Long before modern climate records began, a very different Earth existed - one where the icy edges of the Arctic were free of permafrost. This wasn't a minor shift. It was a Northern Hemisphere without frozen ground, stretching all the way to the Arctic Ocean. That past could be a preview of our future.



A new study shows that when Earth’s average temperature was just 4.5˚C warmer than it is today, the Asian continent had no permafrost - not even in its far north. This extent of climate warming is within the range we could reach again in the near future if emissions remain unchecked. 



Researchers from <a href="https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/">Northumbria University</a>, the University of Oxford, Bern University, and the Geological Surveys of Israel and the U.S. worked together to trace the ancient climate shift. They found their evidence in an unlikely place: inside caves beneath the Siberian tundra.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-frozen-clues-hidden-underground">Frozen clues hidden underground</h2>



The team focused on cave formations known as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/past-tipping-points-where-the-climate-changed-abruptly/">speleothems</a> - stalagmites and stalactites - which only grow when water can seep through the ground. In regions locked in permafrost, the soil stays frozen solid. That makes speleothem growth impossible. 



So, if these formations exist in caves beneath modern-day permafrost, it means the ground had to be thawed when they formed.



The researchers collected more than 60 mineral samples from caves in the Lena River delta, one of the coldest and most remote areas of northeastern Siberia. 



Using uranium-lead dating, a precise method for measuring tiny traces of radioactive decay, the team determined that the cave minerals had formed about 8.7 million years ago, during the late <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-site-in-australia-indicates-abundant-life-during-the-miocene/">Miocene</a> period.



This means the ground in that region was thawed at the time. Existing global temperature records show that Earth was 4.5˚C warmer than it is today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-fate-of-arctic-permafrost">The fate of Arctic permafrost</h2>



If Earth warms by that same amount again, the findings suggest that all but the deepest or highest-altitude permafrost would melt.



“Our findings provide direct quantitative evidence that if our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/looking-to-earths-ancient-climate-to-predict-our-future/">climate</a> warms by 4.5˚C, the permafrost currently covering Canada, Siberia, Mongolia, America - in fact much of the Northern Hemisphere - would thaw. Only permafrost in high mountains and deep underground would survive," said Dr Sebastian Breitenbach of Northumbria University.



“This thaw would release billions of tonnes of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-sinks-are-losing-their-ability-to-absorb-co2/">carbon</a> from the ground into the atmosphere, enhancing further warming. This finding is a real warning to us all. It shows how sensitive our climate system is and where we might be headed if we don't act to limit our climate emissions now.”



What makes this especially concerning is the sheer volume of carbon at risk. Scientists estimate that up to 130 billion tonnes are locked in today's permafrost. If that carbon is released as the ground thaws, it won't just add to the warming - it will accelerate it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-the-arctic-was-permafrost-free">When the Arctic was permafrost-free </h2>



“After much searching, we were fortunate to find well-preserved datable cave deposits in the heart of today’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/frozen-worm-comes-back-to-life-after-46000-years/">Siberian permafrost</a>,” said Dr Anton Vaks of the Geological Survey of Israel. 



“We can see that this present-day tundra region experienced a warmer climate, with mean annual global temperatures above 0°C and with permafrost-free conditions." 



According to Dr. Vaks, the evidence from the cave formations indicates that most of the Siberian landmass and likely similar regions in the Northern Hemisphere were permafrost-free when the deposits formed at Taba-Ba’astakh.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-caves-as-climate-time-machines">Caves as climate time machines</h2>



Professor Gideon Henderson of the University of Oxford noted that caves are like time machines. 



“They capture a history of the climate and environment for millions of years of Earth history, which we can now read accurately using precise chemical analyses," said Henderson. 



"By doing so, we can predict the future, using past conditions as an analogue for the future to understand the impact of the warmer world we are heading into.



“This new study provides valuable new constraints on the magnitude of warming required to completely destroy permafrost in the northern hemisphere and remove one of the biggest continental stores of carbon.”



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60381-5">Nature Communications</a>.



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Arctic permafrost vanished in the past - will it happen again?

Long before modern climate records began, a very different Earth existed - one where the icy edges of the Arctic were free of permafrost. This wasn't a minor shift. It was a Northern Hemisphere without frozen ground, stretching all the way to the Arctic Ocean. That past could be a preview of our future. A new study shows that when Earth’s average temperature was just 4.5˚C warmer than it is today, the Asian continent had no permafrost - not even in its far north. This extent of...

Do bacteria go extinct? The world is filled with hugely diverse populations of microbes, and its because of the sheer number of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kitchen-sponges-contain-insane-amount-bacteria/">bacteria populations</a> that it was commonly thought bacteria rarely go extinct or die off. 

However, a new study shows that this isn’t the case and that bacteria, like a wide range of other species, have gone extinct. However, it was difficult to track these declines in populations because bacteria have avoided the large, planet-wide mass extinctions easily evidenced in the fossil record. 

“Bacteria rarely fossilize, so we know very little about how the microbial landscape has evolved over time,” said Stilianos Louca, the leader of the study. “Sequencing and math helped us fill in the bacterial family tree, map how they've diversified over time, and uncover their extinctions.” 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a>, <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/">Caltech</a>, and <a href="https://www.lbl.gov/">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory</a> used DNA sequencing and data analysis to create the first evolutionary tree of bacteria over the past billion years. 

“This study wouldn't have been possible 10 years ago,” said  Michael Doebeli, the senior author on the paper. “Today's availability of massive sequencing data and powerful computational resources allowed us to perform the complex mathematical analysis.”

Even though the researchers were able to track the evolutionary history of an estimated 1.4 to 1.9 million bacterial lineages through the years, the resulting family tree only represents a small fraction of bacteria overall. 

“While modern bacterial diversity is undoubtedly high, it's only a tiny snapshot of the diversity that evolution has generated over Earth's history,” said Louca. 

The results, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, show that bacteria have experienced thousands of extinctions throughout the years, between 45,000 and 95,000 extinctions in the last million years alone to be exact. 

Bacteria have managed to avoid large mass extinction events and the researchers found that they have also been able to diversify exponentially without interruption, even with thousands of extinctions within their family tree. 

The researchers next plan to study the evolution of bacteria and its physiological properties through the years to see what advantages bacteria have gained in order to thrive and sustain such high numbers and diversity. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Stilianos Louca, <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a>

Research shows that bacteria do in fact go extinct

Do bacteria go extinct? The world is filled with hugely...

In the 1980s, the U.S. government along with the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) created the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund">Superfund Program</a> to clean up thousands of toxic sites from chemical spills, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/silverton-colorado-preps-big-changes-superfund-cleanup/">mines,</a> and factory toxic waste across the country. 

No company has been more entangled with the EPA and Superfund than Dow, one of the world’s largest chemical companies responsible for everything from Saran Wrap to mustard gas. 

Dow is potentially responsible for at least 14 percent of the Superfund cleanup sites the EPA has classified as a priority, accounting for 171 toxic areas in the United States, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/climate/dow-epa-superfund.html">New York Times</a> . 

One of DOW’s biggest offenses includes the contamination of more than 50 miles of the Tittabawassee River in Midland Michigan, home of the chemical giant’s headquarters. 

Clean up efforts have only just begun along the Tittabawassee River and no one can say for sure when the project will be done. 

Years of pushback on behalf of DOW, and reports that the company mislead the public, skewed data, and delayed cleanup stalled any progress on the Midland cleanup project. 

Now, one of the lawyers who spent years working for DOW and who was a lead negotiator in talks with the EPA during the Midland cleanup case is slated to be the next EPA Lawyer in charge of overseeing the Superfund program. 

In March, Donald Trump nominated former Dow Chemicals lawyer Peter Wright to lead the Superfund program. 

Wright is currently working in an advisory capacity to the EPA, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/climate/dow-epa-superfund.html">New York Times</a>, awaiting congressional approval before he can officially take over Superfund. 

The nomination has raised many concerns and more than a few red flags due to Wright’s long history working with DOW. 

DOW’ slow progress in addressing and dealing with the Midland cleanup has been cited as one of the biggest conflicts of interest in nominating Wright to the EPA. 

Christine Todd, the leader of the EPA under President George W. Bush told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/climate/dow-epa-superfund.html">New York Times</a> that Wright’s nomination “raises all kinds of red flags, and it makes his job more difficult in the sense that he will be watched every second.” 

There are others who list Wright’s former work with DOW as reasons why he is the right pick for the job. 

After former head of the E.P.A Scott Pruitt resigned amidst a host of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-trump.html">ethics violations</a>, the government agency is now in the spotlight and Wright’s nomination doesn’t seem to be doing much to restore confidence in the agency, in Superfund, or Trump’s cabinet picks. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Dow lawyer is Trump's new nominee to head EPA’s legal team

In the 1980s, the U.S. government along with the Environmental...

A period of global warming jump-started the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-age-earths-history/">Holocene period</a> around 11,000 years ago which allowed for human expansion, agriculture, and a stable climate.

As temperatures warmed, glaciers retreated, humans could spread out over a larger landscape, and the higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere made permanent settlement possible. 

The climate during the Holocene was unusually stable with atmospheric carbon levels increasing from 260 parts per millions (ppm) to 280 parts per million. 

While the warming over the past 11,000 years has been well documented, the explanation for the sudden warming trend remained unknown. 

An international collaboration of researchers led by <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/">Princeton University</a> and the <a href="https://www.mpg.de/153030/chemie">Max Planck Institute for Chemistry</a> conducted a study examining Southern Ocean upwelling as the possible explanation for the Holocene’s warming. 

Activity in the Southern Ocean weakens the oceans’ abilities to store carbon and the study proposes that this is what caused the warming starting 11,000 years ago. 

The world’s oceans contain huge stores of CO2 and there is concern that warming temperatures will release these carbon stores back into the atmosphere, driving further climate change. 

That’s why it’s important to understand what was behind the stable interglacial warming of the Holocene as it could help better predict climate models and show the effect that an increase in fossil fuels will have on ocean circulation and atmospheric CO2 levels in the future. 

The results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“We think we may have found the answer,” said Daniel Sigman, a member of the research team. “Increased circulation in the Southern Ocean allowed carbon dioxide to leak into the atmosphere, working to warm the planet.”

Sigman and the researchers theorized that a leak in the Southern Ocean, venting carbon from phytoplankton populations deep below the Ocean’s surface, was responsible for the Holocene warming. 

To study this possibility, the researchers collected and analyzed diatoms, foraminifers, and deep-sea coral fossils from different areas of the Southern Ocean. 

Diatoms and foraminifera are shelled microorganisms and researchers can measure the nitrogen isotope ratios trapped within the fossils to model the nutrient levels of the Southern Ocean at the time the fossils were alive. This can help show temperatures, oxygen levels, and the climate during that time as well. 

After analyzing the isotope ratios, the measurements indicated that during the early years of the Holocene, the Southern Ocean saw an increase in nutrients and carbon dioxide and this weakened the ocean’s ability to contain its carbon stores and CO2 leaked into the atmosphere.

This could explain the 20 parts per millions rise in atmospheric carbon. The researchers say the same processes responsible for warming the Holocene are happening now, made worse by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic activities. 

“This process is allowing some of that deeply stored carbon dioxide to invade back to the atmosphere,” said Sigman. “We're essentially punching holes in the membrane of the biological pump. If the findings from the Holocene can be used to predict how Southern Ocean upwelling will change in the future, it will improve our ability to forecast changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and thus in global climate.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How a warming Earth encouraged human settlement and expansion

A period of global warming jump-started the Holocene period around...

According to a team of scientists at the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a>, climate change could cause Western Europe and New Zealand to relapse to the hot tropical climate of the early Paleogene, the first period of the Cenozoic Era which took place 56-48 million years ago.

Currently, a heat wave across Europe is affecting health, drying out land, and triggering wildfires.

The early Paleogene is particularly significant to climate scientists because <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-dioxide-record-broken/">carbon dioxide</a> levels at that time were similar to those predicted for the end of this century.

Dr. David Naafs from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences is the lead author of the study.

“We know that the early Paleogene was characterized by a greenhouse climate with elevated carbon dioxide levels,” said Dr. Naafs.

“Most of the existing estimates of temperatures from this period are from the ocean, not the land - what this study attempts to answer is exactly how warm it got on land during this period.”


By analyzing the molecular fossils of microorganisms preserved in ancient peat, the team was able to estimate the land temperature 50 million years ago. 

The scientists found that average temperatures in Western Europe and New Zealand were between 23 and 29 degrees Celsius, which is at least 10 degrees higher than current temperatures across these regions.

The findings suggest that the scorching temperatures of the current heat wave will become the new norm by the end of this century if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise.

“Our work adds to the evidence for a very hot climate under potential end-of-century carbon dioxide levels,” said study co-author Professor Rich Pancost. “Importantly, we also study how the Earth system responded to that warmth. For example, this and other hot time periods were associated with evidence for arid conditions and extreme rainfall events.”

The researchers will now investigate how hot land temperatures became in lower latitudes during the early Paleogene.

“Did the tropics, for example, become ecological dead zones because temperatures in excess of 40 °C were too high for most form of life to survive? Some climate models suggest this, but we currently lack critical data,” said Dr. Naafs.

“Our results hint at the possibility that the tropics, like the mid-latitudes, were hotter than present, but more work is needed to quantify temperatures from these regions.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/">Nature Geoscience</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scorching heat may become the norm by the end of the century

According to a team of scientists at the University of...

An international team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.newcastle.edu.au/">University of Newcastle</a> has identified a growing frequency of intense rainstorms in Australia over the past 50 years. The researchers have found that short yet powerful storms are strengthening faster than what was expected with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thawing-permafrost-global-warming/">global warming</a>, and the experts say that this will lead to increased flash flooding.

The investigation was focused on daily and hourly rainfall extremes between 1966-1989 and 1990-2013, which were collected from 107 weather stations across Australia.

The study revealed that the amount of water falling in hourly storms such as thunderstorms is increasing at a rate that is two to three times higher than what was anticipated with climate change. The largest increases in rainfall have occurred during the most extreme events.

“It was thought there was a limit on how much more rain could fall during these extreme events as a result of rising temperatures,” said study lead author Dr. Selma Guerreiro.

“Now that upper limit has been broken, and instead we are seeing increases in rainfall, two to three times higher than expected during these short, intense rainstorms.”

“This does not mean that we will see this rate of increase everywhere. But the important thing now is to understand why rainfall is becoming so much more intense in Australia and to look at changes in other places around the world. How these rainfall events will change in the future will vary from place to place and depend on local conditions besides temperature increases.”

The research suggests that short, intense rainstorms may be underestimated due to the frequency and severity of flooding that can result from them.

“These changes are well above what engineers currently take into account when determining Australia's flood planning levels or designing stormwater management and flood defence infrastructure,” said study co-author Professor Seth Westra.

“If we keep seeing this rate of change, we risk committing future generations to levels of flood risk that are unacceptable by today's standards.”

The research has demonstrated that extreme hourly rainfall cannot be predicted based on temperature alone because many other atmospheric changes also play a role in these complex events.


The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/">Nature Climate Change</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Australian rainstorms became more severe in the past 50 years

An international team of scientists led by the University of...

According to the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/">Los Angeles Times</a>, California has achieved its goal of lowering harmful <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/meat-dairy-production-emissions/">emissions</a> from electricity generation with four years to spare. However, a report from the <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/homepage">California Air Resources Board</a> (CARB) shows that traffic pollution across the state continues to rise.

To make matters worse, a plan by the Trump administration aims to weaken fuel economy standards that were put in place by President Obama, and the new legislation could revoke California’s ability to set its own vehicle emission standards.

State Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell said: “This would be the first time the federal government has really taken on California’s authority to do this, which is, as much as anything, a states’ rights issue.”

The CARB emissions report shows that the state was able to reach its 2020 goal in 2016 due to an increase in the use of renewable energy. California had achieved 46-percent renewable electricity by 2016, when solar electricity grew by 33 percent and natural gas decreased by over 15 percent.

Dave Edwards is the chief of CARB’s greenhouse gas and toxics emissions inventory branch. “We’ve seen a substantial increase in solar and wind power, particularly rooftop solar installations,” Edwards told the Los Angeles Times.

Emissions from electricity generation dropped by 18 percent in California from 2015 to 2016. On the other hand, increased traffic in a recovering economy continues to boost traffic pollution levels.


Alex Jackson is a senior attorney at the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/">Natural Resources Defense </a>Council. He told the L.A. Times: “The deep reductions from electric power generation are compensating for lackluster performance in other sectors of the economy, including an uptick in the transportation sector where we know we have our work cut out for us.”

Pennsylvania, one of more than 12 states that abide by California’s stricter vehicle emissions standards, is anticipating the potential rollback by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is prepared to respond with legal action. Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro has already filed a lawsuit over an order by former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt regarding rebuilt truck engines.

“On his last day in office, former Administrator Pruitt took his worst action and seriously harmed our environment,” said Shapiro. “Gliders - new trucks with older, rebuilt engines - need to meet the same strict emissions rules as trucks with newer engines. If the EPA won’t protect Pennsylvanians from the dangers of this type of air pollution, I will.”

California has now set a new goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 40 percent by the year 2030. 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

California hits climate goals, but traffic pollution rises

According to the Los Angeles Times, California has achieved its...

Plastic straws have been the focus of many recent campaigns that are addressing the worldwide issue of plastic pollution. According to the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/">National Park Service</a>, Americans use 500 million drinking straws every day. 

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/starbucks-plastic-straws/">Plastic straws</a> cannot be easily recycled, and they never fully degrade. According to the <a href="https://oceanconservancy.org/">Ocean Conservancy</a>’s TIDES system, plastic  straws and stirrers are the 11th most common type of trash found in ocean cleanups.

A recent article published by <a href="https://www.wired.com/">WIRED</a> magazine explains how easily straws make their way into the environment.

Sherry Lippiatt is the regional coordinator for NOAA's marine debris program in California.

“I think the fact that straws are small and used on-the-go lends itself to the fact that they can easily leak into the environment,” Lippiatt told WIRED. “Any moment when trash is being transferred from one mode to another, some fraction of it is lost.”

Straws are small and lightweight, which makes it inevitable that many are lost during the waste management process. Plastic straws and stirrers are not only ending up in the ocean, but are also getting washed away into lakes, rivers, and streams where they can do a lot of damage to marine life.

Many states have pending legislation to ban plastic straws including regions of California, Washington, Florida, New Jersey, and New York. In addition, large companies such as Starbucks, Hyatt, and American Airlines have pledged to ditch plastic straws.

However, there is some debate over whether banning straws will effectively lead to more measurable actions.

Kara Lavender Law is a research professor of Oceanography at the <a href="https://www.sea.edu/">Sea Education Association</a>. Law told WIRED magazine: “I’m not sure that straws are exceptional in terms of their impact to an ecosystem.”

“I think the reason straws have been singled out is because they are a low-hanging fruit. They are something that most of us, though not all, for example some disabled people, children, can easily do without, and by doing so we reduce the amount of plastic trash that is generated and therefore needs to be managed somehow.”

While straws may not be the biggest contributor to the plastic pollution crisis, banning them is still a good start for companies to reduce their plastic footprints.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Americans use 500 million plastic straws per day

Plastic straws have been the focus of many recent campaigns...

Researchers at the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> have analyzed the chemistry of ocean sediments to investigate whether rapid climate change was linked to Atlantic Ocean circulation in the past. The study is providing new insight into the interactions between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-displacement-climate-change/">climate change</a>, melting ice, and ocean circulation.

“Large, rapid changes in climate, carbon dioxide, and ice sheet volume occurred as the planet emerged from the most recent ice age some 20,000 years ago,” said study lead author Dr. Hong Chin Ng.

“Changes in the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean are believed to have played an important role in driving these climate events - but direct evidence has been hard to find.”

“In this study, we analyzed radioactive elements in ocean sediments to provide a much better-constrained picture of the strength of ocean circulation in the past, and therefore its relationship with the timing of ice sheet and climate changes during the last major deglaciation.”


The investigation was focused on sediment cores from across the Atlantic Ocean. The study revealed that shifts in ocean circulation patterns had corresponded with rapid climate change events when the ice sheets were retreating.

“This is the first time that spatially coherent, widespread observations (from the tropics to high latitudes) have been brought to together on a common age scale,” said Dr. Ng.

“We found that the ocean slowed down its circulation in two steps, linked to two episodes of ice melting - one from Eurasia and one from North America.”

The study findings highlight the influence of melting ice on the slowdown of ocean circulation. According to the researchers,  this is important because ice in the northern latitudes is currently melting at an accelerated rate due to climate change.

The data obtained from this research could be used to investigate whether climate models accurately respond to the dynamics of melting ice and ocean circulation during periods of rapid climate change.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms">Nature Communications</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: Dr Hong Chin Ng, University of Bristol

Atlantic Ocean circulation linked to rapid past climate change

Researchers at the University of Bristol have analyzed the chemistry...

Malaria killed nearly half a million people in 2016, most of them under the age of 5, and infected another 200 million more. The easiest solution might be wiping out malaria-carrying mosquitoes – but would that trigger some sort of twisted “butterfly effect” that causes destruction of ecosystems on a massive scale?

Not likely.

New research by an international team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a> have found that a species of malaria-carrying mosquitoes isn't all that necessary in its native habitats.

Most cases of malaria today are found in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. However, not every species of mosquito carries the tropical disease, which leads to fever, chills, vomiting, seizures and other painful symptoms. 

As part of their <a href="https://targetmalaria.org/">Target Malaria</a> project, the team of researchers hopes to genetically engineer Anopheles gambiae, one of the carrier species of mosquito, to suppress the illness. Before they did, however, they wanted to research how the species’ disappearance might affect the ecosystems in which An. gambiae lives.

That’s when they discovered that the malaria-carrying mosquitoes don’t really fill much of an ecological niche. No animals depend on them for food, and their presence isn’t needed to keep other insects’ or animals’ populations from exploding.

“As adults, An. gambiae mosquitoes are small, hard to catch, most mobile at night and not very juicy, so they are not a rewarding prey for both insect and vertebrate predators,” lead researcher Dr. Tilly Collins told the <a href="http://dailymail.co.uk/">Daily Mail</a>.

Blood-heavy female mosquitoes do make an important meal for a species of spider that lives in some of the An. gambiae habitats, but it’s not picky about the species of mosquito it feeds on.

And in the habitats studied so far, researchers found that the disappearance of the malaria-carrying mosquitoes wouldn’t cause any population explosions of its competitor species. Other mosquitoes that don’t spread the disease would simply fill the vacuum.

To verify its findings, Target Malaria is launching a new, four-year study of An. gambiae in Ghana, supported by the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> and the <a href="https://www.ug.edu.gh/">University of Ghana</a>.

The current research has been published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652915">Medical and Veterinary Entomology</a>.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Scientists: ecosystem doesn't need malaria-carrying mosquitoes

Malaria killed nearly half a million people in 2016, most...

Northern Europe has been in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heatwave that looks to linger for weeks. Sweden is seeing its hottest summer in a century. Scotland recorded its highest temperature ever in Motherwell, and records were shattered in Belfast in Northern Ireland as well.

Now, weather data indicates that climate change may have played a role in creating it.

“The summer of 2018 has been remarkable in northern Europe. A very persistent high-pressure anomaly over Scandinavia caused high temperature anomalies and drought there from May to (at least) July,” researchers from the <a href="http://wwa.climatecentral.org/">World Weather Attribution</a> consortium wrote on their website. “These reached  as far southwest as Ireland. Southern Europe was unusually wet, with damaging thunderstorms in France in the first half of June.”

The team of scientists looked at climate data collected from seven sites in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands. The sites were chosen because they record weather information in real-time, and have digitized records going back several decades.

The researchers then analyzed the current and historic data to look at trends.

“We firstly analyze observed temperatures and estimate how rare the current heatwave is, measured as three-day maximum temperatures, and whether or not there is a trend toward increasing temperature,” they wrote.

They found that man-made climate change has raised the chances of northern Europe seeing a record-breaking heatwave, and this summer’s heat seems to be an example.

“We estimate that the probability to have such a heat or higher is generally more than two times higher today than if human activities had not altered climate,” <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/analyses/attribution-of-the-2018-heat-in-northern-europe/">the researchers wrote</a>.

The team did note that this was only a preliminary study. Additional research to verify their conclusions and more climate modeling would be needed before they can extend their findings to other extreme heat events, such as a record-breaking heatwave in Japan that has killed dozens or record high temperatures in the Arctic.

But the findings do add to a growing body of work suggesting that climate change is real, and that human activity may play a role in it.

“The logic that climate change will do this is inescapable – the world is becoming warmer and so heatwaves like this are becoming more common,” Dr. Friederike Otto of the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a>, a co-author of the study, told the <a href="http://dailymail.co.uk/">Daily Mail</a>. “What was once regarded as unusually warm weather will become commonplace – in some cases, it already has.”

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Climate change may be behind record-breaking heatwave

Northern Europe has been in the fierce grip of a...

Tiny snails could jeopardize one of the few hardy species of coral left capable of adapting and recovering more efficiently than other more delicate coral reef systems. 

Researchers from the<a href="http://www.gatech.edu/"> Georgia Institute of Technology</a> discovered that a species of snail acts like a tick and drains liquid from the Porites cylindrica coral. This can damage coral growth and decimate already compromised and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coral-reefs-protection/">degraded reefs</a>. 

Coral reefs are declining at an unprecedented rate, and face a wide range of stressors and threats including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coral-reefs-protection/">overfishing</a>, bleaching, rising sea-temperatures, and pollution. The snail may be a formidable opponent to add to that list. 

“Once the reefs are down and nearly out, these snails are piling on,” said Mark Hay, a co-author of the study. “The Porites coral is kind of the last man standing, the last hope for some of these reefs coming back, and they are the ones these snails selectively prey on. As you get fewer and fewer corals, the snails focus on the fewer and fewer of these colonies that remain. This is part of the downward spiral of the reefs.”

Because the snail can camouflage itself on the reef and doesn’t leave behind any obvious markings, the seriousness of the threat the snails posed was previously overlooked. 

To better understand the snail’s impact on coral, researchers conducted several experiments on Fiji Island reefs. 

The results were published in the journal Ecological Application and show that the snails can reduce coral growth by 43 percent in less than a month.  

The researchers noticed that the snails were much more abundant on degraded reefs where fishing was permitted. There were 35 times more nails on degraded corals than on corals in protected reefs. 

For the study, the researchers isolated coral branches, attached snails to them and came back after 24 days to assess the damage and growth rates. 

Coral growth on the infested branches was reduced by 18 to 43 percent compared to the branches that were snail free. 

“A single snail can do a considerable amount of damage,” said Cody Clements, a leader of the study. “They are sucking the juice out of the coral. If you have a lot of snails feeding on a single coral colony, it can be very hard for the colony to thrive.”

The researchers suspected that the increase in snail populations in some reefs versus others had to do with fishing restrictions. Fish can help manage predators and seaweed in coral ecosystems but if fishing is permitted, there are less fish to do this crucial job. 

Snails were attached with both protected and unprotected reefs to find out if fishing played a role in decreasing snail infestations.  

Not surprisingly, the snails in protected reefs were eaten and the snails’ shells overtaken by hermit crabs. 

“From the predation evidence, it looked like the fish were eating the snails,” said Clements. “It seemed like the main element driving the difference was the protection status of the area where the snails were tethered.”

The coral species that the snails prefer most are also considered a key coral for reef recovery because of its hardy nature, and the researchers say that tackling overfishing and keeping corals protected is necessary for maintaining biodiversity. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandett@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Cody Clements, Georgia Tech

Tiny snails leech off corals like ticks and weaken reefs

Tiny snails could jeopardize one of the few hardy species...

This week, the new head of Trump’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA), Andrew Wheeler, told <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/26/trump-epa-freeze-obama-era-fuel-standards-cars-light-trucks/840816002/">USA Today</a> that the agency intends to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards.

During Obama’s two-term presidency, his EPA implemented fuel standards to increase fuel efficiency, identified climate change as a national security issue, and developed several plans to reduce emissions and fossil fuel use. 

President Donald Trump has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that climate change is far from a priority and has already begun to undo <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/28/the-obama-environmental-regulations-trump-wants-scrap/99729650/">several key environmental protection policies</a> and orders of the Obama Administration. 

Now, Andrew Wheeler told USA Today that the agency is working with the Trump Administration to undo Obama era fuel-economy standards and will announce more formal plans next week.

In 2012, car manufacturers were given till 2016 to increase vehicle mileage to 34.5 miles per gallon with standards expected to rise by 2025 to 54.5 miles per gallon. 

Wheeler aims to revisit those later restriction rises, but the new plans will not affect current increases in fuel efficiency in new car models. 

“They jumped the gun,” Wheeler told USA Today. “It was a political attempt to try to move up the process and what we're doing is taking the deliberative process of looking at the midyear review the way it was originally intended to be done.”

Potential fuel efficiency freezes would be good news for car manufacturers, as it's been argued by automakers that Americans don’t want high-mileage cars and being forced to produce them would be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/business/energy-environment/automakers-pruitt-mileage-rules.html">costly, limit consumer options, decrease profits</a>, and impact the entire industry. 

However, not all car companies stand by those statements. 

A spokesperson for Ford told USA Today that the company supports “increasing clean car standards through 2025 and are not asking for a rollback.” 

The state of California, a leader in state-run environmental regulations, is also committed to keeping with the former president's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/california-electric-cars/">goals for fuel efficiency</a>. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Trump’s EPA to freeze Obama-era fuel efficiency standards

This week, the new head of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency...

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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <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



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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



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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



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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



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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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



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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

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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



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.

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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