Seafood,On,Ice,At,The,Fish,Market

Alternative seafood is emerging as a vital solution in the fight to protect marine ecosystems. As pressure from overfishing, pollution, and climate change intensifies, scientists and policymakers are exploring new ways to reduce strain on the ocean. 



While many marine mysteries remain, one issue is clear - traditional fishing practices are pushing the ocean toward ecological collapse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-global-impact-of-overfishing">The global impact of overfishing</h2>



Researchers point out that nearly 90% of marine fisheries today are either fully exploited or already overfished. On top of that, pollution and habitat degradation are erasing biodiversity across oceans, rivers, and coasts. 



<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/global-industrial-fishing-footprint-spd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A 2018 study</a> showed that commercial fishing operations now cover more than 55% of the ocean surface - four times more than the land used for agriculture.



This crisis impacts people as well as marine life. Around 3 billion rely on the ocean for food and jobs. With the population expected to hit 10 billion by 2050, seafood demand is rising twice as fast.



But wild fisheries can only do so much. Even under perfect management, there’s a ceiling on how many fish can be caught each year. 



The researchers note that reducing the burden of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/overfishing-and-habitat-degradation-have-devastated-marine-ecosystems/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">overfishing</a> through better fishery management is possible, but it requires setting limits on how much can be caught, where and when, and with which methods. There’s another way forward - one that doesn’t get as much attention.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-alternative-seafood-as-a-sustainable-solution">Alternative seafood as a sustainable solution</h2>



Alternative seafood - like plant-based fish or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sushi-of-the-future-the-first-ever-lab-grown-eel-is-a-success/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lab-grown</a> (cultivated) tuna - is emerging as a powerful tool to meet demand without draining the ocean. 



These products can help shift consumer choices away from wild-caught fish and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/farmed-seafood-supply-is-at-risk-due-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">farmed seafood</a> that contribute to environmental stress.



As the researchers explain, plant-based and cultivated fish hold enormous potential for feeding a growing population the fish they love while easing pressure on the conventional fishing industry and, in turn, reducing harm to our oceans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reshaping-the-seafood-industry">Reshaping the seafood industry</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fishing-communities-cooperate-to-survive-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fishing</a> isn’t just affected by climate change - it’s also a contributor. Fuel-intensive vessels and aquaculture feed production release greenhouse gases.



But climate change is striking back. Rising ocean temperatures are pushing fish populations toward the poles, leaving tropical waters increasingly empty. Some regions could see up to a 40% drop in seafood catch potential by 2050.



To make matters worse, warming waters are also making seafood riskier. Infections from Vibrio bacteria, which can be deadly, are increasing worldwide. Still, there’s hope. 



Research shows that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2705-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plant-based and cultivated seafood</a> - especially when produced using renewable energy - could offer a more climate-resilient alternative.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-diversifying-the-seafood-supply">Diversifying the seafood supply </h2>



A recent whitepaper titled <a href="https://gfi.org/resource/climate-benefits-of-accelerating-global-production-of-alternative-seafood/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Building climate policy momentum for alternative seafood</a> highlights the potential environmental benefits of diversifying the seafood supply.



“Renewable energy is critical to realizing the climate benefits of cultivated meat and seafood. Life-cycle assessments project that emissions from cultivated meat produced with renewable energy will be in the lower range of aquaculture emissions and less than the emissions of most wild-capture," noted the researchers.



"Further, cultivated seafood is expected to require even less energy than cultivated red meat and poultry, in large part because seafood can be cultivated at lower temperatures than terrestrial meats."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seafood-and-biodiversity-loss">Seafood and biodiversity loss</h2>



The ocean does more than provide seafood - it helps regulate the climate, generates oxygen, and supports global food systems. 



But marine biodiversity is rapidly declining. A 2019 report found that human activity has significantly altered two-thirds of marine areas, up from 40% just a decade earlier.



Pollution, overfishing, climate change, and ocean acidification are driving this loss, leading to ecosystem collapse, food insecurity, and rising disease risk. 



Even aquaculture, which now accounts for half of global seafood production, can harm coastal habitats and disrupt ecosystems when poorly managed.



While some fisheries and farms have adopted more sustainable practices, they haven’t kept pace with environmental pressures. Diversifying the seafood supply with alternative proteins is becoming increasingly important.



The New Blue Foods for Biodiversity <a href="https://gfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/New-blue-foods-for-biodiversity.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">whitepaper</a> outlines how plant-based and cultivated seafood can help ease the strain. By reducing overfishing and bycatch, these alternatives give wild stocks a chance to recover.



They also help prevent habitat damage and pollution, since they require less land and don’t disturb the ocean floor. And unlike many aquaculture systems, they minimize antibiotic use, supporting microbial diversity and slowing the spread of resistant pathogens.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-high-cost-of-tuna-popularity">The high cost of tuna popularity</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bluefin-tuna-a-sushi-delicacy-will-likely-be-extinct-within-50-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tuna</a> is a favorite across the globe, especially in the U.S. where canned tuna is second only to shrimp in popularity. 



Americans eat nearly one billion pounds a year. Worldwide, more than 7 million metric tons of tuna and similar species are harvested annually. That demand has consequences.



Seven out of 61 known tuna species were labeled as threatened in 2011. Tuna fishing also harms other marine animals, like turtles and sharks, that get caught in the same waters. 



Thankfully, innovation is catching up. Several companies are now creating tuna alternatives without fish.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-alternative-seafood-companies">Alternative seafood companies</h2>



In Chicago, Aqua Cultured Foods raised $5.5 million to expand its production of fungi-based seafood. Using a special fermentation process, the company creates whole-muscle seafood cuts like scallops, shrimp, and tuna. 



Their products offer a sustainable and allergen-free option, and the new investment will help launch them in restaurants this year.



In Canada, Konscious Foods received a $5 million investment through the PacifiCan Business Scale-up and Productivity program. This support will help the company increase production, grow exports, and create over 40 new jobs in British Columbia. 



The company makes frozen sushi meals - including tuna avocado rolls - using Canadian-grown ingredients like quinoa, carrots, and tomatoes. They’re also working on new items, such as plant-based smoked salmon, crab cakes, and shrimp.



In Austria, Berlin-based BettaF!sh partnered with supermarket chain BILLA AG to launch the TU-NAH sandwich, now available across BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores. 



This collaboration reflects a shared focus on sustainability and aims to bring plant-based seafood to more consumers across Europe.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-alternative-seafood-as-a-global-opportunity">Alternative seafood as a global opportunity</h2>



A New York Times article once suggested that if you can't find anything good from the sea, it might be better to cook something else. Thanks to alternative seafood, that “something else” no longer means compromising on flavor or nutrition.



By scaling plant-based and cultivated seafood, it’s possible to feed a growing population without pushing marine ecosystems to the brink. As the researchers emphasize: “Building a better food system will require a diversity of solutions.”



“Alternative seafood is the future of sustainable seafood. To scale this industry, we need bold innovators and committed champions - across climate, biodiversity, public health, and food security - who are ready to make it a global priority. An ocean of opportunity awaits.”



Thanks to the <a href="https://gfi.org/">The Good Food Institute</a> for providing the background research for this article.



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There are not "plenty of fish" in Earth's oceans to feed 10 billion people, something must change

Alternative seafood is emerging as a vital solution in the fight to protect marine ecosystems. As pressure from overfishing, pollution, and climate change intensifies, scientists and policymakers are exploring new ways to reduce strain on the ocean. While many marine mysteries remain, one issue is clear - traditional fishing practices are pushing the ocean toward ecological collapse. The global impact of overfishing Researchers point out that nearly 90% of marine fisheries today are either fully exploited or already overfished. On top of that, pollution and habitat degradation...

The oceans hold a vast reservoir -- 700 billion tons -- of carbon, dissolved in seawater as organic matter, often surviving for thousands of years after being produced by ocean life. Yet, little is known about how it is produced, or how it's being impacted by the many changes happening in the ocean.

Think of dissolved organic carbon, or DOC, in the ocean as tree leaves and other dead organic matter falling to the forest ground--a portion of this natural carbon sustains life while the remainder remains hidden in the soils, being sequestered for many years. As is true in the forests, this vital, residual carbon reservoir is necessary to sustain life in the ocean, and to sequester vast amounts of carbon in its great depths.

To better understand this important pool of ocean carbon, researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science used data collected over the past 15 years on several international scientific cruises to map the distribution of this material in the Atlantic Ocean. From the analysis, they found that this major basin contributes one third of the global ocean net production of dissolved organic carbon.

[caption id="attachment_89888" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-89888" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cff2.earth-com-temp.comuploads20161018150937media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb125059_web-de7999c30fafa3cbc0c860ce838bd14b6a8bfad3-0c75ec12af3f4bd84024ee2b49e2611b5579d155-150x150.jpg" alt="Ocean carbon concentrations" width="150" height="150" /> Ocean carbon concentrations[/caption]

"Carbon is involved in all aspects of our life," said Dennis Hansell, UM Rosenstiel School professor of ocean sciences and coauthor of the study. "We need to understand the carbon cycle on Earth especially as we add more from the burning of fossil fuels."

Dissolved organic carbon is the primary food source at the base of the marine food chain. It is produced by phytoplankton during photosynthesis, and it is mostly consumed by microbial life. The remainder that is not consumed by microbes accumulates in the ocean.

The researchers discovered that the production of dissolved organic carbon at the ocean's surface could be accurately predicted by measuring the amount of nutrients arriving into the euphotic, or sunlit, zone. The nutrients arrive there mostly by winter mixing and upwelling, and in turn support the growth of ocean plant life. From the arrival of nutrients to the surface ocean, they estimated the resulting plant growth and the production of residue, the DOC, from that growth. From those estimates, they built a map of DOC at the surface of the entire Atlantic Ocean.

"In our work, we found that the production of dissolved organic carbon depends on the quantity of nutrients that reach the euphotic zone from deeper layers," said Cristina Romera-Castillo, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. "In future scenarios, how climate change will affect the nutrient arrival to the surface ocean will determine the inventory of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean."

This inventory in turn affects the cycling of carbon on Earth, which has important roles in climate.

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Credit: <a href="http://www.rsmas.miami.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UM Rosenstiel School</a>

Ocean life produces an enormous carbon reservoir

The oceans hold a vast reservoir -- 700 billion tons...

Tropical Fish

Two cold spells, two years apart, in two subtropical regions, have given scientists clues about what happens when an extreme climate event strikes.

By tracking conditions before, during and after a 2008 cold spell in China and a 2010 cold spell in Florida, researchers found severe effects on plants and animals, but not all these effects were equal.

Tropical species suffered more than their temperate counterparts, which were able to resist and recover from the record low temperatures.

Complex Consequences

"Long-term ecological studies like these give us opportunities to understand the complex consequences of unanticipated events such as extreme cold snaps," said ecologist Evelyn Gaiser of Florida International University and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. "This short but extreme cold event mimicked the effects of a strong tropical storm or hurricane. The short-term consequences were different, but the long-term conclusions were similar."

In South Florida, tropical fish, mangroves, and American crocodile populations declined, while populations of their temperate counterparts remained unchanged or increased following the 2010 cold spell.

In China, the population of tropical butterflies in the Nanling National Nature Preserve dropped by 80 percent following the cold spell, allowing temperate butterflies to dominate the area for two years.

These findings have been shared in a new, special issue of the journal Ecosphere, published by the Ecological Society of America.

"More frequent extreme weather is likely with climate change," said David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences. "These studies show that these extremes may be cold anomalies as well as warm ones."

Effects on species

Along with disrupting biodiversity, the 2010 cold spell affected Florida's fisheries.

Economically lucrative bonefish, snook and goliath grouper fisheries experienced mass mortalities, while others, including red drum and gray snapper, were not affected.

Some saw population increases after the cold spell passed, including redfish.

Non-native species proved to be less resistant to the cold spells than native species. Non-native bee populations in South Florida took nearly four years to recover, and some non-native fish have shown no meaningful population recovery to date.

The researchers stress the importance of using long-term data to understand how these species in the subtropics will react to and recover from extreme climate events and to predict what the future will look like for them.

Not all populations resist and recover equally, scientists say, and conservation plans that incorporate strategies for extreme climate events could help those that are most vulnerable.

Source:<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/"> NSF</a>

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Cold spells strike danger for subtropical species

Two cold spells, two years apart, in two subtropical regions,...

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Tropical Storm Nicole was becoming extra-tropical yesterday when the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite passed over it from space. By Oct. 18, Nicole was a post-tropical storm and the National Hurricane Center, or NHC issued their final advisory on the system.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided an image of the storm. This showed that Nicole had become elongated from southwest to northeast and appeared more oval-shaped with the strongest thunderstorms east of the center.
Nicole is finally losing its tropical cyclone characteristics as it merges with a frontal system over the North Atlantic Ocean's chilly waters. Becoming extra-tropical means the storm moves closer to the north or south pole and out of the tropics and its primary energy source changes from the release of latent heat of condensation to baroclinic (the temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses) processes.
At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Oct. 18, the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Nicole was located near 47.1 degrees north latitude and 39.5 degrees west longitude, about 640 miles (1,030 km) east of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the north-northeast near 31 mph (50 kph), and this motion is expected to continue through Wednesday night. Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph (100 kph) with higher gusts.
The post-tropical cyclone is expected to complete extratropical transition during the day on Oct. 18 and continue as a vigorous extratropical storm through Wednesday night, Oct. 19 or Thursday, Oct. 20 before it is absorbed by another extratropical low.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that Nicole's effects would continue to be felt through rough surf. NHC said "Dangerous surf and riptide conditions are occurring in Bermuda, as well as along the east coast of the US from the Carolinas northward into Atlantic Canada. These swells will spread south of the Carolinas to the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the Leeward Islands. The coasts of Europe and northwestern Africa will be affected in a few days' time."
Nicole is forecast to head north-northeast to the east of Greenland, before being absorbed by another cyclone.
--
Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>

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NASA sees Tropical Storm Nicole go extra-tropical

Tropical Storm Nicole was becoming extra-tropical yesterday when the NASA-NOAA...

Rechargeable Battery

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<div class="img-wrapper">
Chemists at Oregon State University have discovered one or more organic compounds in a family that has traditionally been known as pollutants could offer a significant advance to make cheap, reliable batteries.
Such batteries might be of particular value to store electricity from some clean energy systems. The inability to easily and cheaply store energy from the wind and sun, which is highly variable and intermittent, has been a key constraint to wider use of those forms of energy.
Although pumped hydro systems or compressed air facilities comprise almost all of the alternative energy storage capacity of this type, they have limitations. There is a tremendous demand, scientists say, for energy storage solutions that are modular and particularly suited to community storage, "smart grid" and micro-grid uses.
A new advance, published in ACS Energy Letters, has shown that at least one, and probably more compounds are known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, can function as a potentially low-cost, long-lasting and high-performance cathode in "dual-ion" batteries.
Such batteries would contain a carbon electrode as the anode and solid PAH as the cathode, with no need for the rare or costly metal elements now usually used.
Traditionally thought of as pollutants, PAHs are usually products of combustion - anything from a campfire to an automobile exhaust or coal-burning power plant -- and pose significant concerns as toxins and carcinogens, often when inhaled.
But in this study, scientists found that at least one PAH compound called coronene, in a safe, crystallized solid form, makes a high-functioning electrode material with promising characteristics in dual-ion batteries.
"Prior to this work, PAHs were not considered stable when storing large anions," said Xiulei (David) Ji, an assistant professor of chemistry in the OSU College of Science, and recipient of a 2016 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the most prestigious award for junior faculty.
"We found that coronene crystalline solid, a PAH, can lose electrons and provide a good capacity of anion storage while being structurally and chemically stable. Coronene had good performance as an electrode and the ability to have a very long cycle life or the number of charges and discharges it can handle."
Avoiding the use of metals in the electrodes is a huge advantage for dual-ion batteries and makes them much more sustainable, Ji said. Graphite cathodes can do this, but a serious challenge that has held them back for two decades is that they operate at levels hostile to the non-aqueous solvents in the electrolyte. The batteries based on coronene largely eliminate this problem, and would significantly improve the maintenance cost and sustainability of a stationary battery system.
The researchers in this study demonstrated the potential of coronene but also said that other PAH compounds as well may have similar potential.
This research opens the door to an entirely new concept in battery construction, they said, which might take what had once been an unwanted pollutant and turn it into a safe, valued product.
Primary collaborators on this project in OSU's Department of Chemistry included lead author and graduate student Ismael Rodriguez-Perez, and professors Michael Lerner and Rich Carter.
--
Credit: <a href="http://www.oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a>
The research was supported by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.

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&nbsp;


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<div></div>

Chemists on the way to creating a better battery

Chemists at Oregon State University have discovered one or more...

Super Typhoon Haima continues to move toward the Philippines and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image of the storm that revealed a clear eye.

On Oct. 18 at 12:10 a.m. EDT (0410 UTC) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible-light image of Super Typhoon Haima approaching the Philippines. The image showed a clear eye surrounded by powerful bands of thunderstorms. Feeder bands of thunderstorms wrapped into the low level center of circulation from the west and east.

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or PAGASA has posted many warnings. The Public storm warning signal #1 is in effect in the Luzon provinces of Ilocos Norte, Apayao, Cagayan including Calayan group of Islands, Batanes group of Islands, Isabela, Kalinga, Abra, Ilocos Sur, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Benguet, La Union, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Catanduanes and Polillo Islands.

On Oct. 18 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) Supertyphoon Haima had maximum sustained winds near 161 mph (140 knots/259 kph). That makes Haima a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the strongest category on the scale. Typhoon-force winds extend up to 55 nautical miles from the center, while tropical storm-force winds extend up to 180 nautical miles from the center.

Haima was located near 15.7 degrees north latitude and 129.1 degrees east longitude, about 474 nautical miles east of Manila, Philippines. It was moving to the west at 17.2 mph (15 knots/22.2 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said that Haima is forecast to move to the west-northwest then northwest. It is forecast to clip the extreme north of Luzon Island and then head toward mainland China

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Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

Super Typhoon Haima closes in on Philippines

Super Typhoon Haima continues to move toward the Philippines and...

As Tropical Storm Sarika moved over Hainan Island, China, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible picture of the storm as it made a direct hit.

On Oct. 18 at 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 UTC) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible-light image of the storm. The image showed the center of circulation covered by clouds.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that infrared satellite imagery showed that the low-level circulation center is weakening rapidly and that the strongest thunderstorms within the tropical cyclone appear to be disorganized.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Oct. 18, Sarika was centered near 19.8 degrees north latitude and 109.7 degrees east longitude. That was about 189 nautical miles east-southeast of Hanoi, Vietnam. Sarika's maximum sustained winds dropped to 63 mph (55 knots/102 kph) and it was moving to the northwest at 11.5 mph (10 knots/18.5 kph).

Sarika is moving northwest and is forecast to cross the Gulf of Tonkin and make final landfall in northern Vietnam. A Severe Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from central to northeastern Vietnam.

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Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

Tropical Storm Sarika moves over Hainan Island, China

As Tropical Storm Sarika moved over Hainan Island, China, NASA-NOAA's...

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

September 2016's temperature was a razor-thin 0.004 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest September in 2014. The margin is so narrow those two months are in a statistical tie. Last month was 0.91 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean September temperature from 1951-1980.

The record-warm September means 11 of the past 12 consecutive months dating back to October 2015 have set new monthly high-temperature records. Updates to the input data have meant that June 2016, previously reported to have been the warmest June on record, is, in GISS's updated analysis, the third warmest June behind 2015 and 1998 after receiving additional temperature readings from Antarctica. The late reports lowered the June 2016 anomaly by 0.05 degrees Celsius to 0.75.

“Monthly rankings are sensitive to updates in the record, and our latest update to mid-winter readings from the South Pole has changed the ranking for June,” said GISS director Gavin Schmidt. “We continue to stress that while monthly rankings are newsworthy, they are not nearly as important as long-term trends.”

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations. The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet. Monthly analyses are updated when additional data become available, and the results are subject to change.

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Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

September 2016 was the warmest month ever recorded

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of...

Exxon is expanding its counter-attack against critics and is now seeking to quash a New York subpoena of the company's documents related to climate change.
Exxon said in a court filing Monday that it has already given New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman more than 1 million pages of documents. It said that it is increasingly clear that the attorney general's investigation is politically motivated.
The Irving, Texas, company asked a federal district court in Dallas to throw out the New York subpoena. It is fighting in the same court to quash a subpoena from Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey. Both officials say that the company deceived investors and the public by hiding what it knew about the link between burning fossil fuels and climate change.
Exxon said in a company release that Schneiderman and Healey "are incapable of impartial investigations and are attempting to silence political opponents who disagree on the appropriate policies to address climate change."
The environmental group 350.org accused Exxon Mobil Corp. of trying to, "distract from the real story here: that they lied about their knowledge of climate change for decades" and spent millions on campaigns to undermine climate science.
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Exxon tried to quash climate change documents subpoena

Exxon is expanding its counter-attack against critics and is now...

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<div>

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered "super yeast" could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

Though Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been the baker's and brewer's yeast of choice for centuries, it poses a unique challenge to researchers using it to make biofuel from cellulosic biomass such as grasses, woods, or the nonfood portion of plants. The world-famous microbe is highly adept at converting a plant's glucose to biofuel but is otherwise a picky eater, ignoring the plant's xylose, a five-carbon sugar that can make up nearly half of all available plant sugars.

"For cellulosic biofuels to become economically feasible, microbes need to be able to convert all of a plant's sugars, including xylose, into fuel," says Trey Sato, the GLBRC study's lead researcher and a UW-Madison associate scientist.

In a study published Friday (Oct. 14, 2016) in the journal PLOS Genetics, Sato and his GLBRC collaborators describe the isolation of specific genetic mutations that allow S. cerevisiae to convert xylose into ethanol, a finding that could transform xylose from a waste product into a source of fuel. To uncover these genetic mutations, the researchers had to untangle millions of years of evolution, teasing out what led S. cerevisiae to become so selective in its eating habits in the first place.

First, Sato and colleagues gave the yeast a choice akin to eating carrots for dinner or nothing at all, surrounding S. cerevisiae with xylose until it either reevaluated its distaste for xylose or died. It took 10 months and hundreds of generations of "directed evolution" for Sato and his colleagues, including co-corresponding authors Robert Landick, a UW-Madison professor of biochemistry, and Audrey Gasch, a UW- Madison professor of genetics, to create a strain of S. cerevisiae that could ferment xylose.

Once the researchers had isolated the super yeast they named GLBRCY128, they also needed to understand exactly how the evolution had occurred in order to replicate it. Gasch compared Y128's genome to the original strain, combing through the approximately 5,200 genes of each to find four gene mutations responsible for the adapted behavior. To verify their finding, the researchers manually deleted these mutations from the parent strain, producing the same result.

Sato says this work could enable a wide variety of biofuels research going forward. With the technique for making Y128 published, researchers are free to make it themselves for the purposes of applying it to new biomass pretreatment technologies or to different plant materials. "Scientists won't need to adapt their research to the process that we're doing here," he says. "They can just take our technology and make their own strain."

Future research may also focus on the super yeast's potentially powerful role in creating specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

"We want to take this strain and make higher-order molecules that can be further converted into jet fuels or something like isobutanol, lipids or diesel fuel," says Sato. "And if we know how to better metabolize carbon, including xylose, anybody in theory should be able to rewire or change metabolic pathways to produce a variety of biofuel products."
 --

</div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.wisc.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a></div>

'Super yeast' could boost economics of biofuels

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">In classic experiments on frogs, scientists found that the amphibians' urge to escape from dangerously hot water decreased significantly when the water temperature rose very gradually.</div>
<div class="img-wrapper"></div>
<div class="img-wrapper">In fact, sensitivity of many animals to increasing temperatures -- including humans -- is similarly affected by the rate of increase. Exactly why, however, has not been understood.</div>
Hoping to shed light on this phenomenon, UC Santa Barbara professor Craig Montell and graduate students Junjie Luo and Wei Shen developed fruit fly larvae as a model to reveal a mechanism through which the animal shows different behavioral responses to fast and slow rises in temperature.

The researchers discovered that a rapid 25-degree Fahrenheit temperature change caused a writhing response in fruit fly larvae. However, when the temperature was raised gradually, far fewer animals reacted, and for those that did, the average threshold temperature was significantly higher. The team's findings appear in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"We know a lot about how animals sense large and sudden increases in temperature," said Montell, the Patricia and Robert Duggan Professor of Neuroscience in UCSB's Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. "They respond to noxious heat by initiating an escape response. But how is it that animals are so much less sensitive to the same hot temperature when the change is really slow?"

The answer to that question turned out to have two parts. First, Montell and his team identified the thermosensory neurons in the brain responsible for sensing the rate of temperature change, which helped to define the underlying molecular mechanism.

"When there is a really rapid change in temperature, you want to protect the brain, particularly in fly larvae because they're cold-blooded and their body temperature equilibrates to the outside," explained Montell. "If their brains feel a rapid increase in temperature, that stimulates the writhing response."

Second, the researchers discovered that the fast response to rapidly increasing heat depended on a transient receptor potential (TRP) channel. The activation of the cellular temperature sensor, a protein called TRPA1, was not simply a function of the absolute temperature but rather depended on the rate of temperature change. If the temperature increase was rapid, TRPA1 turned on quickly and excited those thermosensory brain neurons. When the temperature increased slowly, TRPA1 was less active.

"There's a feedback mechanism that turns off this protein as quickly as it's turned on," Montell said. "When it's turned on quickly, it stimulates the pathway to cause the writhing response. But when the process occurs slowly, the on and off mechanisms cancel each other out."

The scientists posit that the ability to sense the rate of temperature change is a critical survival mechanism that allows an animal to quickly respond to and escape from a noxious thermal landscape before it is too late.

"We think similar mechanisms occur in other animals -- for example, the frog," Montell said. "It could be that related mechanisms affect temperature-sensitive TRP channels in humans as well. Ultimately, if a common mechanism is conserved across species, our findings may provide insight into how different animals adapt to the rate of temperature change."

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Credit: <a href="http://www.ucsb.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UC Santa Barbara</a>

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Study: Animals can easily adapt to gradually increasing temperatures

In classic experiments on frogs, scientists found that the amphibians'...

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<div>A study published today in Ecology Letters adds to a growing body of work examining the relationship between harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and agricultural runoff. The article focuses on water chemistry, specifically the ratio of dissolved silica to dissolved inorganic nitrogen in 130 lakes connected to watersheds influencing nutrient concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico.</div>
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<div>The research is particularly timely as algae, agriculture and weather combined to create an above-average size "Dead Zone" in the Gulf in 2016. Starting at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the ratio of silica to inorganic nitrogen has shifted dramatically toward nitrogen in the last century in the Gulf of Mexico. Two possible explanations for the change in ratio are that dams and reservoirs may remove silica and that agriculture supplies so much nitrogen that the ratios are forced downward. This study shows that reservoirs do not remove silica whereas nitrogen increases greatly when landscapes are more than 60 percent agriculture.

Excess dissolved nitrogen, in coastal zones like the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie, fuels the growth of algae which in turn precipitates anoxic conditions, or dead zones. Prior to such nutrient loading, the ratio of dissolved silica to dissolved inorganic nitrogen was balanced in a way that allowed diatoms, which supply the oxygen in every fourth breath a person takes, to survive.

"It is easy to change a phytoplankton community just by altering the availability of a few important compounds such as dissolved silica or dissolved inorganic nitrogen," said co-author John Downing, director of the University of Minnesota Sea Grant College Program and the study's principal investigator. "In the Gulf we want to see diatoms, a type of phytoplankton that needs about equal amounts of dissolved silica and dissolved inorganic nitrogen. What we've created is a nitrate-rich condition that favors other, harmful types of phytoplankton."

Downing and colleagues from the University of Washington and Boston University found that increased nitrogen loss from agricultural fields sufficiently explains why the northern Gulf of Mexico waters are plagued by blooms of harmful algae. They also identified methods that may lead to better techniques for managing landscapes and the water they influence.

Downing and colleagues suggest that managing landscapes at watershed levels could significantly improve water quality, especially in wet years. They also point to reservoirs and similar water impoundments as areas where heavy nutrient loads could be diminished without affecting silica concentrations before the water reaches the Gulf of Mexico.

"We need to be vigilant about our land use and water quality," said Downing. "Climate change and increased storminess will likely exacerbate the skewed ratios we found and the extent of harmful blooms in coastal areas if we don't manage agricultural runoff more effectively. Harmful algae blooms cost the U.S. seafood, tourism and health industries over $80 million a year according the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and we know we can do better."</div>
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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.minnesota.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Minnesota</a></div>

New insights into relationship between agriculture and dead zones

A study published today in Ecology Letters adds to a...

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As torrential rain descends on the Pacific Northwest, new research published online in the journal Global Change Biology provides a glimpse of how salmon rivers might fare in a future with larger floods.

The study, led by Wild Salmon Center science director Dr. Matthew Sloat, in collaboration with US Forest Service researchers, examines new climate patterns in southeast Alaska and the effects on flooding and habitat in salmon watersheds. Climate projections for southeast Alaska suggest that the region, home to the largest remaining temperate rain forest in the world, will be even warmer and wetter in the future.

Salmon are absolutely central to the culture, economy, and ecosystems of southeast Alaska. Salmon fishing in the region generates about $1 billion annually. Salmon populations and their habitat are generally in good condition throughout the region, but local communities are concerned about the potential effect of a changing climate on these populations.

Sloat and colleagues looked at the impact future floods could have on salmon spawning. Salmon spawn in streams in the fall and eggs develop through the winter, so increased winter flooding could potentially scour their eggs from the streambed and impact the next generation of fish.

The researchers combined field measurements and model simulations to estimate the potential influence of future flood disturbance on the quality and extent of coho, chum, and pink salmon spawning habitat in over 800 southeast Alaska watersheds.

They found that as much as 16% of the spawning habitat for coho salmon could be lost by the 2080s. But losses were predicted to occur primarily in narrower, steeper streams that provide moderate-quality habitat and, to a lesser extent, in high quality low gradient floodplain habitats. Estimated effects were lower for pink and chum salmon, which spawn almost exclusively in low gradient floodplain streams.

Somewhat surprisingly, the study shows that the overall risk of flood impacts to salmon reproduction in southeast Alaska is probably much lower than was previously thought.

According to Sloat, one key factor in this finding is the relatively pristine condition of the area's rivers and floodplains. Intact floodplains can minimize future impacts to salmon populations because floodplains allow large floods to spread out over valley bottoms. Previous assessments had not accounted for valley and stream channel morphology when considering potential effects of floods.

"Flood plains essentially act as pressure release valves that can dissipate the energy of large floods," says Sloat. "In fact, most salmon prefer to spawn in stretches of river with intact floodplains, which is probably no coincidence because these features of the landscape help protect salmon eggs from flood events."

Sloat says that a clear message from this research project is that maintaining or reconnecting rivers and their floodplains may be critical for increasing the resilience of salmon in the face of a changing climate.

"Our results identify key parts of watersheds that, if protected, will continue to buffer salmon populations from flood disturbance in the future," he says.

The relationships between floodplains, climate change, and salmon habitat are applicable in other regions as well.

"We have been addressing this issue in southeast Alaska but the same tools can be used in the lower 48 and elsewhere," he says. "The real take-home message from this work is that protecting intact rivers, especially areas with functioning floodplains, is one of the key elements for sustaining salmon in the future."

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<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US Forest Service</a> and the <a href="http://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wild Salmon Center</a></div>

How will salmon survive under climate change?

As torrential rain descends on the Pacific Northwest, new research...

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

[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 



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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

[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



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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

[sendtonews key="fxH3eJHEkQ-2010196-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from 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

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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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