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...

Acqua,Alta,In,Venice

Although great strides have been made in flood and drought risk mitigation, their impact on the world population is increasing. The effect is seen most clearly when a second climate disaster hits an already damaged area.&nbsp;



By analyzing 29 pairs of flood events and 15 droughts worldwide, the researchers set out to determine how risks were managed between the first and second events.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The scientists found that, in many cases, the risk factors did not improve. However, Barcelona and Central Europe stuck out as successful, even though these areas remain vulnerable.&nbsp;



"The improvements in Barcelona's rainwater network over the last twenty years have been decisive in alleviating the effects of floods in the city. In fact, while in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona there has been a slight increase in flooding since 1981, this trend is negative in Barcelona. However, this is not enough," said study co-author Professor María del Carmen Llasat.



Flood mitigation actions in Germany and Austria were also considered successful. Barcelona, Germany, and Austria have a couple things in common: an investment in infrastructure such as dykes and stormwater reservoirs, and better government engagement, including warning systems.



However, even these mitigation measures come with risks. Professor Llasat explained: "Large investments such as those made in the city of Barcelona or in Central Europe are not possible for everyone. In fact, they would not be desirable either. Recent studies have shown that they can lead to a false sense of security (especially in the case of river flooding), as they increase the occupation of flood zones and thus the associated risk."



The experts believe the way to true success is community-based flood mitigation that involves nature-based solutions.



"It is necessary for the administration to improve its knowledge of risk, the distribution of the most flood-prone areas in the city, how to act when there are heavy rains, etc.," said Professor Llasat.



"Regarding the citizens, it is necessary to become aware that this risk will increase with climate change and that we will need citizen participation. Education in schools, compulsory information on flood risks, improved warnings to the population and guidelines on how to act both preventively and during the emergency are also some of the points that should be considered to reduce the impact of these natural events."&nbsp;



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04917-5">Nature</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

As flood risks increase worldwide, who is prepared?

Although great strides have been made in flood and drought...

A new comprehensive study on sleep disorders in older adults has been conducted by researchers at <a href="https://www.concordia.ca/">Concordia University</a>. The team has found that middle-aged and older adults who suffer from insomnia symptoms are more likely to develop <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/digital-devices-can-actually-improve-our-memory-skills/">memory</a> loss disorders, such as dementia.



By using data from the <a href="https://www.clsa-elcv.ca/">Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging</a>, the experts were able to collect information from over 26,000 adults between the ages of 45 and 85.&nbsp;



To conduct the analysis, the researchers compared self-reported evaluations from an initial report in 2019 and a follow-up evaluation in 2022. They found that individuals with declining sleep quality in the three years between evaluations were more likely to report memory decline.&nbsp;



“We found that insomnia specifically was related to worse memory performance compared to those who have some insomnia symptoms alone or no sleep problems at all. This deficit in memory was specific, as we also looked at other cognitive function domains such as attention span multi-tasking.[sic] We only found differences in memory," said study co-lead author Nathan Cross, a postdoctoral fellow at the Sleep, Cognition and Neuroimaging Lab.



According to the analysis, individuals with worsening insomnia had more psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, due to their insomnia. They were also more likely to have a higher BMI and smoke.&nbsp;



The researchers discovered that women with insomnia perform better than men with the disease, which puts men at a greater risk of developing memory decline.&nbsp;



Despite the grim findings, the authors are optimistic about the results of their study. According to Cross, the good news is that sleep disorders like insomnia can be treated.&nbsp;



“This highlights the importance of properly diagnosing and managing insomnia as early as possible in older adults. Adequately treating insomnia disorder might become an important preventive measure for cognitive decline and mitigate the incidence of dementia in later life," said Cross.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsac176/6649765?guestAccessKey=be5fbfeb-51c4-4760-b838-33a967348324">SLEEP</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Insomnia may lead to memory loss in adults

A new comprehensive study on sleep disorders in older adults...

Shouting,A,Angry,Chimpanzee.,The,Chimpanzee,(pan,Troglodytes),Shouts,In

Rainforest trees are supported by massive roots forming large flat buttresses. Male <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-use-surprisingly-complex-vocal-sequences/">chimpanzees</a> often drum with their hands and feet on these roots, sending messages that can be heard across over a kilometer through these dense, humid forests. Now, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/">University of St Andrews</a> has found that chimpanzees in Uganda’s Budongo Forest have their own signature style when drumming on these three roots.&nbsp;



These specific rhythms allow the chimpanzees to send information revealing who is where, and what they are doing. Interestingly, only drumming activities performed while traveling appear to carry specific signatures, suggesting that chimpanzees can control whether they want to reveal their identity and location to conspecifics.&nbsp;



“We could often recognize who was drumming when we heard them, and it was a fantastic way to find the different chimpanzees we were looking for – so if we could do it, we were sure they could too. It’s lovely to finally show how it works,” said study senior author Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist at St Andrews.



“One thing that has always been a puzzle is why chimpanzees greet each other but very rarely seem to say goodbye. Our results might help to explain this – chimpanzees are rarely really out of contact, even when kilometers apart these long-distance signals allow them to keep in touch with who is where. It’s as though they have their own social media that allows them to check in through the day.”



The investigation revealed that chimps use different patterns of beats, with some individuals having a regular rhythm resembling that of rock or blues drummers, while others having more syncopated and variable jazz-like rhythms. They often combine these drums with long-distance calls, called “pant-hoots.”



“This really looks like chimp social media. Indeed, we also found that chimpanzees drum more often when they’re alone or in small groups. This means that they drum to know where others are and decide whether to join them or not,” said study lead author Vesta Eleuteri, a PhD student in the evolution of cognition and communication at the <a href="https://www.univie.ac.at/en/">University of Vienna</a> and visiting researcher at St Andrews.&nbsp;



&nbsp;“I was surprised that I was able to recognize who was drumming after just a few weeks in the forest. But their drumming rhythms are so distinctive that it’s easy to pick up on them. For example, Tristan – the John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) of the forest – makes very fast drums with many evenly separated beats. His drumming is so fast that you can barely see his hands! Ben, the alpha male, also has a peculiar style: he makes two closely following beats separated by one or two more distant beats.”



In future research, the scientists aim to investigate group differences to clarify whether there are different drumming “cultures” among different chimpanzee populations.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.07.013">Animal Behavior</a>.



---



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

Chimpanzees use distinctive drumming styles to communicate

Rainforest trees are supported by massive roots forming large flat...

Long have humans gazed at birds with a mix of envy and awe. It was these feathered fliers that first inspired us to take to the air in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-worlds-largest-flying-dinosaur-jumped-before-takeoff/">flying</a> machines. Still, even now, much of how birds are able to move across the skies with such grace remains largely mysterious.&nbsp;



In a new study, engineers have explored how birds can maneuver so well in flight. Study lead author Christina Harvey is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a>.



“Birds easily perform challenging maneuvers and they’re adaptable, so what exactly about their flight is most useful to implement in future aircraft?” said Professor Harvey.&nbsp;



After earning a bachelors of science in engineering, Harvey focused her research on gulls as she pursued a master's degree in zoology. “Gulls are very common and easy to find, and they’re really impressive gliders,” she said.&nbsp;



Harvey’s professional interest in gulls has continued as she finished her PhD in aerospace engineering and carried out more research on the birds.&nbsp;



In a paper published earlier this year in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04477-8">Nature</a>, Harvey and other scientists looked at flight dynamics of 22 bird species. Unlike most studies that focus on aerodynamics, the researchers looked at other factors as well.&nbsp;



Some airplanes are designed to be stable - like a jetliner that returns to steady flight after turbulence. Planes like fighter jets that must maneuver quickly are better being designed as unstable. The research shows that birds are capable of both unstable and stable flight, unlike planes.&nbsp;



Harvey’s new research builds upon this previous study. The team used 3D models of gulls and gull wings inside a wind tunnel to look at how the birds respond to perturbations while in flight. The research is important in understanding how gulls fly, but also in how we might design an airplane modeled after birds.&nbsp;



Professor Harvey expressed one of the lingering questions that is raised by her research: “The flight qualities analysis asks: if you built an aircraft exactly like a gull, would a human be able to fly it?”



Many other questions about bird flight and its application to engineering still remain as the researchers continue their studies.&nbsp;



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204847119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



---



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

Bird flight inspires the design of future aircraft

Long have humans gazed at birds with a mix of...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.ecu.edu.au/">Edith Cowan University</a> (ECU) have recently discovered that noise may help enhance <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forgetting-may-actually-be-a-form-of-learning/">learning</a> for some people. More specifically, the experts explored the effects of transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) in several situations.



Transcranial random noise stimulation is not what we typically think of as noise. Impulses come from electrodes attached to the head, emitting a weak current that passes through certain sections of the brain.&nbsp;



Study lead author Dr. Onno van der Groen explained the potential benefits of tRNS: "The effect on learning is promising: it can speed up learning and help people with neurological conditions. So, people with learning difficulties you can use it to enhance learning rate, for example."



"It's also been trialed on people with visual deficits, such as after stroke and traumatic brain injury. When you add this type of stimulation during learning, you get better performance, faster learning and better attention afterwards as well."



Dr. van der Groen said that tRNS works by utilizing neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to make new connections. "If you learn something, there has to be neuroplastic changes in your brain, which allows you to learn this information. And this is a tool to enhance this neuroplasticity."



"If you do 10 sessions of a visual perception task with the tRNS and then come back and do it again without it, you'll find you perform better than the control group who hasn't used it."



However, transcranial random noise stimulation won't create a "new level" of intelligence. "The question is, if you're neurotypical, are you already performing at your peak," said Dr. Van der Groen.



"There's a case study where they tried to enhance the mathematical skills of a super mathematician; with him, it didn't have much of an impact on his performance, presumably because he is already a top performer in that area. But it could be used if you're learning something new."



Although research is still in the beginning stages, Dr. van der Groen feels that due to its safety, more research will be conducted in the future to explore the medical benefits of this new technology.&nbsp;



"We're working on a study where we send the equipment to people, and they apply everything themselves remotely. So in that regards, it's quite easy to use."



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763422001919?via%3Dihub">Neuroscience</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

"Random noise" may provide a new path to faster learning

Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) have recently discovered that...

COVID-19 has affected people in almost all countries and territories in the world. Some of these are low-resource countries where free <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/do-wind-instruments-spread-covid-19/">COVID</a> testing is not available, nor is the testing of waste water to give warning of imminent waves of the disease. In these countries, an affordable, accessible, non-invasive method of identifying those who have COVID-19 would help to manage and control the spread of the disease more effectively.&nbsp;



This is what led scientists from the Maastricht University in the Netherlands to design a mobile phone app that identifies COVID-19 sufferers from the sound of their voices. One of the main symptoms of this disease is inflammation in the upper respiratory tract and vocal cords, which usually leads to changes in the patient’s voice. The scientists wondered whether these symptoms could be used as an accurate method of diagnosis, and set about collecting data from the voices of ill and well people.



Their results were presented recently at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, Spain.&nbsp;



Ms. Wafaa Aljbawi from the Institute of Data Science at Maastricht University, and her supervisors - Dr Sami Simons, pulmonologist at Maastricht University Medical Centre, and Dr Visara Urovi, also from the Institute of Data Science - used data from the University of Cambridge’s crowd-sourcing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.covid-19-sounds.org/en/">COVID-19 Sounds App</a>&nbsp;that contains 893 audio samples from 4,352 participants, 308 of whom had tested positive for COVID-19. They then analyzed the voice sounds using a technique called Mel-spectrogram analysis, which identifies different voice features such as loudness, power and variation over time.&nbsp;



“In this way we can decompose the many properties of the participants’ voices,” said Ms. Aljbawi. “In order to distinguish the voice of COVID-19 patients from those who did not have the disease, we built different artificial intelligence models and evaluated which one worked best at classifying the COVID-19 cases.”&nbsp;



The experts found that one model, called Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM), out-performed the other models. LSTM is based on neural networks, which mimic the way the human brain operates and recognizes the underlying relationships in data. It works with sequences, which makes it suitable for modelling signals collected over time, such as from the voice, because of its ability to store data in its memory.&nbsp;



At the congress of the <a href="https://www.ersnet.org/">European Respiratory Society</a>, Ms. Aljbawi reported that the AI model they had decided to use was accurate in identifying positive cases of COVID-19 in 89 percent of cases, whereas the accuracy of lateral flow tests varied widely depending on the brand of test kit used. Also, lateral flow tests were considerably less accurate at detecting COVID infection in people who showed no symptoms.



“These promising results suggest that simple voice recordings and fine-tuned AI algorithms can potentially achieve high precision in determining which patients have COVID-19 infection,” she said. “Such tests can be provided at no cost and are simple to interpret. Moreover, they enable remote, virtual testing and have a turnaround time of less than a minute. They could be used, for example, at the entry points for large gatherings, enabling rapid screening of the population.”



The app is installed on a user’s mobile phone and then, to make use of it, the user first reports some basic information about demographics, medical history and smoking status, and records some respiratory sounds. These include coughing three times, breathing deeply through the mouth three to five times, and reading a short sentence on the screen three times.&nbsp;



The app’s overall accuracy was 89 percent, the same as its ability to detect positive cases correctly (the true positive rate or ‘sensitivity’). Its ability to identify negative cases correctly (the true negative rate or ‘specificity’) was 83 percent.



In contrast, lateral flow tests have a sensitivity of 56 percent, but a higher specificity rate of 99.5 percent. This would mean that the tests misclassify infected people as COVID-19 negative more often than the scientists’ AI model.&nbsp;



“These results show a significant improvement in the accuracy of diagnosing COVID-19 compared to state-of-the-art tests such as the lateral flow test,” said Ms. Aljbawi. “The lateral flow test has a sensitivity of only 56 percent, but a higher specificity rate of 99.5 percent. This is important as it signifies that the lateral flow test is misclassifying infected people as COVID-19 negative more often than our test. In other words, with the AI LSTM model, we could miss 11 out 100 cases who would go on to spread the infection, while the lateral flow test would miss 44 out of 100 cases."



“The high specificity of the lateral flow test means that only one in 100 people would be wrongly told they were COVID-19 positive when, in fact, they were not infected, while the LSTM test would wrongly diagnose 17 in 100 non-infected people as positive. However, since this test is virtually free, it is possible to invite people for PCR tests if the LSTM tests show they are positive,” added Ms. Aljbawi.



The researchers say that their results need to be validated with larger numbers of participants. Since the start of this project, 53,449 audio samples from 36,116 participants have now been collected and can be used to improve and validate the accuracy of the model. They are also carrying out further analysis to understand which parameters in the voice are influencing the AI model.



The researchers conclude that deep-learning can indeed detect subtle changes in the voice of COVID-19 patients. This method of diagnosis is free, readily available contactless and non-invasive, and can be used, in conjunction with other testing methods, to diagnose COVID-19 cases rapidly and accurately.



---



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

Smartphone app can detect COVID-19 infection in your voice

COVID-19 has affected people in almost all countries and territories...

For decades, archaeologists struggled to understand past peoples, while ecology has focused on current <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ecosystems-moving-north/">ecosystems</a>. However, both of these well-established scientific disciplines generally neglect the crucial questions of how humans and nature interacted and shaped each other across different geographical places and time periods. In order to fill these knowledge gaps and provide insights into how to solve today’s sustainability challenges, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.santafe.edu/">Santa Fe Institute</a> (SFI) has now defined a new field of scientific inquiry, archeoecology, which attempts to examine the complex interplay between humans and the ecosystems they were embedded in.



While archeologists or paleobiologists might investigate a particular relationship, such as how humans in New Guinea raised cassowaries during the Late Pleistocene, archeoecology aims to take a much broader view. “It’s about understanding the whole ecological context, rather than focusing on one or two species,” said study co-author Jennifer Dunne, an ecologist and Vice President for Science at SFI.



According to Dunne and her archaeologist colleague Stefani Crabtree, archaeoecology’s mission is to examine the past 60,000 years of interplay between humans and ecosystems, by showing not only how humans impacted nature, but also how the ecosystems they lived in shaped human culture and dynamics. To achieve this, archeoecology weaves together research questions, methods, data, and modeling tools from archaeology, ecology, and paleoecology. “What it’s doing is breaking down a traditional, but unnecessary, disciplinary separation between archaeology and ecology,” Dunne explained.



With humanity facing the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, archaeoecology could yield critical insights to help us navigate these contemporary environmental challenges. For instance, using an archaeoecological lens to analyze the situation of the Aral Sea during the height of the Silk Road can clarify how Soviet Union’s 1960s water diversion project and the subsequent desiccation of the Aral Sea impacted both the surrounding ecosystems and human communities.



“Every ecosystem on the planet is impacted by humans in one way or another,” Crabtree said. “It's naïve to look at just the last 100 years because people have been impacting ecosystems everywhere for many thousands of years. We need to understand the past to understand our present and future. Archaeoecology helps with that. We can learn from these experiments with sustainability in the past,” she concluded.



An in-depth definition of this new discipline and examples of its possible applications can be found in an article published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.07.010">Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.



---



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

Archeoecology will examine the history of humans and nature

For decades, archaeologists struggled to understand past peoples, while ecology...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/">University of Edinburgh</a> has found that some prehistoric mammals were born almost independent from their parents and grew up twice as fast as most of today’s mammals, features which gave them a significant edge over other animals after the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-impact-crater-dates-back-to-the-end-of-the-dinosaurs/">dinosaurs</a> went extinct.&nbsp;



The scientists used dental analysis to uncover the life history of Pantolambda bathmodon, a member of the earliest known group of herbivores from the post-dinosaur era which grew to approximately the size of a sheep. By examining razor-thin sections of this animal’s teeth, and using laser to vaporize the teeth to expose their chemical constitution, the experts identified the mammal’s daily growth lines, known as “bands.”



The analyses revealed major transitions in P. bathmodon’s early life, such as high levels of zinc deposited at birth, and enrichment with barium during the suckling period, providing evidence that these animals’ mothers were pregnant for under seven months and gave birth to single, well-developed infants, sporting a mouthful of teeth. They were most likely mobile from the first day after birth, and suckled for less than two months before becoming fully independent.



Although the gestation period is similar to that of today’s mammals, P. bathmodon has probably lived and died more rapidly. According to the researchers, they were ready to mate before their first birthday, and lived only three to four years on average – a rather short lifespan compared to the roughly 20 years lifespan of modern mammals of similar size.



“When the asteroid knocked off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, some mammals survived, and they ballooned in size really quickly to fill the ecological niches vacated by T. rex and Triceratops and other giant dinosaurs,” said study senior author Steve Brusatte, a professor of Paleontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh.



“Being able to produce large babies, which matured for several months in the womb before being born, helped mammals transform from the humble mouse-sized ancestors that lived with dinosaurs to the vast array of species, from humans to elephants to whales, that are around today.”



“Our research opens the most detailed window to date into the daily lives of extinct mammals. This unprecedented level of detail shows the kinds of lifestyles that make placental mammals special evolved early in their evolutionary history,” added study lead author Gregory Funston, a paleontologist at the same university.



“We think that their babies’ longer gestation period could have nurtured large body sizes faster than other mammals, which may be why they became the dominant mammals of today,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05150-w">Nature</a>.



---



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

Prehistoric mammals grew fast and died young

A new study led by the University of Edinburgh has...

Last week, California became the first state to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, with the <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/">California Air Resources Board</a> (CARB) approving an ambitious phase-out plan which will require all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in California to be <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/biden-lays-out-plan-for-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/">electric vehicles</a> or other types of zero-emissions vehicles. Now, other states such as Washington, Massachusetts, or Virginia are discussing their intentions to follow in the Golden State’s footsteps and implement similar initiatives.



Recently, the federal <a href="https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview">Clean Air Act</a> has allowed California to set more stringent greenhouse gas emissions standards than those currently implemented by the federal government, while offering the possibility of other states to set similar rules. About 16 states have opted to adopt California’s standards, meaning that a gas-powered car ban could apply to almost one third of the country’s auto market.



For instance, Washington started adopting California’s emissions standards in 2020 and has committed to reduce vehicle-related emissions by 68 percent by 2030. Other states, such as Massachusetts and Virginia, have also aligned their vehicle emission standards with those of California and plan to phase out gas-powered cars too.



Currently, electric vehicles account for about 5.6 percent sales in the United States – with a much higher percentage in California (16 percent), which is the largest automobile market in the country. Although automakers are generally supportive of the idea of producing and selling more electric vehicles, they have expressed skepticism that the ban on gas-powered cars could be implemented by 2035, due to the fact that there are not enough electric vehicle charging stations to accommodate a massive surge in demand, as well as the difficulty to get enough raw materials to make batteries for so many electric cars.



“These are complex, intertwined and global issues well beyond the control of either [California regulators] or the auto industry,” concluded John Bozzella, the president of the <a href="https://www.autosinnovate.org/">Alliance for Automotive Innovation</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

California moves to ban gas-powered cars by 2035

Last week, California became the first state to ban the...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.calpoly.edu/">California Polytechnic State University</a> and the <a href="http://www.unm.edu/">University of New Mexico</a> (UNM) has found that stock market investors predict that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-legalization-reduces-designer-drug-poisonings/">cannabis legalization</a> may reduce conventional pharmaceutical sales by billions of dollars. 



By analyzing how the stock market returns of publicly traded pharmaceutical firms responded to medical and recreational cannabis legalization events, the experts discovered that stock market returns were 1.5 to two percent lower at ten days following a cannabis legalization event, and that the implication for the annual sales from this reduction were in the billions of dollars.



While previous studies have investigated how cannabis access reduces the consumption of various types of medications, such as opioids, or focused on its impact on certain groups, like Medicaid patients, this is the first study to comprehensively analyze the overall effect of cannabis legalization on pharmaceutical firms across all products and types of patients.&nbsp;



Since the cost of pharmaceutical products remains a critical barrier to healthcare for many Americans, cannabis could offer a more affordable solution. Moreover, unlike other drugs which are designed to target specific health conditions, cannabis is used to treat a wide variety of problems – ranging from headaches and muscle spasms to depression or anxiety. These factors could make cannabis a major competitor in drug markets, which – in a scenario of full federal legalization – could reduce conventional pharmaceutical sales by 11 percent, regardless of the fact that currently, there is no standardization, clear dosing instructions, or health insurance coverage related to cannabis use.



&nbsp;“Currently, cannabis patients and their providers have little information to guide them towards the most effective treatment for their condition,” said study co-author Sarah Stith, an expert in Applied Microeconomy at UNM. 



“The future of cannabis medicine lies in understanding the prevalence and effects of the plants’ components beyond THC and CBD and identifying ways to categorize cannabis by measurable characteristics that are known to yield specific effects. Mimicking conventional pharmaceuticals through standardization may not be the optimal endpoint for cannabis, as the variability inherent in the cannabis plant is likely driving its ability to treat so many conditions.”&nbsp;



Thus, conventional pharmaceutical manufacturers may benefit from investing in cannabis markets rather than lobbying against them, while regulatory policies should facilitate further research to clarify the risks and benefits of using cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272492">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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Pharmaceutical companies could lose billions to cannabis

A new study led by the California Polytechnic State University...

It seems that when a many legged animal walks, and when a legless animal slithers along, the mechanics involved in the two processes are not all that different. Well this is what scientists from <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">UC San Diego</a> have proposed after conducting research into walking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predicting-the-movement-of-sea-lions-can-help-protect-them/">movements</a> by ants and robots. The team of roboticists, physicists and biologists have published their findings in the&nbsp;Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,&nbsp;in a paper titled “Walking is like slithering: a unifying, data-driven view of locomotion.”&nbsp;



In previous research, the scientists had studied the mechanics of walking in ants, and they thought their findings could be applied to designing algorithms for walking in robots. They conducted research on several colonies of Argentine ants at UC, San Diego, and on two different types of multi-legged robots at the University of Michigan. While conducting this research, they discovered a new mathematical relationship between walking, skipping, slithering and swimming in viscous fluids, for multi-legged animals and bots.&nbsp;



“This is important because it will allow roboticists to build much simpler models to describe the way robots walk and move through the world,” said study co-author Nick Gravish, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California San Diego.



Argentine ants are good subjects to study because they walk long distances over diverse terrains. “Argentine ants are very easy to study in the lab,” said Glenna Clifton, a faculty member at the University of Portland, who conducted most of the ant research while she was a postdoctoral scholar in Gravish’s lab at UC San Diego.



These ants also adapt to laboratory settings easily, and will rapidly reconstruct their colony once transferred into the lab. Researchers then motivate them to walk by placing food in specific locations, and monitor their movements using video recordings. “These ants will set up foraging trails and follow them,” Clifton said. “They bounce back quickly and they don’t hold a grudge.”&nbsp;



To study locomotion in these animals and robots, researchers used an algorithm developed by the research group of Shai Revzen at the University of Michigan, which turns complex body motions into shapes. “This algorithm allows us to create a simple relationship between what posture you’re in and where you are going to move next,” Gravish said.&nbsp;



The researchers found that the same algorithms could be applied both to ants and to the different types of robots in the study, even though different numbers of legs were sometimes involved. And the amount of slipping motion was also very different when the animal and robot subjects were walking. Argentine ants don’t slip much when they walk – just 4.7 percent of total motion. By contrast, slipping occurred in 12 to 22 percent of the motion in the six-legged BigANT robot and 40 to 100 percent in the multipod robots with six to 12 legs in the study.&nbsp;



By using a model based on the above-mentioned algorithms, the experts could predict where the insect or robot was going to move next simply based on what posture – or shape – it is making with its body.&nbsp; “This provides a universal model for location that applies whenever the movement is dominated by friction with the environment,” wrote the researchers.&nbsp;



The mathematics that the researchers used isn’t new, but it was understood to only apply to slithering and swimming movements in viscous liquids. The team showed that the same equations apply to multi-legged walking, whether the walkers are slipping or not. In addition, the same rules apply from millimeter-scale insects, such as ants, to meter-scale robots.&nbsp;



“The universality of this approach may have applications in robot design and motion planning, and provides insight into the evolution and control of legged locomotion,” wrote the researchers.&nbsp;



For example, these universal principles may have implications for understanding major evolutionary transitions, for example from swimming to walking, say the authors. Given that walking, even with slipping, follows the same general control principles as viscous swimming, early land animals might already have had the neural circuitry needed for locomotion on land.&nbsp;



The team did not study locomotion in two-legged animals or robots, but the model would apply equally to these, provided that they move slowly, have both feet on the ground at the same time, and do not fall over. The researchers have more fine-tuning to do in order to understand other factors, such as the role friction forces play in the model.&nbsp;



In conclusion, Gavish says, “Either way, walking can be much simpler than we usually think.”&nbsp;



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

Walking is like slithering, experts have found

It seems that when a many legged animal walks, and...

The crapemyrtle bark scale is an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pitcher-plants-harness-rain-energy-to-capture-insects/">insect</a> pest that destroys trees by feeding on their sap. The insect has long mouth parts that penetrate the tree bark, and a protective wax on its back that shields the pest from insecticides. After it was introduced from Asia to Texas in 2004, the invasive insect has rapidly spread across 17 states in the Southern US.



In a new study from the <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M</a> College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, researchers have developed a remote system to identify host plants of crapemyrtle bark scale. The monitoring system, which uses electrical penetration graph (EPG) and custom software, could potentially eliminate the need for intensive greenhouse studies.



According to the researchers, crapemyrtle sales have an annual economic value of $69.5 million. The crapemyrtle bark scale has managed to cut this market in half.&nbsp;



“It’s imperative to control this pest because it can spread quickly and potentially threaten the green industry and ecosystem,” said study lead author Dr. Bin Wu. “Our research is to figure out the host range, or what kind of plant species besides crapemyrtle are exposed to this."



Using the EPG monitoring system, the team can track the probing activities of the insect. The EPG waveforms allow the researchers to observe what nutrients the crapemyrtle bark scale insect extracts from its host.



“Through those observations and determining what nutrients were being taken away, we were able to consider which were most likely host plants,” explained Wu.



Study co-author Dr. Runshi Xie said scale insects such as the crapemyrtle bark scale are interesting species with diverse genetic systems, and some of them reproduce asexually.



“The female leads a very sedentary lifestyle,” said Xie. “They are pretty much waiting on the male, which is a fly, to instigate mating behavior. For the male to find a female, the female must release a sex pheromone. Our next research project will seek out what compounds are released, and how to use them to disrupt mating."



“Right now, the control of this insect is the use of systemic pesticides. But the insects are protected by scale covering, which makes spraying ineffective. To treat chemically, we need to drench the soil to deliver the chemicals into plants, and insects feeding on the sap will die. However, this practice is also detrimental to pollinators. Our focus will be to see if we can come up with novel systems that control insects without relying too much on pesticides.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/insects">Insects</a>.



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

Remote monitoring may save crapemyrtles from invasive pests

The crapemyrtle bark scale is an insect pest that destroys...

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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?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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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

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...