The alphabet holds a unique place in human history, and every new discovery about its origins can illuminate our past and challenge long-held beliefs. 



Its simplicity and adaptability transformed the way humans communicated, laying the foundation for countless languages and cultures. 



Each breakthrough brings us closer to understanding how early societies transitioned from complex symbols to accessible scripts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-oldest-alphabet-ever-found">Oldest alphabet ever found</h2>



A recent phenomenal finding has done just that - it’s reshaping what we know about the beginnings of alphabetic writing.



Our story begins in Syria, where a team from <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Johns Hopkins University</a> made an unexpected discovery.



The researchers unearthed finger-length clay cylinders from an ancient tomb, etched with what appears to be the oldest alphabet in known human history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-alpha-of-alphabets">The alpha of alphabets</h2>



This incredible finding dates back to approximately 2400 BCE, which is a staggering 500 years older than any other known alphabetic scripts. 



This revelation is monumental as it overthrows previously held theories about the origins of alphabets, and how they were adopted by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ice-cores-show-that-early-societies-were-dominated-by-climate-events/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">early societies</a>, changing their lifestyle and course of civilization.



Glenn Schwartz is a professor of archaeology at Johns Hopkins University and one of the lead researchers who discovered the clay cylinders.



"Alphabets revolutionized writing by making it accessible to people beyond royalty and the socially elite," said Professor Schwartz. 



"Alphabetic writing changed the way people lived, how they thought, how they communicated. And this new discovery shows that people were experimenting with new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/quantum-holograms-future-of-secure-messaging-encryption-internet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">communication technologies</a> much earlier and in a different location than we had imagined before now."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-digging-deeper-into-the-past">Digging deeper into the past</h2>



The story behind this discovery unfolds at Tell Umm-el Marra, an early urban center in Western Syria. A group of archaeologists, including experts from the University of Amsterdam, embarked on a 16-year excavation journey at this site.



The fruitful outcome of their dedication was the unearthing of tombs from the Early <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bronze-age-teeth-discovery-highlight-the-evolution-of-the-human-diet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bronze Age</a>. Among these tombs, one stood out - the final resting place of six individuals, adorned with gold and silver jewelry, cookware, a spearhead, and intact <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/baltic-pottery-reveals-ancient-culinary-traditions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pottery vessels</a>.



Interestingly, found next to the pottery were four lightly baked clay cylinders, etched with what seems to be alphabetic writing. 



"The cylinders were perforated, so I’m imagining a string tethering them to another object to act as a label. Maybe they detail the contents of a vessel, or maybe where the vessel came from, or who it belonged to. Without a means to translate the writing, we can only speculate," said Professor Schwartz. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-new-chapter-for-the-alphabet">A new chapter for the alphabet?</h2>



Thanks to advanced carbon-14 dating techniques, the researchers were able to confirm the ages of the tombs, the artifacts, and the writing. 



The discovery challenges existing theories about the birth of the alphabet. It shifts our understanding of the origins of alphabetic writing, hinting at an entirely different narrative, as Professor Schwartz explained.



"Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE,” said Schwartz. "But our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/monkey-stone-tools-look-like-early-human-artifacts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">artifacts</a> are older and from a different area on the map, suggesting the alphabet may have an entirely different origin story than we previously thought.”



The research highlights the importance of continuous exploration in our endeavor to comprehend our past and understand its impact on our present and future.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-broader-impact-of-alphabetic-discoveries">Broader impact of alphabetic discoveries</h2>



The discovery of the oldest known alphabet in Syria does more than just challenge existing theories - it offers a deeper understanding of how early societies communicated and evolved.



Alphabetic writing, unlike the pictograms and logograms used in earlier writing systems, simplified communication, making it more accessible to wider populations. 



This democratization of writing could have been a pivotal factor in advancing trade, governance, and cultural exchanges among early civilizations.



The implications of the ancient alphabet extend beyond archaeology. Linguists, historians, and even technology researchers could gain insights into the roots of structured communication systems.



Understanding the origins of the alphabet also helps contextualize its influence on modern languages and scripts, illustrating its role as a building block for contemporary literacy and education.



Image Credit: Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University



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Oldest known alphabet discovered in Syria

The alphabet holds a unique place in human history, and every new discovery about its origins can illuminate our past and challenge long-held beliefs. Its simplicity and adaptability transformed the way humans communicated, laying the foundation for countless languages and cultures. Each breakthrough brings us closer to understanding how early societies transitioned from complex symbols to accessible scripts. Oldest alphabet ever found A recent phenomenal finding has done just that - it’s reshaping what we know about the beginnings of alphabetic writing. Our story begins in Syria,...

Feds: Efforts To Block Greater Sage Grouse Protection Is Dangerous. Attempts by rural Nevada counties, mining companies and others to block new U.S. policies intended to protect the greater sage grouse could backfire on the critics and ultimately force the reconsideration of a recent decision to keep the bird off the list of endangered species, federal land managers warn.
Justice Department lawyers representing three U.S. agencies say it took an unprecedented effort by officials in 11 western states from <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=california&amp;cvid=789232de7ee341cda75f43dc3068a27a&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">California</a> to the Dakotas to persuade the Fish and Wildlife Service last month to reverse its 2010 conclusion that protection of the grouse was warranted under the Endangered Species Act.
The new finding was based on assumptions that added protections in the land-planning amendments being challenged will be carried out to ensure the grouse no longer is threatened with extinction, they said in a brief filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Reno.
Any injunction blocking implementation would "diminish the protections for sage grouse ... undo four years of collaboration and could undermine FWS' finding," U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden wrote.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du has set a hearing for Nov. 12 in Reno to consider granting a preliminary injunction blocking the amendments.
Elko and Eureka counties and others filed the lawsuit on Sept. 23 - the day after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the listing decision. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association also is suing in federal court there, and Idaho's governor has signed onto a separate lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.
The Nevada lawsuit says the plans could run mining companies and ranchers out of business, block construction of a wind energy project that could bring Elko County $500 million and deny firefighters and law officers access to existing roads during emergencies.
Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt added his name to the lawsuit last week - over the objections of Gov. Brian Sandoval - along with Churchill, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Pershing and Washoe counties in the state.
The government, in its first formal response, says the opponents misrepresent and exaggerate the potential effects. It says they have proven no irreparable harm and are challenging prematurely the planning-level amendments that offer guidelines but render no specific decisions on individual grazing, mining or other federal permits.
"They allege speculative injuries that will come to pass, if at all, only after future site-specific decisions are made," Bogden wrote. He especially challenged claims the protections could restrict use of thousands of miles of existing roads and threaten public safety by inhibiting the travel of emergency responders.
"The amendments do not close any existing routes," Bogden wrote. "But even if they did, the agencies' regulations exempt emergency vehicles from OHV (off-highway vehicle) restrictions."
The lawsuit accuses the government of "attempting a massive management change" for more than 20 million acres of public land in Nevada without proper environmental review - nearly 3 million acres where new mining claims are prohibited for at least two years and more than 16 million acres subject to what the lawsuit calls onerous travel restrictions.
The two-year freeze on some new mining claims was triggered by Jewell's proposal last month to withdraw 10 million acres of public lands in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming under the 1872 Mining Law, which was passed then to encourage the development of lands in the western U.S.
But Bogden said the proposed withdrawal is subject to "valid existing rights and has no immediate effect on mining operations." It's subject to public comment through Dec. 23.
Likewise, nothing in the guidelines themselves would prevent <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/scientists-reconstruct-66-million-year-record-of-earths-climate/">construction</a> of the $500 million China Mountain Wind Energy Project in Elko County, he said. "Elko's County's speculation that ultimately it will not be approved is not an imminent injury," Bogden said.
The lawsuit says the government inappropriately dismissed Elko County's plan to increase livestock grazing as a way to bolster grouse habitat by slowing the growth of vegetation that fuel wildfires. But Bogden said there is "no scientific evidence to support a correlation between increased grazing and improved sage grouse habitat."Feds: Efforts To Block Greater Sage Grouse Protection Is Dangerous
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Feds: Efforts To Block Greater Sage Grouse Protection Is Dangerous

Feds: Efforts To Block Greater Sage Grouse Protection Is Dangerous....

Coral Damage From BP Gulf Oil Spill Worse Than Previously ThoughtGulf coral damage from the massive BP oil spill is more extensive than previously thought, according to a new study that revealed sick and dying corals in the rich, deep-water environment off the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi known as the Pinnacles.
Using remotely operated submarines, researchers explored the Pinnacle Reef in September 2011 and found more than 400 coral colonies were injured. Corals - such as sea whips, sea fans and black corals - were covered in a scum of dead tissues and oily residue. Some showed severe damage, such as bare skeletons and missing branches. Coral Damage From BP Gulf Oil Spill Worse Than Previously Thought
These colonies are found about 35 miles to 68 miles to the north of BP PLC's blown-out well, which spewed more than 130 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/experts-track-the-flow-of-nutrients-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/">Mexico i</a>n 2010. Previous discoveries of coral damage were found south of the BP well and in much deeper water. The coral in the Pinnacles live about 200 feet under the water surface.
The Pinnacles is a rocky outcropping on the Continental Shelf about 70 miles off the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.
The study was conducted by a team of Florida State University researchers and federal scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was also done as part of the work to assess damage from the spill, the so-called natural resources damage assessment. The study is set to be published in Deep-Sea Research, an oceanography journal.
The paper said the damaged coral showed signs of injury from an "acute, isolated event rather than ongoing natural processes." It based this conclusion on previous explorations that looked at the corals between 1997 and 1999, which found the corals were mostly healthy.
"We saw many injured colonies," said Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University. He is one of the authors of the study.
He believes a much larger area of the Pinnacles most likely suffered similar damage.
"The area we have looked at so far is only the tip of the iceberg," he said.
The researchers believe oil floating over the Pinnacles was sprayed with chemical dispersants, which led to oil sinking and contaminating the reef. The paper also says a tropical storm that passed over the area during summer 2010 churned up the sea and caused oil to reach the corals.
"It is a new region and a new ecosystem showing impact," said Erik Cordes, a deep-sea marine scientist familiar with the Pinnacles Reef study. He's been involved with teams looking at coral damage closer to the site of the BP blowout.
"We'll have to monitor it over time," Cordes said.
Even though more than five years have passed since the spill, scientists are still locked in studies to figure out where the oil went and what effects it had on the Gulf ecosystem.
MacDonald said one way to protect the reef from further damage would be to designate it as a protected marine sanctuary.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Coral Damage From BP Gulf Oil Spill Worse Than Previously Thought

Coral Damage From BP Gulf Oil Spill Worse Than Previously...

California Drought-Owens Valley

Water Flows Again In Los Angeles Aqueduct. Water in the Los Angeles aqueduct that helped fuel Los Angeles' growth was flowing toward the city Wednesday for the first time in six months after workers removed an earthen and concrete dam that had diverted runoff to the parched Owens Valley.
With little mountain runoff due to a historic drought, water managers made the unprecedented decision to try to meet legal obligations to keep the Owens River flowing, control dust from a dry lake bed and irrigate pastures where cattle graze instead of sending water to the city.
For those in the Owens Valley, who have a history of conflict with the metropolis hundreds of miles to the south, the plugged-up aqueduct brought relief to some and misery to others.
Cattleman Mark Lacey got a taste of both.
In the southern end of the valley this summer where the Department of Water and Power mostly fulfilled irrigation contracts, Lacey's cattle grazed amid an oasis as cool, clear water poured onto verdant fields framed by barbed wire.
About 100 miles north, where DWP cut off irrigation, the land he leases turned dry and dusty.
Lacey had to lay off some ranch hands and he trucked a third of his cattle to Nebraska and sent another third to greener pastures in Nevada and Oregon.
Like others in California's massive agriculture industry, Owens Valley ranchers are subject to complex water rights and largely dependent on snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada that looms nearby.


[caption id="attachment_2385718" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/28101839/la-aqueduct-dam_1big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2385718" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/28101839/la-aqueduct-dam_1big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Crews remove a temporary dam they built in the Los Angeles aqueduct" width="150" height="150" /></a> Crews remove a temporary dam they built in the Los Angeles aqueduct[/caption]
Unlike most farmers, though, they are also at the mercy of Los Angeles, which looms even larger. LA owns most of the water rights it furtively bought in the early 1900s in a widely chronicled land grab loosely recounted in the movie "Chinatown."
William Mulholland conceived the gravity-fed channel to slake the growing city's thirst and famously quipped, "There it is. Take it," as water first flowed into LA 102 years ago.
There was no such declaration Tuesday as workers used an excavator to begin dismantling the temporary dam.
The aqueduct's contribution to Los Angeles has diminished over time, given legal fights over the environment and greater reliance on the California Water Project and the Colorado River.
The 338-mile aqueduct system typically provides about a third of the city's water, it but it can supply a larger share after a wet and snowy winter, which forecasters are predicting in the months ahead because of El Nino.
The aqueduct will only account for about 3 percent of this year's water because of the drought, said aqueduct manager Jim Yannotta. The flow is being restored because irrigation season is over and legal obligations in the Owens Valley have expired for the year.
The relationship between the locals and the "the city," as LA is called in this rural patch of high desert, has been fraught with conflict that intensified this spring when the Department of Water and Power announced that the historic low snow levels would force it to shut off irrigation water.
"There's a little bit of animosity toward DWP that wasn't there a few years ago," Lacey said. "When you get desperate times, it creates heightened tension."
Ranchers had agreed to make concessions, but DWP rejected them.
After some late spring rains, the department reversed course and said it would not send water to LA, but would dam the aqueduct and keep runoff in the Owens Valley.
DWP is required by court settlements to provide water to the Owens River and dampen the desiccated Owens Lake to control unhealthy dust that has blown since its waters were siphoned south.
<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/improved-air-quality-during-lockdowns-saved-tens-of-thousands-of-lives/">Air quality</a> regulators and environmental groups agreed to take less water from DWP for dust control and habitat protection so ranchers in Inyo County could water their pastures. Ranchers in Mono County, however, lost out because there's no legal settlement protecting their water supply.
Nathan Reade, the agriculture commissioner for Inyo and Mono counties, said shutting off the spigot to everyone would have devastated the farming industry in the area. Water Flows Again In Los Angeles Aqueduct
Farm production from the two counties barely registers a blip in the state's overall farm economy, but ranching has long been a way of life in a place that provided a backdrop for westerns starring Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Gary Cooper, and featuring the pluck of the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy.
Cattle forage on the valley floor in winter and chomp on irrigated pasture in summer. Some ranchers drive their cattle up to federal land in the mountains in summer, which is how Scott Kemp managed to keep much of his herd nourished despite water cutbacks.
The state's drought had already forced farmers to cut herd sizes. Reade estimated livestock has been reduced 40 percent to 50 percent in recent years.
Unlike row and tree crops, livestock is mobile.
Gary Giacomini, who lost most of his grazing land this summer when the Department of Water and Power cut off irrigation in Mono County, paid another rancher to let his cattle graze.
Even after reducing herd sizes significantly, ranchers have been helped by high beef prices.
Giacomini said the predicament reminded him of one of his father-in-law's sayings.
"His dad told him, 'God never intended us to have a good market and good feed at the same time,'" he said. "I guess that premise has held through the generations."
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Water Flows Again In Los Angeles Aqueduct

Water Flows Again In Los Angeles Aqueduct. Water in the...

Consistent Haze Is Reducing Solar Radiation In China. Haze due to weak winds and air pollution is reducing surface solar radiation in China, which has major consequences for the climate, the environment and the economy. These are the findings of a research report now being published in Scientific Reports. An international team of researchers including those from the University of Gothenburg is behind the study. Consistent Haze Is Reducing Solar Radiation In China

In the world as a whole, surface solar radiation has increased since 1990, although in China, it has decreased.

Slowing winds increase air pollution

In the study, long-term historical meteorological data were combined with relatively short measurements of air pollution particles in China in an innovative way to clarify interactions among the solar radiation, surface wind and air pollution.

The studies have found that lower solar surface radiation in China is due to a combination of higher air pollution in the area and lower surface winds in China. As in other areas in the northern hemisphere, the surface wind in China has been weakened in recent decades. When the wind slows down, the concentration of small particles of air pollution (aerosols) increase, which help increase haze and leads to solar dimming in the area.

"Mapping the link between solar surface radiation and air pollution is significant since the relationship is heavily masked by clouds which play a major role in affecting solar surface radiation," says Deliang Chen, Professor of Physical Meteorology at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg and co-author of the research article.

More solar dimming with slowing winds

The research reveals that the solar dimming due to air pollution increased significantly during the day in polluted areas in China, when wind speed was lower than 3.5 metres per second.

The study also shows that 20 per cent of the reduced surface solar radiation in China is due to the concentration of small particles of air pollution (aerosols), which is in turn strengthened by 20 per cent by low wind speed.

The effect of solar dimming is a lower influx of sunlight that affects photosynthesis, among other things, and has profound consequences for the climate, the environment and the economy.

"It was a successful cooperation between colleagues from the US, China and Sweden. I am happy that we succeeded in providing a quantitative estimate of the effect of air pollutant on surface solar radiation in interaction with wind," says Changgui Lin, the leading author of the article and researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg.

---

<a href="http://www.gu.se/english" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Gothenburg</a>

Consistent Haze Is Reducing Solar Radiation In China

Consistent Haze Is Reducing Solar Radiation In China. Haze due...

Consistent Haze Is Reducing Solar Radiation In China. Haze due to weak winds and air pollution is reducing surface solar radiation in China, which has major consequences for the climate, the environment and the economy. These are the findings of a research report now being published in Scientific Reports. An international team of researchers including those from the University of Gothenburg is behind the study.

In the world as a whole, surface solar radiation has increased since 1990, although in China, it has decreased.Consistent Haze Is Reducing Solar Radiation In China

Slowing winds increase air pollution

In the study, long-term historical meteorological data were combined with relatively short measurements of air pollution particles in China in an innovative way to clarify interactions among the solar radiation, surface wind and air pollution.

The studies have found that lower solar surface radiation in China is due to a combination of higher air pollution in the area and lower surface winds in China. As in other areas in the northern hemisphere, the surface wind in China has been weakened in recent decades. When the wind slows down, the concentration of small particles of air pollution (aerosols) increase, which help increase haze and leads to solar dimming in the area.

"Mapping the link between solar surface radiation and air pollution is significant since the relationship is heavily masked by clouds which play a major role in affecting solar surface radiation," says Deliang Chen, Professor of Physical Meteorology at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg and co-author of the research article.

More solar dimming with slowing winds

The research reveals that the solar dimming due to air pollution increased significantly during the day in polluted areas in China, when wind speed was lower than 3.5 metres per second.

The study also shows that 20 per cent of the reduced surface solar radiation in China is due to the concentration of small particles of air pollution (aerosols), which is in turn strengthened by 20 per cent by low wind speed.

The effect of solar dimming is a lower <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/alien-species-will-increase-by-the-thousands-over-the-next-three-decades/">influx</a> of sunlight that affects photosynthesis, among other things, and has profound consequences for the climate, the environment and the economy.

"It was a successful cooperation between colleagues from the US, China and Sweden. I am happy that we succeeded in providing a quantitative estimate of the effect of air pollutant on surface solar radiation in interaction with wind," says Changgui Lin, the leading author of the article and researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg.

---

<a href="http://www.gu.se/english" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Gothenburg</a>

<div class="section">

Study: Greenland Ice Sheet Moves More Slowly As Ice Melts Faster. It may seem counter intuitive, but satellite data suggest that part of the Greenland ice sheet moves more slowly if the surface of the ice melts faster.

Greenland is losing vast quantities of ice to the ocean, raising sea levels. Icebergs calving from the edge of the ice sheet account for around half of this loss and the other half is because of surface melt. Study: Greenland Ice Sheet Moves More Slowly As Ice Melts Faster

Once the surface of the ice melts, however, what follows is rather complex.

The Greenland ice sheet is always on the move, flowing under its own weight.

[caption id="attachment_2385739" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/28154521/Greenland_ice_hydrology_1big_ESA.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2385739" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/28154521/Greenland_ice_hydrology_1big_ESA-150x150.jpg" alt="Greenland ice hydrology" width="150" height="150" /></a> Greenland ice hydrology[/caption]

This flow towards the ocean is controlled by several factors, but how surface meltwater drains through the 3 km-thick sheet to the ground below and the effect this has on the speed of ice flow is poorly understood.

</div>
<div id="s_1" class="section">

To shed more light on what’s going on scientists from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, the Université Savoie Mont-Blanc in France and the University of Sheffield in the UK have studied 30 years of Landsat data.

They investigated if increased surface meltwater increased the flow of ice to the ocean by lubricating the bed at the base of the ice, or if increased meltwater decreased the flow by modifying the bed.

By tracking the movement of stable features such as crevasses in satellite images taken every year from 1985 to 2014, they mapped annual ice speed and compared it with meltwater produced on the surface.
<div id="s_2" class="section">

Their findings, published today in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v526/n7575/full/nature15722.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nature</a>, show that surface melt slows the ice flow when it terminates on land<a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Melting_slows_Greenland_ice_flow" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">.</a>

[caption id="attachment_2385738" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/28154518/greenland-Watery_surface_1big_esa.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2385738" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/28154518/greenland-Watery_surface_1big_esa-150x150.jpg" alt="Watery surface" width="150" height="150" /></a> Watery surface[/caption]

In summer, snow and ice at the surface melt and the water drains to the bed of the ice sheet, lubricating the base so that the ice slides more quickly. However, the meltwater also establishes efficient drainage systems beneath the ice, draining the meltwater away.

The team found that there was a clear regional slowdown of land-terminating ice in a period when surface meltwater rose by 50%. The reduced lubrication, caused by better meltwater drainage from several years of high-melt summers, appears to be responsible for the slowdown.

</div>
<div id="s_3" class="section">

Andrew Tedstone from the University of Edinburgh said, “Our investigations suggest that the efficiency of these drainage systems is greater after summers of stronger melting.

“The melting actually reduces the lubrication at the ice sheet base during the following winter – causing winter ice flow to be slower after a warmer summer.

“The results show that since 2002, the flow of an 8000 sq km land-terminating sector of the Greenland ice sheet has slowed down despite an increase in surface melting.”

Noel Gourmelen from the University of Edinburgh added, “It is unclear how much more slowdown we will see under the current and future melting conditions. More research and observations are needed to determine this.”

Their findings suggest that further increases in melting will not cause these land-terminating margins of the ice to speed up. This knowledge will help to predict future contributions that ice sheets make to sea-level change in a warming climate.

It is clear, however, that more research is needed to understand the processes that control the speed of glaciers terminating in the ocean.

Peter Nienow, also from the University of Edinburgh, noted, “While these results may be viewed as a modicum of good news for the Greenland ice sheet, the ongoing acceleration of both glacier surface melt-volumes and ice-motion of ocean-terminating glaciers ensures that its contribution to sea level rise is likely to increase in our warming world.”

Noel Gourmelen added, “We would not have been able to do this research without the free and open access to Landsat data provided by ESA.”

---

<a href="http://www.esa.int" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">European Space Agency</a>

</div>
</div>

Study: Greenland Ice Sheet Moves More Slowly As Ice Melts Faster

Study: Greenland Ice Sheet Moves More Slowly As Ice Melts...

Texas Is Also Suffering From Increased Threatening Wildfires. Larger, more threatening wildfires are occurring at greater rates as Texas faces lingering drought, consistent development - driven by millions of new residents and the spread of outlying suburbs - and changes in how the state's land is used.
Texas had 157,000 wildfires over a nine-year period ending in 2014, said Mark Stanford, fire chief of the Texas A&amp;M Forest Service. Nearly 80 percent of those fires raged within 2 miles of a community, he said.
"When I started, that was unheard of," Stanford said. "Wildfires were a rural problem and not really a threat to communities."
Now those threats have turned perennial amid drought and development in areas that had been mostly rural. The latest danger erupted this month when the Hidden Pines fire in Central Texas' Bastrop County burned nearly 5,000 acres and destroyed 77 buildings, including 64 homes, according to the forest service. Flames threatened another 95 homes.
The forest service responded to just one wildfire of at least 5,000 acres from 1985 to 2000, but in the last 15 years there have been fires of that size nearly every year. There were 27 fires at least that size in 2008 and 76 in 2011.
Four years ago, the Bastrop County Complex wildfire that destroyed more than 1,650 homes proved to be the most destructive in Texas history.
With the state population steadily growing - from about 21 million in 2000 to 27 million now - Stanford said a concern for public safety officials is people moving beyond the suburbs and into areas where brush, trees and other vegetation can fuel flames.
"I'm not slamming people who want their piece of Texas heaven," he said, adding that "people see the losses that have occurred and want to do something about it."
He said state programs such as community wildfire protection plans must be encouraged to minimize fire threats.
Texas' landscape has a much different appearance today compared to past decades, said Tom "Andy" Vestal, emergency services coordinator for Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Extension Service. He said it's one prone to inflating fires rather than containing them.
In Texas Hill Country, for example, much of the land used to be reserved for cattle and other animals that munched on the vegetation, Vestal said.
"Land use over the past two decades has changed enormously," he said. "There are fewer grazing animals out in those rural environments."
With the addition of housing and other developments, the vegetation is left to grow and be more vulnerable to fires.Texas Is Also Suffering From Increased Threatening Wildfires
Stanford said the state's intensive agricultural practices once did a lot to prevent large wildfires. But agriculture as an economic and land-management practice has faded in parts of Texas.
"The public generally likes to look at nature as this static picture that never changes," Stanford said. "And it's actually very dynamic."
Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/august-complex-fire-has-become-the-largest-in-californias-history/">California</a> Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said California is experiencing the same trends as Texas: more people in rural areas building among the trees, little rain and soaring temperatures that can intensify fires.
This year alone, 8,000 wildfires have spread across 825,000 acres in California. "The wildfire season here won't let up," Tolmachoff said.
She said wildfire season traditionally ran from around June to October, but has more recently expanded by more than two months.
Texas, California and other states need greater promotion of prescribed burns, said Robin Verble, an assistant professor of fire ecology at Texas Tech University. She said Texas has taken a progressive approach in allowing landowners greater latitude in using controlled burns to minimize vegetation.
"More prescribed fire means less wildfire," she said.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Texas Is Also Suffering From Increased Threatening Wildfires

Texas Is Also Suffering From Increased Threatening Wildfires. Larger, more...

NASA's TIMED Mission Finds Unexpected Trends In Carbon Data. NASA’s TIMED mission, short for Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, has confirmed a surprisingly fast carbon dioxide increase in Earth’s upper atmosphere, raising questions about how different layers of the atmosphere are interconnected. Even more curious—though climate models predict carbon dioxide should increase more or less equally across the globe, in its 14 years of data collection, TIMED observed a much faster increase of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/ocean-carbon-dioxide-sink/">carbon dioxide</a> above the Northern Hemisphere.

Understanding the way carbon dioxide moves throughout the atmosphere is key, both for making accurate climate models and for planning spacecraft flight paths. Though carbon dioxide raises temperatures near Earth’s surface, it actually causes cooling in the upper atmosphere, reducing air density in these outermost reaches of the atmosphere and impacting spacecraft orbits. NASA's TIMED Mission Finds Unexpected Trends In Carbon Data

This study, published in Geophysical Research Letters on Sept. 5, 2015, uses 14 years of data from a radiometer on board the TIMED satellite, the first satellite capable of making long-term measurements of carbon dioxide concentration in the upper atmosphere when it launched in 2001.

“Before TIMED, the only measurements of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere were direct measurements from sounding rocket research flights and short-lived spaceborne sensors,” said Jia Yue, a researcher at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, and lead author on the study. “But it’s impossible to study long-term trends from snapshots.”

Carbon dioxide is being poured into the atmosphere by human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. A 5 percent per decade increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the lower atmosphere is confirmed by some 56 years of measurements at Earth’s surface. But in the upper atmosphere, the increase in carbon dioxide concentration was observed reaching rates of 12 percent per decade around 70 miles above the surface.

Furthermore, they discovered that the carbon dioxide in these upper layers, long thought to follow the same patterns across the globe, is increasing faster over the Northern Hemisphere. Though the Northern Hemisphere produces much more carbon dioxide because of its greater land area and population, scientists expect the difference to become negligible at such great heights due to diffusion and mixing.

“It seems clear that we don’t quite understand the relationship between the lower atmosphere and the upper atmosphere,” said Diego Janches, TIMED project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We tend to separate them into different fields—lower atmosphere is Earth science, upper atmosphere is heliophysics—but we need to understand the atmosphere as a complete system.”

This study’s result also confirms a second set of data from a satellite with capabilities similar to TIMED—the Canadian Space Agency’s SciSat-1, launched in 2003. An analysis of eight years of SciSat-1 data gave the first indication of the accelerated increase of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere.

“The support between observations by TIMED and SciSat-1—which use different remote sensing techniques to detect carbon dioxide—confirms that the quick increase is a real, physical trend, and not an artifact of any instrument or data,” said Yue.

Identifying these unexpected trends was only possible because of the long lifespan of TIMED’s radiometer, which is still operating well. The TIMED satellite, originally slated for a two-year mission ending in 2003, has been granted six extended missions. TIMED’s current mission is set to end in 2017, but scientists are hopeful that data collection will continue.

“Long-term studies are necessary to understand trends like this,” said Janches. “TIMED has lasted so long that it’s like a completely different mission—we can do entirely new science when we have long periods of continuous observation.”

NASA Goddard manages the TIMED mission for the Heliophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built the spacecraft for NASA.

Related Links
<ul>
 	<li><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/timed-10yrs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More information about TIMED</a></li>
</ul>

NASA's TIMED Mission Finds Unexpected Trends In Carbon Data

NASA's TIMED Mission Finds Unexpected Trends In Carbon Data. NASA’s...

NASA's TIMED Mission Finds Unexpected Trends In Carbon Data. NASA’s TIMED mission, short for Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, has confirmed a surprisingly fast carbon dioxide increase in Earth’s upper atmosphere, raising questions about how different layers of the atmosphere are interconnected. Even more curious—though climate models predict carbon dioxide should increase more or less equally across the globe, in its 14 years of data collection, TIMED observed a much faster increase of carbon dioxide above the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-ice-age-northern-hemisphere/">Northern Hemisphere.</a>

Understanding the way carbon dioxide moves throughout the atmosphere is key, both for making accurate climate models and for planning spacecraft flight paths. Though carbon dioxide raises temperatures near Earth’s surface, it actually causes cooling in the upper atmosphere, reducing air density in these outermost reaches of the atmosphere and impacting spacecraft orbits.

This study, published in Geophysical Research Letters on Sept. 5, 2015, uses 14 years of data from a radiometer on board the TIMED satellite, the first satellite capable of making long-term measurements of carbon dioxide concentration in the upper atmosphere when it launched in 2001.

“Before TIMED, the only measurements of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere were direct measurements from sounding rocket research flights and short-lived spaceborne sensors,” said Jia Yue, a researcher at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, and lead author on the study. “But it’s impossible to study long-term trends from snapshots.”

Carbon dioxide is being poured into the atmosphere by human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. A 5 percent per decade increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the lower atmosphere is confirmed by some 56 years of measurements at Earth’s surface. But in the upper atmosphere, the increase in carbon dioxide concentration was observed reaching rates of 12 percent per decade around 70 miles above the surface.NASA's TIMED Mission Finds Unexpected Trends In Carbon Data

Furthermore, they discovered that the carbon dioxide in these upper layers, long thought to follow the same patterns across the globe, is increasing faster over the Northern Hemisphere. Though the Northern Hemisphere produces much more carbon dioxide because of its greater land area and population, scientists expect the difference to become negligible at such great heights due to diffusion and mixing.

“It seems clear that we don’t quite understand the relationship between the lower atmosphere and the upper atmosphere,” said Diego Janches, TIMED project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We tend to separate them into different fields—lower atmosphere is Earth science, upper atmosphere is heliophysics—but we need to understand the atmosphere as a complete system.”

This study’s result also confirms a second set of data from a satellite with capabilities similar to TIMED—the Canadian Space Agency’s SciSat-1, launched in 2003. An analysis of eight years of SciSat-1 data gave the first indication of the accelerated increase of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere.

“The support between observations by TIMED and SciSat-1—which use different remote sensing techniques to detect carbon dioxide—confirms that the quick increase is a real, physical trend, and not an artifact of any instrument or data,” said Yue.

Identifying these unexpected trends was only possible because of the long lifespan of TIMED’s radiometer, which is still operating well. The TIMED satellite, originally slated for a two-year mission ending in 2003, has been granted six extended missions. TIMED’s current mission is set to end in 2017, but scientists are hopeful that data collection will continue.

“Long-term studies are necessary to understand trends like this,” said Janches. “TIMED has lasted so long that it’s like a completely different mission—we can do entirely new science when we have long periods of continuous observation.”

NASA Goddard manages the TIMED mission for the Heliophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, built the spacecraft for NASA.

Related Links
<ul>
 	<li><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/timed-10yrs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More information about TIMED</a></li>
</ul>

Lingering Drought Heightens Worries For California Salmon Extinction. Another deadly summer of drought has heightened fears of extinction in the wild for an iconic California salmon, federal officials said Wednesday.
Officials with the National Marine Fisheries Service said preliminary counts indicate that hot, shallow waters caused by the drought killed most of this year's juvenile winter-run Chinook before they made it out to the Pacific Ocean. Lingering Drought Heightens Worries For California Salmon Extinction
It "doesn't look very good," said Garwin Yip, a federal fisheries spokesman.
If a final count this winter confirms the bad news, it would mean a second straight summer in which 5 percent or less of the young fish survived <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/tule-fog-across-californias-central-valley/">California's</a> drought.
Since the fish spawn on a three-year cycle, the die-off would make management of next year's water critical for the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=salmon&amp;cvid=e51aac30dfaf497ba16f8cbd38ad6a23&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">salmon's</a> survival in the wild.
The development suggests failure for a second year in a row for federal efforts to manage water flows from Lake Shasta, a main reservoir in the state's water system, to keep salmon and other species alive.
"Droughts are always hard on salmon, but water management decisions made it worse this year," said John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association.
The juvenile salmon depend on water temperatures in the mid-50s, and were unable to survive in the warmer temperatures produced by shallower than usual water.
Chinook salmon are a mainstay of the state's commercial fishing industry. California's fishing industry and environmental groups are vying with the state's farmers for diminishing water supplies in the driest four years on record.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Lingering Drought Heightens Worries For California Salmon Extinction

Lingering Drought Heightens Worries For California Salmon Extinction. Another deadly...

Study Examines How Indigenous People Alter The Amazon Rainforest. Before Europeans arrived, indigenous peoples altered the Amazon rainforest -- but primarily along major rivers.

Their effects were almost imperceptible in rainforest areas more than a day's walk from a river, according to new research published in the Journal of Biogeography.

Lead author Mark Bush, a biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, says "no one doubts the importance of human actions along major waterways, but whether humans had a greater effect on the ecosystem than any other large creature has yet to be established in much of Amazonia."

Past human influence

Amazonia supported sophisticated cultures before Europeans' arrival, but Bush and an international team of scientists argue that a recent emphasis by researchers on Amazonia as a manufactured landscape overstates the facts.

[caption id="attachment_2385801" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/29084342/amazon-watershed_1big_NSF-copy.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2385801" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/29084342/amazon-watershed_1big_NSF-copy-150x150.jpg" alt="The Amazon River watershed covers a vast area; research took place in various Amazonian countries." width="150" height="150" /></a> The Amazon River watershed covers a vast area; research took place in various Amazonian countries.[/caption]

Bush and his collaborators "have reversed a decades-long trend of finding an ever-increasing extent and ecological effects of human settlement in pre-Columbian Amazonia," says George Malanson, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

Malanson says this review of paleoecological data aims "to strengthen a moderate view of Amazonia that was neither pristine nor completely settled."

Amazonia, nearly the size of the continental United States, is a vast landscape. "Extrapolations about human effects from a few archaeological sites, mainly located along watercourses, must be tempered in the face of more wide-ranging data," says Dolores Piperno of the Smithsonian <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/tropical-birds-handle-heat-stress-much-better-than-expected/">Tropical</a> Research Institute, a co-author of the paper.

Insights relevant to today

The paper's findings are relevant to modern society and conservation, its authors believe.

If forests were heavily modified prior to European arrival--as suggested by some recent research--then, Bush says, "they have regrown in just over one tree generation to support their incredible biodiversity." Such rapid recovery could be used to justify logging forests aggressively because they would regrow, he says.Study Examines How Indigenous People Alter The Amazon Rainforest

If, on the other hand, humans had limited influence on forests, the woodlands might not regrow as readily after major disturbances, and logging could lead to long-term degradation.

These questions are important as policymakers decide whether to enforce or relax protections on areas already designated as parks, such as the Yasuni of Ecuador, according to Bush.

The researchers conclude that pre-European land use by the native peoples in Amazonia varied widely in space and time, but that vast areas of the Amazon were hardly affected by human activity.

The study was also supported by Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development; Brazil's Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel; the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; and the National Museum of Natural History.

---

<a href="http://www.nsf.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Science Foundation</a>

Study Examines How Indigenous People Alter The Amazon Rainforest

Study Examines How Indigenous People Alter The Amazon Rainforest. Before...

China Displaced by Drought

China Fights Drought By Moving People Out Of The Area. Village elder Yang Zhenjun isn't ready to move out from the valley where his people have herded sheep and tended crops for generations amid arid, drought-prone mountains of <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/historic-flooding-has-killed-hundreds-across-china/">China's</a> northwest. Still, he acknowledges that life as he has known it is all but over.

The community's 60 families have dwindled down to 11 in recent years. Others have left this area, which is almost completely dependent on often-scarce rainfall, and have headed north to plains with better infrastructure and more accessible water.

"The village has completely died," says Yang Zhenjun, a fifth-generation resident of Dacha village in Ningxia province's Xiji County. Still, he is not eager to move. "I was born in this village. I grew up in this village. Everyone struggles with these same feelings."

Most former residents of Dacha have moved under a government plan to relocate 350,000 people to lift them out of grinding poverty which, for their region, has been worsened by an increase in average temperatures of 2.2 degrees Celsius (4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past half-century that leaves the land more parched.

The U.N. refugee agency says that people being displaced because of climate-related reasons are a growing global problem. It's pushing for greater awareness of their plight during a climate change conference in Paris opening Nov. 30. The UNHCR says long-term planning can help minimize such displacement in the future.

Many of Dacha's houses are empty and overgrown with plants and trees; walls and roofs have crumbled. As people leave, schools and other facilities in villages like <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=dacha&amp;cvid=1ab3bf190b97438094577301f9a29ee3&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Dacha</a> are forced to shutter, making life tougher for those left behind.

On the other hand, some of the parched land can recover now that fewer people are using its scarce water.

"Resettlement and climate change are becoming more closely entwined," said Sarah Rogers, an Australian geographer who has studied the effects of climate change on China, adding that the Chinese government has identified resettlement as a way to adapt.

There are about 60 million people worldwide living in what the UNHCR terms "climate change hotspots," and China is one of the worst affected, agency spokesman Andreas Needham said in Geneva.

"UNHCR is calling for explicit recognition" of people displaced by climate change at the Paris meeting "to enable states to prevent further displacement in the future," Needham said. The agency wants to push for individual states to address the issue of displacement in climate change policies, in hopes that planning will help reduce both internal and cross-border displacement.

The UNHCR says an average of 26.4 million people have been displaced by natural disasters every year since 2008. Of the 19.3 million thought to be displaced last year, more than 85 percent were in Asia, including 5 million in the Philippines and 3 million each in China and India. China Fights Drought By Moving People Out Of The Area

Many who have moved in Ningxia are for the most part content with the result.

Hai Yanhu, 71, who moved in July 2012 from Panwan village in Xiji County to a resettlement project in Pingluo County in the north, said he is happy to now have running water and a shower. He barely thinks anymore of his old village, where going long distances to fetch water was a daily task.

"We would have to go down into the valley, and carry the water with a pail on our backs. We would go every day, but if there was something special happening at home then we would have to go four or five times a day," Hai said.

Not all the moves were voluntary. Wang Ziyi, 52, said he moved to Pingluo in December 2014 from Huoshizhai in Xiji County because the government claimed the village's land to plant forests to make a tourist site.

Some families tried to live in tents on the outskirts of the old community, Wang said. "But it's cold. If you tried to put up a house the government wouldn't let you build it, so there was no choice but to leave."

Wang said he misses his old town but that the "economy here is better than the economy in the mountains of Xiji. It's more convenient. Here, it's a bit easier to find manual labor jobs."

The government is proud of the relocations. Zou Yuzhong, deputy director of Ningxia Poverty Reduction Bureau, says the government is moving people out of "inhospitable" climates to "help put them on the path to success."

He dismissed any claims that some are unhappy about leaving their ancestral homes.

"They are incredibly happy and absolutely are in favor of the government implementing these livelihood projects," he says.

Some migrants, however, struggle to adapt, said Wang Yuxiao, head of the Yinchuan Green Sustainability Development Centre, a nongovernmental agency.

"There are many old people who do not want to leave their old homes," Wang said. "Another problem the migrants are facing is the problem of finding work once they've moved to their new homes."

Ma Bingfu, 52, who moved to Pingluo from Taobao Village in Xiji County in October 2011, said the young adjust better than older people.

"This area that we're living in now? There's water and the roads are good, and young people are fine here. But old people don't like it. We can't find work. We have no land to grow on and we can't find work."

"Lots of old people want to go back," he said. "In our old villages we had land we could work. Here we have nothing."

© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

China Fights Drought By Moving People Out Of The Area

China Fights Drought By Moving People Out Of The Area....

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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



---



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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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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;



---



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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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;



---



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.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" 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.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



---



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.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today’s Video of the Day from 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



---



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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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



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 city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" 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.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[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



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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



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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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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

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"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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