Marine,Biodiversity,Above,Healthy,Coral,Reef,In,The,Coral,Triangle

When thinking about fossils, we often picture dinosaurs. But reefs can also hold an ancient history. Tiny fish bones and shark scales also become fossils in these habitats, quietly preserving the story of ancient oceans.



A striking study from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (<a href="https://stri.si.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">STRI</a>) has now revealed how humans disrupted Caribbean reefs in the past.



Scientists analyzed fossilized coral reefs from Panama’s Bocas del Toro and the Dominican Republic. These reefs, exposed and well-preserved, date back 7,000 years. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-humans-changed-reef-fish-communities">Humans changed reef fish communities </h2>



The researchers compared the fossilized reefs with nearby living <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-hidden-hotspot-where-soft-corals-are-thriving/">reefs</a> to reveal how overfishing changed fish communities.



In the ancient reef sediments, the team found thousands of fossilized otoliths (fish ear bones) and dermal denticles (shark scales).



These fossils gave clues to species composition and size. The results show a massive shift in predator-prey dynamics, unlike anything seen before.



One of the most alarming findings was a 75% drop in shark numbers. These top predators once played a key role in maintaining reef balance. As their numbers fell, populations of prey fish surged. They doubled in abundance and increased 17% in size.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-predator-release-effect">The predator release effect</h2>



The study offers hard evidence for the “predator release effect.” Scientists had long predicted this outcome, but they lacked solid prehistoric data to prove it. 



Now, the fossils confirm what models once assumed: removing predators lets prey populations explode.



Meanwhile, fish targeted by humans, like larger groupers and snappers, became 22% smaller. This shrinking trend matches what we observe today. 



Overfishing seems to have pushed these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wild-temperature-swings-boost-coral-reef-resilience/">species</a> toward early maturity and smaller size.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-fish-stay-the-same">Some fish stay the same</h2>



Remains from tiny cryptobenthic reef fishes, which live in coral crevices, told a different story. Their size and abundance remained unchanged over thousands of years.



Despite fishing and upheaval above them, these reef dwellers stayed stable. Their resilience surprised the researchers.



“The stability of these fish shows remarkable resistance to external pressures,” noted the researchers. Even as top predators vanished and fishing intensified, these hidden <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-reef-awareness-day-2025-bringing-corals-back-to-life/">species</a> kept going, unchanged.



To measure these shifts, the scientists examined 807 shark denticles and 5,724 otoliths. They also studied coral branches for bite marks left by damselfish. 



Fossil and modern samples showed that damselfish now bite more often - likely because they face fewer predators.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fish-bones-reveal-big-reef-changes">Fish bones reveal big reef changes</h2>



Otoliths grow in layers like tree rings. This allows scientists to estimate the age and size of fish at time of death. By comparing fossil otoliths with modern ones, researchers could track size changes across millennia.



Dermal denticles, the scale-like structures on shark skin, helped identify shark presence. These tiny features tell a big story: as shark numbers decreased, populations of prey species expanded.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/coral-reefs_fish-otoliths_credit-Erin-Dillon_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/coral-reefs_fish-otoliths_credit-Erin-Dillon_1s.webp" alt="Fish otoliths — the calcium carbonate structures found in fishes' inner ears — from human harvested fish, prey fish (those eaten by predatory fish) and reef-sheltered fish (also known as cryptobentic fish) found in 7000 year-old fossilized Caribbean reefs from Panama and the Dominican Republic. Credit: Erin Dillon" class="wp-image-1976075"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Fish otoliths - the calcium carbonate structures found in fishes' inner ears - from human harvested fish, prey fish (those eaten by predatory fish) and reef-sheltered fish (also known as cryptobentic fish) found in 7000 year-old fossilized Caribbean reefs from Panama and the Dominican Republic. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Erin Dillon</figcaption></figure>



Bite marks from damselfish also gave insights. These aggressive little fish defend territories and leave distinct marks. More bites today means more damselfish - again pointing to the effects of predator loss.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracing-reef-fish-history-with-fossils">Tracing reef fish history with fossils</h2>



This fossil evidence gives scientists a rare and valuable baseline. It shows how Caribbean reef fish communities looked before human fishing began to alter their structure. 



Without such deep-time context, conservation efforts often rely on incomplete or recent data that miss the full picture of ecological change.



Now, researchers and reef managers can clearly see which parts of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-coral-collapse-may-help-save-the-great-barrier-reef/">reef</a> ecosystem shifted due to human influence - and which components, like tiny reef-sheltered fish, remained stable across millennia.



“This study demonstrates the power of the fossil record for future conservation,” the researchers stated. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-term-impacts-of-human-activity">Long-term impacts of human activity</h2>



These 7,000-year-old fossils give us a clearer view of the long-term impacts of human activity on reef food webs, fish sizes, and predator-prey dynamics.



They also help identify which reef species and relationships are most at risk from continued pressure. 



By looking back in time through the fossil record, scientists gain crucial insight to guide better decisions in reef conservation, fishing policies, and biodiversity management today.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/-m5uNoWKIgo
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Discovering and studying prehistoric coral reefs on dry land.</figcaption></figure>



The research was a collaboration among top institutions including the&nbsp;Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the&nbsp;Marine Science Institute at the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Texas, Austin</a>, and the&nbsp;Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at <a href="https://www.asu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arizona State University</a>.



The study is published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2503986122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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Fossils reveal how humans completely changed Caribbean reef ecosystems

When thinking about fossils, we often picture dinosaurs. But reefs can also hold an ancient history. Tiny fish bones and shark scales also become fossils in these habitats, quietly preserving the story of ancient oceans. A striking study from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) has now revealed how humans disrupted Caribbean reefs in the past. Scientists analyzed fossilized coral reefs from Panama’s Bocas del Toro and the Dominican Republic. These reefs, exposed and well-preserved, date back 7,000 years. Humans changed reef fish communities The researchers compared...

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured an image of Hurricane Matthew in the central Caribbean Sea early on Oct. 2.

On Oct. 2, many watches and warnings were in effect as Matthew moves to the northwest. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Jamaica, Haiti, the Cuban provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma, and Las Tunas. A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Cuban province of Camaguey;  Southeastern Bahamas, including the Inaguas, Mayaguana, Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Cay, and Ragged Island and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Dominican Republic from Barahona westward to the border with Haiti. A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the Dominican Republic from Puerto Plata westward to the border with Haiti.

The NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland created an image of Hurricane Matthew. The image showed a small eye surrounded by bands of powerful thunderstorms wrapping around it. The image also revealed powerful thunderstorms in fragmented bands on the western and eastern side of the storm.

At 8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC), the center of Hurricane Matthew was located near latitude 14.1 North, longitude 74.3 West.  Matthew is moving toward the northwest near 5 mph (7 kph).  This general motion is expected to continue today, followed by a turn toward the north tonight.  On the forecast track, the center of Matthew will approach southwestern Haiti and Jamaica on Monday, Oct. 4

NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) said, Matthew's maximum sustained winds were near 150 mph (240 kph) with higher gusts.  Matthew is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.  Some fluctuations in intensity are possible during the next couple of days, but Matthew is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through Monday night.

For updated forecasts, visit the NHC website: <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.nhc.noaa.gov</a>.

Hurricane Matthew barrels through the Caribbean

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured an image of Hurricane Matthew in...

INDIA FESTIVAL

India, which accounts for about 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change Sunday at the United Nations, officials said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet had given its approval Wednesday to ratify the Paris agreement on Oct. 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India's independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, who believed in a minimum carbon footprint.
India's U.N. Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin handed over the official documents on ratification of the Paris agreement to the chief of the U.N. Treaty Section, Santiago Villalpando, in the chamber of the U.N. Economic and Social Council at U.N. headquarters in New York on Sunday, according to India's U.N. Mission.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted that India had kept "its promise" to ratify the deal.
The U.N. welcomed India's move. "India's leadership builds on the continued strong political momentum from Paris for urgent global action on climate change," the U.N. spokesman's office said in a statement.
The Paris agreement will come into force when 55 countries contributing to at least 55 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions ratify it.
Including India, 62 countries have so far deposited their instruments of ratification, accounting for roughly 52 percent of global emissions, according to the U.N.
The Paris agreement was adopted by 185 nations in December. It asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
India has committed that by 2030, at least 40 percent of its electricity will be generated from non-fossil sources. This includes 175 gigawatt renewable energy capacity by 2022.
Manish Bapna, executive vice president and managing director of the World Resources Institute, said that India "has one of the boldest renewable energy targets in the world, making it destined to be a major player in solar and wind markets."
Money will be a big challenge for India, which says it will require over $2.5 trillion to meet all of its targets. It says it will achieve the targets only if other countries give it money and discounts on new technology.
---
Associated Press writer Edith Lederer in New York contributed to this report.
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India ratifies Paris Agreement on climate change

India, which accounts for about 4.5 percent of global greenhouse...

Almost four years after Superstorm Sandy pummeled his neighborhood so badly that Britain's Prince Harry had to stop by for a look at the damage, Paul Jeffrey is ready to sleep soundly again.
His Ortley Beach community in Toms River, New Jersey called itself ground zero of the 2012 storm that washed entire neighborhoods off the map and in some cases, into the bay.
It is among shore towns in a 14-mile stretch of coast that will soon be getting protective sand dunes as part of a $150 million project that has been repeatedly delayed by litigation from some property owners. New Jersey officials solicited bids this week for the project, which Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said should begin in the spring.
"It actually lets people sleep at night," said Jeffrey, president of the Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayers Association. "When these storms come through, people have trouble sleeping. They don't know if they're going to wake up to water pouring through their homes. This is a stress-reliever."
But for homeowners fighting against the plan, it is a nightmare. The state has obtained nearly 350 easements from oceanfront property owners who voluntarily gave permission for the dunes to be built on part of their land. But 149 others are fighting the state's condemnation proceedings court: 83 in Bay Head; 53 in Point Pleasant Beach; nine in Berkeley, and four in Mantoloking.
Some don't want to lose their ground-floor oceanfront views. Others object to the government seizing private property, and still others, including a group in Bay Head that has spent millions of dollars of their own money on a rock wall between their homes and the ocean, say it's simply not needed.
Many of the foes also question the federal government's commitment to constantly replenishing the sand as it washes away every few years for the next half-century. Thom Ammirato, a spokesman for some of the Bay Head objectors, said the dunes won't be finished until after Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration leaves office in 2018, and questioned whether future federal and state governments will keep paying to maintain the project.
"How does Bob Martin expect to pay for this?" Ammirato asked. "Is he just dumping it on the next administration, or does he still believe in the fairy tale that the federal government is going to pay for New Jersey beaches for the next 50 years? Residents along the beach will be making life-altering decisions on the promise made by Martin and Gov. Christie. That could be foolish."
The dunes will stretch from Point Pleasant Beach to Island Beach State Park, which includes areas that were hit the worst by Sandy. Mantoloking was cut in half by the storm, Route 35 - the state's second-busiest north-south coastal highway - was smashed to pieces and virtually every one of the town's 521 buildings was either damaged or destroyed; entire neighborhoods were washed away, including houses that ended up atop a bridge, or in a nearby bay.
And the Ortley Beach section of Toms River still struggles to recover nearly four years later. It was one of the places Britain's Prince Harry saw during a 2013 tour of storm-damaged areas.
Martin commended the homeowners who voluntarily signed their easements, calling them "the real heroes here." Since a state judge ruled in favor of New Jersey's condemnation efforts for the dune plan in March, the state has pressed its efforts in court while negotiating with others, including the owners of the privately owned Jenkinson's Beach in Point Pleasant Beach, one of the state's main summer tourist spots.
---
Follow Wayne Parry at <a href="http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.">http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.</a>
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Many New Jersey residents are fighting the EPA over sand dunes

Almost four years after Superstorm Sandy pummeled his neighborhood so...

Canada geese are loud, aggressive and annoying, but worst of all they poop everywhere - a messy problem vexing cities across the country trying to keep their parks clean and safe.
"Geese and their waste ruin youth sports and picnics, make it unpleasant for the elderly who like to walk in the parks, and the waste gets all over dogs' paws," said Annissa Essaibi George, a Boston city councilor who this week introduced a measure to drive the messy pests from the city's parks, playgrounds, ballfields, golf courses and waterways.
The goose poop can make humans sick and pollute waterways, said the first-term councilor, a mother of four whose family trips to the park have been ruined by goose poop.
Communities large and small across the nation are dealing with the goose problem, said Paul Curtis, an associate professor of wildlife science and management at Cornell University. The National Park Service last year hired a contractor to keep Canada geese off the National Mall. The city of Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell, last year launched a goose control project, he said.
Two years ago, after plastic coyotes didn't do the trick, frustrated officials in Columbus, Ohio, used laser beams and explosives in efforts to keep geese from fouling the banks of the Olentangy River.
The geese causing the problems were thought to be near extinction not so long ago, so they were protected, and the population grew virtually unchecked, said Curtis, who specializes in human/animal conflict.
"We sort of brought this on ourselves," he said.
They are not the migratory geese seen flying south in a V-formation every fall.
The geese that force people to keep their eyes on the ground and dance around little cylinders of poop are called resident geese. They stay year-round, tend to be bigger than migratory geese, live longer and have more young. They eat grass voraciously, and each adult can produce a pound or more of feces per day, Curtis said.
They have few predators and are not hunted as much as migratory geese because they tend to gather in urban areas.
Andrew Helger, owner of Arlington, Massachusetts-based Southern New England Goose Patrol, is on the front lines of the goose problem.
He and his two border collies have been hired by towns, business parks, apartment complexes and golf courses to get rid of geese. The collies, using their herding instincts, scare the birds away but don't harm them.
"I've been doing this seven or eight years now, and every year it gets worse," Helger said.
Essaibi George's measure will be discussed at a future meeting of the City Council's Committee on Parks and Recreation, where experts and members of the public will get a chance to speak.
She said all humane options are on the table. That could include the use of dogs, bright lights and noisemakers, relocation or egg sterilization. The city parks department already uses an egg sterilization program, but it's apparently not enough.
"Our park system is important to me," Essaibi George said. "We invest $250 million a year in our parks. I want to protect that investment."
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Cities across America are dealing with an odd problem: Goose poop

Canada geese are loud, aggressive and annoying, but worst of...

Newly recovered fossils confirm that Drepanosaurus, a prehistoric cross between a chameleon and an anteater, was a small reptile with a fearsome finger. The second digit of its forelimb sported a massive claw.

Scientists analyzed 212-million-year-old Drepanosaurus arm fossils that were discovered at the Hayden Quarry in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. The researchers describe their findings in a paper in the Sept. 29 edition of the journal Current Biology.

Drepanosaurus is neither a dinosaur nor a lizard. It is a one- to two-foot long reptile from an extinct group of animals called drepanosaurs, and shares a common ancestry with lizards, crocodiles, and dinosaurs. The only other known Drepanosaurus fossil was a badly crushed skeleton found in northern Italy more than 30 years ago.

“This animal stretches the bounds of what we think can evolve in the limbs of four-footed animals,” said Adam Pritchard, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale and first author of the study. “Ecologically, Drepanosaurusseems to be a sort of chameleon-anteater hybrid, which is really bizarre for the time. It possesses a totally unique forelimb.”

Four-limbed animals with a backbone are called tetrapods. In nearly all tetrapods, the forearm is made up of two, elongate and parallel bones — the radius and the ulna. These bones connect to a series of much shorter, wrist bones at the base of the hand.

Drepanosaurus, however, has radius and ulna bones that are not parallel. Instead, the ulna is a flat, crescent-shaped bone. Also, the two wrist bones that meet the end of the ulna are long rather than short. They are longer than the radius, in fact.

“The bone contacts suggest that the enlarged claw of Drepanosaurus could have been hooked into insect nests,” Pritchard said. “The entire arm could then have been powerfully retracted to tear open the nest. This motion is very similar to the hook-and-pull digging of living anteaters, which also eat insects.”

Drepanosaurus also had grasping feet and a claw-like structure at the tip of its tail. The finding suggests that tetrapods developed specialized, modern ecological roles more than 200 million years ago.

Pritchard is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Bhart-Anjan Bhullar in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale. Co-authors of the study were Alan Turner of Stony Brook University, Randall Irmis of the University of Utah, Sterling Nesbitt of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Nathan Smith of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation. Other funding was provided by the National Geographic Society Committee for Research &amp; Exploration. Fieldwork was conducted with the permission and support of the Ghost Ranch Conference Center.

--

<a href="http://www.yale.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yale University</a>

Drepanosaurus: A prehistoric cross between a chameleon and an anteater

Newly recovered fossils confirm that Drepanosaurus, a prehistoric cross between...

Scientists working in the mid-Atlantic and south-west Indian Ocean have found evidence of microfibers ingested by deep sea animals including hermit crabs, squat lobsters and sea cucumbers, revealing for the first time the environmental fallout of microplastic pollution.

The UK government recently announced that it is to ban plastic microbeads, commonly found in cosmetics and cleaning materials, by the end of 2017. This followed reports by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee about the environmental damage caused microbeads. The Committee found that a single shower can result in 100,000 plastic particles entering the ocean.

Researchers from the universities of Bristol and Oxford, working on the Royal Research Ship (RRS) James Cook at two sites, have now found evidence of microbeads inside creatures at depths of between 300m and 1800m. This is the first time microplastics – which can enter the sea via the washing of clothes made from synthetic fabrics or from fishing line nets – have been shown to have been ingested by animals at such depth.

The results are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Laura Robinson, Professor of Geochemistry in Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, said: “This result astonished me and is a real reminder that plastic pollution has truly reached the furthest ends of the Earth.”

[caption id="attachment_87800" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-87800" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hermit-crab-zoanthid_1big-UBristol-150x150.png" alt="Hermit crab colonised by zoanthid" width="150" height="150" /> Hermit crab colonised by zoanthid[/caption]

Microplastics are generally defined as particles under 5mm in length and include the microfibres analysed in this study and the microbeads used in cosmetics that will be the subject of the forthcoming Government ban.

Among the plastics found inside deep-sea animals in this research were polyester, nylon and acrylic. Microplastics are roughly the same size as ‘marine snow’ – the shower of organic material that falls from upper waters to the deep ocean and which many deep-sea creatures feed on.

Dr Michelle Taylor of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, and lead author of the study, said: “The main purpose of this research expedition was to collect microplastics from sediments in the deep ocean – and we found lots of them. Given that animals interact with this sediment, such as living on it or eating it, we decided to look inside them to see if there was any evidence of ingestion. What’s particularly alarming is that these microplastics weren’t found in coastal areas but in the deep ocean, thousands of miles away from land-based sources of pollution.”

The animals were collected using a remotely operated underwater vehicle. The study, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), was a collaboration between The University of Oxford, the University of Bristol, the Natural History Museum in London, and Staffordshire University’s Department of Forensic and Crime Science, which made sure the results were robust and the study was free from potential contamination.

Dr Claire Gwinnett, Associate Professor in Forensic and Crime Science at Staffordshire University, said: “Existing forensic approaches for the examination of fibres are tried and tested for their robustness and must stand up to the scrutiny of the courts of law. These techniques were employed in this research in order to effectively reduce and monitor contamination and therefore provide confidence in the fact that the microplastics found were ingested, and not from the laboratory or other external contaminant.

“Using forensic laboratory techniques, we have identified that microplastics are present in ingested material from deep sea creatures. Forensic science is still a fairly new science, but we are delighted that our work and techniques are starting to inform other sciences and important environmental research such as this.”

--

<a href="http://www.bris.ac.uk" target="_blank">University of Bristol</a>

First evidence that deep sea animals are ingesting plastics

Scientists working in the mid-Atlantic and south-west Indian Ocean have...

A team of explorers say they have revealed an underwater cave to be the world's deepest, at 404 meters (1,325 feet) down, near the eastern Czech town of Hranice.
Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, who led the team, told The Associated Press Friday he felt like a "Columbus of the 21th century" to have made the discovery.
Starnawski, 48, determined Tuesday that the flooded limestone Hranicka Propast, or Hranice Abyss, which divers have explored for decades, was at least 404 meters deep. He scuba dived to a narrow slot at 200 meters' depth and let through a remotely operated underwater robot, or ROV, that went to the depth of 404 meters, or the length of its cord, but still did not seem to hit the bottom.
In 2015, Starnawski himself passed through the slot and went to 265 meters' depth without reaching the cave's bottom. After diving that far down, Starnawski had to spend over six hours in a decompression chamber. To explore the cave further, he needed a robot.
Speaking on the phone from his home in Krakow, southern Poland, Starnawski said Tuesday's discovery makes Hranice Abyss the world's deepest known underwater cave, beating the previous record-holder, a flooded sinkhole in Italy called Pozzo del Merro, by 12 meters (39 feet.)
The Czech Speleological Society said it thinks the cave is even deeper and will yield additional records.
On Tuesday, when the robot was 404 meters deep, "it was as deep as its rope could go, but the bottom was still nowhere in sight," the society said in a statement.
Diving in the cave is a challenge because of muddy areas and a water temperature of 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit.) The water's mineral composition also damages equipment and hurts any exposed skin, Starnawski said.
"But that is the only price to be paid for this discovery, and it was worth paying," he said.
On Saturday, he plans to dive to 200 meters again to bring the robot back through the narrow passage. The device was made especially for the expedition and operated by a Polish firm, GRALmarine.
He said National Geographic, which <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/activities/caving-and-canyoneering/deepest-underwater-cave-discovered/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first reported the discovery</a> , covered some of the expedition's cost.
---
This story has been corrected to show that the water temperature in the cave is 15 degrees Celsius, not 7 degrees.
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Explorers find the world's deepest underwater cave

A team of explorers say they have revealed an underwater...

Federal researchers have just returned from an expedition to study the biodiversity and mechanisms of an unusually rich deep sea ecosystem off the coast of Hawaii's Big Island.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday that the abundance of sea life sampled in a particular stretch of water off the Big Island points to a thriving deep-sea habitat, but they aren't exactly sure why. The area, about a mile off the south shore of Hawaii Island, was full of fish including sawtooth eels, dragonfish and many other mysterious deep-sea creatures.
Much of the ocean surrounding Hawaii is among the least productive water in the Pacific, said the expedition's lead researcher Jamison Gove, a NOAA oceanographer.
"Yet we know that Hawaii is this biological hotspot," he said. "So there's kind of this paradox: How can you have so much productivity around Hawaii yet the surrounding ocean waters are literally a barren ocean landscape?"
Part of the mission's purpose was to pinpoint why the islands, and this location in particular, are so rich in marine diversity, Gove said.
They took samples of the area from depths of about 1,500 to 2,000 feet using large trawling nets. They are now assessing those samples in hopes of better understanding potential management and policy needs around the region. They also hope the research will advance understanding of the overall ocean ecosystem, especially the largely unknown and unexplored deep sea areas.
Jack Kittinger, the senior director of the Hawaii program at Conservation International, told the AP that the Kona coast is "such a gift," full of spectacular life. Some areas of the world's oceans simply have more life than others, he said, and a combination of factors, such as currents, water temperature and undersea topography, likely all play a role.
"We really have to do a good job of managing these special, amazing places, and Kona is absolutely one of them," Kittenger said. "If there's one (hotspot) in Kona, there's probably dozens and dozens of them in other places, including in Hawaii. We just haven't stuck anything down there to find them yet."
It will take the researchers up to a year or more to draw their conclusions. But they believe part of the reason for such a rich habitat in this location is the way the seafloor dramatically rises as it reaches the island, bringing nutrients up and creating food for a wide range of sea life.
"What we know about the ocean is less than the surface of the moon," Kittinger added.
The team also studied surface slicks, which are the narrow, glassy channels of water that are visible in the coastal ocean waters. The researchers found that these ribbons of water create "an oasis in the desert" as they pull together juvenile reef fish, baby sea turtles, plankton and even coral larvae. But the slicks, which are created by wind, tide and undersea structure, also gather other material, such as plastic and land debris, that could be hurting the life that exists there.
The federal research team was joined by scientists from Bangor University in North Wales, United Kingdom, and the University of Hawaii.
Another recent expedition by Conservation International and the University of Hawaii was conducted further off the coast of the Big Island at a group of seamounts, active and dormant underwater volcanoes similar to the Hawaiian Islands that never reach the surface. The seamounts, like the area studied off the coast of the Big Island, were also rich in marine diversity, likely for many of the same reasons.
"There will always be the unexpected when you go into the deep ocean," said Conservation International's Greg Stone, the seamount expedition's lead scientist.
---
Find more stories by AP's Caleb Jones at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones</a>Follow Jones on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/CalebAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/CalebAP</a>
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Researchers find thriving deep sea ecosystem near Hawaii

Federal researchers have just returned from an expedition to study...

Wind turbines are known to kill large birds, such as golden eagles, that live nearby. Now there is evidence that birds from up to hundreds of miles away make up a significant portion of the raptors that are killed at these wind energy fields.
Using DNA from tissue and stable isotopes from the feathers of golden eagle carcasses, researchers from Purdue University and the U.S. Geological Survey found that golden eagles killed at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in northern California can come from hundreds of miles away. Golden eagles are a species of conservation concern, so understanding population-level differences and how individuals interact with turbines is key to meeting a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service target of no net loss to their populations.
The APWRA is one of the oldest wind farms in the country and one of the largest in the world originally with around 5,000 turbines. Worldwide, such facilities have been responsible for the deaths of 140,000 to 328,000 birds and 500,000 to 1.6 million bats, raising questions about their effects on population sustainability.
"Eagles tend to use that habitat around the turbines. It's windy there, so they can save energy and soar, and their preferred prey, California ground squirrels, is abundant there," said <a href="https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=dewoody&amp;intDirDeptID=15">J. Andrew DeWoody</a>, a Purdue professor of genetics in the <a href="https://ag.purdue.edu/fnr/Pages/default.aspx">Department of Forestry and Natural Resources</a>. "As they soar, these eagles are often looking straight down, and they fail to see the rapidly moving turbine blades. They get hit by the blades, and carcasses are found on the ground under the turbines."
Collaborator David Nelson, a stable isotope ecologist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, tested the birds' feathers for stable hydrogen isotopes, which can be used to determine where the birds likely grew their feathers. The research team determined that about 75 percent of the 62 birds were from the local population. The remaining 25 percent likely migrated into the area before they were killed.
Isotopes are atoms of an element that have different molecular weights. As precipitation moves inland, water with the heavier form of hydrogen falls out first, which creates predictable patterns of the stable isotopes ratios of precipitation across continents.
"When a bird drinks water or eats animals in a particular place, the hydrogen isotope ratios of precipitation in that area get recorded in its tissues," Nelson said. "You can use these hydrogen ratios in the feathers to determine the approximate place that the bird grew its feathers."
A genetic analysis revealed that golden eagles from the western U.S. have gene pools similar to those killed at the APWRA, which reflects the capacity of these birds to disperse widely.
"The population models we built confirm that the age structure of the eagles killed at Altamont is difficult to replicate without substantial immigration," said co-author Todd Katzner, a wildlife biologist with the USGS. Katzner said these findings suggest that environmental assessments of alternative energy facilities like Altamont Pass should take into consideration that animal populations affected by wind turbines might not be just local.
"If you only consider local birds in an environmental assessment, you're not really evaluating the effect that facility may have on the entire population," Katzner said.
DeWoody said that wind energy generators can receive permits that allow a certain number of unintended bird deaths. But if that number is too large, the companies could be fined. And knowing that a large percentage of the birds killed are from neighboring states could muddy the management waters.
"The golden eagle fatalities at this one site have demonstrated consequences that extend across much of the range of the species across North America," DeWoody said.
The golden eagle population is a concern for several state and federal agencies, DeWoody added. He said future research could include looking at more bird species affected by turbines.
The study was published in Conservation Biology on Wednesday (Sept. 28) and is available at<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12836">http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12836</a>.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife funded this study.

Wind turbines harm birds up to 100 miles away

Wind turbines are known to kill large birds, such as...

The European Union's environment ministers on Friday approved the ratification of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, paving the way for the agreement to take effect in November.
"It's really a historic result," French Environment Minister Segolene Royal told reporters after the ministers agreed unanimously to ratify the deal at talks in Brussels, tweeting "Victory!" in delight.
"It was not was a sure thing," she added, given the different energy requirements and concerns among the EU's 28 member nations.
After years of negotiations, governments agreed in Paris last December to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say are warming the planet.
More than 170 world leaders have signed the deal, but it won't take effect until 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions, have ratified or accepted it through their domestic procedures. Sixty-one parties have already ratified it but they only account for 48 percent of emissions.
The EU's ratification, which is expected to take about a month to complete, would take the Paris Agreement past the 55 percent threshold. The European Parliament is expected to approve it next week.
The EU prides itself on being a leader in the fight against global warming, and it came under heavy criticism after the U.S. and China beat the bloc to enact the accord.
The EU, which accounts for 12 percent of global emissions, originally planned to wait for its member states to approve the deal domestically, but given the slow pace of progress it is moving on their behalf. It is now almost certain the deal can enter into force at next U.N. climate conference, which starts Nov. 7 in Marrakech, Morocco.
The environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the EU's move.
"While the formal ratification by all arms of the EU will take one or two weeks, it makes it almost certain that the historic agreement will enter into force within a year of its adoption in December 2015," the group said.
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Karl Ritter in Stockholm contributed to this report.
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European Union approves ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change

The European Union's environment ministers on Friday approved the ratification...

City-sized maps of terrain and life on the sea-floor have revealed that drifts of ‘marine snow’ on submarine hillsides act as a source of food to fuel a higher biomass of marine life on the hills than on the flatter plains surrounding hills.
This finding comes from research published today in <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep34080" target="_blank">Nature Scientific Reports</a> by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), which may help improve understanding of how features, like hillside slopes and plateaus, add complexity to seafloor habitats and help drive the distribution of marine life.

Marine snow is a mixture of dead algal plankton, plankton poo and other biological debris that sinks through the ocean from the surface in greenish-white ‘fluffy’ clumps, like snow. This snow makes up the majority of the particulate organic matter that most deep-sea life relies on as a food source.

Potential links between the distribution of this marine snow, seafloor terrain and ecology have been difficult to resolve. The NOC’s robot-sub, Autosub6000, used seafloor photographs to create the first landscape-scale map of marine snow patches in addition to a map of the abundance of life on the sea-floor (also known as biomass). These maps are similar to those found in Google Street View. The terrain types were mapped using acoustic sonar sensors on Autosub6000.

To create the photographic map, Autosub6000 was flown about three metres above the sea-floor after being launched from the royal research ship Discovery around the Porcupine Abyssal Plain – a deep ocean observatory in the Northeast Atlantic. It covered about 160 km of photographic survey track overall. Importantly, the marine snow cover was quantified using machine vision, where a computer algorithm automatically detected the location and coverage in digital images of this important food supply.

Comparing these maps of terrain, the snow-like food source and that of the distribution of life on the sea-floor illustrated there was up to a three-fold increase of biomass on elevated terrain. The greater accumulation of marine snow on submarine hills plays an important role in this increase in biomass, which was even found for areas elevated only a few tens of meters above the surrounding plain.

Dr Kirsty Morris from the NOC, the lead author of the study, said “the autonomy and automation technology we used a llowed us to quantify a much larger area in a much quicker time than would have been possible by hand-measuring and counting each clump of marine snow”.

These observations of spatial variation in relation to the terrain features are likely driven in part by changes in ocean bottom current speeds produced by the hilly terrain; this causes changes in the settling and drifting of marine snow.

Co-author, Dr Henry Ruhl from the NOC, said “this is a dramatic improvement in our ability to understand where life can be found underwater, made possible by a step change in the scale and resolution of the maps that Autosub6000 could create.

The finding from this study – that the increased availability of food on deep-sea hills is fuelling increased seafloor biomass – is important because there are approximately 25 million abyssal hills and seamounts – they are thought to be the most common landform on the planet.”

This research was part of the NOC-led collaborative project “Autonomous Ecological Surveying of the Abyss” funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council, involving the universities of Glasgow and Liverpool. It forms part of the NOC’s on-going research into marine ecosystems.

--

<a href="http://noc.ac.uk/" target="_blank">National Oceanography Centre</a>

'Marine snow' fuels life on the ocean floor

City-sized maps of terrain and life on the sea-floor have...

Toxic Algae Bloom

The 2015 'blob' on the West Coast was caused by unusual ocean conditions. A study led by researchers at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration connects the unprecedented West Coast toxic algal bloom of 2015 that closed fisheries from southern California to northern British Columbia to the unusually warm ocean conditions — nicknamed "the blob" — in winter and spring of that year.

"We have toxic algae events that result in shellfish closures off the Washington and Oregon coast every three to five years or so, but none of them have been as large as this one," said lead author Ryan McCabe, a research scientist at the UW's Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, a collaborative center with NOAA. "This one was entirely different, and our results show that it was connected to the unusual ocean conditions."

The study is now online in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
"This paper is significant because it identifies a link between ocean conditions and the magnitude of the toxic bloom in 2015 that resulted in the highest levels of domoic acid contamination in the food web ever recorded for many species," said co-author Kathi Lefebvre, a marine biologist at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. "This is an eye-opener for what the future may hold as ocean conditions continue to warm globally."
The authors found that the 2015 harmful algal bloom, which set records for its spatial extent and the level of toxicity, was dominated by a single species of diatom, Pseudo-nitzschia australis, normally found farther south off California.

Warm water not only allowed this species to survive, it also created an environment favoring its growth. By early 2015 the warm "blob" had moved toward shore and spread all along the West Coast. Warmer water creates less dense surface water that is more likely to stay floating on the surface, where it can become depleted in nutrients.
Previous laboratory studies by co-author William Cochlan of San Francisco State University showed that P. australis can take up nitrogen very quickly from a variety of sources, and appear to outcompete other, nontoxic phytoplankton in nutrient-depleted warm water.

For the new study, Cochlan's lab performed experiments with P. australis from the 2015 bloom. They showed that when these cells experience warmer temperatures and get more nutrients they can double or triple their cell division rates, allowing them to potentially bloom into a large population fairly quickly at sea.

"When springtime shifts in wind direction brought deeper, nutrient-rich water upward near the coast, a small population of P. australis became a big population, which was then washed ashore along the West Coast by late spring storms," said co-author Barbara Hickey, a UW professor of oceanography.
This was especially damaging in a year dominated by P. australis.
"This species is almost always highly toxic," said co-author Raphael Kudela, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "It blooms every spring off California, and there are frequently marine mammal impacts. But to see P. australis up and down the coast like this was unprecedented."

[caption id="attachment_87712" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="wp-image-87712 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/west-coast-blob-algae-bloom-2015_1big_UWash-150x150.png" alt="A map showing impacts of the 2015 West Coast toxic algal bloom. " width="150" height="150" /> A map showing impacts of the 2015 West Coast toxic algal bloom.[/caption]

Toxic algae come in many forms, but off the West Coast the major health and economic threat comes from various Pseudo-nitzschia species which can, under certain conditions, produce domoic acid, which can cause gastrointestinal distress, seizures, memory loss and even death.
Toxins can accumulate in razor clams and mussels, making them unsafe for human consumption. But the effects in the ecosystem are more widespread and long-lasting. Shellfish and anchovies containing toxins can get eaten by marine mammals and birds. If toxic algae settle to the ocean floor, they also can get eaten by bottom-dwelling animals like crabs, which then become unsafe to eat.
In late May 2015, a sea lion was found convulsing on a Washington beach, and domoic acid was identified in its feces.

"That's something we'd never seen before in Washington, and when we heard this news we knew something huge was going on," said co-author Vera Trainer, a research oceanographer at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

That year saw the largest geographic extent of marine mammal impacts ever recorded.

The UW participated in a NOAA-led cruise in June 2015 that sampled water from southern California up to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The new study includes those observations, collected near the end of the Washington bloom, as well as other ongoing beach monitoring and water sampling efforts that filter seawater to see the life it contains.
Researchers at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center examined the water samples under a high-resolution scanning electron microscope to identify the species present.

"As we started getting more and more of the samples that coincided with the peaks in the razor clam toxicity, it was quite clear that P. australis was the dominant species all along the coast," Trainer said.

State resource managers have been collecting shellfish to monitor for toxins for decades. Out on the water, samples collected by the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms Partnership and other efforts have also contributed to a 25-year record of toxic<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=algae&amp;cvid=9fb02275929d4ad2996c404f95d853ac&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS"> algae</a> events.

The new paper compares the history of toxins in razor clams to indices of ocean climate variability, and finds a connection with El Niño and the longer-term <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/noumea-in-the-south-pacific-archipelago-of-new-caledonia/">Pacific</a> Decadal Oscillation.

"There's a significant connection there," McCabe said. "The toxic events also tend to coincide with previously established marine ecosystem shifts. We had not made that connection before, and I think it's fascinating."
Ocean climate cycles could help understand and better predict the emergence of toxic algal blooms. And while the blob was a one-time event that was not due to global warming, it provides a window into what climate change might look like.

"Species like Pseudo-nitzchia are extremely well-poised to take advantage of background warming," McCabe said. "Pseudo-nitzchia are always out there along our coast. The fact that they are almost engineered to take advantage of situations like this — warm temperatures and low nutrients — that is concerning."

He recommends more monitoring of harmful algal blooms, through collecting shellfish and water samples on the coast and offshore to see whether toxins or toxin-producing algae are present, and if so, which species.
"Without stably funded programs like that, we're just going to be blind," McCabe said.

Other co-authors are Richard Thomson at Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans; Frances Gulland at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California; and Nicolaus Adams and Brian Bill at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. The 2015 'blob' on the West Coast was caused by unusual ocean conditions
The research was primarily funded by NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. Additional funding was provided by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and COAST through SFSU.

--

<a href="http://www.washington.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Washington</a>

The 2015 'blob' on the West Coast was caused

The 2015 'blob' on the West Coast was caused by...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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



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



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



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



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



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



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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