Researchers recently revealed a stunning new species of sea slug glowing in the ocean's darkest depths. Known as the "mystery mollusk" or&nbsp;Bathydevius caudactylus, this nudibranch inhabits the ocean's midnight zone, one of Earth's least-explored realms.



This discovery is more than just a new name on a species list - it's an illuminating dive into our planet's vast, hidden ecosystems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mystery-mollusk-in-the-midnight-zone">Mystery mollusk in the midnight zone</h2>



The "mystery mollusk," Bathydevius caudactylus as the scientists officially named it, inhabits the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/highly-unusual-bacteria-discovered-in-deep-sea-corals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ocean's deep abyss</a>, also known as the midnight zone.



But this isn't just about a new species - it's about an exciting lifeline into understanding our planet's largest habitat in more depth.



Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (<a href="https://www.mbari.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MBARI</a>) Senior Scientist Bruce Robison steered this explorative venture.



“Thanks to MBARI’s advanced underwater technology, we were able to prepare the most comprehensive description of a deep-sea animal ever made," noted Robison.



"We've invested more than 20 years in understanding the natural history of this fascinating species of nudibranch. Our discovery is a new piece of the puzzle that can help better understand the largest habitat on Earth."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-identifying-the-mystery-mollusk">Identifying the mystery mollusk</h2>



This unusual sea creature was first spotted in the year 2000, during an expedition using the institute's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Tiburon. It was found gliding through the waters offshore of Monterey Bay at a depth of 2,614 meters (8,576 feet).



Confusion arose when the team initially struggled to identify this creature due to its anomalous appearance - a voluminous hood, a flat tail fringed with numerous, finger-like projections, and a set of colorful internal organs.



But after years of research and countless ROV sightings, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-pigs-unicumbers-strange-stunning-creatures-discovered-abyssal-plains-ccz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mystery</a> was solved - this strange creature is, in fact, a nudibranch or sea slug.



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="rLItWTv9qr-4019991-12187" type="single"]</div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-nudibranch-unlike-any-other">A nudibranch unlike any other</h2>



The mystery mollusk isn't your ordinary nudibranch. It's the first of its kind known to dwell in the immense open waters of the bathypelagic zone, a region 1,000 to 4,000 meters (3,300 to 13,100 feet) below the ocean surface.



Also, the sightings of this fascinating creature span the Pacific coast of North America, from Oregon to as far south as Southern California. Plus, similar creatures spotted by NOAA researchers in the Mariana Trench hint at the mollusk's potentially widespread existence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-survival-techniques-of-the-sea-slug">Survival techniques of the sea slug</h2>



Surviving in such harsh environments is no easy feat. How does the mystery mollusk manage? Interestingly, it has evolved unique survival strategies.



For instance, unlike most sea slugs that feed by rasping prey off the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-life-100-new-sea-creatures-found-in-chile/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seafloor</a>, it uses its cavernous hood to trap crustaceans, much like a Venus flytrap plant would do.



Moreover, to avoid predators, it has a clear body that blends with the surrounding waters and can emit a bright bioluminescence to deter and distract hungry predators. 



“When we first filmed it glowing with the ROV, everyone in the control room let out a loud ‘Oooooh!’ at the same time. We were all enchanted by the sight,” said MBARI senior scientist Steven Haddock.



“Only recently have cameras become capable of filming bioluminescence in high-resolution and in full color. MBARI is one of the only places in the world where we have taken this new technology into the deep ocean, allowing us to study the luminous behavior of deep-sea animals in their natural habitat.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nudibranch-family-tree-expands">Nudibranch family tree expands</h2>



Beyond its captivating appearance and survival tactics, what really stood out during the research was the mollusc's genetic uniqueness. 



Detailed examination of specific gene sequences emphasized that the mystery mollusk is distinct enough from other known nudibranchs to merit the creation of a new family, Bathydeviidae.



"What is exciting to me about the mystery mollusk is that it exemplifies how much we are learning as we spend more time in the deep sea, particularly below 2,000 meters," said Haddock.



"For there to be a relatively large, unique, and glowing animal that is in a previously unknown family really underscores the importance of using new technology to catalog this vast environment. The more we learn about deep-sea communities, the better we will be at ocean decision-making and stewardship.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wealth-of-deep-sea-discoveries">Wealth of deep-sea discoveries</h2>



This discovery is just one exciting piece in the puzzle of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-species-of-deep-sea-squid-discovered-that-broods-giant-eggs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deep-sea exploration</a>. MBARI's state-of-the-art technology has unveiled over 250 previously unknown deep-sea species to date, encouraging us to plunge deeper into these fascinating, otherworldly realms.



“Deep-sea animals capture the imagination. These are our neighbors that share our blue planet. Each new discovery is an opportunity to raise awareness about the deep sea and inspire the public to protect the amazing animals and environments found deep beneath the surface,” said Robison.



Indeed, each new discovery brings us one step closer to fully understanding and protecting our fascinating blue planet. And with this latest revelation of the mystery mollusk, we get to marvel at another fascinating dweller of the deep.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063724001845?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deep Sea Research</a>.



Image/ Video Credit: MBARI



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Mystery mollusk: Glowing sea slug found in the deep sea

Researchers recently revealed a stunning new species of sea slug glowing in the ocean's darkest depths. Known as the "mystery mollusk" or&nbsp;Bathydevius caudactylus, this nudibranch inhabits the ocean's midnight zone, one of Earth's least-explored realms. This discovery is more than just a new name on a species list - it's an illuminating dive into our planet's vast, hidden ecosystems. Mystery mollusk in the midnight zone The "mystery mollusk," Bathydevius caudactylus as the scientists officially named it, inhabits the ocean's deep abyss, also known as the midnight zone....

Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage. Moths have thick fur that works as a kind of acoustic camouflage by absorbing nearby sounds. The fur guards against bats which are a primary predator of moths and which use echolocation to hunt. 

Thomas Neil, a researcher from the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> who specializes in bioacoustics, and a team of colleagues examined the fur of moths and butterflies as part of an ongoing study of moths and their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/moths-darwins-theory-evolution/">evolved defenses</a>. 

Moths are a main source of prey for bats, and some moths have evolved special ears that detect the ultrasonic calls of bats. However, only a few species of moths have ears, and a vast majority of moths are deaf. 

Neil and his team wanted to find out how moths without hearing abilities are able to avoid predators like the bat. 

It turns out that moths have a furry coat that works as acoustic camouflage and muffles the sound of nearby bat calls. 

“Moth fur is thin and lightweight, and acts as a broadband and multidirectional ultrasound absorber that is on par with the performance of current porous sound-absorbing foams.” said Neil. 

First, Neil and his team used acoustic tomography, a kind of imaging technique that produces cross sections, and calculated the echo strength of two deaf moth<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/native-species-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-are-vanishing/"> species</a> and two butterfly species. 

The researchers then removed the thorax fur from the moths and butterflies, and while it had little impact on the butterflies, the lack of fur increased the risk of detection by 38 percent for the moths. 

“We found that the fur on moths was both thicker and denser than that of the butterflies, and these parameters seem to be linked with the absorptive performance of their respective furs,” said Neil. “The thorax fur of the moths was able to absorb up to 85 percent of the impinging sound energy. The maximum absorption we found in butterflies was just 20 percent.”Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage

Neil will present his latest findings on moth camouflage at the <a href="https://acousticalsociety.org/176th-meeting-acoustical-society-of-america/">Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting</a> this week.

The research sheds insight on how moths evolved to defend against bats and could help with creating effective sound absorbers. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Thomas Neil

Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage

Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage. Moths have...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.caryinstitute.org/">Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies</a> have found alarming levels of pharmaceutical compounds in stream insects. Out of 69 compounds, some were detected at concentrations that threaten the animals that feed on them, such as trout and platypus. Furthermore, the stream insects can pass the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/antidepressants-waterways-marine-life/">drugs</a> along to spiders, birds, and other streamside predators when they emerge as flying adults. 

Pharmaceutical pollution is present in surface waters worldwide. Most wastewater treatment facilities are not equipped to remove drugs from sewage, and aging septic tanks and pipes are contributing to the problem.

Study co-author Emma Rosi is an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute. 

“Stream life is swimming in a mixture of pharmaceuticals. Our study is the first to show that this chronic drug pollution can concentrate in aquatic insects and move up food webs, in some cases exposing top predators to therapeutically-relevant doses,” explained Rosi. 

The investigation was focused on six streams in Melbourne, Australia, where the  researchers screened for 98 pharmaceutical compounds including common drugs like antibiotics, antidepressants, antihistamines, and NSAIDs. The team collected aquatic insects and riparian spiders for testing.

[caption id="attachment_1861639" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/stream-drug-pollution.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1861639" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/stream-drug-pollution-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /></a> Image Credit: Stephen Hamilton[/caption]

Study lead author Erinn Richmond is a freshwater ecologist at <a href="https://www.monash.edu/">Monash University</a> in Australia. “We focused on riparian spiders because they build their webs over streams and feed on adult aquatic insects as they emerge from the water,” said Richmond. 


The analysis of tissues detected up to 69 different pharmaceutical compounds in aquatic insects and up to 66 compounds in riparian spiders. Insects collected downstream of wastewater treatment facilities or in heavily populated areas with potential septic tank leakage had the highest drug concentrations. Across these sites, pharmaceutical concentrations were an average of 10 to 100 times higher compared to sites with less contamination.

Study co-author Jerker Fick is a chemist at <a href="https://www.umu.se/en/">Umeå University</a> in Sweden who analyzed the insect and spider samples. 

“Insect tissues had drug concentrations that were orders of magnitude higher than concentrations measured in surface waters,” said Fick. “We also found a diverse suite of drugs in spiders, indicating that drugs are passed from the water to prey to predator, thereby exposing other animals in the food web to drugs.”

Richmond added: “Pharmaceuticals were present in every insect and spider we tested - including those collected in Dandenong Ranges National Park. Even this seemingly pristine site was contaminated, likely because people live in the park's drainage area and visit the park.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</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: Denise Illing

Stream animals found to be heavily contaminated by drug pollution

Researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies have found...

“You can hide as cleverly as you like, but in the final analysis mimicry is deception, pure and simple. It doesn't solve a thing,” says a character in Haruki Murakami’s IQ84. 

That might be true for humans, but in the animal world, mimicry has evolved as as essential adaptation in some species. This deception does indeed solve a problem: that of being eaten. Some animals mimic leaves, or rocks, or the substrate upon which they live, obscuring them from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/plants-use-camouflage/">predators</a>. Others possess markings that make them resemble predators themselves. Take, for example, the owlish “eyes” on the wings of many insects. 

While the camouflaging properties conferred by a resemblance to an inanimate object or a larger, dangerous, animal are obvious, some creatures have developed even more complex forms of mimicry. In Batesian mimicry, non-toxic species have evolved to mirror the aposematic patterns used by poisonous species to advertise their toxicity, thus protecting them in some measure from predators who are wary of such markings. That phenomenon was first noted by Henry Walter Bates <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1860.tb00146.x">in an 1862 paper</a> and was later taken up by Charles Darwin. 

Conversely, in Müllerian mimicry, one toxic species evolves to resemble another toxic species. The German scholar Fritz Müller first noted strong similarities between the markings of several species of poisonous Brazilian butterfly <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/Mim/muller1878.html">in 1878</a>. (He too communicated his findings to Darwin.) While all were toxic to birds and other animals that might think to prey upon them, they appeared to be copying each other in physical appearance. Among the butterflies he observed were those in the subfamily Heliconiinae, still among the most diverse and best studied groups of Müllerian mimics. Müller’s observations have since been borne out in observations of many other species. However, the validity of his original characterization is hotly debated, not least due to the overlapping Batesian characteristics of some putative Müllerian mimicry relationships. 

Per Müller’s reasoning, this form of mimicry evolved in less common, but still unpalatable species that shared a habitat with another distasteful, but more common species. This advergence allowed the two species to share the burden of predation by naive young birds and lizards. If, for example, a fledgling bird must sample a novel type of insect several times before learning that it is poisonous, relatively fewer members of each similarly patterned species will be taken. The bird population will have learned that the pattern shared by the less abundant species with the more abundant species signifies an inedible insect by eating some of the model species rather than its mimic and vice versa. 

If the less-common species had its own pattern, more would need to be sampled before the bird population wised up to its nasty taste, resulting in the death of more specimens of that butterfly. Though the benefits to the mimic species are greater, predation on the model species is slightly defrayed by the consumption of mimic specimens. 

In experiments where the patterns of Heliconius butterflies were obscured before they were released near insectivorous birds, the birds attempted to eat them. The butterflies were of the same species that the birds avoided when its natural coloring was visible. So, too, birds exposed to <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1646/02128">color morphs of toxic butterflies that did not share their range</a> sampled them with abandon, thereby supporting the notion of predator learning curves as a strong selective force. Such an arrangement strongly discourages the emergence of polymorphism in the mimic species. If it displays a novel pattern rather than the pattern of its model, it is that much more likely to be eaten.

[caption id="attachment_1861603" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/4362021301_26d1e7b43f_o.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1861603" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/4362021301_26d1e7b43f_o-744x1024.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="963" /></a> Ben Sale/Seitz Macrolepidoptera Volume V: THE AMERICAN RHOPALOCERA. Stuttgart 1924 - Page 76 (HELICONIUS)[/caption]

Model species, however, often do display polymorphism and mimics may follow these shifting colors and patterns as they vary across their shared range. This is known as a mimicry ring. The butterflies Heliconius erato and H. melpomene exhibit at least 30 color variations. Each variation is matched by the other species across the expanse of their co-distribution. 

If that seems remarkable, consider this: Müllerian mimicry frequently involves more than two species. In the Appalachian Mountains of the United States, a group of seven species of toxic millipede exists in a ring wherein coloration varies from locale to locale and <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/106/24/9755">all seven species at a given locale resemble the others</a>. The case of the millipedes is a particularly appealing illustration of Müllerian mimicry because they are all blind, ruling out the role of sexual selection in their coloration, as may be the case in butterflies and other animals. Intriguingly, in some species, one sex may exhibit Müllerian mimicry and the other not, <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1590/1135">as in the case of Asian pitvipers</a>. This is thought to be due to the differing habits of the sexes, which expose them to different predation risk.

All of this is complicated by the frequent imbalance in toxicity between mimics. Sometimes, the mimicking species is less toxic than the model species, blurring the boundaries between Müllerian and Batesian mimicry. Some have suggested that supposedly Müllerian mimicry relationships in which the mimic is less toxic than the model may actually be Batesian or parasitic. 

Because some specimens exhibiting the shared pattern are more palatable, the resemblance may actually result in more predation of the toxic model species by predators who have learned that is sometimes okay to eat specimens exhibiting those patterns. On this basis, it is asserted that true Müllerian mimicry is quite rare, as most such relationships contain species with unequal level of toxicity. 

To whit: several species of tiger moths mimic wasps and while the moths are toxic, they hardly possess the stopping power of a wasp sting. Such scenarios have been proposed as a possible selection pressure on certain model species who are evolving to resemble their tastier mimics less closely in order to reduce being mistaken for them. Then, there are the mimics who are in fact more toxic than their models, as in the case of the poison frog Dendrobates imitator. It mimics three different species, all of which are less toxic, depending on which species it occurs alongside. It may have been more evolutionarily parsimonious for D. imitator to resemble its more-common model species as it moved into their territories than to rely on its own aposematic signals to deter predation.

All of this suggests a more intricate schema for the development of shared aposematism than initially conceptualized by Bates and Müller. Further exceptions and modifications to the general rules for these relationships are sure to emerge as more species are studied. What’s sure is this: the sickening sartorial habits of toxic organisms reflect an evolutionary arms race belied by the fantastical colors and patterns that result.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: yakovlev.alexey/Flickr

Pretty poison and Müllerian mimicry: Teaming up to avoid predation

“You can hide as cleverly as you like, but in...

The Inaccessible Island rail, so named for the island it calls home, is the world’s smallest flightless bird. 

Inaccessible Island is one of five islands equal distance from South America and Argentina that are part of a cluster of extinct and active <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/japanese-volcanoes-magma-pool/">volcanoes</a>.

Steep cliffs and rocky beaches make the Inaccessible Island challenging to explore and so the island, and its wildlife has remained a mystery for hundreds of years. 

In 2011, four biologists from the <a href="https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a> in Sweden took a fieldwork trip to the island and in the process uncovered the evolutionary history of the Inaccessible Island rail.  

The rails are found only on the island and there are many mysteries about how and when the birds arrived. 

It was thought that the birds used a chain of land extensions called Atlantisia (long since submerged). But according to the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6351431/Scientists-discover-worlds-smallest-flightless-bird-descended-flying-ancestors.html">Daily Mail</a>, new research have revealed that early ancestors of the rail flew to the island 1.5 million years ago from South America. 

Over time, the rail evolved without flight because there were no threats on the island. 

The researchers used low nets to capture rails and then sequenced the genome of the birds. After gene sequencing, the researchers discovered that the Inaccessible Island rail’s closest relative was the Dot-winged crake. 

Dot-winges crakes can fly which means at one time, the rail was able to fly but lost this trait over time. 

“We’re quite sad because Atlantisia is a beautiful name with a beautiful history,” Martin Stervander, a member of the fieldwork team, told <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/inaccessible-island-rails-history">Atlas Obscura</a>. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Peter G Ryan/SWNS

How the world’s smallest flightless birds lost the ability to fly

The Inaccessible Island rail, so named for the island it...

Recent studies on orangutans are contradicting a new report from the Indonesian government, which claims that orangutan populations increased by more than ten percent from 2015 to 2017. Earlier this year, researchers found that over 100,000 orangutans were lost in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/orangutans-lost-borneo/">Borneo</a> between 1999 and 2015, and that the animals are still seriously threatened by deforestation and hunting.

“All three species of orangutan are Critically Endangered and on a steep decline. Their numbers are not increasing as indicated by the Indonesian government report,” said Erik Meijaard of <a href="http://www.borneofutures.org/about.html">Borneo Futures</a> and the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

Indonesia's research, which was focused on nine monitoring sites, suggests that the orangutan population doubled in a single year - growing from 1,153 orangutans in 2015 to 2,451 individuals in 2016.

According to the researchers, however, “it is biologically impossible for an orangutan population to double its size in a year.” They explained that any increase in those areas was inevitably preceded by a reduction elsewhere.

Furthermore, the sites accounted for by the Indonesian government represent less than five percent of the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan's range. One group, the Tapanuli orangutan, is left out of the estimates altogether. The study authors said that it is “scientifically unjustified to extrapolate population trends from these sampling sites to the total range of all three species.”

Meijaard explained that the Indonesian government is now in the process of developing a new 10-year action plan for orangutan conservation.

“If the government thinks that orangutan populations are increasing, it calls for completely different strategies compared to those required for dealing with rapidly decreasing populations,” said Meijaard. “It is important that the government realizes that populations remain in decline. Therefore, a new approach to orangutan conservation is needed.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</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: HUTAN-KOCP

Despite Indonesia’s claims, orangutans are still on the decline

Recent studies on orangutans are contradicting a new report from...

Australia’s long-lasting and severe drought, known as the “Big Dry,” has been persisting for years in some parts of the country and is devastating populations of Australia's iconic animals. 

The drought is shrinking greenery and with it, food and water for many animals like kangaroos, Koalas, emus, wombats, and echidnas. 

Unable to adapt to the drought while farmers work to reserve grazing areas for their livestock, wildlife in Australia are taking more risks, traveling farther, and venturing into more populated areas in search of food. 

As a result, wildlife rescuers are seeing an increase in traffic incidents from animal crossings and abandoned young. 

In the last three years, there has been a 20 percent increase in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/emus-australian-drought/">wildlife traffic incidents</a>, according to insurance reports from Australia. 

Many drivers in North America don’t have to be reminded of the hazard of driving during peak deer season in the fall. 

Deer can do untold amounts of damage to a car, and in Australia, kangaroos pose a similar risk and drivers are being cautioned not to swerve when faced with a potential collision. 

“People don't want to hurt the animal because that's understandable, but sometimes you just need to learn you don't swerve, you just have to brake,” Australian farmer, Sandra Ireson, told the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6340625/Perilous-times-Australia-wildlife-amid-severe-drought.html">Daily Mail</a>. “And you may have to injure the animal, which is disappointing but that's better than having a disastrous accident.”

The <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6340625/Perilous-times-Australia-wildlife-amid-severe-drought.html">Daily Mail</a> reported on the steep declines in wildlife populations due to the drought and stated that the animals are not able to adapt quickly enough to the changes. As a result, many populations are struggling to survive. 

Many animals are traveling outside of their known habitats and human-wildlife encounters are increasing. 

“We're finding a lot more wallabies with blindness because they're actually coming out into the open paddocks searching for food, and their eyes are unable to cope with full sunlight,” Rachel Walker, a wildlife rescuer told the Agence France-Presse. 

Since 2016, there has been a 52 percent increase in marsupial rescues, according to the rescue group <a href="https://www.wires.org.au/">WIRES</a>. 

In some parts of New South Wales, kangaroos have been particularly hard hit, with one ecologist reporting a 90 percent decline in the local kangaroo population. 

At this point, there is no telling when the big dry will be over, and climate change is projected to cause more droughts worldwide. 

With Australia's wildlife unable to cope with the changes, conservation measures will need to take into account wildlife populations as well as agricultural operations to preserve the country’s rich biodiversity while still allowing farming communities to keep their livelihoods.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Severe drought in Australia has led to serious declines in wildlife

Australia’s long-lasting and severe drought, known as the “Big Dry,”...

No need to feel guilty when you snack on "junk food" like fish sticks – at least, not on the environmental front. They’re surprisingly sustainable, according to a new study by the <a href="https://www.mcsuk.org/">Marine Conservation Society</a>.

The society has released a “Good Fish Finger Guide” on its website to help people choose snacks with the lowest negative impact on marine life.

“Consumers may not be aware that the majority of fish in retail own brand and branded fish fingers actually comes from sustainable sources,” said Rajina Gurung, a sustainable seafood advocate with MCS. “Some saver brands even turned out to be the most sustainable, showing that you do not have to pay a fortune for sustainability.”

Gurung and colleagues analyzed 48 different brands of fish sticks – called fish fingers in the UK – to determine what kinds of fish they use and where they get their supplies. 

They found that the fish sticks contained one or more of just four species: Atlantic cod, Pacific cod, haddock and Alaska pollock. The majority got their fish ingredients from sustainable sources, the study found.

So why don’t more customers know that? The problem is one of labeling, Gurung said.

Forty percent of the fish sticks brands didn’t have a credible eco-label, and only 19 percent included enough details for buyers to know where and how their fish ingredients were caught. But with a little digging, it wasn’t hard for Gurung and her team to find out more about their fish supplies.

“By and large most of the supermarkets and brands we were in contact with were forthcoming with providing the information regarding the origins of the fish within their fish fingers. We’re now considering focusing on other processed products that are available through retail or food service outlets,” she said. 

To find out more, visit the <a href="https://www.mcsuk.org/responsible-seafood/fish-finger-guide">Good Fish Finger Guide</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Save the oceans – eat more fish sticks

No need to feel guilty when you snack on "junk...

A new method of surveying whale populations using satellites could prove valuable for studying endangered whales in remote areas. 

As <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/whales-quiet-shipping-noise/">whales</a> face increasing threats from human activities, pollution, and climate change, it’s vital to monitor whale populations, especially those that are critically endangered. 

For example, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/north-atlantic-right-whales/">North Atlantic right whale,</a> of which there are thought to be only 450 left, is one of the most critically endangered large whale species on Earth. 

Monitoring these mega mammals is often easier said than done as many populations frequent inaccessible regions. 

But now, researchers from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> and the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/">British Antarctic Survey</a> have conducted a study using high-resolution satellite images to track four species of whale. 

“Whales live in all oceans,” said Hannah Cubaynes, the lead author of the study. “Many areas are difficult to access by boats or planes, the traditional means of monitoring whales. The ability to track whales without traveling to these remote and inaccessible areas, in a cost-effective way, will be of great benefit to conservation efforts for whales.”

The study was published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, and already the research has helped identify ten inaccessible whale populations that would benefit from satellite monitoring.

The researchers used images from <a href="https://www.maxar.com/">Maxar Technologies</a>’ DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 satellite to target the known regions where certain species of whale are concentrated. 

The researchers analyzed seven expansive open ocean images taken by the satellite covering 5,000 kilometers squared of the ocean’s surface in total. 

Southern right whales were observed via satellite off the coast of Argentina, humpback whales were monitored near Hawaii, fin whales were in the Mediterranean, and grey whales were recorded off the coast of Mexico. 

“This is the most detailed imagery of whales captured by satellites to date,” said Cubaynes. “It's exciting that the improved resolution (now at 30 cm) reveals characteristic features, such as flippers and flukes, which can be seen in the images for the first time.”

Some species of whale were easier to identify than others because fin and grey whales have distinct coloring that contrasts the color of their surroundings. Humpbacks, on the other hand, blend in more and also are more agile in the water. 

“This new technology could be a game-changer in helping us to find whales remotely,” said Jennifer Jackson, a co-author of the study. “Critically endangered whale populations like the Chile-Peru right whale (thought to winter in Patagonia) could really benefit from this approach.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists use satellites to monitor endangered whale populations

A new method of surveying whale populations using satellites could...

A new project called the <a href="https://www.earthbiogenome.org/">Earth BioGenome Project</a> (EBP) has been launched in an effort to find new ways of protecting <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/protecting-biodiversity-political-action/">biodiversity</a> while sustaining human societies. The goal of the project is to sequence the genomes of all the plants, animals, fungi, and protozoa on the planet over a period of ten years.

The experts behind the project wrote in <a href="http://www.pnas.org/">PNAS</a>:

“Powerful advances in genome sequencing technology, informatics, automation, and artificial intelligence have propelled humankind to the threshold of a new beginning in understanding, utilizing, and conserving biodiversity.”

“For the first time in history, it is possible to efficiently sequence the genomes of all known species and to use genomics to help discover the remaining 80–90% of species that are currently hidden from science.”

The scientists explained that the outcomes of the EBP will inform a broad range of issues, including the impact of climate change on biodiversity and the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems.

In collaboration with the Natural History Museum, the <a href="https://www.sanger.ac.uk/">Wellcome Sanger Institute</a> is leading the initiative. Dr Tim Littlewood is the head of the Life Sciences department at the museum. 

“Whether you are interested in food, disease, or speciation, the history of how every organism on the planet has diverged and adapted to its environment is recorded in its genetic makeup,” said Dr. Littlewood. “How you then harness that is dependent on your ability to understand it.” 


In PNAS, the researchers suggested that life on Earth still holds an incredible amount of untapped potential. 

For example, invertebrates such as sponges, mollusks, and cone snails have contributed to several drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating cancer, viral infections, and pain. Fungi are the basis for fermentation to produce wine, beer, and bread, while plants are the basis of major industries, such as food and rubber.

“Unimaginable biological secrets are held in the genomes of the millions of known and unknown organisms on our planet. This ‘dark matter’ of biology could hold the key to unlocking the potential for sustaining planetary ecosystems on which we depend and provide life support systems for a burgeoning world population,” wrote the scientists.

The data collected for the Earth BioGenome Project will be made freely available in public databases.

The initiative is detailed in the paper “Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life,” which is published in PNAS.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Sequencing the DNA of every living creature to protect biodiversity

A new project called the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) has...

The scientists who engineered the program that led to Sarah Manning and her clonal “sis-strahs” on the hit show Orphan Black have nothing on the marbled crayfish Procambaria virginalis. They may have managed to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/clone-woolly-mammoth/">clone</a> two lines of humans, but this species of crayfish is the only species of decapod crustacean to obligately clone itself. It appears to have developed this bizarre ability as a result of a genetic accident, possibly in captivity. And its strange reproductive talents—aided by careless humans—have resulted in crustacean invasions on three continents.

The best evidence shows that the story begins in 1995. A German aquarist and biologist purchased a bag of what he was told were “Texas crayfish” at an aquarium show in Frankfurt. He soon found that the specimens that he purchased did not require males to breed, and were instead parthenogenetic. That is, the all-female population created viable eggs without sperm from a male. 

Though parthenogenesis occurs in some lower species of crustacean, such as Daphnia, it is nearly absent from the 15,000 species of decapod crustaceans, which include shrimp, lobsters and crabs as well as crayfish. Several other species of crayfish appear to be facultatively parthenogenetic. That is, they may clone themselves under certain circumstances. But P. virginalis appears to be the only obligate cloning species. It cannot reproduce in any other way. 

By 2003, the so-called  “marmorkrebs”—German for “marbled crab,” after their marbled coloration—were no longer just an aquarium novelty. They had found their way into German waterways. A free-living population was discovered in southwestern Germany, presumably introduced by an overwhelmed hobbyist who did not know what to do with a tank full of crayfish that kept replicating themselves like mogwais under a sprinkler.

Following this alarming revelation, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/421806a">intensive studies</a> were initiated in an attempt to isolate the origins of these insidious creatures. They are believed to be an aberrant form of a U.S. species native to Florida and southern Georgia, the slough crayfish, Procambarus fallax—not Texan at all. Genetic analysis has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0467-9">confirmed their relation</a> and in fact, slough crayfish will mate with marbled crayfish in captivity. It just doesn’t do any good. The slough crayfish, which reproduces sexually in the wild, cannot successfully pass its genes along to the marbled crayfish. The marbled species already has more than enough of them. 

Unlike most animals, which are diploid, meaning that they possess two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent, the marbled crayfish is triploid. It possesses three sets of chromosomes, totalling 276. Two sets of 92 appear relatively identical and the third is slightly different. This may have occurred due to a mutation in which one parent passed down two sets of chromosomes instead of one or may have happened as a result of temperature shock in the egg stage, which can cause autotriplody. The species possesses 3.5 billion base pairs, making it larger than the human genome according to a recent study, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0467-9">the first to sequence a decapod crustacean genome</a>. 

<a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/a-parthenogenetic-crayfish-reproduces-without-sex-is-it-a-new-species/">Some have questioned</a> whether this unique genetic status actually constitutes an incidence of speciation or not. P. virginalis does not occur in the wild—introduced or otherwise—in the U.S. And it cannot interbreed with P. fallax despite its possession of a similar genome. Yet, P. fallax is clearly the parent species and the two are nearly indistinguishable side by side. <a href="http://bio.biologists.org/content/early/2015/10/23/bio.014241">It has been proposed that epigenetic adaptations</a> have allowed the marbled crayfish to expand beyond its parents’ balmy range into the more temperate climes of Europe. 

This geographic separation and the inability to breed with the parent species do seem to support the notion that P. virginalis has in fact speciated. Whether a true species or not, its clonal habits should, at least per some versions of evolutionary theory, put the marbled crayfish at a disadvantage. It should be less able to adapt to disease and other environmental pressures due to its lack of genetic variation. Yet, its epigenetic capabilities have so far defied this rule of evolution. In fact, despite its genomic similarity, the marbled crayfish has demonstrated remarkable phenotypic variation, with different sized and colored specimens being found in different areas.

This evident flexibility has allowed the marbled crayfish to spread rapidly in the three decades since its introduction into the wild. Crayfish are omnivorous and eat voraciously, consuming anything from smaller fish, invertebrates, and their eggs to plants and debris. Their flexible diet makes them a prime candidate for invasion of new territories. The additional reproductive capacity of this species further increases its invasive potential. 

Over its three year lifespan, it may produce some seven batches of eggs, each containing hundreds of clones. The marmorkreb is now found in Sweden, Ukraine, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and the Czech Republic as well as in Germany. And populations have been found in Japan and Madagascar as well. These introductions, like any species invasion, are alarming for a number of reasons. In Europe, they may herald the out-competition of native species and the transmission of Aphanomyces astaci, known as crayfish plague. 

North American species are resistant to the pathogen, but it can devastate populations of crayfish in other parts of the world. Madagascar, a delicate island ecosystem already under threat, has seven native species of crayfish that may be quickly displaced by the rapidly reproducing marmorkrebs. 

The European Union <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32014R1143">banned</a> their sale and keeping in 2014, with exceptions for research. This research may be the saving grace of an otherwise pestilent species. Scientists have begun using the marbled crayfish as a model organism and have even used its epigenetic plasticity as a way of understanding cancer cells, which also survive by switching on and off various parts of the genome.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

The strange problem of the self-cloning crayfish

The scientists who engineered the program that led to Sarah...

Earlier this week, China announced its decision to weaken a ban on the trade of rhino and tiger parts. Parts from the captive animals will now be legalized for specific scientific or medical uses. 

According to the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/">BBC</a>, tiger bones and rhino horns are used in China to treat a variety of medical conditions - such as fever, gout, insomnia, and meningitis - despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence to prove that they are effective for these ailments. 

Critics say that China's new legislation will not be easy to enforce and that it will lead to an increase in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/asian-lion-bone-market-poaching/">illegal poaching.</a>

Also this week, a major study by the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/">World Wildlife Fund</a> (WWF) has revealed that 60 percent of the world’s mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been wiped out since the 1970s as a result of human activities.

The WWF said in a statement that the move by China is an “enormous setback” to efforts to protect the animals. 

“Even if restricted to antiques and use in hospitals, this trade would increase confusion by consumers and law enforcers as to which products are and are not legal, and would likely expand the markets for other tiger and rhino products,” the WWF said.

Kate Brooks is the director of a new documentary film, The Last Animals, which will be released in the United States next spring. The film is focused on the efforts of activists who are fighting to end poaching and protect the world's remaining rhinos and elephants.

“Governments are increasingly acknowledging that there is a convergence between the criminal networks involved in wildlife trafficking, human trafficking, and drugs and weapons smuggling,” Brooks told <a href="http://time.com/5438770/illegal-wildlife-trade-last-animals/?utm_source=emailshare&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=email-share-article&amp;utm_content=20181031">Time</a>.

“The poachers themselves are disposable foot soldiers. It’s hard not to feel compassion for them too, knowing they are being exploited. But they are going armed into protected spaces and killing people, as well as animals.”

Brooks said that poaching is primarily an issue of organized crime. According to Time, the illegal wildlife trade is worth $23 billion a year, and is responsible for the deaths of 7,000 rhinos and 200,000 elephants in the last decade.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

China to weaken its ban on the trade of rhino and tiger parts

Earlier this week, China announced its decision to weaken a...

A new poll, commissioned by <a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/">World Animal Protection</a>, shows a meaningful shift in the way travelers view inhumane animal activities such as elephant rides, swimming with the dolphins excursions, and animal selfies.

For all ages, the poll found a 9 percent drop in the number of people who believe elephant riding is acceptable compared to three years ago. Over 80 percent of tourists stated they would prefer to view animals in their natural environment.

The poll also found that millennial travelers were the most compassionate age group. Jennifer Yellin, Senior Vice President at Northstar, a research firm that conducted focus groups for World Animal Protection said in a <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/next-generation-of-travellers-are-opting-out-of-harmful-animal-activities-694471931.html">press release</a>, "There is a relationship between age and travel activity choice when it comes to animal welfare. For example, people under 35 are more aware of animal cruelty issues. This age segment, more so than older travelers, voice greater interest in seeing animals in their natural habitats rather than forced interactions like swimming with dolphins."

Young people are known for their interest in traveling and enjoying experiences over material possessions. The desire to have exciting experiences can draw people towards inhumane animal attractions, which often promise hands-on opportunities to play with and take photos of wild animals. Despite this, young people seem to be conscientious of animal welfare when making traveling decisions.

Animal attractions are a common site throughout the world. To unsuspecting travelers, these attractions may seem like a safe haven for wild animals. After all, inhumane animal attractions often try to market themselves this way by using words such as “sanctuary” and by claiming they rescued the animals.

A<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138939"> comprehensive study</a> that examined the welfare of animals in 24 different types of wildlife attractions found that 14 attraction types had negative animal welfare and conservation impacts including captive dolphin interactions, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/captive-elephants-shorter-lives/">elephant</a> parks, and tiger encounters.

The elephant parks in Asia are a particularly prominent animal attraction. There has been a<a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.au/sites/default/files/au_files/taken_for_a_ride_report.pdf"> 30 percent rise</a> in the number of elephant attractions in Thailand since 2010. These attractions offer opportunities to ride, touch and bathe elephants. 

According to<a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.dk/sites/default/files/se_files/elephant_ride_report_a4.pdf"> World Animal Protection</a>, elephants used for rides undergo a cruel breaking-in process where they are isolated, restrained and struck at a young age to make them accept human riders. A<a href="https://animalnepal.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/report-an-elephant-is-not-a-machine.pdf"> survey</a> by Animal Nepal of 42 elephant safaris found that over 80 percent of the elephants lived in unsuitable conditions.

The new poll shows a promising change in consumer attitude towards animal attractions, especially among the new wave of travelers.

"It's very encouraging to know that young travelers are increasingly considering the wellbeing of animals in their plans.  We know that vacationers don't want to harm wildlife, in fact polling shows that most people participate in harmful wildlife attractions because they like animals.  This movement away from captive wildlife attractions is about education and working with travel companies to improve policies," says Josey Kitson, Executive Director of World Animal Protection Canada in the press release.

The poll comes a few years after TripAdvisor <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/blog/our-ongoing-commitment-to-animal-welfare/">announced</a> that they are no longer selling tickets to attractions where travelers can touch wild animals and Instagram <a href="https://help.instagram.com/859615207549041">announced</a> that wildlife hashtags will come with a notification warning about potential animal abuse.

--

By <a href="mailto:brianna.grant134@gmail.com">Brianna Lynne</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Young people are increasingly rejecting inhumane animal activities

A new poll, commissioned by World Animal Protection, shows a...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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



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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

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