A comprehensive review study has recently investigated the vital connections between marine biodiversity conservation, human health, and well-being. According to the experts, marine protected areas (MPAs) not only support ecological balance but also provide tangible benefits for people, underscoring their dual importance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-marine-protected-areas-nbsp">Marine protected areas&nbsp;</h2>



Marine protected areas are legally designated sections of the ocean recognized for their conservation value. These areas are protected by laws that restrict human activities, aiming to allow ecosystems to thrive without significant interference. 



Depending on the specific regulations of an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-protected-areas-fall-short-on-2030-biodiversity-targets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MPA</a>, activities like fishing, building, or oil drilling may be prohibited or limited. The overarching goal is to create a space where marine life can flourish and, in turn, contribute to ecological and human welfare.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-expanding-ocean-protection">Expanding ocean protection</h2>



With global plans to extend MPAs as part of the UN's “30x30” initiative - seeking to protect 30% of the world's oceans and land by 2030 - understanding the impact of these areas on both people and nature has become increasingly important.&nbsp;



The new study, conducted by the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Wide Fund for Nature</a>, <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard University</a>’s School of Public Health, and <a href="https://duke.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Duke University</a>’s marine laboratory, led by Daniel Viana, reviewed data from over 200 scientific articles published since 1973.



The team discovered that in 234 MPAs worldwide, more than 60% reported improvements in both conservation outcomes and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-environment-day-the-critical-role-of-nature-in-human-well-being/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">human well-being</a>. This finding suggests that well-managed MPAs can simultaneously support nature and the communities that depend on marine resources.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protected-areas-and-local-communities-nbsp">Protected areas and local communities&nbsp;</h2>



The study also included MPAs that permit sustainable use through controlled <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sustainable-fishing-gets-a-boost-from-genomics-roadmap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fishing</a> practices that avoid harming delicate ecosystems. These measures, such as using hook-and-line methods or fish traps, minimize damage to coral reefs and other sensitive habitats. 



The research suggests that investing in MPAs often results in benefits for local communities, particularly in terms of fishing yields and food access.



MPAs play an essential role in small island nations like Bonaire, Palau, and the Cook Islands. These regions, where over 95% of fish catches are tied to area-based conservation, illustrate how marine protection can drive both ecological and economic gains.&nbsp;



However, the study noted that despite the evident link between MPAs and improved food access, few studies have measured the direct nutritional impact on local communities.&nbsp;



Only one research project in the Philippines established a connection between enhanced fish access and better health outcomes, finding reduced rates of childhood stunting.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nutrient-contributions-of-protected-areas-nbsp">Nutrient contributions of protected areas&nbsp;</h2>



The world’s waters - rivers, seas, lakes, and floodplains - are rich in edible plants and animals that offer essential vitamins, minerals, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-provide-essential-fatty-acids-to-other-animals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fatty acids</a>. These nutrients, particularly when harvested sustainably, can significantly bolster the diets of coastal populations. 



The study quantified the nutrient contributions from foods within MPAs, revealing that even with just 8% of the oceans under protection, these areas contribute 14% of the global supply of six key micronutrients from marine sources.



By fostering healthy marine environments, MPAs enhance fish populations that can spill over into adjacent areas, leading to more robust catches, increased income from fishing, and better access to nutritious food.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-challenges-and-complexities">Challenges and complexities</h2>



While MPAs offer considerable benefits, implementing them effectively is not without challenges. The study found that many MPAs lack effective management, which can limit their success.&nbsp;



Additionally, while MPAs help support marine life and nearby human communities, they do not directly address significant threats like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-protected-areas-were-not-designed-for-climate-resilience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">climate change</a> and pollution that require broader action.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/aquaculture-impacts-wild-fish-much-more-than-we-thought/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aquaculture</a>, or the farming of aquatic organisms, is growing as a supplement to wild harvests to meet the increasing demand for aquatic food. Although it provides more than half of the aquatic food consumed globally, aquaculture must continue to advance in sustainability practices. 



The study also emphasized that in many developing coastal nations, wild-harvested food remains a critical source of nutrition for millions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-marine-protected-areas-and-global-health">Marine protected areas and global health</h2>



Linking marine conservation to human health presents promising opportunities but also reveals research gaps. While MPAs can contribute to better health outcomes by boosting fish availability and nutrient intake, questions remain about the equitable distribution of these benefits.&nbsp;



For instance, in the Maldives, the majority of fish caught from reefs are consumed by tourists rather than local residents, illustrating potential disparities.



Despite these challenges, the study underscores the potential of MPAs to promote a regenerative relationship between people and the environment.&nbsp;



By managing fisheries to support nutritional health rather than merely maximizing profits, a “nutrition-sensitive” approach to marine conservation could help address global food security.



In conclusion, while MPAs cannot tackle all threats alone, their role in sustaining both marine ecosystems and human communities represents a promising path toward a balanced, health-focused future.



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How marine protected areas boost human health

A comprehensive review study has recently investigated the vital connections between marine biodiversity conservation, human health, and well-being. According to the experts, marine protected areas (MPAs) not only support ecological balance but also provide tangible benefits for people, underscoring their dual importance. Marine protected areas&nbsp; Marine protected areas are legally designated sections of the ocean recognized for their conservation value. These areas are protected by laws that restrict human activities, aiming to allow ecosystems to thrive without significant interference.  Depending on the specific regulations of an MPA, activities...

Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat. Hacking away in the midday sun, 49-year-old farmer Daniel Lazuba remembers vividly his life before one of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa">Africa's</a> most active volcanos erupted 14 years ago.
"All of this was corn before," he said as he pointed to rows of new banana trees pushing up between black stones. "My cabbage seems to be growing better than ever these days, but in this area, I still have to start from zero."
Traumatized farmers like Lazuba are slowly returning to fields decimated by the 2002 eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in eastern <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nyiragongo-volcano-congo-active/">Congo</a>. Flowing lava flattened more than 30 percent of the city of Goma, 20 kilometers away. Nearly 150 people died, and 400,000 fled into neighboring Rwanda.
Now farmers returning to their fields find increased harvests from the rich volcanic soil, but there are signs that Nyiragongo will erupt again. Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat
One farmer, Patrick Tamoini, said his harvests have risen over the past two harvests since he returned to his patch of land a short walk from the volcano's base. The 41-year-old pockets more than $100 a month after taking care of family expenses, more than double his earnings before the eruption, he said. The average per capita monthly income in Congo is nearly $32 a month, according to the World Bank.
But returning to the fields wasn't easy.
"The pain of what I lost kept me from coming back for such a long time," Tamoini said. "With this level of production, I'm glad I finally did."
The chemical makeup of volcanic soil makes for lucrative farming conditions, say researchers at the Goma Volcano Observatory.
"Lava actually enriches the soil that it initially burned," said Mathieu Yalira, the chair of observatory's geochemistry and environment department. Volcanic soil includes fertilizing elements such as iron, phosphorus and potassium, he said. In the years after an eruption, a process known as chemical weathering slowly makes lava soil more fertile than ordinary earth.
Local farmers didn't seize on those benefits right away, observers say.
"Initially, no one was coming back because they were too devastated to see their burned fields," said the chair of the observatory's seismology department, Georges Mavonga. "But within the past year, visits toward the volcano have shown new villages in areas that were uninhabited before."
He said the increase in lava soil farming may be a result of initial farmers seeing the benefits and spreading information to friends and family.
But the farmers should not get too attached to the newly fertile fields, warns the Rwanda Red Cross, which cared for many fleeing the 2002 eruption.
In February, an earthquake far beneath the surface caused rumbling noises near Virunga National Park, where the volcano is located. Since then, a new vent has appeared on the northeastern edge of the crater floor that shoots lava into the air every 30 seconds.
The Rwanda Red Cross has increased surveillance of the volcano in conjunction with the observatory.
"There are only presumptions about the next eruption, but people who study the daily life of this volcano tell us it could happen any day," said Yves Riupi, a Red Cross crisis manager who works with seismologists at the Rwanda Natural Resources Authority.
The risk of another eruption is one that some farmers, whose lives depend on their crops, are now willing to take.
With vegetation growing more than six feet tall in some places with the rich volcanic soil, farmers say they want to keep working their fields, until the volcano erupts.
"If another one comes, who am I to stop it?" Lazuba asked. "There is nothing I can do."
---
Roby's reporting was assisted by the International Women's Media Foundation African Great Lakes Reporting Initiative: <a href="https://www.iwmf.org/programs/african-great-lakes-reporting-initiative/">https://www.iwmf.org/programs/african-great-lakes-reporting-initiative/</a>
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Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat

Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat. Hacking away...

Flint children under the age of 6 had significantly higher blood-lead levels after the city switched its water source in 2014 to save money, according to a report released Friday by U.S. disease experts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's report said the likelihood a child would have a concerning blood-lead level - at least 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood - was about 50 percent higher after the April 2014 switch from Detroit's water system to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_River_(Georgia)">Flint River</a>. Flint used the water for 18 months, during which lead leached from old pipes in homes, businesses and schools because the water wasn't treated to control corrosion. The city switched back to Detroit's system in October.
"This crisis was entirely preventable, and a startling reminder of the critical need to eliminate all sources of lead from our children's environment," Patrick Breysse, director of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said in a statement. Flint children have higher lead levels after drinking water switch.
About 9,600 children younger than 6 years old lived in homes served by Flint's water system, the report said. Among them, about 7,300 received nearly 9,700 blood lead tests before, during and after the water source switch.
Children can develop learning disabilities and behavior problems from lead exposure, even in low levels.
According to the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/electric-scooter-safety-injuries/">CDC</a>, blood-lead testing in Michigan is targeted toward children at or below the poverty level and those enrolled in Medicaid. All children on Medicaid are required to receive blood-lead screenings when they're 1 and 2 years old, or 3 and 6 years old if previous screenings weren't done.
The lead-level test periods were: the year leading up to the initial switch; between April 2014 and the January 2015 release of a water advisory because of high levels of disinfectant byproducts; between the advisory and return to Detroit water; and after the return to Detroit.
After last fall, children's blood-lead levels dropped to what had been found before the switch to the Flint River.
The study underscores the need for a "big, public health discussion" about lead, Breysse told The Associated Press. A recent national health survey estimated that a half-million children under 6 have elevated blood-lead levels in the area of concern and 4 million U.S. households have lead-paint hazards.
"We have concerns being raised across the country," he said.
Officials noted some limitations with the Flint findings: They couldn't account for all factors that might have contributed to a child's lead exposure, such as whether lead-based paint was present in the children's homes or whether a decline in blood-lead levels post-return to Detroit water was at least partly because of the increased consumption of bottled water.
Still, the authors say the analysis suggests increased lead exposure related to consuming contaminated water in Flint.
Marc Edwards, an environmental engineering expert at Virginia Tech who helped uncover the lead scandal, said the study corroborates his work and that of Flint pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
"It's a solid report confirming the veracity of our warnings of adverse health effects from water lead exposure in Flint (in) August 2015, as well as Dr. Mona's studies of elevated blood lead in September," he wrote in an email to the AP.
The report comes a day after federal officials announced filtered tap water was safe for everyone in Flint, lifting a recommendation that pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 6 drink bottled water to avoid lead exposure. The announcement was based on tests of filters that have been distributed for months for free by the state of Michigan.
In March, a state task force that investigated the Flint crisis concluded that it was a "case of environmental injustice" in a poor, majority black city.
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Flint children have higher lead levels after drinking water switch

Flint children under the age of 6 had significantly higher...

A comparison of recent and previous nourishments of San Diego beaches suggests that a larger sand grain size improved nourishment performance

A team of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego compared sand levels on several San Diego beaches during the last seven winters. The El Niños of winter 2009-10 and 2015-16 were the two most erosive. Three<a href="https://www.bing.com/travelguide?q=San+Diego&amp;l2sid=dbb1c326-5b67-4591-a264-0929e070e5ee&amp;form=PLACAB"> San Diego</a> County beaches that received imported sand in 2012 were about 10 meters (33 feet) wider, and one to two meters (three to six feet) higher in 2015-16 than in 2009-10, with the coarseness of the sand apparently aiding the effectiveness of the effort. Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion

In contrast, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/beach-replenishment-helps-protect-against-storm-erosion/">Torrey Pines</a> State Beach, which had received no recent sand infusions, had slightly more storm erosion than in 2009-10.

"After sand is lifted off the ocean floor by waves, coarse grains fall more quickly to the bottom than finer grains, making it more difficult for the currents to move them around," said study leader Bonnie Ludka, a former Scripps graduate student partially supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion

The research, funded by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Sea Grant, focused on San Diego beaches but has implications for beaches worldwide. As sea levels rise, already threatened coastal infrastructure will become more vulnerable to flooding and erosion. El Niño is superimposed on this long-term trend, modifying regional coastal sea levels by as much as 25 centimeters for a year or more. Most significantly, El Niño modulates the locations of storms responsible for large waves that can raise nearshore water levels by a meter or more.

Sand nourishments widen beaches to promote tourism and protect coastal infrastructure, but the transport of the sand by waves and currents remains poorly understood.

The 2012 effort deposited 1.15 million cubic meters of sand on eight San Diego County beaches (including Cardiff, Solana, and Imperial beaches) at a cost of $28.5 million. A 2001 project added 1.6 million cubic meters of sand to 12 local beaches at a cost of $17.5 million. The sand pad placed at Torrey Pines that year was swept out to sea after just one storm. The sand grains imported there were of a similar size as the sand naturally found on that beach.

The 2015-16 winter provided a wealth of data to researchers, who used relatively new technologies. Ludka, who received her doctorate in oceanography from Scripps in May, and other scientists used jet-ski- and ATV-mounted GPS instruments to study beach slope and width.

The study is described in the article "Mid-El Niño erosion at nourished and unnourished Southern California beaches" appearing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Other co-authors of the study include Scripps oceanographer Robert Guza, graduate student Sean Crosby, and postdoctoral researcher Timu Gallien.

"We do not understand the underlying processes sufficiently to design nourishments for effective mitigation," said Guza. "Monitoring is necessary to learn as we go, from failures as well as successes."

--

<a href="http://www.ucsd.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of California San Diego</a>

Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion

A comparison of recent and previous nourishments of San Diego...

Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs. As the largest international gathering of coral reef experts comes to a close, scientists have sent a letter to Australian officials calling for action to save the world's coral reefs, which are being rapidly damaged.
The letter was sent Saturday to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull imploring his government to do more to conserve the nation's reefs and curb fossil fuel consumption. Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs
The letter, signed by past and present presidents of the International Society for Reef Studies on behalf of the 2,000 attendees of the International <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-tool-can-detect-heat-stress-in-corals/">Coral</a> Reef Symposium that was held in Honolulu this week, urged the Australian government to prioritize its Great Barrier Reef.
"This year has seen the worst mass bleaching in history, threatening many coral reefs around the world including the whole of the northern Great Barrier Reef, the biggest and best-known of all reefs," the letter said. "The damage to this Australian icon has already been devastating. In addition to damage from greenhouse gasses, port dredging and shipping of fossil fuels across the Great Barrier Reef contravene Australia's responsibilities for stewardship of the Reef under the World Heritage Convention."
Leaders from the scientific community at the convention in Honolulu said Friday that the unprecedented letter was critical to the conservation of the fragile reef habitat.
Scientists are not known for their political activism, said James Cook University professor Terry Hughes, but they felt this crisis warranted such action.
"We are not ready to write the obituary for coral reefs," said Hughes, who is also the president of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia.
Messages seeking comment from the Australian prime minister Saturday were not returned.
A call to action from three Pacific island nations whose reefs are in the crosshairs of the largest and longest-lasting coral bleaching event in recorded history was presented Friday at the conclusion of the International Coral Reef Symposium.
The heads of state from Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands attended the conference and provided a plan to help save their ailing coral reefs, which are major contributors to their local economies and the daily sustenance of their people. The call to action, signed by the three presidents, asked for better collaboration between the scientific community and local governments, saying there needs to be more funding and a strengthened commitment to protecting the reefs.
"If our coral reefs are further degraded, then our reef-dependent communities will suffer and be displaced," the letter said. They also called for more integration of "traditional knowledge, customary practices and scientific research" in building a comprehensive coral reef policy.
In response to the letter, the scientific community at the conference said: "We pledge to take up the 13th ICRS Leaders' Call to Action, and will work together with national leaders of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the world to curb the continued loss of coral reefs."
Bleaching is a process where corals, stressed by hot ocean waters and other environmental changes, lose their color as the symbiotic algae that lives within them is released. Severe or concurrent years of bleaching can kill coral reefs, as has been documented over the past two years in oceans around the world. Scientists expect a third year of bleaching to last through the end of 2016.
In the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef, close to half of the corals have died in the past three months, said Hughes, who focuses his research there. The area of the reef that suffered most is extremely remote, he said, with no pollution, very little fishing pressure and no coastal development.
"That's an absolute catastrophe," Hughes said. "There's nowhere to hide from climate change."
Last year, the United Nations expressed concern about the state of the Great Barrier Reef and urged Australia to boost its conservation efforts.
Following the release of a bleaching report in May, Australian politicians - who are in the midst of an election campaign - jumped on the issue, with the opposition Labor Party pledging to create a $500 million fund for better management and research of the reef. Environment Minister Greg Hunt, meanwhile, announced that if his party is re-elected, the government would invest $6 million to helping combat the crown-of-thorns starfish, which feast on coral.
The panel of scientists in Hawaii emphasized the progress they have made over the past 30 years in helping improve the health of coral reefs and stressed that good research and management programs for coral reefs are available. The scientists said they just need the proper funding and political will to enact them.
The researchers focused on the economic and social benefits coral reefs contribute to communities across the globe, saying the critical habitats generate trillions of dollars annually but conservation efforts are not proportionately or adequately funded.
---
Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/CalebAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/CalebAP</a> Find more of his work at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones</a>
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Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs

Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs. As...

'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon. It turns out that forests in the Andean and western Amazonian regions of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=south+america&amp;filters=ufn%3a%22south+america%22+sid%3a%22077019ff-3910-a5c7-9283-9e4feadb1f67%22&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=MB&amp;cvid=64216551149146eeb6f99c76c4103132&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfNcV7JLaCA2lHOMI7gGhmWqoRw83oQS1o21YsTbpslrzcpUjVv0%21sYNVad4gTLODA4AsBoxuKundJUw7UFJ7kXY&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">South America</a> break long-understood rules about how ecosystems are put together, according to new research led by Carnegie's Greg Asner and published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their findings could help scientists understand how tropical forests will respond to global climate change.

One of forest ecology's fundamental undertakings has long focused on how tree growth is influenced by a host of environmental factors ranging from soils and elevation to hydrology and climate. These factors create an economy of resources that the trees must exploit through different strategies, some of which are optimized for quick growth while others favor slow growth.'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon

More than a decade ago, ecologists established a framework to measure and quantify the calculus between fast- and slow-growth strategies among plant species. The idea was simple:

Some plants are like high-rollers looking for the quickest-possible returns, which comes in the form of highly efficient photosynthesis--the process by which plants use the Sun's energy to store carbon. These types of plants have been associated with environments that supply high concentrations of essential nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and warm-wet climatic conditions, both of which help plants photosynthesize more productively.

Other plants are like prudent savers that invest in long-term infrastructure, meaning growing leaves with strong internal structures and increased mass that are designed to live for a long time. These structural investments allow more photosynthesis to be accomplished per leaf over the plant's lifetime. This strategy is thought to be employed by longer-living plants in areas where nutrients are scarcer, or where climates are colder or drier.

To understand the tradeoffs between these high-roller and prudent investor strategies, ecologists often plot leaf nutrients in comparison to leaf mass per area in response to different environmental factors. This is a particularly useful approach for understanding how to predict forest physiological responses to changing environmental conditions, including climate.

However, until now, this "leaf economics" approach has never been studied on large geographically continuous scales.

Using a unique, high-fidelity imaging spectrometer onboard the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, Asner and his team made the first-ever forest canopy maps of leaf nitrogen, phosphorous, and mass over a large portion of the biosphere covering nearly 200 million acres of Peru.

"We tested a traditional ecological principle at a completely new scale--in this case, the vast and under-explored <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/smoky-canyons-andes-mountains/">Andes</a> and Amazon region," Asner explained.

They discovered that the leaf economics of forests are not as straightforward as scientists once believed.

"We found that Andean and Amazonian forests have evolved into diverse communities that break simple ecological 'rules' previously developed through field-based studies. These forests are actually much more interesting and functionally diverse than previously thought, and have sorted themselves out across a variety of environmental templates like geology, elevation and temperature," Asner added.

It turns out the forests aren't so simply split between high-rollers and prudent investors either. Rather the authors found a continuum of forest canopy nitrogen, phosphorous, and leaf mass relationships that are sensitive to the enormous range of geophysical conditions found throughout the region.

Why do these findings matter?

The team believes that the mapped continuum of factors mediating tree growth in response to the environment will play a key role in determining how these forests will respond to climate change. Understanding these relationships is crucial to figuring out how to project changes in Andean-Amazonian forests using the next generation of climate models.

"These findings also make a clear case for taking our airborne science to Earth orbit as a satellite mission. This is the only way to create new global-scale maps, which are needed to better understand these ecological processes and to predict the roles they will play in Earth's future," Asner said.
###
This study was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Carnegie Airborne Observatory is currently supported by the Avatar Alliance Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mary Anny Nyburg Baker and G. Leonard Baker Jr., and William R. Hearst III.

The Carnegie Institution for Science (<a href="http://carnegiescience.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">carnegiescience.edu</a>) is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon

'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon. It turns out...

China's plan to reduce Beijing pollution must include household fuels, surrounding regions

Household fuels a major contributor to air pollution. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/insomnia-struck-chinas-healthcare-workers-during-covid-19-outbreak/">China's</a> plans to curb Beijing's health-damaging air by focusing on restricting emissions from power plants and vehicles may have limited impact if household use of coal and other dirty fuels is not also curtailed, according to a new study.

"You cannot have a clean outdoor environment if a large percentage of the population is burning dirty fuels in households several times a day," said Kirk Smith, a professor with the University of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California">California</a>, Berkeley's School of Public Health who co-led the study with Tong Zhu of Peking University and Denise Mauzerall of Princeton University. "The smoke may start indoors, but soon leaves the house and becomes a significant part of regional air pollution."

Beijing's polluted air came to international attention before the 2008 summer Olympics. Today, the average daily concentration of the smallest particulates - those that can lodge deeply in the lungs and trigger chronic and acute respiratory illness, heart disease and lung cancer - is more than six times what the World Health Organization regards as safe. Levels of other major pollutants, such as ozone, also rank high.

China developed a five-year plan to reduce emissions, but the researchers concluded that focusing too narrowly on controlling emissions of pollutants just within Beijing and its suburbs, without also reducing emissions from the entire region, including widespread surrounding rural areas, may limit the potential effectiveness of pollution-control efforts.

Their study will be published next week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The modeling study is the first to incorporate local and regional datasets on air emissions and to combine these with modeling of weather impacts and atmospheric chemistry in the region to come up with estimates of impacts of household emissions during winter months, when heating demands are greatest.

"We show that due to uncontrolled and inefficient combustion of solid fuels in household devices, emission reductions from the residential sector may have greater air quality benefits in the North China Plain, including Beijing, than reductions from other sectors," the researchers wrote. Household uses include cooking and heating.

The researchers used the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry, a model developed in the United States and used by researchers worldwide, to generate atmospheric simulations using real data from China. They focused on Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces, where more than 100 million people live.

They then made estimates of the relative contributions of emissions sources using data from 2010, and also modeled emissions reductions scenarios to derive estimates for reduction levels of small particulates over the region that would result from different mitigation efforts.

The researchers concluded that eliminating household emissions alone would reduce levels of small particulate pollution in the air over Beijing in winter by about 22 percent, but that eliminating household emissions in all three provinces surrounding Beijing would nearly double the reduction in particulate levels in the city itself.

In other words, Beijing does not have its fate entirely in its own hands, according to Smith, and the results highlight the importance of regional efforts to reduce urban air pollution.

"On a smaller scale, here in the Bay Area, air-quality control is not only focused on San Francisco and Oakland, but also coordinated across nine Bay Area counties through a regional governing body," Smith said. "One might think that, because China has a powerful central government, it would be easy to coordinate regional governing bodies to fight pollution, but that is not necessarily the case."

The researchers did not attempt to evaluate how climate change might be affected by Chinese efforts to reduce household burning of biomass fuel by supplying natural gas. China has begun building plants to convert coal to "synthetic natural gas," which burns cleaner, but results in more carbon dioxide emissions than direct burning of coal.

Nor did the researchers try to gauge the health benefits of reducing household emissions. However, a Global Burden of Disease study found that direct household exposure to air pollution from solid fuels was responsible for 800,000 premature deaths in China in 2013, about equal to the number of premature deaths from outdoor particulate pollution, Smith said. The work by Smith and colleagues indicates that a significant portion of the ill-health from outdoor pollution in China should also be attributed to household fuels.
###
The research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation Committee of China, the European Seventh Framework Programme Project PURGE (Public Health Impacts in Urban Environments of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Strategies), and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality.

Household fuels a major contributor to air pollution

China's plan to reduce Beijing pollution must include household fuels,...

North American leaders pledge more reliance on renewable energy. The leaders of the United States, <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/lake-st-clair-of-the-u-s-and-canada/">Canada</a> and Mexico will pledge this week to rely on renewable energy to generate 50 percent of North America's electrical power by 2025, White House officials said Monday.
That's a big jump from last year's 37 percent level. But it's doable through greater efficiency and reliance on solar, wind and other clean energy sources, Brian Deese, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said.
"The transformation of the American energy sector that's underway is going to continue," Deese said. "That has been driven by some of the policy choices this president has made, but it's also being driven by market forces that are bringing down the cost of clean energy at rates that even the smartest analysts weren't predicting only a couple of years ago."North American leaders pledge more reliance on renewable energy
Deese said the administration's effort to reduce power-plant emissions, dubbed the "Clean Power Plan," is a central component of the effort to get to 50 percent renewable energy. But the Supreme Court earlier this year blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing the plan until certain legal challenges were resolved.
Obama will meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Enrique Pena Nieto during Wednesday's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America">North American</a> Leaders' Summit in Ottawa.
Efforts to curb global warming will be a big part of the agenda. On that front, Mexico will also join the United States and Canada in tackling methane emissions. Earlier this year, Obama and Trudeau committed to reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors by at least 40 percent over the next decade from 2012 levels. Mexico is also making that commitment this week, Deese said.
Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted in the United States from human activities. While methane's lifeline in the atmosphere is much shorter than carbon dioxide, it's much more efficient at trapping heat from the sun.
Canada is already far ahead in reliance on renewable energy at 81 percent. The United States is at 33 percent, most of that coming from nuclear plants, while Mexico is at 18 percent, according to Cameron Ahmad, a spokesman for Trudeau.
---
Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
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North American leaders pledge more reliance on renewable energy

North American leaders pledge more reliance on renewable energy. The...

Penalty from Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal rises to $15 billion. Volkswagen would repair or buy back polluting diesel vehicles and pay each owner as much as $10,000 under a $14.7 billion deal the car maker has reached to settle lawsuits stemming from its emissions cheating scandal, a person briefed on the settlement talks said Monday.
The figure would be the largest auto scandal settlement in U.S. history and a huge step in Volkswagen's efforts to address the legal fallout from its admission that its vehicles were designed to fool emissions tests.
The deal sets aside $10 billion to repair or buy back roughly 475,000 polluting Volkswagen vehicles with 2-liter diesel engines, and to compensate each owner with an additional payment of between $5,100 and $10,000, the person said. The person asked not to be identified because the deal will not be filed in court until Tuesday, and a judge has ordered attorneys not to talk about it before then.
How VW would repair the vehicles to bring them into compliance with clean air laws has not yet been finalized, the person said.
Owners who choose to have VW buy back their cars would get the clean trade-in value from before the scandal became public on Sept. 18, 2015. The average value of a VW diesel has dropped 19 percent since just before the scandal began. In August of 2015, the average was $13,196, and this May it was $10,674, according to Kelley Blue Book.
The settlement still requires a judge's approval before it can go into effect. Owners can choose to decline Volkswagen's offer and sue the company on their own.
The settlement also includes $2.7 billion for environmental mitigation and another $2 billion for research on zero-emissions technology, the person said.
Don Marron, a banker from Allentown, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a>, who owns a 2012 Jetta SportWagen diesel, said he's glad Volkswagen is offering more compensation than earlier reports had suggested. But Marron wants assurance that if Volkswagen fixes his car but he doesn't like the way it performs, the company will still buy it back. And if he keeps his car and saves Volkswagen money, he wants compensation for doing that.
"At this moment, I don't know anything more than I did a couple of months ago," he said.
The scandal erupted in September when it was learned that the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/german-shepherd-health-breeding/">German</a> automaker had fitted many of its cars with software to fool emissions tests and had put dirty vehicles on the road. Investigators determined that the cars emitted more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory problems in humans. Car owners and the U.S. Department of Justice sued.
VW is still facing billions more in fines and penalties, a lawsuit by state attorneys general and potential criminal charges.
The $14.7 billion settlement also does not include another roughly 90,000 3-liter Volkswagen diesels, which had another version of cheating software.
VW in April took an $18.2 billion charge to cover the cost of the global scandal, which includes a total of 11 million vehicles worldwide.
The company has admitted developing sophisticated software that determined when the cars were being tested by the EPA on a treadmill-like device called a dynamometer and turned on the pollution controls. Once all wheels began spinning and the steering wheel was turned, the controls were turned off.
The company, which knew the EPA's testing routine, got away with the scam for seven years before being caught by the International Council on Clean Transportation, which hired West Virginia University to test a VW in real roads conditions.
---
Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.
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Penalty from Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal rises to $15 billion

Penalty from Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal rises to $15 billion....

NASA sees wind shear affecting Tropical Cyclone 02A. Tropical Cyclone 02A made its way west across the Arabian Sea and NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the storm when it was just off the coast of Oman. Infrared data showed the storm was beginning to elongate from wind shear.

Infrared data taken from NASA's Aqua satellite on June 27, 2016 at 2159 UTC (5:59 p.m. EDT) showed cold cloud top temperatures in strong storms just off the coast of Oman. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument flies aboard Aqua. AIRS data was made into a false-colored infrared image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA sees wind shear affecting Tropical Cyclone 02A

The AIRS data showed cold cloud top temperatures near minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) in storms pushed west of the center of circulation, indicating wind shear is affecting the storm from a tropical easterly jet stream. The imagery also showed that the storm had begun to elongate from the wind shear.

On June 28, 2016 the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that 02A is turning back to the east and it is not expected to make landfall in Oman.

At 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) on June 28, 2016 Tropical Cyclone 02A was located about 253 nautical miles east of Masirah Island. Maximum sustained winds were near 35 knots (40 mph/62 kph). 02A has tracked south-southwestward at 4 knots

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said that 02A will begin making a southeastward turn later in the day on June 28, 2016 "as it interacts with enhanced southwesterly monsoonal flow. The tropical cyclone is forecast to fully dissipate on June 29, 2016 due to unfavorable vertical wind shear conditions."

--

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA</a>

NASA sees wind shear affecting Tropical Cyclone 02A

NASA sees wind shear affecting Tropical Cyclone 02A. Tropical Cyclone...

Changes in Arctic carbon emissions are often undetected. A new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">NASA</a>-led study has found that in at least part of the Arctic, scientists are not doing as good a job of detecting changes in arctic carbon emissions and carbon dioxide during the long, dark winter months as they are at monitoring changes during the short summer. That's a concern, because growing Arctic plants can act as a brake on global warming rates by removing carbon from the atmosphere, but increasing cold-season emissions could overwhelm the braking effect and accelerate global warming.

Led by Nicholas Parazoo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, the new study compares our ability to observe increases in cold-season emissions of carbon dioxide and increases in warm-season removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The cold-season emissions come mainly from deep soil layers that retain enough summer heat to remain thawed after the soil's surface freezes in the fall. As the climate continues to warm, these buried layers are expected to remain unfrozen later and later into the winter, releasing more and more carbon. It will be important for scientists to track these releases carefully.Changes in Arctic carbon emissions are often undetected

However, it's hard to monitor <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/ocean-carbon-dioxide-sink/">carbon dioxide</a> in the Far North. Alaska is more accessible than most of the Arctic, but most of the state is too remote and rugged for ground measurements to be collected. Satellite and airborne measurements fill these geographical gaps, but their higher-altitude measurements capture carbon dioxide that drifted into the state from sources that may be far outside the Arctic, as well as the locally produced gas, making small local changes hard to spot.

Local and long-distance carbon

Parazoo and his co-authors conducted a series of simulations with a global carbon forecast model. First they predicted how carbon dioxide will change as plants grow and deep soil layers thaw, then they simulated how well those changes could be observed if today's airborne and satellite measurements continued unchanged in the future. They used airborne data collected from 2009 to 2013 by NASA's Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, as well as satellite data from the Japanese Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT).

The researchers found that all measurements were dominated by carbon that originated elsewhere, with only 10 percent of carbon coming from Alaska sources. Isolating that small amount and then monitoring how it may be changing as the climate changes is difficult. However, because CARVE and NOAA research aircraft collect data at multiple altitudes, the measurements provide information about how carbon dioxide changes with altitude. Removing upper-altitude measurements, the team found that lower-altitude carbon dioxide was about half locally produced. That makes it easier to track changes in the local carbon dioxide. Aircraft also can collect data much later in the year than currently orbiting satellites, which require abundant sunlight to make their measurements. These characteristics mean that aircraft have the potential to monitor increases in cold-season emissions.

Airborne measurements are key

The study suggests that year-round airborne measurements across the state are the key to monitoring carbon changes, but there is no ongoing airborne program currently doing year-round carbon monitoring in Alaska. The scientists concluded that an expanded network of aircraft measurements could provide the temporal and spatial coverage needed to avoid future emissions going unwatched.

Parazoo noted that several large-scale planning efforts are underway for future Alaskan and Arctic observing systems, so now is a critical time to develop new strategies and technologies that focus on these vital cold-season measurements. "We know [the Arctic] has the potential to change through warming and permafrost thaw, and those changes would have global impacts," he said. "We want to have the scientific capability to measure and interpret those changes when and if they happen. Our results suggest we can use aircraft data to detect those changes in as little as 30 years."

A paper on the research, "Detecting Regional Patterns of Changing CO2 Flux in Alaska," is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

NASA collects data from space, air, land and sea to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/earth">http://www.nasa.gov/earth</a>

Changes in Arctic carbon emissions are often undetected

Changes in Arctic carbon emissions are often undetected. A new...

Global ecological disaster occurred 252 million years ago. There have been several mass extinctions in the history of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/earth-could-be-powered-entirely-by-renewable-energy/">earth</a>. One of the largest known ecological disasters occurred around 252 million years ago at the boundary between the Permian and the Triassic. Almost all sea-dwelling species and two thirds of all reptiles and amphibians died out. Although there were also brief declines in diversity in the plant world, they recovered in the space of a few thousand years, which meant that similar conditions to before prevailed again.

Change in flora within a millennia

Researchers from the Institute and Museum of Paleontology at the University of Zurich have now discovered another previously unknown ecological crisis on a similar scale in the Lower Triassic. The team headed by Peter A. Hochuli and Hugo Bucher revealed that another event altered the vegetation fundamentally and for longer approximately 500,000 years after the major natural disaster at the boundary between the Permian and the Triassic.

The scientists studied sediments towering over 400 meters high from North-Eastern Greenland. <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=carbon&amp;cvid=8059c74fb2d648349b4ca1846067da94&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Carbon</a> isotope curves suggest that the prevalent seed ferns and conifers were replaced by spore plants in the space of a few millennia. To this day, certain spore plants like ferns are still famous for their ability to survive hostile conditions better than more highly developed plants.

Catastrophic ecological upheaval changes plant world

Until now, it was assumed that the environment gradually recovered during the Lower Triassic 252.4 to 247.8 million years ago. "The drastic, simultaneous changes in flora and the composition of the carbon isotopes indicate that the actual upheaval in the vegetation didn't take place until the Lower Triassic, i.e. around 500,000 years later than previously assumed," explains Hochuli.

The researchers didn't just observe the mass death of vegetation in Greenland; they already discovered the first indications of this floral shift a few years ago in sediment samples from Pakistan. Moreover, the latest datings of volcanic ash by Australian scientists show that the most significant change in the plant world did not happen until a few millennia after the Permian/Triassic boundary. During this period, the indigenous glossopteris seed plant group died out, an event that had previously been dated back to the Permian. Thanks to these findings, the sediment sequences of the supercontinent Gondwana in the southern hemisphere now need to be reinterpreted.

Crisis probably triggered by volcanic eruptions

What caused this newly described natural disaster remains unclear. "However, we see a link between this previously unknown global event and the enormous volcanic eruptions we know from the Lower Triassic in what's now Siberia," explains Bucher, Director of UZH's Institute and Museum of Paleontology. Global ecological disaster occurred 252 million years ago

Literature: Peter A. Hochuli, Anna Sanson-Barrera, Elke Schneebeli-Hermann &amp; Hugo Bucher. Severest crisis overlooked - Worst disruption of terrestrial environments postdates the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. Nature Scientific Reports. June 24, 2016. Doi: 10.1038/srep28372

--

<a href="http://www.uzh.ch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Zurich</a>

Global ecological disaster occurred 252 million years ago

Global ecological disaster occurred 252 million years ago. There have...

Curbing emissions from palm oil agriculture. As palm oil agriculture expands from Southeast Asia into Central Africa, a new Duke University-led study warns that converting Africa's tropical forests into monoculture palm plantations will cause a significant spike in climate-warming carbon emissions. The authors urge regional governments to enact mandatory policies regulating which forests can be cleared and how much remaining forest must be set aside for conservation.

"Our case study, which focuses on oil palm farming in the nation of Gabon, finds that converting even previously logged forest into oil palm plantations will lead to high carbon emissions," said John R. Poulsen, assistant professor of tropical ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.Curbing emissions from palm oil agriculture

"Clearing just 11,500 hectares of forest -- or roughly 28,400 acres -- would release about 1.5 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere," Poulsen said. "That's equivalent to the annual emissions of some small developing countries."

However, the new study finds that these emissions could be completely offset over 25 years if development were centered on forests that store less carbon and if a portion of every development had conservation set-asides.

Poulsen and his colleagues published their peer-reviewed study June 24 in the journalConservation Letters.

They used field measurements and LiDAR satellite data to calculate forest carbon stocks -- the amount of carbon stored in trees -- and potential carbon emissions at the site of a 50,000-hectare palm oil plantation in Gabon. The plantation is being developed jointly by the Gabonese government and the agribusiness firm Olam International Ltd., to test if low-emissions palm oil development is feasible in the equatorial country on the Atlantic Ocean.

"While Gabon has ambitions of becoming a leading producer of palm oil, it also has made pledges to protect its environment and biodiversity," Poulsen said. "If this site is successful, it could open the door to development at other sites, so it's imperative that our work helps the government strike the right balance between economic development and environmental conservation."

In Southeast Asia, large-scale palm oil development has led to persistent, region-wide emissions problems and widespread deforestation and biodiversity loss, he noted. To prevent the same scenario from playing out in Gabon, the new study proposes a two-phase approach to plantation siting and development.

"First, we recommend establishing a nationwide carbon threshold of 108 to 118 metric tons per hectare. Only forests that store less than this density of carbon will be considered suitable for development," Poulsen said. "Second, palm oil companies will also have to set aside enough land within a plantation -- roughly one acre for every 2.6 acres developed -- to offset emissions.

"The precise set-aside ratio may vary by site, but 2.6 to 1 is generally the point at which carbon storage in the conserved forest will offset carbon loss in the rest of the plantation and achieve net-zero emissions over time," Poulsen explained.

"Although our study considers only forest carbon, and not biodiversity or other ecosystem services, we estimate there is enough low-carbon forest in Gabon to achieve net-zero emissions while still permitting the nation to meet its palm oil production goals," he said.

Allowing industry to voluntarily adhere to these new guidelines or opt out of them is not an option, he stressed. "To succeed, this approach needs to be mandatory and implemented by the government with careful land-use planning and strict enforcement."
###
Support for this research came from Olam Palm Gabon and Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

Poulsen conducted the study with Mark E.H. Burton, a 2014 Master of Environmental Management graduate of Duke's Nicholas School. Other co-authors were Michelle E. Lee, Vincent P. Medjibe and Lee J.T. White of Gabon's Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, and Christopher G. Stewart and Arun Venkataraman of OLAM International Ltd.

CITATION: "Reducing Carbon Emissions from Forest Conversion for Oil Palm Agriculture in Gabon," Mark E.H. Burton, John R. Poulsen, Michelle E. Lee, Vincent P. Medjibe, Christopher G. Stewart, Arun Venkataraman, Lee J.T. White. Conservation Letters, June 24, 2016. DOI: 10.1111/conl.12265

Curbing emissions from palm oil agriculture

Curbing emissions from palm oil agriculture. As palm oil agriculture...

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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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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



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Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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



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



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



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



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



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



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center&nbsp;



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

Monitoring deforestation in the Amazon through sounds

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