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Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World
For centuries, bird guano has played a pivotal role in the agricultural and economic development of Latin America, East Asia and Oceania. As their populations ballooned during the Industrial Revolution, North American and European powers came to depend on this unique resource as well, helping them meet their ever-increasing farming needs. This book explores how the production and commodification of guano has shaped the modern Pacific Basin and the world's relationship to the region. Marrying traditional methods of historical analysis with a broad interdisciplinary approach, Gregory T. Cushman casts this once little-known commodity as an engine of Western industrialization, offering new insight into uniquely modern developments such as environmental consciousness and conservation movements; the ascendance of science, technology and expertise; international relations; and world war.
eBook
Correction: Bacterial diversity of bat guano from Cabalyorisa Cave, Mabini, Pangasinan, Philippines: A first report on the metagenome of Philippine bat guano
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200095.].
Journal Article
Guano-derived morphologies and associated minerals found in Cova de sa Guitarreta, Llucmajor, Balearics
Cova de sa Guitarreta is located in the southern part of Mallorca Island (western Mediterranean). It was formed presumably by hypogenic processes in Upper Miocene reefal calcarenites. The cave hosts an important breeding colony of bats during the end of spring and early summer. Its microclimate is influenced by the presence of a thermal phreatic water table (27.7ºC) as well as by bat populations remaining in the cave along the reproductive season. The morphological bat-related features include bat claws and thumb marks scratches, together with several morphologies linked to bat excreta and aggressive leachates from guano. From the mineralogical point of view, this cave outstands regarding the presence of cave minerals linked to guano: nine phosphates have been identified, comprising three of them that are reported for the first time in Mallorcan caves (newberyite, struvite and whitlockite). Particularly interesting is the dichotomy between struvite and newberyite: the first one occurs when the cave is occupied by bat colonies (spring-summer), whereas in the colder seasons would occur the transformation of metastable struvite into a more stable newberyite. Caves with seasonal cyclical occupation of bat colonies could provide a new arena for the study of the guano-related mineral assemblages.
Journal Article
Rates of diagenesis of tropical insectivorous bat guano accumulations: implications for potential paleoenvironmental reconstruction
Cave guano deposits are increasingly being recognized as valuable repositories of paleo-climatic and paleo-environmental information. However, that value is constrained by rates of guano decomposition, and these rates have not been previously well-studied. Here we show that field and laboratory studies of deep insectivorous bat guano sequences in the caves of Borneo demonstrate the extreme dependence of decomposition rate on guano water content. Under tropical conditions, moist guanos exhibit decomposition coefficients (k) values of ~ 0.01, implying the loss of most of the organic content on decadal timescales. Under similar temperatures but drier conditions, k values drop to ~3 x 10-6, permitting significant organic (chitin) content to persist for tens of thousands of years. One of the implications of these findings for paleo-environmental records older than the limit of carbon dating is that a value for k can be calculated based on a single carbon date, which then allows an estimate of likely age at base of deposit.
Journal Article
The microbiome of bat guano: for what is this knowledge important?
Bats as flying mammals are potent vectors and natural reservoir hosts for many infectious viruses, bacteria, and fungi, also detected in their excreta such as guano. Accelerated deforestation, urbanization, and anthropization hastily lead to overpopulation of the bats in urban areas allowing easy interaction with other animals, expansion, and emergence of new zoonotic disease outbreaks potentially harmful to humans. Therefore, getting new insights in the microbiome of bat guano from different places represents an imperative for the future. Furthermore, the use of novel high-throughput sequencing technologies allows better insight in guano microbiome and potentially indicated that some species could be typical guano-dwelling members. Bats are well known as a natural reservoir of many zoonotic viruses such as Ebola, Nipah, Marburg, lyssaviruses, rabies, henipaviruses, and many coronaviruses which caused a high number of outbreaks including ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, many bacterial and fungal pathogens were identified as common guano residents. Thus, the presence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria as environmental reservoirs of extended spectrum β-lactamases and carbapenemase-producing strains has been confirmed. Bat guano is the most suitable substrate for fungal reproduction and dissemination, including pathogenic yeasts and keratinophilic and dimorphic human pathogenic fungi known as notorious causative agents of severe endemic mycoses like histoplasmosis and fatal cryptococcosis, especially deadly in immunocompromised individuals. This review provides an overview of bat guano microbiota diversity and the significance of autochthonous and pathogenic taxa for humans and the environment, highlighting better understanding in preventing emerging diseases.Key pointsBat guano as reservoir and source for spreading of autochthonous and pathogenic microbiotaBat guano vs. novel zoonotic disease outbreaksDestruction of bat natural habitats urgently demands increased human awareness
Journal Article
Guano-related phosphate-rich minerals in European caves
Guano is a typical deposit found in caves derived from the excretions of bats and in minor cases of birds. These organic deposits decompose and form a series of acid fluids and gases that can interact with the minerals, sediments, and rocks present in the cave. Over sixty phosphates are known and described from caves, but guano decay also often leads to the formation of nitrates and sulfates. In this study twenty-two European caves were investigated for their guano-related secondary minerals. Using various analytical techniques, seventeen phosphates, along with one sulfate (gypsum), were recognized as secondary products of guano decay. Among those minerals, some are very rare and result from the interaction of guano leachates with clays, fluvial deposits, or pyrite. Some of these minerals are even found only in the studied caves (spheniscidite, robertsite). The most common minerals belong to the apatite group. The common mineral association present in fresh decaying guano is brushite-ardealite-gypsum, minerals that usually are not present in older deposits because of their higher solubility. Most minerals are in hydrated form because of the wet cave environment; however, some specific dry conditions may favor the presence of dehydrated minerals, such as berlinite, formed during guano combustion. Investigation on the acidity of guano piles shows pH values as low as 3.5 with an increase of acidity with age and depth. Finally, cave guano deposits should be better studied in the future because of their role in paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions and because it is important to better understand the origin of guano-related minerals, especially the phosphates and sulfates. Among all of the caves studied, Corona 'e sa Craba (Italy) and Domica-Baradla Cave (Slovakia-Hungary) are considered to be outstanding sites with respect to their phosphate mineralogy.
Journal Article
Structure-based design of bitopic ligands for the µ-opioid receptor
Mu-opioid receptor (µOR) agonists such as fentanyl have long been used for pain management, but are considered a major public health concern owing to their adverse side effects, including lethal overdose
1
. Here, in an effort to design safer therapeutic agents, we report an approach targeting a conserved sodium ion-binding site
2
found in µOR
3
and many other class A G-protein-coupled receptors with bitopic fentanyl derivatives that are functionalized via a linker with a positively charged guanidino group. Cryo-electron microscopy structures of the most potent bitopic ligands in complex with µOR highlight the key interactions between the guanidine of the ligands and the key Asp
2.50
residue in the Na
+
site. Two bitopics (C5 and C6 guano) maintain nanomolar potency and high efficacy at G
i
subtypes and show strongly reduced arrestin recruitment—one (C6 guano) also shows the lowest G
z
efficacy among the panel of µOR agonists, including partial and biased morphinan and fentanyl analogues. In mice, C6 guano displayed µOR-dependent antinociception with attenuated adverse effects, supporting the µOR sodium ion-binding site as a potential target for the design of safer analgesics. In general, our study suggests that bitopic ligands that engage the sodium ion-binding pocket in class A G-protein-coupled receptors can be designed to control their efficacy and functional selectivity profiles for G
i
, G
o
and G
z
subtypes and arrestins, thus modulating their in vivo pharmacology.
Bitopic functionalized ligands based on fentanyl can target the sodium ion-binding site of the mu-opioid receptor and selectively modulate downstream signalling pathways, potentially leading to safer analgesics.
Journal Article
Predators in the Dark: Metabarcoding Reveals Arcellinida Communities Associated with Bat Guano, Endemic to Dinaric Karst in Croatia
Karst caves, formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks, are characterized by the absence of photosynthetic activity and low levels of organic matter. Organisms evolve under these particular conditions, which causes high levels of endemic biodiversity in both macroorganism and microbes. Recent research has highlighted the presence of testate amoebae (Arcellinida) group in cave environments. This study investigates the diversity of Arcellinida in Dinaric karstic caves in Croatia, a global diversity hotspot, focusing on the influence of bat guano on community structure. Sediment samples were collected from two independent hydrosystems, and a metabarcoding approach was used to assess Arcellinida diversity at specific and intraspecific levels, using Arcellinid-specific primers to amplify the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) region. Results reveal a significant impact of guano on both specific and intraspecific diversity of Arcellinida. Communities in guano-rich sites displayed higher diversity, abundance, and the presence of unique OTUs and genetic variants not observed in other habitats, highlighting the crucial role of bats as ecosystem engineers. In contrast, sites without guano hosted communities with low abundance and reduced biodiversity. These differences suggest the existence of guano-associated Arcellinida communities. This study provides new insights into the biodiversity of subterranean ecosystems and the ecological roles of Arcellinida in karstic environments.
Journal Article
On the crucial importance of a small bird
The little auk is the most numerous seabird in the North Atlantic and its most important breeding area is the eastern shores of the North Water polynya. Here, a population of an estimated 33 million pairs breeds in huge colonies and significantly shapes the ecosystem. Archaeological remains in the colonies document that the little auk has been harvested over millennia. Anthropological research discloses how the little auk has a role both as social engineer and as a significant resource for the Inughuit today. The hunting can be practiced without costly equipment, and has no gender and age discrimination in contrast to the dominant hunt for marine mammals. Little auks are ecological engineers in the sense that they transport vast amounts of nutrients from sea to land, where the nutrients are deposited as guano. Here, the fertilized vegetation provides important foraging opportunities for hares, geese, fox, reindeer, and the introduced muskox. We estimate that the relative muskox density is ten times higher within 1 km of little auk fertilized vegetation hotspots.
Journal Article