Seagrass meadows are more than just coastal greenery. Beneath the waves, they capture carbon and bury it in the seafloor, storing it safely for decades or centuries. This makes seagrass a powerful ally in the fight against climate change



But there’s a catch. When humans flood coastlines with too much nutrient pollution - especially from wastewater - it doesn’t just mess with the water. It messes with the seagrass, too.



Scientists wanted to find out exactly how this works, and they didn’t take shortcuts. Over nine years, researchers observed what happened when they added extra nutrients to seagrass beds. What they found was a balancing act between helping and hurting.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-balance-of-seagrass-and-nutrients">The balance of seagrass and nutrients</h2>



In the warm, shallow waters of tropical bays, seagrass grows in sandy beds. Such places are usually poor in nutrients. That may sound bad, but it is one of the reasons why seagrass is good at capturing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-plays-a-major-role-in-global-carbon-storage/">carbon</a>. 



The plants grow slowly and consistently, extending their roots deep into the sediment where carbon is stored and trapped.



But when researchers added <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lack-of-phosphorus-will-limit-growth-of-the-amazon-rainforest/">phosphorus</a> and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kelp-farms-could-help-clean-up-coastal-nitrogen-pollution/">nitrogen</a> to these beds, something interesting happened. The seagrass responded with a burst of growth. 



First, it strengthened its root systems. Then, it put more energy into its blades - the flat, grass-like leaves. As the roots grew quickly, they also died more quickly, sending extra carbon into the sediment. That should be good news, right? 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-shadow-of-too-much-nitrogen">The shadow of too much nitrogen</h2>



Here’s where things got complicated. When nitrogen levels went too high, the team saw a surge in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/invisible-forest-of-phytoplankton-thrives-in-a-warming-climate/">phytoplankton</a> - tiny algae that float in the water. These blooms blocked sunlight, putting the seagrass at risk.



“People thought excess nutrients were killing seagrass,” said Jacob Allgeier, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a>. 



“But we show that as long as there are not too many nutrients, which would also increase phytoplankton, the seagrass will just increase growth with excess nutrients.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-the-experiment-worked">How the experiment worked</h2>



To figure out what was really going on, a team led by recent doctoral graduate Bridget Shayka went hands-on - literally. The team collected seagrass samples from test plots in the Bahamas. 



Shayka and 17 undergraduate students separated each plant into parts: <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-meadows-still-thrive-on-floridas-nature-coast/">blades</a>, sheaths, roots, and rhizomes (the stems that grow underground). Next, the parts were freeze-dried, crushed, and tested for nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon.



The researchers found that nutrients from human sources had a bigger effect than those from fish.



“The systems we study are pretty low-nutrient systems, so adding nutrients can increase seagrass production,” said Shayka, now a program officer at Ocean Visions. 



“But we also know that when you go too far and add too many nutrients, it really destroys these systems. It's one of the leading causes of their destruction around the world and in coastal systems.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nitrogen-isn-t-the-only-problem">Nitrogen isn’t the only problem</h2>



In another experiment, the researchers tried 21 varied nutrient ratios in bottles of seawater and phytoplankton. They were curious to know if the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus mattered more than just the amount of each nutrient. The results surprised them.



In this system, phosphorus had a stronger positive effect on seagrass growth. Nitrogen, on the other hand, caused phytoplankton levels to spike. That meant more light-blocking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-algae-play-an-unexpected-role-in-cooling-the-earth/">algae</a> in the water and more stress for the seagrass beds.



“When you grow tomatoes, you don't just add nitrogen. You add a perfect ratio of nitrogen and phosphorus. That idea is replete in our society,” said Allgeier. “But because we tested the water column and because we tested the seagrass, we're able to say that model doesn't work in our system.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seagrass-and-carbon-storage">Seagrass and carbon storage</h2>



It’s unlikely that we’ll stop nutrient pollution altogether. But these findings suggest we don’t need to. Instead, we need to manage it better.



“We're not stopping nutrient enrichment. It's just not going to stop,” said Allgeier. “But we can manage it. And how do you best manage it? We scrub it for nitrogen.”



If local communities can control nitrogen runoff - especially from sewage and agriculture - they might give seagrass a better chance to grow, store carbon, and stay alive. This matters, not just for marine ecosystems, but for climate action too.



Seagrass may not get the attention coral reefs or rainforests do, but when it comes to carbon storage, it’s one of the most powerful tools in nature.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70401">Global Change Biology</a>.



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Seagrass is a powerful climate weapon - unless we drown it in nutrients

Seagrass meadows are more than just coastal greenery. Beneath the waves, they capture carbon and bury it in the seafloor, storing it safely for decades or centuries. This makes seagrass a powerful ally in the fight against climate change But there’s a catch. When humans flood coastlines with too much nutrient pollution - especially from wastewater - it doesn’t just mess with the water. It messes with the seagrass, too. Scientists wanted to find out exactly how this works, and they didn’t take shortcuts. Over nine years,...

The world’s population is continuously growing, and with it comes an increased need for more food to feed this rising population. Currently, agriculture uses 90 percent of global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/freshwater-bodies-acidic-co2/">freshwater</a>, which presents quite the conundrum in a world where access to freshwater is becoming increasingly more important. Luckily, a new study in Nature Communications reports that – for the first time – scientists have improved crop water efficiency by 25 percent, without compromising yield.

“This is a major breakthrough,” says Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) Director Stephen Long. “Crop yields have steadily improved over the past 60 years, but the amount of water required to produce one ton of grain remains unchanged – which led most to assume that this factor could not change. Proving that our theory works in practice should open the door to much more research and development to achieve this all-important goal for the future.”

This breakthrough was accomplished by increasing the levels of a photosynthetic protein (PsbS) to conserve water by tricking plants into partially closing their stomata. The stomata are the microscopic pores in the leaf that allow water to escape, they are essentially the gatekeepers the plant. When stomata are open, carbon dioxide enters the plant to help fuel photosynthesis, while also allowing water to escape. The specific plants used for this study were tobacco, as these plants are easier to modify and test than other crops.

“These plants had more water than they needed, but that won’t always be the case,” explains co-first author Katarzyna Glowacka, a postdoctoral researcher who led this research at the <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> (IGB). “When water is limited, these modified plants will grow faster and yield more – they will pay less of a penalty than their non-modified counterparts.”

Our atmosphere’s carbon dioxide concentration has increased by 25 percent in the last 70 years, which allows for plants to amass enough carbon dioxide without fully opening their stomata. “Evolution has not kept pace with this rapid change, so scientists have given it a helping hand,” says Long. Results showed that the increase in PsbS levels improved the plant’s water-use-efficiency by 25 percent, without sacrificing photosynthesis or yield in real-world field trials.

PsbS is an integral part of the signaling pathway in the plant that relays information about the quantity of light, which is one of the factors that triggers the stomata to open and close. Through increasing PsbS, the signal says that there is not enough light for the plant to photosynthesize. This triggers the stomata to close, as carbon dioxide is no longer needed to fuel photosynthesis.

Overall, decreasing the amount of water needed to grow the crops necessary for feeding our rising population will help us to continue keeping the public healthy while also conserving freshwater. Scientists are now looking to apply this discovery to other crops in order to improve the water-use-efficiency of different food crops.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer
Image Credit: Jiayang Xie, Katarzyna G?owacka, Andrew D. B. Leakey

A new strategy helps crops use less water more efficiently

The world’s population is continuously growing, and with it comes...

Many people worry about their personal health when it comes to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/genetically-modified-cacao-chocolate/">GMO crops</a>.  Individual health is a real problem, as there is possibly a link between increased allergy sensitivity and GMO grain crops.  

But my own health isn’t my first concern when it comes to genetically engineering food, at least not directly.  GMO crops are often modified in way more consistent with modern industrial agriculture than the organic, environment based farms that most traditional crops evolved in.  

What does increased industrial agriculture mean for the consumer?  Industrialization of our food supply has wide reaching implications, but first, let’s talk about chemicals.  Many GMO crops are designed to be more dependent on products such as the herbicide Roundup.  This means that the plant can survive being sprayed with an herbicide that destroys ‘pesky’ weeds.  Fertilizers are also used in heavy dosages in conjunction with GMO crops.  A part of the reason so many fertilizers are used is because the ecology of the soil that naturally creates nutrition is destroyed with large dosages of toxins, such as herbicides and pesticides. The end result of this process is a plant alone in a sterile, artificial environment, with less insects, less fungi, less microbes and less other plants, all of which contribute to the health of the environment.  

Of course the use of pesticides has gotten plenty of coverage in the media, especially neonicotinoid pesticides which cause colony collapse disorder in bees.  The problem goes far beyond honey bees and pollination though.  True pesticides may be devastating honey bees but it doesn’t stop with insects we all know and love.  The invertebrate world is incredibly complex and much of the diversity of the rest of the animal (and plant and fungi) world rests on the humble invertebrates.  We’re also destroying butterflies as well as crop ‘pests’ and insects bats, frogs, lizards and birds depend on for survival.. not to mention soil invertebrates that create living nutrition that feeds plants.

Fertilizers also go only so far.  Sure, a synthetic fertilizer will keep plants alive and give them some nutrition, but only to a finite extent.  Plants can give us only what we put into them.  Things like dung and worm casings, further processed by fungi and microbes, create many compounds.  Traditional synthetic fertilizers mainly contain Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium; the bare basics that are needed to keep a plant healthy.  Soil nutrition is important and we need plants with more than the three basic nutrients.  Soils that are treated only with artificial fertilizers become increasingly poor; soils that are allowed to develop their own ecology and nutrition naturally can become richer over time.  The difference is nutrition we evolved with and nutrition we invented for the modern convenience of industrial processes.  Runoff from fertilizers also causes problems, creating things like algal blooms that choke wetlands and create oxygen free water ways, killing fish and other aquatic organisms.  

Food security may be one of the biggest problems that GMO crops create.  Through the history of the human race, we’ve probably bred millions of different plants.  Many of the plants were bred in a specific environment, for specific conditions.  Some crops ripen faster, some slower.  Some food plants need a lot of water, some are drought tolerant.  Plants can survive intense heat or crippling cold depending on the conditions they evolved in.  As a whole group the incredible diversity of  and in different crops adds up to not putting all our eggs in one basket.  If you grow three types of tomatoes, two types of cucumber and five carrot varieties, it seems unlikely all will fail because of the same factor unless there is a catastrophe.  

GMO crops on the other hand are replacing local, traditionally developed crops with monocultures that thrive under the same, standard conditions.  GMO crops are usually clones so there isn’t any genetic variation even within a single variety unlike traditional crops.  A monoculture is more vulnerable to a devastating failure from one disease, one cold snap, one heat wave, one drought.  As more of the world grows the same few crops, the whole global food supply becomes increasingly fragile.  Foods also become increasingly boring.  Look at the difference between a thriving farmer’s market and the produce section of your local Wal-Mart. 

The overall impact of the process creating GMO foods is a problem few think about when considering GMO food.  Genetically modified crops, dependent on industrial farming, are more dependent on oil than organic foods.  The real problem isn’t in an individual plant’s genes but in the process of growing that plant.  

GMO may have a place.  It’s hard to entirely discount things like golden rice, designed to give more nutrition to impoverished children.  It’s unlikely that most crops, swapping genes between (mostly) other plants will be dangerous to human health.  Evolution through natural or artificial selection changes the prevalence of genes in a population all the time.  The problem is the process and the scale.  The problem comes when all the crops are GMO.  The problem increases when farms are industrial rather than subsistence.  Local farms engaging as many local people as possible in their own food production is probably the best way to ensure good food and a healthy environment.    

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The real problem with GMO crops

Many people worry about their personal health when it comes...

Without a time machine, scientists can’t possibly know what Earth’s ancient climates looked like, right? Not exactly. Researchers have an array of tools they can use to peek at the ancient environment, and they’ve just added a new one to the kit: leaf wax.

Plants produce a protective, waxy substance in the cuticle of their leaves that changes depending on the environmental circumstances when the leaf budded and grew. The waxy substance helps to minimize water loss and protect leaves from UV radiation.

The makeup of this leaf wax changes depending on the conditions the plant is growing in. In dry conditions, for example, plants use different organic compounds and distribute them differently to hold onto more water and increase odds of survival.

The team of scientists, led by Dr. Yvette Eley of the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/">University of Birmingham</a>, theorized that if they collected leaf wax lipids from organic soil and analyzed them, they could determine the growing conditions their parent plants grew in. 

"Looking at soil today, you're observing the integrated history of all the plant matter that went into forming that soil over the course of hundreds to thousands of years," Dr. Michael Hren of the <a href="https://uconn.edu/">University of Connecticut</a> said in a press release.

Eley and Hren examined leaf wax compounds in topsoil in North and South America, comparing their findings with modern climate records. They found a clear correlation with climate changes and distribution of leaf wax lipid compounds.

Paleoclimate scientists can get an idea of Earth’s past environment by analyzing stable isotopes in mammal bones and teeth, or ice core chemistry. But the new method fills an important gap, the researchers said.

"One of the huge gaps in the past is we didn't have great quantitative records of moisture," Hren said. "We're now managing to get a really nice glimpse of the whole ecosystem and how it's responding."

The study has been published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21959-w">Scientific Reports</a>. Funding was provided by the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Leaf wax offers insight into Earth's climate history

Without a time machine, scientists can’t possibly know what Earth’s...

In environments with highly variable climates, it can be a struggle for many plants to adapt and survive. Places that can be extremely wet one year and extremely dry the next require species to adapt to this variability. To that end, many species of wildflowers in these environments use seed banks as a survival tool, allowing them to keep a portion of their seeds dormant in the soil rather than spending them all at once. Ultimately, this helps ensure long-term survival.

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/california-water-conservation-benefits/">California</a> is one of those places where the climate can be extremely variable. A recent study, published in the journal <a href="http://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1939-9170/">Ecology</a>, shows how resilient native wildflowers were during the state’s most recent drought. Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a> analyzed over 22,000 seedlings from soil cores collected in Northern California during the fall of 2012 and 2014. Their findings showed that seeds from native wildflowers increased more than 200 percent underground, and aboveground growth increased 14 percent. They also found that seeds from exotic grasses decreased 52 percent and 39 percent belowground and aboveground, respectively.

“Seed banking is a form of bet-hedging,” explains Marina LaForgia, a graduate student in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and lead author of the study. “Wildflowers take on low risk but also low reward, whereas grasses are high-risk, high-reward plants. They’re not savers. They increase dramatically during wet years and decrease in dry years. Wildflowers are less dramatic. They are there, but they’re switching where they place the highest proportions of their population.”

The increases to wildflowers’ seed banks were even more significant amongst the drought-tolerant wildflowers. Belowground, these wildflowers increased seed banks by 263 percent, while wildflowers that are intolerant to drought increased their seed bank by 119 percent.

“Even wildflowers that are considered intolerant to drought appeared resilient to a single extreme drought event,” says LaForgia. “However, more frequent, severe or prolonged future droughts could eventually exceed these native species’ capacity to put more and more seeds into the seed bank for their long-term survival.”

The findings from this study indicate that native wildflowers should be used as an integral part of future restoration strategies. Along with their resilience to drought, they’re not too hard on the eyes either.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Marina LaForgia/<a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">UC Davis</a>

These California wildflowers use seed banks to beat drought

In environments with highly variable climates, it can be a...

Researchers at <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> (OSU) are describing a possible explanation for why some <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/magic-mushrooms-depression-brain/">mushrooms</a> are hallucinogenic. The experts have found that the genes responsible for the psychedelic compound psilocybin may have been adapted as a defense mechanism against fungus-eating insects.

The research team analyzed three species of magic mushrooms and compared them to three related species that do not produce the mind-altering compound. They identified a cluster of five genes that the psychedelic mushrooms have in common.

The scientists believe that the genes may have emerged as the result of a process known as horizontal gene transfer, which is the movement of genetic material between organisms that is not vertically passed from parent to offspring. 

According to the experts, horizontal gene transfer is not common in mushrooms, indicating that this transfer was likely a response to environmental stress. In this particular case, the scientists believe that an exchange of genes may have occurred due to the predominant presence of fungus-eating insects.

The researchers explained that psilocybin interferes with a neurotransmitter in both humans and insects. For example, previous studies have demonstrated that the drug inhibits a neurotransmitter in flies that causes appetite suppression.

Jason Slot is an assistant professor of Fungal Evolutionary Genomics at OSU and the study's lead author.

“We speculate that mushrooms evolved to be hallucinogenic because it lowered the chances of the fungi getting eaten by insects,” said Slot. “The psilocybin probably doesn’t just poison predators or taste bad. These mushrooms are altering the insects’ mind - if they have minds - to meet their own needs.”

The findings of this research may help in an effort that is already underway to identify the potential of psilocybin as a treatment for neurological diseases.

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2056-3744">Evolution Letters</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mushrooms may have become hallucinogenic to ward off predators

Researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) are describing a possible...

On a remote Norwegian island covered with ice, an abandoned coal mine has been converted into a massive vault to store the seeds of worldwide species so that they can be accessed in the event of a catastrophe. The security of the “doomsday" seed vault has been threatened by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-winter-sports/">climate change</a>, and Norway responded with a $13 million plan to reinforce it.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was built on the island of Spitsbergen about 800 miles from the North Pole. Since it opened in 2008, the seed bank has accumulated over a million seed samples from thousands of species.

While the vault was designed to survive a disaster as destructive as nuclear war, an unprecedented Arctic warming event led to a structural failure in 2016. Historically warm temperatures caused rain to fall across the Arctic region instead of snow, and the entrance to the vault was exposed.

Hege Njaa Aschim, a representative of the Norwegian government, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/">The Guardian</a>:

“It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that. A lot of water went into the start of the tunnel and then it froze to ice, so it was like a glacier when you went in.”

The meltwater did not do any harm to the seeds, but it did cause experts to reevaluate the security of the vault. Norway has now developed a $13 million construction plan to further safeguard the seed bank.

According to <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/lmd/id627/">Norway’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food</a>, the modification of the seed vault will include “construction of a new, concrete-built access tunnel, as well as a service building to house emergency power and refrigerating units and other electrical equipment.”

On February 26, a ten-year-anniversary celebration was held at the seed vault, as representatives of international seed banks carried in 76,000 new samples for storage.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Jon Georg Dale hosted the event. 

“It is simply impressive that 1 million seed samples from all over the world have now found their way to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault,” said Dale. “It confirms the important role of the seed vault as a worldwide insurance for food supply for future generations and an ever-growing population.”

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Climate change threatens security of Norway’s global seed vault

On a remote Norwegian island covered with ice, an abandoned...

In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, corn has become a primary source in the creation of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/biofuel-compete-oil/">biofuels</a> to power cars and airplanes.

But the environmental impact and water supply needed to grow corn make it better suited to be used as a food than a biofuel resource.

But now, researchers from <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> have found that switchgrass may be an attractive new option for the creation of biofuel.

The study, led by John Field and published in the journal Nature Energy, showed that the carbon footprint of growing switchgrass was a fraction of the size of traditional fossil fuel sources. 

Field and his colleagues specialize in working with non-edible plants to create cellulosic biofuels. Switchgrass and other plants could serve as an excellent alternative to high impact crops like corn. 

“They don't require a lot of fertilizer or irrigation,” Field said. “Farmers don't have to plow up the field every year to plant new crops, and they're good for a decade or longer.”

For the study, the researchers analyzed an area in Kansas because the state has a cellulosic biofuel production plant. 

To examine the environmental impact and carbon footprint of switchgrass, the researchers used DayCent, a modeling system developed by Colorado State University in the 1990s. DayCent models plant growth and its response to weather and climate as well as its carbon cycle. 

Using DayCent, the research team was able to test whether switchgrass, grown for biofuel purposes, would be an effective alternative to traditional fossil fuels and have a reduced carbon footprint. 

The resulting carbon footprint of switchgrass was -11 to 10 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule. Megajoules are commonly used to measure carbon emissions. 

To put that number in perspective, the carbon footprint of gasoline is 94 grams per megajoule. 

In addition to providing a smaller environmental impact, the researchers also found that switchgrass was effective for carbon storage. 

“What we saw with switchgrass is that you're actually storing carbon in the soil,” said John Field, the first author of the study. “You're building up organic matter and sequestering carbon.”

The results are promising, and the researchers are excited about the implications their work could have on future biofuel research. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Switchgrass may be better than corn as a biofuel source

In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, corn has...

A research team led by the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> is the first to calculate how much <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/groundwater-depletion-carbon-dioxide/">carbon</a> could be accumulated in American forests if they were strengthened through reforestation efforts.

Forests in the United States store enough carbon to offset approximately ten percent of the country's annual greenhouse gas emissions, but scientists are warning that this carbon sink is becoming less effective and may level off by mid-century. 

The research team set out to determine the potential carbon sequestration of two different strategies: by planting more trees after wildfires and by allowing forests to take over some marginal croplands. The experts also investigated the ability of restorative topsoils to store carbon.

Luke Nave is an ecologist and biogeochemist at the University of Michigan and the study's lead author.

“Where reforestation is happening - either through planting of trees or through encroachment - these lands are actively adding carbon to a large pool that will continue to grow for many decades,” said Nave.

“The topsoils of reforesting lands provide a significant long-range solution to the problem of the declining carbon-sink strength of U.S. forests, and they help to mitigate climate change. Even modest increases in the amount of land being reforested would have a multiplicative impact on nationwide carbon sequestration.”

The research team investigated forestlands that have experienced major disturbances such as intense wildfires over the last few decades. They found that only about 7 percent of the forestlands available for restoration have been replanted. 

The experts also found that reforestation efforts on marginal croplands have only reached about 10 percent of their potential to expand carbon storage. The study authors said that this discovery highlights “the substantial C-sink capacity of this land-use transition if these lands are allowed to continue returning towards a natural forest condition.”

Furthermore, the study revealed that topsoils used in reforestation projects across the United States are currently storing 13 to 21 million metric tons of carbon each year, which is equivalent to about 10 percent of the country's total forest carbon sink.

According to Nave, reforesting topsoils will capture a cumulative 1.3 to 2.1 billion metric tons of carbon over the next century, accounting for nearly half of the carbon stored in all of the forest soils across the United States. This amount could be drastically increased by expanding the country's reforesting acreage, which is currently at around 200,000 square miles.

The study is published in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Reforestation efforts help combat greenhouse gas emissions

A research team led by the University of Michigan is...

Many plants have the ability to deter predators that might see them as a tasty snack, whether these deterrents are physical (like thorns or spines) or chemical (like a bad taste or poisonous substances). But with chemical defenses, how do these plants decide which defenses are affective enough to be worth the energy they take to produce?

A study led by Tatyana Livshultz, assistant curator of Botany at the Academy of Natural Science of <a href="http://drexel.edu/">Drexel University</a>, and published in <a href="http://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1469-8137/">New Phytologist</a> found genetic evidence that multiple lineages of plants evolved to stop producing a chemical that their ancestors had formally produced. The researchers believe the chemical was meant to deter <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/herbivores-ecosystems-climate-change/">herbivores</a>, and the plants stopped producing as the primary herbivores became immune.

The team of researchers traced the evolution of a gene involved in the production of a class of chemicals that are toxic to humans and other mammals. These chemicals – called pyrrolizidine alkaloids – were found in a flowering plant family commonly known as dogbanes and milkweeds (in the family Apocynaceae). Through tracing the gene back, they were able to find when production of these chemicals first evolved, as well as how many times it was discontinued.

They were able to identify a single origin of the gene in the most recent common ancestor of over 75 percent of current Apocynaceae species. Through analysis, they found evidence that the gene became nonfunctional at least four different times among that plant’s descendants, meaning the chemical was “lost” to evolution. 

The researchers then wanted to find a correlation between the gene’s distribution in Apocynaceae plants and the animals that are unaffected by the defense alkaloids. They found that almost every species of this plant family descended from the alkaloid-producing ancestor is eaten by larvae of Danainae (milkweed and clearwing) butterflies. In fact, many of the species of butterfly in this lineage actively seek out plants with these alkaloids. Because of this, it seems that some species of Apocynaceae may have ceased production of the alkaloids because they were actually attracting butterflies, rather than repelling them.

“Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are likely an ineffective defense against Danainae,” says Livshultz. “Furthermore, they are actually beneficial to them since they take in these chemicals for their own defense against their predators.”

Their findings support the “defense de-escalation” hypothesis, which theorizes that organisms will evolve to stop using their limited resources on defense mechanisms if they’re no longer effective. In doing so, they can potentially divert resources to defenses that actually work.

“Apocynaceae species of this lineage produce a number of different classes of defensive chemicals, including cardenolides and other types of alkaloids,” Livshultz explained. “It has been shown that cardenolides are at least partially effective defenses against adapted herbivores such as the monarch butterfly, the most familiar species of Danainae to Americans.”

But this raises the question, why would any Apocynaceae species continue to produce alkaloids? “Perhaps because they suffer more from other insects that are deterred by these chemicals,” posits Livshultz – who plans on continuing this research in order to find out more about the history of this chemical defense in these plants. 

Overall, this research helps lead to a better understanding of the dynamics of defense de-escalation and co-evolution – the theory that associated species influence each other’s adaptations. Other implications of this study extend beyond plant life.

“Understanding the evolution of plant defenses is of practical importance to people, whether we focus on agriculture – herbivorous insects can cause 15 percent reductions in crop yields; medicine – plant secondary metabolites (pyrrolizidine alkaloids are one variety) are an important source of medicinal compounds; or environmental protection – such as developing control strategies for invasive plants,” explains Livshultz.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Plants evolve from ineffective defenses when eaten by herbivores

Many plants have the ability to deter predators that might...

Spring is in the air, and the days are getting warmer and longer. In a few short weeks, bees and butterflies will be on the hunt for nectar to eat and pollen to spread. What better way to help them out than planting a pollinator garden?

A garden can be any size, from a window box or a couple of containers on an apartment patio to a full garden full of flowering plants. Some farmers are even including flowering native plants among their acres of crops to make sure the bees and butterflies that help grow our food have something to eat all year long.

An ideal pollinator garden will include a variety of plants that flower throughout the spring and summer, providing food for bees, butterflies, caterpillars and other insects, and possibly hummingbirds and bats.

Fortunately, planting a pollinator garden is simpler than it sounds. Read on for tips about what to plant and why.
<h3>Pick native plants</h3>
Choosing the rest of your plants will depend on where you live. That’s because different pollinators are native to different areas, and the best food sources for those pollinators are native plants.

“Native plants, which are adapted to local soils and climates, are usually the best sources of nectar and pollen for native pollinators,” the Xerces Society, a nonprofit focused on invertebrate conservation, writes in its <a href="https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/plant-lists/">pollinator plant guides</a>. “Incorporating native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees into any landscape promotes local biological diversity by providing shelter and food for wildlife. Native plants are better adapted to regional climate cycles, do not need fertilizers, and are less likely to become weedy.”

For example, honeybees are not native to North America. They’re domesticated, and were brought to the U.S., Canada and Mexico <a href="https://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcomm/newscolumns/archives/OSL/1999/November/111199OSL.html">by European settlers</a>. However, North America is home to more than 4,000 native bee species, and those species have come to rely on different species of plants, depending on where they live.

North Carolina alone has native bees from more than 500 species, including squash bees, sweat bees and carpenter bees. Squash bees – as their name implies – are a big fan of plants like pumpkin, which are native to that region. Purple coneflower, bee balm and goldenrod are all native to North Carolina and favorites among bees.

Minnesota has about 400 native bee species – or did, the last time species in the state were thoroughly surveyed <a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mbs/grasslandbees.html">nearly 100 years ago</a>. Mining bees, sweat bees and leaf-cutters in the northern prairies, from Canada to the upper U.S. Midwest, feed on native plants like American vetch, scarlet globemallow and Rocky Mountain beeplant – of course. 

Other pollinators – butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, moths, some fly species and others – have also developed preferences. 

The coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest, from Oregon to British Columbia, are home to butterflies like the Oregon silverspot, Taylor’s checkerspot, Fender’s blue and Puget blue, according to the Xerces Society. In that region, bigleaf lupine is a host plant for blue butterflies, as well as a favorite snack spot for bees and hummingbirds. Douglas aster and meadow checkermallow are also attractive to pollinators in the Northwest.

In Florida, blue mistflower, east coast dune sunflower and white wild indigo make good choices. For those with room for shrubs and trees, eastern redbud and flatwoods plum can provide some early nourishment for pollinators each year. In California, redbud and McMinn manzanita are among the more permanent choices, with California poppy, California fuschia and common sunflowers also making good options. 

The internet offers a ton of resources for finding native plants that will keep your local pollinators well-fed and happy. Aside from the Xerces Society guides, the United States Department of Agriculture <a href="https://plants.usda.gov/pollinators/nrcsdocuments.html">keeps a database of pollinator plants</a>, and many U.S. states and Canadian provinces have chapters of the <a href="http://nanps.org/">North American Native Plant Society</a>.

Native plant groups can be found in several places outside of North America, such as <a href="http://anpsa.org.au/">Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/">New Zealand</a>.
<h4>Milkweed</h4>
Milkweed has two major benefits: First, despite the name, the wildflower is native to just about everywhere in the mainland United States and much of North America, meaning that it’s easy to find local species and there’s less risk of crowding out other native plants.

Second, milkweed is a vital food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars, which cannot eat anything else, and the butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed each year in the spring. The North American population of the stunning orange and black butterflies has been in decline for years for several reasons. One of those is that agricultural pesticides and development have played havoc on the traveling insects’ milkweed habitat along migration routes.

That makes milkweed an excellent choice for any pollinator garden – and not just for monarchs. Some bees and other butterfly species like it, too. 

When choosing milkweed, it’s important to get the right kind. Try to get a milkweed plant native to your area, rather than the tropical variety available throughout the U.S. The tropical variety <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/01/plan-save-monarch-butterflies-backfires">doesn’t die back in the winter</a>, encouraging monarch butterflies to stay in areas that become chilly in the winter. It also sometimes hosts a parasite that can badly weaken the butterflies.

To order native milkweed seeds, try the seed finder database maintained by the <a href="https://xerces.org/milkweed-seed-finder/">Xerces Society</a>. For other milkweed sources, check out <a href="http://monarchwatch.org/milkweed/market/">Monarch Watch</a>, which hosts a “Milkweed Market.”
<h3>Building your pollinator garden</h3>
The National Pollinator Garden Network launched its <a href="http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/">Million Pollinator Garden Challenge</a> in 2016. The challenge will run until the network registers 1 million gardens or more, whether window boxes or full gardens. 

Why not join in and be counted? 

If you’re an experienced gardener, it’s as easy as adding some region-appropriate plants that provide pollen and nectar to your garden or yard. 

But even inexperienced gardeners can get involved. If you have room for a couple of window boxes or containers, you can grow plants for pollinators.

A few tips:
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Try to grow three or four different types of plants that flower at different times of the year. This is where the Xerces Society guides can come in handy – in addition to listing plants native to an area, they also list how large the plants get and what time of year they bloom.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Avoid hybrid flowers. They often have less pollen, nectar or scent that will attract pollinators.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">If you have the space, try to provide a few host plants – plants that provide a place to lay eggs and food for caterpillars in addition to flowers for pollinators.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Try to avoid pesticides in favor of pest control methods like ladybugs, predatory mites, or other bugs that act as natural pest control. When pesticides are the only option, choose the least toxic ones that you can find that get the job done. Local nurseries, garden clubs or native plant societies are a good resource here.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Put out more than just flowers. Some pollinators also eat rotting fruit or vegetation. Tossing these items (sparingly) into your garden can provide an additional food source. Bees and butterflies also need water and salt to thrive. A <a href="https://gardentherapy.ca/bee-bath/">bee bath</a> is a great way to provide some much needed water in a pollinator garden. You can also use a drip system and a salt lick to help them get salt.</li>
</ul>
Now’s the time to start planning your pollinator garden if you live in the Northern Hemisphere. Start choosing plants now to help feed the bees, butterflies and other pollinators passing through your region.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Prepare for bees and butterflies with a pollinator garden

Spring is in the air, and the days are getting...

Tropical rainforests may have more of a fighting chance combating drought from climate change than previously realized, according to a new study from the <a href="http://www.ucr.edu/">University of California, Riverside</a>. 

The findings, published in the journal New Phytologist, provide much-needed insight into how tropical forests handle drought, especially given that tropical forests are crucial in their ability to absorb and store carbon. 

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mining-deforestation-amazon-rainforest/">Amazon Rainforest</a>, for example, stores 20 percent of all carbon in the Earth’s biomass, and habitat degradation by drought or other means could release these carbon stores and exacerbate climate change. 

For the study, the researchers collected tree branches from treetops in <a href="https://paracou.cirad.fr/">French Guiana's Paracou Research Station</a>. These branches were examined in a lab to better understand hydraulic failure and how it develops in tropical trees. 

Hydraulic failure occurs when water is scarce and a plant brings air bubbles up into the xylem as it is trying to soak up moisture through its roots. 

The air bubbles actually block moisture from reaching the leaves, which is where the process gets its name. 

At first, it appeared the researchers’ analysis showed that tropical trees are more susceptible to hydraulic failure and therefore drought than trees in temperate regions. 

However, after more experiments, the results showed that tropical trees develop a layer of “parenchyma” cells around the xylem that help store and distribute water during times when water supply is low. 

The researchers hope to continue their work in understanding the full extent of drought resistance in tropical areas. 

“Our overall goal in modeling drought resistance is to be able to predict what kind of change in rainfall would trigger death,” said Louis Santiago, a professor of Botany &amp; Plant Sciences and leader of the research. “Fortunately, our experiments so far suggest that tropical trees may be more drought resistant than previously thought, and that they use a really unique way to protect themselves.” 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Louis Santiago, UC Riverside

Tropical trees have a special capacity to resist drought

Tropical rainforests may have more of a fighting chance combating...

A study from the <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/">University of Colorado Boulder</a> has revealed that climate warming caused the local extinction of a Rocky Mountain flowering plant. Scientists are concerned that this may be a prediction of things to come for native flowering species in mountain ecosystems.

The researchers found that warmer, drier conditions wiped out experimental populations of Northern rock jasmine, or Androsace septentrionalis. This mountain wildflower species is found in Colorado's foothills at around 6,000 feet to over 14,000 feet at the top of Mt. Elbert.

“Much of our historical data about species' population-level responses to climate change comes from observational studies, which can suggest but not confirm causation,” said lead author Anne Marie Panetta. “Here, we show the mechanisms directly at work.”


The study dates back 25 years, when researchers created experimental plots of flowers in a field site located at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. The Warming Meadow is a site where suspended infrared radiators warm plots year-round, mimicking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crops-confuse-global-warming/">global warming</a>. 

The Warming Meadow is the world's longest-running, heat-activated climate experiment. Radiators used at this site raise average soil temperatures by around 3 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat also reduces soil moisture by up to 20 percent and advances snowmelt by up to a month, allowing experts to examine the potential impacts of future climate change.

“The level of warming and the drier conditions in this experiment are not only realistic, but actually at the lower end of expectations for the next 50 to 100 years,” said Panetta. “Our estimates could be conservative. We have simulated a level of change that some systems have already seen and others will see.”

The study ultimately revealed that, in plots where the Northern rock jasmine naturally occurs, the engineered warming caused rapid declines in the number of seedlings and reproductive plants. This forced population sizes close to zero. 

The impact of the increased temperatures on multiple stages in the plant's life cycle calls attention to the growing challenge of developing effective strategies and policies to save threatened populations.


“We had thought that the plant's evolutionary adaptations might save it, or that natural seed dispersal might help it survive,” said Panetta. “But the fact that we've seen extinction happen regardless bodes poorly.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mountain wildflower species could be wiped out by rising temps

A study from the University of Colorado Boulder has revealed...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE
</div></figure>



On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop and sunlight barely penetrates through the polar winter. It was here, however, that an international team of scientists found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predatory-worms-were-terror-beasts-half-a-billion-years-ago/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence of sea monsters</a> that would change our understanding of ocean life in the past.



This video captures the discovery of Timorebestia fossils that had been hidden for more than 500 million years in the Sirius Passet formation. The "terror beasts," as they are called, are a hidden chapter in the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth</a>, showing that sophisticated predator-prey interactions occurred much earlier than previously envisioned.



Dr. Jakob Vinther and his research team at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol</a>, in collaboration with researchers at the <a href="https://eng.kopri.re.kr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Korean Polar Research Institute</a>, braved extreme weather conditions at 82.5 north latitude to locate these giant creatures. Using sophisticated electron microprobe analysis, they revealed the detailed anatomy of the animals, including their muscle and nerve tissues.



The find upsets the traditional timeline of sea predators. Although we've long appreciated that Cambrian oceans were at one time ruled by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3-UgA3_o&amp;list=PL1QLQMW9MWDwpkFOnvgAmu7wT6rZmYqdJ&amp;index=19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arthropods</a>, these discoveries indicate that relatives of arrow worms were first to dominate the seas. These worms were building sophisticated food webs several million years before other predator groups arose.



Each fossil is a story of ancient hunger, with fossil stomach contents revealing these meter-long beasts dined on heavily armored arthropods regularly, cementing their place as the ocean's first apex predators.



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-385-million-year-old-trees-discovered">385-million-year-old trees discovered</h2>



Scientists have uncovered something extraordinary just two hours north of New York City. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-oldest-forest-discovered-close-to-new-york-city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world's oldest forest</a>, dating back 385 million years, offers a window into how Earth's first complex forests shaped our planet's atmosphere.



Located near <a href="https://townofcairo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cairo, New York</a>, in Greene County, these weren't merely primitive plants struggling to survive. These were sophisticated trees with root systems remarkably similar to modern forests. This ancient woodland predates dinosaurs by 140 million years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cairo-forest-discovery">The Cairo forest discovery</h2>



385 million years ago, upstate New York was a tropical paradise near the equator. Thanks to continental drift, this ancient forest has traveled thousands of miles to its current location.



The fossil forest sits in an abandoned quarry, roughly half the size of a football field. This represents just a slice of what was likely a massive forest system stretching from New York into Pennsylvania.



Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the <a href="https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York State Museum</a>, made the discovery in 2009. While scouting the former highway department property, his trained eye spotted wandering patterns in the stone that looked like marine features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-age-and-preservation">Revolutionary age and preservation</h2>



The site contains 385-million-year-old rocks with fossilized woody roots forming horizontal patterns up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide. As Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, explains: "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees."



This discovery pushes back advanced tree evolution by millions of years. The research, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a> in December 2019, fundamentally changes our understanding of when complex forests first emerged.



Researchers believe a massive flood buried the forest floor, creating perfect fossilization conditions. Over millions of years, sediment hardened into rock, preserving these root patterns like nature's time capsule.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-archaeopteris-the-first-modern-tree">Meet Archaeopteris: the first modern tree</h2>



The star of this ancient forest is Archaeopteris – not to be confused with the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx. This tree was far older and more revolutionary.



William Stein from <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binghamton University</a> describes the roots as "strikingly modern, essentially what you'd see outside in my yard right now." These weren't simple root systems you'd expect from ancient plants.



Some fossilized roots are six inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, forming 36-foot-wide (11-meter) patterns. These giants grew up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall with five-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) trunks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-changing-impact">Climate-changing impact</h2>



These trees fundamentally changed Earth's environment. Kevin Boyce, a Stanford University geoscientist, explains how their deep roots triggered "weathering," chemical reactions that pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.



This process dropped atmospheric CO2 levels from 10-15 times higher than today to roughly modern concentrations. These ancient trees helped create atmospheric conditions that made complex life possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-forest-ecosystem">Ancient forest ecosystem</h2>



The forest was remarkably diverse. Scientists identified Eospermatopteris, palm tree-like plants with short roots that reached 30 feet (9 meters) tall but lacked woody structure. The forest also housed cladoxylopsids and a mysterious third species still being studied.



All reproduced through spores rather than seeds – millions of years before seeds evolved. This tropical environment had no grass, flowers, or flying insects, just towering trees creating Earth's first complex forest canopy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-significance">Scientific significance</h2>



Before this finding, the Gilboa forest, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, held the "oldest forest" title. Cairo's trees are 2-3 million years older, showing that complex forest ecosystems developed much faster than scientists believed possible.



Patricia Gensel, a <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> paleobotanist, notes: "The size of those root systems is really changing the picture. Even 20 years ago, researchers assumed trees with such complex root systems didn't evolve so early."



The Cairo site presents three unique root systems, suggesting Devonian period forests were diverse ecosystems with different trees occupying different environmental niches, much like today's forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-preservation-efforts">Modern preservation efforts</h2>



In 2022, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey secured a $170,000 grant for the town of Cairo to construct specialized fencing around the fossil forest site. The town plans to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of creating an educational center and working lab on-site.



Joe Hasenkopf, chair of the Cairo Planning Board, hopes to partner with educational institutions to create a research facility serving scientists, students, and the public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-today-s-climate">Lessons for today's climate</h2>



Why does a 385-million-year-old forest matter today? It shows how dramatically forests can change Earth's climate. These ancient woodlands created the atmospheric conditions supporting complex life.



Understanding how prehistoric forests transformed the planet helps us appreciate modern forests' critical role in addressing climate change. Forests remain Earth's most effective carbon capture systems.



These prehistoric trees changed Earth's atmosphere by pulling massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. As we face modern climate challenges, this ancient forest reminds us of trees' incredible power to transform our planet's environment.



The next time you walk through a forest, remember you're experiencing an ecosystem whose blueprint was established 385 million years ago in upstate New York. These ancient pioneers didn't just survive – they thrived and changed the world forever.



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ New York is the site of the world's oldest...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Fresh,Radish,Harvest,On,Soil,In,Garden.

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Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving fall garden, and this guide lays out the best vegetables and herbs to plant now for a fruitful autumn harvest. 



Fast-growing leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, and arugula perform especially well in the waning summer heat, with harvests beginning as soon as 30 days. 



These cool-season crops relish the transition into fall, offering repeated yields with cut-and-come-again methods.



Root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beets also excel during this period. Radishes deliver satisfaction in under a month, while carrots and beets mature in about two months. Employing succession planting ensures a continuous stream of produce deep into the cooler months. 



For a boost of fresh flavor, herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and chervil are excellent picks. These heat-loving varieties flourish in July’s warmth and are harvest-ready in about 30 days, especially when sown continuously.



Gardeners in zones 6 through 9 can benefit from planting bush beans and snap peas, which don’t require trellising and are ideal for compact plots. 



Maturing in 50–60 days, they’re a smart choice for quick, protein-rich harvests. For those in hotter regions, heat-tolerant crops such as okra and southern peas provide reliable yields and thrive in scorching conditions.



This guide emphasizes more than crop selection—it highlights the importance of timing, soil preparation, and ongoing sowing techniques. 



With thoughtful planning and attention to regional climate needs, even late-summer gardeners can enjoy fresh salads, hearty stews, and the satisfaction of a robust, homegrown harvest well into fall.



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

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A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

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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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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 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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" 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> (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



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.

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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" 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> 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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" 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 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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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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 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

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" 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 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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://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

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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...

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