As global warming continues to rise, desert lizards are experiencing an energy crisis. These reptiles rely on external temperatures to regulate their body functions, including how much energy they need and when they can forage for food. 



A recent study published in the journal Science&nbsp;reveals that climate change is severely disrupting this balance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-warming-deserts-put-lizards-at-risk">Warming deserts put lizards at risk</h2>



Cold-blooded animals, like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-lizard-day-2024-celebrating-our-scaly-companions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lizards</a>, rely on external temperatures to regulate their body heat. Their body temperature directly affects how much energy they need and when they can be active. 



In hot desert environments, food is already scarce, and extreme heat can make it too dangerous for lizards to go out and forage.



Climate change is making this problem worse. As temperatures rise, lizards need more energy just to survive because their metabolism speeds up. 



However, they also have less time to find food because the heat forces them to stay in shaded or underground areas for longer periods. This creates a difficult situation where their food needs increase, but the lizards' ability to meet those needs decreases, putting their survival at risk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-energy-budget-squeeze">Energy budget squeeze</h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“Cost-of-living is a concept humans are all too aware of, but the same concept applies to ectotherms - or cold-blooded animals - such as lizards," noted study lead author Dr. Kristoffer Wild from the <a href="https://www.unimelb.edu.au" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Melbourne</a>.



"We just need to switch the currency from money to energy and realize that for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sandy-soil-reptiles-face-extinction-threat-due-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lizards</a> these costs and their ability to meet them depend on temperature." 
</blockquote>



The researchers found that diurnal (day-active) lizards are especially vulnerable to rising global warming. These lizards depend on daylight hours to hunt for food and sustain their energy levels.



However, as temperatures increase, extreme heat makes it unsafe for the lizards to remain active for long periods. To avoid overheating, they are forced to retreat into shaded areas, burrows, or underground shelters.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-desert-lizards-struggle-to-meet-their-needs">Desert lizards struggle to meet their needs</h2>



The reduction in active hours significantly limits their ability to search for and consume food. Since desert lizards require a certain amount of energy to survive, the loss of foraging time creates a major challenge. 



They must find enough food in a shorter window while their energy demands continue to rise due to higher body temperatures.



As a result, diurnal lizards are struggling more than ever in desert environments that are becoming even hotter. With less time to find food and increasing energy needs, their survival is at risk. 



If temperatures continue to rise, these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/anoles-are-the-scuba-diving-champions-of-the-lizard-world/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lizards</a> may face population declines as they fail to meet their basic nutritional requirements.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-lizards-may-benefit-from-warming">Some lizards may benefit from warming</h2>



In contrast, nocturnal (night-active) lizards may actually benefit from warmer temperatures. Since they are active after sunset, higher nighttime temperatures could extend their hunting periods, giving them more opportunities to find food. 



This could help them compensate for the increased energy demands caused by climate change, putting them in a better position to adapt compared to their diurnal counterparts.



Dr. Wild likens this imbalance to a financial crisis. “It’s like diurnal lizards paying higher bills with fewer work hours, while nocturnal lizards can counter high bills by gaining extra work hours during the warmer nights.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-predicting-climate-impacts-on-desert-lizards">Predicting climate impacts on desert lizards</h2>



To measure these impacts, the researchers developed a model combining physics and biology.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“We were able to reconstruct, within two or three degrees, what a field biologist observed in the middle of the Australian and African deserts more than 50 years ago. This gives us confidence to predict the direct effects of climate warming on these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-lizards-have-evolved-to-resist-deadly-snake-venom/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals</a> in the future,” explained co-author Professor Michael Kearney.
</blockquote>



The findings suggest that desert lizards in historically warmer regions will face greater challenges. Africa’s desert lizards, for instance, will need more food but have less time to find it compared to their Australian counterparts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conservation-and-future-research">Conservation and future research</h2>



The researchers emphasize that conservation strategies must be customized based on each species' unique foraging habits. Climate change does not affect all animals in the same way - some species will struggle more than others.



This means that a one-size-fits-all approach to conservation is not effective. Instead, targeted efforts are needed to address the specific challenges faced by different lizard species.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“If we can better understand the ecological processes underpinning these cost-of-living pressures, we can better anticipate the species most at risk and act accordingly,” said Professor Kearney.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-survival-of-desert-lizards-in-a-warming-climate">Survival of desert lizards in a warming climate </h2>
</blockquote>



However, rising temperatures are not the only threat. Other climate-related issues, such as food shortages and increasing water needs, add to the stress on desert reptiles. 



These challenges become even more severe in the warmer months - spring and summer - which are also the critical breeding seasons for many species.



If lizards cannot find enough food and water during this time, their ability to reproduce and maintain stable populations will be threatened. Addressing these combined pressures is essential for ensuring the survival of desert lizard species in a rapidly changing climate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-directions">Future research directions</h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“Our next steps will be to bring food and water resources into our calculations and translate the results into growth and reproduction, which will help us predict whether populations will survive further change under warming,” Dr. Wild said.
</blockquote>



The study highlights the urgent need to understand and address the effects of climate change on desert <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/snake-evolution-legless-lizards-into-slithering-snakes-100-million-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ecosystems</a>. As temperatures continue to rise, species that rely on delicate energy balances are at increasing risk. 



By predicting how different species will respond to these environmental shifts, scientists can develop better conservation strategies. This research is essential for protecting vulnerable desert lizard populations and ensuring their survival in a rapidly warming world.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq4372" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



-----



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Desert lizards struggle as global warming raises their energy needs

As global warming continues to rise, desert lizards are experiencing an energy crisis. These reptiles rely on external temperatures to regulate their body functions, including how much energy they need and when they can forage for food. A recent study published in the journal Science&nbsp;reveals that climate change is severely disrupting this balance. Warming deserts put lizards at risk Cold-blooded animals, like lizards, rely on external temperatures to regulate their body heat. Their body temperature directly affects how much energy they need and when they can be...

As the world is transformed by climate change, identifying new assemblages of species is critical for protecting them from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mammal-extinctions-are-driven-almost-exclusively-by-humans-not-climate-change/">extinction</a>. In a new study led by John Pandolfi and Dr. Timothy Staples of the <a href="https://www.coralcoe.org.au/">ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies</a>, scientists looked at how the assemblages of plankton species have changed over the past 66 million years across the world's oceans.

The researchers have used the findings of their study to develop the first-ever method for detecting new communities of species in all types of ecosystems.

"A novel ecological community is one with combinations of species that are different to any past observations from that site," said Professor Pandolfi. "These different species combinations can be due to new species arriving in the community, existing species leaving, or species becoming rarer or more common."

"We found that when novel communities formed, existing species were twice as likely to disappear from the community permanently, representing a 'local' extinction. Species in the novel community were also more likely to be new arrivals that had never been observed in the community before."

One place where new assemblages have appeared is across communities of coral reefs in the Caribbean. Two types of branching coral that once dominated the region are now rare, and new coral species have emerged in their place. 

Branching corals were lost due to the impacts of overfishing, changes in water quality, and climate change. The transformation of reef assemblages leads to different inhabitants and functions. 

"The challenge is to manage at risk or vulnerable areas like this where novel communities exist, or where they're in the process of forming," said Professor Pandolfi.

"To do this we need to understand the changes in species composition we see in novel communities, as well as what is driving these changes. To achieve these goals, we need to be able to reliably identify when a novel community has emerged."

The study has produced the first standardized, quantitative methodology for determining the existence of novel ecological communities based on a database of marine plankton over millions of years.

"We came up with a measure of novelty that can be used with community data from any time scale, organism or ecosystem, so comparative approaches to the study of novelty are now possible," said Dr. Staples. "In this study, we applied our methodology to the past 66 million years, but it would work just as well on much shorter time frames."

Using a global set of microfossil data from deep sea drilling cores, the researchers examined the marine plankton record. Professor Pandolfi said that while novelty was rare, extinction was an important component. Furthermore, after novel communities emerged, subsequent communities were more likely to transform into new assemblages.

"Novelty begets novelty," said Professor Pandolfi. "And the likelihood of extinction was higher when novel communities emerged." He said the pressures that cause communities to become novel in the first place need to be relieved. "Otherwise we may end up with cascading novelty, where the emergence of novel communities drives further novelty, including the loss of existing, native, species."

According to Professor Pandolfi, this means when a novel community is identified it needs attention and effective preventive management. He noted that future studies need to identify novel communities within vulnerable ecosystems, such as the Great Barrier Reef. "At the end of the day that's where we want to go to test this."

"Modern novel ecological communities may need to be managed effectively to prevent the propagation of subsequent novel communities, because of the associated risk of increased extinction," said Professor Pandolfi. "We can't just throw in the towel and let those ecosystems degrade, we need to arrest this progression."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New species assemblages cause local extinctions

As the world is transformed by climate change, identifying new...

Worldwide, many species of snakes are in a state of decline as a result of habitat loss, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/birds-that-try-to-keep-pace-with-climate-change-face-hidden-dangers/">climate</a> change, and infectious diseases. In a new study from the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a>,  scientists have teamed up with military service members to investigate the prevalence of an emerging snake disease.

With the help of personnel on military bases across 31 states in the U.S., the researchers analyzed snake samples to detect a fungal pathogen which causes ophidiomycosis, a potentially deadly disease.

The study revealed that the fungus is much more widespread that what was previously known. The team identified infected snakes on military bases in 19 states and Puerto Rico.

"Ophidiomycosis - formerly known as 'snake fungal disease' - is an emerging infectious disease caused by the fungus Ophidiomyces ophidiicola," said study lead author Dr. Matt Allender. "It has been documented in over 15 genera of wild and captive snakes. Infection with the pathogen causes a wide range of clinical signs in snakes, from difficulty shedding skin, to crusts and ulcers on the head and body, and even death in some cases."

"We looked for this pathogen in samples from 657 snakes and found that 17% were infected. Our findings include the first reports of this disease in Oklahoma, Idaho and Puerto Rico."

The health and abundance of snakes are important to human health, as snakes control populations of small mammals that carry and amplify pathogens that also cause disease in humans such as hantavirus and Lyme disease, said Dr. Allender. He noted that natural lands on military bases provide an unexpected sanctuary for many threatened or endangered species.

The research was focused on swab samples that represented 58 species of snakes. The researchers used a tool they developed to amplify DNA molecules so they could measure the extent of infection. The biologists who collected the samples inspected the snakes for scabs or other signs of disease. 

The fungal pathogen was detected in samples from 113 snakes, including copperheads, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, Puerto Rican boas, sidewinders, and whip snakes. 

According to the researchers, adult snakes were the most likely to be diagnosed with ophidiomycosis. "Snakes from Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all had greater odds of ophidiomycosis diagnosis, while snakes from Idaho were less likely to be diagnosed with the disease," they noted.

Dr. Allender explained that the pattern of infection likely reflects a larger distribution of the disease in snakes in the eastern U.S. than previously thought, and its possible expansion from east to west. The disease was first confirmed in 2006 in a population of timber rattlesnakes in New Hampshire.

"Ophidiomycosis has potentially serious consequences for the success of snake conservation efforts in North America, threatening biodiversity across several habitats," said Dr. Allender.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

An emerging snake disease is much more widespread than expected

Worldwide, many species of snakes are in a state of...

A study published by the <a href="https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/">British Ecological Society</a> has produced one of the first examples of sophisticated tool use by <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/water-droplets-on-plant-leaves-provide-nutrition-for-insects/">insects</a>. When faced with the risk of drowning, black imported fire ants used sand to draw liquid out of containers.

In lab experiments, the ants were presented with small containers of sugar water. They were able to float and feed on the surface at first, but then the researchers reduced the surface tension. At this point, the ants began adding grains of sand to the container.

Study lead author Dr. Aiming Zhou is an associate professor at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China.

"We found the ants used sand to build a structure that could effectively draw sugar water out of the container to then be collected," said Dr. Zhou."This exceptional tool making skill not only reduced the drowning risk of ants, but also provided a larger space for them to collect sugar water."

The sand deposits turned out to be so efficient that they could syphon almost half of the sugar water out of the containers in five minutes.

The experts manipulated the surface tension of the sugar water by adding surfactant. When the surfactant concentrations exceeded 0.05 percent, and the ants could no longer float, they automatically responded by building the sand structures. According to the researchers, the structures were never observed in containers of pure sugar water, which indicates that the ants were using an adaptable approach to tool use.

The findings demonstrate the ability of black imported fire ants to use tools to forage, and show that they can recognize an increased foraging risk and can adjust their tool use in response.

Study 

"We knew some ant species are able to use tools, particularly in collecting liquid food; however, we were surprised by such remarkable tool use displayed by black imported fire ants," said study co-author Dr. Jian Chen. "Our findings suggest that ants and other social insects may have considerable high cognitive capabilities for unique foraging strategies."

The use of tools, which indicates cognitive sophistication, has mostly been observed in primates and birds. Tool use by invertebrates has not been as well studied.

Further research is needed to look for this behavior among other ant species. "Our study is the first to touch on this interesting topic," said Dr. Chen. "We hope our paper will motivate others to do the related investigations."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652435">Functional Ecology</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ants show signs of cognitive sophistication

A study published by the British Ecological Society has produced...

Wild animals are constantly facing dangerous situations with uncertain outcomes. There are many circumstances when the survival of a wild animal depends on a single decision, and some individuals are willing to take more risks than others.

Every day that they strike out into unknown territory to search for <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/shift-from-meat-to-plant-based-food-could-offset-years-of-emissions/">food</a>, animals could be attacked and killed by a predator. In a new study from <a href="https://www.uni-jena.de/">Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena</a>, researchers determined that animals living in difficult conditions are willing to take more frequent risks later in life, and these risks are often driven by a lack of food. 

"Just as there are humans who are more cautious and others who take more risks, among animals of a particular species there are also individuals that are more or less risk-averse," said study co-author Professor Holger Schielzeth. 

While these differences are innate to some degree, they are also influenced by an individual's development. The researchers have determined that an animal's risk appetite is decisively influenced by the nutritional conditions it experiences while growing up. 

Study lead author Nicholas Moran and his team analyzed more than 120 experimental studies that involved over 100 animal species. One common theme found throughout the studies was that all of the animals - spiders, fish, birds, and amphibians - had experienced phases of good and bad nutrition. Their risk appetite was measured later in life.

"On the one hand, one could assume that animals that have always enjoyed good circumstances and are therefore in a better condition would have more to lose and would therefore be more risk-averse," said study co-author Professor Klaus Reinhold. On the other hand, he noted, a better nutritional status could mean that an animal would escape more easily from a risky situation, and would therefore be more likely to take a risk.

The analysis clearly showed that an insufficient food supply causes animals to engage in higher-risk behavior. The willingness to take risks increased by an average of 26 percent in animals that had experienced hunger earlier in life.

"We were surprised that this result was so clear and unambiguous," said Professor Schielzeth. Despite widespread variation in the strength of the effect among different species, Professor Schielzeth believes that this correlation could also exist in humans, at least to some extent.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1469185x">Biological Reviews</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Animals who have suffered from hunger will take more risks

Wild animals are constantly facing dangerous situations with uncertain outcomes....

Humans are most likely passing COVID-19 along to other animals, according to a new study published by <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us">WILEY</a>. The researchers noted that if SARS-CoV-2 could be sustainably transmitted among mammals, this would create <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/rivalry-has-helped-drive-intelligence-among-animals/">animal</a> reservoirs that could serve as a persistent source of new COVID-19 outbreaks.

Furthermore, the spread of COVID-19 in wild mammal populations has the potential to impact species that are endangered. 

"It has been a long time since the world has experienced a pandemic with such a rapid devastating impact as the current COVID-19 pandemic," wrote the study authors. "The causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is unusual in that it appears capable of infecting many different mammal species." 

"As a significant proportion of people worldwide are infected with SARS-CoV-2 and may spread the infection unknowingly before symptoms occur or without any symptoms ever occurring, there is a non-negligible risk of humans spreading SARS-CoV-2 to wildlife, in particular to wild non-human mammals." 

"Because of SARS-CoV-2’s apparent evolutionary origins in bats and reports of humans transmitting the virus to pets and zoo animals, regulations for the prevention of human‐to‐animal transmission have so far focused mostly on these animal groups."

After analyzing recent studies and reports that show that a wide range of distantly related mammals are likely susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the experts are urging people to take sanitary precautions when they are in contact with any other mammal species.

"Preventing human‐to‐wildlife SARS-CoV-2 transmission is important to protect these animals (some of which are classed as threatened) from disease, but also to avoid establishment of novel SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs in wild mammals," wrote the experts. They said the risk of repeated infection in human populations from such wildlife reservoirs could severely damage efforts to get SARS-CoV-2 under control.

During activities where humans have direct or indirect interaction with wild mammals, such as through wildlife research or forestry work, the researchers recommend physical distancing, wearing face masks and gloves, and frequent decontamination.

"We further recommend active surveillance of domestic and feral animals that could act as SARS-CoV-2 intermediate hosts between humans and wild mammals."

Study lead author Dr. Sophie Gryseels is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and the University of Antwerp.

"We really should avoid turning our pandemic into a multi-species problem," said Dr. Gryseels. "It's difficult enough to control the SARS-CoV-2 in human populations--imagine what it will be like if it spreads among wild mammals.'

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652907">Mammal Review</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What if humans are spreading COVID-19 to other mammals?

Humans are most likely passing COVID-19 along to other animals,...

More than 75 percent of threatened species lack adequate protection. A new study from the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland</a> has revealed that if governments fail to honor their commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the consequences could be devastating.

A team of scientists led by Dr. Sean Maxwell and Professor James Watson reviewed national area-based <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/conservation-planning-in-the-amazon-should-be-redirected-to-freshwater-species/">conservation</a> efforts, including protected areas. 

The researchers found that 78 percent of known threatened species and more than half of all important ecosystems remain without adequate protection on both land and sea. Furthermore, seven of the world's most productive fisheries have no formal protected area coverage.

The global nature conservation treaty was established in 2010, when nearly every nation agreed that areas which are important for biodiversity and ecosystem services must cover at least 17 percent of land and 10 percent of ocean by 2020. 

"We reviewed progress toward this target by overlaying maps of protected areas on natural ecosystems, threatened species, carbon services on land and sea and fisheries productivity in the world's oceans," said Dr. Maxwell. 

"We found some welcome progress - particularly in the marine realm - since global environmental targets were agreed. But terrestrial protected area expansion needed to be double what it was in the past decade in order to achieve 17 percent coverage for land and freshwater environments."

"There are also alarming shortfalls in ecological representation and management effectiveness, and measurable biodiversity outcomes persist in area-based conservation efforts."

The researchers also investigated how effective protected area management has been based on the 2010 targets.

"We know that adequately funding protected areas are one of our best tools for reducing threats to biodiversity," said Dr Maxwell. "Yet the current financial shortfall for area-based conservation likely exceeds the multi-billion dollar mark, and as much as 90 per cent have inadequate or below optimum on-site staff capacity."

Professor Watson said the next round of conservation targets, which were meant to be set this year, is fundamental to the future of global biodiversity.

"It is obvious that governments have dramatically underinvested in protected areas and been weak in legally protecting them," said Professor Watson.

"For biodiversity to have any chance to survive climate change, nations must invest more resources in consolidating area-based conservation efforts and ensuring biodiversity conservation is a far stronger part of managed land and seas.

"There are significant opportunities to better recognise and support conservation by indigenous peoples, local communities and private actors, and we now need to embrace new models for land stewardship that rewards good behaviour by farmers, developers and miners."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

More than 75 percent of threatened species lack adequate protection

More than 75 percent of threatened species lack adequate protection....

A new study led by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> has found that birds are changing their breeding patterns to keep pace with <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/arctic-fires-are-changing-and-the-climate-impacts-could-be-devastating/">climate</a> change. The experts report that these types of behavioral shifts come along with hidden dangers, including the threat of starvation. 

The study was focused on 30 years of data on weather, food availability, and breeding among Tree Swallows in Ithaca,  NewYork. The researchers discovered that the birds are breeding earlier alongside first signs of spring with potentially drastic consequences. When chicks hatch earlier, they are faced with an increased risk of bad weather, food shortages, and mortality.

The experts concluded that the timing of when to breed and when food is available is becoming decoupled for some animals, which highlights serious complications in how organisms respond to climate change.

Study first author Ryan Shipley is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

"Simply moving dates earlier to track climate change isn't necessarily risk free. Riskier conditions earlier in the year can expose animals to unintended consequences when responding to bouts of unusually warm spring weather," said Shipley.

Some previous studies have emphasized the importance of animals adjusting their life cycles to keep pace with rising temperatures and earlier spring arrivals. However, the current study notes that breeding earlier may place animals at a greater risk of exposure to inclement weather events that tend to occur more frequently earlier in the year. 

The analysis showed that Tree Swallows have been advancing breeding by 3 days per decade over the last 30 years. This has put offspring at a greater risk of exposure to bad weather, and these conditions also reduce the availability of the insects that the birds rely on for food.

"Our results raise the possibility that animals relying on food resources that can rapidly change in abundance due to the weather may be particularly at risk to climate change," said Shipley.

The findings may help to solve the mystery of why aerial insectivorous birds, including swallows, swifts, flycatchers, and nightjars, are declining faster than other groups in much of North America and Europe.

"For birds that feed on flying insects, one day is feast, the next is famine. This means during unusually warm springs, parents are betting current conditions that prompt earlier egg laying are indicative of similar good conditions for rearing hatched young 3 weeks in the future," said Shipley.

"Considerable attention has been given to potential widespread decline of insect populations and this might be hitting insectivorous birds particularly hard. But we show a mechanism that doesn't require change in insect abundance - just availability over a short time, like a few days."

Professor Maren Vitousek said that long-term studies like these are essential to understand how and why species are affected by climate change. "They can also provide valuable insights into how organisms function, interact and evolve in complex ecological networks."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Birds that try to keep pace with climate change face hidden dangers

A new study led by Cornell University has found that...

Experts at <a href="https://www.elte.hu/en/">Eötvös Loránd University</a> in Hungary have compared how dogs and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mammal-extinctions-are-driven-almost-exclusively-by-humans-not-climate-change/">humans</a> process visual information about others. The study showed some striking similarities, but also revealed that faces do not matter nearly as much to dogs as they do to people.

In humans, faces are central to visual communication - we have an entire brain network that is dedicated to face processing. While dogs pay attention to faces and use them to read our emotions, they also rely on other body signals to communicate. Prior to this study, it was not yet clear whether dog brains are specialized for face processing like human brains.

To explore how the brains of both species respond to visual information about others, the researchers tested 20 dogs and 30 people people in the same functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. The study subjects were all presented with short videos of dog and human faces, as well as the back of the heads for comparison.

The experts identified brain regions in both dogs and humans that had a different response to the images depending on whether they contained individuals of their own species. 

"Earlier, our research group already showed a similar correspondence between dog and human brains for voice processing," said study senior author Attila Andics. "We now see that species-sensitivity is an important organizing principle in the mammalian brain for processing social stimuli, in both the auditory and the visual modality. " 

On the other hand, the researchers found no brain areas in dogs that encode whether the images showed a face or the back of a head. For humans, there was an obvious distinction made between the two. 

"A preference analysis of the brain response patterns confirmed that in dogs, conspecific-preference is primary over face-preference and in humans, face-preference is primary over conspecific-preference," said study co-first author Nóra Bunford. "This is an essential difference. It demonstrates that there can be substantial dissimilarities in cortical specialization for face perception across mammals."

"Actually, these findings also shed new light on previous dog fMRI studies claiming to have found 'face areas': we now think that the stronger activity to dog faces in those studies indicated dog-preferring rather than face-preferring brain areas."

The team also identified dog and human brain regions that showed a similar activity pattern in response to the videos. 

"This so-called representational similarity analysis can directly compare brain activity patterns across species," said study co-first author Raúl Hernández-Pérez.

"Interestingly, similarities between dog and human activity patterns were stronger for what we named functional matching (comparing activity for dog face in the dog brain to activity for human face in the human brain), than for physical matching (comparing activity for dog face in the dog brain to activity for dog face in the human brain)."

"This shows that here we may have tapped into high-level categorical processing of social information rather than low-level visual processing, in dogs as well as in humans."

According to Andics, similarities in species-sensitivity yet differences in face-sensitivity show that the visual processing of social information is not organized in the same way among dogs and humans. 

"This is another demonstration that comparative neuroimaging with phylogenetically distant mammalian species can advance our understanding of how social brain functions are organized and how they evolved," said Andics.

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/">Journal of Neuroscience</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

Dogs do not pay as much attention to faces as humans do

Experts at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary have compared how...

Intelligence evolved among animals to help them handle the challenges that come along with conflict, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a>. The researchers found that beyond the various types of social interactions that have been thoroughly explored, battles among rivals have also driven cognition in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/not-enough-is-known-about-how-rainfall-affects-tropical-animals/">animals</a> ranging from insects all the way up to primates.

"Outside threats and opportunities likely present a range of cognitive challenges. Animals have to defend their territories, find mates and compete for resources - we believe negotiating such challenges requires considerable brain power," said study lead author Dr. Ben Ashton.

"A vast amount of time and effort in the animal kingdom is devoted to gathering information about outsiders, and to avoiding, exploiting and winning interactions with them," said study senior author Professor Andy Radford. "But this aspect of sociality has traditionally been ignored in explanations of animal brain evolution."

Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher and writer that is best known for his political work, The Prince - a commentary on how to establish and retain power.

Corsican military leader Napoleon Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest military minds in history whose strategic intelligence on the battlefield is still admired two centuries later.

"Biologists have shown how interactions with groupmates can generate 'Machiavellian' intelligence, the House of Cards-style cunning needed to get ahead in social politics within groups," said study co-author Dr. Patrick Kennedy. "We argue that animals also need 'Napoleonic' intelligence, the more Game of Thrones-style sharpness necessary to triumph in a world packed with rival outsiders."

Dr. Ashton noted that cognitive evolution is one of the most hotly debated topics in biology, with considerable uncertainty remaining over the predominant drivers. "Some of that uncertainty might be because a whole social axis - interactions with rival outsiders - has been largely ignored in both theoretical and empirical work."

According to Dr. Kennedy, 

The possibility that outsiders have shaped human intelligence has been proposed before, said Dr. Kennedy, but it is time to apply this x theory beyond human cognition.

"What do big-brained animals have in common with Napoleon Bonaparte? We suspect that their ancestors possessed the intelligence to triumph in one of the highest-stakes games of all: outmanoeuvring outsiders," said Professor Radford.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms">Nature Communications</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

Rivalry helped drive intelligence among animals

Intelligence evolved among animals to help them handle the challenges...

In a new study published by <a href="https://www.cell.com/">Cell Press</a>, scientists are helping to expose sea turtle traffickers by placing GPS-enabled decoy eggs in nests on the beach. The researchers set out to investigate how well the decoy eggs work in tracking down the criminals, as well as how safe they are for the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/freshwater-turtles-improve-the-health-of-river-systems/">turtles</a>.

"Our research showed that placing a decoy into a turtle nest did not damage the incubating embryos and that the decoys work," said study lead author Helen Pheasey of the University of Kent. "We showed that it was possible to track illegally removed eggs from beach to end consumer as shown by our longest track, which identified the entire trade chain covering 137 kilometers."

The egg decoy project, which is called InvestEggator, was developed by the conservation organization <a href="https://pasopacifico.org/">Paso Pacifico</a> to address the illegal trade of endangered sea turtles in Central America. The eggs are smuggled from the beaches and sold to restaurants and bars as a delicacy. 

Kim Williams-Guillen is a scientist with Paso Pacifico who designed the decoys in response to a call for proposals from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. 

"The idea was kind of an 'Aha' moment," said Williams-Guillen. She said that two of her favorite TV shows came to mind, Breaking Bad and The Wire. "In Breaking Bad, the DEA places a GPS tracking device on a tank of chemicals to see who receives the chemicals. In one episode of the Wire, two police officers plant an audio device in a tennis ball to surreptitiously record a suspected drug dealer. Turtle eggs basically look like ping pong balls, and we wanted to know where they were going--put those two ideas together and you have the InvestEGGator."

Pheasey's team placed the 3D-printed decoy eggs in 101 turtle nests on four beaches in Costa Rica. A quarter of the eggs were snatched from the nests, which allowed the researchers to track eggs from five clutches - two green turtle nests and three olive ridley nests.

One of the decoys was approaching a residential property when it fell silent, while another traveled two kilometers to a bar. The egg that was moved the farthest ended up 137 kilometers inland, spending two days in transit from the beach to a supermarket loading-bay and then on to a residential property. 

In one instance, someone discovered the decoy. "One decoy went off-line in a residential area near Cariari, a town 43 km from the deployment beach," wrote the researchers. "After 11 days, we received photographs, sent from Cariari, of the dissected egg."

Along with the photos, the experts obtained information about where the egg was purchased and how many eggs had been exchanged. According to the study authors, the findings show that the decoy eggs already are yielding intelligence from the local community in addition to tracking data.

Pheasey said the early evidence shows that the majority of stolen eggs don't leave the local area, which confirmed what they had suspected. "Knowing that a high proportion of eggs remain in the local area helps us target our conservation efforts," said Pheasey. "We can now focus our efforts on raising awareness in the local communities and direct law enforcement to this local issue. It also means we know where the consumers are, which assists us in focusing demand reduction campaigns."

Pheasey explained that the key objective is not to find the people who take the eggs from the beach. The ultimate goal is to identify the traffickers, who often sell the eggs door to door. "As trafficking is a more serious crime, those handover points are far more valuable from a law enforcement perspective than catching someone taking a nest," said Pheasey.

The researchers would like to see more sea turtle projects use the decoys on nesting beaches. This research could reveal important clues about the turtle egg trade in different countries. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</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

Scientists use decoys to track sea turtle egg traffickers

In a new study published by Cell Press, scientists are...

Dozens of mammals could be susceptible to COVID-19, according to a new study from <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London</a>. The experts identified 26 <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/animals-have-a-biological-switch-that-prepares-them-for-seasonal-changes/">animals</a> that are regularly in contact with people and are also vulnerable to infection. 

The study used computer modeling to investigate how the virus may infect the ACE2 protein receptor in 215 animal species. The researchers wanted to know how these receptors are different from those in humans, and how these differences may reduce the stability of binding between the virus protein and host protein. 

The researchers found that binding could be just as strong in some animals, including sheep, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutan, and bonobo - many of which are endangered in the wild.

"We wanted to look beyond just the animals that had been studied experimentally, to see which animals might be at risk of infection, and would warrant further investigation and possible monitoring," said study lead author Professor Christine Orengo.

"The animals we identified may be at risk of outbreaks that could threaten endangered species or harm the livelihoods of farmers. The animals might also act as reservoirs of the virus, with the potential to re-infect humans later on, as has been documented on mink farms."

To gain a better understanding of how COVID-19 risks differ across various species, the researchers conducted more detailed structural analyses for certain animals. They also compared the findings to existing research to set thresholds that predict which animals are at risk of infection and which ones are likely not. 

While the study revealed that most birds, fish, and reptiles are not at risk, it showed that the majority of the mammals examined have the potential to develop a COVID-19 infection.

"The details of host infection and severity of response are more complex than just the interactions of the spike protein with ACE2, so our research is continuing to explore interactions involving other host virus proteins," said Professor Orengo.

The findings mostly agree with experiments and known cases of infection, including those among domestic cats, dogs, mink, lions, and tigers.

"Unlike laboratory-based experiments, the computational analyses we devised can be run automatically and rapidly," said study first author Su Datt Lam. "Therefore, these methods could be applied easily to future virus outbreaks that, unfortunately, are becoming more common due to human encroachment into natural habitats."

"To protect animals, as well as to protect ourselves from the risk of one day catching COVID-19 from an infected animal, we need large-scale surveillance of animals, particularly pets and farm animals, to catch cases or clusters early on while they're still manageable," said study co-author Professor Joanne Santini.

"It may also be important to employ hygiene measures when dealing with animals, similar to the behaviors we've all been learning this year to reduce transmission, and for infected people to isolate from animals as well as from other people."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep">Scientific Reports</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

&nbsp;

Many types of mammals could be infected by COVID-19

Dozens of mammals could be susceptible to COVID-19, according to...

A new study from the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/">Florida Museum of Natural History</a> suggests that light pollution in human-altered landscapes such as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/farmers-can-help-make-crops-more-resilient/">crop</a> fields serves as a barrier to birds with big eyes. The findings indicate that eye size is an important factor that has been largely overlooked when assessing how vulnerable various  birds species are to changes in their habitat.

The researchers established that bird eye size, habitat, and foraging techniques are strongly connected. Birds with larger eyes were found to stay in the shade of the forest, while birds that were abundant in the canopy and in agricultural settings had smaller eyes. 

"Many bird species literally disappear from highly disturbed, anthropogenic habitats such as agricultural landscapes," said study lead author Ian Ausprey. "That's probably due to many reasons, but this paper suggests light could be part of that."

Ausprey said while some of the findings may seem like "a no-brainer," the study is the first to document the relationships between light, eye size, and how birds navigate their world.

Light is particularly important for birds to detect food. Big eyes, which are commonly found in birds of prey such as owls and raptors, contain more photoreceptors. This allows the birds to identify images at longer distances and in darker settings.

On the other hand, large eyes can be detrimental when exposed to the glare of bright environments. Previous studies have shown that when birds become overwhelmed by too much light, it can alter their feeding behavior and reduce their awareness of threats.

In collaboration with study co-author Felicity Newell of the University of Florida, Ausprey surveyed birds in the forests of northern Peru for four years. Within these forests, gaps in the canopy expose patches of forest to startling brightness. "You can go from being very dark to very bright within inches," said Ausprey.

The researchers explained that a difference of just 1,000 feet in elevation can lead to dramatic changes in which birds are present. The study region in Peru is also home to small farms with livestock pastures and vegetable fields that are interspersed with the forest.

Newel noted that the broad range of ambient light, from the deep, dark forest interior to wide open country, made an ideal model system for measuring birds' use of light.

The team measured eye size relative to body size in 240 species that make up the cloud forest bird community. The analysis revealed that the insect-eating birds with the biggest eyes were far-sighted species, while the eye size in near-sighted species increased the closer to the ground they lived.

The researchers attached tiny light-sensing trackers to 71 birds representing 15 species. The sensors recorded the intensity of light that was encountered by the birds over several days. This experiment provided the experts with a new look at the various light "micro-environments." 

Among the birds tracked, the rusty-tinged antpitta inhabited the darkest environment. This bird, which is exclusive to Peru, spends most of its life walking along the forest floor. Meanwhile, the blue-capped tanager was found to reside in the brightest environments.

With predominantly small-eyed bird species present in agricultural settings, the researchers derived that birds adapted to the dark forest understory would struggle to adjust to the flood of light in a field. These patterns are likely to be found on a global scale, and the trend may also apply to urban areas, which are "basically extreme forms of agricultural landscapes in some ways," said Ausprey.

In fact, the rufous-collared sparrow, Zonotrichia capensis, the bird most commonly found in agricultural fields, is also the most abundant species in Latin American cities, said Newell.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19399170">Ecology</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

Birds with big eyes avoid bright human-altered landscapes

A new study from the Florida Museum of Natural History...

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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

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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

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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



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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"

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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...