The sight of a whale shark, the largest fish alive today, leaves most people humbled. Its slow, graceful movements and gentle nature often make them symbols of the ocean’s mystery. Yet behind this serene image lies a struggle for survival.



Populations have fallen sharply, and their biology makes recovery slow. The findings of a new study from Indonesian waters not only reveal the scale of human impacts but also highlight why protecting whale sharks is vital for ocean health.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-whale-shark-decline-accelerates">Whale shark decline accelerates</h2>



Over the last 75 years, global whale shark numbers have dropped by more than half. In the Indo-Pacific, declines are even steeper. 



Hunting, habitat disruption, and entanglements push whale sharks closer to extinction. Because they take up to 30 years to mature, populations rebound very slowly. 



Large-bodied species like whale sharks face unique risks in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/silent-invasion-how-microplastics-are-disrupting-land-ecosystems/">ecosystems</a> since they grow slowly, reproduce late, and invest heavily in fewer offspring. 



The researchers noted that the disappearance of such giants can ripple through marine systems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-injuries-trace-back-to-people">Injuries trace back to people</h2>



In the Bird’s Head Seascape of West Papua, the research team found 62 percent of whale sharks bore scars or wounds, mostly from human actions.



“We found that scars and injuries were mainly from anthropogenic causes, such as collisions with ‘bagans’ - traditional fishing platforms with lift nets - and whale shark-watching tour boats,” said Dr. Edy Setyawan of the <a href="https://www.elasmobranchinstitute.id" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elasmobranch Institute Indonesia</a>.



“Relatively harmless minor abrasions were the most common. Serious injuries from natural causes such as predator attacks, or from boat propellers were much less common."



Patterns in ecology show that when human activities concentrate near feeding or breeding grounds, injury rates increase significantly. 



According to the study, direct human pressures such as vessel strikes and fishing gear interactions remain among the greatest global threats to megafauna. Whale sharks are no exception.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-following-the-gentle-giants">Following the gentle giants</h2>



Between 2010 and 2023, the scientists tracked whale sharks across Cenderawasih Bay, Kaimana, Raja Ampat, and Fakfak. This biodiversity hotspot hosts 26 marine protected areas. Using the distinctive spot patterns of each shark, the researchers identified 268 individuals.



Nearly all sightings occurred near bagans, where whale sharks fed on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-warming-threatens-the-global-fish-supply/">baitfish</a> like anchovies and sprats. Most were juvenile males, four to five meters long. More than half were resighted, including one young male recorded 34 times over three years.



From an ecological lens, these observations support a classic theory: young individuals often use coastal waters rich in food, while adults migrate offshore into deeper, less accessible habitats.



Such ontogenetic shifts are common across marine megafauna and are essential for population survival.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-injuries-reshape-populations">Injuries reshape populations</h2>



Of 206 sharks with scars, over 80 percent carried human-caused injuries. Serious wounds, including lacerations and blunt trauma, were rare but concerning. More often, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/whale-sharks-move-into-dangerous-territory-as-the-climate-warms/">sharks</a> bore superficial abrasions from rubbing against fishing gear and boats.



Studies across marine ecology emphasize that while minor wounds may not kill, cumulative injuries reduce overall fitness.



Injured animals often change behavior, avoid key feeding zones, or expend more energy healing. Over time, this shapes population dynamics.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-female-whale-sharks-live-in-deep-seas">Female whale sharks live in deep seas</h2>



A lingering question is the absence of females and older individuals, since previous studies show that adult whale sharks - especially females - prefer the deep ocean where they feed on prey like krill and schooling fish.



By contrast, younger males remain near shore in shallow, plankton-rich waters that help them grow quickly.



“Our own satellite tracking data also show that females and adults frequently use deep sea features such as canyons and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seamounts-are-gathering-hubs-for-ocean-predators/">seamounts</a>,” said study co-author Mochamad Iqbal Herwata Putra.



Ecological theory explains this pattern: sexual segregation often arises in large marine vertebrates, with males and females exploiting different ecological niches to reduce competition and improve survival chances. This strategy is a driver of population resilience across species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tourism-brings-dangers-to-whale-sharks">Tourism brings dangers to whale sharks</h2>



Staying near coasts, whale sharks offer strong potential for ecotourism. 



“Whale sharks in Cenderawasih Bay and Triton Bay (Kaimana) had high rates of residency and resighting, indicating that they should be viewed as valuable tourism assets for local communities and governments,” said Dr. Mark Erdmann of Rewild.



However, unmanaged <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-change-their-daily-schedules-when-tourists-are-watching/">wildlife tourism</a> can create a risky cycle: attraction leads to proximity, which heightens disturbance and injury risk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-small-changes-big-impact">Small changes, big impact</h2>



The researchers recommend small but effective changes, such as modifying fishing platforms to remove sharp edges.



“We aim to work with the management authorities of the marine protected areas to develop regulations to require slight modifications to the bagans, including the removal of any sharp edges from boat outriggers and net frames," said Erdmann. "We believe those changes will greatly reduce scarring of whale sharks in the region."



Ecological models highlight that even minor adjustments in human practices can dramatically reduce stress on threatened populations. 



Protecting whale sharks is more than conserving one species. It safeguards a keystone component of marine food webs, maintains ecosystem balance, and secures benefits for communities who depend on healthy seas.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2025.1607027/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frontiers in Marine Science</a>.



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Whale sharks are literally scarred by human activity

The sight of a whale shark, the largest fish alive today, leaves most people humbled. Its slow, graceful movements and gentle nature often make them symbols of the ocean’s mystery. Yet behind this serene image lies a struggle for survival. Populations have fallen sharply, and their biology makes recovery slow. The findings of a new study from Indonesian waters not only reveal the scale of human impacts but also highlight why protecting whale sharks is vital for ocean health. Whale shark decline accelerates Over the last 75...

If you love birds and science, winter has an exciting opportunity. The <a href="http://www.audubon.org/">Audubon Society</a> holds its Christmas Bird Count every year, and they need citizen scientists to get involved. 

This year is the 117th annual count, and volunteers are still needed in the U.S. and throughout the Western Hemisphere. The count began yesterday and will continue through January 5, 2017, so there’s still plenty of time to join the fun. 

Everyone is invited to join the count. Participants need to contact their local compilers, as there is a specific system that each count has to follow. For example, count activities take place in specific locations and sometimes on certain days or at specific times. 

Beginning birders are welcome. Compilers may choose to team beginners with experienced birders for the count.

If your home falls within a circle, you may be able to set up a feeder, stay home, and count visitors – just be sure to clear it with that circle’s compiler, first!

A <a href="http://audubon.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=3dcefef2f4654a94960fc3c8d1cfcc6d">map by the Audubon Society</a> shows where citizen scientists are still needed: yellow and green circles have space, while red circles are full. Contact information for compilers is included.

Though it may sound like an excuse to spend a day or two watching and counting birds, the information collected during the count is vastly important to wildlife biologists, ornithologists, and other bird experts. While there are local or species-specific bird counts, the Christmas Bird Count is one of only two major data banks that offer insight into how all bird species are doing throughout the Americas. 

It can also show how unusual weather patterns are affecting out feathered friends.

In some locations, last year’s count was temporarily interrupted by El Niño. Massive storms sent much-needed water to drought-stricken areas, but made conducting counts difficult in the Pacific Northwest. 

In parts of Canada, unseasonably warm weather – also brought by El Niño – sent birds out foraging and enjoying the sun, rather than gathered in nesting areas where they’re easier to count.

The warm ocean temperatures may have wreaked some havoc on seabirds, too. The Audubon Society linked a huge die-off of common murres to food chain disruptions caused by the warm ocean waters.

Still, more than 76,000 observers headed out to count last year, checking off more than 58 million birds, Audubon said. More than 500 species were observed in Yanayacu, Ecuador alone, an area that shows consistently wide diversity of species every year.

Aside from counting bird populations and noting any big changes in a species’ numbers, the Christmas Bird Count maps geographical shifts in species. For example, the fieldfare was spotted in the United States for the first time last year. It’s not native to the Western Hemisphere. 

The Christmas Bird Count was started in 1900 by ornithologist Frank M. Chapman. At the time, a holiday tradition between hunters had them competing to see who could bring back the most furred and feathered kills. 

Chapman hoped to turn that tradition into one that was a little more conservation-friendly. Twenty-five bird counts were held the first year, from Pacific Grove, California to Toronto, Ontario. 

Nowadays, the count is no longer a competition – at least not nationally! – but it still brings in fascinating data for biologists and bird lovers.  

The Christmas Bird Count is funded entirely by donations.

Bird fans who would rather flock to a less formal bird count – or those who just can’t get enough – may also be interested in the <a href="http://gbbc.birdcount.org/">Great Backyard Bird Count</a> sponsored by the Audubon Society and Cornell University from February 17-20, 2017.

Join the Audubon Society for its annual Christmas Bird Count

If you love birds and science, winter has an exciting...

The Iberian lynx is the world's most endangered feline species. The global conservation effort undertaken to prevent the Iberian Lynx’s extinction has paid out, and from a shrinking population of less than 100 individuals in 2002, now 404 cats live in the Mediterranean forests of the Iberian Peninsula.

Recently, a group of Spanish scientists have sequenced the genome of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), currently one of the world's most endangered felines. They have confirmed the "extreme erosion" suffered by its DNA. The Iberian lynx has one of the least genetically-diverse genomes. It is even less diverse than other endangered mammals, such as the cheetah or Tasmanian devil, or birds, like the crested ibis or osprey.

The study, being published today in the scientific journal Genome Biology, has been coordinated by scientists from the Doñana Biological Station (CSIC). The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) contributed to this research project from the very beginning including several groups and facilities. In particular, the laboratories of Roderic Guigó, Cedric Notredame, and Toni Gabaldón at the Bioinformatics and Genomics Programme as well as the CRG Bioinformatics unit. This is the first mammal genome of reference generated entirely in Spain.

The project, financed by Banco Santander and managed by the Fundación General CSIC, has integrated the efforts of 50 scientists from research groups of 12 institutions, two of them from outside Spain, that cover a broad range of disciplines, including bioinformatics, genomics, oncology, evolution and conservation.

The scientists have managed to read and organize 2.4 billion letters of DNA from Candiles, a male lynx born in the Sierra Morena lynx population, who now forms part of a program for breeding in captivity. To do so, they have used new sequencing techniques and developed innovative procedures to generate a high-quality draft genome on a limited budget.

A total of 21,257 genes were identified, a number similar to that of human beings and other mammals, and they have been compared to those of cats, tigers, cheetahs and dogs. Specifically, Toni Gabaldón's group at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona has compared the Iberian lynx genome with those of other species, attempting to identify genes that have lost their function because they have remained isolated and the existence of a small population of specimens of this species. Researchers have found evidence of modifications in genes related with the senses of hearing, sight and smell to facilitate the adaptation of the lynx to its environment, which have enabled them to become exceptional hunters specialized in rabbits as prey.

History and diversity of the Iberian lynx

With the aim of studying the history and genetic diversity of the species, analysis was conducted on the genomes of another ten Iberian lynxes from Doñana and Sierra Morena, the only two surviving populations on the Iberian Peninsula, which have been isolated from each other for decades. Researchers have also completed a comparative analysis with a European lynx, to discover the bonds between the two lynxes that inhabit Eurasia.

The Iberian lynx began to diverge from its sister species, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) some 300,000 years ago, and the two species became completely separated some 2,500 years ago. Throughout that period, they continued to cross-breed and exchange genes, probably in the periods between glaciations, when the climatology allowed the species to spread and encounter each other on the Iberian Peninsula and in southern Europe.

The demographic history of the Iberian lynx has been marked by three historic declines, the last of which took place some 300 years ago, decimating its population. In addition to this, there was a drastic drop in the number of specimens in the 20th century due to its persecution, the destruction of its habitat, and two major viral epidemics suffered by the rabbit, its main food source.

Scientists have interpreted these demographic drops as the cause of the low levels of diversity observed, and warn that this could impair the lynx's capacity to adapt to changes in its environment (climate, disease, etc.). Furthermore, existence of multiple potentially harmful genetic variants has been confirmed, which could be contributing to the reduced survival and reproduction rates of the species.

This genetic deterioration is especially marked in the Doñana population-smaller, and isolated for a longer period-which has half the genetic diversity of the Sierra Morena group. Nevertheless, the study reflects the situation before the exchange between the two relict populations and their inter-breeding in captivity were begun. These measures, taken within the Iberian lynx conservation program, have led to improvement of the species' genetic situation in recent years.

The use of new genomic resources, within the framework of the project, will contribute to optimizing management aimed at preserving the greatest genetic diversity, in addition to diminishing these populations' genetic defects as much as possible.

--

Credit: Earth.com Staff/<a href="http://www.crg.es/">CRGenomica</a>

Scientists sequence the genome of the endangered Iberian lynx

The Iberian lynx is the world's most endangered feline species. The...

Horses and humans have a special bond. Scientific studies have shown that both the horse and the human become attuned to each other’s physical and mental ways, thus developing the state of co-being.

Taking this one step further, researchers at Kobe University Kobe University Graduate School of Intercultural Studies have proved that when horses face unsolvable problems they use visual and tactile signals to get human attention and ask for help. The study also suggests that horses alter their communicative behavior based on humans' knowledge of the situation. These findings were published in the online version of Animal Cognition on November 24.

Communicating with other individuals in order to get information about foraging sites and predators is a valuable survival skill. Chimpanzees, who are evolutionarily close to humans, are especially skilled at understanding others. Studies suggest that chimpanzees distinguish the attentional states of other individuals (seeing or not seeing), and they are also able to understand others' knowledge states (knowing or not knowing). Some domestic animals are also very good at communicating with humans - recent studies of dogs have revealed that they are excellent at understanding various human gestures and expressions. It is thought that these abilities were influenced by the domestication process.

Since they were domesticated 6000 years ago, horses have contributed to human society in various shapes and forms, from transport to companionship. Horse-riding has recently drawn attention for its positive effects on our physical and mental health. The high social cognitive skills of horses towards humans might partially explain why humans and horses have a collaborative relationship today. However, the scientific evidence for this ability is still scarce.

In this study, scientists investigated horses' social cognitive skills with humans in a problem-solving situation where food was hidden in a place accessible only to humans. The experiment was carried out in a paddock belonging to the equestrian club at Kobe University, where eight horses from the club participated with the cooperation of their student caretakers.

For the first experiment, an assistant experimenter hid food (carrots) in a bucket which the horse could not reach. The researchers observed whether and how the animal sent signals to the caretaker when the caretaker (unaware of the situation) arrived. The horse stayed near the caretaker and looked at, touched and pushed the caretaker. These behaviors occurred over a significantly longer period compared to cases when they carried out the experiment without hiding the food. The results showed that when horses cannot solve problems by themselves they send signals to humans both visually (looking) and physically (touching and pushing).

Building on these results, for the second experiment they tested whether the horses' behavior changed based on the caretakers' knowledge of the hidden food. If the caretaker hadn't watched the food being hidden, the horses gave more signals, demonstrating that horses can change their behavior in response to the knowledge levels of humans.

These two experiments revealed some behaviors used by horses to communicate demands to humans. They also suggest that horses possess high cognitive skills that enable them to flexibly alter their behavior towards humans according to humans' knowledge state. This high social cognitive ability may have been acquired during the domestication process. In order to identify the characteristic that enables horses to form close bonds with humans, in future research the team aims to compare communication between horses, as well as looking more closely at the social cognitive ability of horses in their communication with humans.

By deepening our understanding of the cognitive abilities held by species who have close relationships with humans, and making comparisons with the cognitive abilities of species such as primates who are evolutionarily close to humans, we can investigate the development of unique communication traits in domesticated animals. This is connected to the influence of domestication on the cognitive ability of animals, and can potentially provide valuable information for realizing stronger bonds between humans and animals.

--

Credit: Earth.com Staff/<a href="http://www.kobe-u.ac.jp/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kobe University Graduate School of Intercultural Studies</a>

Horses ask humans for help when they're in trouble

Horses and humans have a special bond. Scientific studies have...

Nacre, or mother-of-pearl, is the hard pearly iridescent substance forming the inner layer of a mollusk shell. This beautiful biomineral has been shown to accurately record ancient ocean temperatures.

A team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison physics Professor Pupa Gilbert studied the physical attributes of nacre in modern and fossil shells and discovered that the biomineral provides an accurate record of ancient ocean temperatures as the material is formed, layer upon layer, in a mollusk.

"We can very accurately correlate nacre tablet thickness with temperature," says Gilbert, explaining that mother-of-pearl is formed as mollusks lay down microscopic polygonal tablets of the mineral aragonite like brickwork to build layers of the shiny biomineral.

The work is important because it provides scientists with a new and potentially more accurate method of measuring ancient ocean temperatures, improving on methods now used with other biominerals to tease out the record of the environmental conditions at which the materials formed in the distant past.

"Everyone else measures temperatures in the ancient world using chemical proxies," says Gilbert, referencing methods that, for example, use ratios of isotopic oxygen locked into tiny fossil shells made by marine microorganisms known as Foraminifera to get a snapshot of ocean temperatures in the distant past.

[caption id="attachment_124770" align="alignleft"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-124770" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/nacre-mother-of-pearl-UWisc-150x150.jpg" alt="Nacre, mother-of-pearl" width="150" height="150" /> Nacre, mother-of-pearl[/caption]

The method devised by Gilbert and her collaborators is extraordinarily simple: using just a scanning electron microscope and a cross section of shell, it is possible to measure the thickness of the layered microscopic tablets that compose nacre in a shell. The thickness of the tablets, explains Gilbert, correlates with ancient ocean temperatures as measured in modern shells when ocean temperatures were known at the time the shells were formed.

The new work by the researchers from Wisconsin, Harvard, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provides a novel physical approach to measuring past climate, says Gilbert, an expert in biomineral formation.

"If what you are measuring is a physical structure, you see it directly," says Gilbert. "You just measure nacre tablet thickness, the spacing of the lines, and it corresponds to temperature. When the temperature is warmer, the layers get thicker."

The new study looked at fossil samples of nacre as old as 200 million years from a mollusk in the family Pinnidae, large, fast-growing saltwater clams that live in shallow ocean environments. Today, as in the distant past, the bivalves are widespread in tropical and temperate coastal and shallow continental shelf environments.

The new method is potentially more accurate, Gilbert notes, because the chemistry of fossil shells can be altered by diagenesis. Diagenesis occurs over geologic time, during or after sediments rain down on ocean beds to form sedimentary rock. Fossil shells may partially dissolve and re-precipitate as calcite, which fills cracks in aragonite nacre, thus skewing the chemical analysis of a sample, if analyzed as a bulk sample.

"If the chemistry changes after the death of a fossil, the formation chemistry isn't necessarily preserved," says Gilbert. On the other hand, "if the physical structure is altered by diagenesis, you will notice immediately that nacre is no longer layered, and so you will know that it's not worth analyzing that area. If just a few nacre tablets are preserved, their thickness can easily be measured" meaning the new technique can augment current geochemical methods used to assess past temperatures, and thus help reconstruct ancient climates, especially the shallow marine environments that preserve most of the world's invertebrate fossil record.

The family of mollusks in the new study has lived in the world's oceans for more than 400 million years, potentially leaving a clear record of ocean temperatures into the distant past. For purposes of assessing climate, the record is valuable because not only does it say something about past climate, but the data can also help modelers forecast future climate and environmental change.

"The only thing you can do to understand climate in the future is to look at climate in the past," Gilbert notes.

--

Credit: Earth.com Staff/<a href="http://www.wisc.edu" target="_blank">University of Wisconsin</a>

Mother-of-pearl shown to accurately record ancient ocean temperatures

Nacre, or mother-of-pearl, is the hard pearly iridescent substance forming...

Scientists have discovered a group of exciting new sea creatures -- six new animal species in undersea hot springs 1.7 miles deep in the southwest Indian Ocean.

The unique marine life was discovered around hydrothermal vents at a place called Longqi ('Dragon's Breath'), 2000 kilometres southeast of Madagascar and is described in the journal Scientific Reports.

A research team, led by Dr Jon Copley, explored an area the size of a football stadium on the ocean floor, pinpointing the locations of more than a dozen mineral spires known as 'vent chimneys'. These spires, many of which rise more than two storeys above the seabed, are rich in copper and gold that is now attracting interest for future seafloor mining. However, the spires are also festooned with deep-sea animals, nourished by hot fluids gushing out of the vent chimneys.

The team, which includes colleagues at the Natural History Museum in London and Newcastle University, carried out genetic comparisons with other species and populations elsewhere to show that several species at Longqi are not yet recorded from anywhere else in the world's oceans.

The expedition, which took place in November 2011, provides a record of what lives on the ocean floor in the area, which is licensed for mineral exploration by the International Seabed Authority of the United Nations, before any mining surveys are carried out.

The Longqi vents are the first known in the region and the expedition was the first to explore them using a deep-diving remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

The deep-sea animals that are so far only known from Longqi include: a species of hairy-chested 'Hoff' crab, closely related to 'Hoff' crabs at Antarctic vents; two species of snail and a species of limpet; a species of scaleworm; and another species of deep-sea worm. Apart from one species of snail, which has been given the scientific name Gigantopelta aegis, most have not yet been formally described.

"We can be certain that the new species we've found also live elsewhere in the southwest Indian Ocean, as they will have migrated here from other sites, but at the moment no-one really knows where, or how well-connected their populations are with those at Longqi," said Dr Copley. "Our results highlight the need to explore other hydrothermal vents in the southwest Indian Ocean and investigate the connectivity of their populations, before any impacts from mineral exploration activities and future deep-sea mining can be assessed."

The scientists also found other species at Longqi that are known at other vents far away in other oceans. Another new species of scaleworm lives at vents on the East Scotia Ridge in the Antarctic, 6,000 kilometres away, while a species of ragworm live at vents in the eastern Pacific, more than 10,000 km away.

"Finding these two species at Longqi shows that some vent animals may be more widely distributed across the oceans than we realised," added Dr Copley.

[caption id="attachment_124640" align="aligncenter" width="400"]<img class="size-full wp-image-124640" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/jabberwocky-mineral-chimney_USouthampton.jpg" alt="The high-temperature mineral chimney ‘Jabberwocky’" width="400" height="840" /> The high-temperature mineral chimney ‘Jabberwocky’[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_124650" align="aligncenter" width="962"]<img class="size-full wp-image-124650" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/scaleworm-Peinaleopolynoe-USouthampton.jpg" alt="A new scaleworm called Peinaleopolynoe" width="962" height="640" /> A new scaleworm called Peinaleopolynoe[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_124651" align="aligncenter" width="962"]<img class="size-full wp-image-124651" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ragworm-Hesiolyra-USouthampton.jpg" alt="A new ragworm called Hesiolyra" width="962" height="640" /> A new ragworm called Hesiolyra[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_124649" align="aligncenter" width="962"]<img class="size-full wp-image-124649" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/barnacle-Neolepas-USouthampton.jpg" alt="A new barnacle called Neolepas" width="962" height="640" /> A new barnacle called Neolepas[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_124662" align="aligncenter" width="962"]<img class="size-full wp-image-124662" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/3B6C948B00000578-4039030-image-a-28_1481844805547.jpg" alt="Pictured is a new species of snail called Phymorhynchus" width="962" height="640" /> Pictured is a new species of snail called Phymorhynchus[/caption]

--

Credit: Earth.com, Inc./<a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Southampton</a>

Exciting new sea creatures found on the deep ocean floor

Scientists have discovered a group of exciting new sea creatures...

Though wildlife biologists in the field have been tracking and reporting animal populations, sometimes a bird’s eye view can give a clearer picture. That’s why scientists are using satellites to see how animals react to changing habitats.

At the <a href="https://sites.agu.org/">American Geophysical Union</a> meeting this week in San Francisco, three researchers shared how they’ve been using satellite data and imagery to model how changing habitats are likely to affect animal populations.

For example, by studying Arctic data from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> and other agencies going back to 1979, the researchers found that sea ice in the Arctic region has been shrinking at an average rate of about 20,500 square miles per year, they said.

Because polar bears are dependent on sea ice, the loss of habitat could have a profound effect on their survival, said Dr. Kristin Laidre, a scientist at the <a href="http://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington's</a> Polar Science Center.

With her colleague Eric Regehr of the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a>, Laidre calculated the length of a polar bear generation. Then, using the satellite data on sea ice decline and statistical modeling, Regehr, Laidre, and fellow researchers provided an estimate of polar bear populations in three generations for the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>'s Red List to use in their assessment for polar bears.

Currently, some sub-populations of the snowy white bears are shrinking, but others are doing well, Laidre said.

"For example, in some parts of the Arctic, such as the Chukchi Sea, polar bears appear healthy, fat and reproducing well – this may be because this area is very ecologically productive, so you can lose some ice before seeing negative effects on bears,” Laidre said. “In other parts of the Arctic, like western Hudson Bay, studies have shown that survival and reproduction have declined as the availability of sea ice declines."

Laidre’s analysis of polar bear populations was published in the journal <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/">Biology Letters</a>.

A second project, led by Dr. David Stoner of <a href="https://www.usu.edu/">Utah State University</a>, used satellite data to monitor how drought in the U.S. Southwest is affecting mule deer habitat. 

The satellites showed a strong correlation between plant productivity in the region, and deer population, Stoner said. And that may be bad news for mountain lions, which prey on the deer, if the ongoing drought continues, he added.

It could also affect humans living in the area, as deer leave dry, barren regions and enter cities in search of vegetation to each. Aside from destroying landscaping or farm crops, they could cause car accidents.

By correlating the satellite data about vegetation, beginning in 2002, with recorded data on populations of both animals, Stoner believes satellites can make estimating the animals’ numbers easier for scientists.

In a third project, Dr. Andrey Petrov of the <a href="https://www.uni.edu/">University of Northern Iowa</a> used satellite data going back to 1969 to see how movements of the Taimyr reindeer herd had changed. 

The Taimyr herd’s numbers have fallen about 40 percent since 2000, and other reindeer herds are seeing similar declines, Petrov said.

He found that the Taimyr reindeer had shifted eastward, away from growing human settlements and activity. He also found that the reindeer are migrating farther north and higher into the mountains in the summer.

"Taimyr reindeer now have to travel longer distances between their winter and summer grounds, and this is causing a higher calf mortality," Petrov said. 

However, the satellite images did show that overgrazing was not a problem as scientists previously suspected, he said. Vegetation in the reindeers’ grazing grounds was rebounding quickly.

The three projects showed how satellites can be used in unique ways to study the changing habitats of wildlife, NASA officials said. NASA funded Laidre’s and Stoner’s research.

Satellites offer big picture view of changing habitats, wildlife numbers

Though wildlife biologists in the field have been tracking and...

A man may have found an ice age coyote, dog, or even a bobcat while dowsing in his son’s backyard in Riverside, California. 

Just before Thanksgiving, Gary Braithwaite had been showing his son how to use a dowsing rod, made from two metal hangers, to find the sprinklers in his yard. However, his son found several “anomalies” while trying the technique, Braithwaite told the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/06/california-man-finds-what-may-be-ice-age-bobcat-in-backyard-of-sons-home/">San Jose Mercury-News</a>. 

He believed that the anomalies pointed to underground metal – maybe even a meteorite, he said.

So he and his son began digging in the area the dowsing rod had pointed to. About four feet down in one hole, they found the skeletal remains of an animal. A slipped shovel knocked some teeth loose.

The pair thought the remains might belong to an ancient bobcat, so they took them to the <a href="http://www.ucr.edu/">University of California, Riverside</a> to ask a paleontologist. 

Jess Miller-Camp, a museum scientist at UC Riverside, said the skeletal remains could belong to a bobcat, though they were more likely to be an ice age coyote or dog. Based on the soil conditions they were found in, she believes they date back to the Pleistocene Epoch, which ended with the most recent ice age about 12,000 years ago.

She plans to go to the site with some students to excavate the rest of the skeleton, she said.

The fossils are not the first Pleistocene remnants found in California. Parts of the state, especially in the south, are practically graveyards for the creatures that lived during the last ice age.

In July 2015, construction workers at a housing development in San Diego County <a href="http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/09/06/Ice-Age-fossils-up-to-200000-years-old-found-at-California-construction-site/9591441555454/">found fossils</a> of mammoths, horses, turtles, and a bison. The Pleistocene fossils ranged from 50,000 to 200,000 years old. 

Just before Thanksgiving of this year, construction workers on the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ice-age-20161130-story.html">Los Angeles subway</a> discovered the remains of an ice age mastodon, an ancient relative of elephants. 

And, of course, the <a href="http://www.tarpits.org/">La Brea Tar Pits</a> are known for their vast collection of Pleistocene fossils, from mastodons to skunks, bobcats, and coyotes.

The fossils give paleontologists insights into the diversity of live during the Pleistocene, and how animals adapted during the period of warming that ended the last ice age.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

California man's dowsing rod points him to possible ice age coyote

A man may have found an ice age coyote, dog,...

Hit BBC series <a href="http://www.bbcchannels.com/earth/planetearth2">Planet Earth II</a> has broken its own rule to never interfere with nature after a particularly emotional scene involving lost baby turtles. 

Sir David Attenborough, creator of the <a href="http://www.bbcamerica.com/all-shows">Planet Earth</a> series, had been quoted just last year remarking on the importance of nature documentaries staying on the sidelines while filming wildlife. “If you’re a film cameraman you are trained, as it were, to be the observer, a non-participant. That’s very important.” 

Wildlife cameraman Doug Allen echoed this sentiment, saying, “For me, at least, my job is to look and not interfere. If I feel my presence is tilting the balance of the predator or the prey, then I’m doing something wrong.”

The policy has resulted in viewers getting a very candid look at the brutality of nature and the animal experience. Said Attenborough, “Of course you see really tough things, but there’s nothing you can do about them.”

This time, however, it was a man-made occurrence disturbing the natural flow of nature.

After hatching from their eggs, natural instinct guides baby turtles to make their way into the ocean. In this instance, however, bright city lights along the beachfront caused the baby turtles to migrate in the opposite direction and became stranded far from the water. 

According to the show, 4 out of every 5 baby hawksbill turtles failed to make it through the night. Without water, the baby turtles became disoriented and fell down drains or were run over by cars. The scenes generated a loud emotional response from viewers on Twitter. 

In response, the BBC Earth tweeted on Sunday: “Every turtle that was seen or filmed by the Planet Earth 2 crew was collected and put back into the sea.”

The network also released a short film about the <a href="http://www.barbadosseaturtles.org/">Barbados Sea Turtle Project</a>, an initiative focused on gathering lost baby turtles and bringing them back into the water.

Planet Earth II premiered on The BBC on November 6th and has been met with record-breaking ratings.

Planet Earth II intervenes to save baby turtles

Hit BBC series Planet Earth II has broken its own...

It’s a story reminiscent of the first Jurassic Park movie. A piece of amber purchased at a market in Myanmar has been found to contain an actual dinosaur tail. The amber was in the city of Myitkyina by Lida Xing of the <a href="http://en.cug.edu.cn/">China University of Geosciences in Beijing</a>. 

The vendor assumed the tail was some type of plant, but Xing believed it could be something far more significant. The amber was then sent to the<a href="https://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/"> Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada</a> for further analysis. Scientists used CT scans to determine that the fossilized object in question was actually the feathered tail of a theropod dinosaur. The team believes the dinosaur tail most likely belonged to a coelurosaur from about 99 million years ago. 

Their findings were published in <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>. According to Dr. Ryan McKellar, "The new material preserves a tail consisting of eight vertebrae from a juvenile. These are surrounded by feathers that are preserved in 3D and with microscopic detail. We can be sure of the source because the vertebrae are not fused into a rod or pygostyle as in modern birds and their closest relatives. Instead, the tail is long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side."

The vertebrae alignment indicate that the tail belonged to a dinosaur, as opposed to an early relative of modern birds. The team also discovered traces of ferrous iron in the soft tissue layer surrounding the bones, a common mineral found in dinosaur blood.

"Amber pieces preserve tiny snapshots of ancient ecosystems, but they record microscopic details, three-dimensional arrangements, and labile tissues that are difficult to study in other settings," said Dr. McKellar. “This is a new source of information that is worth researching with intensity and protecting as a fossil resource."

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dinosaur tail found in chunk of amber

It’s a story reminiscent of the first Jurassic Park movie....

During the Age of Dinosaurs, ancient mammals hid in the shadows and ate the terrible lizards’ leftovers, right? Well, not always. The fossil remains of marsupial relative Didelphodon vorax are crushing that misconception.

The little mammal was about the size of a modern badger, based on the size of four fossils found in 66 to 69 million-year-old Hell Creek Formation deposits, in North Dakota and Montana, according to <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13734">a new study</a>.

Each of the four fossils included at least a partial set of chompers: nearly a full skull, a partial snout, and two upper jaw bones. Like most metatherians – Cretaceous Period ancestors and relatives of modern marsupials – many of the main remains of D. vorax are dental.

In D. vorax’s case, though, those strong, strong teeth didn’t just survive more than 60 million years. They provided the Cretaceous critter with one heck of a powerful bite.

To determine just how powerful, researchers scanned the fossils and compared them to skulls and jaws from modern mammals with known bite forces. Even the researchers were surprised by the results: pound for pound, D. vorax has the most powerful bite of any mammal that has ever lived.

The power of the marsupial relative's bite and the shape of its teeth would have allowed it to bite through bone and shell with ease, the study found. That would have let it fit equally well into roles as a predator or a scavenger. D. vorax might even have been able to hunt prey roughly equal to its own size, including small dinosaurs.

The carnivorous mammal didn’t just compete for meat with its reptile rivals, however. By studying the microwear patterns on the teeth, the research team discovered that D. vorax was an omnivore that ate vertebrates, bugs, shellfish, and plants. 

Beyond just learning about D. vorax, the researchers also gained new clues to the evolution of modern marsupials. They found five lines of marsupial ancestors, and that marsupial relatives in North America began getting larger along with other mammals more than 80 million years ago.

The researchers believe the modern pouched mammals primarily evolved in South America after the mass extinction approximately 66 million years ago.

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Marsupial relative in Age of Dinosaurs packed powerful bite

During the Age of Dinosaurs, ancient mammals hid in the...

Mexico’s endangered vaquita porpoises are now on the edge of extinction, according to a pair of new papers. The researchers blame the marine mammals’ declining population on an increase in illegal fishing in the vaquitas’ range.

One study, published in the journal <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12789/abstract">Conservation Biology</a>, used a sophisticated network of acoustic detectors to record the decline of Mexico’s vaquitas. The acoustic array shows a 34 percent decline each year in the population of endangered porpoises.

That decline means only about 60 of the rare vaquita porpoises remain in the world, according to a paper by the same team of researchers, published in the journal <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12331/full">Conservation Letters</a>.

The illegal fishing that is cutting down their numbers isn’t even targeting the marine mammals, according to the researchers. Instead, their deaths are collateral damage from totoaba fishing, called “bycatch.” 

Totoaba fishing took off in the 1940s and continues today, even though the large fish was declared endangered in 1986 and critically endangered ten years later.

The fish are prized for their bladders, which can net as much as $100,000 on the Chinese black market, according to the <a href="https://eia-international.org/time-short-to-save-vaquita-by-tackling-illegal-fish-trade">Environmental Investigations Agency</a>.

Although the Mexican government banned gill net fishing in waters inhabited by the vaquita for two years, the acoustic study found that gill net fishing is still happening. 

It wasn’t the first sign that people had been violating the ban, which was instituted in April 2015. Surveillance activities and collection of discarded gill nets in the vaquitas’ waters have also washed up evidence of illegal fishing of the totoaba fish and, by extension, the vaquitas, despite patrols by the Mexican Navy, law enforcement, and environmental groups. 

Unless more action is taken to stop illegal fishing in the vaquitas’ home waters, their extinction is imminent, said Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources in Mexico, who led the research.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Vaquita porpoises fall victim to illegal fishing in Mexico

Mexico’s endangered vaquita porpoises are now on the edge of...

Giraffes wander the wild in a few parts of the African savannah – but that may not be the case for much longer. Scientists have put the stately creature on the extinction watchlist.

Over the past three decades, the number of giraffes in the wild has shrunk by almost 40 percent, according to the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for the Conservation of Nature</a>, which maintains the extinction watchlist. They reported the giraffe population, which is made up of nine subspecies, at 151,000 to 163,000 members in 1985. By 2015, that number had dropped to just over 97,000. 

There are now fewer giraffes in the world than there are elephants, the IUCN said. In fact, elephant numbers are almost four times higher.

The population drop has led biologists with the IUCN to designate giraffes as “vulnerable,” two steps closer to extinction than their previous designation of “species of least concern,” and add it to the group’s Red List of species in danger of disappearing.

Habitat loss is the likely cause for giraffes’ dwindling numbers, the organization said.

The giraffe population is shrinking in central and eastern Africa, where more people are moving into areas that were previously wild savannah. Giraffes have disappeared from several countries, including Nigeria, Malawi, Eritrea, and Senegal, according to the IUCN.

At a biodiversity meeting in Mexico this week, the IUCN added 35 species total to the Red List, including giraffes. The group also received bad news about two other species. The Lacepede’s ground snake of Martinique and the trondo mainty fish of Madagascar are both believed to be extinct. The agency is awaiting confirmation from biologists.

About 860 species of plants and animals have gone extinct in the past 500 years, and another 68 are extinct in the wild, according to the IUCN. About 13,000 species have landed on the endangered or critically endangered lists. Giraffes and other vulnerable species are in the next tier.

There was some good news from the meeting, too, however. First, the threat level for seven species was lowered. Second, two species that were believed to be extinct have been rediscovered: the Acmadenia candida plant, and the freshwater fish Ptychochromoides itasy.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Giraffes step onto extinction watchlist as numbers dwindle

Giraffes wander the wild in a few parts of the...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE
</div></figure>



On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop and sunlight barely penetrates through the polar winter. It was here, however, that an international team of scientists found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predatory-worms-were-terror-beasts-half-a-billion-years-ago/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence of sea monsters</a> that would change our understanding of ocean life in the past.



This video captures the discovery of Timorebestia fossils that had been hidden for more than 500 million years in the Sirius Passet formation. The "terror beasts," as they are called, are a hidden chapter in the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth</a>, showing that sophisticated predator-prey interactions occurred much earlier than previously envisioned.



Dr. Jakob Vinther and his research team at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol</a>, in collaboration with researchers at the <a href="https://eng.kopri.re.kr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Korean Polar Research Institute</a>, braved extreme weather conditions at 82.5 north latitude to locate these giant creatures. Using sophisticated electron microprobe analysis, they revealed the detailed anatomy of the animals, including their muscle and nerve tissues.



The find upsets the traditional timeline of sea predators. Although we've long appreciated that Cambrian oceans were at one time ruled by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3-UgA3_o&amp;list=PL1QLQMW9MWDwpkFOnvgAmu7wT6rZmYqdJ&amp;index=19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arthropods</a>, these discoveries indicate that relatives of arrow worms were first to dominate the seas. These worms were building sophisticated food webs several million years before other predator groups arose.



Each fossil is a story of ancient hunger, with fossil stomach contents revealing these meter-long beasts dined on heavily armored arthropods regularly, cementing their place as the ocean's first apex predators.



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-385-million-year-old-trees-discovered">385-million-year-old trees discovered</h2>



Scientists have uncovered something extraordinary just two hours north of New York City. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-oldest-forest-discovered-close-to-new-york-city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world's oldest forest</a>, dating back 385 million years, offers a window into how Earth's first complex forests shaped our planet's atmosphere.



Located near <a href="https://townofcairo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cairo, New York</a>, in Greene County, these weren't merely primitive plants struggling to survive. These were sophisticated trees with root systems remarkably similar to modern forests. This ancient woodland predates dinosaurs by 140 million years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cairo-forest-discovery">The Cairo forest discovery</h2>



385 million years ago, upstate New York was a tropical paradise near the equator. Thanks to continental drift, this ancient forest has traveled thousands of miles to its current location.



The fossil forest sits in an abandoned quarry, roughly half the size of a football field. This represents just a slice of what was likely a massive forest system stretching from New York into Pennsylvania.



Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the <a href="https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York State Museum</a>, made the discovery in 2009. While scouting the former highway department property, his trained eye spotted wandering patterns in the stone that looked like marine features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-age-and-preservation">Revolutionary age and preservation</h2>



The site contains 385-million-year-old rocks with fossilized woody roots forming horizontal patterns up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide. As Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, explains: "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees."



This discovery pushes back advanced tree evolution by millions of years. The research, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a> in December 2019, fundamentally changes our understanding of when complex forests first emerged.



Researchers believe a massive flood buried the forest floor, creating perfect fossilization conditions. Over millions of years, sediment hardened into rock, preserving these root patterns like nature's time capsule.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-archaeopteris-the-first-modern-tree">Meet Archaeopteris: the first modern tree</h2>



The star of this ancient forest is Archaeopteris – not to be confused with the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx. This tree was far older and more revolutionary.



William Stein from <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binghamton University</a> describes the roots as "strikingly modern, essentially what you'd see outside in my yard right now." These weren't simple root systems you'd expect from ancient plants.



Some fossilized roots are six inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, forming 36-foot-wide (11-meter) patterns. These giants grew up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall with five-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) trunks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-changing-impact">Climate-changing impact</h2>



These trees fundamentally changed Earth's environment. Kevin Boyce, a Stanford University geoscientist, explains how their deep roots triggered "weathering," chemical reactions that pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.



This process dropped atmospheric CO2 levels from 10-15 times higher than today to roughly modern concentrations. These ancient trees helped create atmospheric conditions that made complex life possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-forest-ecosystem">Ancient forest ecosystem</h2>



The forest was remarkably diverse. Scientists identified Eospermatopteris, palm tree-like plants with short roots that reached 30 feet (9 meters) tall but lacked woody structure. The forest also housed cladoxylopsids and a mysterious third species still being studied.



All reproduced through spores rather than seeds – millions of years before seeds evolved. This tropical environment had no grass, flowers, or flying insects, just towering trees creating Earth's first complex forest canopy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-significance">Scientific significance</h2>



Before this finding, the Gilboa forest, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, held the "oldest forest" title. Cairo's trees are 2-3 million years older, showing that complex forest ecosystems developed much faster than scientists believed possible.



Patricia Gensel, a <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> paleobotanist, notes: "The size of those root systems is really changing the picture. Even 20 years ago, researchers assumed trees with such complex root systems didn't evolve so early."



The Cairo site presents three unique root systems, suggesting Devonian period forests were diverse ecosystems with different trees occupying different environmental niches, much like today's forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-preservation-efforts">Modern preservation efforts</h2>



In 2022, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey secured a $170,000 grant for the town of Cairo to construct specialized fencing around the fossil forest site. The town plans to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of creating an educational center and working lab on-site.



Joe Hasenkopf, chair of the Cairo Planning Board, hopes to partner with educational institutions to create a research facility serving scientists, students, and the public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-today-s-climate">Lessons for today's climate</h2>



Why does a 385-million-year-old forest matter today? It shows how dramatically forests can change Earth's climate. These ancient woodlands created the atmospheric conditions supporting complex life.



Understanding how prehistoric forests transformed the planet helps us appreciate modern forests' critical role in addressing climate change. Forests remain Earth's most effective carbon capture systems.



These prehistoric trees changed Earth's atmosphere by pulling massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. As we face modern climate challenges, this ancient forest reminds us of trees' incredible power to transform our planet's environment.



The next time you walk through a forest, remember you're experiencing an ecosystem whose blueprint was established 385 million years ago in upstate New York. These ancient pioneers didn't just survive – they thrived and changed the world forever.



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



-----



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ New York is the site of the world's oldest...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Fresh,Radish,Harvest,On,Soil,In,Garden.

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Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving fall garden, and this guide lays out the best vegetables and herbs to plant now for a fruitful autumn harvest. 



Fast-growing leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, and arugula perform especially well in the waning summer heat, with harvests beginning as soon as 30 days. 



These cool-season crops relish the transition into fall, offering repeated yields with cut-and-come-again methods.



Root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beets also excel during this period. Radishes deliver satisfaction in under a month, while carrots and beets mature in about two months. Employing succession planting ensures a continuous stream of produce deep into the cooler months. 



For a boost of fresh flavor, herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and chervil are excellent picks. These heat-loving varieties flourish in July’s warmth and are harvest-ready in about 30 days, especially when sown continuously.



Gardeners in zones 6 through 9 can benefit from planting bush beans and snap peas, which don’t require trellising and are ideal for compact plots. 



Maturing in 50–60 days, they’re a smart choice for quick, protein-rich harvests. For those in hotter regions, heat-tolerant crops such as okra and southern peas provide reliable yields and thrive in scorching conditions.



This guide emphasizes more than crop selection—it highlights the importance of timing, soil preparation, and ongoing sowing techniques. 



With thoughtful planning and attention to regional climate needs, even late-summer gardeners can enjoy fresh salads, hearty stews, and the satisfaction of a robust, homegrown harvest well into fall.



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

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A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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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.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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&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> Staff Writer 



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.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" 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 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://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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