The influence of synthetic plastic on our planet is concerning, to say the least. It's everywhere - from the depths of our oceans to the food we eat, even finding its way into our bodies. But, Avinash Manjula-Basavanna, a seasoned research scientist at Northeastern University, sees "MECHS" as a solution. 



"The kind of impact that human-made materials are making on the living world is resulting in&nbsp;climate change, pollution and more," he says. 



"One of the ways that we are able to address this is to make materials sustainable and also make materials which are smart or intelligent."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-birth-of-a-new-bioplastic">Birth of a new bioplastic</h2>



Joining forces with Neel S. Joshi, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern, Manjula-Basavanna gave birth to a new bioplastic named MECHS.



It stands for Mechanical Engineered Living Materials with Compostability, Healability, and Scalability.



The team recently showcased their discovery in the journal Nature Communications. Here, they articulated their unique work with engineered living materials, living cells that produce functional <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-changing-the-entire-earth-system/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">materials</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wonders-of-bioplastic">Wonders of bioplastic</h2>



What makes MECHS stand out? Manjula-Basavanna and Joshi gave us two major reasons.



Firstly, MECHS exhibits the beauty of nature-inspired solutions, with the ability to regenerate, regulate themselves, and respond to external stimuli such as light. 



The second reason is even more significant in today's context. Unlike the harmful plastics choking our planet and bodies, MECHS is biodegradable in water and even in a compost bin. 



"Right now we use a lot of conventional nonbiodegradable plastics for applications they don't need to be used in at all," Joshi says. "If we replace that with our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/major-plastic-pollution-lurks-beneath-the-surface-of-rivers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plastic</a>, you could just flush it down the toilet and it would biodegrade."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-engineered-living-materials">Engineered living materials</h2>



Until now, such engineered living materials haven't been scalable for broad production. Enter MECHS.



Essentially, it's comprised of engineered E. coli bacteria intertwined with a fiber matrix, crafted into a paper- or film-like material. 



The fibrous structure gives MECHS some desirable properties. For instance, the bioplastic can stretch like plastic wrap and be genetically engineered for variable stiffness. And, quite fascinatingly, it has self-healing capabilities.



But the real cherry on top? MECHS is fully dissolvable, be it in large amounts of water or a compost bin. It dissolves rapidly, much faster than other existing biodegradable plastics. Plus, it can be mass-produced similarly to paper.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-potential-applications">Potential applications</h2>



The scientific marvels envision MECHS as the solution to "primary packaging." This includes the plastic cover protecting your new iPhone or the detergent pods for your appliances. Imagine MECHS wrapped around a pot plant, slowly breaking down and releasing proteins to fertilize the plant!



Addressing the global problem of plastic pollution, Manjula-Basavanna sees a strong potential for MECHS in plastic packaging, which covers almost one-third of the plastic market. 



He observes that such packaging’s lifespan could last a few days to two years, but the petrochemical plastics used can take hundreds of years to biodegrade.



"For such a short lifespan of packaging, the petrochemical plastics that can take hundreds of years to biodegrade are unnecessary in many cases and thus a sustainable alternative like MECHS due to its biodegradability, flushability, and mechanical tunability could be a game changer," says Manjula-Basavanna.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-challenges-in-adopting-mechs">Challenges in adopting MECHS</h2>



While MECHS presents a revolutionary solution to the global plastic crisis, adopting this technology on a large scale is not devoid of challenges. One primary concern lies in the genomic stability of the engineered E. coli bacteria used in MECHS. 



Scientists must ensure that the bacteria remain safe and stable under various environmental conditions to avoid unintended consequences. Additionally, transitioning industries reliant on traditional plastics to MECHS involves overcoming significant economic and logistical barriers. 



Production facilities worldwide may need to adopt new techniques and infrastructure to accommodate this novel material, potentially incurring considerable costs in the short term. 



Furthermore, public perception and regulatory hurdles need to be navigated to gain trust and approval for its widespread use.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-of-sustainable-materials">Future of sustainable materials</h2>



Looking to the future, the innovations around MECHS signal a burgeoning era of sustainable and adaptable materials capable of transforming industries. 



As research into living materials progresses, new possibilities emerge, such as enabling the development of dynamic, adaptable materials for technologies yet to be imagined. 



Building on their success with MECHS, Manjula-Basavanna and Joshi envision an expanding palette of biodegradable materials, each tailored for specific applications ranging from environmental conservation to health care. 



Their work emphasizes collaboration across disciplines - bridging biology, chemistry, and engineering - to advance sustainable solutions.



Ultimately, MECHS is a testament to how embracing nature-inspired innovation can lead to breakthroughs with the power to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-on-beaches-is-now-visible-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reshape our relationship with the materials</a> we use and the environment we inhabit.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53052-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Nature-inspired solutions: New bioplastic dissolves rapidly in water

The influence of synthetic plastic on our planet is concerning, to say the least. It's everywhere - from the depths of our oceans to the food we eat, even finding its way into our bodies. But, Avinash Manjula-Basavanna, a seasoned research scientist at Northeastern University, sees "MECHS" as a solution. "The kind of impact that human-made materials are making on the living world is resulting in&nbsp;climate change, pollution and more," he says. "One of the ways that we are able to address this is to make materials...

According to a new study presented at the <a href="https://www.ersnet.org/congress-and-events/congress/">European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress</a> in Barcelona, Spain, the impact of breathing diesel <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/car-exhaust-erectile-dysfunction/">exhaust</a> fumes may be more severe for females than males. By measuring changes in people’s blood caused by exposure to diesel exhaust, the scientists found more modifications of blood components related to inflammation, infection, and cardiovascular diseases in females than in males.



“We already know that there are sex differences in lung diseases such as asthma and respiratory infections,” said study lead author Hemshekhar Mahadevappa, an expert in chronic inflammatory diseases at the <a href="https://umanitoba.ca/">University of Manitoba</a> in Canada. “Our previous research showed that breathing diesel exhaust creates inflammation in the lungs and has an impact on how the body deals with respiratory infections. In this study, we wanted to look for any effects in the blood and how these differ in females and males.”



The researchers enrolled ten healthy, non-smoker participants – five women and five men – and exposed them for four hours to filtered air, and for other four hours to air containing diesel exhaust fumes at different concentrations (20, 50, and 150 micrograms of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) per cubic meter), with a month break in between each exposure.



After each exposure, the participants donated blood samples, which were analyzed through a well-known analysis technology called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to detect changes in the levels of different proteins from blood plasma following exposure to diesel exhaust.



The analysis revealed levels of 90 proteins which were clearly different between the female and male volunteers following exposure to diesel exhaust. Some of these proteins are known to play a critical role in inflammation, damage repair, blood clotting, cardiovascular disease, and immunity.



“These are preliminary findings, however they show that exposure to diesel exhaust has different effects in female bodies compared to male and that could indicate that air pollution is more dangerous for females than males,” said study senior author Neeloffer Mookherjee, an associate professor of Internal Medicine and Immunology at the University of Manitoba.



“This is important as respiratory diseases such as asthma are known to affect females and males differently, with females more likely to suffer severe asthma that does not respond to treatments. Therefore, we need to know a lot more about how females and males respond to air pollution and what this means for preventing, diagnosing, and treating their respiratory disease.”



Further research is needed to clarify the function of these proteins in order to better understand their role in the differences between male and female bodily responses to air pollution.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Air pollution is more dangerous to females

According to a new study presented at the European Respiratory...

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that have come under threat in recent decades as a consequence of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/past-variability-may-help-forests-cope-with-climate-change/">climate change</a>. This has fueled a surge in research on the basic biology of corals with a view to restoring reefs that have been damaged by ocean heating and acidification. Reef restoration depends on the successful recruitment of juvenile corals and this is difficult to quantify using current 3D modeling techniques because the juveniles are so very small and cryptic.&nbsp;



This problem has led marine biologist Dr. Kate Quigley to develop a new method for monitoring coral size and growth that relies on the use of dental scanning equipment. Digital 3D scanning is commonly used in dentistry and implant manufacturing because measurements need to be accurate right down to the μm scale in order to produce highly accurate molds. Intraoral dental scanners are also safe to use on live tissue, whereas previous 3D modeling methods often involved destroying the corals in order to measure them.&nbsp;



Dr. Quigley, a senior research scientist at the Minderoo Foundation, has published details of the new method in the journal <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13959">Methods in Ecology and Evolution</a>. She was inspired to develop the new scanning method by a visit to her dentist.&nbsp;



During her visit, Dr. Quigley remarked on the similarities between coral and human teeth – both being calcium-based and requiring measuring tools that can withstand wet surfaces. “One day, I was at the dentist, and they rolled out this new scanning machine. I knew immediately that it was something that could apply to scanning very small corals given that corals and teeth actually share many similar properties. The rest is history!”



Although the older technologies involved in 3D modeling of coral reefs have seen substantial improvement and development in the recent past, they are really only applicable to objects in the size range of meters to centimeters. They lack capability in the millimeter and micron (μm) size range, which is what is necessary when measuring the early life stages of corals. Understanding the critical life stage of juvenile coral allows scientists to predict ecosystem changes, the impacts of disturbance and the potential for reefs to recover.



“At the moment, it is difficult to accurately measure very small objects in 3D, especially if you are interested in measuring small live animals, like coral, without hurting them. During my PhD it would take half a day to produce one scan, and I was interested in scanning hundreds of corals at a time," said Dr. Quigley.



To assess the effectiveness of these dental scanners, namely the ITero Element 5D Flex, Dr. Quigley measured juvenile corals from different species and size classes. The corals were originally collected from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and included species with complex branching morphology, as well as those with simple branching and those that have a flatter, encrusting life form. The trial was conducted at the National Sea Simulator at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, where the corals were temporarily removed from their indoor aquarium to have their surface areas and volumes scanned.&nbsp;



On average it took less than three minutes to scan and build a model of each individual coral compared to over four hours with previous methods – a 99 percent decrease in the time required to carry out such measurements. Dr. Quigley recorded equally fast and precise performances when measuring and comparing models of dead skeletons and living coral tissue, thus removing the need to sacrifice live animals in order to take measurements.



“For the first time, this new method will allow scientists to measure thousands of tiny corals fast, accurately and without any negative health impacts on the coral. This has the potential to expand large-scale monitoring of ocean health and for up-scaling coral reef restoration.”



While this is a huge improvement in terms of cutting down the time involved to monitor these small marine animals, the technology can only be used to make measurements out of the water. The scanning instrument is not waterproof and it relies on the use of lasers. In addition, the 3D scans still need to be processed manually, which is a slow process. Dr. Quigley hopes to create an automatic analysis pipeline from scanning to measurement in future, potentially using AI.



“Potentially the scanner could be made completely waterproof. However, it is unclear how well the laser technology would work completely submerged underwater. We have taken this technology on the boat before and brought up wild and laboratory-reared corals for measurement, so we are getting there!”



“The pairing of both rapid data acquisition and processing in this way has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of coral biology for pressing questions around conservation in this important biological system.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dental scanning equipment helps monitor young corals

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that have come under...

Blue light is emitted by computer and laptop screens, by fluorescent lights, flat-screen televisions, cell phones and tablets. It is also a component of natural light that emanates from the Sun, but our exposure to it has increased drastically due to our widespread use of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/digital-devices-can-actually-improve-our-memory-skills/">devices</a> that employ LED technologies. In fact, many humans today are exposed to blue light throughout most of the waking day. Blue light (BL) waves are only marginally less energetic than UV radiation and so it is natural to wonder whether exposure to BL is dangerous for our eyes and our bodies in general.&nbsp;



There is already accumulating evidence that BL exposure causes damage to retinal cells in vitro and in vivo. Previous experiments using live mice and fruit flies have shown that retinal cells are damaged by blue light, and that lifespan is shortened, but the effects of this form of radiation on cells other than those in the retina have not been investigated before. In addition, the cellular mechanisms underlying these effects are currently unknown.&nbsp;&nbsp;



A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fragi.2022.983373/full">Frontiers in Aging</a> reports on the effects of BL exposure in fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, and also investigates whether blue light has a greater impact on individuals as they age. The researchers also conducted analyses of fly brains and respiratory pathways to understand the ways in which flies were affected by exposure to blue light.&nbsp;



“Excessive exposure to blue light from everyday devices, such as TVs, laptops, and phones, may have detrimental effects on a wide range of cells in our body, from skin and fat cells, to sensory neurons,” said Dr. Jadwiga Giebultowicz, a professor at the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University and senior author of this study. “We are the first to show that the levels of specific metabolites – chemicals that are essential for cells to function correctly – are altered in fruit flies exposed to blue light.”



The researchers first measured the survival rate of flies that were raised and kept in constant darkness, and then transferred to constant BL conditions at different ages across the lifespan. The results showed that the older the flies were when exposed to blue light, the lower their survival rate was, when compared with flies of the same age that remained in constant darkness.&nbsp;



Furthermore, when flies were exposed to a temporary (10 day) session of BL at young or middle age, their subsequent survival once returned to constant darkness was significantly reduced and the middle-aged flies were affected more severely than the young flies. This indicates that the phototoxic effects of blue light persist, even after this stressor is removed, and that the severity of the effects depends on the age at which BL exposure occurred.



Throughout the experiments, the researchers used fruit flies that were genetically modified to produce no compound eyes. This enabled them to prove that the effects on fly lifespan were independent of any impacts that the BL may have had on their retinal cells.&nbsp;



In order to understand what was happening to the fruit flies that died prematurely, the researchers investigated the brains and respiratory function of older flies. Their results showed that the brains of flies exposed to BL as older individuals were characterized by many small patches where tissue had died – the control flies kept in darkness did not show anywhere near this extent of neurodegeneration. Furthermore, brain deterioration was worse in flies if they were exposed to BL as older adults than it was if exposure occurred during the young life of a fly. This finding shows that BL is an environmental stressor that impacts organisms more severely with advancing age.



To investigate the causes of age-related light sensitivity, the researchers focused on mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are the tiny structures within cells where oxygen is used to produce energy from substrates such as glucose. They compared oxygen consumption in mitochondria obtained from the cells of young and old flies that were exposed to BL, with oxygen consumption in the mitochondria of control flies that were kept in the dark. The results showed that mitochondrial activity and the production of energy was impaired in flies (both young and old) that were exposed to BL.



The experts also compared the levels of metabolites in the mitochondria of head cells in flies. “To understand why high-energy blue light is responsible for accelerating aging in fruit flies, we compared the levels of metabolites in flies exposed to blue light for two weeks to those kept in complete darkness,” explained Giebultowicz. The researchers found significant differences in the levels of various metabolites; in particular, they found that the levels of succinate were increased, but glutamate levels were lowered.



“Succinate is essential for producing the fuel for the function and growth of each cell. High levels of succinate after exposure to blue light can be compared to gas being in the pump but not getting into the car,” said Giebultowicz. “Another troubling discovery was that molecules responsible for communication between neurons, such as glutamate, are at the lower level after blue light exposure.”



The changes recorded by the researchers suggest that exposure to BL is associated with suboptimal performance of cells and that this may be the cause of cell death and the acceleration of the aging process in flies.&nbsp;



“LEDs have become the main illumination in display screens such as phones, desktops and TVs, as well as ambient lighting, so humans in advanced societies are exposed to blue light through LED lighting during most of their waking hours. The signaling chemicals in the cells of flies and humans are the same, so the there is potential for negative effects of blue light on humans,” explained Giebultowicz.



“We used a fairly strong blue light on the flies – humans are exposed to less intense light, so cellular damage may be less dramatic. The results from this study suggest that future research involving human cells is needed to establish the extent to which human cells may show similar changes in metabolites involved in energy production in response to excessive exposure to blue light."



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Blue light exposure may cause premature aging

Blue light is emitted by computer and laptop screens, by...

Over and under highway <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/losing-wildlife-will-be-very-costly-for-some-countries/">wildlife</a> crossings are designed to help animals move safely across roadways. It's an attempt to maintain animal movement and genetic connectivity. However, we are now learning about another benefit of these crossings.&nbsp;



A recent study published in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03611981221108158">Transportation Research Record</a> found that wildlife crossings in Washington state save approximately $235,000 to $443,000 every year per structure. The state has 22 wildlife bridges and underpasses.&nbsp;



The researchers found that every year, there are one to three fewer wildlife collisions per mile in a 10-mile radius around each wildlife crossing.



"Wildlife crossing structures not only benefit the ecosystem but may also improve road safety," said study author Wisnu Sugiarto, an economics doctoral student at <a href="https://wsu.edu/">Washington State University</a>.



Evidence suggests that other states,&nbsp; including North Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming, also experience fewer wildlife collisions due to wildlife crossing structures.



Sugiarto analyzed accident data from the Washington State Department of Transportation from 2011 to 2020 and information associated with 13 bridges and underpasses in the state. The study compared collisions before and after the crossings were built. He also analyzed another area in the state that never had crossings for a control.&nbsp;



The most common crossings are wide bridges and underpasses, with the bridges being much more expensive. Although bridges may be more expensive, they may also be more effective. Sugiarto found that bridges led to a more significant reduction in wildlife collisions because deer, the animal most likely to be involved in a crash, prefer bridges to underpasses.&nbsp;



Many wildlife collisions occur due to simple misfortune. The drivers often drive safely but happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.&nbsp;



"We often talk about things that we can and cannot control," said Sugiarto. "From a driver point of view, they may choose to drive safely, but still, unfortunately, there are animals that cross the road, and they end up hitting them. This shows there's something we can do about these collisions."



The good news is that we may begin to see more of these bridges across the country in the future, thanks to the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which allocates $350 million to a Wildlife Crossing Pilot Program.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Wildlife crossings save lives and money in Washington state

Over and under highway wildlife crossings are designed to help...

An international team of paleontologists led by <a href="https://vt.edu/">Virginia Tech</a> has recently discovered, named, and described a new sauropodomorph – a long-necked <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-impact-crater-dates-back-to-the-end-of-the-dinosaurs/">dinosaur</a> – which is, thus far, the oldest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Africa. The almost intact skeleton of Mbiresaurus raathi&nbsp;was found in northern Zimbabwe over the course of two digging operations, in 2017 and 2019. The creature is estimated to have been six feet long and to weigh between 20 and 65 pounds.



“The discovery of&nbsp;Mbiresaurus raathi&nbsp;fills in a critical geographic gap in the fossil record of the oldest dinosaurs and shows the power of hypothesis-driven fieldwork for testing predictions about the ancient past,” said study lead author Christopher Griffin, a former PhD student in Geology at Virginia Tech.



“These are Africa’s oldest-known definitive dinosaurs, roughly equivalent in age to the oldest dinosaurs found anywhere in the world. The oldest known dinosaurs — from roughly 230 million years ago, the Carnian Stage of the Late Triassic period — are extremely rare and have been recovered from only a few places worldwide, mainly northern Argentina, southern Brazil, and India.”



“Early dinosaurs like&nbsp;Mbiresaurus raathi&nbsp;show that the early evolution of dinosaurs is still being written with each new find and the rise of dinosaurs was far more complicated than previously predicted,” added study co-author Sterling Nesbitt, an associate professor of Geosciences at Virginia Tech.



The discovery of M. raathi – alongside a larger assortment of Carnian-aged fossils – sheds new light on dinosaur migration. Like all continents, Africa was once part of the supercontinent called Pangea, characterized by a climate divided into strong humid and arid latitudinal belts, with more temperate belts spanning higher attitudes and vast deserts extending across the lower tropics.



“Because dinosaurs initially dispersed under this climatic pattern, the early dispersal of dinosaurs should therefore have been controlled by latitude,” Dr. Griffin explained. “The oldest dinosaurs are known from roughly the same ancient latitudes along the southern temperate climate belt what was at the time, approximately 50 degrees south.” Zimbabwe – where M. raathi was discovered – falls along this climate belt, bridging a geographical gap between southern Brazil and India during the Late Triassic Age.



At the beginning, these dinosaurs were restricted by climatic belts to southern Pangea, and only later in history dispersed worldwide, during a period of intense worldwide humidity known as the Carnian Pluvial Event. After these migrations, barriers returned, mooring the dinosaurs in distinct provinces across Pangea for the remainder of the Triassic Period. Further research is needed to clarify the behavioral and migration patterns of M. raathi, as well as the role it played among the early dinosaurs.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05133-x">Nature</a>.



Image Credit: Virginia Tech



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Africa’s oldest known dinosaur recently discovered

An international team of paleontologists led by Virginia Tech has...

According to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Pakistan is currently facing a “monsoon on steroids,” which caused severe <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/financial-toll-caused-by-flooding-will-soar-by-mid-century/">flooding</a> in roughly one third of the country, leading to over 1,100 deaths since June, as roads, homes, bridges, and crops have been washed away across the country. Blaming “the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding,” Mr. Guterres urged the world to come to Pakistan’s aid, as he launched a $160m appeal to help provide 5.2 million people with food, water, sanitation, emergency education, and health support.



While the monsoon season has usually been welcomed by Pakistan citizens for providing much-needed rain for their crops, the massive rainfalls this year have led to a humanitarian catastrophe, comparable to the devastating floods from 2010 – the deadliest in the country’s history – which killed over 2,000 people.&nbsp;



Although Pakistan produces less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it consistently ranks in the top ten countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures caused by global warming are the main factors that make extreme precipitation contributing to flooding more likely. As Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman put it, the current situation in the country is a “climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.”



Vast areas of rich agricultural land have been devastated during this year’s floods, damaging food supplies and sending prices soaring in a nation already suffering from a deep economic crisis. According to Pakistan’s planning minister Ahsan Iqbal, floods have caused at least $10bn of damage, pushing a large number of people on the brink of starvation.



Moreover, thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate towns and villages where roads and bridges have been swept away, but even with the help of helicopters, authorities are still desperately struggling to reach many of those who are still trapped. “Village after village has been wiped out. Millions of houses have been destroyed,” said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.



Besides UN’s funding, aid has started to arrive from other countries and organizations too. The United Arab Emirates and Turkey have delivered tents and medicines, the International Monetary Fund has approved a $1.2bn loan for the country, and the US and Britain have also pledged their support.



According to Mr. Guterres, South Asia is a “climate crisis hotspot” where people are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts than in other regions of the world. “Let’s stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change,” he urged. “Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Climate crisis leaves one-third of Pakistan underwater

According to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Pakistan is...

In many cases, return to office after lifting-off pandemic-related restrictions has disrupted the newly established close relationship between owners and their pets that emerged during lockdowns. Many people use pet cameras to find out what their furry friends have been doing in the house during office hours. However, such cameras are needed in every room and the footage needs to be reviewed afterwards. Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Institute of Technology</a> has created a new device called PetTrack which, through a combination of sensors, can provide accurate, real-time indoor locations of the pets.



This revolutionary tracking device uses ultra-wideband (UWB) radio wireless sensors to locate the pet, and accelerometers to determine if it is sitting or moving, regardless of walls, furniture, or other objects that may be in the way. All of this is located on a small sensor which can be attached on a collar and can be viewed through a compatible smartphone application.



“PetTrack comprises two things: one is knowing the pet’s indoor location and second is trying to understand their activity,” said&nbsp;study senior author Ashutosh Dhekne, an assistant professor of Computer Science at Georgia Tech. “Together, combining where the pet is and what the orientation of the pet is, we can create a summary map of where the pet has been during the day and what activity the pet was doing.”



While this device is currently designed just to monitor an animal’s location and position, it could have many possible future applications. For instance, pet daycares could use it to enable owners to see how their pet is faring away from home. In addition, this technology could become a training tool where a buzzer could sound if a pet is in an area in which they are not supposed to be.



“We could use our existing setup to also track when pets make accidents in the house during potty training,” explained study lead author Neeraj Alavala, a Masters student at Georgia Tech. “We already have the technology to track when and where these accidents happen and can ensure that those areas get cleaned up. As an extension, we can also give the pet feedback like a buzzer to train the pet to not go in the house.”&nbsp;



“Overall, the idea is to connect better with your pet, using PetTrack. You could detect changing pet behaviors and interact with the pet using location-aware robotic toys,” Professor Dekhne concluded.



The study is published in the proceedings of the 2022 Workshop on Body-centric Computing Systems in Portland, Oregon and can be accessed <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3539489.3539587">here</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

New device tracks location and activity of pets

In many cases, return to office after lifting-off pandemic-related restrictions...

As the Arctic warms nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, glaciers collapse, habitats continue to vanish at a record rate, and a wide range of ecosystems are endangered. Now, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.ufl.edu/">University of Florida</a> has identified another major threat: over the past two decades, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-lakes-global-carbon-levels/">Arctic lakes</a> have shrunk or dried completely across the pan-Arctic – a region including the northern parts of Canada, Russia, Alaska, Greenland, and Scandinavia. The experts set out to find the causes of this mass drying, together with possible solutions to slow this process.



The Arctic lakes are a critical cornerstone of the Arctic ecosystems, providing important sources of water for local Indigenous communities and industries. Moreover, many threatened animal species, including migratory birds and aquatic creatures, also rely on the habitats these lakes offer.



Since scientists had initially predicted that climate change would expand lakes across the tundra due to land surface changes caused by melting ground ice, the discovery that the lakes are in fact declining came as a surprise. Apparently, the thawing of the permafrost – the frozen soil blanketing the Arctic – has a crucial role in draining the lakes, by creating drainage channels and increasing soil erosion into the lakes.



“Our findings suggest that permafrost thaw is occurring even faster than we as a community had anticipated,” said study lead author Elizabeth Webb, a postdoctoral fellow in Biology at the University of Florida. “It also indicates that the region is likely on a trajectory toward more landscape-scale drainage in the future.”



Besides rising temperatures, increases in autumn rainfall also causes permafrost degradation and lake drainage. “It might seem counterintuitive that increasing rainfall reduces surface water,” said&nbsp;study senior author Jeremy Lichstein, an associate professor of Ecology at the same university. “But it turns out the physical explanation was already in the scientific literature: rainwater carries heat into the soil and accelerates permafrost thaw, which can open up underground channels that drain the surface.”



Since the permafrost is currently storing nearly two times as much carbon as the atmosphere, its thawing may release massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, further exacerbating climate change. However, the drainage of Arctic lakes may have a silver lining: the permafrost near these lakes is not thawing so fast. “It’s not immediately clear exactly what the trade-offs are, but we do know that lake expansion causes carbon losses orders of magnitude higher than occurs in surrounding regions,” Dr. Webb explained.



Nevertheless, lake drainage remains a hazard for a vast number of ecosystems. According to the scientists, curbing greenhouse gas emissions could help curtail these lakes’ demise and thus protect wildlife and Indigenous communities. “The snowball is already rolling. It’s not going to work to keep on doing what we’re doing,” Dr. Webb concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01455-w">Nature Climate Change.</a>&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Arctic lakes are vanishing due to permafrost thaw

As the Arctic warms nearly four times faster than the...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dementia-will-affect-most-dogs-if-they-live-long-enough/">Dementia</a> is a devastating disease that robs individuals of their connections with others. Researchers at <a href="https://www.nm.org/">Northwestern Medicine</a> wanted to explore a unique way that music could help alleviate the isolation that comes with the disease.&nbsp;



The study, recently published in <a href="https://journals.lww.com/alzheimerjournal/Fulltext/9900/Musical_Bridges_to_Memory__A_Pilot_Dyadic_Music.25.aspx">Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders</a>, looked specifically at how music could help bridge communication between patients and their caregivers. The research is unique because previous studies were focused solely on the patient, but the current study also considered the caregiver.&nbsp;



The experts wanted to determine whether playing music from the patients' youth while interacting (singing, dancing, and playing instruments) with their caregivers could illicit an emotional connection. Music is an ideal medium because the parts of the brain responsible for musical memory are some of the last affected by Alzheimer's or dementia.&nbsp;



Study lead author <a href="https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/faculty-profiles/az/profile.html?xid=25516">Dr. Borna Bonakdarpour</a> explains the results: "Patients were able to connect with partners through music, a connection that was not available to them verbally. The family and friends of people with dementia also are affected by it. It's painful for them when they can't connect with a loved one. When language is no longer possible, music gives them a bridge to each other."



Beyond improving the patients' social engagement, the study revealed that participants and caregivers were less agitated and reported less anxiety and depression when connecting through music.



To carry out the study, the researchers observed two groups of individuals over three months. One group participated in interactive music therapy, and the other did not. Group discussions were held after each therapy session, and the researchers noticed that members of the group who participated in the music therapy made more eye contact and were less distracted than the control group.&nbsp;



In fact, some therapy patients were barely verbal before the intervention and became conversational during the course of therapy. The researchers noted that the control group did not display the same changes. The positive effects were observed outside of therapy and with family members as well.



"As the program progressed, caregivers invited multiple family members," said study co-author Jeffrey Wolfe. "It became a normalizing experience for the whole family. All could relate to their loved one despite their degree of dementia."&nbsp;&nbsp;



According to the experts, their next step is to repeat the study with a larger sample size. The research is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.lww.com/alzheimerjournal/pages/default.aspx">Alzheimer Disease &amp; Associated Disorders</a>



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Music helps dementia patients connect with caregivers

Dementia is a devastating disease that robs individuals of their...

Global warming will not only bring warmer temperatures to ecosystems across the globe, but will also cause greater variation in temperatures. The extent to which plants can cope with this variability may be an important indicator of their potential to survive or thrive as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fish-die-offs-are-intensifying-with-climate-change/">climate</a> changes in future and brings with it more extremes in environmental parameters.&nbsp;



In a new study, published in the first issue of&nbsp;<a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2752-664X">Environmental Research: Ecology</a>, researchers investigated whether forests that had been exposed to variable conditions in the past were more tolerant of the increased variability that is seen today as an effect of global warming. They did this by assessing the productivity of forests all over the world.&nbsp;



“Global climate patterns are becoming increasingly variable. This means more extremes, which threaten forest health and productivity," explained study lead author Winslow Hansen, a forest ecologist at <a href="https://www.caryinstitute.org/">Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies</a>. "They say adversity makes you stronger. Here, we were essentially testing that adage for trees. Are forested regions that experienced more variable conditions in the past better prepared to tolerate variable climate now and in the future?”



The researchers studied records of regional climate variability during two 20-year study periods, namely 1950–1969 and 2000–2019. The records gave data on monthly minimum, mean and maximum temperatures, total precipitation, and mean vapor pressure deficit (a measure of how dry the air is). This global data was gridded at a 0.5° spatial resolution.&nbsp;



The team then related variability in these environmental parameters to vegetation productivity in forests. To assess modern forest productivity, the researchers used global vegetation data detected by NASA’s MODIS satellites. The ‘enhanced vegetation index’ (EVI) is a satellite-derived measure of ‘greenness’ which is a reliable proxy for leaf cover and forest productivity. The MODIS satellites ‘Aqua’ and ‘Terra’ produce a global map of vegetation cover every eight days.&nbsp;



By pairing climate data with satellite records of forests, the researchers were able to assess how climate variability in the past and present shapes current forest productivity. They found that regions where temperature was more variable in the past continue to experience more temperature variability today. Forests in these regions tend to tolerate this increasing variability better.



“Our findings show that historic temperature variability casts legacy effects on current forest productivity," said Hansen. "In places where historic temperature variability was 0.66°C greater than the global average, forests were 19x less sensitive to current temperature variability. This trend was true globally, with important distinctions among biomes.”



“We are seeing global temperature change in two distinct ways: average temperatures are rising and temperature is becoming more variable year to year. These indicators are changing with varying degrees of intensity in different regions. In some places, rising mean temperature is likely to have a greater impact on forests than increasing year to year temperature variability, and vice versa," explained study co-author Naomi Schwartz of University of British Columbia.



“While climate models predict relatively modest overall warming in the tropics through the 21st century, year-to-year temperature variability is expected to substantially increase," said Hansen. "Our analysis indicates that tropical forests could be harder hit by effects of increasing variability than rising mean temperatures.”



However, the story is not the same for boreal forests. As Hansen explains, in boreal forests “… year-to-year temperature variability is expected to increase moderately relative to past conditions, but average temperature is rising at least twice the global average. Decadal warming trends, and exacerbating effects of fire and insect outbreaks, may threaten boreal forests more than interannual temperature variability.”



The results of the study demonstrate that exposure to temperature variations in the past shapes how forests respond to temperature variability today. However, the same is not true for forest responses to variability in precipitation and vapor pressure deficit. This may be due to physiological tradeoffs inherent in how trees cope with dry conditions.



“We often think of climate change as a monolithic phenomenon. But in reality, climate is changing in many different ways all at once, and we expect this to cause really different impacts across ecosystems, including forests," said Hansen. "Our study highlights how forest adaptation strategies need to be developed that account for the nuanced effects of climate change.”



The analysis also highlighted sensitive ‘hotspots’ across all biomes, and indicated regions in which forests may be most at risk as the planet warms and temperatures become more extreme. These include boreal forests in eastern North America, temperate forests of the south-central and southeast United States, temperate forests in Asia, and tropical forests in the southern Amazon.&nbsp;



The researchers hope that the framework they have developed can help set conservation priorities, support forest adaptation efforts, and improve carbon accounting.&nbsp;They state that understanding how forests are responding to climate change is critical to planning effective forest management and climate policy in the decades ahead.



"As climate conditions become increasingly variable, there is a critical need to identify where and how forests are changing," said Hansen. "Our analysis offers a framework to hone this understanding on a global scale – helping to improve targeted conservation policies that protect forests, their inhabitants, and the essential services they provide.”&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Past variability may help forests cope with climate change

Global warming will not only bring warmer temperatures to ecosystems...

Conventional dishwashers often do not eliminate all the harmful microorganisms left on plates, bowls, or cutlery. Moreover, they require long cycles which use a lot of electricity, while the soap that is pumped in and out is released into water sources, leading to environmental <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-from-everyday-products-is-deadlier-than-previously-realized/">pollution</a>. 



According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.tu-dortmund.de/en/">Technical University of Dortmund</a> and the <a href="https://www.tum.de/en/">Technical University of Munich</a> (TUM), superheated steam dishwashers - which kill 99 percent of bacteria on dishes in just about 25 seconds - could be a more effective and environmentally-friendly solution.&nbsp;



The scientists created a simulation of an idealized dishwasher, resembling a box with solid side walls, a top opening, and a nozzle at the bottom. Plates covered with heat-resistant strains of bacteria should be placed directly above the nozzle. Once a certain threshold temperature is reached in the simulation, the microorganisms are deemed inactivated.



“Steam comes out of the nozzle at a very high velocity. We can see shocks, and the turbulent flow that is created has eddies and vortices,” said study co-author Natalie Germann, a professor of Fluid Mechanics at TU Dortmund. “We also include heat transfer, which shows how the heat changes in the simulation box and the condensation on the solid surfaces.”



According to the researchers, besides killing bacteria, the shock waves created by the high velocity of the steam and reflected at surfaces in the dishwasher could also be used to effectively remove food debris.&nbsp;



“Our study helps determine the strength of the shocks, the position of the shocks, and the vortices that are created inside the dishwasher,” explained study co- author Laila Abu-Farah, a postdoctoral fellow at TMU. “These things are very important for arranging the items or objects inside the dishwasher and the placement and orientation of the nozzles.”



Although superheated dishwashers would cost more than the traditional ones, their price would pay off in the long run due to savings on water, electricity, and detergent. Such dishwashers would be ideal for use in hospitals, restaurants, or hotels, which must meet higher standards of hygiene.



“We confirmed that the dishwasher application using superheated steam is promising. This is the first work combining fluid dynamics and heat transfer with phase change and bacterial inactivation. It thus lays the foundation for future computational research and further technical work,” Professor Germann concluded.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Steam dishwashers could reduce water and energy use

Conventional dishwashers often do not eliminate all the harmful microorganisms...

Human forearms are made out of two bones - the ulna and the radius. These bones are separated in humans, giving us a range of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predicting-the-movement-of-sea-lions-can-help-protect-them/">movement</a> that's lacking in many other creatures.&nbsp;



Goats, horses, and bats have semi-fused ulnae and radii, probably for running and flying, respectively. In frogs, these two forearm bones are completely fused, which is thought to be an adaptation for jumping. However, this explanation fails to consider the fullness of frog biodiversity.&nbsp;



“Many people think frogs jump, and a lot of them do. But there are also frogs that live their entire lives underground; there are frogs that glide; there are arboreal frogs that mostly climb like monkeys; there are frogs who primarily live underwater; and then there are frogs that just mostly walk. Frogs have evolved to move in so many ways, but the radius and ulna bones are always fused together,” explained Dr. Rachel Keeffe with the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/">Florida Museum of Natural History</a>.



Dr. Keeffe wondered if there was a better explanation for the forelimbs of frogs. For instance, during mating, male frogs clasp females with their forelimbs and also fight other males for access to females. These activities could explain the beefier forelimbs.&nbsp;&nbsp;



To test this idea, Dr. Keeffee used museum specimens to create forelimb models. She modeled the leg of a bullfrog, a frog known for its jumping prowess. Next, she developed other models with varying degrees of fusion between the ulnae and radii, including one model where the bones were separate, another where they were partially fused, and a third where there was a single bone.&nbsp;



Dr. Keeffee ran software simulations on these different models to mimic the stress of jumping. Other simulations were used to mimic the stress of mating on a forelimb.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Surprisingly, in both jumping and mating scenarios, less stress was put on the semi-fused model than on the fully fused forelimbs frogs possess.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Rather than disproving her hypothesis, Dr. Keeffee interprets her results as a sort of evolutionary compromise. Although the bones have more stress when they’re fused, these bones are thicker and lighter, possibly for better jumping.&nbsp;



As for mating, the stress is also more on the fused bones; however, with two unfused bones, the single tendon could be attached to only the ulna or radius, not both, making a weaker forearm than the fused bone. Dr. Keefe hopes to explore this idea with further model research.&nbsp;



This study was published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joa.13737">Journal of Anatomy</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Why do frogs have fused forearms?

Human forearms are made out of two bones - the...

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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

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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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

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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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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

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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...