If you’re a male gray frog trying to find a mate, you’d better have a fast and steady call. That’s what female treefrogs usually go for. But when the crowd gets loud and chaotic, things change. The males that don’t sound all that great? They suddenly have a shot.



In quiet situations where females only hear two males at once, their preferences are clear. They go for the one with the sharper, more rhythmic call. 



But when four or even eight males are calling at once, things get messy. Female choices become unpredictable. This isn’t just a frog issue - it ties into a broader idea that scientists call “choice overload.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-frogs-face-chaos-in-the-chorus">Frogs face chaos in the chorus</h2>



In nature, frogs gather in large, noisy groups called choruses. Picture a shallow pond in spring, with dozens of males calling out at the same time. It’s the frog equivalent of a dating scene in a packed nightclub.



The researchers found that the crowded conditions of these choruses might be too overwhelming for females to reliably pick the best mate. It’s not that they stop caring - it’s that they can’t tell who’s who.



Professor Jessie Tanner of the <a href="https://www.utk.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Tennessee, Knoxville</a>, led a team studying how choice overload affects evolution.



“Because female mate choice can drive evolution, our results suggest that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unraveling-the-story-of-early-animal-evolution/">evolution</a> might happen more slowly than we thought before,” she said. 



“Some males that are fairly unattractive could still mate, especially if they take advantage of crowded spaces where females might be less able to discriminate between attractive and unattractive males.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-happens-when-choices-are-too-hard">What happens when choices are too hard?</h2>



The idea of choice overload is pretty common in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/science-behind-predicting-and-changing-human-behavior/">human behavior</a>. You walk into a store to buy toothpaste and face 50 brands. You either freeze, grab something random, or walk away. Same goes for dating apps with endless swiping.



“We wanted to understand how having to make mating decisions in crowded environments, where choice overload could be a problem, might drive the evolution of calls,” Tanner explained. 



“Since males that are chosen by females pass on their genes to the next generation, this mate choice can cause the population to change over time.”



When animals, like people, face too many options, their decision-making can break down. That opens up a chance for less attractive mates to get picked - not because they became more appealing, but because the chooser got overwhelmed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-choice-overload-in-other-animals">Choice overload in other animals</h2>



This isn’t just about frogs. Scientists are now looking at how this effect shows up in other animals. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bumblebees-increasingly-stressed-over-the-past-century/">Bumblebees</a>, for instance, are on the list. So are wood roaches.



“Our lab is working to understand how choice overload and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/frogs-have-lungs-that-cancel-out-background-noise/">noise</a> may each contribute to the difficulty female treefrogs face in making mating decisions,” Tanner said. 



“We are also working to understand whether this choice overload is something that occurs generally in many different kinds of animals or is more specific to individual species.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-simultaneous-cricket-songs">Simultaneous cricket songs </h2>



Tanner, who has a background in both psychology and biology, first got into animal behavior while studying mate choice as an undergrad. She later became interested in sound - especially how it plays into animal communication.



That led to earlier work on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/when-male-crickets-go-silent-how-females-adapt-and-respond/">crickets</a>. Like treefrogs, male crickets use sound to attract mates. A study on cricket mating showed that noisy environments might either block females from hearing calls or make them too confused to pick. It was hard to tell which was causing the problem.



“During that study, it became clear that our work was consistent with both the possibility that many simultaneous cricket songs created noise that made it hard for females to hear, and the possibility that the females were experiencing choice overload,” Tanner said. “Our current work looks to disentangle those ideas.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-average-becomes-good-enough">When average becomes good enough</h2>



The research adds a new layer to how scientists think about evolution. Normally, stronger signals - like a faster frog call - are expected to win out and spread through the population over time. 



But if crowded conditions keep females from consistently picking the top performers, evolution slows down. Mediocre traits stick around longer.



That changes the math for survival. In nature, being the best isn’t always enough - and sometimes, being just okay is good enough, especially if the crowd’s loud and the choices are many.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.0585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences</a>.



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Frogs settle for average mates when dating gets too noisy

If you’re a male gray frog trying to find a mate, you’d better have a fast and steady call. That’s what female treefrogs usually go for. But when the crowd gets loud and chaotic, things change. The males that don’t sound all that great? They suddenly have a shot. In quiet situations where females only hear two males at once, their preferences are clear. They go for the one with the sharper, more rhythmic call. But when four or even eight males are calling at once, things...

Researchers from <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">UC Davis</a> worked for 15 years to understand how rare <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/honeybees-may-be-superspreaders-of-plant-viruses/">plant</a> species manage to survive in the harsh conditions of the rapidly warming Arctic. The study, which was conducted at a site in Greenland, revealed that caribou and other large herbivores help protect rare plants, lichens, and mushrooms from the severe impacts of climate change.



The study authors said that by constraining the abundance of dwarf birch and gray willow - the two most common plant species - large herbivores clear the way for less common species to persist. There is less of a chance that the rare plants will be shaded or outcompeted for nutrients by the woody shrub’s canopy, or suppressed by leaf litter and cooler soils, explained the researchers.



“This is more evidence that conserving large herbivores is really important to maintaining the compositional integrity of species-poor systems like the Arctic tundra,” said study lead author Eric Post, director of the UC Davis Polar Forum.



Previous studies have shown that greater numbers of rare species persist in regions with a stable climate compared to regions with a changing climate. The current study demonstrates how species interactions are also important for maintaining rare plants as the climate shifts.&nbsp;



The researchers investigated how the presence of caribou and muskoxen influenced 14 species of tundra plants, lichens and mushrooms. Three of the species were common, while 11 were rare.



The results showed that the presence or absence of caribou and muskoxen made a clear difference in the persistence of rare plants.&nbsp;



“The conservation of large herbivores will serve a critical role in preserving arctic tundra as it warms,” said Post. “If caribou or muskoxen eventually go locally extinct from parts of the Arctic, or even fall to severely low abundance, what we’ll likely see in response to warming is a tundra increasingly dominated by a few common species, like shrubs.”



According to Post, rare species contribute vitally to biodiversity, ecosystem function and resilience, largely because there are so many of them compared to common species.



“Creative solutions to sustaining tundra biodiversity, such as maintaining intact populations of large herbivores, will help buffer this sensitive biome against climate change.”&nbsp;



The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, and Penn State University. The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.



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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

Caribou help rare plants survive climate change

Researchers from UC Davis worked for 15 years to understand...

Bats are the only group of mammals capable of powered <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/butterflies-habitat-influences-their-flight-behavior/">flight</a>. They are extremely diverse, with about 1,440 species which make up over 20 percent of all known mammal species. Bats also have a very unique way of navigating the world. They use echolocation – emitting high-pitched sounds and then listening for the returning echo – to orient themselves in space, avoid obstacles while flying, and forage for food.



A new study led by the <a href="https://www.uchicago.edu/">University of Chicago</a>, the <a href="https://www.amnh.org/">American Museum of Natural History</a>, and the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> has found that two major group of bats have different anatomical structures for connecting the inner ear to the brain. These findings confirm previously discovered genetic evidence that bats belong to two different evolutionary lineages, known as Yinpterochiroptera, or “Yin," and Yangochiroptera, or “Yang.”



“Biologists have speculated that the two major groups of bats have different ways of seeing the world through sound,” said study lead author Benjamin Sulser. “This is the first time we found different neuroanatomies in the inner ear, which give these bats different ways of processing the echolocating signal.”



Sulser and his colleagues discovered that Yins rely more heavily on constant frequency sounds for echolocation, while Yangs employ a more complex, modulated frequency. 



The researchers performed a large number of CT scans of the skulls of specimens from 39 species of bats. They found that, just like most other mammals, Yin bats’ inner ear consists of a thick canal wall packed with small openings for the nerve fibers. On the other hand, the Yang bats have an open canal with no wall, which allows for more evolutionary variations of the neurons in the ganglion.



“We hypothesize that by developing this new configuration, without the space constraint on the inner ear ganglion, the Yang bats have a greater capacity for the ganglion cells to multiply and different ways to connect to the brain, unlike most other mammals,” said study senior author Professor Zhe-Xi Luo. 



“A greater size of a ganglion and a greater number of neurons may have contributed to this big evolutionary diversification of bats relying more on frequency modulating echolocation.”



According to Professor Luo, both methods of echolocation contributed to the amazing evolutionary success of bats. “These are different ways of achieving the same goal. It’s like these two types of bats are speaking different dialects of a language."



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



---



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

Bats use different inner ear structures to navigate

Bats are the only group of mammals capable of powered...

The body composition and inflammatory benefits associated with a high-protein and high-fiber <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/a-balanced-diet-improves-bumblebee-health/">diet</a> has been mostly applied to humans. A healthy and balanced diet, when combined with exercise, is the best way to help humans lose weight.&nbsp;A new study from the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</a> has confirmed that this is the case for dogs, as well. 



The researchers investigated changes in the fecal microbiota of dogs over the course of feeding them a high-protein and high-fiber diet for 24 weeks. This diet was found to affect body composition and inflammatory markers in a way which was parallel to the positive changes that humans saw while eating similar foods.



Ultimately, this meant that the dogs managed to lose weight while reducing their serum triglycerides, insulin and inflammatory markers, in addition to maintaining their muscle mass.



“Some of the problems we see in humans with obesity also occur in pet dogs,” said study lead author Kelly Swanson. “There’s added stress on the joints, there’s an intolerance to exercise and heat; there’s also glucose intolerance, insulin resistance. And if you look at pet insurance claims, obesity is a big factor there.”



Despite these similarities, dogs and humans differ in terms of the species of microbes that inhabit their gut. However, all of these microbes serve similar purposes: metabolizing proteins and other nutritious molecules, breaking down fiber to regulate glucose and appetite, providing energy to the colon and bolstering the immune system.



The dogs were found to have lower levels of ammonia in their feces, along with increased proportions of a bacteria named Allobaculum. The presence of this type of bacteria correlates with an increase in fecal butyrate, a process which ultimately uses dietary fiber to provide anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic benefits to the gut.



Despite the increase in these organic and helpful acids, there was no observable change in concentrations of short-chain fatty acids. It is assumed that this is due to the fact that most of these acids are absorbed as opposed to excreted, and therefore were not present in the animal feces.



According to the study authors, the results suggest that restricted feeding of a high-protein, high-fiber diet and weight loss promotes fat mass loss, minimizes lean mass loss, reduces inflammatory marker and triglyceride concentrations, and modulates fecal microbiota phylogeny and activity in overweight dogs. Swanson said that more research is needed to clarify the findings.



The study is published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jas">Journal of Animal Science</a>.



---



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

A diet rich in fiber and protein can help overweight dogs

The body composition and inflammatory benefits associated with a high-protein...

Bumblebees are important <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollutants-confuse-pollinators-and-reduce-food-production/">pollinators</a> for many plants. They can fly in colder temperatures than many insects and they’re very hardy. Despite these traits, bumblebees along with many other insects are in a state of decline that is largely associated with human activities.&nbsp;



Now, new research from the <a href="https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/1.html">University of Göttingen</a> shows that a diverse diet is important for bumblebee reproduction. The study suggests that a diverse diet of pollen fed to young bumblebees can possibly even help with infestations of parasitic wax moth larvae.  



"Our study shows that it is not individual habitats, such as flower-rich gardens, or semi-natural habitats (such as hedgerows or flower strips), that contribute to reproductive success for the large earth bumblebee Bombus terrestris. In fact, it is rather the diversity of habitats across the entire study landscape that is important," said first author Sandra Schweiger, a researcher in Functional Agrobiodiversity.



"So a wide variety of flower-rich landscape elements must be present. In addition, a diverse pollen diet can contribute to better colony growth and more offspring, especially for young queens."&nbsp;



According to study co-author Professor Catrin Westphal, a balanced pollen diet also reduces the negative effects of parasitic wax moth larvae infestations, which can severely harm the reproductive success of the bumblebees.



For the investigation, the scientists established bumblebee colonies in two regions of Germany and collected pollen samples from bees returning to their hives. The samples were used to research the importance of habitat diversity and thus pollen nutrition in agricultural landscapes as it relates to reproduction. 



Monoculture blooms that provide steady unvaried nutrition as well as landscapes with diverse flowers were both analyzed. The upshot of the research shows that bumblebee bees fare better in diverse landscapes providing a variety of pollen to feed their colonies rather than typical monoculture agricultural fields.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



"Our study showed that high landscape diversity and diverse pollen diets can enhance the reproductive success of bumblebees," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"A diverse diet even mitigated depredation by wax moths. To sustain vital bumblebee populations and their pollination services, diverse and floral rich habitat types should be conserved or restored in agricultural landscapes."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/agriculture-ecosystems-and-environment">Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment</a>.



---



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

A balanced diet improves bumblebee health

Bumblebees are important pollinators for many plants. They can fly...

In the mid-1990s, scientists discovered the deep seafloor biosphere - a surprisingly varied population of microorganisms that thrive in the isolated and generally food-deprived environments from the depths of seas and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-heat-reached-a-record-high-for-the-sixth-straight-year/">oceans</a>. Two decades later, in 2016, an international team of scientists embarked on the Japanese scientific drillship Chikyu to collect sediment samples from a drill hole cutting through the geological subduction zone of the Nankai Trough on the coast of Japan, in order to investigate the temperature limit of the deep seafloor biosphere.



At this site, the researchers were amazed to discover a very small, but active microbial community thriving at temperatures occasionally reaching even 120°C. By using highly sensitive radiotracer measurements of methane production and sulfate reduction, the scientists assessed the metabolic rates of these organisms and were surprised to find that they were extraordinarily high for such an unfriendly environment.



"We propose that the organisms are forced to maintain a high metabolic turnover, which approaches the activity of microbes living in surface sediments and in laboratory cultures, to provide the energy required to repair thermal cell damage," said study lead author Felix Beulig, an ecological microbiologist at the <a href="https://uni-bayreuth.de/en">University of Bayreuth</a>.



"The energy required to repair thermal damage to cellular components increases steeply with temperature, and most of this energy is likely necessary to counteract the continuous alteration of amino acids and loss of protein function," added study senior author Tina Treunde, a professor of Marine Geomicrobiology at the <a href="https://www.ucla.edu/">University of California, Los Angeles</a>.



This high per-cell activity of sulfate reducers and methanogens in the deep, hot sediment appears to be fueled by hydrogen and acetate from the sediment porewater. Acetate, a small organic molecule which is also present in vinegar, is of particular interest as a potential food source, according to co-chief scientists of the expedition Verena Heuer, a researcher at MARUM in Germany. “Acetate reaches concentrations of more than 10 mmol per liter in the sediment porewater, which is exceptionally high for marine sediments,” she explained.



The detection of high metabolic rates in the deep seafloor biosphere is a fascinating, surprising discovery. "We always found that microbes in the deep biosphere are an extremely sluggish community that slowly nibbles on the last remains of million-year-old, buried organic matter. But the deep biosphere is full of surprises,” said Bo Barker Jørgensen, a pioneer of deep biosphere research from <a href="https://international.au.dk/">Aarhus University</a>.



“To find life thriving with high metabolic rates at these high temperatures in the deep seabed nourishes our imagination of how life could evolve or survive in similar environments on planetary bodies beyond Earth.”



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



&nbsp;---



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

Organisms can thrive on the seafloor in extreme heat

In the mid-1990s, scientists discovered the deep seafloor biosphere -...

Great,White,Shark,Fin,Above,Water

According to data recently published by Florida Museum of Natural History’s <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/">International Shark Attack File</a> (ISAF), 2021 marked the first increase in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/shark-attacks-linked-to-phases-of-the-moon/">shark attacks</a> after three consecutive years of global decline. Overall, there were 73 unprovoked shark bites, 39 provoked bites, and nine fatalities recorded.



The number of <a href="https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/shark-attack-statistics/?msID=07daf88a-0193-418d-804e-e6fa2a38cb3d">unprovoked shark bites</a> is slightly larger than the 52 bites recorded in 2020 (the lowest number in over a decade). In ISAF manager Tyler Bowling’s view, the beach closures associated to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-booster-shots-are-highly-effective-against-hospitalization/">COVID-19</a> pandemic may have played a large role in the decline in shark attacks in 2020.



“Shark bites dropped drastically in 2020 due to the pandemic. This past year was much more typical, with average bite numbers from an assortment of species and fatalities from white sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks,” said Bowling.



In 2021, the United States continued to be the world leader, with a total of 47 attacks (64 percent of the global cases), all but five taking place along the Atlantic Seaboard. Australia had the second-highest number of bites (12), representing a decrease from its five-year annual average of 16. Brazil and New Zealand each had three recorded attacks, while Canada, Ecuador, and St. Kitts and Nevis followed with a single incident each.



Although last year saw a marked increase in shark attacks as more people flocked to beaches after the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions, deaths seem to become less frequent in the long run.



“The overall decline in mortalities from shark bites is likely due to a combination of improved beach safety protocols around the world and a diminishment in the number of sharks of various species in coastal waters,” said Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Museum’s<a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sharks/">&nbsp;shark research program</a>.&nbsp;



“The spike in 2020 and 2021 is almost certainly because of the expanding numbers of white sharks, which have been increasing in various localities likely in response to a boom in the seal populations they feed on.”



Most of the people bitten by sharks were surfers or boarders, who usually spend a large amount of time on the water in and around surf zones. According to ISAF’s <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/reduce-risk/">guidance</a> on how to decrease the risk of shark bites, people should avoid splashing in open water, which sharks may mistake for struggling fish, as well as refrain from wearing reflective jewelry, which may glint in the sunshine, resembling fish scales.&nbsp;



The ISAF 2021 shark attack report can be read <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/">here</a>.



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

Shark attacks are rising, after a three-year decline

According to data recently published by Florida Museum of Natural...

In a new study led by scientists from <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/">Simon Fraser University</a>, the relationship between productivity in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and water flow in the Nicola River watershed has been investigated. This river is a tributary of the Thompson River, which flows into the Fraser River in British Columbia. The team used an advanced time-series model to understand 22 years (1992 to 2013) of variation in stream-type Chinook salmon productivity, as measured by the number of adult offspring per reproducing parent. 



River systems are being affected by climate change and human activities worldwide. The flow cycles of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-dissolved-in-rivers-is-damaging-our-planet/">rivers</a> are influenced by increased temperatures, changes in precipitation, removal of water for land use, and transformation of catchment areas. These changes have potentially serious impacts on freshwater biodiversity, but the consequences of past, present and future changes in flow regimes for river ecosystems and fish remain uncertain. 



Stream-type Chinook salmon are likely to be especially affected by flow changes because the offspring are reared in fresh water and the adults spend more time in river systems than do their ocean-type counterparts. It has, however, been difficult to isolate the effects of changing flow regimes from other processes, such as ocean survival, fishing mortality and interactions with hatchery-origin salmon.



In the Nicola watershed area, Chinook salmon support indigenous, commercial and recreational fisheries and are prey for endangered southern resident killer whales. However, the average August flow of the Nicola river has decreased by 26 percent, on average, over the past 100 years and recruitment into the Chinook salmon population has been below replacement level for more than half the cohorts since 1992. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is currently assessing whether to recommend Nicola Chinook salmon for listing under the&nbsp;Species at Risk Act.&nbsp;



“These long-term changes are probably the cumulative effect of climate change, water withdrawals for agricultural and other uses, and land use such as forestry,” said study co-author Professor Jonathan Moore.



The researchers examined how changing flow regimes and other variables influenced the productivity of the Chinook salmon population. The experts considered variables such as average August flow, fall flooding, and duration of winter ice cover. The analysis also took into account variable ocean survival, mortality from fishing and hatchery demographics.&nbsp;



The results indicated that the river flow during August, when Chinook are rearing as juveniles, was the most important predictor of productivity. Higher August flows during adult spawning and migration also likely boost productivity, while lower flows during this time are linked to decline. Although other factors, such as the extent of ice cover and salmon density also had an effect, river flow in August explained most of the variation in salmon productivity.



“We found that August flows during juvenile rearing had the greatest impact on Chinook productivity out of any factor; the effect was very large,” said study lead author Luke Warkentin, who carried out the project as part of his masters research in SFU’s Salmon Watersheds Lab. “If there isn’t enough water during the summer, Chinook populations tend to decline.”&nbsp;



On average, cohorts that experienced 50 percent below average flows in the August of spawning and rearing had 29 percent lower productivity.



The researchers feel that these results could help to inform water management in the Nicola watershed. From their model, they calculate that mean August flow during rearing would need to be 17.2 m3s−1&nbsp;to allow a harvest of 30 percent of the salmon for fisheries each year. This would help to protect this culturally and economically important species in the face of the numerous pressures it now faces.



“This data is helping to inform ongoing watershed planning and on-the-ground action in the Nicola by the five Nicola Bands and the Province,” said Leona Antoine who helps lead the Nicola Watershed Governance Project, and is associated with the Scw'exmx Tribal Council, but was not involved in the study. “Science such as this, as well as traditional knowledge and other sources of expertise, are guiding real change on the ground to steward this watershed.”&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26888319">Ecological Solutions and Evidence</a>.



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

River flow affects imperiled Chinook salmon population

In a new study led by scientists from Simon Fraser...

In a new collaborative study between <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/">Trinity College Dublin</a> and Hokkaido University, experts have found that predators help protect the biodiversity of ecosystems against the negative impacts of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-has-a-delayed-response-to-climate-change/">climate</a> change.



"Amidst the global extinction crisis, climate change will expose ecosystems to more frequent and intense extreme climatic events, such as heatwaves. Yet, whether predator species loss - a prevailing characteristic of the extinction crisis - will exacerbate the ecological consequences of extreme climatic events remains largely unknown," wrote the study authors.



For the investigation, the researchers observed communities of freshwater organisms in an experimental stream at the Tomakomai Experimental Forest in Northern Japan. The purpose of this experiment was to expose the animals to weather extremities similar to those produced by climate change in an attempt to understand how biodiversity would be affected.



Some of the stream communities included sculpin fish, a prime example of a dominant predator, while others did not include a predator. All of the communities were exposed to realistic heatwave conditions.



Ultimately, the team discovered that communities which included a predator were buffered against the extreme heat conditions more than those that did not include a predator. The heatwaves destabilized algal (plant) communities in the streams which resulted in biodiversity losses, but this was only the case when predators were absent.



“We found that predator extinctions can interact with heatwaves to further undermine the stability of ecosystems,” explained lead researcher Dr. Samuel Ross. “This highlights how the climate and biodiversity crises are completely intertwined, really just two sides of the same coin.”



“Taken together, our results show how the ecological consequences of heatwaves can amplify over time as their impacts propagate through ecological communities. However, predator species help to buffer such impacts, acting as allies in the fight against climate change.”&nbsp;



Algal communities provide the energy base for all other organisms, so the lack of predators which led to reduced algal biodiversity would ultimately result in less energy and biodiversity for other organisms. The researchers also found that these cascading effects were not apparent until long after the heatwave had passed.



"Taken together, our results suggest that the ecological consequences of heatwaves can amplify over time as their impacts propagate through biological interaction networks, but the presence of predators can help to buffer such impacts," wrote the study authors.



"These findings underscore the importance of conserving trophic structure, and highlight the potential for species extinctions to amplify the effects of climate change and extreme events."



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652486">Global Change Biology</a>.



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

Predators help prevent biodiversity loss

In a new collaborative study between Trinity College Dublin and...

Humans have a highly complex culture that enables them to transmit knowledge and learn various types of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-exhibit-behaviors-similar-to-human-adhd/" data-type="news" data-id="1897151">behaviors</a> from others. Thus, since skills and technologies tend to accumulate over generations and become increasingly intricate and efficient, human culture can be described as cumulative.&nbsp;



Until recently, scientists thought that non-human primates are very different and need to reinvent cultural behaviors individually. However, new field research led by the <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html">University of Zurich</a> has found that chimpanzees may be more similar to humans than previously thought in terms of their ability of transmitting and learning cultural behaviors.



To explore this problem, a team of primatologists carried out a series of field experiments in the Nimba Mountains of Guinea in order to assess whether chimps can invent by themselves a complex behavior such as nut cracking independently. 



First, the chimps were shown oil palm nuts and stones. Next, the scientists added a palm fruit to the experimental setup. Afterwards, the nuts were cracked open and placed above the stones. And finally, the chimps were presented with another, easier-to-crack type of nuts (Coula) together with stones.



A total of 35 chimpanzee groups visited the experiments, of which 11 parties investigated closely and attentively the experimental items. However, even after years of exposure to these materials, the chimpanzees were unable to learn how to use the stones in order to crack nuts, no matter how much interest they shown in investigating the experimental items. These results suggest that, without a model to teach them how to open the nuts, the chimps are unable to learn by themselves such behaviors.



“Our findings suggest that chimpanzees acquire cultural behaviors more like humans and do not simply invent a complex tool use behavior like nut cracking on their own,” said study lead author Kathelijne Koops, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Zurich.



“Our findings on wild chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, help to shed light on what it is (and isn’t!) that makes human culture unique. Specifically, they suggest greater continuity between chimpanzee and human cultural evolution than is normally assumed and that the human capacity for cumulative culture may have a shared evolutionary origin with chimpanzees,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01272-9">Nature Human Behavior</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

Chimpanzees seem to acquire cultural behaviors like humans

Humans have a highly complex culture that enables them to...

Because hippopotamuses are vocal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-with-strong-site-fidelity-face-an-uncertain-future/">animals</a> whose wheezy, honking voices carry over long distances, scientists suspected that vocalizations might be an important part of their lives. A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>, shows that hippos can recognize each other’s voices. The research also shows that hippos respond more aggressively to the calls of strangers than to their neighbors.&nbsp;



“We found that the vocalizations of a stranger individual induced a stronger behavioral response than those produced by individuals from either the same or a neighboring group,” said Nicolas Mathevon, a professor at the University of Saint-Etienne in France.&nbsp;



“In addition to showing that hippos are able to identify conspecifics based on vocal signatures, our study highlights that hippo groups are territorial entities that behave less aggressively toward their neighbors than toward strangers.”



Professor Mathevon and colleagues studied hippos in Maputo Special Reserve in Mozambique, an area with several groups of hippopotamuses inhabiting different lakes. First, they recorded calls from all hippo groups. Next, they played back all the calls to each group to see how they’d react.&nbsp;



The researchers specifically wanted to see if the hippos would react differently to recordings of neighbors as opposed to strangers. The hippopotamuses responded by vocalizing, spraying dung (a territorial display), or approaching.



It turns out the hippos responded more strongly to the voices of strangers than to those of animals they were familiar with. This result has important conservation implications. Hippos are often relocated to maintain healthy populations,&nbsp;



“Before relocating a group of hippos to a new location, one precaution might be to broadcast their voices from a loudspeaker to the groups already present so that they become accustomed to them and their aggression gradually decreases,” explained Professor Mathevon. “Reciprocity, in which the animals to be moved become accustomed to the voices of their new neighbors before they arrive, could also be considered.”



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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

Hippos can recognize the voices of their friends

Because hippopotamuses are vocal animals whose wheezy, honking voices carry...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a> and the National Administration of Parks in Argentina has investigated the sarcoptic mange outbreak which decimated the vicuña and guanaco populations in Argentina’s San Guillermo National Park.&nbsp;



The findings suggest that domestic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/llama-antibodies-have-potential-to-treat-coronavirus-variants/">llamas</a> introduced to the site may have been the source of the outbreak which began in 2014 and wiped out 95 percent of the guanacos and 98 percent of the vicuñas by 2017, and all the remaining ones in the following two years.



Vicuñas and guanacos&nbsp;are species of wild camelids native to South American countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. These animals provide an important source of income for indigenous communities, who shear the animals for their soft, valuable fur. Moreover, by being preyed upon by animals such as mountain lions and condors, these camelids play a crucial role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem in the high Andes plateau.



According to researchers, the introduction of domestic llamas to areas near the San Guillermo National Park in 2009 was the cause of the devastating mange outbreak that destroyed most of the park’s vicuñas and guanacos.&nbsp;



Sarcoptic mange is a highly contagious disease in which mites burrow under the skin of an animal, causing it to become itchy, crusty, thick, and cracked. This leads to debilitating pain. While mange is rarely fatal for llamas, it makes many vicuñas and guanacos almost unable to move or forage when infected, and they become easy prey or even starve to death.



“Several factors combined to create the perfect storm of this epidemic at a high cost to the ecosystem of San Guillermo National Park,” said study lead author Hebe del Valle Ferreyra, a wildlife veterinarian at the National Administration of Parks in Argentina. “Animal health management, conservation, and agriculture should not be regarded as opposing, incompatible and disconnected activities. A change of approach is needed that recognizes the links between all these sectors.”



According to the researchers, the decimation of these camelids will likely have cascading consequences for their predators and scavengers, such as mountain lions or condors. In the absence of vicuñas and guanacos, mountain lions could turn to livestock for their meals, while condors may need to search food outside the park, where they can be exposed to risks such as poisoning by pesticides or lead from hunting ammunition.



“Hopefully, within a few years, the animals will slowly return,” said study corresponding author Marcela Uhart, the director of the <a href="https://whc.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/latin-america-program">Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center’s Latin America Program</a> at UC Davis. “But in the meantime, we don’t know what will happen with the predators and scavengers because there is basically nothing left for them to eat.”



The study, published in the journal PLoS One, suggests that a better, ongoing communication between the conservation and livestock sectors is necessary for warding off future outbreaks.



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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

Vicuñas and guanacos decimated by mange outbreak

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

Blue,Wildebeest,Stands,Eyeing,Camera,In,Grassland

Important human traits such as large brains emerged in Homo erectus about two million years ago. According to the widespread “meat made us human” hypothesis in Paleoanthropology, the evolutionary transition to modern humans is often linked to a major dietary shift involving an increase in meat consumption.&nbsp;



However, new research led by the <a href="https://www.gwu.edu/">George Washington University</a> calls into question this hypothesis, by arguing that the increase in archeological evidence for meat eating can largely be explained by greater research attention to that time period rather than fundamental shifts in hominid behavior.



“Generations of paleoanthropologists have gone to famously well-preserved sites in places like Olduvai Gorge looking for - and finding - breathtaking direct evidence of early humans eating meat, furthering this viewpoint that there was an explosion of meat eating after two million years ago,”&nbsp;said study lead author W. Andrew Barr, an assistant professor of Anthropology at the George Washington University.



“However, when you quantitatively synthesize the data from numerous sites across eastern Africa to test this hypothesis, as we did here, that ‘meat made us human’ evolutionary narrative starts to unravel.”



By compiling and analyzing data from nine major research areas in eastern Africa, including 59 sites dating between 2.6 and 1.2 million years ago, Professor Barr and his colleagues have found no sustained increase in the relative amount of evidence for a major shift to meat eating with the emergence of Homo erectus. These results suggest that previous intensive archeological sampling of places where meat eating played a large role, rather than overall changes in human behavior, could explain the prevalence of the “meat made us human” hypothesis in Anthropology.



“I’ve excavated and studied cut marked fossils for over 20 years, and our findings were still a big surprise to me,”&nbsp;said study co-author Briana Pobiner, a research scientist in the <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/">Human Origins Program</a> at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.&nbsp;



“This study changes our understanding of what the zooarchaeological record tells us about the earliest prehistoric meat-eating. It also shows how important it is that we continue to ask big questions about our evolution, while we also continue to uncover and analyze new evidence about our past.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I would think this study and its findings would be of interest not just to the paleoanthropology community but to all the people currently basing their dieting decisions around some version of this meat-eating narrative. Our study undermines the idea that eating large quantities of meat drove evolutionary changes in our early ancestors,” concluded Professor Barr.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115540119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



---



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

What role did meat eating play in human evolution?

Important human traits such as large brains emerged in Homo...

<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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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The environmental problem we actually solved

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



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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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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