring out where it all is and where it is going is a necessary part of any solution.

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Hunting for marine plastic

Photo, posted March 24, 2017, courtesy of Holly Richards/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Whales As Ecosystem Engineers | Earth Wise

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Researchers from Stanford University have been studying the role of large whales on ocean ecosystems with some surprising results.

From 1910 to 1970, people killed about 1.5 million baleen whales in the waters surrounding Antarctica.  The whales were hunted for their blubber, baleen, and meat.  Baleen is the filtering fringe that certain whales use instead of teeth to capture food from the ocean.  A primary food source for these whales is krill, small shrimp-like creatures.   One would assume that the decimation of the baleen whale population in the Southern Ocean would have led to a surge in krill populations.  But the new research has found that the opposite is the case.

The precipitous decline of large marine mammals has negatively impacted the health and productivity of ocean ecosystems.

New high-tech tagging devices that attach to whales for brief periods allow researchers to record their movements and activities.  For the first time, it has been possible to accurately determine how much krill whales actually consume, and the answer is that they eat two to three times as much as previously thought.  Interestingly, the same technology shows that fish-eating whales like humpbacks eat somewhat less than previously thought.

Baleen whales are essentially mobile krill processing plants.  They eat the krill, digest it, and produce iron-laden excretions that are needed by phytoplankton, which comprise the bottom of the food chain that nourish krill and other small creatures.  With fewer whales, there is less nourishment for the krill.  In fact, based on the new data, estimates are that the historic abundance of krill in the Southern Ocean had to be about five times what it is today.

Whales are important ecosystem engineers.

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Stanford researchers find whales are more important ecosystems engineers than previously thought

Photo, posted November 18, 2010, courtesy of Dr. Brandon Southall, NMFS/OPR via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

RNA Modification For Plants | Earth Wise

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We have heard a lot about RNA this past year as messenger RNA vaccine technology has been used for the first time to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.  Now RNA-based technology has shown promise to make major contributions to agriculture.

A group of researchers at the University of Chicago and two Chinese universities have announced that manipulating RNA can allow plants to yield dramatically more crops as well as have better drought resistance.

Adding  gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by 50% in initial field tests.  The plants were larger, produced longer root systems, and could better tolerate drought conditions.  Further analysis showed that the plants had increased their rate of photosynthesis.

FTO protein erases chemical marks on RNA.  Specifically, it controls a process known as m6A, which is a key modification of RNA.  The FTO erases m6A to reduce some of the signals that tell plants to slow down and reduce growth.  Plants modified with the addition of FTO produced significantly more RNA than control plants.

Experiments with both rice plants and potato plants – which are completely unrelated – demonstrated the same results, indicating that the technique could be broadly applicable.  (The genetic modification is rather simple to make and has worked with every type of plant the researchers have tried it with so far).

These results are just the beginning but demonstrate the potential of a technology that could help address problems of poverty and food insecurity at a global scale as well as responding to climate change.  The world depends on plants for everything from wood, food, and medicine, to flowers and oils. This technique has the potential to dramatically increase the stock material we can get from most plants.

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RNA breakthrough creates crops that can grow 50% more potatoes, rice

Photo, posted September 22, 2014, courtesy of Toshiyuki Imai via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Better Ways To Make Bioplastics | Earth Wise

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The world produces over 300 million tons of plastics each year, mostly produced from petroleum.  The environmental consequences are substantial and there is a critical need to replace as much of that plastic production with biodegradable plastics as possible.  Thus, there is global research aimed at making bioplastics more economical and as environmentally friendly as possible.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed an improved approach for making bioplastics from corn stubble, grasses, and mesquite agricultural production.  Apart from the obvious environmental benefits of having biodegradable plastics, producing bioplastics from common agricultural waste would create new revenue streams for farmers as well as the people who transport harvested feedstock and byproduct crops to refinery operations.

The key to bioplastic production is the efficient extraction and use of lignin, the organic polymer that is the primary structural support material in most plants.  The new research takes five conventional pretreatment technologies for plant materials and modifies them to produce both biofuel and plastics together at a lower cost.  The new method is called “plug-in preconditioning processes of lignin” and it can be directly and economically added into current biorefineries.  The process is designed to integrate dissolving, conditioning, and fermenting lignin, extracting energy from it and making it easily adaptable to biorefinery designs.

The so-called bioeconomy currently supports some 286,000 jobs.  Innovation is the key to achieving more widespread use of biodegradable plastic.  With improved economics of so-called lignocellulosic biorefineries, there can be new avenues to use agricultural waste to produce biodegradable plastics.

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‘Plugging in’ to produce environmentally friendly bioplastics

Photo, posted November 5, 2015, courtesy of Kathryn Faith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Seeds And Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Farmers and agricultural communities around the world are on the frontlines of climate change.  They are among the first to feel the impacts of hotter temperatures as well as more frequent and intense droughts and precipitation. These challenges pose a massive threat to both farmer livelihoods and global food security.

As the planet continues to heat up, many arid regions that already have marginal conditions for agriculture will be increasingly under stress. As a result, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the King Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco are working on a promising new way to protect seeds from this stress during their crucial germination phase. Their simple and inexpensive process, which was recently described in a paper published in the journal Nature Food, also provides plants with extra nutrition at the same.

The research team has developed a two layer coating for seeds designed for tackling issues related to drought. Drawing inspiration from natural coatings that occur on some seeds like chia seeds, the first layer is designed to protect the seeds from drying out. It provides a gel-like coating that grips any moisture that comes along and surrounds the seed with it.  The second (inner) layer of the coating contains preserved microorganisms called rhizobacteria, as well as some nutrients to help the seeds grow. 

The materials for the coatings are biodegradable, readily-available, and often used in the food industry already.  According to researchers, early tests using common beans have demonstrated encouraging results in Morocco, and more field tests of the seeds are currently underway.

As the climate continues to change, more innovations like this will be necessary for global food security.

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Engineering seeds to resist drought

Photo, posted September 17, 2010, courtesy of Stacy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Pacific Northwest Heatwave | Earth Wise

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The late-June heatwave in the Pacific Northwest shattered temperature records in dozens of locations.  Cities like Portland and Seattle saw historic high temperatures and one town in British Columbia saw temperatures hotter than ever recorded in Las Vegas.

An international team of weather and climate experts analyzed this extreme weather event and came to a preliminary conclusion that it was a 1-in-1000-year event in today’s climate.  “Today’s climate” means the already warmer conditions that the world is experiencing as a result of the changing climate.

If that analysis is accurate, then such an extreme temperature event would have been at least 150 times rarer in the era before global warming.  In other words, they concluded that it would have been a 1-in-150,000-year event, which means that it would have been virtually impossible in pre-industrial times.

Given that they estimated that the extreme temperatures were a 1-in-1000-year event at this point, it would follow that such events are not about to become commonplace any time soon.  On the face of it, that is somewhat comforting to hear.

However, all of this assumes that global warming will not radically change the statistical distribution of global temperatures.  If that assumption fails to hold, then all bets are off.  Perhaps temperatures like those experienced in the Pacific Northwest might be a 1-in-50-year event, for example, but we just don’t realize it yet.  Follow-up studies will be looking for evidence of significant changes in the distribution of weather events.  For now, a 1-in-1000-year event means there is only a 0.1% chance of occurring in a given year.  That’s good news for the residents of that region.

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Preliminary analysis concludes Pacific Northwest heat wave was a 1,000-year event…hopefully

Photo, posted June 4, 2016, courtesy of Jody Claborn via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Sunscreen For Corals | Earth Wise

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Sunscreen from beachgoers entering ocean waters is one of the greatest threats to coral reefs and there are global efforts to reduce or eliminate the use of many of the most harmful chemicals people use to protect themselves from the sun’s rays.  However, scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute have found that some corals have a natural sunscreen of their own that helps protect them from the effects of climate change.

Hawaiian blue rice corals feature a deep blue pigment that is created by chromoprotein that filters out harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.  UV damage has harmful impacts to reproduction in many coral species, but it appears not to have the same effect on blue rice coral.

In a study published in Scientific Reports, Smithsonian researchers studied the devastating effects that bleaching had on brown rice coral in the Hawaiian bleaching events of 2014 and 2015.  During the same events, blue rice coral either recovered quickly or was not affected by the elevated ocean temperature at all.

The blue-pigmented corals had dramatically greater reproductive vigor than the brown-pigmented version.  The key factor appears to be the sun-screening ability of the blue pigment in the particular symbiotic algae that lives inside the coral tissue known as zooxanthellae.  The coral protects the algae and in turn the algae provide the coral with food in the form of sugars produced as a waste product from photosynthesis.  In the case of the blue version, the algae also produce sunscreen for the coral.

By better understanding the role UV-protective pigments play in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and warming oceans, scientists can learn why some species are better equipped to survive in a changing environment.

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Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Scientists Find Corals’ Natural “Sunscreen” May Help Them Weather Climate Change

Photo, posted September 28, 2009, courtesy of Matt Kieffer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Hardier Corals For Endangered Reefs | Earth Wise

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Mass coral bleaching events are getting increasingly frequent as the oceans continue to warm, endangering coral reefs all over the world. The damage to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been enormous and in 2015, nearly half of Hawaii’s coral reefs were affected by a severe bleaching event.

Not all coral bleaching is permanent.  Corals can sometimes recover.  Some corals even seem to resist bleaching altogether.  Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studied these resilient corals to see just how effective they are in resisting the effects of climate change.

Their experiments sought to determine whether corals that seem to resist bleaching can be moved to other locations and used as the seed stock to repopulate degraded reefs.

The researchers identified coral colonies that resisted bleaching during the 2015 Hawaiian bleaching event and collected samples from them.  They transplanted some of them to a second reef as well as putting other samples in laboratory tanks and simulating a bleaching event by raising the water temperature over a period of several days.

Careful tracking of the corals’ health showed that the bleaching-resistant corals stayed that way even in a new environment and under additional stress.  They also studied how well the corals reproduced and found that the corals that spent time in a favorable new site before being subjected to stress demonstrated greater fitness and improved reproduction.

The study indicates that coral transplantation using colonies known to be resistant to bleaching may be an effective way to buy some time in preserving the world’s coral reefs.  But global action on climate change is essential because even bleaching-resistant corals aren’t going to survive forever if ocean warming keeps increasing.

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Climate change-resistant corals could provide lifeline to battered reefs

Photo, posted November 29, 2012, courtesy of Robert Linsdell via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Renewable Energy | Earth Wise

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A team of researchers at Texas A&M University believes that the next generation of offshore energy could come in the form of a synergistic combination of multiple renewable energy generators installed on a floating offshore platform.

Their concept for the ocean renewable energy station comprises wind, wave, ocean current, and solar energy elements that could generate electricity for anything from a coastal or island community to a research lab or military unit.  The station would be tethered to the sea bottom and could be used in locations where the water depth increases quickly, such as along the U.S. Pacific Coast or Hawaii.

Offshore wind is already commercially competitive, while wave-energy converters so far have been less cost-effective and only useful for specialized, smaller-scale applications.  The proposed ocean renewable energy station would make use of multiple different methods of electricity generation and incorporate innovative smart materials in the wave energy converters that respond to changes in wave height and frequency and allow for more consistent power production.

Denmark is already building a huge multi-source, multi-purpose ocean energy island.  This world’s first energy island will be 30 acres in area and serve as a hub for 200 giant offshore wind turbines generating 3 GW of electric power.  It is the largest construction project in Danish history, and will cost an estimate $34 billion.  As well as supplying other European countries with electricity, the goal is to use the new offshore island to produce green hydrogen from seawater, which can also be exported.  Large battery banks on the island will store surplus electricity for use in times of high demand.

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Research Underway On Floating Renewable Energy Station

Photo, posted September 27, 2014, courtesy of Eric Gross via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wind Farms Slowing Each Other Down | Earth Wise

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Offshore wind is booming in Europe.  The expansion of wind energy in the German Bight and Baltic Sea has been especially dramatic.  At this point, there are about 8 gigawatts of wind turbines in German waters, the equivalent of about 8 nuclear power plants.  But space in this region is limited so that wind farms are sometimes built very close to one another.

A team of researchers from the Helmholtz Center Hereon, a major German research institute, has found that wind speeds downstream from large windfarms are significantly slowed down.  In a study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, they found that this braking effect can result in astonishingly large-scale lowering of wind speeds.

On average, the regions of lowered wind can extend 20-30 miles and, under certain weather conditions, can even extend up to 60 miles.  As a result, the output of a neighboring wind farm located within this distance can be reduced by 20 to 25 percent.

These wake effects are weather dependent.  During stable weather conditions, which are typically the case in the spring in German waters, the effects can be especially large.  During stormy times, such as in November and December, the atmosphere is so mixed that the wind farm wake effects are relatively small.

Based on their modeling, it is clear that if wind farms are planned to be located close together, these wake effects need to be taken into account.  The researchers next want to investigate the effects that reduced wind speeds have on life in the sea.  Ocean winds affect salt and oxygen content, temperatures, and nutrients in the water.  It is important to find out how reduced winds might affect marine ecosystems.

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Are wind farms slowing each other down?

Photo, posted November 23, 2011, courtesy of David J Laporte via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Surviving Climate Change | Earth Wise

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The sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is happening now.  According to an analysis published last year in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within the next 20 years. Without the impact of humans, this quantity of extinctions would have taken thousands of years. 

Anthropogenic climate change continues to exacerbate problems that drive species to the brink.  Which species will be able to adapt and survive?

Using genome sequencing, a research team from McGill University in Montreal has found that some fish, like the threespine stickleback, can adapt very rapidly to extreme seasonal changes. Known for their different shapes, sizes, and behaviors, stickleback fish can live in both saltwater and freshwater, and can tolerate a wide range of temperatures.

Stickleback fish, which can be found in different estuaries along coastal California, provided researchers with an opportunity to study natural selection in real-time.  The researchers analyzed six populations of threespine stickleback fish before and after seasonal changes to their environment.   The research team discovered evidence of genetic changes driven by the seasonal shifts in habitat that mirrored the differences found between long-established freshwater and saltwater populations.  Since these genetic changes occurred in independent populations over a single season, the study highlights just how quickly the effects of natural selection can be detected. 

These findings suggest that scientists may be able to use the genetic differences that evolved in the past as a way to predict how species may adapt to climate change in the future.

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Which animals will survive climate change?

Sixth Mass Extinction of Wildlife Accelerating- Study

Photo, posted August 3, 2015, courtesy of Jason Ching/University of Washington via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Sea Turtles And The Sargasso Sea | Earth Wise

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The lifecycle of sea turtles includes a longstanding mystery, often called the “lost years”.  Turtles hatching from nests along Florida’s Atlantic coast head into the ocean and are generally not seen again for several years before they return in their adolescence. Very little is known about where they spend this time in the open ocean.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have learned that green turtles as well as loggerhead turtles – both iconic species in conservation efforts – may be spending their youth in the legendary Sargasso Sea.  The Sargasso Sea is located off the east coast of the U.S. in the North Atlantic Ocean.  It has frequently been featured in popular culture, such as in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, as a place where ships could be trapped in thick mats of floating, brown Sargassum seaweed for which the sea is named.

The researchers tracked the baby turtles by attaching advanced, solar-powered tracking devices, about an inch long, to their shells.  They used a special adhesive that held the devices to the turtle shells but would allow the devices to fall off after a few months causing no harm to the turtles or inhibiting shell growth or behavior.

It was previously thought that baby turtles would passively drift in sea currents and simply ride those currents until their later juvenile years.  The new research shows that the turtles actively orient to go into the Sargasso Sea.

Studies of where turtles go as they develop are fundamental to sound sea turtle conservation.  If we don’t know where turtles are and what parts of the ocean are important to them, we are doing conservation blindfolded.

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Legendary Sargasso Sea May be Sea Turtles’ Destination during Mysterious ‘Lost Years’

Photo, posted October 23, 2016, courtesy of Kris-Mikael Krister via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Radar Satellites And Hazard Mitigation | Earth Wise

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Scientists have concluded that the changing climate is primarily the result of increased human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.  Some of the effects of global climate change include melting glaciers, warming oceans, intensifying storms, and rising seas.

Another consequence of global climate change is natural disasters like floods and wildfires.  Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires and increasing the odds of record-breaking floods in many parts of the United States and all around the world.

As a result, scientists in Australia have turned to technology for better assistance in keeping tabs on these climate change-driven natural disasters.  Researchers from Curtin University in Perth, Australia have found that satellites can improve the ability to detect, monitor, prepare for, and withstand natural disasters, including floods, wildfires, and earthquakes.

The research team used Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, which was acquired by the European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellite.  The researchers also used data acquired by other satellites to evaluate these Australia-specific case studies.

According to the researchers, SAR data provides remote monitoring capabilities of Earth’s surface around the clock and in all weather, which is something that traditional optical Earth Observation (EO) imagery cannot do. The ability to function through fog, clouds, rainfall, and smoke is what makes SAR so valuable.

The research team says that the data can be used to improve how people track and respond to natural disasters, by precisely mapping topography, tracking movements of the ground, and mapping damage to infrastructure. 

As the climate continues to change, the ability to mitigate hazards like floods and wildfires will be increasingly important. 

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Radar satellites can better protect against bushfires and floods

Photo, posted May 11, 2007, courtesy of Bert Knottenbeld via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Global Assessment Of Groundwater Wells | Earth Wise

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Water is a fundamental need for every human being on the planet.  Each person requires more than five gallons of clean and safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and keeping clean.

Groundwater wells remain one of the primary sources of drinking water.  In fact, more than half of the world’s population gets its drinking water from groundwater wells.  Groundwater wells also sustain more than 40% of irrigated agriculture.

Researchers from UC Santa Barbara have recently compiled the most comprehensive assessment of groundwater wells to date.  Their research, which was recently published in the journal Science, spanned 40 countries, which collectively account for more than 50% of all groundwater pumping. 

According to the survey’s findings, many wells are at risk of running dry – up to one in five wells, to be exact.  The researchers compared the depths of water tables against well depths. They found that 6% to 20% of the wells in the study were at risk of running dry if water levels continue to decline by just a few meters.

In many areas where groundwater levels are declining, the research team found that new wells are not being drilled deeper to keep pace with the falling water table. As a result, newer wells are just as vulnerable as older wells should groundwater levels continue to decline.  

The researchers hope to expand on this study to include data from China, Iran, and Pakistan, three major users of groundwater from which the researchers could not obtain records.  The researchers also plan to investigate how quickly water tables are dropping and where the trend is accelerating.   

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The largest assessment of global groundwater wells finds many are at risk of drying up

Photo, posted January 20, 2018, courtesy of François Molle via Water Alternatives Photos on Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cleaner Water Using Corn | Earth Wise

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Corn is the largest agricultural crop in the U.S., and it is also one of the most wasteful.  About half of the harvest ends up as stover – corn stalks, leaves, husks, and cobs – once the kernels are used for food.

Corn stover has relatively few commercial or industrial uses.  It can be used to produce biofuel, but that is not very energy efficient.  It is sometimes used as a low-quality livestock feed as well.  Mostly, it is just burned if it is used at all.

Researchers at the University of California Riverside have developed an energy-efficient way to make good use of stover by transforming it into activated carbon for use in water treatment.

Activated carbon – often called activated charcoal – is an organic material that is specially treated to contain millions of microscopic pores that make it highly absorbent.  It has many industrial uses, the most common of which is for filtering pollutants out of drinking water.  Most household water filters such as Brita filters as well as the ones built into refrigerators make use of activated carbon.

The Riverside researchers explored methods for producing activated carbon from charred corn stover and found that processing the material with hot compressed water – a process known as hydrothermal carbonization – produced highly absorbent activated carbon with superior properties compared to material produced by slow pyrolysis, where corn stover is charred at increasing temperatures over a long period of time.

According to the researchers, it is important to create approaches that convert waste into high-value materials, fuels, and chemicals in order to create new value streams and eliminate the environmental harm that comes from a so-called “take-make-dispose” economic model.

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Cleaner Water Through Corn

Photo, posted September 15, 2010, courtesy of the United Soybean Board / the Soybean Checkoff via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Plunging Cost Of Lithium-Ion Batteries | Earth Wise

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Lithium-ion batteries are the power source for phones, laptops, and electric cars.  These rechargeable batteries were first commercially introduced in 1991.  Since then, their performance has improved, and their cost has dropped tremendously.

There have been dramatic cost declines in many advanced technologies.   The price of big-screen televisions is a prime example.  Most people think of solar photovoltaic panels as the most exceptional case.  In the 1970s, solar panels cost over $100 per watt. Today, they are 20 cents a watt.

How much lithium-ion batteries have dropped in price has been somewhat unclear.  This is because much of the information about battery costs is in the form of closely held corporate data.  Most lithium-ion batteries are not sold directly to consumers but rather are built into consumer electronics and cars.  Large companies like Apple and Tesla buy batteries by the millions or manufacture them themselves, and the true costs are not publicly disclosed.

Recently, MIT researchers have carried out an extensive analysis of lithium-ion battery costs over the past three decades.  The researchers found that the cost of these batteries has dropped by 97% over that period.

It is clear that the decline in battery costs has been an enabler of the recent growth in sales of electric vehicles.  It is also clear that further declines in lithium-ion battery costs are likely to increase the batteries’ usage in stationary applications such as storing energy from intermittent green power sources like solar and wind.

The batteries have ever-improving energy density (energy stored within a given volume) and specific energy (energy stored within a given mass.)  As lithium-ion batteries continue to get better and cheaper, their role in the world continues to grow.

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Study reveals plunge in lithium-ion battery costs

Photo, posted October 26, 2020, courtesy of Ajay Suresh via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Cost Of Invasive Species | Earth Wise

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A new study published in Nature has tried for the first time to put a price tag on the impact of invasive species.  Researchers have been studying the effects of invasive species for decades, but it is a problem that has not really captured the attention of the public and policy makers.

According to the research by scientists at the French National Museum of Natural History, from 1970 to 2017, invasive species have cost the global economy at least $1.28 trillion dollars in damages and efforts to control them.

The team screened over 19,000 published papers, ultimately analyzing nearly 2,000 that detailed costs of various invasions at particular times.   Annual costs roughly doubled every six years, reaching a yearly bill of $162 billion in 2017.

The five costliest invasive species are Aedes mosquitos, rats, cats, termites, and fire ants, collectively accounting for a quarter of the global damage.

Asian tiger mosquitos and yellow fever mosquitos alone accounted for $149 billion in damage to public health as they spread from country to country.  Rats hitchhike on human boats and drive native species to extinction on islands around the world.  Cats inflict damage primarily by their impact on native biodiversity.  By some estimates, they kill a billion birds each year in the US alone.   Termites, as they spread across the globe, wreak havoc on all sorts of infrastructure.  Fire ants can feed on a variety of seedlings, from citrus to soybeans, reduce the size of grazing lands for livestock and bite and sting farm animals and humans.

The study shows invasive species are a massive problem that is getting worse.

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Invasive Species Cost Billions of Dollars in Damages Annually, Researchers Find

Photo, posted March 29, 2012, courtesy of Aleksey Gnilenkov via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Silent Killer | Earth Wise

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Air pollution is deadly.  Studies have found that particles from air pollution can enter our lungs and bloodstream, contributing to major health conditions including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and kidney disease.  Globally, air pollution is responsible for the premature deaths of millions of people every year. 

The first line of defense against air pollution is ambient air quality standards.  But according to researchers from McGill University, more than half of the world’s population lives without the protection of adequate air quality standards.

The research team focused on a specific type of air pollution called particulate matter 2.5 (more commonly called PM2.5).  PM2.5 refers to tiny particles or droplets in the air that are two and one half microns or less in width.  These tiny particles are responsible for an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths every year globally, including more than one million deaths in China, nearly 200,000 in Europe, and more than 50,000 in the United States.

In the study, which was recently published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, the researchers found that where there are air quality protections, the standards are often worse than what the WHO considers safe.  Some regions with high air pollution levels, like the Middle East, don’t even measure PM2.5 air pollution.  The researchers found that the weakest air quality standards are often violated, while the strictest standards are often met. 

More than half of the world’s population is in urgent need of adequate air quality standards.   

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Air pollution: The silent killer called PM 2.5

Photo, posted November 17, 2019, courtesy of Kristoffer Trolle via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Transmission Lines And Wildlife Habitat Connectivity | Earth Wise

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Electrical transmission lines and their support towers tend to be a blight on the landscape but are something modern society cannot avoid.  Power transmission networks – with towers every 200 meters or so of line – are in place throughout the world’s developed nations.  Another common feature of developed nations is the fragmentation of animal species caused by human activity breaking up their natural habitats.

It is important for biodiversity conservation for animals to get their environments connected.   It turns out that transmission line infrastructure can provide an important tool for reconnecting wildlife habitats.

In a study conducted in Spain’s Andalusia region, scientists planted native shrubs and seedlings under six towers along power lines running through cereal cropland.  The area of each tower base was 100 square meters.

Compared to four control sites, the researchers measured increased population density and diversity among arthropods and small mammals observed in the four-year study. 

Enhancing connectivity through networks of habitat corridors or stepping-stone patches has become a key concept in conservation biology and landscape ecology.  Renting or buying large parcels of land to connect protected natural areas to one another would be cost prohibitive but planting suitable native shrubs and other flora under existing transmission line networks can provide many of the same benefits.

In general, power companies pay rent to landowners – often farmers or agribusinesses – for the rights to place towers on their land.  Because it is difficult to work the areas under towers with farm equipment, that space is typically unused, which opens the door to low-cost efforts by environmentalists.

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Electrical transmission lines have power to enhance habitat connectivity for wildlife

Photo, posted April 29, 2018, courtesy of Georgi Todorov/digitalnovas.com via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Helping Corals With Beneficial Bacteria | Earth Wise

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A group of researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia is exploring a novel technology to improve the health of corals.  Around the globe, corals are being stressed by pathogens, toxins, and warming waters leading to widespread bleaching events.

The new idea is to introduce beneficial bacteria to the corals, thereby boosting the strength and resilience of their symbiotic partners.  The concept is akin to the use of probiotics in plant science.  Corals rely on bacterial and algal symbionts to provide nutrients, energy (through photosynthesis), toxin regulation, and protection against pathogens.  

The researchers selected bacteria that are naturally symbiotic to specific coral species on reefs in the Red Sea, ensuring that no alien bacteria are accidentally introduced.  A probiotic cocktail comprising six bacteria strains was used in a laboratory setting.  Results in the lab have been promising so far, as they have observed dynamic and metabolic alterations to the corals that boosted their chances of survival under heat stress. 

Success in the lab will need to be translated to success in the open oceans, which is challenging.  Scaling up and seeding whole reefs might involve robots and artificial intelligence in order to deliver probiotics either into sediments or directly onto corals.

The use of beneficial microorganisms is not the solution to the global destruction of coral reefs.  Only worldwide CO2 mitigation can ultimately accomplish that.  But the probiotic approach might buy corals some time as they deal with shifting environmental pressures and try to adapt to a changing world.

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Microbiome boost may help corals resist bleaching

Photo, posted March 18, 2018, courtesy of Steven dos Remedios via Flickr.

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