Just imagine a world where humans no longer exist, who would take over? Well, it may not be another mammal. Believe it or not, octopuses could be the ones to dominate Earth after humans. 



Scientists have recently made a riveting claim that these eight-limbed, marine invertebrates could become the dominant species on Earth should homo sapiens vanish from existence. It's an intriguing idea, but how is it possible?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hypothetical-world-without-humans">Hypothetical world without humans</h2>



What if humanity were utterly wiped out through wars or climate change? It's a grim concept but it is fascinating to wonder about the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/octopus-arms-inspire-more-human-like-robots/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potential successors</a> of our civilization.



According to leading experts, octopuses possess the "physical and mental attributes necessary" to evolve into the next civilization-building species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-octopus-taking-over-humans">Octopus taking over humans</h2>



Tim Coulson, a professor at the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Oxford</a>, presents an interesting case for these eight-legged creatures. His argument hinges on the octopuses' "dexterity, curiosity, ability to communicate with each other, and supreme intelligence."



These traits, according to Professor Coulson, equip octopuses with the potential to develop complex tools and methodologies necessary to birth a vast Atlantis-like civilization under the ocean.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-not-primates">Why not primates?</h2>



One might think that primates, our closest relatives, have the best shot at stepping into our shoes if we were to vacate the world. They have opposable thumbs, use tools, and walk on two legs, right? But according to Professor Coulson, it's not that simple. 



He reasons that primates would face the same threats that could potentially wipe out humanity and thus are also at risk of extinction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-octopuses-competing-with-humans">Octopuses competing with humans</h2>



In an interview with The European magazine, Professor Coulson, who has held positions at institutions like <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Imperial College London</a> and <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cambridge University</a>, elaborates on why octopuses are a strong contender.



He refers to them as "the most intelligent, adaptable, and resourceful creatures on Earth," lauding their abilities to solve complex problems, manipulate objects, and even camouflage themselves with near-perfect precision.



Their decentralized nervous system and advanced neural structure, coupled with their exceptional problem-solving skills, make octopuses uniquely suited for an unpredictable world. 



Professor Coulson sees these intelligent cephalopods as an underappreciated contender who could step up as the planet's next intelligent species after humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-adaptable-survivalists">Adaptable survivalists</h2>



If humans were to go extinct, most scientists concur that the creature to "replace" us should be dextrous. Dexterity, in this context, pertains to the ability to modify their environment and colonize the planet using complex tools, much like humans.



Octopuses' abilities to distinguish between real and virtual objects, solve puzzles, manipulate their surroundings, and adapt to a broad range of environments make them a viable candidate for future rulers of Earth. 



They are also adept at surviving in harsh conditions and are formidable hunters with a wide variety of prey including clams, shrimp, lobsters, fish, sharks, and even birds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-octopuses-and-human-like-settlements">Octopuses and human-like settlements</h2>



With relatively short lifespans, from between 1.5 to five years, one could argue that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-octopus-has-mastered-the-art-of-multispecies-hunting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">octopuses</a> are on the back foot for the long evolutionary race. But here's a counterintuitive thought. 



What if their hasty reproduction and quick intellectual maturity actually give them an advantage in rapidly changing environments, thereby accelerating their evolutionary progress?



According to our Professor Coulson, while octopuses are unlikely to evolve into land-based animals due to their lack of a skeleton and associated challenges with mobility out of water, they could potentially develop underwater cities and towns akin to human settlements on land.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-possible-yes-probable-maybe">Possible? Yes. Probable? Maybe.</h2>



In the end, as Professor Coulson reminds us, these are all just speculations. "It's important to remember that these are just possibilities, and that it's impossible to predict with any degree of certainty how evolution will unfold over extended periods."



However, given the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/octopus-suckers-the-future-of-underwater-adhesives/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">octopuses</a>' remarkable intelligence, adaptability, and diverse range of survival strategies, they could indeed emerge as a potential successor to humanity.



Now, whether the octopuses would build vast underwater cities or venture onto land to hunt terrestrial mammals is yet to be determined, and we may never really know.



For now, we will continue to marvel at these fascinating creatures and their potential for becoming the torchbearers of intelligent life on Earth, albeit in the far-flung future.



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Octopuses could dominate Earth if humans vanish

Just imagine a world where humans no longer exist, who would take over? Well, it may not be another mammal. Believe it or not, octopuses could be the ones to dominate Earth after humans. Scientists have recently made a riveting claim that these eight-limbed, marine invertebrates could become the dominant species on Earth should homo sapiens vanish from existence. It's an intriguing idea, but how is it possible? Hypothetical world without humans What if humanity were utterly wiped out through wars or climate change? It's a grim...

How many pollinators are needed to pollinate all the species in a given community of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-activate-immune-defenses-against-pathogens-in-rain/">plants</a>? This question is the focus of a study by a team of researchers including <a href="https://www.umd.edu/">University of Maryland</a> entomologist Michael Roswell.&nbsp;



Previous research on pollinator bees has over-emphasized the contribution of the most common bees, especially since only two percent of bee species provide 80 percent of pollination. The new study helped to demonstrate that less common bees are much more important for ecosystem health than previously documented.



The answer: Many bees are needed to pollinate a meadow of flowers - far more than just the honeybees and bumblebees that most people are familiar with.



The research shows that when there are more plant species, more bee species are needed for pollination. It was found that less common bees visited specific plants that other bees didn’t.&nbsp;



“Our work shows that things that are rare in general, like infrequent visitors to a meadow, can still serve really important functions, like pollinating plants no one else pollinates,” said Roswell.&nbsp; “And that’s a really good argument for why biodiversity matters.”



The researchers surveyed 10 plots that included wild meadows over one year. They observed bees from over 180 species making nearly 22,000 visits to over 130 different plant species. These visits were used to estimate the pollination services each type of bee provided to each plant. This is because a plant’s most frequent visitors are typically its most important pollinators.



The findings showed that an entire meadow community relied on 2 ½ to 7 ½ times more bee species for pollination than a single typical plant species does. The study also found that locally rare species accounted for up to 25 percent of pollinator species. This was greatest in meadows with the most plant diversity. When these findings are applied to an entire ecosystem, the number of locally rare species important for pollination is even greater.



“We were looking at meadows that might be a few acres in size,” said Roswell, “but a typical bee flies over a couple of square miles, which is a really large and complicated landscape filled with lots of different kinds of plants that flower at different times and are visited by different insects. At that scale, even more diversity of pollinators is likely to be important.”



The research sheds new light on the role of rare species in ecosystems that must be protected. Rare species are most at risk of extinction from habitat loss, pollution, climate change and other factors.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb">Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

It takes all kinds: the underestimated role of rare pollinators

How many pollinators are needed to pollinate all the species...

Most research studies that investigate the potential effects of climate change on animal and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/meat-industry-is-not-threatened-by-plant-based-alternatives/">plant</a> species do this by considering one species at a time. The ecological needs of a species, and how these will be met as the climate changes, give important information about what we might expect in terms of biodiversity in the future. Few studies, however, consider how food web interactions will affect the pace of change.



A new study, published today in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>, investigated how trophic relationships (the feeding of one species on another) will be affected by the poleward shift in distribution of marine species. As the ocean warms, species are expected to move in search of more suitable conditions, and this will affect not only their distributions, but also the dynamics of entire food webs. This will be particularly important for large species and commercially important fisheries on which people depend for food and a livelihood.&nbsp;



Using sophisticated computer models, the researchers determined that predator-prey interactions cause many marine species, especially large predators,&nbsp;to shift their ranges more slowly than the climate changes would suggest. They developed a “spatially explicit food-web model” that included parameters such as metabolism, body size and optimal temperature ranges for species, and this model revealed that dynamic trophic interactions limit a species’ ability to react quickly to warming temperatures.&nbsp;



For example, larger-bodied top predators stay longer than smaller prey in their tried and trusted habitats, partly because new sources of prey arrive in the predators’ historical ranges and this leads to the establishment of new food webs. One of the results of climate change in the ocean will therefore be a mixing and reshuffling of marine biodiversity.&nbsp;



“The model suggests that over the next 200 years of warming, species are going to continually reshuffle and be in the process of shifting their ranges,” said lead author&nbsp;<a href="https://ewtekwa.weebly.com/">E. W. Tekwa</a>, a former Rutgers postdoctoral student who is now at the University of British Columbia. “Even after 200 years, marine species will still be lagging behind temperature shifts, and this is particularly true for those at the top of the food web.”



This scenario has implications for commercial fishermen and fisheries all over the world. The researchers suggest that, while commercially harvested fish species will probably still occur in their usual ranges to some extent, their density is likely to be significantly reduced as many individuals will have moved to different regions.&nbsp;



Not only will large species and commercially important fisheries shift out of their historical ranges as climate warms, but they will likely not be as abundant even in their new geographic ranges. For instance, a cod fisherman in the Atlantic might still find fish 200 years from now but in significantly lower numbers.



“What that suggests from a fisheries perspective is that while the species we fish today will be there tomorrow, they will not be there in the same abundance. In such a context, overfishing becomes easier because the population growth rates are low,” said study co-author&nbsp;<a href="https://pinsky.marine.rutgers.edu/people/malin-pinsky/">Malin Pinsky</a>, an associate professor in Rutgers’ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources. “Warming, coupled with food-web dynamics, will be like putting marine biodiversity in a blender.”



The changes in trophic relationships and food webs in marine systems will lead to different communities of animals and plants interacting with each other. The model predicts that, as temperatures warm, predator-prey interactions will prevent species from following environmental conditions that would be most suitable to them because they will be hanging back “at home,” attempting to feed on the newly arriving prey species instead of following their traditional prey as they become established in new and more suitable geographical locations.&nbsp;



“These dynamics will not only be in one place but globally,” Pinsky said. “That does not bode well for marine life, and this is not an effect that has been widely recognized.”



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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

Climate change restructures marine food webs in unexpected ways

Most research studies that investigate the potential effects of climate...

Archerfish – a small group of fishes that live in Southeast Asia, Australia, and many regions in between - are famous for their amazing ability to shoot down land-based <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/invasive-insects-will-kill-more-than-a-million-street-trees-by-2050/">insects</a> with highly accurate streams of water that they project from their mouths. Until recently though, not much has been known about these peculiar aquatic creatures.&nbsp;



Questions regarding the number of archerfish species, how they are related to one another, and what is their evolutionary history have remained shrouded in mystery. However, a recent study led by the <a href="https://biodiversity.ku.edu/">University of Kansas (KU) Biodiversity Institute &amp; Natural History Museum</a> has now provided the most thorough examination of the evolutionary history and anatomical variation of archerfishes.



“There are other fish that eat insects and some that will jump out of water, but I would say there’s nothing really like this,” said study co-author Dr. Leo Smith, an evolutionary biologist and associate curator at KU’s Biodiversity Institute &amp; Natural History Museum. “There’s a potentially apocryphal story, which is that back in the mid-1800s in India, archerfishes would shoot out the colonizers’ cigarettes, just like if there was like a lightning bug. They would shoot them out and drive people crazy.”



In order to understand how this amazing behavior evolved, the researchers collected tissue samples and specimens of archerfish from various institutions and museums around the world, and analyzed their structures and genetic features. Their analyses revealed that, although the oral structures of archerfishes support a blowpipe mechanism that is common in many fish species, several unique soft-tissue oral structures may also play a fundamental role in shooting, distinguishing them from related types of fishes.



“Just because other fish can move water, it’s not anything like this,” Dr. Smith explained. “I equate it to, 'I could put a trumpet in my mouth, and I suppose I could make noise come out of it, but not like Miles Davis.' It’s like a fundamentally different thing, too, a really remarkable specialization for catching insects.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



According to Dr. Smith and his colleagues, archerfishes have a closely related “sister group” of fishes – the beach salmon – which have similar oral structures used to shoot water towards prey, suggesting that this capacity could be what evolutionary biologists call a co-opted or exapted trait.



“We think of adaptations like, for example, a sailfish that has this really beautiful sail on their dorsal fin - but a lot of fishes have dorsal fins and what they’ve done is kind of modify that dorsal fin to fit some other need,” said study lead author Matthew Girard, a postdoctoral fellow at the <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/">National Museum of Natural History</a>.



“If we look at the group that’s most closely related to archerfish, it’s already eating hard-body things. So, archerfish must have had all the structures that would allow that to happen, and all they had to do was kind of modify those to be able to shoot. So that’s what that co-option is - it’s really a nuance saying that the necessary parts were already there and all they did was modify a few things to allow this to happen.”



An in-depth description of archerfish and their evolutionary history is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/iob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/iob/obac013/6551314?login=false">Integrative Organismal 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

How did the fascinating behavior of archerfish evolve?

Archerfish – a small group of fishes that live in...

Oceans serve as a carbon sink by absorbing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/methane-emissions-hit-a-new-record-in-2021/">emissions</a> from the atmosphere. A potential ripple effect in atmospheric emissions could lead to severe impacts throughout the ocean ecosystem. For example, absorbing carbon causes ocean water to become more acidic, and leads to a process called ocean acidification.



A new, experimental study has found that an important forage fish called sand lance is very sensitive to ocean acidification and this could lead to widespread ecosystem impacts by 2100.&nbsp;



Sand lance spawn in offshore environments that tend to have stable, low levels of CO2 during the winter, explains lead author Hannes Baumann.



The study took an interdisciplinary approach by combining model forecasts and frequent experimentation. This approach found that sand lance embryos are very sensitive to increased CO2 levels and fewer embryos hatched under future oceanic CO2 conditions. As a result, the research team agrees that the sand lace are one of the most CO2-sensitive fish species.



“Because our findings are backed up by repeated independent evidence, they are more robust than many published ocean acidification studies to date.” Bauman says.&nbsp;



A second negative response was discovered - higher CO2 levels appear to make it harder for sand lace embryos to hatch. This is because lowered pH in the ocean water reduces enzymes that are needed for successful hatching, leaving the embryos unable to break through their eggshell to hatch.



The results show that by 2100, ocean acidification will reduce sand lace hatching success to 71 percent of today’s levels. These fish are a critical component of the food web; a reduced number of sand lace would have profound impacts throughout the ecosystem.



“Sand lances are surely one of the most important forage fish here on the Northwest Atlantic shelf,” said Baumann. “Their range spans from the Mid Atlantic Bight all the way to Greenland."&nbsp;



"Where we studied them, on Stellwagen Bank, they are called the backbone of the ecosystem. The humpback whales, sharks, tuna, cod, shearwaters, terns - you name it - they are all relying on sand lance, and if sand lance productivity goes down, we will see ripple effects to all these higher trophic animals. Even though we humans don’t fish for sand lance, we need to take care of the species because it has such a huge effect on everything else.”



As a result of ocean acidification, sand lace and food webs will likely be impacted very soon, and the researchers stress that we must act now.



“We need strategic thinking about what species we are testing next, because we cannot test every marine fish species, that’s an impossible task," said Baumann.



"We should concentrate on fish species that are likely the most vulnerable, and therefore the ones that are probably being affected first and this research makes a compelling argument that those are the fish species at higher latitudes and in more offshore than nearshore environments.”



The team’s findings are published in the journal <a href="https://www.int-res.com/prepress/m14010.html">Marine Ecology Progress Series</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ocean acidification reduces the hatching success of a keystone fish species

Oceans serve as a carbon sink by absorbing emissions from...

As plastics enter the environment, they often break down through natural processes into microplastics, which are particles less than 5 millimeters in length. These microplastics end up in rivers, lakes and the ocean. There is growing concern about the impact of microplastics on the environment as well as wildlife and human health, yet little is still known about the effect of these plastic particles on fish.



Recent research, carried out in Professor Dong-Fang Deng’s lab at the <a href="https://uwm.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee</a>, looked at the impact of microplastics on farm raised yellow perch.&nbsp;



The fish were given food contaminated with high density polyethylene (HDPE). The scientists found that although the perch could expel the microplastics, it came at the cost of lower nutritional value in the fish as well as changed liver function, and different microbiomes in their gut.&nbsp;



Yellow perch were used in this study because of their popularity as a food item. This is especially true as they are becoming increasingly raised in farms as wild caught fish become less common in the Great Lakes region, where the study was carried out.&nbsp;



“What we found is that the yellow perch not only survived the nine-week exposure, they also expelled all the microplastics from their bodies," said Professor Deng. "However, the nutritional quality of the fish was reduced – we saw lower body protein and mineral (ash) levels than in fish fed the control diet with no HDPE added."&nbsp;



"We also discovered that exposure to HDPE altered their liver function – they had a heavier liver enriched with glycogen (sugar) and bile acids, but lower lipid (fat) levels and enlarged hepatocytes, the cells involved in metabolism, detoxification and nutrient synthesis.&nbsp; We also saw some disturbance in the gut structure and microbiota community associated with immunity, nutrient digestion and absorption.”



The researchers emphasized that these results were from one particular type and size of microplastic, while various sizes, shapes and types of plastics could yield different results.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/animal-nutrition">Animal Nutrition</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Yellow perch can eject microplastics, but it comes at a cost

As plastics enter the environment, they often break down through...

Many bird species bypass raising their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-zebra-finches-choose-mates-based-on-their-dialects/">chicks</a> by laying their eggs in another species' nest. This practice is known as brood parasitism. As you can imagine, this can be advantageous in that the parents don't have to expend energy raising their own chicks. But this method does not come without challenges.&nbsp;



For example, hosts will toss an egg if they think it's a parasite. So, how do the birds ensure that the eggs they deposit on other nests match closely enough the hosts' eggs?&nbsp;



Considering that different hosts raise birds, how can the parasites ensure their children will also be able to forge appropriately convincing eggs when it's time for them to reproduce?



Now, a genetic study directed by Dr. Claire Spottiswoode from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> and Professor Michael Sorenson at Boston University gives us some new insight into this amazing ability.



The team looked at cuckoo finches, a type of African bird that practices brood parasitism, and found that female cuckoos are able to mimic hosts' eggs thanks to a female-specific W chromosome.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The chromosome prevents the cuckoo finches from inheriting the incorrect mimicry genes from a father raised by a different host. This process means that female cuckoo finches have evolved egg mimicry for many different hosts.&nbsp;



Still, this method may not stand the test of time. "In this particular coevolutionary arms race between species, natural selection has created a double-edged sword," explained Dr. Spottiswoode.



"While maternal inheritance has allowed cuckoo finches to exploit multiple host species, it's likely to slow their ability to evolve counter-adaptations as their hosts evolve new defences. In particular, parasites face a daunting challenge because some host species have in return evolved an astonishing diversity of egg colour and pattern 'signatures', that help hosts to distinguish their own eggs from parasitic mimics."



In a previous study, Dr. Spottiswoode found that tawny-flanked prinia, a popular host species, have been laying olive-green eggs. They attribute this to both male and female genes contributing to the appearance. However, since cuckoo egg appearance is controlled solely by the mother's genetic material, they may not be able to evolve quickly enough to keep up with the egg race.&nbsp;



"We may see the emergence of unforgeable egg signatures which could force cuckoo finches to switch to other naïve host species," said Dr. Spottiswoode. "Or the parasitic birds might become increasingly dependent on young host individuals that haven't yet learned their own signatures and are bad at spotting mismatched eggs."



According to the study, maternal control of egg appearance has not always been the case. Maternally inherited egg appearance evolved at least two million years due to previous selection pressures. So, perhaps we will live to see the cuckoos adopt a new strategy for success.&nbsp;



This study is published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists solve the egg forging mystery

Many bird species bypass raising their chicks by laying their...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> and <a href="https://www.mq.edu.au/">Macquarie University</a> in Australia has found that sharks’ response to the smell of food declined if not sufficiently rewarded by the promise of eating. These findings suggest that sharks can learn to avoid wasting time and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dolphins-burn-energy-during-speedy-swims-for-survival/">energy</a> on food sources that are inaccessible. Since wildlife tourism often uses food or smell to attract sharks to the proximity of visitors, understanding sharks’ habituation to food-related olfactory cues is necessary to help this type of tourism run smoothly.



The scientists used three groups of captive Port Jackson sharks to study their response to smell across different reward frequencies. While the first group was rewarded with food each time they reached a target and the second one was rewarded every other day, the third one was never rewarded.&nbsp;



The sharks that were always rewarded learned quickly the task and became faster and better at reaching the target. In the case of the un-rewarded sharks though, the scientists observed a reduction of their natural response to the smell of potential food, with some sharks not even leaving their starting position after a few trials.



“Our study revealed that while shark behavior can change when frequently rewarded with food, the learnt response diminishes when reward frequency is decreased and even disappears when no reward is provided,” said study lead author Dennis Heinrich, a recent PhD graduate from Flinders University.



“The observed decline in response to a repeated stimulus, or habituation, may act as a driver of optimal foraging strategies, enabling sharks to quickly abandon low-yielding foraging patches in search of more productive sites.”



In future research, the scientists want to test these findings with species that are more commonly targeted by wildlife tourism, such as white sharks, and investigate whether habituation can be detected at tourist locations.



“The knowledge gained from this study can help account for learnt behaviors and habituation when managing wildlife tourism moving forward,” said study senior author Charlie Huvenaars, a marine biologist at Flinders University. “A balance needs to be found between attracting sharks for tourism purposes and minimizing behavioral response and possible learnt behaviors.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000334722200063X?via%3Dihub">Animal Behavior</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

Sharks learn to stop wasting time on prey they can't catch

A new study led by Flinders University and Macquarie University...

With the transition to green energy becoming ever more pressing, countries are looking to expand their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/green-energy-create-jobs-coal/">renewable energy</a> infrastructure in order to meet future energy requirements. In Europe and northern Africa, this means the establishment of many more onshore wind turbines and electrical power cables to connect them to the grid. Such developments are essential in order to prevent runaway climate change, but may prove disastrous for populations of birds that risk collisions with this infrastructure.



New research led by the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a> (UEA) has used GPS location data from 65 bird tracking studies in order to identify the locations where birds fly more often at danger height and would therefore be at increased risk of colliding with wind turbines and power lines. They also assessed the locations of planned green energy infrastructure developments and identified potential collision hotspots where birds may be at increased risk of destruction.



The results, published today in the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652664">Journal of Applied Ecology</a>, show that areas where birds are most vulnerable to collisions are particularly concentrated within important migration routes, along coastlines and near breeding locations. There was a high movement of individuals through the bottlenecks of the European-African Flyway, such as southern Iberia, as well as Sinai, the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Bosporus in Turkey. In addition, movement hotspots included the western Mediterranean coast of France and the Moroccan coast – around the Strait of Gibraltar – eastern Romania, and the Baltic coast of Germany.



The GPS location and altitude data that the researchers used related to 1,454 birds from 27 different species. &nbsp;Dangerous heights for flying were considered to be 10–60 meters above ground for collision with power lines and 15-135 meters for wind turbines. The data showed that the risk of collision varied between species, with the large, soaring birds being most vulnerable. Species such as the Eurasian spoonbill, European eagle owl, whooper swan, Iberian imperial eagle and white stork were among those that fly consistently at heights where they risk collision.



The authors produced vulnerability maps identifying probable collision hotspots where birds would be more sensitive to onshore wind turbine or power line development. They say that the development of new wind turbines and transmission power lines should be minimized in these areas, and that if new energy infrastructure is developed there, it will need to take into account mitigation factors to reduce the risks to birds.



“We know from previous research that there are many more suitable locations to build wind turbines than we need in order to meet our clean energy targets up to 2050,” said Jethro Gauld, lead author and PhD researcher in UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences.



“If we can do a better job of assessing risks to biodiversity, such as collision risk for birds, into the planning process at an early stage we can help limit the impact of these developments on wildlife while still achieving our climate targets.”



“Our results will help achieve this and in doing so provide better outcomes for people and wildlife.”



Dr Aldina Franco, the project supervisor at UEA,&nbsp;said: “This collaborative study, including research from 51 researchers and 15 countries, is a great example of where working together can start to answer some of the big questions around the threats that African-Eurasian migrants face on their long annual journeys.”



According to Phil Atkinson, project supervisor&nbsp;from the British Trust for Ornithology, the use of high precision GPS devices allow experts to study birds’ movements in huge detail. "Birds do not respect country boundaries, and power lines and wind turbines impact migratory birds across their annual cycle, especially for large soaring birds such as raptors and storks.”



In the second phase of their study, the researchers overlaid their vulnerability maps derived from bird behavioral data on the locations of existing energy infrastructure to identify areas where birds are most exposed to current collision risks with wind turbines and power lines.&nbsp;



“Our maps can also help target measures to reduce risks where previously built developments are already causing problems," said Gauld. "They highlight the areas where existing energy infrastructure is already providing a source of collision risk for these birds. It is therefore a key conservation priority for additional measures to reduce collision risk are implemented in these vulnerability hotspots.”



“Such measures can include marking power lines to make them more visible, and implementing systems to allow shutdown of wind turbines during periods of high bird traffic."



The transition to zero carbon energy will necessitate the construction of many new windfarms in the near future. For example, European onshore wind energy capacity is projected to grow nearly fourfold by 2050, and countries in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Morocco and Tunisia, also have their targets to increase the share of electricity supply from onshore wind. In addition to this, there will be a huge investment in new high voltage power lines, with an estimated fivefold increase in transmission capacity required between 2010 and 2050.&nbsp;



Although these developments are essential, they will pose a challenge to wildlife, particularly birds and bats that fly at danger heights and are at risk of collision and electrocution. The researchers hope the study provides a method which other researchers and practitioners involved in environmental impact assessments for renewables can replicate as more data from tracking studies becomes available.



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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

Birds threatened by collisions with green energy infrastructure

With the transition to green energy becoming ever more pressing,...

Climate variability may not have served as one of the biggest drivers of human and mammal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/jellyfish-eyes-catch-a-glimpse-of-evolutionary-history/">evolution</a>, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a>.&nbsp;



The researchers compared environmental data and fossil records of large mammals that lived across Africa during the last four million years. The results contradict the long-standing theory that climate shifts repeatedly prompted evolutionary changes in early humans and other mammals.&nbsp;



The Plio-Pleistocene is a period in Earth's history that spans the last five million years, including the last ice age about 20,000 years ago.&nbsp;



Over this time period, the researchers observed a long-term trend of increasing environmental variability across Africa. However, this variation did not strongly correspond with rates of species origination or extinction, indicating that environmental variability and species turnover are not closely related.&nbsp;



According to study first author Professor Andrew Cohen, the idea that long-term trends toward a wetter or drier climate may have been a driver of human evolution goes back to the time of Charles Darwin. In the late 1990s, a new theory was introduced - the influential variability selection hypothesis.



"The idea here is that it's not just the direction of climate change that was important as a driver for evolutionary novelty in the hominin lineage, but the variability in the environmental and climate conditions," explained Professor Cohen. "As our ancestors faced rapidly shifting conditions, this hypothesis suggests they had to be more resourceful and capable of dealing with many different contingencies, which, in turn, led to new species appearing while others went extinct."



While the study authors acknowledge that the variability selection hypothesis could still be correct but operating at different scales, they hope to encourage the scientific community to think about the variability selection hypothesis in a more critical way - "rather than just accepting it as an underlying principle of how we look at the fossil record in Africa, and especially the human fossil record," said Professor Cohen.



"We don't say that environmental variability is not important for human evolution, but the data we have currently compiled is very inconsistent with that idea."



"If environmental variability was as important as it has been made out to be, we would expect to see that long-term trend of increasing variability mirrored in evolutionary turnover in all kinds of species, including hominins, but we just don't see that."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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

Climate variability may not be strongly linked to human evolution

Climate variability may not have served as one of the...

Interoception refers to the ability of sensing the internal state of one’s body, such as observing when the heart starts racing or breathing quickens. Since impaired interoceptive awareness is linked to decreased capacity to regulate emotions and increased susceptibility to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, or even to neurodegenerative diseases like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-build-a-supermolecule-that-may-treat-alzheimers/">Alzheimer’s</a>, understanding its ontogenetic and phylogenetic origins is crucial for future psychologic and neuropsychiatric research.&nbsp;



Now, a study led by the <a href="https://cnprc.ucdavis.edu/">California National Primate Research Center</a> at the University of California, Davis has found the first clear evidence of interoception in the animal kingdom: rhesus monkeys seem to be able to perceive and monitor their own heartbeats.



“Interoception is hugely important for emotion regulation and mental health in adults, and yet we know very little about how it develops in early infancy or comes to be across evolutionary time,” said study co-author Manos Tsakiris, a professor of Psychology at the <a href="https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/">Royal Holloway, University of London</a>. “The work we present here represents a first successful attempt to fill these gaps.”&nbsp;



Professor Tsakiris and his colleagues monitored four rhesus monkeys which were placed in front of an infrared eye tracker that bounced and generated a sound either synchronous or asynchronous with the monkeys’ heartbeats. All the monkeys spent more time observing the stimuli presented out of rhythm with their heartbeat, suggesting that they were conscious of their own heartbeats and were thus surprised by the out-of-sync stimuli. These results match those from similar experiments performed on human infants, and provide the first behavioral evidence that rhesus monkeys have a well-developed interoceptive sense.



“This model will be used in future translational studies of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s,” said study lead author Eliza Bliss-Moreau, an associate professor of Psychology at UC Davis. “If we can measure interoception, we can track it as a behavioral biomarker of disease progression.”&nbsp;



Further research is needed to study the mechanisms of interoception in other animals and clarify the extent to which disruption in animals’ ability to sense their internal states could also be linked to neurological and psychiatric disorders.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119868119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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

Rhesus monkeys can sense their own heartbeat

Interoception refers to the ability of sensing the internal state...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> has found that children differ dramatically from adults in their moral views on animals. Unlike adults, children claim that farm animals should be treated the same as people and pets, and consider eating meat as less morally acceptable than adults do. These findings suggest that humans are not born with the mental processes used to justify eating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eating-less-meat-may-lower-the-risk-of-cancer/">meat</a>, and that “speciesism” – a moral hierarchy which gives different value to different types of animals – develops only during adolescence.&nbsp;



“Humans’ relationship with animals is full of ethical double standards,” said study lead author Luke McGuire, a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Exeter. “Some animals are beloved household companions, while others are kept in factory farms for economic benefit. Judgements seem to largely depend on the species of the animal in question: dogs are our friends, pigs are food.”



In order to map the developmental timeframe of such views, Dr. McGuire and his team surveyed 479 people living in England, from three age groups: 9-11, 18-21, and 29-59. They found that the two adult groups had relatively similar views, suggesting that attitudes to animals generally change between the ages of 11 and 18.



“Something seems to happen in adolescence, where that early love for animals becomes more complicated and we develop more speciesism,” said Dr. McGuire. “It's important to note that even adults in our study thought eating meat was less morally acceptable than eating animal products like milk. So aversion to animals – including farm animals – being harmed does not disappear entirely.”



The survey also revealed that, as they age, people are more likely to classify farm animals as “food” rather than “pets,” while children where equally likely to consider animals such as pigs as falling into either of these categories.



According to the scientists, although adjusting attitudes is a natural part of growing up, the moral intelligence of children is also valuable. “If we want people to move towards more plant-based diets for environmental reasons, we have to disrupt the current system somewhere. For example, if children ate more plant-based food in schools, that might be more in line with their moral values, and might reduce the ‘normalization’ towards adult values that we identify in this study,” concluded Dr. McGuire.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/19485506221086182">Social Psychological and Personality Science</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&nbsp;

Children are less likely to see farm animals as just “food”

A new study led by the University of Exeter has...

California’s Hotel del Coronado in San Diego County bills itself as being environmentally friendly. The non-profit organization <a href="https://www.idausa.org/">In Defense of Animals</a> says that isn’t so. Calling the hotel’s branding as “eco-friendly” greenwashing, the organization points out that the hotel traps and kills native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/private-protected-areas-could-help-save-threatened-wildlife/">wildlife</a>.&nbsp;



The hotel was first Green Seal certified in 2011 and Silver Level Green Seal certified in 2016 due to climate change, waste and natural resource stewardship standards. The hotel, however, is trapping and killing wildlife including beneficial skunks and opossums. Through In Defense of Animals, over 12,800 people wrote to the hotel to protest its treatment of wildlife.&nbsp;



“It’s heartbreaking that Hotel del Coronado is choosing to trap and kill wild animals when there are so many alternatives readily available, and even more troubling that this legendary beachfront hotel has been greenwashing its operations,” said Lisa Levinson of In Defense of Animals. “We hope public pressure encourages Hotel del Coronado to implement nonlethal alternatives and hotel management to accept our expert help to become true environmental stewards who coexist peacefully with native wild animals.”



In addition to In Defense of Animals, California-based attorney Alan Kang also attempted to get the hotel to change its ways, sending them a letter which received no reply.&nbsp;



“We strongly encourage the Hotel Del Coronado to take advantage of the numerous educational resources offered by In Defense of Animals, which ultimately lead to a win-win situation for the hotel, the environment, and our native wildlife," said Kang.



Despite this action, the hotel seems to have made no effort to change its methods of wildlife control and In Defense of Animals is preparing to protest the hotel in person.&nbsp;



“Hotel del Coronado doesn’t deserve the Silver Level Green Seal Certification it received in 2016, and won’t until it adopts non-lethal alternatives and chooses compassion over killing,” said Lisa Levinson, Campaigns Director at In Defense of Animals. “Join us and San Diego animal activists to protest the hotel’s cruel policy of trapping and killing wild animals and of greenwashing animal suffering.”



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

California “eco hotel” is trapping and killing native wildlife

California’s Hotel del Coronado in San Diego County bills itself...

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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

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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

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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?

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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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

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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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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...