Planetary Change Research Articles

Sand Flies: A Dangerous Insect on a Changing Planet

Have you ever heard of sand flies? They are tiny but mysterious creatures, active at night, with fuzzy bodies with a mission of spreading trouble! They can transmit parasites that can cause serious illnesses for humans and other animals. Global changes are adding fuel to the fire. Increasing temperatures and other human-made changes to the environment are helping sand flies to spread and change their behavior, making this situation even more problematic and difficult to combat. What is the plan? Teamwork! We need cool collaborations and smart strategies to fight back. Initiatives like the CLIMOS project are preparing to take on the challenge of tackling sand flies and the diseases they transmit. But for this strategy to work, we need everyone to participate in this fight. Are you ready to help build a healthier world?

Stable, multigenerational transmission of the bean seed microbiome despite abiotic stress.

Microbiota that originate in the seed can have consequences for the education of the plant immune system, competitive exclusion of pathogens from the host tissue, and host access to critical nutrients. Our research objective was to investigate the consequences of the environmental conditions of the parent plant for bacterial seed microbiome assembly and transmission across plant generations. Using a fully factorial, three-generational experimental design, we investigated endophytic seed bacterial communities of common bean lines (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) grown in the growth chamber and exposed to either control conditions, drought, or excess nutrients at each generation. We applied 16S rRNA microbiome profiling to the seed endophytes and measured plant health outcomes. We discovered stable transmission of 22 bacterial members, regardless of the parental plant condition. This study shows the maintenance of bacterial members of the plant microbiome across generations, even under environmental stress. Overall, this work provides insights into the ability of plants to safeguard microbiome members, which has implications for crop microbiome management in the face of climate change.IMPORTANCESeed microbiomes initiate plant microbiome assembly and thus have critical implications for the healthy development and performance of crops. However, the consequences of environmental conditions of the parent plant for seed microbiome assembly and transmission are unknown, but this is critical information, given the intensifying stressors that crops face as the climate crisis accelerates. This study provides insights into the maintenance of plant microbiomes across generations, with implications for durable plant microbiome maintenance in agriculture on the changing planet.

A Snakemake Toolkit for the Batch Assembly, Annotationand Phylogenetic Analysis of Mitochondrial Genomes and Ribosomal Genes From Genome Skims of Museum Collections.

Low coverage 'genome-skims' are often used to assemble organelle genomes and ribosomal gene sequences for cost-effective phylogenetic and barcoding studies. Natural history collections hold invaluable biological information, yet poor preservation resulting in degraded DNA often hinders polymerase chain reaction-based analyses. However, it is possible to generate libraries and sequence the short fragments typical of degraded DNA to generate genome-skims from museum collections. Here we introduce a snakemake toolkit comprised of three pipelines skim2mito, skim2rrna and gene2phylo, designed to unlock the genomic potential of historical museum specimens using genome skimming. Specifically, skim2mito and skim2rrna perform the batch assembly, annotation and phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial genomes and nuclear ribosomal genes, respectively, from low-coverage genome skims. The third pipeline gene2phylo takes a set of gene alignments and performs phylogenetic analysis of individual genes, partitioned analysis of concatenated alignments and a phylogenetic analysis based on gene trees. We benchmark our pipelines with simulated data, followed by testing with a novel genome skimming dataset from both recent and historical solariellid gastropod samples. We show that the toolkit can recover mitochondrial and ribosomal genes from poorly preserved museum specimens of the gastropod family Solariellidae, and the phylogenetic analysis is consistent with our current understanding of taxonomic relationships. The generation of bioinformatic pipelines that facilitate processing large quantities of sequence data from the vast repository of specimens held in natural history museum collections will greatly aid species discovery and exploration of biodiversity over time, ultimately aiding conservation efforts in the face of a changing planet.

Diverse glacial ventilation in deep Pacific: An integrated record from Mariana Trench and Magellan Seamounts over the last 1.2 Myr [Global and Planetary Change, volume 230, November 2023, 104279]: Comment

Yi (2023) proposed a new deep Western Pacific ventilation hypothesis using beryllium (10Be/9Be) and 230Thex dates, magnetostratigraphy, and element-based tuning data from two box cores and one gravity core. However, given the low sedimentation rates of these cores and uncertain stratigraphy, we suggest that some interpretations require further clarifications and corrections. The low sedimentation rates cast doubt on the validity of the millennial-scale western Pacific bottom-water oxygenation variability. The lack of unsupported explanations about the newly found periodicity in the Mariana Trench and Magellan Seamounts records raises concern about the confidence of the age models. The phasing between the North Atlantic deep water and Antarctic bottom water formation and atmospheric pCO2 in the deep Western Pacific setting is unclear.

Action research for impact in addressing the grand challenges

The growing interest in impact-driven research invites organization and strategy scholars to not merely study, but actively help address grand challenges. This essay explores how action research might offer a robust methodology to impact and study grand challenges by developing theory through action. Action research is introduced, and its contributions, strengths, and limitations are discussed in view of the current conversation about impact-driven scholarly work. Some practical guidance is given to bring action research within reach as a viable approach. The essay concludes with an exploration of how a fuller embrace of action research might help transform academic practice in the interest of urgent planetary change.

Unprecedented planetary change in a human lifetime?

Unprecedented planetary change in a human lifetime?

Rethinking the exercise of sovereignty in the Anthropocene: From extraction to environmental protection in Arctic Svalbard

This paper explores the implications of the Anthropocene and its associated planetary awareness on the concept and exercise of sovereignty, particularly through the lens of the Svalbard Treaty. The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard is not only a space undergoing rapid environmental change today, but its treaty-based governance arrangements are based on an early-twentieth century spatial imaginary of fishery, coal, and resource extraction. By examining Norway's governance shift from resource extraction to environmental stewardship on Svalbard, this paper reflects on transformations of the practice of sovereignty in response to global environmental challenges. Through interviews with local stakeholders, the research highlights the contentious nature of these shifts, revealing how increased environmental regulations, while necessary, may paradoxically entrench existing power structures and complicate the presence of non-Norwegian entities. This case study of the Svalbard Treaty serves as a normative microcosm for broader issues of sovereignty, treaty obligations, and international governance as they may evolve due to planetary change, pointing to the urgent need to rethink these evolving dynamics. The paper underscores the pressing and complex challenges facing the international system in the Anthropocene, suggesting that while Svalbard's geopolitical stability may be maintained and Norwegian sovereignty remains uncontested, the instability of global environmental realities is already leading to changes to the ways in which sovereignty is exercised in the present.

A Global Era of Disposability: The Anthropocene, The Apotheosis of Waste

AbstractThis Symposium explores how under‐examined relations of disposability underpin socio‐ecological transformation in the Anthropocene. The Symposium makes four inventions into ongoing debates at the intersection of discard studies and planetary change. First, it illuminates how new frontiers of accumulation work to revalue discards through shifting waste/value dialectics. Second, it encourages analysis of discards not as incidental of systems and structures but as constitutive, material, processes of maintaining power. Third, it attends closely to waste and its labours in order to illuminate how accumulation is underwritten by embodied precarity. Fourth, it constructively draws out how attention to the politics of discards suggests an ethics of care that is centred on interdependence, accountability, and kinship. Together, the articles demonstrate how an engaged, global study of waste and disposability can not only render the differentiated violences of the current conjuncture visible, but also offer insight into how socio‐material relationships may be revalued.

What proteomics has taught us about honey bee (Apis mellifera) health and disease.

The Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, is currently navigating a gauntlet of environmental pressures, including the persistent threat of parasites, pathogens, and climate change - all of which compromise the vitality of honey bee colonies. The repercussions of their declining health extend beyond the immediate concerns of apiarists, potentially imposing economic burdens on society through diminished agricultural productivity. Hence, there is an imperative to devise innovative monitoring techniques for assessing the health of honey bee populations. Proteomics, recognized for its proficiency in biomarker identification and protein-protein interactions, is poised to play a pivotal role in this regard. It offers a promising avenue for monitoring and enhancing the resilience of honey bee colonies, thereby contributing to the stability of global food supplies. This review delves into the recent proteomic studies of A. mellifera, highlighting specific proteins of interest and envisioning the potential of proteomics to improve sustainable beekeeping practices amidst the challenges of a changing planet.

Editorial preface to special issue: Cenozoic climate change in Asia in honour of Prof. Zhengtang Guo

The Asian monsoon has progressively become a megamonsoon system since the early Cenozoic. To improve our understanding of the complex nature of the Asian monsoon system, involving strong interactions between atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial systems across different timescales, we present this special issue, entitled Cenozoic climate change in Asia. The special issue is dedicated to Prof. Zhengtang Guo in honour of his distinguished contributions as Editor-in-Chief of Global and Planetary Change to our understanding of the long-term evolution of the Asian monsoon system. The special issue consists of nineteen papers, grouped into three categories, that address Cenozoic climate change, mainly in Asia. The first category focuses on the plate tectonic-scale and considers how changes in palaeogeography and palaeotopography have shaped climate evolution. The second category addresses orbital- to suborbital-scale climate change and, in particular, explores the links between low-latitude insolation, high-latitude ice sheets and the Asian climate. The third category addresses millennial- to decadal-scale climate changes. In addition, past human-environment interactions are also discussed. These studies provide important insights into our understanding and prediction of both natural variability and human-induced climate changes in Asia and their linkages with global climate within the Earth System.

Endosymbioses Have Shaped the Evolution of Biological Diversity and Complexity Time and Time Again.

Life on Earth comprises prokaryotes and a broad assemblage of endosymbioses. The pages of Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution have provided an essential window into how these endosymbiotic interactions have evolved and shaped biological diversity. Here, we provide a current perspective on this knowledge by drawing on decades of revelatory research published in Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution, and insights from the field at large. The accumulated work illustrates how endosymbioses provide hosts with novel phenotypes that allow them to transition between adaptive landscapes to access environmental resources. Such endosymbiotic relationships have shaped and reshaped life on Earth. The early serial establishment of mitochondria and chloroplasts through endosymbioses permitted massive upscaling of cellular energetics, multicellularity, and terrestrial planetary greening. These endosymbioses are also the foundation upon which all later ones are built, including everything from land-plant endosymbioses with fungi and bacteria to nutritional endosymbioses found in invertebrate animals. Common evolutionary mechanisms have shaped this broad range of interactions. Endosymbionts generally experience adaptive and stochastic genome streamlining, the extent of which depends on several key factors (e.g. mode of transmission). Hosts, in contrast, adapt complex mechanisms of resource exchange, cellular integration and regulation, and genetic support mechanisms to prop up degraded symbionts. However, there are significant differences between endosymbiotic interactions not only in how partners have evolved with each other but also in the scope of their influence on biological diversity. These differences are important considerations for predicting how endosymbioses will persist and adapt to a changing planet.

EXPLORING THE RELEVANCE OF SRI AUROBINDOS INTEGRAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY IN CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

In todays educational landscape, educators grapple with the challenge of nurturing students for holistic development and lifelong learning amidst a rapidly evolving world. The Integral Education Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo provides significant insights in line with contemporary teaching methods. Sri Aurobindos philosophy, which emphasises the harmonious development of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements, promotes education to help people realise their full potential in order to promote planetary change, social harmony, and personal fulfilment. The current movement towards student-centred learning approaches is in line with core ideas including experiential learning, holistic growth, individualised teaching, multidisciplinary integration, ethical cultivation, and spiritual improvement. This qualitative study examines how Integral Education might be used in contemporary educational settings by examining primary and secondary sources. Results highlight Integral Educations connection with modern educational techniques and clarify its guiding principles.The study also highlights the advantages, difficulties, and real-world applications of incorporating integral education into a range of educational contexts. The implementation of Integral Education presents a number of problems, including resource allocation, curriculum revision, assessment techniques, teacher preparation, cultural sensitivity, socio-political context, and opposition to change, despite its promise of holistic growth and well-being. To overcome these obstacles, careful preparation, teamwork, and on-going assistance are needed. To sum up, Sri Aurobindos Integral Education Philosophy is a revolutionary approach to learning that gives insightful guidance for developing well-rounded people who can successfully navigate a complex and interrelated world in a variety of educational settings.

Preventing extinction in an age of species migration and planetary change

AbstractInternational and national conservation policies almost exclusively focus on conserving species in their historic native ranges, thus excluding species that have been introduced by people and some of those that have extended their ranges on their own accord. Given that many of such migrants are threatened in their native ranges, conservation goals that explicitly exclude these populations may overlook opportunities to prevent extinctions and respond dynamically to rapidly changing environmental and climatic conditions. Focusing on terrestrial mammals, we quantified the number of threatened mammals that have established new populations through assisted migration (i.e., introduction). We devised 4 alternative scenarios for the inclusion of assisted‐migrant populations in mainstream conservation policy with the aim of preventing global species extinctions. We then used spatial prioritization algorithms to simulate how these scenarios could change global spatial conservation priorities. We found that 22% (70 species out of 265) of all identified assisted‐migrant mammals were threatened in their native ranges, mirroring the 25% of all mammals that are threatened. Reassessing global threat statuses by combining native and migrant ranges reduced the threat status of 23 species (∼33% of threatened assisted migrants). Thus, including migrant populations in threat assessments provides a more accurate assessment of actual global extinction risk among species. Spatial prioritization simulations showed that reimagining the role of assisted‐migrant populations in preventing species extinction could increase the importance of overlooked landscapes, particularly in central Australia, Europe, and the southwestern United States. Our results indicated that these various and nonexhaustive ways to consider assisted‐migrant populations, with due consideration of potential conservation conflicts with resident taxa, may provide unprecedented opportunities to prevent species extinctions.

Is there a universal limit to technological development? Evidences from astrobiology

Considering the vastness of time and space, if one civilization — ours — has been able to advance technologically to the point of leaving its own planet, why technosignatures from other advanced extraterrestrial civilizations have never been identified? In this paper, I offer an explanation for that, developing an insight originally presented by Webb and others and using insights from astrobiology, sustainability and archaeology. I argue that there exists a universal limit to technological development (ULTD), determined by decreasing technological returns on societal complexity, increasing maintenance costs of existing technology, the eventual untestability of scientific theories due to the high costs involved and the unattainable energy levels needed to test them and civilization-damaging catastrophes. I also argue, based on the principle of mediocrity, that the ULTD is not much above our current level of technological development. Technology, therefore, will not be able to provide another home to humankind. Such a possibility should be taken into consideration during the decision-making process concerning both the allocation of resources to research or mitigation of technology-induced planetary changes and the definition of goals to space exploration.

While clearing the forests: The social-ecological memory of trees in the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene concept raises awareness of human-induced planetary changes but is criticized for being 'too global'. We examined the social-ecological memory that emerges from people-tree relationships in South American temperate territories, Chile. We integrated dendrochronology (analysis of tree rings of 35 memorial trees; 17 species) with dendrography (participant observation complemented with semi-structured and go-along interviews with 14 interviewees; six women, eight men). We found that assemblages of people-tree relationships reflect marked historical changes in the territory, associated with the historical clearing of forests, which may be imprinted in both tree growth rings and in the social meanings and practices associated with memorial trees. In devastated territories, practices of tree care emphasize interconnectedness, multispecies collaborations, and the blurring of boundaries between humans and other-than-humans. We discuss some of the interdisciplinary and relational insights of our study, which may prove valuable for future research, political agendas, and educational programs in South America and beyond.

The Dawn of the BioGeoSCAPES Program: Ocean Metabolism and Nutrient Cycles on a Changing Planet

Biogeochemical cycles constitute Earth’s life support system and distinguish our planet from others in this solar system. Microorganisms are the primary drivers of these cycles. Understanding the controls on marine microbial dynamics and how microbes will respond to environmental change is essential for building and assessing model-based forecasts and generating robust projections of climate change impacts on ocean productivity and biogeochemical cycles. An international community effort has been underway to create a global-scale marine microbial biogeochemistry research program to tackle gaps in this understanding. The BioGeoSCAPES: Ocean Metabolism and Nutrient Cycles on a Changing Planet program will identify and quantify how marine microbes adjust to a changing climate and assess the consequences for global biogeochemical cycles. This article summarizes the ongoing efforts to launch BioGeoSCAPES.

Environmental Awareness in the Oriental region of Morocco: A review

Our environment is in the process of being profoundly degraded, following global planetary change. This degradation is caused by the abusive use of natural resources, by an ever-increasing world population, in order to meet needs. Economic and social ever greedier. One of the Millennium Development Goals signed by UN Member States in September 2000 is the preservation of the environment. To increase awareness on the importance of the preservation of the environment and maintaining the longterm exploitation of resources while maximizing social benefits and minimizing environmental impacts, this paper highlights the most important problems faced the natural resources in Morocco with an example of its Oriental region. We also share a description of one of the important efforts that have been made in the context of environment awareness in the Oriental region.

A Multi-Scale Transformer Fusion Deep Clustering Network for Unsupervised Planetary Change Detection

A Multi-Scale Transformer Fusion Deep Clustering Network for Unsupervised Planetary Change Detection

The discourse of the Anthropocene and posthumanism: Indigenous peoples and local communities

Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) are characterised by their special relationships with their traditional lands and the natural world, which are essential to their physical and cultural survival, identity, knowledge, and spirituality. They are custodians of the land; however, often made invisible and voiceless in the face of irreversible destruction caused by human-induced planetary change. This Special Issue (SI) is inspired by the stories, worldviews, knowledge systems, and lived experiences of IPLCs worldwide. Based on the compounded impacts of global climate change and other human-induced crises on IPLCs’ ancestral lands, contributors to this SI recognise that the world has entered the Anthropocene – the epoch of human-induced planetary change. While human activities are considered geologically recent, they have profoundly impacted the planet. The contributors challenge the discourse of the Anthropocene, not only because it takes humanity as the prime reference point in understanding the world but also because of its reproduction of the onto-epistemological foundations of Eurocentric philosophy, which underpins colonialism and racial capitalism. This SI opens up space for historically marginalised IPLCs’ cosmologies, which embody their holistic, spiritually and physically interconnected, interdependent, and reciprocal relationships with land, the natural world, and non-human beings. It expands and pluralises the discourse of the Anthropocene through the concept of posthumanism to recognise alternative knowledge systems that decentre humanity’s dominant position in understanding the world. IPLCs’ onto-epistemologies align with posthuman or more-than-human ways of knowing, being, and doing, which embody their reciprocal relationships with land, non-human beings, and the natural world that are all deemed as living entities with agency. IPLCs’ voices urge us to relearn our ancestral ways of understanding and interacting with the world and reconnect to our holistic relationships with the planet Earth and its beings to ensure the continuity of nature and culture.

Ancient shamanic emotional healing techniques and today’s philosophical counseling

In shamanic thinking, an important idea is that the earth does not belong to us. Earth is just a wonderful and welcoming host for us and other species. Did the sense of ownership dehumanize us, as the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau would observe? Maybe. Lust for wealth, greed, and selfishness, these traits specific only to human people, among all inhabitants of our planet led, over time, to irreversible planetary changes. Earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, and floods: all these disasters seem to be the consequences of human reprehensible acts. Not only the rapid climate changes but also the recent wars and the pandemics have attracted emotional and psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD, a phenomenon that is growing alarmingly worldwide. In these difficulties times I believe the shamanic techniques could work together with philosophical counseling to heal us, opening the way to a peaceful and balanced understanding of our relationship with the Universe and ourselves.