Extreme Scarcity Research Articles

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Agricultural Practices of Coconut Farmers on the Impacts of Climate Change on Coconut Productivity and Sustainability in Barangay Capasnan, Manay, Davao Oriental, Philippines

Coconut, a vital tropical crop, and the Philippines’ leading agricultural export, particularly in Davao Oriental, the “Coconut Capital” of the country, is profoundly impacted by climate change, which disrupts its productivity and agricultural practices, thereby threatening its sustainability. This study evaluated the knowledge, attitudes, practices, perceived impacts, and preparedness of coconut farmers in Barangay Capasnan, a major contributor to Davao Oriental’s coconut production. A descriptive research design was employed, with 145 farmers (out of 227 registered) participating through purposive sampling. Data were collected through validated surveys, analyzed with descriptive statistics, and conducted under ethical guidelines. Results showed that most farmers (30%) were over 61 years old, with 59% male and 41% female participants. A majority (63%) had only elementary-level education, and most households (56%) comprised 1-4 members. Nearly all farmers (94%) owned their farms, but 59% had a monthly income below PHP 10,000 (~USD 170.24). Farmers demonstrated a high awareness of climate change, recognizing its effects on temperature, rainfall, seasonality, and its role in exacerbating extreme weather, pests, and diseases. They perceived climate change as a significant threat to agriculture, advocating for education and action, though engagement in community coping strategies remained moderate. Farmers implemented practices such as knowledge-sharing, exploring alternative income sources, investing in protective infrastructure, and planning for renewable energy use. However, moderate adoption was observed in water-saving irrigation, drought-resistant crops, soil conservation, and pest management practices. Climate change was perceived to have severe impacts on coconut yields, quality, soil fertility, seasonal patterns, and labor demands, while moderate impacts included extreme weather, water scarcity, and heat stress. Recommendations include providing emotional and mental support, financial assistance, access to resilient crop varieties, climate-smart agricultural training, affordable adaptive technology, and increased distribution of coconut seedlings by the Philippine Coconut Authority to address declining quality and productivity caused by weather changes.

Liver transcriptome analysis reveals the molecular response to hibernation challenge in the Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis)

Hibernation is a physiological strategy animals use to survive in hostile environments with extreme temperature challenges and food scarcity. During this state, significant changes occur in metabolism and cellular function, with numerous stress response pathways recalibrated to survive physiological challenges that could otherwise be fatal. Numerous studies were performed to explain the molecular mechanisms of mammalian hibernation, but detailed analyses remain scarce in reptiles. Given the limited understanding of the mechanisms regulating hibernation, we performed a comprehensive analysis of liver gene expression in the Chinese softshell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) comparing summer active (SA), hibernation (H), and early arousal (EA) states using RNA-sequencing. A total of 435 million high-quality reads were generated, identifying 3,508, 3,607, and 2,993 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the SA vs. H, H vs. EA, and EA vs. SA respectively. Gene ontology analysis revealed a shift in metabolic fuel utilization, with the down-regulation of metabolic and cellular processes during hibernation, reflecting a conserved strategy for energy conservation. The transition from hibernation to early arousal was marked by up-regulation of immune-related genes (e.g., CXCL12, ITGA4, PIGR) and endocrine regulators (e.g., CDKN1A, DLL4, IGF1R), facilitating metabolic recovery and cellular protection. Besides, we observed dynamic changes in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, with down-regulation of hexokinase 2 (HK2) and glucose transporters during hibernation, and up-regulation of lipid metabolism genes (LSS, GPLD1) to support membrane integrity and signaling. Our findings provide insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying hibernation and arousal in ectotherms, with implications for understanding metabolic adaptations, immune regulation, and stress responses in extreme conditions.

Conservation of Natural Resources in Infrastructure Development and Climate Action - Practices in the Past and Present Scenario, and Forecast for Future

Background: The conservation and utilization of natural resources in infrastructure development are crucial for achieving sustainable growth while addressing climate change challenges. The rapid expansion of infrastructure has often led to environmental degradation, necessitating a shift toward more sustainable practices. Objective: This study aims to examine past practices, assess the current scenario, and propose future strategies for integrating environmental sustainability into infrastructure planning and implementation. Methods: The study reviews historical infrastructure development approaches, analyzes the impact of modern industrialization on natural resources, and evaluates existing sustainable infrastructure initiatives. It also explores policy frameworks, technological advancements, and community-based solutions for fostering climate-resilient infrastructure. Findings: Traditional infrastructure development was resource-efficient and environmentally harmonious but slow. However, rapid urbanization and industrialization, driven by heavy machinery, have led to severe environmental consequences such as deforestation, soil degradation, water depletion, and biodiversity loss. The current scenario highlights an urgent need for climate-resilient and eco-friendly infrastructure as climate change intensifies risks like extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and resource scarcity. Despite progress in adopting green technologies, weak policy enforcement and unsustainable practices persist. Conclusion: A transition toward sustainable infrastructure requires policy reforms, the adoption of eco-friendly construction techniques, the integration of renewable energy, and active community participation. Strengthening environmental regulations, promoting circular economy principles, and leveraging advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can enhance climate-adaptive infrastructure planning. Novelty: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of past and present infrastructure development practices while proposing innovative, technology-driven, and policy-based solutions to enhance sustainability. It underscores the need for a multi-sectoral approach to balance economic growth with environmental conservation.

Nutritional and Functional Characterization of Edible Insects in Nigeria: A Sustainable Protein Source

Introduction: Food insecurity in Africa persists due to extreme poverty, water scarcity, land degradation, and climate change. Many African countries continue to experience chronic hunger and malnutrition. To meet people’s nutritional needs, it’s important to use economical natural food sources, including edible insects. In Nigeria, edible insects play a vital role in human nutrition. Aim: This study investigated the nutritional value and functional properties of four commonly consumed insects: Rhynchophorus phoenicis larva, Oryctes rhinoceros larva, Acheta domesticus, and Macrotermes bellicosus. Method: Proximate composition, vitamin content, and functional properties were determined using standard analytical methods. Results: Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in lipid (8.3% - 28.7%), crude protein (31.9% - 38.2%), carbohydrate (3.1% - 31.9%), moisture (9.2% - 58.9%), and ash content (2.9% - 14.1%) among the insects. Vitamin A values ranged from 2.2 to 4.2 µM, while vitamin C values were between 11.5 and 56.8 µM. Functional properties showed variability in water and oil absorption capacity, emulsion activity, foaming capacity, and stability. Conclusion: These results indicate that these insects have potential as nutrient-rich food sources and could form the basis for new food products with considerable nutritional value.

Climate Change and Plant Foods: The Influence of Environmental Stressors on Plant Metabolites and Future Food Sources.

Climate change is reshaping global agriculture by altering temperature regimes and other environmental conditions, with profound implications for food security and agricultural productivity. This review examines how key environmental stressors-such as extreme temperatures, water scarcity, increased salinity, UV-B radiation, and elevated concentrations of ozone and CO2-impact the nutritional quality and bioactive compounds in plant-based foods. These stressors can modify the composition of essential nutrients, particularly phytochemicals, which directly affect the viability of specific crops in certain regions and subsequently influence human dietary patterns by shifting the availability of key food resources. To address these challenges, there is growing interest in resilient plant species, including those with natural tolerance to stress and genetically modified variants, as well as in alternative protein sources derived from plants. Additionally, unconventional food sources, such as invasive plant species and algae, are being explored as sustainable solutions for future nutrition.

Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling for Intermittent Computing

We present hardware/software techniques to intelligently regulate supply voltage and clock frequency of intermittently-computing devices. These devices rely on ambient energy harvesting to power their operation and small capacitors as energy buffers. Statically setting their clock frequency fails to capture the unique relations these devices expose between capacitor voltage, energy efficiency at a given operating frequency, and the corresponding operating range. Existing dynamic voltage and frequency scaling techniques are also largely inapplicable due to extreme energy scarcity and peculiar hardware features. We introduce two hardware/software co-designs that accommodate the distinct hardware features and function within a constrained energy envelope, offering varied trade-offs and functionalities. Our experimental evaluation combines tests on custom-manufactured hardware and detailed emulation experiments. The data gathered indicate that our approaches result in up to 3.75 × reduced energy consumption and 12 × swifter execution times compared to the considered baselines, all while utilizing smaller capacitors to accomplish identical workloads.

A review of evapotranspiration estimation methods for climate-smart agriculture tools under a changing climate: vulnerabilities, consequences, and implications

ABSTRACT Climate change (CC) seriously threatens global water resources, exacerbating extreme water scarcity issues, especially in agriculture. Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the essential components of the water cycle and is particularly sensitive to CC. Thus, this study presents an overview of the importance of ET estimation as climate-smart agriculture (C-SA) and its relevance in addressing CC's challenges. We adopted a systematic review methodology to select the relevant literature based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Based on the analysis, we found that CC has significantly affected the yield of various crops and changed the ET over time. Besides, C-SA tools are vital for addressing the challenges of CC. Its adoption in traditional agriculture can build strong resilience against threats posed by CC. In addition, significant development has been attained in the precision monitoring of the ET from agriculture fields, ranging from direct and indirect to more sophisticated energy balance and modern techniques. However, the accuracy of each method mainly depended on the specific regional climate conditions. In the absence of actual field measurements, empirical or modern models are helpful to estimate ET using routine meteorological variables. Yet, these models require local calibration for the best accuracy.

Microbial response to deliquescence of nitrate-rich soils in the hyperarid Atacama Desert

Abstract. Life in hyperarid regions has adapted to extreme water scarcity through mechanisms like salt deliquescence. While halite (NaCl) crusts have been intensively studied and identified as one of the last habitats under hyperarid conditions, other less common hygroscopic salt crusts remain unexplored. Here, we investigated newly discovered deliquescent soil surfaces in the Atacama Desert, containing substantial amounts of nitrates, to evaluate their habitability for microorganisms. We characterized the environment with respect to water availability and biogeochemistry. Microbial abundances and composition were determined by cell cultivation experiments, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and membrane phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, while microbial activity was assessed by analyzing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the molecular composition of organic matter. Our findings reveal that, while the studied hygroscopic salts provide temporary water, microbial abundances and activity are lower in the studied soil surfaces than in non-deliquescent soil surfaces. Intriguingly, the deliquescent crusts are enriched in geochemically degraded organic matter, indicated by the molecular composition. We conclude that high nitrate concentrations in the hyperarid soils suppress microbial activity but preserve eolian-derived biomolecules. These insights are important for assessing the habitability and searching for life in hyperarid environments on Earth and beyond.

Government crisis communication tools in the light of the extreme drought of 2022

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the communication of the drought (water crisis) of 2022. As water is a vital element, the alpha and omega of survival, the authors should expect the emergence of existential anxieties during related crises that may result in messages being ignored. This makes the communication of the responsible public authority even more difficult. The authors’ aim to make forward-looking recommendations for water professionals in the face of future water crises. Methodology: In order to help develop more effective crisis communication the authors analysed the National Directorate General for Water Management’s communications before, during and after the crisis (using the method of media monitoring and analysis) and carried out the evaluation based on their own criteria, which were compiled on the basis of the literature. They conclude their summary findings by making recommendations. Findings: In their opinion, although the communication of the OVF has been characterised by a rapid and accurate flow of information, the role of social responsibility should be strengthened in the future. The proportion of textual and visual content and the choice of publication channels should be reconsidered. Value: Due to the acceleration of the hydrological cycle, it is likely that in the future humanity will have to prepare for more intense periods of extreme water scarcity. According to satellite gravimetric measurements, the water security of the Carpathian Basin is changing in a negative direction. The authors’ results underline that the emerging climate crisis opens up new dimensions in governmental/authority crisis communication, both in terms of preparedness and response.

A kormányzati kríziskommunikáció eszközei a 2022. évi rendkívüli aszály tükrében

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the communication of the drought (water crisis) of 2022. As water is a vital element, the alpha and omega of survival, the authors should expect the emergence of existential anxieties during related crises that may result in messages being ignored. This makes the communication of the responsible public authority even more difficult. The authors’ aim to make forward-looking recommendations for water professionals in the face of future water crises. Methodology: In order to help develop more effective crisis communication the authors analysed the National Directorate General for Water Management’s communications before, during and after the crisis (using the method of media monitoring and analysis) and carried out the evaluation based on their own criteria, which were compiled on the basis of the literature. They conclude their summary findings by making recommendations. Findings: In their opinion, although the communication of the OVF has been characterised by a rapid and accurate flow of information, the role of social responsibility should be strengthened in the future. The proportion of textual and visual content and the choice of publication channels should be reconsidered. Value: Due to the acceleration of the hydrological cycle, it is likely that in the future humanity will have to prepare for more intense periods of extreme water scarcity. According to satellite gravimetric measurements, the water security of the Carpathian Basin is changing in a negative direction. The authors’ results underline that the emerging climate crisis opens up new dimensions in governmental/authority crisis communication, both in terms of preparedness and response.

(Invited) Surface and Interface Structure Control of Water Electrolysis Electrodes

The development of highly active and durable electrode for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for efficient hydrogen production by polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). Ir oxide is currently used as OER catalysts, while their extreme scarcity and high cost hinder the widespread adoption of PEMWE. Recently, Ru oxide has attracted attention as a non-iridium OER catalyst with high electronic conductivity. However, since its electrochemical stability under acidic environment is quite low compared to Ir oxide, significant stability improvement is needed for practical applications of Ru-oxide catalysts.In this talk, I will present our recent work on surface and interface control to improve the performance of Ru oxide using single crystal thin film electrodes prepared by arc-plasma deposition. First, I will introduce the beneficial role of Ti doping on RuO2(hkl) surfaces (hkl = 110, 001, 100). The OER activity, stability, and corrosion resistance were enhanced by a small amount of Ti doping on all the hkl surfaces. Second, the importance of structural control of noble metal oxide catalyst/transition metal oxide support interface will be discussed. The SnO2 interlayer effectively improved not only the electronic resistance, but also the structural stability at the catalyst/support interface [1]. These studies demonstrate that metal oxide thin film model electrodes are powerful platforms to elucidate the role of surface and interfacial structure on the water electrolysis electrodes.This study was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 21H01661, 22K19078 and Toyota Mobility Foundation Hydrogen Initiative.[1] N. Todoroki, R. Kudo, K. Hayashi, M. Yokoi, N. Naraki and T. Wadayama, ACS Catalysis, 13, 2023, 11433.

RuO2−MXene nanocomposite coated on bio-degradable loofah sponge for enhanced rate of evaporation in interfacial solar desalination

RuO2−MXene nanocomposite coated on bio-degradable loofah sponge for enhanced rate of evaporation in interfacial solar desalination

Widespread HCD-tRNA derived SINEs in bivalves rely on multiple LINE partners and accumulate in genic regions

BackgroundShort interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) are non-autonomous non-LTR retrotransposons widespread across eukaryotes. They exist both as lineage-specific, fast-evolving elements and as ubiquitous superfamilies characterized by highly conserved domains (HCD). Several of these superfamilies have been described in bivalves, however their overall distribution and impact on host genome evolution are still unknown due to the extreme scarcity of transposon libraries for the clade. In this study, we examined more than 40 bivalve genomes to uncover the distribution of HCD-tRNA-related SINEs, discover novel SINE-LINE partnerships, and understand their possible role in shaping bivalve genome evolution.ResultsWe found that bivalve HCD SINEs have an ancient origin, and they can rely on at least four different LINE clades. According to a “mosaic” evolutionary scenario, multiple LINE partner can promote the amplification of the same HCD SINE superfamilies while homologues LINE-derived tails are present between different superfamilies. Multiple SINEs were found to be highly similar between phylogenetically related species but separated by extremely long evolutionary timescales, up to ~ 400 million years. Studying their genomic distribution in a subset of five species, we observed different patterns of SINE enrichment in various genomic compartments as well as differences in the tendency of SINEs to form tandem-like and palindromic structures also within intronic sequences. Despite these differences, we observed that SINEs, especially older ones, tend to accumulate preferentially within genes, or in their close proximity, consistently with a model of survival bias for less harmful, short non-coding transposons in euchromatic genomic regions.ConclusionHere we conducted a wide characterization of tRNA-related SINEs in bivalves revealing their taxonomic distribution and LINE partnerships across the clade. Moreover, through the study of their genomic distribution in five species, we highlighted commonalities and differences with other previously studied eukaryotes, thus extending our understanding of SINE evolution across the tree of life.

Deep Learning-Assisted Assessing of Single Circulating Tumor Cell Viability via Cellular Morphology.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are closely associated with cancer metastasis and recurrence, so the assessment of CTC viability is crucial for diagnosis, prognosis evaluation, and efficacy judgment of cancer. Due to the extreme scarcity of CTCs in human blood, it is difficult to accurately evaluate the viability of a single CTC. In this study, a deep learning model based on a convolutional neural network was constructed and trained to extract the morphological features of CTCs with different viabilities defined by cell counting kit-8, achieve accurate CTC identification, and assess the viability of a single CTC. Being efficient, accurate, and noninvasive, it has a broad application prospect in biomedical directions.

Energy Efficiency of Glasshouses and Plant Factories for Sustainable Urban Farming in the Desert Southwest of the United States of America

The extreme heat and water scarcity of the desert southwest in the United States of America present significant challenges for growing food crops. However, controlled-environment agriculture offers a promising solution for plant production in these harsh conditions. Glasshouses and plant factories represent advanced but energy-intensive production methods among controlled-environment agriculture techniques. This review aims to comprehensively assess how controlled-environment agriculture can thrive and be sustained in the desert southwest by evaluating the energy efficiency of controlled glasshouses and building-integrated plant factories. The analysis focuses on the efficiency of these systems’ energy and water consumption, mainly using artificial lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation, and water management through various hydroponic techniques. Approximately 50% of operational energy costs in controlled glasshouses are dedicated to cooling, whereas 25–30% of energy expenses in building-integrated plant factories are allocated to artificial lighting. Building-integrated plant factories with aeroponic systems have demonstrated superior water use and energy efficiency compared to controlled glasshouses in desert environments. Integrating photovoltaic solar energy and glass rooftops in building-integrated plant factories can significantly reduce energy costs for urban farming in the desert southwest.

Employing stable isotopes to reveal temporal trajectories of water travelling through the soil–plant-atmosphere continuum

Employing stable isotopes to reveal temporal trajectories of water travelling through the soil–plant-atmosphere continuum

Sustainable energy management for indoor farming in hot desert climates

Sustainable energy management for indoor farming in hot desert climates

Toward Robust Graph Semi-Supervised Learning Against Extreme Data Scarcity.

The success of graph neural networks (GNNs) in graph-based web mining highly relies on abundant human-annotated data, which is laborious to obtain in practice. When only a few labeled nodes are available, how to improve their robustness is key to achieving replicable and sustainable graph semi-supervised learning. Though self-training is powerful for semi-supervised learning, its application on graph-structured data may fail because 1) larger receptive fields are not leveraged to capture long-range node interactions, which exacerbates the difficulty of propagating feature-label patterns from labeled nodes to unlabeled nodes and 2) limited labeled data makes it challenging to learn well-separated decision boundaries for different node classes without explicitly capturing the underlying semantic structure. To address the challenges of capturing informative structural and semantic knowledge, we propose a new graph data augmentation framework, augmented graph self-training (AGST), which is built with two new (i.e., structural and semantic) augmentation modules on top of a decoupled GST backbone. In this work, we investigate whether this novel framework can learn a robust graph predictive model under the low-data context. We conduct comprehensive evaluations on semi-supervised node classification under different scenarios of limited labeled-node data. The experimental results demonstrate the unique contributions of the novel data augmentation framework for node classification with few labeled data.

A giant gardener of the Floodplains: The Amazonian manatee

A giant gardener of the Floodplains: The Amazonian manatee

The Role of Organic Farming for Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Development: A Review

Climate Change, exacerbated by human activities such as fossil fuel combustion and greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2), is a pressing global crisis that disrupts long-term weather patterns, ecosystems, and human well-being. Organic agriculture offers a viable solution to mitigate these effects. By lowering greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing soil carbon sequestration, organic farming strengthens ecosystem resilience. Practices such as eliminating synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, rotating crops, and utilizing organic waste foster robust agricultural systems capable of enduring extreme weather and water scarcity. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of how organic farming contributes to climate change mitigation, detailing practices that support soil carbon sequestration, reduce nitrogen oxide (N2O) emissions, and boost biodiversity. It also addresses challenges such as emissions measurement and consumer behaviour, emphasizing the need for further research and supportive policies. Organic agriculture not only advances sustainable development but also promotes food security and environmental sustainability in the face of climate change.