As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-increases-the-risk-of-armed-conflict/">climate change</a> advances, many animal species are shifting the timing of major life events, such as reproduction. For instance, with earlier spring thaws, many types of flowers bloom earlier. However, it is not yet clear whether such significant changes in life history will ultimately help various species adapt and survive, or lead to larger problems instead.&nbsp;



A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> (UW) has investigated for the first time the effect of life history changes driven by climate change on a species of large carnivore – the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), a species distantly related to wolves which raise their young cooperatively in packs.



By analyzing field observations and demographic data from 1989 to 2020 on African wild dog populations, the scientists found that, over a three-decade period, the animals shifted their average birthing dates later by 22 days – an adaptation which allows them to match the birth of new offspring with the coolest temperatures in early winter.&nbsp;



“Although most animal species are advancing their life history events earlier in the year with climate change, this finding represents a rare instance of a species delaying its life history, and at a rate twice as high as the average rate of change observed across animal species”, said Jeremy Cohen, a macroecologist at <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a>, who was not involved in the study.



However, this significant shift leads to fewer pups surviving their most vulnerable, post-birth “denning period,” due to rapid temperature increases. Thus, this species – which is already threatened by habitat loss, disease, and conflicts with humans - seems to be caught in a “phenological trap,” in which changes in the timing of major life events ultimately proves maladaptive due to unprecedented environmental conditions such as climate change.



&nbsp;“Large predators play extraordinarily important roles in ecosystems, but we still have a lot to learn about the implications of climate change for these animals,” said study lead author Briana Abrahms, an assistant professor of Biology at UW. “Big climate-driven shifts like the one we found may be more widespread in top predators than originally thought, so we hope our findings will spur new climate-change research on other predator populations around the planet.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121667119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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;

Top predators trapped by trying to adapt to climate change

As climate change advances, many animal species are shifting the timing of major life events, such as reproduction. For instance, with earlier spring thaws, many types of flowers bloom earlier. However, it is not yet clear whether such significant changes in life history will ultimately help various species adapt and survive, or lead to larger problems instead.&nbsp; A team of researchers led by the University of Washington (UW) has investigated for the first time the effect of life history changes driven by climate change on a species...

The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota Access oil pipeline Friday, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to "voluntarily pause" action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts.
The government's order came minutes after a judge rejected a request by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt construction of the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline.
The tribe, whose cause has drawn thousands to join their protest, has challenged the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits for the pipeline at more than 200 water crossings. Tribal leaders allege that the project violates several federal laws and will harm water supplies. The tribe also says ancient sites have been disturbed during construction.
The tribe's chairman, Dave Archambault II, spoke at the state Capitol in front of several hundred people, some carrying signs that read "Respect Our Water" and "Water Is Sacred." He called the federal announcement "a beautiful start" and told reporters that the dispute is a long way from over.
"A public policy win is a lot stronger than a judicial win," he said. "Our message is heard."
A joint statement from the Army and the Departments of Justice and the Interior said construction bordering or under Lake Oahe would not go forward and asked the Texas-based pipeline builder, Energy Transfer Partners, to stop work 20 miles to the east and west of the lake while the government reconsiders "any of its previous decisions."
The statement also said the case "highlighted the need for a serious discussion" about nationwide reforms "with respect to considering tribes' views on these types of infrastructure projects."
Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for the company, said it had no comment.
The president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council said he was disappointed with the government's decision to intervene and called it "flagrant overreach" that will result in more oil being moved by trucks and trains.
The 1,172-mile project will carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois.
In denying the tribe's request for a temporary injunction, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said that the court "does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance" to the tribe and that, given the federal government's history with the tribe, the court scrutinized the permitting process "with particular care."
Nonetheless, the judge wrote, the tribe "has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here."
Attorney Jan Hasselman with the environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit on the tribe's behalf, said earlier this week any such decision would be challenged. "We will have to pursue our options with an appeal and hope that construction isn't completed while that (appeal) process is going forward," he said.
Tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard said Boasberg's ruling gave her "a great amount of grief. My heart is hurting, but we will continue to stand, and we will look for other legal recourses."
Earlier in the day, thousands of protesters, many from tribes around the country, gathered near the reservation that straddles the North and South Dakota border.
"There's never been a coming together of tribes like this," according to Judith LeBlanc, a member of the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma and director of the New York-based Native Organizers Alliance. People came from as far as New York and Alaska, some bringing their families and children, and hundreds of tribal flags dotted the camp, along with American flags flown upside-down in protest.
The judge's order was announced over a loudspeaker there. John Nelson of Portland, Oregon, came to the camp to support his grandson, Archambault. The 82-year-old says he was not surprised by the ruling, "but it still hurts."
State authorities announced this week that law enforcement officers from across the state were being mobilized at the protest site. They said some National Guard members will work security at traffic checkpoints and another 100 would be on standby. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association asked the Justice Department to send monitors to the site because it said racial profiling is occurring.
Nearly 40 people have been arrested since the protest began in April, including Archambault.
A week ago, protesters and construction workers were injured when, according to tribal officials, workers bulldozed sites on private land that the tribe says in court documents are "of great historic and cultural significance." Energy Transfer Partners denied the allegations.
The state's Private Investigation and Security Board received complaints about the use of dogs and will look into whether the private security teams at the site are properly registered and licensed, board attorney Monte Rogneby said Friday, adding that he would not name the firms.
On Thursday, North Dakota's archaeologist said a piece of private land that was not previously surveyed by the state would be surveyed for artifacts next week.
The company plans to complete the pipeline this year, and said in court papers that stopping the project would cost $1.4 billion the first year, mostly due to lost revenue in hauling crude.
A status conference in the tribe's lawsuit is scheduled for Sept. 16.
---
Kolpack reported from Fargo, North Dakota. Associated Press writers Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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Feds halt work on part of the Dakota Access oil pipeline

The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota...

Members of an international environmental group are expected to vote on a proposal Saturday to urge leaders in every country to close domestic ivory markets that threaten elephants.
Ivory trading is banned internationally, but domestic ivory trade within countries is legal nearly everywhere.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature planned to vote on the proposal Friday at the World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, but some members of the global group of government and nonprofit representatives didn't want a ban, and the vote was delayed when they filed a complaint saying their concerns had not been heard.
"Some governments just don't see the reality of the crisis that the countries of central and East Africa are facing right now," said Susan Lieberman, vice president for international conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. "This is about saying to all governments, 'Make it so people can't buy ivory, because that's the only thing that's going to stop the organized criminals who are causing the poaching of elephants.'"
If the group passes the proposal, it won't have the power to enforce it. Each country would have to enact laws individually, but the group's policy experts could help countries craft laws.
"While the resolutions are not international law, in many cases, they are the genesis of international agreements," said Enrique Lahmann, global director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The number of savanna elephants in Africa is rapidly declining and the animals are in danger of being wiped out because of the ivory trade, according to a recent study, which said the population plummeted by about 30 percent from 2007 to 2014 and is declining at about 8 percent a year.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen funded the aerial survey that covered 18 countries using dozens of airplanes and involved 90 scientists.
The United States announced a near-total ban on the domestic sale of African elephant ivory in June.
"We're talking about the extinction of elephants," said Joseph Moravec, law student at Pace University and voting member of the conservation congress. "Ivory markets are going to close one way or the other, whether it's us closing them when the elephant is still alive, or they're going to close in a few years when these species are still extinct and there's no more ivory left."
Meetings to work out disagreements about the ivory ban proposal were closed to the press Wednesday and Friday, and conference organizers did not release the names of the representatives or countries who delayed the vote.
The IUCN has 1,300 members from more than 160 countries. For a measure to pass, more than half of the eligible members must be voting, and a majority of the votes must support the measure.
---
Follow Cathy Bussewitz on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/cbussewitz">https://twitter.com/cbussewitz</a> . Her work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/cathy-bussewitz">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/cathy-bussewitz</a> .
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Environmental group hopes to ban domestic ivory trade

Members of an international environmental group are expected to vote...

Up until a few years ago, mackerel were unknown in Greenland’s cold waters. The small oily fish typically spawned west of the British Isles and then migrated toward the northeast along the Norwegian current to feed for the summer. But in 2007, they began to show up in large numbers in the Irminger Current around Iceland. On the ocean highway, where they once turned right, they now turned left.

By 2011, the mackerel had found their way into Greenlandic waters, prompting the launch of a new fishery. Three years later, the mackerel fishery made up 23 percent of Greenland’s export earning, an “extreme example of how climate change can impact the economy of an entire nation,” Teunis Jansen, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, said in a release.

The mackerel aren’t the only species being affected by warmer oceans. Soaring temperatures and ocean warming have pushed entire groups of species toward the poles, caused increases in disease in plants and animals and changed weather patterns, according to a report launched this week by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Marine species are moving northward at a rate roughly five times faster than the migration of land animals.

The report, released during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, highlights the impacts of ocean warming on marine life, from microorganisms to mammals. Eighty scientists from a dozen countries worked on the report, considered to be the most comprehensive collection of research on the planet’s warming oceans.

Truly Staggering

“We were astounded by the scale and extent of ocean warming effects on entire ecosystems made clear by this report,” said Dan Laffoley, an IUCN marine adviser and one of the report’s lead authors.

The world’s oceans have acted as a buffer against climate change. A “staggering 93 percent” of the heat produced by human activities has been absorbed by the world’s oceans, Laffoley said. If the heat had entered the atmosphere instead of the oceans, the Earth would have warmed not by the 1C (1.8F) we have already experienced, but by 36C (64.8F). “Up to now, the ocean has shielded us from the worst impacts of climate change,” the report’s authors write.

Temperatures have risen most dramatically in the Arctic, where air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean have increased by 1–2C (1.8–3.6F) since 1980, melting sea ice and the undersides of glaciers.

The loss of sea ice has many consequences. Ice acts as a physical barrier, preventing species from moving from one ocean to another and filtering the amount of light that enters the water. Without it, there is an increased chance that species could use Arctic waters to migrate between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the report said.

The thinning ice has also led to plankton blooms, which fundamentally shift the food available in the ecosystem, said Olof Linden, a marine environmental scientist at the World Maritime University, at the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization, and the author of the Arctic chapter in the report. Linden said the report focused on the biological aspects of warming Arctic waters, but he recognized that there would be many knock-on effects for the people who live along the coasts.

Fundamental Shifts Underway

“The change in ice cover has a dramatic impact on the ecosystem and biodiversity,” said Linden. “At the surface, there is now a soup of plankton and short-lived pelagic fish, like herring and sprat living up there. The groupers, the haddock are all gone because they cannot live off of those plankton.”

Warmer temperatures are already having an effect on bird populations that frequent the Arctic. Ivory gulls in Arctic Canada have declined by 70 percent and the number of Arctic skua breeding in Scotland declined by 74 percent between 1986 and 2011. Studies suggest that black-legged kittiwakes could be extinct in Norway within the next 10–100 years.

The length of the Arctic summer (reduced ice conditions) has already increased by 5–10 weeks throughout the Arctic – and by more than 20 weeks in the Barents Sea region, putting ice-dependent mammals on the edge. As the sea ice retreats, the reproductive success of pack-ice breeding seals will plummet and polar bears are likely to be pushed out of much of their current range in 50–70 years, according to the report.

And, at some point, the report said, the warming ocean could unlock billions of tons of methane frozen within the permafrost contained within the seabed, beneath the oceans.

Future Safeguards

Arctic species are thought to be particularly susceptible to warming ocean temperatures, because they are highly specialized in terms of what they eat, how they hunt and where they live.

There are measures that can be taken to reduce the vulnerability of the Arctic ecosystem to added human pressures, such as controlling emissions, waste and ballast waters from ships traveling in Arctic waters and minimizing the risk of an oil spill, said Linden.

“As fish species move to new jurisdictions, they could create conflicts for access,” said Brian Mackenzie, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark. “[We] need to have clear science-based management policies in place, compliance, etc. … to avoid conflicts like what happened a few years ago when mackerel and herring moved farther North in N.E. Atlantic and created conflicts among different countries.”

Marine protected areas play a role, but the size of these areas is crucial to their success. They must contain many habitats of the same type and of different types in the same area to preserve the ecosystem, said Linden.

He points to the recent expansion of Papahānaumokuākea, an existing ocean reserve off the coast of Hawaii, which will now be the world’s largest marine protected area, covering 1.5 million square kilometers (582,578 square miles). Russia announced the enlargement of its Arctic National Park to include islands in the Franz Josef Land Archipelago and parts of the adjacent seas, making it Russia’s largest national park and marine wildlife sanctuary at 88,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles).

But at its core, ocean warming is a “global temperature effect,” said Linden. “The only way to deal with it is to stop pumping out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

---

Arctic Deeply/UPI

Ocean warming is already harming arctic birds and fish

Up until a few years ago, mackerel were unknown in...

<div>The world's best-selling insecticide may impair the ability of a queen honeybee and her subjects to maintain a healthy colony, says new research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomologist.</div>
<div>

The research examined the effects of imidacloprid, which belongs to a popular class of nicotine-based insecticides known as neonicotinoids. Honeybees often become exposed to neonicotinoids in the process of pollinating crops and ornamental plants while foraging for the nectar and pollen that feed their colonies.

Queen bees in colonies that were fed imidacloprid-laced syrup laid substantially fewer eggs - between one-third and two-thirds as many, depending on the dose of imidacloprid - than queens in unexposed colonies, the study reported.

"The queens are of particular importance because they're the only reproductive individual laying eggs in the colony," said lead author Judy Wu-Smart, assistant professor of entomology. "One queen can lay up to 1,000 eggs a day. If her ability to lay eggs is reduced, that is a subtle effect that isn't (immediately) noticeable but translates to really dramatic consequences for the colony."

Wu-Smart and her colleague, the University of Minnesota's Marla Spivak, assessed colonies populated by 1,500, 3,000 and 7,000 honey bees. Some colonies received normal syrup, with others given syrup that contained imidacloprid in doses of 10, 20, 50 and 100 parts per billion, or PPB.

Colonies that consumed the imidacloprid also featured larger proportions of empty cells, the signature hexagonal hollows that serve as cribs for honey bee broods. About 10 percent of cells in the unexposed colonies were vacant, compared with 24, 31, and 48 percent of the 20, 50 and 100 PPB colonies, respectively. The finding suggests poor brood health in the exposed colonies, Wu-Smart said.

[caption id="attachment_86790" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="wp-image-86790 size-thumbnail" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cff2.earth-com-temp.comuploads20160909092710media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb123629_web-95638fb61b9176987f52c8f5ee1d2458345324b6-1fa2d8449da0b15fff8563d1d552122c913554ca-150x150.jpg" alt="Judy Wu-Smart, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln" width="150" height="150" /> Judy Wu-Smart, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln[/caption]

The researchers further found that exposed colonies collected and stored far less pollen, which they convert into a "bee bread" that provides crucial protein for recently hatched larvae. While more than four percent of the cells in unexposed hives contained pollen, less than one percent of cells in even the 10 PPB colonies did.

And the honey bee equivalent of biohazard containment - the removal of mite-infested or diseased pupae before they can infect the hive - also suffered. An unexposed colony of 7,000 bees removed more than 95 percent of the ailing brood, but a 100 PPB colony eliminated only 74 percent and a 50 PPB colony just 63 percent. Wu-Smart said this reduction in hygienic behavior indicates that the exposed colonies could be more susceptible to pests and pathogens.

Yet Wu-Smart and Spivak also discovered that some of the insecticide's apparent effects, such as decreasing the amount of time a queen spent moving through the hive or the number of worker bees foraging for food, dissipated as the size of a colony increased.

"What we can say is that smaller colonies tend to be more vulnerable, because the queens are more likely to become exposed," Wu-Smart said. "When we look at our general beekeeping practices, the early spring is when colonies are at their smallest size. They're coming out of winter, and a lot of them are naturally smaller."

Unfortunately, Wu-Smart said, growers typically apply insecticides or sow insecticide-treated seeds at that same time. Even imidacloprid-treated crops that bees typically do not pollinate, such as corn, can contribute to exposure when winds sweep up the dust stirred by planting machines and carry it across miles of landscape. That dust can settle in willow trees, dandelions, clovers and other flowering plants that represent food sources for honey bees.

Though Wu-Smart said she doesn't consider banning neonicotinoids a practical step in protecting honey bee colonies, she did advocate for regulating insecticide-treated seeds the same way the industry does with sprays and other application techniques.

"When you spray a pesticide, you have to consider things like wind and temperature to reduce drift," she said. "You can't aerial-spray on a windy day. With seed-treated products, there is no label telling (growers) that it's been treated with an insecticide. There is no restriction as to when you can plant.

"When we do a lot of the extension outreach and talking to growers, many of them are unaware that this is even a problem. So just having that label on the bag saying that planting these seed treatments on a windy day could potentially cause some effects on bees could be useful."

The new study represents another step toward understanding the complex, often intertwined ways that neonicotinoids and other insecticides affect honey bee colonies, Wu-Smart said.

"What we're seeing now is that beekeepers will ... check their hives, say that the hives look good, come back a few weeks later, and (see) the colony start to look really weak," she said. "They'll come back (again), and the colony is dead or dying. So it's a slow decline of their colony health.

"In many of these cases, we want to figure out why these colonies are dwindling when they should be at their peak production. This is providing some of that insight. It's not answering all the questions, but it's definitely something to consider."
###
Wu-Smart and Spivak published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. The research was supported in part by a fellowship Wu-Smart received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

</div>

Popular insecticide impairs queen honeybees' ability to lay eggs

The world's best-selling insecticide may impair the ability of a...

<div>The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere over the equator, known as the quasi-biennial oscillation, was seen to break down earlier this year. These stratospheric winds are found high above the tropics, their direction and strength changes in a regular two- to three-year cycle which provides forecasters with an indication of the weather to expect in Northern Europe. Westerly winds are known to increase the chance of warm and wet conditions, while easterlies bring drier and colder weather.</div>
<div>

Scientists from NCAS at the University of Oxford and the Met Office were part of an international team that observed the unusual behavior in February, noticing a reversal of the expected pattern in the winds. This same team then identified the reason why.

The quasi-biennial oscillation is a regular feature of the climate system. On average, these equatorial eastward and westward winds alternate every 28 to 29 months, making them very predictable in the long term. The team's findings published in Science this week, show that this unexpected change in wind direction was caused by atmospheric waves in the Northern Hemisphere.

Dr Scott Osprey, an NCAS scientist at the University of Oxford, said: "The recent disruption in the quasi-biennial oscillation was not predicted, not even one month ahead. If we can get to the bottom of why the normal pattern was affected in this way, we could develop more confidence in our future seasonal forecasts."

Prof Adam Scaife, Head of Long-range Forecasting at the Met Office and Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, said: "This unexpected disruption to the climate system switches the cycling of the quasi-biennial oscillation forever. And this is important as it is one of the factors that will influence the coming winter."

A return to more typical behaviour within the next year is forecast, though scientists believe that the quasi-biennial oscillation could become more susceptible to similar disruptions as the climate warms.

Later this month international research groups will meet in Oxford to discuss the origins and implications of this event.
###
The paper "An unexpected disruption of the atmospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation" is published in Science today. For copies of the paper, interviews, images or further information, contact Scott M Osprey on +44(0)1865 282434 or email <a href="mailto:Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk">Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk</a>

Key facts
<ul>
 	<li>In February 2016 the quasi-biennial oscillation, a regular feature of the climate system, broke down from its regular pattern.</li>
 	<li>The eastward winds in the upper atmosphere unexpectedly reversed to a westward direction</li>
 	<li>Seasonal forecasts did not predict the disruption, despite the quasi-biennial oscillation being the most predictable long term atmospheric variation after the annual cycle</li>
 	<li>The quasi-biennial oscillation varies every 28 to 29 months on average, and has known impacts on surface weather and climate</li>
 	<li>As the climate warms in future, similar disruptions to the quasi-biennial oscillation could become more frequent</li>
</ul>
Further information

About lead author: Scott M Osprey, NCAS Scientist, University of Oxford

The paper "An unexpected disruption of the atmospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation" is published in Science today. For copies of the paper, interviews, images or further information, contact Scott M Osprey on +44(0)1865 282434 or email <a href="mailto:Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk">Scott.Osprey@physics.ox.ac.uk</a>

Department of Physics, University of Oxford

The Department of Physics at the University of Oxford is one of the largest physics departments in the world, employing about 500 people alongside around 650 undergraduate and 330 graduate students, and with an annual research income of about £25m. The department was judged to have the highest proportion of 4* (world leading) research of any UK physics department in the most recent Research Excellence Framework. <a href="http://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/" target="_blank">www2.physics.ox.ac.uk</a>

National Centre for Atmospheric Science

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) is a world leader in atmospheric science, a multi-million pound research centre, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). NCAS carries out research in climate science, atmospheric composition and air quality, physics of the atmosphere (including hazardous and extreme weather) and provides the UK community with state-of-the-art technologies and scientific facilities for observing and modelling the atmosphere, including a world-leading research aircraft. <a href="http://www.ncas.ac.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.ncas.ac.uk</a>

Met Office

The Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services provides world-class guidance on the science of climate change and is the primary focus in the UK for climate science. Its work is, in part, jointly funded by BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide/science/science-behind-climate-change/hadley" target="_blank">http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-guide/science/science-behind-climate-change/hadley</a>

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is a Russell Group university that combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 21,000 students and is one of the global top 100 universities according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-16, positioned 93rd. Exeter is also ranked 7th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016 and 11th in the Guardian University Guide 2017. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the University ranked 16th nationally, with 98% of its research rated as being of international quality. Exeter was named The Times and The Sunday Times Sports University of the Year 2015-16, in recognition of excellence in performance, education and research. Exeter was The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13.

The University will launch its flagship Living Systems Institute in 2016, a world-class, interdisciplinary research community that will revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. This follows recent investments of more than £350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses in recent years; including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, together with world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute. <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.exeter.ac.uk</a>

International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawai'i <a href="http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/" target="_blank">iprc.soest.hawaii.edu</a>

Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, University of Victoria <a href="http://www.cccma.ec.gc.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.cccma.ec.gc.ca</a>

</div>

The quasi-biennial oscillation: Important climate regulator has broken down

The normal flow of air high up in the atmosphere...

Native forest birds on the Hawaiian island of Kauai are rapidly dying off and facing the threat of extinction as climate change heats up their habitat and allows mosquito-borne diseases to thrive, according to a study released Wednesday.
Higher temperatures caused by global warming increase the spread of diseases such as avian malaria in wooded areas once cool enough to keep them under control, the research says. The findings are an early warning for forest birds on other islands and other species worldwide that rely on rapidly disappearing habitat, according to the study published in the journal Science Advances.
Most of Hawaii's forest birds are restricted to forests in high elevations where disease has been seasonal or absent. A sharp increase in disease has occurred over a 15-year period in the upper-elevation forests of Kauai's Alakai Plateau, a highly eroded crater of an extinct volcano, the study said.
"If native species linearly decline at a rate similar to or greater than that of the past decade, then multiple extinctions are likely in the next decade," it warns.
Two Hawaiian honeycreeper species - akikiki and akekee - are endangered. A petition is asking for the iiwi to be listed as endangered, too, said co-author Lisa Crampton, a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist who is also coordinator for the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project.
The authors used long-term survey data collected by state and federal biologists to document the decline of Kauai's native forest birds, along with surveys tallying the prevalence of avian diseases. Some co-authors went into the forests to count birds, while others analyzed the data, Crampton said.
The scientists found an increase in mosquitoes in the birds' habitat, along with warmer temperatures in the area. Those are some of the correlations that led them to believe climate change is accelerating diseases, Crampton said.
While global warming is a "prime suspect" for the precipitous decline in the birds, other factors such as non-native plants and animals are contributing to the problem, the study said.
The authors describe climate change as a "tipping point" for the sensitive birds.
The study is a "signal that we need to do something about global warming and mosquitoes," said Sam Ohu Gon, senior scientist and cultural adviser for the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, which was not part of the study.
It's only a matter of time before mosquito-borne diseases become commonplace in Hawaii, he said.
There are also cultural reasons to care about the study, he said, explaining that Native Hawaiians view birds, plants and animals as ancestors.
Crampton notes that feathers adorned regalia of ancient Hawaiian chiefs.
"If we lose these forest birds, we lose our connection to our past," she said, adding that they are also integral to Hawaii's watersheds.
"Even though the situation is dire, it's not too late," she said. "It's not hopeless."
State, federal and nonprofit agencies are moving to control rodents that prey on nests and fence off habitats to invasive animals such as pigs and goats, among other actions requiring public support, Crampton said.
In addition, individuals' efforts to reduce their carbon footprint will go a long way.
"Everything we can do to slow down the rate of climate change is going to help the birds," she said.
---
Online:
Science Advances: <a href="http://bit.ly/2bYIlsE">http://bit.ly/2bYIlsE</a>
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Climate change is killing the native forest birds of Hawaii

Native forest birds on the Hawaiian island of Kauai are...

As Hermine worked its way up the East Coast, scientists deployed several underwater drones they say will help them better understand what sustains and strengthens hurricanes and tropical storms - and ultimately better protect life and property.
The ocean gliders, as they are called, resemble yellow-winged torpedoes. They were released into the ocean roughly 100 miles offshore at the continental shelf, where at depths of 100 to 300 feet they measured water temperatures, salinity and density before, during and even after the storm.
Traditional research aircraft that are flown into the eye of a hurricane to take measurements can't get a read on any of that.
"One reason hurricanes are so hard to forecast is that intensity depends on conditions ahead of and below the storm," said Glen Gawarkiewicz, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
The robotic gliders, which are remotely controlled from the shore, can delve into the heart of the storm where it's too dangerous or impractical to send people, and then feed real-time information via satellite to scientists safe on land.
The gliders have been in use for several years now, but this is the third year of the coordinated program funded by the NOAA office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Gawarkiewicz said the latest deployments will give a "look at the continental shelf system in a more holistic manner."
Woods Hole works on the federally funded program in conjunction with the University of Maine, the University of Maryland, Rutgers University and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
The most important thing the gliders collect is water temperature, an important tool in predicting storm intensity, Gawarkiewicz said.
If the storm churns up colder water from the deep ocean, it will decrease in intensity.
The data will help forecasters better predict future storms, and perhaps better warn coastal residents when a monster hurricane is about to hit.
Scientists hit the jackpot with Hermine. Although it was a relatively weak hurricane and had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached waters off the Northeast, it moved slowly and lingered in the Atlantic off the New York/New England coast for a few days, giving scientists a wider window in which to gather data.
The gliders are still out there, collecting post-storm data that will give scientists a picture of what happens weeks after a hurricane or tropical storm passes through, which can affect future weather.
It may take months to fully analyze the Hermine data, but there have already been some surprises, Gawarkiewicz said. For example, the storm drifted farther west than originally predicted, and the data collected may help explain why.
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Scientists use undersea ocean gliders to predict hurricanes

As Hermine worked its way up the East Coast, scientists...

Gov. Jerry Brown is set to extend the nation's most ambitious climate change law by another 10 years on Thursday as California charts a new goal to reduce carbon pollution.
The Democratic governor chose an urban natural park on the edge of downtown Los Angeles as the setting to sign the legislation, SB32, into law.
The bill expands on California's landmark 2006 law, which set the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The state is set to meet or exceed that benchmark, Brown said, with steps including restricting the carbon content of gasoline and diesel fuel, encouraging sales of zero-emission vehicles and imposing a tax on pollution.
The new measure by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, sets a new goal of reducing emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, which Brown called the most aggressive target enacted by any government in North America.
He says the ultimate goal is to cut climate-warming pollution by 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050, though legislation that would have enacted that target was watered down.
Supporters overcame strong opposition from oil companies and other industry interests to pass the bill a year after business-friendly Democrats in the Assembly derailed an even more ambitious proposal to limit the use of oil in the state. Republicans say California's efforts have raised consumer costs without noticeably affecting global emissions.
Brown told a gathering a day earlier in Sacramento that critics have long tried to scuttle reforms by saying they aren't feasible.
"It wasn't too many years ago that our electric utilities said they could not get to 20 percent renewable electricity," Brown told a meeting hosted by the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's power grid. "Well, this month it's been over 26 percent. They said they couldn't get there by 2020. Now, they're all saying - all the major privately owned utilities - they can get to 50 percent by 2030."
Brown also plans to sign another bill, AB197, by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, that provides more legislative oversight of the appointed Air Resources Board, which is responsible for implementing the law, and gives aid to poorer areas that lawmakers say have suffered the most harm from climate change.
The governor, who has traveled the world promoting greenhouse-gas reduction efforts, issued an executive order last year setting the 2030 goals contained in SB32.
But his signing leaves in jeopardy the state's best-known emissions reduction measure. The California Chamber of Commerce has a pending legal challenge to the tax on carbon known as cap-and-trade, which requires polluters to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases. The last two permit sales also have fizzled.
The chamber warned that SB32 will require severe new restrictions that could make the state's energy supply less affordable.
---
Associated Press writers Don Thompson and Juliet Williams in Sacramento contributed to this report.
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California to extend climate change law by 10 years

Gov. Jerry Brown is set to extend the nation's most...

APTOPIX Mine Waste Leak

A historic Colorado mountain town is on the threshold of a transformation after the federal government announced it will embark on an ambitious campaign to stanch the flow of acidic wastewater cascading from abandoned mines.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday designated an area north of Silverton as a Superfund site, clearing the way for a multimillion-dollar cleanup that could last years.
"I think we're all in for one heck of an adventure," said Mark Esper, editor of the Silverton Standard newspaper.
Tainted wastewater has been flowing from idle mines in the San Juan Mountains for years, but some of Silverton's 600-plus residents resisted a Superfund designation, worried it would discourage tourists and skiers. Silverton is best known for the steam-powered Durango &amp; Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Silverton Mountain ski area.
But when the EPA accidentally triggered a 3-million-gallon wastewater spill from the Gold King Mine in August 2015, contaminating rivers in three states, public opinion shifted. Silverton and surrounding San Juan County got behind the Superfund listing.
"It has been a stunning turnaround," Esper said. He said he wasn't sure of all the reasons for the reversal, but others have said residents recognized that a long-term solution was urgent and only the federal government could afford it.
"People I thought never would be supporting Superfund totally reversed," he said.
Silverton Town Administrator Bill Gardner said he was "tremendously happy" with the Superfund listing.
"What a great benchmark for this community and for our downstream partners," he said.
He praised the EPA for listening to the town's concerns.
"I think the EPA deserves a lot of credit," he said. "I think they've worked very hard with the voice of the community."
The agency calls the project the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund Site. It includes 47 other sites besides the Gold King, most of them mining-related.
The EPA has already been at work in the area, building a temporary treatment plant to clean up water still flowing from the Gold King, sampling water and sediment and assessing fish and wildlife habitat.
That process will probably end next year, said Rebecca Thomas, EPA's manager for the project.
The agency will then study different cleanup methods, choose a preferred option and ask for public comment. Work would then start on designing and implementing the cleanup.
Fixes could include water treatment plants for acidic waste draining from the site, plugging abandoned mines that are leaking and moving mine waste piles away from streams, Thomas said.
It's too early to say how long the cleanup will take or what it will cost, Thomas said.
The EPA estimated that the Gold King blowout sent 880,000 pounds of metals into the Animas River in Colorado, including arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc.
Utilities and farmers temporarily stopped drawing water from the rivers for drinking and irrigation. The EPA said water quality quickly returned to pre-spill levels.
Public pressure on the EPA has been intense.
An investigation last year by the Interior Department, which is independent of the EPA, said the cleanup crew could have avoided the spill but rushed its work.
Interior officials said they found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. A separate criminal investigation is still underway, along with an internal EPA inquiry.
Congress has conducted multiple hearings.
New Mexico has sued both the EPA and Colorado over the spill, while the Navajo Nation sued the federal government. Utah officials say they also plan to sue.
Acting New Mexico Environment Secretary Butch Tongate said his state and other downstream jurisdictions were excluded from some of the Superfund planning. "We will persist in our fight to protect New Mexicans and to hold EPA fully accountable," he said in a written statement.
Esper said Silverton could become a research center for cleaning up leaking mines across the nation. The Government Accountability Office estimates that at least 33,000 abandoned mines across the West and in Alaska are contaminating water or causing other environmental problems.
The Colorado cleanup might also improve the town's finances, which have been in decline since a mine and mill closed in 1991, Esper said.
"I think people are really optimistic in the future of Silverton. I don't think we see Superfund as being a hindrance to that," he said.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.</a> His work can be found at<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.</a>
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Silverton, Colorado preps for big changes from Superfund cleanup

A historic Colorado mountain town is on the threshold of...

The U.S. government was wrong to exclude large areas of the Rocky Mountains when it designated almost 40,000 square miles of habitat as critical to the survival of imperiled Canadian lynx, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Montana ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider adding more habitat for the wild cats in several states.
The judge cited the presence of a reproducing lynx population in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Agency officials had earlier concluded that area was "not essential" for the recovery of the species, pointing in part to low population densities of snowshoe hares that lynx eat.
"The (Fish and Wildlife) Service's own representations suggest that parts of Colorado constitute suitable critical habitat," Christensen wrote. He added that snowshoe hares are "certainly present" in the southern Rockies at densities "at or near" the level needed to support lynx.
"In such a close call....the (Endangered Species Act) demands that the tie go to the species," the judge said.
Lynx are elusive, forest-dwelling animals. There is no reliable population estimate for the species. It was listed as threatened in 2000, but a dispute lingers as to where lynx should receive the strongest protections.
Christensen also ruled that officials had failed to analyze the potential for lynx to thrive in portions of Montana and Idaho when they made their critical habitat designation in 2014.
But the judge agreed with the government that a critical habitat designation wasn't needed in Oregon and the Kettle mountain range in Washington state, where there has been little evidence of lynx.
That means lynx in those areas will be protected from hunting and trapping, but there will be less stringent reviews of human activities that could affect the dense forests they need to survive.
Wildlife advocates sued the government following the 2014 habitat designation. They said Wednesday's ruling could mark a "turning point" in lynx recovery.
"The species really now has a fighting chance," said attorney Matt Bishop with the Western Environmental Law Center, who represented some of the plaintiffs in the case. "The feds can no longer discard the southern Rockies or its importance for lynx."
Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Serena Baker said the agency was disappointed with the ruling on the southern Rockies, Montana and Idaho - but pleased that aspects of the 2014 habitat designation were left in place.
She declined to say if the agency would appeal Christensen's ruling or how long it would take to comply.
The American Petroleum Institute and Washington State Snowmobile Association sided with the government in the case. They had asked Christensen to reject the lawsuits from Wildearth Guardians, Cascadia Wildlands and the other plaintiffs.
---
Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap">https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap</a>
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Judge: US should reconsider Canadian lynx habitat

The U.S. government was wrong to exclude large areas of...

<div>The effects of man-made climate change can hamper scientific projections of how key global weather patterns will act in the future, a new study has revealed.</div>
<div>

The pivotal study, carried out by a team of international researchers, has shown that 'multiple' environmental influences can stymie predictions of how mid-latitude storms could behave.

Professor Mark Baldwin, Head of Mathematics at the University of Exeter and co-author of the paper said: "The study frames the important problem of what factors influence the paths of storms, and explores the possible future changes to storms and precipitation as climate changes."

Specifically, the study looks at how a series of environmental forces such as enhanced surface warming in the Arctic - known as Arctic amplification - will impact the position of storm tracks. These are regions where storms travel from west to east across oceans and continents, driven by the prevailing jet stream.

The study suggests that there is a 'tug of war' between how these different environmental forces could change the position of the storm tracks.

Crucially, such major changes could significantly impact many of the most iconic cities worldwide - including New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Cape Town and Melbourne - because they shape temperature, precipitation and extreme weather.

The study, a review of the latest research in the field, is published in leading scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

In idealized and comprehensive climate model simulations, warming due to increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere leads the clouds in high latitudes to reflect more solar radiation - thereby cooling the earth's surface in those regions and increasing the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles. In isolation (the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface) this would lead to a poleward shift of the storm tracks.

Meanwhile, those same clouds tend to enhance the greenhouse effect, thereby warming the Earth's surface in those same regions and decreasing the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles, producing an opposite shift (also, in isolation).

Dr Tiffany S. Shaw, assistant professor in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper added: "Changes in the position of storm tracks in response to anthropogenic climate change depend on how the equator-to-pole temperature gradient will change, and among the various factors affecting this gradient, cloud changes stand out as one of the important pieces of the puzzle.

The study found many examples of opposing influences affecting the position of storm tracks. These included the opposing influence of warming in the tropical upper atmosphere and Arctic amplification (enhanced surface warming in the Arctic), both of which occur in models in response to climate change.

Ultimately, any major changes in the position of storm tracks will have a significant impact on society because storm tracks shape temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather.

"The opposing cloud influences on the equator-to-pole gradient should be studied in more detail to understand the ultimate outcome of this 'tug of war' as it relates to the future position of the storm tracks," Shaw said.

The researchers have now called for expanding observational efforts and the hierarchy of computer simulations used to understand how storm tracks will shift in response to the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Such shifts in position have the potential to significantly change patterns of rain, snow, heat waves and cold outbreaks. For example, if storm tracks shift poleward, New York and Chicago will likely experience warmer weather and less snow. And there's already evidence that the shift of the austral storm track southward - which was caused by the ozone hole at the South Pole -has impacted rain in Australia and South America.
###
The Nature Geoscience review article, titled Storm track processes and the opposing influences of climate change, grew out of a conference held last year in Grindelwald, Switzerland, that was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and The World Climate Research Program.

</div>

Man-made climate change can hamper weather forecasts

The effects of man-made climate change can hamper scientific projections...

<div>Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology show catastrophic declines in wilderness areas around the world over the last 20 years. They demonstrate alarming losses comprising a tenth of global wilderness since the 1990s - an area twice the size of Alaska and half the size of the Amazon. The Amazon and Central Africa have been hardest hit.</div>
<div>

The findings underscore an immediate need for international policies to recognize the value of wilderness areas and to address the unprecedented threats they face, the researchers say.

"Globally important wilderness areas--despite being strongholds for endangered biodiversity, for buffering and regulating local climates, and for supporting many of the world's most politically and economically marginalized communities--are completely ignored in environmental policy," says Dr James Watson of the University of Queensland in Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. "Without any policies to protect these areas, they are falling victim to widespread development. We probably have one to two decades to turn this around. International policy mechanisms must recognize the actions needed to maintain wilderness areas before it is too late. We probably have one to two decades to turn this around."

Watson says much policy attention has been paid to the loss of species, but comparatively little was known about larger-scale losses of entire ecosystems, especially wilderness areas which tend to be relatively understudied. To fill that gap, the researchers mapped wilderness areas around the globe, with "wilderness" being defined as biologically and ecologically intact landscapes free of any significant human disturbance. The researchers then compared their current map of wilderness to one produced by the same methods in the early 1990s.

This comparison showed that a total of 30.1 million km2 (around 20 percent of the world's land area) now remains as wilderness, with the majority being located in North America, North Asia, North Africa, and the Australian continent. However, comparisons between the two maps show that an estimated 3.3 million km2 (almost 10 percent) of wilderness area has been lost in the intervening years. Those losses have occurred primarily in South America, which has experienced a 30 percent decline in wilderness, and Africa, which has experienced a 14 percent loss.

"The amount of wilderness loss in just two decades is staggering" Dr Oscar Venter of the University of Northern British Colombia. "We need to recognize that wilderness areas, which we've foolishly considered to be de-facto protected due to their remoteness, is actually being dramatically lost around the world. Without proactive global interventions we could lose the last jewels in nature's crown. You cannot restore wilderness, once it is gone, and the ecological process that underpin these ecosystems are gone, and it never comes back to the state it was. The only option is to proactively protect what is left".

Watson says that the United Nations and others have ignored globally significant wilderness areas in key multilateral environmental agreements and this must change.

"If we don't act soon, there will only be tiny remnants of wilderness around the planet, and this is a disaster for conservation, for climate change, and for some of the most vulnerable human communities on the planet," Watson says. "We have a duty to act for our children and their children."
###
Watson et al.: "Catastrophic Declines in Wilderness Areas Undermine Global Environment Targets" <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30993-9" target="_blank">http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30993-9</a>

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: <a href="http://newsroom.wcs.org/" target="_blank">newsroom.wcs.org</a> Follow: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/WCSNewsroom" target="_blank">@WCSNewsroom</a>. For more information: 347-840-1242.

</div>

Study: 10 percent of global wilderness has been lost since 1990

Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology show catastrophic declines...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video 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

Ocean heat influences regional climate

[sendtonews key="uwirCufwYv-2012371-12187" 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 Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. The archipelago consists of eight main islands including Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma, as well as many small islands and islets. The Canary Islands are the southernmost region of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean.&nbsp;



Tenerife is dominated by Mount Teide, the third largest volcano in the world. Teide National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is located in the center of the island. Tourists flock to the beaches of Tenerife, which have sand that ranges in color from golden yellow to black.&nbsp;



"Owing to the island’s diverse topography and unique climatic factors, Tenerife has multiple microclimates, which means that the weather can vary drastically from one part of the island to the other," says ESA.



"Weather and climate are heavily influenced by the trade winds blowing from the northeast for most of the year, bringing humidity and precipitation to the north of the island, as well as to the northern slopes of Mount Teide."&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency



---



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

Tenerife in the Canary Islands

[sendtonews key="b3yIdenGyb-1803835-12187" 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.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a> explores how rising sea levels and increasing levels of salinity are impacting coastal wetlands.



The salinity of ocean water is 400 times that of fresh water, and the salt water that is left behind after an ocean intrusion can lead to intolerable salt levels for the plants and animals in a wetland ecosystem.&nbsp;



The Discovery Files video focuses on the work of Dr. Sparkle Malone, a professor in the Department of Biological Science at Florida International University.&nbsp;



In the Florida Everglades, Dr. Malone is taking measurements to assess how plants and animals are responding to changes in salt levels. High salt levels reduce vegetation cover and have a negative effect on productivity throughout the entire wetland ecosystem.&nbsp;



Video &amp; Image Credit: National Science Foundation/Florida International University



---



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

Coastal wetlands are threatened by salt water intrusion

[sendtonews key="nnFRMoxfJX-1822440-12187" 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 Patagonia, which includes Argentina and Chile at the southern tip of South America. The region is known for its rugged beauty, with an abundance of glaciers and dramatic mountain peaks.&nbsp;



"Covering an area of around 673,000 square kilometers, Patagonia is split by Argentina and Chile," reports ESA. "The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains, with lakes, fjords, rainforests and glaciers in the west and deserts and tablelands to the east."



"The island archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, located at the southern tip of Patagonia, is shared by Argentina and Chile, with the eastern part of the main island belonging to Argentina and the southern point of the archipelago, which forms Cape Horn, belonging to Chile. The Strait of Magellan, named after the discoverer, lies between Tierra del Fuego and mainland Argentina."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



---



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

Patagonia: the southernmost region of South America

[sendtonews key="UN3EsNjPIM-2080637-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes the science behind the distillation process. Liquor is produced through the distillation of fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have gone through alcoholic fermentation.



"Distilling liquor might be a relatively simple process - heating a fermented liquid and keeping only the boiled alcohol - but it is dangerous and illegal without a license," reports ACS. "To extract only alcohol from a mixture of many ingredients, scientists must explore boiling points and the intermolecular forces that shape them."



Video Credit: ACS



---



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

Can liquor be distilled at home?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) features a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by



NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



---



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

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

[sendtonews key="eAVLRk51oJ-1826888-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Tobacco,Plantation,By,Agriculturist,In,Village,Farm,With,Beautiful,Sky

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



---



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

Engineering plants that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Italian city of Carrara, which is known around the world for its prestigious marble. Carrara is located on the Carrione River in northern Tuscany about 130 kilometers from Florence.&nbsp;



"The city is famous for its white or blue-grey marble, called Carrara, taken from nearby quarries in the Apuan Alps, a mountain range that stretches for approximately 55 kilometers and reaching around 2,000 meters high," reports ESA. "What appears as snow cover on the rugged mountains is actually bright white marble, contrasting with Tuscany’s lush green vegetation."



According to ESA, Carrara marble is one of the most prestigious marbles in the world, and its quarries produce more marble than any other place on Earth. The famous stone was formed by calcite-rich shells that were left behind by marine organisms after they died.&nbsp;



"When water bodies evaporate, the deposited remains form limestone, and when buried under multi-tonne layers of rock, the intense heat and pressure cause the limestone to metamorphose into marble," explains ESA.



"The special quality of the Carrara marble has made it a popular resource for many famous sculptures, including Michelangelo’s Pietà, and has been used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome, including the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column."



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



---



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

Carrara, Italy and its world famous marble

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Aerial,View,Of,Amazon,Rainforest,In,Brazil,,South,America.,Green

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features a satellite view of the Amazon River in the rainforest of South America.



The Amazon River flows more than 4,000 miles from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean on the northeast coast of Brazil, passing through six countries along the way.



With its source high in the Peruvian Andes, the river runs through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.&nbsp;



The Amazon is considered the widest river in the world. It also has the largest drainage system, with more than 1,100 tributaries. These rivers provide a range of habitats for various types of wildlife, including swamps, marshes and streams.



According to WWF, it is estimated that approximately one-sixth of all the freshwater that drains into the world’s oceans goes through the Amazon delta, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean.&nbsp; During what many archaeologists called the formative stage, Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South America’s highland agrarian systems.



The trade with Andean civilizations in the terrains of the headwaters in the Andes formed an essential contribution to the social and religious development of higher-altitude civilizations like the Muisca and Incas.



Video 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

The Amazon River in South America

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video 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

Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes the dangers of gas stoves, which can produce levels of indoor pollution that are higher than outdoor pollution levels. 



According to ACS, gas stoves emit small amounts of carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and fine particulate matter such as PM2.5. These pollutants are smaller than dust particles, and can travel deep into the human respiratory tract. Cooking with gas also creates "ultrafine particles" that are up to 1,000 times smaller than PM2.5. 



There are many factors that influence how much particulate matter is produced from a gas stove, such as the temperature of the heat and the type of cookware being used. 



To reduce indoor pollution in your home, the EPA recommends using an exhaust fan above your gas stove that is vented to the outdoors.

Gas stoves create dangerous levels of indoor pollution

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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise 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="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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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

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video 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

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video 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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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Today’s Video of the Day from Pensoft Publishers describes the <a href="https://www.claim-h2020project.eu/">CLAIM Project</a>, which is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.



The CLAIM project has been actively pursuing the EU target to improve water quality by reducing marine plastic litter by 50 percent and microplastics by 30 percent by 2030.



"The EU Horizon 2020 project CLAIM has been working to prevent and manage both micro- and macroplastics through the development of new cleaning technologies and redefined methodological approaches. Formed by a consortium of leading international experts from 15 countries in Europe and beyond, CLAIM succeeded in delivering qualitative research with the capacity to reduce the amount and impact of plastic pollution on the ecosystem-based services of the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas."&nbsp;



George Triantafyllou, a project&nbsp; coordinator from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), said that what was accomplished in CLAIM will have an impact on the entire society, as the plastic pollution issue affects the health of every creature.



“We hope that our long-lasting legacy has set a good example and paved the way for further research and policy change,” said Triantafyllou.



Video Credit: CLAIM Project



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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

CLAIM project tackles the issue of marine plastic pollution

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features a closer look at <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/for-earth-day-lets-make-our-planets-heartbeat-louder/">planet</a> Earth on the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day. 



The incredible photo of Earth featured in today's video was captured on March 23, 2022 by Meteosat Second Generation series of missions.



"Satellites provide essential information for everyday applications, improving agricultural practices, to help when disasters strike, and thanks to the Meteosat series, provide crucial data for weather forecasting," reports ESA.



"Given that extreme weather and severe storms pose significant and increasing hazards to society, the Meteosat satellites provide detailed, full disc imagery over Europe and Africa every 15 minutes and rapid scan imagery over Europe every five minutes."



"This imagery is crucial for nowcasting, which is about detecting rapidly high impact weather and predicting its evolution a few hours ahead, in support of the safety of life and property. These observations are also used for weather forecasting and climate monitoring."



According to ESA, the Meteosat missions have guaranteed the continuous flow of data for weather forecasting since 1977,&nbsp; and will soon usher in a new era of weather and climate monitoring with Meteosat Third Generation (MTG).



"The third generation will not only guarantee the continuity of data for weather forecasting, but offer significant enhancement of the current imager capabilities, an all-new infrared sounding capability and real-time lightning imaging for early detection of severe storms as they develop."



Video 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

Every Day is Earth Day at the European Space Agency

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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from the University of Miami (UM) <a href="https://www.rsmas.miami.edu/">Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science</a> explains why fish often take the risk of rubbing up against sharks. The researchers have discovered that this surprising <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/repetitive-behaviors-in-dogs-are-influenced-by-many-factors/">behavior</a>, which is referred to as chafing, is much more widespread than what was expected. 



“While we don’t exactly know why it’s happening, we have a few theories. Shark skin is covered in small tooth-like scales called dermal denticles, which provide a rough sandpaper surface for the chafing fish,” said study co-author Professor Neil Hammerschlag.&nbsp;



“We suspect that chafing against shark skin might play a vital role in the removal of parasites or other skin irritants, thus improving fish health and fitness.”



Based on the analysis of underwater images, drone videos, and witness reports, the team documented 47 instances of fish rubbing themselves against the skin of a shark.&nbsp;



Taking place in 13 locations around the world, the chafing events varied in duration from eight seconds to over five minutes. The experts believe that chafing could play an important and underappreciated ecological role for aquatic animals.



“While chafing has been well documented between fish and inanimate objects, such as sand or rocky substrate, this shark-chaffing phenomenon appears to be the only scenario in nature where prey actively seek out and rubs up against a predator,” said study co-lead author Lacey Williams.



Video Credit: Great white and Leerie by Lacey Williams and Alex Anstett Great white and Pacific jack mackerel by Jesus Erick Higuera Rivas Silky shark and rainbow runner by Victor Bach Munoz Whale shark and silky sharks by Jonathan Green



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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

Why do fish rub up against sharks?

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> explains why there are no rainbows on Mars. According to NASA scientist Mark Lemmon, even though there are water clouds in the planet's atmosphere, rainbows need more than just the substance of water.



"In a rainbow, sunlight enters a spherical droplet, reflects off the back and comes back toward you. Unlike ice, liquid water droplets are made into spheres by the water's surface tension - it pulls itself together. Snow does not make rainbows because it has a complex shape. Martian clouds are far below freezing. You do not get liquid droplets that can make rainbows; there's just not enough water," explained Lemmon.



"The droplets are 20 times smaller across than a human hair, 10 times smaller than Earth's cloud droplets, and far smaller than rain. They would have to be more than 10 times bigger to make a rainbow with a thousand times more water."&nbsp;



Lemmon says that while there aren't rainbows on Mars, there are many Earth-like weather phenomena. "There are still clouds on Mars when the season is right, both water ice like we have on Earth and clouds of dry ice carbon dioxide. And there are dust devils, dust storms and winds that blow the clouds and dust around. So, weather is still a big part of what the rovers are looking at on Mars."



Video Credit: NASA



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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

Why doesn't Mars have rainbows?

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