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Lichen is made up of two types of fungus and an algae, that's one more species than previously thought. wikimedia

There is big news in the world of lichens. These slow growing organisms have long been known to be a collaboration between a fungus and a photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria. A recent publication in Science may have changed all that.

Researchers have discovered another fungus living in the tissues of lichens. Unlike the dominant fungal type, also known as Ascomycetes, the new fungus is a Basidiomycete that exists as single cells, more closely related to yeast. A survey has found these new fungal cells in 52 genera of lichens, raising the prospect of a previously undetected third partner in the ancient symbiosis.

Interestingly, despite many attempts, it has never been possible to synthesise lichen in the laboratory by combining the two known partners, and now we might know why. Lichenologists have always recognised a mycobiont (fungal partner) and a photobiont (the photosynthetic organism that makes food) and now we may have to find a word for the new fungal component.

Toby Spribille of the University of Graz in Austria and his colleagues were trying to understand why two species of lichen that were made up of the same species of mycobiont and photobiont were differently coloured and contained varying levels of a toxin known as vulpinic acid.

Using an approach that examined the messenger RNAs produced by the organism, they tried to find the genes that produced the toxin, but neither the mycobiont or the photobiont had genes that matched the transcript. By broadening their search to include other types of fungi, they found genes belonging to a rare fungus called a Cystobasidiomycete.

Unable to see the cells responsible for this unusual finding, they used fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) to light up cells containing genes for the algae, the ascomycete and the cystobasidiomycete. By linking different colours to each organism, they produced videos showing the distribution of each cell type. The new fungus existed as single cells inside the cortex, where it may play a structural role as well as providing chemical defence.

It is hard to overstate the importance of this discovery. Spribille was quoted in the New York Times as saying that lichens are as diverse as vertebrates. And yet we did not know until now that the symbiosis that allows lichens to exist has more than two partners.

The authors have described a new order of fungi called the Cyphobasidiales. It is not everyday that scientists are able to add new taxa at such a high level. It is like discovering the Primates. By creating a phylogenomic tree and applying a molecular clock, they found that this group has been around for 200 million years, probably since the beginning of lichens.

The 52 genera that have been examined thus far are widespread (on six continents) but are still a small portion of lichens, so there may be more to discover. Interestingly, the continent that is not included is Australia. Perhaps we do not have enough lichenologists to provide samples to the international community. It is possible that some lichens do not contain this new order of fungi. What is not in doubt is that now scientists will be looking at lichens more closely.

Lichens grow very slowly. Individuals can be hundreds or even thousands of years old. Now it seems that our knowledge of this ancient symbiosis has also grown slowly, as it has taken 150 years to find the third partner.

Given the sophisticated techniques required to untangle this conundrum, I suppose it was not possible to know about the silent partner, the yeast in the mix, until now. But it certainly gives rise to some exciting science.

How some crashes are caused by idiocy, and why it’s the family cycling event which is the most important one.

Ride London, the capital’s weekend of cycle events – now expanded to three days – is in its fourth year. And for another time, I’ve taken part in what is officially called the Ride London Surrey 100, a vast, 100-mile closed-roads sportive, which this year saw up to 27,000 people take part.

As is also traditional for the Bike Blog, below are my instant (I’m writing this in the event press tent, still clad in my clammy bike clothes) thoughts on what is the UK’s biggest cycling extravaganza.

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One of the world's leading air crash investigators tells Australian TV he believes Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately flown into the sea.

Campaign asks wildlife enthusiasts to visit local woodland to record number of speckled woods and other butterflies

Wildlife lovers are being asked to spend 15 minutes in a wood this week to chart the spread of the speckled wood (Pararge aegeria), Britain’s most successful butterfly.

The speckled wood is one of a handful of species that appear to be benefitting from climate change, recently colonising East Anglia, the Midlands and much of northern England, increasing in abundance by 84% over the past 40 years. The southern population has expanded northwards at an average of four miles a year since the 1970s.

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Telsta chief scientists says all cars on Australian roads will be driverless by 2030, based on rate of development and falling technology costs.

Four men brave fast-flowing, waist-deep water rushing down the main street of Ellicott City to save a woman trapped in her car. Local business owner Sara Arditti posted the footage to Facebook after her husband Dave took part in the daring rescue.

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Burnsall, Yorkshire Dales It takes a ferocious effort to warm the Wharfe, but today the sun rises to the challenge

The mini-heatwave has been trailed in the news for days, and by mid-morning Burnsall has become Burnsall-on-Sea. Leeds and Bradford are a good two-hour drive to any ocean, so on days like this the banks of the river Wharfe oblige that English instinct to drive somewhere and slowly singe in the sun when the weather finally permits.

Burnsall is hotter than Barcelona today. The beautiful village green, playing the role of promenade, is covered in prone bodies marinating in sunscreen, while parked cars lining the banks of the river warm into ovens. Kids play on sandbanks and paddle in the shallows while swallows and swifts inscribe the air above.

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Developers of 10MW community project say they will now apply to build 20MW solar farm, after high levels of interest in the project.

Attacks on subsidised clean energy in a warning to the rest of the country about what could happen if governments invest in renewables

Last week Australia watched as a concerted campaign waged in sections of the media went bust.

For two straight weeks a barrage of articles were published seeking to primarily blame unusually high electricity prices in South Australia on the state’s reliance on wind.

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A reduction in retail margins is more than offset by an increase in wholesale generation margins.

Spot electricity prices were down sharply in the last week. Will renewables be blamed?

Sydney Opera House's new Environmental Sustainability Plan aims to cut total energy use by 20% and boost recycling to 85% by 2023.

New report from Citi suggests that the combination of solar, wind, storage and big data will finally deliver on the promise - made half a century ago by nuclear boosters - of "free energy".

New report reveals that electricity price spikes in South Australia have reduced as renewable energy grows.

Using the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to record the wreck of the steamship Nord (1915).

The Butterfly Conservation asks people on woodland walks to help count population and spread of the speckled wood

People going out for a walk in the woods are being asked to look out for a butterfly that is on the rise because of climate change.

Experts want the public to help them chart the spread of the speckled wood butterfly, which has seen a 71% increase in its distribution and a 84% rise in its numbers in the last 40 years.

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Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 5 August 1916

Surrey, August 3
There is more straw to the wheat and oats on the later lands toward our southern border than appeared a fortnight ago to be possible. The crop has shot upward as it ripened; a narrow path that runs through one wheatfield is now walled almost breast-high, and the growth is so strong that the light breeze sings through the long yellowing stalks without perceptibly bending them. A piece of oats is cut, and brings with it the first sweet scent of harvest. Some young rabbits, playing a little away from their burrow this morning, found more space to scamper in, and a host of sparrows was at work among the laid corn. We have had little dew; the nights have been almost as warm as the days.

Swallows and martins, which had begun to pack, are as busy, each in his own way, as in the earlier summer days, for at evening small winged insects swarm nearly everywhere, but mostly in the hot, low lanes, where the nut bushes droop under the sun, and the flowers dropping from the brambles reveal a promise of much fruit. On the roadsides the mountain ash is hung thickly with berries already red ripe; there is full colour now on the heaths, yellow and cream, and even more down by the side of the stream, where the loosestrife is in the best of its bloom. Many common plants have seeded; the finches were flitting in and out this evening, dropping a wing feather now and then, and one chaffinch, playing in the white dust of a chalk road, was quite disposed to make friends.

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Australians are often taken aback to discover that we import about 75% of the seafood we consume. Yes, that’s right – in a nation girt by sea that vaunts its love of a shrimp on the barbie, three-quarters of our fish and shellfish comes from overseas.

Wander over to your local supermarket and look at the seafood on offer. Barramundi, the iconic Australian fish, is usually there but it is typically from Vietnam, having been farmed and frozen. The processed products – crumbed prawns or garlic prawns – are also usually from Asia, and bright yellow-dyed smoked cod is seemingly always from South Africa.

Then there are the truly “glocal” (local-global) items, such as crumbed products made using Australian fish that has been sent to Thailand for processing and then shipped back again. This type of practice is set to become more common, as the family-owned Australian seafood company Kailis Bros this year sold 90% of its seafood processing, wholesale and export business to a Chinese conglomerate.

Eating ‘glocal’?

As anyone who has a passing acquaintance with contemporary food politics knows, it’s all about eating local, seasonal, and sustainable produce. As previous writers on The Conversation have pointed out, food choices have become loaded with moralism, which can make choosing the “right” food somewhat daunting.

Our research – including Elspeth’s forthcoming book, Eating the Ocean, and Kate’s soon-to-be-submitted PhD thesis on sustainable tuna – shows these problems become even trickier when it comes to fish.

Beyond the obvious problem of trying to eat local when talking about food that comes from a vast ocean, there is the added problem of the way in which fishing has developed as a globalised industry.

Over the past 20 years the ownership of fishing boats in the Global North (including Australia) has shrunk to a fraction of what it was. This has been part of a necessary move to regulate international fishing practices and ensure all countries have access to a fair share.

But the quotas introduced in Iceland, Canada, and Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s have also had the effect of concentrating ownership of the fishing industry in relatively few hands. In South Australia, for example, the number of licensed bluefin tuna fishers went from several hundred to fewer than 30.

Meanwhile, the downturn in inshore fishing because of overfishing, and the need to cover the costs of increasingly sophisticated technology to track fish, has led to ever-larger boats that can work farther from shore.

Simply put, this means you can no longer go down to the dock and “look the fisherman in the eye” as the US writer Michael Pollan has urged us to do for land-based farming. Long fishing trips means that fish have to be caught in vast numbers, flash-frozen while still at sea, then landed and immediately transferred to huge logistical operations covering hundreds or thousands of kilometres.

There are other reasons why Australia, despite having the world’s third-largest Exclusive Economic Zone, consumes so much imported fish. Our seas evidently suffer from low productivity and scarce nutrients. But no matter: the government reassures us that high seafood imports are common in wealthy nations.

One answer might be to catch your own, but be careful where you try, especially in urban areas. UNSW Australia’s Emma Johnston has described how Sydney’s stormwater overflows, combined with a history of industrial dumping, have rendered its harbour a toxic slurry – so it’s better not to eat any fish caught under the bridge.

Fish going in all directions

The flow of fish goes both ways, or rather multiple ways. Australia exports high-value fish and seafood around the world. Our lobsters and abalone are loved in China, while nearly all of South Australia’s bluefin tuna goes to Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market.

The tuna barons in Port Lincoln, SA, a town that used to boast Australia’s highest number of millionaires per capita, have become experts in international currency. Their fish, fattened in pens and inspected by visiting connoisseur Japanese investors, are priced in yen – and the farmers listen carefully to the visitors' advice, knowing that a good product is worth even more yen.

Back in the supermarket, there’s evidence that consumers are willing to spend time thinking about tuna too – at least, if Kate’s collection of dozens of eco-labelled tuna cans is any guide. Unlike the Japanese market, where the quality of the flesh is paramount, the supermarket labels suggest ecological sustainability is the key consideration. But sustainability goes deeper than just the fish itself; we rarely think about how sustainable the can is, nor about how the metal was mined, nor about the transport costs for the fish or packaging.

Does it matter that we eat so much of other nations' fish, while sending our most prized delicacies to foreign buyers? The answers vary: some people worry about reports of illegal fishing practices and pollution in Southeast Asia, where some fish are still caught using cyanide.

Equally chilling are the reports of “sea-slaves” – indentured labourers from Cambodia and Myanmar who are forced to work in the Thai shrimp trade.

On the other hand, would we want to stop our fishers, who by and large work in a highly regulated, sustainable enterprise, from getting top dollar for their produce? It is a tough call, and an even tougher set of complex relations.

What’s certain is that guilt-tripping consumers into buying local doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the ethics of eating the ocean.

Prof Elspeth Probyn receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Kate Johnston 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 the academic appointment above.

Yorkshire Water confirms it is safe for residents of Thorne and Moorends to use tap water if it is boiled first

Thousands of people in South Yorkshire who have been unable to drink their tap water since Friday afternoon have been told restrictions will stay in place into Monday.

High levels of bacteria were detected in the water supply of 3,600 properties in parts of Thorne, near Doncaster, and the neighbouring village of Moorends on Friday afternoon, and residents were told not to drink or cook with the water.

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The cave systems at the base of the rock of Gibraltar have just received UNESCO world heritage status, in recognition of the rich insights they bring to the study of Neanderthals.