Ecologists have long sought to understand the dietary habits of different animal species. In a recent study, researchers have explored the puzzling question of how competing herbivores in Yellowstone National Park, which feed on grasses, wildflowers, and trees, manage to find enough food to survive the winter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hunting-strategies-of-yellowstone-s-herbivores-nbsp">Hunting strategies of Yellowstone’s herbivores&nbsp;</h2>



Over a two-year period, using advanced molecular biology tools and GPS tracking data, the research team was able to identify not only what herbivores in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstone-tourism-generates-over-1-megaton-carbon-annually/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yellowstone</a> consume, but also the strategies they use to find food throughout the year.



“In Yellowstone, we know vegetation changes across seasons, but until now, we didn’t know how these seasonal changes influenced what animals eat or how they sustained themselves when options were limited,” said lead author Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun, a postdoctoral research associate at <a href="https://www.brown.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brown University</a>.&nbsp;



“It turns out that while species eat similar categories of food, their diets differ from one another in cryptic and nuanced ways. And an animal’s body size plays an important role in how this is achieved.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fluctuating-food-supplies">Fluctuating food supplies</h2>



For years, ecologists have debated how wildlife should cope with fluctuations in their food supplies, explained co-author Tyler Kartzinel, an associate professor of ecology, evolution, and organismal biology at Brown.



Some experts propose that animals should diversify their diets to cater to their preferences when they have more choices in summer, Kartzinel said.&nbsp;



Others suggest that animals are more likely to diversify what they eat during challenging periods, like winter, when competition for food is fierce, and they might have to settle for less desirable options.



“These opposing predictions couldn’t both be true, so it wasn’t at all clear how Yellowstone's assemblage of herbivore species - with such a diversity of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fish-foraging-behavior-changing-climate-warming-waters/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foraging behaviors</a> - could succeed in finding enough food throughout the year,” Kartzinel said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-the-behavior-of-competing-animals">Tracking the behavior of competing animals</h2>



To investigate, the researchers used two years of GPS tracking and dietary DNA data to explore how dietary variation changes during times of resource scarcity and abundance for five of Yellowstone’s most iconic species: <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-influences-the-movement-of-plains-bison/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bison</a>, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelope.



Staff at Yellowstone tracked the animals, while researchers at Brown, including many undergraduate students supervised by Littleford-Colquhoun, analyzed fecal samples using a sophisticated molecular technique called metabarcoding. This method helped determine what foods the animals had eaten.



The study revealed that all species took advantage of the seasonal abundance of wildflowers in summer. However, in winter, each species focused its foraging efforts on the specific plant types it was best suited to compete for.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-feeding-behaviors-are-linked-to-animal-size-nbsp">Feeding behaviors are linked to animal size&nbsp;</h2>



The researchers also found that feeding behaviors were linked to the animal's body size. Smaller species, like deer and sheep, spread out across summer meadows, significantly broadening their diets before gathering in sheltered valleys to survive the winter on leftover vegetation.&nbsp;



In contrast, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forest-biodiversity-benefits-from-large-herbivores-like-elephants-and-moose/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">larger animals</a>, such as bison, displayed the opposite behavior: in winter, their size allowed them to avoid competing for dwindling resources, so they ventured into deep snow to access food reserves that were out of reach for smaller species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-competing-animals-are-surprisingly-adaptable">Competing animals are surprisingly adaptable</h2>



“The study showed that these species can feed far more adaptably than anyone had previously assumed,” Littleford-Colquhoun said.&nbsp;



“All species switch the ways they search for food, but the opportunities an individual bison has to fuel its migration or survive a hard winter might only work for it because it’s big. Meanwhile, other species might need to group together for protection in winter because they’re small.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-broader-implications-of-the-study">Broader implications of the study</h2>



So, should animals diversify their diets in summer or winter? According to Kartzinel, the answer depends on the species.



“Because of the variety of ways animals behaved in our study, we learned that both hypotheses about how animals fuel their migrations were right, but in different ways and at different times,” Kartzinel said.&nbsp;



“So the question that biologists should have been bickering about for the past generation shouldn't have been, ‘Which foraging strategy is right?’ but rather, ‘When does each strategy work best for a given group of animals?’”



Kartzinel hopes that these more refined insights into foraging behaviors will encourage scientists to adopt a more tailored approach to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildlife-conservation-can-help-stabilize-the-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wildlife conservation</a>.



“If we want to help wildlife populations thrive, we should be maintaining a diversity of habitats and plant resources across their migratory corridors so that many animals, each with their own preferences, personalities and needs, can find what's best to fuel their journey,” Kartzinel concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240136" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal Society Open Science</a>.



-----



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How do competing animals manage to find enough food?

Ecologists have long sought to understand the dietary habits of different animal species. In a recent study, researchers have explored the puzzling question of how competing herbivores in Yellowstone National Park, which feed on grasses, wildflowers, and trees, manage to find enough food to survive the winter. Hunting strategies of Yellowstone’s herbivores&nbsp; Over a two-year period, using advanced molecular biology tools and GPS tracking data, the research team was able to identify not only what herbivores in Yellowstone consume, but also the strategies they use to find...

A series of devastating photos recently taken by French photographer Fabrice Guerin are just another in a long string of evidence showcasing how bad the world’s marine plastic crisis has gotten. 

The pictures show an Arctic polar bear chewing on a black plastic garbage bag in a futile effort to find food.

[caption id="attachment_1217213" align="aligncenter" width="518"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/polar-bear-plastic2.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1217213" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/polar-bear-plastic2.png" alt="" width="518" height="624" /></a> Image Credit: Fabrice Guerin/Caters News Agency[/caption]

Guerin took the photos while visiting the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard in Norway, and once again showcase how plastic is quite literally everywhere.

Earlier in the year, photos of sea life in the nature preserve of the Galapagos Islands had many experts scrambling to target the source of the plastic and clean up the critical habitat. Plastic waste has even been found at the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mariana-trench-plastic-trash/">depths of the Mariana Trench</a>. 

According to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a>, there is an estimated nine million tons of plastic dumped into the ocean each year with little signs of slowing down. 

The plastic poses a direct threat to marine wildlife and animals that live and hunt near the water like polar bears and seabirds. 

“We were surprised to see this magnificent animal had a plastic bag in his mouth. Fortunately, he didn't swallow it whole,” Guerin said. “I never thought to see some plastic in this area but I do know there is no frontier for plastic waste. The global production of plastic rises every year and we discover  bottles and plastic bags mostly everywhere.” 

The photos also illustrate the importance of ocean conservation and clean up efforts like the massive initiative to clean up the <a href="https://www.theoceancleanup.com/milestones/road-to-the-cleanup/">Great Pacific Garbage Patch</a>, which is slated to launch in September of 2018. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Fabrice Guerin/Caters News Agency

Arctic polar bear photographed chewing on plastic garbage bag

A series of devastating photos recently taken by French photographer...

A new study led by the <a href="http://www.utu.fi/en/">University of Turku</a> in Finland has investigated the well-being of captive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/elephants-survival-tropical-tree/">elephants</a> who were caught in the wild. The researchers found that wild-caught elephants have an average life expectancy that is several years shorter compared to that of captive-born elephants.

The analysis was focused on data that spanned nearly a century and included the records of over 5,000 timber elephants in Myanmar. A large dataset, which was based on detailed records, enabled the researchers to develop a predictive model on elephant survival after capture.

“Our analysis reveals that wild-captured elephants had lower survival chances than captive-born elephants regardless of how they'd been captured, whether by stockade of whole groups, lassoing single elephants, or immobilisation by sedation,” said lead author Dr. Mirkka Lahdenpera. 

“This means that all these methods had an equally negative effect on the elephant's subsequent life. We also found that older elephants suffered the most from capture; they had increased mortality compared to elephants caught at younger ages.”

Millions of wild animals are captured alive each year for many different purposes. While some species are known to thrive in captivity, elephants have a much higher risk of dying when they are taken out of the wild.

Elephants face the highest risk of death in the year following their capture. Even though this risk decreases in subsequent years, the negative effects of being taken captive have been found to last for as long as a decade.


Elephants have been employed in logging camps in Myanmar for centuries, where wild-caught and captive-born animals work and live side by side. Both groups of elephants are tamed and trained before entering the workforce. However, wild-captured elephants are often exposed to harsher treatment depending on their age, sex, and personality.

“The long-term overall cost of capture and taming resulted in a median lifespan that is 3-7 years shorter than that of captive-born elephants,” said study senior author Virpi Lummaa. 

“Capturing elephants to sustain captive populations is, consequently, detrimental, because it not just reduces wild populations of this endangered species, but it also cannot provide a viable solution to sustain captive populations. These wild-caught animals live shorter lives and reproduce poorly in captivity.”


Changes in the social environment, long-term stress due to capture, and taming practices are all potential contributing factors to the shorter life of wild-captured elephants.

“We ought to find alternative and better methods to boost captive populations of elephants,” said Dr. Lahdenpera. “Even today, over 60 percent of elephants in zoos are captured from the wild and about a third of all remaining Asian elephants now live in captivity.”

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: Virpi Lummaa

Elephants don’t live as long when they’re taken out of the wild

A new study led by the University of Turku in...

I remember standing at the top of a hillside in a field biology camp in Madagascar.  At night from a high vantage point, it seemed like you could always see a fire burning somewhere.  The little far off eruptions of flames in the dark, tropical night were eerie and haunting. Knowing what the fires meant is what made them tragic.  

Today roughly 90% of Madagascar’s spectacularly unique forests have been destroyed, and much of the destruction has come from slash and burn agriculture, or as the fires are called locally. tavy.  The problem with tavy is that in the end, the land is left bereft of the nutrients that supported vegetation such as forest or the later rice paddies.  When the land is eventually abandoned after its usefulness, erosion often occurs and it’s extremely hard for forests to reclaim the land in the short-term.  It’s said that from space, Madagascar looks like it’s bleeding from the run-off of red soil in the oceans surrounding the island nation. 

People have been living on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/toxic-toad-species-madagascar/">Madagascar</a> for only about 2,000 years, a very short time when considering how long people have lived in Africa, Asia or even North America and Australia.  People arrived on Madagascar probably by boat from both Africa and Asia and brought agriculture with them. Rice paddies dominate much of the land in Madagascar, hills are terraced extensively to grow rice, I even saw a large rice paddy bordering directly on a trash landfill.  Cattle are also common, with the Zebu breed of cow, which looks similar to Brahmas being popular. Men herding cows down roads on foot is a common thing to see in Madagascar. I’ve ridden in public transportation past men bedded down by highways with their cows at night cooking over small campfires.  

The problem with the agricultural methods of Madagascar is that they were largely brought to the country from places with more land.  Asia and Africa are both much larger than Madagascar and rice and cattle agriculture has developed in each respectively over long periods.  The total land in Madagascar is only 224,632 sq. miles compared to mainland Africa at 11.73 million sq. miles and Asia at 17.21 million sq. miles.

It’s not only clearing land for more agriculture that’s burning up Madagascar’s forest.  It’s also charcoal. Even mangrove forests and marshes are burned to create charcoal. 

Charcoal production and agriculture are both driven by a basic desire to survive.  Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest nations and people do what they must just to get by.  I saw kids less than ten years old dressed in taters, filling potholes in public roads in the hopes that drivers would give them a few coins for their labor.  It was common when eating at a restaurant to see people standing outside a window by your table, watching you eat and hoping you’d be generous enough to give a piece of bread from your meal.  A reforestation effort I was working on paid locals five dollars a day to plant trees and for that price, dozens of people always lined up, eager to work. Some non-profit organizations pay Malagasy people (locals) in rice instead of money for their labors but the situation is so desperate that they still have no problem finding workers.  Funerals for people in their twenties and thirties were depressingly commonplace and I attended or was invited (as a volunteer) to at least a dozen funerals in the small community I stayed at in five months. I wasn’t in one of the poorer parts of Madagascar either. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/01/madagascar-the-country-thats-poor-but-not-poor-enough-for-aid">The Guardian</a> reported in 2015 that almost 1.9 million people in Southern Madagascar don’t have secure food supplies.  According to the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/countries/madagascar_en">European Commission</a>, 92% of Madagascar’s population lives on less than $2 per day.         

Over the years I’ve heard many people express a variety of opinions on what must be done to save the forests of Madagascar.  It’s no wonder people want to save Madagascar, the rainforests, spiny forests, desert, even the reefs surrounding Madagascar are home to spectacular wildlife.  <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/06/madagascar-biodiversity-600-species-discovered">The Guardian</a> reported in 2011 that in the previous decade, 600 new species had been discovered in Madagascar.  It’s all the more striking that so many species have been found in a place that’s been intensely researched, explored and inhabited for the last 2,000 years.  

There are cities, roads, villages, farms throughout Madagascar, and nothing is as remote as the far reaches of the Amazon, Arctic or Congo.  Madagascar is the only wild home to lemurs, made famous for their cartoon counterparts in the 2005 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_(2005_film)">Madagascar</a> that danced and sang, ‘I like to move it move it’.  There are 105 living species of the strange, primordial primate.  It’s thought lemurs may be similar to ancient primates, including our very distant ancestors but they’ve erupted in biodiversity being adapted to numerous niches from nocturnal pollinators to diurnal leaf eaters.  

Madagascar is also home to two-thirds of the world’s chameleon species, strange creatures varying in size from barely more than the head of a match stick to the Parson’s chameleon which measures roughly 27 inches long.  Strange geckoes camouflage themselves looking like little more than lichen on trees and pale blind <a href="https://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/the-cave-fishes-of-madagascar/">fishes</a> live in the caves of Madagascar.  According to <a href="http://www.wildmadagascar.org/flora/">wildmadagascar.org</a>, 70 to 80% of Madagascar’s 12,000 plant species are found nowhere else on Earth.

Part of the problem is we really have little grasp on how to ‘save’ Madagascar despite the quickness of well-intentioned people to espouse opinions.  At least those who are in charge of large NGOs and aid groups seem to be helping Madagascar very little. The organization I volunteered for oversaw the planting of many trees, the majority of which were non-native with no clear idea of the impact of the non-native trees on the ecosystem.  

Aid to local governments was also slow in coming, basic safety measures like running water, street lights and good hospitals were hard to find.  <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/madagascar">USAID</a> has been working in Madagascar for 33 years, and according to the organization,  the US gave Madagascar $91 million in aid in 2016. The EU has also historically given aid to Madagascar, there are impressive bridges spanning rivers with plaques saying they were built by EU aid.  The EU has pledged to give €518 million in aid from 2014 to 2020 to Madagascar, aimed at rural development, infrastructure support and governance assistance. 

In a country that has previously had foreign aid account for <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-restores-aid-to-madagascar/">40% of its budget</a>, it’s hard to understand why we can’t support people without burning down the forest and destroying the nation’s most precious resource: soil.  

The US as one of the main sources of aid to Madagascar benefits as well from trade agreements with the country.  Non-profit organizations routinely cash in on short-term volunteers naively feeling they’ll make a difference in saving biodiversity or alleviating poverty.  The organization I once volunteered to plant trees with for free now charges $210 to reserve a volunteer spot, $650 for accommodation fees for three months and $70 to $90 to get a visa for your stay.  It’s hard to feel you’re making as much of an impact through work as you are through paying to work in a country where $5/day is a living wage. 

Most organizations seem instead of engaging locals to focus on bringing volunteers to places they have no deep connection to and turning a profit.  As Madagascar continues to burn, the root problem continues to grow as well: exploitation of a land and a people too powerless to stop the relentless march of exploitative capitalism.        

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://Earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Exploitation and deforestation as Madagascar continues to burn

I remember standing at the top of a hillside in...

Endogenous retroviruses are the remains of retroviral infections that have marked themselves into human DNA at some point in time. While these retroviruses are commonly found in the human genome, scientists do not know how they made the transition from causing disease to becoming generally inactive.

A research team led by the <a href="http://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a> has focused a study on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-likely-to-turn-up-heat-on-koalas/">koalas</a> to investigate. Co-author Alfred Roca is an associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences.

“In humans, the youngest known endogenous retrovirus groups are around 5 million years old,” said Professor Roca. “That makes it very hard to tell what happened. But the koala is one of the few species known to have an ongoing invasion of the germline by a retrovirus.”


After attacking a host from outside of the body and gaining entry, retroviruses merge with cells to release their contents. Next, the viruses insert pieces of their DNA into the genetic code and replicate themselves.


If retroviral genes make their way into sperm or egg cells, they can be passed along to the host's offspring. This process makes the retrovirus a permanent part of the reproductive genome, or the germline.

Over time, the DNA sequences stop coding for disease-causing retroviruses and instead become inert “junk DNA.”

“We think the pressure for external viruses is to make lots of copies of themselves and infect more individuals,” said Professor Roca. “But once the virus becomes part of the host germline, the pressure is going to be for it to leave the host alone because the host is needed to reproduce the sequence. It has to play nice or otherwise it disappears. The question is how does this process take place?”

The koala retrovirus is less than 50,000 years old, which is still relatively young. The virus has not yet settled into a fixed location, enabling experts to track its activity across the koala genome in real time.

The study revealed that an ancient retroviral element is inserting itself into the new retrovirus and deactivating it. Instead of coding for proteins that cause infectious attacks, the resulting sequence does not code for anything.

“We might have found evidence for a molecular defense mechanism of hosts against new retroviral attacks, mediated by more ancient retroviral elements,” said study first author Ulrike Löber.

Alex Greenwood of the <a href="https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/">Leibniz Institute</a> is the study's lead author.

“The study emphasizes how little we know about the diversity and reservoirs of retroviruses among wildlife,” said Greenwood. “The koala, a species not usually associated with biomedical breakthroughs, is providing key insights into a process that has shaped 8 percent of the human genome, and likely shows us what happened millions of years ago when retroviruses invaded the human germline."

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Lauren D. Quinn, University of Illinois

Koalas have a secret defense against viral attacks

Endogenous retroviruses are the remains of retroviral infections that have...

Colonies of invasive Tegu lizards, originally brought to the United States as pets, could soon wreak havoc across local ecosystems from Florida to Texas. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M University </a>conducted a study on the potential invasive range of Tegu lizards, now isolated to two large colonies in Florida. 

The results, published online through the journal Nature, show that because Tegus can thrive in a range of habitats and eat everything from insects to alligator eggs, the species could expand as far as central Texas which could disrupt local food chains and endanger other animals. 

“They are voracious, omnivorous predatory lizards that can live in a variety of habitats, but we can't know what is going to happen or how intense this invasion is going to become until the effects are upon us,” Lee Fitzgerald, a professor at Texas A&amp;M University, told the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6022955/Invasion-big-voracious-lizards-threatens-U-S-South-study.html">Daily Mail</a> in an interview. 

The researchers aren’t sure exactly how far Tegu lizards will spread or when the species will invade new habitats because there’s no way to tell how many Tegus will be abandoned by their owners or escape in the coming years. 

So far, wild Tegu populations have been reported in several areas in Florida, according to the <a href="http://myfwc.com/">Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission</a>. 

The best way to prevent Tegu lizards from spreading as an invasive species is to ensure that lizards stay put in their homes. 

This is not the first exotic animal that has found its way into Florida’s ecosystem because of its   prized status as a pet. 

For example, the Burmese Python is now no longer able to be sold as a pet in the state of Florida because of the rash of pythons now living in Florida’s Everglades. 

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission even runs an <a href="http://www.myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/amnesty-program/">Exotic Pet Amnesty Program</a> to help stop the spread of non-native species in the wild by offering to take exotic pets away from the owners who don’t want them or can’t care for them. 

As intriguing and unique as a Burmese Python snake or colorful parrot might be to have as a pet, many times pet owners find themselves <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/concerns-reptiles-amphibians-pets/">ill-equipped to adequately care the animal</a> as it grows into adulthood. 

Tegu Lizards can grow up to four feet in length and can be temperamental and difficult at times. 

The quickest solution, then for an overwhelmed pet owner, is to release the animal into the wild, but this has only created a number of problems for Florida’s ecosystems. 

“The most important thing that the public can do to stop the spread of non-native species like tegus is to NEVER release non-native animals into the wild,” commission specialist Jamie Rager told the Daily Mail. “Don't let it loose.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Invasive Tegu lizards pose a big problem in the southern US

Colonies of invasive Tegu lizards, originally brought to the United...

A city in Australia successfully wiped out dengue fever by infecting mosquitoes with a bacteria that stops the virus from spreading. 

Dengue fever is the leading cause of illness and death in the subtropics and tropics, and according to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/dengue/index.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>, more than one-third of the world’s population is at risk of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-dengue-fever/">contracting dengue</a>. Mosquitoes spread the virus and symptoms can mirror those of the flu. 

In 2014, researchers from the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/">Monash University of Melbourne</a>, led by Scott O'Neil, a Monash professor and director of the dengue mosquito program, infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with a bacteria called Wolbachia. 

Wolbachia stops mosquitoes from passing on dengue fever to humans and over the next two years, four million anti-virus mosquitos were released in Townsville, Australia. 

Eventually, the infected mosquitoes bred with wild mosquitos and the virus inhibiting bacteria spread to the offspring, continuing to keep dengue at bay. 

Today, the city of Townsville has not had a single case of dengue in the four years since the Wolbachia mosquitoes were first introduced, according to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6022713/Deadly-dengue-fever-wiped-entire-city-anti-virus-mosquitoes.html">Daily Mail</a>. 

The trial run of using modified mosquitoes to combat dengue was so successful that there are already plans to introduce Wolbachia infected mosquitoes into eleven other countries where dengue can be contracted. 

“At a cost of around $15 per person, the Townsville trial demonstrates the approach can be rolled out quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively to help provide communities ongoing protection from mosquito-borne diseases,” said Scott O'Neill.

Eventually, O’Neil and his program colleagues hope to reduce the cost of introducing Wolbachia mosquitoes to one dollar per person. 

The Wolbachia mosquito program has a lot of potential, but there are concerns that introducing the mosquitoes to regions where Dengue fever cases are more numerous than in Townsville will hinder the mosquitoes from successfully eradicating the virus. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Australian city wipes out dengue fever using modified mosquitoes

A city in Australia successfully wiped out dengue fever by...

Researchers have discovered that the African killifish is the fastest maturing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dorsal-fin-arms-legs/">vertebrate</a> on the planet. Lab studies have revealed that, only two weeks after hatching from a tiny egg, the fish grow to their full body size of four to five centimeters and begin reproducing.

African killifish are known to live most of the year as diapausing embryos buried in sediments across the African savannah. When rainwater creates ponds across the landscape, the fish must hatch, grow, mature, and produce the next generation before the pool dries up.

Martin Reichard of the Institute of Vertebrate Biology at <a href="http://www.avcr.cz/en/">The Czech Academy of Sciences</a> is the study’s lead author.

“We guessed that some populations of this species could achieve very rapid growth and sexual maturation under particular conditions,” said Reichard. “But we have found that this rapid maturation is the norm rather than a rare exception.”

The research also showed that the tiny fish have pretty flexible lifespans. According to Reichard, the typical maturation rate in the lab is three or four weeks under optimal conditions. In contrast, some scientists have reported that it takes up to 10 weeks for the fish to reach sexual maturity, which is five times longer than what the researchers have now observed in the wild.

The team is primarily interested in investigating the aging process of wild populations. In most vertebrates, aging takes years to achieve. 

With killifish, however, the entire aging process can be captured across several populations in a matter of months. In that short amount of time, the fish showed notable functional declines along with all of the other signs expected with normal aging.

The study was focused on natural populations of the killifish across its range in southern Mozambique between January and May 2016. The fish were collected from eight separate pools within a period of three weeks after the pools first filled with rainwater. 

The study revealed that the fish hatched within three days of rainfall. Detailed analysis of male and female gonads also demonstrated that individuals of both sexes were fully mature within 14 or 15 days.


Reichard says the findings are yet another reminder of how little we know about the diversity of life in the wild. The research team will continue to analyze the aging patterns of these fleeting killifish populations. 

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: R. Bla�ek

African killifish set record for fully maturing in only two weeks

Researchers have discovered that the African killifish is the fastest...

The first-ever publication of the fox genome will help scientists to understand the genetic basis of tame and aggressive behaviors, which may shed light on human behavior as well.

Study lead author Anna Kukekova is an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the <a href="http://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a>.

“We've been waiting for this tool for a very, very long time,” said Professor Kukekova. “In our previous work, we tried to identify regions of the fox genome responsible for tame and aggressive behavior, but these studies required a reference genome and all we could use was the dog genome. For us, the fox genome provides a much better resource for genetic analysis of behavior.”


Foxes at the <a href="http://www.bionet.nsc.ru/en">Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics</a> have been selected for tameness or aggression, in a long-term effort to recreate the process of domestication from wolves to modern <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-helped-humans-exclude/">dogs</a>.

After sequencing and assembling the fox genome, the team focused on these Russian foxes to look for genetic regions which distinguish the tame, aggressive, and conventional farm-raised foxes.

The researchers sequenced the genomes of 10 individuals from each population, then compared them to the full fox genome and each other. Differences were found across the three populations in 103 genomic regions, some of which have turned out to be responsible for tame and aggressive behaviors.

“Finding genomic regions at such resolution was beyond any expectations with our previous tools. Now, for the first time, we could not only pinpoint part of a chromosome which makes foxes more tame or aggressive, but we could identify specific genes responsible for it,” said Professor Kukekova.

When the team compared the 103 genomic regions to those of other sequenced mammals, they found some intriguing results. 

For example, they identified similarities between behavior regions in foxes, areas critical to domestic behavior in dogs, and a region associated with Williams-Beuren syndrome in humans. This genetic disorder is characterized by extremely outgoing and friendly behavior.

“Oddly enough, we found the Williams-Beuren region in aggressive foxes, not tame ones. We thought it would be the opposite,” explained Professor Kukekova.

The mysterious finding highlights how much more research is needed before the complex behavior of both animals and humans can be fully understood.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natecolevol/">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</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: Darya Shepeleva, scientist at the Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk

Unraveling the behavior of foxes sheds light on human behavior

The first-ever publication of the fox genome will help scientists...

A.I. specialist Louis B. Rosenberg notes that flocking behavior makes animals “smarter together.” That is, the decisions made by the group as a whole confer advantages to each member as an individual. 

There’s a reason that flocks and other types of animal swarms are appealing to artificial intelligence researchers: they provide complex, yet rule-bound, systems that can be studied for efficiencies and inefficiencies and then applied to human problems. One of the more fascinating and complex flocking systems occurs among birds. While of course the movements and decisions made by a flock comprising a single species are complicated in and of themselves, even more byzantine are the interactions of groups known as mixed species foraging flocks. They’re exactly what they sound like: groups of birds of different species who forage for food together. 

It is important to distinguish these flocks from feeding aggregations. Feeding aggregations usually occur around static sources of food, such as those provided by fruiting trees. Though of course the different species of bird who frequent these trees must interact on some level as they make use of the same resource, the social dynamic is far less complex than that exhibited when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-learn-language-listening/">birds</a> of different species actively search for food together. There is something of a spectrum in this sort of collective behavior. 

For example, seabirds such as cormorants, murres, murrelets, gulls, and kittiwakes often participate in foraging efforts that converge around large schools of fish. This isn’t quite as simple as plucking fruits off of a tree. And numerous factors drive the interaction. Most mixed species foraging flocks have one or two “nuclear” species that propel the “associate” or “follower” species forward. 

Smithsonian ethologist Martin Moynihan <a href="https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/22974/SMC_143_Moynihan_1-140.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">pioneered much of the work in this area in the 1960s</a>, though the phenomenon has been known since the mid 1800s. It is thought that diving birds, such as murres and murrelets, may be the nuclear species in these interactions, as their underwater foraging drives fish toward the surface, allowing surface feeders like gulls to take their pick. Intriguingly, the foraging habits of cormorants who join the smorgasbord may actually disperse the fish in a way unfavorable to the other diners and thus act as “suppressors” per a <a href="https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/jfo/v058n04/p0456-p0463.pdf">University of Manitoba study from 1987</a>. There’s a good deal of thievery as well: gulls are notorious kleptoparasites. 

Even more complex are the behaviors of forest birds, both in the tropics and in the temperate zones. Like seabirds, forest-dwelling birds form flocks led by one or two species and followed by other. But, the number of species is generally much higher in these groups—<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/492314a">up to 20 or more in the tropics</a>—and the interactions are consequently more complex. Further, the food they are in search—usually insects—is dispersed and hidden among the leaves and branches, and on the forest floor, creating a greater challenge for the foragers. 

In the tropics, these groups are more common during the dry season, when birds are not breeding, though they occur all year round. In temperate zones, they occur mainly in winter. The reason seems clear: these group interactions improve the efficiency of locating and consuming food, especially in times of scarcity. Because most of the birds that participate in these flocks are relatively small, they also gain some protection from predators. More birds means more eyes on the sky, scanning for hawks and other threats.  

This is particularly advantageous to follower species. Leader species tend to be the most vocal and the most social. In the tropics they often include babblers, tanagers, and warblers, while in temperate zones they are usually comprised of tits, titmice, and chickadees. Follower species such as wrens, nuthatches, and woodpeckers in temperate zones and drongos, woodcreepers, and birds of paradise in tropical zones, have learned to interpret their social cues, both in locating food and in responding to their predator alarms. Because they are usually more specialized in where they find their food than nuclear species, which tend to be more generalist, finding food requires more searching and thus more energy. 

By having a free lookout system in the nuclear species, they are able to devote some of the energy they normally expend scanning for predators foraging instead. Many follower species join and leave the flock over the course of a day. Some only persist until the flock leaves their territory while others are emboldened to leave their normal haunts. Despite the fact that nuclear species appear to obtain limited benefits from this mutualistic relationship, they appear not to mind much. Though there is some jockeying for position in these flocks, there appears to be little true physical aggression. 

There is a fair bit of sneakiness though. <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/6/170222">A 2017 Kyoto University study</a> found that willow tits (Poecile montanus), leaders of these types of flocks, reduced their calling when they were attempting to cache food for later use, indicating an awareness that their usual calling would attract other species, which could conceivably raid the caches.  The greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus), conversely, mimics the calls of other species that tend to participate in mixed species flocks in an effort to recruit more members according to a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347206001849?via%3Dihub">2006 study from the University of Massachusetts</a>. 

Other species, like antshrikes, may feign alarm in an effort to get other birds to drop their food, which can then be easily snapped up. The growing body of research on these types of interaction suggest highly <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1dc4/95de7eaf0831855313f714bf7c84f2c1c70e.pdf">co-evolved relationships in some cases</a>. Many tropical birds are rarely seen outside of mixed species flocks, suggesting a level of dependence on that foraging strategy. This specialization has major implications for birds living in increasingly fragmented habitat. Fragmented habitat tends to be less species-diverse and thus mixed species flocks do not function as they might in virgin forest. Encouragingly, though, mixed species flocking does appear to have some benefits in fragmented territory: shy follower birds are much more likely to move from fragment to fragment if chaperoned by nuclear species. 

The ephemeral and tenuously predicated nature of this ecological relationship underscores the need for responsible land stewardship and preservation. These colorful cavalcades are, perhaps even more than their constituent species, crucial to the balance of their environments. 

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Smarter Together: Mixed species foraging flocks

A.I. specialist Louis B. Rosenberg notes that flocking behavior makes...

Scientists think small dogs may feel a little self-conscious about their size – and that short dog syndrome may lead them to overcompensate a little when it’s time to use the hydrant.

The new study, published in the <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jzo.12603">Journal of Zoology</a>, found that small dogs may urinate higher on lamps, walls and hydrants when marking their territory in an attempt to seem more intimidating.

“Assuming body size is a proxy for competitive ability, small adult male dogs may place urine marks higher, relative to their own body size, than larger adult male dogs to exaggerate their competitive ability,” the researchers wrote in their study.

The researchers, from Cornell University, worked with animal shelters to test their short dog syndrome theory. They took dogs of all sizes for walks, filming them as they urinated on vertical surfaces – trees, walls, posts, and so on – with an iPhone or high-speed camera.

Then, they calculated the angle that each dog raised its leg as a stand-in for the height of their urine stream. They found that, relative to their size, small dogs lifted their legs much higher than their larger counterparts.

“Thus, even though height of urine mark does reflect size of signaler in part, small dogs seem to ‘cheat’ by using larger raised-leg angles to deposit higher urine marks, thereby exaggerating their size,” the researchers wrote.

There could be physical explanations that rule out the short dog syndrome theory, the researchers noted. Maybe larger dogs just can’t lift their legs at the same angle small dogs can. They also didn’t control for over marking, they warned, so more study is needed to confirm their hypothesis.

But the study does point to the possibility of different behavior from small dogs who want to seem fiercer, larger and more in charge. 

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Do petite pooches have short dog syndrome?

Scientists think small dogs may feel a little self-conscious about...

If spiders scare your socks off, it might be time to give up the color green. A new study has found that wolf spiders are drawn to that shade, and they may not be alone.

“The assumption was wolf spiders don’t pay attention to color, but we found that isn’t really true,” co-author Dr. George Uetz told the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a>.

Uetz, a biologist at the <a href="http://www.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a>, led the study of 1,200 wolf spiders, a species found all over the world. The team played footage of courting spiders for each of the participating arachnids, but manipulated the background color, contrast and intensity to test their vision.

They found that while the spiders have four eyes, in some ways their vision is limited. Humans have trichromatic vision, allowing us to differentiate the color green from red and blue shades, except in cases of color blindness. Wolf spiders have dichromatic vision, so are only light in green or ultraviolet shades.

And it turns out they really like the color green. To the wolf spiders, both prey and potential mates stand out well against green light, so they’re drawn to it.

“What we found is that for female spiders, intensity matters more than color, but for male eavesdroppers, color matters, too,” Uetz told the Mail.

Wolf spiders prefer to sit and wait for their prey to come to them. When they spot a tasty looking meal, they pounce to capture it. They may prefer to sit on surfaces like leaves so that their prey better stands out against the color green, making their hunting easier. 

A study conducted earlier this year found that wolf spiders also have <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4340548/Wolf-spiders-distinct-personalities.html">distinct personalities</a>. They live alone, but can communicate through courtship dances and chemical signals.

The new research was presented at the <a href="http://www.americanarachnology.org/">American Arachnological Society</a> in June.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Wolf spiders love the color green, study shows

If spiders scare your socks off, it might be time...

The sparkling white sand of Florida’s southwestern beaches aren’t dotted with sunbathers this week. Instead, they’re strewn with the corpses of dead marine creatures, victims of a red tide.

While the toxic algae blooms known as “red tides” are common off the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, the <a href="https://floridadep.gov/">Florida Department of Environmental Protection</a> is calling the current event the worst in a decade. The state’s governor has declared a state of emergency.

At least 400 sea turtles have died, Newsweek is reporting. Several news outlets reported that a dead manatee was also recovered off the Florida coast, and at least one biologist found evidence the red tide may have killed a whale shark. Tissue taken from the whale shark’s organs and muscles tested positive for brevetoxin, a neurotoxin created by the algae.

“This whale shark was definitely exposed to the bloom, and we know brevetoxins (are deadly),” spokeswoman Kelly Richmond of the <a href="http://myfwc.com/">Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission</a> told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">Washington Post</a>.

While biologists are still working to determine the cause of death, if the algae bloom did play a role, it would be the first known incident in which a whale shark has been killed by a bloom.

About 100 miles of the Florida shore have been affected, and the red tide looks like a persistent one. The algae bloom – which gets its name because the microscopic algae often turn water red – has already lasted since November of last year, and could stretch into 2019, some scientists are saying.

“Many people will tell you that this is the worst they have ever seen,” Jacylin Bevis, a reporter with the NBC affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida, told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/">NBC News</a>. “It’s our entire south Florida coastline with the red tide and then with the blue-green algae on the rivers and canals."

Most algae blooms are beneficial to the ocean, providing a source of food for marine creatures. Red tides, on the other hand, produce toxins that can harm or kill sea life.

Usually, cold spells break up or kill off some of the algae, but not this time. The red tide is going strong – and has been joined by toxic blue-green algae invading Lake Okeechobee, and several of the state’s rivers and canals, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/">Newsweek</a> said.

More than a dozen people have gone to the emergency room after exposure to the blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Red tide kills hundreds of fish, turtles in southwest Florida

The sparkling white sand of Florida’s southwestern beaches aren’t dotted...

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" 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 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

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