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...

Although <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/national-parks-endangered-species/">national parks</a> are the backbone of conservation efforts, mounting evidence suggests that many parks are too small to sustain long-term viable populations and maintain essential, large-scale ecological processes, such as large mammal migrations and natural disturbance regimes.&nbsp;



Now, a study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Nature Scientific Reports</a> has found that enhancing ecological connectivity through so-called “corridors” or “linkages” among some of the oldest and largest national parks in Western U.S. and Canada would significantly extend the time that many mammal species populations can persist, while also allowing species to shift their geographic ranges more readily in response to climate change.



The experts investigated the value of establishing ecological corridors for large mammals between the Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, and between Mount Rainier and North Cascades National Parks. The analysis revealed that linking these parks would increase the long-term persistence time of mammals by a factor of 4.3 compared to the persistence time in fragmented, individual parks.



“Eliminating barriers of movement between parks and more carefully managing land-use along these pathways are crucial for the survival of many mammal species,” said study lead author William Newmark, a research curator at the <a href="https://nhmu.utah.edu/">Natural History Museum of Utah</a>. “Establishing an expanded protected area network based on identified mammal pathways and incorporating adjacent wilderness areas would greatly enlarge available habitat for mammal species. And this would have a very positive effect on species persistence time.”



Since the corridor network that the researchers proposed would cross two- and four-lane highways, it would require multiple ecological bridges over and under these roadways. Fortunately, such over- and underpasses for wildlife are already in the process of being constructed in Western U.S. and Canada. “However, a much greater effort will certainly be required if we are to reduce the known adverse impacts of highways on species movement and dispersal,” said study co-author Paul Beier,&nbsp;a professor emeritus of Landscape Conservation at the <a href="https://nau.edu/">Northern Arizona University</a>.&nbsp;



Although scientists have long known that ecological corridors enhance population persistence of species, most previous studies have been small-scale experiments. By analyzing the positive effects of large-scale conservation initiatives that aim to enhance ecological connectivity between protected areas in Western U.S. and Canada, the present study could serve as an important template for large-scale biodiversity conservation both nationally and worldwide.



“The analytical approach presented in this paper can provide conservation planners and practitioners with a powerful method of prioritizing and quantifying the value of ecological linkages between protected areas,” concluded study co-author John Halley,&nbsp;an expert in Biological Applications and Technology at the <a href="https://www.uoi.gr/">University of Ioannina</a> in Greece.



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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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Linking national parks could help mammals survive

Although national parks are the backbone of conservation efforts, mounting...

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/">University of Sheffield</a> in the UK has recently discovered a new ring system on the edge of our Solar System. These <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturns-rings-may-have-formed-from-a-shattered-moon/">rings</a> – located around Quaoar, a Pluto-sized dwarf planet orbiting beyond Neptune – are unique, orbiting much further away from the planet than Saturn’s rings, for instance, and thus posing challenges to current ring formation theories.



The experts discovered the rings by using HiPERCAM, an extremely sensitive high-speed camera mounted on Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the world’s largest telescope, with a diameter of 10.4 meters. Since the rings are too small and faint to observe directly, the researchers detected them by noticing an “occultation” – a phenomenon in which the light from a background star was blocked by Quaoar as it orbited the Sun. Although this event lasted less than a minute, it was unexpectedly preceded and followed by two dips in light, indicating the presence of a ring system around this planet.



Such ring systems are quite rare in our Solar System, being present only around a handful of planets, including Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Chariklo, and Haumea. All these previously detected rings are able to survive due to the fact that they orbit close to their planets, so tidal forces prevent the ring material from accreting and forming moons. By contrast, the newly discovered ring lies at a distance of more than seven planetary radii – twice as far than what scientists thought to be the maximum radius where rings can form. Thus, this finding may force experts rethink current theories of ring formation.



“It was unexpected to discover this new ring system in our Solar System, and it was doubly unexpected to find the rings so far out from Quaoar, challenging our previous notions of how such rings form. The use of our high-speed camera -&nbsp;HiPERCAM - was key to this discovery as the event lasted less than one minute and the rings are too small and faint to see in a direct image,” said study co-author Vik Dhillon, an astrophysicist at Sheffield.



“Everyone learns about Saturn's magnificent rings when they’re a child, so hopefully this new finding will provide further insight into how they came to be.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05629-6">Nature</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 rings found on the edge of our Solar System

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

A study led by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> is providing new details about how climate change is reducing oxygen availability in many lakes around the world. The researchers analyzed data on hundreds of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-will-earths-new-lakes-affect-the-carbon-budget/">lakes</a> to investigate how often the concentration of dissolved oxygen has been dropping below critical levels that are needed to support fish and other marine species.



“Lakes with dissolved oxygen losses strongly outnumber those with gains,” said study lead author Stephen Jane, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. “At large scales, aerobic organisms are losing available habitat as warming of lakes continues. This is particularly the case for organisms that rely on well-oxygenated cool waters deep in lakes to survive warm periods.”



The experts examined about 25 years of data for more than 400 lakes, most of which were temperate climate lakes located in the United States.&nbsp;



The study revealed that the amount of low oxygen water is increasing by 0.9 to 1.7 percent per decade. The researchers also found that the volume of lake water lacking oxygen has increased by more than 50 percent over the past three decades.



Rising temperatures are extending the number of summer weeks that lakes experience thermal stratification. This is when bodies of water divide into distinct layers due to different temperatures.&nbsp;



In July or August, it is typical for a lake surface to be about 70 degrees while the lake bottom is about 40 degrees. The result of stratification is that oxygen from the atmosphere is prevented from replenishing dissolved oxygen in deep waters, explained Jane. This can cause a state of oxygen deprivation called hypoxia, or even a complete lack of oxygen called anoxia.



“Water temperature and density are related,” said Jane. “So it becomes a situation where basically you have oil and vinegar, where strong water temperature differences between layers causes resistance to mixing – which is stratification.”



Stratification changes lead to more time for deoxygenation - the interruption of the natural oxygenation process - for deep-water habitats, said June.&nbsp;



“We show here that as warming is continuing, the amount of time that lakes exhibit stratification is increasing and this leads to increases in the amount of low-oxygen water in lakes,” explained study co-author Professor Kevin Rose of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “The bad news is that given projected warming rates, we’ll likely see even greater increases in the amount of oxygen-depleted water in lakes in the future.”



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16525">Global Change Biology</a>.



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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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Lakes are struggling to maintain oxygen as temperatures rise

A study led by Cornell University is providing new details...

As humanity emits increasing amounts of greenhouse gases, the Earth’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insect-swarms-charge-the-lower-atmosphere-with-static-electricity/">atmosphere</a> traps more and more of the sun’s energy, leading to a steady rise in our planet’s temperature. For decades, scientists have considered using screens or other objects to block enough of the sun’s radiation (about one to two percent) in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. Now, a team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> and the <a href="https://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a> has explored another strategy – the potential of using moon dust to shield sunlight.



The researchers investigated different properties of dust particles, quantities of dust, and the orbits which would be best suited for shading the Earth. They discovered that launching dust from Earth to a way station located at the so-called “Lagrange point” - the closest point between Earth and the sun where the gravitational forces are balanced and where objects tend to stay along a path between the two celestial bodies - would be the most effective strategy. This approach, however, would require enormous costs and efforts. To overcome these problems, the experts have proposed using moon dust as an alternative.



“It is amazing to contemplate how moon dust - which took over four billion years to generate - might help slow the rise in the Earth’s temperature, a problem that took us less than 300 years to produce,” said study co-author Scott Kenyon.



According to the researchers, planet formation is a messy process, kicking up astronomical dust that forms rings around host stars. Such rings intercept light from the central star and re-radiate it in ways that can be easily detected. “That was the seed of the idea; if we took a small amount of material and put it on a special orbit between the Earth and the sun and broke it up, we could block out a lot of sunlight with a little amount of mass,” said study lead author Professor Ben Bromley.



The scientists found that a sunshield’s effectiveness would depend on its capacity to sustain an orbit that casts a shadow on the Earth. “Because we know the positions and masses of the major celestial bodies in our solar system, we can simply use the laws of gravity to track the position of a simulated sunshield over time for several different orbits,” said study co-author Sameer Khan.



Since the inherent properties of lunar dust are perfect to effectively work as a sunshield, the scientists proposed to shoot this dust from a platform on the surface of the moon towards the sun – a cost-effective strategy due to the fact that much less energy is needed to launch dust from the moon than from the Earth. “It is astounding that the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in just the right configuration to enable this kind of climate mitigation strategy,” Kenyon said.



However, the researchers emphasize that this study only explores the potential impact of such a method, rather than evaluating whether this strategy is logistically feasible.&nbsp;



“We aren’t experts in climate change, or the rocket science needed to move mass from one place to the other. We’re just exploring different kinds of dust on a variety of orbits to see how effective this approach might be. We do not want to miss a game changer for such a critical problem,”&nbsp;concluded Bromley.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/">PLOS Climate</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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Could moon dust help slow global warming?

As humanity emits increasing amounts of greenhouse gases, the Earth’s...

A new study led by the <a href="https://wsu.edu/">Washington State University</a> (WSU) and the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/index.htm">U.S. National Park Service</a> has found that, even without hunting activities, humans seem to have a strong negative influence on the movement of wildlife in the Glacier National Park. The experts examined activity on hiking trails during and after a Covid-19 closure of the park. According to the results, humans often create a “landscape of fear” like other apex predators, significantly changing how animals use an area simply with their presence.



The scientists discovered that when human hikers were present, 16 out of 22 mammal species – including both predators and prey – changed when and where they accessed certain areas of the park. While some completely abandoned places they previously used, others used them less frequently and some shifting to more nocturnal activities in order to avoid humans.



“When the park was open to the public, and there were a lot of hikers and recreators using the area, we saw a bunch of changes in how animals were using that same area,” said study senior author Daniel Thornton, a wildlife ecologist at WSU. “The surprising thing is that there’s no other real human disturbance out there because Glacier is such a highly protected national park, so these responses really are being driven by human presence and human noise.”



Initially, the researchers also expected to find an effect called “human shielding,” when human presence causes some large predators to avoid a certain area, providing opportunities for smaller predators or even some prey species to use that area more frequently. However, the analysis revealed such an effect on a single species, the red fox, which was more present on and near hiking trails since its competitors, coyotes, generally avoided such areas when humans were using them.



Species such as black bears, white-tailed deer, and elk showed a significant decline in the use of trails when the park was open, while others like the mule deer, the snowshoe hare, the grizzly bear, and the coyote decreased their daytime activities. Yet, a few species, including cougars, seemed largely indifferent to human presence.



Although these findings suggest that low-impact recreation is quite concerning, future research is needed to assess whether it has negative effects on wildlife survival. “This study does not say that hiking is necessarily bad for wildlife, but it does have some impacts on spatiotemporal ecology, or how wildlife uses a landscape and when,” said study lead author Alissa Anderson, a resent WSU master’s graduate. “Maybe they are not on the trails as much, but they’re using different places, and how much does that actually impact species’ ability to survive and thrive in a place, or not? There are a lot of questions about how this actually plays into population survival.”



“It’s obviously important that people are able to get out there, but there might be a level of which that starts to be problematic. Some additional research could help get a better understanding of that and help develop some guidelines and goals,” Thornton concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-27670-9">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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Humans create a "landscape of fear" for wildlife

A new study led by the Washington State University (WSU)...

When assessing the efficiency of the ocean’s biological <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/recovering-forests-act-as-carbon-sources/">carbon</a> pump (BCP) that carries carbon from the surface layers to the deepest depths, few people consider the role of salps. This is probably because these creatures, also known as sea squirts, are mostly small, gelatinous and transparent, and their patchy distribution in the ocean makes them difficult to study. But they have certain characteristics that potentially make them potent players in the ocean’s carbon cycle. They may even play a significant role in mitigating global warming.&nbsp;



Salps are reminiscent of small, tubular jellyfish but they are tunicates, more closely related to humans than to jellyfish. Their larvae have a notochord – a tough, flexible rod that protects the central nerve cord – running down the back. Although the adults lose this notochord, its presence in the larvae places them in the phylum Chordata, and makes them the closest relatives to vertebrate animals. Salps are zooplankton, meaning that they float around in the oceans, filtering out and eating mostly tiny plant plankton.



The role played by salps in the biological carbon pump has now been investigated as part of the research program known as EXPORTS (EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing). This is a four-year, multi-institutional field program funded by NASA, with the goal of combining shipboard and satellite observations to more accurately quantify the global impact of the biological pump. Co-authors of the salp study hail from marine institutes in Maine, Bermuda, California, Newfoundland, British Columbia, and Alaska.



Carbon dioxide (CO2) enters the oceans at the surface, where phytoplankton use the sunlight’s energy and the atmosphere’s CO2 in photosynthesis, to produce organic molecules. The phytoplankton are eaten by zooplankton, including salps, which then incorporate the carbon into their own tissues. When zooplankton excrete waste, or die, this carbon sinks to the ocean depths and may become sequestered – stored in the benthic sediments, sometimes for millions of years. This means that this carbon is effectively removed from the atmosphere for that time.



During a month-long EXPORTS expedition to the northeast Pacific Ocean in 2018, Dr. Deborah Steinberg of William &amp; Mary’s <a href="https://www.vims.edu/">Virginia Institute of Marine Science</a>, and her colleagues, chanced upon a large bloom of poorly studied salps (Salpa aspera). These creatures have the ability to respond to favorable environmental conditions by reproducing very rapidly, forming massive blooms, called swarms. Salp swarms often go undetected because they do not last long – a salp may only live for a few weeks. The consequence is that the role of these “jelly barrels” in the movement of carbon is rarely included in measurements or models of the BCP.



“Salps follow a ‘bloom or bust’ life cycle, with populations that are inherently patchy in space and time. That makes it hard to observe or model their contribution to the export of carbon to the deep sea," says Steinberg.



In the case of the current study, the researchers identified a salp bloom that covered more than 4,000 square miles (~11,000 km2), about the size of Connecticut.&nbsp;They spent eight days aboard the R/V&nbsp;Revelle, sampling the particulate matter in the water column, along with the density of salps and other zooplankton, right down to a depth of 1,000 m. They made use of a wide range of ocean-observation tools, from traditional plankton nets and sediment traps to underwater video recorders and sonar-based computer models.&nbsp;



Sampling was done during both daytime and night-time, taking into account the fact that salps come to the surface at night to feed, but descend during the day to a depth of between 300 and 700 meters, in order to avoid their own predators. Moreover, by using two research vessels – the 277-ft&nbsp;Roger Revelle and the 238-ft&nbsp;Sally Ride – the scientists were able to observe conditions inside the salp bloom and compare them to conditions in the surrounding waters.



The results of the team’s unprecedented field campaign are published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007523">Global Biogeochemical Cycles</a>. They show that, when present in dense swarms, salps have a massive effect on the amount of particulate organic carbon (POC) moving downwards in the water column, and improve the efficiency of the biological carbon pump significantly.&nbsp;



“High salp abundances, combined with unique features of their ecology and physiology, lead to an outsized role in the biological pump,” says Steinberg.&nbsp;



Salps produce relatively large, dense fecal pellets, that sink rapidly to the depths, giving bacteria little chance to decompose the organic matter on the way. The scientists found that 82 percent of the POC present was derived from salp fecal pellets. Furthermore, the daily migration from surface waters to deeper depths gives the pellets a headstart on their journey downwards. The researchers determined that salp-mediated carbon export markedly increased the biological carbon pump efficiency, increasing by 1.5-fold the proportion of net primary production exported as POC from the surface waters down towards the depths.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The onboard experiments showed that salps are capable of exporting a daily average of 9 milligrams of carbon through each square meter at 100 meters below the bloom, meaning that the amount of carbon exported to the deep sea was about 100 metric tons per day. For comparison, a typical passenger car emits 4.6 metric tons per&nbsp;year. Comparing these values shows the carbon removed from the climate system each day by the salps is equal to taking 7,500 cars off the road. Adjusting these values using the team’s highest measured rate of salp-mediated export (34 mg of C per day) increases the carbon offset to more than 28,000 vehicles.



Moving forward, the team calls for increased recognition of the key role that salps play in global carbon export. “Blooms like the one we observed often go undetected, and their contributions to the biological pump are rarely quantified, even in some of the best-studied regions of the world's oceans," says Steinberg.



Incorporation of salp dynamics into a recent carbon-cycle model illustrates the potential of salp-mediated export. In this global model, salps and other tunicates exported 700 million metric tons of carbon to the deep sea each year, equal to the emissions from more than 150 million cars.&nbsp;



“Greater use of new technologies, such as adding video imaging systems to autonomous floats, would help detect these salp blooms,” says Steinberg. “Our study serves as a ‘call to arms’ to better detect and quantify these processes, using technology and sampling schemes that enable their inclusion in measurements and models of the biological carbon pump.”.



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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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Salps play a key role in pumping carbon to the deep ocean

When assessing the efficiency of the ocean’s biological carbon pump...

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">University of California Riverside</a> have identified tiny organisms that thrive in burned soil after <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-trauma-chronically-affects-survivors-of-wildfires/">wildfires</a> and could help bring land back to life.&nbsp;



To understand how severe wildfires affect bacteria and fungi, mycologist Sydney Glassman led a team of researchers into the burn scar of the Holy Fire, which burned 23,000 acres in 2018.



“When we first came into fire territory, there was ash up to my shins. It was a very severe fire,” said Glassman.&nbsp;



The researchers compared the charred earth with samples from nearby, unburned soil. They found that the overall mass of microbes dropped between 50 and 80 percent after the fire and did not recover during that first year.



Some things, however, lived. “Certain species increased in abundance, and in fact there were really rapid changes in abundance over time in the burned soils,” Glassman said. “There were no changes at all in the unburned soils.”



The surviving bacteria were a parade of microbes that took turns dominating the burned soil. In the first year, distinct shifts in the microbes occurred where one species went down and another came up.



Microbes with high tolerance for fire and high heat were found in the early days of research. Later, fast-growing organisms with a lot of spores seemed to dominate. At the end of the year, organisms that consume charcoal and other post-fire debris dominated.



Study first author Fabiola Pulido-Chavez noticed that genes involved in methane metabolism doubled in post-fire microbes. “This exciting finding suggests post-fire microbes can 'eat' methane to gain carbon and energy, and can potentially help us reduce greenhouses gases,” said Pulido-Chavez.



The researchers continued to test whether fungi and bacteria could thrive at different points in time because of their unique and varied traits. What was found resembles the human body’s response to stress. People suffer an illness and take antibiotics which destroys bacteria and new organisms appear. Eventually, a person’s gut bacteria might return to its pre-infection state, but there is no guarantee.&nbsp;



“We are also trying to understand what gets the land back to where it was before the disturbance, which in this case was an enormous fire,” Glassman said. “A lot of what we’re studying could be transferable to a human microbiome setting.”



Scientists have long known that plants can adapt to wildfires and eventually re-colonize a burn scar, known as regeneration. This research shows fungi and bacteria may have developed similar coping strategies.&nbsp;



Further research is needed to understand whether plants and microbes could adapt again to megafires or recurrent fires. This is especially important as climate change has led to increased wildfire frequency, causing the same soil to burn again in fewer than 10 years.&nbsp;



“Things can recover, but it takes time, and whether or not the land recovers after super-frequent megafires is another story," said Glassman. "Can recovery time keep pace with megafires? We don’t know yet."



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.16835">Molecular Ecology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Burned soil provides a feast for fungi and bacteria

Researchers from the University of California Riverside have identified tiny...

Partially,Submerged,Benches,On,A,Flooded,Riverbank,In,Windsor

As extreme <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-overreact-to-warmer-weather-and-stop-producing-fruit/">weather</a> events become more frequent and intense due to climate change, the number of people and places exposed to flooding is likely to increase. Until recently though, surprisingly little research has been conducted about how floodplain development patterns vary across communities. 



Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.unc.edu/">University of North Carolina</a> (UNC) has found that new housing construction in flood-prone areas has significantly contributed to increasing risk across North Carolina, regardless of community and government efforts to reduce flood damage. According to the experts, more than ten new residences have been built in this state’s 100-year floodplains for each residence removed through government buyouts (through which flood-prone properties are purchased and restored to open space).



“We’ve been putting more and more people in harm’s way, and we see that pattern across the state – in coastal and inland communities, in urban and rural areas,” said&nbsp;study lead author Miyuki Hino, an assistant professor of City and Regional Planning at UNC. “Communities across the state are working to reduce their flood risk through buyouts, elevating homes, and upgrading infrastructure, but it’s harder to see those benefits when we’re adding more houses and people to floodplains at the same time.”



The researchers investigated new construction across five million parcels in North Carolina in order to develop standardized measures of floodplain development and assess the relationship between flood risk management initiatives and development outcomes.



“We find that community effort towards flood risk management doesn’t always correspond to limiting floodplain development,” said study co-author Antonia Sebastian, an assistant professor of Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences at UNC. “Rather, communities rewarded by FEMA for high effort were continuing to allow more housing to be developed in the floodplain.”



Since local governments play a major role in flood risk management, knowing the areas where communities are building in floodplains, and clarifying what measures are needed to encourage development in safer areas, is crucial for reducing damages and risk.



“Strategic planning and zoning can encourage growth in safer areas and maximize open space in floodplains. As we see heavier downpours and wetter hurricanes, managing development is critical to reducing flood damages in the long term,” Hino explained.



“We have long assumed that communities across the state have continued building in floodplains, at least to some extent. But, the sheer scale of this construction is really surprising, especially in that it dwarfs the large-scale efforts to move homes out floodplains and out of harm’s way. The enormous public costs of buyouts are also shared by local governments – in many cases, the same local governments encouraging new building in floodplains. Today’s new floodplain construction may be tomorrow’s buyouts,” concluded co-author Todd BenDor, an expert in Sustainable Community Design at UNC.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2022.21418">Journal of the American Planning Association</a>.&nbsp;



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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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Extreme weather exposes more people and places to flooding

As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense due...

Children can gain a stronger connection with the environment through story writing, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a>. The research was focused on the issue of plastic litter in Latin American countries along the Pacific Ocean.&nbsp;



The experts set out to explore how a story-writing activity may influence the perceptions of children about plastic litter, as well as how their behavior may be affected.&nbsp;



“A key element of our project was to examine the children’s responses to questionnaires they completed before and after writing these stories," said study co-author Dr. Kayleigh Wyles. "We found that their knowledge on the topic increased and they became more proactive, as they reported doing more pro-environmental acts afterwards.”



The children were asked to use their imaginations about litter items that are commonly found on the beach, such as straws and plastic bags. They were then instructed to imagine how these items ended up on the beach in the first place.&nbsp;



The writing project showed that children were more likely to think about ways of preventing litter from entering the environment, rather than just cleaning it up. According to the researchers, the most popular solutions proposed in the stories were recycling and adequate disposal of litter.&nbsp;



Overall, nearly 90 children between the ages of 10 and 18 participated in the study from countries along the Pacific coast, including Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Peru.



“Stories offer a new and different way to explore what people believe and how they perceive and make sense of their environment, including in this study, marine plastic litter," said study lead author Estelle Praet. "The results were truly inspiring and showed the children’s awareness of plastic's impact on marine life and the environment.”



In more than half of the stories, the children showed awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution in the marine environment, including the risk of animal entanglement. Many stories described consequences of animals ingesting plastic, such as injuries or death.&nbsp;



“In a previous activity, the schoolchildren had visited the beaches and made drawings of their beaches before and after the visit - many of these drawings also contained litter items, including some of them showed interactions between litter and marine life, underscoring that they notice the environmental problem caused by litter," said study co-author Diamela de Veer.



“By viewing these plastic items as artefacts, each with its own story, we can bring this back to the human behaviors that related to the objects' use and their disposal," said Professor John Schofield. "This project has helped show how we can get that message across to children and hopefully then make a difference.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/marine-pollution-bulletin">Marine Pollution Bulletin</a>.



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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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Children connect with the environment through story writing

Children can gain a stronger connection with the environment through...

Millions of people use the summer <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/meltwater-influences-carbon-storage-in-the-arctic/">meltwater</a> from glaciers to irrigate crops, provide for livestock and people, and to generate hydroelectricity. However, as the atmosphere and oceans warm, this glacial water may turn out to be a danger rather than a blessing. When glaciers retreat, meltwater collects in front of them and forms a lake, which can suddenly burst and overflow if the volume becomes too large.&nbsp;



When a glacial lake bursts, it may give rise to a fast-flowing Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) that can spread over a large distance - more than 120 km from the original site in some cases - and threaten human lives, property, infrastructure and agricultural land that lies in its path. GLOFs can be highly destructive and lead to significant loss of life. The number of glacial lakes has grown rapidly since 1990 as a result of climate change and, at the same time, the number of people living in these catchments has also increased significantly.&nbsp;&nbsp;



An international team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a> has now produced the first global assessment of areas at greatest risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods and quantified the number of people who could be impacted by such floods. Their findings are published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36033-x">Nature Communications</a>.



The research team looked at 1,089 glacial lake basins worldwide and the number of people living within 50 kilometers of each one, as well as the level of development in those areas and other societal indicators as markers of vulnerability to GLOFs. They then used this information to quantify and rank the potential for damage from GLOFs at a global scale and assess communities’ ability to respond effectively to a flood.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The results show that 15 million people currently live within 50 km of a glacial lake and that High Mountain Asia (which encompasses the Tibetan Plateau, from Kyrgyzstan to China), has the highest risk of damage from GLOFs, with 9.3 million people living within the area of potential impact. India and Pakistan have around 5 million exposed people - about one third of the global total combined.



“This work highlights that it’s not the areas with the largest number or most rapidly growing lakes that are most dangerous. Instead, it is the number of people, their proximity to a glacial lake and importantly, their ability to cope with a flood, that determines the potential danger from a GLOF event," said study lead author Caroline Taylor.



The research&nbsp;also highlights Peru as one of the four countries, along with India, Pakistan and China, that are home to more than half of the number of people worldwide exposed to potential danger from glacial lake flooding. The experts point to the relative lack of research on the danger from glacial lakes in the Andes and say that further research is urgently needed to better understand the potential GLOF danger on a local level in this area due to the large number of people living in proximity to glacial lakes here, and their reduced capacity to cope with the impact of a GLOF.



“Understanding which areas face the greatest danger from glacial flooding will allow for more targeted and effective risk management actions which, in turn, will help minimize loss of life and damage to infrastructure downstream as a result of this significant natural hazard," said study co-author Dr. Rachel Carr.



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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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Glacial floods threaten millions of people worldwide

Millions of people use the summer meltwater from glaciers to...

Agriculture can lead to major disturbances to ecological systems, and the recovery of formally used agricultural land can often take a long period of time. However, according to a new study published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14063">Journal of Ecology</a>, without any active <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/intense-nature-restoration-needed-to-address-the-climate-crisis/">restoration</a> efforts, this recovery can take an exceedingly long time and will frequently be incomplete. These findings shed new light on the recovery process at different scales in former agricultural sites, and identify specific restoration interventions which could assist in the recovery of plant diversity.



The scientists measured the recovery of plant diversity and species composition at 17 temperate grasslands in Minnesota that were previously ploughed and used for agricultural practices. Some of these fields were abandoned between 1927 and 2015 so that natural succession and recovery of the vegetation followed. However, by comparing these abandoned places with sites that were never ploughed, the experts found that the former had significant difficulties in returning to their pre-agricultural state.



“What we wanted to know was how fast and how completely disturbed grasslands can regain their biodiversity if they are left to recover. Understanding that recovery process can give us insights into how we can assist and speed it up using restoration,” said study lead author Emma Ladouceur, an ecologist and conservation biologist at the <a href="https://www.idiv.de/en/index.html">German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research</a> (iDiv).



The analysis revealed that, even after 80 years, the abandoned fields had not managed to recover fully on their own, and although the types of plant species initially present at the sites recovered over time, this process remained incomplete. At the beginning of the recovery process, the fields were colonized by species unique to old sites (such as weeds and other disturbance-tolerant species), followed by many species characteristic of the never-disturbed sites. Yet, across the whole study, there were 63 native species that were unique to the never-ploughed sites, while the recovering old fields had a larger number of introduced grasses and weeds.



These findings suggest that active restoration efforts are needed to help these ecosystems better recover. “By looking closely at the recovery of species composition at different scales, we can get a better idea of what species could be targeted in restoration treatments, and how we could help these systems recover best,” explained study co-author Stan Harpole, an expert in Biodiversity at iDiv.



“Specific restoration measures could include the seeding or planting of species that we know are not part of the composition of recovering fields, combined with the management of exotic species to reduce competition with native species,” concluded Ladoucer.



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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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Plant diversity may never fully recover from agriculture

Agriculture can lead to major disturbances to ecological systems, and...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/model-predicts-the-fate-of-plastic-debris-in-the-ocean/">Plastic debris</a> pollution is a global problem that impacts even the uninhabited areas of the Arctic. However, while considerable amounts of plastic debris have been observed floating in the remote Arctic Ocean, it is still unclear where it all comes from.&nbsp;



In a project led by the <a href="https://www.awi.de/en/">Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research</a> (AWI), citizen scientists went on sailing cruises to the Arctic to survey and collect plastic debris that had washed up on the shores of Svalbard. The team found that one third of the debris which still had labels or imprints allowing an analysis of their origin came from Europe, and particularly from Germany. These findings show that even prosperous industrialized countries such as Germany contribute substantially to the pollution of remote ecosystems.



“From previous studies and computer models, we know that plastic pollution comes from local and remote sources alike,” said study lead author Anna Natalie Meyer, a researcher at AWI. “Locally, plastic debris finds its way to the ocean from ships and from Arctic communities with poor waste management systems. As for remote sources, plastic debris and microplastic are transported to the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic, North Sea, and North Pacific by various rivers and ocean currents.”&nbsp;



For instance, the scientists found debris originating from countries as distant as Brazil, the U.S., and China, as well as from Europe. Among the European countries contributing the most to Arctic plastic pollution was Germany, with debris originating from there accounting for eight percent of the total amount.&nbsp;



“Considering that Germany is the ‘European champ’ in terms of both plastic production and debris exports, this comparatively high percentage isn’t so surprising,” said study co-author Melanie Bergmann, a marine ecologist at AWI.



“Our results highlight that even prosperous industrialized countries, which can afford better waste management, make significant contributions to the pollution of remote ecosystems like the Arctic. Accordingly, in order to tackle the problem effectively, not only does local waste management – especially on ships and in fisheries – need to be improved. It’s equally important that global plastic production be massively reduced, especially in the industrialized countries of Europe, North America, and Asia, since roughly 11 percent of the global plastic production finds its way into our water ways."



"This underscores once again the urgent need for an ambitious and legally binding UN Plastics Treaty, which is currently being negotiated and due to enter into force in 2024."



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939">Frontiers in Marine Science</a>.&nbsp;



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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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Where does plastic debris in the Arctic come from?

Plastic debris pollution is a global problem that impacts even...

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



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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

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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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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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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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes 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



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.

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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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



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.

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

[sendtonews key="Ccjk8KEMzv-2550719-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

[sendtonews key="6SdlLLbt0t-1988946-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NTU...

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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



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.

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

[sendtonews key="gRpsplpwpe-2251464-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.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



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.

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



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.

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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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.

Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

[sendtonews key="yPSXGZek1I-2312529-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&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



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.

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



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.

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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Aerial,Photo,Of,River,In,Amazon,Rainforest,Jungle,In,Peru

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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

[sendtonews key="u0TYxxqfF7-2186404-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA’s...