Floating photovoltaics (FPV), or “floatovoltaics,” are spreading across water bodies worldwide. From California’s vineyards to China’s massive energy projects, these solar systems glide atop irrigation ponds, reservoirs, and wastewater treatment plants. 



They produce clean energy without consuming precious land, a seemingly perfect solution in a space-constrained world.



But the water beneath these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/floating-solar-panels-could-power-entire-countries/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">panels</a> isn’t empty. It teems with life. Birds drift, dive, nest, and hunt in these waters. As FPV systems expand, they introduce a new dynamic to these habitats - and nobody knows yet what the consequences might be.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-floating-solar-and-bird-habitats">Floating solar and bird habitats</h2>



A recent study from the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of California, Davis</a>, published in the journal Nature Water, raises a vital question: Can renewable energy and wildlife coexist without collateral damage? The researchers, part of the UC Davis Wild Energy Center, are among the first to examine how waterbirds respond to FPV systems.



“That’s why it’s so important to understand how waterbirds are going to respond to floating solar and if there is the possibility for conservation concessions at new floating solar facilities,” said Elliott Steele, a postdoctoral scholar with the UC Davis Wild Energy Center within the Energy and Efficiency Institute.



Steele’s words are urgent. Bird populations are plummeting. Habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and avian influenza have combined into a perfect storm of threats. If floating solar disrupts waterbird behavior, it could exacerbate an already dire situation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bird-responses-to-floating-solar-systems">Bird responses to floating solar systems</h2>



Imagine a black-crowned night heron standing motionless on a solar <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/floating-solar-panels-could-power-every-home-in-the-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">panel</a> before dawn. Below, cormorants dart through the water, jostling for a place to perch. A black phoebe builds a nest beneath the panels, sheltered but close to human-made structures.



These are not imagined scenes. During their fieldwork, the UC Davis researchers observed all these behaviors. Birds are not just interacting with FPV systems — they are adapting to them, sometimes in unexpected ways.



“Our team has been documenting such a diversity of bird <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/floridas-waterbirds-expert-divers-with-bold-hunting-techniques/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">behavior</a> with floating PV, so we immediately knew this was a very important interaction, especially given the precipitous decline in waterbird numbers globally,” said senior author and UC Davis Professor Rebecca R. Hernandez.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-benefits-and-risks-of-floating-solar">Benefits and risks of floating solar</h2>



Renewable energy projects have not always considered <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saving-americas-birds-scientists-declare-a-full-on-emergency-in-the-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wildlife</a>. Now, as FPV systems expand, researchers are determined not to repeat past mistakes. The UC Davis team identified five areas demanding urgent study.



First, the researchers are exploring how waterbirds interact with FPV structures, questioning whether these birds use the solar panels as nesting sites, hunting perches, or safe resting places.



In addition, they are investigating the direct and indirect effects of FPV systems on waterbirds. While a panel may provide shelter to one species, it may simultaneously deter another.



The team is considering how conservation strategies can be tailored to specific sites, regions, and seasons, recognizing that bird populations vary significantly in their behaviors and needs.



Furthermore, they are examining how best to design monitoring systems at FPV sites. Should they rely on cameras, sensors, or traditional bird counts to collect data effectively?



The researchers are also assessing the potential for pollutants to be released from FPV systems. If such contamination occurs, they aim to determine what can be done to mitigate the risks to aquatic and avian life.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rethinking-renewable-energy-design">Rethinking renewable energy design</h2>



Study co-author Emma Forester is a Ph.D. candidate with the UC Davis Land, Air and Water Resources department and the Wild Energy Center.



“There are some things we wished we’d known before other kinds of renewable energy were developed,” said Forester.



“While we’re at this critical threshold of renewable energy <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/solar-panels-are-1000-times-more-powerful-with-new-tech-breakthrough/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">development</a>, we want to put more thought into the design that can benefit birds and other wildlife as we go forward.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-balancing-act-energy-vs-ecology">The balancing act: Energy vs. ecology</h2>



Floating solar systems present a compelling case for water conservation. They can reduce evaporation by shading the water surface, an added benefit in drought-prone areas. But there’s a catch.



While some birds, like the black-crowned night heron, seem to thrive on the panels, others might not. Researchers observed birds using FPV systems in various ways - nesting, perching, feeding - but the long-term impacts remain unclear.



And then there’s pollution. Solar panels are not inert objects. As they age, they can degrade, releasing chemicals into the water. What happens to the fish, algae or the birds? These questions linger, unanswered.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-designing-for-wildlife">Designing for wildlife</h2>



To ensure that FPV systems are truly green, wildlife considerations must be integrated from the start. 



Hernandez and her team emphasize that waterbirds are ideal subjects for these studies. They occupy both the water and the air, making them sensitive indicators of environmental change.



But there’s a deeper challenge. Conservation strategies that work in California may fail in Florida. Solutions for herons may not suit cormorants. Customization is key.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-s-at-stake">What’s at stake</h2>



Floating solar may be new, but the questions it raises are not. When energy projects collide with nature, unintended consequences often follow. As renewable energy scales up, researchers must consider not just the panels but the ecosystems they disrupt.



Floating solar has enormous potential. But without rigorous, long-term studies, that potential could come at a steep ecological cost. For now, the researchers at UC Davis are watching the waterbirds - and hoping the world will pay attention.



The study, funded by the <a href="https://uckeepresearching.org/california-climate-action/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California Climate Action Seed Grant</a>, <a href="https://www.enelgreenpower.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Enel Green Power</a>, and several U.S. government agencies, is a starting point. 



The research team includes scientists from UC Davis, the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. Geological Survey</a>, the <a href="https://www.ucf.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Central Florida</a>, <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lancaster University</a>, and <a href="https://www.enelgreenpower.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Enel Green Power</a> in Italy.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00429-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Water.</a>



Image Credit: Rebecca R. Hernandez, UC Davis.



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Floating solar panels affect bird habitats in unexpected ways

Floating photovoltaics (FPV), or “floatovoltaics,” are spreading across water bodies worldwide. From California’s vineyards to China’s massive energy projects, these solar systems glide atop irrigation ponds, reservoirs, and wastewater treatment plants. They produce clean energy without consuming precious land, a seemingly perfect solution in a space-constrained world. But the water beneath these panels isn’t empty. It teems with life. Birds drift, dive, nest, and hunt in these waters. As FPV systems expand, they introduce a new dynamic to these habitats - and nobody knows yet what the...

Experts at the <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> (USC) have found that there are roughly 20 percent fewer new asthma cases among children in the Los Angeles region as a result of improved air quality.

“This is encouraging news as it shows the number of new cases of asthma in children can be reduced through improvements in air quality,” said study co-author Professor Kiros Berhane. “This is very likely a direct result of the science-based environmental policies that have been put in place.”

The research expands on the Children's Health Study, a long-term investigation which previously found that children's lungs became stronger and rates of bronchitic symptoms decreased as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/children-develop-asthma-air-pollution/">pollution</a> declined across Los Angeles over the last two decades.

While Los Angeles remains the most polluted area of the country, the city managed to reduce nitrogen dioxide pollution by 22 percent and fine particulate matter by 36 percent between 1993 and 2006.

The researchers analyzed air pollution data collected from monitoring stations in nine California communities during 1993-2001, 1996-2004, and 2006-2014. Based on data from 4,140 children, the study revealed that the nitrogen dioxide reductions led to a 20 percent lower rate of asthma, while fine particulate matter reduction led to a 19 percent lower rate of asthma.

The findings add to a growing collection of evidence that air pollution is a major contributor to the development of asthma, which is the most common chronic disease in children.

“While the findings show a clear benefit of lower air pollution levels, there must be continued efforts to reduce pollution in our region,” said study first author Erika Garcia. “We're not in a place where we can stop and say, ‘Hey, we've arrived.’”

The study is published in the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama">Journal of the American Medical Association</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Air quality improvements in Los Angeles have reduced new asthma cases

Experts at the University of Southern California (USC) have found...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> have assessed the landscape in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/invasive-lake-trout-yellowstone/">Yellowstone National Park</a>, where areas that burned in 1988 were affected by fire again in August of 2016. In October of the same year, a team of graduate students led by Professor Monica Turner visited the park to investigate the damage.

“We saw these areas where everything was combusted and we hadn't seen that previously,” said Professor Turner. “That was surprising.”

Yellowstone has adapted to recurring fires every 100 to 300 years, yet the most recent fires occurred less than 30 years apart. The researchers set out to get a better understanding of whether the forests can recover.

With support from the National Science Foundation, Professor Turner and her team returned to Yellowstone in the summer of 2017 to examine the areas that re-burned. The Maple Fire, for example, burned 28-year-old lodgepole pines that regenerated following the 1988 North Fork Fire.

The researchers compared each region to areas that burned in 1988 or 2000 but did not burn again in 2016. In some places, intense fire had left nothing but the stumps of young trees. “Everything was gone,” said Professor Turner. “That was astonishing.”

In 2011, Professor Turner's team had challenged the idea that young forests lack enough fuel to sustain severe fire, and the 2016 fires confirmed their predictions.

“The idea was that if fires are recurring more frequently, we will we see some self-limitation, young forests will not be able to re-burn,’ said study co-author and graduate student Kristin Braziunas. “We definitively saw this was not the case - even at just 16 years old, there was sufficient fuel for these forests to burn at the highest possible level of severity.”

The researchers also found that the re-burned forests lost significant carbon storage capacity. According to Professor Turner, once an old forest burns, it takes about 90 years for the forest to recover its lost carbon.

“We care about carbon storage and recovery because forests play a very important role in the global carbon cycle,” said Braziunas.

By adapting a model previously created by Professor Turner's collaborator, Rupert Seidl, Braziunas found it would take more than 150 years for the forest to recover the carbon it had released during the 2016 fires.

“We were essentially able to reconstruct what the forest looked like before the fire happened, how many trees there were and how big they would have been,” said Braziunas. “Because we also measured nearby stands (of trees) that didn't burn, we could compare what happens after the reburns and game out the scenarios in the model.”

Global warming and more frequent droughts will make it likely that fires will occur across the forest in shorter intervals. 

“The landscapes are going to look different than they have in the past, but that doesn't mean they won't be beautiful. There will be species that benefit and species that see their ranges contract,” said Professor Turner.

“Change is going to happen and change is going to happen more quickly than we thought it would. We are learning how the system responds, but we don't know to what degree it will be resilient or adapt in the future. But I am not ready to write it off. We have been surprised in the past.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How resilient are Yellowstone forests after a major fire?

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have assessed the landscape...

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/">British Ecological Society</a> studied an endangered African penguin colony during a three-year closure of commercial fisheries around Robben Island, South Africa. The team found that local fish abundance directly affects how adult <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-biodiversity-penguins-poop/">penguins</a> fish and the body condition of their chicks.

One of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss in the ocean is fishing, which is so widespread that it prevents us from understanding the “natural” relationships between predators and their prey. Many marine predators like penguins are species whose success indicates the condition of their habitat, also known as indicator species.

“Understanding how African penguins forage to feed their chicks in their variable marine environment can help us identify conservation measures for these endangered populations,” said study lead author Dr. Kate Campbell. “A three-year commercial fisheries closure around Robben Island, South Africa created a unique opportunity to study how African penguins directly respond to natural changes in local abundance of their prey - anchovies and sardines.”

The study revealed that local abundance of anchovy and sardine populations were directly linked to African penguin foraging behavior and the condition of chick offspring.

When fish abundance was lower, adults were seen swimming further, foraging for longer,  and diving more often. This explains why chick body condition declined, as breeding adults were dedicating more energy to finding food.

“Interestingly, the variation in foraging behavior between individuals also increased when prey fish were scarcer,” said study co-author Dr. Richard Sherley. “While some 'superstar' penguins find food easily, others are less successful. Once food gets harder to find, more individuals will start to struggle and work harder, but they will do so at different rates, increasing the variation we see in foraging effort.”

The study findings suggest that penguin foraging behavior and chick condition could be key indicators for local fish abundance.

“Since these short-term changes will likely have knock-on effects for chick survival and penguin population size, they could be used as powerful early warning signs to inform fisheries' policies and marine conservation efforts,” said Dr. Campbell. “Technological advances also means there's exciting potential to better understand how these endangered penguins behave when prey resources are scarce.”

“Hopefully, in the future, we could aim to effectively balance fishery management with penguins' needs, to reduce the impact on local economies whilst maximising the benefits to our oceans,” concluded Dr. Sherley.

The study is published in the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652664">Journal of Applied Ecology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: R. B. Sherley

Penguin foraging behavior and body condition offer clues to habitat health

Researchers from the British Ecological Society studied an endangered African...

The Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska is the largest national forest in the United States, said to be the ‘crown jewel’ of the National Forest Service. In the sliver of Alaska between open ocean and British Columbia and touching Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, the almost 17 million acres of Tongass is part of the largest temperate rainforest in the world. 

Tongass is a sprawl of thousands of islands, streams, fjords and wildlife habitat, almost a third of which is old growth forest. All five species of salmon spawn in Tongass in over 5,000 individual salmon streams. Grizzly bears, wolves and a number of birds, including the largest population of nesting bald eagles, make the forest their home. 

The Tongass National Forest covers 80% of the Alaska panhandle from Yakutat to Ketchikan, according to <a href="https://www.alaskamagazine.com/articles/featured/cabin-fever-in-tongass-national-forest/">Alaska Magazine</a>. Some of the trees in Tongass are as old as 1,000 years, significantly older than the United States itself.

Despite the impressive status of the Tongass, <a href="https://crag.org/tongass-national-forest-old-growth-logging/">Crag Law Center</a> reports it’s also the only National Forest in the United States still managed under a program of logging focused on clear cutting old growth forest. In 2016, the USDA updated a 2008 <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/landmanagement/?cid=stelprd3801708">management plan</a> for the Tongass National Forest, stepping away from its history of old growth clear-cut logging that supports less than 1% of the population of the area, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/443886-dont-revive-logging-in-national-forests">The Hill</a>. If the Trump administration gets its way, the destruction of the Tongass will only increase.

The 2001 Roadless Rule manages large areas of National Forest with a prohibition on road building, with some exceptions for things like public safety and mining operations.  Last year, the <a href="https://www.usda.gov/">USDA</a> under Trump announced that it would be creating an Alaska specific roadless rule, which means that it would open up much of Tongass to road development. 

Currently 9.2 million acres of the Tongass National Forest (55%) is covered by the roadless rule, according to the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/roadmain/roadless/alaskaroadlessrule">USDA</a>. This change was initiated upon request by the then-governor of Alaska Bill Walker and continues to be supported by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who <a href="https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/issues/issues-and-priorities/alaska-specific-roadless-rule">believes</a> that the roadless rule never should have been applied in Alaska. The final plan for the Alaskan roadless rule is set to be put into place in the summer of 2020. 

It’s not just the roadless rule that threatens Tongass, though. <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/04/29/tongass-timber-sale-nearing-the-finish-line/">Alaska Public Media</a> reports that surveying for the largest timber sale in decades of trees in the Tongass National Forest is coming to an end. This is the first step in what would be a massive clear cut in Tongass. The <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/">US Forest Service</a> insists that the survey project is far more than a massive timber sale, instead calling it a ‘landscape level analysis’ and pointing to restoration and culvert installation projects also surveyed for.

[caption id="attachment_1872891" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Tongass-National-Forest-Yakutat-Alaska.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1872891" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Tongass-National-Forest-Yakutat-Alaska.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" /></a> Tongass National Forest, in Yakutat, Alaska[/caption]

Either way, the project plans on offering 50 million board feet of living trees to be cut down next year. The US Forest Service isn’t telling the public how much of the land on offer for logging is old growth forest, either. In general, the plan lacks many details, something critics say makes engagement with the US Forest Service impossible. 

Fortunately, there is a possibility that the plans to develop Tongass for the benefit of a few will amount to very little. Recently, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington and Representative Ruben Gallego of Arizona introduced the Roadless Area Conservation Act in both the House and Senate. This act would codify the roadless rule as law, thus more permanently protecting those areas currently managed as roadless in the United States. 

Cantwell previously tried to get the law passed in 2018, but it never made it out of committee. The bill may have a better chance this time, with support from 15 senators and 36 representatives co-sponsoring the current bill but no backers from Alaska, according to the <a href="https://www.juneauempire.com/news/congress-attempts-to-strengthen-roadless-rule/">Juneau Empire</a>.        

Earlier this month, environmentalists in Alaska also took the fight to court, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alaska-forest-logging/logging-plan-for-alaskas-tongass-national-forest-challenged-in-court-idUSKCN1SE068">Reuters</a>. The lawsuit claims that the timber sale in Tongass is going ahead before a proper assessment of the environmental impact of the project. The timber sale was approved before specific areas were designated for tree cutting and road development on Prince Wales Island in Tongass National Forest.  

“This is a brazen attempt by the Forest Service to rewrite the rules for the forest, and it’s coming at the expense of habitat on Prince of Wales Island that’s important for wildlife and for people and communities, for hunting, fishing, recreation and tourism,” Tom Waldo of <a href="https://earthjustice.org/tags/tongass">Earth Justice</a>, one of the plaintiffs, told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alaska-forest-logging/logging-plan-for-alaskas-tongass-national-forest-challenged-in-court-idUSKCN1SE068">Reuters</a>.

Earth Justice and lawyer Tom Waldo have been fighting for the protection of Tongass for decades now, first fighting a Forest Service five year plan that would have opened logging in Tongass in the 1990s.  Thankfully, that fight ended with the Clinton roadless rule, implemented in 2001 just before the presidential office was taken over by George W. Bush. 

In 2003, the Bush administration ‘temporarily’ suspended the roadless rule in Tongass with no timeline. In 2009, Waldo and a co-counsel from the Natural Resource Defense Council challenged the suspension and won. The decision was repealed by an Alaskan court but eventually upheld and the roadless exemption found to be illegal by the ninth circuit court.  

Roads are dangerous in protected areas, even without widespread logging.  Roads divide a habitat and separate individual populations of wildlife. Roads impede on purist nature recreation, which inspires and invigorates many. But roads are also just the tip of the spear when it comes to development and destruction of ecosystems. 

Any conservationist or ecologist can tell you roads are the beginning of the end for an ecosystem. It’s appropriate that the Tongass was saved by keeping roads out before.  Perhaps making a roadless rule into a roadless law can do the same now. Along with protecting the Tongass National Forest, a roadless law would more permanently protect almost 50 million acres throughout the US.

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Plans to cut parts of the largest US national forest met with opposition

The Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska is the largest...

People recycle more when they know what the material will become. Even though we now have the capacity to recycle plastic, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/recycling-carbon-emissions/">carbon</a>, and other materials to <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/most-plastic-bottles-are-recycled-into-clothes/">create new products</a> like cell phone cases, shoes, and paper products, the United States is still generating far more trash.

In 2015, the US produced 262 million tons of trash, of which 137.7 million tons ended up in landfills, and only 25.8 percent of waste that was recycled, according to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-03/documents/infographic_full-060513_v4.pdf">Environmental Protection Agency</a>. 

How do we motivate people to recycle more, especially when there are so many advancements being made in recycling and recycled products? 

In a new report published in the Journal of Marketing, researchers from <a href="https://www.psu.edu/">Penn State University</a> and <a href="https://www.bc.edu/">Boston College</a> may have found a solution.

The team learned that consumers are more keen to recycle if they know more about the process and where their waste will end up. 

Six different studies were devised to examine the relationship between recycling and consumers and to test how promoting products made from recycled material impacts the decision to recycle. 

The first study asked participants to throw away a piece of scratch paper after reading a recycling advertisement. The messages detailed how recyclables were being used to make paper, a guitar, a different product, or just promoted recycling without any mention of new products. 

If a participant read about materials being made into different products, they were more likely to recycle their scratch paper versus the participants who read the generic recycling campaign.

In the second study, participants were shown advertisements for products made from recycled plastic or a product manufactured by a company that is committed to recycling. The participants were 87.7 more likely to recycle if they saw the advertisement for a specific product made from recycled materials. 

When advertisements focused on transformation, not even explicitly mentioning a product, people were more likely to recycle. People recycle more when they know what the material will become 

In one of the last studies, the researchers monitored two college residence halls, one that had recycling signage promoting products made from recyclables and the other had generic recycling ads. 

Less recyclable waste ended up in the landfill when the residence hall used signage promoting products and transformation. 

“These studies provide compelling evidence that when consumers consider that recyclables are transformed into something new, they recycle more,” said Karen Page Winterich, the first author of the study. “Increased recycling offers not only societal and environmental benefits, but also provides the source materials companies need for sustainable production of goods in a circular economy.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

People recycle more when they know what the material will become

People recycle more when they know what the material will...

Around the world, experts are working to improve public health by reducing harmful levels of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-dementia/">air pollution</a>. Efforts include the regulation of industrial emissions, the establishment of low emission zones, and subsidies for public transport. 

While it may seem obvious that these actions result in improved air quality, a new study from the <a href="https://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/">Ludwig Maximilian University</a> of Munich has found that it is actually very difficult to quantify the effects of air pollution mitigation strategies. 

“It's quite a challenge to evaluate the introduction of a measure like the low emission zone,” said study co-author Jacob Burns. 

Air pollution has been linked to millions of premature deaths worldwide from issues such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. However, it remains unclear whether measures designed to improve outdoor air quality actually reduce the concentration of pollutants present.

“It's important to remember how many factors influence both air quality and the relevant health conditions,” said Burns. “Levels of energy consumption in industry, transport and domestic households all play a substantial role in air pollution levels, as does the weather.” 

Furthermore, the risk of developing health complications such as cardiovascular disease is not only influenced by air pollutants, but also by numerous genetic, physiological, and social risk factors. “This illustrates how difficult it can be to attribute changes in air pollutant concentrations, numbers of individuals admitted to hospitals, or mortality rates to any single measure.”

The analysis is the first of its kind to identify and critically appraise all studies that evaluate the impact of measures aiming to improve air quality. The research was focused on 38 specific measures, ranging from efforts to reduce traffic to  more efficient household heating systems.

“For the most part, the studies that we reviewed show either positive or unclear effects. But these studies differ so much from one another that we could not, with confidence, draw general conclusions about what works and what does not work,” explained Burns. 

The team pointed out, however, that they do not argue against air pollution interventions. “It is important to emphasize that lack of evidence of an association is not equivalent to evidence of no association,” wrote the researchers. 

Study lead author Professor Eva Rehfuess said that the more important message is that the methods of evaluation in this area must be improved, so that decision-makers have a reliable basis on which to base their policy choices.

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/">Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The progress of air pollution mitigation efforts can be difficult to measure

Around the world, experts are working to improve public health...

New research led by Sarah Lambart, assistant professor of geology at the <a href="https://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a>, has found that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/upwelling-earths-mantle-volcanoes/">Earth’s mantle</a> is less of a gradient of orange-and-yellow lavas and instead is more of a mosaic of colors that looks similar to a Jackson Pollock painting. Lambart and her team also discovered that a copy of this mosaic resides within the Earth’s crust.

"If you look at a painting from Jackson Pollock, you have a lot of different colors," Lambart said. "Those colors represent different mantle components and the lines are magmas produced by these components and transported to the surface. You look at the yellow line, it's not going to mix much with the red or black."

Before Lambart embarked on her study, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0368-9">Nature Geoscience</a>, experts had previously noted that lava, which erupts from the mantle from mid-ocean ridges, is chemically similar to most lava found elsewhere on the planet. However, there should be chemical differences at the tail end of the crust’s lifecycle — after old ocean crust melts and spreads outward from the mid-ocean ridges before sinking back into the mantle. The melting should cause chemical variation.

Lambart and her team wanted to discover what the mantle looks like before it rises as lava. They first drilled through the ocean crust to examine primitive minerals — the first to crystalize when magma enters the crust. 

"We looked at the most primitive part of these minerals," Lambart said. She noted that she and her team only analyzed the chemical composition of the earliest of minerals to form. "If you are not actually looking at the most primitive part you might lose the signal of this first melt that has been delivered to the crust. That is the originality of our work."

She and her team then looked at the samples in depth, examining the variations in isotopes of neodymium and strontium, which can signify different chemistries of mantle materials that could potentially come from different rock types. 

"If you have isotopic variability in your cumulates, that means that you have to have isotopic variability in the mantle too," Lambart explained. And that’s what the team happened upon.

The team discovered that the amount of isotope variability in the sample cumulates was seven times greater than that in the mid-ocean ridge lavas, which means that the mantle not at all mixed.

Lambart notes that rocks melt at different temperatures, thus the first rock to melt will create channels that magma can be transported up to the crust. The more melting that occurs, the more channels are created and eventually converge toward the mid-ocean ridge — channels that never mix, despite their contents mixing within the crust to create the lava.

The next step is to model the discovery. "The problem is we need to find a way to model the geodynamic earth, including plate tectonics, to actually reproduce what is recorded in the rock today," Lambart concludes. "So far this link is missing."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Sarah Lambart/University of Utah

Research shows that Earth’s mantle looks ‘like a Jackson Pollock painting’

New research led by Sarah Lambart, assistant professor of geology...

Environmental pollutants don’t just affect living people who encounter them. They can also affect the fertility of future generations, according to new research.

A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.uliege.be/cms/c_8699436/en/uliege-portal">University of Liege</a> studies how endocrine-disrupting chemicals – common pollutants already in our environment from plastic, pesticides and medications – affected pregnant rats and their offspring. 

When the pregnant rats were given doses equivalent to those many human communities are exposed to, they showed impairments in their maternal behavior that were passed down to future generations. Their offspring and later generations also showed impaired sexual development.

"Our results raise real concerns about the effects of these pollutants in our environment,” said Dr. Anne-Simone Parent, who worked with graduate student David Lopez Rodriguez on the study. “We found effects of EDCs in generations of animals that had not been directly exposed to the chemicals. We exposed the parent generation only and found long-term effects on fertility.”

Other studies have already linked environmental pollutants to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/home-chemical-pollutants-harm-fertility/">infertility</a> and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bpa-exposure-premature-birth/">premature birth</a> in humans and other animals.

The researchers were especially concerned because in their study, only the pregnant rats were exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. In real life, humans and other animals are exposed to EDCs and other environmental pollutants on a regular basis for generations.

"These findings raise questions about the legacy we are leaving future generations,” Rodriguez said. “Current European legislation on EDCs does not consider how mixtures of low dose pollutants in our environment could be causing harm and affecting our children and wildlife in future generations, our data suggest an urgent need to follow the precautionary principle."

The team will present their findings at the <a href="https://www.ese-hormones.org/">European Society of Endocrinology</a> annual meeting, <a href="https://www.ese-hormones.org/events-deadlines/european-congress-of-endocrinology/ece-2019/">ECE 2019</a>.

They plan to continue studying the rats, to determine whether the impaired maternal behavior linked to environmental pollutants or the pollutant exposure itself contributes to future generations’ difficulties. 

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Environmental pollutants affect sexual development for generations

Environmental pollutants don’t just affect living people who encounter them....

It may not be as dramatic as cracking, melting glaciers, but it could be more dangerous – Earth’s permafrost is thawing out.

Permafrost is sub-surface ground that has been frozen for at least two years. In the Arctic and Antarctic, most permafrost has been frozen for thousands of years, and it can be hundreds or even thousands of feet thick.

And if it is thawing out, that can mean bad news, because Earth’s permafrost is not just made up of frozen soil. It also holds the remains dead vegetation and animals that froze before they could decompose. It could hold almost twice the carbon that is currently in the atmosphere – carbon that could be released as methane and carbon dioxide as the ground warms.

Scientists with the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> and <a href="http://www.bgeos.at/">b.geos</a>, an Earth observation firm, have teamed up on a project called Glob Permafrost. They’re using satellites to monitor Earth’s permafrost.

“We can’t monitor permafrost as such from space,” b.geos founder Annett Bartsch said in a press release. “Although it’s a bit complicated, we can, however, use a lot of different types of satellite data along with in situ measurements and modelling to put together a picture of what is happening.”

The images and radar data captured via satellite show how the land surface sinks and rises as Earth’s permafrost warms. Thermal sensors offer information about surface temperatures. 

“And, we can use information on snow conditions and land cover as a proxy for soil properties. Both snow and soil regulate heat transfer, so they determine the actual impact of increasing air temperature on the frozen soil beneath,” Bartsch said.

The researchers have collected their findings, from data gathered between 2000 and 2016, to create a permafrost map. They’ve also shared their data in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825218305907">Earth-Science Reviews</a>.

As melting permafrost causes <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/melting-permafrost-is-causing-landslides-across-the-arctic/">landslides in the Arctic</a> and even the coldest areas are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cold-permafrost-threatened-warming/">threatened by warming</a>, the Glob Permafrost team’s research becomes vital. The project is currenting building a Permafrost Information System that will help other researchers monitor the changing situation.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Unfrozen ground: Earth's permafrost is thawing

It may not be as dramatic as cracking, melting glaciers,...

Land subsidence is the shifting and sinking of the ground, and it can be disastrous for low lying countries. Subsidence can be caused by several factors, including erosion, earthquakes, mining, and even rapid urbanization. 

Because of the risks that subsidence poses to urban areas and agriculture, it is crucial to find ways to monitor and map subsidence in regions where city infrastructure, buildings, homes, and crop yields are under threat.

Many regions in Italy are impacted by subsidence, which makes the country a prime region to test monitoring and mapping techniques. 

Currently, groundwater monitoring and optical leveling are used to map subsidence, but tracking land shifts over the long term requires a more comprehensive approach. 

This is why researchers from the <a href="https://www.unifi.it/changelang-eng.html">University of Florence</a> compiled radar data from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency’s</a> <a href="https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-1">Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission</a> to create over ground deformation maps for Tuscany showing surface sinking over time. 

Satellite <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/widespread-burn-scars-africa/">radar imaging</a> is one of the most accurate ways to subsidence and damage.

“Satellite data, acquired with short revisiting times and promptly processed, can contribute to the detection of changes in ground deformation patterns, and can feed a decision support system for hydrogeological risk mitigation strategies,” said Professor Nicola Casagli from the University of Florence. 

Having a detailed record of subsistence can help researchers focus on unstable areas not immediately identifiable by ground monitoring techniques.  

“Thanks to Copernicus Sentinel-1, the SAR industry paradigm has definitely changed from ‘mapping’ to ‘monitoring.’ Tuscany is the first region in Italy to benefit from this,” said Alessandro Ferretti, the CEO of <a href="https://site.tre-altamira.com/">TRE ALTAMIRA</a>, which works with satellite data to provide mapping solutions. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Copernicus Sentinel data (2014-19), processed by ESA/TRE ALTAMIRA

Satellite data can help monitor shifting and sinking grounds

Land subsidence is the shifting and sinking of the ground,...

Deep in the ocean below Bermuda, geoscientists have found the first direct evidence that material from deep within Earth's mantle can gradually seep up through the surface to form <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/volcanoes-earths-largest-mass-extinction/">volcanoes</a>. This material is located in a part of the mantle known as the transition zone, which is a layer rich in water, crystals, and melted rock.

Volcanoes are known to form when tectonic plates collide. However, the finding that material percolating 250 to 400 miles beneath the planet's crust can produce volcanoes is a new discovery. 

Study senior author Esteban Gazel is an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a>. 

“We found a new way to make volcanoes. This is the first time we found a clear indication from the transition zone deep in the Earth's mantle that volcanoes can form this way,” said Professor Gazel. “We were expecting our data to show the volcano was a mantle plume formation - an upwelling from the deeper mantle - just like it is in Hawaii.” 

The researchers used a 2,600-foot core sample that had been drilled in 1972 to examine isotopes, trace elements, and evidence of volatile material. The assessment provided the team with a volcanic history of Bermuda.

The study revealed that a disturbance in the transition zone 30 million years ago caused an upwelling of magma material that formed a now-dormant volcano under the Atlantic Ocean and then formed Bermuda.

“I first suspected that Bermuda's volcanic past was special as I sampled the core and noticed the diverse textures and mineralogy preserved in the different lava flows,” said study co-author Sarah Mazza of the University of Münster. “We quickly confirmed extreme enrichments in trace element compositions. It was exciting going over our first results ... the mysteries of Bermuda started to unfold.”

Even though isotopes of oceanic lavas have been analyzed for more than five decades, the extreme isotopes measured in the Bermuda lava core had not been seen before. It was these unusual isotopic compositions that allowed the scientists to identify the unique source of the lava.

“If we start to look more carefully, I believe we're going to find these geochemical signatures in more places,” said co-author Professor Michael Bizimis.

According to Professor Gazel, the research provides a new connection between the transition zone layer and volcanoes on the surface of Earth. 

“With this work we can demonstrate that the Earth's transition zone is an extreme chemical reservoir. We are now just now beginning to recognize its importance in terms of global geodynamics and even volcanism,” said Professor Gazel.

“Our next step is to examine more locations to determine the difference between geological processes that can result in intraplate volcanoes and determine the role of the mantle's transition zone in the evolution of our planet.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The upwelling of material deep in Earth’s mantle can produce volcanoes

Deep in the ocean below Bermuda, geoscientists have found the...

Climate change will bring more days of sweltering heat to the northeast. A new study from <a href="https://home.dartmouth.edu/">Dartmouth College</a> has revealed that there will be far more record heat across the Northeast in the coming decades. According to the researchers, by the year 2060, the hottest day of the year could be multiplied by 23 at the current rate of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/co2-levels-highest-ever/">greenhouse gas emissions</a>.

Of the rural Northeast counties represented in the study, those in the lowest income brackets are expected to be hit the hardest. Compared to wealthier counties, these communities will be disproportionately affected by increases in extremely hot days. Climate change will bring more days of sweltering heat to the northeast

“In other words, by the middle of this century, every year counties with the lowest income in the Northeast will experience more than two decades worth of our current hottest day. Our findings agree with other climate change studies that have found increasing heat extremes and higher maximum daily temperatures across this region in the future,” explained study lead author Professor Jonathan Winter.

The research was focused on rural counties in the Northeast from Maine to West Virginia with populations of 250,000 or less. 

“Our projections suggest that climate change adaptation strategies in the rural Northeast should emphasize developing resilience to heat waves, such as increasing access to public spaces with air conditioning and improving health care responses to emergencies initiated or exacerbated by heat,” said Professor Winter.

“This is especially important for counties in the lowest income quartile, who will be especially vulnerable to extreme heat events due in part to their growing populations.”

In addition to the higher frequency of daily heat events in the Northeast, daily extreme precipitation is projected to increase by 15 to 20 percent based on different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. 

Meanwhile, the incidence of daily extreme cold events will substantially decrease. The average coldest daily temperature recorded from 1976-2005 will only occur once every four or five years by 2046-2075.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/raag21/current">Annals of the American Association of Geographers</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Climate change will bring more days of sweltering heat to the northeast

Climate change will bring more days of sweltering heat to...

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



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



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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from <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



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



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Designing crops 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 <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes 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="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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



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

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

[sendtonews key="6SdlLLbt0t-1988946-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NTU...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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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) describes 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



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



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

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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



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

Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes 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="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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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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