Life Thrives in Humanity’s Toxic Wreckage

Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that were lost at sea, lost in time, lost in space, and lost in translation.

If you are househunting at the moment, have you considered living on a submerged pile of Nazi munition, or in a charming community of WWI-era ghost ships, or, if you want privacy, maybe a homestead on the Moon? The first studies up this week are all about weird hubs of life here on Earth and perhaps one day off it. 

Then, who will serve as general counsel for aliens? Who will feed the megaraptors? And last, the ultimate scientific mystery: what happened to Taylor Swift’s Southern twang? 

Who lives in a warhead under the sea?

Vedenin, Andrey et al. “Sea-dumped munitions in the Baltic Sea support high epifauna abundance and diversity.” Communications Earth & Environment. 

White, Elizabeth C. et al. “Mapping the “Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay”, Maryland with drone-based remote sensing.” Scientific Data.

By the mid-20th century, millions of tons of munitions from both World Wars had been dumped into coastal waters. Now, scientists reveal that these weapons of death have become bustling hubs of life by attracting fish, mollusks, microbes, among other creatures. Footage captured during submersible dives last year shows thriving aquatic communities on war detritus in the Baltic Sea.

“Despite the potential negative effects of the toxic munition compounds, published underwater images show dense populations of algae, hydroids, mussels, and other epifauna on the munition objects, including mines, torpedo heads, bombs, and wooden crates,” said researchers led by Andrey Vedenin of Carl von Ossietzky University. “In this study, for the first time, the composition and structure of epifauna on the surface of marine munitions are described.”

Footage from munitions sites. Image: Vedenin, Andrey et al.

The munitions supported much more life than the surrounding sediment, with an average of around 43,000 organisms per square metre on the munitions compared to about 8,200 organisms on the seafloor. These hotspots were especially interesting given the toxicity levels from the explosive munitions fillings, which often exceeded water quality thresholds for aquatic organisms. (Side note: the authors describe the fillings as “cheesy” due to their texture and yellow color, which made me weirdly hungry for a munitions sandwich). 

Some species seemed mildly put off by the contamination, including mussels that kept their shells closed at spots with high concentrations. But for the most part, “the high levels of chemical exposure apparently do not prevent the development of a dense epifauna community on the metal shells, fuse pockets, and transport cases centimeters from the explosive filling,” the team found. “The bare explosive, however, remains mostly free from epifauna, even from the Polydora polychaetes that are known to inhabit a vast variety of substrates.”

Wow, you know it’s bad if even Polydora polychaetes won’t touch it. Those worms live on anything but it seems they draw the line at the naked surface of an explosive. 

In a separate study, researchers led by Elizabeth White of Duke University used remote-sensing drones to map out 147 shipwrecks in the eerily named “Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay” in Maryland. These WWI-era ships “have created plentiful wetlands, forests, and aquatic habitats,” according to the study. 

“Sediment collected within wrecks has created ship-shaped islands, allowing both aquatic and terrestrial vegetation to flourish,” the team said. “Birds, such as Osprey, nest within this vegetation and on exposed areas of ships, while aquatic organisms such as the endangered Atlantic sturgeon use the subaqueous wreckage as foraging and nursery grounds.”

And there you have it: research about discarded weapons of death and creepy ship graveyards that, somehow, is kind of uplifting.

In other news…

My vacation home is a lunar impact crater

Wang, Siyan et al. “Where Shall We Live on the Moon? Multi-Factor Site Selection and Scenario-Based Planning for Permanent Lunar Habitats.” Acta Astronautica.

The Moon is a harsh mistress, but the harshness is not evenly distributed. To that end, scientists have scouted out the best lunar real estate for future human habitation based on metrics like temperature, topography, solar illumination, dust activity, water resources, and radiation.  

“Lunar resources can provide essential support for establishing permanent lunar habitats, suggesting that the Moon may become humanity’s second home,” said researchers led by Siyan Wang of Tongji University. However, the team added that the Moon does come with some design challenges: for example, “lacking an atmosphere, lunar surface temperatures range annually from –171°C to 111°C.”

Setting aside the absence of standard atmospheric amenities, the new study spotlights three promising sites, all of which are mare plains (low-lying basaltic regions) sheltered within the craters Pytheas, Gambart, and Parry. Great locations, but you’re not going to like the commute. 

Take me to your lawyer

Puranen, Emma Johanna et al. “Who speaks for extraterrestrial ecosystems?: Why ET should have standing.” Space Policy.

Should aliens have inalienable rights? This question has been debated for years (and I explore it in my new book🔌). In a new study, scientists propose establishing a legal framework for aliens quickly, given the frenzied pace of both astrobiology and commercial space development.

“Humanity stands at the threshold of an unprecedented boom in space activity, with planned mining ventures, increased uncrewed and crewed missions, and escalating commercial interest,” said researchers led by Emma Johanna Puranen of the Open University. “This coincides with a ‘golden age’ of astrobiology, where scientists increasingly favour the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe. We must act now to establish legal and ethical norms for the treatment of extraterrestrial ecosystems before irreversible harm occurs.”

The team models its proposed framework on the influential 1972 treatise “Should Trees Have Standing?” by Christopher Stone. Who knows if we’ll ever actually need a legal system for aliens, but at the very least I hope it inspires a procedural spinoff called CSI: E.T.

Psst…you have crocodile stuck in your teeth

Ibiricu, Lucio M. et al. “Latest Cretaceous megaraptorid theropod dinosaur sheds light on megaraptoran evolution and palaeobiology.” Nature Communications.

Scientists have discovered fossils of a megaraptor (a dinosaur as cool as it sounds) with the leg bone of a crocodilian right there in its jaws. Though it’s possible that this bone coincidentally slid into the predator’s mouth after it died, we may be looking at a 68-million-year-old version of The Last Supper.

Artist concept of the newly discovered dinosaur Joaquinraptor casali with an ancient crocodile relative’s front leg in its mouth. Image: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History via AP

“Here we report a previously unknown megaraptoran genus and species” called Joaquinraptor, which was found in central Patagonia and “is among the most completely represented and latest-surviving megaraptorans,” said researchers led by Lucio Ibiricu of the Patagonian Institute of Geology and Paleontology. 

“A crocodyliform right humerus…was situated between the closely associated left and right dentaries of the Joaquinraptor holotype, with the apices of several tooth crowns of the megaraptorid in direct contact with the humeral shaft, which also shows potential tooth marks,” the team added. “As such, this discovery may constitute direct evidence regarding prey selection” of megaraptors.  

Death is a bummer, but I bet it goes down a lot smoother with a mouthful of croc hot wings.

Dialect Analysis (Taylor’s Version)

Mohamed, Miski and Winn, Matthew B. “Acoustic analysis of Taylor Swift's dialect changes across different eras of her career.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

I knew this study was trouble when it walked in. Researchers tracked Taylor Swift’s dialect shifts across the eras by logging and analyzing more than 1,400 vowel sounds in interviews and performances spanning her career.

“The results of this study show that Taylor Swift temporarily adopted distinct measurable features of Southern American dialect during her time in Nashville…and these features disappeared upon her relocation to Philadelphia and New York City,” said authors Miski Mohamed and Matthew B. Winn of the University of Minnesota.

Taylor Swift performing during her Eras tour (credit Maura Shapiro) with vocal frequency analysis overlaid (credit: Miski Mohamed and Matthew Winn). Image: Maura Shapiro/Miski Mohamed and Matthew Winn.

The team also discovered that Swift lowered her voice pitch during her NYC years, when she became more outspoken about “The Man” (sexism and creative property rights). They speculate that she may have “intentionally modulated her voice pitch to be lower to signal the seriousness of these themes, and to convey her competence to speak on them with authority.” 

Or, they add, it could be a natural voice drop “associated with aging through her 20s,” an explanation supported by her own admission that she has this thing where she gets older but just never wiser. Whatever her current accent, let’s hope she shakes it off and leaves a blank space open for new dialects. Look what you made me do; it’s me, hi, I’m the Abstract, it’s me.

Thanks for reading! See you next week.