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Even simple bacteria can anticipate the changing seasons

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Thursday, September 5, 2024

A scanning electron micrograph of Synechococcus cyanobacteriaEYE OF SCIENCE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Despite being among the simplest forms of life on Earth, cyanobacteria are able to anticipate and prepare for the changing seasons based on the amount of light they are exposed to. It has been known for more than a century that complex organisms can utilise day length as a cue for future environmental conditions – days get shorter before it gets colder, for example. Phenomena like migration, flowering, hibernation and seasonal reproduction are all guided by such responses in plants and animals, known as photoperiodism, but it has never been seen in simple life forms such as bacteria until now. Luísa Jabbur, then at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and her colleagues artificially exposed Synechococcus elongatus cyanobacteria to varying day lengths and found that those that experienced simulated short days went on to be two to three times better at surviving ice-cold temperatures, indicating they had prepared for winter-like conditions. By testing shorter and longer periods, the researchers determined that it takes four to six days for the response to develop. These organisms spawn a new generation in a matter of hours, meaning the cells must be passing along the day-length information to their descendants. However, the researchers don’t yet understand how this information is transmitted. Cyanobacteria, which capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis, have existed for more than 2 billion years and are found almost everywhere on Earth. “The fact that an organism as old and as simple as a cyanobacterium can have photoperiodic responses suggests that this is a phenomenon that evolved much earlier than we might have imagined,” says Jabbur, who is now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. The team also looked at how patterns of gene expression changed in response to varying day length. Their results suggest that photoperiodism probably evolved by co-opting existing mechanisms to combat acute stresses such as bright light and extreme temperatures. These findings also have implications for the evolution of circadian rhythms, the biological clocks that regulate day-night cycles, says team member Carl Johnson at Vanderbilt University. “I think we have always assumed that daily clocks evolved before organisms could measure day/night length and thereby anticipate the changing seasons,” he says. “But the fact that photoperiodism evolved in such ancient and simple organisms, and our gene expression results implicate stress response pathways that probably evolved very early in life on Earth, suggest that photoperiodism might have evolved before circadian clocks,” says Johnson.

Cyanobacteria exposed to shorter days are better at surviving cold conditions, showing that even simple organisms can prepare for the arrival or summer and winter

A scanning electron micrograph of Synechococcus cyanobacteria

EYE OF SCIENCE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Despite being among the simplest forms of life on Earth, cyanobacteria are able to anticipate and prepare for the changing seasons based on the amount of light they are exposed to.

It has been known for more than a century that complex organisms can utilise day length as a cue for future environmental conditions – days get shorter before it gets colder, for example. Phenomena like migration, flowering, hibernation and seasonal reproduction are all guided by such responses in plants and animals, known as photoperiodism, but it has never been seen in simple life forms such as bacteria until now.

Luísa Jabbur, then at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and her colleagues artificially exposed Synechococcus elongatus cyanobacteria to varying day lengths and found that those that experienced simulated short days went on to be two to three times better at surviving ice-cold temperatures, indicating they had prepared for winter-like conditions.

By testing shorter and longer periods, the researchers determined that it takes four to six days for the response to develop.

These organisms spawn a new generation in a matter of hours, meaning the cells must be passing along the day-length information to their descendants. However, the researchers don’t yet understand how this information is transmitted.

Cyanobacteria, which capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis, have existed for more than 2 billion years and are found almost everywhere on Earth.

“The fact that an organism as old and as simple as a cyanobacterium can have photoperiodic responses suggests that this is a phenomenon that evolved much earlier than we might have imagined,” says Jabbur, who is now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK.

The team also looked at how patterns of gene expression changed in response to varying day length. Their results suggest that photoperiodism probably evolved by co-opting existing mechanisms to combat acute stresses such as bright light and extreme temperatures.

These findings also have implications for the evolution of circadian rhythms, the biological clocks that regulate day-night cycles, says team member Carl Johnson at Vanderbilt University.

“I think we have always assumed that daily clocks evolved before organisms could measure day/night length and thereby anticipate the changing seasons,” he says. “But the fact that photoperiodism evolved in such ancient and simple organisms, and our gene expression results implicate stress response pathways that probably evolved very early in life on Earth, suggest that photoperiodism might have evolved before circadian clocks,” says Johnson.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Measles Misinformation Sparks Concern, Supreme Court Limits EPA Power, and Scientists Create Woolly Mice

In this week's news roundup, we dig into measles misinformation, ozone recovery and new findings on using nasal cartilage to treat knee injuries.

Measles Misinformation Sparks Concern, Supreme Court Weakens EPA, and Scientists Engineer Woolly MiceIn this week's news roundup, we dig into measles misinformation, ozone recovery and new findings on using nasal cartilage to treat knee injuries.By Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanRachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Let’s kick off the week with our usual science news roundup.First, a quick note about measles, which is still spreading in West Texas and has also cropped up in smaller numbers in eight other states. In an op-ed for Fox News published on March 2, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arguably downplayed the importance of vaccines, saying the MMR jab provides protection against measles while also calling vaccination a "personal choice." He also claimed that vitamin A supplementation has been shown to “dramatically reduce measles mortality.”Since the publication of that op-ed, many experts have sounded the alarm on that plug for vitamin A. The research RFK Jr. referenced does exist, but there’s important context missing. The analysis he cited focuses on studies that mostly looked at low-income countries where many people have vitamin A deficiencies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent data, less than 1 percent of people in the U.S. have vitamin A deficiencies.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, told the Washington Post that vitamin A can play a role in treating children who are hospitalized with measles. But he and other experts conveyed concerns to the Washington Post about RFK Jr.’s framing creating a false equivalency between vaccination, which is an extremely effective way to prevent measles, and vitamin supplementation, which may or may not help children avoid complications from measles. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently put out a statement emphasizing that vitamin A supplementation is no substitute for vaccination and that it should only be conducted under the supervision of a medical professional. Vitamin A overdoses can cause bone fractures, liver damage and other serious issues.Now let’s move on to a somewhat complex environmental ruling from the Supreme Court. The headline here is that in a 5-4 ruling last Tuesday, the justices sided with the city of San Francisco against the Environmental Protection Agency, weakening the agency’s ability to regulate pollution of the nation’s waterways.Basically, San Francisco argued that the EPA was too vague in a permit governing the city’s release of sewage into the Pacific Ocean when extreme rainfall overwhelms a water-treatment facility. The permit tasks San Francisco with ensuring its wastewater discharge doesn’t cause the ocean to dip below “any applicable water quality standard,” but the city said that wasn’t enough information. Instead, San Francisco officials wanted the EPA to lay out exactly how much discharge was okay. During oral arguments, an EPA attorney said the agency only used those broad requirements because San Francisco wouldn’t provide the information needed to set specific dumping rules—a claim the city of course refuted.The majority decision, penned by Justice Samuel Alito, concluded that the EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Water Act by imposing the water quality requirements, which the ruling calls “end-result” provisions. With these provisions out of the picture, the onus will be on the EPA to figure out what cities—and other entities that dump sewage—need to do to keep their local surface water clean.Back in October the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution urging the city’s Public Utilities Commission to drop or settle its issues with the EPA ahead of oral arguments in the Supreme Court case, they argued that a win could weaken the agency’s ability to curb pollution—which would in turn put a real dent in San Francisco’s reputation as a green city.In other environmental news, a study published last Wednesday in Nature offers some uplifting findings on the ozone layer. As you probably already know, back in the 1980s scientists detected an area over the South Pole where our atmosphere’s ozone layer, which helps protect the planet from the sun’s UV rays, had gotten thinner. This turned out to be due to chlorofluorocarbons and other similar human made chemicals. An international treaty called the Montreal Protocol, which went into effect in 1989, was aimed at phasing out the use of those substances. Data in recent years has shown that the ozone layer is recovering, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA projecting it could return to normal by 2066.For the first time scientists have shown with confidence that the Montreal Protocol is indeed to thank for this incredible comeback. That’s great news; if some of the ozone layer’s recovery were due to uncontrollable factors like weather patterns, then we’d have to worry that we might lose some of our progress if those conditions shifted.In the new study researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology created simulations of the atmosphere under different conditions. Some of their simulations showed a world without an increase in greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances, which helped them understand how the ozone layer might fluctuate without our interference. The researchers say we can now be quite sure that the ozone layer is healing because we’ve stopped using the chemicals that hurt it, which is a great reminder that we really can combat climate change and other human-driven environmental issues if we band together.Speaking of humans doing stuff that doesn’t suck for once, another study published last Wednesday offers hope for people dealing with osteoarthritis. And that hope stems from a somewhat surprising source: your septum.Generally ignored unless they’re deviated or pierced, septums are also a great spot for grabbing a bit of cartilage without super-invasive surgery. Nasal cartilage cells also seem particularly good at fighting inflammation. A group of scientists have been working on a method of using cartilage implants grown from itty-bitty septum samples to repair knee injuries for a number of years now. What’s new in the latest study, published in Science Translational Medicine, is that the researchers compared outcomes between people whose cartilage grafts were grown in the lab for the standard couple of days before insertion with people whose grafts spent a couple of weeks maturing instead. The clinical trial was small, involving just around 100 people. But the results do suggest that, when allowed to mature, these septum-grown grafts do a better job of fixing the injury in question—and they can actually lead to improvement in the health of surrounding cartilage, too. The team is about to undertake two large clinical studies on the use of this cartilage technique in treating osteoarthritis in the kneecaps.Last but not least we’ve simply got to talk about woolly mammoth mice. Woolly mammice? Woolly mousemoths? Whatever.Biotech company Colossal Biosciences, primarily known for its mission to bring the woolly mammoth and dodo back from extinction with the help of genetic engineering, announced last Tuesday that the team edited several different genes in mice embryos to make them—well, woolly.It’s important to note, however, that these mice didn’t have woolly mammoth genes inserted into their genomes. Most of the edits involved tweaking mouse genes that prior research has shown dictate hair traits such as color and texture. But Colossal also looked at ancient mammoth DNA to find genes tied to hair pattern and fat metabolism and adjusted the corresponding mice genes. The result was some real Tribble-esque rodents. The company says this is a step toward doing something similar in Asian elephants, which are woolly mammoth’s closest living relatives. But in interviews with the Associated Press several experts pointed out that making an elephant woolier isn’t the same as bringing woolly mammoths back from extinction. Another expert pointed out to the Guardian that this money could perhaps be better spent preventing the extinction of the animals living on Earth right now, which is tough but fair. Those hairy little mice are very cute, though.That’s all for this week’s news roundup. We’ll be back on Wednesday.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!

There Are Fewer Than 100 Ocelots in the US - These Scientists Are Trying to Save Them

By Evan GarciaCORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (Reuters) - In the race to save the endangered ocelot, scientists are trekking the United States, pursuing...

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (Reuters) - In the race to save the endangered ocelot, scientists are trekking the United States, pursuing fertility treatments and striving to kickstart a new generation of the wild cat.Ocelots roamed the southwestern U.S. in the 1800s, but have since dwindled to fewer than 100 in two small breeding populations in South Texas. While the feline species is found in Mexico, Central America and South America, the Texas cats with striking spotted coats are believed to be the last wild population in the United States.   "Just look at the cat – why would you not want that animal to survive in nature?" said Bill Swanson, the Cincinnati Zoo's director of animal research, who has traveled the country trying to breed captive ocelots in animal institutions with sperm from wild ocelots from South Texas ranch land."It's not just saving the ocelot, it's saving the habitat and the ecosystem where it lives, which supports so many other animals that provide those services that let people survive on this planet," he said,  The nonprofit East Foundation, based in San Antonio, manages one of those breeding populations on more than 200,000 acres (810 sq km) of South Texas ranch land containing thorn scrub habitat, a dense covering of short, spiky shrubs that the elusive and nocturnal ocelots adore.Ashley Reeves, a research veterinarian at the East Foundation, said humans played a major role in the decline of the ocelot, listed in 1982 as an endangered species in the U.S."Back when the fur trade became very popular, they were hunted down for their beautiful fur," Reeves said. "And then also loss of habitat, human encroachment, large cities being built and roadways, so roadways are one of their No. 1 killers today."Reeves and Swanson have been working on their ocelot project since 2021. The team has tried - unsuccessfully so far - to breed ocelots two ways. The first is via artificial insemination, in which semen collected from a cat is deposited directly into a female cat's reproductive tract. The second is in vitro fertilization, in which oocytes, or eggs, are collected from the female cat's body and fertilized with semen in a petri dish before developing into an embryo in an incubator. The viable embryo is then surgically transferred into a cat or frozen to be transferred later. Of the 13 artificial inseminations and four in vitro fertilization procedures performed in recent years, none have produced a viable pregnancy.Swanson points to decreased quality in wild ocelot sperm due to signs of inbreeding, environmental stresses like dehydration from drought and decreased motility - the ability of sperm to move - from freezing specimens. "An ocelot usually has one kitten. That's the normal litter size," Swanson said. "And in the wild, the mother will raise that kitten for a full year until it's old enough to go out on its own. So ocelots are very slowly reproducing animals naturally."    At the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, Texas, in December, the team extracted two eggs from a five-year-old ocelot named Milla and patiently waited to see if an embryo would form after combining the eggs with wild sperm in a petri dish. After two days of waiting for a fertilized egg to cleave, or rapidly divide and develop into an embryo, the researchers were disappointed to find neither cell cleaved."It's disappointing," Reeves said. "But at the same time, science doesn't always go the way you expect it to."    Researchers will spend the next few months trapping wild male ocelots to collect their sperm before resuming fertility procedures in the fall.     By the end of the year, a facility in Kingsville, Texas, will be constructed to house ocelots, provide medical and reproductive care as well as a setting for young ocelots to learn how to hunt in the wild.(Reporting by Evan Garcia in Texas; Writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Donna Bryson and Sandra Maler)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

DNA detectives in Antarctica: probing 6,000 years of penguin poo for clues to the past

New ancient DNA research on Adélie penguin poo in Antarctica shows how several species respond to environmental change over time, including southern elephant seals.

Jamie WoodStudies of ancient DNA have tended to focus on frozen land in the northern hemisphere, where woolly mammoths and bison roamed. Meanwhile, Antarctica has received relatively little attention. We set out to change that. The most suitable sediments are exposed near the coast of the icy continent, where penguins like to breed. Their poo is a rich source of DNA, providing information about the health of the population as well as what penguins have been eating. Our new research opens a window on the past of Adélie penguins in Antarctica, going back 6,000 years. It also offers a surprise glimpse into the shrinking world of southern elephant seals over the past 1,000 years. Understanding how these species coped with climate change in the past can help us prepare for the future. Wildlife in Antarctica faces multiple emerging threats and will likely need support to cope with the many challenges ahead. A unique marine ecosystem Adélie penguins are particularly sensitive to changes in their environment. This makes them what we call a “sentinel species”, providing an early warning of imbalance or dysfunction in the coastal ecosystem. Their poo also provides a record of how they responded to changes in the past. In our new research, we excavated pits up to 80cm deep at ten Adélie penguin colonies along the 700km Ross Sea coastline. We then collected 156 sediment samples from different depths in each excavation. Six of these colonies were still active, meaning birds return annually to breed. The other four had been abandoned at various times over the past 6,000 years. From these sediments we generated 94 billion DNA sequences, which provided us with an unparalleled window into the past lives of Adélie penguins and their ecosystem. We detected the DNA of several animal species besides Adélie penguins. These animals included two other birds, three seals and two soil invertebrates. Not all of this DNA came from penguin poo. Our samples also contained DNA from feathers, hairs or skin cells of other species in the environment at the time. Sediment samples were taken from ten penguin colonies of various ages, six active (white dot) and four abandoned (coloured dot), on the coast of Ross Sea in Antarctica. Wood, J., et al (2025) Nature Communications, CC BY-NC-ND Penguin population size and diet When we took a closer look at the DNA from penguins of the present day, we found more genetic diversity in samples from larger colonies. Recognising this relationship between genetic diversity and colony size enabled us to estimate the size of former colonies. We could also reconstruct population trends through time. For example, in samples from active colonies, we found penguin genetic diversity increased as we sampled closer and closer to the surface. This may reflect population growth over the past century. The DNA also revealed changes in penguin diets over time. Over the past 4,000 years, the penguins in the southern Ross Sea switched from mainly eating one type of fish – the bald notothen – to another, Antarctic silverfish. The bald notothen lives beneath the sea ice, so this prey-switching was likely driven by a change in sea ice extent compared with the past. Examples of an active Adélie penguin colony (Cape Hallett), and a 6,000 year old abandoned Adélie penguin colony site (Terra Nova Bay). Jamie Wood Surprise! Elephant seals We made an unexpected discovery at Cape Hallett, in the northern Ross Sea. This is the site of an active penguin colony. Samples of sediment from close to the surface contained lots of penguin DNA and eggshell. But samples from further down, where penguin DNA and eggshell were scarce, contained DNA from southern elephant seals. Today, elephant seals are uncommon visitors to the Antarctic continent, and breed on subantarctic islands including Macquarie, Campbell and Antipodes Islands. Yet, bones of elephant seal pups found along the Ross Sea coast indicate the species used to breed in the area. Carbon dating of these bones indicate elephant seal colonies began disappearing from the southern Ross Sea around 1,000 years ago. Over the following 200 years, colonies in the northern Ross Sea began vanishing too. As the climate cooled and the extent of sea ice increased, elephant seals could no longer access suitable breeding sites. These sites were then taken over by Adélie penguins who expanded into areas once occupied by seals. Our DNA evidence suggests Cape Hallett was one of the last strongholds of southern elephant seals on the icy continent. But we may yet again see elephant seals breeding on the Antarctic mainland as the world warms and sea ice melts. Even more ancient DNA in Antarctica Our study spans the past 6,000 years, but our research suggests it would be possible to go even further back. The DNA fragments we found were very well preserved, showing little of the damage expected in warmer climates. So it should be possible to obtain much older DNA from sediments on land in Antarctica – maybe even 1 million-year-old DNA, as recently reported from Antarctic sediments beneath the ocean floor. Worthy of lasting protection In December 2017, 2.09 million square kilometres of the Ross Sea and adjoining Southern Ocean became the world’s largest marine protected area. Establishing the protection was a major achievement, yet it was only afforded for 35 years. After 2052, continuation of the region’s protected status will require international agreement. Knowledge of the vulnerability of local species and their risk in the face of change will play a key role in informing the decision. Our research provides a case study for how ancient environmental DNA can contribute towards this understanding. This research was part of the Ross Sea Region Research and Monitoring Programme,, funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment.Theresa Cole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

London exhibition explores design based on needs of nature and animals

Curator of Design Museum show says ‘human-centric’ approach to design needs overhaul amid climate crisisDesigners need to “fundamentally rethink our relationship with the natural world”, according to the curator of a new exhibition which argues the needs of nature and animals should be considered when creating homes, buildings and products.Justin McGuirk, the curator of the upcoming More Than Human exhibition at the Design Museum in London, said our current “human-centric” approach to design needs to be radically overhauled as the world adapts to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Designers need to “fundamentally rethink our relationship with the natural world”, according to the curator of a new exhibition which argues the needs of nature and animals should be considered when creating homes, buildings and products.Justin McGuirk, the curator of the upcoming More Than Human exhibition at the Design Museum in London, said our current “human-centric” approach to design needs to be radically overhauled as the world adapts to the climate crisis.Kombu Nudibranch by Julia Lohmann. Photograph: Julia Lohmann Studio/c/o The Design Museum“We’re stuck in a carbon accountancy model which is basically about doing everything exactly the same as we currently do, just a little bit less bad,” he said. “That’s not really going to cut it.”McGuirk believes there needs to be “a fundamental shift in position” for all designers.“Every design project needs to think about how it’s affecting other species, or either limiting its impact on other species, or ideally promoting the health of other species,” he said.The More Than Human exhibition, which opens on 11 July, presents ideas for how the world of design could achieve the shift McGuirk and others are calling for.There’s a pavilion that is specifically designed to encourage insects to nest in its exterior, a project in New York where a wave breaker has been built using a colony of oysters rather than concrete, and it features a “monumental seaweed installation” by the artist Julia Lohmann.Innovative design ideas that help restore damaged and dying marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, which are dying at record rates around the world, are also included.Reef Design Lab’s Living Seawalls – an artificial habitat for marine life – will feature alongside the lab’s Modular Artificial Reef Structure II, which is placed on the ocean floor to help regenerate and repopulate natural reef structures.McGuirk said there’s a sense that humans are detached from nature. “We extract what we need and then we build what we want. But actually we’re interdependent with all these living systems, so it’s really a new way of thinking that we’re trying to encourage,” he added.The More Than Human movement first emerged in the late 1990s when David Abram, the cultural ecologist, geo-philosopher and performance artist, coined the term. It has since moved from the theoretical to the real world.Micrographia by Johanna Seelemann. Photograph: c/o The Design Museum“It’s really only been around in theory for about 20 years,” said McGuirk. “But I’ve noticed among a younger generation of designers that this is becoming much more a way of thinking for them.”The exhibition is the first curatorial collaboration between the Design Museum and its national design research programme, Future Observatory, which launched in 2021 and champions new design thinking on environmental issues.Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the Design Museum said: “It’s important for museums and cultural institutions to respond to the complex issues facing our planet and society at present. It’s also important to shift perspectives from a human-centric view of the world to one closer to nature, which will make this a landmark exhibition in every sense.”

Oregon drivers buy millions of tires every year. A controversial bill could create a tax on each one

An initial public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

The tire business has been good to Zach Hastings. He opened Hastings Tire & Offroad, a small Redmond tire supply shop, in 2018.Demand for new tires has remained relatively steady, Hastings said, even as rising manufacturing costs and trade policies have pushed prices up. And in Oregon, where residents get rid of roughly four million tires a year, replacements are a constant need, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.But Hastings worries that he might soon have to raise his prices as lawmakers in Salem spar over a bill that would create a 4% tax on all Oregon tire sales. “A small business can’t necessarily absorb extra costs like that, and instead that just turns around and gets placed onto the purchaser,” Hastings said. “Realistically, that means that prices on tires are just going to go up 4% in the state of Oregon.”Democrats supporting the bill say the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. A quarter of the revenue would fund efforts to build highway crossings for wildlife to minimize car crashes involving animals. The remaining revenue would support programs to expand rail and public transit service in the state as well as efforts to reduce water pollution from illegally discarded tires. Recent research has shown that tires contain toxic particles that can wear off and enter streams and other bodies of water, which can harm fish and other animals that access those waters.“We have worked to keep the amount of the tax low,” said Sen. Chris Gorsek, a Democrat from Gresham and chief sponsor of the bill. “And on the other hand, we’re all contributing to an environmental problem that is a new thing, but it is something that we need to take seriously.”The bill has incensed Republican lawmakers and business groups, who frequently fight any proposal to create or raise taxes. Republican caucus leaders have pushed their constituents to rally against the proposal, prompting more than 1,000 submissions of written testimony, nearly all opposed to the bill. An initial public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Tuesday evening.“Tires are one of the most important safety features on any vehicle, and replacing them is already a financial burden for many Oregonians,” Erik Lukens, spokesperson for statewide business lobby Oregon Business and Industry, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. Lukens said the tax “would make tires even more expensive, encouraging vehicle owners to make older, worn tires last longer.”Republican critics, many of whom represent rural areas, also argue that the tax would unfairly hurt rural residents, many of whom drive longer distances than urban residents and often don’t have the option to take public transit.The tax proposal comes at a delicate time for lawmakers. Legislators are in the early stages of crafting a major transportation package this legislative session, and the state transportation agency has said it needs more than $1.7 billion of additional funding each year to better maintain Oregon’s roads and bridges.Sen. Bruce Starr, a Republican from Dundee who has been tapped by Democrats to oversee the accountability portion of the package, criticized the proposed tire tax for failing to help close that funding gap. He also claimed, in a newsletter sent Friday, that the bill would not deliver positive environmental benefits.Gorsek, who co-chairs the transportation committee and appointed Starr to that role, pushed back against those claims. Many of the dollars in Oregon’s massive transportation-specific fund can only be used for road maintenance or other specific programs, he said, leaving some important needs without necessary funding. The tire tax would help solve that, he said.“There will be people who don’t like the bill. I understand that,” Gorsek said. However, he said, “We are trying to think in a bigger way than only focusing on the highway side of things.”— Carlos Fuentes covers state politics and government. Reach him at 503-221-5386 or cfuentes@oregonian.com.Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.Latest local politics stories

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