Giant viruses were once mysterious. Now, they appear essential to the ocean's balance. These viruses infect protists - single-celled marine life like algae, amoebas, and flagellates. 



Protists sit at the base of the food web. When giant viruses infect them, the effects ripple through the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-based-viruses-discovered-that-trap-carbon-and-combat-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ecosystem</a>. Sometimes, these infections even trigger harmful algal blooms. These blooms can hurt marine animals and affect public health.



Researchers now want to know more. If we understand these viruses better, we might predict when and where blooms will occur. That would help protect coastal communities. A team at the <a href="https://www.earth.miami.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science</a> has taken a big step forward.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-giant-viruses-influence-marine-life">How giant viruses influence marine life</h2>



The research team analyzed vast sets of publicly available environmental DNA sequences collected from marine waters around the world. 



By applying their specialized tool to this massive data pool, they were able to recover 230 previously unknown, high-quality giant virus <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/23-new-marine-bacteria-species-discovered-that-influence-global-ocean-cycles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">genomes</a>.



The genomes originated from samples collected across a diverse range of oceanic regions, stretching from the frozen Arctic Ocean in the north to the remote reaches of the South Pacific.



Among the sampling locations, the Baltic Sea stood out. This brackish body of water, known for its unique ecological conditions, yielded the highest number of discoveries - 108 high-quality viral genomes. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-diversity-of-giant-viruses">Diversity of giant viruses</h2>



In addition to these complete sequences, the team also identified 398 partial giant virus genomes, expanding the known diversity even further.



The recovered viruses spanned several well-known taxonomic orders. Most belonged to Imitervirales and Algavirales, two dominant groups in marine viral ecology. Remarkably, the researchers also detected members of the rare Mirusviricota order. 



This group is particularly significant because it shows evolutionary links between giant viruses and herpesviruses, suggesting a much deeper history than previously thought.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-giant-virus-dna-and-protein-makeup">Giant virus DNA and protein makeup</h2>



Many of the new viral <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-viruses-found-in-yellowstones-hot-springs-may-be-near-the-root-of-all-life-on-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">genomes</a> were large - some over 1.3 million base pairs long. Genomes in the Algavirales group were among the biggest. Pandoravirales showed the highest GC content, which affects how the DNA behaves and is processed.



The researchers didn’t just stop at sequencing. They studied proteins inside these viruses and calculated nitrogen and sulfur in each protein chain. 



These values offer clues about virus-host dynamics. A high nitrogen content might drain host resources during infection.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-virus-genes-control-how-hosts-make-energy">Virus genes control how hosts make energy</h2>



The team found genes for photosynthesis and carbon metabolism. These include genes involved in glycolysis, the TCA cycle, and even chlorophyll-binding proteins. 



“We discovered that giant viruses possess genes involved in cellular functions such as carbon metabolism and photosynthesis - traditionally found only in cellular organisms," said Benjamin Minch, the lead author of the study.



Imitervirales carried many of these genes. Algavirales carried fewer, despite larger <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-recreate-an-ancient-war-trick-to-defeat-viruses/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">genome</a> sizes. This hints at two different infection strategies. Imitervirales might rely more on hijacking and augmenting host metabolism.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-hotspot-for-viral-diversity">A hotspot for viral diversity </h2>



The Baltic Sea turned out to be a hotspot for viral diversity. Researchers found many new proteins there, including 88% of the novel proteins identified in this study. 



Salinity, depth, and bacterial production played major roles in shaping these viral communities.



“This study allowed us to create a framework to improve existing tools for detecting novel viruses that could aid in our ability to monitor pollution and pathogens in our waterways,” Minch added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-photosynthesis-a-hijacked-process">Photosynthesis: A hijacked process</h2>



Newly discovered viral proteins linked to photosystems I and II, cytochrome b6f, and ATP synthase suggest that giant viruses can tweak their host’s photosynthetic machinery. That helps the virus maintain the host's energy production during infection.



“Giant viruses are often the main cause of death for many phytoplankton, which serve as the base of the food web supporting ocean ecosystems and food sources,” said Mohammad Moniruzzaman, co-author of the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tools-and-open-access-data">Tools and open access data</h2>



All this was made possible by <a href="https://gitlab.com/benminch1/BEREN" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BEREN</a> - a new tool that spots giant viruses in public DNA libraries. The team avoided re-analyzing datasets already mined, like Tara Oceans, and focused on untapped sources.



Giant viruses remain one of biology’s great surprises. With just 1,800 marine genomes recovered to date, there’s much more to find. The new genomes add weight to the idea that viruses shape entire ecosystems.



The study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44298-025-00122-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">npj Viruses</a>.



The full dataset, genomes, and code are open-access on <a href="https://figshare.com/projects/Expansion_of_the_genomic_and_functional_diversity_of_global_ocean_giant_viruses/214120" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Figshare</a> and <a href="https://zenodo.org/records/14782687" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zenodo</a>. 



Image Credit: Grieg Steward, Ph.D., <a href="https://manoa.hawaii.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa</a>.



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Giant viruses hijack ocean plants to control marine food webs

Giant viruses were once mysterious. Now, they appear essential to the ocean's balance. These viruses infect protists - single-celled marine life like algae, amoebas, and flagellates. Protists sit at the base of the food web. When giant viruses infect them, the effects ripple through the ecosystem. Sometimes, these infections even trigger harmful algal blooms. These blooms can hurt marine animals and affect public health. Researchers now want to know more. If we understand these viruses better, we might predict when and where blooms will occur. That would...

Honey bees are famous for their “waggle dance," the behavior they use to tell hive mates that they have found a good source of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-people-think-insects-will-become-a-sustainable-food-source/">food</a>. The dance has several different components that indicate the distance to the food, the direction to fly and the richness of the find.&nbsp;



Although the bees combine these elements to communicate useful and quite complex information to other foragers in the hive, scientists have stopped short of calling this a “language.” After all, language is always learned, but bees are born knowing this behavior and do not have to learn it. Well, that was the thinking until the publication of a new study by researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the <a href="https://english.cas.cn/">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a>, and UC San Diego.



The experts observed how a successful foraging bee returns to the hive and performs a waggle dance to communicate that it has located a good source of pollen, nectar or water, and provides information about the presence, quality, identity, direction and distance of the source so that nest mates can find and use it. The other foraging bees gather round the recently returned individual and watch its behavior, sometimes following in its tracks as it dances, in order to learn the details of the resource.&nbsp;



This type of learning is known as social learning, when one individual learns by observing or interacting with another. It has been shown that bees learn about details of a resource by observing the waggle dance and interacting with the dancer. However, it is not known whether young and inexperienced bees are also perhaps learning how to dance by watching the dancing individual.&nbsp;



In the new study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.ade1702">Science</a>, the researchers set out to test whether bees can use the waggle dance effectively without ever having seen it performed before by others.&nbsp;



The experts populated five experimental hives with a cohort of one-day-old bees. In some of the hives there were other foraging bees that performed waggle dances, and in others there were no waggle-dancing bees. The researchers monitored the introduced cohort until they began to show their own waggle-dance behavior and then assessed the effectiveness of this behavior.&nbsp;



“As these bees aged, we monitored the colonies until we observed the first waggle dances and then observed the same dancers 20 days later when they had more foraging and dancing experience,” said Dr. DONG Shihao, first author of the study.



The team found that young bees that had witnessed others doing waggle-dances before were better at performing the behavior themselves. Those that did not have the opportunity to follow any dances before their own first dance display produced significantly more disordered dances with larger errors in waggle angle and incorrectly encoded distance.



“When the same bees were older and had experience of dance following and dancing, they significantly reduced divergence angle errors and produced more orderly dances. However, they were never able to produce normal distance encoding,” said Dr. DONG.



The results indicate that waggle-dance behavior is not completely genetically pre-programmed. Although bees are born with the innate knowledge of how to perform the components of the dance, they refine their skills and become more proficient by learning from others. This is important because this complex communication can save foraging bees time and energy by allowing them to fly directly to a resource, rather than having to search around for it in the environment.&nbsp;



But why should honey bees use social learning to improve their waggle dancing, rather than being born with a fully programmed instinctive ability?



“Learning is a useful way to refine behaviors for local conditions. We suggest that the unique topologies of each colony’s dance floor make it advantageous for novice dancers to learn from more experienced ones. Another possibility is that experienced dancers may transmit distance encodings based on local optic flow to nest mates,” said TAN Ken of XTBG.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Honey bees refine their dancing skills by watching others

Honey bees are famous for their “waggle dance," the behavior...

In June 2021, the Pacific Northwest experienced one of its worst <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-caused-the-record-2021-heatwave-in-north-america/">heatwaves</a> in history, with Canada and the states of Washington and Oregon setting historical records of extremely high temperatures. To better understand what factors made it so severe, a team of climate scientists from the <a href="https://www.pdx.edu/">Portland State University</a> (PSU) has provided a detailed meteorological analysis of the progression of this heatwave, and compared the atmospheric conditions associated with the 2021 event with other similar historical events.



“It’s like taking the symptoms and diagnosing what it was that happened to cause something so severe to happen to the system,” said study lead author Paul Loikith, an associate professor of Geography and director of&nbsp;<a href="https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/portland-state-climate-science/home">PSU's Climate Science Lab</a>. “We looked into a bunch of different factors that have been known to drive heat waves in the region to see if they were there with this heatwave. Were they normal but way more severe, or did something unique happen that we haven’t seen before?”



The analysis revealed that, although this heatwave largely shared the same meteorological features and processes as other heatwaves in the Pacific Northwest, each aspect of it was stronger. Its main driver was a large ridge of high pressure – known as a heat dome – in which air sinks under areas of high pressure, preventing clouds from forming and maximizing solar heating during the day. One of the reasons this ridge was so strong was that a storm with an atmospheric river (a long, narrow band of water vapor which releases massive amounts of moisture) moved into Alaska a week before. Then, water vapor condensed, releasing heat that accumulated in the atmosphere and caused the ridge to further intensify.



“This was more like a wintertime ridge in its physical structure and characteristics, which are bigger than summertime ridges, but occurring just after the summer solstice, we had maximum solar heating and the ability for the air to get really, really hot,” Loikith explained.



After reaching peak strength over southern British Columbia when it was 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the surface, the ridge warmed at a rate of 10 degrees Celsius per kilometer while descending to Seattle, Portland, and Pendleton. Although the air aloft was cool by human standards, it was quite hot for that altitude, and, when it was brought down to the surface, it turned extremely hot. In addition, stronger offshore winds blowing from the land to the coast further increased the air temperatures. Interestingly, the heatwave ended abruptly when a surge of ocean air displaced the heat and moved the system eastward.



Better understanding the complexity of factors coming together to cause such extreme phenomena could help forecast similar – or even more severe - future events. “These features coming together in this way will continue to be really rare, but in the future as the climate continues to warm, you will not need as strong of a weather system to make it extremely hot by historical standards,” Loikith concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-22-0284.1">Monthly Weather Review</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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What caused the massive Pacific Northwest heatwave?

In June 2021, the Pacific Northwest experienced one of its...

A new study from <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">UC Davis</a> reveals that animals in the Brazilian Amazon are threatened by climate change and the gradual transition of the tropical rainforest into savanna, also known as savannization.&nbsp;



"Climate change will affect species persistence and distribution, particularly in high-diversity ecosystems like the Amazon. Studies predict that as temperature and deforestation increase and precipitation patterns change in the Amazon, areas along its southern and eastern borders will suffer large-scale savannization, the conversion of tropical forest to degraded savannah-like vegetation," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"Here, we aim to identify the terrestrial mammal species potentially most at risk from savannization by studying their use of natural forest and savannah habitats within four protected areas, using camera-trap surveys and community occupancy models."



The experts determined that most land-based mammals in the Brazilian Amazon, from jaguars to capybara, will struggle for survival once they lose their forest habitat. In addition, the researchers found that even animals that use both forest and savanna habitats - like pumas - are vulnerable to savannization.



“We’re losing Amazon forest as we speak,” said study lead author Daniel Rocha. “The Amazon’s biodiversity is very susceptible to climate change effects. It’s not just local; it’s a global phenomenon. We cannot stop this just by law enforcement, for example. These species are more susceptible than we realized, and even protected areas can’t protect them as much as we thought.”



While monkeys and other animals that live in trees will certainly be impacted by savannization, the UC Davis team wanted to investigate how this transition will affect land-based mammals.



The experts used camera traps to conduct surveys of 31 land-based mammal species in the southern Brazilian Amazon, which consists of both rainforest and savanna. Based on community occupancy models, the analysis revealed that only a few species preferred the savanna habitat.



Rocha pointed out that the savanna used in the modeling study is pristine - not degraded - so the negative effects of savannization among animals will likely be even stronger.



“Unfortunately, there are more losers than winners,” said Rocha, who is currently an assistant professor at Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma. “Most Amazon species, when they can choose between good forests and good savanna, they choose the forest. That’s true even for species considered ‘generalists,’ which use both habitats.&nbsp; As we lose forests, they suffer, too.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acv.12853">Animal Conservation</a>.



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



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Amazon animals will suffer as the rainforest turns into savanna

A new study from UC Davis reveals that animals in...

Wildfires are known to pump <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-damages-the-ozone-layer/">smoke</a> up into the stratosphere, where the particles can drift for more than a year. By focusing on the “Black Summer” megafire that devastated eastern Australia from December 2019 to January 2020, pumping over one million tons of smoke into the atmosphere, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) has found that smoke particles can trigger chemical reactions that erode the protective ozone layer protecting the Earth from ultraviolet radiation.



Building upon a previous study that identified a chemical reaction between fire aerosols and chlorine-containing compounds originally emitted by factories in the form of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that produces an ozone-depleting molecule (chlorine monoxide), the experts discovered that aged wildfire smoke particles play a disproportionate role in this process, enhancing ozone loss rates even over mid-latitudes, at relatively warm stratospheric temperatures.



By triggering this reaction, the Australian wildfires likely contributed to a three to five percent depletion of total ozone at mid-latitudes in the southern hemisphere, in regions over Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America and Africa. The scientists were surprised to find that these fires had an effect even in the polar regions, affecting the edges of the ozone hole over Antarctica, and widening it by 2.5 million square kilometers.



The long-term effects of wildfires on ozone recovery are still unclear. Although the ozone hole – and ozone depletion around the globe – are currently on a recovery track due to sustained international efforts to phase-out ozone depleting chemicals, the recent findings suggest that, as long as these chemicals persist in the atmosphere, massive wildfires may spark reactions that could temporarily deplete ozone.



“The Australian fires of 2020 were really a wake-up call for the science community,” said study lead author Susan Solomon, a professor of Environmental Studies at MIT. “The effect of wildfires was not previously accounted for in [projections of] ozone recovery. And I think that effect may depend on whether fires become more frequent and intense as the planet warms.”



“There’s now sort of a race against time. Hopefully, chlorine-containing compounds will have been destroyed, before the frequency of fires increases with climate change. This is all the more reason to be vigilant about global warming and these chlorine-containing compounds,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05683-0">Nature</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Wildfire smoke particles erode the ozone layer

Wildfires are known to pump smoke up into the stratosphere,...

Since rice is one of the most important crops in the world, constituting the primary food source for more than half of the Earth’s population, protecting rice plantations from disease such as bacterial blight (BB) – an infection caused by the bacterium&nbsp;Xanthomonas oryzae that leads to losses of hundreds of millions of dollars each year – is essential in modern agriculture.&nbsp;



Although one of the best strategies to control BB and other crop diseases is to grow genetically resistant cultivars, since pathogens often evolve rapidly, scientists have to constantly explore new genes that could offer resistance and apply them to breeding. To be able to do this, they must regularly sample multiple rice plants at different times of the year and measure their responses to bacterial infection, which is a manually intensive and time-consuming labor.



Now, a research team led by <a href="https://www.zju.edu.cn/english/">Zhejiang University</a> (ZJU) has developed an innovative method combining unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, popularly known as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drones-can-assist-efforts-to-save-bees-and-other-pollinators/">drones</a>) and machine learning algorithms to assess BB outbreaks in the field and screen for potentially resistant genes. After setting up two experimental sites in the Zhejiang Province in China containing 60 types of rice cultivars with different resistances to BB, the experts used drones equipped with regular and multispectral cameras to image the crop sites at different stages of development. Afterwards, they combined these images with accumulated temperature (AT) data and used them to train a deep learning computer model to evaluate the severity of BB.&nbsp;



By testing whether a model trained with data gathered at one site could be supplied with a small amount of training data from another site to improve its predictions for the latter, the experts found that a transfer of only 20 percent of new data was a useful and cost-effective updating strategy leading to reliable predictions of BB severity across different sites.



In a next step, the scientists employed this method to effectively measure BB severity using drones to perform quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping. “QTL mark the location in the genome where a gene controls specific quantitative traits, such as susceptibility to a disease. Mapping QTL to crop responses under pathogen stress can help breeders identify the functions or traits of crops that a given set of QTLs controls,” explained study senior author Xuping Feng, an expert in Biosystems Engineering at ZJU. Through this innovative approach, Feng and his colleagues managed to detect both previously identified QTLs related to BB resistance and three new ones.



Implementing these findings in real plantations all over the globe could help minimize crop losses due to disease and secure sufficient food sources. “Compared with manual measurements of disease severity, UAV remote sensing techniques enable us to gather large-scale phenotypic information rapidly, which provides technical support for accelerating breeding research,” Dr. Feng concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/plantphenomics.0019">Plant Phenomics</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Drones can assess the severity of crop diseases

Since rice is one of the most important crops in...

Solar,System,And,Space,Objects.,Elements,Of,This,Image,Furnished

A new experiment examines a hypothetical planet between Mars and Jupiter that would disturb our solar system and push <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/almost-no-place-on-earth-is-safe-from-air-pollution/">Earth</a> into outer space. <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">UCR</a> astrophysicist Stephen Kane held this experiment to address two notable gaps in planetary science.&nbsp;



The first is the gap between the size of terrestrial and giant gas planets. The largest terrestrial planet is Earth, and the smallest gas planet is Neptune, which is 17 times more massive than Earth. There is nothing in between. 



“In other star systems there are many planets with masses in that gap. We call them super-Earths,” said Kane.&nbsp;



The other gap is the empty space between Mars and Jupiter. “Planetary scientists often wish there was something in between those two planets. It seems like wasted real estate,” he said.&nbsp;



These gaps could offer important insights into our solar system and Earth’s evolution. To fill them in, Kane ran computer simulations of a hypothetical planet between Mars and Jupiter with a range of different masses, and then observed the effects on the orbits of all other planets.&nbsp;



The results were mostly disastrous for the solar system. “This fictional planet gives a nudge to Jupiter that is just enough to destabilize everything else,” said Kane. “Despite many astronomers having wished for this extra planet, it’s a good thing we don’t have it.”



Jupiter is larger than all other planets combined and its gravitational influence is profound. If any celestial object like a super-Earth or a passing star disturbed Jupiter, all other planets would be profoundly affected.



The presence of a super-Earth could eject Mercury, Venus and Earth from the solar system. It could also destabilize the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, tossing them into outer space as well. The shape of the Earth’s orbit would also change, making it far less habitable, if not ending life entirely.



This experiment demonstrates the fragility of our solar system and serves as a reminder of the delicate order that holds the planets together around the sun.



“Our solar system is more finely tuned than I appreciated before. It all works like intricate clock gears. Throw more gears into the mix and it all breaks,” said Kane.&nbsp;



The research is published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/acbb6b">The Planetary Science Journal</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Study reveals the delicate balance of our solar system

A new experiment examines a hypothetical planet between Mars and...

The <a href="https://www.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame</a> has recently conducted a study to determine if products containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) could negatively impact human <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/loneliness-among-college-students-linked-to-unhealthy-diets/">health</a>. These substances make up a toxic class of fluorine compounds known as a “forever chemicals."



The researchers tested fluorinated containers made with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic. These containers are often used for household cleaners, pesticides, personal care products, and food packaging.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study revealed that, in as little as seven days of exposure, PFAS were able to migrate from the fluorinated containers into olive oil, ketchup, and mayonnaise.&nbsp;



“Not only did we measure significant concentrations of PFAS in these containers, we can estimate the PFAS that were leaching off creating a direct path of exposure,” said study co-author Professor <a href="https://news.nd.edu/people/graham-peaslee/">Graham Peaslee</a>.



Exposure to PFAS has been associated with kidney, testicular, and prostate cancer, low birth weight, and thyroid disease.



The types of containers used in the study are not currently intended for food storage. However, there are no laws or government regulations to prevent such use.&nbsp;



Moreover, PFAS could infiltrate our food sources indirectly if pesticides stored in these containers are used on crops. Furthermore, since PFAS are forever chemicals, there are multiple other potential paths to exposure.&nbsp;



“We measured concentrations of PFOA that significantly exceeded the limit set by the EPA’s 2022 Health Advisory Limits,” said Peaslee. “Now, consider that not only do we know that the chemicals are migrating into the substances stored in them, but that the containers themselves work their way back into the environment through landfills. PFAS doesn’t biodegrade. It doesn’t go away. Once these chemicals are used, they get into the groundwater, they get into our biological systems, and they cause significant health problems.”



This study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00083">Environmental Science and Technology Letters</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Plastic containers may release forever chemicals into food

The University of Notre Dame has recently conducted a study...

Coffee crops are an important source of income for millions of people around the world, but with the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-disruption-threatens-humanitys-survival/">climate</a> changes anticipated, coffee plantations may be in danger of dying or failing to thrive. Coffee plants are sensitive to climate variability and change, and have fairly narrow ranges of tolerance to temperature and precipitation. It is already considered that climate change will reduce the currently suitable areas for coffee cultivation by as much as 50 percent, which would have serious economic consequences.&nbsp;



However, a recent study has highlighted another way in which climate change is set to affect coffee cultivation. Annual yields are susceptible to certain climate hazards, such as heat waves, droughts, frosts and floods, all of which are likely to become more frequent in future. In addition, when these hazards occur simultaneously over coffee-producing regions, they can cause large-scale crop failures that threaten the global coffee trade.&nbsp;



In order to better understand how large-scale climate modes such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) may lead to simultaneous coffee crop failures in multiple countries, the researchers conducted a systematic analysis of literature on climate hazards and compound events in coffee producing regions between 1980 and 2020. They identified 12 climate hazards that threaten coffee crops in the top 12 coffee-producing countries, for example, when temperatures are too cold during the flowering season, or too warm during the growing time.



They found that the annual number of hazards globally has increased since 1980. In fact, most of the regions considered (excluding Uganda and India) have experienced a greater number of hazards in the past decade alone. Since 2010, there have been five years during which at least 20 hazards occurred across all regions, compared to just once in the years before this. This implies that large-scale coffee supply is at risk, globally, from compounding climate hazards.



The researchers state: “In 2016, for example, every region experienced at least one hazard, with most of the top growing-regions (northern and southern Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia) experiencing multiple hazards simultaneously.”



The analysis, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000134">PLOS Climate</a>, also reveals that the type of climate hazards have changed over the past 40 years from those associated with overly cool conditions to those occurring in overly warm or dry circumstances. The scientists say more research is needed, however, to understand what kind of adaptations might mitigate global coffee crop failures under these new conditions.



“Our results suggest that El Niño is the primary mode in explaining compound climate event variability, both globally and regionally. Region-level hazards are therefore indicative of systemic risk to coffee production, rather than local risk. As with other crops, a systemic risk to the global coffee trade is posed by synchronized crop failures. With climate change projections showing a continued rise in temperatures in the tropics is likely, we posit that coffee production can expect ongoing systemic shocks in response to spatially compounding climate hazards," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



“Since 1980, global coffee production has become increasingly at risk of synchronized crop failures, which can be driven by climate hazards that affect multiple key coffee-producing areas simultaneously.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Global coffee trade is increasingly threatened by climate change

Coffee crops are an important source of income for millions...

Big,Lion,Lying,On,Savannah,Grass.,Landscape,With,Characteristic,Trees

The theory of sexual selection proposes that, where males have to compete to mate with females, the males may develop indicators of "good genes," in order to impress and gain access to females. Indicators may include things such as large body size, impressive horns or feathers, or the ability to win physical fights. In theory, the males with the best genes will sire more offspring and thereby their impressive traits will spread within the population, leading to increased success for all.&nbsp;



Past field studies have sometimes shown that this is not how it works in nature. In fact, males can sometimes go to extremes to demonstrate their fitness and this may impact females negatively and lead to less successful reproduction for them. In the end, with fewer offspring being born to the females, recruitment into the population may diminish to the extent that the population may even collapse completely.&nbsp;



Scientists from <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a> and the University of Lausanne have now developed a model that explains how so-called "good genes" in males can sometimes be disadvantageous for females and, indeed, for an entire population. The model, published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211668120">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, tested theories of sexual competition and compared the results with data from various population experiments, in order to provide a possible explanation for why sexual selection can improve male condition while, at the same time, being disadvantageous for female fitness and population viability.



“Where males evolve selfish traits that help them individually win, they can actually end up causing the population to crash – it’s a form of evolutionary suicide. Even when females evolve to counter male harm and prevent population collapse, the population still decreases significantly, reducing its viability," said study first author Dr. Ewan Flintham.



A prime example of this is the phenomenon of infanticide in lion prides. Dominant males may kill offspring sired by other males, leading to lower reproductive rate for females and, potentially, lower recruitment into lion populations. Other examples include the mating practice of male bed bugs that inseminate females by piercing holes directly into the body cavity, courting antelope that chase and harass females to the point of exhaustion, and brawling male elephant seals that trample pups to death while defending a harem of females.



The team’s model considered different scenarios where individuals vary in their condition. Good condition is considered to be evidence of good genes, but male animals in good condition will experience more intense sexual conflict as they compete more for access to females. If this competition has the effect of harming females, it may well end up backfiring and generating a negative association between male condition and population size.&nbsp;



The new model provides an explanation for why some experiments show male condition improving, without female fitness or population viability improving alongside. This occurs because sexual selection favors genes that improve condition, which can then lead to more sexual conflict and more significant harm to females. Population decline or crash can result from this situation, according to the predictions of the model. This finding contrasts with the common view that sexual selection on good genes also improves mean fitness of the population.



Sexual interactions like these are an important component of understanding population demographics and conservation. For example, where there are more males, sexual competition intensifies, meaning harm towards females is more likely. This is also true in human-managed populations, for example domestic carp, where males and females must be isolated during spawning season.



Dr. Flintham completed the study as part of his research at the <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/qmee-cdt/">Centre for Doctoral Training in Quantitative and Modelling Skills in Ecology and Evolution</a>&nbsp;at Imperial. His project supervisor and study co-author was Professor Vincent Savolainen, director of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/georgina-mace-living-planet/">Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet&nbsp;</a>at Imperial.



“Male harm evolved in nature as something that was supposed to be good, but is detrimental to females and the whole population. Questions like how and why this happens can only be answered with quantitative methods – data and mathematical models – which can be just as important as field studies,” said Savolainen.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</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.

Good genes do not always lead to evolutionary success

The theory of sexual selection proposes that, where males have...

In social groups, male and female <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ostriches-double-kneecap/">ostriches</a> are affected differently by cooperation and competition. According to a new study from <a href="https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a>, this depends on males and females having different interests and could determine which group sizes work best.



To understand the pros and cons of living in a group, the research team studied ostriches over a seven-year period in different sized groups. At the start of each breeding season, various numbers of males and females were placed inside of enclosures to create experimental groups similar to those seen in the wild. 



For the study, natural incubation behavior was prevented by temporarily removing ostrich eggs. This allowed the researchers to measure the effect of group size and cooperation on reproductive success based on the number of offspring born.



“We decided to study the ostriches under controlled conditions in order to distinguish the effect of individual differences from group attributes on reproductive success and find out how competition and cooperation changed with the size of the group,” explained study co-author Julian Melgar.



The results showed that males and females have different interests. In particular, males wanted to continue mating even when the females had already started thinking about incubating eggs. This resulted in many eggs being crushed.



During the study, males were driven by competition while females were driven by cooperation. These results have identified that males thrive in relatively small groups of their own gender, while females can cooperate with others and thrive in larger groups.&nbsp;



“The difference in interests between the sexes could help us to explain why the size of ostrich groups varies so much in nature,” said Melgar. The optimal group size appears to depend on the balance between the sexes, competition and cooperation within the group.



Ostriches parent through cooperation. Groups breed in a communal nest and individuals take turns to incubate the eggs. This cooperative breeding comes at a price – there can be tough competition for mates and for whose eggs get incubated.



“As the importance of our results applies not only to ostriches, but also to other organisms that form groups, the results could help us to improve our understanding of the evolutionary driving forces behind the emergence of group living and cooperation,” concluded Melgar.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77170">eLife</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Male ostriches are driven by competition, not cooperation

In social groups, male and female ostriches are affected differently...

Pollinator populations are rapidly declining all around the world, causing a vast variety of plant species to vanish too. In North America, for instance, some pollinator species have fallen by over 95 percent along with many native plants, while in some parts of Europe, wild pollinator diversity has more than halved, and a third of bee, butterfly, and hoverfly species are currently facing extinction. Due to this worrisome global situation, better methods to monitor pollinators are urgently needed.&nbsp;



Now, a team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/">Curtin University</a> in Australia has examined DNA traces – known as “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmental-dna-can-help-track-endangered-species/">environmental DNA</a>” (eDNA) - left by animal pollinators on native flora in the Helena and Aurora Range in western Australia, and were surprised to discover traces of not only insect pollinators, as expected, but also mammal and bird ones. While highlighting the benefits of using eDNA to examine the interaction between plants and their pollinators, these findings suggests that the range of pollinators may be larger than previously thought.



“We know the significant role that animal pollinators play in the reproduction of about 90 percent of flowering plants, but this crucial relationship is under threat as many of these species are experiencing declines across the globe,” said study lead author Joshua Newton, a PhD student in Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin. “That means effective pollinator monitoring methods are now more important than ever before, as we search for new, fast, and accurate ways of safeguarding the future of endangered flora.”



The analysis of eDNA helped scientists identify five mammal species (including the western pygmy possum), eight bird species (including singing honeyeaters and yellow-throated miners), and 57 arthropod species (including several moth species previously unknown to act as pollinators). The native flowers that attracted the greatest diversity of animal visitors were the larger, more generalist species Banksia arborea (commonly known as Yilgarn dryandra) and&nbsp;Grevillea georgeana.



“We were especially pleased to find evidence of a western pygmy possum visiting a flower because at the time it was the first eDNA metabarcoding based identification of an interaction of a mammal or bird species with flowers, to our knowledge,” said study co-author Bill Bateman, a wildlife biologist at Curtin.



“This finding shows us that the eDNA metabarcoding of flowers offers a more complete set of floral visitors and may prove an effective tool for monitoring rare plant species that are growing in remote regions, receive relatively few pollinator visits, or are visited by cryptic animal species.”



The use of eDNA is currently in the early stage of application in terrestrial systems, but soon it may help identifying not only pollinators, but also multiple other species - such as pests or invasive spies - that interact in various ways with plants.



“eDNA offers an opportunity to explore and monitor ecosystems at multiple levels - not just what we are able to easily see, hear, and identify under a microscope,” concluded senior author Paul Nevill, a molecular ecologist at Curtin.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26374943">Environmental DNA</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Environmental DNA can help monitor pollinators

Pollinator populations are rapidly declining all around the world, causing...

Along with regular <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exercise-may-improve-mental-health-more-than-medication/">exercise</a> and a balanced diet, sleep is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. Although the World Health Organization recognizes that sleep is a critical aspect of health, there are very few guidelines that define what is meant by healthy sleep. In past research, the only national guideline on sleep that was identified came from Canadian health authorities that recommended “seven to 9&nbsp;hours of good-quality sleep on a regular basis, with consistent bed and wake-up times.”&nbsp;



One of the problems is that sleep is a complex biological process with several associated components. People who report suffering from sleep problems cannot all be lumped into the same category as there are different types of problems, with different causes, and not all of them may give rise to health issues. In general, however, previous research has found that getting too little sleep is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), although the role of other sleep issues, such as snoring, breathing difficulties and daytime sleepiness is not known.&nbsp;



A new study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02732-x">BMC Medicine</a>, has made use of data from over 300,000 middle-aged adults from the UK Biobank, who were 40 years old when they first registered their data, between 2006 and 2010. At that time, they answered questions relating to their sleep patterns as part of the initial survey. The study also used primary care data on clinical diagnoses of sleep issues, given to over 140,000 of these registered participants in the two years prior to the start of the Biobank study.&nbsp;



Using these two complementary sources of data, the researchers aimed to estimate how many years of CVD-free life are lost by people who experience poor sleep.



As part of the baseline questionnaire, participants reported on five problematic sleep characteristics, based on which the researchers defined five healthy sleep characteristics, including having no usual insomnia complaints, getting adequate sleep (7 to &lt; 9&nbsp;h/day), not snoring, having a morning chronotype (early bird activity as opposed to night owl), and no frequent daytime sleepiness.&nbsp;



The experts then scored participants from 0 to 5, according to their count of healthy characteristics and categorized them into three groups: “healthy sleep” (sleep score of ≥ 4); “intermediate sleep” (2 or 3 score); and “poor sleep” (≤ 1 score). At registration, 60 percent of the participants reported healthy sleep, while 38 percent and 2 percent reported intermediate and poor sleep, respectively.



The researchers noted all instances of CVD diagnoses and treatments in the subsequent years of participants’ lives (average follow up of 11 years), or until they died. In this time, 53,064 cases of CVD were diagnosed. They used statistical methods to determine the associations between sleep quality (or clinically diagnosed sleep disorder) and CDV-free life expectancy in the participants.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that different types of sleep disturbance are associated with different durations of compromised cardiovascular health later in life, when compared to healthy sleepers. In particular, men with clinical sleep-related breathing disorders lost nearly seven years of cardiovascular disease-free life compared to those without these conditions, and women with these conditions lost over seven years.&nbsp;



Importantly, even general poor sleep, such as insufficient sleep, insomnia complaints, snoring, going to bed late, and daytime sleepiness, is associated with a loss of around two years of normal heart health in men and women.



“Anyone who’s had a few rough nights of sleep knows how it can lead to bad mood and not feeling one’s best. Our research shows that, over time, regular poor sleep can lead to significantly compromised cardiovascular health in middle and old age," said study senior author Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/emmanuel-stamatakis.html">Emmanuel Stamatakis</a> of the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/">University of Sydney</a>.



“Sleep apnea is well known to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2018/03/16/how-the-cpap-machine-beats-deadly-sleep-apnoea.html">increase the risk of cardiovascular disease</a>&nbsp;and other chronic conditions, but these findings are a wake-up call that poor sleep in general can pose significant risk to heart health,” he added.



While the additional life expectancy of 40-year-old women and men in the study was 39 and 38 years respectively, only 33 and 30 of these years (for women and men respectively) were expected to be free of CVD. However, women with poor sleep could expect only 31 additional years free of CVD while men who slept poorly could expect only 28 additional years free of CVD. This means that poor sleep characteristics, such as snoring and trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, can be warning signs of potential health issues in the future.



“While the average life expectancy of the UK study participants is around 80 years, people with clinically diagnosed sleep-related breathing disorders like sleep apnoea lost over seven years of cardiovascular-disease free life,” said study lead author Dr Bo-Huei Huang, an epidemiologist recently graduating from the Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health.



<a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/peter-cistulli.html">Professor Peter Cistulli</a>, the ResMed Chair of Sleep Medicine at the Charles Perkins Centre and Royal North Shore Hospital, said that these findings are significant because they extend the findings of previous studies linking poor sleep to important health outcomes.



“Sleep is a vital biological function that has been under-appreciated in public health policy to date. It’s gratifying that these findings shine a light on the importance of sleep, and the need for it to be recognized as a pillar of good health, alongside physical activity and nutrition. The time is right to ensure that sleep is recognized in public health policy,” said Professor Cistulli.



The researchers conclude: “These results could lay the cornerstone for future research on early prevention against poor sleep and improving CVD-free life expectancy among poor sleepers. Especially, we hope that the current outcomes can serve as a reference for policymakers and professionals to develop national sleep guidelines.”



—



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Poor sleep linked to earlier onset of cardiovascular disease

Along with regular exercise and a balanced diet, sleep is...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&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.

How the immune system responds to injury

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[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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