Legends about a boiling, scalding river that roasts anything that falls inside may sound like fiction. Yet nestled in the Peruvian rainforest, a curious waterway <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/andres_ruzo_the_boiling_river_of_the_amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proves</a> these stories are far from mythical.



Its waters can reach 210°F, a temperature that can cause severe burns within seconds. For decades, local communities spoke of a place so hot that small <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cold-shocks-in-the-amazon-how-do-wild-animals-respond/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals perish</a> upon touching its surface.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-boiling-river-in-peru">The "Boiling River" in Peru</h2>



The "Boiling River" is located in the Mayantuyacu region of central Peru. The river’s length is around 4 miles, and it can be up to about 20 feet wide in some sections.



A team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.rileyfortier.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Riley Fortier</a>, a graduate student at the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Miami</a>, surveyed 70 sites along this tributary. 



"It really provides us a window into the future because the Amazon will get hotter whether we like it or not, so this allows us to understand what increases in temperature will do to the forest composition," said Riley Fortier, lead author on a study of the site published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>, and a graduate student in professor Kenneth Feeley's <a href="https://www.junglebiology.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jungle Biology lab</a>.



The team wanted to see how extreme heat shapes the surrounding forest.



By mapping the tree and plant species from cooler upstream areas down to the scalding heart of the river, they discovered a startling drop in biological variety. 



Findings <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">showed</a> an 11% decline in biodiversity for each 1.8°F rise in average temperature.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-boiling-river-boils">Why the boiling river boils</h2>



Geoscientists attribute the heat to fault-fed activity, where underground water channels meet Earth’s geothermal energy. 



A fault is a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-fault-and-what-are-different-types" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">large fracture</a> in the crust that provides a direct path for scorching fluid to surge toward the surface.



Researchers believe that rainwater infiltrating sedimentary rock becomes superheated below ground. It then emerges as a system of hot springs converging with the main watercourse, creating a natural cauldron.



“You stick your hand in, and you will see second or third degree burns in a matter of seconds,” said Ruzo, who first measured the river’s peak heat. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-signs-of-changing-forests">Signs of changing forests</h2>



Many local inhabitants regard the site with deep respect because anything that wanders too close risks a painful encounter.



Certain plants thrive on the fringes, but most large creatures struggle with the sweltering <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tiny-microbes-in-amazon-peatlands-help-balance-the-global-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">environment</a>. Adaptations are limited for organisms facing water that can reach coffee-brewing temperatures.



"Overall, the tree community is less diverse, so we see fewer species in hotter spots," Fortier said. "And forest composition was also more homogenous in the warmest locations, whereas in cooler forest plots, there was more plant diversity."



Botanical surveys from cooler sections toward the hotter stretches revealed how tree diversity narrows. In place of thick canopies, the research team documented more scrubby <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rainforest-trees-use-rivers-as-highways-for-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vegetation</a>.



"Over the course of dozens of miles, you might expect to see dramatic changes like that, but in the small sampling area that we had, you typically wouldn't see such a clear change in composition," Fortier added.



Small species adapted to drought-like conditions gained ground as the mercury rose. Larger, slower-growing trees faded away, reflecting how intense heat reshapes even lush ecosystems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-boiling-rivers-and-future-climate">Boiling rivers and future climate</h2>



Fortier’s data suggest that as worldwide temperatures climb, similar shifts could spread across other <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-amazon-rainforest-is-approaching-widespread-collapse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lowland rainforests</a>.



Changes may include declines in species that cannot handle additional heat and a rise in those more comfortable with higher temperatures.



Scientists note that an environment featuring fewer tree varieties will likely support fewer types of animals too. The loss of one group often sends ripples through the entire food web.



The boiling tributary, known locally as <a href="https://shanaytimpishka.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shanay-Timpishka</a>, meaning “boiled with the heat of the sun,” stands as a stark example of what could happen if average temperatures continue to climb. 



Areas that were once rich in wildlife may morph into simpler, drier landscapes. Observers hope that studying this natural hotspot will inspire careful planning to protect sensitive habitats. 



Even though the river is unique, it signals what may lie ahead for places currently seen as safe havens for biodiversity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ongoing-investigations">Ongoing investigations</h2>



Researchers plan to gather long-term data and explore whether <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nearly-40-of-climate-critical-amazon-rainforest-is-unprotected/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flora and fauna</a> can adapt to persistently higher temperatures. They will also watch for signs of any species shifting to cooler pockets.



Some scientists are examining whether the warming patterns near this location might parallel broader trends in tropical zones. 



They predict that more forests around the globe could face intense thermal stress, forcing communities to adapt or relocate.



Feeley's lab will continue its research of the boiling river, since it is such a unique place that could portend much about our natural world.



"You can't heat a whole forest, at least not artificially, which is one of the coolest aspects of the boiling river," Fortier added.



The study is published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>.



-----



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One river in the Amazon rainforest is so hot that it literally boils, destroying nearby biodiversity

Legends about a boiling, scalding river that roasts anything that falls inside may sound like fiction. Yet nestled in the Peruvian rainforest, a curious waterway proves these stories are far from mythical. Its waters can reach 210°F, a temperature that can cause severe burns within seconds. For decades, local communities spoke of a place so hot that small animals perish upon touching its surface. The "Boiling River" in Peru The "Boiling River" is located in the Mayantuyacu region of central Peru. The river’s length is around 4...

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Air pollution affects young people's psychiatric health. New research from Umeå University in Sweden indicates that dispensed medication for psychiatric diagnosis can be related to air pollution concentrations. The study covers a large part of the Swedish population and has been published in the journal BMJ Open.

More and more studies show that the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/schizophrenia-linked-to-irregular-fatty-metabolism-in-the-brain/">brain</a> and human cognitive development are affected by pollution.

In a new study conducted by a research team at Umeå University, the correlation between exposure to air pollution in residential areas and children' and adolescents' psychiatric health was studied. The study was performed by looking at register-based data, where dispensed medications of all Swedes are registered, together with Swedish National Register data of air pollution concentrations. The entire population under 18 in the Swedish counties of Stockholm, Västra Götaland, Skåne and Västerbotten were studied.

<img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2394406" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2016/06/08105020/cff1.greenatom.netuploads20160608105017media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb117202_web-9c1cbc018075241e4b539fed953fb28efb30c549-03192d777b3c05d78e99b796972b8fa9255b633e-150x150.jpg" alt="Anna Oudin" width="150" height="150" />Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Skåne counties are located in the more densely populated parts in the south and contain the three largest cities in Sweden with a population density of between 68 and 338/km2 whereas Västerbotten County lies the north of Sweden with a population density of 5/ km2. The four counties are different not just in terms of geographic location, size and population density but also with respect to migration, socioeconomic characteristics, urbanisation, and air pollution concentrations.

The results show that air pollution increased the risk of having dispensed medication for at least one psychiatric diagnosis for children and adolescents, the risk increased with 9% with a 10 microgram per cubic meter increased concentration of nitrogen dioxide even after socioeconomic and demographic factors were taken into account.Air pollution affects young people's psychiatric health

"The results can mean that a decreased concentration of air pollution, first and foremost traffic-related air pollution, may reduce psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents," says researcher Anna Oudin, the Unit for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, who led the study.


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Air pollution affects young people's psychiatric health

Air pollution affects young people's psychiatric health. New research from...

Danger from extreme storms and high seas increasing. Storms that battered Australia's east coast are a harbinger of things to come and a stark reminder of the need for a national effort to monitor the growing threat from climate change, UNSW coastal researchers warn.
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"The damage we've seen is a harbinger of what's to come," said Ian Turner, Director of the Water Research Laboratory at the University of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=new+south+wales&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=PF&amp;cvid=574a1a6b27d74aa68c028a6a27076b7c&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AXK1c4IvZoNqPoPnS%21QRLOMAjS%21RFp6jzZWJ7AkCsIYKJQJ9pZNHl1cDkQ9CUpFB9Qb9m0IoYZ6bG2cwbPpzPBMXXdYsOXriPoes7nMIS6ZW&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">New South Wales</a>. "Climate change is not only raising the oceans and threatening foreshores, but making our coastlines much more vulnerable to storm damage. What are king high tides today will be the norm within decades."

Turner's lab manages one of the world's longest-running beach erosion research programs, at Collaroy and Narrabeen in Sydney, using drones, real-time satellite positioning, fixed cameras, and airborne LiDAR and quadbikes. The variability, changes and trends in coastal erosion at the beaches have been tracked since 1976. Danger from extreme storms and high seas increasing

But the data collected by the UNSW team is only reliable for modelling when it comes to predicting effects in southeastern<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/logging-intensified-the-risk-and-severity-of-australian-wildfires/"> Australia</a>. For the vast bulk of Australia's 25,760 km long coastline, researchers -- and the governments and coastal communities they advise -- are largely making guesses based on limited or non-existent data, say researchers.

"The wealth of data we've collected over decades makes our models of coastal variability increasingly more reliable -- but only for a 500 km stretch of southeastern Australia," Turner added. "But when it comes to modelling other parts of Australia, in many locations we are basically working blind.

"There are very different coasts across the country exposed to very different conditions, and we just don't have the observational data we need to make predictions with any great confidence," he said. "For that, we need a national approach."

The long-term data from the UNSW program has been crucial in understanding how climate change is changing Australia's coasts, recently showing that El Niño and La Niña cycles will intensify coastal hazards, leading to changes in behaviour of storms, extreme coastal flooding and erosion in populated regions across the Pacific.

As a result, estimates of coastal vulnerability - which once focussed on sea level rise -- now have to factor in changing patterns of storm erosion, more intense storms, and other coastal effects.

Dr Mitchell Harley, a Senior Research Associate at the Lab who manages the Narrabeen-Collaroy program, said that beach erosion and coastal variability has been found to be a lot more complex than had originally thought, partly thanks to insights from the UNSW data.

"It's now clear that sea level rise is not the only player in climate change: shifts in storm patterns and wave direction also have consequences, and distort or amplify the natural variability of coastal patterns," Harley said.

Turner added, "These are precisely the conditions we experienced in Sydney over the past weekend -- waves from the north-east, combined with unusually high sea levels brought on by king tides wreaked considerable damage. And, as sea levels rise, even ordinary tides will reach higher. What we consider king high tides today will be commonplace within decades."

In 2014, Australian coastal researchers called for the creation of a national coastline observatory, with basic data - such as sub-aerial profiles, bathymetry and inshore wave forcing measurements - collected routinely from a network of around 20 'representative' beaches across Australia.

This would provide valuable data that could be used to more accurately model how Australia's more than 11,000 beaches are changing, and predict how they will respond as climate change sets in.

The long experience gained by UNSW in Sydney's Northern Beaches "gives us a template of what can be achieved across Australia," said Turner. "But without consistent and national observational data -- from very different regions like the tropical north, or the highly energetic southwestern coastlines, or the Indian Ocean coastlines of Western Australia -- it's of little value. To say we have blindspots is an understatement."

Harley agreed, adding: "For the great majority of Australia's coastlines, we don't have observations for how they are behaving now -- let alone any clear idea how they might respond to increasing variability in the future. We see it happening at Narrabeen-Collaroy, and can therefore predict it for this part of Australia. But elsewhere, we're largely operating in the dark."
###
DOWNLOADS &amp; LINKS AVAILABLE (Must credit: "UNSW Water Research Laboratory")

Contacts:

BACKGROUND ON FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AT UNSW

UNSW's Faculty of Engineering is the powerhouse of engineering research in Australia, comprising of nine schools, 21 research centres and participating or leading 10 Cooperative Research Centres. It is ranked in the world's top 50 engineering faculties, and home to Australia's largest cohort of engineering undergraduate, postgraduate, domestic and international students.

UNSW itself has 52,000 students from 120 nations, and is ranked #1 in Australian Research Council funding ($68.3 million in 2014), ranked #1 in Australia for producing millionaires (#33 globally); and ranked #1 in Australia for graduates who create technology start-ups.

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Danger from extreme storms and high seas increasing

Danger from extreme storms and high seas increasing. Storms that...

World Oceans Day: Deltas critical to ocean health. Delta: A place where sediment carried downstream by a river enters the sea, forming a fan of sand or mud.

Although deltas make up just 1 percent of the world's land, they're home to more than half a billion people -- and to fertile ecosystems such as mangroves and marshes.

Deltas also serve as economic hotspots, says hydrologist Efi Foufoula-Georgiou of the University of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota">Minnesota</a>. They support much of the world's fisheries, forest products and agriculture, and are food baskets for many nations.

"They're also ports of entry fostering growing cities and harbors," Foufoula-Georgiou says.

Scientists have found that deltas are disappearing at an alarming rate, however, affecting humans and many other species. World Oceans Day: Deltas critical to ocean health

"Deltas around the world play a significant role in providing local, regional and global human communities with agricultural and fisheries resources," says Maria Uhle, program director for international activities in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences, which funds Foufoula-Georgiou’s research. "The delta regions of Asia, for example, supply rice to a large percentage of the people who rely on it as a food staple."

Water and sediment: Lifeblood of a delta

Human actions rob deltas of their lifeblood: water and sediment. On a global scale, people have diverted more than 40 percent of river discharges and 26 percent of river sediments into large reservoirs.

"Deltas are sensitive indicators of changing conditions," says Tom Torgersen, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences, which also funds Foufoula-Georgiou’s research. "They respond to the effects of humans on the environment, including changes in river flows and sea levels."

Losses of wetlands to development, and the erosion that follows, further deplete deltas of sediment. "Sea level rise accelerates the losses," says Foufoula-Georgiou. "Hurricanes are often the death knell, cutting new channels and washing away huge amounts of mud and sand."

To find out how deltas around the world are faring, Foufoula-Georgiou and her colleagues are studying the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta, a vast fan that stretches across Bangladesh into West Bengal, India. Their work is part of the NSF-supported <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/goodbye?https://delta.umn.edu/">Sustainable Deltas Project</a>.

Despite its size, the GBM Delta is foundering. The delta is sinking, with water covering its land surfaces four times faster than sea level is rising.

"Sediment would normally help build up the delta," Foufoula-Georgiou says. But human land use upriver reduces the amount of sediment carried downstream. A further insult comes from shrimp farming, which modifies delta channels and results in yet more loss of land.

Almost 150 million people live in the GBM region. "Most of them rely on the delta's natural resources," Foufoula-Georgiou says, "so they, as well as the wildlife that depends on the delta's rich sediment, are literally losing ground."

The scene is far from unusual. Much of the sediment has been cut off from deltas across Asia. India has seen a 50 percent reduction for the Brahmani Delta, a 74 percent reduction for the Mahanadi, and a 94 percent reduction for the Krishna.

Nursery grounds for fish, bulwarks against storms

Deltas provide important nursery grounds for many fish species, and support both subsistence and commercial fisheries. They're also prime places for people to settle. Popularity isn't always a good thing, however.

"The catastrophic effects of floods in deltas were clearly demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina in the U.S.," says Foufoula-Georgiou. Katrina resulted in costs estimated at $152 billion. "In comparison with other ecosystems, the restoration of coastal ecosystems such as deltas is among the most expensive," Foufoula-Georgiou says.

Although researchers understand the risks to deltas, their knowledge of natural and human-caused processes in delta landscapes remains incomplete.

"We urgently need to understand the processes that make deltas susceptible to change, and to develop strategies for better management, protection and restoration of deltas," Foufoula-Georgiou says.

World's deltas not all alike

What makes that harder, she says, is that "deltas are enormously variable," from urbanized systems, such as the Pearl River Delta in China and the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Delta in the Netherlands, to less developed deltas, such as those of the Amazon River and Alaska's Yukon River.

High-latitude deltas, such as the Yukon, Mackenzie in Canada and Lena in Russia, are sensitive to rapidly increasing Arctic temperatures, melting the permafrost on which many formed.

"By assimilating diverse sets of data for different deltas, we can start to predict how a delta is likely to respond to environmental changes," says Foufoula-Georgiou.

Finding answers: Eyes in the skies, boots in the mud

Observations from satellites can tell scientists a lot about river networks, delta sediments, and floods over time. The data offer insights into deltas at local, regional and global scales, and at regularly repeated intervals, something that’s otherwise impossible to achieve, scientists say.

"We also need to test hypotheses and models by getting our boots wet in the mud -- taking measurements on the ground," Foufoula-Georgiou says.

Through studies in the GBM, Mekong and Amazon -- three very different deltas -- researchers affiliated with the Sustainable Deltas Project are finding out how different delta ecosystems respond to climate change, urban development and dam construction.

"A critical part of the work is analyzing how human communities are affected by changes in these deltas," Foufoula-Georgiou says. "Ultimately, we need to accept change as inevitable, and be ready to adapt to it."

For example, she says that people may need to alter where they live to adapt to new coastlines. "But such shifts can be challenging. Populations in many developing countries can't easily move away from deltas due to economic reasons such as the need to grow rice and provide food."

Foufoula-Georgiou hopes that results from the Sustainable Deltas Project will support sound decision-making about deltas and their future.

"The answers matter for the three deltas we’re studying -- and for deltas across the globe."

--

<a href="http://www.nsf.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Science Foundation</a>

World Oceans Day: Deltas critical to ocean health

World Oceans Day: Deltas critical to ocean health. Delta: A...

US House approves bill to delay new ozone pollution rule. Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House on Wednesday approved a bill delaying an Obama administration rule setting stricter limits on ozone pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness.
The bill, approved 234-177, would delay implementation of a new federal ozone standard by at least eight years. In the Senate, approval of the bill as a stand-alone measure is considered unlikely. Proponents said they may try to insert the ozone proposal into a broader energy bill stalled in the Senate.
The White House says the measure would block efforts to reduce smog, leading to more asthma attacks and premature deaths. The <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/environmental-era-of-pandemics/">Environmental</a> Protection Agency plans to implement the ozone rule over a 20-year period that gives the most-polluted states until 2037 to fully comply.
But Republicans said a series of interim deadlines set to begin this fall are difficult for states to meet. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Pete Olson of Texas, delays state action until 2024.
"States have worked hard over the last few decades to reduce ozone levels and improve air quality," Olson said. "My bill provides needed flexibility so that states and localities can adequately achieve new, lower standards with time for compliance."
The White House said in its veto threat that the bill would "undermine the vitally important environmental and health protections" of the Clean Air Act and significantly delay health benefits worth billions of dollars for millions of Americans, including vulnerable children, older adults and people with asthma.
The bill "would result in people living in areas with unhealthy ozone levels for at least an additional 10 years," the White House said.
The EPA said the new ozone standard of 70 parts per billion will reduce exposure to dangerous ozone pollution and prevent thousands of asthma attacks and emergency room visits and avert hundreds of premature deaths each year.
Business groups said a new ozone standard is unnecessary and could jeopardize jobs.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said the House bill would "gut" the Clean Air Act and "allow the polluters to override the scientists."
---
Follow Matthew Daly: <a href="http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC">http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC</a>
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US House approves bill to delay new ozone pollution rule

US House approves bill to delay new ozone pollution rule....

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Tropical Storm Colin headed into history. The National Hurricane Center issued the last advisory on Tropical Storm Colin at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC). At that time the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Colin was located near 36.5 degrees north latitude and 72.2 degrees west longitude. That put the center of Colin about 205 miles (330 km) east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-north-carolina-island-appears/">North Carolina.</a> The post-tropical cyclone was moving toward the northeast near 40 mph (65 kph) and that general motion is expected to continue through Wednesday night, June 8, 2016.

Maximum sustained winds were near 60 mph (95 kph) with higher gusts. Gradual weakening is expected to begin on Wednesday. The estimated minimum central pressure is 996 millibars. Tropical Storm Colin headed into history

On June 7, 2016 at 15:25 UTC (11:25 a.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible light image of Tropical Storm Colin off the southeastern United States.

Colin was elongated and looked more like a frontal system on satellite imagery.

On June 8, 2016 at 8:05 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center said that surface trough (elongated area of low pressure) extends from the remnants of Colin into the western <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=atlantc+ocean&amp;cvid=5e0099bd89ac4d48b26c04b9975ade8e&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Atlantic</a> through 32 degrees north latitude to 70 degrees west longitude to across Florida near Cape Canaveral continuing into the Gulf of Mexico. Scattered to numerous showers/isolated thunderstorms are southeast of the surface trough to a line from Cuba near 21 degrees north latitude and 77 degrees west longitude to Bermuda.

Post-Tropical Storm Colin's remnants were speeding off to the northeast into the Atlantic and history.


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Tropical Storm Colin headed into history

Tropical Storm Colin headed into history. The National Hurricane Center...

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Global concern over chemical munitions dumped at sea. A special issue of the academic journal Deep-sea Research II, published recently, is devoted to expanding understanding of the global issue of chemical munitions dumped at sea. The publication was edited by Margo Edwards, interim director of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's (UHM) Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, and Jacek Beldowski, Science for Peace and Security MODUM ("Towards the Monitoring of Dumped Munitions Threat") project director at the Polish Academy of Sciences--two international leaders in the assessment of sea-dumped military munitions and chemical warfare; and the effects on the ocean environment and those who use it.

"The overarching objective of the special issue of Deep Sea Research II is to collate and compare results from two of the most comprehensive studies of sea dumped chemical munitions to promote data sharing and constrain the factors that influence where and how to mitigate the damage," said Edwards. Global concern over chemical munitions dumped at sea

Whereas today chemical warfare agents (CWA) are destroyed via chemical neutralization processes or high-temperature incineration, the internationally accepted practice in the early to middle 20th century was sea disposal of excess, obsolete or unserviceable munitions, including <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/it-pays-off-to-read-labels-and-avoid-products-with-harmful-chemicals/">chemical</a> warfare materiel.

In 1970, the U.S. Department of Defense discontinued this practice and in 1972 an international treaty, the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, was developed to protect the marine environment. By the time this treaty, referred to as the London Convention, was signed by a majority of nations, millions of tons of munitions were known to have been disposed throughout the world's oceans.

Since 2007, the Hawai'i Undersea Military Munitions Assessment (HUMMA) has been assessing sea-disposed military munitions in a region south of the island of Oahu, Hawai'i. Scientists at UHM and Environet and members of the U.S. Army collaborated to assess the condition of munitions casings; effects on seafloor ecosystems; and the presence of metals and CWA in sediments and shrimp.

The results of those studies, published in the current issue of Deep Sea Research II, document that the forty munitions examined in detail in the HUMMA field area pose little, if any, risk to human health while simultaneously recognizing that these forty are only a subset of the hundreds of likely chemical munitions in the area.

Illustrative of the mystery of the vast ocean, the HUMMA project enabled discovery of a new species of sea star, Brisingenes margoae nov. sp.--named in honor of Edwards. This unique species and other sea stars were collected using the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology's Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory submersibles.

The Chemical Munitions Search and Assessment (CHEMSEA) was conducted in the Baltic Sea from 2011 until 2014. In combination, the studies from CHEMSEA published in Deep Sea Research II recognize sea-dumped munitions as a point source of pollution in the Baltic Sea, although its contribution appears to be low and limited to deep, anoxic basins. Acute toxicity to humans from CWA (e.g., mustard, Adamsite) is unlikely given recorded concentrations, although adverse effects of chronic exposure on fish populations cannot be excluded.

The collected articles from the CHEMSEA and HUMMA projects projects in the special issue of Deep-sea Research II present a number of techniques that are useful for the complex in-depth investigation of munitions dumpsites. Results show that sea-dumped munitions in both project areas do not represent direct risk for humans except in cases of exposure due to recovery, although in the more confined Baltic Sea with limited water exchange, munitions can have adverse impact on the ecosystem.


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Global concern over chemical munitions dumped at sea

Global concern over chemical munitions dumped at sea. A special...

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Researchers calculate groundwater levels from satellite data. A new computer algorithm developed at Stanford University is enabling scientists to use satellite data to determine groundwater levels across larger areas than ever before.

The technique, detailed in the June issue of the journal Water Resources Research, could lead to better models of groundwater flow. "It could be especially useful in agricultural regions, where groundwater pumping is common and aquifer depletion is a concern," said study coauthor Rosemary Knight, a professor of geophysics in the Stanford School of <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/earth-from-space-houston-texas/">Earth</a>, Energy &amp; Environmental Sciences.

Knight and her colleagues recently applied the algorithm to determine groundwater levels across the entire agricultural basin of Colorado's San Luis Valley. As a starting point, the algorithm uses data acquired using a satellite technology called Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, or InSAR, to calculate changing groundwater levels in the San Luis Valley between 1992 and 2000.

InSAR satellites use electromagnetic waves to monitor tiny, centimeter-scale changes in the elevation of Earth's surface. The program was initially developed in the 1980s by NASA to collect data on volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides, but Knight and her colleague Howard Zebker, a professor of geophysics and of electrical engineering at Stanford, have in recent years adapted the technology for groundwater monitoring.

The Stanford scientists, led by former postdoctoral scholar Jessica Reeves, had previously shown that changes in surface elevation could be correlated with fluctuations in groundwater levels. However, they were only able to do so for a relatively small area because they had to manually identify and analyze high-quality pixels in InSAR satellite images not covered by crops or other surface features that could obscure elevation measurements.

The new algorithm, developed by Jingyi "Ann" Chen, a Stanford postdoctoral researcher in Knight's group, automates this previously time-consuming pixel selection process. "What we've demonstrated in this new study is a methodology that allows us to find high-quality InSAR pixels in many more locations throughout the San Luis Valley," said Chen, who is first author of the new study.

Chen's algorithm also goes a step further by filling in, or interpolating, groundwater levels in the spaces between pixels where high-quality InSAR data are not available. Interpolation is a form of averaging, but it requires high-quality InSAR data from places that are located near monitoring wells where groundwater levels are already known in order to calibrate the link between the InSAR data and groundwater levels. In the previous work led by Reeves, only three monitoring wells were "co-located" with high-quality InSAR pixels. Using the new algorithm, that number increased to 16.

As a result, the team was able to calculate surface deformations -- and, by extension, groundwater levels -- for the entire agricultural basin of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Luis_Valley">San Luis Valley</a>, an area covering about 4,000 square meters -- or about five times greater than the area for which groundwater levels were calculated in the prior study. What's more, the team members were able to show how groundwater levels in the basin changed over time from 2007 to 2011 -- the years when InSAR data that could be analyzed by the algorithm were available.

"Jessica showed that there was useful information in the InSAR-derived deformation, and Ann has made the technique for extracting that information reliable and practical," Zebker said.

Having a continuous map of deformation in the San Luis Valley led to the team discovering that there is a delay between the time when groundwater is pumped out of an aquifer and when the ground sinks, or subsides, in response to the water removal. These time lags might be useful indicators of the geological properties of an aquifer, said Knight.

"In a sand aquifer, there is no time lag between when the water is pumped out and the ground surface deforms," Knight said. "However, if clay is present, it will take much longer to deform in response to pumping, so there will be a detectable time lag."

The next step, Zebker said, is to take the information about groundwater levels and aquifer characteristics extracted from InSAR satellites and incorporate it with data from other sources to develop improved models of groundwater flow.

"The goal is to take into account the full water budget," Zebker said. "This means accounting for water recharge such as rainfall and for discharge sources such as evaporation and runoff."


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Researchers calculate groundwater levels from satellite data

Researchers calculate groundwater levels from satellite data. A new computer...

Study: Colorado has 40 times more natural gas than previously believed. Western Colorado has 40 times more natural gas than previously thought, but an immediate boom is unlikely because of low gas prices, government and industry experts said Wednesday.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the Mancos Shale formation in Colorado's Piceance (PEE'-yahns) Basin holds about 66.3 trillion cubic feet of gas, up from 1.6 trillion estimated in 2003.
USGS cited data from commercial drilling companies and new research for the revision.
A trillion cubic feet of natural gas is enough to heat 15 million homes for a year, the U.S. Energy Department says.
David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said he doesn't expect a rush to drill in western Colorado because current natural gas prices are too low. If prices rise significantly, companies would likely begin drilling, he said.
The U.S. also needs more facilities to export natural gas to Pacific nations to help make the Colorado gas competitive, Ludlam said, citing the proposed Jordan Cove Liquid Natural Gas terminal at Coos Bay, Oregon. Study: Colorado has 40 times more natural gas than previously believed
The Piceance Basin, which spans much of western and northwestern Colorado, already has multiple well sites, pipelines and processing plants in place from a previous round of drilling in a shallower formation, Ludlam said.
Much of the basin is federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and getting approval from the BLM to drill is often more difficult than getting private landowners to agree, said Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance, an industry group.
"I hope with this reassessment the government understands that indeed the Mancos Shale is an important formation that should be developed responsibly," she said.
Neither BLM nor USGS officials immediately returned calls Wednesday.
The new estimate could mean the Piceance Basin has the second-largest natural gas reserves in the country, after the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania and neighboring states, Ludlam said.
USGS says the Marcellus has 84 trillion cubic feet of gas.
More important than the volume of the reserves is the cost of extracting them, said Porter Bennett, an energy analyst and president of Ponderosa Advisors in Denver.
Bennett said the Piceance Basin has traditionally had high drilling costs, but Ludlam said the next wave of energy companies with leases in the area likely would have lower costs than previous operators.
Drilling companies will use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to recover the gas from the Mancos Shale, Ludlam said.
Fracking uses a mix of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to force open underground formations and release oil and gas. Opponents say fracking poses a risk to public health and the environment but the industry says it is safe.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.</a> His work can be found at<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.</a>
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Study: Colorado has 40 times more natural gas than previously believed

Study: Colorado has 40 times more natural gas than previously...

CORAL: The Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory. Coral reefs have almost always been studied up close, by scientists in the water looking at small portions of larger reefs to gather data and knowledge about the larger ecosystems. But NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking a step back and getting a wider view, from about 23,000 feet above.
NASA and top scientists from around the world are launching a three-year campaign Thursday to gather new data on coral reefs like never before.
Using specially designed instruments mounted on high-flying aircraft, the scientists plan to map large swaths of coral around the world in hopes of better understanding how environmental changes are impacting these delicate and important ecosystems.
The researchers hope to discover how environmental forces including global warming, acidification and pollution impact coral reefs in different locations by creating detailed images of entire reef ecosystems.
<img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2394613" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2016/06/09085521/CORAL-mission-graphic_1big_nasa-150x150.jpg" alt="CORAL-mission-graphic_1big_nasa" width="150" height="150" />"CORAL (Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory) is an airborne mission to survey reefs at select locations across the Pacific," Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences' Eric Hochberg, who is principal investigator for the project, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The idea is to get a new perspective on coral reefs from above, to study them at a larger scale than we have been able to before, and then relate reef condition to the environment." Hochberg and the project's lead NASA scientist Michelle Gierach were in Oahu's Kaneohe Bay with The Associated Press on Tuesday to gather baseline data in the water.
While the primary science will be conducted using instruments that map the sea floor from above, the team must also take baseline measurements in the ocean to validate the data they get from the air, Gierach said. Her main role in the project is to decipher the data gathered from the aircraft.
"PRISM, the instrument that we're using ... is the state-of-the-art instrument for addressing coastal and in-water science questions," Gierarch said. "CORAL wouldn't be possible without an instrument like PRISM, it's really the heart and soul of the project."
Coral reefs drive many tourist economies around the world, but they provide much more than pretty places to dive and snorkel, Gierach said. Reefs are critical habitat for the majority of the fish humans consume and also protect shorelines from dangerous storm surges and rising ocean levels.
Recently scientists have developed pharmaceutical applications from coral reefs, including pain killers that aren't habit forming, Hochberg said.
"Just realizing that though you may not see a coral, that you may not have your backyard be within this beautiful environment that we're in right now, corals are impacting you, they are globally important," Gierach said. "We have to understand how they're changing so we can make some managed decisions about their future."
Reefs are among the first ecosystems to be dramatically and directly impacted by global warming, according to the researchers.
The International Society for Reef Studies Consensus Statement, published in 2015, said that over the past few decades, up to 50 percent of coral reefs have been "largely or completely degraded by a combination of local factors and global climate change."
Julia Baum, assistant professor of biology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, has done extensive research on coral reefs and told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the data gathered from this kind of project could prove highly valuable for international reef scientists and the conservation community.
"I'm a huge proponent of open source data," Baum said. "To me, the application of this technology to coral reefs holds great promise, but to fulfill that promise the data has to be made openly available to the scientific community." The CORAL researchers said all data will be publicly available and will take about six months to process once captured.
Baum acknowledged that a lot of coral reef science has been limited by the lack of broad data sets like this project plans to provide.
"As scientific divers we're limited by the depth we can work at and the amount of bottom time that we have while we're diving, so much of underwater marine science, especially on coral reefs is a painstakingly slow process," Baum said. "This Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory can't replace scientists in the water, but it can provide a very high-level, complementary type of data."
The CORAL team will study the reefs of Hawaii, Palau, the Mariana Islands, and Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the next three years.
---
Online:
<a href="http://airbornescience.jpl.nasa.gov/campaign/coral">http://airbornescience.jpl.nasa.gov/campaign/coral</a>
<a href="http://www.coral.bios.edu/">www.coral.bios.edu</a>
---
Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CalebAP See more his work here:<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones</a>
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CORAL: The Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory

CORAL: The Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory. Coral reefs have almost...

<div>

How El Niño impacts global temperatures. Scientists have found past El Niño oscillations in the Pacific Ocean may have amplified global climate fluctuations for hundreds of years at a time.

The team uncovered century-scale patterns in Pacific rainfall and temperature, and linked them with global climate changes in the past 2000 years.

For example, northern hemisphere warming and droughts between the years 950 and 1250 corresponded to an El Niño-like state in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/noumea-in-the-south-pacific-archipelago-of-new-caledonia/">Pacific,</a> which switched to a La Niña-like pattern during a cold period between 1350 and 1900.

The new data will help scientists build more accurate models of future climate, said member of the research team, Alena Kimbrough, from The Australian National University.

"Our work is a significant piece in the grand puzzle. The tropics are a complicated, yet incredibly important region to global climate and it's been great to untangle what's happening," said Ms Kimbrough, a PhD student at the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

"The current models struggle to reflect century-scale changes in the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

"We've shown ENSO is an important part of the climate system that has influenced global temperatures and rainfall over the past millennium."

The team measured trace elements and stable isotopes in stalagmites from the Indonesian island of Flores to reconstruct ancient rainfall, and compared it with records from <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=east+asia&amp;cvid=f74a3c8f117746b89f515127eaf8aab8&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">East Asia</a> and the central-eastern equatorial Pacific.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation is an irregular variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. In one extreme it brings high temperatures and drought to eastern Australia and Indonesia, and the opposite extreme, known as La Niña, heavy rainfall and storms.

"In the past decade or so the rise in global temperature had a brief reprieve, the so-called warming hiatus, which can be partly attributed to a persistent La Niña pattern over that period," Ms Kimbrough said.

The new work found periods of predominantly El Niño-like patterns for several hundred years that alternate with La Niña patterns, impacting on global climate over the last 2000 years.

"Until we can model this lower-frequency behaviour in the tropical Pacific, one can only speculate on how the warming will play out over the next few decades," said lead author Dr Michael Griffiths from William Paterson University, in the United States.

The international team of scientists was led by Dr Michael Griffiths of William Patterson University in New Jersey, along with PhD candidate Alena Kimbrough and Dr Michael Gagan at the ANU, Professor Wahyoe Hantoro of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and colleagues at the University of Melbourne and the University of Arizona.

The research is published in Nature Communications.


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How El Niño impacts global temperatures

How El Niño impacts global temperatures. Scientists have found past...

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NASA examined Tropical Storm Colin's heavy rainfall from space. Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate rainfall from Tropical Storm Colin over a two day period before it dissipated.

Earlier in the week of June 6, 2016 the Governor of Florida declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Colin moved over the state. In just a few days heavy rainfall from the tropical storm spread from Florida's Gulf Coast through Georgia to the North Carolina coastline. Street flooding was common in Florida. Severe flooding was not reported but over 250 mm (10 inches) of rain was reported in some areas. Two tornadoes and a water spout reported in Florida on Monday June 6, 2016 were an example of the unstable weather accompanying the tropical storm. NASA examined Tropical Storm Colin's heavy rainfall from space

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data were used to estimate Colin's rainfall. GPM is the Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission satellite. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA.

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The analysis showed rainfall totals beginning with the time when Colin formed in the Gulf of Mexico on June 6, 2016. The analysis ended on Wednesday June 8, 2016 after Colin transitioned to an extra-tropical cyclone and dissipated.

Some rainfall on the analysis was caused by a frontal system moving through the area and pushing Colin out to sea. This IMERG analysis indicated that Colin's heaviest precipitation occurred over central Florida. Extreme rainfall amounts of over 280 mm (11 inches) were measured during this period where Tropical Storm Colin formed in the Gulf of Mexico.

For Tropical Cyclone Colin's complete history on the NASA Hurricane page, visit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/colin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www. nasa. gov/ feature/ goddard/ 2016/ colin</a>


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NASA examined Tropical Storm Colin's heavy rainfall from space

&nbsp; NASA examined Tropical Storm Colin's heavy rainfall from space....

Monstrous El Nino is over, now comes La Nina. This year's monstrous El Nino, nicknamed Godzilla by NASA, is dead. It heated up the globe, but didn't quite end California's four-year drought.
In its <a href="http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis-monitoring/enso-advisory/ensodisc.pdf">monthly update</a> Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the El Nino has ended, 15 months after its birth in March 2015. El Nino is a natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide.
"There's nothing left," NOAA Climate Prediction Center deputy director Mike Halpert said. "Stick a fork in it, it's done." Monstrous El Nino is over, now comes La Nina
Halpert said this El Nino triggered droughts in parts of Africa and India and played a role in a record hurricane season in the Pacific. It also added to man-made warming, as Earth has had 12 straight record hot months and is likely to have its second straight record hot year.
Halpert said this will go down as one of the three strongest El Ninos on record, along with 1997-1998 and 1982-83.
In parts of the central Pacific, ocean temperatures were even hotter and caused more harm than 1997-98, leaving scars "written in the geography and appearance of global reefs for decades to come," said Georgia Tech climate scientist and coral expert <a href="http://shadow.eas.gatech.edu/~kcobb/">Kim Cobb</a> .
"This El Nino has caused some of the worst coral bleaching and death of any event we've ever seen," said <a href="http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/index.php">NOAA coral reef watch</a> coordinator Mark Eakin. "We've had enough of this."
Some in California had hoped that the drought would be busted by the El Nino, which generally brings more rain to California and the South. But even at the start, NOAA had cautioned that the rain deficit was too big for the El Nino to fix. And while it was rainy, it wasn't enough, Halpert said.
Earth is now in the neutral part of the natural cycle of El Ninos, which includes the cooler flip side, La Nina. But don't expect that to last. NOAA forecasts a 50 percent chance of La Nina by the end of the summer and 75 percent chance by the end of the fall.
La Ninas generally bring more hurricanes to the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, but doesn't have much impact on summer temperature or rain in the United States. It often features drier-than-normal conditions in the U.S. Southwest and wetter conditions in the Pacific Northwest.
In the winter, La Nina often brings lots of rain to parts of Australia and Indonesia and cooler temperatures in parts of Africa, Asia, South America and Canada.
Cobb said her work has found some evidence, not enough to be conclusive, that man-made global warming is causing bigger El Ninos more often.
Global temperatures with the El Nino that just ended have been about 0.8 degrees warmer (0.45 degrees Celsius) than the 1998 El Nino, according to NOAA.
"This has been a bellwether event," Cobb said.
---
Follow Seth Borenstein at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a> and his work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein</a>
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Monstrous El Nino is over, now comes La Nina

Monstrous El Nino is over, now comes La Nina. This...

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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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://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

[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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



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

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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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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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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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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