Category Archives: Issues in Science

The Effects of Artificial Light on Plant Pollination

Posted on March 22, 2021 by balkaran dhaliwal | 2 comments

Background Information:

Did you know that the use of artificial light has potentially contributed to reduced plant populations as well as world hunger?

A study done by researchers at the University of Zurich found that artificial light tends to greatly reduce the vector pollination rate of various plant species by nocturnal and even diurnal insects. Interestingly, there have been observed cases where artificial light actually increased the vector pollination rate of some plants for unknown reasons. However, the first case is much more common.

How Vector Pollination Occurs:

Bees and Pollination - Ypsilanti District Library

Credit: ScienceDirect. Downloaded from: Unsplash.com

Plant Reproduction:

The implications of reduced vector pollination of plants due to artificial light are still not fully understood, however, an article by Chrissy Sexton (2021) touches upon possible reasons why this occurs. It is explained that artificial light causes ecological disruptions which are mainly linked to reduced nighttime vector pollination of plants as there are alterations in species interactions, the behavior of insects, and even mortality. Due to the decreased pollination of various plants, they are not able to reproduce as frequently which can cause species endangerment and loss of genetic variation. This is of major concern as both species endangerment and loss of genetic variation are catalysts for species extinction.

World hunger

World hunger is a very complicated matter as various sources can contribute to the loss of food like mismanagement of food, expiration of food, and most importantly, weather events such as droughts. Remarkably, the use of artificial lights has been found to indirectly contribute to food shortages as it generally leads to a decrease in insect pollination of plants and crops. This means that there is a decrease in food produced. These findings are concerning as with the atmospheric CO2 levels continually rising at an unimaginable pace (shown in the graph below), global warming will continue to cause more and more droughts, leading to greater destruction of crops and further reducing the world’s food supply.

USGCRP Indicator Details | GlobalChange.gov

Credit: GlobalChange. Downloaded from: Unsplash.com

What’s next?

A significant problem that arises when considering the conclusions of this study is that artificial light is expected to continue expanding in its use at about 2-6% per year. Thus, it is pivotal that this problem is addressed sooner rather than later to limit the reduction in the global food supply, as there are already a plethora of other things influencing food supply. As there is not enough research on the topic, there are no current definitive solutions to eliminate the negative effects of artificial light on vector pollination. However, some efforts can be taken to minimize the loss of food and decreased reproduction of various plant species due to artificial light. These efforts include ensuring pollination of plants occur leading to reproduction by manually pollinating plants and ensuring optimal growth of crops by providing the best possible nutrients, fertilizers, and etc. Scientists hope these efforts will increase plant reproduction and crop production, allowing humans to have one less thing to worry about.

– Balkaran Dhaliwal

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Posted in Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged artificial intelligence, artificial light, carbon dioxide, genetic variation, global warming, insects, light, plant reproduction, pollination, research, science, species endangerment, technology, world hunger

Mice Grown In Vials: Are Humans Next?

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Jessica Petrochuk | 4 comments

For at least a hundred years, researchers have been struggling to answer one question: how does a single cell become a full grown human.

One major barrier to fully understanding this process, was that we could never see it happening before our own eyes. Luckily, a team of biologists led by Dr. Jacob Hanna at the Weizmann Institute of Science had a major breakthrough: mice grown in vials.

The Problem

In an interview with the New York Times, biologist Dr. Paul Tesar said:

“The holy grail of developmental biology is to understand how a single cell, a fertilized egg, can make all of the specific cell types in the human body and grow into 40 trillion cells. Since the beginning of time, researchers have been trying to develop ways to answer this question.”

Each one of us started the same, as just one cell. In our mothers, one cell became two, then four, which eventually led to us. During these beginning stages of development, we were what researchers call an embryo, or an early-stage animal. Embryos are located in a mother’s uterus, which acts like a house that provides everything needed to grow.

To see what is going on inside this house, researchers have tried many different tricks including taking pictures, or even removing the uterus fully from animals such as mice to get a better look. What researchers have not been able to do thus far, is watch the embryo grow continuously outside of the mother. This has not only made research in the field difficult, but has restricted the work being done.

The Solution

Although the researchers at Weizmann were not the first to come up with the idea, up until now, mice grown outside of a mother have either not been able to survive, or did not grow correctly. In fact, it took Dr. Hanna and his colleagues 7 years to perfect their technique.

The entire process consists of two steps. First, the uterus of a recently pregnant mouse is removed. Second, the uterus is transferred to a vial filled with liquid containing all the food it will need. As seen in the video below, the embryo is slowly spun to make sure it does not attach itself to the wall of the vial as that could result in death.

Mice embryos growing inside spinning vials (Video from MIT Technology Review)

The mice were under constant observation and images, as seen below, were taken and compared to mice developing inside a mother. The two were identical.

Mice developing over a 5-day period (Image from The New York Times)

Implications

As a result of this breakthrough, researchers will be able to better understand events including birth defects and miscarriages. Additionally, researchers can now easily change the environment that the embryo grows in to see what conditions can affect development. Although it may still be some time until this research is transferred to humans, this breakthrough certainly marks a big step in the right direction.

-Jessica Petrochuk

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged biology, breakthrough, development, innovation, research, science

What Makes Meat Taste Like Meat? – Plant Burgers

Posted on March 20, 2021 by chie nakayama | 8 comments

In 2019, an average person in Canada consumed 70 kg of meat. The consumption amount decreased about 5% since 2000 with the increasing number of call-to-action to shift to a plant-based diet. However, even with the countless motivations of incorporating a vegan meal, many meat lovers are having difficulty cutting out meat from their diet.

A typical vegan burger
(Photo by Deryn Macey on Unsplash)

What Is So Great About Meat?

I want you to think about that question for a moment. Turns out there are many factors involved in making up the meat-eating experience.

First, let’s tackle the fundamental question: what is responsible for the distinct taste of meat?

Researchers at Impossible Foods, a company that makes plant-based meat, found that the taste of meat comes from an iron-containing molecule called heme. Heme exists in both plants and animals, and is carried by different kinds of protein (leghemoglobin and hemoglobin, respectively). By adding plant-sourced heme into their plant-based meat, Impossible Foods was able to reproduce the flavour of the meat without containing actual meat.

Watch this short video to find out more about heme, and how Impossible Foods produces heme efficiently and sustainably:

[Video: “Heme – the Magic Ingredient in the Impossible^TM Burger” Credit: Impossible Foods]

Now we know where the taste of meat comes from, but you probably would agree that the experience of eating meat does not solely rely on its taste. The texture, colour, smell, and sizzling sound, all contribute to the pleasant experience of having meat – and no one said we cannot achieve these with plants.

A lot of research is happening to make the experience of having plant-based meat indistinguishable from having real meat. In addition to the items listed in the previous paragraph, researchers at Beyond Meat, a company that also makes plant-based meat, are making the nutritional content as close as possible to real ground beef.

Credit: Beyond Meat/Impossible Foods edited by Tehrene Firman

Making the Choice

As it was mentioned in the beginning, there are many reasons to choose a plant-based diet.

For animal welfare, “going vegan is one of the best things you can do to help stop animal cruelty” (Animal Aid). For climate change, studies showed that having a plant-based diet reduces the amount of greenhouse gas your actions produce. A vegan diet also saves resources such as land, water, and crops we feed to livestock animals. In fact, about one-third of arable land in the U.S. is being used to produce grain to feed livestock, corresponding to 70% of the grain grown in the country, enough to feed 800 million people.

In BC, you can find plant-based meat at grocery stores, or served at restaurants like Triple O’s and Burger King. An increase in demand means a decrease in price, and by simply replacing your regular burger with a plant-based burger, you are contributing to the environment.

So the next time you line up at the Triple O’s, think about ordering the plant-burger because you will enjoy the same meat-eating experience.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science in the News

Tagged beyond meat, biomeat, impossible foods, plant based meat, vegan

Bell’s Palsy from Vaccinations: Is it worth the shot?

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Tina H | 3 comments

Imagine waking up one morning and something doesn’t feel right with your face. One eye appears to be wider than the other, and one corner of your mouth is drooping low. Throughout the day, you’re unable to close your eyes at the same time, affecting your vision. You struggle to eat and drink and can’t make proper facial expressions such as smiling. Overall, you spend most of your time feeling insecure about your face. This was what I went through when I was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy last month.

Bell’s Palsy is partial facial paralysis – the loss of muscle function on the face. This is due to inflammation or damage to the 7th cranial nerve, known as the facial nerve, which controls facial muscle movements. Impairment to the facial nerve is often caused by a viral infection such as a cold or ear infection.

Image: Flickr.com

Interestingly, there are public concerns that vaccination treatments for COVID-19 may also be linked to the cause of this facial condition.

Recent Case Studies

Four participants in the Moderna Phase 3 clinical trial developed Bell’s Palsy after receiving the vaccine. In addition, four participants in the Pzifer-BioNTech study also developed Bell’s Palsy. Both trials each had 30,000-40,000 participants overall.

Similar concerns were brought up years ago when patients who received the influenza vaccine reported developing Bell’s Palsy. A 2020 study assessed the number of patients who received the influenza vaccine between January 2015-October 2019 and found that 250 cases of facial paralysis were reported after the vaccination.

So, is Bell’s Palsy linked to vaccines?

Although further studies are recommended, researchers say the association between getting the vaccine and developing Bell’s Palsy is less likely to be related. University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) assistant professor of neurology, Jason D. Hinman, MD, PhD, stated that the reported cases of Bell’s Palsy during the clinical trials are representative of the population, concluding that the risks of getting Bell’s Palsy is the same before and after getting vaccinated.

Image: Getty Images

“The normal incidence of Bell’s palsy is roughly 20 people out of 100,000. The Pfizer study examined 38,000 patients, so four cases would be within the normal observed incidence of Bell’s palsy.” Dr. Hinman, 2020.

Ultimately, the benefits of vaccination outweighs the risks.

Although common treatments for Bell’s Palsy include steroid injections and anti-inflammatory medication like Prednisone, it can go away on its own without treatment. Side effects related to vaccines are often temporary.

Overall, it’s encouraged to go get your shot.

“Any vaccine can cause side effects. For the most part these are minor and go away within a few days… vaccines are continually monitored for safety, and like any medication, vaccines can cause side effects. However, a decision not to immunize a child also involves risk and could put the child and others who come into contact with him or her at risk of contracting a potentially deadly disease.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020.

– Tina Huynh

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged bell's palsy, COVID-19, flu shots, health science, research, science, vaccination, vaccine

Need to Sober Up? Just Breathe Out the Booze!

Posted on March 15, 2021 by hansaem jung | Leave a comment

With regards to alcohol, many of us have previously reached the so-called point of no return: a moment where the pleasant buzz is replaced by a throbbing headache (and massive amounts of regret). If only there was a simple way to quickly sober up…

Alcohol! Source: awee_19, Flickr

A simple overview of ethanol breakdown

First, let’s dive into how our bodies break down alcohol. Once ethanol arrives at the stomach and intestines, it is absorbed into the bloodstream. From there, most of the alcohol ends up in the liver. The liver is responsible for detoxifying 90% of the ethanol that we consume; the remaining 10% is eliminated through sweat, urine, and breath.

However, the rate at which the liver breaks down ethanol is zeroth-order: meaning that the breakdown rate is always constant, no matter how much ethanol is in your system. This explains why we haven’t been able to develop techniques to speed up the rate of ethanol breakdown in our livers.

Naturally, the next step would be to see whether we can speed up the elimination of the remaining 10% of ethanol in our bloodstreams. Turns out, we can! Remember how we said that some ethanol is breathed out? This works the same way that we exhale carbon dioxide: diffusion! Since the ethanol concentration in our bloodstream is higher than in the air that we breathe in, some ethanol diffuses into our lungs and we breathe it out!

Diffusion Explained.
Source: Free Animated Education, YouTube

A breathalyzer uses the fact that we breathe out ethanol to determine our blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Source: Dave Shea, Flickr

So can I just hyperventilate until I start to feel sober?

In theory, you could… but you really shouldn’t. Hyperventilating will reduce your ethanol levels, sure, but it will also decrease your CO2 levels: causing your brain’s blood vessels to narrow, and ultimately depriving your brain of oxygen. Thankfully, a recent study has found a simple and effective solution, utilizing isocapnic hyperpnea.

Isocapnic hyperpnea: what is it?

To put it simply, isocapnic hyperpnea (IH) is when you deeply (sometimes rapidly) breathe in air that has an equal concentration of carbon dioxide as in your bloodstream. This lets you breathe out all the nasty ethanol, while your CO2 levels stay steady. In the study, participants drank vodka, then were connected to a device which supplied air which had a CO2 concentration similar to what would be found in normal blood vessels. The results of the study showed that the participants who underwent IH were able to get ethanol out of their system more than three times faster than participants who breathed regular air!

A demonstration of the IH apparatus. Source: UHN

This technology could be widely available in the near future, since IH has already been approved as a treatment for clearing our bodies of other chemicals. IH could help paramedics in clearing the alcohol out of a patient’s system in a timely manner, which could ultimately save their lives. Remember to always drink responsibly!

– Sam Jung

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged alcohol, biology, carbon dioxide, chemistry, diffusion, research, treatment

Forgot Something? Suspect Your Dopamine

Posted on March 12, 2021 by Matthew Lim | Leave a comment

You open up an internet browser, but you forget what you were going to search for or why you even started your computer. Have you ever came across these situations? The recent research on temporary memory loss (2021) has discovered the betrayer within our body: the dopamine.

Dopamine has a reputation as the “happy hormone.” It’s a neurotransmitter, a substance that conveys signals between the neurons that mediate pleasure in our brain and make you crave for the things you love. For instance, you constantly refresh your Instagram feed or click on the next recommended video on YouTube because your brain remembers and relate those activities to pleasure. Then every time you perform those activities your brain release dopamine, which makes you feel good.

Source: Fauno (pixabay.com)

Problems with Dopamine Addiction

In a nutshell, dopamine acts very similar to recreational drugs because it constantly tempts and controls you to do things that provide instant gratification and make you crave for stronger pleasure. The problem of dopamine addiction recently arose because of the rapid technological advancement, which allowed for easy access to activities that release dopamine such as social media, video games, and pornography. People have hard time focusing on their work and managing their time because they crave that dopamine shots.

Here’s a video that talks about the effect of dopamine on human and possible solution to overcome addiction:

Source: TopThink (youtube.com)

In addition, the researchers from Scripps Research Institute revealed dopamine’s another dark secret. They discovered the mechanism in which the stimulation of dopamine circuit is responsible for transient forgetting, also known as temporary memory loss. In particular, the biochemical team specified a single pair of dopamine-releasing neuron, named PPL1- α2α’2, that causes the universal nuisance in our brain.

Source: Tumisu (pixabay.com)

In summary, the research team trained Drosophila, commonly known as the fruit fly, to associate a certain scent with an unpleasant shock. However, when the flies were introduced to stimuli such as a puff of air or blue light, the type of light emitted from the screens of your electronic devices, the dopamine released due to the stimuli interfered with the flies’ memory signal and the flies temporarily forgot the negative association with the scent.

Furthermore, the research found that the increased strength or intensity of the stimulus increases the duration of the temporary memory loss . In other words, exposure to stronger stimulus, such as illicit drug or concentrated alcohol, requires more time to recover from the transient memory loss.

During the unprecedented period of pandemic, without social interactions, you probably consume more social media feeds or YouTube videos for your daily dose of dopamine. However, think of dopamine as sugar for now. Your body needs it to continue the happy life, but addiction could bring potential complications with regards to your success and health. Experts recommend activities such as the dopamine detox or meditation to overcome the dopamine addiction. Control your dopamine; don’t let the YouTube recommendations control you!

-Matthew Lim

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged alcohol, blue light, dopamine, drugs, memory, neuron, social media, temporary memory loss, YouTube, YouTube recommendation

“A drink a day keeps reality at bay”: Atrial Fibrillation

Posted on March 8, 2021 by ramdeep dosanjh | Leave a comment

This happens quite often: people come home after a long, tiring day and look forward to cracking open a beer, making a cocktail or pouring themselves a glass of wine. Sure, this may be an evening ritual for many, but at what cost? A recent study led by consultant cardiologist, Professor Renate Schnabel, at the University Heart and Vascular Center determined that people who regularly enjoy small amounts of alcohol develop an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF).

What is atrial fibrillation?

Atrial fibrillation is when a person has an abnormal heartbeat rhythm. The two upper chambers, the atria of the heart, beat out of sync from the two lower chambers, the ventricles. Since the upper and lower chambers of the heart are not working together, the lower chambers may not be able to pump enough blood to our lungs and throughout our body. Due to this, people with AF may feel tired, dizzy or suffer from chest pains. The irregular heart rhythm may also cause blood to pool in the heart which can cause clot formation and thus lead to strokes or heart failure.

Atrial Fibrillation vs. Normal Sinus Rhythm on Electrocardiogram. Source: Clearvue Health

Ingesting large amounts of alcohol, binge drinking for example, has been one of the leading risk factors that may result in AF. Until now, however, there has not been enough proof linking the effect of drinking small amounts of alcohol to AF. This is why the current study led by Professor Renate Schnabel has been an important step in AF research.

The video below called “What is Atrial Fibrillation”, created by the Youtube channel known as British Heart Foundation, gives an overview on what AF is:

Linking atrial fibrillation to alcohol consumption

Past research, such as the study conducted by Andriy V. Samokhvalov and his colleagues, found a link between alcohol consumption and the development of AF. However, a limitation from this study was that it did not clearly prove the association between light drinking causing AF.

In the study conducted by Professor Renate Schnabel, participants were given medical examinations and were asked to share how often they consumed alcohol as well as their drinking pattern. During the follow-up with the study participants, which occurred after approximately 14 years, they were analyzed for any link between their alcohol consumption and AF. Researchers discovered such a link even for individuals consuming low amounts of alcohol. In fact, 5854 people ended up developing atrial fibrillation after 14 years.

What this means for alcohol drinkers

Even low amounts of alcohol consumption can lead to AF which is a stepping stone for other problems such as heart failure and strokes. This is why it is important to get checked for AF even if symptoms are minor (ie. heart palpitations, dizziness, chest pains, etc.). Also, proper management of drinking habits may lower the risk of developing AF. After all, protecting your heart will only benefit you in the long run.

– Ramdeep Dosanjh

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Posted in Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged alcohol consumption, atrial fibrillation, health, heart failure, research, strokes

Communicating Science to the World One Song at a Time

Posted on March 8, 2021 by teaya cabael | Leave a comment

How society interacts and receives information, including science-related news, has grown immensely over the years. From newspapers, radio, TV, to the internet and social media, everything is at your fingertips. However, these methods of communication still have limitations in reaching everyone. Researchers Nik Sawe, Chris Chafe, and Jeffrey Treviño at Stanford University understand this gap in communication and have identified a solution. Their study was done in 2020 in hopes to improve science communication, but it also holds promising aspects that can change how society communicates overall.

Illustration: GIZEM VURAL

Data sonification (DS) is a method that presents scientific data as sound. The researchers at Stanford have determined that DS in science communication can overcome complexity barriers, attract non-experts, and outreach to the disabled.

We suggest that a change in modality, from graphical representations to auditory ones using a process called data sonification, can reduce these barriers by creating an alternate way to engage with complex scientific data.

Overcoming Complexity

A 2019 report on public knowledge about science discovered that people avoid STEM-related material because it is “too hard” to understand. The Stanford researchers knew this and pointed to DS as a means to overcome this perception. By providing visual and auditory sources in scientific data, learning and engagement in individuals increases. Below is an example of combining visual and audio to text message data by Jack Jamieson and Jeffrey Boase

Public Engagement

Everyone loves listening to music, so why not incorporate it with scientific data to make it enjoyable? Music will not only enhance the listener’s experience with the data but also increases their ability to comprehend it. In addition, there are many online programs and applications that allow the public to turn their own data into music. This opens up opportunities for non-experts to collaborate with scientists in transforming numerical data into sound. Below is a sonification made by the Stanford researchers from data on the effects of climate change on the Alaskan yellow cedar tree.

http://stanford.edu/~sawe/alaskanyellowcedarsonification.wav

Outreach

In Canada, 1.5 million people are known to suffer from vision loss. With most scientific data represented graphically, it is difficult for the visually impaired to understand science and contribute to scientific discussions. For that reason, DS will make data accessible and understandable benefiting those who suffer from visual impairments and lower their risk of being fed wrong information. Below is a perfect example of data sonification by Haixia Zhao, Catherine Plaisant, and Ben Shneiderman tailored to those with vision problems.

Data sonification presents a promising solution in overcoming the barriers of science communication and potentially improve communication as a whole. To effectively implement it, however, science communicators must recognize the need for DS and understand its benefits. Overall, science has made big breaks in communicating with the world, and I am hopeful that the addition of data sonification will only bring more people to appreciate what science has to offer.

– Teaya Cabael

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Posted in Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged data sonification, music, research, visually impaired

Laughter: The Mysterious Stress Reliever?

Posted on March 7, 2021 by Aaron Yoon | Leave a comment

Laughter. As human beings, it’s something that most of us are bound to experience. Whether it’s from browsing YouTube and finding a ridiculous dog fail compilation, or when your friend cracks out a joke that you just find funny for some apparent reason, the feeling of laughter is a common occurrence in our lives.

Laughter is something that we take for granted. If we find something funny, then we’re going to laugh. However, scientists to this day are unable to figure out the reasoning behind laughter. In fact, the results from the many studies that do exist out there further confirm that laughter is much more complex than we think. A recent study conducted by Dr. Zander-Schellenberg and others were able to attribute this strange phenomenon as a way to relieve stress.

Check out the video below by YouTube user Life Noggin, which does a great job of going over the origins of laughter.

laughter can help relieve stress?

In order to test the effects of laughter on stress in daily life experiences, Dr. Schellenberg and others collected data from 41 psychology students, 33 of which were female, from the University of Basel in real-life settings for 14 consecutive days. Through the usage of a smartphone application, a sound queue that triggered randomly throughout the day would remind participants to answer questions related to laughter, as well as any details regarding their current levels of stress and stressful events.

The results of the study were astonishing; it was found that increased laughter weakens the effects of stressful events, while also dampening certain symptoms that may arise from stress.

By investigating the effects of laughter on stress outside the laboratory, the study was able to be more closely related to real-life experiences. However, as the sample consisted of mainly female students, recreating the experiment with a sample that more closely represents the general population is something that could solidify their findings.

A photo of two people laughing, by Emanuele Spies from São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

To take away from all this, think of laughter as a cheap and effective form of medicine. If, for whatever reason, you’re having a bad day, go and watch your favorite comedy show, or crack jokes with one of your friends for a quick laugh!

Here is a video by YouTube user keees121 that I recommend if you’re feeling down:

-Aaron Yoon

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Posted in Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged discovery, experiment, humour, laughter, mystery, research, science, stress

Baby Sharks Face a Gloomy Future

Posted on March 6, 2021 by adam soliman | 1 comment

Sharks are considered the lions of the sea, but due to climate change they are losing their glory. With global warming causing the rise of ocean temperatures, one particularly tough and beautiful species, the epaulette shark, sometimes referred to as the walking shark, may be heading towards disaster.

An Epaulette Shark: Source: flickr.com/Richard Ling

The epaulette shark is typically 70 – 90 cm in length and has dark spots running up and down its slender body. This shark notably has a large black circle outlined in white on each of its sides. It lives in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and finds its food in shallow puddles between the coral. This shallow environment is dangerous; leaving most fish stranded out of the water, left to die under the hot sun. This amazing animal is not so easily defeated and is able to conserve its breath and march back towards the sea. The impressive survival mechanisms of the epaulette shark are shown and described in the video below created by PBS in 2017.

Video Source: Nature on PBS| Youtube

The epaulette shark has proven itself to be resilient in low oxygen environments. Previous experiments even found that their eggs and newborns are tolerant to ocean acidification. Regardless of this resilience, rising temperatures still pose a serious threat, especially to its offspring.

A new study carried out by Ph.D. candidate Carolyn Wheeler on the eggs of epaulette sharks, showed that increasing ocean temperatures significantly affect the development of its young. The researchers analyzed the growth of epaulette shark embryos until they hatched, at temperatures of 27°C, 29°C, and 31°C . It was found that the embryos grew faster at the higher temperatures, as in the warmer water the sharks tended to consume their yolk-sacks quicker, which is their only source of food before they hatch. This in turn caused them to hatch sooner, and due to the reduced time in their embryos, they were born smaller and lacking in energy. The newborns which hatched at higher temperatures struggled to survive and needed to eat significantly sooner after birth compared to those at 27°C. Other studies have additionally observed, that at 32°C the likelihood of epaulette shark eggs hatching becomes very low.

Epaulette Shark Embryo: Source: flickr.com/CLF

The average temperature of the Great Barrier Reef is currently at 28°C during the period of embryo development in the wild, but with climate models predicting that average temperatures in this region will rise to 32°C by the middle or end of the century these animals are in trouble. As we explored earlier, epaulette sharks are known to be tolerant to acidic conditions and are more resilient than any other shark to low oxygen environments.

Since the increasing temperatures will likely have a detrimental impact on the epaulette shark – which is considered a tough and resilient species – we can only imagine the negative impacts it will have on other more vulnerable wildlife.

– Adam Soliman

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged climate change, embryo, epaulette sharks, global warming, great barrier reef, research, science, sharks, walking shark

Category Archives: Issues in Science

The Effects of Artificial Light on Plant Pollination