The Mediterranean has long been a crossroads of trade and tourism, yet its deepest pocket, the Calypso Deep, seemed beyond the reach of day-to-day pollution. 



That hope ended earlier this year when researchers reported plastic bags, glass shards, and crumpled cans resting 16,770 feet beneath the waves in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionian_Sea" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ionian Sea</a>.



Their survey logged 167 items on the trench floor - 148 confirmed pieces of marine litter and 19 more that almost certainly came from people. 



By any measure, it is one of the densest concentrations of trash ever recorded in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deep-ocean-buffet-big-fish-are-surprisingly-reliant-on-the-twilight-zone/">dark zone</a> of the ocean.



The discovery arrives as global attention continues to focus on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/surprise-study-some-scientists-call-for-halting-ocean-plastic-cleanup-efforts/">plastic waste</a>. 



Videos of snagged sea turtles and bottle-strewn beaches have already ignited public concern, but those images barely hint at what sinks far below the reach of sunlight.



Now evidence from Calypso Deep shows that even the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/calypso" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mediterranean’s farthest recesses</a> are filling up.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-calypso-deep-is-full-of-plastic-waste">Calypso Deep is full of plastic waste</h2>



The team used the submersible <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSV_Limiting_Factor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Limiting Factor</a> to reach the bottom of a kidney-shaped trench roughly 12.4 miles long and 3.1 miles across. 



During a 43-minute trek near the seafloor of the Calypso Deep, cameras captured thousands of objects per square mile, mostly plastic waste discarded by humans.



A single straight-line pass of 2,130 feet was enough to confirm that human trash blankets large stretches of the basin. Most pieces were flexible plastics; glass, metal, and paper rounded out the list. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-trash_Calypso-Deep-region_Mediterranean_study-map_UBarcelona_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-trash_Calypso-Deep-region_Mediterranean_study-map_UBarcelona_1s.webp" alt="(A) General location of the Calypso Deep (box) in the Ionian Sea. PP: Peloponnese Peninsula. (B) Close up and general bathymetry of Calypso Deep (box) and surrounding area. For depth ranges, see color scale. (C) Detailed bathymetry of Calypso Deep with depth contours in meters. The position of the deepest point is indicated by the white dot, while the dive area is indicated by the red dot. Credit: University of Barcelona" class="wp-image-1976573"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(A) General location of the Calypso Deep (box) in the Ionian Sea. PP: Peloponnese Peninsula. (B) Close up and general bathymetry of Calypso Deep (box) and surrounding area. For depth ranges, see color scale. (C) Detailed bathymetry of Calypso Deep with depth contours in meters. The position of the deepest point is indicated by the white dot, while the dive area is indicated by the red dot. Click image to enlarge. Credit: University of Barcelona</figcaption></figure>



Even without animals caught on camera, the piles raise alarms because deep-sea communities recover slowly from disturbance.



Calypso Deep lies about 37 miles west of the Peloponnese coast inside the Hellenic Trench, a zone of steep, stepped walls prone to earthquakes. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plastic-waste-rides-currents">Plastic waste rides currents</h2>



Weak currents, usually under 0.8 inches per second and rarely reaching 7 inches per second, let debris settle instead of sweeping it away.



“It comes from various sources, both terrestrial and marine. It could have arrived by various routes, including long-distance transport by ocean currents or direct dumping,” explains <a href="https://web.ub.edu/en/web/directori/?accio=SEL&amp;id=v759w8s35bo5v72r&amp;lang=ca" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Miquel Canals</a>, professor at the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics at the University of Barcelona.



“Some light waste, such as plastics, comes from the coast and escapes to Calypso Deep, just about 37 miles away. Certain plastics, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-bag-bans-have-drastically-reduced-ocean-pollution/">like bags</a>, drift just above the seabed until they are partially or completely buried or break down into smaller fragments," Canals continued.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-trash_Calypso-Deep-region_Mediterranean_litter-photos_UBarcelona_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-trash_Calypso-Deep-region_Mediterranean_litter-photos_UBarcelona_1s.webp" alt="Examples of identified litter items with category attribution per material type (cf. Table 2). (A) Plastic bag, J3. (B) Plastic heavy-duty sack, J36. (C) Plastic sheet, J67. (D) Plastic food container made of hard plastic, J225. (E) Plastic heavy-duty sack, J36. (F) Plastic bag, J3 (G) Cups and lids of hard plastic, J227. (H) Plastic rope &gt; 1 cm in diameter, J49. (I) Paper cartons/Tetrapak (non-milk), J151. (J) Metal drink can, J175. (K) Glass bottle. Note sediment shadow with side scouring downwards of the bottle J200. (L) Plastic drink bottle. Credit: University of Barcelona" class="wp-image-1976569"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Examples of identified litter items with category attribution per material type. (A) Plastic bag, J3. (B) Plastic heavy-duty sack, J36. (C) Plastic sheet, J67. (D) Plastic food container made of hard plastic, J225. (E) Plastic heavy-duty sack, J36. (F) Plastic bag, J3 (G) Cups and lids of hard plastic, J227. (H) Plastic rope > 1 cm in diameter, J49. (I) Paper cartons/Tetrapak (non-milk), J151. (J) Metal drink can, J175. (K) Glass bottle. Note sediment shadow with side scouring downwards of the bottle J200. (L) Plastic drink bottle. Click image to enlarge. Credit: University of Barcelona</figcaption></figure>



Rivers, wind, and ship traffic all feed the stream of refuse heading offshore. As algae and other organisms cling to floating polymers, the added weight turns buoyant scraps into sinking hazards. The trench’s closed shape then locks the pieces in place.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-calypso-deep-as-a-plastic-graveyard">Calypso Deep as a plastic graveyard</h2>



Surface eddies often corral floating trash into the trench. When these eddies form over the Calypso Trench, some debris slowly falls to the bottom, aided by degradation and ballasting processes that increase its density. 



Surface currents can also carry debris northward from the Adriatic Sea through the Strait of Otranto and from waters off northwestern Greece. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-trash_Calypso-Deep-region_Mediterranean_3D-model_UBarcelona_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-trash_Calypso-Deep-region_Mediterranean_3D-model_UBarcelona_1s.webp" alt="(A) 3D model generated from a subset of video frames by reference to a litter item of known size shown in B. The white dashed line in A represents the camera frames along the Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV) Limiting Factor moving path, whereas the red dashed line represents the frames counted between two items identified on the seabed. (B) Accumulation of litter items in the inner Calypso Deep with a litter item of known size (12 cm) used as a reference for 3D model generation. Credit: University of Barcelona" class="wp-image-1976567"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(A) 3D model generated from a subset of video frames by reference to a litter item of known size shown in B. The white dashed line in A represents the camera frames along the Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV) Limiting Factor moving path, whereas the red dashed line represents the frames counted between two items identified on the seabed. (B) Accumulation of litter items in the inner Calypso Deep with a litter item of known size (12 cm) used as a reference for 3D model generation. Click image to enlarge. Credit: University of Barcelona</figcaption></figure>



The same circular flows that drive marine life cycles are now channeling waste into permanent graveyards at the very bottom of Earth's deepest bodies of water.



<a href="https://web.ub.edu/ca/web/actualitat/w/a-sea-of-rubbish-ocean-floor-landfills-?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earlier work in 2021</a> showed the Strait of Messina carrying the world’s heaviest load of undersea garbage, confirming that the Mediterranean is especially at risk.



“We have also found evidence of boats dumping bags of rubbish, indicated by piles of assorted waste followed by an almost straight furrow," said Canals, expressing his frustration.



That is why the bottom of the Calypso Deep is littered with humans' plastic waste, and also why the problem will do nothing but continue to worsen.



"Unfortunately, when it comes to the Mediterranean, it is fair to say that ‘not a single inch of it is clean.’”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-do-we-go-from-here">Where do we go from here?</h2>



Unlike beaches and coastlines, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/99-percent-of-the-deep-ocean-floor-has-still-never-been-seen-by-humans/">ocean floor</a> remains largely out of sight, making it difficult to build social and political momentum for its conservation. 



Yet what settles at the bottom can influence marine life, food webs, fisheries, climate feedback loops, and even geological stability.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-mediterranean-nearly-lost-all-of-its-water-6-million-years-ago/">The Mediterranean</a> is an enclosed sea, surrounded by humanity, with intense maritime traffic and widespread fishing activity.



“Scientists, communicators, journalists, influencers - everyone with a platform - must work together. The problem is vast, even if it is not directly visible, and we cannot ignore it," Canals implored.



The trail of refuse from shorelines to Calypso Deep underlines a plain truth: plastics and other debris do not vanish once tossed aside. They ride currents, sink in stages, and ultimately collect in the planet’s most secluded hollows. 



The evidence provided by this research should galvanize global efforts - especially in the Mediterranean - to curb dumping, particularly of plastics, in line with the pending <a href="https://www.globalplasticlaws.org/un-global-plastics-treaty" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UN Global Plastics Treaty</a>.



From the North Atlantic’s first recorded litter in 1975 to the record densities documented across the Mediterranean today, the pattern remains the same - human waste reaches everywhere water flows.



We must do more, we must do better, and we must do it now.



-----



Thanks to the leaders of this research team - Miquel Canals of the <a href="https://web.ub.edu/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Barcelona</a>, Georg Hanke of the European Commission’s <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/about/departments-and-executive-agencies/joint-research-centre_en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Joint Research Centre</a>, François Galgani of <a href="https://www.ifremer.fr/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IFREMER</a>, and Victor Vescovo of <a href="https://caladanoceanic.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caladan Oceanic</a>



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X25000852">Marine Pollution Bulletin</a>.



-----



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Scientists make disturbing discovery on the deepest parts of the seafloor: 'Not a single inch of it is clean'

The Mediterranean has long been a crossroads of trade and tourism, yet its deepest pocket, the Calypso Deep, seemed beyond the reach of day-to-day pollution. That hope ended earlier this year when researchers reported plastic bags, glass shards, and crumpled cans resting 16,770 feet beneath the waves in the Ionian Sea. Their survey logged 167 items on the trench floor - 148 confirmed pieces of marine litter and 19 more that almost certainly came from people. By any measure, it is one of the densest concentrations of...

Federal wildlife officials on Thursday made a formal recommendation to list the rusty patched bumble bee as an endangered species because it has disappeared from about 90 percent of its historic range in just the past two decades.
The U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service made the recommendation after the Portland, Oregon-based Xerces Society petitioned the agency on behalf of the bee in 2013 and presented studies showing it was struggling due to a combination of disease, habitat loss, climate change and overuse of pesticides on commercial crops.
If approved, the species would be the first bee listed as endangered in the continental United States, said Rich Hatfield, senior conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.
The group, which advocates for the preservation of pollinator insects such as butterflies and bees, used "citizen scientists" to take counts of the rusty patched bumble bees.
The bees once ranged over 28 states stretching from Minnesota to Maine and into parts of Canada, but are now limited to small and scattered colonies in about a dozen states, including Illinois, Ohio and Minnesota, and one Canadian province, the Fish &amp; Wildlife Service said in a statement Thursday.
Even those populations may have disappeared or been reduced because the last counts were done in 2000, the agency said.
"This is a very difficult thing to track. It's not like honey bees that are out in boxes that people can go out and count so keeping track of them in the wild is very difficult," Hatfield said of the bumble bee's numbers.
The rusty patched bumble bee gets its name for a crescent-shaped, reddish patch on its abdomen. It is one of 4,000 native bee species in North America, Hatfield said.
It is an important pollinator for crops such as cranberries, blueberries and tomatoes and has increasingly been used in commercial farming because it is bigger and stronger than the honey bee. Because of its bigger size, it causes a higher vibration in the pollen-laden anthers of the flowers it is visiting, resulting in more and better fruit harvests, Hatfield said.
But the populations of bumble bees being used to pollinate greenhouse tomatoes, cranberry bogs and blueberry fields have become infected by disease and spread a virulent pathogen to their wild cohorts, causing those colonies to collapse, he said. The phenomenon is similar to the colony collapse that has affected honey bees in recent years, he said.
Honey bees create hives of up to 50,000 individuals and make honey to survive through the winter. Bumble bees live in small colonies of 50 to 500 individuals and don't make honey because they don't live through the winter, Hatfield said.
They rarely sting because they don't have large colonies to protect and don't have a honey stash to defend, he added.
Seven species of yellow faced bee in Hawaii were proposed for listing by the Fish &amp; Wildlife Service last year, but the recommendation has yet to be finalized, Hatfield said.
"I think one of the great things about pollinator conservation in general is that no matter where you live, you can do something about this," Hatfield said. "All these animals need our flowers from spring through fall and if we can help create or restore some habitat that's been lost, we can give bees a chance to recover."
The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed listing for the rusty patched bumble bee and the agency will make a final ruling within a year of Thursday's date, said Georgia Parham, an agency spokeswoman.
-----
Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus">http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus</a>
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The rusty patched bumble bee recommended for endangered list

Federal wildlife officials on Thursday made a formal recommendation to...

Laos agrees to phase out tiger farms. Conservation groups say Laos has promised to phase out tiger farms, which could help to curb the illegal trade in the endangered animals' body parts and protect the depleted population of tigers in Asia.
The groups say Laotian officials made the announcement in <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=south+africa&amp;cvid=fe7ac1cdce4446c1ad4d2f825ecfc2b0&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">South Africa</a> on Friday, one day before the start of a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.
Tiger parts are used in traditional medicine in some <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-could-help-asian-carp-invade-lake-michigan/">Asian</a> countries.
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which works with Laos on tiger protection, is urging other Asian countries with commercial tiger breeding centers to close them.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency says Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese criminal networks are involved in tiger farming and trading. Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast and Thailand to the west and southwest.
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Laos agrees to phase out tiger farms

Laos agrees to phase out tiger farms. Conservation groups say...

Millions of pounds of Dungeness crab are pulled from Pacific Northwest waters each year in a more than century-old ritual for commercial and recreational fishermen.
But as marine waters absorb more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, federal scientists are worried that the ocean's changing chemistry may threaten the sweet-flavored crustaceans.
So scientists with the NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center are exposing tiny crab larvae to acidic seawater in laboratory experiments to understand how ocean acidification might affect one of the West Coast's most lucrative fisheries.
Research published this year found that Dungeness crab eggs and larvae collected from Puget Sound and exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide - which increases ocean acidity - grew more slowly and larvae were more likely to die than those in less corrosive seawater.
Now, researchers are taking the experiments a step further to study how the crabs respond to multiple stressors during various growth stages. They also plan to analyze the sublethal effects: Even if the crabs don't die, are they affected in physiological or other ways by ocean acidification?
"They're so economically and ecologically important here on the West Coast," said Paul McElhany, a research ecologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center north of Seattle, who is leading the current experiments.
Crab larvae are valuable food for small salmon and forage fish like herring that are eaten by salmon. Dungeness crabs are also the top revenue-fetching fishery in Washington and Oregon. In 2014, nearly $200 million worth of crabs were harvested along the West Coast.
Previous research has found that levels of ocean acidification expected within a century are likely to impact red king crab and Tanner crabs, two commercially important species in Alaska. One long-term experiment found that both crab species grew slower in acidified waters and survival decreased.
In Puget Sound, McElhany and Audrey Djunaedi set out in a boat one morning over the summer to retrieve crab larvae from light-catching traps.
Once back in the lab with their catch, Djunaedi and others readied equipment so each crab could be reared separately in different treatment containers.
An intricate complex of tubes, pipes and sensors control the levels of CO2, temperature and oxygen in each container. High carbon dioxide and low oxygen create the most stressful conditions, while low carbon dioxide and high oxygen simulates more benign environments, in addition to other combinations.
The experiments simulate current conditions as well as what can be expected in the future as the seas absorb more carbon dioxide.
"We don't see them outright dying in the experiment, but there are still some physiological cost to being reared in these high CO2, low oxygen conditions," McElhany said. After the crabs molt, they're frozen and researchers will analyze their chemical changes to understand those impacts.
"There's some sort of metabolic cost, there's some sort of physiological cost for them in trying to maintain their internal pH in the presence of this lower pH in the external environment," he added, referring to the measure of acidity in the water.
Because Puget Sound has naturally higher CO2 levels from upwelling - events that bring water higher in carbon dioxide up from the deep ocean - one worry is that adding more human-caused carbon emissions will make conditions even worse.
Not all species of crabs may be affected by ocean acidification in the same way. And the broad range of habitats that Dungeness crabs occupy along the West Coast gives McElhany hope that the crustaceans can do well in some environments even if they don't survive in others.
"It's something we want to watch and follow. The challenge is that by the time we know there's a problem, it's really too late to do much about it - which is why we need to be concerned and proactive now," McElhany added.
Hugh Link, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, said his group is concerned about anything that affects the resources, including the high levels of domoic acid that delayed or temporarily closed Dungeness commercial crabbing last year.
"Nobody wants to catch the last crab. We want to make sure our children and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren can go out fishing and enjoy this resource," he said.
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Ocean acidification is threatening crab populations

Millions of pounds of Dungeness crab are pulled from Pacific...

Private water wells in New England are drying up. When Roxanne Moore got up to make her morning coffee a few weeks ago, she turned on the faucet and got a burst of water - then nothing came out but air.
That was the last time Moore had water at her home in Kingston. The 70-year-old woman has been forced to depend on relatives and friends for water to bathe, cook and clean because her private water well has gone dry amid dry weather in parts of the Northeast.
"The things you take for granted like going in the bathroom to wash your face, you can't do that anymore," said Moore. "You have to have someone do your laundry. You have to leave the house to take baths. I have to make sure I have enough water for the animals. It's not easy."
Moore is among the latest feeling the effects of a drought that experts say is the worst in more than a decade. With the region receiving about half the rain it needs this summer, much of northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire are in an extreme drought.
The <a href="http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/RegionalDroughtMonitor.aspx?northeast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Drought Monitor map</a>, produced by federal agencies and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, shows parts of southwestern Maine and western New York also in extreme drought. Parts of other states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia, are in a drought or abnormally dry conditions. Private water wells in New England are drying up
The dry weather, expected to last through the fall, has caused problems for farmers, led to water restrictions and raised concerns about a shortened fall foliage season so important to New England's tourism business. Now it's hitting wells.
About 2.3 million people, or 20 percent of New England's population, get their water from private wells, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The hardest hit this summer are those like Moore who have shallow, or what are called dug, wells. Deeper underground wells have largely been spared.
"Anybody with a dug well is at risk," said Scott Costa, owner of Comac Pump &amp; Well in Kingston, whose company started getting calls in May about dry wells.
At the bottom of some wells, his employees have seen no water at all.
In East Poultney, Vermont, Parker Water Wells has its two drilling rigs at work every day.
"We're re-drilling a lot of them, going deeper, and it's harder to find water, for sure," said owner Dave Parker, who has been in business for 35 years. "It's definitely drier out than we've seen it in 20 years."
The National Weather Service has gotten reports of privately owned wells in Burrillville, Rhode Island, also drying up.
As the water runs out, several towns and private organizations are lending a hand. The Kingston Fire Department has opened its doors to residents who need water, and Sanborn Regional High School is offering free showers in the evenings.
At Elation Salon in Kingston, owner Laurie Farmer gives free shampoos to people who don't have water - something she has done in past disasters like ice storms.
"There are always reasons why washing your hair can be a hardship whether you lost your well temporally or you have a power outage," Farmer said. "It's easy to sponge bath, but it's not so easy to really wash your hair."
For people whose wells have gone dry, the options are limited. They can either wait things out and hope for a wetter fall or spend upward of $10,000 to hire a company to drill an artesian well, which goes much farther down.
Moore can't afford to drill a new well, so she is doing everything to conserve the water, even putting buckets outside to collect the little rain that's fallen. She also is lobbying for a tougher ban on outdoor water use in Kingston.
"I'm looking ahead to plenty of rain," Moore said. "Hopefully, it will be supplied. ... You just need to have patience and wait."
---
Associated Press writers Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed to this report.
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Private water wells in New England are drying up

Private water wells in New England are drying up. When...

Greenland is losing about 40 trillion pounds more ice a year than scientists had thought, according to a new study that used GPS to help estimate how much is melting.
So instead of losing on average 550 trillion pounds of ice each year between 2003 and 2013, Greenland lost about 590 trillion pounds , said co-author Michael Bevis of Ohio State University in a study published Wednesday in the journal <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a> . That's about a 7.6 percent difference.
The Empire State Building weighs 730 million pounds, so 40 trillion pounds a year is the equivalent to more than 50,000 Empire State Buildings.
"If you look at the last 15 years since we've been having these measurements, it's clearly getting worse, the ice loss," Bevis said. "It is pretty scary."
Overall, though, it is still "a small percentage. I don't think it changes the picture of what's going on," cautioned study co-author Beata Csatho at the University at Buffalo. The extra ice loss adds a tiny amount - one-sixtieth of an inch (0.4 mm) a decade - to global sea level rise, Bevis said. Altogether, Greenland melt adds one fiftieth of an inch - 0.54 mm- a decade, he said.
"Not good news certainly as the values are already larger than we'd had wished, but not a dramatic change in the overall already very alarming pattern we've been seeing over the past couple decades," said Duke University climate scientist Drew Shindell, who wasn't part of the study team.
Most measurements of ice sheet loss in Greenland and Antarctica use a satellite that measures changes in gravity and uses computer simulations to calculate the weight loss of ice. But the trouble is that as ice sheets melt, ground juts up to take its place, both instantly and slowly over centuries. The rocks that rise to replace the heavier ice are counted in the overall ice mass by the satellite and thus the satellites overstate how much ice there is, Bevis said.
The new measurements that use global positioning satellites and other sources compensate for that and are thus more accurate, Bevis said.
Erik Ivins, a senior research scientist at NASA's sea level and ice group who wasn't part of the team, called the study a significant breakthrough.
---
Online: Science Advances: <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">http://advances.sciencemag.org/</a>
---
Follow Seth Borenstein at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a> and his work can be found at<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein</a>
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Greenland is losing ice much faster than previously believed

Greenland is losing about 40 trillion pounds more ice a...

A team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham warns that without significant improvements in technology, global crop yields are likely to fall in the areas currently used for production of the world’s three major cereal crops, forcing production to move to new areas.

With a worldwide population projected to top nine billion in the next 30 years, the amount of food produced globally will need to double. A new study led by researchers from the University of Birmingham shows that much of the land currently used to grow wheat, maize and rice is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

This could lead to a major drop in productivity of these areas by 2050, along with a corresponding increase in potential productivity of many previously-unused areas, pointing to a major shift in the map of global food production.

The study, published today in Nature Communications, uses a new approach combining standard climate change models with maximum land productivity data, to predict how the potential productivity of cropland is likely to change over the next 50-100 years as a result of climate change.

The results show that:

-- Nearly half of all maize produced in the world (43%), and a third of all wheat and rice (33% and 37% respectively), is grown in areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change
-- Croplands in tropical areas, including Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and the Eastern US, are likely to experience the most drastic reductions in their potential to grow these crops
-- Croplands in temperate areas, including western and central Russia and central Canada, are likely to experience an increase in yield potential, leading to many new opportunities for agriculture

While the effects of climate change are usually expected to be greatest in the world’s poorest areas, this study suggests that developed countries may be equally affected.

Efforts to increase food production usually focus on closing the yield gap, i.e. minimising the difference between what could potentially be grown on a given area of land and what is actually harvested. Highly-developed countries already have a very small yield gap, so the negative effects of climate change on potential yield are likely to be felt more acutely in these areas.

‘Our model shows that on many areas of land currently used to grow crops, the potential to improve yields is greatly decreased as a result of the effects of climate change,’ says lead researcher and University of Birmingham academic Dr Tom Pugh.

‘But it raises an interesting opportunity for some countries in temperate areas, where the suitability of climate to grow these major crops is likely to increase over the same time period.’

The political, social and cultural effects of these major changes to the distribution of global cropland would be profound, as currently productive regions become net importers and vice versa.

‘Of course, climate is just one factor when looking at the future of global agricultural practices,’ adds Pugh.

‘Local factors such as soil quality and water availability also have a very important effect on crop yields in real terms. But production of the world’s three major cereal crops needs to keep up with demand, and if we can’t do that by making our existing land more efficient, then the only other option is to increase the amount of land that we use.’

---

<a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Birmingham</a>

Study examines how climate change will impact global crop yields

A team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham...

Great Salt Lake Change Imagery

On the southern shore of Utah's Great Salt Lake, more than 100 boats are sitting high and dry in a parking lot, unable to sail the shallow, drought-stricken sea.
North of the nearly empty marina, salt-loving bacteria thriving in the low water has turned the liquid pink.
The massive lake, key to the state's economy and identity, is skirting record low levels after years of below-average precipitation and record heat. A few dozen lawmakers are taking a road trip Thursday and Friday to see the problems firsthand and learn what they can do to help - besides praying for more rain and snow this winter.


[caption id="attachment_87393" align="alignleft"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-87393" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/great-salt-lake-drought-092016_2big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Great Salt Lake drought, September 2016" width="150" height="150" /> Great Salt Lake drought, September 2016[/caption]
The lake, about 75 miles long (120 kilometers) and 30 miles wide (50 kilometers), is America's largest outside the Great Lakes. Water levels have always fluctuated, but they have been dropping steadily since 2011.
"If this continues ... the ecosystem as a whole is under a pretty significant threat," said Jason Curry, a spokesman for Utah's Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
The state estimates that the Great Salt Lake's ecosystem has a $1.32 billion economic effect. It is a home or major resting place for more than 250 species of birds. Salt and other minerals are mined from the lake and used for fertilizer, melting snow on roadways and other products. Its waters are credited with helping produce dry, powdery snow that attracts skiers worldwide to the nearby mountains.
It's generally three to five times saltier than the ocean, allowing swimmers to float easily. The lake is an unforgiving environment for most creatures, but a prime habitat for brine flies and brine shrimp - tiny, clear crustaceans once sold as "sea monkeys" in the back of comic books, whose eggs are now harvested and sold worldwide as food for other shrimp, crab and fish.
As lake levels drop and the water becomes saltier, even those creatures are threatened.
"Brine shrimp are very resilient to salt but even they have a limit, and we're reaching that limit," said Don Leonard, CEO of the Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative, a group of companies that harvest and sell their eggs.
The low water levels stress the shrimp in a way that produces fewer eggs, Leonard said. Last year, the cooperative had a below-average harvest and had to pay to dredge its harbor just to get its boats on the water.


[caption id="attachment_87392" align="alignleft"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-87392" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/great-salt-lake-drought-092016_1big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Great Salt Lake drought, September 2016" width="150" height="150" /> Great Salt Lake drought, September 2016[/caption]
He declined to say how much it affected the industry but that mentioned that dredging has become a yearly, expensive endeavor to dig out a deeper path for boats.
A visit to Leonard's operation is on lawmakers' itinerary this week, as is Antelope Island, a 15-mile (25-kilometer) state park and the largest of several islands on the lake where visitors now must walk a quarter-mile on the beach to reach the water. Legislators also will stop at another state park where boats are beached near the marina.
Republican state Rep. Mike McKell said lawmakers will be looking at whether Utah should step up efforts to remove an invasive weed that grows in tall, dense clusters and sucks up tens of thousands of acre-feet of water every year.
Legislators approved spending $1.5 million last year to dredge the lake, which will add an additional 6 to 8 feet (1.83 to 2.44 meters) and create a passable channel for boats. Utah hopes to start construction on that project early next year, said Jeremy Shaw, manager of the state parks at the lake.
Lynn de Freitas, executive director of the conservation group Friends of Great Salt Lake, said Utah needs to look at how major water pipeline projects may divert fresh water from rivers that normally flow into the lake.
"It's dire," she said. "We all have a stewardship responsibility for the lake and should honestly and actively own up to that."
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Officials worry over historically low level of the Great Salt Lake

On the southern shore of Utah's Great Salt Lake, more...

An environmental group accused three major television manufacturers Wednesday of misleading consumers and regulators about how much energy their high-definition screens devour by designing them to draw less power during government testing than in ordinary use.
The Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that the TVs made by Samsung, LG Electronics and Vizio saddle households with an extra $120 million in electricity bills each year and generate tons of additional pollution.
The added expense works out to about $10 to $20 per household annually over the anticipated decade-long life of the typical widescreen TV.
Both Samsung and LG Electronics disputed the findings.
"It appears that some major manufacturers have modified their TV designs to get strong energy-use marks during government testing but may not perform as well in consumer homes," said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist and director for the NRDC's center for energy efficiency standards.
The report called to mind elements of the Volkswagen emissions scandal in which the automaker duped U.S. regulators by using sophisticated software to turn on emissions controls when the cars were being tested and turn them off during real-world driving.
Samsung and LG did not break any laws, according to the report, but rather exploited weaknesses in the Department of Energy's system to measure electricity usage.
The behavior "smacks of bad faith," Horowitz said.
The findings were based on an analysis of high-definition TVs with screens spanning at least 55 inches made in 2015 and 2016. The estimates on electricity costs are based on high-definition TVs with screens 32 inches and larger.
The study concluded that Samsung and LG exploited the testing system to get better scores on the yellow "EnergyGuide" labels that appear on sets in stores. Those scores often influence the buying decisions of consumers looking to save money on utility bills.
Samsung and LG sets have a dimming feature that turns off the screens' backlight during the 10-minute video clip used in government tests, according to the study. But that does not typically happen when the sets are being used in homes to watch sports, comedies, dramas and news programming.
The reason the TVs perform differently during tests is because the government relies on an 8-year-old clip that stitches together 260 separate scenes that rapidly change, keeping the backlight off. The NRDC study found scenes lasted longer in a football game, the HBO comedy "Silicon Valley," the AMC drama "Breaking Bad" and a CNN program. The longer scenes resulted in the picture staying brighter, drawing more electricity than in government tests.
LG spokesman John Taylor wrote in an email that the company was "confident that our products are being tested properly and are delivering energy efficiency in real world use."
Samsung said the government-tested ratings are based on the factory settings for the picture - something that most consumers do not change. That is consistent with the report, which assumes that two-thirds of consumers leave those settings in place.
The company did not comment on what happens to energy usage when the settings are changed except to say that consumers should have the option to choose the picture they want.
Vizio did not respond to requests for comment.
The NRDC called on the Department of Energy to test energy usage with a montage of clips mirroring how TV is typically watched in homes. The department said Wednesday that it is reviewing whether it needs to change its testing to keep up with the latest TV technology.
The analysis also found that Samsung, LG and Vizio disable energy-saving features in their TVs when consumers change the factory setting on the picture with a remote control. The report estimated that happens in one-third of all homes.
The energy-saving feature is turned off with little or no warning on the screen, sometimes doubling the amount of electricity consumed, according to the NRDC report. This potential uptick in energy usage is not detected in government testing either.
Other TV sets made by Sony and Philips did not deactivate their power-saving features when changes were made to the default setting for the picture, according to the study.
Add it all up, and the report estimates that total electricity bills during a decade of watching the high-definition TVs will be $1.2 billion higher than the energy ratings imply. The higher energy usage generates an additional 5 million metric tons of carbon pollution, potentially affecting the climate, the report warned.
---
This story has been corrected to change the reference to the yellow power-rating label to "EnergyGuide" instead of "Energy Star."
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Group accuses TV makers of misleading consumers about energy consumption

An environmental group accused three major television manufacturers Wednesday of...

Edgar Serralde Galicia lives in a part of Mexico City known for water: Xochimilco, where picturesque canals have irrigated produce grown on man-made islands and served as transportation routes since the days of the Aztecs.
But like roughly a million residents of the capital, Serralde isn't connected to the city's water system. While most rely on the water trucks that rumble through the city's less-affluent neighborhoods, he tried his hand at collecting rainwater and storing it in rusty barrels. When it did not rain, his family had to go to his parents' house to wash.
"When there's no water, I feel useless because I feel that I can't move my family forward," said Serralde, a lettuce farmer who lives with his wife and their two children. "The truth is we suffered a lot because we are a humble family."
All that changed when he installed a more-advanced rainwater harvesting system that can store six times more water than his barrels. He says such rain-harvesting systems could be a life-changing solution in a rain-heavy megalopolis that is plagued by water shortages.
Serralde began his attempt at collecting water when he had his one-bedroom house built with a slanted roof, hoping to take advantage of the average of 47 inches of rain that falls on Xochimilco each year, a Venice-like district of canals that draws tourists who are rowed in boats called trajineras.
Then with the help of a Mexican nonprofit group, Isla Urbana, Serralde was able to capitalize on the odd construction of his roof to collect and store far more rainwater than he ever imagined. His new system collects, filters and stores water in a 5,000-liter cistern. For those without a pre-slanted roof, Isla Urbana says the rain collector can be installed either on part or all of a roof. The water passes through two filters, has the sediment removed and emerges safe to drink.
Serralde paid less than 20 percent of the system's total cost, with the nonprofit covering the majority through government funds and private donations. Without the assistance, he likely would not have been able to come up with the $900 needed to install the system.
Isla Urbana put in its first system in 2009, and since then has installed over 2,600 in Mexico. In one year, over 15,000 gallons of rainwater can be captured by one system alone when installed on a roof measuring 80 square meters (861 square feet).
Jennifer White, director of community relations at Isla Urbana, sees firsthand how lives are affected by the scarcity of water. She recalled a woman who received a rain-harvesting system and was close to tears telling how happy she was to be able to wash her sheets and curtains on top of bathing daily.
"That's definitely what makes me keep going," White said. "It's so rewarding to see the families and how their lives have changed with the systems."
Serralde uses the collected water to wash himself after what is often a 12-hour workday growing lettuce in Xochimilco's chinampas, or man-made islands. He earns about 16 cents per head of lettuce he sells during the four harvests, resulting in an income of just over $6,500 before he pays any hired hands or fills the tilling machine with gasoline.
Every time rain falls and his reservoir fills, he says he is reminded of his past.
"The necessity makes you really work your imagination," Serralde said, recalling his past efforts to provide his family with water.
Mexico City relies on the Cutzamala system for 30 percent of its water needs, but since it was built in the late 1970s leaks have sprung. The 75-mile pipeline loses about 40 percent of its water before a drop reaches the city. The remaining 70 percent of the city's water comes from aquifers, but professor Luis Zambrano says they are being depleted.
"We are over-exploiting the aquifer 100 percent," said Zambrano, who specializes in ecology of aquatic communities at Mexico's Metropolitan Autonomous University. "So in some moment we will not get any more - some people say that will be in 40 years . we will have a huge problem."
Those who install a rainwater harvesting system will be able to reap nature's benefits for five to eight months during the rainy season, if not longer.
White says she regularly hears complaints from residents not connected to Mexico City's water network about how people in affluent neighborhoods regularly wash their cars and water their gardens.
Pointing to people who have installed rain collectors, White said: "They understand that the water that is in this city is all the water that there is for all the people that are living here, over 20 million people. They've grown up their whole lives with this consciousness about how water is gold, and they're not just going to throw it away so easily or flush it down the toilet."
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Rainwater harvesting is taking off in Mexico

Edgar Serralde Galicia lives in a part of Mexico City...

Researchers are studying a possible hybrid species of iguana found in the Cayman Islands that could pose a new risk to a native variety that officials have declared critically endangered.
Three hatchlings were found on Little Cayman island with a mix of characteristics that normally distinguish the invasive green iguanas and the native Sister Isles rock iguana, the Department of Environment announced Tuesday.
Cross-breeding between green iguanas and rock iguanas had not been considered possible because of genetic differences between the two species but a department statement reporting the discovery called it the "only credible interpretation," in this case.
"Now that it has occurred, perhaps for the first time, this must be considered a new and serious risk for Rock Iguanas throughout the West Indies, wherever the Green Iguanas have invaded," the department said.
A team from Mississippi State University, which caught two of the hatchlings, will be conducting genetic tests to confirm whether they are hybrids.
The hatchlings will be transferred to the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, which will rear them and test their fertility.
The rapidly declining Sister Isles rock iguanas are native to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac islands and similar to the endangered blue iguana of Grand Cayman.
Green iguanas, which are native to Central America, are considered a pest throughout much of the Caribbean and in Florida. In June, the Cayman Islands began a pilot program to use hunters and trained dogs to reduce a species that has become an environmentally destructive pest in the British territory.
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New hybrid iguana species may be a threat in Cayman Islands

Researchers are studying a possible hybrid species of iguana found...

A broad effort to save the greater sage grouse across the West without resorting to the Endangered Species Act is making progress, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Wednesday.
"There's some really good work going on," Jewell said during a visit to a national wildlife refuge outside Denver, where she announced a year ago that the rare bird wouldn't be listed as endangered or protected.
Instead, conservation agencies are relying on cooperation among federal, state and local governments as well as help from oil and gas companies and ranchers.
Endangered Species Act protection would have meant stricter restrictions on oil and gas exploration, grazing and other human activities.
Greater sage grouse live in 11 Western states. About 200,000 to 500,000 remain, down from a peak population of about 16 million.
The Interior Department released a report Wednesday listing steps taken so far to save the birds, whose habitat often overlaps with oil and gas fields and ranches.
The report includes a study by the federal Bureau of Land Management and the University of California-Davis on the effects of the noise of oil and gas exploration and wells on the birds.
Other steps include restoring and protecting sagebrush ecosystems, protecting sage grouse habitat from wildfires and allowing habitat exchanges that let energy companies and others offset damage to sage grouse habitat by financing improvements elsewhere.
The report had few details about restrictions on energy development and ranching, expected to be the most contested component of the conservation plan.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to review how effective the sage grouse efforts are in 2020.
At the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside Denver, Jewell met with more than a dozen officials from federal, state and local governments, conservation groups and private companies.
Paul Ulrich of Jonah Energy told Jewell the sage grouse program has been successful, but he said it is important to balance conservation with the economic benefits of oil and gas development.
Will McDowell of the Environmental Defense Fund praised habitat exchanges as an innovative solution.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.</a> His work can be found at<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.</a>
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New progress in fight to save the greater sage grouse

A broad effort to save the greater sage grouse across...

Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to pay $12 million for environmental damages caused by a pipeline break that spilled 63,000 gallons (238,474 liters) of oil into Montana's Yellowstone River and prompted a national debate over lax pipeline safety rules, officials said Wednesday.
The payment is meant to settle claims from the U.S. and state governments that the crude oil killed fish and wildlife and damaged thousands of acres along an 85-mile (137-kilometer) stretch of the famous river that flows through southern Montana.
Court approval is pending before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby.
Exxon could face further penalties for violations of federal water pollution laws, a matter not addressed in the settlement.
The pipeline break upstream of Billings, Montana's largest city, required a monthslong cleanup.
A U.S. Transportation Department investigation found Exxon workers failed to adequately heed warnings that the 20-year-old pipeline was at risk from flooding.
Gov. Steve Bullock, Attorney General Tim Fox and representatives of the U.S. Justice Department announced the $12 million settlement at the site of the pipeline break in Laurel. The Associated Press obtained details in advance.
"All of us as Montanans lost something when that spill occurred," Bullock said. "This money is to make sure not just that we're compensated but the pelicans are where they should be, the fish are where they should be."
Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Cruden said restoration of the river is not done.
"We're going to work to bring the river back to where it would have been but for that spill event." Cruden said.
Some $4.7 million of the settlement will go to shoreline and channel restoration and improvement, Fox said. Another $3.6 million will be for wildlife habitat restoration, $2.4 million for improving recreational access, $900,000 for restoration planning and $400,000 for improving white pelican breeding areas, he said.
Montana will receive $9.5 million from the settlement, and the federal government will get the remaining $2.5 million.
Exxon previously said it spent $135 million on cleanup and repair work. Separately, the company has paid $2.6 million to resolve federal safety and state pollution violations.
Company spokeswoman Ashley Smith Alemayehu said in a statement that the settlement is "an adequate resolution to restore, rehabilitate and or replace injured natural resources and services to pre-spill conditions."
The accident sparked a national discussion over the adequacy of safety rules for thousands of pipelines crossing beneath rivers, lakes and other waterways. Many of those pipelines were installed decades ago in shallow trenches and can be left exposed after floodwaters scour river bottoms.
In the years since the spill - and at the urging of safety regulators - oil and pipeline companies, including Exxon, have re-installed some lines at greater depths to reduce the risk of accidents.
However, there still are no regulatory mandates for lines to be deeply buried. In January 2015, another shallow pipeline broke and spilled 30,000 gallons (113,559 liters) further downstream along the Yellowstone near the town of Glendive.
Penalties against Exxon for possible federal Clean Water Act violations stemming from the 2011 spill have not yet been levied. An investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency continues, agency spokesman Richard Mylott said.
A consent decree detailing terms of Wednesday's settlement was to be filed in U.S. District Court in Montana. The deal will be finalized pending a 30-day public comment period and court approval.
---
Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap">https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap</a>
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Exxon agrees to Yellowstone River oil spill settlement

Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to pay $12 million for...

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



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.

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"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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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



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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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