Honeybees can travel several miles from their hive and still make a straight line back home. Their secret isn’t scent trails or landmarks, but the way they read the sky. By detecting subtle polarization patterns in scattered sunlight, bees turn the heavens into a compass.



A new study shows how a specialized region at the top of the bee's eye sharpens this celestial map. Neighboring light sensors share information, producing a steadier signal that prioritizes reliability over fine detail.



The researchers say this built-in teamwork explains how bees keep their bearings even when clouds or obstacles break up the view. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-built-in-bee-sky-compass">A built-in bee sky compass</h2>



James Foster, a neurobiologist at the <a href="https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/">University of Konstanz</a>, and his team focused on the dorsal rim area, a narrow strip of sky-facing facets used for detecting polarized light.



Many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/very-little-is-known-about-99-of-all-insects-on-earth/">insects</a> use polarization patterns in the sky as a compass, and honeybees are a classic case. That pattern shifts with the sun across the day and stays readable even when clouds pass by.



The bee's eye is made of thousands of ommatidia that each sample a small patch of the world. A specialized dorsal rim area at the top handles the polarized sky and feeds information into the navigation system.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bee-polarization-detection-in-action">Bee polarization detection in action </h2>



Within each dorsal rim facet, a pair of UV-tuned photoreceptor cells points at different angles, which makes them sensitive to how skylight is polarized. Together, they report the orientation of the electric field, a signal bees can use for heading.



When researchers cover the dorsal rim area with paint, tethered bees lose clear orientation to a rotating polarization stimulus. That result shows how central this small eye strip is to the compass.



The new paper maps receptive field sizes and sensitivities across the eye. It finds that dorsal rim fields are much wider than those in the main retina, and that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unexpected-find-inside-the-eye-of-a-tiny-wasp-megaphragma-viggianii/">dorsal rim</a> cells are less absolutely sensitive while remaining tuned to polarization.



Earlier work proposed that corneal pore canals scatter light and widen each dorsal rim sampling zone. The new data add a second mechanism at the level of neural wiring.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bees-make-a-blur-that-helps">Bees make a blur that helps</h2>



The recordings reveal that some dorsal rim cells share signals with neighbors, a form of spatial summation that happens right in the retina. Pooling inputs makes a coarser image, but it boosts the stability of the polarization map.



That tradeoff helps when clouds or branches interrupt the view. A robust map matters more than high detail for keeping a straight course.



"But this is exactly what makes this part of the eye particularly good at detecting large-scale polarization patterns in the sky," said Foster. The effect turns a less detailed picture into a more reliable compass readout.



Evidence for cell-to-cell coupling appeared in about six dorsal rim recordings, roughly a quarter of the cases examined. Small timing differences between peaks and slight offsets in preferred polarization angles ruled out simple optical artifacts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-eye-to-compass-neurons">From eye to compass neurons</h2>



The finding fits with what is known about downstream circuits in other insects. In fruit flies, the medulla carries <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bull-ants-use-moonlight-for-nighttime-navigation/">polarization</a> signals from dorsal rim photoreceptors toward compass neurons in the central complex.



Bees likely use a similar division of labor. The dorsal rim area cleans up the signal early, and later stages compute heading and route choices.



"Cameras pointed at the sky could serve as a kind of backup compass if GPS and magnetic signals are unreliable or fail," said Foster. That idea borrows a page from an eye that solves the compass problem with simple parts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-bee-eye-responses">Mapping bee eye responses</h2>



The team recorded ultraviolet sensitive cells in 17 honeybees and 31 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/honey-bees-spread-viruses-to-bumblebees-in-the-spring/">bumblebees</a>, sampling the main retina, the marginal zone next to the dorsal rim, and the dorsal rim itself. Those measurements let them compare spatial tuning, polarization sensitivity, and response curves.



Dorsal rim fields were the widest, with mean widths near 7 degrees in honeybee and near 6 degrees in bumblebee. Main retina fields sat near 2 to 3 degrees and dropped off much more quickly away from the center.



Main retina and marginal cells were around 10 times more sensitive to light than dorsal rim cells. Even so, dorsal rim cells had steeper response slopes that help encode small changes in a bright sky without saturating.



In a subset of dorsal rim recordings, maps showed two or more islands of high sensitivity separated by low areas. 



Millisecond-level delays between islands and small shifts in preferred polarization angles pointed to shared signals from neighboring units rather than a single broad optical lobe.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nature-s-blueprint-for-sensors">Nature’s blueprint for sensors</h2>



Pooling at the photoreceptor level smooths over the patchwork in skylight that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/clouds-have-become-less-reflective-making-global-warming-worse/">clouds</a> can produce. A cleaner polarization pattern in bee's eyes leads to a steadier internal compass that ignores minor distractions above.



Engineers can copy this approach with a simple sensor aimed upward. A polarization channel could serve as a low-cost backup when radio or magnetic cues are weak or noisy. 



This strategy may help future autonomous systems keep their bearings even when signals fail.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0234" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Biology Letters</a>.



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Hidden eye sensors help bees find their way home

Honeybees can travel several miles from their hive and still make a straight line back home. Their secret isn’t scent trails or landmarks, but the way they read the sky. By detecting subtle polarization patterns in scattered sunlight, bees turn the heavens into a compass. A new study shows how a specialized region at the top of the bee's eye sharpens this celestial map. Neighboring light sensors share information, producing a steadier signal that prioritizes reliability over fine detail. The researchers say this built-in teamwork explains how...

Scientists from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> have figured out how and why species “hotspots” of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dams-tropical-forest-biodiversity/">biodiversity</a> from California to the Galapagos have accumulated such a wide variety of species. Thanks to a “big data” study, published February 6th in <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a>, scientists now know evolution speed is reliant on climate.

According to the study’s findings, tropical hotspots located near the equator have generated new species at a faster rate during the last 25 million years in comparison to areas surrounding them. However, biodiversity hotspots in more temperate areas of the world are mostly populated by immigrant species that evolved elsewhere but moved to warmer climate to either escape long-term “geological processes” like glaciers, and/or needed a location with more shelter.

“We've known for decades that just a subset of places on Earth, no more than 20%, contain about half of all vertebrate species. However, we lacked the tools and data to understand why these patterns exist," said senior author Dr. Andrew Tanentzap, from the <a href="https://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences</a>. "Large-scale initiatives to map species across the planet and in the Tree of Life, as well as advances in computing, are expanding our understanding of evolution in exciting ways. This study can now provide an answer to the old question of why diversity varies so much across the world."

Researchers used computational techniques to combine datasets that included global distribution of 11,093 bird species and 5,302 mammals, as well as the evolutionary trees that track the origin of thousands of organisms through history. Using these datasets, researchers could then follow the development of specific species-rich areas.

By doing so, researchers found that tropical biodiversity hotspots had higher rates of speciation, the development of new species, over the last 25 million years.

"Species generation is faster in the tropics, but we can now see it is extra-quick in these hotspots of biodiversity," said lead author D.r Javier Igea, also from Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences. "More rainfall and hotter temperatures bolster the ecosystems of tropical hotspots, producing more plants, more animals that feed on those plants, and so on. The greater available energy and range of habitats within these hotspots supported the acceleration of species diversification."

For example, Madagascar has 12 species of lemurs that diversified over the last 10 million years. And the Philippines’ 17 species of earthworm mice popped up over the last 6 million years.

But biodiversity hotspots in temperate areas of the world told a different story. "Biodiversity hotspots in temperate zones have been shaped mainly by migration that occurred during the last 25 million years," Igea said. "We suspect that this influx of immigrant species resulted from climate fluctuations across millions of years, particularly cooling. Biodiversity hotspots may have acted as a refuge where more species could survive in harsh climatic conditions.”

The Iberian lynx, for example, is now a native of the Mediterranean Basin, however it was initially found in central Europe during the Pleistocene, before the last Ice Age. And the yellow-billed magpie of California most likely was cut off to its ancestral species due to glaciations over three million years ago.

"We found that hotspots across the world all have a greater complexity of habitats and more environmental energy, but the processes that drive the biodiversity are very different for tropical and temperate zones," Igea said.

Tanentzap added, "Many of these hotspot regions have species found nowhere else on Earth, yet face devastating levels of habitat loss. Protecting these areas is vital to conserving the natural world's diversity.”

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Climate dictates evolutionary speed in biodiversity hotspots

Scientists from the University of Cambridge have figured out how...

Elk have developed a number of adaptations for surviving harsh environments, and are even known to persevere after major forest disturbances such as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/amazon-forest-fires-carbon/">forest fires</a> and logging. However, a new study has revealed that elk seem to be avoiding areas hit by the bark-beetle epidemic.

Across the northern portions of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, a large beetle outbreak has killed millions of trees. Researchers discovered that during the summer, elk are not returning to areas with extensive tree mortality. 

This behavior will greatly limit the amount of  land that will be occupied by elk in the summer months. The findings will be important to many wildlife and land managers who are responsible for managing elk populations in regions that are impacted by the bark-beetle epidemic.

“Although it is common following forest disturbances for elk to seek out and capitalize on the resulting increases in highly palatable and nutritious forage, during the summer months, elk in our study area fairly consistently avoided beetle-kill. This result is somewhat counter to how we typically think elk respond to forest disturbances,” said study lead author Bryan G. Lamont of the <a href="http://www.uwyo.edu/">University of Wyoming</a>. “It appears there are some subtle, but real differences between disturbances such as forest fires and the bark-beetle epidemic.”

Lamont pointed out that elk examined in the study were much more influenced by the presence of downed trees and the loss of canopy cover compared to the small increases in understory found in areas affected by beetles. 

“Ultimately this means that if elk are avoiding beetle-kill areas, this translates to much less forest habitat that elk typically would utilize during the summer.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19372817">Journal of Wildlife Management</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The bark-beetle epidemic is pushing elk out of their natural habitats

Elk have developed a number of adaptations for surviving harsh...

Can bees really do math? Researchers from <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/">RMIT University</a> in Melbourne, Australia have discovered that bees are capable of doing basic mathematics.

In their study, the researchers found that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/first-vaccine-bee-colonies/">bees</a> can be taught to recognize colors as symbolic representations for addition and subtraction. They were then able to use this information to solve math problems presented to them by the researchers. And while addition and subtraction may come easily to us, they are actually complex operations as they require two levels of processing. 

“You need to be able to hold the rules around adding and subtracting in your long-term memory, while mentally manipulating a set of given numbers in your short-term memory,” says RMIT associate professor Adrian Dyer. “On top of this, our bees also used their short-term memories to solve arithmetic problems, as they learned to recognize plus or minus as abstract concepts rather than being given visual aids.”

The experiment involved training the bees in a Y-shaped maze, where the bees received a reward of sugar water when they made a correct choice, or received a bitter quinine solution if they made an incorrect choice. Because honeybees will return to a location if it provides a good source of food, they were able to keep going back to the experimental set-up to collect nutrition and continue learning. 

When a bee entered the maze, they would see a set of elements between 1 to 5 shapes. These shapes would either be blue (meaning the bee had to add) or yellow (meaning the bee had to subtract). The bee would then fly into a decision chamber, where it could choose to fly to the left or right side of the maze. One side had the correct solution of either plus or minus one, while the other side had the incorrect solution. After more than 100 learning trials, the bees learned that blue meant +1 and yellow meant -1. They then were able to apply these rules to new numbers.

“Our findings suggest that advanced numerical cognition may be found much more widely in nature among non-human animals than previously suspected,” says Dyer. “If maths doesn’t require a massive brain, there might also be new ways for us to incorporate interactions of both long-term rules and working memory into designs to improve rapid AI learning of new problems.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: RMIT University

Honeybees are capable of solving basic math problems

Can bees really do math? Researchers from RMIT University in...

The vast majority of humans on this planet <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/meat-consumption-climate-change-2/">consume meat</a> in one form or another, and it’s no secret that our omnivorous ways can have a negative impact on the environment. 

Now, a new study published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1755263x">Conservation Letters</a> has found that at least 200 species of large animals (known as megafauna) are decreasing in number. Over 150 of these species are under threat of extinction due in part to our meat consumption habits. 

A team of researchers from the <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> College of Forestry took part in an international collaboration that built a list of megafauna based on body size and taxonomy. The animals studied were considered unusually large in comparison to other species within their class. 

Analysis of these species’ populations found that 70 percent were in decline. Also, almost 60 percent were threatened with disappearing all together.

“Direct harvest for human consumption of meat or body parts is the biggest danger to nearly all of the large species with threat data available,” says William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the College of Forestry at OSU. 

“Thus, minimizing the direct killing of these vertebrate animals is an important conservation tactic that might save many of these iconic species as well as all of the contributions they make to their ecosystems.”

As hunting and fishing strategies have become more coordinated and refined in the last few centuries, our proficiency in killing wildlife has only increased. As a result, 2 percent of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/vanishing-giants-study-reveals-shocking-decline-of-large-mammals-in-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">megafauna</a> species are now extinct. “Our results suggest we’re in the process of eating megafauna to extinction,” Ripple says. 

“Through the consumption of various body parts, users of Asian traditional medicine also exert heavy tolls on the largest species. In the future, 70 percent will experience further population declines and 60 percent of the species could become extinct or very rare.”

Besides the intentional harvesting of megafauna species, many become accidentally caught in traps, snares, trawls, and nets – a consequence of our more efficient hunting methods. 

“And there's also habitat degradation to contend with,” Ripple explains. “When taken together, these threats can have major negative cumulative effects on vertebrate species.”

Preserving many of these species will likely be challenging as the human population continues to grow, creating more mouths to feed. 

“There will be economic arguments against it, as well as cultural and social obstacles,” says Ripple. “But if we don’t consider, critique and adjust our behaviors, our heightened abilities as hunters may lead us to consume much of the last of the Earth's megafauna.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Our meat-eating is pushing Earth’s largest animals towards extinction

The vast majority of humans on this planet consume meat...

If you are active on social media, chances are high that you have seen a video of an otter living as a pet. The videos quickly become viral because otters are, frankly, adorable. But these videos actually shed a light on a severe threat to otter species: the pet trade. 

Proposals submitted ahead of the 18th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) hope to address this.

CITES is an international agreement between governments that sets regulations on the trade in wild animals and plants. Every three years, proposals can be submitted for consideration at the Conference of the Parties. This year, 57 proposals have been submitted including the two proposals to increase protections for otter species affected by the pet trade.

The proposals aim to move the Smooth-coated otter and the Asian small-clawed otter from Appendix II to Appendix I, which would prohibit the international commercial trade in the species. Both species are currently listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List but conservationists worry that their new-found popularity online might accelerate population declines.

Human activity has historically threatened otter populations. Otters have been hunted for years for their fur and have suffered habitat loss as a result of human expansion. But the pet trade is a relatively new and little understood threat to the species.

As videos of otters proliferate online, so will demand for otters in the pet trade. The online videos glorify otter pet ownership and encourage individuals to buy their own pet to achieve social media fame. But not only do otters make poor pets, increased demand can lead to otters being smuggled from the wild. According to the<a href="http://www.otter.org/public/IOSFCurrentProjects_Asia.aspx"> International Otter Survival Fund,</a> the mother otter is often killed by poachers so they can capture the cubs.

A <a href="http://www.cpsg.org/sites/cbsg.org/files/2018%20SEAsia-Otter-report.pdf">report</a> released last year by TRAFFIC found a large illegal market for otters in Southeast Asia. Researchers found 560 advertisements for up to 1,189 otters over a four-month period in 2018. In addition, the report found that 59 live otters, most of which were juveniles, were seized by officials from 2015-2017.

Otters were rarely found in physical marketplaces. Otters are currently protected by national laws and a CITES Appendix II listing, therefore the internet may provide an easier marketplace for traffickers to sell otters without fear of detection.

Of the four otter species native to Southeast Asia, the Asian small-clawed and the Smooth-coated otter were the most commonly encountered species, which is in line with the proposals ahead of the Conference of the Parties.

A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2287884X18302681">study</a>, released in December 2018, found similar results. Researchers monitored Facebook groups during a 14-month period and found 160 advertisements for 337 otters. Asian small-clawed otters represented over 80% of the otters for sale and Smooth-coated otters accounted for the rest. In addition, 53% of the otters for sale were newborn pups and 35% were young otters.

These recent findings suggest that the pet trade is a growing and urgent threat to Asian small-clawed and Smooth-coated otters. The fate of these two species will be decided at the Conference of the Parties this May.

--

By <a href="mailto:brianna.grant134@gmail.com">Brianna Lynne</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

New international protections sought for otters as online trade booms

If you are active on social media, chances are high...

A team of evolutionary biologists at <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">The Ohio State University</a> has found a surprising amount of variation in venom within populations of Florida pygmy rattlesnakes. The study, which is the first of its kind, has revealed that the venom produced by one pygmy rattlesnake can be much more toxic and deadly compared to the venom of a snake in the same group.

It has long been established that snakes of the same species often have variations in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/venom-snakes-dangerous/">venom</a> based on the prey that exist in different environments. However, according to study senior author Professor H. Lisle Gibbs, the discovery of widespread venom variability between individual members of a group of snakes that were born and bred in the same area is perplexing and exciting at the same time. 

“We found differences within the same population that were almost four times greater than differences in toxicity between snakes from different regions,” said Professor Gibbs. “To my knowledge, nobody has ever documented anything like this before - we've all been focused on the snakes from different populations living in different habitats.”

To investigate, the researchers sampled venom from 32 pygmy rattlesnakes located within about 60 miles of each other in Florida. The team compared the effects of each snake's venom against brown anole lizards collected in the same region.

In some cases, an individual snake’s venom proved to be deadly against most lizards. In other snakes, however, venom was found to be much less deadly or not deadly at all.

The researchers are now curious about how the toxicity of the rattlesnakes' venom would vary against another type of prey.

“It could be that the snakes that aren't good at killing these lizards are great at killing other prey, such as frogs. We just don't know,” said Professor Gibbs. “Another big question from an evolutionary perspective is ‘Why aren't they good at killing everything all the time?’”

Professor Gibbs explained that producing the proteins found within venom takes a lot of energy, and so the energy of different snakes may have simply been devoted to toxicity against various types of prey.

“This is a whole new way of looking at how evolution operates on venom that we haven't considered. There's a new act in this evolutionary play that we didn't know about until now.”


The study is published in the journal <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/">Biology Letters</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Peter May

Venom toxicity varies greatly among rattlesnake populations

A team of evolutionary biologists at The Ohio State University...

Researchers at <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> are reporting on the progress of a federal strategy to protect older forests in the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/drought-wildfires-pacific-northwest/">Pacific Northwest</a>. Twenty-five years into the 100-year plan, forest losses to wildfire have increased and declines in bird populations have not been reversed, according to the experts. 

The team said their findings highlight the importance of making it a priority to protect older forests. The researchers also pointed out that when the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was initially adopted in 1994, the project was not expected to show significant positive impacts on biodiversity for 50 years.

“Trees in the northwestern United States are some of the longest-lived and largest in the world,” said study co-author Professor Matt Betts. “Douglas-fir can live to be more than 800 years old and grow to be more than 100 meters tall, so it shouldn't be surprising that it is hard to 'restore' this forest type, and that any plan to do so will take a long time.”

“The plan has been one of the most impressive forest conservation strategies in the world, and there is no doubt that it has had a strong positive impact on the conservation of old-growth forests, but our results show that even with these strong conservation measures, bird species living in this system still aren't doing too well.”

The NWFP is a series of federal policies passed under President Bill Clinton to safeguard 10 million hectares of land, including national forests and national parks. Professor Betts teamed up with OSU research associate Ben Phalan to investigate how the NWFP has affected biodiversity so far. 

The team used region-wide bird surveys, forest data, and land ownership maps. They also examined population trends for 24 widespread Pacific Northwest bird species that are associated with either older forests, diverse early-seral ecosystems, or both.

The study revealed that bird populations associated with older forests, such as the varied thrush, golden-crowned kinglet, and the Pacific-slope flycatcher, are continuing to struggle on both federal and private land. On federal land, the populations have been threatened by drought and fires, while the populations have struggled on industrial land due to timber harvesting.

“All forests in the region evolved with fires to some degree, but now, at a time when old-growth forests are so depleted, stand-replacing fires have become an important cause of declines in bird populations in older forests,” said Professor Betts. “Evidence suggests that some of the increase in fires is climate related.”

The researchers also found that young forest areas known as “diverse early-seral ecosystems” are not declining as much as was expected. In fact, the presence of preforest vegetation has increased in some regions.

“Again, that seems to be because new fires are creating quite a bit of early seral,” said Phalan. “There are proposals that more of this vegetation type be promoted via forest management, but our results show that birds in older forests are more likely to be in decline than those in early-seral ecosystems, so we need to be very careful not to reduce our options for recovery of older forests - especially dense, moist forests.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Pacific Northwest forests show wildfire loss, declining bird numbers

Researchers at Oregon State University are reporting on the progress...

New research from an international study, published in <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>, shows that warm and cool water temperatures spanning a coastline can cause new species of marine fish to evolve. What’s more is that these <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-species-remipede/">newly evolved species</a> do not have to be isolated from similar nearby fish, as previously thought.

Researchers also believe that currents with different temperatures, which help distribute marine species, may also encourage the evolution of new species.

Professor Peter Teske from South Africa’s <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/">University of Johannesburg</a> and Professor Luciano Beheregaray from Australia’s <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> led an international team that used DNA from regional goby fish to test how species may be influenced by currents of different temperatures.

The team found that although similar, goby genes impacted by water temperature differ from population to population within the South African coastline, which has four separate temperature regions: cool-temperate, warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical.

“Each regional goby population is already adapted to its preferred thermal habitat, and migrants that disperse into nearby regions that are too warm or too cold will not do as well as the locals," said Professor Teske.

However, genes that are not temperature-dependent showed no difference from population to population.

[caption id="attachment_1867180" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/marine-currents-south-africa.png"><img class="wp-image-1867180" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/marine-currents-south-africa.png" alt="" width="700" height="597" /></a> Image Credit: Marine Research Institute, University of Cape Town[/caption]

“Over time, the remainder of the genome will "catch up" with the temperature-selected genes, and even later, the new species will also change morphologically,” Teske explained. “Only then will they be recognisable without the help of genetic methods."

The findings are crucial for managing globally threatened coastal species and fish stocks.

“When several very young species that already cannot live in each others' habitats are all treated as a single species, this can result in the overfishing of locally adapted stocks, or the extinction of a rare species that has been mistaken for its more abundant neighbour,” said Professor Beheregaray.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Differences in coastal water temperatures can create new species

New research from an international study, published in Proceedings of...

An island in the South Pacific that emerged after a volcanic eruption in 2015 is now home to hundreds of tropical birds known as sooty terns. The island is also covered in flowering plants whose seeds were likely scattered around in bird droppings.

The island is the result of an <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/underwater-volcanoes-tasmania/">underwater volcano eruption</a> that spewed ash and lava into the sea for weeks. When the ash mixed with warm ocean water, it solidified into rocks that ultimately formed the island.

The volcanic rocks accumulated in between two existing islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. While it has not been officially named, locals call the new island Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai after the two small islands that it joins.


<a href="http://nasa.gov">NASA</a> wants to study the island before it is potentially washed away into the sea. Dan Slayback, a research scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, recently visited Hunga Tonga with other experts and students. He told <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/2019/01/30/land-ho-visiting-a-young-island/">NASA Earth Expeditions</a>: “We were all like giddy school children. Most of it is this black gravel, I won’t call it sand - pea sized gravel - and we’re mostly wearing sandals so it’s pretty painful because it gets under your foot.”

“Immediately I kind of noticed it wasn’t quite as flat as it seems from satellite. It’s pretty flat, but there’s still some gradients and the gravels have formed some cool patterns from the wave action.”

[caption id="attachment_1867207" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/island-life.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1867207" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/island-life.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="412" /></a> Credit: Dan Slayback[/caption]

The team took pictures, collected rock samples, and used a drone to obtain an aerial survey of Hunga Tonga. According to the researchers, data obtained during the trip may shed new light on rare volcanic islands. 

“The island is eroding by rainfall much more quickly than I’d imagined,” said Slayback. “We were focused on the erosion on the south coast where the waves are crashing down, which is going on. It’s just that the whole island is going down, too. It’s another aspect that’s made very clear when you’re standing in front of these huge erosion gullies. Okay, this wasn’t here three years ago, and now it’s two meters deep.”

However, there is no way to know how long the island will last, and further research is needed to explore the possibility that hydrothermal processes may be ongoing that could make the land resistant to erosion for decades to come. 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@gmail.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: Sea Education Association / SEA Semester/ <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/2019/01/30/land-ho-visiting-a-young-island/">NASA</a>

Brand new Pacific island already covered in vegetation and life

An island in the South Pacific that emerged after a...

78 whales are all that remain of the Salish Sea's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/save-endangered-killer-whale/">southern resident killer whale population</a>. 

Bombarded by a range of threats from shipping traffic to Chinook salmon declines, the species of killer whale was declared endangered in 2005. 

Southern resident Killer whales are not the only killer whales in jeopardy, but it can be difficult to assess just how at risk a species is given the challenges of tracking the whale's movements in the wild. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA) knew that monitoring the resident whales hunting patterns and Chinook salmon consumption could help show how vulnerable the whale population is to future salmon declines.

But in order to do that, the researchers had to find a way to record and survey the whales' movements underwater. 

First, the team attached 21 tags to southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington. The tags allowed the researchers to track the whales and record whale calls underwater. 

The researchers also recorded trips to surface and surface activity as well as collecting any salmon remains after a successful hunt. After recording the whales' sounds and movements, they analyzed the recordings to figure out when the whale was hunting. 

When a killer whale is closing in on its prey, it produces a series of particular clicks.

“Once a fish has been detected, the killer whale angles its body steeply downward, begins a descent to depths of about 50-300m, and then remains underwater for about 7-10min while pursuing the fish,” said Jennifer Tennessen, the lead author of the study.

The team input the whale movement data into a computer program which identified 126 successful hunts when the whale caught a salmon. 

Not every deep dive was successful though which was surprising to the researchers as hunting requires a lot of energy. 

The team found that not all whales eat their salmon prey at the surface and some eat the salmon on the way to the surface. Males also made more dives than females and caught more fish. 

“[This] suggests that males may need to forage more in order to meet their greater metabolic needs,” said Tennessen.

The findings were published in the <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/222/3/jeb191874">Journal of Experimental Biology</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Male killer whales hunt and eat more than females do

78 whales are all that remain of the Salish Sea's...

“Many <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fox">foxes</a> grow grey, but few grow good,” opined Benjamin Franklin. 

While categorizing a wild animal as “good” or “bad” is ultimately a useless exercise, substitute the word “tame” and Franklin would have been on to something. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/behavior-foxes-human/">Foxes</a> have been kept in captivity for thousands of years—a fox was found buried alongside a human in a grave in Jordan dated to 14.5 thousand years ago—but never domesticated. 

Those who have attempted to raise wild foxes, even from birth, all tell the same tale. Ask the the protagonist of J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, who makes the ill-advised decision to keep a fox in his apartments, which soon reeked of its pungent urine. After a certain point, even with love, care, and socialization, foxes, like most non-domesticated animals, demonstrate their wildness. 

The wariness and cunning that have enshrined them in folklore and legend are bound to emerge. It’s something inherent, something that separates them from the friendly and approachable creatures we typically think of as pets. Certainly, some “pet” animals aren’t fully, or even partially, domesticated. Parrots, while amenable to socialization, haven’t shed all that many of their wild habits...they still scream and bite and become neurotic in captivity under all but the most painstaking care. Sugar gliders, one of the more popular exotic animals kept as human companions, still retain their nocturnal habits (though they can be trained out of them). And of course, reptiles, usually not social in the way that we typically conceive of the term, may in some cases become accustomed to handling and feeding by humans, but still retain nearly all of the qualities of their wild ancestors, even after generations of captive breeding. 

There’s something special that distinguishes truly domesticated animals: dogs, cats, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, rabbits, cows, chickens, ducks, geese and a handful of others. In addition to their calmer, more tractable dispositions, many exhibit a series of strangely similar characteristics across species, particularly in mammals. Floppy ears, curly tails, foreshortened muzzles, and spotted coats: all of these are common in domestic animals. Think of the dangling ears of dogs and rabbits, the curled tails of pigs and certain canine breeds, the flattened faces of some dogs and cats, the spots on cows and the blazes on horses. Darwin noted this curious assemblage of characteristics in his 1868 volume <a href="http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F877.1&amp;viewtype=text&amp;pageseq=1">The variation of animals and plants under domestication</a>.

How did such a specific cluster of traits appear in such disparate species, domesticated for different periods of time, from the dog, which may have been domesticated as many as 40,000 years ago, to the rabbit, which may have existed in domestic form for a mere 2,000 years? Until relatively recently, it was believed that these physical traits must have been selected for along with increased tolerance for human contact. That seemed like a relatively reasonable conclusion, especially given the length of time that has elapsed since these species joined us on our evolutionary journey. It’s not like the ancients left us much in the way of domestication manuals. 

That all changed, however, beginning in 1959. That year, Russian scientist Dmitry Belyaev began a series of experiments on foxes that would forever change the evolutionary paradigm. Belyaev, a geneticist, had a decade earlier been fired from his position at the Central Research Laboratory of Fur Breeding due to his adherence to the Darwinian theory of evolution by way of natural selection. The Soviet view on evolution was closer to what is now called the Lamarckian theory—that changes that occur during a single animal’s lifetime are heritable by its offspring. His dissent from that perspective was heretical and he was thus compelled to continue his studies of evolution in secret. Then, in 1953, Josef Stalin died and these restrictions relaxed to some extent. 

In 1959, he was appointed director of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Assisted by <a href="https://evolution-institute.org/profile/lyudmila-trut/">Lyudmila Trut</a>, he began studies on a group of silver foxes gathered from fur farms in Estonia—then part of the Soviet Union. (Silver foxes are a color variant of the red fox [Vulpes vulpes]. This naturally occurring polymorphism is popular in the fur industry). The provenance of that stock was <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/103/1/168/2452417">later traced back to Prince Edward Island</a>, Canada, where foxes were first farmed commercially beginning in the late 1800s. 

The original foxes used in the program, while generations removed from their wild ancestors, were by no means tame. In fact, most were fearful, if not downright aggressive when approached by humans—an understandable reaction for an essentially wild animal kept in a small wire cage. Belyaev and Trut began selecting the most approachable specimens—30 males and 100 females—and breeding them back to each other. In the late 1960s, they also began breeding a line of hyper-aggressive foxes and also maintained a population that retained the traits of the original foxes from Estonia. 

By the fourth generation, the approachable foxes had become appreciably more tame, wagging their tails upon the approach of humans. Belyaev and Trut continued mating these friendly foxes back to each other, keeping only the top 10% of each generation and killing the rest, whose pelts were sold as a means of supporting their research.

[caption id="attachment_1867097" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/fox-domestication.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1867097" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/fox-domestication.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="609" /></a> Image Credit: Lyudmila Trut, Svetlana Argutinskaya[/caption]

<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2763232/">After another four generations</a>, some of the foxes became affectionate and excited, seeming to desire human companionship. Their friendliness was measured by a formalized procedure that involved testing their sensitivity to touch beginning at the age of two and a half months. The foxes that passed the test—seeking out and clearly enjoying human contact—were dubbed “elites.” Nearly 50% of foxes bred at the institute displayed these characteristics by the 30th generation. By the 21st century, nearly all of them were friendly and functionally domestic. In all, the project has produced some 50,000 foxes over approximately 50 generations.

Only a handful of these domesticated foxes have made their way to the United States. In the 1990s, the institute began selling small numbers of foxes to private buyers. Several are housed at the <a href="https://www.siberiancupcakes.com/">Judith A. Bassett Canid Education and Conservation Center</a> in San Diego, which aims to educate the public about these foxes. The <a href="https://lkalmanson.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=category&amp;layout=blog&amp;id=19&amp;Itemid=32">only importer</a> charges $8,900 to transport a fox from the institute in Siberia. (Other foxes sold as “domestic” in the United States are in fact captive-bred wild foxes and are rarely suited to captivity.) 

The Russian foxes are certainly tame and friendly, but they do not necessarily make the best pets. Though the domestication process has reduced the potency of their musky urine, the odor is still powerful and difficult to remove from carpet and furniture, where it will inevitably be deposited. And while the foxes can be trained to some extent, they are hardly as tractable as dogs. They require a specialized grain-free diet and an outdoor enclosure with a high fence and protective structures that prevent them from digging out. 

Fascinatingly, though the only quality that was selected for by the researchers was friendliness, at a certain point, physiological changes began to emerge as well. The ears began to droop in some foxes, limbs, tails, and muzzles became shorter, and skulls became wider. This is consistent with the neotenic characteristics found in other domestic animals—that is, they retain juvenile features into adulthood. The males also had larger gonads and both sexes became sexually mature at an earlier age than their counterparts. And instead of coming into estrus once a year, females became sexually receptive multiple times a year. Increasingly, spotted kits began appearing in the litters as well. These features all appeared to be linked to the genes that code for domestic behavior. That is: these physical characteristics are directly connected to a suite of behaviors.

A number of genetic and blood chemistry studies have attempted to account for the mechanisms that drive the shift toward domestication. A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0611-6">genomic study</a> zeroed in on one gene, SorCS1, that appears to differ between the domestic, standard, and hyper-aggressive lines. In mice, this same gene has been linked to the communication between neurons, suggesting that it may play a role in how the brain regulates behavior. Other genes that differed between the three groups of foxes have been associated with autism, bipolar disorder, and Williams-Beuren syndrome, a human disorder that causes cognitive impairment and excessive friendliness. The exact mechanisms by which these genes act on behavior as a whole remain to be determined.

Researchers have also found that the friendlier foxes had <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/009130579190080L">higher levels of serotonin</a> in their brains. Serotonin is known to inhibit aggression. They also had lower corticosteroid and adrenaline levels. Both modulate stress responses and lower levels of them suggest reduced adrenal gland function. These glands are often reduced in domestic animals. They develop from the neural crest, a region of stem cells that, during embryonic development, differentiate into a variety of features, among them melanocytes, the cells that control pigmentation. So, the biochemical pathways that determine behavior and those that control physical appearance may in fact be closely linked. 

While much remains to be determined, Belyaev and Trut have thus illustrated that the adorable features that we so treasure in our domestic companions are in fact side effects of having selected for behavior. To put it another way: cuddly came before cute.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Main Image: Russian domesticated Red Fox, Credit: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kayfedewa">Kayfedewa</a>

Few grow good: The strange story of the domestication of the fox

“Many foxes grow grey, but few grow good,” opined Benjamin Franklin....

Late Triassic dinosaur-like reptile chewed up the bones of its prey. The discovery of fossilized droppings in Poland has yielded new insights into a late <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/life-triassic-period/">Triassic </a>dinosaur that roamed the Earth 210 million years ago. 

The Smok wawelski was a large archosaur predator that shared many similarities with T. Rex and researchers from <a href="https://www.uu.se/en">Uppsala University</a> in Sweden say that the theropod likely crushed up and ate the bones of its prey to access the marrow. 

The team detailed their findings in a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports. 

Few dinosaurs were known to exhibit this kind of behavior as most dinosaurs ate the flesh of their prey, but the discovery of teeth and bones fragments in fossil droppings of the Smok wawelski shows that the dinosaur did eat bones. 

The researchers studied ten fossil droppings believed to belong to Smok wawelski that were found in Poland. After scanning the fossils, called coprolites (fossil poop), the researchers created 3D images of the scans to better study the fossil components. 

The coprolites contained bones from prey and crushed teeth from the wawelski itself, and the researchers say this is because the predator may have accidentally ingested broken teeth while chewing on bones. 

In fact, 50 percent of the droppings were made up of bone fragments and teeth.

[caption id="attachment_1867107" align="aligncenter" width="628"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/fossils.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1867107 size-full" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/fossils.jpg" alt="" width="628" height="491" /></a> Fossil droppings from the Smok Wawelski, Image Credit: Uppsala University, Martin Qvarnström[/caption]

The archosaur also shares similar characteristics to other bone eating dinosaurs like a large head and body which the researchers say helps prove that the animals engaged in osteophagy (eating bones).

“Further evidence for bone-crushing behaviour is provided by isolated worn teeth, bone-rich regurgitalites (fossil regurgitates) and numerous examples of crushed or bite-marked dicynodont bones” the researchers wrote.

Some animals still eat bones today like dogs, grizzly bears, and giraffes although osteophagy in the animal kingdom is typically done to ingest more phosphorus which is lacking from many herbivorous diets. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Late Triassic dinosaur-like reptile chewed up the bones of its prey

Late Triassic dinosaur-like reptile chewed up the bones of its...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The environmental problem we actually solved

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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-----

Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

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

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



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



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



---



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

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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