There is a fruit called the 'squirting cucumber' that fires its seeds like mini ballistic missiles. But how does it do this? Researchers seem to have solved this mystery -- a question that has baffled scientists for hundreds of years.



The results of a recent study, based on a myriad of experiments, high-speed videography, image scrutiny, and advanced mathematical modeling, are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-the-squirting-cucumber">Understanding the squirting cucumber</h2>



The squirting cucumber, or Ecballium elaterium, derives its name from its unique method of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-seeds-go-dormant-to-avoid-harsh-conditions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seed</a> dispersal.



As the fruit ripens, it transitions into a seed-launching machine, that can shoot out seeds enveloped in a jet of mucus-like fluid.



In a minuscule span of just 30 milliseconds, the seeds are propelled at speeds of around 20 meters per second or 44 miles per hour, enabling them to land a considerable distance away (approximately 10 meters or 33 feet). 



This is equal to around 250 times the length of the fruit itself .



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-decoding-seed-dispersal">Decoding seed dispersal</h2>



Despite the fruit's intriguing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-increase-forest-recovery-by-dispersing-seeds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seed dispersal</a> method, the mechanism behind it -- as well as its impact on the plant's reproduction -- remained elusive until recently.



Scientists from the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Oxford</a> and the <a href="https://www.manchester.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Manchester</a> ran a battery of tests on Ecballium specimens grown at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.



These experiments included capturing the seed dispersal in motion using a high-speed camera, conducting indentation tests, measuring the volume of the fruit and stem before and after dispersal, and observing the fruit's changes through time-lapse photography. 



Armed with this data, the team devised mathematical models to describe and understand the internal and external mechanics at play.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fluid-distribution-in-squirting-cucumber">Fluid distribution in squirting cucumber</h2>



The team's rigorous approach resulted in the identification of key features of the plant's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-play-a-much-bigger-role-in-seed-dispersal-than-we-thought/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seed dispersal strategy</a>. 



These involve a highly pressurized system, fluid redistribution, rapid recoil, and variable launch - that together form a sophisticated launch system.



The fluid redistribution from the fruit back into the stem, a feature thought to be unique to the squirting cucumber, was among the most significant findings.



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="4NlCX5nNI6-4062310-12187" type="single"]</div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fine-tuning-for-successful-seed-dispersal">Fine-tuning for successful seed dispersal</h2>



The team's mathematical model helped them explore the effects of altering different parameters, and revealed that the squirting cucumber's seed projection method has been naturally fine-tuned for optimal dispersal and propagation.



For instance, making the stem thicker and stiffer led to a narrower <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/woodlice-prove-crucial-players-plant-seed-dispersal/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dispersal area</a> and, therefore, a lower survival rate.



On the other hand, reducing the fluid transferred from the fruit to the stem caused the seeds to be ejected at accelerated speeds but with a nearly vertical launch angle, again resulting in reduced dispersal and survival rates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mechanisms-of-a-unique-plant">Mechanisms of a unique plant</h2>



"For centuries people have asked how and why this extraordinary plant sends its seeds into the world in such a violent way," said Dr. Chris Thorogood, Deputy Director and Head of Science at the <a href="https://obga.ox.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oxford Botanic Garden</a>.



"Now, as a team of biologists and mathematicians, we’ve finally begun to unravel this great botanical enigma." 



Dr. Derek Moulton, professor of Applied Mathematics at the Oxford <a href="https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mathematical Institute</a>, also participated in the research.



"The first time we inspected this plant in the Botanic Garden, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/one-third-of-europes-plants-at-risk-due-to-decline-in-seed-dispersers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seed</a> launch was so fast that we weren’t sure that it had actually happened. It was very exciting to dig in and uncover the mechanism of this unique plant," Dr. Moulton explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-beyond-seed-dispersal">Beyond seed dispersal</h2>



According to Dr. Finn Box, a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, this study has implications beyond botany.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/squirting-cucumber_Ecballium-elaterium_squirting-seeds_UOxford_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/squirting-cucumber_Ecballium-elaterium_squirting-seeds_UOxford_1s.webp" alt="A still showing the jet ejected from a squirting cucumber, which carries its seeds distances of up to 10m away from the mother plant. Credit: Dominic Vella" class="wp-image-1951606"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A still showing the jet ejected from a squirting cucumber, which carries its seeds distances of up to 10m away from the mother plant. Credit: Dominic Vella</figcaption></figure>



"This research offers potential applications in bio-inspired engineering and material science, particularly on-demand drug delivery systems, for instance microcapsules that eject nanoparticles where precise control of rapid, directional release is crucial," said Dr. Box.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-squirting-cucumber-a-part-of-history">The squirting cucumber: A part of history</h2>



Ecballium elaterium, a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, which also includes melon, pumpkin, squash, and courgette, is native to the Mediterranean region where it is commonly regarded as a weed due to its effective seed-dispersal strategy.



This plant caught the attention of ancient Greeks and Romans alike, with naturalist Pliny the Elder describing its powerful <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-reveals-how-plants-use-winged-seeds-to-expand-their-habitats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seed launch</a> centuries ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conservation-and-future-research">Conservation and future research</h2>



Given the squirting cucumber's extensive use as a model for understanding complex biological phenomena, conserving its natural habitats becomes imperative. This plant holds significant scientific and ecological value.



Future research could investigate the genetic underpinnings of its unique <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-play-a-much-bigger-role-in-seed-dispersal-than-we-thought/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dispersal system</a>, linking it to other species within the Cucurbitaceae family to unravel shared evolutionary traits.



Additionally, exploring the potential for cross-disciplinary applications, from environmental management to biomimicry in engineering, could broaden our perspective on how such ecological marvels can benefit human society while preserving biodiversity.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2410420121" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



Video Credit: Dominic Vella



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How the 'squirting cucumber' squirts and the trigger that makes it happen

There is a fruit called the 'squirting cucumber' that fires its seeds like mini ballistic missiles. But how does it do this? Researchers seem to have solved this mystery -- a question that has baffled scientists for hundreds of years. The results of a recent study, based on a myriad of experiments, high-speed videography, image scrutiny, and advanced mathematical modeling, are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Understanding the squirting cucumber The squirting cucumber, or Ecballium elaterium, derives its name from...

A new large-scale study led by the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has found that eating meat five times or less per week is associated with a lower overall risk of developing cancer. Moreover, eating only fish, or following a fully <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/vegetarian-diet-lowers-the-risk-and-severity-of-covid-19/">vegetarian</a> or vegan diet could reduce cancer risks even more.



The researchers investigated the relationship between diet and cancer risk by analyzing <a href="https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/">UK Biobank</a> data collected from 472,377 British adults between 2006 and 2010. The participants - aged between 40 and 70 years – had to report how often they ate meat or fish. 247,571 (52 percent) of them ate meat more than five times per week, 205,382 (44 percent) ate meat five or less times per week, 10,696 (two percent) ate fish but not meat, and 8,685 (less than 2 percent) were vegetarian or vegan. During the study period, 54,961 participants (12 percent) of the participants developed cancer.



After accounting for other factors such as diabetes status or sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors, the scientists found that the overall cancer risk was two percent lower among people who ate meat less than five times per week, 10 percent lower for those who ate fish but not meat, and 14 percent lower for vegetarians and vegans, compared to those who ate meat five or more times per week.



In terms of specific types of cancer, the scientists found that low meat-eaters had lower risk of colorectal cancer, vegetarian women had a lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer, and vegetarian or fish-eating men had a lower risk of prostate cancer.&nbsp;



While the reduced risk of colorectal cancer in low meat-eaters is consistent with previous findings, it is not yet clear if the other correlations reflect any causal relationships or are due to confounding factors. For instance, the lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer in women could also be explained by their lower body mass index (BMI).&nbsp;



&nbsp;“It is not clear if the other associations are causal or a result of differences in detection between diet groups or unmeasured and residual confounding. Future research assessing cancer risk in cohorts with large number of vegetarians is needed to provide more precise estimates of the associations and to explore other possible mechanisms or explanations for the observed differences,” concluded the authors.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-022-02256-w">BMC Medicine</a>.



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

Eating less meat may lower the risk of cancer

A new large-scale study led by the University of Oxford...

New research led by <a href="https://nau.edu/">Northern Arizona University</a> has found that global warming is causing the Earth’s coldest forests to shift northward. This phenomenon raises concerns about biodiversity, increased risks of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfires-will-increase-by-50-percent-by-the-end-of-the-century/">wildfires</a>, and mounting impacts of climate change on northern communities.&nbsp;



The boreal forest is a belt of cold-tolerant conifer trees stretching nearly 9,000 miles across North America and Eurasia. It accounts for almost a quarter of our planet’s forest area and is the coldest forest biome.



In order to assess climate change’s impact on the boreal forest, researchers used 40 years of moderately fine resolution satellite observations and a variety of geospatial climate-related datasets of this forest. They found that vegetation became greener across most of the cold northern margins of the boreal forest, and browner along parts of the warm southern margins of this biome due to hotter and drier conditions which increased tree stress and death.



“There is emerging evidence that climate change is causing boreal trees and shrubs to expand into arctic and alpine tundra, while at the same time causing trees to become more stressed and die along the warm southern margins of the boreal forest,” said study lead author Logan Berner, an assistant professor of Forest Ecology and Ecoinformatics at the Northern Arizona University. 



“These dynamics could lead to a gradual northward shift in the geographic extent of the boreal forest biome, but the extent to which such changes are already underway has remained unclear.”



Intriguingly, vegetation seems more likely to become greener in regions with high soil nitrogen, suggesting that soil nutrient availability is an important constraint on the response of boreal vegetation to global warming.



These changes could affect local plant and animal biodiversity, especially species such as caribou and moose that have highly specific foraging preferences (deciduous shrubs and trees), as well as impact wildfire regimes, most likely increasing the risks of more frequent and severe fires. Moreover, changes in vegetation will affect carbon-rich permafrost soils and the absorption of solar energy by the land surface in ways that can accelerate global warming.



&nbsp;“To minimize adverse impacts of climate change, efforts are needed to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially related to fossil fuel consumption and deforestation. Furthermore, northern communities need to plan for potential changes in vegetation that could impact resource availability (e.g. wildlife, timber) and wildfire risk,” Professor Berger concluded.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16121">Global Change Biology</a>.



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

Climate change is shifting the Earth’s coldest forest northward

New research led by Northern Arizona University has found that...

According to the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a>’s (IPCC) intermediate <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/emissions-scenarios/">emissions scenario</a> RCP4.5, it is predicted that global average temperatures will rise by between 0.9 and 2.0&nbsp; degrees Celsius until mid-21st century. As a result, many species, particularly specialists with very specific food, habitat, and reproductive requirements, may not be able to adapt to these changes.



A research team led by <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a> has recently investigated the impact of global warming on the fitness of insects and the wildflowers on which they depend for food, by simulating climate change on outdoor experimental plots at an agricultural research station in the UK.



According to study lead author Dr. Ellen Moss, a postdoctoral researcher in Entomology and Ecology at Newcastle University, a 1.5°C increase in temperature can drastically reduce food resources for pollinating insects, cause pollinators to visit a wider range of plants for food, and reduce seed production for some wildflowers, while increasing it for others.



Dr. Moss and her colleagues raised the ambient temperature of the experimental plots by a constant 1.5ºC with infrared heaters, and compared plant and insect biodiversity, as well as insects’ visiting patterns on the flowers, between these plots and unheated control plots during 2014 and 2015. Since climate change in northern Europe is predicted to lead to an increase in rainfall too, the scientists irrigated some of the experimental plots with extra water, both in combination with and separately from heating.



They found that the number of plant or insect species did not change significantly in the experimental plots, suggesting that heating by 1.5 ºC, with or without extra water, does not lead to immediate changes in species diversity. Instead, the immediate effects were more subtle. For instance, most of the plant species from the heated plots were “losers” in reproductive terms: they grew fewer flowers and produced fewer or lighter seeds.



“Our experiment showed that under an increase of 1.5°C there was almost a 40 percent reduction in the number of floral units throughout the season, which represents a significant decrease in available food for flower visitors,” the study authors reported.



Moreover, this reduction in available food caused subtle changes in insect foraging behavior too, with insect species tending to visit a greater number of plant species, and to return to each flower more times.&nbsp;



“Our results demonstrate that climate warming could have severe consequences for some species of wildflowers and their pollinators in agricultural systems, and shows that their community composition is likely to change in the future,” Dr. Moss concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.826205">Frontiers in Plant Science</a>.



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

Wildflower and pollinator communities are silently shifting

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) intermediate...

Climate change has increased temperatures across the world, affecting the most ecologically important regions such as the Amazon <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-congo-forest-does-not-behave-like-other-rainforests/">rainforest</a>.&nbsp;



The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, highlights increasing concerns for the Amazonian forests. If greenhouse gasses (GHG) and CO2 emissions double by 2050, maximum temperatures in the Amazon will likely exceed 35 degrees Celsius at least 150 days a year by the end of the century.



A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications led by researchers at the <a href="https://www.helsinki.fi/en">University of Helsinki</a> elaborates on how climate change impacts these ecosystems.&nbsp;



The study used measurements from terrestrial scanning LiDAR which allowed researchers to track how different layers of the forest are affected by the changing environmental conditions caused by climate and fragmentation.&nbsp;



Tall trees in Central Amazonia are impacted by maximum temperatures of the understory (the underlying layer of vegetation in a forest or wooded area)&nbsp; above 35 degrees. This is because the canopies of old-growth forests provide shade and buffer high temperatures.&nbsp;



When the temperatures in underlying layers reach 35 degrees, some trees are impacted by water stress, which reduces leaf development. As a result, the tall trees start to shed their leaves and branches. While 35 degrees (95 degrees fahrenheit) may seem like a reasonable climate for the Amazon, only the months of August and September usually reach that level of heat in normal conditions.



“If the number of days registering these very high temperatures inside the forests also increases, we might see that the tall trees will suffer considerably," explained study lead author Matheus Nunes.



The risks to the Amazon rainforest aren't limited to climate change, but are further exacerbated by deforestation. The study also revealed a feedback loop between deforestation and warming temperatures.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Reduced tree cover allows more light to penetrate the forest, leading to hotter temperatures in the understory. The hotter temperatures add further pressure on the tall trees, causing trees to shed their leaves and branches for a prolonged time.&nbsp;



More research is needed to better understand how tropical ecosystems respond to climate change. There remain uncertainties between&nbsp; the timing and causes of seasonal events, such as leaf shedding and burst.&nbsp;



Despite these uncertainties, the study demonstrates the complexity of climate variations on taller trees and highlights the effects of climate and human disturbance on the Amazonian rainforest. If deforestation continues and forests become more fragmented, severe consequences will follow, and we can expect to see a large-scale shift in the way tropical ecosystems breathe.



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

Tall trees in the Amazon face an uncertain future

Climate change has increased temperatures across the world, affecting the...

Madagascar is the most important country for vanilla production, with a vast vanilla orchid cultivated on the tropical northeastern region of the island. A research team led by the <a href="https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/1.html">University of Göttingen</a>, Germany and the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar has spent the last five years studying vanilla cultivation and its impact on people and the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dog-feces-can-harm-the-environment-and-disrupt-ecosystems/">environment</a>. They found that vanilla cultivation on fallow land in agroforestry systems has significant benefits for both humans and nature, compared to other forms of land use.&nbsp;



Vanilla agroforestry systems are often established directly in the forest, with farmers removing shrubs and individual trees in order to plant vanilla orchids in the shade of the remaining trees. Alternatively, these systems can also be established on fallow land that was burned to accommodate rice fields. In such cases, the land used for vanilla farming is more open, allowing for trees to regrow.



By analyzing a rich array of data on biodiversity, ecosystem services such as carbon storage, and harvest and profitability, while taking into account how land was used in the past, the scientists found that vanilla agroforestry which is established on open fallow land has clear advantages for both people and nature.&nbsp;



By contrast, the conversion of forests into vanilla agroforestry systems causes disadvantages for animals and plants, because important functions of forests are lost during such processes. Thus, converting more forests to vanilla agroforests can only be justified as an alternative to burning the land, in which biodiversity and ecosystem services are even more negatively impacted.



The methods used in this study can be applied to investigate a wide range of farming practices all over the world and identify the most profitable and sustainable options. “Prior land use is crucial in assessing land-use change in other regions of the world as well. This means that our model is universally applicable, highlighting the relevance of our results for farming and ecology around the world,” concluded study coordinator Holger Kreft, a professor of Biodiversity, Macroecology, and Biogeography at the University of Göttingen.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/119/7/e2107747119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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

Vanilla cultivation can be beneficial for people and nature

Madagascar is the most important country for vanilla production, with...

Local,Market,Fresh,Vegetable,,Garden,Produce,,Clean,Eating,And,Dieting

Eating enough <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fruit-vegetables-and-exercise-can-increase-life-satisfaction/">vegetables</a> is important for maintaining a balanced diet and avoiding a wide range of diseases. Until recently, scientists have assumed that a diet rich in vegetables significantly lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). 



However, a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a>, the <a href="https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/">Chinese University of Hong Kong</a>, and the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> found no strong evidence for this, and argued that a variety of confounding factors, such as socio-economic status, physical activity, and other dietary factors might have explained previous spurious, positive correlations between vegetable intake and lower risk of CVD.



To reach this conclusion, the researchers used the large <a href="https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/">UK Biobank</a>, which follows the health of half a million adults in the UK by linking to their healthcare records. Upon their enrollment between 2006 and 2010, the participants were asked about their lifestyle, diet, medical and reproductive history, and other factors. In the new study, scientists used this data to investigate the connection between vegetable consumption and risk of hospitalization or death from myocardial infarction, stroke, and other major CVD.



“The UK Biobank is a large-scale prospective study on how genetics and environment contribute to the development of the most common and life-threatening diseases. Here we make use of the UK Biobank’s large sample size, long-term follow-up, and detailed information on social and lifestyle factors, to assess reliably the association of vegetable intake with the risk of subsequent CVD,” explained study co-author Naomi Allen, a chief scientist at the UK Biobank.



Although the data analysis suggested that the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was about 15 percent lower for participants with the highest vegetable intake compared to those with the lowest, this apparent effect was substantially weakened (by over 80 percent) when other socio-economic, nutritional, and health- and medicine-related confounding factors were taken into account. 



“Our large study did not find evidence for a protective effect of vegetable intake on the occurrence of CVD. Instead, our analyses show that the seemingly protective effect of vegetable intake against CVD risk is very likely to be accounted for by bias from residual confounding factors, related to differences in socioeconomic situation and lifestyle,” said study lead author Dr. Qi Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford.



Further research is needed to assess whether particular types of vegetables or their method of preparation might affect the risk of CVD. However, even if vegetable intake does not directly affect CVD, it remains important for a balanced diet that could reduce the risk of other major diseases, including some forms of cancer. Consuming at least five portions of fruits and vegetables per day can significantly contribute to better health.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.831470">Frontiers in Nutrition</a>.



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

Vegetables may not protect against cardiovascular disease

Eating enough vegetables is important for maintaining a balanced diet...

A new ecosystem modeling study led by <a href="https://www.iastate.edu/">Iowa State University</a> has found that, during the last century, crop production in the United States has led to a significant increase in the emissions of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/agricultural-soils-contribute-to-climate-crisis-by-releasing-nitrous-oxide/">nitrous oxide</a>, a potent and dangerous greenhouse gas contributing to climate change and ecological destruction. The results suggest that nitrous oxide emissions from U.S. soils have more than tripled since 1900, with nearly three-quarters of that rise in emissions originating from agricultural soils with corn and soybean production.



The scientists drew on massive amounts of data on weather patterns, soil conditions, land use, agricultural management practices, and other variables to design a mathematical model that could accurately mimic ecological processes.



“The model we are using is a process-based ecosystem model,” said study lead author Chaoqun Lu, an associate professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismic Biology. “It’s similar to mimicking the patterns and processes of an ecosystem in our computer. We divide land into thousands of pixels at a uniform size and run algorithms that simulate how ecological processes respond to changes in climate, air composition, and human activities.”



“Behind the scenes, there are thousands of lines of algorithms to guide the computer model to make predictions. It takes decades of efforts, and more to come, to reduce modeling uncertainties and incorporate better ecological process understanding resulting from the hard work of field scientists.”



By analyzing this vast amount of data, the scientists found that nitrous oxide emissions have more than tripled during the 20th century in the United States. This rise in emissions corresponded to an expansion of cropland in the U.S. and was most probably caused by the widespread application of nitrogen fertilizers to agricultural land and legume crop production. Although the added nitrogen is partly used by crops, a significant remainder remains in the soils and is consumed by microorganisms that give off nitrous oxide as a byproduct.&nbsp;



Since more nitrogen fertilizer is applied in corn production than in any other crops, soils where corn is grown tend to emit more nitrous oxide per unit of fertilizer used. Better understanding which crops lead to the greatest emissions can lead to better climate mitigation policies.



“Our study suggests a large nitrous oxide mitigation potential in cropland and the importance of exploring crop-specific mitigation strategies and prioritizing management alternatives for targeted crop types,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16061">Global Change Biology</a>.



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

Crop production increases nitrous oxide emissions

A new ecosystem modeling study led by Iowa State University...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/university/">University of Bonn</a>, Germany and <a href="https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/">Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University</a>, China has investigated why some plant species changed pollinators over the course of their evolution. By studying the reproductive system of three sister species pairs, where one species was pollinated by insects and one by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hummingbirds-can-smell-dangerous-insects/">hummingbirds</a>, the scientists found that birds are much more effective than bees in pollinating plants that are not capable of self-pollination, and are thus dependent on cross-pollination.



Insects - especially <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-american-bumblebee-may-be-on-the-brink-of-extinction/">bees</a> - are the most common pollinators worldwide. However, bees have quite small activity ranges, while other pollinator species, such as hummingbirds, can fly much longer distances.&nbsp;



“It was previously assumed that plants switch their pollinator group from bees to hummingbirds when the activity and thus the pollination efficiency of bees is too low or too unpredictable, for example in the high mountains,” said study lead author Dr. Stefan Abrahamczyk, a researcher at the <a href="https://www.bonn.de/microsite/en/international-profile/international-location/nees-instituteforthebiodiversityofplantsatbonnuniversity.php">Nees Institute for Plant Biodiversity</a> at the University of Bonn.



Surprisingly though, many plants in regions with high bee diversity and abundance have nevertheless switched to hummingbirds, bats, or even ground-dwelling mammals such as mice, honey possums, or lemurs as their pollinators.



In order to understand this phenomenon, Dr. Abrahamczyk and his colleagues analyzed three sister species pairs (new species arising from a common ancestor, but evolving into two different directions because their distribution range was divided by factors such as mountain folding or an ice age). All the examined species emerged from bee-pollinated ancestors and had their habitats in areas characterized by a high diversity and abundance of bees. However, while some were pollinated by bees, their sister species switched to hummingbirds at one point of their evolutionary history.&nbsp;



By using a series of pollination experiments, the scientists found that all the hummingbird-pollinated species had a significantly higher seed set. Moreover, their seeds had much higher germination rates when they resulted from pollination with pollen from another plant individual from the same species.



“From these results, we can conclude that hummingbird pollination evolved in populations of bee-pollinated species that are particularly dependent on cross-pollination, i.e., cannot self-pollinate,” said Dr. Abrahmamczyk.



Since bees often visit all open flowers on one plant before moving to another plant, they mainly encourage self-pollination. By contrast, due to their larger radius of activity compared to bees and their frequent movement between different plants from the same species, hummingbirds are highly efficient in pollinating plants that cannot self-pollinate. Moreover, bees groom extensively during flight and deposit much of the pollen taken from plants in their pollen baskets to feed it to their larvae. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, are not interested in pollen, so they use the entire pollen they collect to fertilize plants.



“These newly gained insights can also be applied to the evolution of other pollination systems, such as bat or moth pollination, in terms of their frequency and efficiency,” concluded Dr. Abrahamczyk.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.8621">Ecology and Evolution</a>.



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

Bird pollination can be advantageous for plants

A new study led by the University of Bonn, Germany...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.scripps.edu/">Scripps Research Institute</a> has investigated how the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) - a species of carnivorous plant native to subtropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coastal-wetlands-can-become-too-salty-for-some-resident-plants/">wetlands</a> on the East Coast of the United States - snaps shut at the approach of prey. 



According to the researchers, a protein mechanosensitive channel aptly named Flycatcher1 is the biological structure that enables these plants to catch their prey. Understanding the structure and functions of Flycatcher1 sheds more light on similar proteins in other organisms including plants, bacteria, or even humans.



“Despite how different Venus flytraps are from humans, studying the structure and function of these mechanosensitive channels gives us a broader framework for understanding the ways that cells and organisms respond to touch and pressure,” said study co-senior author Andrew Ward, a professor of Integrative Structural Biology at the Scripps Institute.



Cells’ ability to sense pressure and movement is highly important for people’s sense of touch and hearing, as well as for many internal processes, such as the ability of the bladder to feel when it is full or the capacity of lungs to sense how much air is being breathed.&nbsp;



“Every new mechanosensitive channel that we study helps us make progress in understanding how these proteins can sense force and translate that to action and ultimately reveal more about human biology and health,” added co-senior author&nbsp;Ardem Patapoutian, a professor of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at Scripps who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his research on the mechanosensitive channels allowing the human body to sense temperature and touch.



By using cryo-electron microscopy – a new technique which reveals the location of atoms within a frozen protein sample – the scientists analyzed the precise arrangement of molecules which form the Flycatcher1 protein channel in Venus flytrap plants and discovered that it is similar to a family of mechanosensitive channels found in bacteria (MscS).&nbsp;



However, while both Flycatcher1 and MscS channels exhibited seven groups of identical helices surrounding a central channel, Flycatcher1 had an unusual linker region extending outward from each group of helices. Like a switch, each linker could be flipped up or down, and appeared to be fundamental for the plant’s ability to close upon removal of pressure.



Further research is needed to determine whether Flycatcher1 is solely responsible for the snapping shut of Venus flytrap leaves, or whether other channels play complementary role. Moreover, the ways in which these protein channels relate to the mechanosensitive ion channels found in humans needs to be further investigated.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28511-5">Nature Communications</a>.



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

Scientists reveal how Venus flytraps catch their prey

A new study led by the Scripps Research Institute has...

The Congo Basin is home to the world's second-largest contiguous tropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deforestation-in-the-amazon-hits-new-record-high/">forest</a> region. Despite its vast size and significance in the global climate system, very limited data is available on how the gases generated within the forest interact with the atmosphere. Research into the greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide and methane, in particular, is still in the early stages.



Several tropical forests have been identified as a substantial source of nitrous oxide and a methane sink. However, because comparable data for the Congo is unavailable, research into how these greenhouse gases react in that region has thus far been confined to modeling. Since the data for these models came from the Amazon, Indonesia, and the tropical region of Australia, scientists assumed the Congo Basin behaved similarly to these other tropical forests.



Now, this knowledge gap has been partially filled by an international research team led by <a href="https://ethz.ch/">ETH Zurich</a> Professor Johan Six. The scientists measured how much methane and nitrous oxide the Congo Basin tropical forest absorbs or releases after an extensive and laborious measurement campaign that lasted several years.&nbsp;



The researchers measured gas fluxes at several sites in three different forest types in the Congo Basin between 2016 and 2020. Montane forest, lowland tropical forest, and occasionally flooded marsh forest are among the forest types studied.&nbsp;



This is the first time that the gas fluxes of the Congo Basin's tropical forests are distinguished from those of other tropical locations throughout the world. Nitrous oxide emissions from the forest, for example, are quite minimal.



“This was unexpected. Our measurements from both the first short measurement campaigns and subsequent long-​term studies didn’t confirm the model assumptions,” said study lead author Matti Barthel.



For methane, the situation is different. The Congo Basin should be a methane sink, according to the models. For the montane and lowland tropical forests, the ETH researchers were able to confirm that this is the case. However, the Congolese tropical forest as a whole appears to be a source of methane since the much smaller swamp forests of the Congo Basin periodically exhale vast amounts of this greenhouse gas. Swamp forests generate up to 1,500 times more methane during the rainy season than during the dry season, negating the sink capacity of the other two forest types.



The researchers "looked into the soil" to understand why the Congo Basin forest behaves differently in response to certain climate gases, as Six explains it. They looked at microorganisms and their functions in one study and the isotopic composition of nitrogen in nitrous oxide in another. The experts found that soil bacteria convert the majority of nitrous oxide to gaseous nitrogen (N2) to create energy for their metabolism. As a result, this powerful greenhouse gas is removed from the atmosphere. N2 is a non-toxic gas that comprises about 80 percent of the atmosphere.



“Africa is underrepresented in such climate gas measurements, and the Congo Basin is particularly poorly researched,” said Barthel. He is aware of only one such study, which dates back to 1963 and was conducted by Belgian academics. Research in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, virtually collapsed after Mobutu assumed power. Furthermore, the vast tropical country remains inaccessible and its infrastructure is in a deplorable state.



Professor Six began the basic research for this paper in 2008, participating in two Congo River missions. He invited Barthel to investigate the movement of gas from this tropical forest, a missing piece in the global carbon cycle puzzle, based on the findings of these two missions. In 2016, as part of a two-month reconnaissance excursion, Barthel took the first measurements. This journey took him to the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern region. The data analysis revealed that the montane forest emits very little nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.



In the following years, Barthel and local scientists established two permanent monitoring stations, one in the Kisangani region and the other in the eastern Congo's Kahuzi-Béga National Park. During many 7- to 14-day measurement campaigns throughout the year, gas exchange between the atmosphere and the ground was measured.



The researchers established an additional measurement station in the western portion of the country, in the swamp forests of the Cuvette Centrale, from 2019 to 2020. These swamp forests make up just approximately seven percent of the Congo Basin's total tropical forest area, but they produce so much methane that it more than compensates for the rest of the forest's negative emissions, according to the study.



“Methane emissions there were exorbitant at times. During the first scouting expedition, we quickly realized that we wouldn’t be able to use high-​tech measuring equipment. So we worked with devices that are as easy to use, reliable and robust as possible, and that can run on batteries,” said Barthel, adding that the whole supply situation is too bad and there was no way to get spare components if something goes wrong. In addition, the power supply is unreliable.



The measuring stations were supervised by researchers from local universities. The volunteers also collected gas samples, placed them in bottles, and shipped them to Zurich for analysis. During the transfer of the over 6,500 samples, not a single one was broken or lost.



“That’s almost a miracle, because often the cardboard boxes in which the tubes were sent on their journey definitely looked the worse for wear," said Barthel.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.



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By <a href="http://mailto:ashikha92@gmail.com">Ashikha Raoof</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Congo forest does not behave like other rainforests

The Congo Basin is home to the world's second-largest contiguous...

Close,Up,Blue,Columbine,Wildflower,Blooms,In,Mountain,Aspen,Forest

Charles Darwin’s view of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/supertramp-birds-provide-insight-into-how-evolution-works/">evolution</a> by natural selection envisioned one species changing gradually into another by means of many, small genetic mutations over a very long time. As Darwin wrote in his seminal work, On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, “We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the long lapse of ages.”



Not all evolutionary biologists agree with this view of genetic change, however. Although it may explain the way in which species adapt to changing conditions over time, there are many instances where sudden, large morphological alterations occur within relatively short geologic timespans. Such changes are thought to be due to instances of significant genetic mutation, rather than to micro-mutations that accumulate over time. In this case, biologists would view evolution as involving sudden punctuations, or steps, during which genetic changes give rise to radical new morphologies.&nbsp;



Professor Scott Hodges in the <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/">UC Santa Barbara</a> Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, along with doctoral student Zachary Cabin and their colleagues, have just identified an example of a sudden evolutionary change. They have found a population of mutant Colorado blue columbine plants (Aquilegia coerulea) that produce flowers with no petals. Columbine flowers usually have small, white petals, each with an elongated spur that contains nectar and attracts pollinating insects. The mutants have lost their petals and nectar-filled spurs entirely, and these have been replaced by an extra set of sepals.



It seems that this type of mutation in A. coerulea has been seen before; in 1897, a mutant where the petals were replaced by sepals was described in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences.&nbsp; And a 100 years later, mutant plants were found to be abundant in an area about 24 km south of the original locality in central Colorado. This implies that the mutation involving petal loss was not a disadvantage to the plants – they have continued to survive and reproduce without being able to attract pollinators to their nectar-filled spurs.



The plants are usually pollinated bumblebees and hawkmoths, that would normally be attracted to the petals with spurs because of the nectar reward they contain. It is highly unusual to find that a mutation persists in a population when this makes the plant less attractive to its pollinating agents.



This is why Hodges and the team decided to investigate this population (in Reynolds Park Open Space) more closely. Over the span of three flowering seasons (between 2014 and 2016), they mapped the position of every flowering plant in one portion of Reynolds Park and recorded the morphology, number of flowers produced, signs of herbivory on the flowers, and whether the fruits matured. They also made extensive video recordings of the insect pollinators that visited flowers, and collected tissue samples for genetic analysis.



The researchers found that at least 25 percent of the plants in the area were of the mutant variety and had no petals or spurs. When they searched the DNA for the source of this unexpected change in morphology, they found the culprit to be a mutation in a single gene, APETALA3-3, which is known to affect spur development. This type of gene is a homeotic gene because it controls the development of an entire organ. It codes for a transcription factor that influences many other genes involved in building the whole organ.&nbsp;



“The gene is either on or off, so it’s about as simple of a change you can get,” said lead author&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eemb.ucsb.edu/people/students/cabin">Zachary Cabin</a>. “But that simple difference causes a radical change in morphology.” The finding adds weight to the idea that adaptation can occur in large jumps, rather than by merely plodding along over extended timespans.



Geneticists who have managed to introduce experimental mutations in the homeotic genes of fruit flies, have produced flies with entire organs in the wrong place in the body. For example, antennae grow out of the abdomen of the fly, or legs grow where there should be wings. These extreme changes are likely to affect survival in most instances.



“Most of the mutations of this nature are going to be like that, just awful,” Hodges said. “The animal won’t have any chance of surviving.”



But every once in a very long while, a macromutation can be neutral, or even confer an advantage to an individual in a particular environment. This individual could, according to Richard Goldschmidt – a prominent US geneticist – be seen as a ‘hopeful monster’. Such an individual would be the product of a fortuitous radical genetic mutation that would enable it to adopt a new mode of life.&nbsp;



Hopeful monsters are not usually found in the fossil record because changes take place rapidly, but if biologists could spot a hopeful monster in the early stages of its evolution, it would show that evolution can indeed proceed in single, large jumps.



Could it be that this recent research study on columbines, published today in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>, has unearthed a hopeful monster?



“We did not have a good example of a hopeful monster due to a single genetic change,” said Hodges, “until now.” Researchers have to catch these abrupt changes as they’re happening, otherwise they disappear into an organism’s genome. The fact that it is actively happening in the Colorado blue columbine enabled the team to confirm this plant’s status as a hopeful monster.



“There’s definitely some luck involved with us being around at the right time to capture this,” Cabin said.



The team discovered five versions, or alleles, of&nbsp;APETALA3-3, only one of which codes for a petal with a functional nectar spur. The other four were ‘broken’, as Hodges put it. They also determined that spurlessness is a recessive trait. The flower will develop normally as long as the plant has one copy of the functional allele. But any two of the mutant alleles together will prevent this.&nbsp;



Since about a quarter of Colorado blue columbines in the study area displayed the recessive trait of spurlessness, it appeared that this mutation was advantageous to the plants in some way.&nbsp;



“To get that many of this mutant type really suggests that there’s selection favoring it somehow,” Hodges said, which proved perplexing as the spurs produce nectar that attracts the plant’s pollinators. “So, how the heck can you lose your spurs and still be favored?” he asked.



Analyzing the data that they had collected in the field, the researchers&nbsp;identified that flowers with spurs attracted more herbivores in the form of aphids and deer. These animals seemed to prefer eating the flowers with the nectar-filled spurs, and it was this pressure that was likely driving the selection for flowers with no spurs.



“The first time we really realized the pattern was at the airport on the way home,” Cabin recalled. He was reading off data as Hodges entered it into the computer. “Scott could see the pattern developing, because he had all the data in front of him, and was getting more and more excited.”



Shifts in floral morphology are usually driven by pollinators, but spurlessness seems to be driven by herbivory. “Natural selection can come from very surprising sources,” Hodges said. “It’s not always what you’d expect it to be.”



The researchers now want to track how spurlessness is spreading through the columbine population. They also suspect that, thanks to this genetic mutation, the Colorado blue columbine may be diverging into separate species. “That splitting process would be slow,” Cabin said, “but there is evidence that it could be on its way.”



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

Colorado blue columbines show punctuated evolution in action

Charles Darwin’s view of evolution by natural selection envisioned one...

Fusarium is an important and dangerous fungal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-do-plants-develop-resistance-to-potentially-deadly-pathogens/">pathogen</a> for a broad range of crops. A soil borne disease, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (FOC), infects the roots of banana plants. From the roots, the disease spreads into the plant’s vascular system, causing gradual deterioration and death. What makes the disease especially tenacious is that spores linger for up to twenty years after the infected plant is removed.



The banana industry has been severely impacted by FOC, particularly the Cavendish group. The impact of the disease has spread across the world for over 100 years and is predicted to spread further into Asia. Important banana producers such as China, the Philippines, Pakistan and Vietnam are likely to be impacted.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Predictions are especially dire for Vietnam. Within the next five years, FOC is predicted to cause a loss of 8 percent of the banana production area of Vietnam. This number rises substantially to as much as 71 percent in the next 25 years.&nbsp;



Most bananas are traded locally in Vietnam, as well as in many other banana growing regions throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. This means that the consequences of FOC have a direct effect on local economies and nutrition. Because of the high stakes involved, it’s become increasingly important to learn which species are causing Fusarium wilt in Vietnamese bananas.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In an effort to learn more about the Fusarium wilt (and hopefully understand how to control it), an international team from research institutions in Vietnam set out to investigate. The team included experts from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Meise Botanic Garden, KU Leuven, and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.



The scientists used DNA analysis as well as traditional morphological research to identify the fungal species. Interestingly, ¾ of the fungal infections in northern Vietnam were caused by F. tardichlamydosporum. Other species account for only a small percentage of infections. Tragically, infections are also now found in wild bananas as well. This means that wild bananas could possibly act as a reservoir for reinfecting cultivated bananas in the future.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://mycokeys.pensoft.net/">MycoKeys</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Vietnam's banana industry is threatened by disease

Fusarium is an important and dangerous fungal pathogen for a...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image 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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image 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.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



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.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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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.

How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&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.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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 the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



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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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



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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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; 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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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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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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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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



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.

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



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 a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



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.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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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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Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&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 capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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