Exercise is well known for its broad health benefits, from strengthening muscles and bones to supporting heart and immune health. Now, a team of engineers from MIT has uncovered a new benefit: exercise can directly promote neuron growth.



Led by <a href="https://www.mit.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MIT</a>’s Ritu Raman, a recent study shows that contracting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/muscles-defy-aging-with-remarkable-resilience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">muscles</a> release biochemical signals, or myokines, which significantly enhance neuron growth.&nbsp;



When neurons were exposed to these muscle-generated signals, they grew four times farther than those without exposure. This discovery could pave the way for new therapies focused on nerve repair and regeneration.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-muscle-nerve-communication">Muscle-nerve communication</h2>



This study provides the first evidence that physical activity itself can stimulate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-find-a-way-to-regenerate-old-neurons/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neuron growth</a> as effectively as biochemical signals from muscles.&nbsp;



While prior research hinted at a connection between muscles and nerve growth, MIT’s study goes further, revealing the powerful role both biochemical and physical effects play.&nbsp;



The research, published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202403712" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Advanced Healthcare Materials</a>, highlights the essential link between muscle and nerve health and could have applications for therapies aimed at restoring nerve function.



“Now that we know this muscle-nerve crosstalk exists, it can be useful for treating things like nerve injury, where communication between nerve and muscle is cut off,” said Raman, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.&nbsp;



“Maybe if we stimulate the muscle, we could encourage the nerve to heal, and restore mobility to those who have lost it due to traumatic injury or neurodegenerative diseases.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-muscles-influence-nerve-growth">Muscles influence nerve growth</h2>



In previous work, Raman’s team helped restore mobility in mice with traumatic muscle injuries by implanting new muscle tissue at the site of the injury and then stimulating it with light.&nbsp;



Over time, this exercised muscle tissue produced certain biochemicals that promoted blood vessel and nerve growth, restoring function in injured areas. 



This finding suggested muscles could influence nerve growth, and it led Raman’s team to explore whether muscle-generated signals might directly support nerve growth.



To isolate muscle responses, they engineered mouse muscle tissue that would contract when exposed to light. 



Using a special gel mat that supports muscle tissue without detachment, the team stimulated muscle contractions, allowing the tissue to release a blend of myokines - biochemical messengers including proteins and RNA.



“Muscles are pretty much always secreting myokines, but when you exercise them, they make more,” Raman explained. After collecting this solution, the team introduced it to motor neurons to observe how they might respond.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-biochemical-signals-and-neuron-growth">Biochemical signals and neuron growth</h2>



The team applied the myokine solution to motor neurons derived from mouse stem cells. 



Observing their behavior, the experts found that the neurons quickly extended, growing four times faster and farther than those not exposed to myokines.



“They grow much farther and faster, and the effect is pretty immediate,” Raman said.



A closer genetic analysis of the neurons showed that the myokines stimulated genes not only related to growth but also to neuronal maturation and function.



“We saw that many of the genes up-regulated in the exercise-stimulated neurons were not only related to neuron growth, but also neuron maturation, how well they talk to muscles and other nerves, and how mature the axons are,” Raman explained.&nbsp;



“Exercise seems to impact not just neuron growth but also how mature and well-functioning they are.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-physical-movement-alone-promotes-growth">Physical movement alone promotes growth</h2>



The researchers next wondered if neurons could respond similarly to exercise’s mechanical impacts without biochemical cues.&nbsp;



“Neurons are physically attached to muscles, so they are also stretching and moving with the muscle,” Raman said.&nbsp;



Using a gel mat embedded with tiny magnets, the team simulated mechanical stretching on a different set of neurons, “exercising” them by gently moving the mat back and forth.



Remarkably, this mechanical stimulation resulted in neuron growth similar to that induced by myokines. The findings suggest that exercise’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exercise-in-a-pill-is-now-closer-to-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">physical impacts</a> may directly encourage neuron growth. 



“That’s a good sign because it tells us both biochemical and physical effects of exercise are equally important,” Raman said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-restoring-mobility">Implications for restoring mobility</h2>



This breakthrough in understanding how muscles influence neurons opens new therapeutic possibilities for nerve repair and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coffee-grounds-could-help-prevent-neurodegenerative-diseases/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neurodegenerative conditions</a>.&nbsp;



By using targeted muscle stimulation, researchers hope to develop treatments for conditions such as ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases that affect nerve function. 



“This is just our first step toward understanding and controlling exercise as medicine,” Raman said.



With growing evidence that exercise supports nerve health on multiple levels, researchers are now focused on exploring the potential for exercise-based therapies to restore function and mobility for those affected by nerve damage or degeneration.&nbsp;



These findings highlight the powerful role exercise could play in future neurotherapeutic approaches.



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Exercise fuels neuron growth through muscle signals

Exercise is well known for its broad health benefits, from strengthening muscles and bones to supporting heart and immune health. Now, a team of engineers from MIT has uncovered a new benefit: exercise can directly promote neuron growth. Led by MIT’s Ritu Raman, a recent study shows that contracting muscles release biochemical signals, or myokines, which significantly enhance neuron growth.&nbsp; When neurons were exposed to these muscle-generated signals, they grew four times farther than those without exposure. This discovery could pave the way for new therapies focused...

As Tropical Storm Sarika moved over Hainan Island, China, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible picture of the storm as it made a direct hit.

On Oct. 18 at 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 UTC) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible-light image of the storm. The image showed the center of circulation covered by clouds.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that infrared satellite imagery showed that the low-level circulation center is weakening rapidly and that the strongest thunderstorms within the tropical cyclone appear to be disorganized.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Oct. 18, Sarika was centered near 19.8 degrees north latitude and 109.7 degrees east longitude. That was about 189 nautical miles east-southeast of Hanoi, Vietnam. Sarika's maximum sustained winds dropped to 63 mph (55 knots/102 kph) and it was moving to the northwest at 11.5 mph (10 knots/18.5 kph).

Sarika is moving northwest and is forecast to cross the Gulf of Tonkin and make final landfall in northern Vietnam. A Severe Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from central to northeastern Vietnam.

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Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

Tropical Storm Sarika moves over Hainan Island, China

As Tropical Storm Sarika moved over Hainan Island, China, NASA-NOAA's...

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

September 2016's temperature was a razor-thin 0.004 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest September in 2014. The margin is so narrow those two months are in a statistical tie. Last month was 0.91 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean September temperature from 1951-1980.

The record-warm September means 11 of the past 12 consecutive months dating back to October 2015 have set new monthly high-temperature records. Updates to the input data have meant that June 2016, previously reported to have been the warmest June on record, is, in GISS's updated analysis, the third warmest June behind 2015 and 1998 after receiving additional temperature readings from Antarctica. The late reports lowered the June 2016 anomaly by 0.05 degrees Celsius to 0.75.

“Monthly rankings are sensitive to updates in the record, and our latest update to mid-winter readings from the South Pole has changed the ranking for June,” said GISS director Gavin Schmidt. “We continue to stress that while monthly rankings are newsworthy, they are not nearly as important as long-term trends.”

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations. The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet. Monthly analyses are updated when additional data become available, and the results are subject to change.

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Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

September 2016 was the warmest month ever recorded

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of...

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The humble bait worm wriggling on the hook at the end of angler's line may be considered a low value resource, but in the first global assessment of its value and impact, researchers have revealed it to be a multi-billion pound global industry worth nearly £6 billion per year.

Bait worms are found to be many times more valuable than premium seafoods for human consumption. For example, blood worms retail at roughly £150 per kilogram in the USA, over 4 times the price of lobsters.

The annual global weight extracted is estimated at 120,000 tonnes of bait worms. Extraction has a significant physical impact, both through the removal of the bait worms and the turning over of shore sediment. Both collection activity and loss of worms has an impact on wading bird populations and other protected species and habitats.

The researchers encourage the assessment of the value and impact of bait worm fishing. Action is needed to ensure bait fisheries are sustainable, and environmental impacts are minimised.

"This is the first assessment of its kind in the world, highlighting the extraordinary value of worms and the huge amounts removed at local, national and global scales," said Dr. Gordon Watson, lead author of the Fish and Fisheries assessment. "We hope that it provokes people to take action to fully assess these fisheries and ensure they are managed effectively for the future."
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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.wiley.com" target="_blank">Wiley</a></div>

Study: Bait worms are more valuable than premium seafood

The humble bait worm wriggling on the hook at the...

Exxon is expanding its counter-attack against critics and is now seeking to quash a New York subpoena of the company's documents related to climate change.
Exxon said in a court filing Monday that it has already given New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman more than 1 million pages of documents. It said that it is increasingly clear that the attorney general's investigation is politically motivated.
The Irving, Texas, company asked a federal district court in Dallas to throw out the New York subpoena. It is fighting in the same court to quash a subpoena from Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey. Both officials say that the company deceived investors and the public by hiding what it knew about the link between burning fossil fuels and climate change.
Exxon said in a company release that Schneiderman and Healey "are incapable of impartial investigations and are attempting to silence political opponents who disagree on the appropriate policies to address climate change."
The environmental group 350.org accused Exxon Mobil Corp. of trying to, "distract from the real story here: that they lied about their knowledge of climate change for decades" and spent millions on campaigns to undermine climate science.
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Exxon tried to quash climate change documents subpoena

Exxon is expanding its counter-attack against critics and is now...

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Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered "super yeast" could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

Though Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been the baker's and brewer's yeast of choice for centuries, it poses a unique challenge to researchers using it to make biofuel from cellulosic biomass such as grasses, woods, or the nonfood portion of plants. The world-famous microbe is highly adept at converting a plant's glucose to biofuel but is otherwise a picky eater, ignoring the plant's xylose, a five-carbon sugar that can make up nearly half of all available plant sugars.

"For cellulosic biofuels to become economically feasible, microbes need to be able to convert all of a plant's sugars, including xylose, into fuel," says Trey Sato, the GLBRC study's lead researcher and a UW-Madison associate scientist.

In a study published Friday (Oct. 14, 2016) in the journal PLOS Genetics, Sato and his GLBRC collaborators describe the isolation of specific genetic mutations that allow S. cerevisiae to convert xylose into ethanol, a finding that could transform xylose from a waste product into a source of fuel. To uncover these genetic mutations, the researchers had to untangle millions of years of evolution, teasing out what led S. cerevisiae to become so selective in its eating habits in the first place.

First, Sato and colleagues gave the yeast a choice akin to eating carrots for dinner or nothing at all, surrounding S. cerevisiae with xylose until it either reevaluated its distaste for xylose or died. It took 10 months and hundreds of generations of "directed evolution" for Sato and his colleagues, including co-corresponding authors Robert Landick, a UW-Madison professor of biochemistry, and Audrey Gasch, a UW- Madison professor of genetics, to create a strain of S. cerevisiae that could ferment xylose.

Once the researchers had isolated the super yeast they named GLBRCY128, they also needed to understand exactly how the evolution had occurred in order to replicate it. Gasch compared Y128's genome to the original strain, combing through the approximately 5,200 genes of each to find four gene mutations responsible for the adapted behavior. To verify their finding, the researchers manually deleted these mutations from the parent strain, producing the same result.

Sato says this work could enable a wide variety of biofuels research going forward. With the technique for making Y128 published, researchers are free to make it themselves for the purposes of applying it to new biomass pretreatment technologies or to different plant materials. "Scientists won't need to adapt their research to the process that we're doing here," he says. "They can just take our technology and make their own strain."

Future research may also focus on the super yeast's potentially powerful role in creating specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

"We want to take this strain and make higher-order molecules that can be further converted into jet fuels or something like isobutanol, lipids or diesel fuel," says Sato. "And if we know how to better metabolize carbon, including xylose, anybody in theory should be able to rewire or change metabolic pathways to produce a variety of biofuel products."
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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.wisc.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a></div>

'Super yeast' could boost economics of biofuels

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">In classic experiments on frogs, scientists found that the amphibians' urge to escape from dangerously hot water decreased significantly when the water temperature rose very gradually.</div>
<div class="img-wrapper"></div>
<div class="img-wrapper">In fact, sensitivity of many animals to increasing temperatures -- including humans -- is similarly affected by the rate of increase. Exactly why, however, has not been understood.</div>
Hoping to shed light on this phenomenon, UC Santa Barbara professor Craig Montell and graduate students Junjie Luo and Wei Shen developed fruit fly larvae as a model to reveal a mechanism through which the animal shows different behavioral responses to fast and slow rises in temperature.

The researchers discovered that a rapid 25-degree Fahrenheit temperature change caused a writhing response in fruit fly larvae. However, when the temperature was raised gradually, far fewer animals reacted, and for those that did, the average threshold temperature was significantly higher. The team's findings appear in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"We know a lot about how animals sense large and sudden increases in temperature," said Montell, the Patricia and Robert Duggan Professor of Neuroscience in UCSB's Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. "They respond to noxious heat by initiating an escape response. But how is it that animals are so much less sensitive to the same hot temperature when the change is really slow?"

The answer to that question turned out to have two parts. First, Montell and his team identified the thermosensory neurons in the brain responsible for sensing the rate of temperature change, which helped to define the underlying molecular mechanism.

"When there is a really rapid change in temperature, you want to protect the brain, particularly in fly larvae because they're cold-blooded and their body temperature equilibrates to the outside," explained Montell. "If their brains feel a rapid increase in temperature, that stimulates the writhing response."

Second, the researchers discovered that the fast response to rapidly increasing heat depended on a transient receptor potential (TRP) channel. The activation of the cellular temperature sensor, a protein called TRPA1, was not simply a function of the absolute temperature but rather depended on the rate of temperature change. If the temperature increase was rapid, TRPA1 turned on quickly and excited those thermosensory brain neurons. When the temperature increased slowly, TRPA1 was less active.

"There's a feedback mechanism that turns off this protein as quickly as it's turned on," Montell said. "When it's turned on quickly, it stimulates the pathway to cause the writhing response. But when the process occurs slowly, the on and off mechanisms cancel each other out."

The scientists posit that the ability to sense the rate of temperature change is a critical survival mechanism that allows an animal to quickly respond to and escape from a noxious thermal landscape before it is too late.

"We think similar mechanisms occur in other animals -- for example, the frog," Montell said. "It could be that related mechanisms affect temperature-sensitive TRP channels in humans as well. Ultimately, if a common mechanism is conserved across species, our findings may provide insight into how different animals adapt to the rate of temperature change."

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Credit: <a href="http://www.ucsb.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UC Santa Barbara</a>

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Study: Animals can easily adapt to gradually increasing temperatures

In classic experiments on frogs, scientists found that the amphibians'...

<div>Humpback whales can migrate thousands of miles to reach feeding grounds each year, but a new study concludes that their fidelity to certain local habitats - as passed on through the generations - and the protection of these habitats are key to understanding the ultimate recovery of this endangered species.</div>
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The study documents the local recruitment of whales in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait in Alaska over a 30-year period. The researchers found that contemporary whales that utilize these rich feeding grounds overwhelmingly are descendants of whales that previously used the area.

In other words, the population recovery of humpback whales in the region depends on cultural knowledge of migratory routes passed on from mothers to their calves; it is not a product of whales from outside the area suddenly "discovering" a rich feeding ground.

Results of the study are being published this week in the journal Endangered Species Research.

"Humpback whales are recovering from exploitation on an ocean-wide basis, but ultimately their individual success is on a much more local scale," said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University and a co-author on the study.

"Humpback whales travel globally, but thrive locally."

The study compares records of individual whales returning to Glacier Bay. The first, referred to as the "founder's population," included whales documented by a local high school teacher, Charles Jurasz, beginning in the 1970s. Jurasz was one of the first researchers to realize that individual whales could be identified by photographs of natural markings - a technique now widely used to study living whales.

Over the years, other researchers - including the authors of this study - continued to record the return of these whales by photo identification and they later collected small genetic samples to confirm the relatedness between individual whales.

Using a large database maintained by Glacier Bay National Park and the University of Alaska Southeast, the records of the founding population were then compared to records of the "contemporary population" returning to Glacier Bay, more than 30 years after Jurasz's initial studies. The results were striking.

Of the 25 "founding females" that were also sampled for genetic analysis, all but one was represented in the contemporary group - either as still living, or by a direct descendant, or in many cases, both. Several of the founding females were even grandmothers of individuals in the contemporary population.

"We looked at three possibilities for population increase over a 33-year period including local recruitment from Glacier Bay/Icy Strait, recruitment from elsewhere in southeastern Alaska, and immigration from outside the region," said Sophie P. Pierszalowski, a master's student in OSU's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and lead author on the study.

"It is clear that the contemporary generation of whales is based on local recruitment, highlighting the importance of protecting local habitat for recovering species, especially those with culturally inherited migratory destinations."

Humpback whales in the North Pacific were once estimated to number more than 15,000 individuals based on catch data before commercial whaling took a toll, reducing the population to less than a thousand by 1966. Humpback whales were first protected by the International Whaling Commission in 1965, then listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973.

Since the protection, the oceanic population has increased to an estimated 21,000 individuals based on photo-identification studies and other evidence. The recovery has been slow, in part because humpback whales can live to be 70 years of age and their recovery is driven primarily by local fidelity and recruitment.

"Limiting vessel traffic in important habitats is one way to help protect humpback whales," Pierszalowski said, "along with maintaining legal distances by vessels, reducing the risk of entanglement with fishing gear, and maintaining stranding networks that have the capacity to quickly disentangle whales."

OSU's Marine Mammal Institute is based at the university's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Ore.

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Credit: <a href="http://mmi.oregonstate.edu/" target="_blank">Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University</a>

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Protecting their habitats is key to the recovery of humpback whales

Humpback whales can migrate thousands of miles to reach feeding...

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<div>A study published today in Ecology Letters adds to a growing body of work examining the relationship between harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and agricultural runoff. The article focuses on water chemistry, specifically the ratio of dissolved silica to dissolved inorganic nitrogen in 130 lakes connected to watersheds influencing nutrient concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico.</div>
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<div>The research is particularly timely as algae, agriculture and weather combined to create an above-average size "Dead Zone" in the Gulf in 2016. Starting at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the ratio of silica to inorganic nitrogen has shifted dramatically toward nitrogen in the last century in the Gulf of Mexico. Two possible explanations for the change in ratio are that dams and reservoirs may remove silica and that agriculture supplies so much nitrogen that the ratios are forced downward. This study shows that reservoirs do not remove silica whereas nitrogen increases greatly when landscapes are more than 60 percent agriculture.

Excess dissolved nitrogen, in coastal zones like the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie, fuels the growth of algae which in turn precipitates anoxic conditions, or dead zones. Prior to such nutrient loading, the ratio of dissolved silica to dissolved inorganic nitrogen was balanced in a way that allowed diatoms, which supply the oxygen in every fourth breath a person takes, to survive.

"It is easy to change a phytoplankton community just by altering the availability of a few important compounds such as dissolved silica or dissolved inorganic nitrogen," said co-author John Downing, director of the University of Minnesota Sea Grant College Program and the study's principal investigator. "In the Gulf we want to see diatoms, a type of phytoplankton that needs about equal amounts of dissolved silica and dissolved inorganic nitrogen. What we've created is a nitrate-rich condition that favors other, harmful types of phytoplankton."

Downing and colleagues from the University of Washington and Boston University found that increased nitrogen loss from agricultural fields sufficiently explains why the northern Gulf of Mexico waters are plagued by blooms of harmful algae. They also identified methods that may lead to better techniques for managing landscapes and the water they influence.

Downing and colleagues suggest that managing landscapes at watershed levels could significantly improve water quality, especially in wet years. They also point to reservoirs and similar water impoundments as areas where heavy nutrient loads could be diminished without affecting silica concentrations before the water reaches the Gulf of Mexico.

"We need to be vigilant about our land use and water quality," said Downing. "Climate change and increased storminess will likely exacerbate the skewed ratios we found and the extent of harmful blooms in coastal areas if we don't manage agricultural runoff more effectively. Harmful algae blooms cost the U.S. seafood, tourism and health industries over $80 million a year according the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and we know we can do better."</div>
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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.minnesota.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Minnesota</a></div>

New insights into relationship between agriculture and dead zones

A study published today in Ecology Letters adds to a...

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As torrential rain descends on the Pacific Northwest, new research published online in the journal Global Change Biology provides a glimpse of how salmon rivers might fare in a future with larger floods.

The study, led by Wild Salmon Center science director Dr. Matthew Sloat, in collaboration with US Forest Service researchers, examines new climate patterns in southeast Alaska and the effects on flooding and habitat in salmon watersheds. Climate projections for southeast Alaska suggest that the region, home to the largest remaining temperate rain forest in the world, will be even warmer and wetter in the future.

Salmon are absolutely central to the culture, economy, and ecosystems of southeast Alaska. Salmon fishing in the region generates about $1 billion annually. Salmon populations and their habitat are generally in good condition throughout the region, but local communities are concerned about the potential effect of a changing climate on these populations.

Sloat and colleagues looked at the impact future floods could have on salmon spawning. Salmon spawn in streams in the fall and eggs develop through the winter, so increased winter flooding could potentially scour their eggs from the streambed and impact the next generation of fish.

The researchers combined field measurements and model simulations to estimate the potential influence of future flood disturbance on the quality and extent of coho, chum, and pink salmon spawning habitat in over 800 southeast Alaska watersheds.

They found that as much as 16% of the spawning habitat for coho salmon could be lost by the 2080s. But losses were predicted to occur primarily in narrower, steeper streams that provide moderate-quality habitat and, to a lesser extent, in high quality low gradient floodplain habitats. Estimated effects were lower for pink and chum salmon, which spawn almost exclusively in low gradient floodplain streams.

Somewhat surprisingly, the study shows that the overall risk of flood impacts to salmon reproduction in southeast Alaska is probably much lower than was previously thought.

According to Sloat, one key factor in this finding is the relatively pristine condition of the area's rivers and floodplains. Intact floodplains can minimize future impacts to salmon populations because floodplains allow large floods to spread out over valley bottoms. Previous assessments had not accounted for valley and stream channel morphology when considering potential effects of floods.

"Flood plains essentially act as pressure release valves that can dissipate the energy of large floods," says Sloat. "In fact, most salmon prefer to spawn in stretches of river with intact floodplains, which is probably no coincidence because these features of the landscape help protect salmon eggs from flood events."

Sloat says that a clear message from this research project is that maintaining or reconnecting rivers and their floodplains may be critical for increasing the resilience of salmon in the face of a changing climate.

"Our results identify key parts of watersheds that, if protected, will continue to buffer salmon populations from flood disturbance in the future," he says.

The relationships between floodplains, climate change, and salmon habitat are applicable in other regions as well.

"We have been addressing this issue in southeast Alaska but the same tools can be used in the lower 48 and elsewhere," he says. "The real take-home message from this work is that protecting intact rivers, especially areas with functioning floodplains, is one of the key elements for sustaining salmon in the future."

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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US Forest Service</a> and the <a href="http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wild Salmon Center</a></div>

How will salmon survive under climate change?

As torrential rain descends on the Pacific Northwest, new research...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Many people know that tropical cyclones and hurricanes cause high winds and storm surges. But two of their other effects, heavy rainfall and inland flooding, can be just as dangerous and impact larger areas.</div>
<div class="img-wrapper"></div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Most recently, inland rainfall produced by Hurricane Matthew has caused record flooding in North Carolina, with the levels of some already swollen rivers and streams continuing to rise.</div>
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than 50 percent of the deaths associated with hurricanes from 1970 to 2004 were caused by fresh water flooding. And from 1981 to 2011, hurricane damage accounted for almost half--$417.9 billion--of the total monetary damage from all weather and climate disasters during that same time period (adjusted for inflation to 2011 dollars).

With the goal of providing basic information to help improve preparedness and mitigation efforts, new University of Iowa-led research published online in September in the Journal of Hydrology examined how accurate current forecasting systems are in predicting rainfall from North Atlantic tropical cyclones that reach land in the United States.

Comparing five state-of-the-art weather prediction models, researchers found current models can forecast both where and how much rainfall a tropical cyclone will produce up to two days in advance. However, the forecast's accuracy decreased significantly when the prediction window increased to five days. The researchers' findings were based on 15 North Atlantic hurricanes that came within at least 500 kilometers of the U.S. coastline from 2007 to 2012.

Gabriele Villarini, UI associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and corresponding author on the paper, says researchers honed in on predicting the impacts of tropical cyclones because that information is generally more useful than typical forecasts that predict how many storms are expected in a season.

"The more specific the information we can provide is, the more useful it will be. This is why we have been moving toward predicting U.S. landfalling tropical cyclone activity and the associated rainfall," he says.

Villarini, also an associate research engineer at the UI's renowned Iowa Flood Center, says while a 48-hour lead time is a good starting point in terms of warning, he will continue to conduct more research to improve these predictions.

"By improving our understanding of the processes that drive tropical cyclones and hurricanes, we will be better positioned to improve our ability to forecast these events and their impacts with longer and longer lead times," he says.

Gabriel Vecchi, head of the climate variations and predictability group at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab and another author on the paper, says decades of weather prediction data show that forecasts have improved--and will improve--as scientists learn more about hurricanes.

"We can't do anything about the past," he says. "The goal of this work is to provide better information in the future."

Vecchi, who has collaborated with Villarini on several research projects, says he values the expertise in flooding and hydrology that Villarini and the Iowa Flood Center bring to their partnership.

"This is one of these examples of interdisciplinary work that has been incredibly fruitful," he says.

The paper also was authored by Beda Luitel while he was a graduate student at the UI.

<hr />

Credit: <a href="http://www.noaa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NOAA</a>

The Iowa Flood Center, IIHR­-Hydroscience and Engineering, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources funded the work.

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Predicting rainfall from tropical cyclones and hurricanes

Many people know that tropical cyclones and hurricanes cause high...

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Colonial plunder, crime, tribal factions, sectarianism, drug running, piracy, animal poaching, illegal logging and destructive mining practices -- all of which add up to wholesale environmental exploitation. The island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines has seen it all and more.

"Mindanao has about 22 totally separate ethnolinguistic groups, who speak maybe 70 languages -- culturally, it's incredibly complex and diverse," said Rafe Brown, curator-in-charge of herpetology at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute. "Colliding cultures have butted heads for 500 years or more. Historically there has been tension between the national Catholic government and Muslim regional government, and the cultural interests of numerous indigenous peoples' groups also underlie conflict over natural resources. Mindanao has extensive mineral resources and forests with valuable timber. Tropical rainforest soils are also very fertile, making the lowlands attractive to agribusiness. There's been conflict over those resources for hundreds of years."

If the island seems like a daunting locale to conduct biological research, that's because it is. Brown recently took part in an expedition into the mountains of Mindanao to carry out a biological survey of the area's fauna, bringing KU graduate students along for the challenging fieldwork with scientists from Father Saturnino Urios University, the University of Oklahoma, the National Museum of the Philippines and Silliman University.

Brown, a world-renowned herpetologist who focuses on southeast Asia, said the risks inherent in the work are worthwhile because he values international collaboration so much and because Mindanao is a treasure house of biodiversity.

"The Philippine archipelago is recognized as a globally significant conservation priority -- a biodiversity hotspot," he said. "For example, 95 percent of Mindanao's amphibians don't appear anywhere else in the world. The terrestrial biodiversity of the Philippines is amazing, and this part of Mindanao is the center of the center of that diversity. The biodiversity is so high in this one pocket of northeast Mindanao, largely because the ranges of so many species in the archipelago overlap in this one area. We knew it was really diverse, but we didn't have a sense of this one area being the bull's-eye, the epicenter of this diversity."

As a result of the expedition in Mindanao, the research team has published a new paper in the online open-access journal ZooKeys detailing their findings: a total of 126 species, including 40 frogs, one caecilian, 49 lizards, 35 snakes, a freshwater turtle and a crocodile.

Their discoveries, making up 36 percent of the total known Philippine reptiles and amphibians, were the result of genetic and morphological analysis, international collaboration and, above all, rigorous fieldwork. Much of the expedition was carried out on mountains, as extensive logging has destroyed the lion's share of old-growth forest on Mindanao's lowlands.

"Mindanao is a place where unfortunately the original forest cover was more than 85 percent, but now it's down to 6 percent original forest, and 15 percent is second-growth vegetation," Brown said. "Giant U.S. logging operations made it big under the Marcos administration. They deforested Mindanao in about 40 years. Mindanao formerly supported incredibly diverse forests with trees as big around as your house standing 250 feet tall. I saw a bit of it left in Cotabato in 1991 during my first trip to the Philippines, before it was cut down in the early '90s."

To prepare for the expedition, first Brown and collaborators from local universities met with local authorities, tribal leaders, hunters, police and military for advice and to ensure the safety of the research team, a process he calls "ground proofing." Then, Brown's research team hiked up one of the biggest mountains on Mindanao.

"On Mount Hilong-hilong, we established camps at 300, 900 and 1,200 meters," he said. "We were there for three-and-a-half weeks, then moved to the next mountain range over, where we surveyed Mount Lumot. Once we get up, we set up tents and put our traps along trails created by animals. Every expedition is a training opportunity for the participants, and we're all anxious to learn new skills from each other. The researchers from the U.S. are trained to go out with shovels and potato rakes and machetes, actively searching habitats of target species. We typically dig around tree trunks looking for animals that live underground. We search rivers and streams, turning over rocks, splitting open decaying logs looking for lizards or frogs. We climb trees, looking for tree-dwelling lizards, or place pitfall traps in the ground to catch lizards and small snakes that live in the leaf litter. We also use sticky traps like people use to catch pests in homes."

Brown and his team also rely on indigenous knowledge of each area's biodiversity and techniques for locating elusive animals.

"On these expeditions, we also found that different tribal groups have unique and ingenious means of catching forest animals," he said. "For example, a master hunter taught us how to make a variety of traps and snares from vines and rattan. And with his techniques, we captured species of rodents and lizards that we never caught by any other means."

Aside from passive traps, KU researchers and their Filipino collaborators spent a great deal of their time searching for animals in the dark.

"The longer distances are traversed at night, when we walk in groups through the forest on trails, actively looking for nocturnal animals on the ground, along rivers and up in trees, using powerful head lamps. This is one of the most important pieces of equipment we have, a really strong head lamp. Without the right light, we'd be in trouble."

For Brown, the research work on Mindanao harkens back a century to when KU Professor Edward Harrison Taylor, called the "Father of Philippine herpetology," performed years of fieldwork in the same part of Mindanao, discovering many of the 120 species he described in his career. Indeed, Brown and his Filipino collaborators have spent considerable time and effort, throughout the Philippines, trying to rediscover species first discovered and formally described by Taylor but over the last century pushed toward extinction by the ensuing deforestation.

"We like to think back to Taylor, a century ago, who would go out 'herping' by himself with a kerosene lantern, carrying it above his head with one hand, while grabbing lizards with the other. It's difficult to imagine how he collected as many specimens as he did," Brown said. "But his legacy, the published record and the many well-preserved specimens in museums around the world formed the foundation of Philippine herpetology. That legacy has been an inspiration to three or four generations of Filipino and American students who followed in his footsteps, all the while emphasizing partnership and collaboration between our historically linked countries."

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.ku.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Kansas</a>

</div>

Scientists declare the island of Mindanao a biodiversity hotspot

Colonial plunder, crime, tribal factions, sectarianism, drug running, piracy, animal...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Tiny robots have been helping researchers study how climate change affects biodiversity. Developed by Northeastern University scientist Brian Helmuth, the "robomussels" have the shape, size, and color of actual mussels, with miniature built-in sensors that track temperatures inside the mussel beds.</div>
<div class="img-wrapper"></div>
<div class="img-wrapper">For the past 18 years, every 10 to 15 minutes, Helmuth and a global research team of 48 scientists have used robomussels to track internal body temperature, which is determined by the temperature of the surrounding air or water, and the amount of solar radiation the devices absorb. They place the robots inside mussel beds in oceans around the globe and record temperatures. The researchers have built a database of nearly two decades worth of data enabling scientists to pinpoint areas of unusual warming, intervene to help curb damage to vital marine ecosystems, and develop strategies that could prevent extinction of certain species.</div>
Housed at Northeastern's Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts, this largest-ever database is not only a remarkable way to track the effects of climate change, the findings can also reveal emerging hotspots so policymakers and scientists can step in and relieve stressors such as erosion and water acidification before it's too late.

"They look exactly like mussels but they have little green blinking lights in them," says Helmuth. "You basically pluck out a mussel and then glue the device to the rock right inside the mussel bed. They enable us to link our field observations with the physiological impact of global climate change on these ecologically and economically important animals."

For ecological forecasters such as Helmuth, mussels act as a barometer of climate change. That's because they rely on external sources of heat such as air temperature and sun exposure for their body heat and thrive, or not, depending on those conditions. Using fieldwork along with mathematical and computational models, Helmuth forecasts the patterns of growth, reproduction, and survival of mussels in intertidal zones.

Over the years, he and his colleagues have found surprises: "Our expectations of where to look for the effects of climate change in nature are more complex than anticipated," says Helmuth. For example, in an earlier paper in the journal Science, his team found that hotspots existed not only at the southern end of the species' distribution, in this case, southern California; they also existed at sites up north, in Oregon and Washington state.

"These datasets tell us when and where to look for the effects of climate change," he says. "Without them we could miss early warning signs of trouble."

The robomussels' near-continuous measurements serve as an early warning system. "If we start to see sites where the animals are regularly getting to temperatures that are right below what kills them, we know that any slight increase is likely to send them over the edge, and we can act," says Helmuth.

It's not only the mussels that may be pulled back from the brink. The advance notice could inform everything from maintaining the biodiversity of coastal systems to determining the best--and worst--places to locate mussel farms.

"Losing mussel beds is essentially like clearing a forest," says Helmuth. "If they go, everything that's living in them will go. They are a major food supply for many species, including lobsters and crabs. They also function as filters along near-shore waters, clearing huge amounts of particulates. So losing them can affect everything from the growth of species we care about because we want to eat them to water clarity to biodiversity of all the tiny animals that live on the insides of the beds."
--

</div>
<div></div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Northeastern University</a></div>

Scientists create 'robomussels' to monitor climate change

Tiny robots have been helping researchers study how climate change...

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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



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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



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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.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&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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Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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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

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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



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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



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Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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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



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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

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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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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://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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 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 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



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 Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&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.

How the immune system responds to injury

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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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



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.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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...