Can farms produce enough food to feed us while still leaving space for wildlife? A new proposal says they can.



By setting aside one-fifth of farmland for nature, and tweaking everyday practices on the rest, we can help wildlife recover without sacrificing the food on our tables.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-farming-with-wildlife-in-mind">Farming with wildlife in mind</h2>



The plan comes from ecologists at the <a href="https://www.ceh.ac.uk/">UK Centre for Ecology &amp; Hydrology</a> and the University of Alcalá in Spain. Study co-author Professor James Bullock elaborated on the importance of the research.



“Reversing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/un-report-calls-for-global-change-to-stop-biodiversity-loss/">biodiversity loss</a> and degradation of ecosystems is essential both for nature as well as long-term global food security. But there is no single silver bullet for nature recovery and so far it has been unclear how to integrate rewilding into agricultural landscapes," said Professor Bullock. 



“Our proposed approach moves beyond land sparing versus land sharing. We believe rewilding can be interwoven into agricultural landscapes and could be key to maintaining <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/increasing-plant-based-food-production-would-have-extremely-positive-impact/">food production</a> in a way that is sustainable in the long term for people and the planet.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dedicating-land-to-nature-recovery">Dedicating land to nature recovery</h2>



According to the study, fostering rewilding approaches alongside farming could create agroecological landscapes that accommodate biodiversity while remaining resilient and functionally connected. Certain incentives would encourage farmers to adopt this approach.



“While setting aside land for nature recovery could potentially be made a legal requirement for farmers and landowners, there is more likely to be acceptance and success of rewilding if there are incentives in the form of payments for ecosystem services and tax deductions,” noted Professor José María Rey Benayas, lead author on the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-farming-needs-wildlife">Why farming needs wildlife</h2>



Modern farming has greatly increased food production since the 1940s. But this has often come at the expense of nature. 



Clearing land, using heavy fertilizers and pesticides, and removing natural features like hedgerows have pushed many plant and animal species to the edge.



This loss doesn’t just affect wildlife - it disrupts vital services that farms depend on, such as healthy soil, natural pest control, and water retention. As these services decline, the long-term productivity and resilience of farming systems are put at risk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cost-of-declining-wildlife">The cost of declining wildlife</h2>



Across Europe and beyond, once-common species are disappearing from farmland. For example, the U.K. has lost over 40 million birds since 1970, and wild bee populations have declined in more than half of European countries, according to multiple long-term surveys.



These animals aren’t just part of the scenery - they’re key to food production. Birds eat crop pests. Bees and other insects pollinate the flowers that develop into fruits and vegetables. Their loss means greater reliance on artificial fertilisers, pesticides, and expensive manual labour.



Bringing wildlife back isn’t just a conservation goal - it’s a practical step toward more affordable and reliable <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mixed-cover-crops-may-be-the-future-of-sustainable-farming/">farming</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-steps-to-farming-alongside-wildlife">Steps to farming alongside wildlife </h2>



The researchers suggest a four-part plan that links nature conservation with everyday farming. 



First, they recommend reserving at least 20% of farmland for nature. This space would include large patches of woodland, wetlands, and species-rich grassland to form strong core habitats. 



Second, these patches should be connected by green corridors - such as hedgerows, ponds, and strips of scrubland - that allow wildlife to move, feed, and reproduce.



Third, they propose protecting small hotspots within working fields. This would involve setting aside about 10% of cropped land for flower strips, beetle banks, and bird perches, bringing the total to the 30% global restoration goal. 



Finally, they call for small changes in daily farming practices, like reducing chemical use, planting flowers for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pollinators-face-extinction-risk-due-to-climate-change/">pollinators</a>, and letting livestock graze more freely to help spread seeds and support healthy soil.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rewilding-has-benefits-for-farmers">Rewilding has benefits for farmers</h2>



Many European regions cannot host bears or bison. However, smaller species such as lynx, wildcat, or European hare can still boost ecosystem health. Choosing the right mix depends on local conditions.



Helping wildlife can pay off in more ways than one. When farms support natural habitats, they often see practical benefits in return. 



Better soil retains more water and nutrients, which supports stronger <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/farmers-can-help-make-crops-more-resilient/">crops</a>. Pollinators and natural predators of pests can help increase yields in nearby fields. 



Farmers may also spend less on fertilizers and pesticides, lowering overall input costs. In some places, governments might provide payments or tax breaks to reward efforts that support biodiversity and ecosystem services.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-making-room-for-wildlife">Making room for wildlife</h2>



Reaching the 20% target may be challenging for small farms, but collective action can make it achievable. At the same time, each region will need to adapt the plan to fit its local conditions. 



Areas with heavily degraded farmland have the most to gain, while places with traditional, low-impact farming may require fewer changes. 



The researchers emphasize that this is just a starting point - but the message is clear: making room for wildlife alongside farming can help secure both indigenous species and food for the future.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.2860">Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment</a>.



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Farming for wildlife: How traditional practices can protect nature

Can farms produce enough food to feed us while still leaving space for wildlife? A new proposal says they can. By setting aside one-fifth of farmland for nature, and tweaking everyday practices on the rest, we can help wildlife recover without sacrificing the food on our tables. Farming with wildlife in mind The plan comes from ecologists at the UK Centre for Ecology &amp; Hydrology and the University of Alcalá in Spain. Study co-author Professor James Bullock elaborated on the importance of the research. “Reversing biodiversity loss...

The emergence of new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-19-patients-experience-changes-in-heart-tissue/">COVID-19</a> variants have made rapid testing methods less accurate. A recent study suggests that a patient’s breath might hold the key to a more precise diagnosis.



Investigators from the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation used portable gas chromatography to examine breath samples collected during the pandemic’s Delta surge and its transition to Omicron (from April 2021 to May 2022).



The results showed that gas chromatography technology (GC technology) can diagnose COVID-19 with a high level of accuracy. It was also found that the volatile organic compounds in the breath of patients with Omicron differed from patients with earlier variants. These were molecular-level differences which could be used to distinguish between COVID-19, its variants and non-COVID illnesses.



“Exhaled breath contains hundreds of VOCs, which the body produces in response to infection and inflammation,” said study author Dr. Xudong (Sherman) Fan. “Early in the pandemic, we used GC technology to discover and define sets of VOCs for detecting COVID-19. However, we needed to gain a better understanding of how dynamically emerging variants impact this technology.”



The research team conducted a diagnostic study of 167 patients and collected 205 breath samples in 3 cohorts:



<ul><li>COVID-19 (2021): Patients with COVID-19 assumed to be infected by Delta or earlier variants</li><li>COVID-19 (2022): Patients with COVID-19 assumed to be infected by the Omicron variant</li><li>Non-COVID-19 illness as well as patients who have recovered from a COVID-19</li></ul>



Using <a href="https://weilinstitute.med.umich.edu/latest-news/research-team-awarded-2-million-nih-grant-for-breath-analyzer-that-detects-and-monitors-covid-19-and-covid-19-induced-lung-injury">a novel point-of-care GC device developed by Fan and the team</a>, the investigators defined four sets of VOCs that were able to distinguish between COVID-19 (2021) and non-COVID illness with an accuracy of 94.7 percent. However, when the team applied the same VOCs in a setting of presumed Omicron, sensitivity decreased drastically to 60.4 percent.



“We already knew clinically that different strains of SARS-CoV-2 can act quite differently,” said study co-author Dr. Robert Dickson. “This decrease in performance supports our suspicion that their effects on lung biology are quite different as well.”



The team undertook additional analysis and defined new VOCs to discern between Omicron and Delta, Omicron and non-COVID illness, and between patients with COVID-19 and non-COVID illness.&nbsp; This combined analysis resulted in the ability to detect COVID-19 infected patients from non-COVID patients with an accuracy of 90.2 percent. This method is close to RT-PCR tests and better than many rapid antigen tests.



This study presents a promising new method for detecting COVID-19 and other diseases. Further analysis will be needed to determine how to use breath analysis to improve the diagnosis and care of patients.



“The fact that we were able to diagnose COVID-19 in both symptomatic and asymptomatic participants is encouraging,” said Dr. Fan. “More studies on these particular VOCs, including their origins, may assist in the development of a better understanding of COVID-19 as well as the potential to develop new diagnostics.”



The portable GC technology is now licensed for commercialization where further work is seeking to develop the technology for the diagnosis and monitoring of other diseases that produce VOCs due to inflammation. The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.0982">JAMA Network Open</a>.



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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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Breath compounds could make it easy to detect COVID

The emergence of new COVID-19 variants have made rapid testing...

The last full moon of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere – known as the “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/super-worm-moon-tonight/">Worm Moon</a>” – will reach peak illumination at 7:42 A.M. E.T. on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. This year, the Worm Moon will coincide with another spectacular planetary phenomenon: the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the western sky right after sunset.&nbsp;



For many years, it was thought that the name of this full moon was given by Native American tribes to refer to the earthworms that appear as the soil warms up with the arrival of spring. However, according to the <a href="https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-march">Farmer’s Almanac</a>, this name may also be linked to a different type of “worms” – the beetle larvae – that start to emerge from the thawing bark of trees, as well as other winter hideouts during this period of the year, as testified in the 1760s by Captain Jonathan Carver, who learned about this alternative meaning when visiting the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes.



While some other names this full moon is known by also refer to the appearance (or reappearance) of certain animals at the end of winter – such as the Eagle Moon, the Goose Moon (Alonquin, Cree), or the Crow Comes Back Moon (Northern Ojibwe) – yet others point to different signs of the season, including: the Sugar Moon (Ojibwe), marking the time when the sap of sugar maples begins to flow; the Wind Strong Moon (Pueblo), referring to the strong winds characteristic of this period; or the Sore Eyes Moon (Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine), highlighting the blinding sunrays reflecting off the melting snow.&nbsp;



In Christianity, this moon is known as the Lenten Moon if it occurs before the spring equinox – and corresponds with Lent, the traditional period of fasting preceding Easter - or the Paschal Full Moon if it occurs after the spring equinox. In the Hebrew tradition, it is related to the celebration of Purim, a religious holiday marking the Jewish people’s deliverance from a royal death decree around the fourth century BCE, in Hinduism it is linked to the feast of Holi (also known as the Festival of Colors), celebrating the victory of good over evil and the beginning of spring, and in Buddhism, it corresponds with Māgha Pūjā, celebrating a gathering of the Buddha with 1,250 of his first disciples that symbolizes the creation of an ideal, exemplary community.



Although the Worm Moon will be the most visible if the skies are clear, stargazers who get a bit of rain on Monday or Tuesday night might also get a glimpse of a moonbow, a phenomenon similar to a solar rainbow that is produced by moonlight when it is refracted through water droplets in the air. Since moonbows are only visible when a full moon is low in the sky, they may be visible after sunset, when the sky is dark.



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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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Tonight's Worm Moon marks the beginning of spring

The last full moon of the winter season in the...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ants-can-effectively-adapt-to-urban-environments/">Urban</a> areas are bursting with both human and animal life. Although some of the smallest life forms, such as insects, spiders, and ants are easily overseen, their presence or absence in cities can have wide-reaching effects on a variety of ecosystems. Now, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/">University of Innsbruck</a> in Austria has examined the correlation between the presence of arthropods – invertebrate animals with exoskeletons including bees, insects, and spiders – and levels of urbanization.



“In this study, we compared how different indexes of urbanization shape arthropod communities,” said lead author Marion Chatelain, a postdoctoral fellow in Urban Ecology at Innsbruck. “We show that richness and diversity of arthropods on trees and bushes decreases along the rural-urban gradient. More specifically, we show that urbanization disfavors wingless groups, particularly so on trees. Indeed, web spiders and springtails are less likely to be found in the city, where, on the contrary, aphids, woodlice, and flies are common.”



The scientists collected arthropod samples at 180 sites within an area covering 56.5 square kilometers in and around the city of Innsbruck, from three types of micro-habitats – the canopy, the tree bark, and the bush layer – at each site. Then, they estimated the level of urbanization within 100, 500, and 1000 meters around each site by measuring the percentage of paved-over and built-up area compared to vegetation or trees, and tested its impact on the total number of arthropods (abundance), the number of taxonomic groups (richness), and the types of arthropods present.



The analysis revealed a significant correlation between the level of urbanization and total arthropod numbers in the bush layer, with higher urbanization levels linked to more bark lice and crab spiders in the shrubs (most likely due to more nutritious leaves in urban bushes). In the canopy, the number of winged arthropods such as flies increased in more urbanized areas, while certain species of spiders were found less frequently, suggesting a possible advantage of winged arthropods in cities, due to their increased ability to move between isolated green spaces.&nbsp;



The researchers also observed reduced numbers of web-building spiders in comparison to species that actively hunt, suggesting that the increase or decline of spider groups correlates with their hunting modes.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



While certain arthropod groups seem to have adapted better to urban life than others, no effect on total bug numbers were found. “Because some groups thrive while other are filtered from urban areas, there are at least as many arthropods in the city as in the rural surrounding,” Chatelain explained. “In fact, in bushes, arthropods, especially bark lice and crab spiders, are actually more abundant in the city.”



Further research is needed to better understand how arthropod distribution and abundance in urban areas may impact insect-eating bird communities. “Our results suggest that urbanization affects the availability of arthropod prey, which is expected to have consequences on predator nutritional status, foraging behavior, reproduction success, survival, and distribution within the urban landscape. This study is part of a larger project aiming at understanding the effects of urbanization on food availability, diet, and nutritional status of great tits and blue tits,” Chatelain concluded.



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.980387">Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution</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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How does urbanization shape arthropod communities?

Urban areas are bursting with both human and animal life....

In a recent study, a team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.monash.edu/">Monash University</a> in Australia has found that only 0.18 percent of the global land area and 0.001 percent of the world’s population are exposed to levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) deemed safe by the <a href="https://www.who.int/">World Health Organization</a> (WHO). While daily levels of these dangerous pollutants have reduced in Europe and North America during the two decades to 2019, in Australia, New Zealand, Southern Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean they have increased, with over 70 percent of days globally witnessing potentially hazardous levels.



The experts combined traditional air quality monitoring observations, satellite-based meteorological and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-will-increase-dramatically-in-a-hotter-climate/">air pollution</a> detectors, and statistical and machine learning methods to more accurately assess PM2.5&nbsp;concentrations worldwide.&nbsp;



“In this study, we used an innovative machine learning approach to integrate multiple meteorological and geological information to estimate the global surface-level daily PM2.5&nbsp;concentrations at a high spatial resolution of approximately 10km ×10km for global grid cells in 2000-2019, focusing on areas above 15 μg/m³, which is considered the safe limit by WHO (the threshold is still arguable),” explained senior author Yuming Guo, a professor of Global Environmental Health and Biostatistics at Monash.



The analysis revealed that, regardless of a slight decrease in high PM2.5 days globally, over 70 percent of days still had PM2.5&nbsp;concentrations higher than 15 μg/m³ by 2019, with areas in southern and eastern Asia witnessing such dangerous concentrations in more than 90 percent of days.&nbsp;



While the annual average concentration between 2000 and 2019 was 32.8 µg/m3 globally, the highest concentrations were found in eastern Asia (50.0 µg/m3), southern Asia (37.2 µg/m3), and northern Africa (30.1 µg/m3), and the lowest ones in Australia and New Zealand (8.5 μg/m³), Oceania (12.6 μg/m³), and southern America (15.6 μg/m³).



The researchers also discovered that unsafe PM2.5&nbsp;concentrations exhibited different seasonal patterns, with northeast China and north India facing high concentrations in winter, and eastern areas in northern America being exposed to more air pollution in summer.&nbsp;



According to Professor Guo, this study is important since it provides a deep understanding of the current state of outdoor air pollution and its possible impacts on human health. “With this information, policymakers, public health officials, and researchers can better assess the short-term and long-term health effects of air pollution and develop air pollution mitigation strategies,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00008-6">The Lancet Planetary Health</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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Almost no place on Earth is safe from air pollution

In a recent study, a team of scientists led by...

A recent study led by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> has found that growing commercial crops at <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/floating-solar-farms/">solar farms</a> not only increases food production, but also improves solar panel performance and longevity. These findings highlight the importance of developing and employing new technologies at a critical time for agricultural production, as global food demands are expected to rise by 50 percent by mid-century to feed up to 10 billion people, while the development of renewable energy sources is urgently needed to mitigate the impact of climate change.&nbsp;



“We now have, for the first time, a physics-based tool to estimate the costs and benefits of co-locating solar panels and commercial agriculture from the perspective of increased power conversion efficiency and solar-panel longevity,” said lead author Henry Williams, a doctoral student in Sustainable Solar Development at Cornell.



“There is potential for agrivoltaic systems – where agriculture and solar panels coexist – to provide increased passive cooling through taller panel heights, more reflective ground cover and higher evapotranspiration rates compared to traditional solar farms,” added senior author Max Zhang, an expert in Energy and the Environment at the same university. “We can generate renewable electricity and conserve farmland through agrivoltaic systems.”



In New York, for instance, nearly 40 percent of utility-scale solar capacity has been developed on agricultural lands, and 84 percent of land considered suitable for utility-scale solar development is agricultural.&nbsp;



According to the scientists, solar panels mounted over vegetation have lower surface temperatures than those built over bare ground. For instance, solar panels mounted four meters above a soybean crop showed temperature reductions by nearly 10 degrees Celsius compared to those mounted a half-meter above bare soil. This cooling effect – which is more significant than that induced by greater panel height – not only adds to solar panel efficiency, but also leads to improved solar panel lifespan and, thus, major long-term economic potential.



“As you decrease the solar panel operating temperature, you can increase efficiency and improve the longevity of your solar modules. We’re showing dual benefits. On one hand, you have food production for farmers, and on the other hand, we’ve shown improved longevity and improved conversion efficiency for solar developers,” Williams concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120478">Applied Energy</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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Growing crops at solar farms increases panel efficiency

A recent study led by Cornell University has found that...

Until now, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/young-chimpanzees-take-risks-like-human-teens/">chimpanzees</a> have stood out as the only non-human animals to make use of a tool set. This means they can use two or more different tools, with separate functions, to achieve a single goal. Not only this, but they also recognize the need to bring all components of the tool set along in order to succeed.&nbsp;



The most famous example of this is given by the chimpanzees of the N’doki forest in northern Congo, when they fish for termites. They need both a short, rigid stick for opening the termite nest, and a long, thin probe to reach deep into the nest and access the termites. Some of the chimpanzees carry around both of these tools when foraging for termites, instead of starting with the short stick and then heading off to look for a thin probe once the nest is open.



Recent experimental research has now shown that Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) can also make use of a tool set. These small, white birds from the parrot family are indigenous to parts of Indonesia and have been shown to be competent tool users, and even capable of making their own tools to help extract seeds from a fruit.&nbsp;



Up until now, though, it wasn’t clear whether the cockatoos considered these tools as a “set." It’s possible that what may look like a tool set is instead nothing more than a sequence of single tool uses, with the need for each new tool occurring to the animal as the task evolves.



In a new study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.023">Current Biology</a>, researchers have used controlled experiments to clarify that the cockatoos do indeed recognize when a job requires more than one tool. “With this experiment we can say that, like chimpanzees, Goffin’s cockatoos not only appear to be to using tool sets, but they&nbsp;know&nbsp;that they are using tool sets,”&nbsp;said study first author Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. “Their flexibility of behavior is stunning.”



The experiments were set up to mimic the termite fishing behavior of the famous chimpanzees. Each of ten cockatoos was faced with a perspex box containing a cashew nut. In order to access the nut, the bird had to insert a short, rigid stick through a grid in the box and puncture a membrane. Then the bird had to switch tools to a long, flexible straw that was cut in half longways, and poke this through the hole it has just made in the membrane. By waving the straw around, the bird could dislodge the nut.&nbsp;



Of the ten cockatoos, seven were able to use the tool set successfully and reach the criterion of nine successful trials. The two star birds, Figaro and Fini, solved the problem on their very first attempt, taking only 31 and 34 seconds respectively. The cockatoos don’t have an equivalent foraging behavior in the wild, so their tool use could not have been based on any innate behaviors, and each cockatoo used a slightly different technique when trying to access the nut.&nbsp;



Next, the team tested the cockatoos’ ability to change their tool use in a flexible manner depending on the situation. To do this, they presented each cockatoo with two different types of box: one with a membrane in front of the nut, and one without. The cockatoos were given the same two tools, but they only needed the pointy stick when a membrane was in the way. “The cockatoos had to act according to the problem; sometimes the tool set was needed, and sometimes only one tool was enough,” said Osuna-Mascaró.



All of the cockatoos mastered the test in a very short period of time and were able to recognize when a single tool was sufficient. However, the birds engaged in an interesting behavior during this choosing phase. “When making the choice between which tool to use first, they were picking one up, releasing it, then picking up the other one, releasing it, returning to the first one, and so on,” said Osuna-Mascaró. The researchers found that when cockatoos did this switching, they performed better on the tests.



Next, the team tested the cockatoos’ ability to transport the tools as a set on an as-needed basis. They put the cockatoos through a series of increasingly challenging trials to reach the boxes: first they had to climb a short ladder while carrying their tools; then they had to fly horizontally with them; and in the final test, they had to carry the tools while flying vertically. As before, the birds were only sometimes presented with a box with a membrane barrier, so they had to decide whether the problem required one or both tools.



Some cockatoos learned to carry the two tools together – by inserting the short punching stick into the groove of the halved straw – when they were presented with a box that required both. This meant they only had to make one trip, albeit while carrying a heavier tool set. Most of the cockatoos transported the toolset on an as-needed basis, further indicating that they could judge beforehand whether two tools were required, though some made two trips when necessary. One cockatoo, Figaro, decided not to waste time thinking and instead carried both tools in almost every trial.



“We really did not know whether the cockatoos would transport two objects together,” said study senior author Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. “It was a little bit of a gamble because I have seen birds combining objects playfully, but they very rarely transport more than one object together in their normal behavior.”



There’s a lot more to be learned about cockatoo tool use, the researchers say. “We feel that, in terms of technical cognition and tool use, parrots have been underestimated and understudied,” said Auersperg.



“We’ve learned how dexterous the cockatoos are when using a tool set, and we have a lot of things to follow-up on,” noted Osuna-Mascaró. “The switching behavior is very interesting to us, and we are definitely going to use it to explore their decision making and their metacognition – their ability to recognize their own knowledge.”



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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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Cockatoos can recognize the need for a tool set

Until now, chimpanzees have stood out as the only non-human...

A century of research has shown that honeybees are excellent navigators. They use a combination of cues and senses to find their way, including their sense of smell, the sun, patterns of polarized light, vertical landmarks and perhaps even the Earth’s magnetic field. And now, a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1070957/full">Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience</a> has found that honeybees also use the layout of linear features in the environment to guide themselves home.



Dr. Randolf Menzel is an emeritus professor at the Department of Neurobiology of the Free University of Berlin and the study’s lead author. “Here we show that honeybees use a ‘navigation memory,’ a kind of mental map of the area that they know, to guide their search flights when they look for their hive, starting in a new, unexplored area. Linear landscape elements, such as water channels, roads, and field edges, appear to be important components of this navigation memory," explained Dr. Menzel.



The researchers placed a beehive in each of five rural areas close to the village of Klein Lüben in Brandenburg, Germany. The five home areas, A–E, had a different number and layout of linear features, such as fields and roads, which the researchers referred to as "edges." They also identified a test area where they planned to release bees, and which would represent a brand new, unexplored location with its own pattern of linear structures.



After the bees from each colony had acclimatized to their specific home areas, the researchers caught experienced foragers that had just fed at a feeding station. Each of the captured bees (a total of 50) was fitted with a tiny (10.5 mg) harmonic radar tracking device and transported to the test area to be released. All the bees were released at the same place in the test area, and their flight paths were then monitored for between 20 minutes and three hours as they familiarized themselves with the position of the hive in the new location.&nbsp;



The presence and layout of linear features in the test area were not the same as in any of the home areas, A–E. These features most closely resembled the layout in Areas A and B, while being least similar to the layout in Area E. The researchers expected that honeybees released in the test areas would perform search flights interspersed with multiple returns to the release site, in order to familiarize themselves with the new layout. This is common behavior for honeybees that find themselves in a new and unfamiliar location.&nbsp;



However, if the search flight patterns of individuals from the different home areas differed, then then researchers hypothesized that the memories of features from the home areas may affect the way in which the bees investigate and learn about their new area.&nbsp;



The experts analyzed the flight patterns of released bees by quantifying the frequency with which each bee flew over of each 100 x 100 meter block within the test area. They then compared the results to random flight patterns generated by models. This revealed that the bees from the five home colonies did not use the same flight patterns to become familiar with the layout of the test area, and none of them simply flew around randomly during their orientation flights.&nbsp;



Indeed, the analysis showed that the honeybees spent a disproportionate amount of time flying alongside the linear features in the test area. Analyses showed that these continued to guide the exploratory flights even when the bees were more than 30 meters away, the maximum distance from which honeybees are able to see such landscape elements. This implies that the bees kept them in their memory for prolonged periods.



Interestingly, the bees from home Area E, which was least similar to the test area and had few linear features, showed flight patterns that most closely resembled those predicted by the random flight models. The researchers suggested this indicated that these bees had not learned to use linear features to navigate in their home area.&nbsp;



However, the bees from home Areas A and B, which were most similar to the test area and had numerous linear features, behaved differently from the modeled random flight patterns; the flights of these bees focused on the field, road and canal edges in the test area. This indicated to the researchers that the bees had acquired a navigation memory in their home area that made use of linear features, and they used this to help them learn about the layout in the test area.



“Our data show that similarities and differences in the layout of the linear landscape elements between their home area and the new area are used by the bees to explore where their hive might be,” said Menzel.&nbsp;



The findings suggests that the bees retained a navigational memory of their home area, based on linear landscape elements, and were able to generalize this memory to help find their way back to the release site in the unfamiliar test area. This technique of finding one’s way home is reminiscent of what pilots did in the earliest days of human flight, before the invention of the first radio beacons, ground-based electronic systems or modern GPS. They commonly navigated by following roads and railways – striking linear landscape elements at ground level that guide towards a destination of interest.



“Flying animals identify such extended ground structures in a map-like aerial view, making them highly attractive as guiding structures. It is thus not surprising that both bats and birds use linear landmarks for navigation. Based on the data reported here we conclude that elongated ground structures are also salient components of the honeybees’ navigation memory,” concluded the authors.



—



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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Honeybees create mental maps to find their way home

A century of research has shown that honeybees are excellent...

Researchers from <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina State University</a> recently published a paper which suggests that “greening” - the amount of leaves that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-plants-adapt-to-rapid-warming-and-drought/">plants</a> can produce - will significantly impact how much carbon dioxide plants can capture and store.



“As we work to anticipate the future climate, a big question is: What’s going to happen to vegetation, one of the largest stores of carbon on Earth? We know temperatures will rise and the growing season will be longer in most places, but there are a lot of unknowns about how that will affect how carbon is cycled between plants and the atmosphere. Our new results allow us to be more confident about what those changes will be," said study co-author Josh Gray.&nbsp;



Although climate change has led to more greening in some areas, it leaves other places vulnerable to “browning.” This process is caused by high temperatures which negatively impact photosynthesis and promote more carbon release.



“An earlier spring might be good for plant productivity because you have a longer period of carbon uptake,” said study first author Xiaojie Gao. “However, a longer autumn might make the situation worse. In autumn, plants tend to emit carbon.”



The researchers used satellites that measured infrared light to determine leaf biomass.



“Healthy green leaves are sort of like infrared mirrors,” said Gray. “So, they look really ‘bright’ to satellites in these wavelengths. With a few tricks, we can calculate an index that is the combination of how bright a place is in infrared and red wavelengths, and corresponds to how many leaves are in a place.”



The experts discovered that leaf biomass might have a larger impact on carbon uptake than the length of the growing season.



“There are some places where we have more leaves than we used to have, particularly at the higher latitudes,” Gray said. “There are also some places where spring might be coming early, and fall might be coming late. These changes are all affecting the amount of photosynthesis that is going on, but the amount of leaves plants are producing has a stronger association with carbon uptake than changes in growing season length. In other words, we found that greening trends were more important pound for pound than an extension in the growing season for carbon uptake.”



The research team believes satellites will play an essential role in future research and hope their research will help inform climate predictions.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007462">Global Biogeochemical Cycles</a>.



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



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Earth greening affects carbon uptake by plants

Researchers from North Carolina State University recently published a paper...

Visual cues affect our eating patterns whether we are aware of these signals or not, according to a study from <a href="https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/">Osaka Metropolitan University</a>. The research suggests that unconscious neural processes have a big influence on what <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-impact-labeling-has-a-strong-influence-on-food-selection/">foods</a> we crave, making it difficult to control our eating behavior.



"Obesity is a serious health problem in modern society. Considering the fact that the outcomes of treatments targeting appetitive behavior are suboptimal, one potential reason proposed for these poor outcomes is that appetitive behavior is driven more by unconscious decision-making processes than by the conscious ones targeted by traditional behavioral treatments," wrote the researchers.



"In this study, we aimed to investigate both the conscious and unconscious decision-making processes related to eating behavior, and to examine whether an interaction related to eating behavior exists between conscious and unconscious neural processes."



The research was focused on healthy male participants who were presented with images of food and non-food items. The volunteers viewed the photos both consciously and unconsciously.



The inferior frontal gyrus is a region of the brain’s frontal lobe that controls eating behavior. The study revealed that in this brain region, the neural response to food stimuli depended on whether the images were presented consciously or unconsciously.



According to the researchers, the results indicate that eating behavior cannot be understood without taking into account both unconscious and conscious neural processes.



"The interactions were associated with eating behavior indices such as emotional eating and cognitive restraint, suggesting that conscious and unconscious neural processes are differently involved in eating behavior," wrote the study authors.



"These findings provide valuable clues for devising methods to assess conscious and unconscious appetite regulation in individuals with normal or abnormal eating behavior."



"If we can learn more in future research about how eating behavior is controlled by unconscious neural processes, we can combine that understanding with our current knowledge of conscious neural processes to potentially develop more effective methods for regulating eating behavior,” said Professor Takahiro Yoshikawa, who led the research team.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275959">PLoS ONE</a>.



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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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Eating behavior is influenced by the unconscious mind

Visual cues affect our eating patterns whether we are aware...

A new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01603-w">Nature Climate Change</a> has found that, by the end of this century, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-level-rise-will-cause-widespread-impacts-sooner-than-expected/">sea level rise</a> may disproportionately affect several Asian megacities – such as Chennai, Kolkata, Yangon, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila - as well as western tropical Pacific islands and the western Indian Ocean.&nbsp;



Scientists have long known that increases in ocean temperatures will lead to sea level rise, since water expands when it warms and melting ice sheets release more water into the ocean. However, studies have also indicated that such rises in sea levels will vary regionally because changes in ocean currents will direct more water to certain coastlines (including northeastern U.S.).



A notable aspect of this study is that it incorporates naturally occurring sea level fluctuations caused by El Niño or changes in the water cycle (a process called “internal climate variability”). By combining computer models estimating how the global climate may change in a high-emissions scenario with a specialized statistical model, the experts examined the extent to which these natural fluctuations might amplify – or, in some cases, reduce – the impact of climate change on sea level rise along certain coastlines.



The analysis revealed that, in some regions, internal climate variability could increase sea level rise by 20 to 30 percent more than climate change alone, thus leading to an exponential spike in extreme flooding events. In Manila, for instance, while coastal flooding events are predicted to occur 18 times more often by 2100 due to climate change alone, they could occur 96 times more often from a combination of both climate change and internal climate variability.



According to the researchers, although the complex and unpredictable interactions in our planet’s climate system create significant difficulties in reliably estimating sea level rise, it is critical for society to be aware of the potential of extreme sea level rise in order to develop effective adaptation strategies.



“The internal climate variability can greatly reinforce or suppress the sea level rise caused by climate change. In a worst-case scenario, the combined effect of climate change and internal climate variability could result in local sea levels rising by more than 50 percent of what is due to climate change alone, thus posing significant risks of more severe flooding to coastal megacities and threatening millions of people,” concluded study senior author Aixue Hu, a meteorologist and oceanographer at the <a href="https://ncar.ucar.edu/">National Center for Atmospheric Research</a> (NCAR).&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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Sea level rise will disproportionally affect Asian megacities

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change...

A,Spotted,Dolphin,Family,Leaping,Out,Of,The,Clear,Blue

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dolphins-may-also-suffer-from-alzheimers-disease/">Dolphins</a> and other toothed whales are social, highly intelligent predators, which can hunt prey down to two kilometers deep in complete darkness using echolocation. Although scientists have long known that these remarkable behaviors are mediated by sound that travels fast and far in murky, dark waters, until recently, the precise way in which this processes functions has remained a mystery.



Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.sdu.dk/en">University of Southern Denmark</a> (SDU) and Aarhus University has found that toothed whales evolved an air-driven nasal sound source which, just like the human voice, operates at different registers, allowing them to locate their prey in deep waters. These registers include the vocal fry register (which produces the lowest tones), the chest register (which is similar to humans’ normal speaking voice), and the falsetto register (which produces high frequencies). The researchers found that toothed whales use the vocal fry register to produce echolocation calls that help them catch prey.



“Vocal fry is a normal voice register that is often used in American English. Kim Kardashian, Kate Perry, and Scarlet Johannsen are well-known people using this register,” said study senior author Coen Elemans, an expert in Sound Communication and Behavior at SDU. “During vocal fry, the vocal folds are only open for a very short time, and therefore it takes very little breathing air to use this register.”



Although it was previously thought that toothed whales make sounds with their larynx just like other mammals, four decades ago scientists discovered that, in fact, they use their noses to produce sound. In the current study, the experts found that these animals evolved an air-driven sound production system in their nose which, although it functions in a physically analogous way to laryngeal and syringeal sound production in mammals and birds, is not located in the same place.



“Evolution has moved it from the trachea into the nose, which allowed much higher driving pressures – up to five times what a trumpet player can generate - without damaging lung tissues,” explained study lead author Peter Madsen, a biologist at Aarhus.



“This high driving pressure allows toothed whales to make the loudest sounds of any animal on the planet,” Elemans added.



At depths over 100 meters, the whales’ lungs collapse in order to avoid compression sickness, while the remaining air – found in the nasal passages – provides a small, but sufficient airspace to produce echolocating sounds at depths of up to 2,000 meters. When echolocating, the whales pressurize air in their bony nose and let it pass through structures called phonic lips which vibrate in a similar way to human vocal folds.



“While vocal fry may be controversial in humans and may be perceived as everything from annoying to authoritative, it doubtlessly made toothed whales an evolutionary success story,” Elemans concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adc9570">Science</a>.



—



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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Toothed whales use vocal fry to catch their prey

Dolphins and other toothed whales are social, highly intelligent predators,...

A study published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-hazardous-materials">Journal of Hazardous Materials</a> has recently described a new fibrotic disease in seabirds. Instead of being caused by infectious agents such as viruses or bacteria, “plasticosis” is caused by small pieces of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastics-can-be-passed-from-mothers-to-unborn-babies/">plastic</a> that the birds ingest from their environment, leading to inflammation of their digestive tracts. Over time, repeated or persistent inflammation can cause digestive tissues to become scarred or deformed, which impacts the birds’ digestion, growth, and ultimately survival.



“While these birds can look healthy on the outside, they’re not doing well on the inside,” said study co-author Alexander Bond, a senior curator at the Natural History Museum in London. “This study is the first time that stomach tissue has been investigated in this way and shows that plastic consumption can cause serious damage to these birds’ digestive system.”



The researchers discovered this disease in flesh-footed shearwaters on Lord Howe Island, an island located 600 kilometers off the coast of Australia. These birds consume large amounts of plastics from the sea after mistaking it for food. Repeated ingestion of plastics leads to scarring of the proventriculus – the first chamber of the birds’ stomachs – and, as plastic exposure increases, the tissue becomes increasingly swollen until it begins to break down.



“The tubular glands, which secrete digestive compounds, are perhaps the best example of the impact of plasticosis,” Bond explained. “When plastic is consumed, these glands get gradually more stunted until they eventually lose their tissue structure entirely at the highest levels of exposure.”



The condition causes birds to be more vulnerable to infections and parasites, and diminishes their ability to absorb some vitamins. In addition, plasticosis can also cause the stomach to become hardened and less flexible, making it less effective at digesting food. This can be extremely harmful particularly for young birds and chicks – which often consume food containing plastic particles fed to them by their parents – sometimes making them starve to death as their stomachs fill up with plastic they cannot digest.&nbsp;



Although, so far, this disease is only known to affect the digestive system, scientists suggest that it may also have an impact on other parts of the body, such as the lungs.



Until now, this disease has only been documented in a single bird species. However, given the amount of plastic pollution worldwide, it is likely that it affects other species too. Further research is needed to assess the prevalence of this condition, while measures to curb plastic pollution should be urgently taken in order to safeguard the health of a variety of animal species, including humans.



—



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 disease found in seabirds is caused by plastic consumption

A study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials has...

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



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



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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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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



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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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



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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



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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



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Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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