Researchers at the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</a> have recently reported that both public parks and private backyards play a vital role in supporting bird diversity in urban environments. 



"Greenspaces are increasingly valued for supporting biodiversity in urbanized landscapes. Previous research efforts have emphasized the importance of public land such as parks and nature preserves for biodiversity, yet private yards in residential neighborhoods also have great potential for species conservation," wrote the researchers. 



By studying two closely situated cities in Illinois with contrasting development histories and green space management, the experts discovered that these spaces are crucial for different bird species during varying seasons.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-urban-bird-populations">Urban bird populations</h2>



The researchers monitored <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bird-populations-are-declining-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bird populations</a> across 39 public parks and 41 private yards in Urbana and Champaign - cities with distinct urban characteristics and historical development. 



Urbana, with a history dating back to 1822, boasts extensive green spaces nurtured within an ancient hardwood forest. By contrast, Champaign was developed in the mid-1800s along a railway - with a focus on human recreation in its smaller parks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seasonal-variations-in-urban-bird-diversity">Seasonal variations in urban bird diversity </h2>



The analysis revealed significant seasonal shifts in bird <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/u-s-bird-diversity-puzzling-geographical-differences-identified/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diversity</a> between the two cities. During summer, Urbana's richer vegetation and cooler green spaces attracted a broader variety of birds, including species like the belted kingfisher and scarlet tanager. 



Conversely, in winter, Urbana's parks and yards continued to support diverse communities, including the winter wren and yellow-bellied sapsucker.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-impact-of-urban-management-on-bird-diversity">Impact of urban management on bird diversity</h2>



Pollock pointed out the significant effects of active management in urban green spaces. "In places where there’s been active management to try to increase plant diversity and get some native plant cover back, it has had a big impact on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/as-urban-heat-continues-to-rise-birds-are-moving-away/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bird</a> communities," he explained. 



Urbana's parks, with their focus on conservation and habitat restoration, were especially beneficial for rare and specialist bird species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-practical-actions-for-residents">Practical actions for residents</h2>



The study also suggests practical ways for residents to enhance bird diversity in their own backyards. Carena Van Riper, a collaborator on the project, encouraged simple yet effective actions. 



"Perhaps this will allow people to see that there are small but important behaviors that will influence birds and increase bird diversity," noted Van Riper. 



Among the recommendations were installing bird feeders (especially during winter), planting native vegetation, and setting up bird baths.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-urban-greenery-a-blueprint-for-biodiversity">Urban greenery: A blueprint for biodiversity </h2>



This comprehensive study underscores the interconnectedness of urban management and biodiversity. It offers a fresh perspective on how both public and private green spaces play integral roles in supporting urban wildlife. 



As cities continue to grow, understanding and implementing strategies that facilitate coexistence with nature becomes even more crucial. 



The insights from Urbana and Champaign can serve as a guide for other <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/green-spaces-shape-bird-characteristics-in-urban-areas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">urban areas</a> aiming to enhance biodiversity and sustainability within their confines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What influences urban bird diversity?</h2>



Urban bird diversity is influenced by a variety of factors, each playing a role in how well birds can adapt and thrive in city environments. Key factors include:



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Green spaces</h3>



The presence and quality of green spaces such as parks, gardens, and green roofs are crucial. These areas provide essential resources like food, nesting sites, and safe havens from urban threats.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Water bodies</h3>



Rivers, lakes, and ponds in urban settings attract waterfowl and other species that rely on aquatic habitats for feeding and breeding.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Food availability</h3>



The accessibility of natural food sources, supplemented by bird feeders, significantly impacts which species are able to sustain populations in urban areas.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Building designs</h3>



The architecture of a city influences bird diversity. Features like reflective glass can cause bird collisions, whereas features like ledges and nooks might offer nesting spots.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Pollution</h3>



Air and noise pollution can deter birds from settling in urban areas. Pollution can also affect the health of the habitats birds rely on.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Human interaction</h3>



The level and nature of human activity and disturbance - ranging from benign presence to active conservation efforts - play a big role. Quieter, less disturbed areas tend to support more diverse bird populations.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Climate</h3>



Urban microclimates, influenced by the heat island effect where cities are warmer than surrounding areas, can affect which species are likely to thrive or decline in urban settings.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204624000598?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Landscape and Urban Planning</a>.



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How urban spaces support bird diversity

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recently reported that both public parks and private backyards play a vital role in supporting bird diversity in urban environments. "Greenspaces are increasingly valued for supporting biodiversity in urbanized landscapes. Previous research efforts have emphasized the importance of public land such as parks and nature preserves for biodiversity, yet private yards in residential neighborhoods also have great potential for species conservation," wrote the researchers. By studying two closely situated cities in Illinois with contrasting development histories and green space...

For decades, immunobiologists have pondered what are the long-term effects of infections on people’s immune systems. For instance, after the organism fights off a pathogen, does the immune system return to a previous baseline, or could a single infection change it in ways that alter how it will respond not only to an already familiar virus or bacteria but also to a new pathogenic threat?



Now, a team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> and the <a href="https://www.niaid.nih.gov/">National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases</a> (NIAID) has systematically analyzed immune responses of healthy people who had received the flu vaccine, and compared the responses between those who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and those who experienced mild cases but recovered.



The analysis revealed that the immune systems of men previously infected with the new coronavirus responded more robustly to flu vaccines than previously-infected women or people who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. These findings suggest that the immune statuses of men previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 was altered in ways that changed their response to a different type of future exposure.



“This was a total surprise,” said study senior author John Tsang, an immunobiologist at Yale. “Women usually mount a stronger overall immune response to pathogens and vaccines, but are also more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases.”&nbsp;



According to the scientists, this discovery could also be linked to an intriguing aspect noticed already early in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-origins-of-covid-19-will-most-likely-remain-a-mystery/">Covid-19</a> pandemic: men appeared much more likely to die from a runaway immune response than women after contracting Covid. The new study shows that even mild cases of Covid-19 may trigger stronger inflammatory responses in males than females, resulting in stronger functional changes to the male immune system, even a long time after recovery.



When analyzing the participants’ response to flu vaccinations, the experts found that males previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 produced more antibodies to influenza and increased levels of interferons (proteins produced by cells in response to infections or vaccines). This was surprising since, in general, healthy females have stronger interferon responses than males.



Since hundreds of millions – if not, according to some estimates, several billions – of people worldwide have been infected with the new coronavirus so far, and the emergence of long-Covid symptoms in some people is currently a major health concern, understanding the lingering effects of Covid on the immune system is crucial.&nbsp;



“Our findings point to the possibility that any infection or immune challenge may change the immune status to establish new set points. The immune status of an individual is likely shaped by a multitude of prior exposures and perturbations,” Sparks concluded.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05670-5">Nature</a>.



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



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What are the lingering immune system effects of Covid?

For decades, immunobiologists have pondered what are the long-term effects...

Mountains host about half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and action is urgently needed to protect these ecosystems. According to Professor Robert Marchant at the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a>, these critically important <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/green-turtle-recovery-greatly-depends-on-foraging-habitats/">habitats</a> should be prioritized in biodiversity policies.



Professor Marchant is calling on national governments to focus on mountain ecosystems while addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. He says that national policy simply isn’t keeping pace with land use change, development, population growth and the impacts of climate change on global mountain systems.



“Government environmental and business policies are rarely joined up and we are seeing continued widespread land degradation in mountain habitats. This includes uncontrolled grazing, deforestation, or overdevelopment - and much of it is resulting from weak policies and changing tenure laws," explained Professor Marchant.



Even though mountain ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change and human development, they do not receive the necessary attention and investment from their governments.&nbsp;



In Kenya, for example, the area around Mount Kilimanjaro has endured a major increase in population density and agriculture over the last two decades. Companies have bought land to drill boreholes and extract water from the mountain’s aquifer.



“Once you’ve paid for that borehole, that water is a free resource to you. But these services are provided by nature – and no one is presently paying for either the water resources or for stewardship of that land. Asking companies to pay for this kind of service, by issuing controllable permits for example,&nbsp; would be a step towards treating our mountain resources with more respect.”



Professor Marchant is calling on countries to invest more in mountain ecosystem restoration activities, and to develop effective climate change policies. His policy brief will be presented later this month at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada.



"We are hoping for some progress at COP15, but what is really needed is an international treaty or code of practice that accepts the value of our mountain ecosystems, and I suspect that is some way off.”



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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



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Mountain ecosystems are in urgent need of protection

Mountains host about half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oxytocin-promotes-cooperation-among-humans/">Oxytocin</a> – the so-called “love hormone” – has been considered for decades to be essential for the development of social attachments in a variety of animal species. However, according to a new genetic study led by the <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/">University of California, San Francisco</a> (UCSF) and <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>, prairie voles can still form enduring attachments with their mates and provide parental care even without oxytocin receptor signaling.&nbsp;



Prairie voles are one of the few monogamous mammalian species, forming life-long partnerships called “pair-bonds.” Pair-bonded voles share parental responsibilities, and prefer the company of their partners over other members of the opposite sex, actively rejecting potential new partners. Previous research which used drugs to block oxytocin from binding to its receptor found that voles lacking oxytocin binding were unable to pair-bond.



However, by using a groundbreaking genetic manipulation technique called CRISPR to generate prairie voles lacking oxytocin receptor signaling, the researchers found that these genetically-altered voles could still form pair-bonds just as easily as normal voles.



“We were all shocked that no matter how many different ways we tried to test this, the voles demonstrated a very robust social attachment with their sexual partner, as strong as their normal counterparts,” said study lead author Devanand Manoli, a neuroscientist at UCSF.



Following this surprising discovery, the experts investigated whether oxytocin receptor signaling is similarly dispensable for other functions, such as parturition, parenting, and milk release during lactation. “We found that mutant voles are not only able to give birth, but actually nurse,” reported co-author Nirao Shah, a neuroscientist at Stanford. In fact, both male and female mutants engaged in usual parental behavior, such as huddling, licking, or grooming, and were capable of rearing their offspring to weaning age.



However, the mutant voles had limited milk release compared to the normal ones, which caused fewer of their pups to survive to weaning age. In addition, the pups that managed to survive were smaller compared those of normal voles. The fact that voles could nurse at all is highly different from what has been observed in studies involving oxytocin-deficient mice. According to the researchers, this could be due to the inbred nature of lab mice strains in contrast to the genetically heterogenous voles.&nbsp;



“It could be that inbreeding in mice has selected for a large dependence on oxytocin signaling, or this may represent a species-specific role of oxytocin receptor signaling,”&nbsp;Shah explained.



“For at least the last ten years people have been hoping for the possibility of oxytocin as a powerful therapeutic for helping people with social cognitive impairments due to conditions ranging from autism to schizophrenia. This research shows that there likely isn’t a magic bullet for something as complex and nuanced as social behavior,” Manoli concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.12.011">Neuron</a>.



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



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Prairie voles can form close bonds without oxytocin

Oxytocin – the so-called “love hormone” – has been considered...

The Late <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/permian-mass-extinction/">Permian Mass Extinction</a> (LPME) was the largest such in event in the Earth’s history, decimating between 80 and 90 percent of life on our planet. However, the causes of this devastating event and the ways in which it unfolded are not yet fully understood. By analyzing mercury from Siberian volcanoes that ended up in sediments in Australia and South Africa, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://uconn.edu/">University of Connecticut</a> (UConn) has managed to shed more light on this mass extinction’s causes and timeline.&nbsp;



Although scientists have long argued that the rapid warming associated to this event was linked to massive volcanism occurring at a large deposit of lava called the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (STLIP), clear evidence for this was still lacking. While volcanoes leave helpful clues in the geological record – such as traces of carbon dioxide and methane launched into the atmosphere and deposited around the globe – it is hard to directly link something like that to the extinction event. 



“As geologists, we’re looking for a signature of some kind - a smoking gun - so that we can absolutely point to the cause,” said study co-author Tracy Frank, an expert in Earth Sciences at UConn.



However, the researchers believe that they finally might have found such a “smoking gun” – mercury, one of the heavy metals associated with volcanic eruptions, analyzed from sediments from the Sydney Basin in Eastern Australia and the Karoo Basin in South Africa.&nbsp;



“It turns out that volcanic emissions of mercury have a very specific isotopic composition of the mercury that accumulated at the extinction horizon. Knowing the age of these deposits, we can more definitively tie the timing of the extinction to this massive eruption in Siberia. What is different about this paper is we looked not only at mercury, but the isotopic composition of the mercury from samples in the high southern latitudes, both for the first time,” explained study lead author Jun Shen, an expert in volcanism at the <a href="https://en.cug.edu.cn/">China University of Geosciences</a> in Wuhan.



“As a starting point, geologists have pinpointed the timing of the major extinction event at 251.9 million years with a high degree of precision from radiogenic isotope dating methods. Researchers know that is when the major extinction event happened in the marine environment and it was just assumed that the terrestrial extinction event happened at the same time,” added co-author Christopher Fielding, a professor of Earth Sciences at UConn.



According to Fielding’s previous research though, the extinction event on land happened about 200,000 to 600,000 years earlier. “That suggests that the event itself wasn’t just one big whammy that happened instantaneously. It wasn’t just one very bad day on Earth, so to speak, it took some time to build and this feeds in well into the new results because it suggests the volcanism was the root cause,” he explained. “That’s just the first impact of the biotic crisis that happened on land, and it happened early. It took time to be transmitted into the oceans. The event 251.9 million years ago was the major tipping point in environmental conditions in the ocean that had deteriorated over some time.”&nbsp;



“The main point is that we now have a chemical signature in the form of mercury isotope signatures, that definitively ties the extinction horizon in these terrestrial sections that provide a record of what was happening on land due to Siberian Traps volcanism.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35272-8">Nature Communications</a>.



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



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New clues about Earth's largest mass extinction event

The Late Permian Mass Extinction (LPME) was the largest such...

Plants in the mint family are rich in chemical molecules that give distinctive scents and flavors to their leaves. The mint family (Lamiaceae) is the sixth largest family of flowering plants and includes many familiar species, apart from mint itself, such as basil, rosemary, peppermint, lavender, sage and coleus. The aromatic and flavorful compounds produced by these plants function to attract <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gardeners-can-make-small-changes-to-benefit-pollinators/">pollinators</a> and to deter herbivores, and they have been essential in driving the diversification of this large group of plants.



Researchers from <a href="https://msu.edu/">Michigan State University</a> have been studying the great variety of metabolites found in mint plants for many years, and have recently focused on a group of molecules called terpenoids. These compounds are essential in protecting the plants from predators and pathogens, and are also common ingredients in green and sustainable agrochemicals, antioxidants, cosmetics and fragrances.&nbsp;



“People easily recognize members of the mint family for their specialized metabolites,” said Dr. James K. Billman, Jr. and Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://biomolecular.natsci.msu.edu/faculty/alphabetical-directory/bjoern-hamberger/">Björn Hamberger</a>. “Metabolites are an efficient way for plants to defend themselves because they can’t run away.”



Professor Hamberger worked previously with Robin Buell, a former MSU genomics researcher, who sequenced the genomes from several different species in the mint family. This collaboration with Buell’s team led graduate students Abigail Bryson and Emily Lanier to discover how several genomes of the mint family have evolved over the past 60 million to 70 million years and how their chemistries have emerged.&nbsp;



“Over millions of years, plants have adapted and evolved for their particular niches where they thrive, and that means that these chemistries are diverse and have clearly adjusted to their environment,” said Professor Hamberger. “So, we try to identify and discover pathways to these specialized metabolites that plants make.”



According to the researchers, this family of plants have diversified the natural characteristics of their metabolites throughout their evolution, leading to the great variety of different chemical compounds found in today’s members of the group. In order to understand the mechanisms by which such diversity has evolved, the researchers took an interdisciplinary approach and analyzed the genetic and chemical pathways involved in terpenoid biosynthesis in different species in the mint family.



Bryson identified the genomic framework of terpenoid biosynthesis, and Lanier analyzed the chemical pathways. Together, Lanier and Bryson discovered something highly unusual in the beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) genome from the mint family. It has a large biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC), which is a group of genes, located close together in the genome, that are involved in the same metabolic pathways. Additionally, Bryson and Lanier found variants of this BGC in six other species in the mint family.



“We are learning that the physical location of genes within the genome is important,” Bryson said. “It can drive evolution of specialized metabolic pathways in the plant, leading to a vast diversity of interesting natural plant compounds.”&nbsp;



The BGC cluster of the beautyberry plant contains genes that encode two distinct terpenoid pathways. The team found these terpenoids accumulate in various parts of the plant, such as the leaves and roots, and may play distinct roles in helping the plant to adapt to its environment.&nbsp;



“It’s the same base molecule, but each species is making its own version and modifying it in different ways to fit their survival needs,” Lanier said.&nbsp;



Professor Hamberger describes it like a recipe that everyone has a copy of and changes to suit their requirements and preferences.&nbsp;



The researchers hope that a better understanding of the ways in which these compounds have been modified by different plant species will lead to potential future applications that could include new medicines and pesticides. We already use some of the compounds as flavor additives, fragrances, and anti-herbivory agents.



Previous research has led to unique medical uses for mint plants. For example, Indian Coleus can be used as a natural treatment for glaucoma and Texas sage is a natural antimicrobial that is effective against tuberculosis. The new molecular adaptations that have been found in the current study open the door for future applications of natural plant products from the mint family.



“Our team has been excited about the opportunities within the mint family,” said Professor Hamberger. “Those mint enzymes, as in the American beautyberry plant, give us the ability to make plant-natural products in the lab, including – hopefully in the future – natural good-smelling mosquito repellants.”



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



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Plants in the mint family may help produce new medicines

Plants in the mint family are rich in chemical molecules...

Scientists have long argued that self-awareness is a rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom, with only a few mammals, some birds, and some fish appearing to have it. However, according to a new study published on the <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.04.515260v1.full">bioRxiv</a> preprint server, some species of wild penguins, such as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/adelie-penguins-antarctica/">Adélie penguins</a> from Antarctica, may also have a certain degree of self-awareness.



While in humans, self-awareness is an easy thing to test, in animals it is much more complicated to reliably assess this capacity. Most studies aiming to test the presence of self-awareness in animals have used the so-called “mirror test,” in which animals are allowed to see themselves in a mirror while scientists observe their reactions. For instance, if animals touch a red mark on their own face that they can only see in the mirror, experts usually assume they have a degree of self-awareness.



In the new study, the researchers traveled to Svenner Island in eastern Antarctica to observe the behavior of Adélie penguins, and conducted four experiments. In the first one, they placed several mirrors on the ground nearby the penguins and observed the animals’ behaviors while looking down at the mirrors. The second experiment involved constructing a cardboard corral around some of the penguins which directed them toward mirrors at the ends of an enclosure, while the third involved placing small stickers on the mirrors that, when viewed, appeared as if they were on the penguins looking at them. In a final experiment, they placed a bib on random penguins in front of a mirror and observed their reactions.



In the first experiments, the scientists detected no response, which was actually an important finding, since many animals fail such a test, believing that the creatures they are seeing in the mirror are actually conspecifics and respond accordingly. While in the second experiment, the penguins moved in ways that suggested they might be examining themselves, in the third one, they became agitated when looking at mirrors with stickers on them and actively tried to remove the stickers. However, they did not respond at all when seeing themselves wearing a bib. Although the results remain rather ambiguous, the researchers argued that they may suggest the presence of at least some degree of self-awareness in penguins.



“Future studies, integrating the socioecology and cognitive ethology of penguins, may provide insights into whether our experimental paradigms could provide evidence to confirm the presence of self-awareness and even of self-recognition in this species and examine whether the observed social awareness may have evolved due to the social needs of individual penguins to engage in cooperative behavior with conspecific individuals, while maintaining their independent decision-making capacities, throughout their communal lives,” the authors concluded. 



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



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Penguins may have a degree of self-awareness

Scientists have long argued that self-awareness is a rare phenomenon...

The Eocene Period (cc. 43 to 66 million years ago) was a time of intense global warming, providing an important case study of how ecosystems react to changing climates. By examining fossils from the Ellesmere Island in Canada, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://ku.edu/">University of Kansas</a> has found evidence of a warm, swamp-like environment around 52 million years ago, despite half the year experiencing Arctic harsh winter darkness. Based on fossil fragments of jaws and teeth, the experts identified two new species of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/primates-have-greater-diversity-on-indigenous-lands/">primates</a> - Ignacius dawsonae&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ignacius mckennai - that are our first known relatives from this ancient Arctic ecosystem.



Compared to primate species discovered in more southern regions, both of these species were unusually large (a common trait in northern mammals), and exhibited dental features suggesting a diet of hard food items, which was probably an adaptation for consuming tougher foods during long and dark Arctic winters in which softer meals were hard to find.



Although, during the early Eocene, North America’s lower latitudes were home to many other species of primates, only these two species were discovered in the North, adding to previous evidence that the ancient Arctic ecosystem experienced limited biodiversity compared to southern habitats. According to the researchers, while warmer temperatures allowed several organisms to migrate northward, these movements were most likely limited by factors such as the harsh Arctic winters they had to face once they reached those areas.



These findings could help scientists predict how ecosystems might react to contemporary climate change. “Global warming is transforming Arctic ecosystems in ways that are difficult to predict, but ancient episodes of global warming show how future changes in the Arctic might unfold. The first primate-like fossils ever recovered north of Arctic Circle show that these tropically adapted mammals were able to colonize the Arctic during an ancient episode of global warming approximately 52 million years ago by adopting a new diet of nuts and seeds that enabled them to survive six months of winter darkness,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280114">PLoS ONE</a>.



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



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Mysterious primates lived in the Arctic 52 million years ago

The Eocene Period (cc. 43 to 66 million years ago)...

Scientists have long known that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-may-sometimes-protect-our-bodies/">stress</a> can significantly affect humans, impacting their health and well-being by causing high blood pressure and increasing the risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular morbidity. Thus, better understanding our reactions toward stress and finding out if there are any factors that can play key stress-buffering roles is crucial for improving cardiovascular health. Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/">Maynooth University</a> and the <a href="https://www.ul.ie/">University of Limerick</a> in Ireland has found that gratitude has a major stress-buffering effect on both reactions to and recovery from acute psychological stress.&nbsp;



Although previous research suggested that gratitude and affect-balance play important stress-buffering roles, the impact of these variables on cardiovascular recovery from acute psychological stress has been less understood. To clarify whether affect balance moderates the relationship between gratitude and cardiovascular reactions to stress, the experts enrolled 68 undergraduate students (24 male and 44 female) aged 18 to 57, and used an experimental design with laboratory tasks in which stress was induced to participants and then cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in response to increased stress levels were measured.



The analyses revealed that experiencing gratitude predicted lower systolic blood pressure responses during the testing period, meaning that feelings of gratitude have unique stress-buffering effects on both reactions to and recovery from acute psychological stress. Moreover, the researchers discovered that affect balance generally amplifies the positive effects of gratitude.



These findings could have major clinical implications by showing that several low-cost gratitude interventions can contribute positively to our health and well-being, and help us smoothly recover from cardiovascular issues acute stress can induce. For instance, as previous research has shown, cardiac patients who make use of gratitude journals have better cardiovascular outcomes than those who do not. Combined with the recent findings, this shows that gratitude may constitute a useful point of intervention for the improvement of our health.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.11.013">International Journal of Psychophysiology</a>.&nbsp;



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



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Feelings of gratitude reduce the negative effects of stress

Scientists have long known that stress can significantly affect humans,...

A new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26121-1">Nature Scientific Reports</a> has categorized the behavior of cat interactions into playful, aggressive, and intermediate in order to help owners distinguish between play and genuine fighting. The experts suggested that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cats-can-learn-the-names-of-their-companions/">cats</a> may engage in a mixture of playful and aggressive behaviors that could easily escalate into full-blown fighting if not properly managed by the owner.



The scientists evaluated 105 video clips sourced from YouTube and directly from cat owners showing a variety of interactions between 210 cats. Based on initial observations of the animals, the researchers assembled six behavioral categories, including wrestling, chasing, and vocalizations. These categories were used to analyze the behaviors of the remaining cats (which were grouped based on the duration and frequency of the six behaviors).



In a next step, four of the authors reviewed the same videos and divided the interactions between the cats in three categories: playful, or friendly interactions; agonistic, or aggressive interactions; and intermediate interactions, referring to a mixture of both playful and aggressive behaviors. Over half of the cats (56.2 percent or 118 cats) were described as engaging in playful interactions, while 60 cats (28.6 percent) were categorized as agonistic, and 32 (15.2 percent) were placed in the intermediate category.&nbsp;



When comparing the six cat behavioral categories with the three newly defined interaction groupings, the scientists found that wrestling behavior between cats was most closely linked to the playful group, while chasing and vocalizations were associated with the agonistic group. Although the intermediate group seemed to have characteristics of both other groups, most of the interactions verged towards playful rather than agonistic modes. Moreover, the intermediate group exhibited prolonged exchanges of behaviors such as laying on their back with their belly upwards, stalking, pouncing, and approaching and grooming each other.



According to the experts, this combination of playful and aggressive behaviors may reflect a short-term disagreement between the cats rather than a complete breakdown of their relationship. Identifying potential tensions between cats may help owners manage their relationship in order to avoid escalation of conflict and the need of separation, the authors concluded.



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



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Can you tell if your cat is playing or fighting?

A new study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports...

An unusual new species of pterosaur with over 400 teeth has been identified by a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/puzzling-fossil-has-the-body-of-a-bird-skull-of-a-dinosaur/">fossil</a> found in Germany. Professor David Martill from the University of Portsmouth’s<a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/organisational-structure/our-academic-structure/faculty-of-science-and-health/school-of-the-environment-geography-and-geosciences"> School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences</a> is the lead author of the research.



Professor Matill worked with an international team of paleontologists who accidentally made the discovery while excavating a large block of limestone containing crocodile bones.



“The nearly complete skeleton was found in a very finely layered limestone that preserves fossils beautifully," explained Professor Martill. “This was a rather serendipitous find of a well-preserved skeleton with near perfect articulation” suggesting that the carcass was buried in sediment almost as soon as it had died."



Since the first pterosaur was described in the 18th century, hundreds more have been discovered, making the quarries in Bavaria one of the richest pterosaur localities in the world.



The new species has unique teeth which suggest an extraordinary feeding mechanism similar to that of ducks and flamingos. While wading through water, it would use its spoon-shaped beak to funnel the water and then its teeth to squeeze out excess liquid, leaving prey like tiny shrimps, trapped in its mouth. The pterosaur had a long, upward curved jaw with teeth right to the back of its smile.



“And what’s even more remarkable is some of the teeth have a hook on the end, which we’ve never seen before in a pterosaur ever. These small hooks would have been used to catch the tiny shrimp the pterosaur likely fed on – making sure they went down its throat and weren’t squeezed between the teeth," explained Professor Martill.



The specimen has been named Balaenognathus maeuseri, which roughly translates to "whale mouth" because of its filter-feeding style. The name also honors co-author Matthias Mäuser, who sadly passed away during the writing of the paper.



"Matthias was a friendly and warm-hearted colleague of a kind that can be scarcely found. In order to preserve his memory, we named the pterosaur in his honor," said Professor Martill.



The paper is published in<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-022-00644-4"> Paläontologische Zeitschrift</a> (PalZ). The specimen is currently on display in the Bamberg Natural History Museum.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Fascinating pterosaur had hundreds of tiny hooked teeth

An unusual new species of pterosaur with over 400 teeth...

When it comes to the negative impact of climate change on animal life, images of mass die-offs from floods, wildfires, and droughts abound. However, according to a recent study led by the <a href="https://umanitoba.ca/">University of Manitoba</a> in Canada, the effects of climate change need not be drastic or fatal to have significant consequences. For instance, the experts found that global warming is altering <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ground-squirrels-found-to-be-full-of-personality/">ground squirrels</a>’ sperm and feet in unexpected ways – subtle changes which may, in the long run, affect the health and resiliency of wildlife and their ecosystems.



In 2021, the scientists discovered that some male Richardson’s ground squirrels – a species widespread through the Canadian prairies – emerged from hibernation during a particularly warm winter with non-motile sperm. While this non-lethal effect of climate change fortunately did not result in fewer offspring that year, other negative consequences of males “shooting blanks” may emerge more dramatically in other situations or species.



This year, the same research team has investigated what non-lethal effects climate change is having on African ground squirrels in the grasslands of South Africa. The analysis revealed that, as maximum temperatures have risen by more than 2°C, the relative size of the feet of these squirrels has increased, while their bodies have become smaller, suggesting that these animals are responding to global warming by a strange type of “shape-shifting.”



“These proportionally bigger feet may help the ground squirrel cool off by allowing them to shed more heat even faster than those squirrel with smaller feet. Likewise, smaller bodies are predicted to help animals shed heat at a faster rate than larger-bodied animals,” said study lead author Miyako Warrington, an animal ecologist at Manitoba. “This result suggests that ground squirrel bodies may be changing in response to the greater heat stress that these animals are experiencing in recent years.”



According to the scientists, such effects may have farther reaching consequences than mere changes in external aesthetics. “If the body is changing, what else is changing?” Warrington mused. “We’d also like to look at internal changes, things like the&nbsp;effects of stress&nbsp;and hormones, as well as the effect on behaviors. Cape ground squirrels are very social species, and changes to their bodies and behaviors can affect how they operate as a social species, which then may affect their survival and reproduction.”



Moreover, since these squirrels are known to be valuable ecosystem engineers, changing the vegetation around their burrows and increasing grassland biodiversity, modifications in their bodily appearance and behavior could have unwanted consequences to temperate grasslands, which are already some of the most endangered ecosystems on the planet.



“Our study, and the studies of many others, are showing us that nature, in some cases, can respond quickly to rapid environmental changes. Humans need to be mindful of all effects of&nbsp;climate change, even ‘small’ ones so we can respond with deliberate, swift action as needed,” Warrington concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyac107">Journal of Mammalogy</a>.



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



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Climate change affects ground squirrels in unexpected ways

When it comes to the negative impact of climate change...

In 2019, scientists from eight countries conducted the most comprehensive expedition to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmental-dna-reveals-the-diversity-of-mount-everest/">Mt. Everest</a> to date in the Khumbu Region of Nepal. The research was part of a project called the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition.&nbsp;



In a paper published in <a href="http://www.catsg.org/index.php?id=175">Cat News</a>, the scientists reveal that they have found the first evidence of Pallas’s cat on Mount Everest in the Sagarmatha National Park.&nbsp;



The cat is named in honor of Peter Simon Pallas, the scientist who first described the species in 1776. The Pallas cat has a wide but fragmented distribution across the grasslands of Asia, with Mongolia and Russia making up the majority of its range.&nbsp;



Dr. Tracie Seimon of the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a> co-led the Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition biology field team from April 7 to May 2, 2019. The scientists collected environmental samples from Sagarmatha National Park on Mount Everest’s Southern Flank.&nbsp;&nbsp;



A genetic analysis of the samples confirmed that at least two Pallas cats inhabit Mount Everest. The experts found pika and mountain weasel DNA in the samples, which are important sources of food for these cats.&nbsp;



“It is phenomenal to discover proof of this rare and remarkable species at the top of the world,” said Dr. Seimon. “The nearly four-week journey was extremely rewarding not just for our team but for the larger scientific community. The discovery of Pallas’s cat on Everest illuminates the rich biodiversity of this remote high-alpine ecosystem and extends the known range of this species to eastern Nepal.”



The findings also add a new species to the list of known mammals in Sagarmatha National Park, a protected World Heritage site that has become an increasingly popular tourist destination.



“This is a unique discovery not only in terms of science but also conservation as this population of Pallas’s cat is legally protected under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora),” said study co-author Dr. Anton Seimon. “We hope that the confirmation of this new charismatic species will raise awareness of and education about the diversity of species at this iconic World Heritage Site.”



The experts say it is notable that Pallas’s cat went undetected in Sagarmatha National Park until 2019. Further research is needed to investigate the population, range, density, and diet of Pallas cats in this region.&nbsp;



“The groundbreaking 2019 Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition continues to be extremely valuable to better understand the most iconic environment on our planet,” said Nicole Alexiev of the National Geographic Society. “These results are a perfect illustration of why this work is important and a cornerstone of our partnership with Rolex to study and explore Earth’s critical life support systems.”&nbsp;



To learn more about the Perpetual Planet Expedition from National Geographic and Rolex, visit <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/topic/perpetual-planet">here</a>.&nbsp;



Image Credit: Julie Larsen/Maher/WCS



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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.

Pallas cats discovered on the world’s highest mountain

In 2019, scientists from eight countries conducted the most comprehensive...

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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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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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



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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 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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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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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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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.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



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.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video 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 history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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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.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&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 capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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