The,Beast

The volcano eruption at Mount Tambora in 1815, which is in present-day Indonesia, brought with it a climate chill so severe that it ruined harvests and took countless lives. Ash filled the sky, sunlight faded, and global temperatures plunged for months on end.



Today, experts say a large volcanic explosion of similar, or even bigger size, might strike again. This time, because we live in a warmer world, the global aftermath will likely be much worse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-volcano-eruptions-in-modern-times">Volcano eruptions in modern times</h2>



In 1816, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/volcanic-cooling-not-warming-caused-a-major-mass-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intense cold</a> created what some called a <a href="https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2016/11/1815-the-year-without-a-summer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">year without a summer</a>. Crops withered, people starved, and entire communities faced desperate conditions. That moment in history stands out because it reveals how far-reaching a single event can be. 



Modern civilization seems stronger, but the planet’s population has grown to more than eight billion, and climate change has warmed the Earth. We are no longer dealing with the same environment that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tambora" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mount Tambora</a> affected two centuries ago. “The question is not if, but when. The next massive eruption will cause climate chaos, and humanity does not have any plan,” said <a href="https://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/en/people/dst/professors/markus-stoffel/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Markus Stoffel</a>, a climate professor at the <a href="https://www.unige.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Geneva</a>, who also <a href="https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:167000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">notes</a> that catastrophic events may be more intense in a warmer world. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-volcano-eruptions-cool-the-planet">How volcano eruptions cool the planet</h2>



Large volcanic explosions have a way of throwing out <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">huge amounts</a> of debris, including rock fragments, ash, and various gases. 



Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) has the biggest effect on climate cooling, as it travels high into the stratosphere and creates aerosol particles that scatter sunlight. 



Temperature drops can linger for years. As the planet warms, there is also a concern that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01884-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">faster</a> atmospheric circulation might spread these particles more widely. 



<a href="https://cplb.rutgers.edu/people/alan-robock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alan Robock</a>, a climate professor at <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rutgers University</a>, believes that shifting wind patterns and changes in ocean currents mean these eruptions may trigger greater temperature swings. 



“As the monsoon in the summer happens because the land warms faster than the ocean,” Robock said, "a massive eruption can tip that balance and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000688" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disrupt</a> the rains that feed millions."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-connections-to-past-volcano-eruptions">Connections to past volcano eruptions</h2>



Mount <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/1510/global-effects-of-mount-pinatubo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pinatubo</a> erupted in the Philippines in 1991, propelling an enormous cloud of sulfur dioxide into the sky. 



Scientists determined that this eruption cooled Earth’s average temperature by about 1 degree Fahrenheit for a few years. It wasn’t on the scale of Tambora, but it illustrated how short-term climate shifts could happen. 



Earlier eruptions like <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027322002190" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Samalas</a> (in 1257) and <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6456407/#:~:text=The%20Icelandic%20volcano%20Laki%20erupted,on%20record%20in%20Western%20Europe." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Laki</a> (in 1783-1784) also had strong impacts. Historical records suggest these events caused poor harvests, extreme winters and, in some cases, social upheavals. 



Studies of ice cores and tree rings indicate that giant blasts can lower global temperatures even more than Mount Pinatubo managed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-warming-intensifies-the-threat">Why warming intensifies the threat</h2>



Scientists who study volcanic systems are <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/increase-in-volcanic-eruptions-at-the-end-of-the-ice-age-caused-by-melting-ice-caps-and-glacial" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">looking</a> at how melting ice, heavier rains, and shifting pressures inside the Earth might encourage future eruptions. “The effects might be even worse than we saw back in 1815,” said <a href="https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/michael-rampino.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michael Rampino</a>, a professor at NYU, who suspects that all these factors could magnify the disruption.&nbsp;



Lighter ice sheets reduce the weight pressing down on magma sources, which can make it easier for molten rock to move upward. Meanwhile, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9326289/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">heavier rainfall</a> might seep deep underground and affect volcanic processes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-impacts-on-daily-life-and-food">Impacts on daily life and food</h2>



A sudden temperature drop of just 1 degree Celsius might not sound like a lot, but it comes as an average. Some places could experience chilling conditions that ruin crops across whole regions. 



A devastating scenario could see farmland in the U.S., Russia, and China all hit at once, which would lead to a decrease in global food supplies. 



More than 800 million people worldwide live <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70148718" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">within about 60 miles</a> of an active volcano. That proximity could put major population centers at risk if the blast sends out pyroclastic flows or thick ash.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-possible-surprises-from-the-past">Possible surprises from the past</h2>



Studies of ancient eruptions show that local climates can shift in striking ways. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2002722117" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Researchers</a> investigating <a href="https://avo.alaska.edu/volcano/okmok" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Okmok volcano</a> in Alaska discovered that an enormous outburst in 43 BC may have cooled parts of the Mediterranean region by as much as 13 degrees Fahrenheit.&nbsp;



That sort of drastic change, even if temporary, can damage agriculture for multiple seasons. Such disruptions bring disease, hunger, and political tensions, especially if resources become scarce.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-can-be-done">What can be done</h2>



Specialists do not have a method to stop <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/axial-seamount-large-underwater-volcano-off-us-coast-will-likely-erupt-in-2025/">volcanoes from erupting</a>. Efforts focus on monitoring volcanic areas, improving evacuation plans, and modeling scenarios that anticipate how the ash and gases could spread.&nbsp;



Some scientists call for international cooperation to manage food reserves and healthcare services if an event like Tambora happens in today’s era. 



That includes looking at how to distribute supplies on short notice. Local authorities in active regions often conduct drills and share alerts, but experts suggest more investment in preparedness is necessary.



No one can say exactly when a volcano <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/supervolcano-italy-solfatara-crater-phlegraean-fields-shows-signs-of-waking-up/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">will produce a colossal blast</a>. Certain sites, like parts of Indonesia or even Yellowstone in the western United States, get attention because they have erupted violently in the past. Yet the signs of unrest may come only a few months or even weeks beforehand. 



Stoffel urges a deeper look at possible future disasters. He advises scenario planning, building stockpiles, and forging rapid-response networks. Such strategies may reduce the shock to global trade and public health.



Details of the research were published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03680-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



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Earth's next big volcano eruption will 'cause global chaos' because there is no plan

The volcano eruption at Mount Tambora in 1815, which is in present-day Indonesia, brought with it a climate chill so severe that it ruined harvests and took countless lives. Ash filled the sky, sunlight faded, and global temperatures plunged for months on end. Today, experts say a large volcanic explosion of similar, or even bigger size, might strike again. This time, because we live in a warmer world, the global aftermath will likely be much worse. Volcano eruptions in modern times In 1816, intense cold created what...

Corals,,Anemone,And,Clownfish,In,Red,Sea,,Egypt

Coral reef <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/salt-pollution-threatens-freshwater-ecosystems/">ecosystems</a> around the world are characterized by supporting large numbers of marine species, as well as providing livelihoods for more than half a billion people. They are a source of food and jobs,&nbsp;are used for recreational purposes and provide coastal protection against damage from the sea. This is why the destructive effects of marine heat waves that bleach living corals are a matter of grave concern.&nbsp;



As global temperatures increase, marine heat waves are likely to become more frequent and intense, causing lasting damage to coral reef ecosystems. Warmer water can cause corals to expel the algae living in their tissues, which results in the corals turning white. When corals bleach, however, they do not necessarily die, but may become more vulnerable to other stressors, such as water pollution, which then increase the rate of mortality.



Previous research has shown that many reefs harbor corals that survive ocean heat waves, indicating that the issue of bleaching and its impact on coral mortality is a complex one. Understanding this may be key to conserving coral reefs under conditions of global warming.



For the first time, scientists have now been able to map the locations of living corals before and after a major marine heat wave. Arizona State University researchers were able to take to the sky on the&nbsp;<a href="https://gao.asu.edu/">Global Airborne Observatory</a>&nbsp;(GAO), and use the advanced spectrometers and visual equipment to get images of coral reef sites around eight different Hawaiian Islands just before, and again after, a heat wave event in 2019. The GAO aircraft is equipped with advanced remote sensing technologies that enable the mapping of ecosystems both on land and beneath the ocean surface.&nbsp;



The results of the surveys, published today in&nbsp;Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that coral species and local environment are important factors in determining the likelihood of survival when ocean temperatures rise. They also demonstrate that the GAO approach to visual mapping provides an unprecedented opportunity to monitor coral reefs and assess changes in coastal ecosystems over time.&nbsp;



“Repeat coral mapping with the GAO revealed how Hawaii’s coral reefs responded to the 2019 mass bleaching event,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/3398779">Greg Asner</a>, lead author of the study and director of the ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science. “We discovered coral ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’ And these winning corals are associated with cleaner water and less coastal development despite elevated water temperatures.”



The surveys identified more than 10 potential coral refugia – habitats that may offer a safe haven for corals facing climate change. In these areas, there was up to 40 percent less coral mortality than on neighboring reefs, despite the fact that the warm water infiltrated all the areas, causing similar temperature conditions. The results also identified that reefs near heavily developed coasts are more susceptible to coral mortality from heat waves. Development on land is associated with increased pollution that enters coastal reef systems, creating even more stress for coral reefs already fighting to survive the warming water.



According to Brian Neilson, study co-author and head of Hawaii’s Division of Aquatic Resources, “This study supports Hawaii’s&nbsp;<a href="https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/30x30/">Holomua Marine 30x30 Initiative</a>&nbsp;by not only identifying areas impacted by ocean heat waves, but also areas of refugia. These findings can be incorporated into management plans to aid in building a resilient network of reef regions and sustaining Hawaii’s reefs and the communities that depend on them into the future.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Holomua 30x30 initiative aims to establish marine management areas across 30 percent of Hawaii’s nearshore waters. Coral reefs in Hawaii are integral to life on the islands, and are tied to culture and livelihoods. Understanding which corals are surviving, and where, is key to achieving conservation that is targeted and effective.



“Previous approaches have failed to deliver actionable interventions that might improve coral survival during heat waves or to locate places of heat-wave resistance, known as coral refugia, for rapid protection,” said Asner, who is also director of the Global Airborne Observatory. “Our findings highlight the new role that coral mortality and survival monitoring can play for targeted conservation that protects more corals in our changing climate.”



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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

Experts map coral reefs before and after marine heat wave

Coral reef ecosystems around the world are characterized by supporting...

Salt,Lake,Tuz,,Turkey.beautiful,View,Of,The,Salt,Lake,Tuz

When faced with environmental conditions that are too dry, cold, or salty, many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-that-breathe-underwater-could-improve-crop-resilience/">plants</a> try to conserve resources, by producing fewer leaves and roots, and closing up their pores to hold in water. If circumstances fail to improve, most of them eventually die. However, according to a new study led by <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>, some plants known as extremophytes have evolved to survive, and sometimes even thrive, in such harsh environments.&nbsp;&nbsp;



An example of such a plant is Schrenkiella parvula, a member of the Brassicaceae family that contains cabbage, broccoli, turnips, and several other major food crops. Growing on the shores of Lake Tuz in Turkey, where salt concentrations in the water can be up to six times higher than in the ocean, this scraggly, branching member of the mustard family is actually able to grow faster under stressful environmental conditions that would kill most other plants.



“Most plants produce a stress hormone that acts like a stop signal for growth,” said&nbsp;study senior author José Dinneny, an associate professor of Biology at Stanford. “But in this extremophyte, it’s a green light. The plant accelerates its growth in response to this stress hormone.”



When plants encounter dry, cold, or salty conditions that create water-related stress, they produce a hormone called abscisic acid (ABA) which activates specific genes that dictate plants how to respond to environmental stressors. The researchers found that, while most plants’ growth slowed or even stopped when this hormone was activated, the roots of S. parvula grew significantly faster, even if its genome is highly similar to that of other plants.&nbsp;



Since S. parvula is also related to oilseed species which have the potential to be engineered and used as sustainable sources of jet fuel and other biofuels, better understanding this plant’s stress response and managing to engineer it in other species could help more than food crops. Moreover, if such plants can be adapted to grow in harsher conditions, there would be more land available to cultivate them.



“You want to be growing bioenergy crops on land that is not suitable for growing food – say, an agricultural field that has degraded soil or has accumulated salinity because of improper irrigation,” Professor Dinneny explained. “These areas are not prime agricultural real estate, but land that would be abandoned otherwise.”



“With climate change, we can’t expect the environment to stay the same,” added study lead author Ying Sun, a postdoctoral researcher at the<a href="https://www.salk.edu/"> Salk Institute for Biological Studies</a> who earned her doctoral degree at Stanford. “Our crops are going to have to adapt to these rapidly changing conditions. If we can understand the mechanisms that plants use to tolerate stress, we can help them do it better and faster.”



“We’re trying to understand what the secret sauce is for these plant species – what allows them to grow in these unique environments, and how we can use this knowledge to engineer specific traits in our crops,” concluded Professor Dinneny.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41477-022-01139-5">Nature Plants</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

Some plants thrive under environmental stress

When faced with environmental conditions that are too dry, cold,...

Chenanisaurus,Was,A,Large,Abelisaurid,Dinosaur,,A,Predatory,Carnivorous,Theropod,

In March 2020, just a few days before the lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic were instituted in Argentina, a team of paleontologists led by the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.conicet.gov.ar/">National Council for Scientific and Technical Research</a> (CONICET) made an amazing discovery. In Estancia la Anita in the Province of Santa Cruz (an area located 1,677 miles from Buenos Aires), the experts found the bones of the largest megaraptor known to date. Measuring almost ten meters in length and weighing over five tons, Maip macrothorax was a fierce predatory dinosaur, roaming the territory of today’s Argentina about 70 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous Period.



This new species’ name was chosen by study lead author Alexis Aranciaga Rolando, a paleontologist at CONICET. According to Rolando, the name Maip “comes from an evil being from Tehuelche mythology who lived in the mountains and killed using the cold. Precisely, Maip’s finding took place in south El Calafate, from where the lavish Cordillera de los Andes can be seen, a place with very cold temperatures. Besides, for the Tehuelches, Maip represented the shadow that death leaves in its wake, while we imagine that during the Cretaceous, this great predator with its enormous size would have caused something similar.”



This dinosaur’s spine was made up of huge vertebrae, connected by a system of muscles, tendons, and ligaments allowing the massive creature to stand upright on its hind legs while walking or running.&nbsp;It had a long tail and legs, as well as enormous claws measuring 13.7 inches in length, which it probably used as its main weapons.



“The bones of Maip helped us to better understand the anatomy of megaraptors. They belong to a family whose skeleton was not like that of a tyrannosaurus, large but heavy, but rather light animals. In other words, their bones were not solid, but rather had a large number of internal voids that made them much lighter, something like a hollow brick compared to a solid one,” explained Rolando.&nbsp;



According to the scientists, the area where Maip lived 70 million years ago – before the Andes mountain range had risen - was a warm ecosystem, with a variety of puddles, lakes, and streams that provided an optimal habitat for animals such as frogs, fish, turtles, small birds, and mammals. “From all those organisms that lived back then we were collecting fossil remains, and now, with Maip, we have added a super predator, which allows us to complete the food pyramid,” said study senior author Fernando Novas, a paleontologist at the <a href="http://www.macnconicet.gob.ar/">Bernardino Rivadavia Museum of Natural Science</a> in Buenos Aires.



Although the discovery of this dinosaur’s skeleton helps us shed more light on the features and behaviors of megaraptors not long before the catastrophic event from 66 million years ago that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, many questions still remain unanswered.



“Megaraptors are quite enigmatic predators, and although Maip helped us to tie up several loose ends, especially their kinship relationships with other carnivorous dinosaurs, aspects of their hunting behavior still remain to be elucidated, for example what their favorite prey would have been, among other things,” concluded Rolando.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09272-z">Nature Scientific Reports</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

The largest megaraptor discovered in Argentina

In March 2020, just a few days before the lockdowns...

A new study led by the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California, San Diego</a>, has found that a plant virus called “cowpea mosaic virus” could be of significant help in fighting cancer. The experts have shown that, when this virus infects cancerous cells, it signals to the immune system and activates a powerful anti-cancer response in the organism. Moreover, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-activate-immune-defenses-against-pathogens-in-rain/">immune</a> response this virus helps build up appears to be so strong and long-lasting that it may possibly prevent other cancerous tumors from forming.&nbsp;



The researchers have studied the cowpea mosaic virus – which generally infects <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/secrets-of-legumes-and-their-symbiotic-bacteria-revealed/">legumes</a> – in the form of nanoparticles that they injected directly into cancerous tumors in animal models such as dogs and mice, in order to serve as a bait for their immune system. Once the lure was set, immune cells immediately detected the viral nanoparticles and sent alarms to the rest of the immune system that there was a foreign invader in the organism. While rallying up to fight the intruder, the immune cells started eliminating the cancerous cells containing the virus too.



“This study helps validate the cowpea mosaic plant virus nanoparticle as our lead cancer immunotherapy candidate,” said study senior author Nicole Steinmetz, a professor of Nanoengineering at the UC San Diego. “Now we have mechanistic data to explain why it is the most potent candidate, which further de-risks it for clinical translation.”



Professor Steinmetz and her team were surprised to discovered that this virus not only helps get rid of existing tumors, but also triggers a systemic immune response against any future tumors. Differently from other plant viruses that they tested (such as the cowpea severe mosaic virus or the tobacco ringspot virus), this particular virus activated additional toll-like receptors on the surface of immune cells that led to the production of more pro-inflammatory proteins called cytokines, while also significantly extending the duration of the cytokine response.



“We don’t see this with the other two plant viruses. The cytokine levels peak quickly, then go down and are gone,” explained study lead author Veronique Beiss, a former postdoctoral researcher in Professor Steinmetz’s laboratory. “This prolonged immune response is another key difference that sets cowpea mosaic virus apart.”&nbsp;



Further research is needed to clarify the precise mechanisms through which this virus leads to such an impressive response, and to assess its viability as a cancer immunotherapy treatment in humans.



“We’ve shown that it works, and now we need to show what makes it so special that it can induce this kind of response. That’s the knowledge gap we’re looking to fill,” concluded Dr. Beiss.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.2c00058">Molecular Pharmaceutics</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

A plant virus could help cure cancer

A new study led by the University of California, San...

The beautiful and colorful tropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-has-destroyed-14-percent-of-the-worlds-coral-reefs/">coral reefs</a> are teeming with an amazing diversity of marine organisms, including over 8,000 species of fish. However, climate change and various human activities are causing corals to disappear at an alarming rate, making scientists largely unable to properly quantify how many species of reef fish there are and where they are distributed.&nbsp;



Besides the rapid pace of change coral reefs face worldwide, there are several other reasons why scientists have difficulties in mapping marine ecosystems from specific areas: most of these fishes lead rather secretive, hidden lives, are highly similar to one another, or live in the open sea and are thus difficult to detect.



In order to circumvent such difficulties, a research team from <a href="https://ethz.ch/en.html">ETH Zurich</a> has applied a new method that is currently making its way into Ecology: environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis. The idea behind this new approach is that organisms leave their genetic material or parts of it in the environment. By using this method, the scientists only need to take water samples at one location, isolate the DNA fragments they contain, sequence them, and compare these sequences with reference DNA sequences coming from reliably identified specimens in order to determine whether a particular species occurs at the location in question.



“Thanks to the eDNA method, we can detect many fish species and families much faster than with observations alone,” said study senior author Loïc Pellissier, a professor of Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution at ETH Zurich.



In 2017 and 2019, Professor Pellissier and his team collected 226 water samples at 26 sites in five tropical marine regions. The eDNA analysis of these samples revealed a 16 percent higher diversity of reef fishes than what conventional survey methods such as visual observations during dives have previous managed to detect. With this new method, the scientists discovered more pelagic (swimming in open water), reef-bound, and cryptobenthic (inhabiting caves and crevices in reefs) species than divers are generally able to see or identify. The discovery of these species is highly important because they are actively involved in the function of the coral reefs through their pelagic larval stages or their nocturnal migrations to the reefs.



These findings suggest that the composition of species varies significantly among marine bioregions. Fish diversity was found to be exceptionally high in the “Coral Triangle” between Borneo, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines (five times higher than in the Caribbean, for instance). According to Professor Pellissier, this has to do with the fact that, historically, the Coral Triangle was very tectonically active, producing a wide range of habitats. Moreover, the more stable surface temperatures of this area during the ice ages allowed the fishes to diversify considerably.



Although this new method is extremely efficient for mapping reef biodiversity, it has its limitations. Since some species – such as wrasses (Labridae) or blennies (Blenniidae) - are poorly detected through eDNA analysis, direct visual observations remain important. In addition, these more traditional methods can help gather supplementary information, such as fish sizes or biomass, which cannot yet be recovered through eDNA analysis.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0162">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&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

Environmental DNA reveals the diversity of coral reef fish

The beautiful and colorful tropical coral reefs are teeming with...

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The fungus that causes white mold in more than 600 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/its-the-timing-of-water-that-matters-to-plants/">plant</a> species has a protein that allows it to evade plant defenses, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/">U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service</a>. This breakthrough may ultimately help experts control the deadly fungus, which can cause billions of dollars in damages in a year with bad outbreaks.



The Sclerotinia sclerotiorum fungus infects potatoes, soybeans, sunflowers, peas, lentils, canola, and many other broadleaf crops with white mold. The fungus secretes lethal chemicals called polygalacturonases (PGs) that degrade the plant’s cell walls.&nbsp;



In 1971, scientists discovered that plants had evolved a protein called PGIP that inhibits the fungus. In response, the fungus evolved its own protein to overcome PGIP. Until now, this protein had not been identified.



“What you have is essentially a continuous arms race between fungal pathogens and their plant hosts, an intense battle of attack, counterattack and counter-counterattack in which each is constantly developing and shifting its chemical tactics in order to bypass or overcome the other’s defenses,” said research plant pathologist Weidong Chen, who led the study. He explained that the key to identifying the fungal protein SsPINE1 was looking outside the fungi cells.



“We found it by looking at the materials excreted by the fungus,” said Chen. “And there it was. When we found this protein, SsPINE1, which interacted with PGIP, it made sense.”



“I got goosebumps when we found this protein,” said study co-author Professor Kiwamu Tanaka of Washington State University. “It answered all these questions scientists have had for the last 50 years: Why these fungi always overcome plant defenses? Why do they have such a broad host range, and why are they so successful?”



Identifying SsPINE1 is an important first step toward controlling white mold stem rot pathogens. Going forward, experts may even be able to use targeted breeding to make plants naturally resistant to sclerotinia diseases.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.



Image Credit: ARS-USDA



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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

How the white mold fungus evades plant defenses

The fungus that causes white mold in more than 600...

Bat flight has been studied for a considerable length of time, but there have been some serious missing pieces in the research. A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0139/html">Mammalia</a> shows how little we have actually known about the distances that bats may fly.&nbsp;



Previously, the longest recorded distance that a bat had flown was 2,224 kilometers from Latvia to Spain - certainly an impressive distance. Now, the scientists report that another bat has beaten this record by about 260 kilometers.&nbsp;



In 2009, a pipistrelle bat was ringed with an information tag by biologists in Russia’s Darwin Nature Biosphere Reserve. Sixty-three days later, the same bat’s body was found in Lully, a village near the French Alps. The shortest distance between these two points is 2,486 km. It’s quite possible that the little bat traveled even farther. Bats are often found along the Baltic coast during migration season and scientists suspect the record-setting bat may have traveled this coast as well. If the bat did follow the Baltic coast, it means that the mammal would have flapped for at least 3,000 kilometers, or 1,864 miles.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It’s a very big surprise,” said study lead author Dr. Denis Vasenkov of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences. “We thought that our bats were migrating to countries in south-eastern Europe and other neighboring countries, not France.”



The scientists are not sure why the bat traveled so far, thinking it may have lost its way during what was intended to be a much shorter migration. It could also be that these long distances are traveled more commonly by bats than previously suspected.&nbsp;



Either way, the researchers feel that further research is necessary, especially with the creation of more wind farms on the horizon. Future studies could include using GPS trackers on bats and watching with more detail where they travel.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

A tiny bat has set a surprising new flight record

Bat flight has been studied for a considerable length of...

Humans are changing the composition of forests, and this can have serious consequences for many species that depend on trees for food, shelter, mating, and feeding. A new study from <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> has found that bird populations in eastern Canada are declining as a result of habitat degradation, which is the reduction or loss of biological complexity.



“Reducing forest loss has been the main focus of conservation policy to date, which is well justified because it has a strong negative effect on biodiversity. But the effects of changing the composition and age of forest via timber management have traditionally been very difficult to measure at large scales and thus have been largely ignored," explained Matt Betts of the OSU College of Forestry. "Our work shows population declines in many bird species in eastern Canada are due to habitat loss caused by forestry activities.”



The researchers set out to investigate the effects of forest degradation in places where trees have been thinned or clear-cut for the purpose of planting a single tree species. The experts wanted to know how these activities may impact bird populations in the long term.&nbsp;



The study was focused on the Acadian Forest in Canada’s maritime provinces. The results showed that 66 percent of the most common bird species had lost breeding habitat from 1985 to 2020. This habitat loss was strongly associated with the loss of older forests, according to the researchers.



The golden-crowned kinglet and Blackburnian warbler were the two species that were most impacted. The study authors estimate that over the 35-year study period, between 33 and 104 million birds were lost due to forest degradation.



Overall, nine bird species in the Acadian Forest have declined at rates exceeding 30 percent over the past 10 years, which meets criteria for listing as threatened under Canadian endangered species legislation.



“Due to increased global demand for wood, more and more of the Earth’s surface is being used for timber extraction,” said Betts. “This shows up on remote sensing as both forest loss and forest gain, but unfortunately the ‘gain’ is often vastly simplified, young forest. Our paper presents a new way to quantify these sorts of changes.”



Betts collaborated with experts from Cornell University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of New Brunswick, Google and multiple Canadian and U.S. agencies. The team analyzed satellite imagery and breeding bird survey data alongside projections of species distribution.



The Acadian Forest, known for its tree species diversity, has shown pervasive signs of degradation over the last three-plus decades, said Betts. More than three million hectares of the Acadian Forest have been clear-cut over the last 35 years.



“Old forest declined by 39 percent over the period we observed,” said Betts. “Over the same period, forest cover actually increased by a net 6.5 percent. That pattern of extensive harvest of old forest, followed by rapid regeneration of young forest and then subsequent harvest before maturity is attained, seems to be common in many forest regions of North America and northern Europe.”



According to Betts, managed forests tend to be dominated by one or two merchantable tree species, and they also tend to be younger than those that would occur naturally.&nbsp;



“Clearly the research by Betts and collaborators identifies one of the critical smoking guns of avian declines,” said Peter Marra, the co-author of a recent Science paper on bird declines. “We’ve assumed once a natural forest is cut down, as long as you plant more trees all the rest of the plants and animals will fill back in. The new research shows that’s not the case.”



In the Acadian Forest, deforestation was not a primary driver of habitat loss, explained Betts, as it accounted for less than two percent of all habitat loss across the 54 bird species examined.



“Overall, our findings indicate broad-scale declines in forest birds of the Acadian Forest, and for most species, abundance is strongly associated with habitat amount,” said Betts. “We expect that similar consequences for biodiversity are in place for intensively managed forests in other parts of the world as well. If all you look at is forest cover, you’ll miss the more subtle but critically important role of forest age and type in maintaining biodiversity.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natecolevol/">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.&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

Forest degradation is a major cause of bird population declines

Humans are changing the composition of forests, and this can...

Perito,Moreno,Glacier,,El,Calafate,,Argentina.

As climate change accelerates, glaciers are melting faster, and experts fear that many will collapse by the end of the century, drastically raising sea levels and flooding coastal cities and island nations. Whyjay Zheng, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, has recently developed an improved model of glacial movement that could help identify the glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic that are most likely to rapidly slide downhill and fall into the oceans.



Glaciologists have long thought that the speedup and slowdown of glaciers are related to what is happening at their front – the “glacial terminus” - where ice merges with the oceans’ increasingly warm waters. Observations have shown that for many marine-terminating glaciers, when the fronts melt or calve into then ocean, the remaining ones tend to speed up. However, in his new model, Professor Zheng has incorporated another major factor determining glaciers’ speed: the effect of meltwater that percolates to the base of the glaciers and lubricates its downward flow. 



Warmer weather causes meltwater lakes to form on many glaciers, which punch through to the bottom of the ice during a process called hydrofracture, or drain to the bottom through crevasses nearby. This basal lubrication by meltwater is then creating a feedback loop that accelerates glaciers that have already sped up for other reasons, such as changes at the terminus.



“Basal lubrication creates a positive feedback loop. The faster glaciers are more likely to respond faster to basal lubrication, and the following speedup makes them more prone to future lubrications,” explained Professor Zheng. “For example, if a glacier is flowing three kilometers per year, and basal lubrication suddenly happens, it will react so fast that you can see the fluctuation of the speed, probably just a few days later, compared to another glacier that would be flowing at 100 meters per year.”



The findings indicate that thick, fast-moving glaciers around the Arctic and Antarctic should be monitored frequently to anticipate discharges of large icebergs into the ocean that could affect sea levels. For this, better, more accurate ways of measuring basal lubrication are needed.



“The model suggests that thick and fast-flowing glaciers are more sensitive to lubrication than thin and slow glaciers. The data from Greenland glaciers support this new finding, indicating that those fast and thick glacier beasts might be more unstable than we thought under global warming,” concluded Professor Zheng.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/1431/2022/">The Cryosphere</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

New model can identify glaciers at risk of collapse

As climate change accelerates, glaciers are melting faster, and experts...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-have-an-intuitive-understanding-of-physics/">Dogs</a> were the first animals to be domesticated before the advent of agriculture, more than 14,000 years ago. However, the concept of dog breeds is much more recent, dating back only about 160 years, when people started to selectively breed dogs to have certain physical traits, such as a specific coat texture or color. 



Although many dog owners believe that breed plays a fundamental role in determining dogs’ personalities, a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0639">Science</a> has found that breed is actually not a strong predictor of any individual dog’s personality.



The researchers surveyed over 18,000 dog owners and analyzed the genomes of about 2,150 of their dogs to search for patterns. While the results suggest that some behaviors, such as howling, pointing, or being friendly with human strangers, may have some genetic bases, that inheritance does not seem to be strictly passed down along breed lines.



“There is a huge amount of behavioral variation in every breed, and at the end of the day, every dog really is an individual,” said study co-author Elinor Karlsson, a geneticist at the <a href="https://www.umassmed.edu/">University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School</a> (UMass Chan).



While some breeds - such as huskies or beagles for instance - may show a greater tendency to howl, the survey and genetic analyses revelead that many of these dogs don’t howl as much as people expect them to, based on breed stereotypes. Similarly, as study co-author Kathryn Lord (an evolutionary biologist at UMass Chan) stresses, many golden retrievers don’t retrieve, and are not as friendly as people usually consider them to be.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The majority of behaviors that we think of as characteristics of specific modern dog breeds have most likely come about from thousands of years of evolution from wolf to wild canine to domesticated dog, and finally to modern breeds,” explained Dr. Karlsson.&nbsp;



“These heritable traits predate our concept of modern dog breeds by thousands of years. Each breed inherited the genetic variation carried by those ancient dogs, but not always at exactly the same frequencies. Today, those differences show up as differences in personality and behavior seen in some, but not all, dogs from a breed,” she 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

Canine personality traits are not strongly influenced by breed

Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated before the...

Children younger than 12 can identify their mothers’ voices with extremely high accuracy. Moreover, rather than cuing only their brains’ auditory-processing networks, the specific sound of these voices activates many other key neural areas, including reward centers, emotion-processing regions, visual processing centers, and neural networks parsing which incoming information is salient. 



However, a new study led by <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/">Stanford Medicine</a> has found that around age 13, children’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-has-an-alert-system-to-shut-down-unwanted-memories/">brains</a> shift from focusing on their mothers’ voices to favor new voices, as a part of a biological signal driving them to separate from their parents and enlarge their social spheres.&nbsp;



“Just as an infant knows to tune into her mother’s voice, an adolescent knows to tune into novel voices,” said study lead author Daniel Abrams, an associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. “As a teen, you don’t know you’re doing this. You’re just being you: You’ve got your friends and new companions and you want to spend time with them. Your mind is increasingly sensitive to and attracted to these unfamiliar voices.”



By analyzing fMRI scans of teenagers’ brains recorded while they listened to their mothers’ voices and several unfamiliar ones, the researchers discovered that, although teens’ brains were more receptive to all voices (including their mothers’) than those of younger children, in teenagers aged 13 or older, the reward circuits and the brain networks that prioritize important stimuli were activated more strongly by unfamiliar voices than by those of their mothers. According to the scientists, the brain’s shift towards new voices is a sign of healthy maturation.



“A child becomes independent at some point, and that has to be precipitated by an underlying biological signal,” said study senior author Vinod Menon, a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. “That’s what we’ve uncovered: This is a signal that helps teens engage with the world and form connections which allow them to be socially adept outside their families.”



As Professor Abrams argues, the voices in our environment represent an extremely rewarding sound source, allowing us “to feel connected, included, part of a community, and part of a family.” Since children’s social interactions undergo major transformations during adolescence, revealing the neurobiological roots of these changes is essential not only for better understanding healthy maturation processes, but also for clarifying what goes wrong in children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.&nbsp;



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2022/04/06/JNEUROSCI.2018-21.2022">Journal of Neuroscience</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

Teenagers start tuning out their mothers’ voices

Children younger than 12 can identify their mothers’ voices with...

The latest<a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjN-SBhCkARIsACsrBz6h_uH-xJnN2929g3CDEV9GZVLFEGh6KWfiNgneXUlf6d78n4Tlk24aAg3fEALw_wcB"> U.N. report on climate change</a> has revealed that some measures of global warming are now unavoidable. A warming climate will lead to many impacts, such as a change in the frequency of flash flooding events, and the areas in which they occur.&nbsp;



The National Aeronautics and Space Administration describes this as a global problem, felt on local scales. Likewise, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are providing the<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/climate"> data, tools and information</a> to better understand and prepare for climate change.&nbsp;



A research team led by the <a href="https://www.ou.edu/">University of Oklahoma</a> has created simulations that demonstrate widespread increases of flash flooding events across most of the United States.&nbsp;



“This study builds upon the state-of-the-art model (EF5/CREST) that is jointly developed by researchers with OU, NASA, and NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and has initiated collaboration with National Center for Atmospheric Research climate scientists,” said study lead author Zhi Li. “It realizes the concept of ‘Digital Twin in Earth System Science,’ in which one is our living climate and the other one is our future. Climate change never became so real to me until we successfully collaborated on such research.”



“There hasn’t been a real definitive study on what's going to happen with flash floods in the future,” said study co-author Jonathan J. Gourley. “We didn’t have that robust of an observational record … so, this study helped to fill in that gap. By using some of the rainfall simulations from a convection-resolving climate model and then coupling with our high-resolution hydrologic modeling system, we can see what sort of flash floods would be produced in the future.”



The research team used climate simulations and modeling of a 30-year period from 2070 to 2100. The effect, what the researchers call “flashiness,” describes the likelihood of weather conditions that cause rapid rainfall and lead to flash flooding.



The findings include the following:&nbsp;



<ul><li>If emissions continued at their current rate, flooding events would become 8% “flashier” by the end of the century. This means that heavy rainfall events are likely to occur quickly and in concentrated areas that could lead to flooding.</li><li>A more than 10% increase in flash flooding in the Southwest U.S. which accounts for the greatest increase in “flashiness” among hot spots.&nbsp;</li><li>The central U.S. is emerging as a new flash flood hotspot as well, with an 8.6% predicted increase.&nbsp;</li></ul>



Overall, the study revealed that future flash flood-prone regions are moving northward. This means that more people will learn how to better live with these increased events, and also, how to survive.&nbsp;



“The 20-year return floods will more likely occur every two to five years, especially alarming for the emerging flashiness hotspots that will be facing unprecedented challenges with aging infrastructure and outdated flood risk measures. There is a pressing need to implement climate-resilient engineering infrastructure and develop smart hydrological early warning systems.” said study co-author Yang Hong.&nbsp;



The researchers urge action, such as mitigation strategies, to curb these extreme climate impacts.&nbsp;



“Now’s the time to start thinking about better flood defenses,” said Gourley. “Of course, decreasing greenhouse gas concentrations would be the ultimate solution, but in the meantime, we can think about ways to reduce vulnerabilities and improve flash flooding safety education.”



The majority of fatalities during flash floods are caused by people entering flooded areas - most often from driving through a flooded roadway. The best way to stay safe during flash flooding events is to stay off the roads and avoid standing water.



The findings are published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/commsenv/">Nature: Communications Earth and Environment</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Flash floods are set to become much more common in the U.S.

The latest U.N. report on climate change has revealed that...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> 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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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...