The Arctic, known for its icy landscapes and frozen permafrost, is rapidly transforming due to the intensifying effects of climate change. As temperatures rise, a silent but potent threat emerges: methane emissions. Unlike carbon dioxide, methane is not as widely discussed, yet its impact on global warming is profound. 



A new study published in the journal Nature highlights the growing concern over methane emissions in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-climate-will-permanently-change-by-2050-scientists-warn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arctic</a> and their role in creating a feedback loop that could accelerate climate change.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-methane-traps-more-heat">Why methane traps more heat </h2>



Methane isn’t as abundant as carbon dioxide, but it’s far more potent. Over a century, it traps 30 times more heat. 



Xin (Lindsay) Lan, a climate scientist at <a href="https://www.colorado.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CU Boulder</a>’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), sees the urgency.



“Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas that we need to address urgently,” Lan said. “Our study suggests that a significant portion of the recent rise in atmospheric methane originates from natural <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-warming-may-fuel-the-spread-of-diseases-by-unleashing-frozen-viruses/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sources</a> driven by climate change. Our emission reduction efforts need to be more aggressive.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-arctic-methane-levels-climb-steadily">Arctic methane levels climb steadily</h2>



For years, Lan has tracked methane levels at NOAA’s <a href="https://gml.noaa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Monitoring Laboratory</a> in Boulder. Methane emissions have steadily climbed since 2007. 



Scientists had pointed fingers at fossil fuels, responsible for 30% of emissions. Yet, Lan’s research points elsewhere - to tiny, ancient microbes thriving in new, warmer habitats.



Archaea - microbes that have lived for millennia in wetlands, landfills, and the guts of livestock - produce methane. They may be small, but they’re mighty emitters. Microbial emissions now make up nearly half of all global methane output. Yet, pinpointing specific sources remains tricky.



Lan isn’t just watching long-term trends. Seasonal fluctuations in methane also reveal what’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-meltdown-is-accelerating-global-warming-already-changing-earth-in-unimaginable-ways/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">changing</a> underground.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-permafrost-fuels-methane-emissions">Permafrost fuels methane emissions</h2>



Lan’s team dove into decades of data. Methane’s seasonal amplitude - the swing from highest to lowest levels in a year - is shrinking in northern latitudes. 



Why? Wetlands in the Arctic are expanding. Thawing permafrost is unlocking ancient carbon stores, creating perfect conditions for archaea.



Computer models show the Arctic’s wetlands have grown by 25% in the warmer months, feeding the microbes with more decomposing organic matter. The result: more methane.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-feedback-loop-accelerates">The feedback loop accelerates</h2>



When permafrost melts, more carbon enters the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drastic-warming-will-transform-the-arctic-beyond-recognition/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">atmosphere</a>. As temperatures rise, more permafrost melts. A cycle begins. Lan’s research shows that since 2007, this loop has intensified. What was once a trickle of methane is becoming a flood.



“This study, along with a few previous studies, has provided indirect evidence on potential climate feedback on methane emissions, which would be beyond our ability to control directly,” Lan said.



In previous work, Lan's team analyzed connections between today’s methane surge and dramatic warming events that ended past ice ages.



As Arctic ice sheets melted, vast stores of methane escaped, causing rapid temperature increases. That was thousands of years ago. Now, it’s happening again - but faster.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-underestimated-methane-removal">Underestimated methane removal</h2>



Methane doesn’t linger forever. Hydroxyl (OH) radicals act like atmospheric scrubbers, breaking down methane. Lan’s team discovered that since 1984, these radicals have increased by 10%.



Unfortunately, OH levels are hard to measure - they disappear within seconds - scientists had assumed they remained constant. But Lan’s study suggests that the atmosphere has been removing more methane than previously thought.



“Our result showed that we’ve been underestimating how much methane the atmosphere has been removing, which means that there’s actually more methane being emitted than we previously estimated,” Lan said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-arctic-methane-feedback-loop">Arctic methane feedback loop</h2>



If the atmosphere is cleaning itself more efficiently, then methane emissions are higher than we realized. 



That’s a big problem. Emission reduction plans rely on accurate data. If those numbers are off, efforts to control methane may miss the mark.



Lan stresses that understanding methane’s sources is critical. Microbial emissions are surging, but fossil fuels still account for a major chunk of global output. 



And the Arctic’s permafrost holds double the carbon currently in the atmosphere. If warming continues, thawing permafrost could unleash catastrophic carbon releases.



“We need to aggressively cut all greenhouse gas emissions from the sources we can control,” Lan said. “We need to address the feedback loop before reaching that tipping point.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-urgency-amid-uncertainty">Urgency amid uncertainty</h2>



Time is not on our side. Methane’s rise mirrors past warming events, but this time, human activities amplify the effect. 



Lan’s work highlights a critical truth: the Arctic is changing faster than expected, and methane is slipping through the cracks.



Now, the question is - how much longer before the feedback loop spirals beyond control?



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08900-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



-----



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Arctic warming fuels dangerous methane feedback loop

The Arctic, known for its icy landscapes and frozen permafrost, is rapidly transforming due to the intensifying effects of climate change. As temperatures rise, a silent but potent threat emerges: methane emissions. Unlike carbon dioxide, methane is not as widely discussed, yet its impact on global warming is profound. A new study published in the journal Nature highlights the growing concern over methane emissions in the Arctic and their role in creating a feedback loop that could accelerate climate change. Why methane traps more heat Methane isn’t...

Ecologists have estimated that invasive insects cost humanity tens of billions of dollars a year - and are likely to increase under climate change and growing international trade.

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Adelaide</a> in Australia and CNRS and Paris-Sud University in France have compiled the first comprehensive and robust database of the global economic costs of invasive insects -- but say estimates are likely to be greatly under-estimated because of the lack of research into costs in many parts of the world.

Previous estimates have been "spatially incomplete and of questionable quality".

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report a minimum US$70billion a year cost globally to goods and services, and more than US$6.9 billion a year on health costs of invasive insects.

"Most of the damage to human industry occurs in agriculture and forestry -- damage and loss of production but also costs of clean-up, eradication and prevention," says Professor Corey Bradshaw, Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute. "But billions of dollars are spent on the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases like dengue, West Nile virus and chikungunya disease spread by insects that have invaded other countries."

Among the costly insects are the Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus) transported worldwide from eastern Asia and capable of consuming as much as 400 g of wood a day, and the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), of Eurasian origin, which is one of the most destructive pests of hardwood trees.

The researchers report that these costs are probably just "the tip of the largely unseen and unmeasured iceberg" because many regions of the world, such as Africa and South America, have yet to measure and estimate many of these costs.

Correcting for minimal sampling bias could bring total annual global costs of invasive insects as high as US$270 billion.

"Ultimately, the average citizen pays for most of these costs, but we can generally reduce the costliest sorts of damage by investing in better detection and early eradication measures," says Professor Bradshaw.

The researchers say that costs are also likely to increase.

"There are two main phenomena leading to an increased frequency of introductions and potentially expanding distributions of the costliest insect invaders: international trade and global warming," says Dr Franck Courchamp, Senior CNRS Researcher at Systematic Ecology and Evolution Laboratory (CNRS/Paris-Sud University/AgroParisTech).

"In addition to improving guidelines for estimating the full costs of invasive insects, vigilant planning, public-awareness campaigns and community participation could potentially relieve society of billions of dollars of annual expense, and reduce a great deal of human suffering."

Damage from invasive insects will increase from climate change

Ecologists have estimated that invasive insects cost humanity tens of...

<a href="http://www.jcu.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Cook University</a> scientists have discovered yet another advantage for cane toads - the ability to make mating calls that carry over a relatively long distance.

JCU's Benjamin Muller said the active calling space of cane toads is remarkably large.

"This means they are heard by more individuals and can bring in more mates to breed with than some other species," he said.

The JCU team found that male cane toads respond to mating calls up to 120 meters from the source. Most other frog and toad species do not respond beyond a few meters.

"Also surprising was the fact that male toads respond strongly, and from far away, to mating calls from other males - probably because they signal the presence of water and, eventually, the presence of females they can mate with."

But Mr Muller said female cane toads are more picky.

"Female cane toads become uninterested more than 70 meters from the source of the mating call. Probably because they need to hear complex information in the call, such as the size, energy levels and health of potential mates, and from far away, those details are difficult to discern."

The team is carrying out the study to try to eradicate the invasive pest. Mr Muller said the latest research will mean more effective use of audio-based traps that use recorded mating calls as a lure.

"Now we know from how far we can attract the toads we can space the traps for maximum effect. It will mean a more efficient set-up and less wasted effort."

Cane toads make long-distance calls for love

James Cook University scientists have discovered yet another advantage for...

New study is the first large-scale analysis of deadwood -- the woody debris left behind after logging - in Central Africa and its potential impact on global carbon emissions.

Logged forests in Central Africa may contain more than three times as much carbon-emitting woody debris left on the forest floor after logging than previous estimates have suggested, a new <a href="http://www.duke.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Duke University</a>-led study finds.

The researchers measured the debris, known as deadwood, at 47 forest sites in the Central African nation of Gabon.

"We found that selectively logged forests in Gabon contained nearly twice as much deadwood as unlogged forests, and up to 3.8 times more than past estimates indicated," said John R. Poulsen, assistant professor of tropical ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

"That's a huge difference, with broad implications for regional forestry practices and policies, as well as global carbon emissions," he said.

Vast underestimation of deadwood is likely also to have occurred in forests of tropical America as well, the research shows.

Most models currently used for calculating forest carbon assume that deadwood accounts for about 9 percent of all biomass in forests, Poulsen said. But, based on the new findings, "we need to adjust that figure upward for forests in the humid tropics, to around 30 percent for logged forests and 18 percent for unlogged sites."

The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology, is the first large-scale analysis of deadwood in Central Africa and currently the largest such study anywhere in the tropics.

The researchers surveyed the volume of deadwood on forest floors at 19 logged sites and 28 unlogged sites across Gabon. To determine the density of the deadwood found there, they cut apart, measured and weighed each individual piece they encountered along straight sampling lines at 16 of the sites.

"It was pretty labor-intensive, but it gave us real, on-the-ground numbers for quantifying the amount of necromass, or deadwood, at the 47 sites. These new numbers reveal how inaccurately low past estimates, which were not based on field data, have been," said lead author Ben S. Carlson, a 2013 Master of Environmental Management graduate of Duke's Nicholas School who is now a doctoral student at Yale University.

A similar pattern of inaccurately low deadwood estimates was revealed when Carlson and his colleagues critically examined a large number of earlier, small-scale studies conducted throughout the neotropics of the Americas.

"The results really jumped out," said Poulsen. "The implication is that not only is deadwood underestimated in Central Africa but it is most likely underestimated in tropical America and quite possible in all of the tropics."

Most countries in the tropics are required to provide estimates of how much carbon is stored in their forests to qualify for programs run by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that compensate them for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

"Since most of these governments don't have accurate field data, their estimates have been based on default values of forest carbon in other parts of the world, where necromass-to-biomass ratios are much lower," Poulsen explained. "This has likely led to vast underestimates of deadwood stocks in humid tropical forests, especially in selectively logged forests, which account for more than 50 percent of all forested lands in Central Africa."

In other words, he said, "there may be a lot more deadwood on the forest floor, potentially emitting carbon back into the atmosphere, than we previously thought."

Carbon emissions from logged forests are much greater than anticipated

New study is the first large-scale analysis of deadwood --...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">A swarm of nearly 200 small earthquakes that shook Southern California residents in the Salton Sea area last week raised concerns they might trigger a larger earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault. At the same time, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno published their recent discovery of a potentially significant fault that lies along the eastern edge of the Salton Sea.</div>
The presence of the newly mapped Salton Trough Fault, which runs parallel to the San Andreas Fault, could impact current seismic hazard models in the earthquake-prone region that includes the greater Los Angeles area. Mapping of earthquake faults provides important information for earthquake rupture and ground-shaking models, which helps protect lives and reduce property loss from these natural hazards.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study appears in the Oct. 2016 issue of the journal Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

"To aid in accurately assessing seismic hazard and reducing risk in a tectonically active region, it is crucial to correctly identify and locate faults before earthquakes happen," said Valerie Sahakian, a Scripps alumna, and lead author of the study.

The research team used a suite of instruments, including multi-channel seismic data, ocean-bottom seismometers, and light detection and ranging, or lidar, to precisely map the deformation within the various sediment layers in and around the sea's bottom. They imaged the newly identified strike-slip fault within the Salton Sea, just west of the San Andreas Fault.

"The location of the fault in the eastern Salton Sea has made imaging it difficult and there is no associated small seismic events, which is why the fault was not detected earlier," said Scripps geologist Neal Driscoll, the lead principal investigator of the NSF-funded project, and coauthor of the study. "We employed the marine seismic equipment to define the deformation patterns beneath the sea that constrained the location of the fault."

Recent studies have revealed that the region has experienced magnitude-7 earthquakes roughly every 175 to 200 years for the last thousand years. A major rupture on the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault has not occurred in the last 300 years.

"The extended nature of time since the most recent earthquake on the Southern San Andreas has been puzzling to the earth sciences community," said Nevada State Seismologist Graham Kent, a coauthor of the study and former Scripps researcher. "Based on the deformation patterns, this new fault has accommodated some of the strain from the larger San Andreas system, so without having a record of past earthquakes from this new fault, it's really difficult to determine whether this fault interacts with the southern San Andreas Fault at depth or in time."

The findings provide much-needed information on the intricate structure of earthquake faults beneath the sea and what role it may play in the earthquake cycle along the southern end of the San Andreas Fault. Further research will help provide information into how the newly identified fault interacts with the southern San Andreas Fault, which may offer new insights into the more than 300-year period since the most recent earthquake.

"We need further studies to better determine the location and character of this fault, as well as the hazard posed by this structure," said Sahakian, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Science Center. "The patterns of deformation beneath the sea suggest that the newly identified fault has been long-lived and it is important to understand its relationship to the other fault systems in this geologically complicated region."

Scripps researcher Alistair Harding and Nevada Seismological Laboratory seismologist and outreach specialist Annie Kell also contributed to the study.


</div>
<div></div>

New fault discovered in Southern California near the Salton Sea

A swarm of nearly 200 small earthquakes that shook Southern...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">NASA satellite imagery showed that Typhoon Chaba's eye had closed as the storm weakened between Oct. 3 and Oct. 4. NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites passed over the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and captured infrared and visible imagery of the storm with the disappearing eye.</div>
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, infrared data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite was made into a false-colored infrared image of Chaba. That data was captured on Oct. 3 at 12:41 a.m. EDT (04:41 UTC) and showed an eye in the Super Typhoon. Infrared data provide temperatures, and the AIRS image showed powerful storms with very cold cloud top temperatures in excess of minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius).

On Oct. 3 at 10:20 p.m. EDT (Oct. 4 at 02:20 UTC) the MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible-light image of Typhoon Chaba that showed the eye had become cloud-filled. The storm was weakening and in 13 hours the eye could not be seen. By 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Oct. 4, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that Chaba had dropped from super-typhoon to typhoon status.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Oct. 4, Chaba's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 126.6 mph (110 knots/203.7 mm). Chaba's center was near 31.9 degrees north latitude and 126.5 degrees east longitude, about 261 miles (227 nautical miles/420 km) west-southwest of Sasebo, Japan. Chaba was moving to the north at 18.4 mph (16 knots/24.6 kph) and creating very high seas. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) noted that the maximum significant wave height was 36 feet (10.9 meters).

At that time, Chaba's eye was no longer visible. The JTWC noted "animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery depicts a rapidly deteriorating system with no longer any resemblance of an eye."

Southwesterly vertical wind shear started to increase as Chaba gets closer to the westerly jet stream, and increased shear would weaken the system.

Chaba is forecast to turn northeast and move over the Sea of Japan while turning extra-tropical.


</div>
<div></div>

Typhoon Chaba closes its eye

NASA satellite imagery showed that Typhoon Chaba's eye had closed...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">As Hurricane Matthew is thrashing Hispaniola and eastern Cuba Tropical Storm Nicole had formed about 500 miles northeast of Puerto Rico.</div>
An image of newly formed Tropical Storm Nicole in the Atlantic Ocean was taken by NOAA's GOES-East satellite on Oct. 4 at 12:45 p.m. EDT. The imagery showed that the low-level center is near the western edge of the strongest thunderstorms.

As cruise ships maneuver away from Hurricane Matthew, now there's another tropical cyclone to avoid in the western Atlantic Ocean.

National Hurricane Center forecaster Richard Pasch said, "The cloud pattern associated with the low pressure system to the northeast of Puerto Rico has become better organized, with some banding features having developed over the eastern portion of the circulation, and ASCAT data indicates that the circulation is now well-defined."

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Oct. 4 the center of Tropical Storm Nicole was located near 23.8 degrees north latitude and 60.4 degrees west longitude. That's about 525 miles (840 km) northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nicole was moving toward the northwest near 8 mph (13 kph) and a turn toward the north-northwest with a decrease in forward speed is expected over the next couple of days.

Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 kph) with higher gusts. The National Hurricane Center expects little change in strength for the next day or so, followed by gradual weakening.

---

For forecast updates on Nicole, visit the National Hurricane Center page: <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nhc.noaa.gov</a>.


</div>
<div></div>

Tropical Storm Nicole forms 500 miles northeast of Puerto Rico

As Hurricane Matthew is thrashing Hispaniola and eastern Cuba Tropical...

With California in its fifth year of severe drought and many western states experiencing another year of unusually dry conditions, plants are stressed.

Agricultural crops, grasses and garden plants alike can get sick and die when factors such as drought and excess sun force them to work harder to survive.

Now, plants can better tolerate drought and other stressors with the help of natural microbes, <a href="http://www.washington.edu" target="_blank">University of Washington</a> research has found. Specifically, plants that are given a dose of microbes stay green longer and are able to withstand drought conditions by growing more leaves and roots and using less water.

"Plants are less stressed if they have these natural microbes," said senior author Sharon Doty, a UW professor of environmental and forest sciences. "They will help plants deal with environmental challenges, especially with climate change."

The findings were published online in September in the journal Current Plant Biology.

Microbes and their benefits to plants is a burgeoning field, and Doty's lab in the last 15 years has explored many different aspects of this mutual symbiosis. Earlier this year, her team demonstrated that microbes in plants help them grow in otherwise inhospitable environments -- essentially serving as a natural fertilizer.

Naturally providing nutrients and boosting drought resistance could make it easier and more environmentally friendly to grow grain and vegetable crops, fruit and nut trees, and even keep golf courses looking lush and green without using excess amounts of water and chemical fertilizer.

"The more I learn, the more I do research in this field, the more exciting it gets, especially in the applied aspects," said lead author Zareen Khan, a UW research scientist in environmental and forest sciences. "I think this knowledge can be used to develop strategies to face the challenges of climate change."

In this study, the researchers looked at the ability of young poplar trees to tolerate drought conditions over a month-long period, with and without the help of added microbes, called endophytes, bacteria that live inside a plant without causing disease.

Researchers inoculated the young poplar cuttings with a cocktail of microbes isolated from wild poplar and willow trees growing in unfavorable conditions. They poured the mixture at the base of the stems of 10 poplars, while the other 10 cuttings did not receive any microbes. After a short growth period in a greenhouse, all 20 plants were subjected to drought conditions for a month.

It's important to note that all of the poplars had microbes inside -- they are naturally present in every living thing. But when the researchers added microbes from wild poplar and willow, they noticed a benefit to the plants.

Specifically, the poplars that were given the probiotics doubled their root biomass and experienced nearly 30 percent more leaf and stem growth than poplars without the added microbes. When exposed to drought conditions, the poplars with microbes also stayed green with robust leaves and stems, while their counterparts browned and wilted.

"Plants are overall greener and healthier if they have these microbes," Doty said.

The researchers chose poplar trees to demonstrate this beneficial relationship because the fast-growing trees are important for biofuels, or plant-based renewable energy.

"One of the limitations of biofuel is large-scale production," Khan said. "If we can reduce water usage on poplar-tree plantations by adding naturally occurring endophytes, then that could provide huge economic and environmental benefits."

Microbes also help crop plants such as tomatoes, corn and peppers be more tolerant of drought. The researchers are collaborating with an engineering company, Intrinsyx Technologies, to show this same beneficial relationship between microbes and agricultural plants, with crops given the beneficial microbes yielding more vegetables and responding better in dry, hot weather.

"Having microbes that can help plants establish early, grow fast and protect them from some of the stresses in their environment, especially drought, is a big deal," said John Freeman, chief science officer at Intrinsyx who works with Doty's team at the UW. "Using these endophytes in agricultural settings holds a lot of promise for growers and farmers."

The researchers suspect a number of factors are at work. Microbes enable plants to accumulate more nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. The microbes also help plants use water more efficiently, and even produce molecules that promote plant growth and help them stay green.

Gaining more root, stem and leaf mass also makes plants able to store more water.

"Endophytes are helping plants make more roots, so they have more surface area to hang onto water and survive the stress of drought longer," Khan said.

Next steps include better understanding exactly how microbes bolster plants, and finding the best strains to help different plants deal with various stresses.

"Finding the most beneficial ones for the job is the key in using this technology," Khan said.

Microbes help plants survive severe drought

With California in its fifth year of severe drought and...

Every living thing leaves a genetic trail in its wake. As animals, plants and microbes shed cells and produce waste, they drop traces of their DNA everywhere -- in the air, soil and water.

Researchers are now able to capture the cells of animals, sequence their DNA and identify which species were present at a point in time. Think of it as genetic fingerprints that leave a trace of past activity.

New <a href="http://www.washington.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Washington</a> and Northwest Fisheries Science Center research has applied this technique to broadly measure the effects of human activity on the environment. Their paper, appearing this week in the journal PeerJ, used DNA in the waters of Puget Sound to characterize the amount of animal life along highly urbanized shorelines, such as Piper's Creek in Seattle, and in more remote areas with fewer humans, like Vashon Island.

This is believed to be the first study that uses genetic markers to understand the impact urbanization has on the environment -- specifically, whether animal diversity flourishes or suffers.

"It is now possible to use genetic traces in water samples to look at the effects of human activities on ecosystems," said lead author Ryan Kelly, a UW assistant professor of marine and environmental affairs. "It's totally remarkable to me that what appears to be plain water can tell you all of this information about what animals are present."

Using environmental DNA -- or eDNA, for short -- the researchers found that urban shorelines support a denser array of animals than in remote areas. In particular, clams and other mud-dwellers congregate more densely along urban beaches -- a surprising finding, Kelly said.

"Clams and other things that live in mud seem to like living near cities, which is really interesting," Kelly said. "It suggests that maybe humans are subsidizing mudflats, or it may just as well be the converse -- maybe humans tend to live in really protected areas that are the same environment clams happen to like."

While urban beaches in Puget Sound had more abundant fauna, these areas were also more homogenous in the kinds of species that lived there, the researchers found, suggesting a tradeoff between different kinds of diversity between more- and less-urban areas.

Genetic tools allow researchers to paint a representative mosaic of animal life in particular areas without having to physically count critters. In conventional ways of measuring environmental impacts, scientists choose a select number of species and count how many they see before and after development. Or they might survey a small section of shoreline and try to document everything they find.

These methods are inherently time-consuming and probably don't fully capture what is present, Kelly explained.

"We can go out, take a sample of water, and the DNA from thousands of species appears," Kelly said. "This way, we don't have to decide if we are going to count snails or orcas when we look at environmental impacts. Instead, we can just look at what's there."

The researchers collected liters of water from urbanized and remote beaches around Puget Sound, then filtered out cells larger than bacteria. They then extracted DNA from these cells, using a molecular tool to detect animal genes.

After sequencing the DNA, they could identify specific animals present where the water was collected. They detected more than 1,600 unique genetic signatures -- many representing different species -- across Puget Sound, including porpoises, salmon, starfish, barnacles, eagles -- and even humans.

Kelly and his collaborators have spent years testing and refining the process of obtaining eDNA in water. They first worked in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a controlled setting where they could make sure their DNA sampling was actually detecting the creatures living in the water. In subsequent work, they found that an animal's DNA tends to stay within a few hundred feet of where it was initially deposited; it remains in the water for one to two days.

The methods described in this study could be used to evaluate the effects of humans and development in other urban waterways, such as Chesapeake Bay or the Hudson River. Scientists in the Midwest have started using eDNA as a surveillance tool to monitor lakes for invasive Asian carp.

As genetic traces become more reliable, they could take the place of expensive, time-intensive environmental impact statements or environmental monitoring, the researchers said.

"I'm excited because I think if you can make it easier for people to do these sorts of broad scale surveys, they will do it. It's a much more powerful method," Kelly said.

Urban shorelines support more animal life than remote beaches

Every living thing leaves a genetic trail in its wake....

New research published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that the longest and highest-quality records of historical ocean water levels may underestimate the amount of global average sea level rise that occurred during the 20th century. Dr. Philip Thompson, associate director of the University of Hawai'i Sea Level Center in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), led the study.

"It's not that there's something wrong with the instruments or the data," said Thompson, "but for a variety of reasons, sea level does not change at the same pace everywhere at the same time. As it turns out, our best historical sea level records tend to be located where past sea level rise was most likely less than the true global average."

A team of earth scientists from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Old Dominion University, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked together to evaluate how various processes that cause sea level to change differently in different places may have affected past measurements. One particularly important concept is the existence of "ice melt fingerprints", which are global patterns of sea level change caused by deviations in Earth's rotation and local gravity that occur when a large ice mass melts. Each glacier, ice cap, or ice sheet has a unique melt fingerprint that can be determined using NASA's GRACE satellite measurements of Earth's changing gravitational field.

[caption id="attachment_88244" align="alignleft"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-88244" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/fingerprint-of-greenland-ice-melt_1big_UHManoa-150x150.jpg" alt="Fingerprint of Greenland ice melt" width="150" height="150" /> Fingerprint of Greenland ice melt[/caption]

During the 20th century, the dominant sources of global ice melt were in the Northern Hemisphere. The results of this study showed that many of the highest-quality historical water level records are taken from places where the melt fingerprints of Northern Hemisphere sources result in reduced local sea level change compared to the global average. Furthermore, the scientists found that factors capable of enhancing sea level rise at these locations, such as wind or Southern Hemisphere melt, were not likely to have counteracted the impact of fingerprints from Northern Hemisphere ice melt.

"This is really important, because it is possible that certain melt fingerprints or the influence of wind on ocean circulation might cause us to overestimate past sea level rise," said Thompson, "but these results suggest that is not likely and allow us to establish the minimum amount of global sea level rose that could have occurred during the last century."

The investigation concludes that it is highly unlikely that global average sea level rose less than 14 centimeters during the 20th century, while the most likely amount was closer to 17 centimeters.

The full paper can be found here, and more information about sea level change can be found on the University of Hawai'i Sea Level Center website and the NASA sea level change website.
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<a href="http://manoa.hawaii.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The University of Hawaii Sea Level Center (UHSLC) </a>serves multiple roles in support of real-time oceanographic operations as well as climate and oceanographic research.

Managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has sent robotic spacecraft to all the planets in the solar system and created all four rovers successfully delivered to Mars. In addition, the laboratory has active programs in Earth science, space-based astronomy and technology development, and manages NASA's worldwide Deep Space Network.

Historical records may underestimate sea level rise

New research published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that the...

Polar bears, the poster-child for climate change, are among the animals most affected by the seasonal and year-to-year changes in Arctic sea ice, because they rely on this surface for essential activities such as hunting, traveling and breeding.

A new <a href="http://www.washington.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Washington</a> study, with funding and satellite data from NASA, finds a trend toward earlier sea ice melt in the spring and later ice growth in the fall across all 19 polar bear populations, which can negatively impact the feeding and breeding capabilities of the bears. The paper, published Sept. 14 in The Cryosphere, is the first to quantify the sea ice changes in each polar bear subpopulation across the entire Arctic region using metrics that are specifically relevant to polar bear biology.

"This study shows declining sea ice for all subpopulations of polar bears," said co-author Harry Stern, a researcher with the UW's Polar Science Center. "We have used the same metric across all of the polar bear subpopulations in the Arctic so we can compare and contrast, for example, the Hudson Bay region with the Baffin Bay region using the same metric."

The analysis shows that the critical timing of the sea ice break-up and sea ice freeze-up is changing in all areas in a direction that is harmful for polar bears.

Nineteen separate polar bear populations live throughout the Arctic, spending their winters and springs roaming on sea ice and hunting. The bears have evolved mainly to eat seals, which provide necessary fats and nutrients in the harsh Arctic environment. Polar bears can't outswim their prey, so instead they perch on the ice as a platform and ambush seals at breathing holes or break through the ice to access their dens.

"Sea ice really is their platform for life," said co-author Kristin Laidre, a researcher at the UW's Polar Science Center. "They are capable of existing on land for part of the year, but the sea ice is where they obtain their main prey."

The new study draws upon 35 years of satellite data showing sea ice concentration each day in the Arctic. NASA scientists process the data, stored at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

The center also reports each fall the yearly minimum low for Arctic sea ice. This August saw the fourth lowest in the satellite record.

Across all 19 polar bear populations, the researchers found that the total number of ice-covered days declined at the rate of seven to 19 days per decade between 1979 and 2014. Sea ice concentration during the summer months -- an important measure because summertime is when some subpopulations are forced to fast on land -- also declined in all regions, by 1 percent to 9 percent per decade.

The most striking result, researchers said, is the consistent trend across all polar bear regions for an earlier spring ice melt and a later fall freeze-up. Arctic sea ice retreats in the springtime as daylight reappears and temperatures warm. In the fall months the ice sheets build again as temperatures drop.

"These spring and fall transitions bound the period when there is good ice habitat available for bears to feed," Laidre said. "Those periods are also tied to the breeding season when bears find mates, and when females come out of their maternity dens with very small cubs and haven't eaten for months."

The researchers found that on average, spring melting was three to nine days earlier per decade, and fall freeze-up was three to nine days later per decade. That corresponds to a roughly 3 ½ week shift at either end -- and seven weeks of total loss of good sea ice habitat for polar bears -- over the 35 years of Arctic sea ice data.

"We expect that if the trends continue, compared with today, polar bears will experience another six to seven weeks of ice-free periods by mid-century," Stern said.

The trend appears to be linear and isn't accelerating or leveling off, Stern added. The researchers recommend that the National Climate Assessment incorporate the timing of spring ice retreat and fall ice advance as measures of climate change in future reports.

The study's results currently are used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Polar Bear Specialist Group, which completes assessments of polar bears and issues the species' conservation status. Specifically, the group used the sea ice metric as a measure of polar bear habitat in the IUCN Red List assessment of polar bears. The researchers plan to update their findings each year as new ice coverage data are available.

"It's nice to see this work being used in high-level conservation goals," Laidre said.

Polar bears across the Arctic are facing much shorter sea ice seasons

Polar bears, the poster-child for climate change, are among the...

How will we feed our growing population in the face of increasingly extreme climate change? Many experts suggest the answer lies in breeding novel crop varieties that can withstand the increases in drought, heat, and extreme rainfall events predicted in the not-too-distant future. But breeding is only part of the equation, according to new research from the <a href="http://aces.illinois.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Illinois</a> and several collaborating institutions across the Midwest.

"It might not be necessary to put all the stress of climate adaptation and mitigation on new varieties. Instead, if we can manage agroecosystems more appropriately, we can buffer some of the effects of climate instability," says U of I and USDA Agricultural Research Service ecologist Adam Davis.

To find the management tool that could ameliorate the effects of climate instability, Davis and his collaborators had to go beyond the traditional field-scale experiment. "We had to think at a much broader spatial scale," he notes.

The team obtained weather, soil, and yield data from every county in four states--Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania--across a span of 15 years. They then used a new analytical approach, which borrowed from economic concepts, to determine the effects of weather and soil properties on maize yield.

"The things that were most effective at buffering against the different forms of yield instability were soil organic matter and water holding capacity," Davis says. This pattern was true across all years and all study locations.

Greater water holding capacity, which increases with more soil organic matter, gives crops an advantage in hot, dry climates. They can continue to take up water from the soil, which means continued growth and strong yields even in adverse climates.

The good news for farmers is that they may be able to manage for improvements in water holding capacity, giving them a potential tool to support novel maize varieties. "In locations with coarse soils, you can see really quick and gratifying responses to soil organic matter amendments," Davis says.

Davis suggests a number of practices to increase soil organic matter, including using cover crops, avoiding excessive soil disturbance, increasing crop rotation length, and adding composted manures. He points out that cover crops might be the best choice for some farmers.

"Cover crops are a great way for improving soil organic matter; even small amounts of cover crop biomass seem to have soil organic matter benefits," Davis explains. "They also can have weed suppressive benefits, so cover crops may represent a win-win scenario."

No matter which amendment practice farmers choose, he says, "soil organic matter amendments are an important place to start building a cropping system resilient to climate change."

Soil management can save corn production from climate change

How will we feed our growing population in the face...

Typhoon Chaba intensifies into a super typhoon As Typhoon Chaba moved to the western Pacific Ocean south of Okinawa over the past few days wind speeds have increased. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA</a> satellites got a look inside and outside of the storm as it intensified into a super typhoon. Typhoon Chaba intensifies into a super typhoon

The GPM or Global Precipitation Measurement mission core observatory satellite flew directly above Chaba's eye on Oct. 2, 2016 at 4:26 p.m. EDT (2026 UTC). GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments showed that Chaba was dropping extremely heavy precipitation. Some precipitation in the typhoon's small eye wall was measured by GPM's radar falling at a rate of more than 234 mm (9.2 inches) per hour.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/flash-flooding-devastates-maryland/">Maryland</a> GPM's Radar (DPR Ku Band) data were used to create a 3-D shape of precipitation inside typhoon Chaba. Some towering storm tops in Chaba's eye wall were found by DPR to reach to almost 17 km (10.5 miles).

Warm sea surface temperatures and low vertical wind shear are two factors that helped Chaba become a Super Typhoon on Oct. 3. That's when the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a stunning visible image of Super Typhoon Chaba. Chaba was moving through the Philippine Sea when Aqua passed overhead on Oct. 3 at 12:45 a.m. EDT (04:45 UTC). The MODIS image showed a clear eye surrounded by powerful thunderstorms.

By 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) Chaba's maximum sustained winds were near 167 mph (145 knots/268,5 kph).That makes Chaba a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Typhoon-force winds extended 25 nautical miles from the center, but tropical storm-force winds extended 105 miles from the center.

Chaba was just 100 miles south-southwest of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, centered near 20.5 degrees north latitude and 127.0 degrees east longitude. According to the KAB Facebook page on Oct. 3, "The 18th Wing Vice Commander has declared Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness (TCCOR) 1-Emergency for Okinawa, Japan effective (6:12 p.m.) 2212L on Oct. 3."

Chaba was moving to the north-northwest at 14 mph (12 knots/22 kph) and is expected to take a more northerly direction, curving to the northeast by Oct. 4 as it approaches the South Korean island of Jeju in the Korea Strait. Chaba is forecast to move between Jeju Island and the big island of Kyushu, Japan as it heads into the Sea of Japan.

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Typhoon Chaba intensifies into a super typhoon

Typhoon Chaba intensifies into a super typhoon As Typhoon Chaba...

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



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

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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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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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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