Bacterial neighbors can be fierce rivals in their daily scuffle for resources. Some Pseudomonas species use specialized microscopic membrane devices to fight back against competing bacteria.



According to new research, these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-strain-identified-that-can-eat-forever-chemicals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cells</a> react to threats by assembling a precise injection tool inside their outer shell. 



This work comes from the lab of <a href="https://www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/about/administration/administration-a-z/overview/unit/research-group-marek-basler" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Professor Marek Basler</a> at the Biozentrum, University of Basel.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-tiny-spearguns-matter">Why tiny spearguns matter</h2>



These weapon-like structures are known as the type VI secretion system (<a href="https://asm.org/articles/2023/april/type-vi-secretion-systems-weapons-of-bacterial-des" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">T6SS</a>), and they allow bacteria to inject harmful molecules into rivals. They have been studied extensively because of their importance in bacterial <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-and-imprint-new-era-dna-transformation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">competition</a> and survival.



“We knew that Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses its T6SS to fire back when attacked,” said Basler. Scientists had long <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18289922/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suspected</a> that external stress might activate these devices in <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/25164-pseudomonas-infection" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pseudomonas aeruginosa</a>.&nbsp;



One survey showed that T6SS genes occur in about a quarter of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538213/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gram-negative species</a>, highlighting their prevalence as a competitive strategy.



Some bacteria also direct T6SS at eukaryotic targets, affecting plant and animal hosts. This flexibility helps them adapt to diverse situations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mechanical-force-as-a-trigger">Mechanical force as a trigger</h2>



“Using AFM, we have been able to mimic a bacterial T6SS attack,” said Yves F Dufrêne, a doctoral researcher at the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17661630/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swiss Nanoscience Institute</a>. The team used atomic force microscopy (<a href="https://www.nanoscience.com/techniques/atomic-force-microscopy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AFM</a>) to gently push on the bacterial surface with a very fine tip. 



By applying measured force, they found that the <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8934262/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outer membrane</a> damage alone could spur this injection tool into action. Once activated, the cells unleashed a burst of toxin-bearing elements to ward off intruders.



Studies from different labs have shown that surfaces with varied stiffness can influence <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/23-new-marine-bacteria-species-discovered-that-influence-global-ocean-cycles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bacterial</a> attachment. However, it was less clear how direct mechanical stress might activate a defensive tool like T6SS.



Laboratories investigating <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/vibrio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vibrio species</a> observed T6SS responses to mechanical cues in marine environments. These clues paved the way for experiments focusing on Pseudomonas under controlled force measurements.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bacteria-detect-membrane-damage">Bacteria detect membrane damage</h2>



The scientists discovered that the site of membrane rupture guided the T6SS to assemble at the exact spot of assault. This high precision helps reduce wasted energy and ensures toxins only hit the intended target.



“Our work clearly shows that breaking the outer membrane is necessary and sufficient to trigger T6SS assembly,” said Basler. Researchers believe this system works thanks to a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/phosphorylation-cascade" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">phosphorylation cascade</a> that springs into action upon sensing disruption. 



Pinpointing the exact trigger site allows minimal resource expenditure while maximizing impact on an aggressor. This specificity keeps the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-pass-down-memories-to-future-generations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bacterial</a> cell from randomly launching costly attacks.



Scientists are interested in finding the molecular components that link physical membrane disturbance to T6SS initiation. These details could open doors for inhibitors designed to neutralize this response.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chemical-assault-on-the-membrane">Chemical assault on the membrane</h2>



Interestingly, certain antibiotics or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/peptide-derivative" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">peptide derivatives</a> also weaken the same barrier. This hints that chemical agents capable of penetrating the membrane can provoke a similar defensive strike.



The findings could be significant when considering <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/multiple-drug-resistance" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multidrug resistance</a> in clinical settings. If a damaged outer membrane leads to a swift T6SS reaction, it might alter how pathogens respond to various medications.



<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/polymyxin-derivative" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polymyxin derivatives</a>, often reserved for severe infections, disrupt the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. This disruption can unintentionally activate T6SS, giving the pathogen a countermeasure against rival organisms.



Understanding this dynamic may help clinicians refine how these drugs are applied in critical care. If T6SS ramps up under partial membrane stress, combination therapies might offer a more thorough strategy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bacterial-response-to-membrane-damage">Bacterial response to membrane damage</h2>



Much still needs to be clarified, such as how multiple T6SS assemblies are precisely regulated once the membrane is compromised. Different strains may also vary in how sensitive they are to mechanical or chemical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-in-lake-mendota-keep-evolving-but-never-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cues</a>.



The bigger picture could involve a network of signals that prime bacteria to respond rapidly whenever their boundary is breached. Exploring these nuances might help researchers develop ways to disrupt this mechanism without harming beneficial microbes.



Researchers suspect that different bacterial species have unique thresholds for activating T6SS when threatened. This variation might determine which organisms thrive in complex environments like soil or aquatic habitats.



Experts are also investigating the role of protein partners that reset or limit T6SS after activation. Gaining clarity on the shutdown mechanism could lead to ways of blocking these assemblies and tackling antibiotic-resistant infections in the future.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr1713" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Advances</a>.



-----



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Bacteria build tiny weapons when their membrane is damaged

Bacterial neighbors can be fierce rivals in their daily scuffle for resources. Some Pseudomonas species use specialized microscopic membrane devices to fight back against competing bacteria. According to new research, these cells react to threats by assembling a precise injection tool inside their outer shell. This work comes from the lab of Professor Marek Basler at the Biozentrum, University of Basel. Why tiny spearguns matter These weapon-like structures are known as the type VI secretion system (T6SS), and they allow bacteria to inject harmful molecules into rivals....

Coho Salmon Endangered By Toxic Runoff "The recurring coho spawner deaths have been a high-profile mystery for many years, and we're now much closer to the cause," said NOAA scientist Nat Scholz.

Coho salmon return each autumn to the tributaries of the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=PACIFIC&amp;cvid=85e81936106b4071b352ead8ee051021&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Pacific</a> waters of the Northwest. But in their upstream quest to spawn, they face swift currents and, in many streams and rivers, toxic runoff.
New research shows just how deadly the effects of runoff is for coho salmon. Runoff is the polluted water that collects on highways, parking lots and other urban expanses before funneling into local waterways.
But researchers also found a simple solution: cheap and simple filtration stations made of sand and soil.

When scientists exposed coho salmon at a hatchery in Washington State to toxic stormwater runoff, all of the fish died within a day. Many died within hours. Coho Salmon Endangered By <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/bioplastics-are-just-as-toxic-as-traditional-plastics/">Toxic</a> Runoff

But when runoff was filtered through a layered cylinder of gravel, sand, compost and bark, all of the fish survived. The filtration system drastically reduced the levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, byproducts of fuel combustion, and halved the presence of toxic heavy metals.

"What impressed me most was the effectiveness of the treatment," Jen McIntyre, a researcher at the stormwater program at Washington State University. "It's remarkable that we could take runoff that killed all of the adult coho in less than 24 hours -- sometimes less than four hours -- and render it non-toxic, even after putting several storms worth of water through the same soil mixture."

McIntyre is the co-author a new paper on the experiments, published this week <a class="tpstyle" href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12534/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in the Journal of Applied Ecology</a>. The research was a collaborative effort among scientists with NOAA Fisheries and Washington State's Puyallup Research and Extension Center.

"The recurring coho spawner deaths have been a high-profile mystery for many years, and we're now much closer to the cause," said Nat Scholz, manager of the Ecotoxicology Program at the NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center. "Although we haven't identified a smoking gun, our study shows that toxic stormwater is killing coho, and that the problem can be addressed."

---

Credit: UPI

Coho Salmon Endangered By Toxic Runoff

Coho Salmon Endangered By Toxic Runoff "The recurring coho spawner...

Horn Of Africa Is Drying Much Faster As Climate Warms. The Horn of Africa has become increasingly arid in sync with the global and regional warming of the last century and at a rate unprecedented in the last 2,000 years, according to new research led by a University of Arizona geoscientist.

The region has suffered deadly droughts every few years in recent decades.

The scientists suggest as global and regional warming continues, the eastern Horn of Africa, which includes Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia, will receive progressively less rain during the crucial "long rains" season of March, April and May.

Such a trend could exacerbate tensions in one of the most geopolitically unstable regions in the world.

The team's suggestion that the Horn of Africa will become even drier contradicts the global climate models that indicate future warming will bring more rain to the region.

"What we see in the paleoclimate record from the last 2,000 years is evidence that the Horn of Africa is drier when there are warm conditions on Earth, and wetter when it is colder," said lead author Jessica Tierney, a UA associate professor of geosciences.

"The rate of the recent drying in the Horn of Africa is unprecedented in the last 2,000 years," Tierney said.

In their paper, the scientists call for researchers to develop more computer models of climate that focus on the regional scale. Such models might better predict how future warming will affect the Horn of Africa's seasonal rains.

Study co-author Peter deMenocal said, "The region is drying in sync with carbon emissions. This has significant socioeconomic implications for this geopolitical hotspot into the future." The Center for Climate and Life at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is headed by deMenocal.

The researchers used cores of ancient marine sediments from the nearby Gulf of Aden to reconstruct regional temperature and aridity for the past 2,000 years.

The team found their reconstructions of local temperature and aridity were in step with an independent reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere temperatures stretching back to the year A.D. 1. All the data point to the Horn of Africa becoming warmer and drier in the last 100 years.

The team's report, "Past and future rainfall in the Horn of Africa," was published online today in the open-access journal Science Advances. Co-author Caroline Ummenhofer is at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The National Science Foundation funded the research.

---

<a href="http://www.arizona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Arizona</a>

Horn Of Africa Is Drying Much Faster As Climate Warms

Horn Of Africa Is Drying Much Faster As Climate Warms....

Snorkeling with Sea Turtles on Gili Trawangan - Underwater Photo

Ecotourism Can Harm Wild Animals. Ecotourism, in which travelers visit natural environments with an eye toward funding conservation efforts or boosting local economies, has become increasingly popular in recent years. In many cases it involves close observation of or interaction with wildlife, such as when tourists swim with marine animals.

Now, life scientists have analyzed more than 100 research studies on how ecotourism affects wild animals and concluded that such trips can be harmful to the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/animals-in-cold-climates-are-facing-a-higher-risk-of-disease-outbreaks/">animals</a>, whose behaviors may be altered in ways that put them at risk. Ecotourism Can Harm Wild Animals

The research is published Oct. 9 in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Protected areas around the globe receive a total of more than 8 billion visits each year. "This massive amount of nature-based and ecotourism can be added to the long list of drivers of human-induced rapid environmental change," said Daniel Blumstein, the study's senior author and professor and chair of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.

The presence of humans changes the way animals behave, and those changes may make them more vulnerable -- to poachers, for one, but also in less obvious ways, said Blumstein, who is also a professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in the UCLA College.

When animals interact in seemingly benign ways with humans, they may let down their guard, Blumstein said. As animals learn to relax in the presence of humans, they may become bolder in other situations; if this transfers to their interactions with predators, they are more likely to be injured or killed.

The presence of humans can also discourage natural predators, creating a kind of safe haven for smaller animals that may make them bolder. For example, when humans are nearby, vervet monkeys have fewer run-ins with predatory leopards. And in Grand Teton National Park, elk and pronghorns in areas with more tourists are less alert and spend more time eating, Blumstein and his colleagues report.

Interacting with people can cause significant change in the characteristics of various species over time. "If individuals selectively habituate to humans -- particularly tourists -- and if invasive tourism practices enhance this habituation, we might be selecting for or creating traits or syndromes that have unintended consequences, such as increased predation risk," the researchers write. "Even a small human-induced perturbation could affect the behavior or population biology of a species and influence the species' function in its community."

Ecotourism has effects similar to those of animal domestication and urbanization, the researchers argue. In all three cases, regular interactions between people and animals may lead to habituation -- a kind of taming. Research has shown that domesticated silver foxes become more docile and less fearful, a process that results from evolutionary changes, but also from regular interactions with humans, Blumstein said. Domesticated fish are less responsive to simulated predatory attacks. Fox squirrels and birds that live in urbanized areas are slower to flee from danger.

Blumstein hopes the new analysis will encourage more research into the interactions between people and wildlife. It is essential, he said, to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how various species in various situations respond to human interaction and under what conditions human exposure may place them at risk.

---

<a href="http://www.ucla.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UCLA</a>

Ecotourism Can Harm Wild Animals

Ecotourism Can Harm Wild Animals. Ecotourism, in which travelers visit...

Coho Salmon Endangered By Toxic Runoff "The recurring coho spawner deaths have been a high-profile mystery for many years, and we're now much closer to the cause," said NOAA scientist Nat Scholz.

Coho salmon return each autumn to the tributaries of the Pacific waters of the Northwest. But in their upstream quest to spawn, they face swift currents and, in many streams and rivers, toxic runoff.
New research shows just how deadly the effects of runoff is for coho <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/distinctly-different-chinook-salmon-are-part-of-the-same-population/">salmon</a>. Runoff is the polluted water that collects on highways, parking lots and other urban expanses before funneling into local waterways.
But researchers also found a simple solution: cheap and simple filtration stations made of sand and soil.

When scientists exposed coho salmon at a hatchery in Washington State to toxic stormwater runoff, all of the fish died within a day. Many died within hours.

But when runoff was filtered through a layered cylinder of gravel, sand, compost and bark, all of the fish survived. The filtration system drastically reduced the levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, byproducts of fuel combustion, and halved the presence of toxic heavy metals.

"What impressed me most was the effectiveness of the treatment," Jen McIntyre, a researcher at the stormwater program at Washington State University. "It's remarkable that we could take runoff that killed all of the adult coho in less than 24 hours -- sometimes less than four hours -- and render it non-toxic, even after putting several storms worth of water through the same soil mixture."

McIntyre is the co-author a new paper on the experiments, published this week <a class="tpstyle" href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12534/abstract" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in the Journal of Applied Ecology</a>. The research was a collaborative effort among scientists with NOAA Fisheries and Washington State's Puyallup Research and Extension Center.

"The recurring coho spawner deaths have been a high-profile mystery for many years, and we're now much closer to the cause," said Nat Scholz, manager of the Ecotoxicology Program at the NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center. "Although we haven't identified a smoking gun, our study shows that toxic stormwater is killing coho, and that the problem can be addressed."

---

Credit: UPI

Ecotourism Can Harm Wild Animals. Ecotourism, in which travelers visit natural environments with an eye toward funding conservation efforts or boosting local economies, has become increasingly popular in recent years. In many cases it involves close observation of or interaction with wildlife, such as when tourists swim with marine animals.

Now, life scientists have analyzed more than 100 research studies on how ecotourism affects wild animals and concluded that such trips can be harmful to the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/animals-in-cold-climates-are-facing-a-higher-risk-of-disease-outbreaks/">animals</a>, whose behaviors may be altered in ways that put them at risk.Ecotourism Can Harm Wild Animals

The research is published Oct. 9 in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Protected areas around the globe receive a total of more than 8 billion visits each year. "This massive amount of nature-based and ecotourism can be added to the long list of drivers of human-induced rapid environmental change," said Daniel Blumstein, the study's senior author and professor and chair of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.

The presence of humans changes the way animals behave, and those changes may make them more vulnerable -- to poachers, for one, but also in less obvious ways, said Blumstein, who is also a professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in the UCLA College.

When animals interact in seemingly benign ways with humans, they may let down their guard, Blumstein said. As animals learn to relax in the presence of humans, they may become bolder in other situations; if this transfers to their interactions with predators, they are more likely to be injured or killed.

The presence of humans can also discourage natural predators, creating a kind of safe haven for smaller animals that may make them bolder. For example, when humans are nearby, vervet monkeys have fewer run-ins with predatory leopards. And in Grand Teton National Park, elk and pronghorns in areas with more tourists are less alert and spend more time eating, Blumstein and his colleagues report.

Interacting with people can cause significant change in the characteristics of various species over time. "If individuals selectively habituate to humans -- particularly tourists -- and if invasive tourism practices enhance this habituation, we might be selecting for or creating traits or syndromes that have unintended consequences, such as increased predation risk," the researchers write. "Even a small human-induced perturbation could affect the behavior or population biology of a species and influence the species' function in its community."

Ecotourism has effects similar to those of animal domestication and urbanization, the researchers argue. In all three cases, regular interactions between people and animals may lead to habituation -- a kind of taming. Research has shown that domesticated silver foxes become more docile and less fearful, a process that results from evolutionary changes, but also from regular interactions with humans, Blumstein said. Domesticated fish are less responsive to simulated predatory attacks. Fox squirrels and birds that live in urbanized areas are slower to flee from danger.

Blumstein hopes the new analysis will encourage more research into the interactions between people and wildlife. It is essential, he said, to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how various species in various situations respond to human interaction and under what conditions human exposure may place them at risk.

---

<a href="http://www.ucla.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UCLA</a>

EU Climate Chief: Global Climate Pledges Are Not Enough. Europe's climate chief has acknowledged for the first time that climate pledges made by national governments ahead of a major U.N. conference fall short of meeting the international goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said the EU's projections show the current pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions would put world on a path toward 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming.
That's a level that scientists say could result in dangerous changes in the Earth's climate system, such as rising seas flooding coastal areas and small island nations.
Canete said the fact that almost 150 countries have made pledges ahead of a December climate conference in Paris is "an extraordinary result" - but not enough.
"In some G20 countries, there is margin of maneuver to increase the level of ambition," he said, referring to the Group of 20 major economies.
Canete didn't rule out improving the European Union's own target of reducing emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, even though he called it the "most ambitious" of all.
"At the moment, we come along with this target to the talks," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a climate conference in Rabat. "Let's see what is in the final version."
Canete noted the target of the EU - the world's third biggest greenhouse gas polluter - didn't include international credits for funding to reduce emissions in developing countries "which opens the possibility of raising the level of ambition.EU Climate Chief: Global Climate Pledges Are Not Enough
The deal envisioned in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/inconsistent-paris-agreement-pledges/">Paris</a> would be the first where all countries, both rich and poor, commit to take action to fight global warming, which scientists say is chiefly caused by burning fossil fuels.
To make sure that temperatures don't rise more than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times - they are already almost halfway there - the Paris deal should include a mechanism to review emissions targets every five years, Canete said.
The EU position wants the first review in 2025 but Canete indicated an earlier date was not out of the question. "The date is not so important," he added. "The important thing is to have a permanent mechanism of raising ambition periodically."
Climate policy expert Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based environmental think tank, said the date of the first review after Paris is quite significant.
"Science tells us we cannot wait 10 years, especially noting how much more there is to be done," Morgan said.
Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, who was unable to travel to Rabat because of a storm battering the Pacific nation, said locking in the current emissions targets would spell disaster.
"Without much more urgent and ambitious action, my country simply won't survive," he said in a statement.
All major economies have presented emissions pledges for after 2020 as part of negotiations for the Paris deal but they all look different. Developed countries including the U.S. and the EU have pledged absolute reductions in emissions, while China has vowed to peak its emissions by 2030 and India has pledged to reduce its emissions per unit of gross domestic product.
Saudi Arabia and other oil and gas-producing countries in the Middle East are among those that haven't proposed any targets yet.
"I had talks with Saudi Arabia last week in Istanbul and they told me they will be coming along with their (target) in due course," Canete said. "I'm confident that (it) will arrive before Paris."
---
Karl Ritter can be reached on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/karl-ritter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.twitter.com/karl-ritter</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.

EU Climate Chief: Global Climate Pledges Are Not Enough

EU Climate Chief: Global Climate Pledges Are Not Enough. Europe's...

Mozambique Deadly Depot

Mozambique To Turn Old Ammunition Depot in Malhazine Into Nature Reserve. Craters lie where concrete bunkers once stood, testament to the powerful explosions that occurred when a Mozambican ammunition depot accidentally blew up in 2007, killing more than 100 people.
Now work is underway to transform a site littered with old rockets, grenades and shells into a nature reserve with <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=museum&amp;cvid=b9b109c67963406aadf425bf807eff8f&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">museums</a>, restaurants and a children's playground.
Last month, Mozambique said it had removed all known land mines with the help of the United Nations and international demining groups, ending a massive project that began after its civil war ended more than two decades ago. Yet determining teams are still removing ammunition remnants at the former military depot in Malhazine, a densely populated neighborhood on the edge of Maputo, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/helsinki-the-nature-capital-of-the-world/">capital</a>.
Much of it is considered harmless, but some military explosives there have degraded fuzes, making them a particular menace because they are unstable.


[caption id="attachment_2385191" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/12134604/mozambique-nature-reserve_2big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2385191" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/10/12134604/mozambique-nature-reserve_2big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="A pile of old rockets and other projectiles lies at a former military depot at Malhazine" width="150" height="150" /></a> A pile of old rockets and other projectiles lies at a former military depot at Malhazine[/caption]
The plan to create a weekend getaway for families out of a no-go zone symbolizes Mozambique's peaceful aspirations after conflict that started in the 1960s with the war against Portuguese colonizers and ended with a 1992 peace deal in Rome between rival Mozambican factions whose divisions still sometimes spill into violence. Mozambique was also haunted by civilian casualties from old land mines long after fighting ceased.Mozambique To Turn Old Ammunition Depot in Malhazine Into Nature Reserve
"We want to see if it can be a place for pleasure, not connected to war," Alberto Augusto, director of Mozambique's National Demining Institute, said of the former depot at Malhazine, 3.7 miles (six kilometers) north of the international airport. He compared plans for a park there to New York City's Central Park, saying Maputo must establish green areas as development accelerates in one of Africa's fastest-growing economies.
"We need to create an equilibrium between the buildings that we are constructing and the environment," Augusto said in an interview with The Associated Press.
On a recent morning, teams from APOPO, a non-governmental group whose headquarters are in Tanzania, used metal detectors to locate chunks of old ammunition and other rusted metal. They deployed large rats, attached by leashes to long poles, that had been trained to sniff out TNT. APOPO is testing the unusual program for possible use in Cambodia, where mines from past conflicts still inflict casualties.
The Malhazine clearance project is expected to take at least one more year. The HALO Trust, an international charity that helped clear mines in Mozambique, will join the operation at the 1,480-acre (600-hectare) site, much of which is dense scrub traversed by sandy roads. To avoid scaring Malhazine residents who remember 2007 disaster, deminers don't destroy explosives in controlled blasts at the former depot but instead remove them to areas far from population centers for disposal.
On March 22 of that year, blasts at the depot, originally built by the colonial army, caused Soviet-made rockets and missiles to come down on nearby homes and businesses. Residents said some ordnance flew as far as central Maputo, at least six miles (10 kilometers) away.
Video showed a large fireball on the horizon and giant plumes of smoke. The rumble of explosions was heard for hours as panicked residents fled their homes. At least 100 people died and about 500 others were wounded; hundreds of homes were destroyed. Authorities later blamed the disaster on unsafe storage conditions and high temperatures.
"It's something that locals will never forget," said Lordes Zavale, an APOPO operations manager. Making the area safe for civilians is very challenging, but can be accomplished with time and resources, he said.
The Malhazine depot had already been the scene of similar, though less catastrophic, explosions. In 1985, a dozen people died there in blasts that some Maputo residents initially thought were air strikes by neighboring South Africa's white minority rulers of the time. The apartheid regime's jets had previously targeted Maputo facilities of the African National Congress, the main South African dissident group.
The work at Malhazine is considered less dangerous than mine-clearing, and teams often do not wear protective gear. Even so, a pile of recovered items included several decaying rockets. Another pile near a demolished bunker included the remnants of cannon rounds, aircraft ammunition and an anti-personnel mine.
Mozambique's environment ministry is designing the nature reserve, which will include antelope and other animals. There will also be a zoo, a water park, a botanical garden, a camping ground, a military museum and an observation tower. Augusto, the demining chief, said it is time to "start thinking of the beauty of Mozambique."
The Malhazine park project, he said, "is a dream."
© 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.

Mozambique To Turn Old Ammunition Depot

Mozambique To Turn Old Ammunition Depot in Malhazine Into Nature...

California May Allow Violent Prisoners To Fight Wildfires. California officials are considering allowing inmates with violent backgrounds to work outside prison walls fighting wildfires, and the idea is generating concerns about public safety.
The state has the nation's largest and oldest inmate firefighting unit, with about 3,800 members who provide critical assistance to professional firefighters. That's down from about 4,400 in previous years, however, and so prison officials are looking for ways to add inmates.
Now, only minimum-security inmates with no history of violent crimes can participate. Starting next year, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/santa-barbara-county-in-southern-california/">California</a> Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is proposing adding inmates convicted of violent offenses such as assaults and robberies, if their security classification level has been reduced after years of good behavior.
Officials also are seeking to allow inmates who have up to seven years left on their sentences instead of the current five. Arsonists, kidnappers, sex offenders, gang affiliates and those serving life sentences for murder and other crimes would still be excluded.
"All it does is enlarge the pool of inmates we look at, but it doesn't change the nature of the inmate that we put in camp," Corrections spokesman Bill Sessa told The Associated Press. "We still are not going to put an inmate in camp that has a violent attitude."California May Allow Violent Prisoners To Fight Wildfires
The changes are pending final approval within the Corrections Department. They still have not been sent to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which says it also must sign off.
The proposal comes at a time when the overall prison population is smaller and drought has created the potential for explosive wildfires like the ones that recently roared through the Sierra foothills and communities north of Napa, in northern <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=california&amp;cvid=f4cf8ef41ffc43c7b9d6a9c10597215e&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">California</a>.
Mike Lopez, president of the union representing state firefighters who oversee inmates at fire scenes, supports a robust inmate program but worries about what the proposed changes could bring.
"Any acceptance of criminals with a violent background calls into question the security of our membership," he said, adding, "at what risk is CalFire willing to go to get those inmates?"
CalFire spokeswoman Janet Upton said her agency and corrections officials formed a committee this summer to consider how best to keep the firefighter program adequately staffed. She wouldn't comment on the proposed changes other than to say "nobody is interested in seeing this program go away."
The inmate firefighting program started during the civilian manpower shortage of World War II and now includes a small number of women and juvenile offenders. Volunteers must be healthy and pass a two-week physical fitness training program before they complete two weeks of classes on fighting fires.
Even using only nonviolent inmates has resulted in hundreds of assaults and batteries, along with weapons possessions, indecent exposures and other crimes among inmate firefighters in the last 10 years, according to data compiled by corrections officials and provided at the AP's request. Officials said the rate is much lower than in higher-security prisons.
State Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, a former parole commissioner, said it is "unconscionable" to add to the risk by using inmates with a history of violence.
"They're weighing this minor good against a major bad of compromising justice and the safety of our citizens," Nielsen said.
Harriet Salarno, founder of Crime Victims United of California, said she is also concerned but fears the state has no choice.
"This is very, very dangerous, but when you have a forest fire, what can you do?" she said Monday. "You need manpower to fight the fires, so we're now putting dangerous criminals out there."
Inmate firefighters are housed in 43 unfenced, minimum-security camps scattered across the state. They are guarded by a few correctional officers but while fighting fires are overseen only by unarmed CalFire captains who direct the inmates as they use hand tools to chew through brush and timberland to create firebreaks to stop advancing flames.
An average of nine inmates escape from the camps each year but since 2011 all but one has been recaptured.
The inmates often are used in rough, remote or environmentally sensitive terrain that is inaccessible to bulldozers. They accounted for nearly one of every five state, federal and local firefighters battling the recent Lake County and Sierra foothills fires.
The program makes inmates eligible for earlier parole, has higher pay and more relative freedom than other inmate jobs, and provides skills they can use once they are freed.
Officials are proposing loosening the rules because the number of available inmates has been shrinking since late 2011. That's when, under court order to reduce overcrowding, California began keeping thousands of lower-level offenders in county jails, leaving a higher proportion of violent and serious criminals in state prisons.
Since then, other initiatives have further reduced the number of potential firefighters.
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California May Allow Violent Prisoners To Fight Wildfires

California May Allow Violent Prisoners To Fight Wildfires. California officials...

California officials are considering allowing inmates with violent backgrounds to work outside prison walls fighting wildfires, and the idea is generating concerns about public safety.
The state has the nation's largest and oldest inmate firefighting unit, with about 3,800 members who provide critical assistance to professional firefighters. That's down from about 4,400 in previous years, however, and so prison officials are looking for ways to add inmates.
Now, only minimum-security inmates with no history of violent crimes can participate. Starting next year, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is proposing adding inmates convicted of violent offenses such as assaults and robberies, if their security classification level has been reduced after years of good behavior.
Officials also are seeking to allow inmates who have up to seven years left on their sentences instead of the current five. Arsonists, kidnappers, sex offenders, gang affiliates and those serving life sentences for murder and other crimes would still be excluded. California May Allow Violent Prisoners To Fight Wildfires
"All it does is enlarge the pool of inmates we look at, but it doesn't change the nature of the inmate that we put in camp," Corrections spokesman Bill Sessa told The Associated Press. "We still are not going to put an inmate in camp that has a violent attitude."
The changes are pending final approval within the Corrections Department. They still have not been sent to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which says it also must sign off. California May Allow Violent Prisoners To Fight Wildfires
The proposal comes at a time when the overall prison population is smaller and drought has created the potential for explosive wildfires like the ones that recently roared through the Sierra foothills and communities north of Napa, in <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/shasta-lake-northern-california/">northern California</a>.
Mike Lopez, president of the union representing state firefighters who oversee inmates at fire scenes, supports a robust inmate program but worries about what the proposed changes could bring.
"Any acceptance of criminals with a violent background calls into question the security of our membership," he said, adding, "at what risk is CalFire willing to go to get those inmates?"
CalFire spokeswoman Janet Upton said her agency and corrections officials formed a committee this summer to consider how best to keep the firefighter program adequately staffed. She wouldn't comment on the proposed changes other than to say "nobody is interested in seeing this program go away."
The inmate firefighting program started during the civilian manpower shortage of World War II and now includes a small number of women and juvenile offenders. Volunteers must be healthy and pass a two-week physical fitness training program before they complete two weeks of classes on fighting fires.
Even using only nonviolent inmates has resulted in hundreds of assaults and batteries, along with weapons possessions, indecent exposures and other crimes among inmate firefighters in the last 10 years, according to data compiled by corrections officials and provided at the AP's request. Officials said the rate is much lower than in higher-security prisons.
State Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, a former parole commissioner, said it is "unconscionable" to add to the risk by using inmates with a history of violence.
"They're weighing this minor good against a major bad of compromising justice and the safety of our citizens," Nielsen said.
Harriet Salarno, founder of Crime Victims United of California, said she is also concerned but fears the state has no choice.
"This is very, very dangerous, but when you have a forest fire, what can you do?" she said Monday. "You need manpower to fight the fires, so we're now putting dangerous criminals out there."
Inmate firefighters are housed in 43 unfenced, minimum-security camps scattered across the state. They are guarded by a few correctional officers but while fighting fires are overseen only by unarmed CalFire captains who direct the inmates as they use hand tools to chew through brush and timberland to create firebreaks to stop advancing flames.
An average of nine inmates escape from the camps each year but since 2011 all but one has been recaptured.
The inmates often are used in rough, remote or <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=environmental&amp;cvid=e7f7f63c4d204a788d5dc8c77902f1e1&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">environmentally</a> sensitive terrain that is inaccessible to bulldozers. They accounted for nearly one of every five state, federal and local firefighters battling the recent Lake County and Sierra foothills fires.
The program makes inmates eligible for earlier parole, has higher pay and more relative freedom than other inmate jobs, and provides skills they can use once they are freed.
Officials are proposing loosening the rules because the number of available inmates has been shrinking since late 2011. That's when, under court order to reduce overcrowding, California began keeping thousands of lower-level offenders in county jails, leaving a higher proportion of violent and serious criminals in state prisons.
Since then, other initiatives have further reduced the number of potential firefighters.
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California officials are considering allowing inmates with violent backgrounds to...

New Research Maps Areas Vulnerable To ocean acidification. New NOAA-led research maps the distribution of aragonite saturation state in both surface and subsurface waters of the global ocean and provides further evidence that ocean acidification is happening on a global scale. The study identifies the Arctic and Antarctic oceans, and the upwelling ocean waters off the west coasts of North America, South America and Africa as regions that are especially vulnerable to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mercury-pollution-is-making-its-way-to-the-deepest-parts-of-the-ocean/">ocean</a> acidification.

"These findings will help us better understand and develop strategies to adapt to the severity of ocean acidification in different marine ecosystems around the world," said Richard A. Feely, a NOAA oceanographer and co-author of the study, which has been accepted for publication and can be read online in the American Geophysical Union journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.

Ocean acidification is caused by humankind's release of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide enters the ocean, reacts with water, decreases ocean pH and lowers carbonate ion concentrations, making waters more corrosive to marine species that need carbonate ions and dissolved calcium to build and maintain healthy shells and skeletons. The saturation state of seawater for a mineral such as aragonite is a measure of the potential for the mineral to form or to dissolve.

In the new study, scientists determined the saturation state of aragonite in order to map regions that are vulnerable to ocean acidification. Waters with higher aragonite saturation state tend to be better able to support shellfish, coral and other species that use this mineral to build and maintain their shells and other hard parts.

This study shows that aragonite saturation state in waters shallower than 328 feet or 100 meters depth decreased by an average of 0.4 percent per year from the decade spanning 1989-1998 to the decade spanning 1998-2010. "A decline in the saturation state of carbonate minerals, especially aragonite, is a good indicator of a rise in ocean acidification," said Li-Qing Jiang, an oceanographer with NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites at the University of Maryland and lead author.

The most vulnerable areas of the global ocean are being hit with a double whammy of sorts. In these areas, deep ocean waters that are naturally rich in carbon dioxide are upwelling and mixing with surface waters that are absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is coming primarily from human-caused fossil fuel emissions.

"When oyster larvae are born they must draw on the energy in their yolk to build their aragonite shells to protect themselves from predators and grow into healthy adults," said Feely. In waters depleted of carbonate ions, young oysters must expend more energy to build their shell and may not survive. This has significant consequences for the seafood industry."

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<a href="http://www.noaa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NOAA</a>

New Research Maps Areas Vulnerable To ocean acidification

New Research Maps Areas Vulnerable To ocean acidification. New NOAA-led...

Study: Vines Strangle Tropical Trees' Carbon Storage Ability. Researchers suggest a warmer, drier climate could further encourage the growth of woody vines, creating a negative feedback loop of accelerated climate change.

Next to the oceans, the world's forests are Earth's most effective carbon storage system. And no forest stores more carbon than tropical forests.
But new research suggests wood vines, or lianas, are severely limiting the carbon storage potential of tropical forests. Study: Vines Strangle Tropical Trees' <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/warming-of-2c-would-unleash-230-billions-tons-of-soil-carbon/">Carbon</a> Storage Ability.
The increasing presence of lianas is strangling tropical trees, limiting the growth of tropical forests and causing the premature death of large trees. According to a new study published this week in the journal PNAS, vines have diminished the carbon storage abilities of some forests by as much 75 percent.

When researchers at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute monitored the growth of forest plots with and without lianas in 16 forest plots in Panama's Barro Colorado Nature Monument, they found the presence of the woody vine drastically reduced overall biomass accumulation.

"This study has far-reaching ramifications," study co-author Stefan Schnitzer, a biology professor at Marquette University and research associate at the STRI, said in a press release. "Lianas contribute only a small fraction of the biomass in tropical forests, but their effects on trees dramatically alter how carbon is accumulated and stored."

Not only did lianas diminish tree growth, they also contribute to a forest floor littered with more leaves and less wood. Leaves rot more quickly, releasing their carbon contents into the atmosphere.

Researchers suggest a warmer, drier climate could further encourage the growth of woody vines, creating a negative feedback loop and further diminishing the role of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=tropical&amp;cvid=715cd9839c474f94bdad79313c528665&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">tropical forests</a> in sequestering excess carbon and slowing global warming.

"In terms of carbon, lianas may be detrimental; however, lianas provide a wide range of resources for wildlife, such as fruits, seeds and fresh leaves, and by connecting trees together lianas provide aerial pathways that are used by the vast majority of arboreal animals to move through the forest," Schnitzer added.

---

Credit:  UPI

Study: Vines Strangle Tropical Trees' Carbon Storage Ability

Study: Vines Strangle Tropical Trees' Carbon Storage Ability. Researchers suggest...

Shell Drilling Vessels Leave The Arctic. Two drill vessels employed by Royal Dutch Shell PLC off Alaska's northwest coast have safely departed Arctic waters for the Pacific Northwest.
The 572-foot Noble Discoverer, owned by Noble Drilling U.S. LLC, reached Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands on Sunday afternoon. After a Coast Guard inspection, the vessel departed Monday for the Port of Everett in Washington state, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.
The Polar Pioneer, owned by Transocean Ltd., reached Dutch Harbor on Monday afternoon. Two tug boats accompanying the semi-submersible drilling vessel, the Ocean Wind and Ocean Wave vessel, planned to refuel and change crews. The Polar Pioneer will be towed to Port Angeles, Washington.
The next destinations for both vessels have not been determined, Smith said.
Shell announced on Sept. 28 that it would cease further exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas after spending upward of $7 billion.
The company cited disappointing results from an exploratory well drilled this summer about 80 miles off <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/alaskas-barry-glacier-could-trigger-a-catastrophic-tsunami/">Alaska's</a> northwest coast in the Chukchi and the unpredictable federal regulatory environment.
The exploratory well found oil and gas but not in quantities that justified the huge expense of Arctic drilling, where Shell backed up its rigs with a flotilla of support and safety vessels and made regular helicopter flights from a staging area 150 miles away in Barrow, the country's northernmost community.
Federal regulators required two Shell drilling vessels in Arctic drilling areas so that a relief well could be quickly drilled after a well blowout.
Operations in the Chukchi Sea ramped down almost immediately after the announcement, Smith said.
Shell last drilled in Alaska's northern waters in 2012 and experienced significant problems with vessels in transit after drilling ended.
The Kulluk, a 266-foot circular drill vessel owned by Shell with a reinforced hull, broke loose from its tow vessel in gale-force December winds in the Gulf of Alaska. Efforts to control the vessel failed. The Kulluk ran aground near Kodiak Island on Dec. 31, 2012. The vessel was eventually scrapped.
The Noble Discoverer, built as a logging ship in 1965 and converted to a drill ship in 1976, in 2012 was found to be in violation of pollution and safety maritime law.
Crew members had dismantled an oil-water separator, a device that removes petroleum from bilge water before it's dumped overboard. The crew also failed to inform the Coast Guard of on-board back fires, high levels of exhaust and fuel leaks in violation of safety laws. Following a Coast Guard investigation, Noble Drilling pleaded guilty to eight felonies and was fined $12.2 million.
Environmental groups strongly oppose Arctic offshore drilling, and they targeted drill and support vessels for protests.
Greenpeace activists in early April boarded the Blue Marlin, a heavy-lift ship carrying the Polar Pioneer across the Pacific Ocean to the United States. They left after six days.
Seattle protesters in kayaks, dubbed "kayaktivists," took to the water to demonstrate against the Polar Pioneer when it was docked in the city. Greenpeace USA protesters in Portland, Oregon, hung from a bridge over the Willamette River and briefly delayed a support vessel that had undergone repairs.
Greenpeace spokesman Travis Nichols said by email that he was not aware of any additional protests planned.
© 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.

Shell Drilling Vessels Leave The Arctic

Shell Drilling Vessels Leave The Arctic. Two drill vessels employed...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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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



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

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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

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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

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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

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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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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



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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



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...

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