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By focusing on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-change-their-roots-to-survive-harsh-conditions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">root systems</a>, researchers aim to create new plants, using an artificial intelligence (AI) tool called SLEAP, that can store more carbon for extended periods.



For this intriguing new study, scientists are leveraging AI to optimize plants' natural ability to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/good-news-plants-are-absorbing-more-human-produced-co2-than-expected/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">draw carbon dioxide</a> out of the atmosphere, a crucial step in combating climate change and limiting global temperature rise. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sleap-game-changing-ai-tool-that-creates-plants">SLEAP: Game-changing AI tool that creates plants</h2>



Talmo Pereira and Professor <a href="https://www.salk.edu/scientist/wolfgang-busch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wolfgang Busch</a> from Salk’s <a href="https://www.salk.edu/harnessing-plants-initiative/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harnessing Plants Initiative</a> have joined forces to apply SLEAP, a sophisticated AI software initially designed for tracking animal movement, to the study of plants. 



Their research introduces a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-022-01426-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new protocol</a> for using SLEAP to analyze plant root phenotypes, such as depth, width, and mass.



"This collaboration is truly a testament to what makes Salk science so special and impactful," says Pereira. "We're not just 'borrowing' from different disciplines -- we're really putting them on equal footing in order to create something greater than the sum of its parts."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-streamlining-plant-analysis-with-ai">Streamlining plant analysis with AI</h2>



Prior to SLEAP, analyzing plant and animal characteristics was a labor-intensive process that slowed scientific progress. 



Researchers had to manually flag parts of images frame-by-frame, part-by-part, and pixel-by-pixel before older AI models could process the data.



SLEAP's unique combination of computer vision and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/machine-learning-could-help-save-mangrove-forests/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deep learning</a> allows researchers to skip this intermediary step, jumping straight from image input to defined plant features. 



This approach significantly reduces analysis time and human error while emphasizing accessibility and ease of use.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sleap-roots-digging-deep-into-plant-biology">sleap-roots: Digging deep into plant biology</h2>



The Salk team developed sleap-roots, a downloadable toolkit for SLEAP that enables the software to process biological traits of root systems, such as depth, mass, and angle of growth. 



The toolkit, available as open-source software, was tested on various plants, including soybeans, rice, canola, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-capture-plant-communication-on-video/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arabidopsis thaliana</a>.



"We created a robust protocol validated in multiple plant types that cuts down on analysis time and human error, while emphasizing accessibility and ease-of-use -- and it required no changes to the actual SLEAP software," says Elizabeth Berrigan, a bioinformatics analyst in Busch's lab.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-deciphering-the-secrets-of-climate-saving-plants">Deciphering the secrets of climate-saving plants</h2>



By connecting phenotypic data, such as a plant's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/measuring-plant-root-health-scanning-leaves-xray-device/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deep root system</a>, with genotype data obtained through genome sequencing efforts, researchers can identify the genes responsible for creating desirable traits. 



This step is crucial in Salk's mission to create plants with AI that hold on to more carbon for longer periods, as these plants will require root systems designed to be deeper and more robust.



"We have already been able to create the most extensive catalogue of plant root system phenotypes to date, which is really accelerating our research to create carbon-capturing plants that fight climate change," says Busch, the Hess Chair in <a href="https://pbio.salk.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Plant Science at Salk</a>. 



"SLEAP has been so easy to apply and use, thanks to Talmo's professional software design, and it's going to be an indispensable tool in my lab moving forward," Busch concluded.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-the-hidden-world-of-plant-root-systems">Understanding the hidden world of plant root systems</h2>



To further clarify, plant root systems are intricate networks of roots that play a crucial role in anchoring plants to the soil, absorbing water and nutrients, and storing essential compounds. 



There are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/maize-plant-genetics-shape-root-health-and-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two main types of root systems</a> exist in plants: taproot systems and fibrous root systems. 



<ul>
<li>Taproot systems feature a single, dominant root that grows vertically downward, with smaller lateral roots branching off from it. </li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Fibrous root systems, on the other hand, consist of numerous small roots that grow outward from the base of the plant, forming a dense network.</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Functions of root systems</h3>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-roots-follow-gravity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Root systems</a> perform several critical functions for plants:



<ul>
<li>Anchoring: Roots secure plants to the soil, providing stability and preventing them from toppling over.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Absorption: Fine root hairs absorb water and dissolved nutrients from the soil, which are then transported to the rest of the plant.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Storage: Some plants, such as carrots and beets, use their roots to store carbohydrates and other essential compounds.</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Factors influencing root growth</h3>



Several factors influence the growth and development of plant root systems:



<ul>
<li>Soil type: Different soil types, such as sandy, loamy, or clay soils, affect root growth and distribution.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Water availability: Plants adapt their root systems in response to water availability, with some species growing deeper roots to access water in times of drought.</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Nutrient availability: The presence or absence of essential nutrients in the soil can impact root growth and architecture.</li>
</ul>



Healthy root systems are essential for overall plant health and productivity. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deep-rooted-crops-can-significantly-improve-soil-carbon-storage/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Well-developed roots</a> enable plants to efficiently absorb water and nutrients, leading to stronger growth and increased resilience to stresses such as drought or disease. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-and-the-future-of-climate-saving-plants">AI and the future of climate-saving plants</h2>



The accessibility and reproducibility of SLEAP and sleap-roots have the potential to revolutionize plant research worldwide. The Salk team has already begun discussions with NASA scientists hoping to utilize the tool to guide <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reducing-air-pollution-could-greatly-boost-carbon-sequestration-by-plants/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">carbon-sequestering plants</a> on Earth and to study plants in space.



In summary, the Salk Institute's pioneering research in plant-based carbon capture, powered by the innovative SLEAP software and sleap-roots toolkit, paves the way for a greener future. 



As scientists continue to refine and expand these tools, they accelerate the development of climate-saving plants with optimized root systems capable of storing more carbon for longer periods. 



The accessibility and reproducibility of SLEAP and sleap-roots invite researchers worldwide to join the fight against climate change, fostering global collaboration and innovation. 



With the Harnessing Plants Initiative at the forefront, Salk scientists are rooting for change, digging deep into plant biology, and branching out to make a lasting impact on our planet's future.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/plantphenomics.0175" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Plant Phenomics</a>.



-----



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AI is creating new plants that can help fight climate change

By focusing on root systems, researchers aim to create new plants, using an artificial intelligence (AI) tool called SLEAP, that can store more carbon for extended periods. For this intriguing new study, scientists are leveraging AI to optimize plants' natural ability to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, a crucial step in combating climate change and limiting global temperature rise. SLEAP: Game-changing AI tool that creates plants Talmo Pereira and Professor Wolfgang Busch from Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative have joined forces to apply SLEAP, a sophisticated AI...

A plant’s biological clock could set the time for crop spraying. Like humans, plants run on an internal clock that helps with growth and adapting to environmental changes. 

In a new study, researchers from the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> have found that taking advantage of a plant’s circadian rhythm could help reduce the amount of herbicide needed for spraying crops. 

The concept is similar to chronotherapy, which factors in a person’s internal clock to determine the optimal time for taking medication. In this study, the researchers say that crop spraying should be applied at certain times, and this schedule should line up with a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-biological-clocks-grow/">plant’s biological clock</a>.

The researchers found that the time of day that crops were treated with glyphosate impacted the death of plant tissue and the slow down in growth. 

Less herbicide was needed at different times of the day. 

“This proof of concept research suggests that, in future, we might be able to refine the use of some chemicals that are used in agriculture by taking advantage of the biological clock in plants,” said Dr. Antony Dodd. the senior author of the paper. “Approaches of this type, combining biotechnology with precision agriculture, can provide economic and environmental benefits.” 

Dodd’s work at the University Of Bristol focuses on the molecular biology of how plant biological clocks can be used to help improve plant growth and performance. 

Finding more sustainable ways to improve crop resistance and performance in a future where food availability is uncertain due to climate change and population growth is crucial. 

Using less herbicide would not only be cost-effective but could also reduce the environmental impacts of harmful pest and weed killers. 

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Dr. Antony Dodd

A plant’s biological clock could set the time for crop spraying

A plant’s biological clock could set the time for crop...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a> have discovered that climate change is disrupting local plant diversity. Increasing numbers of plant species are emerging across regions where the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-europe-wetter/">climate</a> has experienced the most dramatic changes, particularly in colder areas.

In an era that is now officially known as The Anthropocene, human activities have driven substantial declines in biodiversity on a global scale. However, even though the total number of plant species worldwide is in a state of decline, local plant diversity appears to be increasing in some places. 

According to the researchers, rapid changes in rainfall and other climate factors may be allowing new species to thrive. 

"We used a large dataset of over 200 studies in which botanists had counted the number of plant species present in survey plots situated all around the world," explained study lead author Dr. Andrew Suggitt.

"We tested for the influence of climate change alongside other well-known drivers of diversity change, finding that the local differences in climate, and exposure to climate change, were responsible for a substantial part of the change in plant species numbers found in these surveys."

"Our models suggest that typical rates of climate change in cooler regions of the world are driving an increase in local species richness of 5% per decade."

Dr. Suggitt explained that this number is really quite significant if the phenomenon continues for 13 decades or more, especially considering that humans have already been changing the climate for over half a century. He also pointed out that climate change is expected to persist until the end of the century, and possibly beyond. 

"This does not mean that the botanical world gets a clean bill of health. We are living in 'The Anthropocene' epoch, and some plant species have become globally extinct. Many, many more are endangered," said study co-author Professor Chris Thomas.

"However, there is a disconnect between what is happening at that global level and the average change to plant diversity that can be observed in, say, a one meter square plot of ground."

"The effect of climate change may not be as dramatic as a meadow being turned into a car park, or a forest being cut down, but it's a pervasive effect that is already evident over vast areas of the Earth's land surface. For example, warmth-loving bee orchids have started arriving at a much wider variety of sites across the north of England, taking advantage of the changing climate."

"The data we have analyzed tells us that colonists are tending to arrive faster than incumbents disappear, giving rise to slight increases in plant diversity in places where the climate is changing the most."

"The recent global assessment report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services* highlighted worrying declines in plants and animals around the world," added Dr. Suggitt.

"But it also highlighted the sore need for greater clarity over how climate change is shuffling the deck of plant species found in particular locations - especially in under-sampled areas such as the tropics, Africa and Asia."

"We hope our study opens the door to a fuller understanding of how climate change is affecting plant communities, and what this means for the conservation of nature and its contribution to people."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Prof Chris Thomas, University of York

Local plant diversity has been disrupted by climate change, research shows

Researchers at the University of York have discovered that climate...

New research from the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/bifor/index.aspx">Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) at the University of Birmingham</a> shows how large-scale tree death, mainly caused by <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/arctic-wildfires-carbon-dioxide/">fires</a>, harvesting, windstorms, and insect outbreaks, has impacted the world’s carbon stocks. 

"Large patches of dead forest make a dramatic impact on the landscape, be they caused by fires, harvesting, windstorms or insect outbreaks,” said lead author, Dr. Thomas Pugh, of the BIFoR. “But despite having been able to observe these events from space for many years, the contribution that they make to tree mortality and impact on forest carbon storage across the world has been unknown."

To link tree deaths to dwindling carbon stocks, the research team studied satellite observations of forest loss between 2000 and 2014. They then assessed the normal time interval between large disturbance events, such as fires, storms, and insect plagues, across the world's forests. Using a model to calculate the impact of these events on tree death, the team found that about 12% of all tree deaths were caused by these types of disturbances.

What’s more is that they found that if even the smallest change in frequency of large-scale disturbances took hold, that change could have a significant impact on forest carbon stocks in about 44% of the world’s forests.

This research is published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0427-2">Nature Geoscience</a>.

"Now we can see much more clearly where large disturbances play major roles and where forest carbon stocks are sensitive to changes in disturbance frequency,” Dr. Pugh said. "This year's large fires across the Arctic may just be an anomaly, or they could be a sign that disturbances in that region are becoming more frequent relative to the historical norm.” 

“If that's the case, we can expect large amounts of carbon to be released from these forests over the coming century and perhaps wholesale changes in the mix of vegetation that make up the forests."

Next, the team will focus on what causes the other 88% of world tree death, and add those findings to this current research.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Large-scale tree death has major impact on carbon storage

New research from the Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) at...

As record heat waves and ice melt continue around the globe, dozens of ideas have been put forward to curb carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. But those suggesting more bioenergy projects are making a mistake, a new <a href="https://www.un.org/en/">United Nations</a> report says.

A large-scale expansion of the bioenergy industry could cause desertification, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/biodiversity-suffer-bioenergy-crops/">reduce biodiversity</a>, increase water scarcity – in short, it could further endanger the planet, the report from the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/about/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> said. More bioenergy projects could also cause food prices to rise, for good measure.

It’s not the biofuels that are the problem, according to the report. It’s the amount of land needed to produce them.

“Land plays an important role in the climate system,” Dr. Jim Skea, co-chairman of IPCC Working Group III, said in a press release. “Agriculture, forestry and other types of land use account for 23% of human greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time natural land processes absorb carbon dioxide equivalent to almost a third of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry.”

Better management of the land already in use can help rein in climate change better than clearing more for bioenergy projects, the IPCC scientists said. 

Land has the potential to both add to greenhouse gas emissions and act as a sink for carbon, depending on how it’s used. Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, there’s no way to devote enough land to bioenergy projects to counterbalance emissions – at least, not without badly damaging the environment and limiting food production. 

The report reinforces what previous studies have discovered: <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/changes-land-diet-emissions/">better land management</a> and shifting the diet of developed nations away from meat would be more effective ways to tackle climate change than drastically expanding the biofuel industry.

“Some dietary choices require more land and water, and cause more emissions of heat-trapping gases than others,” said Dr. Debra Roberts, co-chairwoman of IPCC Working Group II. “Balanced diets  featuring plant-based foods, such as coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, and animal-sourced food produced sustainably in low greenhouse gas emission systems, present major opportunities for adaptation to and limiting climate change.” 

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Paid for by Earth.com

UN: Bioenergy projects won't solve climate change

As record heat waves and ice melt continue around the...

The oldest fossil forest has been discovered in Asia. A team of researchers from China’s <a href="http://english.pku.edu.cn/">Peking University</a> and <a href="http://lyu.admissions.cn/">Linyi University</a> discovered a 250,000-square-meter stretch of fossilized forest dating to the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/ancient-insects-biofuel/">Devonian period</a>, which was 419 million to 359 million years ago. 

The forest, located near Xinhang in China's Anhui province, is the earliest example of a forest in Asia ever found.

The fossilized forest is made up of lycopsid trees, which resemble modern-day palms with bare trunk and leafy crowns. The researchers state that these trees were found in coastal regions that were prone to flood, and grew between 3.2 and 7.7 meters tall. Later, in the Carboniferous period, which directly followed the Devonian, these lycopsid trees grew to giant sizes, and their fossils are actually much of the coal we mine today.

"The large density as well as the small size of the trees could make Xinhang forest very similar to a sugarcane field, although the plants in Xinhang forest are distributed in patches," said co-first author Deming Wang, a professor in the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University. "It might also be that the Xinhang lycopsid forest was much like the mangroves along the coast, since they occur in a similar environment and play comparable ecologic roles."

[caption id="attachment_1876295" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/lycopsid.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1876295" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/lycopsid.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="797" /></a> Reconstructions of juvenile and adult lycopsid trees plant. Image Credit: Zhenzhen Deng[/caption]

Wang and co-first author Min Qin of Linyi University first discovered the fossilized trees in 2016. Only two other Devonian fossils have ever been recovered thus far — one was found in the United States, and the other was located in Norway.

The newly-discovered fossilized trees are actually visible in the walls of the Jianchuan and Yongchuan clay quarries, both below and above a four-meter-thick sandstone bed. 

"Jianchuan quarry has been mined for several years and there were always some excavators working at the section. The excavations in quarries benefit our finding and research,” Wang said via the study’s paper, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>. “When the excavators stop or left, we come close to the highwalls and look for exposed erect lycopsid trunks.”

“The continuous finding of new in-situ tree fossils is fantastic,” Wang concluded. “As an old saying goes: the best one is always the next one."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The oldest fossil forest has been discovered in Asia

The oldest fossil forest has been discovered in Asia. A...

The extinction crisis looks apocalyptic — but there are solutions. This spring, a UN study put a startling number to the ongoing extinction crisis: 1 million species gone if current trends continue. The stunning prediction revealed how much humanity <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/1-million-species-gone-what-humanity-stands-to-lose/">stands to lose</a> in the so-called <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-hunted-6th-extinction/">6th mass extinction</a>. But the report offered hope, too: If we think and act big, humanity has the tools to avert catastrophe.

By reigning in overconsumption, enacting sustainable practices on farms and in the oceans, slowing population growth, seriously tackling climate change, and adopting other approaches, humanity can save millions of species — and ourselves.

"We have the power, we have the knowledge … we have the technology to do a better job," said Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist at Mexico's <a href="https://www.unah.edu.hn/">Universidad Nacional Autónoma</a> and a visiting professor at <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford</a>. And, he said, "paradoxically, by saving all these plants and animals, we are basically saving ourselves from a really apocalyptic future."

Such an act of species- and self-preservation, however, won't come easy. It will require "transformative change … a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors," said Robert Watson, chair of  the UN's <a href="https://www.ipbes.net/">Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services</a> (IPBES) committee, which authored the 1-million-species <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/1-million-species-extinction/">report</a>.

Here's what's needed:

Save habitat, save species

The biggest danger the planet's species face, said Michigan State University biologist Nick Haddad, is the threat of homelessness. 

"The greatest cause of species loss is habitat loss," he said. "So any efforts to protect habitat that remains or to promote regeneration of habitat is the No. 1 way that we can benefit species in general."

In this area, some progress has been made, with the expansion of protected areas — though much more is needed, said <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a> biologist Stuart Pimm. 

"In the last 30 years, we've massively expanded the areas in the planet that we have protected … in national parks, for example," he said. 

However, the UN report <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yd8l2v0u4jqptp3/AACpraYjOYWpTxAFv5H-2vrKa/1%20Global%20Assessment%20Summary%20for%20Policymakers?dl=0&amp;preview=Summary+for+Policymakers+IPBES+Global+Assessment.pdf&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">notes</a>, protected areas currently cover only 15% of the Earth's land and freshwater areas and 7% of oceans. Meanwhile, an oft-cited goal from biologist Edward O. Wilson calls for setting aside half of the Earth's habitat for wild species. More-targeted protection could be largely effective, though —and easier to enact, said Haddad. 

"The best way to get closer to half the Earth protected is to protect the places that people care about and get benefit from," Haddad said. The extinction crisis looks apocalyptic — but there are solutions

For instance, so-called landscape corridors connect habitats, giving wildlife avenues to move and expand their populations. But these routes also conserve forests and habitats along waterways, providing water-quality benefits that people greatly value, Haddad said.

Habitat-preservation efforts, Pimm said, should target those species that rely on small geographic areas and thus face the greatest risks of extinction.

"Worldwide, we're actually doing a pretty good job of protecting the species with the smallest ranges, by setting up, as it were, boutique national parks," he said. "If you put protected areas in the right place, you can really do a lot to slow the rate of extinction."

Sustainable farming, fishing and more

Protected areas can't do all the work of habitat preservation, though; humanity also has to address the massive conversion of wild habitat for cropland and livestock grazing. As the human population balloons to a <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html">projected</a> 9.8 billion by 2050, food needs will push agricultural activities further into tropical forests and other vital habitats, the UN report noted.

The study declared the need for widespread changes to farming, including the adoption of sustainable practices, like water conservation on farms. This could also mean reducing the broad <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-4500-1_2">use of pesticides</a>, which claim scores of pollinators in the ongoing "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html">insect apocalypse</a>." Similarly, sustainable management of fisheries, waterways and other resources will aid species preservation, the report said, by, for example, dampening runoff pollution.

With changes to farming practices, society can meet the food needs of the global population and preserve habitat — all without demanding sacrifices in living standards, said Stephen Polasky, a coordinating lead author on the UN report and a <a href="https://umn.edu/">University of Minnesota</a> ecologist.

"You can grow food, even to meet a larger population, on the current land," he said. "You don't have to expand agriculture into the Amazon." Doing so calls for more-efficient farming practices, including pairing crops with the sites most appropriate to them, Polasky said. The extinction crisis looks apocalyptic — but there are solutions

Consumption and population

The food system's extinction toll would drop, too, if people wasted less food, said Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford biologist. Forty percent of the U.S. food supply never gets eaten, among the highest rates anywhere, <a href="https://www.foodlogistics.com/sustainability/article/12338285/sustainability-in-the-food-supply-chain">Food Logistics</a> reported. And those uneaten meals make up just part of a bigger piece of the extinction problem: overconsumption, by more and more people, Ehrlich said. 

In fact, addressing consumption by all those folks, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn">Ehrlich told The Guardian</a>, is the most important part of the extinction question. 

"The basic problem is too many rich people consuming too much," he told <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a>. Taking on consumption levels could mean eating less meat and moving away from fossil fuels, he said. On the individual level, people need to realize that they don't need a new computer every year or 20 pairs of shoes, Ceballos said. 

As consumption levels also largely depend on the number of people consuming, Ehrlich and Ceballos both point to population reduction as a fundamental (if controversial) piece of the extinction solution. The first step in shrinking population, they said, is granting full rights and greater employment and education opportunities to women globally, which would lower fertility rates.

"You could have a long-term livable planet with about a billion people," Ehrlich said. The UN report calls for "low-to-moderate" population growth. 

Climate, the law and species loss

The extinction and climate crises are intertwined, with warming and greenhouse gases threatening species by shifting livable habitats, acidifying ocean habitats and more. Solving climate will require international cooperation and transformative agreements, with the Paris Agreement a useful first step, Ceballos said. So, the extinction solution must also involve climate approaches like global carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems, the UN report emphasized.

Similarly, extinction calls for legal and regulatory approaches to illegal timber and wildlife harvesting, along with quotas for overharvested fisheries, the report said. Regulations and conservation efforts should also aim to eliminate invasive species, the report added. 

The importance of laws and regulations in saving the planet's species underscores the need for people to get politically active, Ceballos said.

"We have to get more involved," he said. "We need to become actors. We need to look at this is the most important thing we can do for us and for our children."

--

By <a href="mailto:michael.dhar@gmail.com">Michael Dhar</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Sepp photography

The extinction crisis looks apocalyptic — but there are solutions

The extinction crisis looks apocalyptic — but there are solutions....

New research sheds light on early plant-fungal relationships. A new study from the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> may completely change how some parts of the fossil record are interpreted, particularly a group of early terrestrial plants. While investigating the environment that some fossil plants lived in, paleobotanist Az Klymiuk discovered that fungi have a harder time growing in cattail roots that are underwater. 

"I was studying fossil plants that are 48 million years old. In these fossils, we can see the plant cells and everything in them, including fungi. In describing these fossil fungi, I realized we actually don't know much about fungi that are living in wetland plants today," said Klymiuk. "There's been very little work done, next to nothing in terms of their ecology and distribution."

Plants must have <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/algae-fungi-first-terrestrial-plants/">fungi</a> living in their roots to create the energy they need to survive. On the other hand, plants also host a group of fungi that play mysterious roles called dark septate endophytes. New research sheds light on early plant-fungal relationships

Klymiuk set out to investigate the ecological purpose of these fungi, and was also interested in understanding why some fossil plants had an abundance of root fungi while others had very few. Because these fossil plants originated in swampy wetlands millions of years ago, the study was focused on cattails, which can be found in both ancient and modern wetland plants. 

Klymiuk collected cattail roots from several wetlands, collecting samples from the shoreline all the way to the deepest points they could be found. In the lab, the team examined the roots under a microscope and compared the fungi in cattail roots that had been growing at various depths underwater. 

The study revealed that, at least in these cattails, the fungi did not respond well to inundation. Whether they were growing in inches or feet of water, the cattails were found to contain very little fungi in their roots. On dry land, however, cattails had plenty of fungi living in their roots.

"It turns out that any degree of flooding whatsoever massively suppresses the amount of fungi in plant roots," said Klymiuk. "This gives us a new way to understand what we're seeing in the fossils."

"I have some roots where fungi are completely absent. I can look and look and look and there's nothing there. I have other roots that are just loaded, packed. To me, that indicates that we're dealing with different levels of inundation. I feel pretty confident saying that when we find a lot of fungus in a plant root, that root was probably not inundated during its life."

The discovery will provide scientists with a new tool for understanding prehistoric ecosystems. The findings also suggest that some of the fossil record of plant-fungal interactions may need to be reconsidered. 

"There's been this pervasive narrative, all across biology," said Klymiuk. "The basic idea is that plants needed fungi to get out of water, to get onto land. The oldest preserved community of land plants, the 407 million-year-old Rhynie Chert, is often cited as fossil evidence for this." 

"This community of land plants has mostly been interpreted as a wetland assemblage associated with hot spring overflow or outwash, and many of these early land plants hosted mutualistic fungi, just like most living plants do today. What my research suggests, is that these plants were probably victims of intermittent flooding, as opposed to living right in the water."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/umyc20/current">Mycologia</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New research sheds light on early plant-fungal relationships

New research sheds light on early plant-fungal relationships. A new...

Seaweed plays a bigger role in storing carbon than previously realized. A new study from the <a href="https://www.kaust.edu.sa/">King Abdullah University of Science and Technology</a> (KAUST) suggests that the role of seaweed in climate change mitigation has been underestimated. The researchers found that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/seaweed-infestation-beaches/">seaweed</a> can travel far beyond coastal areas to help capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. 

Also known as macroalgae, seaweed is responsible for developing some of the largest and most productive coastal habitats. Seaweed can be found all over the globe and is known for its efficiency in capturing atmospheric CO2 and converting it into plant material. 

An international research team has discovered that diverse macroalgae species drift as far as 5,000 kilometers beyond coastal areas. Approximately 70 percent of this seaweed will sink to the depths of the ocean below 1,000 meters, taking the carbon that it has captured along with it. 

"This finding has huge implications for how the global carbon dioxide budget is calculated," said study first author and PhD student Alejandra Ortega. "It indicates that macroalgae are important for carbon sequestration and should be included in assessments of carbon accumulated in the ocean, known as blue carbon."

In current assessments of blue carbon, seaweed has been largely overlooked because it has no roots and moves around the ocean. Prior to the current study, very little was known about the fate of macroalgae once it has floated away from the coast. 

For this reason, the role of seaweed in carbon sequestration, particularly in the sediments of seagrass and mangrove, has been mostly unaccounted for. 

However, the KAUST team has now identified DNA sequences of macroalgae in hundreds of metagenomes generated by global ocean expeditions. Collectively, these missions surveyed the ocean to a depth of 4,000 meters and sequenced the particulate material collected in the water to create a worldwide DNA resource. 

Using Dragon Metagenomic Analysis Platform (DMAP), the experts searched for macroalgae in the massive dataset. The study produced the very first quantitative evidence of macroalgae presence beyond the shoreline. Seaweed plays a bigger role in storing carbon than previously realized

"Work is still needed to be able to translate a specific amount of DNA into a specific amount of organic carbon in a specific taxon, but finding macroalgal DNA is the first step," explained Ortega.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ngeo/">Nature Geoscience</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: © 2019 KAUST

Seaweed plays a bigger role in storing carbon than previously realized

Seaweed plays a bigger role in storing carbon than previously...

Plant fossils reveal temperatures in North America during the Cretaceous Period. A team of paleontologists led by <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a> uncovered fossil plants in eastern Canada that have produced the first quantifiable evidence of the region's climate during the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-millipede-species-cretaceous-period/">Cretaceous period</a>. 

Combined with specimens collected in previous expeditions, the newly discovered fossilized remains are giving experts unprecedented insight into a time when dinosaurs still dominated the planet.

The McGill team discovered the ancient plant samples last August in a remote area of Labrador. Some of the remains represent species that have never been found in this region before. Plant fossils reveal temperatures in North America during the Cretaceous Period

In the late 1950s, paleontologists theorized that the Cretaceous climate of Quebec and Labrador was far warmer than it is today based on fossilized leaves and insects. The current study has now confirmed this theory based on the <a href="http://clamp.ibcas.ac.cn/CLAMP_seminar.pdf">Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program</a> (CLAMP), which is used to predict a variety of climate statistics for a given fossil flora. CLAMP measures variables such as temperature and precipitation based on the shape and size of tree leaves. 

Under the supervision of Professor Hans Larsson, graduate student and study first author Alexandre Demers-Potvin analyzed the plant fossils and determined that eastern Canada had a warm, temperate, and humid climate during the middle of the Cretaceous period.

The experts found that the average annual temperature in this part of Canada was 59 degrees Fahrenheit, with an average summer temperature of over 68 degrees Fahrenheit. 

According to Demers-Potvin, the new work provides insight into how the climate of eastern Canada evolved over time, which will be useful information for studying climate change today. 

"The fossils from the Redmond mine show that an area that is now covered by boreal forest and tundra used to be covered in warm temperate forests in the middle of the Cretaceous, one of our planet's 'hothouse' episodes," said Demers-Potvin. "These are new pieces of evidence that can help improve projections of the global average temperature against global CO2 levels throughout the Earth's history."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14754983">Palaeontology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Alexandre Demers-Potvin

Plant fossils reveal temperatures in North America

Plant fossils reveal temperatures in North America during the Cretaceous...

Researchers discover multiple pollinators for the mysterious ghost orchid. Orchids are one of the most fascinating groups of plants. It’s no surprise, as orchids are beautiful with complex flowers that are a bit more exotic than well known European roses or daisies. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/endangered-orchid-species-eaten/">Orchids</a> are the realm of fanaticism for many as books like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Orchid-Thief-Obsession-Ballantine-Readers/dp/044900371X/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItMKXqPnX4wIVEP_jBx2wmg9NEAAYASAAEgJVzPD_BwE&amp;hvadid=241953254399&amp;hvdev=t&amp;hvlocphy=1026481&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvpos=1t1&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=3483040522726590480&amp;hvtargid=kwd-129447858&amp;hydadcr=24659_10400692&amp;keywords=the+orchid+thief&amp;qid=1564328387&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1">The Orchid Thief</a>. Charles Darwin even wrote a treatise on the pollination of orchids after his famous book On the Origin of Species. 

People collect orchids, and there are even orchid shows where people gather from all over the world to buy rare orchids or new hybrids. The <a href="https://www.orchidsociety.com/?p=192">Orchid Society</a> reports that the international market in orchids passed the billion dollar per year mark in 2010. With humanity’s well documented love affair with orchids, it’s easy to imagine that most details of orchid biology are already well known. But of course, this isn’t the case.

<a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/08/orchids-dazzling-diversity-explained">Science</a> reported in 2015 that there are more than 25,000 species of orchid, making it the largest group of plant, making up approximately 8% of vascular plants as a whole. The first orchids seemed to evolve about 112 million years ago, a long time ago in terms of flowering, vascular plants but relatively young in terms of life on Earth as a whole. 

In the amount of time orchids have been around, they’ve evolved numerous contrivances to trick insects and other animals into pollinating for them. Australian Tongue orchids of the genus Cryptostylis have structures on their flowers that mimic female wasps, to the point that male wasps will mate with them. After mating with a couple of the flower dummy wasps, the plant has been pollinated at the expense of confused male wasps. 

Other orchids mimic the smell of female wasps, which cause males to pollinate them on frustrating searches for a mate. In other cases, bees actively use specific orchid scents as a sort of cologne, <a href="https://blog.nature.org/science/2019/02/11/the-weird-sex-lives-of-orchids/">Cool Green Science</a> reports. Some orchid pollinations have remained mysterious for long periods of time, despite fascination with the group among both scientists and lay people.

The <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/hawk_moths.shtml">US Forest Service</a> reports that star orchids of the genus Angraecum in Madagascar were long held as a mystery. Charles Darwin knew that the flowers on the star orchids had nectar spurs over a foot long. Darwin was ridiculed in his day by scientists when he suggested that a large moth with a proboscis over a foot long pollinated the flower. But Darwin’s prediction was proven true after a moth with such a long proboscis was discovered after his death. 

Major discoveries about orchids often go unmade because of the challenging field conditions necessary to observe them in the wild. Orchid diversity is highest in the tropics and subtropics, from mountains in South America to the swamps of the American southeast, orchids often live in rugged environs and can be challenging to cultivate in a lab or greenhouse. 

The Everglades region of Florida is a place of high orchid diversity. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/orchids.htm">National Park Service</a> reports that the diversity of orchids in Everglades National Park is the highest of any national park unit in the continental US. Part of the key to the diversity of orchids in the Everglades is that the park supplies a diverse array of orchid habitats. 

Orchids grow on land of course, but they also live as epiphytes in trees, which only works in areas with high humidity like the Everglades; some orchids are simply wetland plants. The Everglades is also a transitional area, as some orchid species are at their northernmost limit in the Everglades, while other species are at their southernmost distribution. With the diversity of orchids in the Everglades and Florida as a whole, it’s long been a place to study this interesting group of plants, yet there is still much left to learn.

The ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) not only has a mysterious name, but has also been a very mysterious plant until recently when one of its secrets was revealed. Ghost orchids are native to Florida and Cuba, and often live deep within in swampland. About 25% of Florida’s ghost orchids live in <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/florida_panther/">Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge</a>, north of the more famous Everglades. 

One unusual trait is that the orchid has no leaves, so much of its photosynthesis occurs in the exposed roots. When not flowering, the ghost orchid is rather unimpressive but it’s also a challenge to grow. <a href="https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/ghost-orchid-facts/">University of Florida</a> reports that efforts to grow the rare orchid in greenhouses took four years of effort before success. The ghost orchid is now grown by researchers to bolster populations of the plant in the wild but to thrive outside the lab, orchids require pollinators in their native habitats as well.   

The giant sphinx moth (Cocytius antaeus) is a large insect with 5 to 7 inch wing span, living at the northern part of its range in Florida and occasionally other parts of the southern US. The moth lives through the American tropics into Brazil and Peru. The giant sphinx moth is one of the main pollinators of the ghost orchid. With a proboscis twice the length of the large moth’s body, the insect is a perfect match for flowers containing deep wells of nectar. Until recently, it was thought that the giant sphinx moth was actually the only pollinator of the ghost orchid.

But now, a team of researchers and photographers have proven that the giant sphinx moth is not alone in pollinating the ghost orchid, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/07/ghost-orchids-florida-surprising-pollinators-moths/">National Geographic</a> reports. Researchers set up cameras to watch the rare ghost orchid at night when moths visit the flowers. Four different moth species were captured visiting the ghost orchid, two moth species that visited, had ghost orchid pollen on their heads, proof positive that they were actively pollinating the endangered plant. 

The fact that it has taken so long for researchers to verify pollination of the ghost orchid by other moths only shows the hardships and logistical problems involved in researching the unique plant. The orchid is not only rare, and lives in swamps with alligators, bears, panthers and venomous snakes, but it also sometimes is located high in trees, requiring climbing to access. Accessibility doesn’t seem to be a problem for the moths pollinating the ghost orchid though, and the more pollinators visiting the endangered plant, the better.       

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Researchers discover multiple pollinators for the mysterious ghost orchid

Researchers discover multiple pollinators for the mysterious ghost orchid. Orchids...

When <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/plants-defense-gut-insects/">plants</a> made the move from water to land around 500 million years ago, their root systems were forced to adapt and grow downward. In a process known as gravitropism, the roots learned to follow gravity so they could anchor in the soil and gain access to water and nutrients. 

Although gravitropism has been studied extensively in flowering plants, it has never been compared across the plant kingdom and its evolution remains a mystery.

To investigate, researchers at <a href="https://ist.ac.at/">IST Austria</a> selected multiple plant species representing mosses, lycophytes, ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants. The team allowed the plant roots to grow horizontally and closely examined when the roots started to bend and follow gravity. 

The study revealed that the process of gravitropism was more slowly initiated in the mosses, which are the most primitive land plants, and also in the lycophytes and ferns. The roots of gymnosperms and flowering plants, on the other hand, were influenced by gravity much faster. These seed plants are relatively new compared to mosses, appearing around 350 million years ago. 

The researchers found two crucial components which evolved in seed plants to promote a more efficient form of gravity-driven root growth. The gravity signal is first detected by plant organelles called amyloplasts, which are densely filled with starch granules. 

In the seed plants, the amyloplasts were highly concentrated in the very bottom of the root tip. In the more primitive plants, however, the amyloplasts were randomly distributed within the root tip, where they did not pick up the gravity signals. 

Next, the growth hormone auxin transmits the gravity signals that are picked up by the amyloplasts from cell to cell. Genetic experiments pinpointed a specific transporter molecule in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana called PIN2 that directs auxin flow and guides root growth. 

Among the gymnosperms and flowering plants, the PIN2 molecule was found to gather at the shoot-ward side of the root epidermal cells - a feature that was found to be unique to seed plants. This ultimately enables the root to transport auxin towards the shoot and regulate downward growth. 

"Now that we have started to understand what plants need to grow stable anchorage in order to reach nutrients and water in deep layers of the soil, we may eventually be able to figure out ways to improve the growth of crop and other plants in very arid areas," said study lead author Yuzhou Zhang. "Nature is much smarter than we are; there is so much we can learn from plants that can eventually be of benefit to us."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How plant roots know to follow gravity

When plants made the move from water to land around...

Trees in a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-has-officially-arrived-in-the-black-forest/">forest</a> ecosystem may be living as interconnected ‘superorganisms’. In a New Zealand forest, researchers have been investigating how a tree stump clings to life by pulling water and nutrients from the roots of neighboring <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/joshua-trees-climate-change/">trees</a>. This grafted root system implies that forest ecosystems should no longer be viewed as a bunch of individual trees, but instead as interconnected networks living as "superorganisms."

Study co-author Sebastian Leuzinger is an associate professor at the <a href="https://www.aut.ac.nz/">Auckland University of Technology</a> (AUT). 

"My colleague Martin Bader and I stumbled upon this kauri tree stump while we were hiking in West Auckland," explained Professor Leuzinger. "It was odd, because even though the stump didn't have any foliage, it was alive."

The experts set out to examine how the surrounding trees were keeping the tree stump alive by measuring water flow in both the stump and the neighboring trees that belonged to the same species. They discovered that the water movement in the tree stump was negatively correlated with the water movement in the other trees. 

According to Professor Leuzinger, these measurements suggest that the roots of the stump and its surrounding conspecific trees were grafted together. Root grafts can develop once a tree recognizes that a nearby root tissue is similar enough to allow for the exchange of resources, despite any genetic differences. 

"This is different from how normal trees operate, where the water flow is driven by the water potential of the atmosphere," said Professor Leuzinger. "In this case, the stump has to follow what the rest of the trees do, because since it lacks transpiring leaves, it escapes the atmospheric pull."

The team wanted to understand why a living kauri tree would want to keep a nearby stump alive. "For the stump, the advantages are obvious - it would be dead without the grafts, because it doesn't have any green tissue of its own. But why would the green trees keep their grandpa tree alive on the forest floor while it doesn't seem to provide anything for its host trees?" Trees in a forest ecosystem may be living as interconnected ‘superorganisms’

Professor Leuzinger said one possible explanation is that the root grafts formed before one of the trees lost its leaves and became a stump. The graft system expands the roots of the individual trees, providing them with more stability on the steep slope of the forest and allowing them to access more resources such as water and nutrients. It may go unnoticed when a single tree stops providing these nutrients. 

"This has far-reaching consequences for our perception of trees - possibly we are not really dealing with trees as individuals, but with the forest as a superorganism," said Professor Leuzinger.

"This is a call for more research in this area, particularly in a changing climate and a risk of more frequent and more severe droughts. This changes the way we look at the survival of trees and the ecology of forests."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/home">iScience</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Sebastian Leuzinger / iScience

Trees in a forest ecosystem may be living as interconnected ‘superorganisms’

Trees in a forest ecosystem may be living as interconnected...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image 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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image 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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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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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.

How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&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.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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 the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



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.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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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



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.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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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.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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



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.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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.

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 a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



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.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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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.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&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.

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...