A spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) has been documented in Egypt for the first time in over 5,000 years. This lone individual was caught and killed by locals in the Elba Protected Area, a remote region in southeastern Egypt about 30 km from the Sudanese border. 



The discovery, detailed in a recent&nbsp;Mammalia&nbsp;journal publication, challenges long-standing beliefs about the species’ historical range and survival in North Africa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-egypt-s-long-history-without-hyenas">Egypt’s long history without hyenas</h2>



For centuries, spotted hyenas have been absent from Egypt, with their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-animal-day-2024-building-a-legacy-of-compassion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">populations</a> thought to be confined to sub-Saharan Africa.



Occasional reports hinted at their presence, but no verifiable records existed. That changed in February 2024, when local pastoralists encountered the hyena after it killed two of their goats.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“My first reaction was disbelief until I checked the photos and videos of the remains. Seeing the evidence, I was completely taken aback. It was beyond anything we had expected to find in Egypt,” noted Dr. Abdullah Nagy, the lead author of the study from <a href="https://azhar.edu.eg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Al Azhar University</a>.
</blockquote>



This unexpected sighting forces researchers to reconsider the distribution of spotted hyenas, raising critical questions about the animal’s movement patterns, the environmental factors influencing its migration, and the possibility of further incursions into Egypt.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-did-the-hyena-travel-so-far-north">How did the hyena travel so far north?</h2>



One of the biggest mysteries surrounding this discovery is how the hyena managed to travel&nbsp;500 km north of its known range in Sudan. 



Spotted hyenas are highly adaptable predators and scavengers, capable of traveling up to 27 km per day in search of food. However, moving such a vast distance into a region where they have not been recorded for millennia suggests a significant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lion-numbers-have-reached-a-critical-low-in-uganda/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ecological shift</a>.



To explore possible explanations, researchers analyzed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from satellite images spanning from 1984 to 2022. 



NDVI is an indicator of vegetation health and density, which in turn reflects precipitation and grazing conditions. The study revealed striking trends.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-change-alters-migration-paths">Climate change alters migration paths</h2>



Over the past four decades, the region has experienced&nbsp;prolonged droughts interspersed with relatively wet periods. 



However, the last five years - between 2019 and 2024 - showed a marked increase in NDVI values compared to the previous two decades. This suggests that increased rainfall has led to improved grazing conditions, potentially supporting a larger prey base for carnivores.



Dr. Nagy suggested that this changing landscape may have created a corridor for the hyena’s migration.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“The fact that the corridor area has become less <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancestors-of-giant-pandas-had-a-completely-different-diet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">environmentally harsh</a>, offering easier passage along ‘the highway,’ may explain how the hyena reached this far north. However, the motivation for its extensive journey into Egypt is still a mystery that demands further research,” Dr. Nagy said.
</blockquote>



The possibility that climate change is reshaping wildlife movement patterns is a significant area of concern. If these climatic shifts continue, Egypt may witness more unexpected wildlife appearances in the coming years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-fatal-encounter-in-wadi-yahmib">A fatal encounter in Wadi Yahmib</h2>



The hyena’s journey into Egypt ultimately ended in a deadly conflict with humans. In February 2024, it entered Wadi Yahmib, a remote part of the Elba Protected Area, and preyed on two goats belonging to local pastoralists. 



The livestock depredation prompted an immediate response from herders, who are experienced trackers and intimately familiar with the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mammoth-remains-found-in-deadly-quicksand-trap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wildlife</a> in their region.



Determined to eliminate the threat, they&nbsp;pursued the hyena&nbsp;over rugged terrain, eventually running it down with a&nbsp;pickup truck on February 24, 2024. The body was left for scavengers after it was photographed and geolocated, allowing researchers to confirm its identity and document the unprecedented sighting.



This event highlights the ongoing&nbsp;human-wildlife conflict&nbsp;in rural regions. Unlike in parts of the Horn of Africa, where communities have a long history of coexisting with spotted hyenas, Egyptian herders have no experience dealing with this species. 



Their livelihoods depend on livestock, and any predator that threatens their animals is viewed as a direct economic threat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-could-more-hyenas-be-heading-to-egypt">Could more hyenas be heading to Egypt?</h2>



The presence of a spotted hyena so far north raises the question of whether this was a&nbsp;one-time event&nbsp;or the beginning of a larger trend. Scientists speculate that the combination of&nbsp;climate change, shifting pastoralist practices, and political instability in Sudan&nbsp;could contribute to increased movement of hyenas into Egypt.



The Elba Protected Area, where the hyena was discovered, is&nbsp;Egypt’s most floristically diverse region, with unique environmental conditions that may attract more wildlife in the future. Researchers note that this is not the first case of a large predator appearing in the region. 



In 2014, a&nbsp;male leopard (Panthera pardus) was killed&nbsp;in southeastern Egypt after it preyed on livestock. This suggests that the region may still function as a migration corridor for carnivores, despite centuries of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/surprising-number-of-hyenas-are-killed-by-vehicles-every-year/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decline in their populations</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-role-of-grazing-patterns">Role of grazing patterns</h2>



One possible factor influencing the hyena’s movement is&nbsp;livestock grazing patterns. In recent years, local herders have shifted toward&nbsp;free-range grazing, allowing their animals to move across wider areas instead of confining them to specific enclosures. 



This change, combined with improved rainfall and vegetation, may have created a more favorable landscape for predators like hyenas.



Additionally, nearby human settlements, including&nbsp;a slaughterhouse in the town of Shalatin, could serve as an attraction for scavengers. 



Scavengers such as Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) and lappet-faced vultures (Torgos tracheliotos) have already been observed frequenting the area, suggesting that spotted hyenas may also have been drawn to human-related food sources.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-will-hyenas-establish-in-egypt-again">Will hyenas establish in Egypt again?</h2>



Despite the favorable environmental conditions, scientists believe that&nbsp;spotted hyenas are unlikely to establish a permanent population in Egypt&nbsp;due to intense human persecution. 



Large predators are already rare in the country, and any attempt to recolonize former habitats would likely face strong resistance from local communities.



Spotted hyenas have a long history of adapting to human-altered landscapes - sometimes even increasing their populations in areas where they scavenge on waste. However, in regions where they are seen as threats rather than ecological contributors, they are often killed before they can establish a foothold.



The study suggests that&nbsp;conservationists should monitor hyena movements and reassess their conservation status in response to changing climate conditions. 



Spotted hyenas are already listed as a species of&nbsp;Least Concern&nbsp;by the IUCN Red List, but their ability to expand into new territories may require new considerations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-new-chapter-for-egyptian-wildlife">A new chapter for Egyptian wildlife</h2>



The discovery of a&nbsp;spotted hyena in Egypt after 5,000 years&nbsp;is a remarkable ecological event that highlights the&nbsp;dynamic relationship between climate change, human activity, and wildlife movement. 



Whether this was an isolated occurrence or the&nbsp;beginning of a larger pattern&nbsp;remains to be seen, but the evidence suggests that Egypt’s wildlife landscape is evolving.



This event also serves as a reminder that nature is constantly adapting to environmental changes. The return of a predator long thought extinct in the region may be a sign of deeper ecological shifts that scientists must continue to investigate.



For now, the mystery of Egypt’s wandering hyena remains unsolved. But as researchers dig deeper into the factors influencing its journey, the world may soon learn whether Egypt is witnessing the start of a wildlife resurgence - or just an unusual anomaly in the shifting sands of time.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mammalia-2024-0031/html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mammalia</a>.



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Spotted hyena returns to Egypt after 5,000 years

A spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) has been documented in Egypt for the first time in over 5,000 years. This lone individual was caught and killed by locals in the Elba Protected Area, a remote region in southeastern Egypt about 30 km from the Sudanese border. The discovery, detailed in a recent&nbsp;Mammalia&nbsp;journal publication, challenges long-standing beliefs about the species’ historical range and survival in North Africa. Egypt’s long history without hyenas For centuries, spotted hyenas have been absent from Egypt, with their populations thought to be confined to...

An investigation into the dark side of social media use has revealed dozens of threats to mental and physical well-being. Researchers at the <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/">University of Technology Sydney</a> (UTS) identified a total of 46 harmful effects, ranging from mental <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seabirds-are-damaging-their-health-by-eating-plastic/">health</a> problems to negative impacts on school and work performance.



More than 3.6 billion people use social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. By gaining a better understanding of the potential dangers involved with social media use,&nbsp; experts can develop strategies to mitigate these harmful effects.



“Social media harms have mostly been studied from a psychopathological perspective. They have received less attention from information systems researchers,” said Dr Eila Erfani, Deputy Head of the UTS School of Information, Systems and Modeling.



“Information systems looks at the impact of technology on people and organisations in order to better meet their needs. Identifying and understanding how to reduce adverse outcomes from social media use is part of that challenge."



“The World Health Organization has recognised the need for further research on information technology addiction and the need to develop strategies for preventing and treating this problem."



In collaboration with PhD candidate Layla Boroon and Professor Babak Abedin from Macquarie University, Dr. Erfani conducted a systematic review to determine what is already known about the negative effects of online social networks.&nbsp;



“Much of the research on social network use has focused on its benefits and potential, but we were interested in comprehensively identifying the negative impacts that have been associated with social media use,” said Boroon.



“We reviewed more than 50 research articles published between 2003 and 2018. Some of the most common negative impacts included psychological harms such as jealousy, loneliness, anxiety and reduced self-esteem, as well as things like exposure to malicious software and phishing risks.”



Ultimately, the researchers grouped the negative effects into six themes, including annoying content. This includes a wide range of content that annoys, upsets or irritates, such as disturbing or violent content or sexual or obscene content.



Another theme that was identified is the cost of social exchange. This encompasses psychological harms, such as depression, anxiety or jealousy, and well as other costs such as wasted time, energy, and money.



Currently, Boroon is investigating the factors that influence social media addiction and the strategies people use to regulate their behavior. The next step will be to develop applications and other solutions to help reduce the negative effects of social media.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.igi-global.com/journal/journal-global-information-management/1070">Journal of Global Information Management</a>.



---



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

The dark side of social media: experts find dozens of dangers

An investigation into the dark side of social media use...

The effects that climate change will have on extreme <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/migration-of-the-north-atlantic-jet-stream-will-cause-extreme-weather/">weather</a> across the planet is well documented, but not many people are aware of the effects it will have on the life cycles of marine animals. A key example of a creature that will be affected is the Dungeness crab, a marine animal that relies heavily on consistent seasonality timings.



A new research study is investigating the implications that climate change will have on the population of these crabs to inform new strategies for conservation and to keep fishery management sustainable.



The researchers investigated a Dungeness crab fishery in the Pacific Northwest ranging between Alaska and Southern California, attempting to determine which life stages are most vulnerable and to which stressors.



“Tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest identify Dungeness as both culturally and economically important species for their way of life," said <a href="https://uconn.edu/">UConn</a> Professor Samantha Siedlecki. "Species are moving but of course tribal communities don’t have the option of moving their land in response. The tribal communities are very interested and motivated to think about ways they can sustain the fishery.”



Ocean acidification, hypoxia and warming temperatures were the three key stressors that were assessed, all resulting from increased carbon emissions. Information regarding each stressor was used to create a model, pinpointing different vulnerable life stages between birth and maturity.



In order to model for future levels of carbon emissions, the researchers used emission scenarios named RCPs (representative carbon pathways) provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).



“We used RCP 8.5, considered the ‘worst case scenario’ if there is no climate change mitigation at all,” explained PhD student Halle Berger. “Then we overlaid the ocean conditions and habitat maps for each life stage. We also added something new to the framework, where we layered in a larval transport model to simulate the movement of larvae in the water column to get a more realistic picture of the conditions they would experience.”



Previous data collected on Dungeness crabs were then reviewed in order to assign vulnerability scores for each live stage.



“It turned out that the adult life stage is the most critical in driving the overall population vulnerability,” said Berger. “We found that for all three stressors there will be increased population level vulnerability in the future, and the most severe is to hypoxia. Low oxygen events are confined to the upwelling season, in spring and summer which impacts the adults, whereas ocean acidification manifests more year-round in the future, impacting all life stages.”



This data is anticipated to be useful to make decisions regarding protection processes for vital life stages around stressful conditions. “An example would be monitoring low oxygen events in the summer, and maybe pulling the crab traps earlier,” said Berger. “This would help mitigate from the crabs dying in the trap.”



The research findings have been published in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/2576604x">AGU Advances</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How climate change will affect the Dungeness crab

The effects that climate change will have on extreme weather...

In the largest study of its kind, researchers have found that poor <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-moon-disrupts-sleep-among-men-more-than-women/">sleep</a> quality is associated with mental illness. The investigation, conducted by experts at the <a href="https://www.camh.ca/">Centre for Addiction and Mental Health</a>,&nbsp;is the first to objectively measure sleep patterns among people with mental illness compared to the general population on a large scale.&nbsp;



The results suggest that individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental illness are more likely to suffer from poor sleep quality.



“The differences in sleep patterns indicated worse sleep quality for participants with a previous diagnosis of mental illness, including waking up more often and for longer periods of time,” said study senior author Dr. Shreejoy Tripathy. He emphasized that measuring the quality of sleep was just as important as sleep duration with regard to its impact on mental health.



“The relationship between sleep and mental health is bi-directional,” explained study lead author Dr. Michael Wainberg, a postdoctoral researcher at the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics. “Poor sleep contributes to poor mental health and poor mental health contributes to poor sleep. Sleep pattern differences were a feature of all mental illnesses we studied regardless of diagnosis.”



The analysis was focused on data collected from 89,205 participants who wore activity trackers 24 hours a day for seven days. The researchers used machine learning to break this vast amount of data down into ten metrics, including bedtime, wake time, and the longest duration of uninterrupted sleep. These metrics were&nbsp; compared between individuals who had been diagnosed with mental illness and those who had not.



“We know that up to 80 percent of people with mental health disorders can have problems with falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up earlier than they intended,” said sleep disorder specialist Dr. Michael Mak.&nbsp;



“We know that sleep disturbances cause a great burden to society, including an economic one. And we know that treatments that improve sleep quality, whether it is therapy or some types of medication, can improve mental health outcomes.”



The activity trackers made it possible for sleep monitoring to be conducted in each individual’s natural home environment rather than in a lab setting.



“Until now nobody has looked at objectively measured sleep in the context of mental illness at quite this scale before,” said Dr. Tripathy. “Part of why we wanted to do this study is that with the emergence of smartphones and wearables, we have access to data streams that we never had before.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/">PLoS Medicine</a>.



---



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

Poor sleep quality is associated with mental illness

In the largest study of its kind, researchers have found...

Populations of resident killer whales inhabit the Salish Sea off the southwestern coast of Canada. There is a northern population of about 300 individuals that feeds during summer in the Johnstone Straight, and a southern population, numbering just 73 individuals, that forages in the Juan de Fuca Strait. Both straits are important foraging grounds because this is where the killer whales catch migrating Chinook <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/washington-voters-want-dam-removal-to-save-salmon/">salmon</a>, their preferred prey.



Recently, scientists have become concerned that whales from the southern population are thinner than their northern counterparts and speculated that there may be less fish available to the killer whales in the southern population. In response, scientists from the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> conducted an assessment of the availability of prey for killer whales in both the northern and southern areas of the Salish Sea.



“People have been talking about a prey shortage as if it’s a fact, but this is the first study to quantify and compare the amount of their preferred prey, Chinook salmon, available to southern and northern resident killer whales,” said lead author Dr. Mei Sato, a research associate at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC at the time of the study, and now an assistant scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.



“Measurements from drone footage have shown the southern resident killer whales are thinner on average than the northern residents – which supports the common belief that the southern residents are experiencing a food shortage,” said co-author Dr. Andrew Trites, professor and director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit (MMRU) at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. “Our findings suggest that this food shortage is probably not occurring during the summertime when they have traditionally fed in the Salish Sea.”



The researchers surveyed the two areas – the Johnstone Strait in the north and the Juan de Fuca Strait in the south – during the summers of 2018 and 2019. They used state-of-the-art fish finders to locate and count Chinook salmon in the two straits, and were also able to estimate the sizes of the fish using this technology. In addition, the team also captured sample fish to validate the acoustic signals from their fish finders and distinguish between different fish species, as killer whales prefer larger, older Chinook salmon.



They collaborated with sport and commercial fisherman, the Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia, and whale watching companies to design the survey and conduct fish sampling. In this way they identified the best time to carry out the field work, based on peak salmon availability and killer whale foraging behavior.



“We got help from sport and commercial fisherman, chartered fishing vessels and used echosounders to detect the number and size of fishes in the water,” said Dr. Sato. “Killer whales use a similar technique to locate the fish – only it’s much better than the electronic one we use because they can distinguish between different fish species in the water.”



The results showed that, although the distribution and sizes of fish were similar in both straits, prey abundance was four to six times greater in each patch sampled in the Juan de Fuca Strait. This clearly debunks the myth that killer whales experience a food shortage in their southern feeding grounds during summer. However, the authors emphasize that their study did not look at other factors that may prevent the southern killer whales from eating the available fish – factors such shipping activity and noise.



“We don’t really know about prey availability outside of the Salish Sea and outside the summer season. To answer the question of whether there’s an overall prey shortage, we still need to figure out what’s happening during winter and spring, whether there are significant fluctuations year-to-year and in the different locations these whales travel to, like California,” said Dr. Sato.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://cdnsciencepub.com/journal/cjfas">Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences</a>.



---



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

Killer whales are not short of prey in southwestern Canada

Populations of resident killer whales inhabit the Salish Sea off...

Power,Generation,Wind,Farm,35m,In,Height,To,The,Hub

If humanity is going to reduce the devastating impacts that greenhouse gases have on global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-will-unleash-more-intense-tropical-cyclones/">warming</a> over the next few decades, it will be essential for us to put worldwide mitigation into action. One potential strategy is to replace greenhouse gas usage with energy produced by wind farms, a solution that a new study is rigorously assessing.



Researchers from <a href="https://eng.ctgu.edu.cn/">Three Gorges University</a> of China set out to examine the diurnal and seasonal patterns of wind speeds and their ability to produce energy. The research comes at a time when the cost of wind energy technology is decreasing, and relevant research and incentive policies are increasing.&nbsp;



Despite these advancements, wind farms will need to be made more efficient if they are going to replace the use of fossil fuels. However, this will only be achieved if a formal and universal assessment process is developed to measure the efficiency of wind farming.



"In wind farm planning, decision-makers need to select an appropriate site for wind farm installation," explained study co-author Shuwei Miao. "We developed a seasonal adequacy assessment procedure using historical wind speed data, wind turbine parameters, system peak load, and other important factors that can help inform decisions on wind farm siting and operation."



The researchers confirmed the accuracy of their results by comparing them to wind site data collected in North Dakota, which helped them to develop the procedure for seasonal adequacy assessments.



"Wind speed associates with uncertainty along with the season, terrain, and climate," said Miao. "And it also determines the energy production potential. If a power system contains considerable wind farm capacities, then the capability of system generation to meet system load will be heavily influenced by uncertain wind speed. This capability refers to system adequacy, and the quantitative assessment of system adequacy can be helpful to optimal wind farm planning."



The first phase of the simulation model examines the probability distribution of wind speed across 24-hour periods, with the second phase considering wind patterns across a seasonal basis. When combined, these two phases are designed to deliver highly applicable insights into how efficiently the naturally occurring energy resource of wind can be utilized.



"We believe our findings are valuable to wind energy development and production," said Miao. "When historical wind speed data, wind turbine parameters, and other data for a candidate site in other regions are available, the model and procedure presented in this study can be readily applicable to simulate the wind profile and assess the seasonal system adequacy indices."



The study is published in <a href="https://aip.scitation.org/journal/rse">Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How much power can wind farms generate?

If humanity is going to reduce the devastating impacts that...

According to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26048-7">Nature Communications</a>, El&nbsp;Niño, a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-already-affects-80-percent-of-the-world/">climate</a> pattern characterized by the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, drives millions of children into hunger every few years.



“It would have been very difficult to prepare the world for a pandemic that few saw coming, but we can’t say the same about El Niño events that have a potentially much greater impact on the long-term growth and health of children,” said study lead author Amir Jina, an assistant professor at University of Chicago’s <a href="https://harris.uchicago.edu/">Harris School of Public Policy</a>.&nbsp;



“Scientists can forecast an approaching El Niño up to six months in advance, allowing the international community to intervene to prevent the worst impacts. Our study helps to quantify those impacts on child nutrition to guide global public investments in food insecure areas.”



By assembling data on over a million children spanning four decades and all tropical developing countries, Professor Jina and his research team provided the first estimate of El Niño’s impact on child nutrition throughout the tropics. Their findings suggest that the number of malnourished children increases by 2.9 percent during El Niño years, affecting thus millions of children.



During the severe 2015 El Niño, the number of malnourished children increased by six percent, accounting to nearly six million children. Although children’s weight seemed to increase in the following years, the shock on their nutrition at such a young age will likely stunt their growth in later years.



While it is not yet clear whether climate change will increase the intensity and frequency of El Niño, it will certainly cause many already affected areas to become hotter and drier. When El Niño will occur on top of these changes, it will doubtlessly have even more dire impacts on public health.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“These are routine events in the climate that lead to real tragedy around the world,” said study co-author Jesse Anttila-Hughes from the <a href="https://www.usfca.edu/">University of San Francisco</a>. “Studying El Niño can teach us about the impacts that come from a hotter, drier climate - important lessons as these changes become more global in scale with climate change."



"But the fact that we live through an El Niño every few years, we know they’re coming, and we still don’t act is a bad sign since many of these climate shifts - from isolated heat waves to hurricanes - will be a lot less predictable as the climate changes.”



---



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

El Niño drives millions of children into hunger

According to a new study published in the journal Nature...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.mcc-berlin.net/en.html">Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change</a> has found that 80 percent of the world’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/land-use-and-climate-are-major-contributors-to-insect-decline/">land</a> area, where 85 percent of the population reside, has already been affected by climate change.



By using <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-artificial-intelligence-is-fast-becoming-a-key-tool-for-climate-science">machine-learning approaches</a> to find, classify, and assess over 100,000 peer-reviewed studies on climate impacts published between 1951 and 2018, an international team of scientists discovered significant evidence that climate change is affecting a much larger part of the world than previously thought. With the help of location data from the studies, the researchers divided the globe into a grid and identified the places where documented climate impacts matched climate-driven changes in temperatures and precipitation.



“By bringing together our big literature assessment with physical climate information we can then provide an assessment of where climate impacts linked to temperature or precipitation changes may be attributable to human-caused climate change,” explained study lead author Max Callaghan, a postdoctoral fellow in Applied Sustainability Sciences at the Mercator Research Institute.



According to Callaghan, for each grid cell the scientists asked the machine-learning algorithm if “it is getting hotter or colder or wetter or dryer outside of the bounds of natural variability.”&nbsp;The results were striking: over 80 percent of the globe and 85 percent of the world population appeared to have already been affected by global warming.



Furthermore, this study also highlights an “attribution gap” between countries in the global north and south, due to a relative lack of research on climate change impacts in poorer, less-developed countries. As Callaghan stresses though, “lower levels of evidence do not imply that climate change is not affecting people in low-income countries. Rather, the fact that published evidence is sparse – even where we can observe human-caused changes to temperature or precipitation – shows that there is an&nbsp;urgent need for more scientific study&nbsp;of the impacts of climate change in the global south.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01168-6">Nature Climate Change</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



---



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

Climate change already affects 80 percent of the world

A new study led by the Mercator Research Institute on...

Landscape,Of,Lake,Tahtarjavr,With,Transparent,Water,,Rocky,Bottom,And

Two new studies are improving our understanding of the ways in which carbon is transferred between the land, ocean, and atmosphere in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heat-in-the-north-pacific-linked-to-unusual-ozone-hole/">Arctic</a>. By taking into account how carbon reaches the ocean via rivers, these studies cover a significant gap in previous research, which has largely focused on how carbon passes from land into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels, forest fires, leaking methane gas, or emissions from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/permafrost-melting-may-release-nuclear-waste-into-the-atmosphere/">melting permafrost</a>.



“There’s been a lot of research that has looked at the vertical flow of carbon from land to the atmosphere,” said study lead author Michael Rawlins, a professor of Geoscience at the <a href="https://www.umass.edu/">University of Massachusetts Amherst</a> and the associate director of the&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.umass.edu/csrc/">Climate System Research Center</a>. “Far less attention has been paid to how carbon is transferred from land to the ocean via rivers.”



As rivers and streams flow over the land, they collect carbon and carry it towards the seas or oceans. While a small amount of this “dissolved organic carbon” (DOC) evaporates into the atmosphere as greenhouse gas, most of it flows into the ocean, where it becomes a significant part of coastal food webs.&nbsp;



In order to better understand this ocean-ward, lateral flows of carbon in the Arctic, Professor Rawlins and his team have modified a numerical method that captures the annual accumulation of snow and the freezing and thawing of soils, by adding a comprehensive account of the production, storage, decomposition, and loading of DOC into streams and rivers.



By employing this model, researchers found rising amounts of freshwater and DOC exported to a lagoon in Northern Alaska. In 2019, the freshwater export of DOC was three times the amount exported in the 1980s.&nbsp;



“Increased freshwater export has implications for salinity and other components of the lagoon aquatic environment,” explained Rawlins. “The largest freshwater and DOC increases occur in Autumn, which is not surprising given the significant losses in sea ice across the nearby Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, in turn connected to our warming climate.”



This new model can help scientists to better understand the complex ways in which climate change is altering the Earth’s carbon cycle, and provide new research directions about how the negative effects of global warming could be mitigated.&nbsp;



The studies are published in the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/21562202">Journal of Geophysical Research</a> and <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326">Environmental Research Letters</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

Carbon dissolved in rivers is damaging our planet

Two new studies are improving our understanding of the ways...

Marine plankton produce more than 20 million tons of sulfur each year, mostly in the form of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). This makes marine life the most abundant biological source of sulfur to the marine atmosphere. In the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/permafrost-melting-may-release-nuclear-waste-into-the-atmosphere/">atmosphere</a>, DMS rapidly combines with water molecules and forms sulfuric acid. Although this sounds ominous, the molecules of sulfuric acid contribute to the formation of tiny aerosol particles that, in turn, help to produce clouds by giving a site for water vapor to condense and droplets to form.&nbsp;



The results of new research show, however, that more than one-third of the DMS emitted from the sea cannot be used in the formation of new clouds because it becomes dissolved in water droplets in clouds that already exist.&nbsp;



“It turns out that this story of cloud formation was really incomplete. Over the last three or four years, we've been questioning parts of that story, both through laboratory experiments and with large-scale field experiments," explained study senior author <a href="https://bertram.chem.wisc.edu/">Tim Bertram</a>, a professor of Chemistry at <a href="https://www.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin–Madison</a>. "Now we can better connect the dots between what's emitted from the ocean and how you form these particulates that encourage cloud formation.”



The pathway that DMS follows on its way from marine organisms to becoming sulfuric acid in the atmosphere is more complex than originally thought. It seems that it forms an oxidation product called hydroperoxymethyl thioformate (HPMTF) that, until a few years ago, was unknown to science. This product dissolves readily in the water droplets of existing clouds, meaning that existing clouds remove the DMS oxidation products and limit the production of condensation nuclei that would help to form new clouds.



Research into the presence of HPMTF molecules in the atmosphere has, until now, been difficult because they occur at such low concentrations. But for the new study, the team used NASA-owned, instrument-laden aircraft to take detailed measurements of these chemicals in the atmosphere over the open ocean both inside clouds and under sunny skies.



“This is a massive DC-8 aircraft. It's a flying laboratory. Essentially all of the seats have been removed, and very precise chemical instrumentation has been put in that allows the team to measure, at very low concentrations, both the emitted molecules in the atmosphere and all of the chemical intermediates,” said Professor Bertram.



The data from the flights enabled the scientists to model ocean atmospheric chemistry on a global scale. They calculated that 36 percent of the sulfur from DMS is lost to clouds through the formation of HPMTF molecules that dissolve in existing clouds.&nbsp;



Another 15 percent of sulfur is lost through other processes, with the result that less than half of the sulfur released by marine plankton in the form of DMS is available to help nucleate new clouds. In cloud-free areas, more HPMTF survives to become sulfuric acid and this helps to form new clouds.



“This loss of sulfur to the clouds reduces the formation rate of small particles, so it reduces the formation rate of the cloud nuclei themselves. The impact on cloud brightness and other properties will have to be explored in the future,” said Professor Bertram.



Clouds play an important role in global climate by controlling rainfall and reflecting sunlight back into space. Until recently, however, the effects that clouds have on atmospheric chemistry over the ocean have been difficult to measure. The flights on the modified DC-8 air craft have changed this. The results show the power of the correct measuring instruments in collecting appropriate chemical information, as well as highlighting the way in which existing clouds can influence the processes that give rise to new clouds.&nbsp;



Accurately predicting the presence and extent of clouds over the world’s oceans will be essential to understanding the effects of climate change in future. “This work has really reopened this area of marine chemistry,” said Professor Bertram.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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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

Cloud formation is often hampered by clouds themselves

Marine plankton produce more than 20 million tons of sulfur...

A new study published in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-fluid-mechanics/article/waveriding-and-wavepassing-by-ducklings-in-formation-swimming/94759A0FF7070D9D7CAC5907594B1781">Journal of Fluid Mechanics</a> has found that ducklings swim in a line behind their mother in order to reduce drag and propel themselves forwards. According to the scientists from the <a href="https://www.strath.ac.uk/">University of Strathclyde</a> who led the study, besides helping us better understand animal behavior, these findings could also revolutionize shipping.&nbsp;



Ducklings learn to follow their mother through a developmental process called <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/460341">imprinting</a>, whereby a social attachment between young animals and typically (but not necessarily) a parent is established immediately after birth. As early as 15 minutes after hatching, ducklings will learn to follow any moving object they see first. On most occasions, this “object” is their mother. While imprinting is a well-known phenomenon, the precise mechanics of ducklings’ behavior have not been clearly understood.



By using mathematical and numerical models, the researchers revealed that the in-line swimming formation helps the ducklings benefit from two phenomena called “wave-riding” and “wave-passing.”&nbsp;



When the first duckling begins to swim behind its mother, a “destructive wave interference phenomenon” occurs: due to its positioning, the wave force that acts against the duckling as it paddles through the water (known as wave drag) is transformed into a positive movement propelling the bird forwards. Thus, by riding the waves generated by a mother duck, a trailing duckling can obtain a significant wave drag reduction.&nbsp;



This effect is then passed down to rest of the ducklings in line, and by the time it reaches the third duckling, the wave drag gradually tends towards zero, and a delicate dynamic equilibrium is achieved. Each subsequent duckling under that equilibrium then acts as a “wave passer,” passing the waves’ energy to its trailing duckling without any energy losses.



“Wave riding and wave passing are probably the principal reasons for the evolution of swimming formation by waterfowl. This study is the first to reveal the reasons why the formation movement of waterfowl can preserve individuals' energy expenditure,” the authors explained.



Besides shedding more light on patterns of animal behavior, this study can also provide new engineering insights. &nbsp;“These principles could be potentially applied to design modern freight carrying vessels, e.g. a water-train, to transport more cargoes without extra fuel cost,” the study authors concluded.&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

Ducklings swim in line to reduce drag

A new study published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natsustain/">Nature Sustainability</a> warns that a massive prospective spill from a deserted oil tanker in the Red Sea could have catastrophic public <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seabirds-are-damaging-their-health-by-eating-plastic/">health</a> effects in Yemen and neighboring countries.



The FSO Safer is a tanker abandoned since 2015 due to the conflict in Yemen. It is currently located five nautical miles off Yemen’s coast and contains 1.1 million barrels of oil. The tanker is increasingly likely to leak oil due to the deterioration of its hull, or to catch fire through a buildup of volatile gases.



A research team led by <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> modeled the tanker spilling oil under various weather conditions, taking into account variables such as wind patterns, sea temperatures, current patterns, and salinity gradients.&nbsp;



The scientists estimated that it would take six to ten days for the oil to reach Yemen’s coastline, significantly impacting Yemen’s port within two weeks, and the port of Aden within three weeks. The delivery of critical supplies could be disrupted, and millions of people might be left without clean water and food aid. Moreover, about 38 percent of Yemen’s fuel needs could be seriously affected, causing fuel prices to spike.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Yemen is very fuel-dependent, so losing fuel means shutting down things like hospitals and water systems,” said&nbsp;Benjamin Huynh, a graduate student in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford University. “The main takeaway I want audiences to have is that this environmental disaster would also be a severe humanitarian disaster, and that a massive oil spill can substantially harm human health.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



According to the simulations, the air pollution from a full spill would increase the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations by 5.8 percent in Yemen’s general population, with cleanup workers and others directly exposed to the oil potentially experiencing up to 530 percent increase of such risks. &nbsp; &nbsp;



“We knew of course that there would be some negative impacts of an oil spill, but were surprised by how many people would be impacted in the majority of our scenarios,” said&nbsp;David Rehkopf, an associate professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, and co-director of the&nbsp;<a href="https://med.stanford.edu/phs.html">Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences</a>. “We hope that puts more pressure on the international community to offload the oil and prevent this disaster.”



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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

Deserted oil tanker in the Red Sea is a danger to public health

A new study published in the journal Nature Sustainability warns...

Many Scandinavians undertake regular swimming during the cold winter months. Winter swimming, as it is known, is part of Scandinavian culture and has been enjoyed for generations. There is a feeling that immersing oneself in icy <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/clear-blue-waters-highlight-the-caribbean-sea/">waters</a> after enjoying a hot sauna brings benefits in terms of health and happiness.&nbsp;



In a new study, published today in the&nbsp;journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/home">Cell Reports Medicine</a>, scientists suggest that routinely swimming in cold water and alternating this with hot sauna sessions might benefit people in several different ways. The practice appears to affect the metabolism of brown adipose (fat) cells and the generation of body heat, two processes that help people adapt to conditions of extreme heat and cold.&nbsp;



“Our data underscore that BAT [brown adipose tissue] in adult humans is part of the collective body temperature regulation system, in collaboration with skeletal muscle and blood flow,” said senior study author Camilla Scheele of the University of Copenhagen. “Regular winter swimming combining cold dips with hot sauna might be a strategy to increase energy expenditure, which could result in weight loss if compensatory increase in food intake can be avoided.”



Brown adipose tissue is a special type of body fat that functions to generate heat when we need to maintain our body temperature at a constant level. It is activated when we get cold and contains many more cellular structures for generating energy and heat than are found in normal fat cells.



In order to test whether winter swimming had any effects on the body’s ability to acclimate in conditions of extreme cold and heat, the researchers used a sample of eight male winter swimmers who had all swum in cold water and combined this with a hot sauna session, several times a week for at least two years. The sample was matched for age and fitness levels. The control sample also consisted of eight men, matched for age and fitness, but they were not winter swimmers and did not use any form of cold or heat therapy during the study.



Initial tests of participants’ thermoregulatory responses to cold involved submerging one arm in icy water for three minutes and also lying between water-perfused blankets to lower body temperature. In both instances, the winter swimmers showed signs of cold tolerance and had lower increases in pulse rates and blood pressure. They also showed a higher increase in skin temperature in response to cooling, which may indicate that they were capable of greater heat loss as a potential adaptation to frequent sauna exposure.



“We expected winter swimmers to have more brown fat than the control subjects, but it turned out that they instead had better thermoregulation,” said study first author Susanna Søberg of the University of Copenhagen.



Next, the researchers used positron emission tomography, to measure the activity of brown fat tissue in the participants as they were exposed to a comfortable temperature. At this temperature, the control subjects showed signs of activated brown fat tissue, as indicated by an uptake of glucose, whereas the winter swimmers showed absolutely no activity in their brown fat tissue. These results indicate that brown fat cells were actively generating heat even at mesic temperatures in non-swimmers. The winter swimmers had lower core temperatures than the controls during these periods in thermally comfortable conditions.&nbsp;



“The findings support the notion that brown fat tissue fine tunes body temperature to a comfortable state in young adults,” said Scheele. “It was, however, a surprising finding that the winter swimmers had no activity at all when exposed to comfortable temperatures.”&nbsp;



When participants were exposed to cold, however, the activity of brown fat tissue increased in both groups. The winter swimmers showed much higher heat production, or energy expenditure, in response to cool temperatures. They were able to generate more heat than controls when faced with cold conditions. “Winter swimmers burned more calories than control subjects during cooling, possibly in part due to higher heat production,” Scheele says.



The researchers also tracked the daily pattern of changes in temperature for both groups over a full day at comfortable thermal conditions. They found that winter swimmers reached a lower core body temperature, possibly due to being acclimated to the high heat conditions in saunas. Their skin temperature in areas close to BAT showed a distinct peak between 4:30 am and 5:30 am and revealed signs of a 24-hour rhythm in brown fat tissue activity and heat production. “The difference between groups is possibly explained by increased maturation and cold adaptation of BAT in the winter-swimmer group,” Scheele says.



There are some limitations to the study, including the small sample size and the absence of female participants. In addition, the fact that it was a correlational study means that a causal relationship between winter swimming and brown fat tissue activation, or acclimation to extreme temperatures, cannot be assumed.&nbsp;



“We compared experienced winter swimmers with control subjects, which allows for the possibility that other lifestyle factors or genetic factors not measured in the current study also could impact the differences between the groups,” noted Søberg.



However, the link between winter swimming and the ability to generate more heat and burn more calories during exposure to cold may have important implications for overweight people or for those trying to control or maintain their body weight.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Our results point to winter swimming as an activity that could increase energy expenditure, thus proposing a new lifestyle activity that might contribute to weight loss or weight control,” said Scheele.



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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

Winter swimming helps increase the body’s metabolism

Many Scandinavians undertake regular swimming during the cold winter months....

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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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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