Young aspen trees in Yellowstone are doing something they have not done in almost 100 years. Rather than sprouting and being eaten back to nubs by elk and bison, they're actually growing into tall, adult forest trees rising up towards the canopy.



This matters more than it might seem, because it shows what happens when a missing piece of an ecosystem returns.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-yellowstone-aspens-and-elk">Yellowstone, aspens, and elk</h2>



In the 1920s, people <a href="https://www.yellowstone.org/wolf-project/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eliminated wolves in Yellowstone</a>. At the time, with limited scientific knowledge, managers believed it was the right thing to do.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/from-wolves-to-dogs-did-domestication-begin-without-human-help/">Without wolves</a>, elk herds grew very large. Elk love to eat aspen shoots - the tender young growth is highly palatable to them.



For roughly 70 years, elk browsed aspen sprouts down to stub height, and the trees couldn't grow. 



If you had walked through Yellowstone in the 1980s, you would have seen many tiny aspen shoots covering the ground, but almost no young trees gaining height. 



The forest's regeneration was stalled. Old trees died, and no new ones replaced them.



In 1995 and 1996, park managers reintroduced wolves into the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-study-sparks-new-debate-on-where-and-when-it-will-erupt/">Yellowstone Park ecosystem</a>. Scientists hoped and wondered whether this would change anything for the trees.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-aspen-matter-to-yellowstone">Why aspen matter to Yellowstone</h2>



Aspen groves provide habitat for many species. Birds nest in them. Beavers eat the bark and use the wood for dams. Butterflies and moths lay eggs on the leaves. 



Their canopy admits enough light for wildflowers and shrubs to grow beneath. When it rains, aspen groves hold water in the soil better than some other forest types.



In short, when aspen return, dozens of other species benefit. More trees support more insects, which in turn support more birds, enriching the ecosystem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-checking-the-trees-three-decades-later">Checking the trees three decades later</h2>



<a href="https://fwcs.oregonstate.edu/users/luke-painter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Luke Painter</a>, an ecologist at <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oregon State University</a>, sought clear answers. His team returned to 87 aspen stands across Yellowstone that scientists had previously surveyed. 



They measured thousands of young trees, looked for bite marks, and counted how many stems were tall enough that elk could no longer reach the tips.



About a third of these stands now have many tall young aspens pushing toward the canopy. 



"About 26 of the 87 aspen stands we examined had large numbers of tall saplings throughout, a remarkable change from the 1990s when surveys found none at all," Painter said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-wolves-matter-to-yellowstone-aspens">Why wolves matter to Yellowstone aspens</h2>



Breaking it all down, the conclusions of this study are pretty simple. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wolves-move-pups-across-mountains-to-adapt-to-climate-pressure/">Wolves hunt elk</a>. When wolves came back, two things happened. First, elk numbers declined from unusually high levels. Second, elk changed their behavior. They spent less time in the same areas feeding.



With fewer elk and shorter feeding bouts, more aspen shoots survived long enough to exceed the browsing zone - about six to seven feet high. 



Once a sapling reaches that height, elk cannot easily reach the growing tip. The tree continues to grow.



"The reintroduction of large carnivores has initiated a recovery process that had been shut down for decades," Painter explained.



Scientists call this a <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/trophic-cascades-across-diverse-plant-ecosystems-80060347/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trophic cascade</a> - when adding or removing one species causes changes that ripple through the whole system.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-places-recover-others-don-t">Some places recover, others don't</h2>



Unfortunately, not every aspen stand has recovered yet. Some valleys still have many short, heavily browsed shoots, because it's not only elk eating them anymore. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstones-iconic-bison-have-merged-into-a-single-herd/">Bison herds have grown</a>, and bison browse on aspen as well. They are strong enough to break young trees. 



"Increasing numbers of bison may be emerging as a new constraint to aspen in some areas," Painter confirmed.



Additionally, winter snow depth varies; droughts stress trees; bears and mountain lions also hunt elk; and hunting outside the park influences elk distribution. 



All of these factors interact, which is why some sites show strong recovery, others show moderate recovery, and a few have changed very little.



The key pattern is that places with many tall saplings experience little browsing, and aspen groves that remain popular eating grounds today stay short. 



This fact is the strongest indication that tree recovery is linked directly to wolf presence, not solely to weather or soil conditions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-proof-in-the-measurements">Proof in the measurements</h2>



Painter's team did not rely on casual observation. They used the same methods as earlier researchers, measuring the same plots. 



They counted recruitment - when young trees surpass browsing height and begin progressing toward maturity. This measure is crucial. Sprouts are insufficient if they never grow; without recruitment, the forest cannot replace itself.



The results are robust. After being stalled for most of a century, Yellowstone's aspens are increasing in height. In recovering stands today, you will see saplings - six, eight, or ten feet tall - that were not present in the 1990s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-yellowstone-s-aspens">The future of Yellowstone's aspens</h2>



"This is a remarkable case of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-viruses-found-in-yellowstones-hot-springs-may-be-near-the-root-of-all-life-on-earth/">ecological restoration</a>," Painter concluded. "Wolf reintroduction is yielding long-term ecological changes contributing to increased biodiversity and habitat diversity."



Trees grow slowly, so even with wolves restored, it will take decades for these young aspens to form a full-grown forest. 



Some areas might never fully recover if bison numbers continue to rise or if the climate becomes too hot and dry.



Thanks to the work of Painter and his team, scientists are now certain that restoring the Yellowstone predator has restarted aspen forest regeneration. Not everywhere and not perfectly, but enough to be measured, creating hope for the future.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112725004499?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forest Ecology and Management</a>.



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Yellowstone's aspen trees are growing again thanks to the reintroduction of wolves

Young aspen trees in Yellowstone are doing something they have not done in almost 100 years. Rather than sprouting and being eaten back to nubs by elk and bison, they're actually growing into tall, adult forest trees rising up towards the canopy. This matters more than it might seem, because it shows what happens when a missing piece of an ecosystem returns. Yellowstone, aspens, and elk In the 1920s, people eliminated wolves in Yellowstone. At the time, with limited scientific knowledge, managers believed it was the right...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/modern-snakes-evolved-from-just-a-few-surviving-species/">Snakes</a> that constrict their prey and squeeze them to death have an interesting challenge to face. How does a snake squeeze its prey so hard that it stops breathing while, at the same time, ensuring it doesn’t squash its own lugs and suffocate itself? The latest study on this topic concludes that snakes, such as boa constrictors, are able to breathe with different parts of their ribcage, depending on whether they are throttling a prey, eating a meal or digesting their most recent dinner.



“With no diaphragm, they rely entirely on motions of their ribs,” said John Capano from Brown University, USA. He added that the earliest snake ancestors must have overcome the challenge of breathing while squeezing and digesting dinner, but it was not clear how modern snakes prevent themselves from suffocating while constricting their victims.&nbsp;



The researchers considered the possibility that boa constrictors adjust the region of the ribcage they use to inhale, depending on whether they are resting, constricting a prey animal or digesting. But no one had monitored in detail the breathing patterns of snakes in the act of subduing their dinner to check whether the animals can indeed adjust which section of the ribcage they use.



Capano and co-author Elizabeth Brainerd (Brown University) investigated the way in which boa constrictors breathe by first attaching small metal markers to two ribs in each of the study snakes. One marker was a third of the way down the snake’s body, while the second marker was halfway along the body. They then used X-rays to monitor how the ribs moved while the snake carried out various activities.&nbsp;



The researchers placed a blood pressure cuff around the ribs of the snakes in the same regions where the rib markers had been placed. As the cuffs were inflated, the increasing pressure immobilized the snake’s ribcage and breathing became more difficult. What they discovered was that the snakes simply used different sections of the rib cage with which to breathe when the ribs were prevented from moving freely by the blood pressure cuffs. In this way, the hind section of the snake’s lung works like a bellows, to pull air into the lung when the ribs further forward can no longer move, as would be the case when squeezing a prey item to death.



The findings of the study, published today in the <a href="https://journals.biologists.com/jeb">Journal of Experimental Biology</a>, clearly show that when a boa constrictor is squeezed by the blood pressure cuff a third of the way along the body it breathes using the ribs further along, while when the ribs are constricted halfway along the body, the snake breathes using ribs closer to its head. Breathing is thus compartmentalized along the body, with different regions being able to move independently.



“Either the animals did not mind the cuff or became defensive and hissed to try to get the researcher to leave,” recalls Capano, explaining that the reptiles really fill their lungs when hissing: “this was an opportunity to measure some of the biggest breaths snakes take."



In addition, Capano, Scott Boback and Charles Zwemer (both from Dickinson College, USA), filmed and recorded the nerve signals controlling the rib muscles when constricted by the blood pressure cuff. Boback also filmed a snake with a GoPro as it dined, which revealed that the ribs were not simply being held immobile. There were no nerve signals in the constricted muscles; the snakes had shifted to breathing by activating a different set of ribs further along the body.



Subduing and digesting a victim are two very energetic things that boa constrictors do and it would have been crucial for them to evolve the ability to breathe using different regions of the rib cage before they adopted the strategy of squeezing their prey to death. If this had not happened, they would have suffocated themselves each time they tried to constrict a prey. “It would have been difficult for snakes to evolve those behaviors without the ability to breathe," concluded Capano.



---



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

How boas keep themselves from suffocating while digesting dinner

Snakes that constrict their prey and squeeze them to death...

Close-up,Of,Young,Businesswoman,Putting,Sugar,In,Cup,At,Glass

People are tempted to buy food products that taste sweet and this has led food producers, over the years, to add <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sugars-in-breast-milk-help-prevent-infections-in-newborns/">sugar</a> to almost every processed food and beverage on the supermarket shelves. Since the public has become aware of the calorific consequences of this added sugar, and links between sugar and several diseases have become clearer, manufacturers have tended to replace the sugar with non-nutritive artifical sweeteners instead.



The safety of artificial sweeteners has been debated, and several experimental studies have indicated that some of them may be carcinogenic. However, robust epidemiological studies on the association between use of artificial sweeteners and disease incidence in human populations have not been undertaken.&nbsp;



With this in mind, Charlotte Debras and Mathilde Touvier of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and Sorbonne Paris Nord University, France, along with colleagues, undertook a study to evaluate the potential carcinogenicity of artificial sweeteners. The research was focused on 102,865 French adults who were participants in the NutriNet-Santé study - an ongoing web-based study initiated in 2009 by the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN).&nbsp;



This study requires participants to enroll voluntarily and to self-report their medical history, sociodemographic, diet, lifestyle, and health data. The researchers gathered data about dietary intake and use of artificial sweeteners using repeated 24-hour dietary records from the French population-based cohort. The brand names of foods and beverages were recorded as well, to enable the consumption of artificial sweeteners to be quantified. The participants were followed up with between 2009 and 2021, which represented a mean follow-up period of 7.8 years.&nbsp;



After collecting cancer diagnosis information during follow-up monitoring, the researchers carried out statistical analyses to investigate the associations between artificial sweetener intakes and cancer risk. They adjusted the data for a range of variables including age, sex, education level, physical activity, smoking, body mass index, height, weight-gain during follow-up, diabetes, family history of cancer, as well as baseline intakes of energy, alcohol, sodium, saturated fatty acids, fiber, sugar, whole-grain foods, and dairy products.



The results of the analyses, published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/">PLOS Medicine</a>, show that participants who consumed larger quantities of artificial sweeteners, particularly aspartame and acesulfame-K, had a higher risk overall of developing cancer, when compared to those who did not consume artificial sweeteners. In particular, there was an increased risk of developing breast cancer associated with the use of aspartame. There was also an increased risk of developing obesity-related cancers with overall high intake of artificial sweeteners, and with the use of aspartame specifically.



Although the study had several important limitations, such as the fact that dietary intakes were self-reported and participants were more likely to be women, have higher educational levels and show health-conscious behaviors, it highlights the need for future research into the effects of using artificial sweeteners in foods and beverages. Additional research will also be needed to establish the mechanisms whereby these sweeteners may affect health in this way.



“Our findings do not support the use of artificial sweeteners as safe alternatives for sugar in foods or beverages, and provide important and novel information to address the controversies about their potential adverse health effects," said the study authors. "While these results need to be replicated in other large-scale cohorts and underlying mechanisms clarified by experimental studies, they provide important and novel insights for the ongoing re-evaluation of food additive sweeteners by the European Food Safety Authority and other health agencies globally.”



“Results from the NutriNet-Santé cohort (n=102,865) suggest that artificial sweeteners found in many food and beverage brands worldwide may be associated with increased cancer risk, in line with several experimental in vivo and in vitro studies," said Debras. "These findings provide novel information for the re-evaluation of these food additives by health agencies.”&nbsp;



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

Artificial sweeteners linked to increased risk of cancer

People are tempted to buy food products that taste sweet...

Alpacas,On,A,Ranch,On,A,Farm,In,A,Field

After more than two years of dealing with and adapting to life with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-doubles-the-risk-of-severe-pregnancy-complications/">COVID-19,</a> the virus that causes this disease is still with us. And it looks set to be with us long into the future. Despite the use of vaccines and antiviral treatments, people are still suffering and even dying from serious COVID infection.&nbsp;



In addition, millions of people in poorer countries have not yet received access to vaccines, making them more susceptible to the effects of serious COVID. With this in mind, any effective treatment that may increase the chances of surviving severe infection is a high priority.



One area of interest has been the use of nanobodies, or miniature antibodies. Nanobodies are like small fragments of an antibody that bind only to a specific section (domain) of an antigen, such as the spike protein. They can immobilize a virus in this way, with their small and nimble structure making them able to get into folds and crannies in a viral spike protein. Nanobodies are produced in members of the camel family, including llamas, alpacas and camels, in response to infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.&nbsp;



Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have recently developed a novel strategy for identifying potent nanobodies from alpacas, in particular, that are effective against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. They have identified multiple different nanobodies and tested them in cell cultures, and in live mice, to find out whether they blocked infection by different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The findings are reported in two publications - one in the recent past in Nature Communications&nbsp;and&nbsp;the other, today, in <a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>.&nbsp;



“With the help of advanced laboratory techniques, we were able to identify a panel of nanobodies that very effectively neutralized several variants of SARS-CoV-2,” said Professor Gerald McInerney, joint senior author of both studies.



Despite the roll-out of vaccines and antivirals, people in many countries still don’t have the access to COVID treatments that they need. Nanobodies from alpacas can be adapted for use in humans and carry several advantages over conventional treatments and antibodies. For example, they are cheap to produce on a mass scale and have favorable biochemical properties that make them effective in the treatment of different viruses.&nbsp;



The first report in&nbsp;Nature Communications&nbsp;describes a single nanobody, Fu2 (named after the alpaca Funny), that significantly reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures and live mice. Using electron cryo-microscopy, the researchers found that Fu2 binds to two separate sites on the viral spike protein, thus inhibiting the virus’ ability to enter the host cells. This part of the study was conducted in collaboration with Hrishikesh Das and Martin Hällberg at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Karolinska Institutet.



In the next phase of the study, the researchers combined a range of advanced laboratory techniques and computational methods, to assess the diversity of alpaca nanobodies and find out whether they would be effective against different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The results, presented today in&nbsp;Science Advances, revealed several additional nanobodies that effectively neutralized both the initial and beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 and even the more distantly related SARS-CoV-1.



“These nanobodies represent promising therapeutic candidates against several SARS-CoV-2 variants,” said study first author Leo Hanke, a postdoctoral researcher who established the nanobody technology in the McInerney group.



The researchers are currently applying the same techniques to identify which nanobodies from this set are best able to neutralize omicron, the variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is currently dominant in many countries worldwide.&nbsp;



“Once established, these libraries can be expanded and mined for nanobodies that neutralize new emerging variants,” said Professor Ben Murrell, also joint senior author of both studies.



---



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

Alpaca nanobodies can neutralize coronavirus variants

After more than two years of dealing with and adapting...

New research from scientists at the <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html">University of Zurich</a> looked at the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/grooming-behavior-exposes-the-complex-social-lives-of-dairy-cows/">social lives</a> of male dolphins living in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Analyzing 30 years of behavioral observations of 85 male dolphins as well as paternity tests for over 400 dolphins, they made some interesting discoveries.&nbsp;



"Understanding determinants of differential reproductive success is at the core of evolutionary biology because of its connection to fitness. Early work has linked variation in reproductive success to differences in age, rank, or size, as well as habitat characteristics. More recently, studies in group-living taxa have revealed that social relationships also have measurable effects on fitness," wrote the study authors. "The influence of social bonds on fitness is particularly interesting in males who compete over reproductive opportunities.



It turns out that male dolphins form strong social bonds among themselves, creating stable alliances. These alliances work together to compete with each other for access to females and defending each other.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This kind of male cooperation for the purpose of reproduction is highly unusual in the animal kingdom. It’s only been observed in a much less complex form in some other primates,” said Livia Gerber, a former PhD student at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Zurich.&nbsp;



Interestingly, how popular an individual male dolphin is impacts the size and strength of his alliance. The size and strength of the alliance in turn affects how successful a male dolphin may be at stealing females away from other alliances and mating.&nbsp;



“Our study is the first to show that social bonds among male dolphins positively impact their reproductive success and are, therefore, directly linked to fitness,” said senior author Michael Krützen. “This had previously only been observed in male chimpanzees and some other primates. Our study expands upon previous findings on land mammals and provides compelling evidence that such highly complex, multi-level social systems also developed independently in the ocean.”



Social interaction among males and some other animals is incredibly common and important, sometimes even for survival. This research shows that it is important for reproduction as well, having important implications for evolution. It may be even that this sort of reproductive success could drive the evolution of social bonds in general. Future research could shed more light on this idea in dolphins as well as other animals.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.



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

In dolphins, popular boys have more babies

New research from scientists at the University of Zurich looked...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> has found that the amount of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reducing-methane-could-save-arctic-summer-sea-ice/">methane</a> leaking from the Permian Basin in New Mexico – a huge U.S. oil and gas producing region – is several times greater than the federal government estimates. According to the researchers, more than nine percent of all methane produced in this region is being leaked into the atmosphere.



“We surveyed almost every oil and gas asset in the New Mexico Permian for an entire year to measure and link emissions to specific anonymized facilities,” said study co-lead author Evan Sherwin, a postdoctoral researcher in Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford. “It’s worse than we thought by a long shot.”



While environmental watchers and energy industry engineers have long feared that methane leaks from refineries, mines, wells, storage facilities, and pipelines are usually vastly underreported, until recently they lacked the proper equipment to prove it. Now, by using hyperspectral cameras mounted on airplanes, which can measure sunlight reflected off various airborne chemicals, they managed to properly assess the amount of methane leaks.



“With these sensors, methane is quite easy to spot. We are very confident in our results,” said study co-lead author Yuanlei Chen, a doctoral student in Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford. “The technology has major implications for efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,”&nbsp;added study senior author Adam Brandt, an associate professor at Stanford. “These highly sensitive instruments can quickly and accurately pinpoint the relatively smaller number of high-consequence leaks and flag them for immediate repair.”



During the course of 115 flight days over a period of 16 months, the researchers covered 14,000 square miles and more than 26,000 wells, providing much greater insight into the amount of methane leakage than ground-based surveys. They found that most methane was leaked from a handful of sources, with fewer than four percent of the surveyed sites (so-called “super-emitters”) producing half of all methane emissions observed.



Luckily, once leaks are identified, shutting them down is often easy and inexpensive. The scientists hope that these new monitoring techniques could be widely adopted to discover the super-emitters quickly and cut-off damaging methane leaks as soon as possible.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c06458">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</a>.&nbsp;



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

Methane leaks in New Mexico are much greater than initially thought

A new study led by Stanford University has found that...

Kittiwake,Sittig,On,A,Nest,With,Two,Eggs

The Field Museum’s collection of birds’ eggs fills an entire room that is crammed from floor to ceiling with cabinets. There are thousands of specimens packed in small boxes, each one with its contents blown out, and each one marked meticulously with a label, often hand-written, recording the species of bird, where the egg was collected and when – down to the precise day.&nbsp;



According to&nbsp;John Bates, curator of birds at the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a>, this collection of eggs is a veritable treasure trove of data, even though the specimens were mostly collected more than 100 years ago. “Egg collections are such a fascinating tool for us to learn about bird ecology over time,” he said.



“These early egg people were incredible natural historians, in order to do what they did. You really have to know the birds in order to go out and find the nests and do the collecting,” says Bates. “They were very attuned to when the birds were starting to lay, and that leads to, in my opinion, very accurate dates for when the eggs were laid.”



After editing a book about birds’ eggs, Bates got interested in studying the museum’s egg collection and wondered whether the information could be used to assess changing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-have-a-high-risk-of-disease-due-to-inbreeding/">breeding</a> patterns over time.&nbsp;



“Once I got to know our egg collection, I got to thinking about how valuable that collection’s data are, and how those data aren’t replicated in modern collections,” said Bates. He decided that, by comparing data from the century-old eggs preserved in museum collections with recent observations of bird breeding times, one would be able to quantify any changes in the start of breeding activity.&nbsp;



The Field Museum’s egg collection stopped expanding after the 1920s, when egg-collecting ceased to be popular with both amateur hobbyists and scientists. So Bates needed to find some recent data sets on the timing of bird breeding to use for comparison with the museum data.



Bates’s colleague Bill Strausberger, a research associate at the Field Museum, had suitable data from his years of studies on cowbird parasitism at the Morton Arboretum in the Chicago suburbs. To collect his data, he had climbed ladders to examine nests where brown-headed cowbirds may have laid their eggs for other birds to raise.



“He had to get out there every spring and find as many nests as he could and see whether or not they were parasitized, and so it occurred to me that he had modern nesting data,” explained Bates.&nbsp;



In addition,&nbsp;Chris Whelan, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, also contributed to the modern data set with songbird nesting data collected in Chicagoland from 1989, when he began work at the Morton Arboretum. Whelan and Strausberger’s contributions to the study were critical, Bates says, because “finding nests is a lot harder than almost anybody realizes.”



“Finding nests and following their fate to success or failure is extremely time-consuming and challenging,” said Whelan. “We learned to recognize what I called ‘nesty’ behavior. This includes gathering nest material, like twigs, grass, roots, or bark, depending upon bird species, or capturing food like caterpillars but not consuming the food item – this likely indicates a parent is foraging to gather food for nestlings.” Whelan and his team used mirrors mounted on long poles to peer into high-up nests and kept close track of the dates when eggs were laid and hatched.



These field studies provided the modern data set, from about 1990 to 2015, while the museum data was collected between 1820 and 1920. “There’s a gap in the middle, and that’s where Mason Fidino came in,” said Bates. Fidino, a quantitative ecologist at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and a co-author of the study, built models for analyzing the data that allowed them to address the gap in the middle of the 20th century



The results of the analyses, published today in the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652656">Journal of Animal Ecology</a>, show a clear trend in the timing of spring breeding in birds. Of the 72 species for which historical and modern data were available in the Chicagoland region, about a third have nested earlier and earlier as time has gone by. Among those, the first eggs are now laid an average of 25.1 days earlier than they would have been 100 years ago.&nbsp;



When the researchers considered the reason behind this very clear trend, they turned to rising temperatures as a possible explanation. But when they couldn’t find temperature records for the area that went back 100 years, they had to find an alternative. Instead, they used a proxy for temperature, namely the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.



“We couldn’t find a single source of long-term temperature data for the Midwest, which was surprising, but you can approximate temperature with carbon dioxide levels, which are very well documented,” said Bates. The carbon dioxide data comes from a variety of sources, including the chemical composition of ice cores from glaciers.



Although the temperature changes for the past 100 years have been relatively small in the study area, these subtle changes may have significant consequences for the timing of plant flowering or the emergence of insects from their pupae or eggs. These changes would affect the abundance of food for birds, and therefore their breeding success.&nbsp;



“The majority of the birds we looked at eat insects, and insects’ seasonal behavior is also affected by climate. The birds have to move their egg-laying dates to adapt,” said Bates.



It may seem that laying eggs a few weeks early is unimportant in the larger scheme of life, but Bates notes that it’s part of a larger story. “The birds in our study area, upwards of 150 species, all have different evolutionary histories and different breeding biology so it’s all about the details. These changes in nesting dates might result in them competing for food and resources in a way that they didn’t used to,” he said. “There are all kinds of really important nuances that we need to know about in terms of how animals are responding to climate change.”



In addition to giving a stark warning about climate change, the study also highlights the importance of museum collections, particularly egg collections, which are often under-utilized. “There are 5 million eggs out there in collections worldwide, and yet, there are very few publications using museum collections of eggs,” said Bates. “They’re a treasure trove of data about the past, and they can help us answer important questions about our world today.”



---



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

Birds are laying their eggs earlier to adapt to climate change

The Field Museum’s collection of birds’ eggs fills an entire...

Autumn,Day.,Rural,Garden.,In,The,Frame,Ripe,Red,Apples

Apples are among the most popular fruits in the world, dating back at least 7,000 years. A new study led by the <a href="https://www.dal.ca/">Dalhousie University</a> in Canada has found that modern apples are bigger, less acidic and bitter, and stay fresh for longer than their wild ancestors. According to the scientists, these changes have been caused by processes of domestication and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-are-breeding-more-resilient-potatoes/">breeding</a>.



The scientists analyzed data from Canada’s <a href="http://www.cultivatingdiversity.org/">Apple Biodiversity Collection</a>, which contains information on over 1,000 different apple varieties, including modern ones such as Gala or Honeycrisp, as well as wild apples from the forests of Kazakhstan and ancient heirloom varieties.&nbsp;



In order to compare modern apples with their ancient counterparts, the researchers examined ten traits: weight, firmness, acidity, precocity, flowering date, harvest date, soluble solids, phenolic content, percentage change in firmness during storage, and percentage change in acidity during storage.&nbsp;



They discovered that modern apples were 3.6 times heavier than their ancestors. “Consumers prefer large, visually appealing fruit so selection for large fruit size may explain our observation,” explained the study authors.



Moreover, the apples that we consume today were found to be half as acidic and less bitter than the ancient varieties. “Acidity contributes to the sour taste of apples, and apple preference is heavily influenced by acid/sugar ratios. Given this relationship, it is not surprising that cultivated apples, which are primarily consumed as fresh fruit, have lower acid than wild apples,” wrote the scientists.



A thorough investigation of the historical record has also revealed that advancements in apple breeding over the past two centuries has resulted in varieties which soften less during storage. The need for extended periods of storage and long-distance shipping of apples made cultivators search for solutions to reduce softening during storage and improve firmness retention.&nbsp;



These findings provide strong evidence of how much modern apples changed over the course of their 7,000-year-old history. 



“Our results quantify the significant changes in phenotype that have taken place since apple domestication, and provide evidence that apple breeding has led to continued phenotypic divergence of the cultivated apple from its wild progenitor species,” the scientists concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250751">PLoS ONE</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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

Modern apples are bigger and less acidic than their ancestors

Apples are among the most popular fruits in the world,...

Off the northeastern coast of Japan, marine scientists have been monitoring the diets of sea turtles for the past 15 years. Live turtles caught as by-catch (mainly <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/loggerhead-turtles-migrate-using-a-secret-thermal-corridor/">loggerhead</a> and green turtles) are brought to the International Coastal Research Center of the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, where they are kept in individual tanks for up to 3&nbsp;months to collect their feces. Sadly, many of the turtles have ingested marine debris, as evidenced by the undigested remains in their feces.&nbsp;



Although the scientists are used to recording plastics in the feces of living turtles, or in the guts of dead turtles, they were shocked by the fecal contents of a young green turtle, caught in their study region on 10 August, 2021. This turtle should have been feeding on a diet of jelly fish, seaweed and seagrass but, instead, its feces contained barnacles, wood chips and plastic – in the form of a disposable face mask.&nbsp; This is the first time that the researchers have direct evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the marine turtles of the area.&nbsp;



The scientists have published their findings on the fecal and gut contents of 76 sea turtles caught in the region over the past 15 years, including the individual that had consumed a face mask. Their report is available online and also in the <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/marine-pollution-bulletin">Marine Pollution Bulletin</a>.



“Face masks had never been found in this survey before the pandemic, and, unfortunately, this is the first detection,” said paper author Takuya Fukuoka, a post-doctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry (LOG) at <a href="https://www.tuat.ac.jp/en/">Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology</a>. “The turtle, in this case, excreted the mask; however, the physical consequences of debris ingestion in many marine species are under discussion.”



And it is not only the physical consequences of eating marine debris that are of concern. Many plastics contain chemicals that can disrupt the normal endocrine (hormone) cycles in the body, thus having far-reaching impacts on individual animals.&nbsp;



The researchers conducted a chemical analysis of the mask, as well as of five other common brands of masks that are readily available in stores. All the masks were made of polypropylene, a plastic with a low density that floats in the water column. This plastic can contain additives that leach into the digestive fluid of marine organisms that ingest it, according to Hideshige Takada, professor in the LOG.



“We detected UV stabilizers in four out of five brands of face masks we tested, ranging from 1.4 to 848 nanograms per gram of material,” Takada said. “This concentration range is similar to those detected in plastic bottle caps, shopping bags and food packaging.” Three of the detected UV stabilizers are known to interfere with the molecules involved with hormone regulation, according to Takada.



“Exposure of marine organisms that ingest PPE waste to the chemicals and the consequential endocrine-disruption are of further concern,” Takada said. “We urgently need to study the ecotoxicological consequences of the ingestion of waste PPE by marine organisms and potential endocrine disruption. As a precautionary action, it is necessary to establish appropriate waste management systems to stop the entry of PPE into the environment and the use of safer additives to PPE.”



Not long ago, sea turtles that had plastic drinking straws stuck in their nostrils became the champions of the movement to reduce single-use plastics and promote the production of non-plastic food containers. It seems that they are again sending humanity a warning that the irresponsible disposal of PPE into the oceans has the potential to harm innocent marine organisms.&nbsp;



Although personal protective equipment (PPE) has been crucial in protecting people from the spread of coronavirus in the past two years, these items need to be disposed of in such a way that they do not enter the marine environment. The researchers plan to continue studying how COVID-19-derived plastic debris enters the environment, as well as how organic pollutants and additives from plastic waste transfer into marine organisms, in efforts to mitigate further harm.



“As the pandemic continues, the usage of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) continues,” Takada said. “The COVID-19 pandemic affects not only human life, but also marine life through waste management issues. Unless appropriate waste management is instituted, the ingestion of PPE, associated chemicals and microplastics will increase in a variety of marine life very soon.”



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

Sea turtles are now ingesting disposable face masks

Off the northeastern coast of Japan, marine scientists have been...

Texas could potentially be a model for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/solar-and-wind-energy-use-hit-new-records-in-the-u-s/">solar</a> and wind energy, according to a new study led by environmental engineer Daniel Cohan and computer science student Richard Morse, both of <a href="https://www.rice.edu/">Rice University</a>. The researchers modeled the most cost effective combinations of wind and solar in Texas, noting that neither alone is a silver bullet.



“Simply put, it’s not always windy and not always sunny, but it’s almost always windy or sunny somewhere in Texas.”



The research builds on previous work by Cohan’s lab and shows the possibility of all coal being replaced by wind and solar in Texas. In fact, the researchers discovered that just a third of the solar and wind projects already proposed to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas would be enough to replace coal.&nbsp;



“This paper is really about how we can transition away from coal as quickly as possible," said Cohan. "Texas still burns more coal and emits more <a href="http://news2.rice.edu/2018/10/29/study-coal-power-plant-regulations-neglect-a-crucial-pollutant-2/">sulfur dioxide and other pollution</a> than any other state. Even though a transition is inevitable, it’s urgent that we move off coal as quickly as possible to improve air quality and health.”&nbsp;



In Texas, transmission lines are needed to connect the windiest and sunniest parts of the state where solar and wind projects would take place with the places where energy is consumed.



“In Texas, that’s the biggest bottleneck slowing the growth of wind and solar," said Cohan. "The bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed last year is a good start, but doesn’t have nearly enough funding for transmission. Also, by not connecting to other grids, Texas has missed out on opportunities to sell surplus wind and solar power to other states.”&nbsp;



Natural gas is still expected to be a necessary part of Texas’ energy mix for the near future. Solar and wind fluctuate on a daily basis and also throughout each day, while natural gas can be used at any time of day or night. Although different peaks in wind in different parts of the state combined with solar will cover much of the state’s power demands, it won’t yet meet all of them.&nbsp;



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

Renewable energy could replace coal power in Texas

Texas could potentially be a model for solar and wind...

The heartland virus was discovered in 2009, when two men were hospitalized in Missouri. The men suffered from fever, diarrhea, low blood cell counts, muscle aches and other symptoms consistent with tick borne <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/experts-identify-100-cases-of-humans-passing-disease-to-animals/">diseases</a>. It was discovered upon further research that the men were infected with a previously unknown virus, which was named “heartland virus” and traced back to lone star ticks.



Since its discovery, over 50 cases of the heartland virus have shown up in people in 11 states in the south and midwestern US. Some of these cases were bad enough to require hospitalization. It is believed that the actual cases of the disease may be higher, as the condition is relatively unknown and tests for the disease are rare. A postmortem test even confirmed that someone in Georgia died of the disease in 2005. Furthermore, research shows that deer in the area have been exposed since at least 2001.&nbsp;



"Heartland is an emerging infectious disease that is not well understood," said study senior author Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, an associate professor at <a href="https://www.emory.edu/home/index.html">Emory University</a>. "We're trying to get ahead of this virus by learning everything that we can about it before it potentially becomes a bigger problem."



Dr. Yomila Romer, formerly a part of the Vazquez-Prokopec lab, led research to look into the connections between the lone star tick and heartland virus. The researchers collected specimens of the lone star tick, both as an adult and as a nymph in different locations and times. Genetic analysis was carried out to detect the heartland virus. Three samples found the virus and the genetics between the samples were very similar. The samples showed very different genetics from the heartland virus outside of state.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



"These results suggest that the virus may be evolving very rapidly in different geographic locations, or that it may be circulating primarily in isolated areas and not dispersing quickly between those areas," explained Vazquez-Prokopec.



Further sample collecting in Georgia suggests that only one in every 2,000 ticks carries the heartland virus. The team plans on carrying out more research on ticks and tick borne illness in the future as diseases and tick health may change with climate change and growth of human populations.&nbsp;



"We will be gathering data to help support tick surveillance efforts by public health officials in Georgia," Vazquez-Prokopec says. "Tick-borne diseases are a real and growing threat and the best way to deal with them is not to panic, but to do the science needed to learn everything we can about them."



The journal is published in the journal <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/">Emerging Infectious Diseases</a>.



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

"Heartland virus" found in lone star ticks in Georgia

The heartland virus was discovered in 2009, when two men...

People in many cultures around the world do not consider <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/experts-identify-100-cases-of-humans-passing-disease-to-animals/">animals</a> to be aware of their feelings and emotions. Animal rights groups have fought to change this perception as it has bearing on society’s ability to give legal protection to animals in need. Although progress has been made, to some extent, in changing people’s understanding that mammals have emotions and can feel pain, the legislation in most countries does not recognize other vertebrates, or invertebrates, as having this level of consciousness.&nbsp;



In a recent development in the United Kingdom, however, amendments to the animal welfare legislation are proposed that include invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, crayfish and lobsters, in the category of organisms capable of feeling pain and emotion.&nbsp;



“A London School of Economics (LSE) report commissioned by the U.K. government found there is strong enough evidence to conclude that decapod crustaceans and cephalopod mollusks are sentient,” said York University Professor and philosopher Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds, who is working with the LSE team.



The declaration follows recent research studies on mammals, fish, octopuses and crabs, showing that these creatures avoid pain and dangerous locations when they can. This indicates that they recognize pain and danger as unpleasant experiences and react in a conscious way to avoid them. In addition, research has shown signs of empathy in some animals, such as cows that become distressed when they see their calf in pain.



“It’s been a real struggle even to get fish and mammals recognized under welfare law as sentient. So, it’s pretty cutting-edge what seems to be happening in the U.K. with invertebrates," said Andrews.



An article written by Andrews and colleague Professor Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Emory University, discusses the ethical and policy issues that arise once governments consider animals to be sentient. The article, titled "The question of animal emotions," is published today in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/">Science</a>.



Once invertebrates are recognized as having feelings this opens a moral and ethical dilemma, since they cannot say what they feel. It becomes society’s duty to protect them and not allow them to be persecuted or treated cruelly. There will be many people who do not accept that invertebrates have emotions, even though “the research so far strongly suggests their existence,” according to Andrews, who is working on a research project called Animals and Moral Practice.



“If they can no longer be considered immune to felt pain, invertebrate experiences will need to become part of our species’ moral landscape,” explained Andrews. “But pain is just one morally relevant emotion. Invertebrates such as octopuses may experience other emotions such as curiosity in exploration, affection for individuals, or excitement in anticipation of a future reward.”



People will need to view invertebrates differently, should the U.K. animal welfare legislation be amended. Humans will no longer be able to assume that crayfish, shrimps, squids and octopuses don’t feel pain or other emotions. In fact, this may apply to many other vertebrate and invertebrate species as well, which would necessitate our viewing the world rather differently.&nbsp;



“When we’re going about our normal lives, we try not to do harm to other beings. So, it’s really about retraining the way we see the world. How exactly to treat other animals remains an open research question,” said Andrews. “We don’t have sufficient science right now to know exactly what the proper treatment of certain species should be. To determine that, we need greater co-operation between scientists and ethicists.”



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

Do crabs and lobsters have emotions and feelings?

People in many cultures around the world do not consider...

According to a recent study led by the <a href="https://www.helsinki.fi/en">University of Helsinki</a>, repetitive behaviors such as tail-chasing or nervous pacing are more common among <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-exhibit-behaviors-similar-to-human-adhd/">dogs</a> that belong to first-time owners. Moreover, dogs living with larger families or exercising less than an hour per day have also been found to engage in behaviors resembling psychiatric conditions such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).



Researchers from the University of Helsinki led by Hannes Lohi, a professor of Veterinary Biosciences and Genetics, surveyed the owners of 4,436 dogs belonging to 22 different breeds, from February 2015 to September 2018. The owners had to describe how often their canine companions engaged in repetitive behaviors such as tail-chasing, surface licking, nervous pacing, staring into space, self-biting, or snapping at their own reflection in the window.



The results showed that 1,315 (approximately 30 percent) of the dogs engaged in such actions, and that the incidence of canine repetitive behavior was strongly associated with the pets’ home environment and lifestyle. Such behaviors were 58 percent more likely among dogs that were their owners’ first pet, compared to those whose owner has previously had other dogs, suggesting that owners’ “expertise” in dealing with dogs may significantly influence their pets’ mental health.



Moreover, dogs that lived with a single person were 33 percent less likely to engage in repetitive behaviors than dogs that lived in larger families. Similarly, those that did not live together with other dogs were 64 percent more likely to exhibit such behaviors.&nbsp;



The amount of daily exercise dogs engaged in also appeared to influence to a large degree the nature of their actions. For instance, exercising for less than one hour per day was associated with a 53 percent increase in the likelihood of developing repetitive types of behaviors.



The scientists found that age and breed were also important factors structuring dogs’ behaviors. Thus, younger (less than two years of age) or older (over eight years) dogs were less likely to behave repetitively. In terms of breeds, repetitive behaviors were most common in German Shepherd Dogs, Pembroke Welsh Corgis, and Chinese Crested Dogs, and least common in Smooth Collies, Lagotto Romagnolos, and Miniature Schnauzers.



These results suggest that canine repetitive behavior is a highly complex issue, associated with a&nbsp; variety of environmental, genetic, and lifestyle factors. Clearly understanding how these factors structure canine behavior could help improve these animals’ welfare.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07443-6">Nature Scientific Reports</a>.



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

Repetitive behaviors in dogs are influenced by many factors

According to a recent study led by the University of...

<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=2E0mn5mTvhQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that scientists never expected.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-waters-beneath-ancient-craters">Hidden waters beneath ancient craters</h2>



Scientists have made a startling discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturn-moon-mimas-has-remarkably-young-ocean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Saturn's moon Mimas</a>. Beneath the heavily cratered surface that earned it the nickname "Death Star" lies a global ocean that formed just 5 to 15 million years ago—a remarkably young age by cosmic standards.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cassini-data-reveals-orbital-secrets">Cassini data reveals orbital secrets</h2>



The discovery, led by Dr. Valéry Lainey of the <a href="https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Observatoire de Paris</a>, emerged from careful analysis of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA</a>'s Cassini spacecraft data. By studying subtle irregularities in Mimas's orbit around Saturn, researchers detected the gravitational signature of liquid water hidden 20 to 30 kilometers beneath the moon's icy shell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-unlikely-ocean-world">An unlikely ocean world</h2>



At only 400 kilometers in diameter, Mimas seemed like the least likely candidate to harbor a subsurface ocean. Unlike other ocean moons such as Europa and Enceladus, which show clear surface signs of internal activity, Mimas displays no obvious hints of the liquid water beneath its ancient, crater-scarred exterior.



"Mimas is a small moon, and its heavily cratered surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean beneath," explained Dr. Nick Cooper from <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Queen Mary University of London</a>, a study co-author.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-astrobiology">Implications for astrobiology</h2>



The ocean's recent formation makes Mimas a prime target for studying how oceans develop and potentially support life. This discovery adds another member to the exclusive club of ocean worlds in our solar system, each offering unique insights into the conditions necessary for habitability.



The research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> journal, demonstrates how advanced orbital analysis can reveal hidden features of celestial bodies, opening new possibilities for understanding ocean formation throughout the cosmos.



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Scientists discover unexpected young ocean on Saturn's cratered moon Mimas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ 'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that...

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



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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...

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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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</div></figure>







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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https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



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.



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter 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://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"]</div>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"]</div>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"]</div>



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 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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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

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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

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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"

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