PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Satellite imagery may help protect coastal forests from climate change

2024-11-04
(Press-News.org) Sea-level rise caused by climate change poses a serious and often unpredictable threat to coastal forests, and new tools are needed to help mitigate damage and allocate conservation resources.  

A new study from North Carolina State University and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) details how satellite imagery may help identify forested areas that are being transformed into marshes and open water by sea-level rise, a process known as regime change. Marcelo Ardón, associate professor at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study, said that by predicting how an area is changing, this new modeling tool may help conservationists apply their limited funding in areas where it will be the most effective.

“We know that these coastal ecosystems are changing, and it’s hard to predict where and when the change is going to happen. What we found is that through remote sensing, you can get a trajectory of where an area is going,” Ardón said. “That way you can identify which areas might be better to put funding into; if an area might not need help, or if it is just too far into the regime change to pull it back. That in turn can help allocate those limited conservation dollars where they will make the most difference.”

Initially, researchers set out to determine if satellite imagery could be used to detect regime change in coastal wetlands ahead of time by identifying the kinds of early-warning signals that have been found in other ecosystems. These results proved inconsistent, Ardón said. While the data could sometimes detect those signals, it also returned false positives and negatives.

Instead, researchers were able use the same satellite data tool – a metric called the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index – to identify how vegetation health was changing. The NDVI works by using multiple wavelengths from satellite sensors that scan the earth at different times, collecting data on how much red light plants absorb and how much near-infrared light they reflect. Using these values researchers can estimate the NDVI, which effectively measures the greenness and health of plants in the area. The NDVI of a forest is higher than that of a marsh or open water, so it can be used to detect the changes of these systems. 

Lead author Melinda Martinez, research ecologist with the USGS, first worked on the study as a Ph.D. student at NC State. She said that the study uncovered stark differences in regime changes between areas that were close together.

“In some areas where regime change was happening quickly, the transitions from forest to marsh or even open water happened within the span of five to six years,” Martinez said. “But then in other areas, sometimes places within the same site, it would happen over much longer periods of time. We knew there would be variation, but we didn’t expect that level of difference between areas in such proximity.”

The study, “Detecting trajectories of regime shifts and loss of resilience in coastal wetlands using remote sensing,” is published in Ecosystems. Authors include Melinda Martinez, Marcelo Ardón and Josh Gray. This work was funded by National Science Foundation (DEB1713502) as well as North Carolina Sea Grant/Space Grant Fellowship.

-pitchford-

Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.

“Detecting trajectories of regime shifts and loss of resilience in coastal wetlands using remote sensing”

Authors: Melinda Martinez, Marcelo Ardon, Josh Gray.

Published: 10/31/2024

DOI: 10.1007/s10021-024-00938-5

Abstract: Many freshwater forested wetlands along the southeastern United States coastline are rapidly transitioning from forest to marsh or open water, due to climate change related disturbances. Recent studies have found early warning signals (EWS) of regime shifts in other ecosystems, but it is unclear if these can be detected for coastal wetlands. In this study, we examined the ability to detect EWS of regime shifts in coastal wetlands within the Albemarle Pamlico peninsula (APP), North Carolina, U.S.A. We used the Landsat record (1985-2021) to examine trends of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series for selected areas known to have undergone regime shifts. We found that while 77% of the APP was either stable or revegetating, 22% of the landscape underwent a decrease in NDVI that would indicate a transition from forest to marsh or open water. Of the areas that transitioned, about half (11%) experienced an abrupt decrease in NDVI and 10% experienced a gradual decline. Increasing standard deviation and skewness of time series could serve as EWS of abrupt transitions, but can also provide false negative and positives. Our results suggest that ecosystem transitions from a forest to a marsh or open water can occur both rapidly and slowly, and remote sensing of NDVI time series can help identify EWS for some areas, but not all. Our results allow for prioritization of conservation/restoration of coastlines which will become important in the face of climate change and sea level rise.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The secrets of baseball's magic mud

The secrets of baseballs magic mud
2024-11-04
EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY NOVEMBER 4 AT 3:00 P.M. ET The unique properties of baseball’s famed “magic” mud have never been scientifically quantified — until now. In a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) reveal what makes the magic mud so special. “It spreads like a skin cream and grips like sandpaper,” says Shravan Pradeep, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Douglas J. ...

Toddlers understand concept of possibility

Toddlers understand concept of possibility
2024-11-04
Children too young to know words like “impossible” and “improbable” nonetheless understand how possibility works, finds new work with two- and three-year-olds. The findings, the first to demonstrate that young children distinguish between improbable and impossible events, and learn significantly better after impossible occurrences, is newly published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Even young toddlers already think about the world in terms of possibilities,” said co-author Lisa Feigenson, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Child Development. “Adults do this all the time and here we wanted ...

Small reductions to meat production in wealthier countries may help fight climate change, new analysis concludes

Small reductions to meat production in wealthier countries may help fight climate change, new analysis concludes
2024-11-04
Scientists and environmental activists have consistently called for drastic reductions in meat production as a way to reduce emissions and, in doing so, combat climate change. However, a new analysis concludes that a smaller reduction, borne by wealthier nations, could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide—exceeding the total number of global fossil fuel emissions over the past three years—from the atmosphere.  Small cutbacks in higher-income countries—approximately 13% of total production—would reduce the amount of land needed for cattle grazing, the researchers note, allowing forests to naturally ...

Scientists determine why some patients don’t respond well to wet macular degeneration treatment, show how new experimental drug can bridge gap

Scientists determine why some patients don’t respond well to wet macular degeneration treatment, show how new experimental drug can bridge gap
2024-11-04
**EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL NOV. 4 AT 3:00 P.M. EST** A new study from researchers at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine explains not only why some patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (or “wet” AMD) fail to have vision improvement with treatment, but also how an experimental drug could be used with existing wet AMD treatments to save vision. Wet AMD, one of two kinds of AMD, is a progressive eye condition caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue in ...

Did the world's best-preserved dinosaurs really die in 'Pompeii-type' events?

Did the worlds best-preserved dinosaurs really die in Pompeii-type events?
2024-11-04
Between about 120 million and 130 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs, temperate forests and lakes hosted a lively ecosystem in what is now northeast China. Diverse fossils from that time remained pretty much undisturbed until the 1980s, when villagers started finding exceptionally preserved creatures, which fetched high prices from collectors and museums. This started a fossil gold rush. Both locals and scientists have now dug so much, their work can be seen from space―perhaps the most extensive paleontological excavations anywhere. By the 1990s, it was clear that the so-called Yixian ...

Not the usual suspects: Novel genetic basis of pest resistance to biotech crops

2024-11-04
If left unchecked, insect pests can devastate crops. To minimize damage and reduce the need for insecticide sprays, crops have been genetically engineered to produce bacterial proteins that kill key pests but are not harmful to people or wildlife. However, widespread planting of such transgenic crops has led to rapid adaptation by some pests. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals a novel genetic basis of resistance to transgenic crops in one of the most important crop pests in the United States. Researchers from the University of Arizona Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences used genomics to investigate the ...

Jill Tarter to receive Inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the search for life beyond earth

Jill Tarter to receive Inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the search for life beyond earth
2024-11-04
Jill Tarter to Receive Inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth November 4, 2024, Mountain View, CA – Renowned astronomer, Dr. Jill Tarter, SETI Institute co-founder and pioneering SETI researcher, will be honored with the inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth at the SETI Institute’s 40th Anniversary celebration on November 20, 2024, in Menlo Park, CA. This new award recognizes individuals whose projects or ideas significantly advance humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. The Tarter Award honors contributions ...

Survey finds continued declines in HIV clinician workforce

2024-11-04
November 4, 2024 — The supply of healthcare professionals available to provide HIV care continues to decline, even as the need for HIV care and prevention is expected to increase, reports a survey study in the November/December issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC). The official journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Our study provides new insights into the numbers and characteristics of clinicians who will be available to provide HIV care in the coming years. This information ...

Researchers home in on tumor vulnerabilities to improve odds of treating glioblastoma

Researchers home in on tumor vulnerabilities to improve odds of treating glioblastoma
2024-11-04
A team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has uncovered new targets that could be the key to effectively treating glioblastoma, a lethal type of brain cancer. These targets were identified through a screen for genetic vulnerabilities in patient-derived cancer stem cells that represent the variability found in tumours. Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer in adults. It is also the most challenging to treat due to the resistance of glioblastoma cancer stem cells, from which tumours grow, to therapy. Cancer stem cells that survive after a tumour is treated go on to form new tumours that do not respond to further treatment. “Glioblastoma tumors have ...

Awareness of lung cancer screening remains low

2024-11-04
There is a lung cancer screening test that is saving lives – and yet most people who could be getting the test have never heard of it or never talked about it with a doctor. “We’ve got a screening test that works. It works as well, if not better, than breast and colorectal cancer screening in terms of mortality reduction. It's one of the most life-saving things we have for a cancer that kills more people than either of those two combined,” said lung cancer pulmonologist Gerard Silvestri, M.D. And yet, he said, “Eighty percent of those eligible for this screening, regardless of race, education, ethnicity, health or income, hadn’t heard of or ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Exploring factors affecting workers' acquisition of exercise habits using machine learning approaches

Nano-patterned copper oxide sensor for ultra-low hydrogen detection

Maintaining bridge safer; Digital sensing-based monitoring system

A novel approach for the composition design of high-entropy fluorite oxides with low thermal conductivity

A groundbreaking new approach to treating chronic abdominal pain

ECOG-ACRIN appoints seven researchers to scientific committee leadership positions

New model of neuronal circuit provides insight on eye movement

Cooking up a breakthrough: Penn engineers refine lipid nanoparticles for better mRNA therapies

CD Laboratory at Graz University of Technology researches new semiconductor materials

Animal characters can boost young children’s psychological development, study suggests

South Korea completes delivery of ITER vacuum vessel sectors

Global research team develops advanced H5N1 detection kit to tackle avian flu

From food crops to cancer clinics: Lessons in extermination resistance

Scientists develop novel high-fidelity quantum computing gate

Novel detection technology alerts health risks from TNT metabolites

New XR simulator improves pediatric nursing education

New copper metal-organic framework nanozymes enable intelligent food detection

The Lancet: Deeply entrenched racial and geographic health disparities in the USA have increased over the last two decades—as life expectancy gap widens to 20 years

2 MILLION mph galaxy smash-up seen in unprecedented detail

Scientists find a region of the mouse gut tightly regulated by the immune system

How school eligibility influences the spread of infectious diseases: Insights for future outbreaks

UM School of Medicine researchers link snoring to behavioral problems in adolescents without declines in cognition

The Parasaurolophus’ pipes: Modeling the dinosaur’s crest to study its sound #ASA187

St. Jude appoints leading scientist to create groundbreaking Center of Excellence for Structural Cell Biology

Hear this! Transforming health care with speech-to-text technology #ASA187

Exploring the impact of offshore wind on whale deaths #ASA187

Mass General Brigham and BIDMC researchers unveil an AI protein engineer capable of making proteins ‘better, faster, stronger’

Metabolic and bariatric surgery safe and effective for patients with severe obesity

Smarter city planning: MSU researchers use brain activity to predict visits to urban areas

Using the world’s fastest exascale computer, ACM Gordon Bell Prize-winning team presents record-breaking algorithm to advance understanding of chemistry and biology

[Press-News.org] Satellite imagery may help protect coastal forests from climate change