Have you ever wondered how malignancies like cancer grow, evolve, and, most importantly, how we can stop them? The answer may be hidden within the microscopic world of our cells.



This year, the World Health Organization has reported that cancer afflicted over 20 million people and claimed nearly 10 million lives. The search for an effective cure is a race against time, and two bright minds from Texas A&amp;M University have brought us a step closer to the finish line.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-environment-around-cancer-cells">Environment around cancer cells</h2>



Graduate students Samere Zade and Ting-Ching Wang from <a href="https://www.tamu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Texas A&amp;M University</a>, working under the guidance of the Lele Lab, have uncovered valuable insights into <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-is-the-next-frontier-in-cancer-treatment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cancer’s progression</a>.



The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals how the stiffening of a tumor cell’s environment influences the structure and function of its nucleus. This offers a new perspective on why cancer cells proliferate so aggressively.



“Cancer has proven to be a difficult disease to treat. It is extremely complex, and the molecular mechanisms that enable tumor progression are not understood,” explained Dr. Tanmay Lele, a joint faculty member in biomedical and chemical engineering. 



“Our findings shed new light into how the stiffening of tumor tissue can promote tumor cell proliferation.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-stiffness-and-cancer-cell-proliferation">Stiffness and cancer cell proliferation</h2>



The study highlights how tumor <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-cooking-oils-in-your-diet-may-be-linked-to-cancer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cells</a> respond to stiff surroundings. The nuclear lamina, which is like a support structure for the cell's nucleus, becomes smoother and tighter when the cell interacts with a stiff environment. 



This happens because the cell spreads out on the rigid surface, causing changes in the nucleus's structure.



As a result, a specific protein called yes-associated protein (YAP) moves into the nucleus. YAP plays a crucial role in controlling how cells multiply. Once inside the nucleus, YAP activates processes that make the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/molecular-fingerprints-could-be-key-to-early-cancer-detection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cancer</a> cells grow and divide more rapidly, contributing to the aggressive spread of the tumor.



“The ability of stiff matrices to influence nuclear tension and regulate YAP localization could help explain how tumors become more aggressive and perhaps even resistant to treatment in stiffened tissues,” said Zade.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-structural-integrity-of-the-cell-nucleus">Structural integrity of the cell nucleus</h2>



This discovery expands on earlier research by the Lele Lab, which showed that the cell nucleus acts similarly to a liquid droplet. Just like a droplet maintains its shape due to surface tension, the nucleus relies on a protein called lamin A/C in its nuclear lamina to preserve its structural integrity.



In the new study, researchers found that lamin A/C not only helps maintain the nucleus shape but also plays a key role in regulating cancer cell <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/simple-lifestyle-changes-could-prevent-half-of-all-cancer-deaths/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">growth</a>.



When lamin A/C levels are reduced, it disrupts the ability of the yes-associated protein (YAP) to move into the nucleus. 



Since YAP is responsible for promoting cell multiplication, this reduction in lamin A/C limits YAP activity in the nucleus, slowing down the rapid proliferation of cancer cells. This finding suggests that lamin A/C could be a potential target for cancer treatments.



“The protein lamin A/C plays a key role here - reducing it made cells less responsive to environmental stiffness, particularly affecting the localization of a key regulatory protein (YAP) to the nucleus,” Zade explained.



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



The implications of this research extend beyond academic understanding. By uncovering how matrix stiffness drives nuclear changes and regulates pathways like YAP signaling, the findings open the door to innovative cancer treatments.



“Uncovering how matrix stiffness drives nuclear changes and regulates key pathways, like YAP signaling, opens the door to developing therapies that target these mechanical pathways,” said Zade. 



“Drugs or treatments could be designed to soften the tumor environment, disrupting the physical cues that help cancer cells thrive. Lamin A/C and related nuclear mechanics could become targets for cancer treatments.”



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



The <a href="https://lelelab.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lele Lab</a> plans to expand its research by investigating the extent to which these findings apply to tumors derived from patients. This step could bridge the gap between lab-based discoveries and practical treatments, bringing hope to millions affected by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ketogenic-diet-may-help-the-body-kill-cancer-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cancer</a>.



This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, and the National Science Foundation. The Texas A&amp;M Engineering Experiment Station administered the funding, highlighting the institution’s commitment to innovative cancer research.



Through their meticulous study of nuclear mechanics and tumor stiffness, the researchers at the Lele Lab have paved the way for new avenues in cancer treatment. 



The findings highlight the importance of targeting the physical microenvironment of cancer cells, offering a fresh perspective in the fight against one of humanity’s most challenging diseases.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54577-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



-----



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Microscopic discovery reveals how cancer cells grow faster

Have you ever wondered how malignancies like cancer grow, evolve, and, most importantly, how we can stop them? The answer may be hidden within the microscopic world of our cells. This year, the World Health Organization has reported that cancer afflicted over 20 million people and claimed nearly 10 million lives. The search for an effective cure is a race against time, and two bright minds from Texas A&amp;M University have brought us a step closer to the finish line. Environment around cancer cells Graduate students Samere...

<div>Ocean acidification makes smaller fish more vulnerable to predation. Much of the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere, released from burning fossil fuels, is taken up by the oceans. Yet the dissolved CO2 increases the acidity of the water, with inevitable impacts on fragile marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. Researchers at KAUST are conducting genomic experiments on generations of reef fish to determine how they might adapt to rapidly changing conditions.</div>
<div>

Fish rely on certain behaviors to avoid predation and ensure their populations are replenished. Scientists have noticed that, under higher CO2 conditions, young fish lose the ability to respond to cues from other fish, leaving them vulnerable to predation. Such behavioral changes are detrimental to the fish population; if they are to survive in altered environments then they need to be able to adapt.

Tracking changes in the genome in subsequent generations provides insights into how such adaptations occur. Timothy Ravasi, his postdoc Celia Schunter and co-workers from the Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division analyzed genetic data from parent and juvenile damselfish (Acanthochromis polyacanthus) to see how the fish reacted to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/ocean-tides-earthquakes/">ocean</a> acidification.

"We developed a unique fish-rearing experiment that allowed us to measure the effects of ocean acidification across generations," says Ravasi. "By combining data from the genome with information about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">RNA</a> and protein expression, we were able to uncover the transgenerational molecular responses of the fish's brains."

After rearing wild-type damselfish in captivity, the team separated adult fish into two groups; those that were naturally tolerant of high CO2, and those that were sensitive to it. Their offspring were raised in the same CO2 conditions as their parents--either at current pH levels or at near-future levels with higher CO2.

The immense amount of sequencing data generated in the project was unprecedented for a wild-type organism, and took the team considerable time to analyze.

The researchers found many molecular differences between the tolerant and sensitive offspring, including alterations to both genes and protein expression. Significantly, the main differences involved changes to the circadian rhythm genes in the tolerant offspring, a finding that Ravasi had not anticipated.

"In all coral reefs, CO2 levels naturally fluctuate between day and night due to coral symbiont photosynthesis," explained Ravasi "Reef fish adjust their bodies to compensate for elevated night-time CO2, and of course, this is controlled by circadian rhythm. It seems the tolerant offspring may have adjusted their circadian clocks as if it was always night!"

Ravasi's team was recently awarded a grant for expansion of their project to investigate the mechanisms behind these findings.


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Ocean acidification makes smaller fish more vulnerable to predation

Ocean acidification makes smaller fish more vulnerable to predation. Much...

160195843

<div>Mountain ranges are bound to experience climate change differently. Different mountain ranges are bound to experience climate change differently. Researchers from ETH Zurich and Utrecht University have shown this to be the case in a recent study, which was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and published in the specialist journal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">PNAS.</a> In the course of their study, the researchers examined the full water balance of two comparable mountainous regions - one in Nepal, the other in Chile - in the context of climate change.</div>
<div>

To calculate and compare each region's water balance, the researchers created a new and very extensive model of the upper Langtang valley in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/measure-mount-everest-shrunk/">Nepal</a> and the Juncal region of the central Andes in Chile. Both are important water catchment areas for the millions of people who live in the surrounding lowlands. The areas being studied feature peaks that ascend to over 6,000 metres and also glaciers. Climate models for the remainder of the century indicate that both regions will experience similar increases in annual mean temperatures - the milder scenarios predict a rise of one to three degrees, the more extreme as much as four to six degrees. Mountain ranges are bound to experience climate change differently

Drier, and less river discharge

Using their model, the researchers can now show that despite these similarities, the water balance in the two regions is likely to develop differently.

The Juncal region is set to become even drier in the future. During the dry season, which is already quite long, river water will become scarce. According to their calculations, the researchers still expect water discharge to remain at current levels in the period from 2010 to 2030. However, after that, there will be a steady decline in the amount of water available. So in an extreme scenario, water discharge from the entire catchment area in the Juncal region could shrink to a third of the current level by the year 2100.

Over in the upper Langtang valley, the picture looks quite different. Using data from 2001 to 2010 as a comparison, all climate scenarios indicate that in the first half of this century, water discharge will increase; in the extreme scenario, by as much as 70 percent. Maximum discharge could be reached by around 2050 to 2060, after which discharge is expected to remain the same or drop steadily as we move towards the year 2100.

Glaciers are key for discharge levels

Just how much water is carried by streams and rivers ultimately depends on the fates of the local glaciers. Glaciers in both test areas are going to shrink. Depending on the climate scenario, those in the Juncal region could diminish by up to 70 percent; in Langtang, the more extreme predictions indicate a loss of "only" 55 percent.

In turn, the different degrees of glacial melt will also lead to differing scenarios in terms of water discharge: in Langtang, the proportion of glacial melt in the discharge will increase and peak by 2050 before receding. In Juncal, glacial melt already peaked before 2010, and now the proportion of discharge from glacial melt is dropping steadily - a trend that is set to continue until the end of the century.

The researchers put this down to the fact that the two glaciers are not at the same distance above sea level. In Langtang, many glaciers are situated at very high altitudes. Once they melt at some point in the future, this meltwater will then replace that which today comes from glaciers lower down. What's more, the tongues of many glaciers in Langtang are covered in massive layers of rock debris; these insulate the glaciers, which then recede less quickly. In Juncal, however, the highest glaciers are already melting, as they are situated lower than those in the Himalayas.

Increased rain and less snow are leading to floods and seasonal dry spells

The new model also indicates that Langtang could be in for increased rainfall in the future, which will exacerbate the effect the increasing glacier melt is having on water discharge. But this is not the case in Chile, where the drought in the summer months of December to March will get worse. Today, farmers in Chile's most fertile regions use meltwater to irrigate their fields. "If the upper basins of rivers deliver less water in the future, it will be essential to take action to encourage conservation of the country's water reserves," says corresponding author Silvan Ragettli, post-doctoral student at the Institute of Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich.

In contrast, efforts in the Nepalese Himalayas will have to focus on flood management. Climate change will mean higher snow lines. This will increase the amount of rain that falls in high elevations. "Increased precipitation in the form of rain means that water runs off immediately, which in turn can lead to massive flooding," says Ragettli.

New model also enables regional predictions

"What's new and unique about our model is that it can realistically illustrate many different processes," says Ragettli. For instance, it can take into account a whole range of factors that are decisive for hydrology, such as rain and snow volume, evaporation, groundwater and also the ways in which glaciers expand and experience changes in volume. In their intensive field work, the researchers gathered local measurement data so they could create the model for the areas they are studying. This enables them to make precise predictions for how the water balance is likely to shift.

The researchers began their study back in 2005, when they made the first ETH expedition to the Chilean Andes. Measurement work began in the Langtang valley in 2012 in collaboration with Utrecht University and ICIMOD, an international organisation based in Kathmandu that is committed to sustainable development in the Himalayan region. Up to now, there has been no systematic collection of climate and water measurement data in either test region, which is why the researchers first had to establish measurement stations there.

The Andes and the Himalayas were chosen because existing models for these regions were very imprecise. The study the researchers have now published showed that the previous models were too rough to provide reliable projections for the mountainous regions that surround urban centres in Chile and Nepal.
###
Reference

Ragettli S, Immerzeel WW, Pellicciotti F: Contrasting climate change impact on river flows from high-altitude catchments in the Himalayan and Andes Mountains, PNAS, 1 August 2016, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1606526113 [<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1606526113" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1606526113</a>]

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Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Mountain ranges are bound to experience climate change differently

Mountain ranges are bound to experience climate change differently. Different...

<div>NASA historic flooding in Maryland NASA analyzed rainfall data from slow-moving storms and flooding in Maryland that triggered flash floods over parts of central Maryland and caused devastating flooding in historic Ellicott City, Maryland.</div>
<div>

A slow-moving line of heavy thunderstorms dumped as much as 6 to 7 inches of rain in about two hours' time during the evening of Saturday, July 30, over parts of Howard County in central Maryland, resulting in severe local flash <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/high-tide-flooding-will-rapidly-increase-along-the-u-s-coastline/">flooding</a>. North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be described as the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=north%20america&amp;qs=n&amp;form=QBRE&amp;sp=-1&amp;pq=&amp;sc=0-0&amp;sk=&amp;cvid=2A486C7EEB7F4DC9A48B1971A274D39A">northern</a> subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Because it is on the North American Tectonic Plate, Greenland is included as part of North America geographically. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), about 16.5% of the Earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface. North America is the third-largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa,

The hardest hit area was the historic town of Ellicott City, where two people were trapped in their cars and drowned. The town suffered substantial damage to many buildings, numerous cars were tossed about, and around 150 people had to be rescued from the downtown area. The heavy rains and flooding were a result of successive waves of rather slow moving storms that merged over the area.

NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) in Baltimore issued a public information statement about the flooding on July 31, calling it "historic heavy rainfall Saturday in Ellicott City." NWS noted that extremely heavy rain fell and a rain gauge provided by Howard County to the National Weather Service measured 6.5 inches.

A warm, humid air mass, a stationary frontal boundary, and rather weak winds aloft set the stage for the slow-moving storms. Earlier in the afternoon, storms formed up and organized along the Appalachian Mountains before moving slowly out across the Piedmont. The Piedmont is a plateau area between the Atlantic coastal plain and the Appalachians.

&nbsp;

This slow-moving line triggered new storms along its leading edge and was eventually overtaken by a second line of successive storms moving out from the Appalachians. The result was a mass of heavy raining thunderstorms across central Maryland that slowing moved eastward before weakening over the northern Chesapeake Bay.

NASA's Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM, or IMERG, is used to make estimates of precipitation from a combination of passive microwave sensors, including the GMI microwave sensor on board the GPM, or Global Precipitation Measurement, mission satellite, and geostationary IR (infrared) data. These data were used to create images and animations at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

One image created showed instantaneous IMERG-estimated rainfall rates at 8 p.m. EDT on July 30 (12 a.m. UTC on July 31), 2016. IMERG showed a strong band of heavy rain extending east-west over north-central Maryland extending southwestward into northern Virginia. Within this band, rain rates are generally on the order of an inch per hour with localized areas of higher rates.

IMERG was also used to estimate rainfall totals for the period from July 20 at 4 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. UTC) to July 31 at 6 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. UTC). Rainfall totals across central Maryland were on the order of more than 3 inches (70 mm).

On Aug. 1, 2016, because of the severity of the flooding, Howard County Maryland Executive Allan H. Kittleman signed an executive order closing a portion of Ellicott City to all but emergency vehicle and pedestrian traffic. For updated information from Howard County, visit: <a href="https://www.howardcountymd.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.howardcountymd.gov/</a>.


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NASA historic flooding in Maryland

NASA historic flooding in Maryland NASA analyzed rainfall data from...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">NASA's</a> Aqua satellite provided forecasters with visible and infrared imagery of Tropical Storm Howard as it continued moving west through the waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Aug. 1 and 2.</div>
On Aug. 1 at 5:55 p.m. EDT (9:55 p.m. UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of<a href="http://www.earth.com/image/tropical-storm-imelda-brings-extreme-rainfall-to-texas/"> Tropical Storm</a> Howard in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The image showed the bulk of thunderstorms east of the center of circulation. The image was created by NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Tropical Storm Howard continues moving west

Aqua's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, instrument gathered infrared data on the storm and vicinity on Aug. 2, 2016, at 6:05 a.m. EDT (10:05 a.m. UTC). AIRS data measured temperatures in Howard's cloud top and the surrounding sea surface.

AIRS data showed that Howard's center is now moving over sea surface temperatures between 77 and 78.8 F (25 and 26 C). The National Hurricane Center noted that Howard should reach waters cooler than 75.2 F (24 C) in about 24 hours.

AIRS data showed Howard's coldest cloud top temperatures were still in excess of minus 63 F (minus 53 C) indicating strong storms with the potential to generate heavy rain.

At 11 a.m. EDT (3 p.m. UTC) on Aug. 2, 2016, the center of Tropical Storm Howard was located near 18.8 degrees north latitude and 128.9 degrees west longitude. That's about 1,255 miles (2,025 km) west of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Because Howard is far from land, there are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph (95 kph) with higher gusts. Gradual weakening is forecast to begin by tonight and Wednesday. The estimated minimum central pressure is 999 millibars.

Howard was moving toward the west-northwest near 15 mph (24 kph), and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that this general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days.

Although Howard is moving over cooler waters, vertical wind shear isn't expected to become very strong for another couple of days, so NHC forecasts gradual weakening.


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Tropical Storm Howard continues moving west

NASA's Aqua satellite provided forecasters with visible and infrared imagery...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">NASA's</a> Terra satellite flew over Typhoon Nida shortly after it made landfall just north of Hong Kong.</div>
On Aug. 1 at 11p.m. EDT (Aug. 2 3 a.m. UTC) the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued its final bulletin on Typhoon Nida. By that time, Nida had already made landfall and was located about 49 nautical miles northwest of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/hong-kong-japan-iceland-human-development/">Hong Kong</a>, near 22.8 degrees north latitude and 113.5 degrees east longitude. Nida was moving to the west-northwest. Maximum sustained winds were near 74.8 mph (65 knots/120.4 kph) making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale.

At 11:05 p.m. EDT (Aug. 2 at 3:05 a.m. UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Typhoon Nida after it made landfall near Hong Kong, China. The image showed the center of Nida north of Hong Kong, and the eye had become cloud-filled. A strong band of thunderstorms extended to the southwest of the center to Hainan Island.

By 4 p.m. Hong Kong local time on Aug. 2, Nida had weakened to a tropical storm. Nida was located 149 miles (240 km) northwest of Hong Kong and forecast to move to the northwest. Hong Kong Observatory will cancel warnings later today, but advises residents to stay away from the shoreline. To hear the forecast from Aug. 2, 2016, visit: <a href="http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/briefing/report_e.mp3?20160802121504" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/briefing/report_e.mp3?20160802121504</a>.

Nida made landfall near Hong Kong and no major damage was reported in the city. The Hong Kong Observatory reported that some areas of the city noted reports of winds of up to 90 mph (145 kph).

The storm is moving to inland areas of Guangdong and further inland where it is expected to dissipate.


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Typhoon Nida makes landfall north of Hong Kong

NASA's Terra satellite flew over Typhoon Nida shortly after it...

<div>The diversity of climates in mountain landscapes means that when temperatures rise, organisms might have to only move a short distance to get to a cooler home.. New research by University of <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/montana-valley-and-foothill-grasslands/">Montana</a> forest landscape ecology Professor Solomon Dobrowski shows that organisms will face more hardships as they relocate when climate change makes their current homes uninhabitable.</div>
<div>

Dobrowski and co-author Sean Parks -- a scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Aldo Leopold Research Institute and a UM alumnus -- propose a new method to model how fast and where organisms will need to move to keep pace with climate change. Study: Mountain landscapes are extremely vulnerable to climate change

Mountains support roughly a quarter of the globe's terrestrial biodiversity, contain about a third of its protected areas and house nearly half of the world's biodiversity hotspots. One reason for this biodiversity is that complex topography within mountains creates diverse climates within close proximity to one another.

One way scientists measure how vulnerable a site is to climate change is to estimate how far organisms at that site need to move to maintain a consistent temperature as the Earth warms. The diversity of climates in mountain landscapes means that when temperatures rise, organisms might have to only move a short distance to get to a cooler home.

However, Dobrowksi and Parks show that measuring the distance from one area of suitable climate to the next doesn't account for the resistance organisms will encounter as they traverse areas with very different climates, like a warm valley between two mountain peaks.

"It's not enough to just measure how far an organism will have to move in order to keep up with climate change," Dobrowski said. "We also need to look at how much organisms will be exposed to dissimilar climates along the way. Once we do that, we find that even short movements in mountainous areas expose organisms to large climate differences. This may prevent plants and animals from being able to maintain a suitable climate as the earth warms."

Dobrowski and Parks suggest that areas within mountains are more climatically isolated and thus more vulnerable to climate change than previously reported.
###
Their paper "Climate change velocity underestimates climate change exposure in mountainous regions" was published Aug. 1 in Nature Communications. It is available online at <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160801/ncomms12349/full/ncomms12349.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160801/ncomms12349/full/ncomms12349.html</a>.

</div>

Study: Mountain landscapes are extremely vulnerable to climate change

The diversity of climates in mountain landscapes means that when...

<div class="img-wrapper">Tree cover on agricultural land has increased across the globe. While tropical forests continued to decline, a remarkable change is happening: tree cover on agricultural land has increased across the globe, capturing nearly 0.75 Gigatonnes carbon dioxide every year. A new study titled <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep29987" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land: The contribution of agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets"</a> provides insights into the patterns of this tremendous change at global, regional and national scales.</div>
According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), agriculture and land-use change account for about 24% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change will also have strong impacts on food security in the long-term. Therefore agriculture needs to reduce its climate footprint. But a recent study has shown that the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from crop and livestock production is limited. At the same time, large forest areas, primarily in the tropics, are still being converted into agricultural land to feed the world's growing population.

For these reasons, agricultural practices that can significantly reduce carbon emissions are in high demand.

Trees on agricultural lands - also known as agroforestry systems - have the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation while improving livelihoods and incomes and providing invaluable ecosystem services at the same time. The World Bank estimates that globally 1.2 billion people depend on agroforestry farming systems, especially in developing countries. However, trees on agricultural lands are not considered in the greenhouse gas accounting framework of the IPCC.

A team of researchers from various institutions in Africa, Asia and Europe carried out a study to assess the role of trees on agricultural land and the amount of carbon they have sequestered from the atmosphere over the past decade. The study, entitled <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep29987" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land: The contribution of agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets"</a>, looks at biomass carbon on agricultural land both globally and by country, and what determines its distribution across different climate zones.

Biomass on agricultural land globally

"Remote sensing data show that in 2010, 43% of all agricultural land globally had at least 10% tree cover, up from eight percent in the preceding decade," said Robert Zomer of the World Agroforestry Centre, lead author of the study. "Given the vast amount of land under agriculture, agroforestry may already significantly contribute to global carbon budgets."

However, regional differences in the trend are significant. The distribution of tree cover on agricultural land depends on climatic conditions in different parts of the world. High tree cover is found in humid areas such as South East Asia, Central America, eastern South America, as well as central and coastal West Africa. Tree cover on agricultural land was moderate in south Asia, sub-humid Africa, central and western Europe, the Amazonia and mid-west North America. On the other hand, low tree cover was found in east China, northwest India, west Asia, the southern border of the Sahara Desert, the prairies of North America and southwest Australia.

Biomass on agricultural land by country

Remarkable differences are noted in changing biomass carbon stocks over time among countries. Brazil, Indonesia, China and India had the largest increases, while Argentina, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone had the largest decreases in biomass carbon stored on agricultural land.

High average carbon mass levels were to be found in 26 countries in the humid tropics, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/indonesian-forests-disturbed-by-humans-are-highly-flammable/">Indonesia</a> in the lead. On the other hand, 60 countries found in arid and desert parts of the world around the Sahara Desert in North Africa, the Kalahari in southern Africa, Middle East, as well as central and southern Asia recorded low carbon levels over the ten-year period. Tree cover on agricultural land has increased across the globe

"Study results show that existing tree cover makes a major contribution to carbon pools on agricultural land, demonstrating the potential to add to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts," said Jianchu Xu of the World Agroforestry Centre. "If tree cover is accounted for, the total carbon stock is over four times higher than when estimated using IPCC tier 1 estimates alone."

Given the large amount of agricultural land where tree cover is below its potential, the study suggests that a huge mitigation potential exists and should be explored more systematically.

"The results of our spatial analysis show that trees on agricultural land sequestered close to 0.75 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide globally per year over the past decade," said Henry Neufeldt, Head of Climate Change research at the World Agroforestry Centre. "If we can harness good policies to enhance positive examples and stop negative trends, trees in agricultural landscapes can play a major role in greenhouse gas mitigation. But no one should say that this is already solving the problem for agricultural emissions as long as we do not know what is actually happening on the ground."
###
Correct citation:

Zomer R J, Neufeldt H, Xu J, Ahrends A, Bossio D, Trabucco A, van Noordwijk M and Wang M. <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep29987" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land: The contribution of agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets"</a>. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 29987 (2016). doi:10.1038/srep29987

Participating institutions

Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming, China

Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), East and Central Asia Region, Kunming, China

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Kenya and Indonesia

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, United Kingdom

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Soils Division, Nairobi, Kenya

Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, IAFES Division, Sassari, Italy

Department of Science for Nature and Environmental Resources (DIPNET), University of Sassari, Italy

Wageningen University and Research, Plant Production Systems, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Tree cover on agricultural land has increased across the globe

Tree cover on agricultural land has increased across the globe....

<div>Study: Soil contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. There is more than twice as much carbon in the planet's soils than there is in its atmosphere, so the loss of even a small proportion of that could have a profound feedback effect on the global climate.</div>
<div>

Yet in its most recent report, in 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) used models that paid less attention to soil carbon potentially entering the atmosphere than had earlier reports, concluding that there simply wasn't enough evidence about how warmer global temperatures might impact soil carbon stocks.Study: Soil contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere

A new Yale-led paper makes the case that developing meaningful climate projections will rely on understanding the role of "soil carbon turnover" and how it might potentially trigger climate feedbacks in a warming world.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, a team of scientists calls for more collaboration between modelers and soil scientists to improve the scientific understanding of the mechanisms that control the creation, stabilization, and decomposition of carbon in the soil.

That in turn will promote the kinds of experiments that will begin to remove uncertainties about the competing mechanisms that drive soil carbon stocks, the researchers write.

While scientists might never eliminate all uncertainty when it comes to evaluating the mechanisms driving changes in soil carbon stocks, new research advances are making it possible to predict the full range of potential outcomes, said Mark Bradford, an Associate Professor of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology at the Yale School of Forestry &amp; Environmental Studies (F&amp;ES) and lead author of the study.

And that, he says, will increase confidence.

"There is so much discussion of uncertainty in the public debate about climate change that the term now seems ambiguous and politically loaded," Bradford said. "The discussion should not be about how much uncertainty there is, but rather about how much confidence we have that the real planetary response lies somewhere in the range of projected uncertainty."

"You gain scientific confidence by representing the best -- and sometimes polar opposite -- ideas about the how the world works in your models. If someone tells you they have high confidence that something will happen, you can then take actions based on the best knowledge available."

Warming temperatures can trigger two very different changes in soil carbon soil levels. On the one hand, they can stimulate the growth of plants, increasing the amount of carbon storage potential. Conversely, those higher temperatures can also accelerate the activity of organisms that live in the soil and consume decaying plant matter. In that case, there is a net increase in the amount of <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/carbon-is-the-basis-for-all-life-on-our-planet/">carbon</a> released from the biosphere into the atmosphere.

In other words, one function puts carbon into the soil, keeping it out of the atmosphere, while the other emits it into the atmosphere. The twist, however, is that the processes that emit carbon from the soil also convert a small fraction of the decaying plant matter into stores of carbon that can be locked away over millennial timescales, which would be optimal to minimizing climate impacts.

While scientists have made great advances in understanding how plants will respond, their ability to evaluate how much carbon goes into the soil, and where it ends up, is made difficult because it's not possible to measure directly.

"In the soil, we don't know how things are working because, if you like, it's as clear as mud," Bradford said. "Often we can't measure what we're trying to measure because we can't see the organisms. You have millions of individual microbes -- from thousands of cryptic species -- in just a handful of soil."

For these reasons, he said, much of the understanding of how soil carbon stocks will respond to warming is based only on the outputs, which is like trying to calculate the balance of a bank account based simply on how much money is being withdrawn.

Another complicating factor is that our knowledge of how soil carbon is created and stabilized is undergoing somewhat of a conceptual revolution, and only one set of ideas is represented in the climate models, the new paper says. For decades scientists assumed that carbon entering the soil through materials that are harder to "digest" by microbes -- like, say, wood -- would be more likely to remain in the soil longer.

In recent years, however, there has emerged a growing consensus that carbon is more likely to remain in the soil if it enters through more digestible plant matter -- a cloverleaf, for instance. "The science has flipped," Bradford said. "The harder it is to digest initially the less of it stays in the soil, whereas the easier it is to be eaten then the more of it stays in the soil."

This is important because it's the easily digestible plant matter -- such as the sugars released from plant roots into the soil -- that likely eventually get converted into the long term stores of soil carbon but they are also the hardest inputs to quantify.

This growing awareness shifts the way scientists view ecosystem management, from thinking about the biomass that you can see aboveground to a focus on thinking about the amount of carbon that can be pumped belowground directly through the roots of the plants and to the organisms in the soils.

Ultimately, Bradford says, it will be impossible to eliminate all uncertainty. But that, he says, is not such a bad thing.

"By increasing our real understanding, we might even end up making our climate projections more uncertain, in terms of a greater range in the extent the planet might warm," he said. "But we'll be more confident that the true answer falls within that range."

"Advancing our confidence and taking necessary actions will ultimately require that we embrace uncertainty as a fact of life."


</div>
<div></div>

Study: Soil contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere

Study: Soil contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere....

Earth's fever got worse last year, breaking dozens of climate records, scientists said in a massive report nicknamed the annual physical for the planet. Earth's annual physical: Fever continues to rise

Soon after 2015 ended, it was proclaimed the hottest on record . The new report shows the broad extent of other records and near-records on the planet's climatic health. Those include record heat energy absorbed by the oceans and lowest groundwater storage levels globally, according to Tuesday's report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"I think the time to call the doctor was years ago," <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">NOAA</a> climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, co-editor of the report, said in an email. "We are awash in multiple symptoms."

The 2015 State of the Climate report examined 50 different aspects of climate , including dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice and glaciers worldwide. A dozen different nations set hottest year records, including Russia and China. South Africa had the hottest temperature ever recorded in the month of October: 119.1 degrees Fahrenheit (48.4 degrees Celsius).

Even though it was a relatively quiet hurricane year in the <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/the-namib-desert-on-the-atlantic-coast/">Atlantic</a>, there were 36 major tropical cyclones worldwide - 15 more than average, said NOAA climate scientist Jessica Blunden, co-editor of the report published Tuesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.Earth's annual physical: Fever continues to rise

And at the heart of the records is that all three major heat-trapping greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - hit record highs in 2015, Blunden said.

"There is really only one word for this parade of shattered climate records: grim," said Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb, who wasn't part of the report, but called it "exhaustive and thorough."

But it's more than just numbers on a graph. Scientists said the turbo-charged climate affected walrus and penguin populations and played a role in dangerous algae blooms, such as one off the Pacific Northwest coast. And there were brutal heat waves all over the world, with ones in Indian and Pakistan killing thousands of people. One-third of Earth's land mass had some kind of drought last year.

Much of the intense record-breaking and record-flirting weather was because of a combination of a natural El Nino - the periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather globally - and ever increasing man-made global warming.

"This impacts people. This is real life," Blunden said.

Oklahoma University meteorology professor Jason Furtado said in an email that the report, which he wasn't part of, illustrates the combined power of nature and humans on Earth's climate: "It was like injecting an already amped-up climate system with a dose of (natural) steroids."

About 450 scientists from around the world helped write the report and in it NOAA highlighted one of the lesser-known measurements, ocean heat content. About 93 percent of the heat energy trapped by greenhouse gases - such as carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas - goes directly into the ocean, the report said. And ocean heat content hit record levels both near the surface and deep.

NOAA oceanographer Gregory C. Johnson, a study co-author, said the oceans are storing more heat energy because of man-made climate change with an extra El Nino spike.

Johnson summed up Earth's climate in a haiku, published deep inside the report:

"El Niño waxes,

warm waters shoal, flow eastward,

Earth's fever rises."

---

Online:

Report: <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams/2015" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams/2015</a>

---

Follow Seth Borenstein at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a> and his work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein</a>

© 2016 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.

Earth's annual physical: Fever continues to rise

Earth's fever got worse last year, breaking dozens of climate...

<div>Early snowmelt reduces CO2 absorption in forests. Early snowmelt periods associated with a warming climate may hinder subalpine forest regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), according to the results of a new University of Colorado Boulder study.</div>
<div>

The findings, which were recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, predict that this shift in the timing of the snowmelt could result in a 45 percent reduction of snowmelt period forest carbon uptake by mid-century.

A separate study, also published in Geophysical Research Letters, found that earlier, slower snowmelt reduces the amount of streamflow, a phenomenon with potentially drastic consequences for agriculture, municipal water supplies and recreational opportunities in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/extra-water-colorado-river-endangered-fish/">Colorado</a> and other areas of the western U.S.

Forests located in seasonally snow-covered areas represent a key terrestrial CO2 sink thanks to the natural photosynthetic processes by which trees uptake carbon. The trees' carbon uptake is restrained during winter, but increases to peak capacity in spring when snowmelt provides sustained water input.

Working at the Niwot Ridge Ameriflux site in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, CU Boulder researchers studied 15 years' worth of snowmelt and atmospheric CO2 data to study the effects of snowmelt periods. The research found that earlier snowmelt periods triggered by climate change align with colder air temperatures, reducing the forests' ability to take CO2 out of the atmosphere.

"This study shows us that, counterintuitively, warming generally causes snow to melt during colder periods of the seasonal temperature cycle due to the effects that warming has on reducing the depth of snowpacks, which causes melt to begin earlier in the year," said Taylor Winchell, a graduate researcher in the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">INSTAAR</a>) and lead author of the study. "The colder temperatures associated with early melt reduce the trees' ability to uptake carbon during the snowmelt period, a key period for seasonal carbon uptake."

"The implications of this research are quite profound as mountains in the western U.S. are an important part of the regional cycling of carbon and water," said Noah Molotch, the director of the Center for Water Earth Science &amp; Technology (CWEST) and a co-author of both new studies. "In this regard, earlier snowmelt will reduce carbon uptake in mountain forests, weakening the ability of forests to offset increases in CO2 associated with human burning of fossil fuels."

Snowmelt also acts as a key hydrological driver for rivers and streams across the state, providing water resources to downstream communities. Previous research has suggested that the timing and rate at which snow melts can impact the amount and quality of water available for vegetation, farming, and fishing.

The researchers used a unique modeling system to study the effects of earlier snowmelt across various regions of western United States including the Cascade range, the Sierra Nevada range, the Wasatch range, and the Rocky Mountains. All of these areas see significant seasonal snow accumulation and generate water resources for downstream communities.

The study results show that earlier, slower snowmelt, triggered by warmer temperatures, reduce streamflow. These slower "trickle" melts reduce percolation in hillslope soil and allow more water to evaporate, resulting in less streamflow overall.

"Of all the regions we studied, streamflow from Colorado's Rocky Mountains is most sensitive to a change in snowmelt," says Theodore Barnhart, a graduate researcher at INSTAAR and lead author of the study. "This analysis suggests that all of the regions studied will experience a decrease in streamflow with a decrease in snowmelt rate, with some regions exhibiting more streamflow sensitivity than others."

"The recent western drought has been accompanied by a snowpack restricted to higher elevations, with a significant effect on the ski industry," says Tom Torgersen, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. "Climate variability also leads to conditions favoring earlier and slower snowmelt, with a decreased and prolonged peak streamflow. This water flow affects mountain fishing and results in less forest growth. The effects of drought and climate variability reach far beyond farm productivity and urban water restrictions."

"Given that 60 million people in the western U.S. depend on snowmelt for their water supply, the future decline in snowmelt-derived streamflow may place additional stress on over-allocated water supplies," said Molotch.

"There is a similar theme in these two studies: 'colder forests in a warmer world' and 'slower snowmelt in a warmer world.' Both phenomena defy expectations," Molotch added. "In this regard, these studies are reshaping the way scientists and land and water managers think about climate change in mountainous regions."
###
Additional co-authors of the study "Earlier snowmelt reduces atmospheric carbon uptake in midlatitude subalpine forests" include David Barnard and Sean Burns of CU Boulder and Russell Monson of the University of Arizona. The work was funded by the NSF, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research Program.

Additional co-authors of the study "Snowmelt rate dictates streamflow" include Ben Livneh of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder; John Knowles and Dominik Schneider of CU Boulder; and Adrian Harpold of the University of Nevada. The work was funded by NSF, with additional assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship.

</div>

Early snowmelt reduces CO2 absorption in forests

Early snowmelt reduces CO2 absorption in forests. Early snowmelt periods...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Tropical Storm Howard and Tropical Depression Ivette. Infrared data from NASA's Terra satellite has revealed that Tropical Storm Howard is weakening quickly as it continues to move over cooler waters in the Eastern <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dust-asia-fertilizes-north-pacific/">Pacific Ocean.</a></div>
On Aug. 3 at 2:35 a.m. EDT (6:35 a.m. UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=modis&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=PF&amp;cvid=58793ca96fb04ccfa017ca18b8813a35&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">MODIS</a>, instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite provided infrared data on Howard. The image showed that strong thunderstorms and deep convection (rising air that forms them) continued to decrease and were limited to northwest and south of the center. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that the strongest storms had become separated from the low-level center of the storm overnight. Tropical Storm Howard and Tropical Depression Ivette

At 5 a.m. EDT (9 a.m. UTC) on Aug. 3, the center of Tropical Storm Howard was located near 20.3 degrees north latitude and 132.6 degrees west longitude. That's about 1,465 miles (2,360 km) west of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Howard was moving toward the west-northwest near 15 mph (24 kph), and this motion should continue through today. A turn toward the west is expected by Thursday. Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 45 mph (75 kph) and is forecast to continue weakening. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1,005 millibars.

In the Tropical Storm Howard Discussion online at 5 a.m. EDT, National Hurricane Center forecaster Daniel Brown said, "The tropical storm should continue to weaken during the next day or so while it moves over cool water and into a drier and more stable environment. Howard is forecast to become a remnant low in 24 to 36 hours, but this could occur sooner if organized deep convection does not redevelop later today."


</div>
<div></div>

Tropical Storm Howard and Tropical Depression Ivette

Tropical Storm Howard and Tropical Depression Ivette. Infrared data from...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Tropical Storm Omais forms in the Northwestern Pacific. The seventh tropical cyclone of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean season formed, and infrared data from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA">NASA</a>'s Aqua satellite showed powerful thunderstorms persisting in the storm's center.</div>
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared temperature data of the newly developed tropical storm on Aug. 4, 2016, at 8:10 a.m. EDT (12:10 p.m. UTC). The<a href="http://www.earth.com/image/winter-caucasus-mountains-russia/"> MODIS</a> data showed cloud top temperatures of strong thunderstorms around the center of circulation as cold as minus 80 F (minus 62.2 C). Temperatures that cold indicate strong uplift in the storm and cloud tops high into the troposphere. NASA research has shown that storms with cloud tops that cold have the ability to generate heavy rain.Tropical Storm Omais forms in the Northwestern Pacific

At 11 a.m. EDT (3 p.m. UTC) on Aug. 4, Tropical Storm Omais had maximum sustained winds near 46 mph (40 knots/74 kph). The storm developed quickly from a low pressure area into a tropical storm. Omais was centered near 19.3 degrees north latitude and 146.2 degrees east longitude, about 223 nautical miles north of Saipan, Northern Marianas Islands, and farther away from Guam. Omais has tracked north-northwestward at 3.4 mph (3 knots/5.5 kph) and is expected to continue in that general direction.

NOAA's National Weather Service Office in Guam has not issued any watches or warnings associated with Omais as the storm is far to the north.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast calls for Omais to move on a northerly track and strengthen to a typhoon by Aug. 6 after passing far to the east of the island of Iwo To, Japan. It is then expected to continue tracking in a northerly direction through the northwestern Pacific Ocean.


</div>
<div></div>

Tropical Storm Omais forms in the Northwestern Pacific

Tropical Storm Omais forms in the Northwestern Pacific. The seventh...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



---



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



---



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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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.

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

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The 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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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.

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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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