Desolate, arid and virtually lifeless - that's how one would traditionally describe the Atacama Desert. Stretching across the Pacific coast in Chile, this unforgiving territory is known as the driest spot on our planet. It's no surprise that the desert is deemed hostile to most forms of life.



Yet, a closer look at the sandy soil reveals a perfect paradox - a diverse community of resilient microorganisms, thriving in the seeming desolation.



Investigating the function of these microorganisms can be challenging. Modern science tools often hit a wall while trying to separate the genetic material of the living from the dead in this <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saharan-dust-supports-ocean-life-far-from-the-desert/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbial community</a>.



But now, a promising solution to this mystery is at hand.



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



Presented this week in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, an international team of researchers announces a novel separation technique. 



This innovative method distinguishes extracellular (eDNA) from intracellular (iDNA) genetic material, casting a spotlight on the living members of the elusive microbial community.



The technique is a game-changer in studying microbial life in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/floods-are-becoming-more-deadly-in-the-desert/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">low-biomass environments</a> - an area where conventional DNA extraction methods have been falling short.



The research was led by Dr. Dirk Wagner from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. He believes this development could usher in a new era in microbial research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-active-life-in-arid-regions-of-desert">Active life in arid regions of desert</h2>



The microbiologists put their novel method to practice on soil samples collected from the Atacama Desert, running along a west-to-east path from the ocean's edge to the foothills of the Andes mountains. 



What they found was intriguing: a variety of potentially active microbes were discovered in the most arid regions of the desert.



"Microbes are the pioneers colonizing this kind of environment and preparing the ground for the next succession of life," said Dr. Wagner. He noted that these processes aren't exclusive to desert lands.



"This could also apply to new terrain that forms after earthquakes or landslides where you have more or less the same situation, a mineral or rock-based substrate."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-approach-to-dna-extraction">New approach to DNA extraction</h2>



Conventional tools for DNA extraction from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/desert-grass-survives-by-capturing-moisture-from-fog/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">soils</a> often present a blend of living, dormant and dead cells from microorganisms.



“If you extract all the DNA, you have DNA from living organisms and also DNA that can represent organisms that just died or died a long time ago," explained Dr. Wagner.



The formidable challenge, especially in low-biomass environments, is securing sufficient good-quality DNA for metagenomic sequencing to unravel specific microbes and their processes. 



Dr. Wagner and his team have found a way around this by creating a process that filters out intact cells from a mixture, leaving behind eDNA genetic fragments from dead cells.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-extraterrestrial-life">Implications for extraterrestrial life</h2>



The significance of this research extends far <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/this-desert-moss-might-help-humans-live-on-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">beyond Earthly environments</a>. 



The techniques developed for distinguishing living microbial communities in the Atacama Desert could offer a tantalizing approach to astrobiology, a field dedicated to exploring life beyond our planet. 



Mars, with its barren and inhospitable terrain, presents a setting not unlike parts of the Atacama. Here, scientists speculate that if life ever arose, it might have persisted in microbial form beneath the surface. 



By applying this novel genetic separation technique, future missions to Mars could possibly identify signs of life that traditional methods might overlook, thus advancing our understanding of life's potential in the cosmos.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-charting-future-research">Charting future research</h2>



The advent of this cutting-edge method represents a paradigm shift in microbial ecology and environmental microbiology. 



It opens up new avenues for research, not only in desolate regions like the Atacama Desert but also in other extreme environments such as Antarctic ice, deep-ocean vents, and arid regions worldwide. 



By accurately categorizing active microorganisms, we can better understand their roles in nutrient cycling, climate change, and biogeochemical processes. 



This refined approach provides a critical tool for scientists aiming to unravel the life forms that have evolved to thrive against the odds. It also lays the groundwork for future discoveries at the intersections of life, earth, and space sciences.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vibrant-life-beneath-atacama-desert">Vibrant life beneath Atacama Desert</h2>



Dr. Wagner plans to extend the study's methodology to other hostile environments. He believes that this technique, which focuses on active microorganisms (iDNA), can provide deeper insights into the active part of the community.



By examining the vibrant life thriving beneath the surface of the Atacama Desert, we are slowly unearthing the secret resilience of microbes in the most <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oases-grow-by-human-effort-but-face-threats-from-desertification/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arid of environments</a>. 



As we continue to witness the incredible adaptation and survival of life in the harshest of conditions, the lines of possibility for microbial life continue to expand, taking us one step deeper into unraveling the mysteries of life itself.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.asm.org%2Fdoi%2F10.1128%2Faem.01443-24&amp;utm_campaign=aga&amp;utm_source=agsadl2%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Applied and Environmental Microbiology</a>.



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Living microbes found in the driest desert on Earth

Desolate, arid and virtually lifeless - that's how one would traditionally describe the Atacama Desert. Stretching across the Pacific coast in Chile, this unforgiving territory is known as the driest spot on our planet. It's no surprise that the desert is deemed hostile to most forms of life. Yet, a closer look at the sandy soil reveals a perfect paradox - a diverse community of resilient microorganisms, thriving in the seeming desolation. Investigating the function of these microorganisms can be challenging. Modern science tools often hit a...

During its recent update of at-risk plants and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-are-increasingly-threatened-by-heatwaves-worldwide/">animals</a> to be included on the “Red List,” the IUCN decided to recognize two species of African elephants. Apart from the better-known savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), they have also included the more reclusive forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) as a species, after new genetic evidence of their status emerged. Forest elephants occur in the tropical forests of Central Africa and West Africa, and their numbers have declined drastically in the past 30 years – to the extent that they are now deemed critically endangered by the IUCN.&nbsp;



Humans do not have a good record when it comes to the way in which we have treated elephants. We have killed them for their ivory, made them work for us and perform for us, consigned them to captivity and reduced their habitat to fragmented patches. For forest elephants, poaching and habitat loss have taken the worst toll and resulted in the loss of around 65 percent of individuals in the past 12 years.&nbsp;



This decline in forest elephant numbers may have serious consequences for carbon storage in tropical rainforests, report <a href="https://www.slu.edu/">Saint Louis University</a> researchers and colleagues.&nbsp;The scientists state that, if the already critically endangered elephants become extinct, the rainforests of Central and West Africa would lose between six and nine percent of their ability to capture atmospheric carbon, thereby contributing to planetary warming.



Stephen Blake, who is assistant professor of biology at Saint Louis University and senior author on the research paper, has spent much of his career dedicated to studying elephants. In the report, published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, he and lead author Fabio Berzaghi from the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE) in France, along with colleagues, document exactly how the ecology of these mega-herbivores ends up having such a strong influence on carbon retention in African rainforests.



“Elephants have been hunted by humans for millennia,” Blake said. “As a result, African forest elephants are critically endangered. The argument that everybody loves elephants hasn’t raised sufficient support to stop the killing. Shifting the argument for elephant conservation toward the role forest elephants play in maintaining the biodiversity of the forest, that losing elephants would mean losing forest biodiversity, hasn’t worked either, as numbers continue to fall,” explains Blake.&nbsp;



“We can now add the robust conclusion that if we lose forest elephants, we will be doing a global disservice to climate change mitigation. The importance of forest elephants for climate mitigation must be taken seriously by policy makers to generate the support needed for elephant conservation. The role of forest elephants in our global environment is too important to ignore."



Blake and his colleagues explain that forest elephants are critical in maintaining tropical forests in several ways.&nbsp;Firstly, their foraging thins out the density of trees in a way that favors the growth of high carbon density trees. Within the forest, some trees have light wood (low carbon density trees) while others make heavy wood (high carbon density trees). Low carbon density trees grow quickly, rising above other plants and trees to get to the sunlight, whereas high carbon density trees grow more slowly and take longer to reach the sunlight.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Elephants tend to forage more intensively on low carbon density trees, which are more palatable and nutritious. This reduces the density of trees and introduces more light within the canopy, resulting in less competition between trees for light, space and soil nutrients. In this way, the high carbon density trees are able to flourish.&nbsp;



“Elephants eat lots of leaves from lots of trees, and they do a lot of damage when they eat,” Blake said. “They’ll strip leaves from trees, rip off a whole branch or uproot a sapling when eating, and our data shows most of this damage occurs to low carbon density trees. If there are a lot of high carbon density trees around, that’s one less competitor, eliminated by the elephants.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Elephants can change the structure of the forest by their foraging activity, and they can also help regenerate areas by dispersing seeds. The fruits of high carbon density trees, in particular, contain nutritious flesh and seeds. The animals favor the fruits of these trees and the seeds they consume pass unaffected through their&nbsp; guts. In fact, some seeds will not germinate without first travelling through an elephant’s digestive system and being deposited on the forest floor in a pile of nutritious dung. These saplings will, in turn, become some of the largest trees in the forest.



“Elephants are the gardeners of the forest,” Blake said. “They plant the forest with high carbon density trees and they get rid of the ‘weeds,’ which are the low carbon density trees. They do a tremendous amount of work maintaining the diversity of the forest.”



The actions of these elephants can therefore influence the carbon levels in the atmosphere. High carbon density trees store more carbon from the atmosphere in their wood than low carbon density trees, which helps limit the extent of global warming. Given this important role in mitigating climate change, it becomes even more urgent to conserve the forest elephants of the Congo Basin and West Africa.



“The illegal killing of elephants and the illegal trade remains active,” Blake said. “Ten million elephants once roamed across Africa, and now there are fewer than 500,000, with most populations living in isolated pockets. These elephants range from endangered to critically endangered, with their numbers plummeting by more than 80 percent in the last 30-plus years.”



“Elephants are protected under national and international law, and yet poaching continues,” he explains. “These illegal killings must stop to prevent forest elephant extinction. Now we have a choice. As a global society, we can continue to hunt these highly social and intelligent animals and watch them become extinct, or we can find ways to stop this illegal activity. Save the elephants and help save the planet, it really is that simple.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Elephants are forest gardeners that help reduce global warming

During its recent update of at-risk plants and animals to...

If you were to take a trip into space, you’d be tumbling around the rocket cabin due to the lack of gravity. However, a new study from the University of Antwerp and the <a href="https://www.uliege.be/">University of Liège</a> has revealed that this is not the only physiological effect of zero gravity. In fact, the human brain actually adapts to the feeling of weightlessness, with some effects persisting for more than eight months after returning to Earth.&nbsp;



The "BRAIN-DTI scientific project" has received support and acknowledgment from Raphaël Liégeois, a Belgian astronaut who will soon be the third Belgian in space. The purpose of this study on the effects of weightlessness on the human brain is to prepare the new generation of astronauts for longer missions, explained Liégeois.



To better understand weightlessness of the brain, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the brains of 14 astronauts both before and after their mission to space. Data was collected in resting conditions to ensure that there was no activity that may influence the MRI scans of each astronaut, helping the researchers to understand whether any changes were apparent after long-duration spaceflight.&nbsp;



Through this study of default brain states before and after space missions, the researchers were able to conclude that “functional connectivity” changed after prolonged space flight. Functional connectivity is a marker used to assess how the activity within specific brain areas correlates with activity in other regions. In the case of this study, before and after functional connectivity states were compared.&nbsp;



“We found that connectivity was altered after spaceflight in regions that support the integration of different types of information," explained Steven Jillings and Floris Wuyts, researchers at the University of Antwerp. “Moreover, we found that some of these altered communication patterns were retained throughout 8 months of being back on Earth. However, other brain changes returned to the level of how the areas were functioning before the space mission.”



Long-term functional connectivity changes were interpreted to represent a lasting learning effect on the brain. On the other hand, brain changes that returned to normal levels upon return were interpreted as transient effects of spaceflight that indicate a more acute and short-term adaptation to changed gravity levels.&nbsp;



Whilst the scientists are excited about the study findings, research into understanding brain communication changes after space travel is still in a very early stage. It will still be necessary to analyze the behavioral consequences that correlate with these functional connectivity changes, and further studies must be conducted to understand whether longer time in space correlates with more significant brain changes. This research could help organizations select and monitor future astronauts based on the way their brains react to prolonged flight.&nbsp;



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04382-w">Communications Biology</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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The human brain adapts to weightlessness in space

If you were to take a trip into space, you’d...

Seismograph,For,Earthquake,Detection,Or,Lie,Detector,Is,Drawing,Chart.

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a> has recently discovered that an everyday quirk of physics may be a crucial tool in predicting the world’s most powerful <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-tides-earthquakes/">earthquakes</a>. According to the experts, a frictional phenomenon may be a critical key in understanding when and how violently faults move. While this alone cannot allow scientists predict when and where the next major earthquake will strike – since the forces behind large earthquakes are very complex – it will nevertheless offer scientists a new way to investigate the causes and potential for damaging earthquakes to occur.



The researchers squeezed rocks collected from a well-studied fault off the coast of New Zealand in a hydraulic press and discovered that they were very slow to heal and slipped easily. Introducing this finding in a computer model used to estimate the earthquake activity in that area, the results pointed towards a small, slow-motion tremor every two years, an almost exact match with observations from the New Zealand fault. Thus, a fault that is slow to heal is more likely to move harmlessly, while one that heals quickly is more probable to stick until it breaks into a large, damaging earthquake – a phenomenon that also explains, for instance, why it takes more effort to shove a heavy box from a standstill than it does to keep it in motion.



“The same physics and logic should apply to all different kinds of faults around the world,” said study co-lead author Demian Saffer, an expert in Geophysics at UT Austin. “With the right samples and field observations we can now start to make testable predictions about how big and how often large seismic slip events might occur on other major faults, like Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest.”



The experts believe that the clay-rich rocks that are common at many large faults may be regulating earthquakes by allowing plates to slip quietly past each other, limiting the buildup of stress.&nbsp;



“This doesn’t get us any closer to actually predicting earthquakes, but it does tell us whether a fault is likely to slip silently with no earthquakes, or have large ground-shaking earthquakes,” explained co-lead author Srisharan Shreedharan, an assistant professor of Geosciences at the <a href="https://www.usu.edu/">Utah State University</a>.



Since at Cascadia, for instance, there is little evidence of shallow, slow-motion tremors, the <a href="https://pnsn.org/">Pacific Northwest Seismic Network</a> (PNSN) aims to place sensors across key areas of the fault, in order to monitor the possibility of major earthquakes.&nbsp;



“We want to zero in on the processes in the shallow part of the fault because that’s what governs the size of the tsunami,” said Harold Tobin, the director of PNSN. “Fault healing doesn’t explain everything, but it does give us a window into the working of subduction zone faults that we didn’t have before.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adf4930">Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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New tool designed to predict earthquake severity

A team of researchers led by the University of Texas...

As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-tech-can-capture-carbon-dioxide-from-the-atmosphere/">carbon dioxide</a> continues to build up in our planet’s atmosphere, scientists are investigating ways to eliminate this gas more efficiently from the air. However, the world’s leading carbon sink is the ocean, which captures 30 to 40 percent of all the CO2 produced by human activities. Thus, many researchers have recently taken into consideration the possibility of removing CO2 directly from seawater in order to mitigate emissions.



The existing methods for doing this usually apply a high voltage across a stack of membranes to acidify a feed stream by water splitting, a process that converts bicarbonates in the water to CO2 molecules. However, such membranes are expensive, and other chemicals are also required to drive the overall electrode reactions at both sides of the stack, making the procedure even more expensive and complex. Recently though, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) may have found the key to a highly efficient and inexpensive removal mechanism.



“We wanted to avoid the need for introducing chemicals to the anode and cathode half cells and to avoid the use of membranes at all if possible,” said study senior author Alan Hatton, a professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.



The experts devised a reversible process consisting of membrane-free electrochemical cells, in which reactive electrodes are used to release protons to the seawater fed to the cells, triggering the release of the dissolved CO2 from the water. This process is cyclical: it first acidifies the water to convert dissolved inorganic bicarbonates to molecular CO2 that is collected as a gas under vacuum, while afterwards, the water is fed to another set of cells with a reversed voltage to recover the protons and turn the acidic water back to alkaline before releasing it back to the ocean. Once one set of electrodes is depleted of protons during acidification and the other is regenerated during alkalization, the roles of the two cells is reversed.



Since CO2 buildup has increased ocean acidification, threatening vast populations of corals and shellfish, the removal of this gas and reinjection of alkaline water – which could be done through dispersed outlets or far offshore to avoid dangerous local spikes in alkalinity - could slowly start to reverse this process.&nbsp;



However, once the CO2 is removed from seawater, it will still need to be disposed of. This could be done by burying it in deep geologic foundations beneath the seafloor or by chemically converting it into a compound such as ethanol that can be later used as a transportation fuel or integrated into other specialty chemicals.&nbsp;



“You can certainly consider using the captured CO2&nbsp;as a feedstock for chemicals or materials production, but you’re not going to be able to use all of it as a feedstock. You’ll run out of markets for all the products you produce, so not matter what, a significant amount of the captured CO2&nbsp;will need to be buried underground,” Hatton explained.



Since desalination plants are already processing ocean water, these new carbon removal systems could efficiently be integrated into such already existing plants. Other locations could include ships that would process water as they travel, offshore drilling platforms, or aquaculture farms. Ultimately, it could lead to the global deployment of free-standing carbon removal plants.



“The carbon dioxide problem is the defining problem of our life, of our existence. So clearly, we need all the help we can get,” concluded co-author Kripa Varanasi, a mechanical engineer at MIT.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D2EE03804H">Energy &amp; Environmental Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Removing carbon dioxide from seawater

As carbon dioxide continues to build up in our planet’s...

Sunset,Sea,Water,Ocean,Wave

According to a new study conducted by an international team of scientists, the state of the world’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-warming-could-be-devastating-to-all-living-creatures/">oceans</a> keeps deteriorating due to global warming. The experts analyzed three key indicators of climate change, and found that continued historical record-breaking temperatures, all-time high levels of ocean salinity-contrast, and increased ocean stratification (the separation of water into layers) show no signs of slowing down.



“Global warming continues and is manifested in record ocean heat, and also in continued extremes of salinity. The latter highlight that salty areas get saltier, and fresh areas get fresher and so there is a continuing increase in intensity of the hydrological cycle,” said study lead author Lijing Cheng, an oceanographer at the <a href="http://english.iap.cas.cn/">Institute of Atmospheric Physics</a> (IAP) in China.



This massive amount of heat going into the oceans has serious consequences for our planet. The increasing saltiness – and therefore stratification – of the oceans can significantly affect how heat, carbon, and oxygen are exchanged between the water and the atmosphere above it, and can lead to ocean deoxygenation (loss of oxygen), which may have cascading consequences not only for marine life and ecosystems, but also for terrestrial life, including humans.&nbsp;



A drop in ocean biodiversity and the displacement of important species can wreak havoc on fishing-dependent communities and their economies, dramatically affecting the way most people interact with their environments.



“Some places are experiencing more droughts, which lead to an increased risk of wildfires, and other places are experiencing massive floods from heavy rainfall, often supported by increased evaporation from warm oceans. This contributes to changes in the hydrologic cycle and emphasizes the interactive role that oceans play,” said study co-author Kevin Trenberth, an expert in Climate Analysis at the <a href="https://ncar.ucar.edu/">National Center for Atmospheric Research</a>.



In future research, the scientists aim to better understand the changes of the Earth’s major cycles and thus improve projections of how heat, water, and carbon interact. Clarifying these issues will give scientists and policymakers an idea of what can be done preemptively to prepare for higher temperatures, extreme weather events, and other consequences coming along with warming oceans.



“The oceans are absorbing most of the heating from human carbon emissions. Until we reach net zero emissions, that heating will continue, and we’ll continue to break ocean heat content records, as we did this year. Better awareness and understanding of the oceans are a basis for the actions to combat climate change,” concluded co-author Michael Mann, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a>.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00376-023-2385-2">Advances in Atmospheric Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Record-breaking ocean heat continues

According to a new study conducted by an international team...

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/open-water-is-accelerating-ocean-acidification-in-the-arctic/">oceans</a> absorbed approximately 22 percent of the carbon emissions generated by human activities between 2010 and 2019, making them critically important in the current fight against climate change. Absorbed carbon may end up being recycled or stored by marine organisms, or sinking to the bottom of the deep sea, where it can be sequestered over long time periods. Whales are the largest ocean inhabitants and, due to their size and longevity, can influence carbon dynamics in marine ecosystems. For this reason, some scientists have proposed that whales may represent a possible nature-based solution to mitigate increased carbon emissions.



While we are familiar with mitigation efforts focused on reforestation or restoring wetlands, a new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.012">Trends in Ecology and Evolution</a> stresses the importance of understanding the role of whales in marine carbon cycles, and how they influence the amount of carbon in our air and waters, and may potentially contribute to the overall reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide.



“Understanding the role of whales in the carbon cycle is a dynamic and emerging field that may benefit both marine conservation and climate-change strategies,” wrote the researchers, led by Heidi Pearson from the University of Alaska Southeast. “This will require interdisciplinary collaboration between marine ecologists, oceanographers, biogeochemists, carbon-cycle modelers, and economists.”



Whales can weigh up to 150 tons, live for over 100 years, and be the size of large airplanes. Like all living things, their biomass contains a lot of carbon and they influence the marine carbon cycles in several different ways. They feed on huge quantities of nutrient rich prey (up to 4 percent of their body weight each day) and are better at long-term storage of this carbon, given their longevity.&nbsp;



Once they have digested their food, whales excrete waste which enriches the water with nutrients and is used by small organisms for their own growth. Some of these organisms are phytoplankton that photosynthesize, a process that removes large quantities of carbon dioxide and incorporates the carbon into biological molecules.&nbsp;



Whales move across the world’s oceans during migratory journeys, transporting and spreading carbon around. Some whale species also move vertically, diving down deep to catch prey. When a whale dies, its carcass may sink to the bottom of the deep sea where the carbon from its decaying body may remain sequestered for long periods of time. Whales thus have a role in the animal-driven biological carbon pump whereby biogenic carbon is moved from the atmosphere and surface waters down to the depths of the oceans.



“Their size and longevity allow whales to exert strong effects on the carbon cycle by storing carbon more effectively than small animals, ingesting extreme quantities of prey, and producing large volumes of waste products,” wrote the researchers. “Considering that baleen whales have some of the longest migrations on the planet, they potentially influence nutrient dynamics and carbon cycling over ocean-basin scales.”



There have been several studies examining the impact of whales on the carbon cycle that hold promise for including whales in blue carbon schemes. These are nature-based solutions that take a holistic approach to mitigating climate change effects through promoting biodiversity and ecosystem preservation in coastal and marine ecosystems. The great whales are capable of removing carbon through direct pathways by storing it in their bodies and by transferring it to the deep via whale falls (carcasses). For these reasons, the authors consider that whales may indeed have a role to play in a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation.&nbsp;



Currently, data on the carbon sequestration potential of whales is lacking but it would be true to say that the recovery of whale populations would certainly increase their capacity as participants in the biological carbon pump. Commercial hunting, the largest source of whale population decline, has decreased populations by an estimated 81 percent and so the recovery of these populations would undoubtedly enhance the role of these marine giants in oceanic carbon cycling and carbon dioxide removal.



Today, although commercial hunting has largely ceased, whale populations continue to be affected by ship strikes, underwater noise pollution, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean warming and reduction in prey populations. They are also still caught commercially in some locations. All these factors affect the potential for whales to act as carbon removers in blue carbon schemes.



“Whale recovery has the potential for long-term self-sustained enhancement of the ocean carbon sink,” write the study authors. “The full carbon dioxide reduction role of great whales (and other organisms) will only be realized through robust conservation and management interventions that directly promote population increases.”



“While whales are capable of some degree of carbon dioxide removal, there are numerous knowledge gaps that must also be addressed by policy makers seeking to incorporate whale conservation strategies as part of their climate policy. Persistence of carbon stored in whale bodies and exported to the deep sea as whale falls via direct pathways are the best resolved and most precise, yet the largest carbon benefits may result from the indirect pathways, which are also currently the least understood. Elucidating these key unknowns, including realizing the full potential for whales to sequester carbon, presents rich opportunities for further study.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

World Whale Day: Can whales help mitigate climate change?

The oceans absorbed approximately 22 percent of the carbon emissions...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/satellite-data-reveals-vulnerable-tropical-forests-on-a-global-scale/">Tropical forests</a> that are recovering from logging were considered by scientists to be efficient carbon absorbers, as the new trees grow rather quickly. However, according to a new study led by <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a> (ICL), carbon released by soil and rotting wood outpaces the carbon absorbed by new growth, making these recovering forests sources of carbon for years afterwards. These findings highlight the need for logging practices that minimize collateral damage to improve the sustainability of the industry.



“Our results show that for the tropical forest we studied, logged areas are a source of carbon even a decade after logging has occurred. This means we need to reassess their role in global carbon budgets – we can no longer apply the blanket assumption that they are carbon sinks,” said study lead author Maria Mills, an expert in carbon fluxes at the <a href="https://le.ac.uk/">University of Leicester</a>.



“A lot of the carbon released in recovering forests is from collateral damage – trees that have died as a result of damage during the logging operations left to rot, and from disturbed soil. Logged forests still have value – we know they have a&nbsp;unique biodiversity&nbsp;– so making sure they are also not releasing extra carbon through better logging practices will boost their sustainability,” added lead researcher Terhi Riutta, an ecosystem ecologist at the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>.



While most previous studies of recovering forests have focused on measuring tree growth in order to estimate the amount of CO2 taken from the atmosphere, this new study also measured the amount of carbon emanating from the ground (soil and dead wood) to calculate the carbon budget from the incoming and outgoing carbon flows for both logged and unlogged forests.



The analysis revealed that, while unlogged forests are usually carbon neutral, moderately and heavily logged tropical forests are a significant carbon source. The experts estimate an average carbon source of 1.75 +/- 0.94 tons of carbon per hectare in moderately logged forest plots and 5.23 +/- 1.23 tons of carbon per hectare in severely degraded plots, with CO2 emissions continuing at these rates for at least one decade after logging.



&nbsp;“The measurements from the tower show us whether the forest area is a source or a sink of carbon, and the soil monitoring tells us why this is. From these measurements, we know logged forests are still a source of carbon up to a decade after they have been logged, and that this primarily comes from organic matter in the soil or from rotting wood,” concluded co-author Rob Ewers, an expert in Forest Ecology at ICL.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2214462120">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Recovering forests act as carbon sources

Tropical forests that are recovering from logging were considered by...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01594-8">Nature Climate Change</a> has investigated the potential cost of unrealized <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-will-greatly-increase-flood-related-displacement/">flood</a> risk in the U.S. real estate market. The researchers found that flood zone property prices are currently overvalued by $121–$237 billion, with many highly overvalued properties concentrated in counties with no flood risk disclosure laws, such as Florida, but also inland areas in northern New England, eastern Tennessee, central Texas, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Montana.&nbsp;



The experts also found that unpriced flood risk throughout the country could significantly impact local governments and communities, with low-income households being particularly vulnerable to home value deflation.



“Increasing flood risk under climate change is creating a bubble that threatens the stability of the US housing market. As we’ve seen in California in the last few weeks, these aren’t hypotheticals and the risk is more extensive than expected—and that risk carries an enormous cost,” said study lead author Jesse Gourevitch, a postdoctoral fellow at the <a href="https://www.edf.org/">Environmental Defense Fund</a>, a non-profit environmental advocacy group from New York.&nbsp;



“These risks are largely unaccounted for in property transactions, encouraging development in flood-prone areas. Accurately pricing the costs of flooding in home values can support adaptation to flood risk, but may leave many worse off.”



Currently, over 14.6 million properties in the U.S. face at least a one percent annual probability of flooding, with potential yearly damages to residential properties exceeding $32 billion. Due to climate change, the frequency and severity of flooding is projected to increase by 11 percent and average annual losses by at least 26 percent by mid-century. These increasing flood-related costs have led to growing concerns that housing markets are mispricing such risks, causing a real estate bubble to develop.



“There is a significant amount of ‘unknown’ flood risk across the country based solely on the differences in the publicly available federal flood maps and the reality of actual flood risk. As that unknown risk is realized, there are significant implications for both individual property values and the health of the larger housing market,” explained study co-author Jeremy Porter, a senior research fellow at <a href="https://firststreet.org/">First Street Foundation</a>, a non-profit organization researching and communicating the impact of past, present, and future floods.



According to the scientists, low-income households are at greater risk of losing home equity from price deflation due to factoring in estimated flood risks, standing to lose up to ten percent of their market value.&nbsp;



“The risk of overvaluation is higher in lower-income communities. For many people, their most valuable asset is their home. We need policy approaches that improve the transparency of climate risk in markets while also providing increased support and protection for frontline communities,”&nbsp;urged co-author Carolyn Kousky, the Associate Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund.



“Most of the overvaluation is coming from homes that aren’t currently being told that they have significant risk of flooding. This should be a red flag that local, state, and federal governments need to do better to manage and communicate flood risk. There is a clear need for improving flood risk communication via updated flood maps, broadening flood risk disclosure laws at the state and federal level, and increasing investment in flood risk reduction. And as we decide how to adapt to these risks, decisionmakers will have to grapple with the moral question about who bears the cost,” Gourevitch concluded.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Hidden flood risks plague the US housing market

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/southern-resident-killer-whales-are-undernourished/">Southern resident killer whales</a> are an iconic species living in British Columbia’s Salish Sea and the northeastern Pacific coast. Unfortunately, there are only 73 of these fierce, social creatures left in the world. 



Now, a recent study led by the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> (UBC) has found that, although these whales are critically endangered by many anthropogenic factors, such as water contaminants and noise pollution, their decline is mostly caused by the limited availability of their preferred prey, the Chinook salmon.&nbsp;



However, while scientists previously assumed that all types of Chinook salmon are equal in terms of their energy density, the UBC researchers discovered that, in fact, the spring-run Chinook salmon (the earliest to arrive to the Salish Sea) are much richer in lipids and energy density than those that arrive later in the autumn.



“This research helps us quantify the energetic requirements of the southern residents,” said study lead author Jacob Lerner, a doctoral student in Pelagic Ecosystems at UBC. “For example, if the southern residents ate just low-lipid salmon, they would have to eat around 80,000 more Chinook salmon every year than if they just ate high-lipid salmon.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Quantifying the lipid content of various species of salmon is important since it directly relates to their caloric value. Thus, specific estimates of lipid content for different Chinook populations could be used to inform trends in killer whale populations, properly time fishing closures, and decide which hatcheries to augment in order to ensure high quality food availability for southern residents.



“We identified a spectrum of high, medium, and low-lipid Chinook populations from the Fraser that can be used to better inform energetics models and manage both species,” Lerner explained. “We also identified life history parameters for the salmon to predict where on this spectrum they may fall.”



These findings are particularly important since southern resident killer whales are a migratory species that often spend their winter months elsewhere and return to the Salish Sea for the spring and summer. 



“Southern resident killer whales used to come here earlier in the spring season when they could eat early migrating Chinook salmon,” said study senior author Brian Hunt, an associate professor of Oceanography at UBC. 



“Those early Chinook were very energy dense as they need to fuel their long freshwater migration back to their spawning grounds, but those stocks have been declining. With the whales coming later, they mainly have access to Chinook from the lower Fraser. These fish don’t migrate very far, and have lower energy density.”



Further research is needed to clarify how ocean conditions influence energy accumulation in Chinook salmon. 



“We plan to keep monitoring Fraser Chinook salmon fat content. And one of questions we want to answer is how changing ocean conditions might be affecting their energy accumulation. Our concern is that ocean warming and food web shifts in the North Pacific Ocean are leading to lower energy accumulation in Chinook salmon. This will have implications for both the Chinook themselves – will they have enough energy for return migration and spawning? – and the killer whales that depend on them,” Hunt concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-28321-9">Nature Scientific Reports</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Killer whales threatened by lack of high quality food

Southern resident killer whales are an iconic species living in...

About 56 million years ago, our planet experienced one of the largest and fastest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/comet-strike-caused-an-ancient-global-warming-event/">global warming</a> events in the history. The so-called Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was exceptional both in terms of its amplitude (with global temperatures rising by five to eight degrees Celsius) and its suddenness (about 5,000 years – a very short period on a geological scale).&nbsp;



By analyzing sediments collected from the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.unige.ch/en/">University of Geneva</a> (UNIGE) has now found that this event – which led to the extinction of a vast number of terrestrial and marine species – was characterized by an increase in rainfall seasonality, which led to the movement of massive quantities of clay into the ocean, making it uninhabitable for many species.&nbsp;



Due to the similarities between PETM and current global warming – including possible causes such as high concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere – the geological remains of this period are closely studied by scientists in order to estimate what could the future of our planet look like.



“The objective of our study was to investigate the influence of these climatic changes on sedimentary systems, i.e. on the processes of sediment formation and deposition, and to understand how these changes could have been transmitted from the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean,” said lead author Lucas Vimpere, a postdoctoral fellow in Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNIGE.



The scientists analyzed sediments collected from over eight kilometers deep in the Gulf of Mexico, a giant “sink” in which material eroded and transported from North America during million of years is discharged. “For reasons of cost and infrastructure, the sediments used to study the PETM are generally taken from shallow marine or continental environments. Thanks to the collaboration of an oil company, we were able to obtain a sample of unprecedented quality, without any alteration,” Vimpere explained.



Surprisingly, the analysis revealed that the ocean floor was composed first of a massive layer of clay and then a layer of sand. “At the time of the PETM, we thought that there had been more precipitation, and therefore more erosion, and that large quantities of sand had then been transported first by the fluvial systems into the oceans. However, thanks to our sample, we were able to determine that it was the clays and not the sands that were transported in the first instance,” said study senior author Sébastien Castelltort, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNIGE.



Thus, this period does not seem to be marked by an increase in the annual rate of precipitation – as scientists previously assumed – but rather a rise in its seasonality and intensity, which led to an increased mobility of the river channels that transported large quantities of fluvial clays to the ocean depths, significantly harming a variety of marine species.



“The PETM is a potential analogue of current warming. As recent IPCC reports show, we are also now seeing an increase in the seasonality and intensity of rainfall. As our study shows, this is likely to destabilize sedimentary systems in the same way as during the PETM and with the same consequences for the oceans and living species,” Vimpere concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G50641.1">Geology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Ancient global warming event sheds light on Earth's future

About 56 million years ago, our planet experienced one of...

When people think about the negative impacts of climate change, they normally think of species and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-to-keep-your-houseplants-healthy/">plants</a> becoming completely extinct, and whilst this is a huge problem, many plants are able to adapt their to warming temperatures. Whilst these shifts in behaviors are signs that a species is struggling to survive, they can also help to provide researchers with insights into the velocity of climate change as well as aid conservation planning.&nbsp;



A new study from <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a> in Providence, Rhode Island has explored exactly this concept, studying the vegetation cover across mountainous western North America and the way species are adapting to climate change. Study lead author James R. Keller and colleagues hypothesized that species were shifting their distribution north to higher elevations in order to recover their natural temperature range.&nbsp;



This adaptive ability has not been well documented, but in an effort to better understand it, the researchers analyzed 27 years' worth of high-resolution satellite elevation data from between 1984 and 2011 within nine North American mountain ranges. Based on the images, the experts were able to quantify vegetation cover changes at different altitudes across a wide range of tropical, subarctic, coastal, and desert ecosystems.&nbsp;



The data clearly showed that across all studied ecosystems, upward shifts of vegetation toward higher elevations were ubiquitous, and occurred at rapid velocities. These velocities were identified to be significantly faster than the responses of animals to warming temperatures.&nbsp;



However, further research will be needed to consider more recent data, as the satellite data collected did not include imaging from the last twelve years. Furthermore, the lack of data prior to 1984 makes it less certain for the researchers to confirm that vegetation distribution truly has a direct correlation with climate change.&nbsp;



"Our findings help to characterize patterns of vegetation across elevations in mountains that range from the subtropics to the subarctic. If substantiated, this finding could warrant reconsideration of a current cornerstone of conservation planning," wrote the researchers.



"More work is needed to better contextualize how the vegetation shifts we observed, which measure any green vegetation, relate to individual species movements and broader ecosystem transitions–as this sort of integration offers the potential to create a more holistic understanding of change in montane systems”.



The authors concluded by expressing their gratitude for the modern satellite imaging data that we take for granted today: "NASA satellites, in combination with powerful computing, provide a view of our planet like never before, giving us the ability to understand how natural ecosystems are responding to changes in the environment."



The research findings have been published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000071">PLOS Climate</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Plants are responding much faster to climate change than expected

When people think about the negative impacts of climate change,...

By using a new machine learning-operated algorithm, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto</a> has recently detected eight new radio signals originating from five stars located 30 to 90 lightyears away. While there is no evidence yet that these signals might come from <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">extraterrestrial</a> lifeforms, the experts argue that the possibility that other advanced civilizations might use them as “technosignatures” to communicate with us should not be excluded.



The researchers developed a deep-learning algorithm to organize data from telescopes by weeding out human-made interferences to allow astronomers to focus on real patterns coming from distant areas in the universe and then look for patterns which could provide evidence that such signals could be technologically generated.



“We need to distinguish the exciting radio signals in space from the uninteresting radio signals from Earth,”&nbsp;said study lead author Peter Ma, an undergraduate student majoring in Physics at the University of Toronto.



By using this groundbreaking algorithm, the scientists examined over 150 TB of data from 820 nearby stars, on a dataset which had previously been searched through in 2017 by classical techniques, but considered as devoid of any interesting signals. However, the eight signals recently detected through this technique resemble quite closely what astronomers expect extraterrestrial signals to look like.&nbsp;



By contrast to signals caused by natural phenomena, which tend to be broadband, these signals were narrow band. Moreover, they exhibited what is known as a “slope,” meaning that their origin had a certain degree of relative acceleration with our antennas, and thus suggesting that they were not coming from Earth. Finally, while human radio interference usually occurs in both ON and OFF observations since their source is close by, these signals appeared only in ON-source observations.&nbsp;



“First, they are present when we look at the star and absent when we look away, as opposed to local interference, which is generally always present.&nbsp;Second, the signals change in frequency over time in a way that makes them appear far from the telescope,” explained study co-author Steve Croft, a project scientist at <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1">Breakthrough Listen</a>, the world’s largest research program aimed at finding evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations.



Unfortunately, the scientists were unable to detect the radio signals again through follow-up observations. Nevertheless, these findings highlight the power of using machine learning techniques in exploring our universe and possibly put us in contact with other civilizations.&nbsp;



“We’re scaling this search effort to one million stars today with the MeerKAT telescope and beyond. We believe that work like this will help accelerate the rate we’re able to make discoveries in our grand effort to answer the question ‘are we alone in the universe?’” Ma concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01872-z">Nature Astronomy</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Mysterious radio signals: are aliens trying to contact Earth?

By using a new machine learning-operated algorithm, a team of...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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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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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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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



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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 how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



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



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



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



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Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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



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Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



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



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Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



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



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier 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 the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



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



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video 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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center</a> describes how scientists are using autonomous sound sensors to monitor deforestation in the Amazon. By recording soundscapes, the experts can determine which animals are present through their distinct sounds.&nbsp;



Using this method, sounds can be used as scientific measurements to analyze the effects of deforestation. The researchers will gain a better understanding of how the acoustics of a forest can be used to measure its health.&nbsp;



"From space, parts of the Amazon rainforest that have previously been logged or burned may look lush and green, like a place buzzing with activity and full of sounds. But inside the rainforest, the animal life may tell a different story, of a harsh environment and a quieter soundscape," says NASA.



Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center&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

Monitoring deforestation in the Amazon through sounds

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