Life Support Systems Research Articles

Образ жизни детей и взрослых варварской округи Херсонеса (по материалам могильников Фронтовое 3 и Киль-Дере 1)

The necropolises Frontovoe 3 and Kil-Dere 1 from the environ of Chersonesos are interesting and important for the reconstruction of the cultural and historical situation on the borders of the Roman Empire. Data on the isotopic composition of bone collagen and tooth enamel provide new opportunities to discuss the nutrition, economy, and mobility of societies. The isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen informs about the average dietary intake of an individual over the last few years of life (7—10), while the ratio of strontium isotopes in tooth enamel characterizes the habitat of the child during the formation of the crown of the teeth (in this case, from 1 to 6 years). Thus, we obtain information about local natives and migrants of the first generation, whose childhood, probably, passed outside the environ of Chersonesos. The isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen in 67 samples of bone tissue and the composition of strontium in 35 samples of tooth enamel were studied. The life support system of these societies was based on the use of local terrestrial food resources. Few individuals have been found who can be named first-generation migrants. The low variability of the isotope ratios of strontium and carbon indicates a clear localization of this population group on the given territory. We also discuss the factors behind the differences in the isotopic markers of groups from Kil-Dere 1 and Frontovoye 3. These can be both environmental factors and cultural differences. The questions addressed here can be answered by studying a broader base of the compared materials.

Advancing a New Generation of Sustainability-Based Assessments for Electrical Energy Systems: Ontario as an Illustrative Application—A Review

Negative social and ecological trends are putting essential life-support systems at risk. Necessary responses include sustainability transformations in diverse sectors to enhance the planetary capacity to deliver more positive effects to all. Sustainability-based assessment frameworks are tools to guide the evaluation of initiatives in different human sectors and promote decisions that enhance overall social and ecological well-being. However, advancing sustainability remains difficult, in part because it must be pursued in a world of complex interactions and must respect the specifics of each case and context. This paper reports the process of building a sustainability-based assessment framework for electrical energy systems carried out by Aguilar. This work further specified the framework for electrical energy systems for application in the case and context of the electrical energy system in the Canadian province of Ontario. The illustrative application revealed that Ontario’s electrical energy system has made some progress towards contributions to sustainability but requires improved efforts to be on a path to adequate transformation. The research found that the sustainability-based assessment framework for electrical energy systems is promising and well-suited for further application to particular electricity-related initiatives. However, more applications are needed to further test the utility of the framework and refine the proposed criteria.

(Invited) Leveraging Magnetohydrodynamic Mechanisms for Stable and Efficient Microgravity Electrolysis

Water electrolysis is the fundamental chemical process for oxygen and hydrogen production in space. It is widely employed in modern environmental control and life support systems, propulsion technologies, and high-density energy storage devices. Furthermore, future interplanetary missions are likely to employ water as a commodity acquired and processed by In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) methodologies to produce propellants, thereby reducing vehicle launch mass.The absence of buoyancy results in major technical challenges for the operation of electrolytic cells in low gravity. The need to detach and collect oxygen and hydrogen bubbles has been traditionally addressed by means of forced water recirculation loops. However, this leads to complex, inefficient, and unreliable liquid management devices composed of multiple elements and moving parts. Two distinct magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) mechanisms may instead be employed to induce phase separation: diamagnetic, and Lorentz forces. The former arises in the presence of strong, inhomogeneous magnetic fields and results in a magnetic buoyancy effect. The latter is a consequence of the imposition of a magnetic field to the current generated between two electrodes. Both approaches can potentially lead to a new generation of electrolytic cells with minimum or no moving parts, hence enabling the human deep space operations with minimum mass and power penalties.Dedicated microgravity experiments are required to study these novel magnetically enhanced electrolysis concepts. This presentation introduces the fundamentals of both methods and discusses the experimental design and results from several experimental campaigns at ZARM’s drop tower and Blue Origin’s New Shepard. The performance of representative electrolytic cells subject to different MHD regimes is addressed from an electrochemical and fluid dynamic perspectives. It is demonstrated that the MHD force effectively detaches and collects gas bubbles in microgravity while increasing the current density and improving the stability of the electrolytic cell. Ultimately, this opens the door for the development of highly-efficient space electrolytic cells with applications to human and robotic space exploration.

(Keynote) Releasing the Bubbles: Efficient Phase Separation in (Photo-)Electrochemical Devices in Microgravity Environment

One of the major challenges human space exploration faces is the absence of buoyancy forces in orbit. Consequently, phase separation is severely hindered which impacts a large variety of space technologies including propellant management devices, heat transfer and life support systems e.g., during the production of oxygen and the recycling of carbon dioxide. Of particular interest are hereby (photo-)electrochemical (PEC) devices as they can produce essential chemicals such as oxygen and hydrogen in two set-ups: either, by coupling the electrochemical cell to external photovoltaic cells as currently utilized on the International Space Station or by direct utilization of sunlight in a monolithic device, where integrated semiconductor-electrocatalyst systems carry out the processes of light absorption, charge separation and catalysis in analogy to natural photosynthesis in one system. The latter device is particularly interesting for space applications due to present mass and volume constraints. Here, we discuss two combined approaches to overcome phase separation challenges in (photo-)electrolyzer systems in reduced gravitational environments: using the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as a model reaction, we combine nanostructured, hydrophilic electrocatalyst surfaces for efficient gas bubble desorption with magnetically-induced buoyancy to direct the produced hydrogen gas bubbles on specific trajectories away from the (photo-)electrode surface. (Photo-)current-voltage (J-V) profiles obtained in microgravity environments generated for 9.2 s at the Bremen Drop Tower show that our systems can operate with our two-fold approach near terrestrial efficiencies. Simulations of gas bubble trajectories accompany our experimental observations, allowing us to attribute the achieved phase separation in the PEC cells to the increased electrode wettability as well as the systematic use of diamagnetic and Lorentz forces.

Bridging the gap: parallel profiling of ribosome associated and total RNA species can identify transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of plants in spaceflight

ABSTRACT As plants are an essential component of sustainable life support systems, long-duration space missions will require a sophisticated understanding of plant adaptations to spaceflight and microgravity. For many years, transcriptional profiling of steady state mRNA abundances has been used as measure of plant adaptations to the space environment. However, measured changes in transcript abundances are often not reflected in corresponding changes in the proteome due regulatory processes governing translation. Translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) is a technique which selectively targets ribosome bound mRNAs for isolation and downstream sequencing. Comparing profiles of ribosome associated mRNAs with total mRNAs provides insight into the translatome and may more accurately inform on the cellular responses to the spaceflight environment. Toward that goal, this work describes a methodology developed ahead of the APEx-07 flight mission.

Effect of Artificial Liver Support Systems on Gut Microbiota in Patients with HBV-Related Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure.

Hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) is a rare and severe form of end-stage liver disease with high mortality; gut microbes are strongly associated with the development of this severe liver disease but the exact association is unclear. Artificial liver support systems (ALSS) are clinically important in prolonging the waiting time for liver transplantation and in aiding drug therapy to achieve remission. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ALSS on the abundance and diversity of microorganisms in the gut of HBV-ACLF patients. In this study, 109 stool samples were collected from patients with hepatitis B virus-associated acute chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) for 16S rRNA sequencing. Among them, 44 samples were from patients treated with ALSS therapy as an adjunct to standard medical treatment (SMT) and 65 were from patients receiving SMT only. Analysis of the sequencing results suggested that there were significant differences in the abundance and diversity of gut microbiota between the with-ALSS and without-ALSS groups (p < 0.05). The operational taxonomic units and Shannon indexes indicated that the diversity and abundance of the gut microbiome, while decreasing after the first ALSS treatment, gradually increased after an increase in the number of ALSS therapies. The overall proportion of HBV-ACLF patients with coinfection was 27.59%; the coinfection can reduce the abundance of the Bacteroidetes phylum in the microbiome significantly whereas Proteobacteria were highly enriched. After ALSS therapy, HBV-ACLF patients had a decrease in potentially harmful bacteria, an increase in potentially beneficial bacteria, an increase in the diversity of the intestinal microbiota, and the intestinal microecological disorders were corrected to a certain extent. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and total bilirubin (TBIL) levels, as well as the international normalized ratio (INR), showed a decreasing trend whereas plasminogen activity (PTA) increased and the condition of patients with HBV-ACLF progressed in a favorable direction. In addition, the abundance of Blautia and Coprococcus was negatively correlated with TBIL and INR, positively correlated with PTA, and positively correlated with disease recovery. Our study shows that ALSS can alter the composition of the gut microbiota and have an ameliorating effect on the gut microecological imbalance in HBV-ACLF patients. It is worth mentioning that Blautia and Coprococcus may have great potential as biomarkers.

The influence of environmental stressful conditions on the interaction between heat shock proteins and chaperone-assisted proteins in land snails, Helix pomatia L.

Snails are often exposed to high variability of ambient temperatures, thus in response to that, they function for prolonged periods in a dormant state. It is known that molecular chaperones (like heat shock proteins (HSPs)) fulfill important functions in maintaining cell homeostasis and the cellular responses to stress, and that they are activated in many different species upon exposition to various environmental stressors. HSPs defend organisms from the harmful consequences of heat shock and potentially alternative stressors too. After thorough consideration, we decided to identify proteins that interact with HSP70 and HSP90 in Helix pomatia Linnaeus, 1758 snails under extreme thermal (low and high) and photoperiod (short and long) conditions and at hypometabolic/active states as a response to environmental stress. Identification of proteins that interact with HSPs can define a new tool in molecular basis of adaptation to temperature stress in snails. After performing co-immunoprecipitation and Western blot, we obtained results showing that HSP70 interacts with hemocyanin alphaN and alphaD, and with other isoforms of hemocyanin–hemocyanin beta as well as with Na+/K+-ATPase, whereas HSP90 interacts with hemocyanin alphaN. It means that the chaperones are likely to affect the most important life-supporting systems of snails like respiration and ionic conductivity.

Artificial placenta support of extremely preterm ovine fetuses at the border of viability for up to 336 hours with maintenance of systemic circulation but reduced somatic and organ growth.

Introduction: Artificial placenta therapy (APT) is an experimental life support system to improve outcomes for extremely preterm infants (EPI) less than 1,000g by obviating the need for pulmonary gas exchange. There are presently no long-term survival data for EPI supported with APT. To address this, we aimed to maintain 95d-GA (GA; term-150d) sheep fetuses for up to 2weeks using our APT system. Methods: Pregnant ewes (n = 6) carrying singleton fetuses underwent surgical delivery at 95d GA. Fetuses were adapted to APT and maintained for up to 2weeks with constant monitoring of key physiological parameters and extensive time-course blood and urine sampling, and ultrasound assessments. Six age-matched in-utero fetuses served as controls. Data were tested for group differences with ANOVA. Results: Six APT Group fetuses (100%) were adapted to APT successfully. The mean BW at the initiation of APT was 656 ± 42g. Mean survival was 250 ± 72h (Max 336h) with systemic circulation and key physiological parameters maintained mostly within normal ranges. APT fetuses had active movements and urine output constantly exceeded infusion volume over the experiment. At delivery, there were no differences in BW (with edema in three APT group animals), brain weight, or femur length between APT and in-utero Control animals. Organ weights and humerus lengths were significantly reduced in the APT group (p < 0.05). Albumin, IGF-1, and phosphorus were significantly decreased in the APT group (p < 0.05). No cases of positive blood culture were detected. Conclusion: We report the longest use of APT to maintain extremely preterm fetuses to date. Fetal systemic circulation was maintained without infection, but growth was abnormal. This achievement suggests a need to focus not only on cardiovascular stability and health but also on the optimization of fetal growth and organ development. This new challenge will need to be overcome prior to the clinical translation of this technology.

Stoichiometric model of a fully closed bioregenerative life support system for autonomous long-duration space missions

Bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) are vital for long-duration and remote space missions to increase mission sustainability. These systems break down human waste materials into nutrients and CO2 for plants and other edible organisms, which in turn provide food, fresh water, and oxygen for astronauts. The central idea is to create a materially closed loop, which can significantly reduce mission mass and volume by cutting down or even eliminating disposable waste. In most BLSS studies only a fraction of the resources, such as food, are provided by the system itself, with the rest taken on board at departure or provided through resupply missions. However, for autonomous long-duration space missions without any possibility of resupply, a BLSS that generates all resources with minimal or no material loss, is essential. The goal of this study is to develop a stoichiometric model of a conceptually fully closed BLSS that provides all the metabolic needs of the crew and organisms. The MELiSSA concept of the European Space Agency is used as reference system, consisting of five interconnected compartments, each inhabited by different types of organisms. A detailed review of publicly available MELiSSA literature from 1989 to 2022 revealed that no existing stoichiometric model met the study’s requirements. Therefore, a new stoichiometric model was developed to describe the cycling of the elements C, H, O, and N through all five MELiSSA compartments and one auxiliary compartment. A compact set of chemical equations with fixed coefficients was established for this purpose. A spreadsheet model simulates the flow of all relevant compounds for a crew of six. By balancing the dimensions of the different compartments, a high degree of closure is attained at steady state, with 12 out of 14 compounds exhibiting zero loss, and oxygen and CO2 displaying only minor losses between iterations. This is the first stoichiometric model of a MELiSSA-inspired BLSS that describes a continuous provision of 100% of the food and oxygen needs of the crew. The stoichiometry serves as the foundation of an agent-based model of the MELiSSA loop, as part of the Evolving Asteroid Starships (E|A|S) research project.

Getting to the heart of anatomical diversity and phenotypic plasticity: fish hearts are an optimal organ model in need of greater mechanistic study.

Natural selection has produced many vertebrate 'solutions' for the cardiac life-support system, especially among the approximately 30,000 species of fishes. For example, across species, fish have the greatest range for central arterial blood pressure and relative ventricular mass of any vertebrate group. This enormous cardiac diversity is excellent ground material for mechanistic explorations. Added to this species diversity is the emerging field of population-specific diversity, which is revealing that cardiac design and function can be tailored to a fish population's local environmental conditions. Such information is important to conservation biologists and ecologists, as well as physiologists. Furthermore, the cardiac structure and function of an individual adult fish are extremely pliable (through phenotypic plasticity), which is typically beneficial to the heart's function when environmental conditions are variable. Consequently, exploring factors that trigger cardiac remodelling with acclimation to new environments represents a marvellous opportunity for performing mechanistic studies that minimize the genetic differences that accompany cross-species comparisons. What makes the heart an especially good system for the investigation of phenotypic plasticity and species diversity is that its function can be readily evaluated at the organ level using established methodologies, unlike most other organ systems. Although the fish heart has many merits as an organ-level model to provide a mechanistic understanding of phenotypic plasticity and species diversity, bringing this potential to fruition will require productive research collaborations among physiologists, geneticists, developmental biologists and ecologists.

A Biomorphic Approach to Designing Special-Purpose Vehicles for Arctic Conditions.

The paper explores the potential of the biomorphic approach to context-based design with a focus on special-purpose mobility in the Arctic. The study seeks to contribute to the analytical and conceptual basis for developing the transport component of the Arctic life-support system, i.e., a set of objects and technologies, and knowledge and skills for handling them, allowing a person to survive and comfortably exist in severe environmental conditions. The central argument is that the system should incorporate structural components that possess not only technical but also artistic and emotional characteristics that align with the geographic (environmental and climatic), socio-cultural, and psychological peculiarities of use. This can be achieved by drawing inspiration from local nature. We probe the visual image of "soft military presence" using two case studies in different parts of the Russian Arctic: the Yamal and Chukchi peninsulas.

Analytical Model for Sparing Policy Analysis and Optimization for Space Habitat Operations

The inclusion of operational sparing policies in early system definition can ensure that spares’ allocations can optimally meet desired system reliabilities consistent with the planned maintenance of a crewed vehicle. This approach is critical for long-duration crewed missions where mass allocations are constrained and lack of safe abort contingencies limit options in the event of significant system degradation, especially in the environmental control and life support systems. This paper presents an analytical model for analyzing and optimizing sparing policies as part of an overall evaluation of the probability of sufficiency for a system configuration. The repair transition parameters are varied to change the state visitation probabilities that drive a change in the probability of sufficiency observed for a given mass allocation. These parameters are optimized using a particle swarm optimizer to identify the preferred strategy for a desired allocation mass.

Continuous cultivation of microalgae yields high nutrient recovery from nitrified urine with limited supplementation

Microalgae can play a key role in the bioeconomy, particularly in combination with the valorisation of waste streams as cultivation media. Urine is an example of a widely available nutrient-rich waste stream, and alkaline stabilization and subsequent full nitrification in a bioreactor yields a stable nitrate-rich solution. In this study, such nitrified urine served as a culture medium for the edible microalga Limnospira indica. In batch cultivation, nitrified urine without additional supplements yielded a lower biomass concentration, nutrient uptake and protein content compared to modified Zarrouk medium, as standard medium. To enhance the nitrogen uptake efficiency and biomass production, nitrified urine was supplemented with potentially limiting elements. Limited amounts of phosphorus (36 mg L−1), magnesium (7.9 mg L−1), calcium (12.2 mg L−1), iron (2.0 mg L−1) and EDTA (88.5 mg Na2-EDTA.2H2O L−1) rendered the nitrified urine matrix as effective as modified Zarrouk medium in terms of biomass production (OD750 of 1.2), nutrient uptake (130 mg N L−1) and protein yield (47%) in batch culture. Urine precipitates formed by alkalinisation could in principle supply enough phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, requiring only external addition of iron, EDTA and inorganic carbon. Subsequently, the suitability of supplemented nitrified urine as a culture medium was confirmed in continuous Limnospira cultivation in a CSTR photobioreactor. This qualifies nitrified urine as a valuable and sustainable microalgae growth medium, thereby creating novel nutrient loops on Earth and in Space, i.e., in regenerative life support systems for human deep-space missions.

Approaches to nitrogen fixation and recycling in closed life-support systems

N2 fixation is essential to the sustainability and operation of nitrogen systems but is energetically expensive. We developed a model and used sensitivity analysis to identify the impact of aerobic and anaerobic waste digestion, crop harvest index, rates of recovery of recalcitrant N, and the rate of N2 fixation in a system combining nitrogen fixation and recycling. The model indicates that the rate of N2 fixation, loss from reactors, fertilization efficiency, and crop harvest index have the largest impact on maintaining bioavailable N. N recoveries from aerobic and anaerobic digestion, as well as direct-to-soil fertilization, are not well characterized, but the case studies using this model indicate that their efficiencies are critical to N recovery. The findings of this model and its presented case studies can be used as a guide in the design of closed-loop habitats both on Earth and in space. These results reveal a clear need for continued research in the areas of N-efficient digestion, fertilization, and fixation.

Hierarchical Reliability Modelling and Analysis of Life Support System of Fighter Aircraft

The paper proposes a hierarchical reliability modelling and assessment approach for a life support system (LSS) that provides oxygen to the pilot and is employed in a combat aircraft. The system has the primary function of generating oxygen onboard, and it has a backup gaseous oxygen tank as redundancy. An emergency oxygen bottle is also part of the ejection seat for emergency use. Both backup oxygen and emergency oxygen have a fixed capacity and a fixed duration of oxygen supply. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the reliability of the LSS to ensure its safety and effectiveness of this LSS during a mission by the combat aircraft. The proposed reliability model of LSS is developed as a two-level hierarchical model, that captures the inherent randomness in the operation of the system. At the lowest level of the hierarchy, Markov chains are used to model the events that may lead to the failure of the LSS. The events include the failure of individual components, the depletion of backup oxygen, and the depletion of emergency oxygen. The Markov chains consider the interactions between individual components and events during the mission profile. At the top level of the hierarchy, a fault tree is used to model the interactions between various events during the mission profile. The fault tree considers the interactions between individual events and the effects of redundancy on the reliability of the LSS. The results of the Markov chains at the lower level are exported to the higher level modelled via fault tree to find the overall system reliability. The reliability model is further extended to incorporate the deterministic nature of the LSS due to the fixed capacity of the backup tank and emergency bottle. The work addresses the modelling of six different scenarios of LSS operations. The modelling of these scenarios is achieved using Semi-Markov Processes (SMP), which allow the state holding time to be a general distribution.

Life support systems and aquatic communities in public aquariums

The Pangandaran Integrated Aquarium and Marine Research Institute (PIAMARI) was developed in Pangandaran, and is equipped with public aquarium facilities. The Main Aquarium is an oceanarium in the form of a box, with a volume of 1.238 million liters, and accommodates various marine biota. This paper aims to provide an overview of the life support system used and the aquatic communities in the Main Aquarium. An inventory of principal components and equipment, the composition of biota, plankton, and ectoparasites was conducted in the oceanarium. The Main Aquarium is supported by filtration using a sand filter, protein skimmer, and an ozone generator. Water quality is maintained using the filtration combined with partial water changes. There are nine species of fish, including sharks and rays, and two species of turtles that are kept in the oceanarium, where most of the collections are omnivores, with IUCN LC conservation status and the rest NT to CR. Seven plankton genera were identified in the oceanarium (H’:1.78 and E: 0.90). There was Cryptocaryon ectoparasite infestation on the gills and skin of Trachinotus blochii with open lesions. Fish collections show different behavior and consume the fresh and artificial feed. Apart from being an edu-tourism facility, the oceanarium can act as a place for living and ex-situ culture for endangered marine biota.

Simulation modeling of the counterfeit threat and countermeasures in ICT manufacturing supply chains

There has been great concern about building resilient supply chains to expedite the supply chain’s recovery after a crisis or disruption. Few attempts, however, were made to study the resiliency of a supply chain after disruptions caused by counterfeit parts, especially in critical domains like information and communication that are embedded in almost every aspect of our daily lives and critical life-supporting systems. Counterfeits will penetrate a supply chain at one of the suppliers’ or manufacturers’ points. Hence, rigorous countermeasures should be taken at these stages. The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) manufacturing supply chain that is vulnerable to the counterfeit threat. To achieve this, a hybrid simulation model is developed to measure the effectiveness of specific, representative countermeasures that have been introduced. The performance measures considered include the system’s service levels, delivery time, and the proportion of good products (products free of counterfeit parts). The findings of the study indicate that the countermeasures have a positive impact on the supply chain’s resiliency. The simulation model can be extended to other structures of supply chain networks, thereby enabling manufacturers to adopt the most effective countermeasures to ensure the resilience of their supply chains.

From urine to food and oxygen: effects of high and low NH4+:NO3- ratio on lettuce cultivated in a gas-tight hydroponic facility.

In situ production of food, water and oxygen is essential for long-duration human space missions. Higher plants represent a key element in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS), where crop cultivation can be based on water and nutrients recovered from waste and wastewater. Human urine exemplifies an important waste stream with potential to provide crops with nitrogen (N) and other nutrients. Dynamic waste composition and treatment processes may result in mineralized fractions with varying ammonium (NH4 +) to nitrate (NO3 -) ratios. In this study, lettuce was cultivated in the unique ESA MELiSSA Plant Characterization Unit, an advanced, gas-tight hydroponic research facility offering controlled environment and continuous monitoring of atmospheric gas composition. To evaluate biological and system effects of nutrient solution NH4 +:NO3 - ratio, two crop tests were run with different NH4 + to total N ratio (NH4 +:N) and elevated concentrations of Na+ and Cl- in line with a urine recycling scenario. Plants cultivated at 0.5 mol·mol-1 NH4 +:N (HiNH4 +) achieved 50% lower shoot biomass compared to those cultivated at 0.1 mol·mol-1 NH4 +:N (LoNH4 +), accompanied by higher shoot dry weight content and lower harvest index. Analyses of projected leaf area over time indicated that the reduced biomass observed at harvest could be attributed to a lower specific growth rate during the close-to-exponential growth phase. The HiNH4 + crop produced 40% less O2 over the full cultivation period. However, normalization of the results indicated a marginal increase in O2 production per time and per projected leaf area for the HiNH4 + crop during the exponential growth phase, in line with a higher shoot chlorophyll content. Mineral analysis demonstrated that the biomass content of NH4 + and NO3 - varied in line with the nutrient solution composition. The ratio of consumed NH4 + to consumed N was higher than the NH4 +:N ratio of the nutrient solution for both crop tests, resulting in decreasing NH4 +:N ratios in the nutrient solution over time. The results provide enhanced insight for design of waste processes and crop cultivation to optimize overall BLSS efficiency and hold valuable potential for improved resource utilization also in terrestrial food production systems.

Biosphere Defenders Leveraging the Human Right to Healthy Environment for Transformative Change

Earth’s life support systems depend on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. Without radical transformations, staying within safe planetary boundaries becomes impossible. While the inequalities between Global North and Global South are increasingly acknowledged, the agency and rights of people often placed in the category of “vulnerable” -women, youth, indigenous peoples and local communities- are not sufficiently recognized. This article discusses the role of biosphere defenders in the context of the 2022–2030 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the right to a healthy environment. Through dissecting judicial cases, the article investigates promising examples of ways in which biosphere defenders use the law to trigger societal change. This article finds that biosphere defenders contribute to unleashing values of responsibility by various actors, translating biocultural values of ecosystems into evidence in judicial processes impacting bureaucratic and financial systems. Supporting the work of biosphere defenders and placing the right to a sustainable environment at the heart of biodiversity and human rights law will be vital in confronting head-on the planetary crises.

Agriculture and climate change driving worldwide insect declines

Insects are a key part of the earth’s life support system, making reports of steep declines a great concern. Our study, one of the largest assessments of insect biodiversity to date, identifies climate change and intensive agriculture as key drivers of declines. We show that declines are most profound when these drivers are combined, but that preserving natural habitat can protect against loss.