Community dog parks are often seen as cheerful places where dogs can run free and interact with other pets. Many people feel that these shared spaces help animals stay active, but new <a href="https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-024-06563-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> points to a different story.



Recent <a href="https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-024-06563-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">findings</a> from the Department of Ecosystem and Public Health at the University of Calgary have revealed that half of the fecal samples collected in select dog parks contained intestinal parasites. These particular parasites have the potential to affect not only canines but also humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-parasites-in-dog-parks">Parasites in dog parks</h2>



 The experts found that parasites are often more common in areas where several dogs gather and roam freely. 



Parasites in the dog park samples included protozoa that are known to cause gastrointestinal issues, especially in younger or immune-compromised canines.



These types of parasites are also known to spread from animals to humans through contaminated materials.



Many of them linger in the environment, which increases the risk for anyone handling infected objects or soil.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-high-dog-traffic-areas-and-parasites">High dog traffic areas and parasites </h2>



Dogs that visit more than one park or spend significant time off-leash have a greater chance of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antibiotic-resistant-superbugs-are-being-passed-from-pets-to-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">picking up infections</a>. 



Overlapping areas with high dog traffic can make it easier for parasites to spread, especially if waste is not disposed of properly.



These newly identified parasite infection patterns point to an urgent need for consistent hygiene practices and vigilant parasite prevention measures among dog owners. Missing these steps could lead to larger issues in households and communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protecting-dogs-from-parasites">Protecting dogs from parasites</h2>



“Administer year-round broad-spectrum parasite control with efficacy against heartworm, intestinal parasites, fleas, and ticks. Control of parasites with zoonotic potential is essential,” noted the <a href="https://capcvet.org/guidelines/general-guidelines/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Companion Animal Parasite Council </a>(CAPC). 



Such preventive care can also lower veterinary bills over time. Early treatment helps ensure that dogs remain safe from conditions that might otherwise worsen and spread.



“All dogs should have a veterinary examination at least annually. For many dogs, more frequent visits may be appropriate,” stated the <a href="https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/aaha-avma-canine-preventive-healthcare-guidelines" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Veterinary Medical Association</a> (AVMA). 



Consistent check-ups can catch issues early before they turn into bigger problems.



Veterinarians can recommend parasite prevention methods suited to each dog’s lifestyle. They can also help pet owners to address any new concerns about health or behavior.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-stopping-the-spread-of-infections">Stopping the spread of infections </h2>



Some of the parasites identified by the experts can affect humans through direct or indirect contact - with children and older family members facing the greater risk. 



Hands-on moments with pets may carry hidden dangers if basic precautions are neglected. 



Habits like washing hands and tidying up after dogs are simple actions that can make a big difference by stopping infections from spreading between households or within neighborhoods.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-maintaining-cleanliness-in-play-areas">Maintaining cleanliness in play areas</h2>



Dog parks can still be fun if everyone does their part in disposing of waste and keeping the area clean. It is critical to use designated trash bins and avoid leaving any droppings behind, as parasites thrive in damp conditions.



Regular park maintenance further reduces contamination by preventing harmful organisms from circulating in the soil. A clean environment creates a healthier space for everyone.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tips-for-home-routines">Tips for home routines</h2>



An effective deworming schedule can shield pets from exposure to parasites that might be picked up outdoors. Over-the-counter remedies are not always reliable, so <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/early-neutering-linked-to-serious-health-risks-in-some-dog-breeds/">consulting a veterinarian</a> remains the best bet.



Families that allow pets on couches or beds may want to vacuum more frequently. This is especially true for homes with small children who explore surfaces by touch.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-community-awareness-and-responsible-actions">Community awareness and responsible actions</h2>



Dog parks help maintain social bonds among pets and people in the community. Many owners appreciate these places because their pets can socialize and burn off excess energy.



Paying careful attention to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/warning-dogs-drinking-from-public-water-sources-is-dangerous/">parasite control</a> does not eliminate the social benefit of these shared spaces. Instead, it helps everyone feel secure while enjoying all the perks of playing outdoors.



Active outreach by local pet groups can remind park visitors to be responsible. Handouts, reminders on social media, and polite signs in dog parks can also help to raise awareness.



Any step that guides owners toward better cleaning habits or timely <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-on-vegan-diets-stay-healthier-and-visit-the-vet-less-often/">veterinary checks</a> is a win for public health. Simple changes can reshape how communities share public spaces like dog parks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-path-forward">The path forward</h2>



Informed decisions about parasite control allow <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/are-cat-people-really-more-crazy-than-dog-lovers/">dog lovers</a> to keep enjoying community parks without constant worry. This means routine vet care, proper hygiene, and thorough cleaning habits.



These measures benefit everyone who values recreational spaces that welcome four-legged friends. 



The new findings about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dog-killing-liver-fluke-parasite-discovered-us-colorado-river/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intestinal parasites</a> may sound unsettling, but vigilance can make a clear difference. Renewed awareness often spurs owners to take small but vital steps to protect their cherished companions.



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Dog parks may be fueling parasite outbreaks

Community dog parks are often seen as cheerful places where dogs can run free and interact with other pets. Many people feel that these shared spaces help animals stay active, but new research points to a different story. Recent findings from the Department of Ecosystem and Public Health at the University of Calgary have revealed that half of the fecal samples collected in select dog parks contained intestinal parasites. These particular parasites have the potential to affect not only canines but also humans. Parasites in dog parks...

A growing collection of research suggests that the unique wing patterns found among thousands of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-do-oakleaf-butterflies-mimic-dead-leaves/">butterfly</a> species are all tied to an ancient set of simple ingredients. The latest of these studies, led by the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/">Florida Museum of Natural History</a>, was focused on the rare Atala butterfly.



“Evolution does not just mean change,” said study lead author Andrei Sourakov. “When it stumbles upon successful designs, they stick around, sometimes for hundreds of millions of years.”



In particular, Sourakov set out to test a theory from the 1920s called the nymphalid groundplan, which proposes that butterfly wing patterns are organized around distinct, concentrically arranged bands.



“Rather than a unified composition, butterfly wings are more like a collage created by wing-pattern elements belonging to different symmetry systems,” said Sourakov.



While this basic blueprint has been confirmed in several decades of research, the studies were primarily focused on butterfly species of the Nymphalidae family.



Nymphalids diverged from their closest relatives, the lycaenids, around 90 million years ago. Now, Sourakov wanted to investigate whether lycaenids have maintained the ancient pattern of wing symmetry found in nymphalids.&nbsp;



“The idea that the nymphalid ground plan applies to the lycaenids, which diverged from nymphalids when the dinosaurs were still around, is a big assumption to make,” explained Sourakov.



The Atala butterfly was chosen for the study for its unique history and its striking color patterns. The Atala is one of the only toxic species in the lycaenid family, and this toxicity is signaled by its bright red abdomen. On the Atala’s bottom wings, two spots of the same red color stand out against black scales and blue spots.



In the early 1900s, Atala butterflies nearly disappeared from their native range in Florida when their host plant was overharvested. Today, the plants and butterflies have been restored. For the study, Sourakov used a colony of Atala butterflies that is preserved at the Florida Museum’s McGuire Center.



Based on an interesting method used in previous studies, Sourakov exposed pupating insects to a blood thinner called heparin. This technique has been found to alter the wings of adult butterflies.



“Wing-pattern elements belonging to the same symmetry systems should react in similar ways to the same treatment,” said Sourakov. “By tweaking the expression of the underlying genes, such experiments allow us to understand the amazing variation that is found in butterflies and help us pinpoint the exact source of that variation.”



The experiment revealed that Atala and nymphalid butterflies shared similar responses to heparin. Depending on the concentration of heparin used, the adult wing spots either expanded, contracted, or faded entirely.&nbsp;



“Remarkably, there seems to be many similarities between Atala’s wing pattern and the nymphalid ground plan,” said Sourakov. “Future studies will be necessary for determining whether the same genes control the banding patterns and colors of Atala and other lycaenids compared to other butterfly families, but I hope these results have laid the groundwork for further inquiry.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7246248">Tropical Lepidoptera Research</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Atala butterflies have retained ancient wing patterns

A growing collection of research suggests that the unique wing...

A recent study led by the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> has found that the practice of moving our clocks forward – resulting in a later sunset – could reduce night-time associated car accidents with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/energy-development-disrupts-mule-deer-migration/">deer</a> by 16 percent. The experts developed a model showing the major benefits that permanent daylight savings time could have, not only in saving animal lives, but also in the reduction of human injuries (and even deaths) and collision costs.



“We saw these huge, abrupt shifts in human activity associated with the timing of sunrise and sunset, so it got us thinking: if humans are responding to clock time, whereas animals are responding to the daylight time, does that then create more opportunities for human-wildlife conflict?” said study lead author Calum Cunningham, a postdoctoral research fellow in Biology at the University of Washington.



By using data from 23 state agencies from the <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/">U.S. Department of Transportation</a>, the researchers analyzed 1,012,465 deer-vehicle collisions, together with 96 million hourly traffic observations across the entire United States.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that vehicle collisions were 14 times more frequent two hours after sunset than before, and, even more strikingly, that the rate of deer-vehicle collisions increased by 16 percent the week following the change to standard time.



Taking these numbers into account, the scientists estimated that, if daylight savings time became permanent, it could prevent at least 36,550 deer deaths, 33 human deaths, 2,054 human injuries, and $1.19 billion in collision costs each year.



“It surprised me how striking this pattern was, of how much more likely deer are to get struck in the hour or two after darkness. This one-hour shift in human activity could have such a significant effect,” Cunningham concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.10.007">Current Biology</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Daylight savings time reduces wildlife-vehicle collisions

A recent study led by the University of Washington has...

While good feline healthcare clearly requires visiting the veterinary clinic, many components of a veterinary visit or stay may potentially result in negative experiences for the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cats-can-tell-when-speech-is-directed-at-them/">cats</a>. These impacts can be far-reaching, including distress and prolonged recovery from illness for the cats, and, for the medical team, the risk of misleading test results and clinical findings, possible injuries, and increased difficulties with handling the cats at future veterinary visits.&nbsp;



Now, two recently published “Cat Friendly Guidelines” address in detail how to properly handle cats’ veterinary experiences, including their journey to the clinic, their interactions with the medical professionals, and the physical and social environment of the clinic (such as the presence of other animals in the waiting and hospitalization areas).&nbsp;



At the heart of these guidelines is the recognition that mental wellbeing is as important as physical health, and that the cats’ emotional experience is crucial during veterinary visits. The experts distinguish between a cat’s positive, or “engaging” emotions – which might lead it to explore the environment and seek food, treats, play, and social interaction – from its negative, or “protective” emotions of fear, frustration, or pain. This framework could help professionals better understand the feline perspective, identify underlying stressors, and decide what approach works best to resolve rather than exacerbate certain negative situations the cat might find itself in during such visits.



Since much of the behavior of cats is derived from their wildcat ancestor (Felis silvestris lybica) – such as their natural preference to rely on themselves for protection – familiarity, control, predictability, and avoidance of threats are essential for a cat’s perceived safety. According to the experts, minimizing negative experiences should start before reaching the clinic by considering what the cat will see, hear, and smell (with their highly tuned sensory system) during the journey to the clinic, and extend during the veterinary visit.



Some advice includes minimizing visual or auditory stimulation, by keeping away even pictures of cats or other animals, protecting the felines from noisy patients and loud clinical equipment, and maintaining all human vocalizations soft, gentle, and slow in tempo. Moreover, if the clinic treats also dogs, the medical team should remove potentially challenging scents by sweeping up dog hair, emptying bins of strong-smelling waste, and perhaps even using synthetic feline pheromones to create a more reassuring environment. Moreover, the medical team should remain “cat focused” during all the interactions, by being aware of the cats’ preferred areas of touch (such as the face), not leaning over or cornering the cats, avoiding direct eye contact, and using friendly equipment and positive distractions.



Implementing this type of “cooperative care” will require new skills to be developed and practiced, both at home and at the veterinary clinic, to help cats feel more relaxed and in control in situations where they may naturally feel fearful and frustrated.



The two guidelines are published in a special issue of the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/page/jfm/collection/cat-friendly-special-issue">Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What does a cat-friendly veterinary experience look like?

While good feline healthcare clearly requires visiting the veterinary clinic,...

People have always been fascinated by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rhinos-show-that-diseases-can-disrupt-conservation-efforts/">rhinos</a>, finding them charismatic and impressive. These great mammals are depicted in historical and contemporary artworks and photographs for many different reasons and researchers have begun to appreciate the potential of these images as a rich source of data. This is particularly salient as numbers of rhinos of all species decrease and research on living specimens becomes more and more difficult. 



In a recent study, researchers from the University of Helsinki, <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> and the Rhino Resource Center (RRC) in the Netherlands undertook an analysis of 1,531 pieces of artwork and 1,627 photographs depicting rhinos, all of which are held in an online repository by the RRC. Their aim was to investigate the ways in which depictions of human interactions with rhinos have changed over time. In addition, they used a sample of 80 profile photographs of rhinos to determine whether morphological data on horn lengths, extracted from photographs, indicate any change in this feature over time.&nbsp;



In the archives of the RRC, the researchers found digital records of artworks dating back over the past 500 years, and of photographs from the last 150 years. They assigned these to broad categories that represented different relationships between society and rhinos; for example, hunting, conservation, natural history and captivity. Categories were further grouped as consumptive or non-consumptive. Consumptive relationships involved the death of rhinos or their removal from the natural habitat (e.g., hunting, curiosity, museum, captivity, dominion, poaching and circus), whereas non-consumptive relationships did not kill or remove rhinos from their habitat (e.g., conservation, caretaking, education, academic, cartoons).



Although all five extant species of rhinos are represented in the RRC’s data set, the researchers found that earlier images more commonly show Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) whereas the two African species (white rhino&nbsp;Ceratotherium simum, and black rhino&nbsp;Diceros bicornis) feature more prominently in recent images. Images of Javan (Rhinoceros sondaicus)&nbsp;and Sumatran&nbsp;(Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) rhinos are uncommon throughout the data set.



The results of the study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10406">People and Nature</a>, showed a clear change in how rhinos are portrayed. Hunting scenes in both artwork and photos were more common prior to 1950, but conservation became more common after this date. Depictions of rhino natural history and rhinos in captivity also became more common in artwork from the late 1700s onwards, and in photos from the 2000s onwards. Furthermore, the researchers found that the proportion of images featuring non-consumptive uses of rhinos increased over time, although in this case from the turn of the 19th century.&nbsp;



Many hundreds of photographs showing rhinos shot dead by hunters, taken in the late 19th&nbsp;and early 20th&nbsp;centuries, are present in the collection. These include a photograph of American President Theodore Roosevelt, taken in 1911, standing triumphantly over a black rhino he had just killed. Other early images show rhinos as huge, frightening animals chasing humans. The researchers think these images helped justify the hunting of these animals.



The experts also propose that peak times of hunting activities coincided with European colonial expansion into regions where rhinos occurred and that, once colonial powers pulled out of these regions and they achieved independence, European hunters no longer had easy access for hunting. The researchers suggest that the number of hunting images for a given species is likely to be associated with the true levels of hunting, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and to be correlated with the reported declines in rhino numbers during this time.



“We found that we can use images from the last few centuries to visualize how human attitudes towards wildlife have changed, and how artists have influenced these views,” said Dr. Ed Turner at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, senior author of the report.



The images suggest that there was very little effort to promote rhino conservation to the public before the 1950s. But after this the focus suddenly changed from hunting the animals to trying to keep them alive. The most recent images appear to reflect a growing awareness of the threats facing the natural world in general.



“For at least a few decades now there’s been much more of a focus on the conservation of rhinos – and this is reflected in the more recent images, which relate to their conservation in sanctuaries or their plight in the wild,” said study first author Oscar Wilson, who is now based at the University of Helsinki, Finland.&nbsp;



The 80 photographs of individual rhinos used to assess changes in horn length represented all five of the extant rhino species. Morphological measurements of body and horn dimensions were made so that horn length could be accurately related to overall body size. This was important as the photos did not have any measure of scale. Analysis of the results showed that, across all species, the horn length increased with body size, and the relative length of the horn to body length decreased slightly, but significantly over time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The researchers think rhino horns have become smaller due to intensive hunting. Whether this has been for trophies or to supply material for medicines or traditional carvings in certain eastern and middle-eastern countries, the rhinos with the largest horns are invariably the targets. This leaves smaller-horned individuals to breed and pass on their genes for smaller horns to future generations. According to the researchers, these results could be indicative of directional selection in response to hunting pressures, as has been noted in obvious features such as horns and tusks in other groups of animals.



“We were really excited that we could find evidence from photographs that rhino horns have become shorter over time. They’re probably one of the hardest things to work on in natural history because of the security concerns,” said Wilson. “Rhinos evolved their horns for a reason - different species use them in different ways such as helping to grasp food or to defend against predators – so we think that having smaller horns will be detrimental to their survival.”



“Taken together, our results demonstrate the potential and scope for using online images to study the changing relationship between people and the natural world, and long-term morphological changes in species," concluded the study authors. "We advocate a greater use of these data, and the development of more image repositories such as the RRC, to bring data together in an easily accessible format with associated detailed information.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Historical photos suggest that rhino horns have gotten smaller

People have always been fascinated by rhinos, finding them charismatic...

In a recent interview with <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/10/30/23426406/ai-animals-google-translate-karen-bakker-sounds-of-life">Vox</a>, Karen Bakker – an expert in Digital Innovation at the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> – has argued that humans could soon communicate with animals, as groundbreaking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-intelligence-earth-data/">artificial intelligence</a> tools are designed to decode patterns in non-human sounds, such as the waggle dance of honeybees, the low-frequency noises of elephants, or the clicking made by whales. Yet, according to Bakker, such innovations can raise ethical dilemmas, since they could also be used to manipulate – rather than merely understand - wildlife.&nbsp;



For a long time, humans have sought to find ways of communicating with animals. While just a few decades ago, such attempts would rather belong to a science fiction movie, recent scientific and technological developments have now brought them closer to reality. For instance, in 2018, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.mi.fu-berlin.de/inf/groups/ag-ki/index.html">Dahlem Center for Machine Learning and Robotics</a> in Germany has designed the RoboBee, an AI tool that mimics the waggle dance of bees, which is used by these insects to relay information to one another. This robot turned out to be so successful that some of the bees started to follow directions from it, such as where to move within their hive.



Other such attempts include the <a href="https://www.projectceti.org/">Project CETI</a> (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), which uses advanced machine learning techniques to decipher the sounds of sperm whales, one of the world’s most enigmatic oceanic species, or the research of Katie Payne, an expert in Bioacoustics at <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> who uses artificial intelligence to pick up the infrasonic sounds produced by elephants.



Although humans have communicated with animals in the past too, they usually did it from a human-centered viewpoint, such as teaching primates sign language. By using AI, scientists now hope to use the animals’ own language to communicate with them. “What [these researchers] are doing is not trying to teach those species human language, but rather compiling, essentially, dictionaries of signals and then attempting to understand what those signals mean within those species,” Bakker explained.



However, such attempts lead to significant ethical conundrums, depending upon how they will be used. Thus, enabling humans to speak with different animal species could create a&nbsp;“deeper sense of kinship, or a sense of dominion and manipulative ability to domesticate wild species that we’ve never as humans been able to previously control,” she concluded.



Professor Bakker explained in more detail these new technological developments in her new book, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206288/the-sounds-of-life">The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants</a> (2022). &nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Can we communicate with animals using artificial intelligence?

In a recent interview with Vox, Karen Bakker – an...

A team of zoologists led by the <a href="https://www.up.pt/portal/en/">University of Porto</a> has recently described a new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/owls-humans-visual/">owl</a> species from Principe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in Central Africa. Although its official description was published only now, suspicions of its occurrence started already to emerge in 1998, and testimonies from local people suggesting its existence can be traced back as far as 1928.



The Principe Scops-Owl, or&nbsp;Otus bikegila, belongs to a group of small owls – the scops-owls - found across Eurasia and Africa, and including widespread species such as the Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops) and the African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis).&nbsp;



The easiest way to recognize this species in the wild is its specific call. “Otus bikegila's unique call is a short “tuu” note repeated at a fast rate of about one note per second, reminiscent of insect calls. It is often emitted in duets, almost as soon as the night has fallen,” explained study lead author Martim Melo, an expert in the diversification of bird fauna in Africa at the University of Porto.



The experts believe that this owl can be currently found only in the remaining old-growth native forest of Principe in the uninhabited southern part of the island, occupying an area of just about 15 km2. In this small area though, the density of this species is quite high, with a population estimated at around 1,000-1,500 individuals.



However, since all the members of the species occur in this single, small location, the scientists have proposed that the species should be classified as critically endangered - the highest threat level on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a>. Closely monitoring its population will be essential to get more precise estimates of its size and current trends.



“The discovery of a new species that is immediately evaluated as highly threatened illustrates well the current biodiversity predicament. On a positive note, the area of occurrence of the Principe Scops-Owl is fully included within the Príncipe Obô Natural Park, which will hopefully help secure its protection,” the researchers concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1126.87635">ZooKeys</a>. 



Image Credit: Martim Melo



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New owl species discovered in Africa

A team of zoologists led by the University of Porto...

Floods, wildfires, overfishing, and pollution are some of the many disruptions that can change the balance of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ecosystems-moving-north/">ecosystems</a>, often endangering entire species. However, evaluating these ecosystems to assess which species are most at risk, in order to focus conservation efforts and policies where they are most needed, is a highly challenging task.&nbsp;



While previous attempts assumed that ecosystems are essentially in a state of equilibrium, with external perturbations causing only temporary shifts before things eventually return to an equilibrium state, a study led by the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) has now argued that ecosystems are in fact often in flux, with the relative abundances of their different components shifting on timetables of their own. By starting with this more realistic assumption, the experts devised a better, predictive way of evaluating these systems in order to rank the relative vulnerabilities of different species, and to detect which of these species are most at risk.



This study is analogous to Edward Lorenz’s groundbreaking analyses of weather patterns decades ago, in which he argued that tiny perturbations in a complex system could eventually lead to disproportionately large outcomes – famously exemplified by the idea that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one place could ultimately lead to a massive hurricane somewhere else (the so-called “butterfly effect”).&nbsp;



However, while in cases such as weather forecasting, scientists largely understand the underlying physics of the phenomena and can produce equations to describe their dynamics, in the case of complex ecosystems, this is much more difficult. Nevertheless, over the past decade, scientists have managed to develop mathematical techniques that could provide descriptions of complex ecosystems without knowing the underlying equations.



The MIT researchers and their colleagues developed two such approaches – called “expected sensitivity ranking” and “Eigenvalue ranking” – which performed well in tests using large sets of simulated data, producing rankings that closely matched those expected. While traditional attempts to rank the vulnerability of species tended to focus on measures such as body or population size, “these species are embedded in communities, and these communities have nonlinear emergent behavior such that a small change in one place would change completely in a different way some other aspect of the system,” as study senior author Serguei Saavedra (an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT) put it.



“Approaches based on equilibrium dynamics have this static view of species interaction effects,” added study lead author Lucas Medeiros, a former PhD student at MIT. “Under nonequilibrium abundance fluctuations, these interaction effects can change over time, impacting the sensitivity of any given species to perturbations.”&nbsp;



For instance, species that are highly active during summer, but dormant in winter may be strongly affected by summer wildfires or heatwaves, but completely unaffected by various disruptions happening in the winter.



The techniques developed by the researchers are general enough to be applied for any out-of-equilibrium dynamical system, and have even been used to predict fluctuations in financial markets. However, their primary goal remains the assessment of species vulnerabilities, which is crucial in times of marked environmental disruptions such as ours.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14610248">Ecology Letters</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New research will make it easier to rank species vulnerability

Floods, wildfires, overfishing, and pollution are some of the many...

A project that was intended to save Florida panthers may have had unintended consequences, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ucf.edu/">University of Central Florida</a>. The experts have discovered harmful mutations in Florida panthers which originated in pumas that were introduced as part of a genetic rescue program.&nbsp;&nbsp;



By the 1980s, Florida’s panther population had bottomed out at around 30 individuals. Inbreeding within this dangerously small population was causing offspring to be born with genetic defects and diseases.&nbsp;



In the 1990s, experts introduced pumas from Texas to breed with the panthers. Ultimately, the Florida panther population rebounded to between 120 and 230 adults with greater genetic diversity. However, the new study reveals that the new gene pool has both good and bad mutations present.



“There's a genetic signal that harmful mutations from different source populations were introduced into the Florida panther population,” explained study lead author Alexander Ochoa. “Although there’s still no evidence of these mutations emerging at the phenotypic level, we want to monitor the genetic health of the Florida panther because things could also go south pretty quickly, especially if their population remains small."



Ochoa noted that if the fitness of the population begins to decline, wildlife managers should consider future introductions and genetic rescue programs for Florida panthers.



“And if that's the case, with the information we have in hand, we may be able to assess the genetic health of potential source populations, and pinpoint and select individuals that are best suited for these introductions,” said Ochoa. “Ideally, we would want to select individuals that carry smaller amounts of harmful, or deleterious, mutations for introductions.”



The experts were surprised to find that some of the deleterious mutations were contributed by Central American pumas that were introduced to Everglades National Park during the 1950s and 1960s.



Overall, 16 percent of the deleterious mutations present in Florida panthers are of Central American origin and 33 percent are of Texas origin. In addition, four percent of the harmful mutations are of both Central American and Texas origin.



Using full genome sequencing, the researchers determined that the genetic admixture boosted Florida panther fitness by offsetting the expression of existing harmful mutations. However, the panthers have now become carriers of many new harmful mutations.



“I was expecting that the genetic rescue program was in general beneficial to Florida panthers,” said Ochoa. “But at the same time one of the unexpected findings was that a reasonable amount of novel harmful mutations from different source populations were also introduced into the Florida panther population. And we need to monitor these mutations in current Florida panthers because that's something that Florida panthers did not have before.”



According to study co-author Professor Robert Fitak, the Florida panther has been a generally positive conservation success story, and that it now can also serve as a model to inform genetic rescues in other species.



“We know that in the future many more species are going to become endangered, suffer from severe inbreeding, and have to be managed by conservation actions such as genetic rescue,” said Fitak. “Our results will help us understand what the potential negative genetic consequences of these actions will be, or what we need to be prepared for.”



The study is published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jhered">Journal of Heredity</a>.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Florida panthers gained harmful mutations during rescue efforts

A project that was intended to save Florida panthers may...

A team of zoologists from <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/">Trinity College Dublin</a> (TCD) in Ireland and the <a href="https://www.uho.ac.id/">Halo Oleo University</a> in Indonesia has recently found several new species of colorful, tropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-song-of-the-east-african-sunbird-may-be-a-million-years-old/">sunbirds</a>, including the “Wakatobi Sunbird” (Cinnyris infrenatus), which lives only on the tiny Wakatobi Islands in Central Indonesia. Moreover, by examining the more widespread Olive-backed Sunbirds and Black Sunbirds, the scientists found that individuals named as such actually belong to multiple unrecognized species. These findings have important implications for our understanding of evolution in this highly biodiverse region.



Living in the tropics from Africa to Australia, sunbirds resemble the American hummingbirds and fill similar ecological niches. Male sunbirds frequently have bright plumage, with iridescent feathers that shine in the sunlight. For centuries, zoologists have examined sunbirds’ plumage to identify different species, over 140 of which are currently recognized. However, with the help of new forms of evidence, such as DNA, song recordings, and statistical analyses of body measurements, the scientists have now found that this family is even more diverse than previously thought. To discover these new species, the researchers re-traced famous biologist Alfred Russel Wallace’s steps, as he based his theories on his investigations of animals across the islands of present-day Indonesia.



“One of Wallace’s major findings is referred to as ‘Wallace’s Line’ – a boundary between deep and shallow seas that many animals have been unable to cross, leading to marked differences in the species found on either side. The widespread Olive-backed Sunbird appeared to be an exception, being found all the way from China to Australia with Wallace’s Line right in the middle of its range,” said study lead author Fionn Ó Marcaigh, a PhD student in Zoology at TCD.&nbsp;



“The new study, however, has shown that the populations on either side actually represent two different species, in keeping with Wallace’s original predictions. The Black Sunbird was already known to be subject to Wallace’s Line, but the new research has shown that the population around Sulawesi is a separate species from the one in New Guinea.”



While the Olive-backed Sunbird covers quite a wide range for such a small bird, the newly discovered Wakatobi Sunbird is restricted to the tiny Wakatobi Islands off the coast of Sulawesi. Besides being genetically unique, this species also has darker plumage, a higher-pitched song, and shorter wings than the Olive-backed Sunbird. According to the scientists, its short wings have likely contributed to its remaining isolated on these islands.



“The identification of the Wakatobi Sunbird serves to remind us that biodiversity is everywhere. This bird wasn’t found in a remote rainforest, but along the scrubby margins of busy towns and villages. Let us hope the children of the Wakatobi will be able to enjoy these special birds for generations to come,” concluded co-author David Kelly, a behavioral ecologist at TCD.



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac081">Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society</a>.



Image Credit: Nicola Marples and David Kelly, Trinity College Dublin



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New sunbird species discovered in Indonesia

A team of zoologists from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/self-control-finite-resource/">Self-control</a> – the capacity to resist immediate temptation in favor of a better but delayed reward – is a crucial skill that underpins effective decision-making and future planning. This ability has been previously shown to be proportionally linked to intelligence in humans, chimpanzees, and cuttlefish.&nbsp;



Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> has discovered that Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) – a member of the corvid family often nicknamed the “feathered apes” due to their high cognitive abilities – can pass a version of the “marshmallow test” (a test designed to study self-control in children), and those with the greatest self-control also score high on intelligence tests. These findings show that the link between self-control and intelligence appears across distantly related animal species, suggesting it has evolved independently several times.



Among all the corvids, jays in particular are vulnerable to having their catches stolen by other birds. Thus, the capacity for self-control may have evolved to enable them to wait for the right moment to hide their food without being seen or heard by potential thieves.



To test this ability in ten Eurasian jays, the scientists designed an experiment inspired by the 1972 Stanford Marshmallow Test, in which children were offered a choice between one marshmallow immediately, or two if they waited for a sufficient period of time. In this case, the jays were presented with mealworms (their favorite food), cheese, and bread. They had to choose between bread or cheese (available immediately) or mealworm that they could see but could only get access to after a period of delay ranging from five seconds to five and a half minutes.



All the jays managed to wait for the worm, but some seemed to have much more patience than others. For instance, one of them – called by the scientists JayLo – ignored a piece of cheese and waited five and a half minutes for a mealworm, while others could only wait a maximum of 20 seconds.



“It’s just mind-boggling that some jays can wait so long for their favorite food. In multiple trials, I sat there watching JayLo ignore a piece of cheese for over five minutes – I was getting bored, but she was just patiently waiting for the worm,” reported study lead author Alex Schnell, a psychologist at Cambridge.



The scientists also presented the jays with five cognitive tasks which are commonly used to measure general intelligence. The birds that performed better in these tests also managed to wait longer for the mealworm reward, suggesting that self-control is linked to intelligence in jays too.



“The birds’ performance varied across individuals – some did really well in all the tasks and others were mediocre. What was most interesting was that if a bird was good at one of the tasks, it was good at all of them – which suggests that a general intelligence factor underlies their performance,” Schnell concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0348">Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Science</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Jays with greater intelligence have more self-control

Self-control – the capacity to resist immediate temptation in favor...

According to a new study led by <a href="https://www.kingston.ac.uk/">Kingston University London</a>, having a pet could help people who are less resilient better cope with the stresses of everyday life. However, unhealthy attachments to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-device-tracks-location-and-activity-of-pets/">pets</a> - when owners consider their pets to be more important than other people in their lives, for instance – can lead to increased feelings of loneliness.&nbsp;



By using two surveys of over 700 people from the UK and around the world (one conducted during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020 and the other in September 2021), the researchers explored whether having a pet was associated with better mental wellbeing during the pandemic.



The analysis revealed that pets had a largely positive effect on the lives of their owners. Increased exposure to their animals – such as playing with them or taking them out for walks more often – was associated with better mental health. Overall, owners who spent more time with their pets generally reported being happier. However, the scientists also found that unhealthy attachments to pets were frequently linked to poorer mental health.



“It's commonly believed that pets are good for humans. While our research partly supports this, I wanted to understand what role people’s individual characteristics, such as resilience, play in the relationship between pet ownership and positive or negative mental health,” said study lead author Ece Beren Barklam, a PhD student in human-animal interaction at Kingston.



“Where the owner considers their pet to be more important than the people in their lives, the study found they were lonelier, unhappier, and less resilient. They also scored lower when it came to overall mental wellbeing. This type of attachment may reflect an unhealthy bond, where the owner treats their pet as if it has human motives and traits, which could be a kind of anthropomorphism.”



According to study senior author Fatima Maria Felisberti, a neuroscientist at Kingston and Barklam’s supervisor, these findings could improve our understanding of the crucial role that pets play in people’s everyday lives. “We tend to over-simplify our view of why people have pets. Beren’s research highlights the complexities involved in such relationships."



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2022.2101248">Anthrozoös</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

People who struggle with stress benefit from having a pet

According to a new study led by Kingston University London,...

According to a recent study led by <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/">Lancaster University</a>, we should stop thinking of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-struggle-to-adjust-to-high-temperatures/">insects</a> as creepy crawlies and focus instead on the multiple benefits they bring to humans and nature. The widespread and deeply ingrained negative cultural perception of insects is a major factor holding back the public’s appreciation of the critical roles they play in ecosystems. Unfortunately, this perception is also partly reflected in government biodiversity policy inaction worldwide.



Despite three decades of intergovernmental reports highlighting biodiversity targets, global insect biomass, abundance, and diversity continues to decline. “Biodiversity, including insect, declines are often unintended consequences of human activities with human wellbeing nearly always trumping nature conservation, and this is likely to continue until we reach a point where we see flat-lining ecosystems are detrimental to our own species,” said study lead author Phillip Donkersley, an expert in Invertebrate Biology and Conservation Policy at Lancaster.



&nbsp;“Intergovernmental action has been slow to respond, kicking in only when change becomes impossible to ignore. If we are to see political attitudes and actions change, then first societies’ perception of insects needs to be addressed.”



Dr. Donkersley and his colleagues highlight the various benefits that insects bring, including their fundamental role in ecosystems (such as pollinating plants, or being a food source for animals and people in many parts of the world), and their contribution to wellbeing, culture, and innovation (such as the mental health benefits people derive from seeing butterflies in parks and gardens, their inclusion in poetry and literature, or their use in a range of technologies, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals).&nbsp;



In addition, the scientists outlined several strategic priorities in their action plan to help support the conservation of insects, including: proactively and publicly addressing governmental inaction; highlighting the technological developments we owe to insects; aligning with plant, mammal, and bird conservation groups to stress the interdependency of various species and the knock-on benefits insect conservation could have for other species; and engaging pupils and students with the wonders of the insect world to counter ingrained perceptions of insects as threatening creepy crawlies.



“The benefits we gain from the insect world are broad, yet aversion or phobias of invertebrates are common and stand firmly in the path of their conservation,” said Dr Donkersley. “We need to move beyond this mindset and appreciate the huge role they play in ecosystems, food chains, mental health, and even technological innovation.”



“This perception change is a crucial step, alongside other measures we outline in this paper. Immediate and substantial actions are needed to protect insect species in order to maintain global ecosystem stability,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9417">Ecology and Evolution</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Insects play important roles in ecosystems

According to a recent study led by Lancaster University, we...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How does salt makes things taste better?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Satellites have become essential to our survival

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...