The world watches as the Great Salt Lake, one of Earth's largest saline lakes, deteriorates. 



Over the past 30 years, the lake has lost a staggering 15 billion cubic yards (11.4 billion cubic meters) of water. It has grown shallower at the rate of 4 inches (10 cm) each year.



This rapid depletion isn't a natural mystery. Decades of unsustainable water diversion, combined with increasing demand and a changing climate, have pushed the lake to a breaking point.



Agriculture is a major contributor to this dire situation, particularly in the case of livestock feed crops.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rapid-depletion-of-great-salt-lake">Rapid depletion of Great Salt Lake </h2>



A recent study published in the journal Environmental Challenges reveals a shocking statistic. Approximately 62% of the river water heading towards Great Salt Lake gets diverted for human usage.



Agricultural activities are the primary culprits, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the water diverted.



“The research highlights the alarming role of water consumption for feeding livestock in driving the lake’s rapid depletion," explained William Ripple, a professor of ecology at <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oregon State University</a> and co-author of the study.



Almost 80% of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/agricultural-water-scarcity-is-about-to-get-much-worse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agricultural water</a> use is for irrigating alfalfa and hay crops - the primary feed for livestock.



This level of diversion not only depletes the lake's vital inflows but also raises questions about the long-term sustainability of current agricultural practices in the region.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-significance-of-great-salt-lake">Significance of Great Salt Lake</h2>



The importance of Great Salt Lake extends far beyond its beauty or agricultural use.



As one of the world's largest saline lakes, it plays important ecological, economic, cultural, and spiritual roles - all of which are in grave danger due to the dramatic <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/the-great-salt-lake-has-reached-historically-low-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decline in lake levels</a> during the past decades.



Data from the Utah Division of Water Resources shows a disturbing trend. From 1989 to 2022, consumption and evaporation consistently outpaced inflows from river water and precipitation.



This imbalance has created an annual deficit of approximately 500 million cubic yards (380 cubic meters), which has further accelerated the lake's decline.



The water budget has faced a persistent deficit for most of the past century. The situation has been exacerbated by the growing impacts of climate change and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-drought-has-caused-crisis-levels-of-food-and-water-scarcity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prolonged drought</a>, according to the researchers.



“Abnormally large <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/snowmelt-changes-may-greatly-affect-farmers-in-western-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">snowmelt</a> inflow during the 1980s and 1990s served to temporarily obscure the long-term decline in lake levels, and the lake actually reached its highest level in more than a century in 1987,” explained Professor Ripple. “But it has been dropping by roughly 4 inches per year on average since then.”



Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere and ranks eighth globally. Its 21,000-square-mile drainage basin, which includes the Wasatch Mountains, relies heavily on snowfall for water replenishment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-threats-from-declining-lake-levels">Threats from declining lake levels</h2>



Great Salt Lake is also a biodiversity hotspot, hosting over 10 million migrating birds and an estimated 350 different species of birds. These habitats are threatened by declining lake levels.



In addition, the lake creates $2.5 billion in annual economic activity. Recreation, mining, and the harvesting of brine shrimp support more than 9,000 jobs. As salinity levels increase, however, brine shrimp experience extreme stress.



Human health also suffers as the Lake shrinks, with wind-carried <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/great-salt-lake-drying-up-causing-major-dust-pollution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dust from the exposed saline lakebed</a> causing a range of pulmonary problems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-saving-great-salt-lake">Saving Great Salt Lake</h2>



To halt this alarming trend and start refilling the lake, a 35% reduction of human water consumption in the Great Salt Lake watershed by 35% has been proposed.



This includes a significant cut in irrigated alfalfa production, a fallowing of much of the region’s irrigated grass hay fields, and taxpayer-funded compensation for affected farmers and ranchers.



Conservation measures such as crop shifting, reducing municipal and industrial use, and leasing water rights from irrigators have also been proposed.



The impacts of these changes will be significant, and will affect as many as 20,000 farmers and ranchers in the basin. However, the situation presents an opportunity to set a precedent for addressing water scarcity globally.



“The economic and cultural adjustments required are significant but not insurmountable. With the right policies and public support, we can secure a sustainable future for the Great Salt Lake and set a precedent for addressing water scarcity globally,” concluded Professor Ripple.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2667010024002312" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Environmental Challenges</a>.



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Great Salt Lake: Agriculture is draining a natural wonder

The world watches as the Great Salt Lake, one of Earth's largest saline lakes, deteriorates. Over the past 30 years, the lake has lost a staggering 15 billion cubic yards (11.4 billion cubic meters) of water. It has grown shallower at the rate of 4 inches (10 cm) each year. This rapid depletion isn't a natural mystery. Decades of unsustainable water diversion, combined with increasing demand and a changing climate, have pushed the lake to a breaking point. Agriculture is a major contributor to this dire situation,...

Along,Way,At,Khardung,La,Pass,In,Ladakh,,India.,Khardung

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/temperatures-are-rising-unexpectedly-fast-on-the-tibetan-plateau/">Tibetan Plateau</a> has experienced significant warming and wetting since the mid-1990s, which has substantially altered the thermal properties of its frozen ground. A new study led by the <a href="https://english.cuit.edu.cn/index.jsp">Chengdu University of Information Technology</a> in China has found that the dual effect of this wetting and the projected increase in precipitation of the Plateau in the future is rapidly becoming a critical factor in determining the thermodynamics of the frozen ground.



“In the face of the greatest increase in the occurrence frequency of heavy precipitation over the entire Tibetan Plateau, we need to address how warming and wetting might be jointly influencing the thermal responses of the permafrost and seasonally frozen ground to climate change,” said study lead author Xuewei Fang, an expert in Atmospheric Sciences at Chengdu.



The scientists used the average annual precipitation as a criterion to divide the Tibetan Plateau into four different regions: an arid zone (with annual precipitation below 200 mm), a semi-arid zone (200–400 mm), a semi-humid zone (400–800 mm), and a humid zone (above 800 mm). The analysis revealed that, compared to the 1961–1990 period, the average annual air temperature and precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau between 1991 and 2010 increased by 0.72C and 75.64 mm, respectively, with the arid and semi-arid regions becoming warmer and wetter, and the humid and semi-humid zones becoming warmer but drier.



Moreover, by comparing the freezing and thawing durations of the ground surface in these two time frames, the researchers discovered that the wetting in drier areas before the 1990s prolonged the freezing duration of the frozen ground, while the continuous wetting after the 1990s reduced the thawing period. These findings suggest that the significant wetting in arid regions has exerted the opposite warming effect on the permafrost since the 1990s, shrinking the frozen area by 28 percent.



By contrast, the decline in precipitation in the humid zones has prolonged the thawing duration in seasonally frozen ground since the 1990s, due to the fact that the drying and warming environment enhances heat loss at the ground level, thereby decreasing the heat supply for the melting of ice and extending the thawing process.



“Next, we plan to investigate how energy and water fluxes in the frozen ground interact with wetting and warming conditions,” Dr. Feng concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00376-022-2109-z">Advances in Atmospheric Sciences</a>.&nbsp;



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By Andrei Ionescu, Earth.com Staff Writer



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How is frozen ground responding to climate change?

The Tibetan Plateau has experienced significant warming and wetting since...

A multi-institutional team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.uta.edu/">University of Texas at Arlington</a> (UTA) has recently received a $5 million research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usda.gov/climate-solutions/climate-smart-commodities">Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities</a>. The goal is to establish climate-smart <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/agricultural-diversity-has-a-positive-impact-on-food-security/">agricultural</a> practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase soybean production of small and underserved farmers in Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.



“The agricultural industry will soon be a leader in the fight against climate change,” said principal investigator Woo-Suk Chang, a professor of Biology at UTA. “Within the last 20 years, advances in plant breeding and biological soil amendments have allowed sustainable and regenerative agriculture to take on a more pivotal role in aiding the fight against the destruction of our planet.”



To reinforce efficient and sustainable soybean production, the experts will collaborate with farmers to combine new methods and innovative project pilots, including: no-till agriculture, cover crops, climate-smart soybean varieties, crop rotation, bio-inoculants, and biochar.



For instance, since tillage can lead to soil degradation and nutrient loss, converting to no-till planting will help farmers preserve below- and above-ground carbon storage. At the same time, using cover-crop mixtures that are adapted to the appropriate soil type and moisture profile, while developing climate-smart soybean varieties tolerant to droughts or flooding would help farms thrive under inclement conditions.&nbsp;



Moreover, using crop rotation could achieve sustainable soil health, prevent soil erosion, and optimize biodiversity, while having drought-tolerant bio-inoculants as a part of a climate-smart commodity package could mitigate the negative impact on biological nitrogen fixation that drought events usually cause. Finally, due to its high surface area and porous structure, using biochar can enhance water-holding capacity and protect nutrients and organics from harsh abiotic conditions.



Until now, fourteen soybean producers from the three states have accepted to participate in the project. By providing them with climate-smart community packages, financial incentives, and the ability to accrue carbon credits, the scientists aim to accumulate a growing list of producers across all three and neighboring states.



“Expanding opportunities for small and underserved producers is a key goal of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities,” said Robert Bonnie, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “Small and underserved producers, including those here in Texas, are facing the impacts of climate change head-on, with limited resources, and have the most to gain from leveraging the growing market demand for agricultural goods produced in a sustainable, climate-smart way. We look forward to working with The University of Texas at Arlington to expand markets for climate-smart commodities and ensure that small and underserved producers reap the benefits of these market opportunities.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By Andrei Ionescu, Earth.com Staff Writer



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Developing climate-smart agricultural practices

A multi-institutional team of researchers led by the University of...

Ryugu is a near-Earth <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/asteroid-ryugu-may-be-a-leftover-from-the-suns-formation/">asteroid</a>, with a diameter of 900 meters, that was first discovered in 1999 and was named after the undersea palace of the Dragon God in Japanese mythology. In 2014, the <a href="https://global.jaxa.jp/">Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency</a> (JAXA) launched Hayabusa 2 – an asteroid sample-return mission – to collect material samples from the asteroid’s surface and sub-surface. The spacecraft returned to Earth in 2020, with a collection of samples that were distributed around the world for scientific study.&nbsp;



Now, an international team of researchers used UK’s national synchrotron facility <a href="https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html;jsessionid=BCCB3D0FA685C2EFEF96DCAF3C0B6AF9">Diamond Light Source</a> to map out the chemical states of the elements collected from the asteroid and examine its composition in fine detail. Their findings could shed more light on the evolution of our solar system and the formation of the Earth.



The analysis revealed that the surface of Ryugu is dehydrated, most likely due to space weathering. This discovery led the scientists conclude that asteroids which appear dry on the surface may in fact be water-rich, a finding potentially requiring a significant revision of our understanding of the abundances of various asteroid types and the formation history of the asteroid belt.



According to the researchers, the building blocks of Ryugu are remnants of past interactions between water, minerals, and organic substances in the early solar system, prior to the formation of the Earth. Better understanding the composition of asteroids could thus help explain how the early solar system developed, and how the Earth formed afterwards. Moreover, since asteroids are believed to have delivered much of our planet’s water and organic compounds such as amino acids (which provide the building blocks of life), investigating the chemical composition of asteroids such as Ryugu could even clarify the origins of life on Earth.



“It’s important to build up experience in studying samples returned from asteroids, as in the Hayabusa2 mission, because soon there will be new samples from other asteroid types, the Moon and within the next 10 years Mars, returned to Earth,” concluded study co-author John Bridges, a professor of Planetary Science at the <a href="https://le.ac.uk/">University of Leicester</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01841-6">Nature Astronomy</a>.



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By Andrei Ionescu, Earth.com Staff Writer



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Asteroid samples could reveal how Earth was formed

Ryugu is a near-Earth asteroid, with a diameter of 900...

When NASA’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/traces-of-an-ancient-ocean-found-on-mars/">Mars</a> rovers discovered manganite oxides in the Gale and Endeavor craters on Mars in 2014, scientists suggested that the red planet might have had more oxygen in its atmosphere billions of years ago. However, a new experimental study conducted by the <a href="https://wustl.edu/">Washington University in St. Louis</a> (WUSTL) found that, under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily form without the presence of atmospheric oxygen.



Since Mars is rich in the halogen elements chlorine and bromine, the experts conducted laboratory experiments using these two substances to oxidize manganese in water samples that they made to replicate fluids from early Mars.



“We were inspired by reactions seen during chlorination of drinking water,” said study senior author Jeffrey Catalano, a professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at WUSTL. “Understanding other planets sometimes requires us to apply knowledge gained from seemingly unrelated fields of science and engineering.”



The experiments revealed that halogens converted manganese dissolved in water into manganese oxide minerals thousands or even millions of times faster than oxygen could do this. Moreover, under the weakly acidic conditions thought to characterize early Mars’ surface, bromate produces manganese oxide minerals faster than any other known oxidant.



“Oxidation does not necessitate the involvement of oxygen by definition,” said study lead author Kaushik Mitra,&nbsp;a postdoctoral fellow at <a href="https://www.stonybrook.edu/">Stony Brook University</a>, who completed this research as a graduate student at WUSTL. “Earlier, we proposed viable oxidants on Mars, other than oxygen or via UV photooxidation, that help explain why the red planet is red. In the case of manganese, we just did not have a viable alternative to oxygen that could explain manganese oxides until now.”



However, although these findings suggest there was not much oxygen on ancient Mars, there is no particular reason to conclude that there was no life either. “There are several life forms even on Earth that do not require oxygen to survive. I don’t think of it as a ‘setback’ to habitability - only that there were probably no oxygen-based lifeforms,” Mitra explained.



“We need more experiments conducted in diverse geochemical conditions that are more relevant to specific planets like Mars, Venus, and ‘ocean worlds’ like Europa and Enceladus in order to have the correct and full understanding of the geochemical and geological environments on these planetary bodies. Every planet is unique in its own right, and we cannot extrapolate the observations made on one planet to exactly understand a different planet,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01094-y">Nature Geoscience</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 Mars had less oxygen than previously thought

When NASA’s Mars rovers discovered manganite oxides in the Gale...

With the holiday season fast approaching, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.etsmtl.ca/en/home">École de technologie supérieure</a> (ÉTS) and <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a> has estimated the environmental footprint of a traditional Christmas meal in Canada. The experts found that meat-based meals have a much higher <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fast-fashion-carbon-footprint/">carbon footprint</a> than vegetarian or vegan ones, thus negatively contributing to the climate crisis our planet currently faces.



By using the Life Cycle Assessment Tool (LCA) – a technique that helps scientists estimate the potential impact of lifestyle choices on global warming, biodiversity loss, or water pollution - the researchers compared the environmental impact of typical holiday foods with other food with smaller ecological footprints.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that a typical Canadian Christmas meal consisting of a roast ham, pork pie, and a slice of fruit cake, consumes up to 70 percent of a person’s daily carbon budget, according to the targets set at the Paris Agreement, which aim to maintain global temperatures lower than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Thus, the large carbon footprint of such a meal leaves little room for other Christmas-related activities such as heating, transportation, or gift buying.



According to the researchers, ham roast and pork pie have a significantly higher impact than all the food consumed in a day by an average person in Canada on a typical omnivorous diet, confirming that the food usually consumed during holidays increases substantially our carbon footprint.&nbsp;



On the other hand, a meal consisting of a vegetable pie, vegan Wellington, and vegan cake would only use about 14 percent of an individual’s carbon budget, along with a very small parcel of land where these vegetables had to be cultivated.



These findings are quite sobering in a context in which we are strongly encouraged to limit our personal carbon footprint to 2.9 tons of CO2 equivalent per year in order to reach the 1.5C target set by the Paris Agreement, or about eight kilograms per day for all goods and services, including food.



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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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Christmas dinner has a large environmental impact

With the holiday season fast approaching, a team of researchers...

On Monday, December 19, a mysterious shockwave in a gust of solar wind crashed into the Earth’s magnetic field, opening up a crack in the magnetosphere. According to <a href="https://spaceweather.com/index.php">Space Weather</a> – an organization keeping track of such events – the barrage of plasma that penetrated the magnetosphere has led to a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/geomagnetic-storm-auroras-sky/">geomagnetic storm</a>.



Although the shockwave’s origins are not exactly known, scientists believe it could have come from a coronal mass ejection (CME) launched by the sunspot AR3165, an area on the Sun’s surface which already released at least eight solar flares on December 14, causing a brief radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean.&nbsp;



Sunspots are areas on the Sun’s surface where strong magnetic fields, created through the flow of electrical charges, entangle before suddenly snapping and releasing bursts of radiation called solar flares, or plumes of solar material called coronal mass ejections. Once launched, these CMEs can travel at extremely high speeds (often millions of miles per hour), sweeping up charged particles from the solar wind which, if pointed toward the Earth, can trigger geomagnetic storms.



These storms occur when solar debris consisting of electrons, protons, and alpha particles gets absorbed by the Earth’s magnetic field. If they are strong enough, they can create cracks in the magnetosphere which remain open for several hours, enabling some solar material to stream through and disrupt power systems, satellites, and radio communications.&nbsp;



Fortunately, the current storm was rather weak, causing only minor fluctuations in the power grids and impairing some satellite functions, such as those for mobile devices and GPS systems. However, scientists anticipate that in the following years, more powerful geomagnetic storms could warp our planet’s magnetic field to such an extent that satellites may tumble to Earth, electrical systems could be severely disrupted, and the Internet might stop working completely, thus causing trillions of dollars’ worth of damage, while triggering widespread blackouts and endangering thousands of lives.



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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 solar shockwave has cracked Earth’s magnetosphere

On Monday, December 19, a mysterious shockwave in a gust...

Who,Was,Naughty,This,Year?,Traditional,Santa,Claus,Sitting,At

A long-established Christmas tradition in many parts of the world is rewarding well-behaved children with gifts, but handing out just lumps of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/over-40-countries-pledged-to-stop-using-coal-power-at-cop26/">coal</a> to miscreant ones. Currently, such Christmas-related lumps of coal are widely available from major online retailers, and the #coalforchristmas hashtag crops up on social media myriad times.



However, in an opinion piece from the Christmas issue of the journal <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2970">BMJ</a>, <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/">National Health Services</a> (NHS) pediatrician Tamsin Holland Brown and her daughters Lilac and Marigold have made an environmental – and compassionate – plea for ending this “outdated and potentially harmful” tradition.&nbsp;



In their view, not only does the burning of this non-renewable fossil fuel exacerbate the current climate crisis, but its impact on air quality can endanger the health of both children and adults. “It would be good for goodness’ sake if coal was left in the ground,” they argued.



Moreover, receiving such a “gift” could also turn out to be damaging for children’s mental health. In times when global anxiety is massively fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change, fostering friendships and connections between the generations might help combating anxiety much better than receiving a lump of coal.



Citing Greta Thunberg, the young eco-activist who inspired millions of children to go on school strikes to raise awareness about climate change, the authors also made a case for rewarding “naughtiness.” According to Thunberg, children “can’t save the world by playing by the rules,” so such children deserve to be on Santa’s nice rather than naughty list.



In Brown’s and her daughters’ opinion, alternatives to punitive coal could include recycled/upcycled gifts, plant-based foods, walks and bike rides in nature, inspiring books, or even stick insects. Since coal is a dangerous fossil fuel, giving it to children means that adults are in fact the naughty ones.



“The suggestion that children on the naughty list only deserve coal is outdated and potentially harmful to the environment and children’s health. Making or choosing gifts that connect children to people of all ages, nature, and animals can foster emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing over the festive season and could make a lifetime of difference,” the authors concluded.&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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Santa should phase out coal as a punitive Christmas gift

A long-established Christmas tradition in many parts of the world...

The Thwaites Ice Shelf in the Amundsen Sea is one of the biggest <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/melt-ponds-on-the-greenland-ice-sheet/">ice sheets</a> in West Antarctica but it is highly unstable and disintegrating rapidly. It buttresses and braces against the mighty Thwaites glacier and slows down its rate of melting, at least on its eastern edge. This is important because the Thwaites glacier, also nicknamed the “Doomsday glacier,” has been retreating rapidly over the past 20 years and has become the largest net contributor to sea-level rise among the Antarctic glaciers.&nbsp;



For this reason, an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a> in the UK, investigated the factors influencing the melt rate of the Thwaites Ice Shelf. Using two automated sensor systems, moored about 4 km from one another, the researchers collected data from different depths under the Thwaites Ice Shelf. The sensors recorded water temperature, salinity, pressure and horizontal current speed at an upper depth of a few hundred meters, and at a lower depth of over 700 meters.&nbsp;



In their research study, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5">Nature Communications</a>, the researchers found that the shallow layers of the ocean underneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf warmed considerably during the period between January 2020 and March 2021. It did not appear that the excess heat originated locally because there was little evidence of melting at the base of the ice sheet where the sensors were installed. In addition, the content of glacial-meltwater under the ice increased in the upper layers at the same time.&nbsp;



Combining the measurements with computer simulations, the researchers determined that most of this meltwater likely originated from the Pine Island Ice Shelf, further to the east, and flowed into the area beneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf under the influence of a gyre (circulating ocean current) centered in Pine Island Bay. &nbsp;This proposed mechanism explaining how warm meltwaters are found under the Thwaites Ice Shelf was also supported by data collected using tags that were attached to seals.&nbsp;



Both the model simulations and the data from seal tags showed that a gyre near the Thwaites Ice Shelf weakens in winter, which allows more heat to reach shallow areas beneath the ice shelf. Satellite images showed that the Southern Hemisphere summer season of 2020/2021 was unusual because it had a high concentration of sea ice in regions near the Thwaites Ice Shelf, and this is known to weaken the gyre in Pine Island Bay, meaning that excess meltwater from adjacent ice sheets is not removed by the gyre but instead enters the cavity under the Thwaites Ice Shelf.



When the base of the Pine Island Ice Shelf comes into contact with slightly warmer ocean water, it melts and the fresh water mixes with the saltwater. This makes the ocean water less saline and, therefore, less dense. It forms a buoyant layer of water that is warmer than the surrounding water, and when this flows under the Thwaites Ice Shelf, it melts the base of the ice there. This means that the melting of one ice shelf can influence the melting of another ice shelf nearby. This is a factor that has not been considered before.



“We have identified another process that could impact the stability of ice shelves, revealing the importance of local ocean circulation and sea-ice," said study lead author Dr. Tiago Dotto of the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at UEA.



“Circumpolar Deep Water, a warm variety of Antarctic waters, is a key player in melting the base of ice shelves,” he said. “However, in this study, we show that a great amount of heat at shallow layers beneath one ice shelf can be provided by waters originating from other melting ice shelves nearby. Therefore, what happens to one ice shelf, can impact the adjacent ice shelf, and so on.”



“This process is important for regions of high ice shelf melting such as the Amundsen Sea because one ice shelf sits next to the other, and the export of heat from one ice shelf can reach the next one through the ocean circulation."



“These atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean interactions are important because they can prolong warm periods beneath ice shelves by allowing warm and meltwater-enriched water to enter adjacent ice-shelf cavities," said Dr. Dotto.



“Gyres potentially existing in other regions around Antarctica may also cause a greater number of ice shelves to be prone to intense basal melting associated with prolonged warm conditions, and as a result further contribute to global sea-level rise.”



The authors conclude that ice shelves are connected through the coastal circulation and that what happens under one ice shelf greatly influences what happens under the ice shelves further downstream in the coastal current. They emphasize that future models should consider the meltwater pathways from adjacent ice shelves if they are to simulating the fate of the Antarctic ice shelves accurately.&nbsp;



Image Credit: Karen Alley



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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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Why the "Doomsday glacier" is melting from below

The Thwaites Ice Shelf in the Amundsen Sea is one...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dolphins-have-accents-that-vary-by-region/">Dolphins</a> and other marine animals are frequently affected by human disturbances in their habitat, including overfishing, noise pollution from shipping, construction activities, oil exploration, and navy sonar activity, as well as climate change. Although these types of disturbances can interrupt critical animal behaviors such as foraging or socializing, measuring them is difficult since the animals live under water.



Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> (U-M) has developed wearable sensors for marine mammals similar to fitness trackers used by humans – known as biologging tags – that can monitor the movement and behavior of underwater creatures.



“Our goal is to use tag data to estimate foraging events, how many fish were consumed during a day, and connect that to estimates of how much energy dolphins use during the movement required to catch those fish,” said study senior author&nbsp;Alex Shorter, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at U-M. “This is important for conservation because we can then use our approach to estimate energetic costs when these animals are disturbed.”



By attaching the biologging tags between the blowholes and dorsal fins of six dolphins, the scientists managed to noninvasively measure features such as speed, temperature, pressure, and movement, during several swimming trials. In some of these trials, the animals started from rest at a floating dock and then swam an 80-meter lap underwater at speeds up to 21 kilometers per hour. When left to swim alone, the tags tracked movements for periods ranging from 9.5 to 24 hours. One dolphin tracked for a 24-hour period swam over 70 kilometers.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, this method could be extended to tag data from a variety of animals in the wild. “Our tag-based method is universally applicable to both animals in managed and wild settings, and can lead to a host of new research in monitoring the physical well-being of dolphin populations, which in turn will inform how we as humans are affecting their travel patterns, feeding requirements and lives in general,” said study lead author Joaquin Gabaldon, a postdoctoral researcher in Robotics at U-M.



“From a technological perspective, it is our hope that other researchers see the potential of dedicated on-tag speed sensing, and pursue the development of more adaptable speed sensors to enable energetics monitoring for a wider variety of marine animals.”



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.244599">Journal of Experimental Biology</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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Dolphin activity trackers will help inform conservation efforts

Dolphins and other marine animals are frequently affected by human...

A growing body of research evidence highlights the existential threat that climate change and its consequences pose to humanity, and to the Earth’s ecosystems and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/habitat-quality-and-biodiversity-impact-bee-health/">biodiversity</a>. However, a new study conducted by researchers at <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina State University</a> has found that college biology textbooks are woefully inadequate in covering this crucial topic. This may go some way to explaining why a 2021 Gallup poll found that only 43 percent of Americans see climate change as a serious threat over their lifetimes.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed 57 college introductory biology textbooks, published between 1970 and 2019. They assessed the content pertaining to climate change in terms of four categories: 1) the number of sentences of text devoted to climate change; 2) the location of the section in the textbook; 3) the topics addressed, including greenhouse effect, impacts of global warming, and actions to mitigate climate change; and 4) the presentation of data in figures.&nbsp;



They found that the presentation of climate change information in college textbooks has varied significantly over the five decades in question. Prior to 1990, textbooks had a median of fewer than 10 sentences addressing climate change. In the 1990s, the median length of climate content was 30 sentences. This rose to 52 sentences in the 2000s, which is not surprising given the amount of emerging research into climate change and its impacts. However, the researchers found that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks actually decreased in the 2010s – dropping to a median of 45 sentences.



According to Jennifer Landin, an associate professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University and a co-author of the study, that amounts to less than three pages of information.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It’s really a very small amount of content,” she said. “I certainly think we can go into more detail explaining the relationships between carbon, where this carbon is coming from, how it relates to fossil fuels, where fossil fuels come from. There are all these elements that we can address that I think are being glossed over.”



Landin and her co-author, Rabiya Ansari, suggested that the decrease in climate change content may have been a result of controversy and political backlash. Increased media attention on the topic in the 1990s and 2000s due to the signing of the Kyoto Protocol (the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), along with U.N. climate change conferences and the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” led to growing controversy and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/22/science-confirms-it-denial-of-climate-change-is-all-about-the-politics/">climate denialism</a>, which could have made textbook publishers shy away from covering the issues.



The researchers noticed other concerning trends in the textbooks as well. Coverage detailing potential climate change solutions decreased to just 3 percent of the total content on climate change, from a peak of about 15 percent in the 1990s. In addition, information on climate change was increasingly relegated to the very last pages of the books. Whereas textbooks from the 1990s positioned the climate change section approximately 85 percent through the book, those from the 2010s only tackled climate change material in the last 2.5 percent of the book. This means that if the instructor taught the content in the order in which it appeared in the textbook, the section on climate change was highly likely to be skipped or left out completely.&nbsp;



“One of the most troubling findings was that textbooks are devoting substantially less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s – even as they focus more on the effects of climate change,” said Landin. “That suggests to students that nothing can be done, which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism regarding climate change.”



The findings of the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, did reveal some ways in which the presentation of climate change content has improved in recent years. Textbooks from the 70s and 80s focused primarily on facts relating to the greenhouse effect, whereas more recent textbooks contained significantly more information on the harmful consequences of climate change, such as sea level rise, health risks to humans, biodiversity loss, extreme weather events and food shortages.&nbsp;



Landin said she was encouraged by these changes and wanted to credit textbook authors for adding information on the potential impacts of warming temperatures. However, she stressed that publishers and authors should also include actions that people could take to mitigate climate change, thereby giving students a sense of how they can contribute to the solutions rather than the problems. Many actionable solutions already exist and are helping rewrite the most dire climate projections.&nbsp;



She adds: “We are hoping that this study will serve as a wake-up call for publishers and instructors. We need to do a much better job of incorporating climate change into our courses if we want to prepare students to understand the role that climate change is playing in shaping life on Earth and how we study it.”



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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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Climate change is not adequately covered in college textbooks

A growing body of research evidence highlights the existential threat...

As climate change drives hotter temperatures worldwide, spring is arriving earlier than ever in parts of North America. According to a recent study led by the <a href="https://www2.uottawa.ca/en">University of Ottawa</a>, the shift to an early spring may have serious consequences for bumblebees and the crops that depend on them for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rare-pollination-discovered-between-red-seaweed-and-crustaceans/">pollination</a>.&nbsp;



The experts report that bumblebees are not shifting their activity to earlier in the year, which threatens their ability to find food sources or causes the bees to miss out on food altogether. The study is one of the first to examine the effect of seasonal weather changes in relation to bumblebees.



“This study represents crucial groundwork for understanding that climate can impact the seasonal timing of biological events,” said lead author and PhD student Olga Koppel.



“Bumblebee survival is strongly in our best interest, as we rely heavily on bee-pollinated agricultural crops, including vegetables, fruits, and even clothing fibres such as cotton. The over 40 bumblebee species that are native to North America provide this invaluable economic service.”



For bumblebees who emerge from winter hibernation before the arrival of spring flowers, survival is not likely. As a result,&nbsp; smaller colonies will appear the following year.&nbsp;



In collaboration with Professor Jeremy Kerr, Koppel examined the relationship between climate and the spring emergence of bumblebees. The researchers analyzed a database of specimens from museum collections across North America, which included 17,000 individuals of 21 species.&nbsp;



The results of the analysis confirmed that climate strongly explained variation in spring emergence timing in 15 of the 21 bumblebee species.



“This research has demonstrated that bumblebee emergence timing can be biased heavily in the direction of climate changes, which has implications for similar research on other species, as well as for the urgent conservation of these valuable pollinator species,” said Koppel. “This study provides a roadmap for evaluating large-scale temporal responses to climate change for many insects and other animals.”



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/biological-conservation">Biological Conservation</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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Bumblebees are waking up too early from hibernation

As climate change drives hotter temperatures worldwide, spring is arriving...

Groundwater that is produced by melting permafrost transports <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/large-amounts-of-methane-are-released-from-fjords/">methane</a> to Arctic lakes, where it is released into the atmosphere. This process has been quantified for the first time in a study led by Carolina Olid of the Geomodels Research Institute of the <a href="https://www.ub.edu/web/portal/en/">University of Barcelona</a>.



According to Olid, climate change will enhance the process of methane runoff from permafrost to Arctic lakes through groundwater, which is why it is important to include this process in climate prediction models.



The research was focused on Arctic lakes located in the sporadic permafrost region of northern Sweden, where the layer of soil above the permafrost thaws annually and then refreezes.



"In this region, the average annual temperature has risen considerably in recent years and is now above 0ºC. This causes permafrost - with its abundant organic matter rich in carbon and greenhouse gases - to thaw. Through the circulation of groundwater, the thawing permafrost acts as a spring that supplies the hydrologically connected lakes in the region with greenhouse gases. The gases are finally emitted into the atmosphere and contribute to amplifying global warming," said Olid.



The researchers found that the flow of methane gas into lakes is more intense in the summer, when the most water is circulating. Hotter temperatures also promote the production of methane in the subsoil.



"Climate change and accelerated permafrost melting will increase the amount of greenhouse gases that can be transported to the lakes through groundwater. The increase in precipitation - up to 40% in the Arctic over the next decade - will also increase the flow of groundwater and, therefore, the discharge of methane into the lakes," said Olid.



"Permafrost water contains high concentrations not only of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4), but also of other compounds such as nutrients, and pollutants (mercury, etc.). The arrival of these compounds in the lakes generates harmful impacts on the natural environment and the organisms that live in lake ecosystems, as well as in terrestrial systems (bogs, etc.)," said study co-author Gerard Rocher-Ros.



"These are effects with implications for the entire aquatic trophic chain of both the lake itself and the network of interconnected rivers and streams, which have an impact on the ecosystem services provided by natural resources to society," said Olid.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31219-1">Nature Communications</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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Arctic lakes are releasing methane from melting permafrost

Groundwater that is produced by melting permafrost transports methane to...

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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



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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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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

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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



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

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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

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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

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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

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