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....

Carbon Dioxide

DC appeals court to rule on Obama's carbon-cutting plan. The full appeals court in Washington will hear arguments in the legal fight over President Barack Obama's carbon-cutting plan, potentially accelerating the case's path to the Supreme Court.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-species-of-sea-sponge-discovered-in-british-columbia/">Columbia</a> Circuit issued an order Monday scheduling oral arguments on the legality of the Clean Power Plan for September 27.
A three-judge panel had been scheduled to hear the case June 2, but whichever side lost was considered likely to seek a review by the full appeals court. By using its discretion to skip a step, the appeals judges are potentially shaving months off the time before the case could be heard by the high court.
It is rare for an appeals court to hold such an "en banc" review prior to the smaller panel's decision, but procedural rules allow it when the case at issue "involves a question of exceptional importance."
About two dozen mostly GOP-led states sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the new carbon-cutting regulations, which aim to slow climate change by reducing power-plant emissions by one-third by 2030. More than 100 conservative advocacy groups, electric utilities and coal mining companies have also filed suit.
If the Clean Power Plan were to be struck down in court, it would become more difficult for the United States to meet its goals for cutting carbon emissions under the landmark international climate treaty signed in Paris at the end of last year. The U.S. is the world's largest emitter of harmful greenhouse gases.
Of the 11 active judges on the DC Circuit, Chief Judge Merrick Garland and Judge Cornelia Pillard recused themselves from hearing arguments on the Clean Power Plan.
Garland, who is Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the February death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, has been recusing himself from active cases. The court's order gave no explanation for Pillard's recusal.
Even without them, the court's makeup could favor Obama. Of the nine remaining judges, five were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Environmental groups cheered the court's move.
"The court's order may well speed up final resolution of the case," said David Doniger, director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We look forward to our day in court - and remain confident that the Clean Power Plan will prevail over efforts by polluters and their allies to block climate action."
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 earlier this year to delay implementation of the plan until the legal challenges are resolved, but that vote was taken prior to Scalia's death.
Republicans leaders in the U.S. Senate have promised not to vote on Garland's nomination until after a new president is elected in November, leaving the Supreme Court split 4-4 between conservatives and the more moderate and liberal justices. If a ninth justice is not appointed before the high court takes up the Clean Power Plan, then the appeals court's decision would stand in the event of a tie.
Opponents of the plan reiterated Monday that the outcome of the case is still far from certain. They have portrayed the Obama Administration's move to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon emissions as an illegal power grab.
"So much about the Clean Power Plan has defied precedent," said Scott Segal, a lawyer representing the pro-coal Electric Reliability Coordinating Council. "When it comes to the Clean Power Plan, it is best to expect the unexpected."
---
Associated Press report Sam Hananel in Washington contributed to this report.
---
Follow Michael Biesecker on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/mbieseck" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://twitter.com/mbieseck</a> and find his work at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/michael-biesecker" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/michael-biesecker</a>.org/content/michael-biesecker
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DC appeals court to rule on Obama's carbon-cutting plan

DC appeals court to rule on Obama's carbon-cutting plan. The...

New study shows rate at which New Orleans is sinking. New Orleans is sinking and surrounding areas continue to sink at highly variable rates due to a combination of natural geologic and human-induced processes, finds a new NASA/university study using NASA airborne radar.

The observed rates of sinking, otherwise known as subsidence, were generally consistent with, but somewhat higher than, previous studies conducted using different radar data.

The research was the most spatially-extensive, high-resolution study to date of regional subsidence in and around New Orleans, measuring its effects and examining its causes. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California; UCLA; and the Center for GeoInformatics at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, collaborated on the study, which covered the period from June 2009 to July 2012.

[caption id="attachment_2390418" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2390418" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2016/05/17093035/new-orleans-sinking-map_3big_nasa-150x150.jpg" alt="Subsidence rates around Norco, Louisiana" width="150" height="150" /> Subsidence rates around Norco, Louisiana[/caption]

The highest rates of sinking were observed upriver along the <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/the-ever-changing-mississippi-river/">Mississippi River</a> around major industrial areas in Norco, and in Michoud, with up to 2 inches (50 millimeters) a year of sinking. The team also observed notable subsidence in New Orleans' Upper and Lower 9th Ward, and in Metairie, where the measured ground movement could be related to water levels in the Mississippi. At the Bonnet Carré Spillway east of Norco -- New Orleans' last line of protection against springtime river floods overtopping the levees -- research showed up to 1.6 inches (40 millimeters) a year of sinking behind the structure and up to 1.6 inches (40 millimeters) a year at nearby industrial facilities.

While the study cites many contributing factors for the regional subsidence, the primary contributors were found to be groundwater pumping and dewatering (surface water pumping to lower the water table, which prevents standing water and soggy ground).

JPL scientist and lead author Cathleen Jones said study results will be used to improve models of subsidence for the Mississippi River Delta that decision makers use to inform planning.

"Agencies can use these data to more effectively implement actions to remediate and reverse the effects of subsidence, improving the long-term coastal resiliency and sustainability of New Orleans," Jones said. "The more recent land elevation change rates from this study will be used to inform flood modeling and response strategies, improving public safety."
<div>

Subsidence on the Gulf Coast: Old Problem, New Challenges

[caption id="attachment_2390419" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2390419" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2016/05/17093051/new-orleans-sinking-map_2big_nasa-150x150.jpg" alt="Subsidence rates in New Orleans as measured by NASA's UAVSAR instrument " width="150" height="150" /> Subsidence rates in New Orleans as measured by NASA's UAVSAR instrument[/caption]

Around the world, the loss of delta lands due to subsidence and associated increases in flood risk are major issues facing coastal communities, especially in the face of ongoing and possibly accelerating global sea level rise. The Mississippi River delta is losing its natural coastal barriers -- the delta wetlands and barrier islands -- increasing flood risk across the area. In response, the region has increased investment in infrastructure and restoration activities to protect human populations and areas of high economic value.

The landscape of Southeast Louisiana was built upon a coastal delta created by the Mississippi River during the past 8,000 years as sea level rise due to glacial melting in the last ice age slowed. Before humans intervened, natural subsidence was offset by a combination of sediments deposited during Mississippi River floods and organic soil produced from the decay of wetland vegetation. Construction of flood control levees to protect the Gulf Coast economy and local populations interrupted the sediment supply, leading to a net increase in land subsidence.

In Greater New Orleans, local geology plays a major role in flooding and subsidence. The city lies along the current path of the Mississippi River and is built on modern and past natural levees and buried or artificially drained swamps and marshes. It is located in an area that has received sediments from multiple lobes of the Mississippi River delta over time.

</div>
To fully and accurately measure and predict future subsidence in and around New Orleans, it's necessary to better understand the various natural and human-produced processes contributing to the sinking. Those include withdrawal of water, oil and gas; compaction of shallow sediments; faulting; sinking of Earth's crust from the weight of deposited sediments; and ongoing vertical movement of land covered by glaciers during the last ice age. Jones said the comprehensive subsidence maps produced by this study, with their improved spatial resolution, help scientists differentiate these processes.

The maps were created using data from NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), which uses a technique known as interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). InSAR compares radar images of Earth's surface over time to map surface deformation with centimeter-scale precision. It measures total surface elevation changes from all sources -- human and natural, deep seated and shallow. Its data must be carefully interpreted to disentangle these phenomena, which operate at different time and space scales. UAVSAR's spatial resolution makes it ideal for measuring subsidence in New Orleans, where human-produced subsidence can be large and is often localized.

Jones said another key advantage of this study is that UAVSAR enabled better resolution of small-scale features than previous studies. "We were able to identify single structures or clusters of structures subsiding or deforming relative to the surrounding area," she said.

In addition to the UAVSAR data, researchers from the Center for GeoInformatics (C4G) at Louisiana State University provided up-to-date GPS positioning information for industrial and urban locations within southeast Louisiana. This information helped establish the rate of ground movement at these specific points. C4G maintains the most comprehensive network of GPS reference stations in the state. The Louisiana network consists of more than 50 Continuously Operating Reference Stations, or CORS sites, which acquire the horizontal and vertical coordinates at each station every second of every day. The CORS sites are part of the National Geodetic Survey network.

CORS data pin InSAR data down to specific, local points on Earth. The LSU research team derived the positional time series using precise point positioning software developed by JPL.

"We define all the parameters to reduce the ambiguities. This enables us to distill a location down to millimeter-level precision," said Joshua Kent, Geographic Information System manager at C4G. "A wide range of people rely on the CORS data, from geoscientists to surveyors, engineers and farmers."

The study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

UAVSAR was developed and is managed by JPL and flies on a C-20A research aircraft based at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center facility in Palmdale, California. Developed to test new technologies and study Earth surface dynamics, UAVSAR data are informing the design and planning for a future spaceborne radar mission, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), which is planned to image Earth's surface at least once every 12 days.

For more information on UAVSAR, visit:

<a href="http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>

For more information on NISAR, visit:

<a href="http://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/</a>

For more information on NASA's Earth science activities, visit:

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/earth">http://www.nasa.gov/earth</a>

New study shows rate at which New Orleans is sinking

New study shows rate at which New Orleans is sinking....

Global temperature records blown away again Latest monthly figures add to string of recent temperature records and all but assure 2016 will be hottest year on record

Last month was the hottest April on record globally – and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records.

The latest figures smashed the previous record for April by the largest margin ever recorded.

It makes three months in a row that the monthly record has been broken by the largest margin ever, and seven months in a row that are at least 1C above the 1951-80 mean for that month. When the string of record-smashing months started in February, scientists began talking about a “climate emergency”.

Figures released by Nasa over the weekend show the global temperature of land and sea was 1.11C warmer in April than the average temperature for April during the period 1951-1980.

It all but assures that 2016 will be the hottest year on record, and probably by the largest margin ever.

The new record broke the previous one by 0.24C, which was set in 2010, at 0.87C above the baseline average for April. That record itself broke one set three years earlier at 0.75C above the baseline average for April.

The current blast of hot air around the globe is being spurred by a massive El Niño, which is a release of warm water across the Pacific Ocean. But it’s not the biggest El Niño on record and that spike in temperatures is occurring over a background of rapid global warming, pushing temperatures to all-time highs.

“The interesting thing is the scale at which we’re breaking records,” said Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “It’s clearly all heading in the wrong direction.

“Climate scientists have been warning about this since at least the 1980s. And it’s been bloody obvious since the 2000s. So where’s the surprise?” said Pitman.

Pitmans said the recent figures put the recent goal agreed in Paris of just 1.5C warming in doubt. “The 1.5C target, it’s wishful thinking. I don’t know if you’d get 1.5C if you stopped emissions today. There’s inertia in the system. It’s putting intense pressure on 2C,” he said.

The record temperatures were wreaking havoc with ecosystems around the world. They’ve triggered the third recorded global coral bleaching, and in Australia 93% of the reefs have been affected by bleaching along the 2,300km Great Barrier Reef. In the northern parts of the reef, it’s expected the majority of coral is dead, and on some reefs over 90% of the coral is dying.

A recent analysis showed the bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef was made 175 times more likely because of climate change, and the conditions that caused it would be average in fewer than 20 years.

The April figures come as the symbolic milestone of CO2 concentrations of 400 parts per million (ppm) have been broken at the important Cape Grim measuring station in Tasmania, Australia.

Reflecting on the CO2 concentrations, Pitman said: “The thing that’s causing that warming, is going up and up and up. So the cool ocean temperatures we will get with a La Niña are warmer than we’d ever seen more than a few decades ago … This is a full-scale punching of the reef system on an ongoing basis with some occasionally really nasty kicks and it isn’t going to recover.”

---

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA</a>

<a href="http://www.theguardian.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian</a>

Global temperature records blown away again

Global temperature records blown away again Latest monthly figures add...

India Drought

Study: Poor countries will bear the brunt of climate change. Poor countries to bear brunt of climate change despite emitting least CO2

Many of the world's poorest countries are expected to experience daily heat extremes due to climate change sooner than wealthier nations - according to research from an international team including the University of East Anglia.

New findings published today in Environmental Research Letters show that the poorest fifth of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-glaciers-face-a-triple-threat-from-global-warming/">global</a> population will be the first to experience more frequent heat extremes - despite cumulatively emitting the least amounts of CO2.

Countries including those in the Horn of Africa and West Africa are likely to be worst affected.

The study is the first to examine the link between cumulative CO2 emissions and more frequent hot days.

Dr Manoj Joshi from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences said: "Many of the poorest people in the world live in tropical latitudes, while many of the world's wealthiest people live in mid-latitude climates.

"We know that low latitude regions have much less variability in day-to-day temperatures when compared with the mid-latitudes, which means the 'signal' of climate change emerges quite quickly, and because of this, the frequency of extreme hot days increases rapidly too."

Lead author Luke Harrington, a PhD student at the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=new+zealand&amp;cvid=c39ddf4ff10a47e585629f46488c6023&amp;pglt=43&amp;FORM=ANNTA1&amp;PC=HCTS">New Zealand</a> Climate Change Research Institute (NZCCRI), said: "Previous studies have shown a link between rising global temperatures and increases in the frequency of local heat extremes, while others have shown a clear relationship between the total amount of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere and rising temperatures.

"This study is the first to use climate models to simulate the end-to-end link between cumulative CO2 emissions and people experiencing more frequent hot days."

The team used state-of-the-art climate models to estimate cumulative CO2 emissions and subsequent changes to extreme local daily temperatures over the 20th and 21st century.

An extreme hot day was defined as occurring 0.1 per cent of the time in model simulations of the pre-industrial climate.

Dr Chris Jones from the Met Office Hadley Centre said: "Our results show much fewer cumulative emissions are required for the poorest fifth of the global population to experience a robust increase in the number of extreme hot days, when compared with the wealthiest population quintile."

These results help to clarify how the wealthiest and poorest fractions of the global population will experience different emergent increases in extreme heat with continued climate change.

"We also know the wealthiest countries will be able to cope with the impacts more easily than poorer nations," said Dr Erich Fischer of ETH Zurich. Study: Poor countries will bear the brunt of climate change

"What our research shows is that heat extremes do not increase evenly everywhere, but are becoming much more frequent more quickly for countries nearer the equator - these happen to be disproportionately poorer nations, including those in the Horn of Africa and <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/guinea-bissau-in-west-africa/">West Africa</a>.

"In fact, this pattern was robust even when we considered future projections of population and income."

Dr Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading said: "Most importantly, this disparity in exposure to more frequent temperature extremes between the global rich and poor only becomes more pronounced as cumulative CO2 emissions continues to rise. This result is yet another piece of evidence demonstrating that limiting cumulative CO2 emissions over the 21st century will help avoid these impacts."

'Poorest countries experience earlier anthropogenic emergence of daily temperature extremes' is published in Environmental Research Letters on May 17.

<hr />

<a href="http://comm.uea.ac.uk/press" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of East Anglia</a>

Study: Poor countries will bear the brunt of climate change

Study: Poor countries will bear the brunt of climate change....

<div>

Making plants fit for climate change. Breeding barley that provides good yields even in a hot and dry climate - a research team of the University of Würzburg is currently busy with this task. The project is part of the new Bavarian alliance "BayKlimaFit" aimed at finding strategies to adapt crops to climate change.

As climate changes, very hot and very dry periods will occur more frequently. As a result, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/farmers-can-help-make-crops-more-resilient/">farmers</a> will be threatened by yield loss or even total crop failure. The problem could be solved by breeding crop varieties that manage water more efficiently, making them less sensitive to drought and heat.

The plant scientists Professor Rainer Hedrich and Dr. Peter Ache from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, are working to achieve this using barley. In a first step, they want to determine which molecular switches in the plant are responsible for water management during hot and dry weather based on a reference variety. Making plants fit for climate change

Field tests including some 100 breeding lines

Simultaneous field test are launched in Freising in cooperation with the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL) domiciled there. Other participants include the work group of Professor Uwe Sonnewald (biochemistry, University Erlangen-Nuremberg) and various seed breeding companies.

The first field tests are set to single out barley varieties that are particularly tolerant and sensitive to stress from among some 100 crop lines. By comparing these lines with the reference crop, the researchers then plan to identify possible marker genes for heat and drought tolerance and make them available to the participating companies for breed selection. "Our goal is not to genetically modify plants; rather we want to help breeders to selectively identify the desired properties in their existing varieties using the marker genes," Peter Ache explains.

260,000 euros provided by BayKlimaFit

The project is part of the new Bavarian research alliance "BayKlimaFit" aimed at finding strategies to adapt crops to climate change. The alliance started operation in February 2016. It brings together specialist research teams and work groups from all over Bavaria.

BayKlimaFit is financed by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection; 260,000 euros have been allocated to the JMU project. Among others, the money is used to pay for a PhD position and a part-time technical assistance position.

How plants can save water

For several years, Hedrich's team has studied the molecular mechanisms that allow plants to regulate their water balance. Among other findings, his research activities have given insight into how plants open and close their so-called stomata. Stomata are tiny openings in the leaves that allow plants to limit the loss of water.

Under hot and dry conditions the plant faces a dilemma: When temperatures are high, the plant wants to open the stomata in order to cool its leaves by evaporation. But when it is dry, the plant prefers to close its stomata to keep in as much water as possible. The researchers are looking for a way out of this dilemma


</div>
<div></div>

Making plants fit for climate change

Making plants fit for climate change. Breeding barley that provides...

Pelagibacterales: Tiny organisms have huge climate impact. Scientists at the University of East Anglia have discovered how a tiny yet abundant ocean organism helps regulate the Earth's climate.

Research published today in Nature Microbiology reveals how a bacterial group called Pelagibacterales plays an important function in keeping the Earth's atmosphere stable.

The project was led by Prof Steve Giovannoni and Dr Jing Sun at <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/unequal-treatment-protestors/">Oregon</a> State University, in collaboration with researchers from UEA among others.

They showed that these tiny, hugely abundant bacteria could make the environmentally important gas, dimethyl sulfide. Researchers at UEA identified and characterised the gene that is responsible for this property.

Dr Jonathan Todd from UEA's School of Biological Sciences said: "These types of ocean bacteria are among the most abundant organisms on Earth - comprising up to half a million microbial cells found in every teaspoon of seawater.

"We studied it at a molecular genetic level to discover exactly how it generates a gas called dimethylsulfide (DMS), which is known for stimulating cloud formation.

"Our research shows how a compound called dimethylsulfoniopropionate that is made in large amounts by marine plankton is then broken down into DMS by these tiny ocean organisms called Pelagibacterales.

"The resultant DMS gas may then have a role in regulating the climate by increasing cloud droplets that in turn reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the ocean's surface."

Dr Emily Fowler from UEA's School of Biological Sciences worked on the characterisation of the Pelagibacterales DMS generating enzymes as part of her successful PhD at UEA. She said: "Excitingly, the way Pelagibacterales generates DMS is via a previously unknown enzyme, and we have found that the same enzyme is present in other hugely abundant marine bacterial species. This likely means we have been vastly underestimating the microbial contribution to the production of this important gas."

Dr Temperton from Exeter University added: "This work shows that the Pelagibacterales are likely an important component in climate stability. If we are going to improve models of how DMS impacts climate, we need to consider this organism as a major contributor.

"What's fascinating is the elegance and simplicity of DMS production in the Pelagibacterales. These organisms don't have the genetic regulatory mechanisms found in most bacteria. Having evolved in nutrient-limited oceans, they have some of the smallest genomes of all free-living organisms, because small genomes take fewer resources to replicate."

<hr />

<a href="http://comm.uea.ac.uk/press" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of East Anglia</a>

Pelagibacterales: Tiny organisms have huge climate impact

Pelagibacterales: Tiny organisms have huge climate impact. Scientists at the...

Coal shipping poses great threat to Great Barrier Reef. Australian researchers have raised fresh concerns that a major shipping disaster could harm the Great Barrier Reef, with new research revealing coal dust in seawater can kill corals and slow down the growth rate of seagrasses and fish.

"Corals exposed to the highest concentrations of coal dust died within two weeks," says author Kathryn Berry, who led the experimental research.

"<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/the-great-barrier-reef-has-lost-half-its-corals-in-two-decades/">Corals</a> exposed to lower concentrations of coal lasted longer, but most of them also died after 4 weeks of exposure.

"While some fish and seagrass died from coal dust exposure, it mostly stunted their growth by half compared to clean water."

The scientists exposed the marine species to fine coal particles in carefully controlled experiments within the National Sea Simulator at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and measured their responses over time.

Coal dust enters the marine environment at loading and storage facilities when it is blown or washed into the sea, during transport, and in rare shipping disasters.

In 2013, the bulk carrier, MV Smart, broke apart in South Africa while carrying over 140,000 tonnes of coal. In Australia, over 60,000 tonnes of coal remained on board the Shen Neng 1 when it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Gladstone in 2010.

"Risks to the Great Barrier Reef posed by large coal spills depend on the probability of an accident and the potential impacts to marine life," says author Dr. Andrew Negri.

"While the likelihood of a major spill on a coral reef or seagrass meadow is low, we are now beginning to understand the likely consequences."

Author Dr. Mia Hoogenboom hopes the results will inform management of coal shipping activities in Australia and around the world.

"This research will allow decision makers to understand the risks to marine life to identify the species that are most vulnerable."

The findings by scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the Australian Institute of Marine Science have been published in Nature Scientific Reports.

<hr />

<a href="http://www.coralcoe.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Arc Centre of Excellence</a>

Coal shipping poses great threat to Great Barrier Reef

Coal shipping poses great threat to Great Barrier Reef. Australian...

<div>

Study: removing beach debris increases sea turtle nests. Conventional wisdom says removing beach debris helps sea turtles nest; now, as sea-turtle nesting season gets underway, a new University of Florida study proves it.

Clearing the beach of flotsam and jetsam increased the number of nests by as much as 200 percent, the study shows, while leaving the detritus decreased the number by nearly 50 percent.

Sea turtles are classified as either endangered or threatened, depending on the species. Restoring their nesting habitats is critical to keeping them alive, said Ikuko Fujisaki, the study's lead author and an assistant research professor of wildlife ecology and conservation with the UF Institute of Food and <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/bees-and-agriculture-a-love-story/">Agricultural</a> Sciences.

With humans encroaching on their natural habitat, sea turtles face an uphill climb to stay alive, said Fujisaki, a faculty member at the UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. Sea turtles spend most of their lives in the sea, but they rely on sandy beaches to reproduce.

From May 1 to Sept. 1 of each year, from 2011 through 2014, Fujisaki and her colleagues conducted an experiment along the Gulf Coast near Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. They sought to understand the effects of large debris on sea turtle nesting activities. The study area has one of the highest nesting densities of loggerhead sea turtles in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The debris in the area were both natural, such as fallen trees and stumps, and man-made, including concrete, pipes and metal fencing that remained on the beach after old military structures were demolished.

During the experiment, researchers recorded locations of nests and false crawls, defined as the number of times that sea turtles emerge from the Gulf waters but do not lay eggs. Researchers also removed large debris. They found sea turtle nests increased where scientists removed debris.

After researchers got rid of debris, sea turtle nest numbers increased 200 percent, and the number of false crawls increased 55 percent, the study showed. In beach sections where debris was not removed, the number of nests declined 46 percent.

"Our results showed that the presence of large debris on a sandy beach could alter the distribution of sea turtle nests by influencing turtle nest site selection," Fujisaki said.

Fujisaki's findings are published online in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.


</div>
---

<a href="http://www.ufl.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Florida</a>
<div></div>

Study: removing beach debris increases sea turtle nests

Study: removing beach debris increases sea turtle nests. Conventional wisdom...

Increased vegetation in the Arctic region may counteract global warming. Climate change creates more shrub vegetation in barren, arctic ecosystems. A study at Lund University in Sweden shows that organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are triggered to break down particularly nutritious dead parts of shrubbery. Meanwhile, the total amount of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/organic-carbon-stored-underground/">decomposition</a> is reducing. This could have an inhibiting effect on global warming.
<div>

A large amount of the Earth's carbon and nitrogen is stored in arctic ecosystems where the ground is permanently frozen, known as permafrost. Climate change causes such soil to heat up. Johannes Rousk at Lund University, together with colleagues Kathrin Rousk och Anders Michelsen from the University of Copenhagen and the Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), have conducted field studies outside Abisko in the very north of Sweden, studying what happens to the decomposition of organic material as the climate gets warmer.

"As the Arctic region becomes warmer, more shrubs start to grow, rather than moss which is difficult to break down. The shrubs have leaves and roots that are easy to break down and secrete sugar. What we have shown is that decomposition organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are triggered to look for nutrient-rich organic materials that contain more nitrogen, while decomposition as a whole is reduced", says Johannes Rousk.

When the nutrient-rich material is decomposed, the nutrient-poor part of the organic material is enriched, probably causing the amount of carbon to increase. Current climate models do not consider the connection between increased shrub vegetation as a result of ongoing climate change, and soil becoming less nutritious.

"It will be exciting to see how this will affect the soil carbon turnover in the long term. Perhaps our results will help complement future climate models", says Johannes Rousk.

Today no one knows what less nutritious soil in the Arctic ecosystem and an overall decreased decomposition of organic material will lead to. However, Johannes Rousk dares to venture a guess:

"I suspect it will have an inhibiting effect on global warming", he says.

The article "Microbial control of soil organic matter mineralization responses to labile carbon in subarctic climate change treatments" is published in the scientific journal Global Change Biology.

Watch (feel free to share or embed) short interview with researcher Johannes Rousk: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo1oCVOLCsQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v= mo1oCVOLCsQ</a>
###
Further information:

Johannes Rousk
Senior lecturer Department of Biology
Lund University
Tel: 46-46-222-37-45 / 46-70-750-75-22
Email: <a href="mailto:johannes.rousk@biol.lu.se">johannes.rousk@biol.lu.se</a>

</div>

Increased vegetation in the Arctic region may counteract global warming

Increased vegetation in the Arctic region may counteract global warming....

<div>

Ocean acidification puts NW Dungeness crab at risk. Ocean acidification expected to accompany climate change may slow development and reduce survival of the larval stages of Dungeness crab, a key component of the Northwest marine ecosystem and the largest fishery by revenue on the West Coast, a new study has found.

The research by NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle indicates that the declining pH anticipated in Puget Sound could jeopardize populations of Dungeness crab and put the fishery at risk. The study was recently published in the journal Marine Biology.

Ocean acidification occurs as the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels. Average ocean surface pH is expected to drop to about 7.8 off the West Coast by 2050, and could drop further during coastal upwelling periods.

Dungeness crab is the highest revenue fishery in Washington and Oregon, and the second most valuable in California, although the fishery was recently closed in some areas because of a harmful algal bloom. The Dungeness crab harvest in 2014 was worth more than $80 million in Washington, $48 million in Oregon and nearly $67 million in <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/august-complex-fire-has-become-the-largest-in-californias-history/">California</a>

"I have great faith in the resiliency of nature, but I am concerned," said Jason Miller, lead author of the research, which was part of his dissertation. "Crab larvae in our research were three times more likely to die when exposed to a pH that can already be found in Puget Sound, our own back yard, today."

[caption id="attachment_2390741" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2390741" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2016/05/17165033/cff1.greenatom.netuploads20160517165030media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb115756_web-a2ba615823d4849fdda9235306ee8ac46fd7bedd-7d69e268f62a734b257610e0bf760a882cd90e14-150x150.jpg" alt="dungeness crab larva" width="150" height="150" /> Dungeness crab larva[/caption]

Scientists collected eggs from Dungeness crabs in Puget Sound and placed them in tanks at the NWFSC's Montlake Research Laboratory. The tanks held seawater with a range of pH levels reflecting current conditions as well as the lower pH occasionally encountered in Puget Sound when deep water wells up near the surface. Larvae also went into tanks with the even lower-pH conditions expected with ocean acidification.

"The question was whether the lower pH we can expect to see in Puget Sound interferes with development of the next generation of Dungeness crab," said Paul McElhany, a NOAA Fisheries research scientist and senior author of the paper. "Clearly the answer is yes. Now the question is, how does that play out in terms of affecting their life cycle and populations overall?"

Larvae hatched at the same rate regardless of pH, but those at lower pH took longer to hatch and progressed through their larval stages more slowly. Scientists suggested that the lower pH may reduce the metabolic rate of embryos. That could extend their vulnerable larval period, or could jeopardize the timing of their development in relation to key food sources, researchers suggested.

Larval survival also dropped by more than half at lower pH. At pH 8.0, roughly equivalent to seawater today, 58 percent of the crab larvae - called zoeae - survived for 45 days. At pH 7.5, which sometimes occurs in Puget Sound now, survival was 14 percent. At pH 7.1, which is expected to roughly approximate the pH of water upwelling on the West Coast with ocean acidification, zoeae survival remained low at 21 percent.

"Areas of greatest vulnerability will likely be where deep waters, naturally low in pH, meet acidified surface waters," such as areas of coastal upwelling along the West Coast and in estuary environments such Hood Canal, the new study predicts.

<hr />

<a href="https://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center</a>


</div>
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Ocean acidification puts NW Dungeness crab at risk

Ocean acidification puts NW Dungeness crab at risk. Ocean acidification...

Officials: 2016 California wildfire season should be severe. California could face a dangerous and difficult 2016 California wildfire season despite a relatively wet winter, federal officials warned Tuesday.
Most of the rest of the nation is expected to see an average summer, but even that means thousands of wildfires, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said after a briefing from the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of his department.
A five-year drought has left 40 million dead and dried-out trees in<a href="http://www.earth.com/image/august-complex-fire-has-become-the-largest-in-californias-history/"> California</a>, including 29 million that died last year alone, Vilsack said.
"This creates a tremendous hazard, potential hazard, for fires and firefighting this year," he said.
An El Nino weather pattern brought near-normal snowfall to parts of California last winter, but its forests need much more rain and snow to recover fully from the drought, Vilsack said.
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said Southern California didn't benefit from the El Nino as much as the state's northern mountains.
He said the effects of drought will continue to kill California's trees for at least three more years.
Tidwell and Vilsack said the Forest Service - the primary federal wildfire-fighting agency - has 10,000 firefighters ready nationwide, along with more than 350 aircraft and 900 fire trucks.
Wildfires are increasing in number and intensity in the U.S., and the wildfire season has grown by 78 days since 1970, Tidwell said.
Last year, wildfires burned a record 15,800 square miles. Seven Forest Service firefighters died and 4,500 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Vilsack and Tidwell said climate change was responsible for the worsening fires.
"This is not weather," Tidwell said. "This is climate change. That's what we're dealing with."
Vilsack and Tidwell's warnings about the 2016 season largely echoed what forecasters at the National Interagency Fire Coordinating Center said two weeks ago when they issued their outlook for the summer months.
They said Hawaii, Alaska, California and other parts of the Southwest face an above-average threat. The potential for significant fires will be below average for much of Texas, the South and the southern Midwest, they said.
Sounding frustrated and impatient, Vilsack repeated his plea Tuesday for Congress to pay the cost of fighting the worst fires from disaster emergency funds, not the Forest Service budget.
The Forest Service says the largest 1 or 2 percent of wildfires account for about 30 percent of the costs.
Firefighting consumed more than half the Forest Service budget last year, draining money from forest management and other programs, Vilsack said. Fires will soon eat up two-thirds of the agency's budget, he said.
"Congress has an affirmative responsibility and duty to fix this problem," he said.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said money alone isn't enough. He said environmental regulations and lawsuits keep the Forest Service from culling enough fire-prone trees from the forests.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.</a> His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.</a>
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Officials: 2016 California wildfire season should be severe

Officials: 2016 California wildfire season should be severe. California could...

Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil spill. A Texas pipeline company responsible for spilling more than 140,000 gallons of crude oil on the California coast last year was indicted on dozens of criminal charges in the disaster that closed popular beaches and killed sea lions and birds, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Plains All American Pipeline and one of its employees face 46 counts of state law violations in the May 19, 2015, spill that initially went undetected until oil began pouring onto a pristine beach on the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/santa-barbara-turquoise-waters/">Santa Barbara</a> coastline and running into the ocean.
Initial investigations by federal regulators found the 2-foot-wide underground pipeline was severely corroded where it broke on land.Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil spill
Plains was charged in Santa Barbara Superior Court with four felony counts of spilling oil in state waters and could face fines of up to $2.8 million if convicted of all the charges, prosecutors said.
"The carelessness of Plains All American harmed hundreds of species and marine life off Refugio Beach," California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement. "This conduct is criminal, and today's charges serve as a powerful reminder of the consequences that flow from jeopardizing the well-being of our ecosystems and public health."
Plains said in a statement that the spill was an accident and believes no criminal behavior occurred.
"We will demonstrate that the charges have no merit and represent an inappropriate attempt to criminalize an unfortunate accident," the company said.
The spill two weeks before Memorial Day weekend last year forced the state to close popular beaches as an oil plume spread nine miles into the Pacific Ocean. More than 220 birds, mostly pelicans, and nearly 140 marine mammals, mostly sea lions, were found dead in the aftermath, and tar balls from the spill drifted more than 100 miles away to Los Angeles beaches.
The Houston-based company faces three dozen misdemeanor counts of harming wildlife.
The spill was a grim reminder of a much larger disaster in 1969 when an offshore oil rig blowout blackened Santa Barbara beaches, killed wildlife and created a backlash that helped give birth to the environmental movement.
The Plains rupture was the largest coastal oil spill since the BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico six years ago that killed 11 rig workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude. BP settled federal criminal charges by pleading guilty to 12 felony counts and two misdemeanors and reached $20 billion settlement with the Justice Department for environmental damages.
Plains could still face federal criminal charges for last year's spill. The Department of Transportation's pipeline enforcement agency is expected to release the results this spring of its year-long investigation into the disaster's cause.
Initial investigation results have pointed to a badly corroded pipeline that had undergone strength tests just weeks before the spill, but the results had not been analyzed before it broke. Preliminary reports also show that it took hours for Plains to recognize what happened and notify officials.
A Plains employee and the company were charged in the indictment with misdemeanor counts of failing to report the spill quickly enough to state emergency officials.
James Buchanan, 41, the company's environmental and regulatory compliance specialist, faces up to three years if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.
The company and Buchanan are scheduled for arraignment June 6.
Plains said it had cooperated fully in the investigation, but Harris said at a news conference the company had been "far less than cooperative."
© 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.

Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil spill

Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil...

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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



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

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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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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...

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