LA Times Today: New desalination technology being tested in California could lower costs of tapping seawater
Californians could soon be drinking water from the Pacific Ocean. A new company is testing deep sea desalination technology that can turn saltwater to drinking water without the harmful effects to the environment.
L.A. Times water reporter Ian James brought Lisa McRee the story.
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Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Yahoo
California fish carry human-infecting parasites that can cause stroke or heart attack, researchers find
More than 90 percent of popular freshwater game fish in Southern California contain a parasite that is capable of inducing strokes or heart attacks in the humans who eat them. Researchers said the parasites were two species of flatworms known as trematodes. At no more than a few centimeters in length, the flukes – a class of flatworms – can result in weight loss or lethargy. Although rare, infection has also resulted in more severe consequences. 'Americans don't usually think about parasites when they eat freshwater fish because it hasn't historically been an issue here,' Ryan Hechinger, an ecologist and parasitologist at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement. 'But these trematodes have now been widely introduced in the U.S. and that means that doctors and the public should be aware.' He is the senior author of the study which was published Tuesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health. To identify this issue, Hechinger, the University of Nebraska's Daniel Metz, and former Scripps graduate student and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center marine scientist Emma Palmer examined 84 fish from seven different species in 2023. Those fish included largemouth bass and bluegill, which were collected from five frequented fishing locations in San Diego County. Of those, 93 percent were infected with the Haplorchis pumilio parasite, and some were the host to thousands. Two of the five locations yielded positive results for the second parasite known as Centrocestus formosanus, which occurred in 91 percent of the fish. Historically, the trematodes have infected people in Southeast Asia and likely arrived in the U.S. more than a decade ago inside an invasive aquatic snail known as the red-rimmed melania. That snail is found in 17 states and Puerto Rico. Previous work led by Hechinger had found that the red-rimmed melania and its parasites are widespread in the Golden State. So, what is the risk to Californians and Americans at large? Hechinger says there haven't been any reported cases of parasites infecting Americans yets, but 'nobody is looking for cases and doctors aren't required to report them.' Californians should make sure to monitor fish advisories for any changes. The risks posed by them are easy to avoid as, if you fully cook your fish or freeze any that's intended to be eaten raw for at least a week, the parasites will die. Although, the authors found that many Americans are likely consuming freshwater fish without taking the proper precautions. The greatest health threats come from repeated infection over many months or years. Foodborne trematode infections cause two million life years lost to disability and death worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization. They recommend that fish-borne trematode infection be added to the list of diseases doctors are required to report to public health officials. 'These parasites are here in the U.S., and they're infecting fish that people are eating,' said Hechinger. 'We hope this study can help make public health officials, doctors and the public more aware.'
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Yahoo
Wildfire threatens Joshua trees in area considered a 'last refuge' for the species
A fire ignited in the Covington Flats area of Joshua Tree National Park on Friday afternoon and burned 165 acres in a region that experts say is critical to the species' future in a warming climate. Meg Rockwell, a spokesperson for the national park, said it wasn't immediately clear if any Joshua trees in the area had burned, but she said there are major concerns about the possibility of damage to the trees. "This area is important for the long-term survival of the Joshua trees," Rockwell said. "It's that last refuge." San Bernardino County Fire officials said no structures are threatened. Read more: World's oldest trees threatened by Silver fire in Inyo County. Crews halt spread of blaze The Covington Flats region—located in a northwestern section of the park—is known as a "climate refugia" sitting at a slightly higher elevation, which brings cooler temperatures and more rainfall. These slight differences could be enough, experts say, to to allow Joshua trees to continue to survive and reproduce even under a hotter, drier climate that is expected in the coming decades. The iconic trees are not adapted to wildfire, meaning any fire damage can be devastating to the population. The Eureka fire was reported around noon Friday and had no containment as of 2:30 p.m. The park reported temperatures Friday around 85 degrees with wind gusts up to about 20 mph in the area. Rockwell said additional fire crews from the Bureau of Land Management and San Bernardino County had been called in to assist with the firefight. Read more: How large fires are altering the face of California's Mojave Desert The Joshua tree is cherished for its distinctive silhouette and singular role as a linchpin of the Mojave Desert ecosystem. Yet the iconic succulent is losing suitable habitat at a brisk clip due to climate change, worsening wildfires and development, scientists and environmental advocates say. While the Joshua tree is currently ubiquitous, climate models show there won't be much suitable habitat left by the end of the century. That's why protecting areas like Covington Flats is so important, Rockwell said. But, experts have also found that many of these cooler, higher-elevation areas — that are more hospitable for Joshua trees — are also susceptible to wildfires because they tend to have denser vegetation. Two large wildfires have killed an estimated 1.8 million Joshua trees in and around the Mojave National Preserve since 2020. Staff writer Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
San Francisco Chronicle
30-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
California's native oysters are unusually well adapted for climate change
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. The tiny native oysters of San Francisco Bay managed to outlive the Gold Rush, bay-shore development and decades of punishing pollution. New research shows they have a fighting chance to survive global warming as well. A different species than the farmed Pacific oysters slurped up in restaurants, Olympia oysters are the West Coast's only native oyster species, once forming huge reefs along thousands of miles of coastline from Baja California to British Columbia. Though delicious, they're not as commercially viable and can't be safely harvested from San Francisco Bay because of pollution. But efforts are underway to restore the native oyster in the bay and along the West Coast for its important role in the ecosystem, including providing habitat for baby salmon and crab. 'If we had been here 300 years ago, it would have been this striking, essential part of San Francisco Bay,' said Kerstin Wasson, research coordinator at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve on Monterey Bay. 'Now it's so rare that most Californians have never seen a native oyster, have never touched one, have never eaten one.' Now, Wasson is the lead author on a study of the native oysters from Mexico to Canada that shows them to be surprisingly well adapted to warmer air temperatures caused by climate change. In recent years, extreme heat waves killed thousands of shellfish that inhabit the same type of intertidal zone, including mussels that were baked in their shells in both the Pacific Northwest and Northern California during low tide. Scientists involved with oyster restoration were really concerned when that happened, said Chela Zabin, ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and one of two dozen co-authors on the study. 'Into the future, are these big heat wave events going through going to affect our ability to restore oysters?' she said. The study, which was published last month and involved significant team effort in 26 locations up and down the West Coast, with funding from the nonprofit organization the Nature Conservancy, showed that native oysters thrive in a wide range of habitats. The researchers assumed that oyster populations, which occupy only a narrow band of the intertidal zone, would cluster closer to the low tide waterline to seek relief from hot air in warmer climates such as Baja California and Southern California. Instead they found that the oysters actually inhabited a larger range, demonstrating that they're more adaptable than expected. That bodes well for oysters farther north, including in the Bay Area, when climate change continues to increase air temperatures there, the authors said. 'What is happening in Baja today is what will happen in San Francisco Bay tomorrow,' Wasson said. On a tour of oyster restoration sites at Point San Pablo in Richmond on Wednesday morning, State Coastal Conservancy Project Manager Marilyn Latta demonstrated how finding native oysters during an extremely low tide was as easy as overturning rocks near the shore — like looking for pill bugs in the garden. The Coastal Conservancy, a state agency, provided funding for native oyster restoration projects at several locations along the Point San Pablo bay shore. That includes at a site called Terminal Four where contractors recently removed a derelict wharf and added new native plants as well as concrete structures, including ones that resemble sand castles, specifically designed to provide habitat for oysters. Zabin held a rock with a dime-size native oyster attached, most likely a baby; adults in San Francisco Bay are only slightly larger than an inch in diameter, making them much smaller than Pacific oysters. In addition to restoration efforts underway in the bay, aquaculture may also be necessary in the future as a backup plan to protect the species, she said. Oysters are known as filter feeders for their ability to clean the water and provide habitat that supports salmon migration back and forth to the sea, Wasson noted. When there are enough of them, they create reefs that provide shoreline protection from waves, she said. However, in California, not enough oysters have been brought back to serve this role. Up and down the West Coast, the native oysters were enjoyed by Indigenous people as well as European settlers, including during the Gold Rush, when they were overharvested and later subjected to pollution and habitat loss, especially as the bay was filled for development. Some oyster farmers, including Hog Island Oyster Co. in Tomales Bay, are experimenting with growing native Olympia oysters — though they're more difficult to produce commercially because they're small and slow-growing, Wasson said. However, growing native oysters may have other advantages, because they are known to be less vulnerable than Pacific oysters to ocean acidification that comes with climate change and inhibits the formation of shells. 'Our poor oysters have suffered a whole bunch of things in the past century,' Wasson said. 'But at least this particular way humans are messing with them is probably going to be OK, at least for the near future.'
