The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is the world’s rarest marine mammal, with fewer than 10 surviving in the wild. It faces grave challenges, from illegal fishing nets to black-market demand for totoaba swim bladders. 



Experts worry that this unique creature could disappear before most people even learn it exists.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vaquitas-a-species-in-peril">Vaquitas: A species in peril</h2>



<a href="https://seashepherd.org/2024/06/11/2024-vaquita-survey/#">Populations</a> of this small porpoise have plummeted at an astonishing rate since the late 1990s.



Vaquitas inhabit the northern Gulf of California, and are restricted to an area of roughly 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers). This small region, combined with the pressures of organized poaching activity, has given vaquitas little <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/endangered-lemurs-millions-of-years-of-diversity-at-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">room for recovery</a>. 



Jamie Knaub from Florida Atlantic University (<a href="https://www.fau.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FAU</a>) and her colleagues believe that drastic measures are necessary to preserve any record of these animals for generations to come.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rescuing-a-rare-vaquita-skeleton">Rescuing a rare vaquita skeleton</h2>



A complete <a href="https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/photos-san-diego-researchers-scan-rare-skeleton-of-worlds-smallest-endangered-porpoise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vaquita skeleton</a> in the United States is hard to find. Such a specimen recently appeared at SeaWorld San Diego, with ties to the San Diego Natural History Museum.&nbsp;



“We are delighted to collaborate with likeminded organizations to make our collections as useful and accessible as possible,” said Phil Unitt, curator of birds and mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum.&nbsp;



“A complete skeleton of a vaquita is an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/public-concern-over-species-extinctions-fades-quickly/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">extremely rare specimen</a>, so we’re thrilled to learn its replica will be available to the public.”



<a href="https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/fau-high-school-opens-one-of-a-kind-owls-imaging-lab.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FAU’s High School Owls Imaging Lab</a> carried out micro-CT scans on the skeleton. Knaub transported it back to Florida as precious carry-on luggage.&nbsp;



She spent 165 hours conducting high-resolution scans, gathering nearly three terabytes of data. When finished, Knaub carefully returned the vaquita remains to SeaWorld.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-high-hopes-for-the-tiniest-porpoise">High hopes for the tiniest porpoise</h2>



Researchers are eager to share 3D scans of this delicate skeleton on the <a href="https://www.morphosource.org/docs/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MorphoSource</a> online repository. The goal is to let educators and researchers worldwide access and learn from the files.&nbsp;



With vaquitas vanishing at a high rate, preserving their anatomy through digital replicas could be the only way to keep them on the radar.&nbsp;



“At the rate that vaquita’s are disappearing, it’s extremely important to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/are-we-failing-the-worlds-most-threatened-species/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preserve</a> as much about this species as we can. They are very elusive and not many physical specimens from this species exist,” said Knaub.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-education-and-replication-efforts">Education and replication efforts</h2>



The experts hope that these skeleton scans, once turned into models, can be placed in museums or classrooms. Brittany Aja Dolan from SeaWorld San Diego, who pushed this plan forward, wants everyone to see the small porpoise up close.&nbsp;



“We hope that by creating replicas, which will be available worldwide, and hopefully on display at SeaWorld San Diego in the near future, everyone will have the opportunity to learn about the world’s most endangered marine mammal and what we can all do to help,” explained Dolan.



Some genetic <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm1742" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> suggests the surviving vaquitas retain enough diversity to bounce back if threats cease. However, rapid action is crucial.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-preserving-vaquita-data-for-future-research">Preserving vaquita data for future research</h2>



FAU’s advanced imaging technology captured the skeleton’s intricate details. 



The lab’s <a href="https://www.microphotonics.com/what-is-micro-ct-an-introduction/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">micro-CT machine</a> is known for its ability to scan minute structures within skeletal fragments. Knaub, along with her mentors, previously used similar equipment to study thresher shark vertebrae, a study that is published in <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231473" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal Society Open Science</a>.&nbsp;



The same techniques have now preserved the precise shape of each vaquita bone, thus mapping out a piece of history that might soon be gone if illegal nets continue to harm the species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-unique-laboratory-environment">A unique laboratory environment</h2>



FAU’s Owls Imaging Lab attracts student researchers from across various disciplines. This facility contains tools like scanning electron microscopes and microtomes, and offers early exposure to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-is-tracking-endangered-animal-habitats-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">high-level projects</a>.&nbsp;



“The primary aim of our open-access research hub is to create a dynamic environment that promotes meaningful collaborations between our students and university mentors," said Tricia Meredith, director of research for FAU’s on-site lab schools.



"By providing opportunities for hands-on teaching, innovative demonstrations, experimentation, and robust data collection, the hub seeks to enhance the educational experience and advance research excellence.” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-looking-beyond-the-brink">Looking beyond the brink</h2>



Those involved in the vaquita project see it as a chance to save the species in some form, even if the real animals fade away. There is also motivation to rescue any remaining individuals in the Gulf of California.&nbsp;



Organizations like FAU, SeaWorld San Diego, and the San Diego Natural History Museum keep shining a light on this small porpoise, stressing that the vaquita’s future rests on determined human intervention.&nbsp;



Until effective solutions disrupt the illegal fishing trade, digital scans and educational displays might be the closest many of us will ever come to encountering the vaquita in real life.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://phys.org/journals/royal-society-open-science/">Royal Society Open Science</a>.



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Vaquitas may disappear before most people know they exist

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is the world’s rarest marine mammal, with fewer than 10 surviving in the wild. It faces grave challenges, from illegal fishing nets to black-market demand for totoaba swim bladders. Experts worry that this unique creature could disappear before most people even learn it exists. Vaquitas: A species in peril Populations of this small porpoise have plummeted at an astonishing rate since the late 1990s. Vaquitas inhabit the northern Gulf of California, and are restricted to an area of roughly 1,500 square miles (3,900...

Puffins are a mystery to humans. There are three species of puffins worldwide and rhinoceros auklets are also anatomically puffins, according to <a href="http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/birds/puffin-faqs">Audubon Project Puffin</a>. All of them spend the vast majority of their lives at sea. 

A life at sea is one that’s difficult for land based Homo sapiens to study. When puffins are on land, it’s to create burrows as deep as five feet in the sea cliffs. The burrows are the center of a puffin’s domestic life After mating, puffins lay eggs and raise their young to fledging age in the moist earth of their burrows. After but a season, returning to land daily with fish for chicks or to keep an egg warm, the puffin returns to a life of sea and sky. 

According to <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a>, all species of puffins are declining in number but only Atlantic Puffins are listed as ‘<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694927/132581443">vulnerable’</a> while the other puffins are listed as ‘<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694934/132582357">least concern</a>’. But a lot of the puffin’s conservation status is speculation based on relatively old science. As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/puffins-comeback/">Earth.com reported recently</a>, Atlantic Puffin populations on Farnes Island, the host of England’s largest puffin colony, are on the rise. The last global population estimate for the Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) was 3,500,000 adult individuals, but this was carried out in 1996, a long time ago by the standards of science.

Tufted Puffins range up the western coast of the United States from the middle of California north into and across the entire coast of Alaska. Much of the areas Tufted Puffins breed in are remote islands in Alaska, such as Middleton Island where I spent a summer collecting data on sea birds, including tufted Puffins. Many islands that puffins choose for nests are even smaller than Middleton, little spits of land taken over seasonally by flocks of birds, squawking, flapping, fighting for the best pieces of land to nest. Some like Murres will lay delicate eggs directly on slender slices of cliff face. Even the areas where puffins and other sea birds nest on mainland in Alaska and elsewhere are remote, rugged, far from human habitation and hard to visit for extensive research or even for a census of the birds.            

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-puffins-die-off/">Earth.com</a> also recently reported on a massive die-off of tufted puffins in St. Paul Island, Alaska. Researchers estimated that between 3,150 and 8,500 puffins died. The first alert of the die-off came from tribal and local peoples on St. Paul that collected 350 dead puffins and alerted scientists. The puffins were emancipated from starvation, which researchers suspect was caused by warming oceans. Puffins and other sea birds are important indicators of the health of the oceans they live in. The data I spent a summer collecting was important for understanding sea birds but equally important for understanding Alaska’s fisheries. 

Plankton is near the base of the food chain in Alaska’s marine ecosystem and it can be quite sensitive to changes in environment. <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/08/22/plankton-population-and-the-power-of-pink-salmon/">Alaska Public Media</a> reports that plankton in Alaska usually react to environmental changes unambiguously, either flourishing or taking a big hit. Plankton populations are also often directly tied to populations of pink salmon and other fish. 

<a href="https://aoos.org/prince-william-sound-region-page/field-experiment/components/npz/">Alaska Ocean Observing System</a> explains how plankton populations are tied to temperature. As we all know with gases and fluid, the warm rises to the top and the cold stays low, and the same is true with water in the ocean. During the Alaskan winter, the surface of the ocean cools and water from deep in the sea rises upwards, bringing nutrients with it. The nutrient rich water sustain the (photosynthetic) phytoplankton through the dark Alaskan winter until summer when Alaska gets increased sunlight. With enough sunlight, the plankton switch to photosynthesis for food and boom in populations. 

With the boom in plankton, other microorganisms, such as copepods and zooplankton, start a feeding bonanza on the phytoplankton, and in turn grow in numbers. Of course, the burst in numbers of microorganisms has a ripple effect throughout the food chain. Fish eat and multiply, puffins, auklets, kittiwakes, cormorants and other sea birds eat the fish, using the food for their own egg laying and chick rearing. 

But a warmer ocean in the winter is a problem. When the ocean surface is warmer in the summer, the warm layer of water blocks the now cooler waters from deep in the ocean from welling up. In the summer of course this isn’t a problem because phytoplankton can photosynthesize. The winters in Alaska though are very dark and photosynthesis isn’t an option. When it’s too warm for the nutrients from deeper in the ocean to rise to the surface, this leads to a lack of plankton come spring and summer in Alaska. Less plankton means less birds, including puffins as well as lower numbers of many other animals such as seals that all depend on the plankton. 

Other sea birds have seen recent massive die-offs. <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/in-alaska-starving-seabirds-and-empty-colonies-signal-broken-ecosystem">Audubon</a> reported in 2018 that many thick-billed and common murres failed to breed at all, leaving colonies usually filled with a cacophony of birds eerily empty of eggs. Some murres nested but a month late. Hundreds of birds from a few different species were found washed up on the shores of the Bering Sea, all dead from starvation. Since the start of monitoring in the 1970s, Murres had never failed to breed until four years ago and it’s an indication of bigger problems. 

Sea bird die-offs are becoming more common. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/09/warm-water-pacific-coast-algae-nino/">National Geographic</a> reports that other marine animals in Alaska are being found dead in increasing numbers as well. On average years in the western Gulf of Alaska, eight dead whales are found, but in 2015, twelve where found in June by itself. Large numbers of sea lions have starved recently on the west coast. 79 otters were found dead in a single month in Homer Alaska. All this death coincides with record heat temperatures in the ocean even though the temperatures are being pushed up just a fraction of a degree so far. The ocean can absorb a lot before changing temperature but it is unquestionably warming now and puffins are simply canaries in a coal mine no one wants to be in anymore.

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer                                          

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Suwipat Lorsiripaiboon

Even slight increases in ocean temperatures cause massive sea bird die-offs

Puffins are a mystery to humans. There are three species...

Climate change could drive painted turtles to extinction due to temperature-dependent sex determination, according to a new study. 

Several <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-sea-turtles/">species of turtles,</a> lizards, and even crocodiles are sensitive to temperature changes while developing in the egg, and the sex of the offspring depends on how hot or cold it is during this period. 

With painted turtles, warmer temperatures tend to produce more female offspring and can lead to entire nests being female. 

A biologist from <a href="https://www.iastate.edu/">Iowa State University</a> conducted a study to see how drastic temperature fluctuations would impact future hatchlings, and if climate change was a major threat to painted turtle populations by decreasing the number of males in the species. 

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. 

The researchers first exposed painted turtle eggs to temperatures that were recorded in Iowa, Nebraska, and Canada, all of which house native populations of painted turtles. The researchers were able to compare the eggs exposed to the different temperatures in the lab to the offspring produced in the areas where the temperatures were recorded. 

Response to temperature varies depending on the population, the researchers found. 

The team then exposed eggs to temperature fluctuations to get a better understanding of how real-world climate change and temperature variations will impact painted turtle populations. 

Cooler temperatures that would normally lead to more male offspring still produced a disproportionate number of females with temperature fluctuations. When the lab temperatures were warmer and varied, the embryos died or continued to produce female offspring. 

The results of the study are concerning as climate change studies project that temperatures will continue to rise and temperature fluctuations will get more severe. 

“If what we found is generalizable to other species with temperature-dependent sex determination, this is bad news,” said Nicole Valenzuela, the leader of the study. “If an average increase in temperature is accompanied by greater variance, we'll see populations becoming unisexual faster than anticipated. The greater oscillations add to the effect of just higher average temperature.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Nicole Valenzuela

Warming temperatures may mean fewer and fewer male painted turtles

Climate change could drive painted turtles to extinction due to...

Endangered Species Act helped recover marine animal populations. A study led by Abel Valdivia of the <a href="http://cbc.berkeley.edu/">Center for Biological Diversity in California</a> has revealed that more than 75 percent of marine mammal and sea turtle populations have showed significant signs of recovery after being protected by the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/endangered-species-act-support/">U.S. Endangered Species Act</a> (ESA). 

The study findings suggest that conservation measures such as fishery regulations have been largely successful in promoting species recovery.


As extinction risks and threats across the ocean increase, the number of marine species protected by the ESA is growing. Prior to this study, however, there was very little research conducted to follow up on the recovery trends for marine mammals and sea turtles after they were listed. 

To investigate, the research team gathered the annual estimates for populations of all 62 marine mammal species and sea turtle species listed under the ESA. The researchers examined the extent of population change and recovery status for multiple populations of 14 marine mammal species and five sea turtle species.

The results of the study showed that 78 percent of marine mammal populations and 75 percent of sea turtle populations had increased significantly after being listed. On the other hand, nine percent of marine mammal populations had declined after ESA protection. 

At the same time, 13 percent of marine mammal populations and 25 percent of sea turtle populations showed no significant changes. Overall, the populations that became more abundant were species that had been listed for at least 20 years, such as large whales, manatees, and sea turtles. 

According to the study authors, the results highlight the potential for marine mammals and sea turtles to bounce back from major population declines when effective conservation efforts are deployed in time. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210164">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

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Endangered Species Act helped recover marine animal populations

Endangered Species Act helped recover marine animal populations. A study...

A new study from the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a> shows that, in the region that is now northeast Jordan, people began to live alongside <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-diagnose-malaria/">dogs</a> as far back as 11,500 years ago. The evidence also suggests that dogs were used for hunting, which would explain the drastic increase of hares and other small prey found at the archaeological dig site at this time.

Although dogs were domesticated by humans as early as 14,000 years ago in the Near East, it has remained unclear whether this happened intentionally. The research indicates that humans valued the tracking and hunting abilities of dogs much earlier than previously realized.

“The study of the large assemblage of animal bones from Shubayqa 6 revealed a large proportion of bones with unmistakable signs of having passed through the digestive tract of another animal; these bones are so large that they cannot have been swallowed by humans, but must have been digested by dogs,” explained study lead author and zooarchaeologist Lisa Yeomans.

The year-round accumulation of bones at the site showed that the dogs were living together with the humans rather than simply visiting the area when it was uninhabited.

“The dogs were not kept at the fringes of the settlement, but must have been closely integrated into all aspects of day-to-day life and allowed to freely roam around the settlement, feeding on discarded bones and defecating in and around the site,” explained Yeomans.

The team noticed a major increase in the number of hares at the same time that dogs appeared at Shubayqa 6.

“The use of dogs for hunting smaller, fast prey such as hares and foxes, perhaps driving them into enclosures, could provide an explanation that is in line with the evidence we have gathered,” said Yeomans. “The long history of dog use, to hunt both small as well as larger prey, in the region is well known, and it would be strange not to consider hunting aided by dogs as a likely explanation for the sudden abundance of smaller prey in the archaeological record."

“The shift may also be associated with a change in hunting technique from a method, such as netting, that saw an unselective portion of the hare population captured, to a selective method of hunting in which individual animals were targeted. This could have been achieved by dogs.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-anthropological-archaeology">Journal of Anthropological Archaeology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dogs and humans may have hunted together more than 11,000 years ago

A new study from the University of Copenhagen shows that,...

Male humpback whales make some of the most complex and unique <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/whales-quiet-shipping-noise/">whale songs</a> compared to any other whale species. Not only do humpbacks possess an impressive repertoire, but studies have also shown that humpback whales change up their tunes <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-46289589">every few years</a>. 

Researchers are still working to unravel the mystery of whale calls and why certain whales sing the songs that they do. But now, a new study conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://english.hi.is/university_of_iceland">University of Iceland</a> has examined the songs of overwintering male humpback whales who skipped their annual migration. 

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210057">PLOS ONE</a> and results provide insight into male humpback whale songs 

Every year, humpbacks migrate from their summer subarctic feeding areas to winter breeding grounds where male humpbacks sing to attract potential mates.  

However, not all humpbacks make this trip, and research has shown that some pods end up overwintering in their feeding areas. 

What is surprising is male humpbacks that overwinter still sing their characteristic mating songs even when the males are not pursuing a mate. 

To find out if overwintering male humpbacks still sang, the researchers placed acoustic recorders in the water near overwintering humpback pods in Iceland in 2011. The team was able to record whale songs for 42 days and had around 70 ten minutes song files of whale calls. 

After analyzing the different song files, the researchers identified 15 unique phrases and discovered that the songs were remarkably similar to male humpback mating songs heard in breeding areas. The themes of the songs also changed and evolved over time among the males. 

The results of the study indicate that there is a more complex explanation for male humpback whale songs beyond simply mating.  

“New findings show that humpback whales sing their elaborate breeding songs on subarctic feeding grounds throughout the dark winter, an atypical behavior for this giant migrator which primarily sings and breeds in tropical waters during winter,” the researchers explained. “We are likely witnessing a strategic response of these humpback whales to the rapidly changing Arctic environment by extending their feeding period into the breeding period based on food availability.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mating is not the only reason why humpback whales sing

Male humpback whales make some of the most complex and...

Pesticides affect bees on a molecular level. An unprecedented study led by <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/">Queen Mary University of London</a> has revealed that the chemicals in pesticides affect bees on a molecular level. The researchers are calling for improved regulations on <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/pesticides-bees-productive-efficient/">pesticides</a> after discovering that they alter the gene activity among bumblebees.

The researchers used a new approach to analyze potential changes in the 12,000 genes of bumblebees after pesticide exposure. According to the study authors, the genes that were noticeably affected are most likely involved in a range of biological processes. 

“Governments had approved what they thought were ‘safe’ levels but pesticides intoxicate many pollinators, reducing their dexterity and cognition and ultimately survival,” said study lead author Dr. Yannick Wurm. “This is a major risk because pollinators are declining worldwide yet are essential for maintaining the stability of the ecosystem and for pollinating crops.”

“While newer pesticide evaluation aims to consider the impact on behavior, our work demonstrates a highly sensitive approach that can dramatically improve how we evaluate the effects of pesticides.”

For their investigation, the team exposed colonies of bumblebees to either clothianidin or imidacloprid at realistic concentrations. The experts found clothianidin had much stronger effects than imidacloprid. Both of these pesticides are still used worldwide, but were banned for outdoor use by the European Union in 2018.

Among worker bumblebees, the activity levels of 55 genes were changed by exposure to clothianidin, with 31 genes showing higher levels of activity and the rest showing lower activity levels. Among queen bumblebees, 17 genes were affected, with all but one showing higher levels of activity. The researchers suspect that some of the genes are trying to detoxify, while others are in the intermediate stages of intoxication.

“This shows that worker and queen bumblebees are differently wired and that the pesticides do not affect them in the same way,” said study first author Dr. Joe Colgan. “As workers and queens perform different but complementary activities essential for colony function, improving our understanding of how both types of colony member are affected by pesticides is vital for assessing the risks these chemicals pose.”

“We examined the effects of two pesticides on one species of bumblebee. But hundreds of pesticides are authorized, and their effects are likely to substantially differ across the 200,000 pollinating insect species which also include other bees, wasps, flies, moths, and butterflies.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1365294x">Molecular Ecology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: TJ Colgan

Pesticides affect bees on a molecular level

Pesticides affect bees on a molecular level. An unprecedented study...

Declining <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-bees-extinction/">bee populations</a> may not be the only reason plant pollination has been suffering in some regions. 

A new study has found that in New York, increased in agricultural activity has stunted the evolution of pollinators and as a result, millions of years of evolutionary history and diversity are in the process of being lost. 


Researchers from <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> led a study examining phylogenetic diversity among bee communities that pollinated apple orchards in New York. 

Phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships, and phylogenetic diversity shows the evolution and diversification of different species. Studying phylogenetic diversity within a community of pollinators can also help illustrate different environmental stresses that prompted evolutionary changes. 

However, most conservation research uses biodiversity and species population numbers to gauge how well a species is doing in an ecosystem. 

The researchers analyzed a decade of data documenting bee activity, species richness, and biodiversity in 27 apple orchards as well as bee evolutionary history. The team found that declines in bee populations alone were not enough to explain the decreases in pollination services in the orchards. 

Instead, the researchers were able to link increases in agricultural activity in the orchards to losses in phylogenetic diversity which suggests millions of years of evolution has been lost for bee communities in the area. The study compares the losses in diversity to a “pruning” of the bee tree of life. 

Without phylogenetic diversity, bee species in the orchards were more closely related and this negatively impacted pollination. In turn, apple yields and quality suffered. 

The study, published in the journal Science, shows that phylogenetic diversity should also be used to help measure species’ adaptability and resilience going forward. 

Biodiversity alone cannot be counted on as an accurate measurement of a healthy ecosystem. Evolution also needs to factor into the mix to gain a better understanding of how a species reacts to environmental changes. 
--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bee losses are not enough to explain pollination problems

Declining bee populations may not be the only reason plant...

600 more species may now be under threat of extinction. As habitat degradation, climate change, and human activities continue to threaten biodiversity, more and more species are experiencing drastic population declines. 

According to the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)</a>, over 26,500 species are now at risk of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/north-american-species-extinction/">going extinct</a>. But a new study has found that this number might be even higher and 600 species previously unaccounted for have lower populations than many had realized. 

The IUCN Red List is a regularly updated list of the world’s threatened species. Species are classified into five extinction risks categories with critically endangered being the highest risk category. The list is a collaborative effort among volunteer researchers who observe and analyze data on species distribution and population size. 

The IUCN Red List serves as an important conservation tool because it shows which species are most at risk and highlights trends in species declines, but it’s in dire need of a new update, according to researchers from <a href="https://www.ru.nl/english/">Radboud University</a>.

In a study published in the journal Conservation Biology, Luca Santini, an ecologist from Radboud University, described a new comprehensive method he designed to make the IUCN Red List as accurate and up to date as possible. 

“While this process is extremely important for conservation, experts often have a limited amount of data to apply the criteria to the more than 90,000 species that are currently covered by the Red List,” said Santini. “Often these data are of poor quality because they are outdated or inaccurate because certain species that live in very remote areas have not been properly studied. This might lead to species to be misclassified or not assessed at all.”

The new systematic approach allowed Santini to assess the extinction status of 600 species that had been impossible to evaluate prior.

Of those 600 species, the new study results showed that 20 percent are under threat of extinction like the brown-banded rail. The researchers also found that hundreds of species previously categorized as non-threatened should have their status changed to threatened, such as the Ethiopian striped mouse and the red-breasted pygmy parrot.

“This indicates that urgent re-assessment is needed of the current statuses of animal species on the Red List,” said Santini says.

Santini’s new method was designed to help red list conservation volunteers accurately gauge extinction risk for the world’s species by using land maps to illustrate how species distribution has changed over time. 

The method is meant to serve as a companion to other Red List assessment methods and to provide real-time updates. 

“Our vision is that our new method will soon be automated so that data is re-updated every year with new land cover information,” said Santini. “Thus, our method really can speed up the process and provide an early warning system by pointing specifically to species that should be re-assessed quickly.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

600 more species may now be under threat of extinction

600 more species may now be under threat of extinction....

According to a new study from the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> (UA), bigger dogs are more intelligent than small dogs, particularly when it comes to self-control and short-term memory. The researchers found that larger <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-not-smarter-cats/">dogs</a>, who also have bigger brains, have improved executive functioning and more control over their own behavior. 

Study lead study author and doctorate student Daniel Horschler is member of the UA's Arizona Canine Cognition Center.

“The jury is out on why, necessarily, brain size might relate to cognition,” said Horschler. “We think of it as probably a proxy for something else going on, whether it's the number of neurons that matters or differences in connectivity between neurons. Nobody's really sure yet, but we're interested in figuring out what those deeper things are.”


On the other hand, the size of a dog's brain was not found to be associated with all types of intelligence. For example, brain size was not a good indicator of how dogs would perform on social intelligence tests. The findings confirm previous research which demonstrated that brain size in primates is a strong predictor of executive functioning, but not other types of intelligence.

“Previous studies have been composed mostly or entirely of primates, so we weren't sure whether the result was an artifact of unique aspects of primate brain evolution,” said Horschler. “We think dogs are a really great test case for this because there's huge variation in brain size, to a degree you don't see in pretty much any other terrestrial mammals. You have chihuahuas versus Great Danes and everything in between.”

The current study was focused on data from more than 7,000 purebred domestic dogs from 74 breeds. The data came from the website Dognition.com, which instructs pet owners on how to test their dog’s cognitive abilities.

In the future, Horschler hopes to conduct comparative studies of cognitive abilities among variations of the same breed, such as the miniature poodle and the larger standard poodle, which are basically the same beyond their size.

“I'm really interested in how cognition evolves and how that arises biologically,” said Horschler. “We're coming to understand that brain size is in some way related to cognition, whether it's because of brain size specifically or whether it's a proxy for something else.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/10071">Animal Cognition</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

Larger dogs are more intelligent than smaller dogs, experts confirm

According to a new study from the University of Arizona...

Wildlife losses due to illegal hunting have overlooked climate consequences. Wildlife losses due to illegal hunting have overlooked climate consequences. A new study led by <a href="https://lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a> has revealed that the loss of animals, often as a result of illegal hunting, negatively impacts the carbon storage capacity of forests. Despite these consequences, however, this association is hardly ever addressed in climate policy negotiations. 

Many animals play an important role in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/color-fruit-evolved-attract-animals/">seed dispersal</a> for tropical trees, particularly large-seeded tree species that tend to have a higher wood density. The loss of animals directly affects the survival of these tree species, with cascading effects on the overall carbon storage capacity of tropical forests.

The researchers investigated the extent to which the link between wildlife losses and carbon storage capacity was addressed in forest governance. The team focused on a particular mechanism referred to as Reducing<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/grasslands-are-turning-into-a-source-of-harmful-emissions/"> Emissions</a> from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+).

The study revealed that while higher-level policy documents acknowledge the importance of biodiversity, hunting as a driver of forest degradation is rarely acknowledged. Furthermore, the link between fauna and forest ecosystem function was not mentioned in any documents.

According to the researchers, this may not be a simple oversight, but could be the result of a deliberate political choice to avoid adding further complexity to REDD+ negotiations and implementation. 

“Although biodiversity has moved from a side issue to an inherent feature over the last decade, we show that the ecological functions of biodiversity are still only mentioned superficially,” said study co-author Torsten Krause. “At the sub-national level, fauna and hunting were much more likely to be mentioned in project documents, but we still found no explicit mentioning of a link between defaunation and carbon storage capacity.”

The study highlights the fact that wildlife loss is essentially overlooked in both climate negotiations and forest governance.

“The assumption that forest cover and habitat protection equal effective biodiversity conservation is misleading, and must be challenged,” said study co-author Martin Reinhardt Nielsen. “The fact that defaunation and particularly the loss of large seed dispersers through unsustainable hunting have lasting repercussions throughout the forest ecosystem, must be acknowledged and considered in forest governance broadly, or we risk losing the forest for the trees.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests">Forests</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Wildlife losses due to illegal hunting have overlooked climate

Wildlife losses due to illegal hunting have overlooked climate consequences....

Biologists from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>, physicists at <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford</a>, and computer scientists from <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/">Simon Fraser University</a>, have discovered that the jackdaw bird sticks with its mate while in flock formation, even though this action negatively impacts the overall flock.

If every bird in a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mixed-species-foraging-flocks/">flock</a> follows a set of identical rules while flying in flock formation, a phenomenon known as collective behavior, the result is a flock that looks like a large moving organism. 

However, this recent study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/natecolevol/">Nature Ecology and Evolution</a>, has shown that not all birds stick to these rules.

"Like friends in a human crowd, pairs of jackdaws stick close together when flying at high speed within large flocks," said Dr. Alex Thornton, of Exeter’s <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/cornwall/research/facilitiesandcentres/cec/">Centre for Ecology and Conservation</a>. "This overturns our current understanding of how collective behaviour works, because all current models are based on the assumption that flock members are identical agents following identical rules.”

When flying together, pairs of jackdaws, which mate for life, use less energy during flight, as was found via a 3D model. However, when paired, they reduce the flock’s ability to properly react to predators by mixing up signals to alert other birds to danger.

[caption id="attachment_1872302" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/flock.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1872302" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/flock.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="650" /></a> Researchers tracked the movement of individual birds within a flock of jackdaws. Image Credit: Alex Thornton[/caption]

"Far from being 'mindless' agents, animals in many species are likely to face substantial cognitive demands to recognise and track specific individuals when moving as part of a group,” Dr. Thornton continued. "Our results call for a major rethinking of our understanding of collective behaviour in nature."

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bird flocks are heavily influenced by social relationships

Biologists from the University of Exeter, physicists at Stanford, and...

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> have discovered that when <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/hawks-hunters/">hawks</a> pursue their prey, they utilize a mix of several types of guidance law that could help design drones used for capturing rogue drones in crowded areas. 

To come to this theory, published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10454-z">Nature Communications</a>, Oxford’s Dr. Caroline Brighton and Professor Graham Taylor studied the flight trajectory of five captive Harris’ Hawks with high-speed cameras as they went after an artificial target.

“We filmed our hawks flying after a dummy bunny, which was an artificial target that we towed at speed around a series of pulleys laid out to produce an unpredictable course,” Dr. Brighton said. “Using video reconstruction techniques to measure the 3D trajectory of the hawk and its target, we then ran a computer simulation to see how closely the hawk's attack behaviour was modelled by different kinds of guidance law.”

One such guidance law, called proportional navigation, is used by both falcons and homing missiles to smoothly follow aerial targets. However, proportional navigation is not efficient at following zigzagging terrestrial prey in dense habitats. 

Hawks, however, can follow this kind of prey with a mixture of guidance law. They base their turn rate on the information pertaining to the angle between the direction to their target and their current flight direction. They also use information on the rate at which the direction to their target is changing to better their aim and reduce the risk of overshot. 

This combination of guidance law could be useful for designing drones meant to pursue and capture rogue drones in cluttered areas.

“Last year's Gatwick incident showed just how far we are from being able to remove rogue drones quickly and safely from a large open space, let alone the cluttered airspace of an urban environment,” Professor Taylor said. “Hawks are masters of close pursuit through clutter, so we think they have a thing or two to teach us about how to design a new kind of drone that can safely chase down another.”

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Ondrej Prosicky

The hunting methods used by hawks could help design new drones

Researchers from the University of Oxford have discovered that when...

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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

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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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



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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"

[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

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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...