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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Iconic Antarctic species at risk amid 'regime shift', scientists say, with 'rapid and self-perpetuating changes'
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment. The changes are heightening the risk of significant sea level rise and the extinction of species, including emperor penguins. The research, led by ANU climate scientist Professor Nerilie Abram and co-authored by 20 other scientists, has been published in the science journal, Nature. "We're seeing really worrying changes starting to develop across the ice and the ocean and the biological systems in Antarctica," said Professor Abram, who is now the chief scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). "Importantly, we're seeing that those changes are all interlinked. The report synthesises multiple recent studies that examined four key parts of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean environment: "Evidence is emerging for rapid, interacting and sometimes self-perpetuating changes in the Antarctic environment," the report states. It says reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the best way to mitigate the impact of the broad-scale changes affecting the polar region. "Stabilising Earth's climate with minimal overshoot of 1.5 degrees Celsius will be imperative alongside global adaptation measures to minimise and prepare for the far-reaching impacts of Antarctic and Southern Ocean abrupt changes," the report says. However, it warns it may be too late to prevent some changes due to human-caused climate change. Antarctic sea ice contracts and expands around the continent between the summer and winter months. But the report says significant declines in its seasonal extent have been observed over the past decade. "A regime shift has reduced Antarctic sea-ice extent far below its natural variability of past centuries, and in some respects is more abrupt, non-linear and potentially irreversible than Arctic sea-ice loss," it says. Since 2014, the report says the median contraction of the Antarctic sea-ice edge has been around 120 kilometres. The most significant decline was in the winter of 2023, which was so far below previous satellite records and historical modelling that scientists described it as "gobsmacking". Since then, the extent of sea ice has remained at near record lows. "So we've lost areas of ice somewhere between the size of NSW and WA," Dr Edward Doddridge, a physical oceanographer from the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, told the ABC. The report says the abrupt decline in Antarctica's winter sea-ice extent over the past decade has been 4.4 times faster than reductions seen in the Arctic over the past 46 years. It suggests ocean warming is contributing to the recent decline in sea-ice extent, which in turn is exacerbating the problem by creating a "self-perpetuating process". "Thinning of Antarctic winter sea ice has resulted in earlier retreat that has increased ocean surface warming and delayed the formation and thickening of sea ice the following winter," the report says. It says the process "may be irreversible", even if global temperature rises remain under 2 degrees Celsius, compared with pre-industrial levels. Deep ocean currents, known as the Antarctic Overturning Circulation, help regulate the climate by transporting heat, carbon, nutrients and oxygen to other areas. But observations and modelling show the process is rapidly slowing down, according to the report. "The Antarctic Overturning Circulation is already undergoing rapid change at current warming levels and will continue to decline in the 21st century," it says. "This decline may be even more abrupt than the equivalent Northern Hemisphere processes." The report says the slowdown could reduce the ability of the Southern Ocean to sequester anthropogenic CO2, "generating an amplifying feedback that intensifies climate warming over multiple centuries". "Slowdown or collapse of the Antarctic Overturning Circulation would lead to widespread climate and ecosystem impacts," it says. Antarctica's landmass is covered in a vast ice sheet, with ice shelves on the perimeter. The most vulnerable region is in the west of the continent, which has the potential to raise sea levels by several metres if it were to melt, according to scientists. "The tipping point for unstoppable ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could be exceeded even under best-case CO2 reduction pathways, potentially initiating global tipping cascades," the report says. Professor Abram said the instability of ice shelves across the continent was particularly concerning, given their role in buttressing large glaciers from the impact of the ocean. "Where the ice is in contact with the ocean, it makes it particularly vulnerable to being able to be eroded by that warm water and can set up processes that once they start, they become unstable," she told the ABC. The report points to the sudden collapse of the Conger-Glenzer ice shelf in 2022 as an example of the abrupt changes taking in in Antarctica. Sustained climate pressures are also impacting the region's plant and animal species, the report says. "Regime shifts are occurring in Antarctic and Southern Ocean biological systems through habitat transformation, or exceedance of physiological thresholds, and compounding breeding failures are increasing extinction risks." The report highlights the existential threat faced by emperor penguins. To breed, the species needs to remain for much of the year on stable sea ice near the land, known as fast ice. But that critical breeding habitat is undergoing rapid change. "Many regions of multi-year fast ice are now transitioning to seasonal fast ice, and this shift is expected to continue with potential for extinction of emperor penguins by 2100," the report states. There are about 60 colonies of emperor penguins across the Antarctic coast. But since 2016, 30 of them have experienced increased or complete breeding failure due to early fast-ice loss, the report says. Sixteen of the colonies have suffered two or more such events during that time. The report says other species also depend on sea ice and fast ice for breeding, including different types of seals, krill and Antarctic silverfish. "The observed impacts highlight the potential for reduced survival capacity of some Antarctic ice-dependent species under the current regime shift in the Antarctic Sea ice and expected ongoing future climate changes." Dr Barbara Wienecke, a senior research scientist at the AAD, said the situation was grim. "The long-term consequences for emperor penguins are not looking good," Dr Wienecke told the ABC. Professor Abram said the report's findings highlight the need to reduce carbon emissions. "The changes that we're seeing in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean really reinforce the importance of these international agreements that we have for how we're going to tackle climate change," she said.
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Researchers using cryopreservation to save critically endangered Gossia gonoclada
Cryopreservation was once the stuff of science fiction, but now the technology is being used to help save a critically endangered tree in south-east Queensland. There are only about 380 Gossia gonoclada, or angle-stemmed myrtle, left in the wild, mostly found in riparian and vine forest areas around Logan and parts of the Gold Coast. The small tree has dense, glossy, bright-green leaves, and plays a role in local ecosystems — but it's under severe threat. A fungal disease known as myrtle rust — which damages new growth — along with land clearing and rising temperatures, has drastically reduced the tree's numbers. Jingyin Bao, a PhD student at the University of Queensland, has spent three years developing a scientific protocol to indefinitely store plant tissue at ultra-low temperatures. "The idea is to safeguard these species by storing the healthy regenerable plant tissues so that one day they can be used to grow new plants in case the species becomes extinct in the wild," Ms Bao said. Her work involves taking tiny shoot tips — or the growing points of the plant where new leaves emerge — treating them with a cryoprotective solution, and freezing them in liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as -196 degrees Celsius. "It's a technology that's been developed for quite a long time, initially for other things like IVF, but the challenge in part for cryopreservation is that you have to develop a protocol for different things every time differently," Ms Bao said. "So you have to fine tune everything in the protocol in order to make it work for different species. "For Gossia gonoclada, we don't have any similar protocols that have been developed before, so we have to do it step-by-step." Dr Alice Hayward, a plant molecular physiologist at the University of Queensland and Ms Bao's supervisor, said it wasn't possible to simply store the tree's seeds because of its fleshy fruit — meaning cryopreservation of shoot tips and tissue was the only viable way to conserve it. The method also helps preserve and regenerate myrtle rust-resistant individuals, enhancing the species' resilience. "A lot of our threatened plants, especially tropical species, about 30 per cent don't survive seed storage, so that's where cryo-preservation is really important — just safeguarding and banking the genetic diversity," Dr Hayward said. Dr Hayward said Ms Bao has already achieved remarkable results. She's been able to grow new trees from regenerated tissue, "Jinying's been successful in achieving 100 per cent regeneration rate for cryopreservation of Gossia fragrantissima, which is a related species to Gossia gonoclada," she said. "That's quite unheard of. Often the rates might be between 40 to 70 per cent regeneration." The project is a collaboration with Logan City Council, which secured about $500,000 in Australian government grants to fund the work. Lee-Anne Veage, an environment officer with the council, has been working to save the species — named after former Queensland premier Wayne Goss — for more than a decade. She's affectionately known among colleagues as the "Gossia guardian". "We estimate we've got about 300 trees in Logan and 80 or so elsewhere — including naturally occurring populations as well as planted ones," she said. "We've got a recovery plan that's a 10-year plan… [and] that's including monitoring the health, the status against threats like myrtle rust, doing habitat mapping, germplasm collection and writing up a report." For Dr Hayward, the breakthrough represents an exciting leap forward in her research field. For everyone else, she said, it could be summed up with a pop culture reference.
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Australian-first psychedelic-assisted therapy trial for terminally ill patients shows improved quality of life
Michael Quinn's prostate cancer had spread throughout his body when he came across a newspaper call-out that would change the course of what remained of his life. The newspaper was asking for people to take part in an Australian-first clinical trial investigating how psychedelics, combined with psychotherapy, could help alleviate the anguish often experienced by people who have a terminal illness. Terror-stricken about the prospect of death, and suffering from bouts of panic and catatonic depression, Michael registered his interest. His wife Pat Quinn said the results would ultimately be life-changing for her late husband. "He felt that the program softened the edges of his edges and found a new path to dealing with this illness," she said. "He still had some anxiety, obviously, and some frustrations, but he was much, much more calm." Over the course of three-and-a-half years, researchers at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne have examined the use of synthetic psilocybin — the compound naturally found in "magic mushrooms" — in combination with psychotherapy for 35 people, including Michael, with advanced terminal illness. The pool of patients was small, but the study's co-author, clinical psychologist Dr Margaret Ross said the results were promising. "We did see reductions in depression, anxiety, hopelessness, demoralisation — so we saw big reductions in psychological distress. But not only that, we also saw increases and improvement in quality of life," Dr Ross said. "Beyond the metrics we saw people experiencing things like reconciliation and forgiveness in situations where there were fractured relationships in the past. As well as treating people with terminal cancer, the study was the first in the world to offer psilocybin-assisted therapy to patients with non-cancerous life-threatening conditions like motor neurone disease. Participants in the trial took two doses, six to seven weeks apart. Half the participants received a placebo for the first dose, while all participants received psilocybin for the second dose. Patients then spent roughly seven hours in a calm, dark room listening to music. Both Dr Ross and co-author, psychiatrist Justin Dwyer, were at their side, and sometimes hours would pass without anyone saying a word. Each dose was preceded and followed by psychotherapy sessions. Dr Dwyer said the accompanying psychotherapy was an essential part of the treatment, but noted the gruelling nature of the entire process could be challenging for some participants. "The narrative about psychedelics is really problematic. I think they're presented as things which are going to cure mental illness, prevent suicide — they're presented as things which are going to transform really intractable states of suffering," he said. "I have a real problem with that, a) because it's not true in the way it's presented, but b) because it sort of downplays the amount of work people have to do and the courage which is required to sort of do that work in a deep way." The clinicians also caution that psychedelic-assisted therapy was not a match for certain people, including those with some psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. "If they struggle to tell the difference between emotions and physical sensations, if they've got a lot of really raw, unprocessed trauma that they're avoiding, I think potentially it could be a very harmful treatment," Dr Dwyer said. But for others, Dr Ross said the therapy could help people face the end of their life. "It's kind of like staring at the sun, you can't look at it for too long. It's so difficult and so terrifying for many to accept that they're not going to exist anymore," she said. "So to kind of be able to sit with, and face and walk through and transform, this experience of terror in the face of the unbearable meant that people could, instead of living with this terror, this daily existence with these thudding reminders that their life was going to be coming to an end very shortly — they could actually go, no, I'm still alive." The clinicians are now trying to expand the research, which is largely still in its infancy. For decades psychedelic therapy has been shunned by researchers and the medical community, weighed down by baggage from Richard Nixon's war on drugs as well as a lack of interest from pharmaceutical companies who do not stand to profit from non-patented treatments. Australia's national medical regulator only approved the therapeutic use of some psychedelics to treat a number of mental health conditions in 2023, making the country one of the first in the world to officially recognise psilocybin as a medicine. Dr Ross said as a result, more work was needed to understand how to deliver this type of treatment more broadly and affordably, with the treatment currently requiring hours of clinician time. "It's tens of thousands of dollars. We've seen it, you know, upwards of $26,000, which is just inaccessible for, you know, 95 per cent of the population," she said. "We need to be looking at how we can roll this out in a more cost-effective, time-effective and accessible way." Co-Director of Health and Policy at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre Ian Hickie said the results of the trial were encouraging, with other treatments for terminally ill patients historically failing to ease the anguish people can experience when they know they are about to die. "The focus of the study is a really interesting one. It's a population that traditionally hasn't done well with a lot of the traditional approaches, which are often sedative medicines, slow forms of psychological care, ineffective forms of meditation, or mindfulness that really don't go to the level of distress that people are experiencing," he said. But Professor Hickie noted he was cautious about "over-interpreting" the results of a small trial, emphasising the psychedelics could be harmful for certain people, and agreeing that more research needed to be done. "There may be a window that's created to make psychological treatments more effective as a consequence of using psychedelic drugs," he said "The psychedelics alone won't be the solution. What's the best combination? What opportunity is created and can you capitalise on that?" Dr Ross and Dr Dwyer's consulting rooms are a hidden retreat in the middle of busy Melbourne, largely unnoticed by those passing by. As she enters the space, Pat Quinn reunites with the two clinicians who helped her husband face death. Dr Ross offers Pat a hug and a cup of tea, while telling her they kept the sugar they bought especially for Michael when he would come in for his appointments. "Marg and Justin, what they did for Michael I think was outstanding. The difference that it made and the difference that it made for me," she said. She said Michael participated in the trial with the hope it would not only help him, but ultimately others too. "It made a huge difference and I don't think he would have coped and I don't know that I would have coped either if he hadn't been through that process and I would hope that it could be expanded to help a lot of other people through it," she said. "I know it's not a cure, but if it helps people to deal with what they're going through it's got to be beneficial. "It meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to him. And he meant a lot to me."
