Music has long been a source of comfort and connection for humanity. Expectant parents have often turned to music as a way to bond with their unborn children, believing that melodies can soothe and stimulate fetal development. 



While this idea has been popular for generations, science is now uncovering real <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/live-music-connects-people-emotionally-and-physically/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">physiological effects of music</a> on the unborn child.



Recent research has shown that playing classical music during pregnancy may not only create a sense of calm but could also influence fetal heart rate patterns. This discovery opens new possibilities in understanding how early exposure to sound might impact neurological and physiological growth before birth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fetal-heart-rate-and-development">Fetal heart rate and development</h2>



The fetal heart does more than just pump blood. Its rhythm and variability provide insights into the developing autonomic nervous system. 



Scientists often use heart rate variability - changes in the time between individual heartbeats - to measure overall fetal health. Greater variability often signals more advanced neurological development, indicating a maturing nervous system.



Traditional heart rate assessments measure an average of beats over multiple seconds. This method offers useful information but does not capture the finer details of how the heart responds in real-time. 



Heart rate variability, on the other hand, reveals subtle shifts in fetal autonomic activity. This makes it a valuable tool for assessing developmental progress.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-effects-of-music-on-the-fetal-heart">Effects of music on the fetal heart</h2>



A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.uaemex.mx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Autonomous University of the State of Mexico</a>, the <a href="https://www.uam.mx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Metropolitan Autonomous University</a>, the <a href="https://salud.edomex.gob.mx/isem/at_unidades_medicas&amp;cveunidad=MCSSA007661" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">General Hospital Nicolás San Juan</a>, and the <a href="https://www.cardiologia.org.mx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Institute of Cardiology Ignacio Chávez</a> explored how classical music affects fetal heart rate. 



Their study, published in Chaos by AIP Publishing, aimed to understand whether music exposure could shape heart rate dynamics in a measurable way.



To conduct their experiment, the team recruited 36 pregnant women and exposed their unborn children to two classical pieces. 



The selected compositions were The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns, a well-known French melody, and Arpa de Oro by Abundio Martínez, a traditional Mexican guitar piece. Using external heart rate monitors, the researchers recorded changes in fetal heart activity during and after the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-has-the-power-to-change-the-mood-of-our-memories/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">music</a> played.



By applying nonlinear recurrence quantification analysis, they examined how heart rate variability responded to the melodies. This advanced mathematical technique allowed them to detect patterns that traditional methods might overlook.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-music-and-nervous-system-development">Music and nervous system development </h2>



The results showed that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/live-music-evokes-stronger-emotions-than-streamed-music/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listening to music</a> led to more stable and predictable heart rate patterns in the fetus.



“Overall, we discovered that exposure to music resulted in more stable and predictable fetal heart rate patterns,” said author Claudia Lerma. “We speculate that this momentary effect could stimulate the development of the fetal autonomic nervous system.”



These findings suggest that music has an immediate effect on fetal physiology. It may help regulate heart rhythms, potentially supporting healthy nervous system development. While the long-term implications are still unknown, this study highlights the potential for sound to play a role in prenatal health.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-effects-of-different-musical-compositions">Effects of different musical compositions</h2>



Beyond identifying a general effect of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-music-help-plants-grow/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">music</a>, the researchers also compared how the two selected pieces influenced fetal heart rate. Both compositions produced changes, but the Mexican guitar melody had a stronger impact on heart rate variability.



“When contrasting ‘The Swan’ with ‘Arpa de Oro,’ we did notice some significant differences,” said author Eric Alonso Abarca-Castro. 



“In particular, the second piece appeared to have a stronger impact on some measures, indicating that it produced heart rate patterns that were more predictable and regular. Factors like rhythmic characteristics, melodic structure, or cultural familiarity may be linked to this differentiation.”



This finding raises intriguing questions about how different types of music influence fetal development. The role of rhythm, harmony, and cultural familiarity in shaping physiological responses could be an important area for future study.



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



For parents-to-be, this research provides scientific support for an age-old practice. Playing soothing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/song-melodies-have-become-much-simpler-since-1950/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">music</a> during pregnancy may do more than create a peaceful environment - it could also promote fetal development in subtle but meaningful ways.



“Our results suggest that these changes in fetal heart rate dynamics occur instantly in short-term fluctuations, so parents might want to consider exposing their fetuses to quiet music,” said Abarca-Castro. 



“Parents who play soothing music may stimulate and benefit the fetal autonomic system.”



While further research is needed to determine the long-term benefits of this practice, these findings suggest that music could be a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-reveals-which-brain-areas-are-affected-by-aging/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">simple and natural way</a> to support fetal well-being. Expectant parents may wish to experiment with different styles of calming music to see how their unborn child responds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-directions">Future research directions</h2>



The researchers plan to deepen their investigation by studying different musical genres and expanding their sample size. Classical music may be just one of many styles capable of influencing fetal heart rate dynamics.



“To ascertain whether rhythmic or cultural variations elicit distinct fetal cardiac responses, we intend to increase the size of our sample and expand our investigation to include a variety of musical styles beyond classical pieces,” said author José Javier Reyes-Lagos.



This next phase of research could reveal whether jazz, folk, or even modern electronic music has similar effects on fetal heart rate patterns. Understanding how different forms of sound interact with prenatal development may provide insights into how early sensory experiences shape human growth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-music-and-fetal-health">Music and fetal health</h2>



As science continues to explore the impact of music on fetal health, these findings add to the growing body of evidence supporting the importance of sensory stimulation in the womb. 



Music may not only comfort and connect expectant parents with their unborn children but also contribute to neurological and physiological <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-that-listen-to-music-grow-faster-and-healthier/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">development</a> in ways that are only beginning to be understood.



For now, playing gentle, rhythmic music may be a simple way for parents to engage with their baby before birth. The discovery that heart rate patterns can become more stable and predictable with music suggests that sound could play a deeper role in shaping early life than previously believed.



The study is published in the <a href="https://pubs.aip.org/aip/cha/article/35/2/023121/3333471/Response-to-music-on-the-nonlinear-dynamics-of" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science.</a>



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How music affects a baby’s heartbeat before birth

Music has long been a source of comfort and connection for humanity. Expectant parents have often turned to music as a way to bond with their unborn children, believing that melodies can soothe and stimulate fetal development. While this idea has been popular for generations, science is now uncovering real physiological effects of music on the unborn child. Recent research has shown that playing classical music during pregnancy may not only create a sense of calm but could also influence fetal heart rate patterns. This discovery opens...

A new dog park in Rhode Island got some help from a group of land-clearing specialists: goats.
Organizers used a herd of the ravenous ruminants to clear brush from a plot of land in Portsmouth that will eventually be turned over to man's best friend.
Kim Cipolla tells WJAR-TV (<a href="http://bit.ly/1O8OsVJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://bit.ly/1O8OsVJ</a> ) the 17 goats ate around the clock over an area about the size of two football fields.
The goats ate everything from poison ivy to thick brush and thorns. They even dug up a buried fire hydrant, perfect for a dog park.
Cipolla says using goats to clear land is cheaper than a bulldozer and construction crew, and environmentally friendly. She says it's "animals helping animal."
Now that the goats have finished, committee members are working to complete the job.
---
Information from: WJAR-TV, <a href="http://www.turnto10.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.turnto10.com</a>
© 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.

New Trend: Using Goats To Clear Land

A new dog park in Rhode Island got some help...

Ranchers Losing Cattle And Land As Wildfires Continue Raging. For weeks, rancher Darrel Holliday has rounded up frightened cows and calves off the smoldering hills of the Strawberry Mountain Range, a wilderness area in eastern Oregon of old-growth forest and grass where wildlife and cattle roamed.
Holliday's entire federal forest grazing allotment of about 32,000 acres - 50 square miles - burned last month as a wildfire ravaged the area. The land is now a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/people-who-smoke-just-one-cigarette-a-day-are-likely-addicted/">smoke</a>-filled expanse of blackened tree sticks and ash a foot and half deep.
"We're picking up cows that should have calves with no calves. We assume they might have died out there," said Holliday, who is still missing 22 of his 180 cow-calf pairs. He's among dozens of ranchers similarly wrestling with the loss of animals and grazing land in a region where cattle production is one of the leading <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=agricultural&amp;cvid=7b5e04a682dd42139723b2d3fdebd222&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">agricultural</a> industries. Ranchers Losing Cattle And Land As Wildfires Continue Raging
The vast majority of the 1.6 million acres - nearly 2,600 square miles - that burned in Oregon, Idaho and Washington this year are federally owned, data show, with large swaths of that public land used as rangeland for livestock grazing.
Many of Holiday's recovered animals have burnt hooves or are lame from walking on hot coals, he said. Miles of fences have burned. And the land, for which Holliday pays a fee, will likely be closed to grazing for at least two years while it recovers, he said.
That's left him scrambling to figure out how to feed the cows.
"We've been ranching here all our lives," said Holliday, whose father started grazing cattle in the area in 1942. "To watch it totally destroyed, you get sick to your stomach every day you go out there."
In Oregon's Canyon Creek Complex alone, 125 of the 170 square miles burned were grazing allotments, said Malheur National Forest rangeland management specialist Nick Stiner. Some 4,000 cows ranged on those allotments, he said.
And in the Soda Fire in southwest Idaho, that state's biggest fire this year, 280 of the 430 square miles burned were federal grazing allotments and another 75 square miles were private grazing lands, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
In addition to rangeland lost, ranchers and ranching groups say hundreds of cows have perished and millions of dollars' worth of hay stacks and barns has gone up in flames.
"We're hearing lots of reports of displaced cattle and grazing grounds that are no longer usable," said Kayli Hanley of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, which says many ranchers are still assessing damage and looking for lost cows.
In northern Washington state, where the Okanogan Complex burned about 475 square miles and is considered the largest wildfire in state history, rancher Doug Grumbach found the burned carcasses of several cows on a hill among smoldering trees.
One of those cows became wedged between two trees trying to flee the flames.
When the fire started last month, the fourth-generation rancher was on his way to move the cows dispersed in the mountainous terrain. But, he said, the winds picked up and the fire exploded, so "we had to get ourselves out of there."
In total, eight of his cows and four calves died and 20 are still unaccounted for - a loss of tens of thousands of dollars. He's also treating calves and cows with burnt feet, severe body burns and respiratory problems.
"They're kind of like family ... you care for them all their life, so you hate for anything to happen to them," he said.
Grumbach said he doesn't have enough unburned private land to feed his cattle; his cows are now eating hay meant for winter feed. And because of the drought, he doesn't have as much hay as usual, he said.
Many ranchers like Grumbach are desperately looking for pastures and hay, said Wyatt Prescott of the Idaho Cattle Association. Those who can't afford feed, he said, are sending their animals to sale yards.
"Producers spend generations developing the genetics of their cows to produce the best beef. Liquidating part of their herd is something they try to avoid at all costs," Prescott said.
His group is facilitating a confidential online pasture exchange where farmers who have land out of production can lease it to those who lost their grazing grounds.
Idaho rancher Brenda Richards, who runs about 500 cow-calf pairs, lost 95 percent of her grazing allotment to the Soda Fire.
"Ranching is the strength of these local communities, that's our tax base," Richards said, adding that the fire has been devastating, but it also brought out local ties. "It was amazing to watch people come together."
Cattle associations and private groups are now collecting hay and distributing it to those who lost rangeland.
In eastern Oregon, convoys of trucks have hauled in about 600 tons of hay from donors inside and outside the state to a storage set up by newly-formed group Hay for John Day, a town just northwest of the Strawberry Mountain Range.
The historic fire season has also re-kindled a long-running debate.
Ranchers say the federal government should have allowed more grazing to reduce the severity of the wildfires. Environmental groups say more grazing would have increased soil erosion and riparian damage, removed native grasses and increased fire risk.
Federal officials stand in the middle: grazing, they say, may help slow some fires' spread, but it won't make a difference in extreme weather.
"When you have high winds, grazing won't stop or slow that fire," said Jessica Gardetto with the Bureau of Land Management.
© 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.

Ranchers Losing Cattle And Land As Wildfires Continue Raging

Ranchers Losing Cattle And Land As Wildfires Continue Raging. For...

Ranchers Losing Cattle And Land As Wildfires Continue Raging. For weeks, rancher Darrel Holliday has rounded up frightened cows and calves off the smoldering hills of the Strawberry Mountain Range, a wilderness area in eastern <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=oregon&amp;cvid=2dc81c6a4a514352b324c9ed1551128b&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Oregon</a> of old-growth forest and grass where wildlife and cattle roamed.
Holliday's entire federal forest grazing allotment of about 32,000 acres - 50 square miles - burned last month as a wildfire ravaged the area. The land is now a smoke-filled expanse of blackened tree sticks and ash a foot and half deep.
"We're picking up cows that should have calves with no calves. We assume they might have died out there," said Holliday, who is still missing 22 of his 180 cow-calf pairs. He's among dozens of ranchers similarly wrestling with the loss of animals and grazing land in a region where cattle production is one of the leading agricultural industries.
The vast majority of the 1.6 million acres - nearly 2,600 square miles - that burned in Oregon, Idaho and <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/mount-rainier-in-washington/">Washington</a> this year are federally owned, data show, with large swaths of that public land used as rangeland for livestock grazing.
Many of Holiday's recovered animals have burnt hooves or are lame from walking on hot coals, he said. Miles of fences have burned. And the land, for which Holliday pays a fee, will likely be closed to grazing for at least two years while it recovers, he said.
That's left him scrambling to figure out how to feed the cows.
"We've been ranching here all our lives," said Holliday, whose father started grazing cattle in the area in 1942. "To watch it totally destroyed, you get sick to your stomach every day you go out there."
In Oregon's Canyon Creek Complex alone, 125 of the 170 square miles burned were grazing allotments, said Malheur National Forest rangeland management specialist Nick Stiner. Some 4,000 cows ranged on those allotments, he said.
And in the Soda Fire in southwest Idaho, that state's biggest fire this year, 280 of the 430 square miles burned were federal grazing allotments and another 75 square miles were private grazing lands, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Ranchers Losing Cattle And Land As Wildfires Continue Raging
In addition to rangeland lost, ranchers and ranching groups say hundreds of cows have perished and millions of dollars' worth of hay stacks and barns has gone up in flames.
"We're hearing lots of reports of displaced cattle and grazing grounds that are no longer usable," said Kayli Hanley of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, which says many ranchers are still assessing damage and looking for lost cows.
In northern Washington state, where the Okanogan Complex burned about 475 square miles and is considered the largest wildfire in state history, rancher Doug Grumbach found the burned carcasses of several cows on a hill among smoldering trees.
One of those cows became wedged between two trees trying to flee the flames.
When the fire started last month, the fourth-generation rancher was on his way to move the cows dispersed in the mountainous terrain. But, he said, the winds picked up and the fire exploded, so "we had to get ourselves out of there."
In total, eight of his cows and four calves died and 20 are still unaccounted for - a loss of tens of thousands of dollars. He's also treating calves and cows with burnt feet, severe body burns and respiratory problems.
"They're kind of like family ... you care for them all their life, so you hate for anything to happen to them," he said.
Grumbach said he doesn't have enough unburned private land to feed his cattle; his cows are now eating hay meant for winter feed. And because of the drought, he doesn't have as much hay as usual, he said.
Many ranchers like Grumbach are desperately looking for pastures and hay, said Wyatt Prescott of the Idaho Cattle Association. Those who can't afford feed, he said, are sending their animals to sale yards.
"Producers spend generations developing the genetics of their cows to produce the best beef. Liquidating part of their herd is something they try to avoid at all costs," Prescott said.
His group is facilitating a confidential online pasture exchange where farmers who have land out of production can lease it to those who lost their grazing grounds.
Idaho rancher Brenda Richards, who runs about 500 cow-calf pairs, lost 95 percent of her grazing allotment to the Soda Fire.
"Ranching is the strength of these local communities, that's our tax base," Richards said, adding that the fire has been devastating, but it also brought out local ties. "It was amazing to watch people come together."
Cattle associations and private groups are now collecting hay and distributing it to those who lost rangeland.
In eastern Oregon, convoys of trucks have hauled in about 600 tons of hay from donors inside and outside the state to a storage set up by newly-formed group Hay for John Day, a town just northwest of the Strawberry Mountain Range.
The historic fire season has also re-kindled a long-running debate.
Ranchers say the federal government should have allowed more grazing to reduce the severity of the wildfires. Environmental groups say more grazing would have increased soil erosion and riparian damage, removed native grasses and increased fire risk.
Federal officials stand in the middle: grazing, they say, may help slow some fires' spread, but it won't make a difference in extreme weather.
"When you have high winds, grazing won't stop or slow that fire," said Jessica Gardetto with the Bureau of Land Management.
© 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.

Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries. California's Sierra Nevada snowpack in 2015 was at the lowest level in the past 500 years, according to a new report led by University of Arizona researchers.

The team's research is the first to show how the 2015 snowpack compares with snowpack levels for the previous five centuries.

"Our study really points to the extreme character of the 2014-15 winter. This is not just unprecedented over 80 years — it's unprecedented over 500 years," said Valerie Trouet, an associate professor of dendrochronology at the UA<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/using-a-real-world-laboratory-to-resolve-cheetah-farmer-conflict/"> Laboratory</a> of Tree-Ring Research. Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries

"We should be prepared for this type of snow drought to occur much more frequently because of rising temperatures," Trouet said. "Anthropogenic warming is making the drought more severe."

California's current record-setting drought began in 2012, the researchers note in their report.

On April 1 of this year, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared the first-ever mandatory water restrictions throughout the state while standing on dry ground at 6,800-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada. The historical average snowpack on that site is more than five feet, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

The lack of snow in 2015 stems from extremely low winter precipitation combined with record high temperatures in California in January, February and March, Trouet said. About 80 percent of California's precipitation occurs in the winter months, she said. Snowpack level is generally measured on April 1 each year, a time when the snowpack is at its peak.

"Snow is a natural storage system," Trouet said. "In a summer-dry climate such as California, it's important that you can store water and access it in the summer when there's no precipitation."

In past years, the snows of the Sierra Nevada slowly melted during the warmer months of the year, and the meltwater replenished streams, lakes, groundwater and reservoirs. In a winter with less snow or with winter precipitation coming as rain rather than snow, there is less water to use during California's dry summers.

First author Soumaya Belmecheri said of the extremely low snowpack in 2015, "This has implications not only for urban water use, but also for wildfires."

Belmecheri is a postdoctoral research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

To determine snowpack levels for the past 500 years, Trouet and her colleagues used previously published tree-ring data that reflects annual winter precipitation in central California from 1405 to 2005 and annual snowpack measurements since the 1930s. The team also used a previously published reconstruction of winter temperatures in southern and central California that spanned the years 1500 to 1980.

Trouet, Belmecheri and their colleagues' report, "Multi-century evaluation of Sierra Nevada snowpack," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Climate Change today.

---

<a href="http://www.arizona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Arizona</a>

Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries

Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries. California's Sierra Nevada...

NOAA Ocean Explorer: NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: Northeast U.S.

Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument. Undersea ravines deeper than the Grand Canyon, submerged mountains rising thousands of feet from the ocean floor and forests of kelp and coral would become the first marine national monument in the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=atlantic&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=SC&amp;cvid=4450ac7c2e41498398b1d76d83773514&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfOY30fClOq9osfcI6T5oj*hqZUvcxf7xNr3NZxWXz1ZTzc19PcCPInY*O72ANlJm7nZ*sUzoql0THWK6*RAlALN&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">Atlantic</a> ocean if conservationists have their way.
The proposal to protect a pristine ecosystem undamaged by heavy fishing and pollution in the Gulf of Maine and canyons and peaks off <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sea-turtles-stranded-on-cape-cod/">Cape Cod</a> - where vivid coral has grown to the size of small trees over thousands of years - would mirror the massive conservation efforts that have already taken place in the Pacific Ocean.
"We have an opportunity to permanently protect two of our nation's greatest ocean treasures, right off our coast," said Priscilla Brooks, the Conservation Law Foundation's director of ocean conservation.
Environmental groups want President Barack Obama to permanently protect Cashes Ledge, the underwater mountain and offshore ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine, and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, the chain of undersea formations about 150 miles off the coast of Massachusetts.
But Maine Gov. Paul LePage and others oppose the effort to protect the two sites, together totaling about 6,000 square miles, because of the potential impact on fishermen.Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument
LePage, a Republican, also takes issue with the president's authority under the Antiquities Act to designate monuments, calling it a sweeping power that provides few procedural protections to those who are most likely to be affected.
"These National Marine Monuments serve only one purpose- excluding commercial fishing activity from certain segments of the ocean," he wrote in a letter to Obama last month. He also urged the president to consult with fishermen who make their living in the Gulf of Maine.
Four existing marine monuments - a designation applied only to areas of outstanding scientific, cultural, conservation and aesthetic value - were established by President George W. Bush. Obama expanded one, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, last year.
The Pacific monuments cover more than 330,000 square miles of ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The rules for each differ slightly, though typically commercial fishing and resource extraction such as drilling and mining are prohibited, NOAA said.
NOAA plans to hold a town hall meeting in Providence on Tuesday to discuss possible protections for three of the deep-sea canyons and four seamounts, which it says "create unique habitats supporting tremendous biodiversity and fragile ecosystems."
There are two more canyons that are not contiguous to the three mentioned by NOAA. Conservationists and other supporters plan to attend the meeting at the Providence Marriott Downtown to press for all five canyons, the four nearby seamounts and Cashes Ledge to be included, said Roger Fleming, a staff attorney at Earthjustice. The Conservation Law Foundation, National Geographic Society, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other groups support the proposal.
"These are some of the last places that haven't been spoiled by fishing and human development," said Peter Baker, who directs U.S. Oceans, Northeast for Pew. "We're hopeful this is the right time, for the right places, for the right reasons."
Groups representing the fishing industry have taken issue with the project as a whole, but there appears to be more opposition to protecting Cashes Ledge than the more remote canyons and seamounts.
Robert Vanasse, executive director of the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, said the monument proposal overlooks existing protections for Cashes Ledge and would remove local and expert input from the process. Bottom trawling and dredging have been banned there for more than a decade.
"There shouldn't be a couple of people sitting around a table in the West Wing deciding this kind of thing," Vanasse said.
Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for a scallop industry trade organization, the Fisheries Survival Fund, also said that using an executive action is the "wrong way" to protect these areas because there is already a democratic process in place, and he worries about the precedent it would set.
Federal fishery regulators already voted in June to keep Cashes Ledge mostly closed to fishing. And the New England Fishery Management Council also plans to discuss protecting deep-sea corals from fishing gear at a meeting this month.
But conservationists argue that both sites deserve permanent, comprehensive protections before it's too late, rather than temporary safeguards.
Brooks, of CLF, called such temporary safeguards "tenuous at best."
"There are some places that need to be protected forever," 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.

Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument

Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument. Undersea ravines deeper...

Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument. Undersea ravines deeper than the Grand Canyon, submerged mountains rising thousands of feet from the ocean floor and forests of kelp and coral would become the first marine national monument in the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=ocean&amp;cvid=69222616542949ebbcbda0fc18d2f7b4&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Atlantic</a> ocean if conservationists have their way.
The proposal to protect a pristine ecosystem undamaged by heavy fishing and pollution in the Gulf of Maine and canyons and peaks off Cape Cod - where vivid coral has grown to the size of small trees over thousands of years - would mirror the massive conservation efforts that have already taken place in the Pacific Ocean. Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument
"We have an opportunity to permanently protect two of our nation's greatest ocean treasures, right off our coast," said Priscilla Brooks, the Conservation Law Foundation's director of ocean conservation.
Environmental groups want President Barack Obama to permanently protect Cashes Ledge, the underwater mountain and offshore ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine, and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, the chain of undersea formations about 150 miles off the coast of Massachusetts.
But Maine Gov. Paul LePage and others oppose the effort to protect the two sites, together totaling about 6,000 square miles, because of the potential impact on fishermen.
LePage, a Republican, also takes issue with the president's authority under the Antiquities Act to designate monuments, calling it a sweeping power that provides few procedural protections to those who are most likely to be affected.
"These National Marine Monuments serve only one purpose- excluding commercial fishing activity from certain segments of the ocean," he wrote in a letter to Obama last month. He also urged the president to consult with fishermen who make their living in the Gulf of Maine.
Four existing marine monuments - a designation applied only to areas of outstanding scientific, cultural, conservation and aesthetic value - were established by President George W. Bush. Obama expanded one, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, last year.
The Pacific monuments cover more than 330,000 square miles of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=ocean&amp;cvid=69222616542949ebbcbda0fc18d2f7b4&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">ocean,</a> according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The rules for each differ slightly, though typically commercial fishing and resource extraction such as drilling and mining are prohibited, NOAA said.
NOAA plans to hold a town hall meeting in Providence on Tuesday to discuss possible protections for three of the deep-sea canyons and four seamounts, which it says "create unique habitats supporting tremendous biodiversity and fragile ecosystems."
There are two more canyons that are not contiguous to the three mentioned by NOAA. Conservationists and other supporters plan to attend the meeting at the Providence Marriott Downtown to press for all five canyons, the four nearby seamounts and Cashes Ledge to be included, said Roger Fleming, a staff attorney at Earthjustice. The Conservation Law Foundation, National Geographic Society, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other groups support the proposal.
"These are some of the last places that haven't been spoiled by fishing and human development," said Peter Baker, who directs U.S. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/the-oceans-absorb-much-more-carbon-than-previously-thought/">Oceans</a>, Northeast for Pew. "We're hopeful this is the right time, for the right places, for the right reasons."
Groups representing the fishing industry have taken issue with the project as a whole, but there appears to be more opposition to protecting Cashes Ledge than the more remote canyons and seamounts.
Robert Vanasse, executive director of the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, said the monument proposal overlooks existing protections for Cashes Ledge and would remove local and expert input from the process. Bottom trawling and dredging have been banned there for more than a decade.
"There shouldn't be a couple of people sitting around a table in the West Wing deciding this kind of thing," Vanasse said.
Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for a scallop industry trade organization, the Fisheries Survival Fund, also said that using an executive action is the "wrong way" to protect these areas because there is already a democratic process in place, and he worries about the precedent it would set.
Federal fishery regulators already voted in June to keep Cashes Ledge mostly closed to fishing. And the New England Fishery Management Council also plans to discuss protecting deep-sea corals from fishing gear at a meeting this month.
But conservationists argue that both sites deserve permanent, comprehensive protections before it's too late, rather than temporary safeguards.
Brooks, of CLF, called such temporary safeguards "tenuous at best."
"There are some places that need to be protected forever," 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.

. Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument. Undersea ravines deeper than the Grand Canyon, submerged mountains rising thousands of feet from the ocean floor and forests of kelp and coral would become the first marine national monument in the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=atlantic+ocean&amp;cvid=25abadd228e84e4097a74b19f7520bae&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Atlantic ocean</a> if conservationists have their way.
The proposal to protect a pristine ecosystem undamaged by heavy fishing and pollution in the Gulf of Maine and canyons and peaks off Cape Cod - where vivid coral has grown to the size of small trees over thousands of years - would mirror the massive conservation efforts that have already taken place in the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/deep-pacific-little-ice-age/">Pacific Ocean</a>. Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument
"We have an opportunity to permanently protect two of our nation's greatest ocean treasures, right off our coast," said Priscilla Brooks, the Conservation Law Foundation's director of ocean conservation.
Environmental groups want President Barack Obama to permanently protect Cashes Ledge, the underwater mountain and offshore ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine, and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, the chain of undersea formations about 150 miles off the coast of Massachusetts.
But Maine Gov. Paul LePage and others oppose the effort to protect the two sites, together totaling about 6,000 square miles, because of the potential impact on fishermen. Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument
LePage, a Republican, also takes issue with the president's authority under the Antiquities Act to designate monuments, calling it a sweeping power that provides few procedural protections to those who are most likely to be affected.
"These National Marine Monuments serve only one purpose- excluding commercial fishing activity from certain segments of the ocean," he wrote in a letter to Obama last month. He also urged the president to consult with fishermen who make their living in the Gulf of Maine.
Four existing marine monuments - a designation applied only to areas of outstanding scientific, cultural, conservation and aesthetic value - were established by President George W. Bush. <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=obama&amp;cvid=98c6f366191e474496e0d4fab128ee05&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Obama</a> expanded one, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, last year.
The Pacific monuments cover more than 330,000 square miles of ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The rules for each differ slightly, though typically commercial fishing and resource extraction such as drilling and mining are prohibited, NOAA said.
NOAA plans to hold a town hall meeting in Providence on Tuesday to discuss possible protections for three of the deep-sea canyons and four seamounts, which it says "create unique habitats supporting tremendous biodiversity and fragile ecosystems."
There are two more canyons that are not contiguous to the three mentioned by NOAA. Conservationists and other supporters plan to attend the meeting at the Providence Marriott Downtown to press for all five canyons, the four nearby seamounts and Cashes Ledge to be included, said Roger Fleming, a staff attorney at Earthjustice. The Conservation Law Foundation, National Geographic Society, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other groups support the proposal.
"These are some of the last places that haven't been spoiled by fishing and human development," said Peter Baker, who directs U.S. Oceans, Northeast for Pew. "We're hopeful this is the right time, for the right places, for the right reasons."
Groups representing the fishing industry have taken issue with the project as a whole, but there appears to be more opposition to protecting Cashes Ledge than the more remote canyons and seamounts.
Robert Vanasse, executive director of the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, said the monument proposal overlooks existing protections for Cashes Ledge and would remove local and expert input from the process. Bottom trawling and dredging have been banned there for more than a decade.
"There shouldn't be a couple of people sitting around a table in the West Wing deciding this kind of thing," Vanasse said.
Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for a scallop industry trade organization, the Fisheries Survival Fund, also said that using an executive action is the "wrong way" to protect these areas because there is already a democratic process in place, and he worries about the precedent it would set.
Federal fishery regulators already voted in June to keep Cashes Ledge mostly closed to fishing. And the New England Fishery Management Council also plans to discuss protecting deep-sea corals from fishing gear at a meeting this month.
But conservationists argue that both sites deserve permanent, comprehensive protections before it's too late, rather than temporary safeguards.
Brooks, of CLF, called such temporary safeguards "tenuous at best."
"There are some places that need to be protected forever," 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.

Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National

. Conservationists Push For Atlantic Ocean National Monument. Undersea ravines...

Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries. California's Sierra Nevada snowpack in 2015 was at the lowest level in the past 500 years, according to a new report led by University of Arizona researchers.

The team's research is the first to show how the 2015 snowpack compares with snowpack levels for the previous five centuries. Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries

"Our study really points to the extreme character of the 2014-15 winter. This is not just unprecedented over 80 years — it's unprecedented over 500 years," said Valerie Trouet, an associate professor of dendrochronology at the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

"We should be prepared for this type of snow drought to occur much more frequently because of rising temperatures," Trouet said. "Anthropogenic warming is making the drought more severe."

California's current record-setting drought began in 2012, the researchers note in their report.

On April 1 of this year, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared the first-ever mandatory water restrictions throughout the state while standing on dry ground at 6,800-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada. The historical average snowpack on that site is more than five feet, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

The lack of snow in 2015 stems from extremely low winter precipitation combined with record high temperatures in California in January, February and March, Trouet said. About 80 percent of California's precipitation occurs in the winter months, she said. Snowpack level is generally measured on April 1 each year, a time when the snowpack is at its peak.

"Snow is a natural storage system," Trouet said. "In a summer-dry climate such as California, it's important that you can store water and access it in the summer when there's no precipitation."

In past years, the snows of the Sierra Nevada slowly melted during the warmer months of the year, and the meltwater replenished streams, lakes, groundwater and reservoirs. In a winter with less snow or with winter precipitation coming as rain rather than snow, there is less water to use during California's dry summers.

First author Soumaya Belmecheri said of the extremely low snowpack in 2015, "This has implications not only for urban water use, but also for wildfires."

Belmecheri is a postdoctoral research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

To determine snowpack levels for the past 500 years, Trouet and her colleagues used previously published tree-ring data that reflects annual winter precipitation in central California from 1405 to 2005 and annual snowpack measurements since the 1930s. The team also used a previously published reconstruction of winter temperatures in southern and central California that spanned the years 1500 to 1980.

Trouet, Belmecheri and their colleagues' report, "Multi-century evaluation of Sierra Nevada snowpack," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Climate Change today.

---

<a href="http://www.arizona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Arizona</a>

Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries. California's Sierra Nevada snowpack in 2015 was at the lowest level in the past 500 years, according to a new report led by University of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/arizona-rock-will-help-solve-mysteries-of-the-triassic/">Arizona</a> researchers.

The team's research is the first to show how the 2015 snowpack compares with snowpack levels for the previous five centuries.

"Our study really points to the extreme character of the 2014-15 winter. This is not just unprecedented over 80 years — it's unprecedented over 500 years," said Valerie Trouet, an associate professor of dendrochronology at the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

"We should be prepared for this type of snow drought to occur much more frequently because of rising temperatures," Trouet said. "Anthropogenic warming is making the drought more severe." Sierra Nevada Snowpack Lowest In Five Centuries

<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=california&amp;cvid=42ddcce1f79a44b18dae1ba270d405cb&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">California's</a> current record-setting drought began in 2012, the researchers note in their report.

On April 1 of this year, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared the first-ever mandatory water restrictions throughout the state while standing on dry ground at 6,800-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada. The historical average snowpack on that site is more than five feet, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

The lack of snow in 2015 stems from extremely low winter precipitation combined with record high temperatures in California in January, February and March, Trouet said. About 80 percent of California's precipitation occurs in the winter months, she said. Snowpack level is generally measured on April 1 each year, a time when the snowpack is at its peak.

"Snow is a natural storage system," Trouet said. "In a summer-dry climate such as California, it's important that you can store water and access it in the summer when there's no precipitation."

In past years, the snows of the Sierra Nevada slowly melted during the warmer months of the year, and the meltwater replenished streams, lakes, groundwater and reservoirs. In a winter with less snow or with winter precipitation coming as rain rather than snow, there is less water to use during California's dry summers.

First author Soumaya Belmecheri said of the extremely low snowpack in 2015, "This has implications not only for urban water use, but also for wildfires."

Belmecheri is a postdoctoral research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

To determine snowpack levels for the past 500 years, Trouet and her colleagues used previously published tree-ring data that reflects annual winter precipitation in central California from 1405 to 2005 and annual snowpack measurements since the 1930s. The team also used a previously published reconstruction of winter temperatures in southern and central California that spanned the years 1500 to 1980.

Trouet, Belmecheri and their colleagues' report, "Multi-century evaluation of Sierra Nevada snowpack," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Climate Change today.

---

<a href="http://www.arizona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Arizona</a>

Dealing With Climate Change Among Communities In Africa. Experts should take note of local knowledge and beliefs when making plans about how to help people in vulnerable regions cope with the impacts of climate change in Africa. This will ensure that such interventions are money well spent, and are not culturally insensitive, advises Conor Murphy of Ireland's Maynooth University. Together with an interdisciplinary research team from universities in Malawi, Zambia and Ireland he interviewed community members in rural Malawi and Zambia to assess how well they are able to adapt to the way they produce food within the context of shifting belief systems and climate change. The findings are published in Springer's journal Climatic Change. Dealing With Climate Change Among Communities In Africa

On a global scale, vulnerability to climate change tends to be greatest in parts of the world where religion is most important in daily life. In a vulnerable area such as sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, Christians have increased 70-fold and Muslims 20-fold over the past century. Traditional beliefs and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) rooted within an ancestral spirit-world however continue to influence the day-to-day lives especially of rural communities. Religious beliefs are an important element of culture, but are not always static.

Such shifting belief systems influence how people respond and adapt to important issues such as the challenges relating to climate change. The research team interviewed members of two rural communities in Africa: Bolero in Malawi and Monze in Zambia. Christianity and traditional beliefs co-exist within these communities. The researchers assessed how holding multiple belief systems influences the ability of these communities to produce food and adapt to the impact of changing climates.

In Bolero, a smooth co-existence and integration was observed between traditional and Christian beliefs and practices. Faith-based organizations have helped community members to better understand what causes climate variability in their area. Previously, this was associated with punishment from ancestral spirits.

In Monze, by contrast, tensions were experienced when livelihood decisions were made based on the practice of rain rituals. Traditional practices and worshipping of ancestral spirits were seen as evil by Christian religions. Elders blamed recent failures of rainfall on a lack of adherence to traditional beliefs by younger generations. In both communities, elders were concerned that changing beliefs are affecting the way people use traditional ecological knowledge management practices.

"Culture, when approached through the lens of religious beliefs and practices, plays an important role in adaptive capacity, but is not static," reminds Prof. Olusegun Yerokun of Mulungushi University, co-author of the paper. "The manner by which communities holding multiple belief systems are able to adapt is largely determined by the manner in which belief systems co-exist, and how different knowledge forms are valued, accepted and integrated."

"As climate services become the focus of research and government interventions in vulnerable regions, avoiding culturally and economically expensive mal-adaptation will require giving attention to the complexity and dynamism of such changing religious landscapes," Murphy advises.

---

<a href="http://www.springer.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Springer</a>

Dealing With Climate Change Among Communities In Africa

Dealing With Climate Change Among Communities In Africa. Experts should...

Decision Expected Soon On Endangered Status Of American Eels. Fishermen benefiting from booming prices for American eels are squirming about a decision expected this month on whether to list the fish under the Endangered Species Act.
An environmental advocacy group wants the federal government to list the American eel as threatened, giving the fish protections that would greatly limit fishermen's ability to pursue and catch them.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision about protecting the eels will likely come toward the end of September, said Steven Shepard, a spokesman for the agency. Decision Expected Soon On Endangered Status Of American Eels
The decision will come as the market for baby eels, called elvers, is booming. In Maine, which has by far the most lucrative eel fishery in the country, elvers were worth more than $2,100 per pound in 2015 after being worth less than $100 per pound in 2009. The elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity and use them as food, including sushi.
The Fresno, Calif.-based Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy &amp; Reliability says the eels have lost more than 80 percent of their habitat, largely due to dams that impede <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/human-migrations-to-the-ryukyu-islands-were-led-by-explorers-not-drifters/">migration</a>, and suffer from too much commercial fishing pressure. The group, which was called the Council For Endangered Species Act Reliability at the time of the petition, also states that the eels' population is "declining catastrophically," as are other eel species worldwide.
"In our time this species has been going through a dramatic decline with very little regulatory oversight," said Rob Roy Ramey, a science adviser to the petitioners. "They're slimy, they're odd looking, they're eels. They're not warm and fuzzy and charismatic - this is like the passenger pigeon of our time."
American eels range from Greenland to Venezuela, hatch their young in the Sargasso Sea, and are the subject of commercial fishing in several <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=east+coast&amp;cvid=6129c6dbf55d48fda65dc53a5ee0bbba&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">East Coast</a> states. Their value rarely exceeded $3 million per year from 1950 to 2010 before it ballooned to more than $40 million in 2012, largely buoyed by Maine's elver fishery. Value has waned somewhat in more recent years, in part due to a quota system and other controls, but remains far above historical averages.
Only Maine and South Carolina fishermen harvest elvers, and South Carolina's fishery is much smaller. Several other states have fisheries for older eels, including Maryland, Virginia and Delaware.
Darrell Young, who co-directs the Maine Elver Fishermen's Association and has fished for elvers for more than 20 years, said he is hoping the eels aren't listed under the Endangered Species Act. He said some opponents of fishing assume eels are imperiled because Maine fishermen failed to reach their elver quota in 2015, and he thinks that opinion is misguided.
Fishermen didn't reach their quota this year because the cold weather shortened the spring fishing season, Young said.
"After the season closed this year, there were plenty of eels running up the brooks," Young said. "There's going to be plenty of adult eels running out to the Sargasso Sea."
American eels have become more valuable in recent years largely because of a sharp decline in their population across Europe in the 1990s.
Regulators in Maine are monitoring the federal government's decision about whether to protect eels, but won't have a comment until a decision is made, said Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the state's Department of Marine Resources.
© 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.

Decision Expected Soon On Endangered Status Of American Eels

Decision Expected Soon On Endangered Status Of American Eels. Fishermen...

Dealing With Climate Change Among Communities In Africa. Experts should take note of local knowledge and beliefs when making plans about how to help people in vulnerable regions cope with the impacts of climate change in Africa. This will ensure that such interventions are money well spent, and are not culturally insensitive, advises Conor Murphy of Ireland's Maynooth University. Together with an interdisciplinary research team from universities in Malawi, Zambia and Ireland he interviewed community members in rural Malawi and <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/fires-in-zambia/">Zambia</a> to assess how well they are able to adapt to the way they produce food within the context of shifting belief systems and climate change. The findings are published in Springer's journal Climatic Change.

On a global scale, vulnerability to climate change tends to be greatest in parts of the world where religion is most important in daily life. In a vulnerable area such as sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, Christians have increased 70-fold and Muslims 20-fold over the past century. Traditional beliefs and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) rooted within an ancestral spirit-world however continue to influence the day-to-day lives especially of rural communities. Religious beliefs are an important element of culture, but are not always static.

Such shifting belief systems influence how people respond and adapt to important issues such as the challenges relating to climate change. The research team interviewed members of two rural communities in Africa: Bolero in Malawi and Monze in Zambia. Christianity and traditional beliefs co-exist within these communities. The researchers assessed how holding multiple belief systems influences the ability of these communities to produce food and adapt to the impact of changing climates.

In Bolero, a smooth co-existence and integration was observed between traditional and Christian beliefs and practices. Faith-based organizations have helped community members to better understand what causes climate variability in their area. Previously, this was associated with punishment from ancestral spirits.

In Monze, by contrast, tensions were experienced when livelihood decisions were made based on the practice of rain rituals. Traditional practices and worshipping of ancestral spirits were seen as evil by Christian religions. Elders blamed recent failures of rainfall on a lack of adherence to traditional beliefs by younger generations. In both communities, elders were concerned that changing beliefs are affecting the way people use traditional ecological knowledge management practices.

"Culture, when approached through the lens of religious beliefs and practices, plays an important role in adaptive capacity, but is not static," reminds Prof. Olusegun Yerokun of Mulungushi University, co-author of the paper. "The manner by which communities holding multiple belief systems are able to adapt is largely determined by the manner in which belief systems co-exist, and how different knowledge forms are valued, accepted and integrated."

"As climate services become the focus of research and government interventions in vulnerable regions, avoiding culturally and economically expensive mal-adaptation will require giving attention to the complexity and dynamism of such changing religious landscapes," Murphy advises.

---

<a href="http://www.springer.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Springer</a>

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



---



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;



---



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;



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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;



---



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.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

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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



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

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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?

[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



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.

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



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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

[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...