Imagine a world where damaged ecosystems, specifically coral reefs teeming with vibrant marine life, could be revived and restored to their former glory.



These vibrant underwater habitats, often referred to as the "rainforests of the sea," are essential for marine biodiversity and coastal protection. 



That's no longer just a dream, thanks to an innovative study that has just shed light on a technique with immense potential for reviving and restoring damaged coral reefs. 



By harnessing the power of healthy ecosystems, scientists have unlocked a sustainable and scalable method to breathe new life into these critical environments.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mother-nature-s-life-savers">Mother nature's life-savers</h2>



The research was led by scientists at <a href="https://www.biu.ac.il/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bar-Ilan University</a>’s Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, along with Professor Ezri Tarazi of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Professor David Bourne of James Cook University.



The study was focused on a breakthrough method known as "a coral reef ecosystem transplant" or aCRET. This simple yet brilliant model could be a symbol of hope in the face of widespread <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crown-of-thorns-starfish-thrive-in-degraded-coral-reefs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coral degradation</a>.



The researchers took a healthy reef and transferred biomimetic terracotta tiles packed with a diverse community of organisms - a virtual "metropolis" of invertebrates and beneficial microorganisms. 



These tiles were then transplanted to a nearby, damaged reef which showed signs of coral decline. 



Implanting these vibrant communities of microorganisms onto the ailing coral reefs led to an impressive increase in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coral-reef-health-can-be-measured-through-sound/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coral health</a>. You can think of it as a supercharge for the undersea inhabitants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-novel-approach-to-coral-restoration">A novel approach to coral restoration</h2>



These biomimetic terracotta tiles were not just randomly chosen, they were meticulously designed to replicate the complex 3D structure of natural reefs, making a perfect home for diverse <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-organisms-may-adapt-to-climate-change-but-with-hidden-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">organisms</a>. 



They were carefully cultured for six months on the healthy reef before being moved to their new home six kilometers away on the damaged reef.



"This innovative approach underscores the critical role of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/healthy-reef-sounds-inspire-coral-larvae-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">healthy reef</a> ecosystems in restoring coral health and resilience," said Dr. Natalie Levy, lead researcher of the study. 



"The results highlight the potential of ecosystem transplantation as an effective, sustainable restoration tool that can be integrated with other coral restoration methods like coral gardening and artificial reefs."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-coral-reef-restoration">The future of coral reef restoration</h2>



The promising application of aCRETs could revolutionize the field of coral reef restoration, particularly in regions experiencing immense environmental stress. 



By adopting this cost-effective method, it is hoped that it can enhance and build upon existing restoration strategies, acting as a safety net for the invaluable ecosystem crucial for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-biodiversity-could-shift-rapidly-due-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">marine biodiversity</a>.



"This research advances our understanding of coral restoration and provides an invaluable tool to help address the ongoing global coral crisis," said Professor Oren Levy.



"By using healthy ecosystems to regenerate damaged reefs, we can work towards more resilient, sustainable coral ecosystems that may one day recover from climate change and other threats."



This pioneering study has undoubtedly set the stage for a new wave of coral conservation efforts, embodying a glimmer of hope for reversing the alarming degradation of coral reefs on a global scale.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-expanding-reef-restoration-beyond-borders">Expanding reef restoration beyond borders</h2>



The success of the aCRET method holds immense promise not just for localized reef restoration but for broader, global applications. 



With coral reefs under threat in regions spanning the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, this approach could be a scalable solution for nations grappling with environmental stressors like warming oceans, pollution, and overfishing.



By encouraging international collaborations, much like the partnership utilized for this study, scientists and policymakers can work together to deploy aCRET and similar methods across diverse marine ecosystems.



These efforts could be paired with education and awareness campaigns aimed at empowering coastal communities to take active roles in reef conservation.



Moreover, the integration of advanced monitoring technologies, such as AI-driven reef health analytics and satellite imaging, could further enhance the impact of such restoration efforts. 



These innovations would allow for the tracking of transplanted ecosystems, ensuring long-term sustainability and adaptive management in the face of a changing climate.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54149-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



-----



Like what you read? <a href="https://www.earth.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to our newsletter</a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.&nbsp;



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



-----

Healthy coral transplants could revolutionize reef restoration

Imagine a world where damaged ecosystems, specifically coral reefs teeming with vibrant marine life, could be revived and restored to their former glory. These vibrant underwater habitats, often referred to as the "rainforests of the sea," are essential for marine biodiversity and coastal protection. That's no longer just a dream, thanks to an innovative study that has just shed light on a technique with immense potential for reviving and restoring damaged coral reefs. By harnessing the power of healthy ecosystems, scientists have unlocked a sustainable and scalable...

More than 400 million years ago, Earth saw an unprecedented explosion of new life. In a new study, geologists have added to the growing mountain of evidence connecting this burst of biodiversity to rising oxygen levels on the planet.

A team of scientists led by Dr. Cole Edwards of <a href="http://www.appstate.edu/">Appalachian State University</a> found that oxygen levels spiked at around the same time that life began diversifying during the Ordovician Period, between 445 and 485 million years ago.

"This oxygenation is supported by two approaches that are mostly independent from each other, using different sets of geochemical records and predicting the same amount of oxygenation occurred at roughly the same time as diversification," Edwards said in a press release about the study.

The researchers made use of geochemical proxies, high-resolution data and chemical signatures preserved in rocks to identify when oxygen levels rapidly increased during the Middle and Late Ordovician Period. Their discovery of a nearly 80 percent oxygen increase during that period coincides with what’s become known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.

The explosion of life led to enormous changes in existing species and a spike in new marine life.

Previous studies have estimated that Earth’s oxygen levels spiked to nearly modern levels during the Cambrian Period from 485 to 541 million years ago. However, measuring prehistoric oxygen levels is difficult because there’s no way to directly measure ancient seabeds or atmospheric makeup. The new study shows oxygen levels may not have peaked until the Ordovician Period.

"This study suggests that atmospheric oxygen levels did not reach and maintain modern levels for millions of years after the Cambrian explosion, which is traditionally viewed as the time when the ocean-atmosphere was oxygenated," Edwards said. "In this research, we show that the oxygenation of the atmosphere and shallow ocean took millions of years, and only when shallow seas became progressively oxygenated were the major pulses of diversification able to take place." 

However, it still remains unclear what effect higher oxygen levels may have had on animal life, the researchers said.

The study has been published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ngeo/">Nature Geoscience</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: luisrsphoto, <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/">Shutterstock.com</a>

Study: Biodiversity on Earth connected to oxygen levels

More than 400 million years ago, Earth saw an unprecedented...

There are many reasons why animals species become <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trump-refuses-list-endangered/">endangered</a>. Some animals are disappearing as a result of hunting and poaching, while many others are being pushed out of their natural habitats for industrial and agricultural expansion. The following are the most endangered species on the planet.

&nbsp;

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

This huge woodpecker is found in the southeastern United States and in Cuba. It was thought to be extinct at one time, and now there are only a handful left.

&nbsp;

The Amur Leopard

This rare Russian leopard used to roam Korea and China, yet Amurs have now vanished from these regions. This animal is extremely endangered, with only around 20 adult Amurs left in the world.

&nbsp;

Lemur

Found on the southeastern coast of Africa in Madagascar, there are very few of these animals living today. There are over 100 species of Lemurs, and they are all endangered.

&nbsp;

The Javan Rhinoceros

Hunters pursue these animals for their horns, which is most likely why they are nearly extinct. There are approximately 50 Javan rhinoceroses left in existence.

&nbsp;

Northern Right Whale

Found along the Atlantic coast, this is the most endangered whale species. There are an estimated 350 still living.

&nbsp;

Black Rhinoceros

The black rhinoceros is predicted to become extinct, and this is largely due to hunting, poaching, and climate change.

&nbsp;

Mountain Gorilla

There are only between 300 and 400 mountain gorillas left in the world. They were thought to be dangerous at one time due to their aggressive nature, and they were hunted and killed.

&nbsp;

The Saola

This animal is so rarely spotted that it is known as the Asian unicorn. This critically endangered species exists between Laos and Vietnam.

&nbsp;

Cross River Gorilla

Mainly due to climate change and illegal hunting, there are only around 300 cross river gorillas left. They are mostly found near the Cameroon-Nigerian border.

&nbsp;

Leatherback Sea Turtle

This is the world's largest turtle, and it is critically endangered due mainly to illegal hunting and theft of the eggs. There are about 20,000 leatherback sea turtles left, but their populations are steadily declining. 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The 10 most endangered animals

There are many reasons why animals species become endangered. Some...

A coastal survey team came upon an unexpected discovery in Russia’s Kamchatka Territory late last week: the headless remains of a Pleistocene sea monster.

The massive skeleton once belonged to a creature known as Steller’s sea cow. While the species had an extensive range during the Pleistocene epoch, by the time they were discovered by European explorers in 1741, they lived only around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea. 

The explorers hunted them, finding that they had few defenses against harpoons. Just one massive, nearly 10-ton sea monster could feed a 30-person ship’s crew for a month, and the fat made an excellent substitute for butter, according to primary sources shared by Jacob Mikanowski in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/04/pleistoseacow/522831/">The Atlantic</a>. 

The sea cows’ run-in with the expedition, led by their namesake Georg Steller, spelled their demise. The species was extinct just 27 years after its discovery. Scientists suspect needless overhunting of the creatures contributed to their disappearance.

The skeletal remains found by the coastal surveyors would have been about 20 feet long, if the skull had been present. The manatee-like sea creatures could grow to nearly 30 feet. The researchers excavated 45 vertebrae, 27 ribs, a left shoulder blade and several other bones, the <a href="http://www.mnr.gov.ru/news/detail.php?ID=343860">Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology</a> reported. 

The remains are missing a skull, the cervical vertebrae, the right scapula, and a few other vertebrae and small bones.

“The discovery of such a sufficiently complete skeleton of Steller's sea cow is an extremely important event not only for the <a href="http://www.travelkamchatka.com/komandorsky.htm">Komandorsky reserve</a>, but for science in general,” the ministry said.

The find is one of the most complete skeletons found since the 19th century. The last discovery of a full Steller’s sea cow skeleton was in 1987. That set of remains, found on Bering Island, was around 9 feet long.

“The found skeleton will become one of the central exhibits of the visitor center of the Komandorsky reserve,” the ministry said.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: <a href="http://komandorsky.ru/было-бы-чудом.html">Commander State Biosphere Reserve</a>

Skeletal sea monster found on Russian island – without its head

A coastal survey team came upon an unexpected discovery in...

Update: In a rare move, President Trump tweeted Friday night that the plan to allow the import of elephants hunted in Africa would be halted, saying, "Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts." 

Hunters may soon be allowed to bring trophies of African elephants back to the United States, and the news is sparking outrage. A <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> official confirmed to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/">ABC News</a> that President Trump plans to reverse a ban put in place by the Obama administration in 2014. 

Chelsea Clinton tweeted, “Infuriating. Will increase poaching, make communities more vulnerable &amp; hurt conservation efforts.”

According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson, lifting the restrictions will allow U.S. sport hunting in Zimbabwe and Zambia. The spokesperson defended the move by saying that it will put "much-needed revenue back into conservation."

Despite the fact that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/elephants-missing-poached/">elephants</a> are an endangered species, hunting can be permitted if evidence shows that hunting benefits the conservation of the animals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, “Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation.”

The <a href="http://www.greatelephantcensus.com/">Great Elephant Census</a> reports that African elephants are vanishing at an alarming rate and the rate is continuing to gain speed. The census estimates that the elephant population in Africa is now dropping by 8 percent a year, primarily due to poaching.

Between 2007 and 2014, elephant populations declined by 30 percent across 18 African countries. In Zimbabwe, the population dropped by 6 percent overall, yet one region in particular lost 74 percent of its elephants.

Ellen DeGeneres said, “I love elephants. And if you take the time to learn about elephants, you would love them too.”

She also remarked, “Elephants show compassion, sympathy, social intelligence, self-awareness. They’re excellent at learning abilities — all the things I have yet to see in this president.”

Degeneres posted an illustration of an elephant on her Twitter and Instagram pages. For every retweet and like received by the posts, Degeneres will make a donation to the <a href="https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/">David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust</a>, a foundation that rescues orphaned elephants in Kenya.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Outrage after Trump reverses ban on elephant trophies

Update: In a rare move, President Trump tweeted Friday night...

Scientists have found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-tap-water-contains-plastics/">microplastics</a> are infiltrating the Pacific Ocean at its farthest depths. An unprecedented study has revealed that crustaceans living nearly seven miles deep in the ocean are ingesting plastic fibers.

The study was led by Dr. Alan Jamieson from <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a>. 

“These observations are the deepest possible record of microplastic occurrence and ingestion, indicating it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by anthropogenic debris,” said Dr. Jamieson.

Using deep-sea landers, the researchers collected samples from 90 crustaceans in trenches that span the entire Pacific Ocean. These included the New Hebrides, Mariana, Japan, and Kermadec trenches. The deepest region is the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is 6.7 miles down. 

“The deep sea is not only the ultimate sink for any material that descends from the surface, but it is also inhabited by organisms well adapted to a low-food environment and these will often eat just about anything,” said Dr. Jamieson. “This study has shown that manmade microfibers are culminating and accumulating in an ecosystem inhabited by species we poorly understand.”

The study revealed that every crustacean sampled from the Mariana Trench had ingested plastic fragments including polyethylene, polyvinyls, and nylon. At least 50 percent of sea creatures had swallowed microplastics in the other trenches as well.

Dr. Jamieson explained, “This type of work requires a great deal of contamination control but there were instances where the fibers could actually be seen in the stomach contents as they were being removed.”

“We felt we had to do this study given the unique access we have to some of the most remote places on earth, and we are using these samples to make a poignant statement about mankind's legacy,” said Dr. Jamieson.

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Crustaceans ingesting plastic at the deepest depths of the ocean

Scientists have found that microplastics are infiltrating the Pacific Ocean...

A groundbreaking study reveals that dog owners have a lower risk of fatal cardiovascular disease and death from other causes. The new research shows that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lonely-dogs-anxious-owners-can-help/">dog owners</a> in a single household have a significantly lower risk of death and cardiovascular disease than non-owners who live alone.

Swedish scientists investigated data on the health of more than 3.4 million individuals to see how dog-ownership related to the risk of cardiovascular disease. 

The researchers selected records from seven different national registries for individuals between the ages of 40 and 80 who did not have cardiovascular disease in 2001. The registries included two dog ownership registries, and enabled the researchers to track the subjects over the course of 12 years.

Mwenya Mubanga is the lead junior author of the study at <a href="https://www.uu.se/en/">Uppsala University</a>.

"A very interesting finding in our study was that dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death than those living in a multi-person household,” said Mubanga. “Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households.”

The researchers found that single dog owners had a 33 percent reduction in risk of death and 11 percent reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease compared to single non-owners. 

“Another interesting finding was that owners to dogs from breed groups originally bred for hunting were most protected," said Mubanga.

"These kind of epidemiological studies look for associations in large populations but do not provide answers on whether and how dogs could protect from cardiovascular disease,” explained senior author Tove Fall. “We know that dog owners in general have a higher level of physical activity, which could be one explanation to the observed results. Other explanations include an increased well-being and social contacts or effects of the dog on the bacterial microbiome in the owner.”

Fall pointed out that there also may be health differences between dog owners and non-owners before getting a dog. For example, people who choose to get dogs may simply have more active lifestyles. The results of the study are published in <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Adopting a dog can actually extend your life

A groundbreaking study reveals that dog owners have a lower...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/">University of California San Francisco</a> (UCSF) have demonstrated that songbirds can adapt their songs according to their situation. The researchers are using the birds as a model to understand how the human brain learns movement and speech adaptation.

"We wanted to understand how the brain balances the need to generalize learning of movements across many contexts with the need to produce specialized movements in specific contexts," said lead author Lucas Tian.

Neurobiologists at UCSF have been studying birdsongs for years to explore what insight they may provide into how the brain learns complex behaviors. The researchers set out to analyze how the Bengalese finch changes the tune of its song depending on context.

A finch’s song is much like the human language, made up of a sequence of syllables and learned from adult tutors. Adult finches sing to attract mates, but still adjust their songs depending on various situations, such as whether they are performing or practicing.

For their study, the research team investigated what makes the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/songbird-learn-new-songs/">birds</a> alter the pitch of specific syllables. They trained the finches by playing a burst of white noise when the birds sang a syllable outside of the pitch range the researchers had established. The birds learned right away to shift the pitch of that syllable to avoid the unpleasant noise.

The researchers noticed that the birds also modified the pitch when singing those syllables in other song sequences as well. The extent to which they adjusted the pitch depended on how much the sequence resembled the original song.

Next, the experts guided the finches to modify the same syllable in opposite directions depending on the context to test whether the birds could learn different rules for different situations. Incredibly, the finches learned to distinguish between contexts and changed their responses accordingly. For example, they would sing C in a lower pitch when the syllable came after a B but in a higher pitch when the syllable came after an A.

"This type of sophisticated customization of learning to different contexts is very similar to human speech," said senior author Michael Brainard. "It's hard to study what's going on in the human brain during this process, but we can ask how this context-dependent learning is happening in birds. There is enough similarity in neural structures between birds and mammals to allow us to think that what we learn in the bird might apply more broadly."


The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/home">Neuron</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Songbirds adapt their tune to different situations

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have...

According to a new study, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-driving-climate-change/">climate change</a> could cause 50 to 80 percent of marine species in the Pacific Islands Nations to either die off or migrate away from their native habitat by the end of the 21st century.

The study was conducted by the <a href="http://www.nereusprogram.org/">Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program</a> and revealed that many species in the Pacific Islands region are in danger of being wiped out if serious efforts to combat climate change are not put in place. 

“Under climate change, the Pacific Islands region is projected to become warmer, less oxygenated, more acidic, and have lower production of plankton that form the base of oceanic food webs," said Rebecca Asch, the study’s lead author. 

Marine wildlife in the region are ill-equipped to adapt to a changing climate as area is the warmest in the entire global ocean and there is very little seasonal change.

Species in the Pacific Islands are not used to any major temperature changes, which is why climate change could have more of a severe impact. 

“Since no organisms living in the ocean today would have time to adapt to these warmer conditions, many will either go extinct or migrate away from the western Pacific, leaving this area with much lower biodiversity,” said Gabriel Reygondeau, one of the co-authors. 

For the study, the researchers examined more than 1,000 species from both reef and open-water habitats, and specifically noted how the different populations would be affected by warming waters. 

The team discovered that both open water and reef habitats would lose biodiversity, but those species who live in open water would undergo higher rates of decline. 

The results are bleak, especially because Pacific Islanders depend on marine species for not only food but also for economic opportunities.

However, the researchers note that if mitigation efforts to combat climate change are put in place, the Pacific Island region will not lose nearly as many marine species. 

“One hopeful point is that the extent of these changes in biodiversity and fisheries was dramatically reduced under a climate change scenario where greenhouse gas emissions were close to what would be needed for achieving the Paris Climate Agreement,” said William Cheung, co-author and the Nereus Director of Science. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Pacific Islands in danger of losing over half of local fish

According to a new study, climate change could cause 50...

ZB.11078

At one point in North America, the population of passenger pigeons was estimated to be around 3 to 5 billion — yes, that’s billion with a “b”. However, the species is now extinct due to it being hunted mostly for sport by humans. To this day, scientists are still perplexed at how such a massive population was able to go <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orangutan-species-extinction/">extinct</a> so quickly, and not persist in at least a few isolated populations.

In a new study published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/journals">Science</a>, researchers postulate that passenger pigeons — while well-adapted to living in huge flocks — were poorly adapted to living in smaller groups. Their findings suggest that rapid change in population size gave the species very little time to properly adapt.

“Passenger pigeons did really well for tens of thousands of years, and then suddenly they went extinct,” says Beth Shapiro, one of the study’s authors and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at <a href="https://www.ucsc.edu/">UC Santa Cruz</a>. “Paradoxically, their enormous population size may have been a factor in their extinction.”

The study involved analyzing the genetic diversity of passenger pigeons through DNA recovered from museum specimens. They looked at the variation in diversity across the genome, and found that it was lower than expected, as well as more variable. The analysis allowed them to see where regions of high and low diversity existed in the passenger pigeon genome. 

Their findings showed patterns in the species’ genome which revealed that low genetic diversity was a result of natural selection initiating the rapid spread of beneficial mutations and elimination of bad mutations throughout the population. However, in the band-tailed pigeon — a closely related species — these patterns of genetic diversity were not present. An interesting fact to note is that the band-tailed pigeon has a relatively small population of about 2 million that are native to western North America.

“When we looked at rates of adaptive evolution and purifying selection in both species, we found evidence that natural selection had resulted in both a faster rate of adaptive evolution in passenger pigeons and a faster purging of deleterious mutations,” explains Gemma Murray, the study’s first author and a researcher in Shapiro’s lab at <a href="https://www.ucsc.edu/">UC Santa Cruz</a>. “That is exactly what you would expect to see if selection is causing the differences in genetic diversity.”

Through further analysis of the passenger pigeon genome, the researchers found that many of the genes that showed evidence of adaptive evolution could be related to aspects of passenger pigeon ecology and the demands of living in large flocks. This included genes related to the immune system and stress reduction, as well as the ability to eat a wide diversity of foods. When the population size is greatly reduced, these traits are no longer as beneficial to the individual. 

These findings have wide implications for current models used by population geneticists, which often assume neutral evolution in order to look back on a population’s history. For a species such as the passenger pigeon, these models don’t fit the mold. “In most species, it is probably safe to assume the majority of the genome is evolving neutrally, but for species with very large populations we might want to hesitate,” says Shapiro. “These tools that use genetic diversity to make inferences about historical changes in a population’s size don't work at all for the passenger pigeon.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Rene O'Connell

How the passenger pigeon went extinct so quickly

At one point in North America, the population of passenger...

A new genomic study of Africanized honey bees in Puerto Rico reveals that while they mostly resemble their African ancestors, a few regions of their DNA are more like European honey bees. This may explain why these killer bees have become more gentle over the last 30 years.

Africanized bees are a hybrid of gentle European bees and aggressive, disease-resistant African bees. Also known as killer bees, the new breed was first introduced in Brazil in an effort to boost honey production. After 26 swarms escaped from isolation in 1957, the species then spread throughout South America and eventually arrived in North America. 

Africanized honey bees were accidentally carried into <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hurricane-maria-slams-puerto-rico/">Puerto Rico</a> in the 1990s, and within three decades evolved into the gentle bees that are prevalent on the island today. Study co-author Tugrul Giray is a Biology professor at the <a href="http://www.upr.edu/">University of Puerto Rico</a>. Giray first reported on the gentle Puerto Rican bees in 2012.

The research team sequenced the genomes of 30 bees from Puerto Rico, 30 Africanized bees from Mexico, and 30 European honey bees from central Illinois to investigate how the Puerto Rican bees became gentle. 

"The benefit of having these three populations is that you can compare and contrast between the three," said study co-author Arian Avalos of the <a href="http://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a>. "We asked, 'How is the genome of the gentle Africanized bee different than other Africanized populations? What parts of the genome are similar to European bees?'"

The study revealed that the genomes of Puerto Rican bees were mostly like those of Africanized bees. However, some regions of the DNA had shifted to become more like gentle European bees. These regions appeared to be under "positive selection," which means that something in the bees' environment was favoring these genetic expression patterns over others.

The scientists believe that the bees have evolved to be less aggressive as a result of living on a densely populated island that is difficult to for them escape.

"Evolution involves changes in the frequency of gene variants across a population, and that's what we're seeing in Puerto Rico," said co-author Gene Robinson. "Now we know that these gentle Africanized bees can be genetically distinguished both from other Africanized honey bees and from European honey bees."

The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Killer bees in Puerto Rico evolved to be less aggressive

A new genomic study of Africanized honey bees in Puerto...

Parrotfish relentlessly grind up coral and deposit it as sand onto the seafloor, and can single-handedly produce hundreds of pounds of sand every year. But what gives this fish its powerful bite? Scientists have now identified a woven microstructure that enables parrotfish to chomp on coral tirelessly. 


Study first author Matthew Marcus is a scientist at the Department of Energy's <a href="http://www.lbl.gov/">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory</a>. He works at the lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), a type of X-ray source known as a synchrotron light source. This method of investigation proved to be critical to the examination of parrotfish.

Marcus became intrigued with parrotfish during a trip to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/great-barrier-protected-zones/">Great Barrier Reef</a> when he was reminded of the remarkable roles they play. Parrotfish primarily eat polyps and algae on the surface of coral skeletons, and help to clean up reefs.


"I was reminded that this is a fish that crunches up coral all day, and is responsible for much of the white sand on beaches," said Marcus. "But how can this fish eat coral and not lose its teeth?"

Measured near the biting surface, the hardness of parrotfish teeth is about 530 tons of pressure per square inch. This is equivalent to a stack of 88 African elephants compressed inside of a single square inch of space.

Marcus teamed up with biophysicist Pupa Gilbert to analyze parrotfish teeth. Collaborators in French Polynesia contributed parrotfish beaks, and the team performed a series of structural studies to examine how they work.

Using specialized techniques at the ALS, the team set out to examine how the fine crystal structure of parrotfish teeth contribute to their incredible strength. The researchers were able to view the individual crystals and observed their intricately woven structure.


Fluorapatite, which contains calcium, fluorine, phosphorous, and oxygen, is the the mineral responsible for the crystal structure of parrotfish teeth. The study revealed that the fluorapatite crystals are assembled into interwoven bundles, which decrease in size toward the tip of each tooth.

Gilbert pointed out that conventional microscopes overlook the unique orientation of crystals within the enamel structure of teeth. According to Gilbert, the crystal orientation "tells a big story about how different teeth are specialized for different functions."

In parrotfish, the continuously growing rows of teeth, which form a beaklike structure that constantly replaces worn teeth with new teeth, are also key to their specialized feeding behavior. Parrotfish have approximately 1,000 teeth situated in 15 rows, and each tooth is cemented to the others and surrounded by bone to form a solid beak.

"Parrotfish teeth are the coolest biominerals of all," Gilbert said. "They are the stiffest, among the hardest, and the most resistant to fracture and to abrasion ever measured." 

The study is published online in the journal <a href="http://www.acsnano.org/">ACS Nano</a>.
--
By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Don’t underestimate the incredible bite of the parrotfish

Parrotfish relentlessly grind up coral and deposit it as sand...

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bumblebee-declared-endangered/">bumblebee</a> is one of the few bees that uses buzz pollination. Most bees pollinate by coating themselves in flower pollen while collecting nectar from a flower’s anthers, which is the part of the flower that houses pollen. 

But some flowers store their pollen inside their anthers, and so buzz pollination is the only way a bumbleebee can collect the pollen grains. 

Buzz pollinators use a distinctly different buzzing frequency that vibrates their wings and body, creating enough resonance to release the trapped pollen. 

But now, a new study conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://www.stir.ac.uk/">University of Stirling</a> has found that pesticides may interfere with a bumblebee’s ability to buzz and collect pollen.

Neonicotinoid pesticides directly affect the bee’s buzzing vibrations, which impacts their ability to harvest pollen. 

For the study, the researchers monitored captive colonies of bumblebees that visited buzz-pollinated flowers and recorded the bees’ buzzes with microphones.

The researchers also had a control group of bees that weren’t exposed or affected by neonicotinoid pesticides. 

The team observed the captive bees over time, analyzing any changes in their buzz frequencies while collecting pollen. 

After chronic exposure to pesticides, the bumblebee’s buzzing vibrations were affected and the bees collected fewer pollen grains as a result.

“Our result is the first to demonstrate quantitative changes in the type of buzzes produced by bees exposed to field-realistic levels of neonicotinoid,” said Dr. Penelope Whitehorn, leader of the research. “We also show that buzz pollinating bees exposed to the pesticide also collect fewer pollen grains.

The control bees who were not exposed to any pesticides collected more pollen as they got older and gained experience. 

“However, bees that came into contact with pesticide did not collect more pollen as they gained more experience, and by the end of the experiment collected between 47% and 56% less pollen compared to the control bees,” said Dr. Whitehorn. 

The results show the negative impact that pesticides have on buzz-pollinators like bumblebees. The researchers hope to conduct further studies to determine exactly how neonicotinoid  pesticides impair buzz-pollinators. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Pesticides stop bumblebees from buzzing and collecting pollen

The bumblebee is one of the few bees that uses...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"]</div>



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)



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qas3EhyI0Y-2220951-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="qas3EhyI0Y-2220951-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="vpljfR2VBX-2560867-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="vpljfR2VBX-2560867-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="MHyhtebibJ-2200368-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="MHyhtebibJ-2200368-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...