More than half a billion years ago, a tiny ancestor of today’s arthropods scuttled along the floor of a shallow sea in what’s now Yunnan, China. It had large grasping arms, stalked eyes, and a surprisingly modern-looking brain tucked into a head barely wider than the tip of a pencil.



Now, a new look at this ancient fossil - Jianfengia multisegmentalis - is reshaping what scientists thought they knew about how these animals first branched into two major evolutionary paths.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-arthropods-rule-the-world">Arthropods rule the world</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-people-think-insects-will-become-a-sustainable-food-source/">Insects</a>, spiders, crabs, centipedes - all of them are arthropods. This massive group includes more than a million known species. 



Arthropods live everywhere: in the ocean, on land, in the air, and even inside of other animals. Their tough exoskeletons, segmented bodies, and jointed legs have helped them survive and thrive for over 500 million years.



But one big puzzle has remained: where exactly did the two main branches of arthropods come from?



On one side, you have mandibulates - creatures like insects, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-invasive-crustacean-species-discovered-in-the-mediterranean/">crustaceans</a>, and millipedes, which have antennae and use jaws (or mandibles) to eat. On the other hand, chelicerates - spiders, scorpions, and horseshoe crabs - have fangs or pincers instead of jaws.



Until now, scientists weren’t sure when or how these two groups split. That’s where Jianfengia comes in.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-fossil-that-tells-a-different-story">A fossil that tells a different story</h2>



At first, Jianfengia was thought to belong to a group called megacheirans, meaning “large hands” in Greek. 



These extinct animals had long, claw-like limbs sticking out from their heads - similar to the claws of modern <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/horseshoe-crabs-view-the-world-through-compound-eyes/">horseshoe crabs</a>. Because of that, scientists had placed them in the chelicerate group.



But when researchers took a closer look at the fossilized brain of Jianfengia, they noticed something didn’t add up.



The research team, led by the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Arizona</a>, reconstructed the nervous system from four well-preserved specimens. 



What they found was unexpected: a brain that looked a lot like that of a modern shrimp or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bright-coloration-in-crayfish-does-not-serve-an-evolutionary-purpose/">crayfish</a>. It even had features seen in simple freshwater crustaceans, like brine shrimp - the kind sold as “sea monkeys.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-ancestors-of-antennae">The ancestors of antennae </h2>



“These megacheirans didn't have antennules, which are antenna-like appendages that are common to crustaceans, insects and centipedes,” said lead researcher Nicholas Strausfeld, a professor in the U of A Department of Neuroscience. 



“Instead we see these strange, quite sturdy head appendages that were specialized for reaching and clasping things.”



Turns out, those big “claws” weren’t early versions of spider fangs after all. Instead, they were likely the ancestors of antennae - the kind found in today’s insects and crustaceans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seeing-with-ancient-eyes">Seeing with ancient eyes</h2>



Jianfengia’s head was only about 0.08 inches wide, but it packed in a lot of sensory power. It had stalked compound eyes, like those of insects and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/do-crabs-and-lobsters-have-emotions-and-feelings/">crabs</a>, plus at least three single-lens eyes - the simple kind also seen in many modern arthropods.



In one fossil, the researchers even looked inside the compound eyes and saw fossilized cone cells that once supported light-sensitive parts of the eye. 



“What we saw was unexpected: the brain looks really modern, comparable to that of a living crustacean,” Strausfeld said.



This level of detail is almost never seen in fossils this old. Soft tissues like brains usually break down long before they can fossilize. But thanks to the fine-grained rock and lucky conditions in this ancient seabed, a few rare specimens kept their delicate neural features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-cousins-go-separate-ways">Ancient cousins go separate ways</h2>



Another fossil - Alalcomenaeus - also belonged to the megacheiran group and had similar body parts. However, it turned out to be quite different on the inside. Its brain looked more like that of Limulus, the horseshoe crab, which is a chelicerate.



So even though these two creatures looked similar on the outside, their brains revealed that they were actually early members of different arthropod groups. One led to modern crustaceans and insects. The other led to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-species-joro-spiders-has-invaded-the-united-states-heres-what-to-look-for/">spiders</a> and scorpions.



“Many repeats of these comparisons revealed that in the arthropod tree of life, Jianfengia sat at or near the root of all mandibulates, whereas its putative cousin, Alalcomenaeus, has the same status, but within the chelicerate branch of the tree of life,” said co-author David Andrew of Lycoming College.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-same-tools-different-outcomes">Same tools, different outcomes</h2>



The key body part in all of this are the large claws sticking out of the head. Over hundreds of millions of years, evolution shaped them into very different things.



“In chelicerates, these ‘great appendages’ shrunk, so they eventually became the spider fangs,” said Strausfeld. “In mandibulates, evolution modified them into segmented antennules.”



Some tiny marine crustaceans alive today - called ostracods - still have antennules tipped with claspers, offering living proof of this evolutionary transition.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-arthropods-from-the-inside-out">Arthropods from the inside out</h2>



Looking at a creature’s shell or limbs can tell scientists part of the story. But to really understand where an animal fits in the family tree, the brain may offer better clues.



“Our results demonstrate that close examination of fossilized neural remains can provide powerful data indicating evolutionary relationships impossible to obtain just from features of the exoskeleton,” Strausfeld said. 



“One needs to know what to look for in the fossil brain because it tells us a lot about a fossil’s identity.”



Frank Hirth, a co-author from King’s College London, noted that the organization of their fossilized brains perfectly aligns with that of living arthropods, suggesting that their ancient constituents are extraordinarily robust, yet diverse.



This may explain why arthropods are the most successful inhabitants of this planet, said Hirth.



Ultimately, the tiny brain of a long-dead sea creature has helped scientists solve one of the oldest mysteries in animal evolution - where the arthropod family tree began to branch.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62849-w">Nature Communications</a>.



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Tiny fossil rewrites the giant arthropod family tree

More than half a billion years ago, a tiny ancestor of today’s arthropods scuttled along the floor of a shallow sea in what’s now Yunnan, China. It had large grasping arms, stalked eyes, and a surprisingly modern-looking brain tucked into a head barely wider than the tip of a pencil. Now, a new look at this ancient fossil - Jianfengia multisegmentalis - is reshaping what scientists thought they knew about how these animals first branched into two major evolutionary paths. Arthropods rule the world Insects, spiders, crabs,...

Reindeer certainly play a legendary role in the celebration of Christmas. But for some, the term ‘<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/color-vision-rudolph-reindeer/">reindeer</a>’ itself is confusing and I feel a bit of clarification is an order.  

Caribou and reindeer are often considered the same species, Rangifer tarandus.  Though some will bicker and say that the Caribou is Rangifer tarandus and the Reindeer is Tarandus tarandus, it’s clear that they’re more similar than different from each other.  

This doesn’t mean there is no difference between the two.  Caribou is the term usually used in North America and refers to a wild animal found in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Alaska and Greenland.  Reindeer however is commonly the word used for the animal in Europe and captive animals in North America as well.  This explains why the animals pulling Santa Clause’s sleigh are never referred to as caribou but always as reindeer.  It also explains why you can be a reindeer herder but not a caribou herder. The closer you look the more complex (and confusing) the picture of caribou/reindeer becomes.  

Interestingly, some reindeer aren’t fully domesticated like most animals you think of herding, instead they’re in a middle ground.  Semi-domesticated reindeer are important to a lot of people in a similar way to how a lot of livestock, like cows are to Americans. Reindeer herding is part of pan-arctic culture, something shared by many native peoples across the entirety of the Arctic region.

There are 30 reindeer <a href="http://reindeerherding.org/herders/">herding peoples</a> worldwide, with about 3 to 4 million reindeer.  The herders are spread across 9 nations: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Greenland, USA (Alaska), Mongolia, China and Canada.  There is also a small reindeer herd maintained in Scotland, although the animal is not native there. Instead, reindeer were introduced to Scotland’s Cairngorms in 1952 by a Sámi herder from Sweden.  The practice seems to have an ancient origin and more is shared between the cultures in how they carry out herding than is different between them. 

The oldest account of reindeer herding comes from the 800s, when a Norwegian chief visited the king of England and related to him that the Sámi people managed herds of reindeer.  The Sámi currently herd reindeer in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The modern national borders have sometimes been troublesome for people who traditionally crossed over these artificial lines without a thought.  Different conventions between the countries have allowed for the people to pass from one nation to another but in a carefully managed way. Currently, a new agreement between Norway and Sweden is being negotiated.  

Many reindeer populations, like the one in the US, are made of animals suitable for meat and fur but not as beasts of burden.  Some of the reindeer of Mongolia are different. Interestingly people sometimes actually ride reindeer in Mongolia. According to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/dukha-last-reindeer-people/index.html">CNN Travel</a>, the Dukha or Tsaatan people of Mongolia have herded reindeer through remote forests for centuries.  Once there were around 200 families living in this way in Mongolia, now the number is down to 40 reindeer herding families in Mongolia with around 1,000 reindeer.  

Part of the problem comes from the lure of big cities and an easier way of life, part of the problem comes from government pressure.  The Mongolian government has declared traditional Dukha land as part of parks, pushing native peoples off, paying each family roughly $150 in compensation.  Controversially, some of the Dukha people have moved reindeer from their remote and hard to reach homeland to warmer, more accessible places as a tourist attraction.  Some worry about the welfare of the reindeer as well as the culture they’re connected to in Mongolia.

Russia is another place with a large amount of reindeer herding.  According to an article in the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/reindeer-herders-in-the-russian-arctic/510809/">Atlantic</a>, it was estimated that the Nenet people of Russia would cull or harvest 3,000 reindeer for their meat in 2016.  Reindeer meat, fur and antlers provide money and a way of life for people in a remote area with few natural resources.  Reindeer are also used to pull sleds. 

In the US, the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/rangelands-and-grazing/reindeer-grazing">BLM</a> in Alaska issues permits for reindeer herding but only native peoples need apply as per the 1937 Reindeer Industry Act.  According to the BLM website, there is over one million acres of land available for reindeer herding in Alaska. All the ranges contain a patchwork of different owners but the BLM issues permits without a fee, only charging a $10 filing fee with each application.  

According to the <a href="http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&amp;articles_id=484">Alaska Fish and Game Department</a>, there are about 18,000 reindeer in the state, 12,000 of them on the Seward Peninsula.  Alaskan Reindeer are even found in remote islands, including the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands; places about as remote as possible in the United States.  In Alaska, reindeer are sometimes herded by helicopter, with small crews working on ground to close the animals in pens. Herding reindeer is possible because their behavior is slightly different from caribou.  Caribou scatter when faced with danger, reindeer move together en masse when confronted by something like a helicopter chase. 

Interestingly, some of the reindeer sneak away from their domestic masters and join their wild cousins.  According to one herder in Alaska, about 75% of a herd was lost to this type of desertion. The complicated relationship between caribou and reindeer is partly what makes the whole thing interesting.  We see a relationship between two animals: humans and caribou/reindeer still very much developing.

According to <a href="http://reindeerherding.org/herders/what-is-reindeer-husbandry/">Reindeer Herding</a>, there are at least 7 subspecies of Rangifer tarandus, some of which are referred to as caribou, some referred to as reindeer.  The website claims only one of these subspecies is a caribou, calling the others reindeer, deepening the confusion between the two.  Reindeer or Caribou come in subspecies adapted to the mountains and the forest. The mountain animals migrate between summer and winter ranges, while their forest cousins live in the same area year round.  People likewise move with caribou or stay with them, adapting to the realities of the local environment. 

Whether caribou or reindeer, herders such as those in the Arctic can teach us something of what it is to be human, one clever ape on a planet full of wild and wonderful creatures.           

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>,<a href="http://earth.com"> Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

How to spot a real reindeer from their close relatives

Reindeer certainly play a legendary role in the celebration of...

New research has revealed how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/solar-storms-whale-dolphin-strandings/">pilot whales</a> have their own accents depending on which social group they belong to. 

Similar to the regional dialects you find in the United States and across the globe, researchers from the <a href="http://www.whoi.edu/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) </a>discovered that short-finned pilot whales found off the coast of Hawaii have distinct dialects unique to their pod and families in a new study. 

“These groups of pilot whales all use the same habitat. The fact that they have different vocal repertoires means that they're purposely not associating with each other,” said Amy Van Cise,  the lead author of the study. “It's sort of like if you've got hipsters and prep kids in the same high school--each group has different slang. They identify themselves with certain speech to maintain that separation.”

The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, expands on previous pilot whale research undertaken by both Robin Baird from the<a href="http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/"> Cascadia Research Consortium</a> and Van Cise.

Baird, a co-author on the new study, worked to create a database of pilot whale associations off the coast of Hawaii by photographing and categorizing groups of whales in a previous 15-year study. 

Van Cise reviewed this database and noticed a pattern in how the pilot whales in Baird’s study were grouped. A unit was made up of intermediate family, clusters were made up of extended family, and clusters of whales came together to form a community. 

Van Cise along with Baird then went out to record the pilot whales using underwater microphones over the course of several years. The two also collected genetic samples of the whales they did find. 

Next, a team of researchers led by Van Cise listened to the recordings and organized the types of calls. The researchers were able to categorize the calls by group. 

“That let us effectively make a map of vocal repertoire that we could superimpose onto a map of the whales' social structure,” said Van Cise. “If two social groups sound similar to each other acoustically, that likely means that they're communicating with each other regularly, using similar habitats or hunting grounds and foraging habits. This gives us a better sense of the social ties between whale groups. In the long term, that could help us understand both their genetic diversity and their evolution.”

Pilot whales are an understudied species of whale, and little is understood about their social behavior. 

"On a broad-scale they are understudied, mainly because of where they spend their time,” said Baird. “Hawai'i is one of the only locations in the U.S. where you can fairly quickly and easily get to areas where you can find pilot whales, while staying in good working conditions.”

These types of studies are important because they can provide future research with a better understanding of how pilot whales communicate and function within their complex social groupings. 

“Although pilot whales are not currently endangered, they still face a number of threats. They're hunted in many countries around the world, and we think they may be sensitive to navy sonar or other human-made noise in the ocean,” said Van Cise. “When you hear of mass whale stranding incidents on a beach, it's often pilot whales, because the entire social group strands. That's the strength of the social tie--if the leader of a group beaches itself, all the animals in the group will beach themselves.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Amy Van Cise, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Groups of pilot whales have different dialects

New research has revealed how pilot whales have their own...

Run your tongue over the inside of your upper and lower lips. If you were one of the first vertebrates, which emerged some 500 million years ago during the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/cambrian-explosion-fossil-sponges/">Cambrian Period</a>, this would have been the extent of your mouth: a muscular hole in your face, used to inhale water and sediment, from which you would obtain oxygen and food. You wouldn’t have had jaws and certainly not teeth, at least as we imagine them today. 

<a href="https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-pdf/.../j.1096-3642.1996.tb01658.x.pdf">This is known as the “first mouth,”</a> followed much later by the evolution of the “second mouth”, supported by bony structures. The second mouth, which moved in behind the first mouth, constitutes what is now considered the buccal cavity, containing your teeth and tongue. These early vertebrates, which possessed a rudimentary spinal cord known as a notochord, inhabited the oceans and were likely slow-moving filter feeders. Known as the Agnatha, or “no jaws,” they are the creatures from which all living vertebrates descend, including our own species. How, then, did these jawless, worm-like creatures evolve the mechanisms that allow their latter-day descendants to bite and tear?

Though a stunning array of fossils, along with modern genetic studies, have elucidated how this might have occurred, there are numerous holes that have been filled with an array of tempting but often speculative theories. The most convincing, and widely accepted of them are included here. 

Among the more pressing problems is the fact that early vertebrates, due to their soft bodies and cartilaginous skeletons, are not well preserved in the fossil record. The conodonts, thought to be the among first vertebrates, were at first known only from their tiny, tooth-like feeding apparatus. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1502-3931.1983.tb01993.x">A fossil discovered in 1983</a> determined that the conodonts were in fact eel-shaped creatures that possessed a notochord. Their jagged “teeth,” which are useful index fossils, are thought to have been used in filtering microorganisms from the sediment or grasping other, smaller creatures. Their cartilaginous skeletons are usually poorly preserved, though it is certain that they did not possess jaws in the way we now conceive of them. Rather, the tooth-like protrusions adorned a sphincter-like mouth hole.

By some 470 million years ago, during the Ordovician, a better-preserved group of vertebrate animals, the ostracoderms, emerged. Heavily armored, they looked like vertebrate versions of trilobites or contemporary crustaceans such as Triops. At this point, we begin seeing some of the features more typical of jawed vertebrates, though ostracoderms did not actually possess jaws themselves. Notably, they are believed to have used their gills entirely for respiratory purposes, rather than as a combined breathing and feeding apparatus like more primitive animals. They have been linked to the only living jawless vertebrates, the hagfish and the lampreys (both in the superclass Cyclostomata).

[caption id="attachment_1864163" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/33974253702_5258b771b3_o.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1864163" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/33974253702_5258b771b3_o-1024x850.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="581" /></a> Image Credit: James St. John/Flickr[/caption]

Intriguingly, a set of genes that codes for the formation of the oral structure <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/107/40/17262">differs only in the expression of three genes</a> between lampreys and jawed fish. And early in the embryonic development of hagfish and lampreys, some of the same cell types that later differentiate into jaws in more advanced jawed fish are still discernible. All of this strongly supports an evolutionary continuum from jawless to jawed. 

Until recently, there was no actual fossil evidence of a transition from these primitive, jawless vertebrates to the jawed forms that radiated and constitute most of the Chordata today. However, in 2014, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13414">scientists published a paper</a> analyzing the fossilized remains of a creature known as Metaspriggina, discovered in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia. 

Dated to perhaps 505 million years ago, Metaspriggina possesses characteristics of both the Agnatha and their jawed ancestors, the Gnathostomata. Most significantly, it had seven pairs of gill arches, cartilaginous structures that supported the fleshy gills and allowed the animal to take in more water and thus more oxygen. Gill arches are still seen in modern fish; if you have ever held a large fish by its gill plate after catching it, you will be familiar with the bony rings beneath. These structures kept the gills from collapsing in on themselves during inspiration and expiration. This likely enabled it to move more quickly and aggressively than its sluggish predecessors. Intriguingly, in Metaspriggina, the anterior set of arches was not attached to any actual gills and was thicker than the other arches. 

This structure may have, in later organisms, been modified into the apparatus now known as the jaws. Moving forward in the head, the top arch became the upper jaw, fused to the skull, and the bottom arch became the lower jaw. A second arch, the hyoid, also moved forward and allowed the mandible to be suspended from the skull, forming the jointed structure that allows the jaws to open and close as a unit. This adaptation facilitated the predatory lifestyle of many fish and may have even led, indirectly, to the development of the immune system, which was required to process a less-predictable diet that exposed them to an array of pathogens, and to the development of larger brains, necessary to stalk prey.

[caption id="attachment_1864162" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/8741970596_26076f93c8_o.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1864162" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/8741970596_26076f93c8_o-1024x593.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="405" /></a> Sea lamprey Credit: T. Lawrence, Great Lakes Fishery Commission/ NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory[/caption]

The first actual jawed fishes from the fossil record are the acanthodians, which appeared in the Silurian Period, some 440 million years ago. These small fish were agile and streamlined, bolstering the notion that the novel adaptation of jaws coincided with significant lifestyle changes in the previously slow-moving vertebrates. Roughly 20 million years later, another three groups of jawed fish emerged. 

The placoderms, now extinct, were followed in relatively short order by the chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimeras), and the osteichthyans (bony fish, from which tetrapods, including us, evolved), both of which persist today. The placoderms, particularly, give us some insight into how primitive jaws developed into the contemporary structures with which we are familiar. These fish, the largest of which were some 30 feet long, possessed giant, armored heads and sharp, bony jaws. <a href="https://theconversation.com/extraordinary-missing-link-fossil-fish-found-in-china-18461">A 2013 discovery</a> in China found a fossil clearly indicating the transition between placoderms and osteichthyans. The bizarre, even nightmarish, visage of the placoderm did indeed evolve to become the slightly less nightmarish face of a prehistoric osteichthyan, our ancestor. Analogous bone structures in the jaw cinched the connection.

So it is that we progressed over the millennia from bottom feeding, worm-like creatures. As you stroke your chin and ponder this profundity, consider the fact that you are, in fact, running your fingers over a modified gill. 

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Main Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/merryjack/">Merryjack</a>/Flickr

All the better to eat you with, my dear: The evolution of jaws

Run your tongue over the inside of your upper and...

Himalayan marmots live at some of the most extreme altitudes of any animal, surviving heights of up to 5,000 meters. For the first time, scientists have sequenced the entire genome of this creature, which may provide new insight into what makes the Himalayan marmot so resilient.

According to the researchers, the study findings hint at the genetic mechanisms underlying high-altitude adaptation and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/different-factors-drive-hibernation/">hibernation</a>.

“As one of the highest-altitude-dwelling mammals, the Himalayan marmot is chronically exposed to cold temperature, hypoxia, and intense UV radiation," said study lead author Enqi Liu of the <a href="http://en.xjtu.edu.cn/info/1005/2170.htm">Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center</a> in China. “They also hibernate for more than six months during the wintertime.”

To investigate these abilities on a molecular level,  the team sequenced and assembled a complete draft genome of a male Himalayan marmot. They also re-sequenced 20 other Himalayan marmots, including individuals living at high and low altitudes, and four other marmot species. 

RNA sequencing was performed to allow the experts to compare gene-expression differences between marmots in a state of hibernation and awake marmots.

The DNA testing revealed that the Himalayan marmot diverged from the Mongolian marmot about two million years ago. The researchers identified two genes that were selected depending on if the marmot was located in high or low altitudes.

The experts believe that one of those genes, Slc25a14, may be part of a protective strategy to prevent the excess growth of new blood vessels under extremely low-oxygen conditions.

The results of the RNA comparisons showed that gene-expression changes occur in the liver and brain during hibernation, involving genes in the fatty acid metabolism pathway as well as blood clotting and stem cell differentiation.

The researchers will continue improving the quality of the Himalayan marmot's genome. They noted that the Himalayan marmot is also known as a natural host and transmitter of the plague to humans, and the team will examine the animal's immune system features to investigate.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/home">iScience</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: Yuanqing Tao

How the Himalayan marmot survives in extreme conditions

Himalayan marmots live at some of the most extreme altitudes...

<a href="https://www.wisconsinlife.org/story/aldo-leopolds-lost-radio-talks-winter-bird-feeding/">In a 1933 radio talk</a>, famed naturalist Aldo Leopold proclaimed, “Winter feeding is the most effective kind of conservation. One feeding station is worth a dozen sermons on the love of nature.” Indeed, observing birds up close is a fantastic way of appreciating the natural world and the idea that providing them with food during the winter is essential to their survival appeals to the conservationist mindset.

However, beginning in the 1980s, some began to question the wisdom of this attitude. Were we actually helping the birds by provisioning them through the harsh winter months? Or were we unintentionally hurting them, perhaps creating a dependency that had unforeseen negative effects?

It remains an important question, considering the ubiquity of feeding <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/birds-shiny-feathers-trees/">wild birds</a> as a pastime and as a conservation measure. <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2018/demo/fhw16-nat.pdf">A 2016 survey</a> by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that some 59.1 million people in the United States fed birds and other wildlife. <a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/23695/51278_1.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">Other estimates</a> have claimed that as many as 50% of Americans feed the birds. In the United Kingdom, some 75% of the population may do so and in Australia, perhaps 57%. This has given rise to a multi-billion dollar industry in seed, feeders, and other supplies. The effects of this practice, whatever they might be, are substantial. 

Ultimately, the answer appears to be that feeding birds, when done properly, is actually quite helpful, especially in the winter. A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267864666_Reproductive_responses_of_birds_to_experimental_food_supplementation_A_meta-analysis/download">2014 meta-analysis</a> of some 82 studies indicated that providing birds with supplementary foods has a net positive effect. Egg laying by birds with access to feeders is typically moved up and overall breeding success is increased. 

An <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1941007">oft-cited study</a> noted the improved survival of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) provided with access to feeders during the winters of 1982-85 at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. Of the chickadees who visited feeders, 69% survived the winter. Of the chickadees who subsisted on naturally foraged foods alone, only 37% survived. Interestingly, the authors observed that the birds who perished died as a result of a number of brief cold snaps, suggesting that supplementary food provided by humans allows birds to build additional energy stores, allowing them to persevere during weather that makes foraging difficult. Additionally, the study noted that only 20% of the chickadees’ diet came from the feeders, negating the idea that feeding inherently creates unsustainable dependencies. 

A number of studies, however, have added a cautionary note to such conclusions. Survival is one thing. But there may be more diffuse effects at play. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240309479_Winter_food_provisioning_reduces_future_breeding_performance_in_a_wild_bird/download">Studies</a> of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) in the United Kingdom indicated that tits who were fed during the winter were less successful breeders in the following season. The birds produced fewer eggs and the eggs they did produce had <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235403486_Fat_provisioning_in_winter_impairs_egg_production_during_the_following_spring_A_landscape-scale_study_of_blue_tits">smaller yolks</a>. (Vitamin E supplementation appeared to correct the latter deficiency.) The tits fledged fewer chicks, and fewer fledglings survived. Though the reasons for this were unclear, the authors postulated that a diet too high in fat may have played a role and that supplementary feeding may have allowed sub-prime individuals that might otherwise have died to survive the winter and reproduce.

Despite such findings, most experts still claim that responsible bird feeding is beneficial. Proper feeder hygiene is particularly important. Improperly sanitized feeders have been known to spread disease. Otherwise disparate populations and species of bird congregate at feeders, increasing the chance that pathogens will spread between them. Outbreaks of avian pox, aspergillosis, coccidiosis, salmonellosis, and trichomoniasis have all been traced back to dirty feeders.

[caption id="attachment_1864027" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/birds-eating.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1864027" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/birds-eating-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="394" /></a> Image Credit: CoCreatr/Flickr[/caption]

It is suggested that feeders be cleaned with a 10% solution of non-chlorinated bleach every few weeks to neutralize disease-causing organisms and kill any mold that may have formed. Additionally, the areas beneath feeders should be raked periodically to avoid the build-up of excess seed and droppings. Ground feeding birds may be exposed to disease while they are picking through seed contaminated with feces. It may be best to avoid ground feeding—spreading seed on the ground—entirely. 

Additionally, it is helpful to set up several different feeders, with different types of seed that appeal to specific species. By establishing stations for a narrower range of species, the chances of transmission of disease across species are reduced. And certain types of seed, such as millet, which appeal to invasives such as house sparrows and starlings, can be eliminated, thus cutting down competition from these aggressive feeders.

Further steps can be taken to reduce the deleterious effects of feeding as well. Placing feeders no more than 10 feet away from sheltering vegetation can help to cut down on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4513887?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">predation by opportunistic sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks</a> who may stake them out. Such predation, though, is entirely natural and most scientists do not believe that occasional kills by hawks at feeders make a significant dent in songbird populations. Putting feeders close to windows—perhaps 3 feet away—may cut down on window collisions. Birds will aim at the feeder and if they do take off toward the window, they will be less likely to be harmed by the impact at such a short distance. Hanging fine mesh in front of windows further mitigates the risk.

So, it seems, that for once, popular impulses actually have a positive effect on wildlife. A few easy steps can make feeding birds during the winter a sustainable and guilt-free conservation measure. 

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ikewinski/41040858912/in/photolist-25wD8vJ-5DCq9j-b1NahX-7DaFy6-6ESv4D-bhmvfF-dXrTz5-6jrLZM-qDxAMx-6kVtBj-7q9qRb-64HBJF-dTvNby-6gv6Ln-zPbyq-CWFFq2-iWVMeW-b1MD9K-ayniCN-n5nZ3i-23U5qMk-b3YtL4-7GsktP-4noQRG-RNtZNe-jqTLoq-25fkhvD-8gF6j3-4dzmUq-7ttt4T-9trBAF-4ptDC8-5FRmR7-7La4FJ-24aj24N-23Rqqd9-21xev5H-5oAr1j-bkCPtr-A4NSn-b8XHxV-n5pNmy-21uZXFD-qtqzBT-9XeDg-bzSuLB-67iG7D-RQ2ofn-ong6dn-F1yxsb">Mike Lewinski</a>

Feeding birds in winter: helpful or harmful?

In a 1933 radio talk, famed naturalist Aldo Leopold proclaimed,...

Size was definitely an advantage during the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fossilized-dinosaur-eggs-found/">Cretaceous period</a> when giant dinosaurs ruled the Earth. But although bigger was better in some instances, it also came with some considerable hurdles, like overheating. 

Large dinosaurs like Panoplosaurus and Euoplocephalus, two species of ankylosaurs, were particularly at risk of overheating because of how little surface area their bodies had in comparison to their volume.  

Combine this fact with the hot Cretaceous climate and you have the perfect recipe for heatstroke, which is what can happen when the body overheats and warm blood from the core is sent up to the brain. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.ohio.edu/">Ohio University</a> and <a href="https://www.nyit.edu/arkansas">Arkansas State University’s New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine</a> discovered the underlying mechanisms that prevented large dinosaurs from overheating and the answer lies in their nasal passages. 

Ankylosaurs, a group of club-tailed dinosaurs, had built-in air conditioning thanks to their twisty nasal passages, according to the study published in the journal PLOS ONE. 

“The huge bodies that we see in most dinosaurs must have gotten really hot in warm Mesozoic climates," said Jason Bourke. the lead author of the study. “Brains don't like that, so we wanted to see if there were ways to protect the brain from cooking. It turns out the nose may be the key.”

[caption id="attachment_1864117" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Ankylosaurs.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1864117" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Ankylosaurs-1024x753.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="515" /></a> Image Credit: Bourke et al, 2018[/caption]

The nose is a delicate appendage that does much more than just smell. It also helps trap bacteria and foreign bodies as well as making sure air is moist and at an ambient temperature before it reaches the lungs. 

Ankylosaurs had long, coiled nasal passages similar to a crazy straw, but the reason as to why remained unknown until now.

The researchers used both CT scanning and computational fluid dynamics to simulate air movement through the nasal passages of Panoplosaurus and Euoplocephalus and discovered that the twisty nasal passages of ankylosaurs helped cool air and blood near the near the nasal passages. 

The researchers created an ankylosaur model using different sizes of nasal passages and simulated air movement to see if the length and shape of the coiled nasal passages made a difference in air flow and temperature. 

“When we stuck a short, simple nose in their snouts, heat-transfer rates dropped over 50 percent in both dinosaurs. They were less efficient and didn't work very well,” said Bourke.

The study provides some key insights into how the dinosaurs kept cool despite their huge mass and size.

“When we look at the nasal cavity and airway in dinosaurs, we find that the most elaborate noses are found in the large dinosaur species, which suggests that the physiological stresses of large body size may have spurred some of these anatomical novelties to help regulate brain temperatures,” said Lawrence Witmer a co-author of the study.

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandete@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dinosaurs had special nasal passages that helped them cool off

Size was definitely an advantage during the Cretaceous period when...

To match feature ANTARCTICA-BUGS/

Researchers have discovered that a non-native species of midge is a major threat to terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica. The flightless midge, Eretmoptera murphyi, is thought to have arrived on Antarctica's Signy Island in the 1960s, when plants were brought in from South Georgia. Since that time, the insect has become so well-established that it outnumbers all native arthropods by two to three times at sites where it is found.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/index.aspx">University of Birmingham</a> and the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/">British Antarctic Survey</a> are investigating how the midge is able to survive in extreme polar conditions and the impact it may have on the region. 

The preliminary results of the study suggest that this single “decomposer” species is responsible for releasing as much nitrogen as is released by seals. On Signy Island, this nitrogen release is three to four times greater compared to areas where the midge is not found.

The insect has no competition for feeding on dead organic matter, and is able to release large volumes of nutrients into the soil. This activity affects the structure of the soil and peat decomposition, impacting all levels of biodiversity.

“It is basically doing the job of an earthworm, but in an ecosystem that has never had earthworms,” said study co-author Jesamine Bartlett.

The team collected information on the abundance of E. murphyi and on other invertebrates and microbes. They also obtained data on environmental variables such as water content, organic carbon, soil nitrogen content, and substrate composition to be compared to locations on the island where the midge did not occur.


The experts noted that the midge was usually found where more soil and shallower moss banks were present, suggesting that the midge is eating its way through the peat in the moss banks and turning it into soil.

“This is concerning as Signy Island hosts some of the best examples of moss banks in the Antarctic region,” said Bartlett. “It is also home to Antarctica's only two flowering plant species, the hair grass and pearlwort.”


Rapid warming and human activities are increasing the threat of invasive species being introduced to the isolated ecosystems of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/human-linked-pathogens-antarctica/">Antarctica</a>.

“Visitors to Antarctica are subject to increasingly strict biosecurity measures but accidental introductions continue to occur,” said study co-author Professor Peter Convey. “Midge larvae, for instance, are tiny and cannot be seen easily with the naked eye. Tourists and researchers may be bringing them in from their stopovers in the sub-Antarctic and moving them around the continent in the mud on their boots.”

The research will be presented by Jesamine Bartlett at the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society on December 19, 2018.

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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

Non-native insect species become a major threat in Antarctica

Researchers have discovered that a non-native species of midge is...

As wildlife continues to dwindle across the world at alarming rates, social marketing campaigns are increasingly being used to help wild species. While these campaigns are a common tool for wildlife groups, there has been little research into their effectiveness. But now, a newly published study examines the effects of a social marketing campaign on human behavior and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/bird-migration-forecasts-conservation/">conservation outcomes</a>.

Social marketing is generally thought of as the use of commercial marketing concepts to promote positive behavior changes. Social marketing campaigns are all around us, from billboard ads encouraging us to stop smoking to commercials pleading drivers not to drive drunk.

Wildlife social marketing campaigns seek to address the connection between consumer behavior and wildlife conservation. Consumers can play a huge role in wildlife protection efforts by simply choosing to reject products or activities that result in negative outcomes for wild animals.

Campaigns to educate consumers on wildlife attractions such as circuses and marine mammal shows have already resulted in steep drops in attendance to these events. Similarly, a<a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/consumers-in-china-widely-support-upcoming-ivory-ban-but-awareness-is-low-largest-ever-ivory-consumer-survey-finds"> survey</a> of Chinese consumers found that half of past ivory buyers have stopped buying the product. The survey also found that 62% of persistent buyers of ivory were willing to reconsider their future purchases, suggesting that future social change campaigns in China have the potential to change consumer behavior.

The new<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30178894"> study</a>, entitled Qualitative impact evaluation of a social marketing campaign for conservation and published in Conservation Biology, examined the long-term effects of a 1998 campaign on the Caribbean island of Bonaire that aimed to increase the population of the Yellow-shouldered amazon, a threatened parrot species.

According to the<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22686325/110628721#threats"> International Union for the Conservation of Nature</a>, the main threat to the species is poaching for the pet trade where the species is “widely exploited”. Before the “Rare Pride” campaign there were more Yellow-shouldered amazons in captivity than in the wild in Bonaire. The population has since<a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181204095414.htm"> increased</a> from 294 individuals in 1998 to 1,023 in 2018.

The organization Rare has implemented “Rare Pride” campaigns in over 30 countries. The “Rare Pride” campaigns use a variety of marketing tools such as posters, songs, fact sheets and church sermons. These campaigns work by not only educating the consumers about the issue but also by turning flagship species into a symbol of local pride. This connects the consumers directly to the issue and provides them a reason to change their behaviors.

According to<a href="https://www.rare.org/about"> Rare</a>, “Human behavior is the root cause of every major conservation and development challenge. Therefore, changing how people behave is the single most important thing we can do to ensure nature’s survival. Since people are emotional beings, we can leverage emotions—such as pride—to drive people toward action and unleash transformative change.”

The researchers found decreases in poaching and demand for the Yellow-shouldered Amazon with an associated increase in population after the Rare Pride campaign.

“Decreases in poaching and demand were likely driven by a combination of law enforcement, social marketing (including the Rare campaign), and environmental education in schools,” the researchers state.

Social marketing campaigns have also been effective in other countries such as Australia. A 2014<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/zoo.21120"> study</a> examined the conservation impact of a Melbourne zoo-based education campaign aimed at addressing the palm oil industry’s effect on orangutans and creating public support for mandatory labeling of palm oil on food products. 

Zoo visitors who had seen the orangutan exhibit showed a significant increase in palm oil awareness, concern about orangutans and support for palm oil labeling. Further, follow-up interviews showed that visitors changed their conservation behaviors by choosing palm oil free products.

Social marketing campaigns have the potential to create wide-scale consumer behavior change. These campaigns can be especially useful in areas where legislative change is unlikely to occur or legislative changes make a limited impact, such as with the elephant ivory trade.

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By <a href="mailto:brianna.grant134@gmail.com">Brianna Lynne</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Behavior change campaigns found to be an effective conservation tool

As wildlife continues to dwindle across the world at alarming...

“Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”
-E.B. White in Charlotte’s Web
In nearly every animal, it is the female who is responsible for carrying offspring to term. Sure, the males of some insects and amphibians tote around eggs until they hatch. But they’re not actually pregnant. They’re more like Park Slope dads...though taking on more traditionally female roles, their spawn remain outside the body. Not so with the members of the fish family Syngnathidae. The males of these fish, which include the 32 species of the widely known <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/seahorses-disappearing-boating/">seahorses</a> of the genus Hippocampus, as well as the 180 species of pipefishes and two species of sea dragons, actually become pregnant in the true sense of the word. This is particularly true of male seahorses and some pipefishes, which actually have pouches that contain their eggs.

Like a marsupial’s, the seahorse’s pouch is on the outside of the body. That is, it doesn’t connect to the abdominal cavity. Instead, it is an extension of the skin. Some pipefish and sea dragons merely possess an indentation or patch in which eggs are deposited. It is easy to tell male and female seahorses apart using this region, which is smooth and not covered by bony plates as the rest of the body is. 

When seahorses are ready to mate, they engage in a dance in the early hours of the morning. Eligible males may inflate and deflate their pouches with water to demonstrate their available real estate and both partners brighten their coloration. This courtship ritual lasts for as many as 8-9 hours. The climax occurs when the female injects her eggs into the male’s pouch using her penis-like ovipositor. Though fertilization was long thought to occur inside the pouch, <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/210/3/432">recent research</a> has revealed that the sperm-releasing orifice is outside of the pouch. This means that the sperm must fertilize the eggs in the few seconds during which they are outside of both parents. Males may take in only a few eggs or as many as 1,500, depending on the species. 

Upon impregnation, the male becomes largely sedentary until he gives birth some 9-45 days later. His mate visits him each morning and they engage in an abbreviated version of their initial mating dance. As he gestates, he actively nourishes and cares for eggs inside the pouch. These pouches aren’t mere receptacles, holding the eggs until they hatch. They contain specialized tissues that help to nourish the roe, much as a female uterus does. In fact, the pouch is known as a marsupium, like that of mammalian marsupials. 

The lining of the pouch is heavily vascularized and spongy. Once the eggs are inside, their outer coating is dissolved and they embed in the wall of the organ. This allows the male’s body to provide them with nutrients and oxygen, and to dispose of waste through his blood vessels. 

The male’s body also regulates the concentration of salt and other substances inside the pouch to levels optimal for the eggs and produces antimicrobial compounds to protect them from infection. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-secret-sex-life-and-pregnancy-of-a-seahorse-dad-46599">Genomic analysis has revealed</a> that some 3,000 genes play a role in regulating male pregnancy in seahorses. Remarkably, many of these genes are similar to those that influence pregnancy in females of other animals. (This unique hormonal systems <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/052f/64edfbc9b2ca1fc71958f69aef1e3f5e0f65.pdf">may put them at risk</a> from endocrine disrupting chemicals released into the water as a result of human pollution.)

[caption id="attachment_1863980" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/seahorse.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1863980" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/seahorse-1024x784.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="536" /></a> Image Credit: devra/flickr[/caption]

The eggs eventually hatch inside the pouch and the fry remain there for about a week. When the male is ready to give birth, he begins having contractions that eventually expel his brood into the water, where they must immediately begin caring for themselves. Some 1% of them are likely to survive to adulthood. At the largest, they are perhap 12 mm long and thus prime targets for the many predatory organisms inhabiting their habitats in seagrass beds and reefs. As soon as the male gives birth, he is almost immediately ready to be impregnated again. 

Over a single breeding season, all seahorses are monogamous. Though it has been said that they mate for life, this has not been definitively established. Some species of the related pipefishes, however, don’t display any fidelity at all...females may lay their eggs in several different males. In these species, the females may display prominent secondary sex characteristics, in the inverse of the usual dynamic. Think, for example of male peacocks and birds of paradise, which are more ornamented than the drab females. Seahorses, on the other hand, display little sexual dimorphism.

Fascinatingly, the mating habits of the syngnathids appear to have <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238115983_Male_pregnancy_and_the_formation_of_seahorse_species_Male_pregnancy_and_the_formation">driven speciation within the group</a>. Speciation is a phenomenon often associated with the geographical relocation of one population, so that genes are no longer exchanged between other groups, leading to the formation of a new species. This is known as allopatric speciation.

However, sympatric species, in which two or more species diverge while still inhabiting the same area, is much rarer. It has been postulated that because seahorses appear to prefer mates of the same size, over time, this preference led to the formation of genetically distinct populations. Larger seahorses mated with larger seahorses and smaller seahorses with smaller seahorses, leading to two groups that adapted to different niches in the same habitat. 

The discovery of the world’s smallest seahorse, the .8 inch long Hippocampus denise, supports this theory. It was initially believed to be simply a juvenile of a related species, which it resembles. The syngnathids are largely sedentary, only incidentally dispersing from their place of birth when washed out to sea while clinging to mats of debris and vegetation, so it is also likely that geographical separation and thus allopatric speciation also played a role. 

Further study of these strange creatures and their sui generis mode of reproduction is needed. They are under threat.  <a href="https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/accidental-slaughter-millions-seahorses/">As many as 37 million</a> are taken each year as bycatch and their seagrass and reef habitats, many of which are near shore, are at constant risk. We don’t want a world in which there aren’t pregnant seahorses dancing with their mates at dawn.

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By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

How male seahorses give birth

“Life is always a rich and steady time when you...

The world’s oceans absorb around 30 percent of atmospheric CO2 emissions, but as greenhouse gas emissions increase, so do CO2 levels in the sea, according to the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)</a>. 

As carbon levels in the ocean rise, pH levels shrink and the oceans become more acidic. Ocean acidification is one of the primary drivers of coral bleaching, and it’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-acidification-marine-ecosystems/">disrupting many marine ecosystems</a>. 

A new study has found that increases in ocean acidification and ocean carbon levels could cause salmon to lose their sense of smell, a critical mechanism for survival that salmons rely on to avoid predators and navigate. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> and the <a href="https://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/">NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center</a> wanted to find out how projected CO2 levels in the ocean would impact a salmon’s ability to process smells.

“Salmon famously use their nose for so many important aspects of their life, from navigation and finding food to detecting predators and reproducing,” said Chase Williams, the lead author of the study. “So it was important for us to know if salmon would be impacted by future carbon dioxide conditions in the marine environment.” 

The results of the study were published in the journal Global Change Biology.

The researchers set up a lab experiment with three different tanks of saltwater with varying levels of pH. 

One tank had pH levels that matched current levels in Puget Sound where coho salmon are found, the second tank had lower pH levels to match Puget Sound projections 50 years from now, and the third had levels that matched predicted averages 100 years from now 

Juvenile coho salmon were placed in the tanks, and the researchers monitored their behavior in the new environments for two weeks.

The researchers then conducted several behavioral and neural tests to see how the differing pH levels impacted the salmon’s ability to sniff out dangers and potential predators. 

The fish were placed in a different tank that had salmon skin extract in the water, the scent of which would normally warn salmon of a predator attack nearby. 

If a salmon had spent time in a tank with higher CO2 levels, they were less responsive to the smell, and some didn’t even seem to notice. Normally the smell of the salmon skin extract would trigger a flight response in a salmon and the fish would swim away to hide from danger. 

The researchers also measured neural activity in the part of the brain where smell is processed, the olfactory bulb, and found that the increased CO2 disrupted normal activity and processing in that area for some of the salmon.

Gene expression for the salmon that spent time in the tanks with higher acidity was also changed. 

“At the nose level, we think the neurons are still detecting odors, but when the signals are processed in the brain, that's where the messages are potentially getting altered,” said Williams. 

The researchers plan to examine other species of fish to see if rising CO2 levels have a similar effect, but the results of this study are concerning given how important salmon are as a food source. 

“We're hoping this will alert people to some of the potential consequences of elevated carbon emissions,” said Andy Dittman, senior co-author of the study. “Salmon are so iconic in this area. Ocean acidification and climate change are abstract things until you start talking about an animal that means a lot to people.”

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Salmon could lose their sense of smell due to ocean acidification

The world’s oceans absorb around 30 percent of atmospheric CO2...

Rates of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rampant-overfishing-gulf-california/">overfishing</a> have increased over the past fifty years, and although there have been efforts to conserve and restore fisheries, a new study has found that conservation success is reliant on past habits. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers</a>, <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/">Princeton University</a> and <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> discovered that conservation is much easier to keep up if restrictive measures are already put in place. 

However, if an area has a history of overfishing, conservation measures are much more difficult to implement. 

The results of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that reducing harvests can spur sustainable conservation for years to come. 

“Surprisingly, we found that people often get trapped by their past decisions,” said Edward Tekwa, the lead author of the study. “If they start out overharvesting, they tend to continue overharvesting. But once people start conserving, this behavior is also self-perpetuating and gets amplified. Policies change slowly.” 

The researchers examined a global database of 217 fisheries from 1961 to 2009 taking into account maximum sustainable yields and harvest rates. The data was then used to develop a mathematical model to help explain the global patterns in fishery harvests.  

Of the 217 fisheries included in the study, the researchers found that 35 are influenced heavily by past instances of overfishing or conversation and only one successfully transitioned from a pattern of overfishing to conservation. 

Eleven of the fisheries remain chronically over-harvested, which calls into question previous theories about the collapse of fast-growing fisheries. 

“Our results challenge the conventional expectation that the collapse of fast-growing resources is unlikely,” said Tekwa. “But they also offer hope that conservation is much easier to continue once we start.”

The researchers did find that conservation efforts like the 2006 and 1996 revisions to the <a href="https://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/whatwedo/msa/magnuson_stevens_act.html">Magnuson-Stevens Act</a> led the way to lasting conservation in some cases. 

The team suggests that the most over-harvested fisheries would be good targets for conservation and may be the easiest to implement lasting changes to because of their high economic value.  

“We found that highly productive, costly-to-harvest resources are paradoxically most susceptible to strong depletion, but also most receptive to strong conservation because of prevailing economic incentives,” the researchers wrote in their study.

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: NEFSC/NOAA

Areas with a history of overfishing are more difficult to restrict

Rates of overfishing have increased over the past fifty years,...

Infectious diseases are commonly passed along from humans to animals, but a new study is the first to document human-linked pathogens on the isolated continent of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/adelie-penguins-antarctica/">Antarctica</a>. The researchers discovered antibiotic resistant microbes and other bacterial strains in bird poop, raising new concerns about the health of Antarctic bird colonies.

“It's reasonable to think that the rapid increase of tourism has increased the risk of pathogen invasion,” said study co-author Professor Jacob González-Solís of the <a href="https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/">University of Barcelona</a>. “Sooner or later the transmission of one of these pathogens is going to destroy a local population of birds.”

The investigation was focused on the droppings of hundreds of birds from 24 different species, such as rockhopper penguins and Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses. Between 2008 and 2011, the poop samples were collected at four sites across the Antarctic Ocean, including Livingston, Marion Island, Gough Island, and the Falkland Islands. These are all areas along bird migration routes that are frequented by tourists.

Within the fecal matter, the research team found traces of the bacteria Campylobacter jejuni, which is one of the most common sources of food poisoning in the United States and Europe. They also detected a strain of Salmonella that is typically associated with birds in urban areas, as well as an antibiotic-resistant strain of a gastrointestinal bug called Campylobacter lari.

Professor González-Solís predicts that, even though Salmonella and Campylobacter are not necessarily fatal, the pathogens could have “devastating consequences” to Antarctic bird colonies because they have never been exposed to these strains. According to the researchers, the bacteria could have originated from domestic poultry, tourist cruises, or from research centers.  

Kyle Elliott is an ornithologist and ecologist at McGill University, who was not involved in the research. He told <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science magazine</a>, “We often think of polar environments as being too cold and that disease transmission is not a huge threat, but the authors have clear evidence that bacteria can spread widely in polar environments.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/science-of-the-total-environment">Science of the Total Environment</a>.  

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Human-linked pathogens found across Antarctica for the first time

Infectious diseases are commonly passed along from humans to animals,...

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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...

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</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

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

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The environmental problem we actually solved

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

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

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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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

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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"

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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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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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"

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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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