After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project.
Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims.
The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe.
GSI did not tell water board officials about its ties to the oil industry, which shared the roughly $3.4 million in costs for the firm’s studies and related work with the water districts that benefit from the distribution of wastewater from oil extraction, known as “produced water.”
One member of the board’s Food Safety Expert Panel that reviewed GSI’s studies was nominated by Chevron and initially paid by the oil industry, and a second panel member worked as a consultant for an oil company selling produced water.
Still, the expert panel’s own review concluded that GSI’s studies could not answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with produced water.
Thomas Borch of Colorado State University, a leading expert on treating and reusing produced water for crop irrigation who was not involved in the project, said that based on the data GSI had and the way they designed the experiments, “they were not able to draw the conclusions they did. Period.”
Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, said in a statement via email that his firm agreed with the water board that the studies were performed in “the most technically sound manner.”
Clay Rodgers, the water board official who oversaw the Food Safety Project, said he promised the board that if any evidence were ever discovered that produced water was harming people consuming crops, “we would stop it immediately.”
Under the water board’s direction, GSI compiled a list of hundreds of chemicals used in oil operations, then focused on those that might pose health risks. But an absence of information to assess safety dogged the project from the start. Many of the chemicals had never been studied before, or lacked critical details about their use, the board’s panel of experts noted, because the oil companies said doing so would reveal trade secrets.
“Already there was a data gap there because some of those chemicals don’t have reliable toxicity information,” said John Fleming, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
The findings of the board and its expert panel found no food safety or public health concern, said David Ansolabehere, general manager of the Cawelo Water District, which has taken produced water from Chevron for decades. “Cawelo will continue to test the water based on the regional board’s permit requirements.”
Chevron tested for all additives used in the Kern River field for which a testing method approved by the Environmental Protection Agency exists, said Jonathan Harshman, communications advisor for Chevron’s San Joaquin Valley Business Unit.
Yet more than a fifth of the chemicals GSI identified — and 60% of those deemed most likely to pose a health risk — lacked both toxicity information and approved testing methods. The water board conceded that the data gaps left “potentially significant unknowns” about the chemicals’ safety.
“When they say this is safe,” Fleming said, “it’s based on what chemicals they were able to test.”
That means the “no identifiable increased health risks” assertion applies to just a fraction of potential chemicals in produced water applied to crops.
Oil’s profligate water use
In early August, during one of the driest summers on record, Wasco farmer Nate Siemens received a troubling notice from his irrigation district, which is regulated by the Central Valley water board. “Please be aware that this water includes some amount of reclaimed oilfield production water,” it said.
Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant with the Rodale Institute, was shocked. Siemens needed that water. But he’s transitioning his family’s Fat Uncle Farms to organic and wasn’t keen on using the oil industry’s wastewater to irrigate his almonds.
Siemens’s farming roots in the region predate the rise of Kern County’s oil industry, which produces more than 70% of the state’s oil. He was well aware that climate-polluting pump jacks operate among corporate farms growing miles of water-intensive almonds and pistachios, California’s most valuable export crops. But he had no idea just how entrenched oil operations had become in the county’s $7.6 billion agricultural industry until he received that notice.
About 30 miles southeast of Siemens’s farm, thousands of densely packed pump jacks stretch as far as the eye can see toward the horizon, bobbing robotically as they suck oil and water from wells carved into the denuded landscape of the Kern River Oil Field.
Pump jacks have pried more than 2 billion barrels from the field since oil was discovered here in 1899. But wresting Kern’s notoriously viscous crude from receding oil reserves requires injecting ever increasing amounts of water and hot steam underground.
That water returns to the surface along with groundwater. The mixture contains arsenic, uranium and other naturally occurring toxic elements, along with potentially hundreds of chemicals used in the extraction process. Since 1985, the ratio of water to oil recovered has more than doubled, from seven barrels of water per barrel of oil to 18 barrels today.
In a region with less than nine inches of rain in a normal year — the definition of a desert — getting enough water is a perennial concern. Nearly 30 years ago, Chevron struck what a former Cawelo Water District manager called a “win-win” deal to deliver some of the massive amounts of wastewater produced every day to farmers’ fields.
Every year, more than 38,000 acre-feet of produced water from Chevron and other oil companies hydrates California farmland, including roughly 11% of Kern County’s irrigated farmland. That’s enough to cover about 38,000 football fields with a foot of water, or more than 12.4 billion gallons.
Chevron treats produced water from its Kern River Oil Field by removing oil from water through gravity separation, then skimming off solids and residual oil before filtering it through walnut hulls. The water then travels several miles by pipeline to a Cawelo holding pond, where it’s blended with surface and groundwater and sent to irrigation canals.
The first time Seth Shonkoff, a public health scientist with the nonprofit Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers (PSE) for Healthy Energy and a member of the expert panel, visited the Cawelo holding pond several years ago, he smelled an “extraordinarily strong” whiff of asphalt and crude oil. The same odors were much less offensive when he visited the pond with the panel a few years later.
Either there’s natural variability in the water, Shonkoff said, or someone did something different before experts came to evaluate the operation.
Chevron claims that recycling produced water for irrigation allows the company to operate in a “sustainable manner,” by minimizing reliance on fresh water. Yet the massive energy requirements of the extraction process make Kern’s oil one of the world’s most climate-polluting fossil fuels, and Chevron one of California’s top greenhouse gas emitters.
“California has this green reputation, but if you scratch the surface on the oil industry in the state, you quickly discover that that’s not the case at all,” said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
“This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes,” Kretzmann said.
Unfit for purpose
The Central Valley water board said it focused on crops grown in oil wastewater to address public concerns, which included petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, protests outside the state Capitol and a bill to label food grown with the water.
Then-Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced the bill in 2015, after learning that farmers could get organic certification for shunning pesticides while using produced water, and consumers would never know. “I thought that was a real problem,” said Gatto.
The same year, legislators called hearings to increase scrutiny of oil companies after learning their practices posed risks to protected groundwater, including potential drinking water and irrigation supplies.
“The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately,” said Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, who oversaw the Food Safety Project.
Testing crops for harmful chemicals to figure out whether they’re safe to eat may seem logical, but techniques to analyze food for oil-related chemicals are “light years” behind those for detecting the compounds in water and soil, Shonkoff said. He raised the problem repeatedly at panel meetings.
In the end, the panel agreed. Its first recommendation to the board was to discontinue crop sampling. It would be far more productive to focus on produced water and irrigated soil, the panel said, using approaches that can reveal the toxicity of the water and soil itself.
Instead, Shonkoff said, “most of the work that was done to test things for chemicals was done in food. Unfortunately, that was, in my professional opinion, a pretty big waste of time and resources.”
The data GSI compiled — including the list of chemicals and their hazard profiles — was “way too limited” to draw conclusions about lack of toxicity, said Borch, the Colorado State University professor and produced water expert.
“That doesn’t mean it’s toxic,” said Borch. But there was no way they could conclude that produced water posed no identifiable health risks based on the data they had and their experimental approach, he said.
That leaves Siemens, who’s transitioning to organic, in a tough spot. Although produced water isn’t specifically defined under organic standards, organic farmers can’t use water that contains arsenic, a constituent of Kern’s produced water, and most synthetic compounds, like those used in oil and gas operations.
Siemens stopped watering his orchard for a few weeks after his district notified him about the produced water. “And the trees suffered,” he said.
But as the almond harvest approached, Siemens couldn’t risk losing the trees. He used just enough of the water to keep them alive.
“We didn’t know what we were getting into,” he said. “We just didn’t have time to do the research.”
Even if Siemens had done the research, it might not have mattered.
“We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it,” said Borch. “We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.”
A failure to disclose
One of the biggest hurdles to evaluating the safety of produced water has been oil companies’ unwillingness to reveal key details about the chemicals they put down wells.
Before joining the panel, Shonkoff was working on an independent study of fracking for the California Council on Science and Technology, or CCST, when he discovered a dataset he’d never seen before: a list of chemicals used in conventional oil development, from fields in Southern California. At the time, no other location in the country, and maybe the world, required chemical disclosure for conventional operations. The CCST assessment, commissioned by the state, revealed that testing and treatment of produced water used for irrigation might not remove or even detect chemicals used in fracking.
During fracking, operators inject a high-pressure mixture of water, chemicals and sand deep underground to break and then prop open surrounding rock to extract oil or gas. Conventional operations, by contrast, inject high-pressure steam to loosen gooey oil. Wastewater from both conventional and fracking operations falls under the heading of “produced water.”
When Shonkoff dug into the newfound data, and read the permits and regulations for Kern County’s produced water, he realized Chevron and other oil companies could put nearly any additives they wanted down wells.
Although the water board prohibits using water from fracked wells for irrigation, fracking and conventional operations employ many of the same chemicals, Shonkoff told the board at the panel’s first public meeting. And most compounds used in conventional extraction processes in Kern County, he said, lack the information needed to assess safety.
It’s imperative that oil companies disclose not just which chemicals they use in oil and gas production but also the volume and frequency of their use, Shonkoff said. Until then, he said, “I’m not quite sure that we can say with any real level of certainty that this is safe or unsafe.”
Rodgers of the water board said he’d obtained a list of all the chemical compounds oil companies use. But to avoid trade secret information, he said, the board could not get the recipe, which details how often a chemical is used and how much goes down wells.
Rodgers said he felt the highest priority was to get a list he could share with the panel members and the public and compensated for not getting the recipe by assuming all the chemicals were used.
But knowing the hazard associated with a chemical depends on knowing that recipe, the panel concluded. It also requires knowing chemicals’ breakdown products.
Chemicals are injected under intense heat and pressure into oil reservoirs, where they interact with scores of other compounds, before they’re pulled back to the surface and exposed to air. All these conditions can affect a chemical’s toxicity. And scientists have no good tools to understand how chemical interactions increase toxicity.
“This assumption that we should be looking for the chemicals that were added to oil and gas operations, and the assumption that they will continue to be those same chemicals after all the processes that they go through, is too big of a leap to make,” Shonkoff said. “Of course, you’re not going to find them, because they most certainly have transformed into other types of chemical constituents by the time things are being monitored and tested for.”
Some chemical additives might degrade into harmless substances, but others can prove more toxic. Shonkoff pointed to glutaraldehyde, a chemical widely used to kill microorganisms that gum up oil and gas extraction.
Glutaraldehyde is toxic to people, he said. Some of its breakdown products are even more toxic, some are less toxic and others are completely unknown because they haven’t been studied.
“When we’re talking about hundreds of chemicals, many of which we don’t have good toxicological information on,” Shonkoff said, “the idea that you can really understand the toxicological dimensions of their daughter products, and their transformation products in the presence of other chemicals, is outstripping what we know scientifically.”
Even a plant’s own metabolism can affect a chemical’s toxicity.
Plants could take up chemicals in one form and turn them into something else that’s more harmful, said Fleming of the Center for Biological Diversity. But if you’re just testing for a list of chemicals added to the well, he said, you’re testing for the wrong thing.
Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, agreed to answer questions only by email. Asked about the focus on testing crops, Scofield offered a carefully worded statement that ended: “We agree with the Water Board and their scientific advisor that this direct testing was the most technically sound manner to address the questions posed in the study.”
When asked about the failure to address chemicals’ breakdown products, he responded with the exact same statement.
“There’s a really big assumption baked into the GSI work,” said Shonkoff. The studies assume that the chemicals remain in the same form from the oil field to a consumer’s plate and that it’s sufficient to monitor those particular chemicals, he said. “And that’s obviously incorrect.”
Still waiting for answers
California supplies 99% of the world’s almonds and pistachios, mostly from Kern County.
Water board regulators say nothing has received more scrutiny than the oil field water that irrigates those crops. “We know more about that produced water than probably any other produced water in the world,” said Rodgers.
But the evidence is still so scarce, said Colorado State’s Borch, “you can argue both sides.”
There are no established tools to do a “real toxicity analysis,” Borch said, and there’s “not a good framework” to evaluate risk.
In a study of treated produced water released into a stream for irrigation in Wyoming, Borch and his colleagues found that most of the chemicals they detected had no health safety standard. There were likely other chemicals and breakdown products “with unknown impacts” that had escaped detection, they noted in the 2020 study, published in Science of the Total Environment. In a related study published later that year, Borch’s team assessed the potential of treated produced water to cause cancer. Several different tests showed that the water caused increased mutation rates — an indication of cancer risk — even though most chemicals were present in low concentrations.
Many stakeholders stand to benefit if produced water can be reused safely, the scientists wrote. But if the practice is expanded prematurely, they warned, it could harm water quality as well as the health of soil, livestock, and crops and people who eat them.
People are still using benchmarks for water quality that were not developed with oil field wastewater in mind, Borch said, even though the complexity and chemical makeup of produced water is very different.
And simply looking to see whether chemicals are present, as the GSI studies did, doesn’t say anything about toxicity. Many compounds in the wastewater may be present in concentrations low enough to escape detection, said Borch. But that doesn’t mean they’re not toxic, he said: “It just means you don’t have the method that allows for extraction and analysis of the compounds.”
Borch’s “adverse outcome” approach is also likely to catch the breakdown products the Food Safety Panel identified as a major testing inadequacy.
The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a similar approach, led by its Region 8 office in Colorado, as part of a national program to study the safety of produced water, said Tricia Pfeiffer, an environmental engineer in Region 8’s Technical Assistance Branch.
The effort is addressing the need to harness cutting-edge approaches for evaluating oil-related contaminants, and their byproducts, in produced water intended for reuse. That includes enlisting tools to analyze human cells to identify any worrisome changes caused by chemicals in produced water while applying complementary approaches to detect toxic constituents in the water.
“This is actual research,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s way more complicated than doing something that already has an analytical method.”
As we grapple with climate change issues, she said, “we’re looking for alternative water sources. And as a researcher, my biggest goal with this project is to help fill data gaps and make sure that we’re protective of human health and the environment.”
Borch said the technology exists to remove all sorts of contaminants from water, but it’s far more expensive than the low-cost methods used by Kern County oil companies. If people aren’t willing to pay the real costs of growing crops in a water-scarce region, he said, “maybe we shouldn’t even produce almonds because they use so much water.”
Choosing less water-intensive crops is critical to keeping land productive, said Siemens, the Wasco farmer who was shocked to learn that his water district was sending him oil field wastewater.
Siemens is moving away from thirsty almonds to dry-farming olives, mulberries and figs, focusing on farming in ways that suit the region. Like raising goats.
“Goats would be happy to eat all these weeds out there,” Siemens said, pointing to the field behind his house. And lots of people in the valley would be happy to eat goat meat, he said. “You can go to any taqueria in the area and buy carne de cabra.”
Siemens’s vision of sustainable farming does not include taking the wastewater of an industry whose greenhouse gas emissions have helped fuel California’s relentless droughts and contaminated its precious groundwater supplies.
“We’re not just trying to meet a USDA organic standard,” Siemens said. “We’re trying to increase the vitality of this land for the future. Our kids live here, and I hope my grandkids will live here.”
That means protecting the soil and aquifers that helped turn Kern County into one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.
Meanwhile, the results of a truly independent analysis of whether oil field-produced water is fit to irrigate crops sent around the world, Pfeiffer said, is still years away.
Anne Marshall-Chalmers, an Inside Climate News fellow, contributed to this report.
InsideClimate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here.
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","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c15bb8bab267e058708a9eeaeef16bf?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":"ezraromero","facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"news","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"science","roles":["editor"]}],"headData":{"title":"Ezra David Romero | KQED","description":"Climate Reporter","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c15bb8bab267e058708a9eeaeef16bf?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9c15bb8bab267e058708a9eeaeef16bf?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/eromero"},"byline_science_1978374":{"type":"authors","id":"byline_science_1978374","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_science_1978374","name":"Liza Gross, Inside Climate News","isLoading":false}},"breakingNewsReducer":{},"campaignFinanceReducer":{},"firebase":{"requesting":{},"requested":{},"timestamps":{},"data":{},"ordered":{},"auth":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"authError":null,"profile":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"listeners":{"byId":{},"allIds":[]},"isInitializing":false,"errors":[]},"navBarReducer":{"navBarId":"news","fullView":true,"showPlayer":false},"navMenuReducer":{"menus":[{"key":"menu1","items":[{"name":"News","link":"/","type":"title"},{"name":"Politics","link":"/politics"},{"name":"Science","link":"/science"},{"name":"Education","link":"/educationnews"},{"name":"Housing","link":"/housing"},{"name":"Immigration","link":"/immigration"},{"name":"Criminal Justice","link":"/criminaljustice"},{"name":"Silicon Valley","link":"/siliconvalley"},{"name":"Forum","link":"/forum"},{"name":"The California Report","link":"/californiareport"}]},{"key":"menu2","items":[{"name":"Arts & Culture","link":"/arts","type":"title"},{"name":"Critics’ Picks","link":"/thedolist"},{"name":"Cultural Commentary","link":"/artscommentary"},{"name":"Food & Drink","link":"/food"},{"name":"Bay Area Hip-Hop","link":"/bayareahiphop"},{"name":"Rebel Girls","link":"/rebelgirls"},{"name":"Arts Video","link":"/artsvideos"}]},{"key":"menu3","items":[{"name":"Podcasts","link":"/podcasts","type":"title"},{"name":"Bay Curious","link":"/podcasts/baycurious"},{"name":"Rightnowish","link":"/podcasts/rightnowish"},{"name":"The Bay","link":"/podcasts/thebay"},{"name":"On Our Watch","link":"/podcasts/onourwatch"},{"name":"Mindshift","link":"/podcasts/mindshift"},{"name":"Consider This","link":"/podcasts/considerthis"},{"name":"Political Breakdown","link":"/podcasts/politicalbreakdown"}]},{"key":"menu4","items":[{"name":"Live Radio","link":"/radio","type":"title"},{"name":"TV","link":"/tv","type":"title"},{"name":"Events","link":"/events","type":"title"},{"name":"For Educators","link":"/education","type":"title"},{"name":"Support KQED","link":"/support","type":"title"},{"name":"About","link":"/about","type":"title"},{"name":"Help Center","link":"https://kqed-helpcenter.kqed.org/s","type":"title"}]}]},"pagesReducer":{},"postsReducer":{"stream_live":{"type":"live","id":"stream_live","audioUrl":"https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio","title":"Live Stream","excerpt":"Live Stream information currently unavailable.","link":"/radio","featImg":"","label":{"name":"KQED Live","link":"/"}},"stream_kqedNewscast":{"type":"posts","id":"stream_kqedNewscast","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1","title":"KQED Newscast","featImg":"","label":{"name":"88.5 FM","link":"/"}},"science_1992513":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1992513","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1992513","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"atmospheric-rivers-in-californias-ancient-past-exceeded-modern-storms","title":"Atmospheric Rivers in California’s Ancient Past Exceeded Modern Storms","publishDate":1714561229,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Atmospheric Rivers in California’s Ancient Past Exceeded Modern Storms | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>Clarke Knight studies just how far back in history, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1935067/rivers-in-the-sky-what-you-need-to-know-about-atmospheric-river-storms\">massive atmospheric river storms\u003c/a> wreaked havoc on California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01357-z\">she reviewed her recent findings\u003c/a> on a computer at her then-home in Menlo Park, the power went out. The cause? An atmospheric river in February of last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of an ironic moment to be thwarted by the very thing I’m trying to understand,” said Knight, a USGS research geographer who studies paleoclimatology — the effects of weather on Earth in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By looking 3,200 years into the past, Knight extended atmospheric river knowledge significantly: twice in three millennia, atmospheric river activity exceeded anything in modern instrumental record keeping, deluging the state with widespread rainfall beyond what current Californians have ever experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 32 massive storms that drenched California last year pale in comparison to some of the storms in the state’s past. Climate scientists argue Knight’s data established a new baseline for understanding intensifying storms in today’s warming world because of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Understanding what happened when we didn’t have this additional layer of climate change is important to consider as a baseline for what to expect,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Three women wearing puffy jackets hold a clear tube full of dark soil and brownish clear water above it.\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Geological Survey Scientists Clarke Knight, Lysanna Anderson, Marie Champagne hold an extracted sediment core. They later analyzed the cores to determine past atmospheric river activity.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knight and her colleagues extracted around 15-foot-deep sediment samples from the bottom of Leonard Lake, an almost entirely undisturbed lake in Mendocino County. Atmospheric rivers often hit the lake, causing sediment layers to settle on the lake floor, cementing things like titanium and silica into place. Using radiocarbon dating to determine the age of those organic materials, Knight compared that signal with current records. Once unearthed, the cores provided a more precise long-term history of atmospheric rivers in California.[aside postID=\"science_1991123,science_1991417,science_1985890\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have provided some of the first direct physical evidence of atmospheric storms in California’s history that had not been previously known,” she said. “[It is] about 20 times longer than the information we had previously.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It sets the baseline’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Widespread meteorology records in California began in the late 1940s, and for the longest time, historians viewed the wettest and most disastrous rain event in California as the Great Flood of 1862 — which killed at least 4,000 people and cost more than $3 billion in today’s dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://scripps.ucsd.edu/profiles/cpoulsen\">Cody Poulsen\u003c/a>, who studies atmospheric rivers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said Knight’s findings are one missing puzzle piece in our understanding of future weather patterns in a warming climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sets the baseline in the sense that it provides a logical connection regarding the importance of atmospheric rivers,” he said. “This study creates a sobering result that the things that we think are extreme, amplified via global warming and climate change, could be more extreme.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2406px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A small glassy lake with hills, fog and trees reflect upon the surface of the lake. A small square wooden dock leads into the lake connected to a small aluminum boat and kayaks.\" width=\"2406\" height=\"1604\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED.jpg 2406w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2406px) 100vw, 2406px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clarke Knight studied Leonard Lake in Mendocino County because it sits relatively untouched and because atmospheric rivers often hit the body of water.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knight’s study does have limitations. First, it focused only on one lake. Poulsen said that samples from lakes across the state are needed to have a more comprehensive view of atmospheric rivers’ effect on California in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just the tip of the spear,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, the study doesn’t resolve individual storms or water years. Instead, each data point holds around 10 years of information, “which in our field is extremely high resolution,” Knight said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://geography.berkeley.edu/professor-john-chiang\">John Chiang\u003c/a>, a UC Berkeley professor who studies atmospheric science, said Knight’s new record doesn’t accurately predict future storms in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That being said, it does set a baseline in that this is a first of its kind to reconstruct the atmospheric activity in the past,” he said. “This data doesn’t corroborate the exact physics of what we think will happen in a future climate. Those variations occurred in the past when we didn’t have humanity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The findings bolster our current efforts’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Knight also selected Leonard Lake because water managers operate large regional reservoirs. More \u003ca href=\"https://cw3e.ucsd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CW3E_RussianRiverDroughtReadinessReport.pdf\">than half of the water delivered to that watershed along the Russian River comes from atmospheric rivers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knight hopes to expand her work to similar lakes across the coastal range and said learning from history “sets us up for a better conversation about risks.” She also would like her study to cause the state and water managers to “reassess the ability of existing infrastructure to handle these events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992501\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992501\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A light wood surface with two columns of layered black and grey soil. A pink colored hand with a wrist full of beaded bracelets sits next to them for scale.\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">USGS research geologist Lysanna Anderson compares sediment samples from Leonard Lake in Mendocino County to her hand. Each layer of soil represents years of sediment deposited onto the lake floor.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-anderson-a24a6310/\">Michael Anderson\u003c/a>, the state’s climatologist, is excited about the study because it takes computer model projections of future weather and turns them into “tangible” observations showing what happened in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That creates a stronger motivation to keep up the work we’re doing,” he said. “Our system is built to manage floods up to a certain size. Beyond that, the system can be overwhelmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson said the study is helpful in understanding “what makes extreme storms happen,” but more data is needed as the state prepares its reservoirs and waterways for extreme storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the Russian River in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, water managers track atmospheric rivers using radar units dispersed across mountaintops, flights during storms and the release of water from reservoirs when a big storm approaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the findings bolster our current efforts to plan for the extremes that we’ve already been doing,” said \u003ca href=\"https://cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-welcomes-chris-delaney/\">Chris Delaney\u003c/a>, principal engineer at Sonoma Water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the agency might use Knight’s study in future planning because the new information means extreme events could extend beyond what the agency can handle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we think is a 100-year event or a 500-year event now is probably not accurate if you were to look at the much longer period of climate like this study has done,” Delaney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nathan Baskett, a hydrogeologist for Sonoma Water, said that having this new historical information about atmospheric rivers allows the agency to prepare for what could happen in the coming decades as the world continues to warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s nice to see that they have actual physical evidence of it,” he said. “From where I’m sitting, the more data, the better because I think that having that kind of data helps us project for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"New research sets a new baseline for the intensity of atmospheric rivers in California and provides clues into storms the state will face as the world warms. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714778622,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":29,"wordCount":1152},"headData":{"title":"Atmospheric Rivers in California’s Ancient Past Exceeded Modern Storms | KQED","description":"New research sets a new baseline for the intensity of atmospheric rivers in California and provides clues into storms the state will face as the world warms. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Atmospheric Rivers in California’s Ancient Past Exceeded Modern Storms","datePublished":"2024-05-01T11:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-03T23:23:42.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-1992513","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1992513/atmospheric-rivers-in-californias-ancient-past-exceeded-modern-storms","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Clarke Knight studies just how far back in history, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1935067/rivers-in-the-sky-what-you-need-to-know-about-atmospheric-river-storms\">massive atmospheric river storms\u003c/a> wreaked havoc on California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01357-z\">she reviewed her recent findings\u003c/a> on a computer at her then-home in Menlo Park, the power went out. The cause? An atmospheric river in February of last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of an ironic moment to be thwarted by the very thing I’m trying to understand,” said Knight, a USGS research geographer who studies paleoclimatology — the effects of weather on Earth in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By looking 3,200 years into the past, Knight extended atmospheric river knowledge significantly: twice in three millennia, atmospheric river activity exceeded anything in modern instrumental record keeping, deluging the state with widespread rainfall beyond what current Californians have ever experienced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 32 massive storms that drenched California last year pale in comparison to some of the storms in the state’s past. Climate scientists argue Knight’s data established a new baseline for understanding intensifying storms in today’s warming world because of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Understanding what happened when we didn’t have this additional layer of climate change is important to consider as a baseline for what to expect,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992499\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992499\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Three women wearing puffy jackets hold a clear tube full of dark soil and brownish clear water above it.\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/DRILLINGCORE-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Geological Survey Scientists Clarke Knight, Lysanna Anderson, Marie Champagne hold an extracted sediment core. They later analyzed the cores to determine past atmospheric river activity.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knight and her colleagues extracted around 15-foot-deep sediment samples from the bottom of Leonard Lake, an almost entirely undisturbed lake in Mendocino County. Atmospheric rivers often hit the lake, causing sediment layers to settle on the lake floor, cementing things like titanium and silica into place. Using radiocarbon dating to determine the age of those organic materials, Knight compared that signal with current records. Once unearthed, the cores provided a more precise long-term history of atmospheric rivers in California.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1991123,science_1991417,science_1985890","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have provided some of the first direct physical evidence of atmospheric storms in California’s history that had not been previously known,” she said. “[It is] about 20 times longer than the information we had previously.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It sets the baseline’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Widespread meteorology records in California began in the late 1940s, and for the longest time, historians viewed the wettest and most disastrous rain event in California as the Great Flood of 1862 — which killed at least 4,000 people and cost more than $3 billion in today’s dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://scripps.ucsd.edu/profiles/cpoulsen\">Cody Poulsen\u003c/a>, who studies atmospheric rivers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said Knight’s findings are one missing puzzle piece in our understanding of future weather patterns in a warming climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sets the baseline in the sense that it provides a logical connection regarding the importance of atmospheric rivers,” he said. “This study creates a sobering result that the things that we think are extreme, amplified via global warming and climate change, could be more extreme.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2406px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A small glassy lake with hills, fog and trees reflect upon the surface of the lake. A small square wooden dock leads into the lake connected to a small aluminum boat and kayaks.\" width=\"2406\" height=\"1604\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED.jpg 2406w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/LeonardLake_NatureComms-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2406px) 100vw, 2406px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clarke Knight studied Leonard Lake in Mendocino County because it sits relatively untouched and because atmospheric rivers often hit the body of water.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knight’s study does have limitations. First, it focused only on one lake. Poulsen said that samples from lakes across the state are needed to have a more comprehensive view of atmospheric rivers’ effect on California in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just the tip of the spear,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, the study doesn’t resolve individual storms or water years. Instead, each data point holds around 10 years of information, “which in our field is extremely high resolution,” Knight said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://geography.berkeley.edu/professor-john-chiang\">John Chiang\u003c/a>, a UC Berkeley professor who studies atmospheric science, said Knight’s new record doesn’t accurately predict future storms in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That being said, it does set a baseline in that this is a first of its kind to reconstruct the atmospheric activity in the past,” he said. “This data doesn’t corroborate the exact physics of what we think will happen in a future climate. Those variations occurred in the past when we didn’t have humanity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The findings bolster our current efforts’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Knight also selected Leonard Lake because water managers operate large regional reservoirs. More \u003ca href=\"https://cw3e.ucsd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/CW3E_RussianRiverDroughtReadinessReport.pdf\">than half of the water delivered to that watershed along the Russian River comes from atmospheric rivers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knight hopes to expand her work to similar lakes across the coastal range and said learning from history “sets us up for a better conversation about risks.” She also would like her study to cause the state and water managers to “reassess the ability of existing infrastructure to handle these events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992501\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992501\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A light wood surface with two columns of layered black and grey soil. A pink colored hand with a wrist full of beaded bracelets sits next to them for scale.\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/WHATCLAYLAYERSLOOKLIKE-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">USGS research geologist Lysanna Anderson compares sediment samples from Leonard Lake in Mendocino County to her hand. Each layer of soil represents years of sediment deposited onto the lake floor.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-anderson-a24a6310/\">Michael Anderson\u003c/a>, the state’s climatologist, is excited about the study because it takes computer model projections of future weather and turns them into “tangible” observations showing what happened in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That creates a stronger motivation to keep up the work we’re doing,” he said. “Our system is built to manage floods up to a certain size. Beyond that, the system can be overwhelmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson said the study is helpful in understanding “what makes extreme storms happen,” but more data is needed as the state prepares its reservoirs and waterways for extreme storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the Russian River in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, water managers track atmospheric rivers using radar units dispersed across mountaintops, flights during storms and the release of water from reservoirs when a big storm approaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the findings bolster our current efforts to plan for the extremes that we’ve already been doing,” said \u003ca href=\"https://cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-welcomes-chris-delaney/\">Chris Delaney\u003c/a>, principal engineer at Sonoma Water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the agency might use Knight’s study in future planning because the new information means extreme events could extend beyond what the agency can handle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we think is a 100-year event or a 500-year event now is probably not accurate if you were to look at the much longer period of climate like this study has done,” Delaney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nathan Baskett, a hydrogeologist for Sonoma Water, said that having this new historical information about atmospheric rivers allows the agency to prepare for what could happen in the coming decades as the world continues to warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s nice to see that they have actual physical evidence of it,” he said. “From where I’m sitting, the more data, the better because I think that having that kind of data helps us project for the future.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1992513/atmospheric-rivers-in-californias-ancient-past-exceeded-modern-storms","authors":["11746"],"categories":["science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_2227","science_4417","science_4414","science_5295","science_2878"],"featImg":"science_1992516","label":"science"},"science_1992526":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1992526","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1992526","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"worlds-largest-digital-camera-built-in-the-bay-area-to-illuminate-mysteries-of-space","title":"World's Largest Digital Camera Built in the Bay Area to Illuminate Mysteries of the Universe","publishDate":1714647628,"format":"standard","headTitle":"World’s Largest Digital Camera Built in the Bay Area to Illuminate Mysteries of the Universe | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>Engineers and scientists completed building a camera the size of a family mini-van, capable of capturing large swaths of the night sky in exquisite detail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera, assembled at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, is now on the cusp of doing what scientists and engineers have spent 20 years dreaming, designing, building and testing it to do: take a 10-year-long movie of the night sky from its perch atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, the camera will be shipped to its final home, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, named for an American astronomer and paired with a custom-built telescope designed to go with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No other survey of this caliber has been completed since the 1950s when the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey photographed the entire Southern Hemisphere. The survey will generate a vast trove of images, allowing astronomers to study dark matter, a mysterious type of mass that does not interact with light or any known particle. It will also explore dark energy, an even more mysterious force that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe — and a lot more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sensor for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, camera at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy, in Menlo Park on Jan. 29, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“To know that this stuff — is it even a stuff? We don’t know — it makes up 70% of the universe,” said Aaron Roodman, a professor of particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC, who also led the effort of putting the camera together and testing it. “It’s just a fantastic mystery that we’ll be able to study that in multiple different ways using data from Rubin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera will capture 3,200 megapixels per shot; its images are so detailed that it can see a golf ball from about 15 miles away. The survey should observe an estimated 20 billion galaxies — a significant fraction of the galaxies in the observable universe — providing incremental results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can study how galaxies evolve. Many of those galaxies change in brightness. We’ll be able to detect that because we’ll observe them so many times,” almost a thousand times throughout the survey, said Roodman, who specializes in studying dark energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our galaxy and its billions of stars will also be captured, enabling studies of how the Milky Way was formed and of dark matter — one of the other big mysteries in science today — that makes up 25% of it and everything else in the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we don’t know what it is either,” Roodman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asteroids, comets and supernovae — will all be captured by the massive camera and its telescope. Will exoplanets also be studied?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I won’t be surprised at all if clever people figure out ways to use the data from the Rubin Observatory to hunt for exoplanets,” Roodman said, adding that one of the nice things about the project is the data has no proprietary period — that is, no period where a certain group of scientists will hold onto it — mining it for discoveries before sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have that. The data becomes public, available to the whole U.S. science community and select international partners right away,” Roodman said. “I definitely expect clever people to find ways to use it that I can’t tell you today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the data will also be publicly available, allowing citizen scientists and night sky aficionados to enjoy its pictures. Some of the scientists who worked on the camera itself are excited about that aspect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s really neat,” said Andrew Rasmussen, a research scientist at SLAC and one of the camera’s instrument scientists. “I have a young daughter who I hope to get online looking at pictures from the camera.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Parking Maseratis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Putting the Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera together was an unprecedented challenge, Roodman said, because no other piece of equipment like it has been built before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really pushed the edge of what’s possible to get the most performance possible out of the camera,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, camera at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy, in Menlo Park on Jan. 29, 2024. The camera is the world’s largest digital camera and will be transported to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the mountains of Chile, where it will be for a decade mapping the southern sky. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the most difficult aspects was the installation of the camera’s sensors. The work, Roodman said, was like parking a Maserati in between two other Maseratis, with less than an inch to spare on either side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the camera are 201 individual image sensors, each a 16-megapixel device, 4 centimeters by 4 centimeters, and they could only be held by the back for fear of ruining them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So the sensors were pretty big. And we kept the gaps between them to half a millimeter. And that turned out to be actually very difficult mechanically to put together, to assemble,” Roodman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took hours in a clean room for just one of the 25 total rafts to be carefully placed inside the body of the camera. Each raft was a million-dollar tower of electronics topped by an array of sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the work, the team constructed a robotic arm to assist with the placement of the sensors, but the robot was not precise enough to place them on its own. One person would monitor the location of the individual rafts in the X, Y and Z plane and would call out to the arm operator, “500 microns minus X” or “250 microns minus Y!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the challenge, the LSST — the world’s biggest digital camera, verified by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/728927-largest-digital-camera#:~:text=The%20LSST%20camera%20combines%20a,ball%20from%2024%20km%20away\">Guinness Book of World Records\u003c/a> — was completed in April. (They called it the “highest-resolution” camera.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preparing for primetime\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The camera will live at an observatory named after Vera Rubin. Her work in the mid-60s provided convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter. Before her, dark matter had been a concept, but not one that was taken seriously.[aside postID=science_1984704 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/231016-AMES-RESEARCH-CENTER-NASA-1020x680.jpg']Rubin, despite her success, encountered barriers as a woman working in science and sought to help other women enter the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, officials at the \u003ca href=\"https://rubinobservatory.org/about/vera-rubin\">Rubin Observatory\u003c/a> say they seek to continue that spirit and welcome all into the field of science, including people of color, nonbinary people, people with disabilities and those from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://rubinobservatory.org/events/rubin-pcw-2024\">Rubin research program\u003c/a> is ramping up, with meetings and workshops this spring and summer about how to use data from the observatory, including how to teach astronomy using Rubin images and new tools for analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the exciting things about the Rubin Observatory is that the science program is so very broad,” Roodman said. “And it’s broad because we’re taking pictures of everything. The way a lot of telescopes work is, people write proposals and they are interested in looking at a particular object or at a particular kind of object. We’re not doing that. We are going to take pictures of everything, by the end we’ll have seen every part of the Southern Hemisphere sky almost a thousand times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first images are expected to land in the spring of 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The 20-year project was completed by scientists and engineers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park. It will study everything from dark matter to dark energy atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714677695,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":29,"wordCount":1337},"headData":{"title":"World's Largest Digital Camera Built in the Bay Area to Illuminate Mysteries of the Universe | KQED","description":"The 20-year project was completed by scientists and engineers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park. It will study everything from dark matter to dark energy atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"World's Largest Digital Camera Built in the Bay Area to Illuminate Mysteries of the Universe","datePublished":"2024-05-02T11:00:28.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-02T19:21:35.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-1992526","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1992526/worlds-largest-digital-camera-built-in-the-bay-area-to-illuminate-mysteries-of-space","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Engineers and scientists completed building a camera the size of a family mini-van, capable of capturing large swaths of the night sky in exquisite detail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera, assembled at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, is now on the cusp of doing what scientists and engineers have spent 20 years dreaming, designing, building and testing it to do: take a 10-year-long movie of the night sky from its perch atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, the camera will be shipped to its final home, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, named for an American astronomer and paired with a custom-built telescope designed to go with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No other survey of this caliber has been completed since the 1950s when the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey photographed the entire Southern Hemisphere. The survey will generate a vast trove of images, allowing astronomers to study dark matter, a mysterious type of mass that does not interact with light or any known particle. It will also explore dark energy, an even more mysterious force that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe — and a lot more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-63-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sensor for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, camera at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy, in Menlo Park on Jan. 29, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“To know that this stuff — is it even a stuff? We don’t know — it makes up 70% of the universe,” said Aaron Roodman, a professor of particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC, who also led the effort of putting the camera together and testing it. “It’s just a fantastic mystery that we’ll be able to study that in multiple different ways using data from Rubin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera will capture 3,200 megapixels per shot; its images are so detailed that it can see a golf ball from about 15 miles away. The survey should observe an estimated 20 billion galaxies — a significant fraction of the galaxies in the observable universe — providing incremental results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can study how galaxies evolve. Many of those galaxies change in brightness. We’ll be able to detect that because we’ll observe them so many times,” almost a thousand times throughout the survey, said Roodman, who specializes in studying dark energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our galaxy and its billions of stars will also be captured, enabling studies of how the Milky Way was formed and of dark matter — one of the other big mysteries in science today — that makes up 25% of it and everything else in the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we don’t know what it is either,” Roodman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asteroids, comets and supernovae — will all be captured by the massive camera and its telescope. Will exoplanets also be studied?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I won’t be surprised at all if clever people figure out ways to use the data from the Rubin Observatory to hunt for exoplanets,” Roodman said, adding that one of the nice things about the project is the data has no proprietary period — that is, no period where a certain group of scientists will hold onto it — mining it for discoveries before sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have that. The data becomes public, available to the whole U.S. science community and select international partners right away,” Roodman said. “I definitely expect clever people to find ways to use it that I can’t tell you today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the data will also be publicly available, allowing citizen scientists and night sky aficionados to enjoy its pictures. Some of the scientists who worked on the camera itself are excited about that aspect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s really neat,” said Andrew Rasmussen, a research scientist at SLAC and one of the camera’s instrument scientists. “I have a young daughter who I hope to get online looking at pictures from the camera.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Parking Maseratis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Putting the Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera together was an unprecedented challenge, Roodman said, because no other piece of equipment like it has been built before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really pushed the edge of what’s possible to get the most performance possible out of the camera,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/240129-SLAC-56-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, camera at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy, in Menlo Park on Jan. 29, 2024. The camera is the world’s largest digital camera and will be transported to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the mountains of Chile, where it will be for a decade mapping the southern sky. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the most difficult aspects was the installation of the camera’s sensors. The work, Roodman said, was like parking a Maserati in between two other Maseratis, with less than an inch to spare on either side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the camera are 201 individual image sensors, each a 16-megapixel device, 4 centimeters by 4 centimeters, and they could only be held by the back for fear of ruining them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So the sensors were pretty big. And we kept the gaps between them to half a millimeter. And that turned out to be actually very difficult mechanically to put together, to assemble,” Roodman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took hours in a clean room for just one of the 25 total rafts to be carefully placed inside the body of the camera. Each raft was a million-dollar tower of electronics topped by an array of sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the work, the team constructed a robotic arm to assist with the placement of the sensors, but the robot was not precise enough to place them on its own. One person would monitor the location of the individual rafts in the X, Y and Z plane and would call out to the arm operator, “500 microns minus X” or “250 microns minus Y!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the challenge, the LSST — the world’s biggest digital camera, verified by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/728927-largest-digital-camera#:~:text=The%20LSST%20camera%20combines%20a,ball%20from%2024%20km%20away\">Guinness Book of World Records\u003c/a> — was completed in April. (They called it the “highest-resolution” camera.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preparing for primetime\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The camera will live at an observatory named after Vera Rubin. Her work in the mid-60s provided convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter. Before her, dark matter had been a concept, but not one that was taken seriously.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1984704","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/10/231016-AMES-RESEARCH-CENTER-NASA-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Rubin, despite her success, encountered barriers as a woman working in science and sought to help other women enter the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, officials at the \u003ca href=\"https://rubinobservatory.org/about/vera-rubin\">Rubin Observatory\u003c/a> say they seek to continue that spirit and welcome all into the field of science, including people of color, nonbinary people, people with disabilities and those from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://rubinobservatory.org/events/rubin-pcw-2024\">Rubin research program\u003c/a> is ramping up, with meetings and workshops this spring and summer about how to use data from the observatory, including how to teach astronomy using Rubin images and new tools for analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the exciting things about the Rubin Observatory is that the science program is so very broad,” Roodman said. “And it’s broad because we’re taking pictures of everything. The way a lot of telescopes work is, people write proposals and they are interested in looking at a particular object or at a particular kind of object. We’re not doing that. We are going to take pictures of everything, by the end we’ll have seen every part of the Southern Hemisphere sky almost a thousand times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first images are expected to land in the spring of 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1992526/worlds-largest-digital-camera-built-in-the-bay-area-to-illuminate-mysteries-of-space","authors":["11088"],"categories":["science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_134","science_4417","science_4414","science_309","science_577","science_5187"],"featImg":"science_1992539","label":"science"},"science_1992558":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1992558","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1992558","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-an-ocean-exploration-video-game-out-of-monterey-bay-contributes-to-science","title":"How an Ocean Exploration Video Game Out of Monterey Bay Contributes to Science","publishDate":1714734034,"format":"image","headTitle":"How an Ocean Exploration Video Game Out of Monterey Bay Contributes to Science | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>As you drift along the currents in our underwater ocean world, you’ll find jellies, sea spiders, starfish, anemones, octopuses, isopods, and so many other species of marine life. Your mission as an ocean explorer is to collect as many species of ocean life as possible, identify them, and contribute to the field of science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fathomverse.game/\">FathomVerse\u003c/a>, a new mobile game created by \u003ca href=\"https://www.oceanvisionai.org/\">Ocean Vision AI\u003c/a> at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI. The free game allows anyone with a phone or tablet to participate in ocean exploration and discovery. It was recently launched on the \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fathomverse/id6469854247\">App Store\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mbari.fathomverse&pcampaignid=web_share&pli=1\">Google Play\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar to Animal Crossing and Sims, this \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_game\">cozy game\u003c/a> gives off a relaxing vibe. It takes a gamer deep into the tranquil realms of the blue ocean while ambient music plays in the background as they slowly gather ocean animals as part of a mission. Depending on your mood, you can set the game to play music inspired by ocean soundscape or listen to a hydrophone — a collection of real sounds of the ocean and marine animals like whales, compiled by MBARI’s underwater microphone off California’s coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game offers the choice between 40 different animal missions. On each mission, gamers receive a briefing that teaches them how to identify different sea creatures through diagrams that point out important characteristics. The goal of the game is to correctly identify as many marine life as possible, and collect points along the way, while unlocking more complex groups of animal missions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992562\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">FathomVerse is a new mobile game created by Ocean Vision AI at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By playing the game, you’re helping to improve AI models that researchers use to understand life in our ocean,” said Lilli Wakinekona Carlsen, engagement coordinator with Ocean Vision AI at MBARI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to advances in deep-sea imaging technology and remote-operated vehicles, researchers are able to collect massive amounts of visual data from the depths of our ocean — including photos and videos of marine life that’s all available on MBARI’s open-source image database, \u003ca href=\"https://fathomnet.org/fathomnet/#/\">FathomNet\u003c/a>. While AI can help researchers analyze this deluge of visual data more efficiently, we still need expert humans to ensure AI can correctly sort through and categorize underwater creatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need people in the loop to continuously verify and train the [AI] models. And right now, only a small number of experts can do that,” Carlsen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To solve this problem, FathomVerse seeks to engage ocean enthusiasts around the world to help review and label images so AI can correctly recognize ocean animals. “We were inspired by community science apps like iNaturalist and eBird. And we set out to gamify this process of training and verifying so that more people can join in our effort to improve the AI that we use for ocean exploration,” Carlsen added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCHd54kkiRs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some inspiration for it came from another game: Pokémon Go. During the height of the pandemic, Kakani Katija saw a resurgence of the game, where players walk around and use their phones to capture Pokémon — imaginary creatures with special powers. She said that there’s a cultural phenomenon in this kind of game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are putting in this time and effort to look for animals that don’t even exist. We’ve created a generation of people who could tell you all the minutia around each Pokémon,” Katija said.\u003cbr>\n“I wanted to see the same excitement for ocean life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katija is MBARI’s principal engineer who led the development of FathomVerse. She said that there’s a large knowledge gap when it comes to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that animals have evolved over really long periods of time to do incredible things, to survive a really difficult and challenging place, there might be secrets there that we can unlock if we could adequately understand and observe them,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To develop FathomVerse, Katija and MBARI software engineers collaborated with game design experts \u003ca href=\"https://www.ranj.com/en/\">&ranj Serious Games\u003c/a> — a Netherlands-based game development studio focused on positive behavioral change through play — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.internetofelephants.com/\">Internet of Elephants\u003c/a>, a nature tech enterprise based in Kenya focused on rekindling relationships between people and wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The game is an opportunity to accelerate our capabilities of observing life in the ocean while also sharing the excitement and the wonder of the animals that we see with a much broader audience,” Katija said. It’s also an opportunity to lean on AI research and “present the use of AI in a really good light.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's FathomVerse brings you into an underwater world where you are an ocean explorer with a mission to save science. But the game is more than that: it’s helping train an AI model that could help scientists answer key questions about our oceans. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714680036,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":true,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":16,"wordCount":806},"headData":{"title":"How an Ocean Exploration Video Game Out of Monterey Bay Contributes to Science | KQED","description":"Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's FathomVerse brings you into an underwater world where you are an ocean explorer with a mission to save science. But the game is more than that: it’s helping train an AI model that could help scientists answer key questions about our oceans. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"How an Ocean Exploration Video Game Out of Monterey Bay Contributes to Science","datePublished":"2024-05-03T11:00:34.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-02T20:00:36.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1992558/how-an-ocean-exploration-video-game-out-of-monterey-bay-contributes-to-science","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As you drift along the currents in our underwater ocean world, you’ll find jellies, sea spiders, starfish, anemones, octopuses, isopods, and so many other species of marine life. Your mission as an ocean explorer is to collect as many species of ocean life as possible, identify them, and contribute to the field of science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fathomverse.game/\">FathomVerse\u003c/a>, a new mobile game created by \u003ca href=\"https://www.oceanvisionai.org/\">Ocean Vision AI\u003c/a> at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI. The free game allows anyone with a phone or tablet to participate in ocean exploration and discovery. It was recently launched on the \u003ca href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fathomverse/id6469854247\">App Store\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mbari.fathomverse&pcampaignid=web_share&pli=1\">Google Play\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar to Animal Crossing and Sims, this \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_game\">cozy game\u003c/a> gives off a relaxing vibe. It takes a gamer deep into the tranquil realms of the blue ocean while ambient music plays in the background as they slowly gather ocean animals as part of a mission. Depending on your mood, you can set the game to play music inspired by ocean soundscape or listen to a hydrophone — a collection of real sounds of the ocean and marine animals like whales, compiled by MBARI’s underwater microphone off California’s coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game offers the choice between 40 different animal missions. On each mission, gamers receive a briefing that teaches them how to identify different sea creatures through diagrams that point out important characteristics. The goal of the game is to correctly identify as many marine life as possible, and collect points along the way, while unlocking more complex groups of animal missions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992562\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/MBARI_FathomVerse_player_commuting_02_horizontal-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">FathomVerse is a new mobile game created by Ocean Vision AI at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“By playing the game, you’re helping to improve AI models that researchers use to understand life in our ocean,” said Lilli Wakinekona Carlsen, engagement coordinator with Ocean Vision AI at MBARI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to advances in deep-sea imaging technology and remote-operated vehicles, researchers are able to collect massive amounts of visual data from the depths of our ocean — including photos and videos of marine life that’s all available on MBARI’s open-source image database, \u003ca href=\"https://fathomnet.org/fathomnet/#/\">FathomNet\u003c/a>. While AI can help researchers analyze this deluge of visual data more efficiently, we still need expert humans to ensure AI can correctly sort through and categorize underwater creatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need people in the loop to continuously verify and train the [AI] models. And right now, only a small number of experts can do that,” Carlsen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To solve this problem, FathomVerse seeks to engage ocean enthusiasts around the world to help review and label images so AI can correctly recognize ocean animals. “We were inspired by community science apps like iNaturalist and eBird. And we set out to gamify this process of training and verifying so that more people can join in our effort to improve the AI that we use for ocean exploration,” Carlsen added.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KCHd54kkiRs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KCHd54kkiRs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Some inspiration for it came from another game: Pokémon Go. During the height of the pandemic, Kakani Katija saw a resurgence of the game, where players walk around and use their phones to capture Pokémon — imaginary creatures with special powers. She said that there’s a cultural phenomenon in this kind of game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are putting in this time and effort to look for animals that don’t even exist. We’ve created a generation of people who could tell you all the minutia around each Pokémon,” Katija said.\u003cbr>\n“I wanted to see the same excitement for ocean life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katija is MBARI’s principal engineer who led the development of FathomVerse. She said that there’s a large knowledge gap when it comes to the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that animals have evolved over really long periods of time to do incredible things, to survive a really difficult and challenging place, there might be secrets there that we can unlock if we could adequately understand and observe them,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To develop FathomVerse, Katija and MBARI software engineers collaborated with game design experts \u003ca href=\"https://www.ranj.com/en/\">&ranj Serious Games\u003c/a> — a Netherlands-based game development studio focused on positive behavioral change through play — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.internetofelephants.com/\">Internet of Elephants\u003c/a>, a nature tech enterprise based in Kenya focused on rekindling relationships between people and wildlife.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The game is an opportunity to accelerate our capabilities of observing life in the ocean while also sharing the excitement and the wonder of the animals that we see with a much broader audience,” Katija said. It’s also an opportunity to lean on AI research and “present the use of AI in a really good light.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1992558/how-an-ocean-exploration-video-game-out-of-monterey-bay-contributes-to-science","authors":["11631"],"categories":["science_2874","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_1120","science_843"],"featImg":"science_1992564","label":"science"},"science_1992443":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1992443","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1992443","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"what-is-the-green-flash-at-sunset-and-how-can-you-see-it","title":"What Is the 'Green Flash' at Sunset — and How Can You See It?","publishDate":1714078819,"format":"standard","headTitle":"What Is the ‘Green Flash’ at Sunset — and How Can You See It? | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>Have you heard of “the green flash”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This elusive optical effect that happens during a sunset is \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@themaxwellstravel/video/7202072555170057515\">the subject of debate online\u003c/a> — with some people claiming it doesn’t even exist. And if you have never seen it yourself, the idea of a startling burst of green suddenly appearing next to the setting sun \u003cem>could\u003c/em> sound far-fetched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, Bay Area meteorologist and photographer Jan Null has been documenting his green flash sightings on social media. And he’s here to tell you: it is absolutely real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#greenflash\">How can I see the green flash for myself?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What is the ‘green flash’?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like rainbows or mirages, a green flash during sunset is another example of an optical phenomenon that occurs regularly in our daily lives yet can seem magical when you witness one yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar to how rainbows appear when sunlight is scattered through raindrops, green flashes during sunsets — and sometimes sunrises — happen when light passes through a thick layer of Earth’s atmosphere. As the sun’s light moves through, it gets bent or refracted, creating a stunning, colorful sight visible to the human eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This refraction, or bending of light, is what sometimes lets us see a green color around the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The different temperatures in the atmosphere also play a role, according to Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services. And that is why you’re most likely to spot a green flash on the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right over the ocean, there is cooler air, but sometimes there’s a layer of warm air above it,” Null said. “You have the sun setting, and it’s coming through these layers. It’s getting bent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the sun is on the horizon, it passes through a very thick part of the atmosphere, explained Null, and is more likely to bend. In contrast, when the sun is directly above you at midday, it’s passing through a relatively shallow part of the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992444\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992444\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/fig3_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"The yellow sun is seen setting into the horizon. A background of dark orange surrounds the sun. On the upper most part of the sun, you can see a faint green color.\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/fig3_2-1.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/fig3_2-1-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A green flash photographed in Half Moon Bay, California, on Sept. 30, 2021. \u003ccite>(Jan Null)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These different densities caused by warm and cool temperatures create what Null calls a “coastal inversion” when the wind blows from the land towards the sea, refracting the setting sun’s light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But why is the flash green? As the sun disappears into the horizon, its lightwaves are bent by the atmosphere. \u003ca href=\"https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/inferior-mirage-green-flash-2/\">The green light becomes concentrated and separates from the other colors in the light spectrum\u003c/a>, creating that brilliant green flash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although they are quite rare, Null said that he’s even seen “blue flashes” during sunsets, which occur when there’s an even larger coastal inversion as sunlight passes through even thicker layers of the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992449\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992449\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192-768x434.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During a green flash, our atmosphere distorts light from the sun as it sets, and the green rays are what reaches our eyes. \u003ccite>(John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky/ Patrick Meyers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"greenflash\">\u003c/a>How can I see the green flash for myself?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To have a chance of seeing a green flash in the Bay Area, find a viewpoint near the coast, where the view of the sun setting isn’t being obstructed — and watch the sun as it starts disappearing into the horizon. Remember, because this optical phenomenon happens when sunlight moves through warm air on land towards the cooler air in the water, the places where green flashes are most commonly seen are on the coast.[aside postID=news_11979339 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/GettyImages-1244474782_qut-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the best time to see a green flash, that will be on a relatively warm, clear day with a light offshore breeze that will help create those “coastal inversions,” Null said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Null warned that the green flash will last just a few seconds, making it even harder to spot with the naked eye — especially given how our eyesight gets “so degraded” when looking in the direction of the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even though this can make it “really hard to discern much detail,” Null said this is what you’ll be looking for: “As the sun begins to set, you can see the light from the [the upper edge of the sun], sort of rippling. And it looks like a little bubble of light rises above it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A nice splash of Green Flash above a hazy Half Moon Bay sunset. 4/11/2024 \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/Uj55msQUob\">pic.twitter.com/Uj55msQUob\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Jan Null (@ggweather) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ggweather/status/1778623696078606412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 12, 2024\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\">\u003c/script>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what are your chances of actually spotting the flash? Null said that despite being a meteorologist for almost 50 years, he saw his first green flash only four years ago when he moved to Half Moon Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we do optics classes in meteorology training, one of the things they talked about is the green flash,” Null said. “Meteorologists have always been looking for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for those lucky enough to wait patiently to see this fascinating sight, it’ll all be worth it, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The elusive green flash that happens during a sunset is the subject of debate online. Here's the science behind this optical phenomenon. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714092801,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":869},"headData":{"title":"What Is the 'Green Flash' at Sunset — and How Can You See It? | KQED","description":"The elusive green flash that happens during a sunset is the subject of debate online. Here's the science behind this optical phenomenon. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"What Is the 'Green Flash' at Sunset — and How Can You See It?","datePublished":"2024-04-25T21:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-26T00:53:21.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1992443/what-is-the-green-flash-at-sunset-and-how-can-you-see-it","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Have you heard of “the green flash”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This elusive optical effect that happens during a sunset is \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@themaxwellstravel/video/7202072555170057515\">the subject of debate online\u003c/a> — with some people claiming it doesn’t even exist. And if you have never seen it yourself, the idea of a startling burst of green suddenly appearing next to the setting sun \u003cem>could\u003c/em> sound far-fetched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, Bay Area meteorologist and photographer Jan Null has been documenting his green flash sightings on social media. And he’s here to tell you: it is absolutely real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#greenflash\">How can I see the green flash for myself?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What is the ‘green flash’?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like rainbows or mirages, a green flash during sunset is another example of an optical phenomenon that occurs regularly in our daily lives yet can seem magical when you witness one yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similar to how rainbows appear when sunlight is scattered through raindrops, green flashes during sunsets — and sometimes sunrises — happen when light passes through a thick layer of Earth’s atmosphere. As the sun’s light moves through, it gets bent or refracted, creating a stunning, colorful sight visible to the human eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This refraction, or bending of light, is what sometimes lets us see a green color around the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The different temperatures in the atmosphere also play a role, according to Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services. And that is why you’re most likely to spot a green flash on the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right over the ocean, there is cooler air, but sometimes there’s a layer of warm air above it,” Null said. “You have the sun setting, and it’s coming through these layers. It’s getting bent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the sun is on the horizon, it passes through a very thick part of the atmosphere, explained Null, and is more likely to bend. In contrast, when the sun is directly above you at midday, it’s passing through a relatively shallow part of the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992444\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992444\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/fig3_2-1.jpg\" alt=\"The yellow sun is seen setting into the horizon. A background of dark orange surrounds the sun. On the upper most part of the sun, you can see a faint green color.\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/fig3_2-1.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/fig3_2-1-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A green flash photographed in Half Moon Bay, California, on Sept. 30, 2021. \u003ccite>(Jan Null)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These different densities caused by warm and cool temperatures create what Null calls a “coastal inversion” when the wind blows from the land towards the sea, refracting the setting sun’s light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But why is the flash green? As the sun disappears into the horizon, its lightwaves are bent by the atmosphere. \u003ca href=\"https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/inferior-mirage-green-flash-2/\">The green light becomes concentrated and separates from the other colors in the light spectrum\u003c/a>, creating that brilliant green flash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although they are quite rare, Null said that he’s even seen “blue flashes” during sunsets, which occur when there’s an even larger coastal inversion as sunlight passes through even thicker layers of the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992449\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1992449\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/Green-Flash-ES-PM-credit-e1701873974192-768x434.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During a green flash, our atmosphere distorts light from the sun as it sets, and the green rays are what reaches our eyes. \u003ccite>(John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky/ Patrick Meyers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"greenflash\">\u003c/a>How can I see the green flash for myself?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To have a chance of seeing a green flash in the Bay Area, find a viewpoint near the coast, where the view of the sun setting isn’t being obstructed — and watch the sun as it starts disappearing into the horizon. Remember, because this optical phenomenon happens when sunlight moves through warm air on land towards the cooler air in the water, the places where green flashes are most commonly seen are on the coast.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11979339","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/GettyImages-1244474782_qut-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the best time to see a green flash, that will be on a relatively warm, clear day with a light offshore breeze that will help create those “coastal inversions,” Null said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Null warned that the green flash will last just a few seconds, making it even harder to spot with the naked eye — especially given how our eyesight gets “so degraded” when looking in the direction of the sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even though this can make it “really hard to discern much detail,” Null said this is what you’ll be looking for: “As the sun begins to set, you can see the light from the [the upper edge of the sun], sort of rippling. And it looks like a little bubble of light rises above it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A nice splash of Green Flash above a hazy Half Moon Bay sunset. 4/11/2024 \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/Uj55msQUob\">pic.twitter.com/Uj55msQUob\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Jan Null (@ggweather) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ggweather/status/1778623696078606412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 12, 2024\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cscript async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\">\u003c/script>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what are your chances of actually spotting the flash? Null said that despite being a meteorologist for almost 50 years, he saw his first green flash only four years ago when he moved to Half Moon Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we do optics classes in meteorology training, one of the things they talked about is the green flash,” Null said. “Meteorologists have always been looking for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for those lucky enough to wait patiently to see this fascinating sight, it’ll all be worth it, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1992443/what-is-the-green-flash-at-sunset-and-how-can-you-see-it","authors":["11631"],"categories":["science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_4992","science_1602","science_4729","science_934","science_365"],"featImg":"science_1992446","label":"science"},"science_1992460":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1992460","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1992460","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"bay-area-cities-push-to-legally-validate-polyamorous-families","title":"Bay Area Cities Push to Legally Validate Polyamorous Families","publishDate":1714075214,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Bay Area Cities Push to Legally Validate Polyamorous Families | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>John Owens pulled his brown shoulder-length hair back into a bun and tossed brightly colored T-shirts and books into crates and boxes. The 37-year-old artist and writer is moving for the fifth time in less than a decade. He said he feels uncomfortable in his current home, which Owens, who identifies as polyamorous, shares with one of his three romantic partners and two roommates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six months after moving into the duplex tucked off the 580 freeway in Oakland, the dishwasher, garbage disposal and driveway gate all needed repairs. Owens told his landlords that one of his romantic partners would be visiting the house and could meet the repair person. This was the first time he’d shared details about his love life. After that, Owens said, the interactions between the landlords “felt much stranger,” and it grew more awkward as time passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The landlords are pretty judgy about polyamory,” Owens said. “At one point, they tried to ask us to leave, threatening an owner-occupied eviction thing. Then, they backtracked and said we could stay, but with a 10% rent increase.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said his polyamorous lifestyle alarmed the landlord or master tenant in his last four living situations. When he shared that he was polyamorous with a prospective landlord who lived onsite in an apartment building in Oakland a few years ago, the older woman became angry and disrespectful, telling him: “I don’t rent to sluts.” The landlord did not provide a rental application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That type of discrimination is pretty common,” Owens said. “It’s hard to even think about all the different times, different people that I’ve encountered in professional, medical, housing or institutional settings that have made it pretty clear that they’re not OK with the way I live my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research shows that \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/6E8_Cqx2JmsXW3ozsZT-YX?domain=journals.sagepub.com\">two-thirds of people engaged in consensual nonmonogamy report feeling stigmatized\u003c/a>, which inspires many people to hide that they are polyamorous because they fear \u003ca href=\"https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/102091/asap1286.pdf;jsessionid=85415879310B01D865F7EF9FB330883F?sequence=1\">negative perceptions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stigma and discrimination can show up in a range of domains: housing, employment, \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30621924/\">health care\u003c/a> and immigration,” said Brett Chamberlin, founder and executive director of the Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-monogamy, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Courts have \u003ca href=\"https://casetext.com/case/vb-v-jeb\">revoked custody from parents\u003c/a> who have multiple partners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, the Oakland City Council passed new \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6515422&GUID=506A2AB9-4300-4716-92D1-CB6C0C5E5765&Options=&Search=\">legislation\u003c/a> formally recognizing polyamorous families, the first of its kind on the West Coast. It protects “diverse family structures” from discrimination in housing and at businesses and introduces a civil financial penalty for any rights violations by city services or facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janani Ramachandran, Oakland’s first LGBTQ councilwoman of color, sponsored the bill. Protections cover multi-partner families, step-families, single parents, multi-generational households and \u003ca href=\"https://lgbt.ucsf.edu/glossary-terms#:~:text=Asexuality%3A%20Generally%20characterized%20by%20not,deliberate%20abstention%20from%20sexual%20activity.\">asexual\u003c/a> relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a lot of really wonderful good news in the world,” Owens said. “And this is a really wonderful and unambiguously good thing that Oakland is doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley lawmakers plan to vote on the same legislation on May 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A growing movement\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Somerville and Cambridge in Massachusetts passed the\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/style/polyamory-somerville.html\"> first laws granting rights to nontraditional families\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a really exciting moment for the nonmonogamy movement because it helps validate and protect families and relationships that for a long time have existed in the shadows or at the margins of societies,” Chamberlin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1992399 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Owens (center left) poses for a photo with two of his partners, Emily Savage and Alejandra Bravo (center), and their polycule at a celebration party at the East Bay Community Space in Oakland on April 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His group plans to push for protections at the state and eventually federal level. Chamberlin said people have a human right to pursue the relationship and family structure they desire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The nonmonogamous community has something really important to offer this world,” he said. “The way that we pursue relationships is an expression of our values. We put connection above consumption, and we put community and cooperation above competition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The changing shape of families in America\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Owens has three long-term romantic partnerships. He and a married woman in her late 30s are in love. He lives with a woman in her early 30s with whom he collaborates professionally through artistic projects and sex-positive events. And then, about a year-and-a-half ago, he fell for a “delightfully fun” person in their 20s who identifies as nonbinary. They stay in touch throughout the day by texting funny political memes back and forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re able to have more than one long-term partner, you don’t need each person to be everything or fill every bucket for you,” Owens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992398\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1992398 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lily Lamboy, co-founder of the Modern Family Institute, speaks during a celebration party at the East Bay Community Space in Oakland on April 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All of his partners also have other romantic and sexual partners. Owens described this larger network as his \u003ca href=\"https://www.polyamproud.com/post/learn-about-polyamory-what-is-a-polycule\">polycule\u003c/a>; he said everyone is practicing consensual nonmonogamy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owens grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Even before high school, he began questioning the relationship models around him. His parents, both pastors in the protestant church, Disciples of Christ, instilled the idea that marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. But, the idea of settling down with one person exclusively “never felt realistic.” In 2016, he moved to the West Coast in search of like-minded people in progressive circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several years ago, he decided “to be fully open and out about being polyamorous with everyone and in every context.” This included a tricky conversation with his parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if they fully understood it,” Owens said. “But they are happy I’m living my life in an authentic way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Religious pushback\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some religious groups are openly critical. The California Family Council, a Christian faith-based organization, is vehemently opposed to any measure that affirms polyamorous relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The push by Oakland and Berkeley to formalize polyamorous families is cultural suicide,” said Greg Burt, vice president of CFC, in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiafamily.org/2024/02/two-ca-cities-push-to-formally-recognize-polyamory/\">statement\u003c/a>. “History and experience have shown children thrive best in nuclear father, mother and child families. A civilization that rejects this biblical model for family life is hell-bent on its own destruction.” Yet, the country may be trending away from the nuclear family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0092623X.2016.1178675?journalCode=usmt20\">Research\u003c/a> shows that one in five single people in the U.S. have participated in some type of nonmonogamy. A \u003ca href=\"https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Monogamy_NonMonogamy_Relationships_Toplines_crosstabs.pdf\">2023 poll conducted by YouGov\u003c/a>, an international analytics group, found that approximately a third of U.S. adults said that their ideal relationship is nonmonogamous to some degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owens said the traditional model didn’t work for him. He had a daughter in his early 20s when he was living in Durham, North Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard,” he said. “I can’t imagine trying to parent in a one or two-parent household ever again. There’s no way. For the long arc of human history, children have been raised by the village in large groups of people. My dream scenario is some big polyamorous collective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Oakland voted to legitimize diverse family structures, and Berkeley is on tap to do the same. Advocates see the legal protections as a significant step to reduce stigma.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1714152012,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":1236},"headData":{"title":"Bay Area Cities Push to Legally Validate Polyamorous Families | KQED","description":"Oakland voted to legitimize diverse family structures, and Berkeley is on tap to do the same. Advocates see the legal protections as a significant step to reduce stigma.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Bay Area Cities Push to Legally Validate Polyamorous Families","datePublished":"2024-04-25T20:00:14.000Z","dateModified":"2024-04-26T17:20:12.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"News","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-41c5-bcaf-aaef00f5a073/6e886ee1-d572-43d6-8eee-b15e011625f0/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1992460/bay-area-cities-push-to-legally-validate-polyamorous-families","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>John Owens pulled his brown shoulder-length hair back into a bun and tossed brightly colored T-shirts and books into crates and boxes. The 37-year-old artist and writer is moving for the fifth time in less than a decade. He said he feels uncomfortable in his current home, which Owens, who identifies as polyamorous, shares with one of his three romantic partners and two roommates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six months after moving into the duplex tucked off the 580 freeway in Oakland, the dishwasher, garbage disposal and driveway gate all needed repairs. Owens told his landlords that one of his romantic partners would be visiting the house and could meet the repair person. This was the first time he’d shared details about his love life. After that, Owens said, the interactions between the landlords “felt much stranger,” and it grew more awkward as time passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The landlords are pretty judgy about polyamory,” Owens said. “At one point, they tried to ask us to leave, threatening an owner-occupied eviction thing. Then, they backtracked and said we could stay, but with a 10% rent increase.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said his polyamorous lifestyle alarmed the landlord or master tenant in his last four living situations. When he shared that he was polyamorous with a prospective landlord who lived onsite in an apartment building in Oakland a few years ago, the older woman became angry and disrespectful, telling him: “I don’t rent to sluts.” The landlord did not provide a rental application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That type of discrimination is pretty common,” Owens said. “It’s hard to even think about all the different times, different people that I’ve encountered in professional, medical, housing or institutional settings that have made it pretty clear that they’re not OK with the way I live my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research shows that \u003ca href=\"https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/6E8_Cqx2JmsXW3ozsZT-YX?domain=journals.sagepub.com\">two-thirds of people engaged in consensual nonmonogamy report feeling stigmatized\u003c/a>, which inspires many people to hide that they are polyamorous because they fear \u003ca href=\"https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/102091/asap1286.pdf;jsessionid=85415879310B01D865F7EF9FB330883F?sequence=1\">negative perceptions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stigma and discrimination can show up in a range of domains: housing, employment, \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30621924/\">health care\u003c/a> and immigration,” said Brett Chamberlin, founder and executive director of the Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-monogamy, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Courts have \u003ca href=\"https://casetext.com/case/vb-v-jeb\">revoked custody from parents\u003c/a> who have multiple partners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, the Oakland City Council passed new \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6515422&GUID=506A2AB9-4300-4716-92D1-CB6C0C5E5765&Options=&Search=\">legislation\u003c/a> formally recognizing polyamorous families, the first of its kind on the West Coast. It protects “diverse family structures” from discrimination in housing and at businesses and introduces a civil financial penalty for any rights violations by city services or facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janani Ramachandran, Oakland’s first LGBTQ councilwoman of color, sponsored the bill. Protections cover multi-partner families, step-families, single parents, multi-generational households and \u003ca href=\"https://lgbt.ucsf.edu/glossary-terms#:~:text=Asexuality%3A%20Generally%20characterized%20by%20not,deliberate%20abstention%20from%20sexual%20activity.\">asexual\u003c/a> relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a lot of really wonderful good news in the world,” Owens said. “And this is a really wonderful and unambiguously good thing that Oakland is doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley lawmakers plan to vote on the same legislation on May 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A growing movement\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Somerville and Cambridge in Massachusetts passed the\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/style/polyamory-somerville.html\"> first laws granting rights to nontraditional families\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a really exciting moment for the nonmonogamy movement because it helps validate and protect families and relationships that for a long time have existed in the shadows or at the margins of societies,” Chamberlin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1992399 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-31-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Owens (center left) poses for a photo with two of his partners, Emily Savage and Alejandra Bravo (center), and their polycule at a celebration party at the East Bay Community Space in Oakland on April 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His group plans to push for protections at the state and eventually federal level. Chamberlin said people have a human right to pursue the relationship and family structure they desire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The nonmonogamous community has something really important to offer this world,” he said. “The way that we pursue relationships is an expression of our values. We put connection above consumption, and we put community and cooperation above competition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The changing shape of families in America\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Owens has three long-term romantic partnerships. He and a married woman in her late 30s are in love. He lives with a woman in her early 30s with whom he collaborates professionally through artistic projects and sex-positive events. And then, about a year-and-a-half ago, he fell for a “delightfully fun” person in their 20s who identifies as nonbinary. They stay in touch throughout the day by texting funny political memes back and forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re able to have more than one long-term partner, you don’t need each person to be everything or fill every bucket for you,” Owens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1992398\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1992398 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/04/240416-NONTRADITIONALFAMILIES-23-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lily Lamboy, co-founder of the Modern Family Institute, speaks during a celebration party at the East Bay Community Space in Oakland on April 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All of his partners also have other romantic and sexual partners. Owens described this larger network as his \u003ca href=\"https://www.polyamproud.com/post/learn-about-polyamory-what-is-a-polycule\">polycule\u003c/a>; he said everyone is practicing consensual nonmonogamy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owens grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Even before high school, he began questioning the relationship models around him. His parents, both pastors in the protestant church, Disciples of Christ, instilled the idea that marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. But, the idea of settling down with one person exclusively “never felt realistic.” In 2016, he moved to the West Coast in search of like-minded people in progressive circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several years ago, he decided “to be fully open and out about being polyamorous with everyone and in every context.” This included a tricky conversation with his parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if they fully understood it,” Owens said. “But they are happy I’m living my life in an authentic way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Religious pushback\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some religious groups are openly critical. The California Family Council, a Christian faith-based organization, is vehemently opposed to any measure that affirms polyamorous relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The push by Oakland and Berkeley to formalize polyamorous families is cultural suicide,” said Greg Burt, vice president of CFC, in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiafamily.org/2024/02/two-ca-cities-push-to-formally-recognize-polyamory/\">statement\u003c/a>. “History and experience have shown children thrive best in nuclear father, mother and child families. A civilization that rejects this biblical model for family life is hell-bent on its own destruction.” Yet, the country may be trending away from the nuclear family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0092623X.2016.1178675?journalCode=usmt20\">Research\u003c/a> shows that one in five single people in the U.S. have participated in some type of nonmonogamy. A \u003ca href=\"https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Monogamy_NonMonogamy_Relationships_Toplines_crosstabs.pdf\">2023 poll conducted by YouGov\u003c/a>, an international analytics group, found that approximately a third of U.S. adults said that their ideal relationship is nonmonogamous to some degree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owens said the traditional model didn’t work for him. He had a daughter in his early 20s when he was living in Durham, North Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was hard,” he said. “I can’t imagine trying to parent in a one or two-parent household ever again. There’s no way. For the long arc of human history, children have been raised by the village in large groups of people. My dream scenario is some big polyamorous collective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1992460/bay-area-cities-push-to-legally-validate-polyamorous-families","authors":["11229"],"categories":["science_39","science_40"],"tags":["science_1665","science_4417","science_5181","science_3779"],"featImg":"science_1992397","label":"source_science_1992460"},"science_1940697":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1940697","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1940697","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"ever-wake-up-frozen-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-a-shadowy-figure-in-the-room-thats-sleep-paralysis","title":"Ever Wake Up Frozen in the Middle of the Night, With a Shadowy Figure in the Room?","publishDate":1556541014,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Ever Wake Up Frozen in the Middle of the Night, With a Shadowy Figure in the Room? | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: The following story was produced by Richmond High School students for \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/education/2018/04/18/youth-takeover-of-kqed-news-starts-april-23/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Youth Takeover\u003c/span>\u003c/a> week at KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine you’re asleep and you suddenly open your eyes. You try to reposition yourself, but something’s wrong. Your body won’t move, and it’s as if something is holding you down. You hear scratching in the corner of the room, then see a pitch-black figure. You think it’s just your mind playing tricks, until the figure starts moving, slowly. It’s getting closer. You shut your eyes, but you can hear it shuffling toward you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is what sleep paralysis is like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sleep paralysis usually occurs when you’re, well, asleep, says Allen Jenkins, a psychology teacher at Richmond High School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Your brain is telling you to go to sleep and to not move, because when you walk around in your sleep, that’s not good,” he said. “But some people have a problem with that not turning off. So when they wake up, they still can’t move.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">People undergoing sleep paralysis might also feel pressure on their chest, a sense of dread and difficulty taking a breath. Some people also report experiencing hallucinations, like a shadowy figure in the darkness. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if a person experiences stimulation that doesn’t come from their environment, it can still happen within their brain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Everything you experience is perception. Your processing in your brain can be overactive,” Jenkins said. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You can think of it like dreaming when you’re wide awake. It seems real to you, but it just doesn’t happen to be occurring.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Leslie Saechao, a student at Richmond High School, has experienced sleep paralysis. “I felt like I saw something in the dark. It was like a figure,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940747\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 756px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1940747 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"756\" height=\"933\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis.jpeg 1512w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-160x197.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-800x987.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-768x948.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-1020x1259.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-972x1200.jpeg 972w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nayeli Pena, Yvette Villicana and Evelyn Mendoza, Richmond High School students.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Saechao recalls lying in bed awake past midnight, feeling “paralyzed,” and seeing a blurry figure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident has made her “paranoid” about sleeping, so she covers her face at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I sleep next to the wall so I won’t see anything,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sleep paralysis can occur as you fall asleep or as you wake up. It goes away by itself after a few seconds or a few minutes. People who experience this are usually in their teens, 20s and 30s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers believe sleep paralysis happens when someone’s sleep cycle is disrupted, and especially when they’re in a dream state. This occurs in the rapid eye movement or REM stage of sleep, and can be caused by anxiety and stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yvette Villicaña first experienced sleep paralysis when she was in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not as overwhelming for me as other people, because I don’t see shadowy figures,” she said. “I try to move, but sometimes I can’t. And after some time, it does go away. I used to think I was the only \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one who experienced this.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> After working on this story for KQED’s “\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/education/2018/04/18/youth-takeover-of-kqed-news-starts-april-23/\">Youth Takeover\u003c/a>,” Villicaña says it’s good to know she’s not alone, but it’s tough to realize other people have more traumatic experiences because of their hallucinations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sleep paralysis is harmless by itself but can lead to insomnia or narcolepsy, a more serious condition that causes uncontrollable sleepiness during the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can try to stop sleep paralysis by avoiding naps and not sleeping on your back, because it makes you feel vulnerable. Consult a mental health professional for stress or anxiety. And if it doesn’t go away, seek help from a sleep specialist. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"You wake up in the middle of the night and see a pitch-black figure. It must be your mind playing tricks. But then the figure starts moving toward you, and you feel frozen. What's going on, here? ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848716,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":653},"headData":{"title":"Ever Wake Up Frozen in the Middle of the Night, With a Shadowy Figure in the Room? | KQED","description":"You wake up in the middle of the night and see a pitch-black figure. It must be your mind playing tricks. But then the figure starts moving toward you, and you feel frozen. What's going on, here? ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Ever Wake Up Frozen in the Middle of the Night, With a Shadowy Figure in the Room?","datePublished":"2019-04-29T12:30:14.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T01:05:16.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"KQED Youth Takeover","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2019/04/YTOSleepParalysis.mp3","sticky":false,"nprByline":"\u003cstrong>Nayeli Peña, Evelyn Mendoza and Yvette Villicaña\u003cbr>Richmond High School\u003c/strong>","audioTrackLength":286,"path":"/science/1940697/ever-wake-up-frozen-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-a-shadowy-figure-in-the-room-thats-sleep-paralysis","parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: The following story was produced by Richmond High School students for \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/education/2018/04/18/youth-takeover-of-kqed-news-starts-april-23/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Youth Takeover\u003c/span>\u003c/a> week at KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine you’re asleep and you suddenly open your eyes. You try to reposition yourself, but something’s wrong. Your body won’t move, and it’s as if something is holding you down. You hear scratching in the corner of the room, then see a pitch-black figure. You think it’s just your mind playing tricks, until the figure starts moving, slowly. It’s getting closer. You shut your eyes, but you can hear it shuffling toward you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is what sleep paralysis is like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sleep paralysis usually occurs when you’re, well, asleep, says Allen Jenkins, a psychology teacher at Richmond High School.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Your brain is telling you to go to sleep and to not move, because when you walk around in your sleep, that’s not good,” he said. “But some people have a problem with that not turning off. So when they wake up, they still can’t move.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">People undergoing sleep paralysis might also feel pressure on their chest, a sense of dread and difficulty taking a breath. Some people also report experiencing hallucinations, like a shadowy figure in the darkness. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if a person experiences stimulation that doesn’t come from their environment, it can still happen within their brain. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Everything you experience is perception. Your processing in your brain can be overactive,” Jenkins said. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You can think of it like dreaming when you’re wide awake. It seems real to you, but it just doesn’t happen to be occurring.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Leslie Saechao, a student at Richmond High School, has experienced sleep paralysis. “I felt like I saw something in the dark. It was like a figure,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940747\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 756px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1940747 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"756\" height=\"933\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis.jpeg 1512w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-160x197.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-800x987.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-768x948.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-1020x1259.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/04/sleep-paralysis-972x1200.jpeg 972w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nayeli Pena, Yvette Villicana and Evelyn Mendoza, Richmond High School students.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Saechao recalls lying in bed awake past midnight, feeling “paralyzed,” and seeing a blurry figure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident has made her “paranoid” about sleeping, so she covers her face at night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I sleep next to the wall so I won’t see anything,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sleep paralysis can occur as you fall asleep or as you wake up. It goes away by itself after a few seconds or a few minutes. People who experience this are usually in their teens, 20s and 30s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers believe sleep paralysis happens when someone’s sleep cycle is disrupted, and especially when they’re in a dream state. This occurs in the rapid eye movement or REM stage of sleep, and can be caused by anxiety and stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yvette Villicaña first experienced sleep paralysis when she was in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not as overwhelming for me as other people, because I don’t see shadowy figures,” she said. “I try to move, but sometimes I can’t. And after some time, it does go away. I used to think I was the only \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one who experienced this.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> After working on this story for KQED’s “\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/education/2018/04/18/youth-takeover-of-kqed-news-starts-april-23/\">Youth Takeover\u003c/a>,” Villicaña says it’s good to know she’s not alone, but it’s tough to realize other people have more traumatic experiences because of their hallucinations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sleep paralysis is harmless by itself but can lead to insomnia or narcolepsy, a more serious condition that causes uncontrollable sleepiness during the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can try to stop sleep paralysis by avoiding naps and not sleeping on your back, because it makes you feel vulnerable. Consult a mental health professional for stress or anxiety. And if it doesn’t go away, seek help from a sleep specialist. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1940697/ever-wake-up-frozen-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-a-shadowy-figure-in-the-room-thats-sleep-paralysis","authors":["byline_science_1940697"],"categories":["science_3890","science_40"],"tags":["science_3370","science_3833","science_3834"],"featImg":"science_1940725","label":"source_science_1940697"},"science_1941506":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1941506","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1941506","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"these-face-mites-really-grow-on-you","title":"These Face Mites Really Grow on You","publishDate":1558443627,"format":"video","headTitle":"These Face Mites Really Grow on You | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":1935,"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]I hate to break this to you, but you almost certainly have tiny mites living in the pores in your face right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re called Demodex. And pretty much every adult human alive has a population of these mites living on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also called eyelash mites, they’re too small to see with the naked eye. They’re mostly transparent, and at about .3 millimeters long, it would take about five face adult mites laid end to end to stretch across the head of a pin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They look like kind of like stubby little worms,” said Michelle Trautwein, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein studies our relationship with these microscopic stowaways by looking at their DNA. Her findings so far show that people in different parts of the world have different face mites living in the skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They tell a story of your own ancestry and also a story of more ancient human history and migration,” said Trautwein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941539\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_MichelleTrautwein_microscope.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941539\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_MichelleTrautwein_microscope.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Trautwein of the California Academy of Sciences studies face mites using microscopes and genetic testing. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We use a little spoon and scrape it across the kind of greasier parts of someone’s face — which isn’t as bad as it sounds,” said Trautwein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once she has collected the samples, she takes them back to the lab to look at the genetics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein has found DNA evidence of face mites on every one of more than 2,000 people she has tested, including tourists from all around the world who make their way to the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one is thrilled at the initial notion that they have arachnids on their face,” Trautwein said. “But people are often curious — even in their revulsion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how could these creatures live on so many people and still go unnoticed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941533 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Face mites make their home in the follicles found at the root of the peach fuzz that covers most human skin. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Look closely and you’ll see that in addition to the more obvious body and head hair, human skin is covered in a thin, barely visible layer of peach fuzz called vellus hairs. There are a few notable exceptions, such as the palms of our hands and soles of our feet, but other than that our entire bodies are covered in that fuzz. The shaft of each one of those tiny hairs grows out of its own follicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Face mites spend their days face-down inside your hair follicles nestled up against the hair shaft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They eat sebum, that greasy oil your skin makes to protect itself and keep it from drying out. The sebum is produced in sebaceous glands, which empty into the hair follicles, coating both the hair shaft and face mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the greasiest parts of your body — like around the eyes, nose and mouth — likely harbor a higher concentration of mites than other areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live about two weeks. They spend most of their time tucked inside our pores. But while we’re sleeping, they crawl out onto the surface of our skin to mate before crawling back into our pores to lay their eggs. Fun!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since they live inside your pores, you can’t scrub them off by washing. It’s basically impossible to get rid of all of your face mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how does Trautwein study them? With glue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941540\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_SlideCollection_LindsayPalaima.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941540\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_SlideCollection_LindsayPalaima.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lindsay Palaima bravely volunteers to have a slide covered in glue stuck to her forehead in order to capture face mites growing in her pores. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I actually put glue on a glass microscope slide and stick it onto a person’s forehead,” she said. “Then I slowly peel it off. I look under a microscope for mites that are stuck in the follicles that stick up from the thin layer of skin that got peeled off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can be pretty addictive and exciting,” she added. “It’s sort of a meditative process of looking through this microforest of follicles and hairs, and looking for just the right potential movement or shape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_InFollicle.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941538 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_InFollicle.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demodex face mite seen writhing around in the root of a human hair follicle, observed under a microscope. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These Demodex face mites got their name from the Greek words for “fat” and “boring worm,” but they’re not really worms at all. They’re actually arachnids — related to ticks — and more distantly to spiders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people have face mites on them and never notice. It seems that our immune system is able to keep their numbers in check. But some people can experience problems with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you tell patients that they have face mites, first of all, they freak out,” said Dr. Kanade Shinkai, a dermatologist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shinkai occasionally treats patients who have an overload of face mites, which results in a condition called demodicosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a very particular look to people suffering from demodicosis. We call it the Demodex frost,” she said. “It’s sort of a white sheen on the skin. And if you look really closely, you can see coming out of every pore. If you scrape those pores, you can see it frothing with little Demodex face mites.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a pretty rare condition and it’s often connected to a change in someone’s immune system, such as receiving immunosuppressive drugs after transplant surgery, chemotherapy or immunodeficiency diseases like HIV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Demodicosis can also be triggered by local suppression of the immune system, like when itch-relieving hydrocortisone cream is used on the face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it does happen, demodicosis usually comes on fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patients almost universally describe this explosive development of pustules like whiteheads on their face. It’s really dramatic,” Shinkai said. “And what’s really dramatic about it is that they’re often fine the day before, and then they develop it, overnight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for the vast majority of people, face mites are nothing to worry about. While some studies have found loose connections between Demodex and diseases like rosacea, the evidence hasn’t shown a strong link.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s really confusing is that if you go into your office and scrape everyone’s face, you would find Demodex probably on everybody,” Shinkai said. “And people who have low burden of Demodex may have no or very severe disease and vice versa.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein also sees face mites as more of a source of interest than fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not dangerous in a broad sense because we all have them and most of us seem to be cohabiting quite well with them,” Trautwein said. “We mostly share them within family units and it seems like you are probably initially colonized soon after birth, most likely by your mother, traditionally speaking in human history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking at these mites, researchers like Trautwein can usually tell something about your geographical ancestry — what part of the world your ancestors came from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941715 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-1020x496.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"311\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-1020x496.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-160x78.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-800x389.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-768x374.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-1200x584.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers.jpg 1285w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Trautwein has found that several genetically distinct groups of Demodex face mites (represented by different colors on this map) exist in different geographic areas. \u003ccite>(Michelle Trautwein/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Face mites are definitely the species of animal that we have the closest connection with as humans, even though most of us don’t know about them or ever see one in our lifetime,” she said. “We still have this very ancient and intimate relationship, and it seems clear that we’ve had these face mite species with us for all of our history. So they are as old as our species, as old as homo sapiens.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Yep, you probably have Demodex mites living on your face. These tiny arachnids feast on sebum, the greasy oil in your pores. But should you be worried about your eight-legged guests? ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848665,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":37,"wordCount":1341},"headData":{"title":"These Face Mites Really Grow on You | KQED","description":"Yep, you probably have Demodex mites living on your face. These tiny arachnids feast on sebum, the greasy oil in your pores. But should you be worried about your eight-legged guests? ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"These Face Mites Really Grow on You","datePublished":"2019-05-21T13:00:27.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T01:04:25.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"videoEmbed":"https://youtu.be/YW2eGaUzq7E","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1941506/these-face-mites-really-grow-on-you","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"dl_subscribe","attributes":{"named":{"label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I hate to break this to you, but you almost certainly have tiny mites living in the pores in your face right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re called Demodex. And pretty much every adult human alive has a population of these mites living on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also called eyelash mites, they’re too small to see with the naked eye. They’re mostly transparent, and at about .3 millimeters long, it would take about five face adult mites laid end to end to stretch across the head of a pin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They look like kind of like stubby little worms,” said Michelle Trautwein, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein studies our relationship with these microscopic stowaways by looking at their DNA. Her findings so far show that people in different parts of the world have different face mites living in the skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They tell a story of your own ancestry and also a story of more ancient human history and migration,” said Trautwein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941539\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_MichelleTrautwein_microscope.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941539\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_MichelleTrautwein_microscope.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Trautwein of the California Academy of Sciences studies face mites using microscopes and genetic testing. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We use a little spoon and scrape it across the kind of greasier parts of someone’s face — which isn’t as bad as it sounds,” said Trautwein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once she has collected the samples, she takes them back to the lab to look at the genetics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein has found DNA evidence of face mites on every one of more than 2,000 people she has tested, including tourists from all around the world who make their way to the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one is thrilled at the initial notion that they have arachnids on their face,” Trautwein said. “But people are often curious — even in their revulsion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how could these creatures live on so many people and still go unnoticed?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941533 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_PeachFuzz_male.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Face mites make their home in the follicles found at the root of the peach fuzz that covers most human skin. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Look closely and you’ll see that in addition to the more obvious body and head hair, human skin is covered in a thin, barely visible layer of peach fuzz called vellus hairs. There are a few notable exceptions, such as the palms of our hands and soles of our feet, but other than that our entire bodies are covered in that fuzz. The shaft of each one of those tiny hairs grows out of its own follicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Face mites spend their days face-down inside your hair follicles nestled up against the hair shaft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They eat sebum, that greasy oil your skin makes to protect itself and keep it from drying out. The sebum is produced in sebaceous glands, which empty into the hair follicles, coating both the hair shaft and face mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the greasiest parts of your body — like around the eyes, nose and mouth — likely harbor a higher concentration of mites than other areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They live about two weeks. They spend most of their time tucked inside our pores. But while we’re sleeping, they crawl out onto the surface of our skin to mate before crawling back into our pores to lay their eggs. Fun!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since they live inside your pores, you can’t scrub them off by washing. It’s basically impossible to get rid of all of your face mites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how does Trautwein study them? With glue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941540\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_SlideCollection_LindsayPalaima.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941540\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_SlideCollection_LindsayPalaima.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lindsay Palaima bravely volunteers to have a slide covered in glue stuck to her forehead in order to capture face mites growing in her pores. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I actually put glue on a glass microscope slide and stick it onto a person’s forehead,” she said. “Then I slowly peel it off. I look under a microscope for mites that are stuck in the follicles that stick up from the thin layer of skin that got peeled off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can be pretty addictive and exciting,” she added. “It’s sort of a meditative process of looking through this microforest of follicles and hairs, and looking for just the right potential movement or shape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_InFollicle.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941538 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/DL610_FaceMites_InFollicle.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demodex face mite seen writhing around in the root of a human hair follicle, observed under a microscope. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These Demodex face mites got their name from the Greek words for “fat” and “boring worm,” but they’re not really worms at all. They’re actually arachnids — related to ticks — and more distantly to spiders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people have face mites on them and never notice. It seems that our immune system is able to keep their numbers in check. But some people can experience problems with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you tell patients that they have face mites, first of all, they freak out,” said Dr. Kanade Shinkai, a dermatologist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shinkai occasionally treats patients who have an overload of face mites, which results in a condition called demodicosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a very particular look to people suffering from demodicosis. We call it the Demodex frost,” she said. “It’s sort of a white sheen on the skin. And if you look really closely, you can see coming out of every pore. If you scrape those pores, you can see it frothing with little Demodex face mites.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a pretty rare condition and it’s often connected to a change in someone’s immune system, such as receiving immunosuppressive drugs after transplant surgery, chemotherapy or immunodeficiency diseases like HIV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Demodicosis can also be triggered by local suppression of the immune system, like when itch-relieving hydrocortisone cream is used on the face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it does happen, demodicosis usually comes on fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Patients almost universally describe this explosive development of pustules like whiteheads on their face. It’s really dramatic,” Shinkai said. “And what’s really dramatic about it is that they’re often fine the day before, and then they develop it, overnight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for the vast majority of people, face mites are nothing to worry about. While some studies have found loose connections between Demodex and diseases like rosacea, the evidence hasn’t shown a strong link.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s really confusing is that if you go into your office and scrape everyone’s face, you would find Demodex probably on everybody,” Shinkai said. “And people who have low burden of Demodex may have no or very severe disease and vice versa.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trautwein also sees face mites as more of a source of interest than fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not dangerous in a broad sense because we all have them and most of us seem to be cohabiting quite well with them,” Trautwein said. “We mostly share them within family units and it seems like you are probably initially colonized soon after birth, most likely by your mother, traditionally speaking in human history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking at these mites, researchers like Trautwein can usually tell something about your geographical ancestry — what part of the world your ancestors came from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1941715 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-1020x496.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"311\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-1020x496.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-160x78.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-800x389.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-768x374.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers-1200x584.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/05/Map_Follic_migration_nonumbers.jpg 1285w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Trautwein has found that several genetically distinct groups of Demodex face mites (represented by different colors on this map) exist in different geographic areas. \u003ccite>(Michelle Trautwein/California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Face mites are definitely the species of animal that we have the closest connection with as humans, even though most of us don’t know about them or ever see one in our lifetime,” she said. “We still have this very ancient and intimate relationship, and it seems clear that we’ve had these face mite species with us for all of our history. So they are as old as our species, as old as homo sapiens.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1941506/these-face-mites-really-grow-on-you","authors":["6219"],"series":["science_1935"],"categories":["science_2874","science_30","science_3890","science_86"],"tags":["science_3370"],"featImg":"science_1942008","label":"science_1935"},"science_1969214":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1969214","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1969214","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"this-is-not-a-dandelion","title":"This is NOT a Dandelion.","publishDate":1599570045,"format":"video","headTitle":"This is NOT a Dandelion. | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":1935,"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]Gardeners cursing as they yank out yellow blooms from the ground might be misplacing their anger. Not everything that looks like a dandelion is one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969312\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is not a dandelion. To tell this catsear from its better-known relative you need to look under its petals. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dandelions have many doppelgangers, among them the most successful plant you’ve never heard of: catsears. Their claim to fame is that they were recently \u003ca href=\"https://nytimesanswers.com/dandelion-look-alike-crossword-clue-2/\">a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle\u003c/a> (“Dandelion look-alike”), but the plant is so prolific — it has spread from its native Morocco all around the world — that it doesn’t really need any press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chances are you’ll run across both dandelions and catsears in your backyard or at the park this fall, especially if they’re getting watered. Catsears also proliferate in pastures, where cows keep the grasses that compete with them at bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Lesser_goldfinch_eats_catsear_seeds.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969310 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Lesser_goldfinch_eats_catsear_seeds.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A lesser goldfinch munches on catsear seeds in Berkeley.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bees and butterflies love the nectar and pollen provided by dandelions and catsears, and little songbirds like lesser goldfinches feed on their seeds. But it’s hard to convince some gardeners of their virtues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people who have a nice turf want only grasses,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/people/joseph-ditomaso\">Joe DiTomaso\u003c/a>, a weed researcher who retired from UC Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969317\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1921px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969317\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1921\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920.jpg 1921w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1921px) 100vw, 1921px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsears in bloom in a backyard in Berkeley in June. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Frustratingly for lawn lovers, efforts to keep the turf looking good sometimes help dandelions and catsears. Their leaves grow close to the ground, so when the lawnmower chops down any blades of grass towering over them, they can more easily soak up the rays they need to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether you’re a friend or a foe, telling dandelions and catsears apart could be useful — if only to know thine enemy — and a fun way to ponder what makes these yellow blooms so successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking down at them, you’ll miss their differences. You need to get on your knees and take a close look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below their petals you’ll see green structures that hold the bloom. They’re called phyllaries. In catsears, they all point up. In dandelions, some phyllaries curl down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969316\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969316\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsear or dandelion? The green structures called phyllaries that hug the bloom all point up in catsears. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969318\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dandelions’ curly phyllaries are one way to tell them apart from catsears. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dandelion and catsear leaves have a similar shape, with toothed edges that give dandelions their name — an adaptation from the French dent-de-lion, or lion’s tooth. The leaves of the common catsear are more lobed than pointy and they’re furry, while dandelions’ are smooth. Both leaves are edible, prepared in salads or sauteed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969315\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969315\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsears’ leaves are furry (left); dandelions’ are smooth. Both are edible. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you eat an old dandelion leaf, it’s going to be extremely bitter,” said \u003ca href=\"https://eggert.biology.missouri.edu/visiting-scholars/austin-lynn/\">Austin Lynn\u003c/a>, who studied the plants for his recently completed doctoral studies at the University of Missouri. “But if you eat a younger one, it’s much more pleasant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a taste test he carried out, Lynn said dandelion leaves were described as similar to romaine lettuce or arugula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both dandelion and catsear blooms transform into fluffy globes called “clocks,” full of seeds. The dandelion’s clock is like a head of wispy gray hairs that just came from the salon, while the catsear’s featherlike globe looks like a dandelion that let its mane dry in the wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969313\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Both catsears and dandelions create globes full of seeds, called “clocks.” Catsears’ clocks (left) look like a messier version of dandelions’. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969321\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969321\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsear (left) and dandelion dried, ribbed fruits waiting to be carried away by the wind. A tiny seed is hiding inside each fruit. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other way to tell them apart is that each stem of catsears branches into multiple blooms, while dandelions have only one bloom per stem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for all their differences, dandelions and catsears are closely related and pollinator favorites. That’s because of a tiny secret up in their petals: What we think of as a dandelion or a catsear flower is actually a cluster of dozens of tiny flowers called ray florets. Each floret makes its own pollen and nectar, which attract a host of different bees, butterflies and other insects. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catsears serve all customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have generalists as their pollinators,” said DiTomaso. “There are not specific insects that are required to pollinate them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Umber_skipper_butterfly_on_catsear.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Umber_skipper_butterfly_on_catsear.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An umber skipper butterfly sips nectar from a catsear in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The dandelions in your backyard, called common dandelions and hailing from Europe, don’t even need pollinators to reproduce — they just clone themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If one dandelion makes it to a new habitat, it can colonize that new habitat with just one individual,” said Lynn. “These dandelions don’t need to have a mate; that’s one of the big advantages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappi_fly_off_wide-shot.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969308\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappi_fly_off_wide-shot.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Make a wish! Dandelion pappi fly away. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wind disperses both dandelions’ and catsears’ seeds, another reason for their success. Each floret produces a fruit with a tiny seed inside, and each fruit floats away hanging from an umbrella-shaped structure called a pappus. These tiny pappi (PAP-eye) are what children blow on after making a wish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re very good at catching wind to detach,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/n.nakayama\">Naomi Nakayama\u003c/a>, a researcher at Imperial College London who has studied dandelion flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappus_flies_off.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969309\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappus_flies_off.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dandelion pappus catches the wind and carries away a dry, ribbed fruit. A tiny seed is nestled inside the fruit. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The pappus acts very much like an open umbrella that lifts easily on the wind, even though it’s mainly empty space. Because of its small size, a trick of physics makes it so that the air in between the bristles of the pappi behaves like a solid — sort of like a viscous honey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have an invisible wall they create,” said Nakayama. This helps pappi lift off when the wind hits them. The wall effect also helps the pappus stay adrift. Some air sifts through the bristles and a lot of air swirls around and above the pappus, forming a whirlwind that sucks the pappus up and keeps it afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority of pappi don’t carry their seed very far — just enough for it to germinate in your backyard. How far they can travel is an open question, Nakayama said, since attaching a GPS onto them would impede their flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Pappi_fly_off_dandelion.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969324\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Pappi_fly_off_dandelion.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most dandelion fruit will likely fall to the ground nearby. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people feel comfortable saying they can travel a couple of miles,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if most pappi end up landing right in your backyard, at least you might be able to get a good salad or some bee-watching out of the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Not every yellow bloom — or fluffy white globe — taking over your backyard is a dandelion. Some of them are the most prolific plant you've never heard of: catsears.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704847060,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":1212},"headData":{"title":"This is NOT a Dandelion. | KQED","description":"Not every yellow bloom — or fluffy white globe — taking over your backyard is a dandelion. Some of them are the most prolific plant you've never heard of: catsears.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"This is NOT a Dandelion.","datePublished":"2020-09-08T13:00:45.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:37:40.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"videoEmbed":"https://youtu.be/_7SIHtWu2hw","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1969214/this-is-not-a-dandelion","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"dl_subscribe","attributes":{"named":{"label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Gardeners cursing as they yank out yellow blooms from the ground might be misplacing their anger. Not everything that looks like a dandelion is one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969312\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DEEP_713_This-is-Not_a-Dandelion_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is not a dandelion. To tell this catsear from its better-known relative you need to look under its petals. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dandelions have many doppelgangers, among them the most successful plant you’ve never heard of: catsears. Their claim to fame is that they were recently \u003ca href=\"https://nytimesanswers.com/dandelion-look-alike-crossword-clue-2/\">a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle\u003c/a> (“Dandelion look-alike”), but the plant is so prolific — it has spread from its native Morocco all around the world — that it doesn’t really need any press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chances are you’ll run across both dandelions and catsears in your backyard or at the park this fall, especially if they’re getting watered. Catsears also proliferate in pastures, where cows keep the grasses that compete with them at bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Lesser_goldfinch_eats_catsear_seeds.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969310 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Lesser_goldfinch_eats_catsear_seeds.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A lesser goldfinch munches on catsear seeds in Berkeley.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bees and butterflies love the nectar and pollen provided by dandelions and catsears, and little songbirds like lesser goldfinches feed on their seeds. But it’s hard to convince some gardeners of their virtues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people who have a nice turf want only grasses,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/people/joseph-ditomaso\">Joe DiTomaso\u003c/a>, a weed researcher who retired from UC Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969317\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1921px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969317\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1921\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920.jpg 1921w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsears_many_in_backyard_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1921px) 100vw, 1921px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsears in bloom in a backyard in Berkeley in June. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Frustratingly for lawn lovers, efforts to keep the turf looking good sometimes help dandelions and catsears. Their leaves grow close to the ground, so when the lawnmower chops down any blades of grass towering over them, they can more easily soak up the rays they need to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether you’re a friend or a foe, telling dandelions and catsears apart could be useful — if only to know thine enemy — and a fun way to ponder what makes these yellow blooms so successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking down at them, you’ll miss their differences. You need to get on your knees and take a close look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below their petals you’ll see green structures that hold the bloom. They’re called phyllaries. In catsears, they all point up. In dandelions, some phyllaries curl down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969316\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969316\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_inflorescence_fm_below_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsear or dandelion? The green structures called phyllaries that hug the bloom all point up in catsears. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969318\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_phyllaries_no_label_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dandelions’ curly phyllaries are one way to tell them apart from catsears. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dandelion and catsear leaves have a similar shape, with toothed edges that give dandelions their name — an adaptation from the French dent-de-lion, or lion’s tooth. The leaves of the common catsear are more lobed than pointy and they’re furry, while dandelions’ are smooth. Both leaves are edible, prepared in salads or sauteed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969315\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969315\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_leaves_no_label_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsears’ leaves are furry (left); dandelions’ are smooth. Both are edible. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If you eat an old dandelion leaf, it’s going to be extremely bitter,” said \u003ca href=\"https://eggert.biology.missouri.edu/visiting-scholars/austin-lynn/\">Austin Lynn\u003c/a>, who studied the plants for his recently completed doctoral studies at the University of Missouri. “But if you eat a younger one, it’s much more pleasant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a taste test he carried out, Lynn said dandelion leaves were described as similar to romaine lettuce or arugula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both dandelion and catsear blooms transform into fluffy globes called “clocks,” full of seeds. The dandelion’s clock is like a head of wispy gray hairs that just came from the salon, while the catsear’s featherlike globe looks like a dandelion that let its mane dry in the wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969313\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969313\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_and_dandelion_clocks_1920-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Both catsears and dandelions create globes full of seeds, called “clocks.” Catsears’ clocks (left) look like a messier version of dandelions’. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969321\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969321\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Catsear_dandelion_fruits_no_label-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Catsear (left) and dandelion dried, ribbed fruits waiting to be carried away by the wind. A tiny seed is hiding inside each fruit. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other way to tell them apart is that each stem of catsears branches into multiple blooms, while dandelions have only one bloom per stem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for all their differences, dandelions and catsears are closely related and pollinator favorites. That’s because of a tiny secret up in their petals: What we think of as a dandelion or a catsear flower is actually a cluster of dozens of tiny flowers called ray florets. Each floret makes its own pollen and nectar, which attract a host of different bees, butterflies and other insects. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catsears serve all customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have generalists as their pollinators,” said DiTomaso. “There are not specific insects that are required to pollinate them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Umber_skipper_butterfly_on_catsear.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Umber_skipper_butterfly_on_catsear.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An umber skipper butterfly sips nectar from a catsear in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The dandelions in your backyard, called common dandelions and hailing from Europe, don’t even need pollinators to reproduce — they just clone themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If one dandelion makes it to a new habitat, it can colonize that new habitat with just one individual,” said Lynn. “These dandelions don’t need to have a mate; that’s one of the big advantages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappi_fly_off_wide-shot.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969308\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappi_fly_off_wide-shot.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Make a wish! Dandelion pappi fly away. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wind disperses both dandelions’ and catsears’ seeds, another reason for their success. Each floret produces a fruit with a tiny seed inside, and each fruit floats away hanging from an umbrella-shaped structure called a pappus. These tiny pappi (PAP-eye) are what children blow on after making a wish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re very good at catching wind to detach,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/n.nakayama\">Naomi Nakayama\u003c/a>, a researcher at Imperial College London who has studied dandelion flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappus_flies_off.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969309\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Dandelion_pappus_flies_off.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dandelion pappus catches the wind and carries away a dry, ribbed fruit. A tiny seed is nestled inside the fruit. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The pappus acts very much like an open umbrella that lifts easily on the wind, even though it’s mainly empty space. Because of its small size, a trick of physics makes it so that the air in between the bristles of the pappi behaves like a solid — sort of like a viscous honey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have an invisible wall they create,” said Nakayama. This helps pappi lift off when the wind hits them. The wall effect also helps the pappus stay adrift. Some air sifts through the bristles and a lot of air swirls around and above the pappus, forming a whirlwind that sucks the pappus up and keeps it afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority of pappi don’t carry their seed very far — just enough for it to germinate in your backyard. How far they can travel is an open question, Nakayama said, since attaching a GPS onto them would impede their flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Pappi_fly_off_dandelion.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1969324\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/DL713_Pappi_fly_off_dandelion.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Most dandelion fruit will likely fall to the ground nearby. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people feel comfortable saying they can travel a couple of miles,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if most pappi end up landing right in your backyard, at least you might be able to get a good salad or some bee-watching out of the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1969214/this-is-not-a-dandelion","authors":["6186"],"series":["science_1935"],"categories":["science_40","science_4450","science_86"],"tags":["science_1970","science_2377"],"featImg":"science_1969217","label":"science_1935"},"science_1446777":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1446777","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1446777","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"everything-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-snail-sex","title":"Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Snail Sex","publishDate":1489496402,"format":"video","headTitle":"Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Snail Sex | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":1935,"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]The recent heavy rains in California have been good for the drought. But it’s not just people who are celebrating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown garden snails, which originated in the Mediterranean where the climate resembles much of California’s, thrive in moist places. If it’s too cold or too dry, they hunker down in their shells and wait for a wet spell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the rain, when everything’s nice and damp, like it is now, snails re-emerge. That’s when love is in the air. But the sex life of these common snails is anything but ordinary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, they’re hermaphrodites, fitted with both male and female reproductive plumbing, and can mate with any member of their species they want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sounds easy, but the battle of the sexes is alive and well in gastropods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Snails find reproductive partners by following their slime trails.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snails find reproductive partners by following their slime trails. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The fundamental problem for snails, who are both male and female at the same time, is how you optimize both your male function and your female function,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry_Roth2/publications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barry Roth, \u003c/a>a former collections manager at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/?gclid=CM_Omev1utICFQmIfgodVAkI3g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> who’s now an independent snail and slug consultant in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In nature, fatherhood is easier. It’s the quickest, cheapest way to pass on your genes. Motherhood requires a much greater investment of time, energy, and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Courtship is how they sort that out,” Roth said. “Who’s going to be male? Who’s going to be female? Or is it going to be shared?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With garden snails, “courtship” is somewhat euphemistic. Their idea of foreplay is to stab each other with a tiny spike called a love dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the play-by-play. Snails find mates using taste and smell. By waving their upper tentacles in the air—smelling—and tapping their lower ones on the ground—tasting—they pick up on the gooey trails of potential partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then they follow the slime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(For a detailed look at the many uses of slime, checkout this episode of Deep Look, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHvCQSGanJg&list=PLdKlciEDdCQBpNSC7BIONruffF_ab4cqK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Banana Slugs: Secret of the Slime.\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snails_foreplay_720.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1447013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snails_foreplay_720.gif\" alt=\"Snails spend hours smelling and tasting a potential mate.\" width=\"720\" height=\"404\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snails spend hours smelling and tasting a potential mate. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When snails meet, the tasting and smelling continue, this time with full-body contact, sometimes for hours. Call it heavy petting or extreme vetting, snails take the time to get to know their partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything in this courtship is wine and roses at first—then comes the love dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technically called a gypsobelum, the love dart is a nail-clipping-sized needle that stays hidden in an internal sac until about half an hour before copulation begins, when the sac inverts and it’s fired, or stabbed, indiscriminately into the partner’s body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being stabbed by the male dart makes you more of a female-oriented partner in that courtship,” said Roth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447011\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447011\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-800x450.jpg\" alt='Garden snails stab each other with \"love darts\" before copulation.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Garden snails stab each other with “love darts” before copulation. \u003ccite>(Koene & Schulenburg 2005 BMC Evol. Biol.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The love dart is the snails’ tool for maximizing their male side. It injects hormones to prevent the other snail’s body from killing newly introduced sperm once copulation begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When snails copulate, two penises enter two vaginal tracts. Both snails in a pairing transfer sperm, but whichever snail got in the best shot with the dart has a better chance of ultimately fertilizing eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some species, only one snail fires a love dart, but in others, like the garden snail, both do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole reproductive system is a quite a maze,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.joriskoene.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joris Koene,\u003c/a> a gastropod researcher at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447014\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447014\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"When snails copulate, two penises enter two vaginas, and they exchange sperm. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When snails copulate, two penises enter two vaginas, and they exchange sperm. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You can spot love darts sticking out of snails in mid-courtship, and even find them abandoned in slime puddles where mating has been happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scale it up to human size and the love dart would be the equivalent of a 15-inch knife, according to Koene. Nonetheless, he’s only seen one snail die by dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does make a pretty decent-sized hole in the body,” he said, “but in general, they are fine. They’re used to this, I guess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447072\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"To film snails copulating, the Deep Look team built a tabletop snail love garden.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To film snails copulating, the Deep Look team built a tabletop snail love garden. \u003ccite>(Jen Brady / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Besides having both boy and girl parts, they stab each other with “love darts” as a kind of foreplay.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704928992,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":25,"wordCount":748},"headData":{"title":"Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Snail Sex | KQED","description":"Besides having both boy and girl parts, they stab each other with “love darts” as a kind of foreplay.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Snail Sex","datePublished":"2017-03-14T13:00:02.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:23:12.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"videoEmbed":"https://youtu.be/UOcLaI44TXA","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1446777/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-snail-sex","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"dl_subscribe","attributes":{"named":{"label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The recent heavy rains in California have been good for the drought. But it’s not just people who are celebrating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown garden snails, which originated in the Mediterranean where the climate resembles much of California’s, thrive in moist places. If it’s too cold or too dry, they hunker down in their shells and wait for a wet spell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the rain, when everything’s nice and damp, like it is now, snails re-emerge. That’s when love is in the air. But the sex life of these common snails is anything but ordinary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, they’re hermaphrodites, fitted with both male and female reproductive plumbing, and can mate with any member of their species they want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sounds easy, but the battle of the sexes is alive and well in gastropods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447017\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Snails find reproductive partners by following their slime trails.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-two-snails-getting-close-CC-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snails find reproductive partners by following their slime trails. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The fundamental problem for snails, who are both male and female at the same time, is how you optimize both your male function and your female function,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry_Roth2/publications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barry Roth, \u003c/a>a former collections manager at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/?gclid=CM_Omev1utICFQmIfgodVAkI3g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> who’s now an independent snail and slug consultant in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In nature, fatherhood is easier. It’s the quickest, cheapest way to pass on your genes. Motherhood requires a much greater investment of time, energy, and resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Courtship is how they sort that out,” Roth said. “Who’s going to be male? Who’s going to be female? Or is it going to be shared?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With garden snails, “courtship” is somewhat euphemistic. Their idea of foreplay is to stab each other with a tiny spike called a love dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s the play-by-play. Snails find mates using taste and smell. By waving their upper tentacles in the air—smelling—and tapping their lower ones on the ground—tasting—they pick up on the gooey trails of potential partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then they follow the slime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(For a detailed look at the many uses of slime, checkout this episode of Deep Look, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHvCQSGanJg&list=PLdKlciEDdCQBpNSC7BIONruffF_ab4cqK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Banana Slugs: Secret of the Slime.\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snails_foreplay_720.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1447013\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snails_foreplay_720.gif\" alt=\"Snails spend hours smelling and tasting a potential mate.\" width=\"720\" height=\"404\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Snails spend hours smelling and tasting a potential mate. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When snails meet, the tasting and smelling continue, this time with full-body contact, sometimes for hours. Call it heavy petting or extreme vetting, snails take the time to get to know their partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything in this courtship is wine and roses at first—then comes the love dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technically called a gypsobelum, the love dart is a nail-clipping-sized needle that stays hidden in an internal sac until about half an hour before copulation begins, when the sac inverts and it’s fired, or stabbed, indiscriminately into the partner’s body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being stabbed by the male dart makes you more of a female-oriented partner in that courtship,” said Roth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447011\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447011\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-800x450.jpg\" alt='Garden snails stab each other with \"love darts\" before copulation.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-garden-snail-dart-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Garden snails stab each other with “love darts” before copulation. \u003ccite>(Koene & Schulenburg 2005 BMC Evol. Biol.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The love dart is the snails’ tool for maximizing their male side. It injects hormones to prevent the other snail’s body from killing newly introduced sperm once copulation begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When snails copulate, two penises enter two vaginal tracts. Both snails in a pairing transfer sperm, but whichever snail got in the best shot with the dart has a better chance of ultimately fertilizing eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some species, only one snail fires a love dart, but in others, like the garden snail, both do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole reproductive system is a quite a maze,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.joriskoene.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joris Koene,\u003c/a> a gastropod researcher at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447014\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447014\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"When snails copulate, two penises enter two vaginas, and they exchange sperm. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406-snail-copulation-CC-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When snails copulate, two penises enter two vaginas, and they exchange sperm. \u003ccite>(Elliott Kennerson / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You can spot love darts sticking out of snails in mid-courtship, and even find them abandoned in slime puddles where mating has been happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scale it up to human size and the love dart would be the equivalent of a 15-inch knife, according to Koene. Nonetheless, he’s only seen one snail die by dart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does make a pretty decent-sized hole in the body,” he said, “but in general, they are fine. They’re used to this, I guess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1447072\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1447072\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"To film snails copulating, the Deep Look team built a tabletop snail love garden.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/DL406_snail-garden-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">To film snails copulating, the Deep Look team built a tabletop snail love garden. \u003ccite>(Jen Brady / KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1446777/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-snail-sex","authors":["11090"],"series":["science_1935"],"categories":["science_2874","science_30","science_35","science_40","science_86"],"tags":["science_179"],"featImg":"science_1467862","label":"science_1935"},"science_1918301":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1918301","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1918301","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"what-are-those-weird-pink-ponds-in-san-francisco-bay","title":"What Are Those Weird, Pink Ponds in San Francisco Bay?","publishDate":1513238497,"format":"image","headTitle":"What Are Those Weird, Pink Ponds in San Francisco Bay? | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Passengers flying into Bay Area airports usually spot them out the window: huge, colorful ponds, hugging the shoreline of the bay. The patchwork of brown, green and pink looks like a bizarre quilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re known as the “salt ponds,” and Bay Curious listener Ann Vercoutere has wondered about them since her childhood in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’d drive by on the old Bayshore Freeway, you’d see these big piles of salt,” she says. “So, my question is: what’s the process of how they go from dirty bay water into salt that comes out white from my salt shaker?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>143 Billion Bowls of Popcorn\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Those giant piles of salt actually hold of piece of the Bay Area’s history going back to the Gold Rush and reflect the legacy of environmental change since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, they also hold a lot of seasoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The salt stack is 80 feet tall and about 800 feet wide,” says Maria Alizo-Martell of Cargill, Inc., standing next to the 500,000-ton pile. By rough estimate, it would season 143 billion bowls of popcorn, give or take, depending on how salty you like it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The piles are at Cargill’s Newark facility, where the final harvest takes place. But it begins in San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salty water from the bay is captured in vast ponds, where it starts to evaporate because of heat from the sun and drying by the wind. At first, the ponds are green or brownish in color, like the bay itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918307\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1918307 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/SP_V05_171212.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation shows the movement of reddish salt brine through Cargill’s Newark ponds over the course of 2017. \u003ccite>(Images provided by Planet)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the salt water becomes more concentrated, it’s moved into other ponds where the color becomes more yellowish. Finally, in the last stage, the “pickle” brine, as it’s known, starts turning pink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We like pink,” says Alizo-Martell with a chuckle, walking across a shallow pond with an inch of pink water. It covers a thick layer of crusty salt and looks like a giant, raspberry snow cone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/bay-curious/2017/12/salt-ponds.mp3\" Image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/3526386886_f2139fe9ab_o-e1513209482229.jpg\" Title=\"LISTEN: What Are Those Weird, Pink Ponds in San Francisco Bay?\" program=\"Bay Curious\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Don’t Call it a “Salt Pond”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“This is what we call a crystallizer bed,” says Cargill’s Pat Mapelli. “This is very engineered, managed and manicured, where everything has been rolled, graded, sloped and compacted. Whereas a salt pond is essentially a diked off area that has been flooded with salt water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vibrant pink hue comes from a natural source: halobacterium and microscopic algae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the water gets saltier, some microbes can’t hack it and they die off. But others are specially adapted to salty conditions and they flourish, changing the color of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1918310\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salt-loving microbes color the water before harvest. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they get stressed as the salinity increases, they produce that red color,” says Alizo-Martell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The saltier the water, the redder the microbes get. That color aids in the salt-making process by absorbing sunlight and increasing evaporation. Clear water doesn’t absorb as much light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once several inches of salt form, Cargill begins the harvest, which lasts from September to December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just beautiful,” says Alizo-Martell, picking up a handful of the flaky, white cubes. “It’s so weather dependent. You had a bad year, you get not much salt.” A lot of rain slows down the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1918312\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The massive salt stack in Newark holds 500,000 tons. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In all, it takes three years and a thousand gallons of bay water to produce just one pound of salt. From here, it goes to a refinery where it’s cleaned, sized and sold as sea salt, bearing the Morton’s or Diamond Crystal brand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But only 3 percent of the salt ends up on our table. The rest supplies a huge range of industrial processes, from pharmaceuticals to food production, water treatment and road salt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Gold Rush History\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Believe it or not, the Bay Area may not be what it is today without its salt. Harvesting salt from the Bay dates back to Native American groups like the Ohlone, but demand really picked up in the 1850s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As people migrated from the east to the west, mostly around the discovery of gold, there was a need for salt,” says Mapelli. “Everybody traveled with salt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without refrigeration, salt was how people preserved food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was almost worth its weight in gold,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salt-making boomed through the 1970s, when Cargill bought the operation. 44,000 acres of the bay were in production then, but today, it’s just 8,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the market for salt shifted and so did our view of what San Francisco Bay should be. The salt ponds used to be marshes, which, around the time of the Gold Rush, were seen as wasteland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1918311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Only three percent ends up as table salt. The rest goes to industry. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was an encouragement by both the state and federal government to put what they considered wasteland or swamp and overflow lands into economic use,” Mapelli says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the Bay has lost more than 80 percent of its marshes. So, in 2003, the federal and state governments bought thousands of acres of ponds from Cargill. In the biggest ecosystem restoration project on the West Coast, the ponds are being reconnected to the Bay and restored to their original status as marshlands to support wildlife and act as buffers against rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Bay Curious questioner Ann Vercoutere, the ponds are one of the few things that haven’t changed from her childhood in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was a kid in Mountain View, “there were lots of orchards around,” she says. “Some of our summer jobs were going to work picking Italian prune plums with the migrant workers. Shoreline Amphitheater was the city dump. That was always a fun Saturday to go with our dad and pick through the dump and look for stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the salt ponds border some of the most expensive real estate in the nation, not far from gleaming tech campuses. The chances of starting a large, industrial salt-making operation in the Bay today are effectively zilch, for financial and environmental reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the long, colorful history, Cargill still holds rights to make salt, which really, is the only way salt-harvesting has stuck around amid the intense development pressure of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The answer might be sitting on your kitchen table right now.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704928268,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":33,"wordCount":1179},"headData":{"title":"What Are Those Weird, Pink Ponds in San Francisco Bay? | KQED","description":"The answer might be sitting on your kitchen table right now.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"What Are Those Weird, Pink Ponds in San Francisco Bay?","datePublished":"2017-12-14T08:01:37.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:11:08.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Bay Curious","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2017/12/WEBversionSaltPondswithfunder.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1918301/what-are-those-weird-pink-ponds-in-san-francisco-bay","audioDuration":475000,"audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Passengers flying into Bay Area airports usually spot them out the window: huge, colorful ponds, hugging the shoreline of the bay. The patchwork of brown, green and pink looks like a bizarre quilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re known as the “salt ponds,” and Bay Curious listener Ann Vercoutere has wondered about them since her childhood in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’d drive by on the old Bayshore Freeway, you’d see these big piles of salt,” she says. “So, my question is: what’s the process of how they go from dirty bay water into salt that comes out white from my salt shaker?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>143 Billion Bowls of Popcorn\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Those giant piles of salt actually hold of piece of the Bay Area’s history going back to the Gold Rush and reflect the legacy of environmental change since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, they also hold a lot of seasoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The salt stack is 80 feet tall and about 800 feet wide,” says Maria Alizo-Martell of Cargill, Inc., standing next to the 500,000-ton pile. By rough estimate, it would season 143 billion bowls of popcorn, give or take, depending on how salty you like it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The piles are at Cargill’s Newark facility, where the final harvest takes place. But it begins in San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salty water from the bay is captured in vast ponds, where it starts to evaporate because of heat from the sun and drying by the wind. At first, the ponds are green or brownish in color, like the bay itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918307\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1918307 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/SP_V05_171212.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation shows the movement of reddish salt brine through Cargill’s Newark ponds over the course of 2017. \u003ccite>(Images provided by Planet)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the salt water becomes more concentrated, it’s moved into other ponds where the color becomes more yellowish. Finally, in the last stage, the “pickle” brine, as it’s known, starts turning pink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We like pink,” says Alizo-Martell with a chuckle, walking across a shallow pond with an inch of pink water. It covers a thick layer of crusty salt and looks like a giant, raspberry snow cone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"audio","attributes":{"named":{"src":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/bay-curious/2017/12/salt-ponds.mp3","image":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/3526386886_f2139fe9ab_o-e1513209482229.jpg","title":"LISTEN: What Are Those Weird, Pink Ponds in San Francisco Bay?","program":"Bay Curious","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Don’t Call it a “Salt Pond”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“This is what we call a crystallizer bed,” says Cargill’s Pat Mapelli. “This is very engineered, managed and manicured, where everything has been rolled, graded, sloped and compacted. Whereas a salt pond is essentially a diked off area that has been flooded with salt water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vibrant pink hue comes from a natural source: halobacterium and microscopic algae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the water gets saltier, some microbes can’t hack it and they die off. But others are specially adapted to salty conditions and they flourish, changing the color of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1918310\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web4-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salt-loving microbes color the water before harvest. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they get stressed as the salinity increases, they produce that red color,” says Alizo-Martell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The saltier the water, the redder the microbes get. That color aids in the salt-making process by absorbing sunlight and increasing evaporation. Clear water doesn’t absorb as much light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once several inches of salt form, Cargill begins the harvest, which lasts from September to December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just beautiful,” says Alizo-Martell, picking up a handful of the flaky, white cubes. “It’s so weather dependent. You had a bad year, you get not much salt.” A lot of rain slows down the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1918312\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web3-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The massive salt stack in Newark holds 500,000 tons. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In all, it takes three years and a thousand gallons of bay water to produce just one pound of salt. From here, it goes to a refinery where it’s cleaned, sized and sold as sea salt, bearing the Morton’s or Diamond Crystal brand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But only 3 percent of the salt ends up on our table. The rest supplies a huge range of industrial processes, from pharmaceuticals to food production, water treatment and road salt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Gold Rush History\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Believe it or not, the Bay Area may not be what it is today without its salt. Harvesting salt from the Bay dates back to Native American groups like the Ohlone, but demand really picked up in the 1850s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As people migrated from the east to the west, mostly around the discovery of gold, there was a need for salt,” says Mapelli. “Everybody traveled with salt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without refrigeration, salt was how people preserved food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was almost worth its weight in gold,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salt-making boomed through the 1970s, when Cargill bought the operation. 44,000 acres of the bay were in production then, but today, it’s just 8,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the market for salt shifted and so did our view of what San Francisco Bay should be. The salt ponds used to be marshes, which, around the time of the Gold Rush, were seen as wasteland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1918311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1918311\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/12/salt-ponds-web5-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Only three percent ends up as table salt. The rest goes to industry. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was an encouragement by both the state and federal government to put what they considered wasteland or swamp and overflow lands into economic use,” Mapelli says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the Bay has lost more than 80 percent of its marshes. So, in 2003, the federal and state governments bought thousands of acres of ponds from Cargill. In the biggest ecosystem restoration project on the West Coast, the ponds are being reconnected to the Bay and restored to their original status as marshlands to support wildlife and act as buffers against rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Bay Curious questioner Ann Vercoutere, the ponds are one of the few things that haven’t changed from her childhood in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was a kid in Mountain View, “there were lots of orchards around,” she says. “Some of our summer jobs were going to work picking Italian prune plums with the migrant workers. Shoreline Amphitheater was the city dump. That was always a fun Saturday to go with our dad and pick through the dump and look for stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the salt ponds border some of the most expensive real estate in the nation, not far from gleaming tech campuses. The chances of starting a large, industrial salt-making operation in the Bay today are effectively zilch, for financial and environmental reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the long, colorful history, Cargill still holds rights to make salt, which really, is the only way salt-harvesting has stuck around amid the intense development pressure of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1918301/what-are-those-weird-pink-ponds-in-san-francisco-bay","authors":["239"],"categories":["science_89","science_35","science_40","science_43"],"tags":["science_3370","science_507","science_670","science_208"],"featImg":"science_1918302","label":"source_science_1918301"},"science_1978374":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1978374","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1978374","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"a-california-water-board-assures-the-public-that-oil-wastewater-is-safe-for-irrigation-but-experts-say-the-evidence-is-scant","title":"A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant ","publishDate":1644229165,"format":"image","headTitle":"A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='right' citation='Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer, Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board']‘The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately.’[/pullquote]The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GSI did not tell water board officials about its ties to the oil industry, which shared the roughly $3.4 million in costs for the firm’s studies and related work with the water districts that benefit from the distribution of wastewater from oil extraction, known as “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One member of the board’s Food Safety Expert Panel that reviewed GSI’s studies was nominated by Chevron and initially paid by the oil industry, and a second panel member worked as a consultant for an oil company selling produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the expert panel’s own review concluded that GSI’s studies could not answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='left' citation='Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney, Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Law Institute']‘This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes.’[/pullquote]Thomas Borch of Colorado State University, a leading expert on treating and reusing produced water for crop irrigation who was not involved in the project, said that based on the data GSI had and the way they designed the experiments, “they were not able to draw the conclusions they did. Period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, said in a statement via email that his firm agreed with the water board that the studies were performed in “the most technically sound manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay Rodgers, the water board official who oversaw the Food Safety Project, said he promised the board that if any evidence were ever discovered that produced water was harming people consuming crops, “we would stop it immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the water board’s direction, GSI compiled a list of hundreds of chemicals used in oil operations, then focused on those that might pose health risks. But an absence of information to assess safety dogged the project from the start. Many of the chemicals had never been studied before, or lacked critical details about their use, the board’s panel of experts noted, because the oil companies said doing so would reveal trade secrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Already there was a data gap there because some of those chemicals don’t have reliable toxicity information,” said John Fleming, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings of the board and its expert panel found no food safety or public health concern, said David Ansolabehere, general manager of the Cawelo Water District, which has taken produced water from Chevron for decades. “Cawelo will continue to test the water based on the regional board’s permit requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978392\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978392\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"White steam rises off gray water at a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron's Kern River Oil Field. In the foreground and behind the oval reservoir are brown fields. A long pipeline extends from the far right of the photo to the edge of the reservoir.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steam rises from a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field. Chevron treats the wastewater, then transfers it via pipeline to the reservoir, where it’s blended with surface water and/or groundwater and sent to irrigation canals. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron tested for all additives used in the Kern River field for which a testing method approved by the Environmental Protection Agency exists, said Jonathan Harshman, communications advisor for Chevron’s San Joaquin Valley Business Unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet more than a fifth of the chemicals GSI identified — and 60% of those deemed most likely to pose a health risk — lacked both toxicity information and approved testing methods. The water board conceded that the data gaps left “potentially significant unknowns” about the chemicals’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they say this is safe,” Fleming said, “it’s based on what chemicals they were able to test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means the “no identifiable increased health risks” assertion applies to just a fraction of potential chemicals in produced water applied to crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Oil’s profligate water use\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In early August, during one of the driest summers on record, Wasco farmer Nate Siemens received a troubling notice from his irrigation district, which is regulated by the Central Valley water board. “Please be aware that this water includes some amount of reclaimed oilfield production water,” it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978401\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978401\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Almond farmer Nate Siemens stands in front of a large tree on his farm. He's wearing a red and black plaid shirt over a black hoodie, and a silver and gold ball cap. Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family's Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry's wastewater.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family’s Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry’s wastewater. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross, Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant with the Rodale Institute, was shocked. Siemens needed that water. But he’s transitioning his family’s Fat Uncle Farms to organic and wasn’t keen on using the oil industry’s wastewater to irrigate his almonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s farming roots in the region predate the rise of Kern County’s oil industry, which produces more than 70% of the state’s oil. He was well aware that climate-polluting pump jacks operate among corporate farms growing miles of water-intensive almonds and pistachios, California’s most valuable export crops. But he had no idea just how entrenched oil operations had become in \u003ca href=\"http://www.kernag.com/caap/crop-reports/crop20_29/crop2020.pdf\">the county’s $7.6 billion agricultural industry\u003c/a> until he received that notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 miles southeast of Siemens’s farm, thousands of densely packed pump jacks stretch as far as the eye can see toward the horizon, bobbing robotically as they suck oil and water from wells carved into the denuded landscape of the Kern River Oil Field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pump jacks have pried more than 2 billion barrels from the field since oil was discovered here in 1899. But wresting Kern’s notoriously viscous crude from receding oil reserves requires injecting ever increasing amounts of water and hot steam underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png 650w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst-160x170.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nThat water returns to the surface along with groundwater. The mixture contains arsenic, uranium and other naturally occurring toxic elements, along with potentially hundreds of chemicals used in the extraction process. Since 1985, the ratio of water to oil recovered has more than doubled, from seven barrels of water per barrel of oil to 18 barrels today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a region with less than nine inches of rain in a normal year — the definition of a desert — getting enough water is a perennial concern. Nearly 30 years ago, Chevron struck what a former Cawelo Water District manager called a “win-win” deal to deliver some of the massive amounts of wastewater produced every day to farmers’ fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, more than 38,000 acre-feet of produced water from Chevron and other oil companies hydrates California farmland, including roughly 11% of Kern County’s irrigated farmland. That’s enough to cover about 38,000 football fields with a foot of water, or more than 12.4 billion gallons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978379\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater-160x143.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nChevron treats produced water from its Kern River Oil Field by removing oil from water through gravity separation, then skimming off solids and residual oil before filtering it through walnut hulls. The water then travels several miles by pipeline to a Cawelo holding pond, where it’s blended with surface and groundwater and sent to irrigation canals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first time Seth Shonkoff, a public health scientist with the nonprofit Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers (PSE) for Healthy Energy and a member of the expert panel, visited the Cawelo holding pond several years ago, he smelled an “extraordinarily strong” whiff of asphalt and crude oil. The same odors were much less offensive when he visited the pond with the panel a few years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either there’s natural variability in the water, Shonkoff said, or someone did something different before experts came to evaluate the operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' align='right' citation='Thomas Borch, Colorado State University']‘We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it. We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.’[/pullquote]Chevron claims that recycling produced water for irrigation allows the company to operate in a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/stories/protecting-the-environment\">sustainable manner\u003c/a>,” by minimizing reliance on fresh water. Yet the massive energy requirements of the extraction process make Kern’s oil one of the world’s most climate-polluting fossil fuels, and Chevron one of California’s top greenhouse gas emitters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has this green reputation, but if you scratch the surface on the oil industry in the state, you quickly discover that that’s not the case at all,” said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes,” Kretzmann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Unfit for purpose \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Central Valley water board said it focused on crops grown in oil wastewater to address public concerns, which included petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, protests outside the state Capitol and a bill to label food grown with the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced the bill in 2015, after learning that farmers could get organic certification for shunning pesticides while using produced water, and consumers would never know. “I thought that was a real problem,” said Gatto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same year, \u003ca href=\"https://sd10.senate.ca.gov/news/2015-03-06-threat-groundwater-posed-improperly-sited-oil-injection-wells-be-explored-senate\">legislators called hearings\u003c/a> to increase scrutiny of oil companies after learning their practices posed risks to protected groundwater, including potential drinking water and irrigation supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately,” said Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, who oversaw the Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testing crops for harmful chemicals to figure out whether they’re safe to eat may seem logical, but techniques to analyze food for oil-related chemicals are “light years” behind those for detecting the compounds in water and soil, Shonkoff said. He raised the problem repeatedly at panel meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, the panel agreed. Its first recommendation to the board was to discontinue crop sampling. It would be far more productive to focus on produced water and irrigated soil, the panel said, using approaches that can reveal the toxicity of the water and soil itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Shonkoff said, “most of the work that was done to test things for chemicals was done in food. Unfortunately, that was, in my professional opinion, a pretty big waste of time and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data GSI compiled — including the list of chemicals and their hazard profiles — was “way too limited” to draw conclusions about lack of toxicity, said Borch, the Colorado State University professor and produced water expert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t mean it’s toxic,” said Borch. But there was no way they could conclude that produced water posed no identifiable health risks based on the data they had and their experimental approach, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978406\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978406\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg\" alt='A sign is posted behind a chain link fence, protected with strands of barbed wire. The sign, in Spanish and English, reads \"Danger. Hot Water. Keep Away.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chevron relies on steam injections to extract Kern County’s tarry crude oil from aging formations, then sends the hot wastewater north to the Cawelo Water District via pipeline. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That leaves Siemens, who’s transitioning to organic, in a tough spot. Although produced water isn’t specifically defined under organic standards, organic farmers can’t use water that contains arsenic, a constituent of Kern’s produced water, and most synthetic compounds, like those used in oil and gas operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens stopped watering his orchard for a few weeks after his district notified him about the produced water. “And the trees suffered,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the almond harvest approached, Siemens couldn’t risk losing the trees. He used just enough of the water to keep them alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t know what we were getting into,” he said. “We just didn’t have time to do the research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Siemens had done the research, it might not have mattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it,” said Borch. “We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A failure to disclose\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest hurdles to evaluating the safety of produced water has been oil companies’ unwillingness to reveal key details about the chemicals they put down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before joining the panel, Shonkoff was working on an independent study of fracking for the California Council on Science and Technology, or CCST, when he discovered a dataset he’d never seen before: a list of chemicals used in conventional oil development, from fields in Southern California. At the time, no other location in the country, and maybe the world, required chemical disclosure for conventional operations. The CCST assessment, commissioned by the state, revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://ccst.us/wp-content/uploads/2015SB4-v2ES.pdf\">testing and treatment of produced water used for irrigation might not remove or even detect chemical\u003c/a>s used in fracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During fracking, operators inject a high-pressure mixture of water, chemicals and sand deep underground to break and then prop open surrounding rock to extract oil or gas. Conventional operations, by contrast, inject high-pressure steam to loosen gooey oil. Wastewater from both conventional and fracking operations falls under the heading of “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Shonkoff dug into the newfound data, and read the permits and regulations for Kern County’s produced water, he realized Chevron and other oil companies could put nearly any additives they wanted down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the water board prohibits using water from fracked wells for irrigation, fracking and conventional operations employ many of the same chemicals, Shonkoff told the board at the panel’s first public meeting. And most compounds used in conventional extraction processes in Kern County, he said, lack the information needed to assess safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s imperative that oil companies disclose not just which chemicals they use in oil and gas production but also the volume and frequency of their use, Shonkoff said. Until then, he said, “I’m not quite sure that we can say with any real level of certainty that this is safe or unsafe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers of the water board said he’d obtained a list of all the chemical compounds oil companies use. But to avoid trade secret information, he said, the board could not get the recipe, which details how often a chemical is used and how much goes down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers said he felt the highest priority was to get a list he could share with the panel members and the public and compensated for not getting the recipe by assuming all the chemicals were used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But knowing the hazard associated with a chemical depends on knowing that recipe, the panel concluded. It also requires knowing chemicals’ breakdown products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemicals are injected under intense heat and pressure into oil reservoirs, where they interact with scores of other compounds, before they’re pulled back to the surface and exposed to air. All these conditions can affect a chemical’s toxicity. And scientists have no good tools to understand how chemical interactions increase toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This assumption that we should be looking for the chemicals that were added to oil and gas operations, and the assumption that they will continue to be those same chemicals after all the processes that they go through, is too big of a leap to make,” Shonkoff said. “Of course, you’re not going to find them, because they most certainly have transformed into other types of chemical constituents by the time things are being monitored and tested for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some chemical additives might degrade into harmless substances, but others can prove more toxic. Shonkoff pointed to glutaraldehyde, a chemical widely used to kill microorganisms that gum up oil and gas extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glutaraldehyde is toxic to people, he said. Some of its breakdown products are even more toxic, some are less toxic and others are completely unknown because they haven’t been studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re talking about hundreds of chemicals, many of which we don’t have good toxicological information on,” Shonkoff said, “the idea that you can really understand the toxicological dimensions of their daughter products, and their transformation products in the presence of other chemicals, is outstripping what we know scientifically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a plant’s own metabolism can affect a chemical’s toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plants could take up chemicals in one form and turn them into something else that’s more harmful, said Fleming of the Center for Biological Diversity. But if you’re just testing for a list of chemicals added to the well, he said, you’re testing for the wrong thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, agreed to answer questions only by email. Asked about the focus on testing crops, Scofield offered a carefully worded statement that ended: “We agree with the Water Board and their scientific advisor that this direct testing was the most technically sound manner to address the questions posed in the study.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the failure to address chemicals’ breakdown products, he responded with the exact same statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a really big assumption baked into the GSI work,” said Shonkoff. The studies assume that the chemicals remain in the same form from the oil field to a consumer’s plate and that it’s sufficient to monitor those particular chemicals, he said. “And that’s obviously incorrect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Still waiting for answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California supplies 99% of the world’s almonds and pistachios, mostly from Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water board regulators say nothing has received more scrutiny than the oil field water that irrigates those crops. “We know more about that produced water than probably any other produced water in the world,” said Rodgers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the evidence is still so scarce, said Colorado State’s Borch, “you can argue both sides.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no established tools to do a “real toxicity analysis,” Borch said, and there’s “not a good framework” to evaluate risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a study of treated produced water released into a stream for irrigation in Wyoming, Borch and his colleagues found that most of the chemicals they detected had no health safety standard. There were likely other chemicals and breakdown products “with unknown impacts” that had escaped detection, they noted in the 2020 study, \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S0048969720301170\">published in Science of the Total Environment\u003c/a>. In a related study published later that year, Borch’s team \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S004896972030454X\">assessed the potential of treated produced water to cause cancer\u003c/a>. Several different tests showed that the water caused increased mutation rates — an indication of cancer risk — even though most chemicals were present in low concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many stakeholders stand to benefit if produced water can be reused safely, the scientists wrote. But if the practice is expanded prematurely, they warned, it could harm water quality as well as the health of soil, livestock, and crops and people who eat them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People are still using benchmarks for water quality that were not developed with oil field wastewater in mind, Borch said, even though the complexity and chemical makeup of produced water is very different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And simply looking to see whether chemicals are present, as the GSI studies did, doesn’t say anything about toxicity. Many compounds in the wastewater may be present in concentrations low enough to escape detection, said Borch. But that doesn’t mean they’re not toxic, he said: “It just means you don’t have the method that allows for extraction and analysis of the compounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a paper published in December, Borch and his colleagues presented a model for taking a holistic \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00248\">approach that exposes cells and lab organisms to produced water to detect harmful responses\u003c/a>, along the lines Shonkoff had recommended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch’s “adverse outcome” approach is also likely to catch the breakdown products the Food Safety Panel identified as a major testing inadequacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a similar approach, led by its Region 8 office in Colorado, as part of a national program to study the safety of produced water, said Tricia Pfeiffer, an environmental engineer in Region 8’s Technical Assistance Branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort is addressing the need to harness cutting-edge approaches for evaluating oil-related contaminants, and their byproducts, in produced water intended for reuse. That includes enlisting tools to analyze human cells to identify any worrisome changes caused by chemicals in produced water while applying complementary approaches to detect toxic constituents in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is actual research,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s way more complicated than doing something that already has an analytical method.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we grapple with climate change issues, she said, “we’re looking for alternative water sources. And as a researcher, my biggest goal with this project is to help fill data gaps and make sure that we’re protective of human health and the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch said the technology exists to remove all sorts of contaminants from water, but it’s far more expensive than the low-cost methods used by Kern County oil companies. If people aren’t willing to pay the real costs of growing crops in a water-scarce region, he said, “maybe we shouldn’t even produce almonds because they use so much water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choosing less water-intensive crops is critical to keeping land productive, said Siemens, the Wasco farmer who was shocked to learn that his water district was sending him oil field wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens is moving away from thirsty almonds to dry-farming olives, mulberries and figs, focusing on farming in ways that suit the region. Like raising goats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Goats would be happy to eat all these weeds out there,” Siemens said, pointing to the field behind his house. And lots of people in the valley would be happy to eat goat meat, he said. “You can go to any taqueria in the area and buy \u003cem>carne de cabra\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s vision of sustainable farming does not include taking the wastewater of an industry whose greenhouse gas emissions have helped fuel California’s relentless droughts and contaminated its precious groundwater supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not just trying to meet a USDA organic standard,” Siemens said. “We’re trying to increase the vitality of this land for the future. Our kids live here, and I hope my grandkids will live here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means protecting the soil and aquifers that helped turn Kern County into one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the results of a truly independent analysis of whether oil field-produced water is fit to irrigate crops sent around the world, Pfeiffer said, is still years away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Anne Marshall-Chalmers, an Inside Climate News fellow, contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Studies in Kern County, performed by oil industry consultants, cannot answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with 'produced water,' the board's own panel of experts concedes.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846318,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":90,"wordCount":4189},"headData":{"title":"A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant | KQED","description":"Studies in Kern County, performed by oil industry consultants, cannot answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with 'produced water,' the board's own panel of experts concedes.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"A California Water Board Assures the Public That Oil Wastewater Is Safe for Irrigation, but Experts Say the Evidence Is Scant ","datePublished":"2022-02-07T10:19:25.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:25:18.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"},"authorsData":[{"type":"authors","id":"byline_science_1978374","meta":{"override":true},"slug":"byline_science_1978374","name":"Liza Gross, Inside Climate News","isLoading":false}],"imageData":{"ogImageSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100180-1020x668.jpg","width":1020,"height":668,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twImageSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100180-1020x668.jpg","width":1020,"height":668,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twitterCard":"summary_large_image"},"tagData":{"tags":["agriculture","climate change","featured-science","InsideClimate News","oil"]}},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Liza Gross, Inside Climate News","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/science/1978374/a-california-water-board-assures-the-public-that-oil-wastewater-is-safe-for-irrigation-but-experts-say-the-evidence-is-scant","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"small","align":"right","citation":"Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer, Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GSI did not tell water board officials about its ties to the oil industry, which shared the roughly $3.4 million in costs for the firm’s studies and related work with the water districts that benefit from the distribution of wastewater from oil extraction, known as “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One member of the board’s Food Safety Expert Panel that reviewed GSI’s studies was nominated by Chevron and initially paid by the oil industry, and a second panel member worked as a consultant for an oil company selling produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the expert panel’s own review concluded that GSI’s studies could not answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with produced water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"small","align":"left","citation":"Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney, Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Law Institute","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Thomas Borch of Colorado State University, a leading expert on treating and reusing produced water for crop irrigation who was not involved in the project, said that based on the data GSI had and the way they designed the experiments, “they were not able to draw the conclusions they did. Period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, said in a statement via email that his firm agreed with the water board that the studies were performed in “the most technically sound manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clay Rodgers, the water board official who oversaw the Food Safety Project, said he promised the board that if any evidence were ever discovered that produced water was harming people consuming crops, “we would stop it immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the water board’s direction, GSI compiled a list of hundreds of chemicals used in oil operations, then focused on those that might pose health risks. But an absence of information to assess safety dogged the project from the start. Many of the chemicals had never been studied before, or lacked critical details about their use, the board’s panel of experts noted, because the oil companies said doing so would reveal trade secrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Already there was a data gap there because some of those chemicals don’t have reliable toxicity information,” said John Fleming, senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings of the board and its expert panel found no food safety or public health concern, said David Ansolabehere, general manager of the Cawelo Water District, which has taken produced water from Chevron for decades. “Cawelo will continue to test the water based on the regional board’s permit requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978392\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978392\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"White steam rises off gray water at a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron's Kern River Oil Field. In the foreground and behind the oval reservoir are brown fields. A long pipeline extends from the far right of the photo to the edge of the reservoir.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100035.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steam rises from a Cawelo Water District reservoir filled with wastewater from Chevron’s Kern River Oil Field. Chevron treats the wastewater, then transfers it via pipeline to the reservoir, where it’s blended with surface water and/or groundwater and sent to irrigation canals. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron tested for all additives used in the Kern River field for which a testing method approved by the Environmental Protection Agency exists, said Jonathan Harshman, communications advisor for Chevron’s San Joaquin Valley Business Unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet more than a fifth of the chemicals GSI identified — and 60% of those deemed most likely to pose a health risk — lacked both toxicity information and approved testing methods. The water board conceded that the data gaps left “potentially significant unknowns” about the chemicals’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they say this is safe,” Fleming said, “it’s based on what chemicals they were able to test.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means the “no identifiable increased health risks” assertion applies to just a fraction of potential chemicals in produced water applied to crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Oil’s profligate water use\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In early August, during one of the driest summers on record, Wasco farmer Nate Siemens received a troubling notice from his irrigation district, which is regulated by the Central Valley water board. “Please be aware that this water includes some amount of reclaimed oilfield production water,” it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978401\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978401\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Almond farmer Nate Siemens stands in front of a large tree on his farm. He's wearing a red and black plaid shirt over a black hoodie, and a silver and gold ball cap. Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family's Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry's wastewater.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1090930.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nate Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant for the Rodale Institute, is moving his family’s Fat Uncle Farms away from thirsty crops like almonds and has no interest in taking the oil industry’s wastewater. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross, Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant with the Rodale Institute, was shocked. Siemens needed that water. But he’s transitioning his family’s Fat Uncle Farms to organic and wasn’t keen on using the oil industry’s wastewater to irrigate his almonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s farming roots in the region predate the rise of Kern County’s oil industry, which produces more than 70% of the state’s oil. He was well aware that climate-polluting pump jacks operate among corporate farms growing miles of water-intensive almonds and pistachios, California’s most valuable export crops. But he had no idea just how entrenched oil operations had become in \u003ca href=\"http://www.kernag.com/caap/crop-reports/crop20_29/crop2020.pdf\">the county’s $7.6 billion agricultural industry\u003c/a> until he received that notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 miles southeast of Siemens’s farm, thousands of densely packed pump jacks stretch as far as the eye can see toward the horizon, bobbing robotically as they suck oil and water from wells carved into the denuded landscape of the Kern River Oil Field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pump jacks have pried more than 2 billion barrels from the field since oil was discovered here in 1899. But wresting Kern’s notoriously viscous crude from receding oil reserves requires injecting ever increasing amounts of water and hot steam underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst.png 650w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Oils-unquenchable-thirst-160x170.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nThat water returns to the surface along with groundwater. The mixture contains arsenic, uranium and other naturally occurring toxic elements, along with potentially hundreds of chemicals used in the extraction process. Since 1985, the ratio of water to oil recovered has more than doubled, from seven barrels of water per barrel of oil to 18 barrels today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a region with less than nine inches of rain in a normal year — the definition of a desert — getting enough water is a perennial concern. Nearly 30 years ago, Chevron struck what a former Cawelo Water District manager called a “win-win” deal to deliver some of the massive amounts of wastewater produced every day to farmers’ fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every year, more than 38,000 acre-feet of produced water from Chevron and other oil companies hydrates California farmland, including roughly 11% of Kern County’s irrigated farmland. That’s enough to cover about 38,000 football fields with a foot of water, or more than 12.4 billion gallons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978379\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/Treating-Oil-Wastewater-160x143.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nChevron treats produced water from its Kern River Oil Field by removing oil from water through gravity separation, then skimming off solids and residual oil before filtering it through walnut hulls. The water then travels several miles by pipeline to a Cawelo holding pond, where it’s blended with surface and groundwater and sent to irrigation canals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first time Seth Shonkoff, a public health scientist with the nonprofit Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers (PSE) for Healthy Energy and a member of the expert panel, visited the Cawelo holding pond several years ago, he smelled an “extraordinarily strong” whiff of asphalt and crude oil. The same odors were much less offensive when he visited the pond with the panel a few years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either there’s natural variability in the water, Shonkoff said, or someone did something different before experts came to evaluate the operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it. We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"small","align":"right","citation":"Thomas Borch, Colorado State University","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Chevron claims that recycling produced water for irrigation allows the company to operate in a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/stories/protecting-the-environment\">sustainable manner\u003c/a>,” by minimizing reliance on fresh water. Yet the massive energy requirements of the extraction process make Kern’s oil one of the world’s most climate-polluting fossil fuels, and Chevron one of California’s top greenhouse gas emitters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has this green reputation, but if you scratch the surface on the oil industry in the state, you quickly discover that that’s not the case at all,” said Hollin Kretzmann, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an industry from top to bottom that’s used to getting its way, whether that’s drilling in neighborhoods, or disposing of the wastewater in unlined pits, or using that wastewater for unsafe purposes,” Kretzmann said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Unfit for purpose \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Central Valley water board said it focused on crops grown in oil wastewater to address public concerns, which included petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, protests outside the state Capitol and a bill to label food grown with the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Assemblymember Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced the bill in 2015, after learning that farmers could get organic certification for shunning pesticides while using produced water, and consumers would never know. “I thought that was a real problem,” said Gatto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same year, \u003ca href=\"https://sd10.senate.ca.gov/news/2015-03-06-threat-groundwater-posed-improperly-sited-oil-injection-wells-be-explored-senate\">legislators called hearings\u003c/a> to increase scrutiny of oil companies after learning their practices posed risks to protected groundwater, including potential drinking water and irrigation supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The commitment I made to our board was that if we ever discovered that there was an effect on people consuming crops grown with this, we would stop it immediately,” said Clay Rodgers, assistant executive officer of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, who oversaw the Food Safety Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Testing crops for harmful chemicals to figure out whether they’re safe to eat may seem logical, but techniques to analyze food for oil-related chemicals are “light years” behind those for detecting the compounds in water and soil, Shonkoff said. He raised the problem repeatedly at panel meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, the panel agreed. Its first recommendation to the board was to discontinue crop sampling. It would be far more productive to focus on produced water and irrigated soil, the panel said, using approaches that can reveal the toxicity of the water and soil itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Shonkoff said, “most of the work that was done to test things for chemicals was done in food. Unfortunately, that was, in my professional opinion, a pretty big waste of time and resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data GSI compiled — including the list of chemicals and their hazard profiles — was “way too limited” to draw conclusions about lack of toxicity, said Borch, the Colorado State University professor and produced water expert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t mean it’s toxic,” said Borch. But there was no way they could conclude that produced water posed no identifiable health risks based on the data they had and their experimental approach, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978406\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1978406\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg\" alt='A sign is posted behind a chain link fence, protected with strands of barbed wire. The sign, in Spanish and English, reads \"Danger. Hot Water. Keep Away.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019-1920x1283.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2022/02/P1100019.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chevron relies on steam injections to extract Kern County’s tarry crude oil from aging formations, then sends the hot wastewater north to the Cawelo Water District via pipeline. \u003ccite>(Liza Gross/Inside Climate News)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That leaves Siemens, who’s transitioning to organic, in a tough spot. Although produced water isn’t specifically defined under organic standards, organic farmers can’t use water that contains arsenic, a constituent of Kern’s produced water, and most synthetic compounds, like those used in oil and gas operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens stopped watering his orchard for a few weeks after his district notified him about the produced water. “And the trees suffered,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the almond harvest approached, Siemens couldn’t risk losing the trees. He used just enough of the water to keep them alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t know what we were getting into,” he said. “We just didn’t have time to do the research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Siemens had done the research, it might not have mattered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could have done some much more impressive and well-designed studies to either conclude that we can continue to use this water or that we should maybe improve the way we treat the water before we reuse it,” said Borch. “We certainly don’t know enough to evaluate whether we need to be worried or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A failure to disclose\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest hurdles to evaluating the safety of produced water has been oil companies’ unwillingness to reveal key details about the chemicals they put down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before joining the panel, Shonkoff was working on an independent study of fracking for the California Council on Science and Technology, or CCST, when he discovered a dataset he’d never seen before: a list of chemicals used in conventional oil development, from fields in Southern California. At the time, no other location in the country, and maybe the world, required chemical disclosure for conventional operations. The CCST assessment, commissioned by the state, revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://ccst.us/wp-content/uploads/2015SB4-v2ES.pdf\">testing and treatment of produced water used for irrigation might not remove or even detect chemical\u003c/a>s used in fracking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During fracking, operators inject a high-pressure mixture of water, chemicals and sand deep underground to break and then prop open surrounding rock to extract oil or gas. Conventional operations, by contrast, inject high-pressure steam to loosen gooey oil. Wastewater from both conventional and fracking operations falls under the heading of “produced water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Shonkoff dug into the newfound data, and read the permits and regulations for Kern County’s produced water, he realized Chevron and other oil companies could put nearly any additives they wanted down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the water board prohibits using water from fracked wells for irrigation, fracking and conventional operations employ many of the same chemicals, Shonkoff told the board at the panel’s first public meeting. And most compounds used in conventional extraction processes in Kern County, he said, lack the information needed to assess safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s imperative that oil companies disclose not just which chemicals they use in oil and gas production but also the volume and frequency of their use, Shonkoff said. Until then, he said, “I’m not quite sure that we can say with any real level of certainty that this is safe or unsafe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers of the water board said he’d obtained a list of all the chemical compounds oil companies use. But to avoid trade secret information, he said, the board could not get the recipe, which details how often a chemical is used and how much goes down wells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodgers said he felt the highest priority was to get a list he could share with the panel members and the public and compensated for not getting the recipe by assuming all the chemicals were used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But knowing the hazard associated with a chemical depends on knowing that recipe, the panel concluded. It also requires knowing chemicals’ breakdown products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemicals are injected under intense heat and pressure into oil reservoirs, where they interact with scores of other compounds, before they’re pulled back to the surface and exposed to air. All these conditions can affect a chemical’s toxicity. And scientists have no good tools to understand how chemical interactions increase toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This assumption that we should be looking for the chemicals that were added to oil and gas operations, and the assumption that they will continue to be those same chemicals after all the processes that they go through, is too big of a leap to make,” Shonkoff said. “Of course, you’re not going to find them, because they most certainly have transformed into other types of chemical constituents by the time things are being monitored and tested for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some chemical additives might degrade into harmless substances, but others can prove more toxic. Shonkoff pointed to glutaraldehyde, a chemical widely used to kill microorganisms that gum up oil and gas extraction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glutaraldehyde is toxic to people, he said. Some of its breakdown products are even more toxic, some are less toxic and others are completely unknown because they haven’t been studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we’re talking about hundreds of chemicals, many of which we don’t have good toxicological information on,” Shonkoff said, “the idea that you can really understand the toxicological dimensions of their daughter products, and their transformation products in the presence of other chemicals, is outstripping what we know scientifically.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even a plant’s own metabolism can affect a chemical’s toxicity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plants could take up chemicals in one form and turn them into something else that’s more harmful, said Fleming of the Center for Biological Diversity. But if you’re just testing for a list of chemicals added to the well, he said, you’re testing for the wrong thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Scofield, who led the work for GSI, agreed to answer questions only by email. Asked about the focus on testing crops, Scofield offered a carefully worded statement that ended: “We agree with the Water Board and their scientific advisor that this direct testing was the most technically sound manner to address the questions posed in the study.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the failure to address chemicals’ breakdown products, he responded with the exact same statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a really big assumption baked into the GSI work,” said Shonkoff. The studies assume that the chemicals remain in the same form from the oil field to a consumer’s plate and that it’s sufficient to monitor those particular chemicals, he said. “And that’s obviously incorrect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Still waiting for answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California supplies 99% of the world’s almonds and pistachios, mostly from Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water board regulators say nothing has received more scrutiny than the oil field water that irrigates those crops. “We know more about that produced water than probably any other produced water in the world,” said Rodgers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the evidence is still so scarce, said Colorado State’s Borch, “you can argue both sides.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no established tools to do a “real toxicity analysis,” Borch said, and there’s “not a good framework” to evaluate risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a study of treated produced water released into a stream for irrigation in Wyoming, Borch and his colleagues found that most of the chemicals they detected had no health safety standard. There were likely other chemicals and breakdown products “with unknown impacts” that had escaped detection, they noted in the 2020 study, \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S0048969720301170\">published in Science of the Total Environment\u003c/a>. In a related study published later that year, Borch’s team \u003ca href=\"https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/science/article/pii/S004896972030454X\">assessed the potential of treated produced water to cause cancer\u003c/a>. Several different tests showed that the water caused increased mutation rates — an indication of cancer risk — even though most chemicals were present in low concentrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many stakeholders stand to benefit if produced water can be reused safely, the scientists wrote. But if the practice is expanded prematurely, they warned, it could harm water quality as well as the health of soil, livestock, and crops and people who eat them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People are still using benchmarks for water quality that were not developed with oil field wastewater in mind, Borch said, even though the complexity and chemical makeup of produced water is very different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And simply looking to see whether chemicals are present, as the GSI studies did, doesn’t say anything about toxicity. Many compounds in the wastewater may be present in concentrations low enough to escape detection, said Borch. But that doesn’t mean they’re not toxic, he said: “It just means you don’t have the method that allows for extraction and analysis of the compounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a paper published in December, Borch and his colleagues presented a model for taking a holistic \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestengg.1c00248\">approach that exposes cells and lab organisms to produced water to detect harmful responses\u003c/a>, along the lines Shonkoff had recommended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch’s “adverse outcome” approach is also likely to catch the breakdown products the Food Safety Panel identified as a major testing inadequacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Environmental Protection Agency is taking a similar approach, led by its Region 8 office in Colorado, as part of a national program to study the safety of produced water, said Tricia Pfeiffer, an environmental engineer in Region 8’s Technical Assistance Branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effort is addressing the need to harness cutting-edge approaches for evaluating oil-related contaminants, and their byproducts, in produced water intended for reuse. That includes enlisting tools to analyze human cells to identify any worrisome changes caused by chemicals in produced water while applying complementary approaches to detect toxic constituents in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is actual research,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s way more complicated than doing something that already has an analytical method.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we grapple with climate change issues, she said, “we’re looking for alternative water sources. And as a researcher, my biggest goal with this project is to help fill data gaps and make sure that we’re protective of human health and the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Borch said the technology exists to remove all sorts of contaminants from water, but it’s far more expensive than the low-cost methods used by Kern County oil companies. If people aren’t willing to pay the real costs of growing crops in a water-scarce region, he said, “maybe we shouldn’t even produce almonds because they use so much water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choosing less water-intensive crops is critical to keeping land productive, said Siemens, the Wasco farmer who was shocked to learn that his water district was sending him oil field wastewater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens is moving away from thirsty almonds to dry-farming olives, mulberries and figs, focusing on farming in ways that suit the region. Like raising goats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Goats would be happy to eat all these weeds out there,” Siemens said, pointing to the field behind his house. And lots of people in the valley would be happy to eat goat meat, he said. “You can go to any taqueria in the area and buy \u003cem>carne de cabra\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siemens’s vision of sustainable farming does not include taking the wastewater of an industry whose greenhouse gas emissions have helped fuel California’s relentless droughts and contaminated its precious groundwater supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not just trying to meet a USDA organic standard,” Siemens said. “We’re trying to increase the vitality of this land for the future. Our kids live here, and I hope my grandkids will live here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means protecting the soil and aquifers that helped turn Kern County into one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the results of a truly independent analysis of whether oil field-produced water is fit to irrigate crops sent around the world, Pfeiffer said, is still years away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Anne Marshall-Chalmers, an Inside Climate News fellow, contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1978374/a-california-water-board-assures-the-public-that-oil-wastewater-is-safe-for-irrigation-but-experts-say-the-evidence-is-scant","authors":["byline_science_1978374"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_4450","science_98"],"tags":["science_392","science_194","science_4414","science_4122","science_952"],"featImg":"science_1978393","label":"science","isLoading":false,"hasAllInfo":true}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. 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You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. 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As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. 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