[gentle music] - Hi there, I'm Frank Graff.

What marsh sparrows can teach people about adapting to a warming world, explaining the doula's role in childbirth, and meet the most resilient creature on earth.

You're gonna need a good microscope.

It's all coming up on "Sci NC".

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[bright upbeat music] - [Announcer 2] Additional funding for the "Sci NC" series is provided by GSK.

[bright upbeat techno music] ♪ - Hi again, and welcome to "Sci NC".

You know, it turns out that you can learn a lot from the smallest of things, in this case, the marsh sparrow.

Sea level rise is hurting marshes and huge bulkheads that are put up to stop the water are making it worse.

So as we continue our special series, "State Of Change", science producer, Michelle Lokter, explains how researchers are studying the marsh sparrow for clues on how to save the marsh ecosystem.

This series is part of the Pulitzer Center's Nationwide Connected Coastlines Reporting Initiative.

- [Marae] These birds are really secretive.

It's winter, they're not responding to callbacks or anything like that.

So we have to kind of push them into our nets [researchers vocalizing] - [Evan] Oh, there's one in.

Sweet.

Oh, there's another one!

[indistinct] Hey, little buddy.

Saltmarsh sparrows are super hard to find because they're essentially the same color as the grass and the marsh.

Orange, brown, tan colored birds, medium-sized sparrow, but with fairly large bills, really adorable and quiet.

In the summertime they'll call and sing, really, we just hear them making like small vocalizations during the winter.

[imitates bird call] [Evan laughs] Pretty much.

- [Michelle] These tiny birds may soon be considered endangered.

They rely on coastal marsh ecosystems to thrive and spend their winters in North Carolina's salt marshes.

The same marshes that humans depend on as a buffer against the sea.

But those marshes are disappearing.

- So a saltmarsh sparrow's range is from Maine down to Virginia about, for breeding, and then Virginia down to Florida for non breeding.

So we only have a wintering population here.

Their populations have been declining about 9% a year since 1998, and that trend hasn't seemed to subside at all due to forces such as sea level rise, marsh loss, marsh restrictions, how big your marsh is.

- [Evan] Listing them for the Endangered Species Act has been delayed to 2023.

So getting as much information about where they're at right now is really important for that potential listing.

- [Michelle] Their population decline is an indicator of their habitat being squeezed out of existence as marshes get pushed up against hardened surfaces by sea level rise.

And salt marshes aren't just a home for sparrows, they do a lot of important things on the coast.

- [Evan] So many things.

- [Marae] So many reasons.

- Food, carbon sinks, storm protection, flooding protection, they do everything.

- [Marae] Yeah, they're a buffer before our coastline.

So it's really important to have that good buffer of marsh to really protect your coastline and provide habitat for multiple species.

- [Michelle] This marsh buffer is made up of plants that are uniquely adapted to thrive in soggy salty conditions.

- [Evan] A marsh can be defined by the amount of time in a year that the soil is wet or moist, and whether it's anoxic or lacking oxygen.

- And as you can see around us, we have a lot of spiky vegetation here.

Marsh elevation is like really relevant to what plants grow where.

So right now we're surrounded by this spiky juncus, but farther out, the deeper you get, the closer you get to the water you're going to see a different breakdown of plant species.

And that's because certain plant species are more tolerant to constant inundation and saltwater.

- [Michelle] But even marsh plants have their limits.

High water levels can actually drown a marsh if the soil never dries out.

Researchers like Marae and Evan are collecting data to figure out how marshes will be impacted as sea levels continue to rise.

- [Marae] It's a very small elevation gradient that leads to these different plant communities.

If this water comes up even a little more for a long period of time, this juncus is gonna turn into spartina.

The juncus is gonna go away 'cause that's a slightly higher elevation plant species - [Michelle] In the past, marshes adapted to sea level rise by moving inland to higher ground.

But today there's nowhere for them to go.

- [Evan] We're hardening our coastlines, we're shortening our marshes, we're seeing a lot of coastal squeeze.

So we have a development or a road or something like that and marsh has nowhere else it can go and so it gets squeezed and squeezed and squeezed landward until that marsh just disappears.

- [Marae] There is a lot of population growth along the coast, so those trends are not looking to turn in the opposite direction.

We need to plan ahead for these things, both for human infrastructure, but also for ecosystem services to be able to migrate inland.

And right now we're not doing that, - [Michelle] By gathering data about things like tides, elevation and sea level rise, researchers like Marae can use models to predict what will happen in the future.

- [Marae] Sea level rise has gone up and down forever, but it's at an accelerated pace right now, which is why we think we're having more inundation than we would if it was just at a steady rise.

Instead it's rising exponentially.

Modeling can help us see where we're gonna be most impacted.

So where on each site is gonna be most impacted by water inundation.

With that, we're able to hopefully target where we can do specific management strategies.

- [Michelle] Learning more about what's happening to species like the saltmarsh sparrow can help us make decisions now to ensure that there are marshes along the coast in the future.

- [Evan] If we see that certain huge portions of the marshland that they depend on during the winter are disappearing, then we have to decide, where are those marshes going to go?

Are they going to migrate in?

Should we start looking at acquiring property to make sure that this species has a place to move?

- [Marae] Where do you put your resources?

Do you put it in buying land?

Do you put it at trying to conserve that marsh by building it up some more?

Like these are some of the questions we're trying to help managers answer.

If we can create this framework of understanding the impacts of sea level rise and where this marsh might disappear or where it might go, we can hopefully help these managers make decisions for that.

- Here is a frightening statistic; The Centers for Disease Control reports childbirth related mortality rates for black mothers are three to four times the rate of white mothers.

Hoping to reduce that number, the UNC Family Medical Center has started a program to train more black doulas, labor assistants, to improve the birthing experience for black women.

Science producer, Rossie Izlar, explains.

- So I'm officially 37 weeks and a day.

I'm tired.

[Naima chuckles] But I am so excited about my baby.

I am thrilled and honored, and to be quite frank also a little bit terrified.

I'm very aware of the statistics.

That's where a lot of my fear comes from.

- [Rossie] According to the CDC, black mothers, regardless of education or income, die at three to four times the rate of white mothers during or after childbirth in the US.

The stories are heartbreaking.

26 year old Shayaza Washington died during an emergency C-section without ever meeting her daughter.

Kierra Johnson, a healthy 30 year old who never missed a prenatal appointment, died after waiting for seven hours for a CT scan.

Even superstars like Serena Williams and Beyonce had birthing scares.

The CDC says that more than half of these deaths are preventable.

They point to a number of reasons for the disparity, including access to prenatal care and missed warning signs.

But a common thread running through many of the tragedies is the often routine dismissal of black women's concerns by healthcare providers.

- Because if the only difference in you and I is the color of our skin, that clearly says it, right?

You're not listened to.

Black women are not listened to - [Rossie] Venus Standard and her colleagues are trying to change that by training as many black doulas as they can.

A doula is a professional labor assistant and a patient advocate.

Their job is to support birthing people, emotionally and physically.

- So we want to keep the pelvis open, okay?

If you have one leg elevated up and have it open, it actually opens their pelvis, okay?

Because of their pelvis is closed, what's it impeding?

[indistinct] And you want the baby to continue to descend down.

- [Rossie] And although doulas can't address all the iniquities in the healthcare system, Venus said they can improve the birthing experience for black women.

- It gives the women that they're going to serve, somebody that may have a shared experience with them.

The understanding that what they may be going through, the understanding that they're not listened to, it helps them to have a voice.

- This is a very heavy job.

It is a lot of weight when you step into that space of that birthing family and realize, I'm getting ready to change a life.

And not just change a life, but you're changing a legacy.

We'll wait for the next contraction.

- I don't know why I'm shaking so much.

- It's just hormones.

[all chuckle] - It was imperative for me that I surround myself with black women who hear me, see me, respect my body, respect my baby, and respect the process that I'm going through.

- [Rossie] Erica Lewis is one of the doulas on Naima's care team, and is part of the doula training program.

She said she was drawn to becoming a doula because she had a negative birthing experience with her first born.

- A few hours into laboring, the doctors came in and said, "Okay, we're gonna go ahead and take you for a C-section."

Nothing was wrong with my baby, and nothing was wrong with me.

I refused, my wife also refused, and then the doctors never came back.

So they left me in there from 2:00 AM until my son was born at shift change, at about 7:15.

When you're in such a vulnerable space, it is very hard to advocate for yourself.

You are doing so good.

My thing is making this space as sacred as possible because you're bringing in a life into the world, and what better way to bring a life into the world than in love and really peaceful environment.

Look at all that hair.

[all laugh] - [Woman 1] It's sticking out.

- [Woman 2] There he is, he's coming.

Here he comes.

Push a little more.

All right - So that is what I am trying to achieve here, is educating people on trusting themselves and their bodies, and listening to that.

She did amazing.

- [Rossie] There's not a lot of research yet showing that having a doula will protect black mothers from all the injustices in the healthcare system, but Naima said it made a difference for her.

- It was exactly what I needed.

It felt like, you know, a mother presence, I felt safe.

I felt supported.

And yeah, I honestly couldn't have imagined my birth being any better than it was.

- No matter how old your child gets, you remember that experience like it was yesterday, and you also pass on that information.

So we want them telling a good story versus a horror story.

- And Dr. Pam Oliver, who has two decades of experience in obstetrics and gynecology, and is now an executive vice president with Novant Health, joins us.

Doctor, thank you so much for being with us today.

I know this is a really complex issue, but what is your sense?

Why is there such a wide disparity in the mortality rates between white and black moms in childbirth?

- Well, first, thank you.

Thank you and PBS for doing this.

And for bringing emphasis to this important problem.

I think you hit it, first, it is complex.

And I wish I could say that there was a solution or a problem that we knew exactly how to target, but there are multiple things that are at play.

We first think about access.

Do women have access to healthcare providers, to high quality hospitals, to get the care that they need?

And that's both during pregnancy and before and after pregnancy, 'cause those time periods are increasingly important.

Even when women do have access, we know that quality matters.

There is a significant increase in that disparity between black moms dying in the south.

And we know that because of whether, historical, residential segregation, or those hospitals that traditionally did serve populations that were more segregated, that there sometimes is a quality issue in the care that women receive.

They're also, and this is important, women are coming into pregnancy sometimes a little sicker than what we saw before, with underlying conditions.

Whether it's high blood pressure or some early heart disease or risk factors that put them at higher risk.

And when they don't have coverage before pregnancy, insurance coverage, access to Medicaid, if they qualify for Medicaid, or coverage to take care of themselves.

By the time they get to pregnancy it's too late.

And then I also go into the fact that we know that implicit bias plays a role in some outcomes.

African-American women traditionally tell us, in study after study, that they don't feel their voices are heard.

- Then what role can doulas play in creating a more positive experience, a positive prenatal experience, as well as delivery experience for black moms?

- You know, I would like to think that my colleagues take every patient's concerns seriously, and treat it with equal value, but we don't hear that from our patients all the time across the country.

And those doulas being there, are being able to help patients understand what the caregivers are saying to them, and being able to help make sure that the patient's voice isn't lost, is super important.

And the last part is the follow-up.

So when moms go home with these babies and they may be having issues or concerns, I feel like the doulas are able to connect them back, make sure they get the care that they need afterwards.

- Doctor, thank you so much.

Again, a very complex issue but a lot of good points in it.

It looks like things are moving in the right direction, it's gonna take a while.

But thank you for doing this for us.

- Thank you for doing it.

- All right.

Take care.

And we'll be right back.

[bright upbeat music] - [Announcer 1] Wanna take a deeper dive on current science topics?

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- By the way, this is the most resilient creature on earth.

It is found almost everywhere, but to see it you're gonna need a really good microscope.

- So you can find them in the ocean, you can find them in dry deserts, like the Sahara desert, cold deserts, like Antarctica like I mentioned.

They've been found in rainforests, at the top of mountains.

But, you know, the amazing thing is if we went outside and found some moss or lichen, growing on a brick and brought it up to the lab, within 10 minutes we could find some under the microscope.

- [Frank] And indeed, in Thomas Boothby's lab on the third floor of the Genome Sciences Building, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, you'll find the most resilient creatures on earth, on a counter, in a dish.

- This is the tardigrade farm.

These are some different culture dishes that we have the animals growing in.

The green stuff in the dishes is the algae that they eat.

And we can't actually see the tardigrades with our naked eye, but I can pop some on the microscope.

- [Frank] Some say tardigrades are cute, some say creepy, they've been called gummy bears and mini blimps.

- And let me focus it a little bit more.

- [Frank] But whatever the label there are about 1200 species of tardigrades.

- I can see little legs moving, and it's just hugging this piece of algae.

- [Thomas] Exactly - [Frank] The tiny creatures have been around for 500 million years.

- They're animals, so they're multicellular.

They're complex, so they have a nervous system, they have a brain.

Some species have eye spots, they have digestive tract, reproductive system.

Although they're very small, they're very complex.

The largest species are about a millimeter, so with a naked eye that would look like a little speck of dust.

And the smallest species are about 50 microns, like smaller than some cells.

- They're really cool, they're really weird.

The proteins that I work with from tardigrades are really, really weird and don't behave like your average protein.

- [Frank] That's because tardigrades have a unique family of genes that produce what are called, intrinsically disordered proteins.

- They are intrinsically disordered, which means that they're very dynamic, they're constantly moving, they have no stable, consistent structure - [Frank] And scientists believe those proteins produce a gel like fiber that protects other proteins under extreme conditions.

It gives tardigrades and almost supernatural ability to survive anything.

- Thomas has led us on this adventure and these proteins are the strangest things I've ever worked with.

- You know, you have species of tardigrades that can survive being dried out completely, can survive being heated up past the boiling point of water, can survive being frozen down to like a degree above absolute zero.

They can survive in the vacuum of outer space.

They can tolerate thousands of times as much radiation as we can.

They can go for days or weeks with little or no oxygen, and they can do this at every life stage.

You know, one of the things that we're working on now is looking at how we can use some of these tricks that tardigrades use to protect their cells, and their cellular components when they dry out, and applying those tricks to stabilizing pharmaceuticals and other biomedical material.

It's been estimated that about 90% of the cost of vaccination programs in developing parts of the world, comes from the mere fact that you have to keep vaccines cold If we could understand how tardigrades are able to stabilize their proteins when they dry out, we could apply those same tricks to stabilizing vaccines.

And in this way, we'd be able to dry vaccines out, keep them stable at ambient or even elevated temperatures, which would allow us to cheaply and efficiently get medicine to everybody everywhere.

- [Frank] And that means that tardigrade proteins have the potential to create life saving medicines.

- We've identified a family of proteins that they make when they dry out, that are unique to tardigrades.

And we've been able to show that the animals themselves need these proteins to survive.

So there's something about these proteins that makes them very efficient at protecting biological material.

And what that special thing is, is what we're trying to figure out now.

Beyond just looking at something cool under a microscope, we can do some fairly sophisticated work with these little critters.

- [Announcer 3] Hey, parents, teachers, and homeschoolers, looking for lesson plans?

You'll find free interactive ones about all types of science covered by "Sci NC" online.

- There are lots of insects in a marsh.

They are vital to the ecosystem, but pretty annoying if you're exploring.

However, researcher, Adrian Smith from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, promises you'll see insects in a whole new light after this story.

- For the past year or so, I've been doing science on this little thing; A beetle larvae picked from under the bark of a dead tree.

My collaborators and I started working on it when we noticed it doing something extraordinary and unexpected, something that hadn't been documented before.

It does this.

So a lot of insects jump, and a lot of them do it way better than that beetle larvae.

But what's extraordinary about that footage is how unusual it is.

There are over 350,000 beetles in that same suborder, and before this, none of them were known to be able to do that.

This is the adult form of that beetle, a lined flat bark beetle.

Adults, like the larvae, have a flattened body and can be found under the bark of dead trees where they feed off of fungus.

The adults don't jump like the larvae do.

This is where we found all the beetles we worked on, a dead tree in the middle of NC State's campus.

And those beetles weren't the only jumping larvae we found in that tree.

The larvae form of this fly, a lance fly, was also there feeding on the fungus.

These fly maggots can jump by first curling their bodies into a loop.

They use a set of mouth hooks as a lash to keep the loop closed while they inflate and stretch their bodies.

When the hooks slip, the built up tension is released and they can fling themselves through the air.

The jumping beetle larvae we studied looked nothing like these fly larvae.

And what we discovered was the way they jump is also completely different.

But before I explain that though, it's worth noting how small these insects are.

Their body length is about the width of a pencil, and here's the size of an adult relative to my fingertip.

So the first thing to do with some unexpected behavior like this, is to describe exactly what's happening and then try to figure out how the insects are doing it.

Here are what jumps look like in real time, the beetle stopped walking, arches its back and flings itself forward.

It's too fast to see you with a normal camera, so here are some of the jumps we captured analyzed by filming at 3200 frames per second.

A typical jump launches the beetle forward and in an arch, as they get into the air, they curl their bodies into a circle and hit the ground bouncing and rolling.

We were able to capture and analyze 29 jumps, and a jump can move the beetles about four body lengths in distance, and about three body lengths in height.

Whenever a tiny animal like that is doing something really fast, like throwing itself into the air.

It's possible that its using its muscles to load some sort of internal spring that can be instantaneously released into one explosive, fast movement.

So part of figuring out if that's the case is to measure how much muscle it has to power its jump.

To do that, we made a micro CT scan of one of the larvae.

From that scan we could segment and separate out all the muscle tissue in the body.

And then we were able to estimate that 9.7% of the total body mass or 0.12 milligrams of the beetle, was muscle.

We could take that estimate and pair it with take off velocities from a high-speed footage.

On average at liftoff, the beetles are traveling at a speed of about half a meter per second.

So even if we over assume that 100% of the muscle mass is involved in powering the jump, some of the jumps exceeded the known maximum power densities of muscle tissue, which was proof to us that these beetles were performing power amplified spring loaded jumps.

Figuring out that these were spring loaded jumps was cool.

But the thing about spring loaded animals is they usually have a specialized bit of anatomy that they can use as a latch to hold the spring in place and then instantaneously release that stored energy.

Take a click beetle for instance, their spring loaded jumps are only possible because of this structure here; A peg that keeps their body locked in position while an internal spring is loaded.

When that peg slips, the energy that was built up in the spring is released all at once, sending the beetle up into the air.

With our beetle larvae, there was no obvious anatomical latch.

We looked for one with a scanning electron microscope, imaging the beetle from head to tail, but everything looked pretty normal to us.

Going back to the high-speed camera with ground-level close-up shots, we could see that the beetles had their legs stiff, gripping the ground when they're arching their bodies and loading their spring.

Going frame by frame, we saw that when the first leg slips, the beetle loses its grip, and triggers the release of the stored energy and the start of the jump.

To verify that no other fast movements were setting off the launch sequence, we filmed some jumps at 60,000 frames per second, and they showed the same thing.

The grip the beetle's legs have with the ground works as their latch.

It holds them in place while they load up for a jump.

And then when the grip is released, that sets the whole jump sequence into motion.

Considering the spring loaded jumps of other insects, like click beetles or plant hoppers, what these beetles do is slow and unimpressive.

But what makes it scientifically interesting is they're able to do it without any specialized bits of anatomy.

And one of the parts I like most about this story is this is something that was waiting to be discovered in the middle of a gigantic university campus.

under the bark of a dead tree.

- And that's it for "Sci NC" for this week.

I'm Frank Graff.

Thanks for watching.

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