The International Quiet Ocean Experiment has published its 14th newsletter, reporting on remarkable progress on the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds and other matters. The genesis of the IQOE was in Jesse’s essay, Broadening the scope of global change to include illumination and noise.
News
Human Progress newsletter on Iddo’s evidence of dematerialization
Marian Tupy publishes America’s Commodity Appetite: Evidence of Dematerialization: America’s economy has grown better at extracting more value from less stuff, an accurate article about Iddo’s recent paper.
DNA of New York City’s East River
Mark Y. Stoeckle and Jesse H. Ausubel
Animals shed environmental DNA (eDNA) into the environment. Sources include cells sloughed from body surfaces, body wastes, and tissue remnants following predation, death, or injury. eDNA is a bit like dandruff. DNA of course consists of long strands of four chemical compounds: cytosine (C), adenine (A), guanine (G), and thymine (T). Researchers use strands of about 100 “letters” from variable parts of the genome, like a long telephone number, to identify the species of animal from which the DNA comes. Acidity, heat, and light can speed eDNA degradation, and bacteria eat eDNA. A rule of thumb is that eDNA sufficient for reliable identification lasts about 24 hours and thus gives a good current portrait of life in a water body.
As seen in these 5 slides, the PHE’s Mark Stoeckle regularly collects a half liter of water from the East River adjacent to the Rockefeller campus (slide 1) with a bucket on a string, filters the water, extracts the DNA from the sediment on the filter using special chemicals called primers to grab only the DNA that came from vertebrates, sequences these pieces of eDNA, and matches the sequences against genetic libraries. The number of copies for each species corresponds well to the recent abundance of that animal in the East River.
Our vertebrate eDNA studies show that that the East River abounds in fishes (slide 2), with tautog most common but also herring, bass, and eel. The presence of water from sewage treatment plants and rains that wash city streets also brings DNA of urban wildlife into the East River. A cup of water from the East River reports the abundance of rats, pigeons, dogs, and cats (slide 3). It also reports the presence in the River or nearby of additional wildlife ranging from deer and beaver to seal and dolphin (slide 4). Finally, the eDNA in the East River neatly tracks the diet of humans of New York (slide 5). The fractions of aquatic eDNA of commonly consumed meats such as chicken and cow match nicely with national data on meat consumption. An exception is sea bass (branzino), widely served in New York City restaurants and thus common in East River water samples but a tiny proportion of the national fish diet.
eDNA revolutionizes the ability for people to know, affordably, what animals live in or use the waters near them. eDNA will be a routine component of fish stock assessment, detection of invasive species, and monitoring effects of coastal storms and climate change. Genomics enables a cup of water to tell the natural history of the East River.
Iddo pens summary of American dematerialization
In his Honest Broker blog, Roger Pielke, Jr., kindly gives space for Iddo Wernick’s essay “Counting Materials: How the use of 100 materials has changed in the United States since 1970.“
Very small nuclear power applications
In November 2013 Jesse Ausubel chaired a working group in an National Academy of Sciences Keck meeting on New & Practical Applications of Nuclear Technologies. We post the 10-slide report from the Working Group, which appears timely in 2025.
Coverage of Iddo’s USA Dematerialization paper
MSN.com covers The material revolution: How USA’s commodity appetite evolved from 1900 to present as does RealClear Science in Since 1970, Demand for These Eight Materials Has Grown Fastest.
PHE’s work on Dematerialization
Iddo Wernick’s new paper “Is America dematerializing? Trends and tradeoffs in historic demand for one hundred commodities in the United States,” published in the Elsevier journal Resources Policy, available at https://bit.ly/4ahubvh, evokes the more than three decades of work on materials flows by members of our group, including:
JH Ausubel. The Environmental Trinity – Decarbonization, Dematerialization, Land-Sparing, also posted at The Honest Broker, 20 June 2024.
JH Ausubel. Nature Rebounds. The Breakthrough Journal 5, 2015 This article was originally delivered as a Long Now Foundation Seminar, San Francisco, 13 January 2015 and appeared under the title “The Return of Nature: How Technology Liberates the Environment” in the Journal of the Breakthrough Institute Spring 2015.
JH Ausubel, IK Wernick. The Shrinking Footprint of American Meat. The Breakthrough Journal 2017.
JH Ausubel, PE Waggoner. Dematerialization: variety, caution, and persistence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105 (35): 12774–12779, 2008 10.1073/pnas.0806099105 D.
JH Ausubel, S Rao. Is Richer Greener?, 2 December 2008 presentation.
IK Wernick, R Herman, S Govind, JH Ausubel. Materialization and Dematerialization: Measures and Trends. Pp. 135-156 in Technological Trajectories and the Human Environment, JH Ausubel and HD Langford, (eds.). National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1997
IK Wernick. Consuming materials: the American way. Pp. 111–122 in Technological Forecasting and Social Change vol. 53, 1996.
IK Wernick, JH Ausubel. National Materials Flows and the Environment. Pp. 463–492 in Annual Review of Energy and the Environment vol. 20, 1995 Republished in Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition, P. Schulze (ed.), National Academy, Washington, D.C., 1999, pp. 157-174.
IK Wernick. Dematerialization and secondary materials recovery in the U.S.. Journal of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society 46 (4): 39–42, 1994.
R Herman, SA Ardekani, JH Ausubel. Dematerialization. Pp 50-69 in J.H. Ausubel and H.E. Sladovich, eds., Technology and Environment, National Academy, Washington DC 1989. Also in Technological Forecasting and Social Change 37(4):333-348, 1990.
New paper on eDNA as way to define marine regions
PLOS One publishes our new paper demonstrating the use of eDNA to define marine biogeography. This graphic summarizes key findings of the paper. The paper builds on our earlier work proving that loose DNA in seawater reveals both diversity AND abundance of marine life, in particular, fishes. Full title and abstract are below.
A potential tool for marine biogeography: eDNA-dominant fish species differ among coastal habitats and by season concordant with gear-based assessments Mark Y. Stoeckle , Jesse H. Ausubel, Greg Hinks, Stacy M. VanMorter Published: November 11, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313170
Abstract Effective ocean management asks for up-to-date knowledge of marine biogeography. Here we compare eDNA and gear-based assessments of marine fish populations using an approach that focuses on the commonest species. The protocol takes advantage of the “hollow curve” of species abundance distributions, with a minority of species comprising the great majority of individuals or biomass. We analyzed new and published teleost eDNA metabarcoding surveys from three neighboring northwest Atlantic coastal locations representing sandy, rocky, or estuary habitat. Fish eDNA followed a hollow curve species abundance distribution at each location—the 10 commonest taxa accounted for more than 90% of eDNA copies. Top ten taxa were designated eDNA-dominant species (eDDS) and categorized as habitat-associated (top 10 in one study) or as shared. eDDS by category were similarly abundant in concurrent bottom trawl and seine surveys. eDDS habitat category profiles correctly classified most (94%-100%) individual eDNA and capture measurements within surveys and recognized estuarine sites in other regional eDNA and seine studies. Using a category metric like that for habitats, eDDS demonstrated strong seasonal turnover concordant with trawl catch weights. eDNA seasonal profiles applied to historical trawl and seine records highlighted known long-term trends in mid-Atlantic fish populations. This study provides evidence that eDNA-abundant fish species differ among coastal habitats and by season consistent with gear-based assessments. Grouping abundant species by category facilitated comparisons among habitats and integration with established surveys. eDNA metabarcoding of dominant fish species potentially offers a useful tool for marine biogeography and ocean monitoring.
2024 St Andrews Prize for Environment to river restoration project in India
The Kham River Restoration Mission, winner of the 26th St Andrews Prize for the Environment, was awarded the $100,000 prize for work to restore a seasonal river in India. Also recognized were the excellent runners up, Northwoods for efforts to re-wild mid-sized land-holdings (up to 1000 acres) in Scotland and Washbox for its technology to reduce water pollution on construction sites. Jesse Ausubel serves on the Prize jury.
Short video by Jesse about Lounsbery Prize & France
On 15 October, on the occasion of the presentation of the French Academy of Sciences awards including the 2024 Richard Lounsbery Prize to Dr. Jean-Léon Maître (Institut Curie Paris), Jesse Ausubel, Chair of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, looked back on the history of scientific relations between the United States and France and the need to encourage and support young researchers. The 3-minute video is here.
Le 15 octobre dernier, à l’occasion de la remise des prix de l’Académie des sciences et du Prix Richard Lounsbery 2024, Jesse Ausubel, Chairman de la Fondation Richard Lounsbery, est revenu sur l’histoire des relations scientifiques entre les Etats-Unis et la France et la nécessité d’encourager et soutenir les jeunes chercheurs.