SECORE International has developed a coral seeding method that utilizes assisted reproduction - breeding corals to help restore reefs. This approach has been implemented across the Caribbean through a network of training and partners.&nbsp;



A recent study confirms that the coral seeding method is making a significant impact: during the severe 2023 heatwave in the Caribbean, young <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-corals-and-reefs-are-showing-surprising-resilience-as-global-waters-warm/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">corals</a> that were bred through SECORE's efforts remained healthy, while many wild corals bleached and died.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coral-seeding-in-the-caribbean-nbsp">Coral seeding in the Caribbean&nbsp;</h2>



The summer of 2023 brought devastation to many coral reefs in the Caribbean Basin. An unprecedented <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-heatwaves-escalate-coral-bleaching-threats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">heatwave</a>, both in intensity and duration, hit the region, leading to widespread coral bleaching. 



With high seawater temperatures persisting, many corals were unable to recover and perished.&nbsp;



However, during this time of crisis, a hopeful discovery was made by SECORE’s Restoration Coordinator in Mexico, Sandra Mendoza Quiroz.&nbsp;



While conducting a routine dive to monitor their outplanted corals, she found that the young corals they had bred were healthy, standing out among the bleached and dying reefs.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-assisted-reproduction-and-coral-survival">Assisted reproduction and coral survival</h2>



Similar findings were reported by SECORE’s team in Curaçao, where another species of bred coral had withstood the heat.



“We were excited to observe this pattern showing another benefit of using assisted coral recruits in restoration,” said Margaret Miller, research director of <a href="https://www.secore.org/site/home.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SECORE</a>.



The team in Curaçao and Mexico, working with Coralium Lab at the <a href="https://www.unam.mx/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México</a>, collected data on the health of various species and groups of outplanted corals. 



The experts reached out to partners across their Caribbean Restoration Network, including the Dominican Foundation for Marine Studies, the <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/caribbean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean</a>, and Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire. 



Together, the researchers confirmed that young corals bred for restoration were significantly more resistant to bleaching compared to their wild counterparts across six coral species at 15 reef sites in five different Caribbean nations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coral-seeding-builds-resilience-nbsp">Coral seeding builds resilience&nbsp;</h2>



This study marks the first scientific evidence that corals restored using natural reproduction methods demonstrate greater resistance to extreme sea temperatures than wild or fragmented corals.



Miller, who has been breeding corals in the Caribbean for over 30 years, expressed optimism about the findings.&nbsp;



“These results provide a lot of encouragement and confirmation that restoration using assisted coral recruits can play an important role in orchestrating coral persistence into our warmer future,” said Miller.&nbsp;



“Nonetheless, truly securing the future of coral reefs is absolutely dependent on humankind’s success in controlling global warming.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-producing-millions-of-coral-embryos-nbsp">Producing millions of coral embryos&nbsp;</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reef-sounds-the-melodic-key-to-coral-restoration/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coral restoration</a> methods have evolved significantly in the past decade. Traditionally, corals were propagated by breaking fragments off source colonies and growing them in nurseries before manually transplanting them onto the reef. 



Today, SECORE’s coral seeding approach, which breeds corals specifically for restoration, is widely implemented throughout the Caribbean.&nbsp;



This method involves collecting coral spawn from wild corals, fertilizing the eggs and sperm in a controlled environment (either on a boat or beach), and producing millions of coral embryos.&nbsp;



The coral larvae are grown in ocean enclosures and settled on special substrates before being outplanted onto the reef.



Each generation of corals that reproduces naturally receives a new combination of genes, enhancing their ability to adapt.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-importance-of-the-new-breeding-efforts">Importance of the new breeding efforts</h2>



The study revealed that the young corals produced through breeding showed greater resistance to bleaching than adult coral colonies and fragments.&nbsp;



However, due to the recruitment failure of many reef-building species in the Caribbean, natural offspring are rare, which further underscores the importance of SECORE’s breeding efforts.



Dirk Petersen, the founder of&nbsp; SECORE, is thrilled with the study’s positive results.&nbsp;



“Our coral seeding approach is an important contribution to help coral reefs deal with climate change,” said Petersen. “Our investment over the past five years to build a large network for coral restoration in the Caribbean has paid off.”&nbsp;



“This network not only produces and outplants tens of thousands of corals every year but could also immediately assess how these corals responded to this unprecedented heatwave. Our priority is now to further scale efforts to the ecosystem level.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-chance-for-coral-reefs-to-survive">A chance for coral reefs to survive</h2>



Coral restoration, however, is not a solo endeavor. It requires collaboration across various disciplines, from science and engineering to on-the-ground implementation.&nbsp;



The process involves logistics, effectiveness, and thorough training, and must be grounded in strong management strategies that engage local communities.&nbsp;



While coral restoration is crucial, it alone cannot solve the broader challenges posed by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-study-provides-answers-to-how-coral-reefs-can-survive-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">climate change</a>. Still, it provides vital time to help coral populations survive in the face of environmental pressures.



“Our Caribbean Training and Capacity Building Program has turned out to be a successful model, which we urgently need to take to other regions across the world,” Petersen said.&nbsp;



In his view, as extreme weather events continue to increase in frequency and severity, regions beyond the Caribbean will also be affected.&nbsp;



“Restoration measures are best implemented at an early stage to strengthen the reefs. Once degradation has reached a critical level, restoration becomes much more challenging,” said Petersen.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-expanding-coral-restoration-efforts">Expanding coral restoration efforts</h2>



SECORE is now expanding its efforts globally. In 2023, the organization hosted its first training session for participants from U.S. jurisdictions in the Western Pacific and plans to establish a team in Mauritius by the end of the year.&nbsp;



This new base will serve as a hub for restoration training in the Indian Ocean. “Restoration truly is a cooperative effort - let’s all work together to give these valuable ecosystems a future!” Peterson concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0309719" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLoS ONE</a>.



-----



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‘Coral seeding’ increases resistance to extreme heatwaves

SECORE International has developed a coral seeding method that utilizes assisted reproduction - breeding corals to help restore reefs. This approach has been implemented across the Caribbean through a network of training and partners.&nbsp; A recent study confirms that the coral seeding method is making a significant impact: during the severe 2023 heatwave in the Caribbean, young corals that were bred through SECORE's efforts remained healthy, while many wild corals bleached and died. Coral seeding in the Caribbean&nbsp; The summer of 2023 brought devastation to many coral...

Some species change the color of their coat to match the seasons and avoid predators. In fact, 21 species of mammals and birds, including weasels and rabbits, have white coloring in the winter, and then their coat then changes to brown in the summer. 

This ability is crucial to the species’ survival, but <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/african-savannahs-climate-change/">climate change</a> has caused winters to be milder, arrive later, and spring melts to come earlier each year. 

Animals who change their coats to white to blend in are out of place and easily spotted in areas affected by warmer winters. 

Snowshoe hares, for example, have experienced higher mortality rates in areas with less snow than usual, and with the increasing impacts of climate change, population decline is predicted to worsen.  

However, some species have evolved to where they don’t change their coat color in places with typically milder winters. 

A team of researchers led by L. Scott Mills, a professor from the <a href="http://www.umt.edu/">University of Montana</a>, examined this kind of adaptive evolution to see if  evolution could rescue species in at-risk areas who continue to change their coat color despite the surroundings. 

Their findings were published in the journal Science and could reduce the risk of population loss and decreased biodiversity in the wake of climate change. 

“Weasels in the southern U.S. and mountain hares in Ireland, for example, have evolved to remain brown year-round," said  Mills said. "This is a genetic adaptation to retain camouflage in areas where snow is intermittent or sparse.” 

The researchers identified areas that could potentially foster adaptive evolution or “evolutionary rescue” in at-risk species. These areas have both brown and white animals coexisting in winter. 

The fact that there are individuals with both brown and white coats in winter is important to possible evolutionary rescue. 

“These areas hold the special sauce for rapid evolutionary rescue,” said Mills. “Because they contain winter-brown individuals better adapted to shorter winters, these polymorphic populations are primed to promote rapid evolution toward being winter brown instead of white as climate changes.” 

The results show that it could be possible to help save several species from population decline caused by climate change through adaptive evolution. However, the researchers note that the solution should not be seen as a replacement for climate change mitigation 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: L.S. Mills research photos by Jaco and Lindsey Barnard

Animals who camouflage with the season affected by climate change

Some species change the color of their coat to match...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a> have confirmed a link between increased pollination and a larger number of wild pollinator species. The experts are reporting that more species of wild bees are needed for vast regions of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crops-confuse-global-warming/">crops</a> to thrive.

The study was focused on 48 farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over the course of several years. The team collected and identified more than 100 species of wild bees that were observed pollinating crop flowers. Over half of the species examined were needed for pollination on at least one of the farms.


“Our results confirm the importance of biodiversity in keeping the planet habitable for human beings, at least if our findings apply to other ecosystem functions as well,” said lead author Rachael Winfree.


According to scientists, wild pollinators provide as much as half of the crop pollination that takes place worldwide. The role of wild pollinators may be more important now than ever before with declining populations of domestic honey bees in North America. 

“I like to think of this as a real-world question,” said Winfree. “These are real farms and real farmers, and each farmer needs his crops pollinated. The answer turns out to be, that when you require that all farms are pollinated, you need an order of magnitude more bee species than has been needed in experiments.”


In earlier studies, Winfree offered recommendations for farmers and land managers who want to promote a greater presence of wild species for crop pollination.

“Farmers can plant fallow fields and road edges with flowering plants, preferably plants whose flowering periods are different, because wild pollinators need to be supported throughout the growing season,” said Winfree. “They can reduce pesticide use and avoid spraying during crop bloom when more bees are in the crop field.”

While many controlled experiments have demonstrated that increased pollination results from more species, this is one of the first studies to confirm this connection in nature.

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Rutgers University, Rachael Winfree

More species of wild bees means more crops for humans

Researchers at Rutgers University have confirmed a link between increased...

An international team of researchers has found that nearly 150,000 orangutans disappeared in Borneo between 1999 and 2015. The study revealed that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orangutans-utilizing-medicines/">orangutans</a> vanished as result of habitat loss from deforestation, but were also killed in direct human conflict.

The most dramatic rates of population decline were found in areas where land had been cleared for logging, oil palm production, mining, and paper production. 

However, the experts noted that a larger number of orangutans were missing from unimpaired regions of forest, which indicates that hunting remains a major threat to the species.

Maria Voigt is a researcher at the <a href="http://www.eva.mpg.de/">Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</a> who co-authored the study with colleagues representing 39 international institutions.

“The decline in population density was most severe in areas that were deforested or transformed for industrial agriculture, as orangutans struggle to live outside forest areas,” said Voigt. “Worryingly, however, the largest number of orangutans were lost from areas that remained forested during the study period. This implies a large role of killing.”

The team used data from field surveys that had been conducted over the 16-year study period, and calculated the size of the island’s population based on the number of orangutan nests observed. The experts established a total of 36,555 nests and estimated a loss of 148,500 orangutans, which is about half of the overall population.

The researchers also determined that only 38 of the 64 orangutan metapopulations now include more than 100 individuals, which is the lowest limit considered to be viable. The team used maps of land-cover change to investigate the causes of declining orangutan populations.

A comparison of orangutan and habitat losses showed that land clearance caused the most dramatic rates of decline. On the other hand, a much larger number of orangutans were lost in selectively logged and primary forests. 

The researchers explained that the rates of decline were not as severe in the more intact regions of forest because far more orangutans can be found in these areas. The experts predict that at least 45,000 more orangutans will be lost over the next 35 years.

“Orangutans are flexible and can survive to some extent in a mosaic of forests, plantations, and logged forest, but only when they are not killed,” said co-author Verge Wich. 

“So, in addition to protection of forests, we need to focus on addressing the underlying causes of orangutan killing. The latter requires public awareness and education, more effective law enforcement, and also more studies as to why people kill orangutans in the first place.”

The study is published in <a href="http://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

Nearly 150,000 orangutans lost in Borneo in just 16 years

An international team of researchers has found that nearly 150,000...

A commonly cited story about how rabbits became domesticated has been found to be untrue. Instead, a new study published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution suggests that the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cats-domesticated-10000-years/">domestication</a> of rabbits had no exact origin but happened over a broad period of time.   

The research also has wide implications as it shows how domestication was an ongoing process, and trying pinpoint a single origin in time when an animal was domesticated is not possible. 

Previously, information about the domestication of rabbits was based on the story that says in 600 A.D. Pope Gregory declared that eating fetal rabbits was acceptable during lent and so monks began domesticating the first rabbits. 

However, archeologists from the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> found this wasn’t the case at all, as there is evidence of domesticated rabbits dating back as far as the last ice age.

Researchers Evan Irving-Pease and Greger Larson were testing a method for genetically dating domestication using the molecular clock. 

By comparing the genomes of a domestic animal and a wild one, the molecular clock would show when in time the two converged, which would be when the animal was first domesticated. 

Irving-Pease and Larson tried this method on rabbits, thinking that it would prove that genomes of rabbits diverged in 600 A.D. matching the popular story. Instead, the molecular clock method showed that rabbits were domesticated much earlier, even before domestication existed. 

Their findings complicate the matter of domestication and disprove the theory that rabbits were first domesticated by monks. 

“I had cited it, colleagues of mine had cited it, it's all over Wikipedia, it's all over the web... but it turns out that the modern story is a complete house of cards,” said Larson. “What was really interesting to me then was why nobody's really thought about it or been critical about it.” 

Larson and his colleagues instead suggest that rabbit domestication happened over a long period of time beginning in the paleolithic era. They were hunted and kept in cages, then moved around and eventually bred as pets. 

Trying to pinpoint domestication is an impossible feat for many animals because as the researchers say there’s no “eureka” moment.

“We have been slightly arrogant,” said Irving-Pease. “We know a hell of a lot less about the origins of the things that matter most to us than we think we do.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Rabbits have been domesticated much longer than most thought

A commonly cited story about how rabbits became domesticated has...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.wvu.edu/">West Virginia University</a> are reporting that songbird populations in the central Appalachian Mountains are struggling with a greater presence of shale gas development. An investigation has revealed that the nesting success of the Louisiana Waterthrush, in particular, has declined at sites impacted by the extraction of natural gas.

The most rapid growth of hydraulic fracturing in the country is taking place in northwestern West Virginia. Prior to this study, little was known about how this <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/shale-gas-inefficient-electricity/">shale gas</a> industry boom may be affecting bird populations in the region.

A team of researchers led by Mack Frantz mapped territories of the waterthrush and monitored nests along 14 streams from 2009-2011 and also from 2013-2015. Using aerial photographs and satellite imagery, the experts measured disturbances to both the streams and the forest canopy, and then determined which of these disturbances were caused by shale gas development.

The results of the study showed that nest survival and reproductive success declined as shale gas development expanded. Experts also noted that the size of individual waterthrush territories increased, which indicates that the birds had to range farther in order to access a sufficient amount of resources.

“I hope our findings lead to robust protections of our forested headwater stream ecosystems, which are currently overlooked for regulation despite their critical role in providing nutrients and organic matter downstream, not to mention as an important source for drinking water,” said Frantz. 

“Waterthrushes are a modern-day 'canary in the coal mine,' and there are many more opportunities to study how anthropogenic disturbance affects and entangles food webs at the aquatic-terrestrial interface.”

The study is one of the first to demonstrate that shale gas development can affect songbird reproductive success and productivity. Leesia Marshall is a waterthrush expert who was not involved in the research. 

“This paper should serve as a call for all scientists to redouble efforts across all related disciplines to document the present impacts of shale gas extraction and to develop strategies for mitigation and avoidance of potential impacts in the future,” said Marshall.

The study is published in <a href="http://americanornithologypubs.org/loi/cond">The Condor: Ornithological Applications</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Songbird nests struggling near fracking sites

Researchers at West Virginia University are reporting that songbird populations...

According to a new study from the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a>, carefully managed fire can optimize mammal and bird diversity in African savannas. 

The research, which is the first of its kind to examine the “pyrodiversity" of an entire continent, revealed that this strategy can improve the number of mammal species by 20 percent and the number of bird species by 30 percent with adequate rainfall.

“Fire is often viewed as homogeneous, but in reality there is a range of different fires characterized by variation in size, intensity, season and frequency of burning,” said lead author Dr. Colin Beale. “We found that in wet savanna increasing the range of different types of fire in an area allows a wider number of species to thrive.”

“Fire is widely thought to have a negative impact on the environment, but in African savannas hominids have been setting a variety of fires for around a million years so fire is something the ecosystem has co-evolved with and adapted to.”

The researchers gathered 15 years of satellite data on fires and accessed distribution maps of all the bird and mammal species in protected areas across <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/african-savannahs-climate-change/">Africa's savannas</a>. The study revealed that savannas with abundant rainfall and the most varied types of fire contained significantly more bird and mammal diversity.

The experts found that a range of fire types allowed rare species of birds, such as the Rufous-tailed Weaver and the Black-bellied Sunbird, to cohabitate with more common bird species. The study findings indicate that fires alter the conditions within savanna habitats and increase the availability of nutrients, terrain, and shelter for a greater number of species to thrive.

As a result of the investigation, the researchers hope to provide land managers and conservationists with guidance on how to use carefully managed fire as a tool to boost biodiversity.

“Pyrodiversity is particularly important for biodiversity in wet savanna landscapes, but this isn't the only reason people light fires: different goals require different burning patterns,” said Dr. Beale. “We want to develop tools to help the managers of conservation areas articulate what they want to achieve and help them to use fire to do it.”

The study is published today in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1461-0248">Ecology Letters</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: Dr. Colin Beale, University of York

Carefully managed fire can improve African savanna diversity

According to a new study from the University of York,...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/ueber/university/">Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg</a> (JMU) have made the incredible discovery that African Matabele ants treat each other's wounds. While 80 percent of the injured ants died from untreated wounds, the study revealed that only around ten percent of the injured <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ants-produce-powerful-antibiotics/">ants</a> died after receiving treatment.

Matabele ants, found commonly in Sub-Saharan Africa, run a high risk of injury as they invade the foraging sites of termites multiple times a day. Hundreds of ants line up to participate in the raids, where they attack and kill workers to take home as food.

The termites do not go down without a fight, however, and many ants are killed or lose limbs that are bitten off in combat.

Last year, study co-author Erik T. Frank described what happens to the injured ants next. He explained that they release a chemical substance to signal for help and then other ants come to the rescue, carrying the fallen comrades back to the nest. 

In the current study, the JMU biologists set out to further explore this rescue service. The team wanted to know, for example, what happens once the injured ants are back in the nest. The experts discovered that ants treat the open wounds of others by licking them for up to several minutes at a time.

“We suppose that they do this to clean the wounds and maybe even apply antimicrobial substances with their saliva to reduce the risk of bacterial or fungal infection,” said Frank.

The researchers also found that ants with the most serious injuries are not rescued. Interestingly, it is the wounded ants themselves who make decisions about who is saved and who is left behind.

Ants that are only slightly injured are very cooperative with their rescuers, but ants who are severely injured put up a fight and refuse the help.

“They simply don't cooperate with the helpers and are left behind as a result,” said Frank. The experts believe that the terminally injured ants are making sure that no energy is wasted on an attempt to rescue them.

Erik T. Frank plans to expand upon this research to determine how ants recognize precisely where another ant is injured and how they decide the amount of time that needs to be invested in treating the wounds.

No other insects are known to treat the injuries of their comrades, and the JMU team believes that this behavior may be unique in the entire animal kingdom.

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</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: Photo: Erik T. Frank

Ants treat each other’s wounds

Researchers at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (JMU) have...

New research has found that zebra finches sing while they are dreaming as a way to practice their calls, try new improvisations, and mimic the songs of their friends. 

Previous studies have shown that birds dream about singing, but researchers from the<a href="http://www.uba.ar/"> University of Buenos Aires</a> found that zebra finches move their vocal chords in sync with the birdsongs in their dreams. 

By attaching electrodes to the vocal muscles of ten <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-birds-speech-song/">zebra finches</a> and monitoring the birds as they slept, the researchers found the movements matched the activity in their brain. 

The researchers were even able to jumpstart the silent movements in the vocal muscles by playing recordings of the finches’ calls. 

“In this work, we found that nocturnal playbacks of the bird's own song, or synthetic versions of that song, evoke [syringeal ventralis] vS activity patterns strikingly similar to those recorded during song execution,” wrote the authors in a <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2018/01/22/251256.full.pdf">bioRxiv</a> paper. 

When the finch dreams, its brain seems to play through its daily call or birdsong, and the movement in the vocal cords matches this activity. 

An earlier 2000 study came to a similar conclusion by analyzing brain activity in zebra finches. 

The study results showed that if the bird slept for long periods, it would not only play through its birdsong but also try different variations like changing notes or tempo. 

“The zebra finch appears to store the neuronal firing pattern of song production during the day and reads it out at night, rehearsing the song, and perhaps, improvising variations,” said Daniel Margoliash, the lead researcher of the 2000 study. 

Both the 2000 study and the recent research emphasize the brain patterns of sleeping finches and their resemblance to brain activity while the bird is singing during the day. 

However, the new study is first of its kind to match vocal cord muscle movements to bird calls during sleep. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Zebra finches sing in their sleep

New research has found that zebra finches sing while they...

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0028.JPG

Researchers in Adelaide, Australia set up thousands of lifesize decoy birds on a beach to test who could come up with a more accurate count of the fake birds: drones or expert wildlife spotters.

For conservationists, biologists, and researchers, coming up with accurate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/california-sea-lion-comeback/">population</a> counts is crucial to wildlife monitoring. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a> wanted to explore the accuracy of drones used to monitor wildlife, so they set up the decoy test, also known as the #EpicDuckChallenge.

Drones are becoming increasingly popular in conservation, says the study, which was published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

“For a few years now, drones have been used to monitor different animals that can be seen from above, including elephants, seals, and nesting birds,” said Jarrod Hodgson the study’s lead author. “But, until now, the accuracy of using drones to count wildlife was unclear.” 

The results show that drones and algorithms that count animal populations are more accurate than other traditional monitoring methods. 

For the experiment, the researchers created ten fake greater crested tern bird colonies using life-size plastic ducks. 

Expert wildlife spotters were asked to count the birds using binoculars and telescopes from the ground while overhead a drone took pictures of the colonies. 

Citizen scientists tallied the birds in the drone imagery, and these numbers were compared to the final count that the ground spotters had come up with. It turns out that drone imagery produced a more accurate count.  

The researchers then created a computer algorithm to count the birds using the drone imagery to see if its calculations would be just as accurate, which it was. 

The results are exciting for wildlife monitoring efforts and the researchers are hopeful that their study could help produce accurate population numbers for a wide array of species. 

“With so many animals across the world facing extinction, our need for accurate wildlife data has never been greater," said Hodgson. “Accurate monitoring can detect small changes in animal numbers. That is important because if we had to wait for a big shift in those numbers to notice the decline, it might be too late to conserve a threatened species.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Jarrod Hodgson

#EpicDuckChallenge proves drones can monitor wildlife populations

Researchers in Adelaide, Australia set up thousands of lifesize decoy...

What could be stranger than using noise for navigation?  Of course humans use radar, but imagine standing in a completely dark room and using only your own voice and your ears to find your way through the night. Echolocation is an odd and deeply interesting adaptation shared among unrelated mammals and birds.  

Most people think of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saving-bats-whose-teeth-used-currency/">bats</a>, and echolocation is incredibly important for the flying mammals, but they’re not alone.  Bats hunting at night can locate insects in the dark via the clicks they produce and echoes from those clicks.  Certain wary moths hearing the clicks actually use their own noises to ‘jam’ the bats echolocation and quickly drop out of the bat’s flight path.  I’ve volunteered with the Colorado Division of Wildlife to set up audio recorders near cave entrances.  The recordings of bats can be analyzed by software and identify bats to species and give good estimates of bat numbers.  It’s hoped that audio monitoring can also help scientists identify bat colonies in trouble or under stress from disease or other disturbance.  

In an interesting case of convergent evolution, oil birds use echolocation to navigate the caves where they perch at night as well as the forests at night where they feed.  Oil birds are so named because of the high concentrations of oil in their bodies due to their unique diets.  Fruit bats tend to favor sweeter fruits but there are other oily or fatty fruits such as the avocado that oil birds prefer.  Oil bird echolocation isn’t as fine as detecting small insects on the wing but it works fine for locating fruit trees and cave roosts in the dark.

There are also swifts, birds not closely related to oil birds that nest in caves of South-east Asia and Australia and use echolocation.  

Toothed Whales also use echolocation.  Cetaceans such as Narwhales and river dolphins are nearly blind.  The Arctic Ocean is full of the vocalizations of marine mammals, including narwhals and has been described as a sound cape few humans ever experience much less learn to appreciate.  In his book Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez makes clear that Narwhals live in a world of sound, there has even been conjecture that narwhal males ‘sound joust’.  

Less well known is the fact that the humble shrew uses echolocation.  Research is just in it’s infancy as far as shrew echolocation but it makes sense that the blind mammal would use echolocation to locate itself in the environment.      

Echolocation involves a host of evolutionary adaptations from the ability to create noises that echo in an appropriate form for echolocation to hearing to a brain that can quickly and accurately analyze sounds for navigation.  The fact that echolocation has evolved separately so many times proves its utility and suggests that there could be other animals using echolocation without our notice or new species of echolocation using animals yet undiscovered.  Who knows what this world of noise in the dark has yet to reveal to the curious, I for one hope it always remains a bit mysterious though.  

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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Noise navigation: How animals use echolocation

What could be stranger than using noise for navigation?  Of...

In the over 4.5 billion years that the Earth has been around – and the roughly 4 billion years that life has existed on this planet – <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tasmanian-tigers-aboriginals-extinct/">extinction</a> of species has been a constant occurrence. 

It can happen for a number of reasons, the spread of disease, over-hunting, and inability to adapt to a changing environment are just a few of those reasons. But for many extinct species, ultimately the major decider was energy – or a lack thereof. Whatever factors may lead to it, if individuals in a species cannot access enough resources to survive, the species itself may not stick around very long.

When modeling extinction risk for species, scientists usually keep it simple. Most models reduce complex ecological systems to a linear relationship between resource density and population growth. This combination can usually be broadly applied to determine how much resource loss a species can survive. However, new research published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a> introduces a more nuanced model for extinction that also determines why animal species tend to evolve towards larger body sizes.

The researchers have put together the Nutritional State-structured Model (NSM), which incorporates body size and metabolic scaling into an extinction model where “hungry” and “full” animals – both big and small – interact and procreate in an environment with limited resources. 

“Unlike many previous forager models, this one accounts for body size and metabolic scaling,” says Chris Kempes, a biologist at <a href="https://www.santafe.edu/">Santa Fe Institute</a>. “It allows for predictions about extinction risk, and also gives us a systematic way of assessing how far populations are from their most stable states.”

In the NSM, only the full animals are able to reproduce, while the hungry animals are more at risk of mortality. Since animals’ energetic needs change with body size, the model’s calculations for replenishment and reproduction were based on biological scaling laws that relate body size to metabolism. 

The model determined that species of different sizes gravitate toward population states most stable against extinction. A pattern emerges within the NSM where the bigger the species, the fewer individuals cohabitate a given area. This arises because larger species are more stable against starvation in small numbers.

The model also shows that larger animals with slower metabolisms are the most stable against extinction by starvation, and even predicts an energetically “ideal” mammal – shown to be 2.5 times the size of an African elephant. The researchers were surprised, but pleased, to find that the NSM accurately predicts the maximum mammalian body size observed in the fossil record, exhibiting the overall accuracy of the model.

“The dynamics of foraging and the interaction of body size in foraging and resource availability, these are all rich problems for which there is beautiful phenomenology,” says Sidney Redner, a physicist at <a href="https://www.santafe.edu/">Santa Fe Institute</a>. “I hope some of this will have relevance in managing resources and ensuring species don’t go extinct.”

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By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Laura Chambliss/Studio Yopp

Big body size helps a species avoid extinction

In the over 4.5 billion years that the Earth has...

Everyone knows <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-species-pelican-spiders/">spiders</a> are arachnids. Many people know that scorpions are arachnids.  A few people know that what most people call “daddy long legs” aren’t actually spiders but in fact are arachnids in the order Opiliones.  Actually, even that bit of information on arachnids is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the wide world of arachnid taxonomy.  

Arachnida is a class comprised of several orders and super orders; always changing as more scientific information is available.  In addition to these extant orders, there are a few more extinct orders.  Taken all together, the class Arachnida is a lesson in bizarre life forms.  

Everyone knows of scorpions, but less known are the pseudoscorpions of the order Pseudoscorpiones.  Most pseudoscorpions are tiny, easily fitting on the face of a dime.  Besides their diminutive size, the habitat of many makes pseudoscorpions easy to miss.  There have been pseudoscorpions living blind, hidden in caves, individual species being found only in specific caves sometimes.  

Other pseudoscorpions are interstitial, meaning they live between grains of soil.  I was surprised and excited to once find a small pseudoscorpion in the soil when excavating a dinosaur skeleton on the prairie of South Dakota.  In my excitement I shared the creature with everyone on the dig, letting the interesting arachnid crawl across many hands before I carefully placed her in the soil a safe distance from the dig.  Pseudoscorpions look very similar to scorpions with pinchers but without the tail or stinger; instead the claws contain venom sometimes.  The pseudoscorpion I encountered was very docile and given its size, seemed very unlikely to cause harm to a human.  

Many people have seen the exaggerated photos and descriptions emailed around from soldiers in Iraq that encountered ‘camel spiders’ or ‘sun spiders’.  Less people are aware that these creatures are arachnids of the order solifugae and not spiders at all.  Despite how intimidating these animals are made to seem, they’re mostly quite harmless.  There are more than 1,000 species of solifugids in 153 genera, occupying semi-arid and desert regions in all continents except Antarctica and Australia.  

Acariformes is a super order of arachnids that are widely detested but rarely acknowledged as arachnids: a group of mites.  There are over 32,000 described species of mite in this super order.  There are 10 families of mites that are free living, non-parasitic but many of the other species are parasitic to plants.  Orabatid mites are ingested by poison dart frogs and are the actual source of their alkaloid toxins.  In captivity, poison dart frogs quickly lose the protective toxins found in their skin without their diet of mites. 

One of my favorite arachnid group is the vinegaroons of the order thelyphonida.  Vinegaroons look mostly like scorpions, again without the stinger embellished tail.  What makes vinegaroons special is the ability to shoot acetic acid if attacked by predators.  Mostly vinegaroons hunt at night, preying on a number of arthropods including centipedes.  

The order Amblypygi commonly known as the tail-less whip scorpion is not a scorpion at all.  The animal is large, and encountered at night on a trail in the South American forest as I’ve seen them, it is intimidating.  Amblypygians are completely harmless to humans but have huge predatory appendages that look like horned claws but are actually mouth parts known as pedipalps.  Appearing black at first, many Amblypygians are actually quite colorful, appearing more like the rainbow in an oil slick than one color on closer inspection.  The order is entirely found in the tropics, so if you find them creepy, don’t worry about them taking over the Subway in New York or a ranch in Montana.  Amblypygians hunt at night and often live in caves which they venture out of at dark to prey upon other arthropods. 

Harvest Men, or Daddy Long-legs of the order Opiliones are often a childhood favorite as many people learn of their harmlessness to humans and are charmed by their long legged beauty.  The diversity and wildness of form of Opiliones can only be glimpsed in the tropics.  I’ve seen a harvest man be-decked in spikes holding a caterpillar in his jaws on a dewy leaf in the Ecuadorian night and been startled by the fierceness of the savage little hunter.

Beyond the orders I’ve talked about, there are ticks, microscorpions, the order Schizomida, hooded tick spiders and an abundance of extinct orders to explore.  That’s not mentioning all of the families, genera, species and subspecies of arachnids to consider.  Look around you, the world is filled with arachnids, quietly hunting and eating insects, living with us, with plants.  Everywhere you go (outside Antarctica) you are in a world quietly held together by arachnids among other tiny creatures.     

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Photo Credit: Zach Fitzner

Arachnids: Spiders and scorpions are the tip of the iceberg

Everyone knows spiders are arachnids. Many people know that scorpions...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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