Aging has long been viewed as a slow and inevitable decline. But new research suggests that hidden deep within the body’s cellular processes, there may be a crucial trigger point - one that could be changed, paused, or even reversed. The process in question is necrosis, a form of uncontrolled cell death.



A study by researchers from University College London (<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UCL</a>), <a href="https://www.linkgevity.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkGevity</a>, and the European Space Agency (<a href="https://www.esa.int" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ESA</a>) places necrosis at the center of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/organ-aging-can-predict-diseases-decades-in-advance/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aging</a> and disease. The paper suggests that necrosis might not just be a consequence of damage. It might be a cause.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-necrosis-may-be-the-trigger-of-aging">Necrosis may be the trigger of aging</h2>



Necrosis is a chaotic form of cell death caused by stress, infection, or injury. Unlike controlled cell death, it damages nearby tissues and triggers inflammation. The study suggests necrosis is not just a final event but an active driver of aging and chronic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/healthy-aging-how-some-people-live-past-100-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disease</a>.



“Nobody really likes talking about death, even cell death, which is perhaps why the physiology of death is so poorly understood. And in a way necrosis is death,” noted Dr. Keith Siew from the UCL Centre for Kidney &amp; Bladder Health.



“If enough cells die, then tissues die, then we die. The question is what would happen if we could pause or stop necrosis.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chaotic-cell-death-spreads-damage">Chaotic cell death spreads damage</h2>



Cells are the building blocks of all living organisms. Their death is <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/daily-doctor-recommended-regimen-that-could-slow-aging/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">natural</a> and necessary, but only when it happens in a regulated way. 



In healthy systems, cells are replaced in a clean and controlled fashion. This process, known as apoptosis, helps organs regenerate and stay functional.



Necrosis is different. It happens without order or purpose. When it occurs, cells rupture and spill their contents into surrounding tissue. This creates inflammation, spreads damage, and accelerates aging.



“Necrosis remains one of the last frontiers in medicine – a common thread across <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/universal-rule-of-biology-sai-proposed-to-explain-aging-and-how-to-control-it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aging</a>, disease, space biology, and scientific progress itself,” said Dr. Carina Kern, lead author of the study and CEO of LinkGevity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-calcium-imbalance-causes-cell-collapse">Calcium imbalance causes cell collapse</h2>



At the heart of necrosis is calcium, a mineral that helps regulate cell function. Normally, cells maintain much higher calcium levels outside their membranes than inside. This gradient helps control vital activities.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/necrosis_pausing-cell-death_anti-aging-study_credit-Linkgevity_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/necrosis_pausing-cell-death_anti-aging-study_credit-Linkgevity_1s.webp" alt="Illustration of a healthy cell (left) alongside a cell that has been affected by necrosis (right). Credit: LinkGevity" class="wp-image-1973069"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Illustration of a healthy cell (left) alongside a cell that has been affected by necrosis (right). Click image to enlarge. Credit: LinkGevity</figcaption></figure>



When calcium floods in, the cell collapses, spills toxins, and triggers harmful inflammation. “When cells die, it’s not always a peaceful process for the neighbors,” Dr. Siew noted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-toxic-cell-death-links-diseases">Toxic cell death links diseases</h2>



Necrosis triggers a domino <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/random-dna-mutations-shape-biological-aging/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">effect</a>. As toxic materials spread, nearby cells are affected. This leads to more cell death, more inflammation, and a growing spiral of decline. Over time, the body becomes less able to repair itself.



The study draws connections between necrosis and several chronic conditions. These include Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and kidney failure. These diseases are often seen as unrelated, but researchers argue they share a common thread: necrosis.



“Necrosis has been hiding in plain sight. As a final stage of cell death, it’s been largely overlooked. But mounting evidence shows it’s far more than an endpoint. It’s a central mechanism through which systemic degeneration not only arises but also spreads,” noted Dr. Kern. 



“That makes it a critical point of convergence across many diseases. If we can target necrosis, we could unlock entirely new ways to treat conditions ranging from kidney failure to cardiac disease, neuro-degeneration, and even aging itself.” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cell-death-harms-kidneys-as-we-age">Cell death harms kidneys as we age</h2>



Among all the organs affected by necrosis, the kidneys may suffer the most. They filter blood, regulate fluid levels, and support other systems. As people age, these functions often falter. Nearly half of those over 75 show signs of kidney disease.



The study highlights how necrosis lies at the center of this decline. Stressors such as low oxygen, oxidative stress, and toxin buildup all lead to necrosis in kidney tissues. Once it begins, it fuels a feedback loop that becomes hard to stop.



“With kidney disease, there’s no one underlying reason that the kidneys fail. It could be a lack of oxygen, inflammation, oxidative stress, a build-up of toxins, and so on,” Dr. Siew explained



“All of these stressors eventually lead to necrosis, which initiates a positive feedback loop that spirals out of control, leading to kidney failure. We can’t stop all of these stressors, but if you could intervene at the point of necrosis, you’d effectively achieve the same result.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-aging-in-space">Aging in space</h2>



The implications of necrosis extend far beyond Earth. In space, astronauts face conditions that mimic and accelerate aging. Low gravity and cosmic radiation stress the body. Muscles waste away, bones weaken, and organs begin to fail more quickly than on Earth.



In 2024, Dr. Siew worked on a study that identified the human kidney as a major vulnerability during spaceflight. Necrosis appeared to play a central role. The body’s inability to manage stress in space could threaten the success of long-term missions.



Damian Bailey is a professor of physiology and biochemistry at the <a href="https://www.southwales.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of South Wales</a> and Chair of the ESA Life Sciences Working Group.



“Targeting necrosis offers potential to not only transform longevity on Earth but also push the frontiers of space exploration," noted Professor Bailey. "In space, the same factors that cause aging on Earth are made worse by cosmic radiation and microgravity - speeding up degeneration dramatically.” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-stopping-cell-death-to-support-healing">Stopping cell death to support healing</h2>



Necrosis in vital organs triggers damage cycles that slow healing and reduce recovery capacity. 



“In many age-related diseases - affecting diverse organs such as the lungs, kidneys, liver, brain, and cardiovascular system - relentless cascades of necrosis fuel the progression of disease," explained Dr. Kern.



"This is often alongside impaired healing that leads to fibrosis, inflammation and damaged cells. Each cascade triggers and amplifies the next."



“If we could prevent necrosis, even temporarily, we would be shutting down these destructive cycles at their source, enabling normal physiological processes and cell division to resume - and potentially even allowing for regeneration.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41388-025-03431-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oncogene</a>.



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Pausing cell death, known as necrosis, may be the secret to defying the aging process

Aging has long been viewed as a slow and inevitable decline. But new research suggests that hidden deep within the body’s cellular processes, there may be a crucial trigger point - one that could be changed, paused, or even reversed. The process in question is necrosis, a form of uncontrolled cell death. A study by researchers from University College London (UCL), LinkGevity, and the European Space Agency (ESA) places necrosis at the center of aging and disease. The paper suggests that necrosis might not just be a...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac285">PNAS Lexus</a> has found that, despite policymakers’ efforts to reduce lead exposure since the 1970s, children living near a California airport have higher levels of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-blame-lead-pollution/">lead</a> in their blood, due to the fact that leaded gasoline is still used by piston-engine aircrafts across the United States.



Over the past 40 years, the blood lead levels of U.S. children declined significantly due to policies that forbidden the use of lead in plumbing, paint, food cans, and automotive gasoline. According to many scientists, the decision to phase-out the use of tetraethyl lead from automotive gasoline (under provisions of the Clean Air Act of 1970) was the most effective of these policies.



However, leaded gasoline has not disappeared completely, and remains a major part of aviation gasoline, being used by about 170,000 piston-engine aircrafts nationwide (accounting for two-thirds of lead emissions in the United States). As the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) estimates, about four million people reside within half a mile of airports servicing piston-engine planes, and nearly 600 elementary or secondary schools are located close to such facilities.



By analyzing the blood lead levels of children under six years of age during a ten-year period (2011-2020) who resided near the Reid-Hillview Airport in Santa Clara County, California, the scientists found that many children living near the airport had blood lead levels exceeding the <a href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/">California Department of Public Health</a>-defined threshold of 4.5 micrograms per deciliter.



The analysis showed that, for children living a mile or more from the airport, the probability of lead levels exceeding this threshold was 21.4 percent lower than for those living within a half mile of the airport. Moreover, children residing east of the airport (downwind) were 2.18 times more likely to have blood lead levels above the threshold of concern.



“Across an ensemble of tests, we find consistent evidence that the blood lead levels of children residing near the airport are pushed upward by the deposition of leaded aviation gasoline. This indicates we should support policy efforts to limit aviation lead emissions to safeguard the welfare of at-risk children,” concluded study lead author Sammy Zahran, a professor of Demography at <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



—



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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Children near airports are exposed to high levels of lead

A new study published in the journal PNAS Lexus has...

Coastal lagoons&nbsp;are transitional environments between inland and marine aquatic systems. They are of great ecological and economic importance, and provide valuable ecosystem services, such as generating food for humans and other animals. However, they are fragile environments and are subject to pressure from several different human activities, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-caused-one-million-deaths-in-africa-in-2019/">pollution</a>.&nbsp;



In a recent review, published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120366">Environmental Pollution</a>, experts from Spain, Colombia and Chile identified and summarized the advances in research on microplastic (MP) pollution in coastal lagoons across the world. They searched peer−reviewed publications on this topic, published in English and Spanish, between the years of 2000 and 2022. In total, 57 relevant publications were found, with data on MP abundances and their characteristics in 50 coastal lagoons from 20 countries on different continents, including Europe (32 percent), Asia (20 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (18 percent), Africa (12 percent), North America (10 percent), and Oceania (8 percent).



Although 58 percent of the lagoons studied have some form of environmental protection status&nbsp;(e.g., Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international importance, biosphere reserves, areas of importance for wildlife conservation), none of them was immune to contamination from microplastics. Fiber/filament and fragment shapes, and&nbsp;polyethylene, polyester, and&nbsp;polypropylene&nbsp;polymers were the predominant microplastic pollutants present.&nbsp;



“In these natural habitats, peak levels of microplastic pollution result from a combination of several factors. For example, the residence time and water renewal rate of lagoons, the nearby location of large urban and industrial developments with insufficient waste management, river and outfall discharges, seasonal climate fluctuations, natural phenomena (hurricanes, typhoons, etc.) and the typology of microplastics,” says study first author Ostin Garcés-Ordóñez, a member of the Consolidated Research Group in Marine Geosciences.



Coastal lagoons with slow, or very slow, water turnover rates are the most susceptible to high microplastic pollution. In the case of the Mosquito Lagoon in Florida (USA), it takes 200-300 days to renew 50 percent of the water, and therefore microplastics entering this lagoon can remain in this ecosystem for considerable periods of time.



“During the rainy season, the concentration of microplastics also increases in surface water compared to the dry season, a phenomenon that has been observed in the lagoon of Rio Lagarto (Mexico) and in the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (Colombia), with maximum levels in areas where the most intense human activities are recorded,” says Garcés-Ordóñez.



Globally, the coastal lagoons most affected by MP pollution are found in Lagos (Nigeria), Sakumo (Ghana) and Bizerte (Tunisia), in close proximity to large urban centers that have no waste or sewage treatment systems. However, the study also found that the highest concentrations of microplastics have been detected in Barnes Sound and other small lagoons in a protected area in the north of Florida Bay (USA); in this case, they were transported there by hurricanes, from polluted areas further afield.



The study also reviewed the impact of microplastics on 96 different species of fish and found a maximum impact on fish that inhabit the coastal lagoons of Bizerte and Ghar El Melh in Tunisia. Fish are of great commercial interest and are also one of the best-studied groups of organisms when it comes to microplastic impacts. The study found that the species&nbsp;Liza aurata&nbsp;(golden grey mullet) and&nbsp;Sarpa salpa (dreamfish or salema) had intakes of up to 65 microplastics per individual. Mollusks, are also seriously affected, with levels of up to 17 microplastics per individual. The mollusks with the highest MP loads were Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) found in the Mosquito Lagoon (USA).



Regarding the Iberian Peninsula, coastal lagoons are relatively few in number and small in comparison with other coastal lagoon systems in the world. Most of them are associated with the lower courses of rivers and their former mouths, as well as with the coastal drift of sediments, as is the case of the marshes of Empordà, the Ebro delta, the Valencia lagoon or the lagoon system of the Portuguese Algarve.



“The environmental state of these lagoons is variable and changes over time. Some suffer the effects of pollution from urban, industrial and agricultural sources, such as the Valencia lagoon and the Mar Menor in Murcia, where there have recently been massive deaths of fish due to episodes of anoxia,” notes Professor Miquel Canals, director of the UB&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ub.edu/portal/web/dp-dinamica-terra-ocea/">Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics</a>&nbsp;and a leading member of the research team.



“The Mar Menor, which is the largest coastal lagoon in Spain, has unique characteristics among the Iberian coastal lagoons, given the high salinity of its waters as a result of its permanent communication with the open sea and the presence of several volcanic islets. Episodes of drought can have notable effects on some of these lake systems, as is already happening in the marshes of the Empordà or in Doñana.'



The study reveals the presence of microplastics in the water column, sediments and fish in the coastal lagoons of the Mar Menor (Murcia), the Pletera (Catalonia) and in Ria Formosa and Aveiro (Portugal). "In Spanish lagoons, an average of 20.1 ±2.9&nbsp; microplastics per kilogram of the digestive tract has been found in sea bream (Sparus aurata) in the Mar Menor, and an abundance of up to 2.5 microplastics per individual in the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) in the restored Pletera lagoon in Girona", says Canals.



The review highlighted the fact that microplastics can end up being accumulated in certain areas of coastal lagoons, or they can be exported out to the sea, depending on the influence of seasonal weather, hydrodynamics, anthropogenic pressures, and the types of MPs involved.



“We can certainly say that the different environmental matrices of coastal lagoons –i.e., waters, sediments and organisms living in these habitats – are receptors of microplastics and are affected by the pollution they cause. However, we do not yet know to what extent coastal lagoons are ultimate sinks for microplastics,” says Canals.



“This is related to the characteristics and dynamics of each lagoon, as well as to the quantities and properties of incoming microplastics. Thus, some lagoons may be true sinks while others may function as temporary sinks in the microplastic cycle, easing, for example, their transfer from river systems to beaches and the marine environment. Such criteria could be used to classify coastal lagoons according to the balance between inward and, eventually, outward fluxes of microplastics.



The scientists found it challenging to combine data from all the different published studies on coastal lagoons all over the world. This was due to the fact that the research reported in these studies made use of a variety of different methods to assess the presence and impacts of microplastics.&nbsp;



“In many parts of the world, research is limited by the limited availability of financial, human and infrastructure resources (e.g. Raman or Fourier-Transform infrared spectrometers to characterize the composition of plastic polymers),” says Garcés-Ordóñez. “Extensively applying both simple and more advanced methodologies will answer many open questions about the dynamics of microplastics in these environments or the role of lagoons as temporary or permanent microplastic sinks,” he adds.



Ideally, the scientists would like to see preventative measures that stop microplastics from entering the lagoon systems in the first place. As Miquel Canals notes, “the best way to tackle and minimize the problem of microplastic pollution in general, and in coastal lagoons specifically, is to stop it from entering natural systems from the roots. It is necessary to act on the sources and the causes that favor their arrival in coastal lagoons and the rest of the ecosystems.”



Achieving this goal would require a series of combined actions at global, regional, national and local levels. Initially there would have to be an adequate regulatory framework, and then this would have to be implemented effectively. Actions would need to be taken to minimize plastic waste generation at all levels, for example by proper management of waste and wastewater discharged into aquatic ecosystems, and by instituting strategies to eliminate the accumulation of large waste in the environment.



“It is obvious that these examples are only some of the existing options, which should also be accompanied by environmental education and monitoring programs in order to be able to assess their effectiveness objectively. Other options, such as the recovery of microplastics from the natural environment, are not, for the moment, viable,” concludes Miquel Canals.



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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

Coastal lagoons have high loads of microplastics

Coastal lagoons&nbsp;are transitional environments between inland and marine aquatic systems....

As more and more of the world’s population moves to cities, the extent of the land occupied by urbanization increases. Currently, approximately 56 percent of people (4.4 billion) on Earth live in cities, and this is set to increase to over six billion by 2050. Urbanization brings radical changes to landscapes and ecosystems, and results in significant losses in biodiversity. However, some species can adapt to life in these areas, and may even thrive.&nbsp;



A study of Puerto Rican crested <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/anole-lizards-have-lungs-that-develop-in-less-than-two-days/">anoles</a> in three cities and three adjacent forested regions has now shown that these lizards have adapted morphologically to life in urban environments, and that their adaptations are reflected in their genomes.



“Urbanization impacts roughly two-thirds of the Earth and is expected to continue to intensify, so it’s important to understand how organisms might be adapting to changing environments,” said study first author Professor Kristin Winchell of <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/">New York University</a>. “In many ways, cities provide us with natural laboratories for studying adaptive change, as we can compare urban populations with their non-urban counterparts to see how they respond to similar stressors and pressures over short periods of time.”



Crested anoles (Anolis cristatellus) are small-bodied lizards&nbsp;that are commonly found in both urban and forested areas in Puerto Rico. Prior studies by Winchell and her colleagues found that urban&nbsp;Anolis cristatellus&nbsp;have evolved certain traits that are beneficial to them in cities. They have larger toe pads with more specialized scales that allow them to cling to smooth surfaces, like walls and glass, and have longer limbs that help them sprint across open areas.&nbsp;



In the current study, published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216789120">PNAS</a>, the researchers looked at 96&nbsp;Anolis cristatellus&nbsp;lizards from three regions of Puerto Rico – San Juan, Arecibo, and Mayagüez – and compared lizards living in urban centers with those living in forests surrounding each city.&nbsp;They investigated whether the physical adaptations were similar in lizards from all three cities, and analyzed their genomes to establish genetic differences between urban-dwelling and forest-dwelling lizards in each region.



After confirming that the lizard populations in the three regions were genetically distinct from each other, they measured the toe pads and leg lengths of all 96 lizards that they collected. They found that the urban lizards did indeed show similar morphological changes in all three cities, including having significantly longer limbs and larger toe pads, with more specialized scales on the toes, than did the forest lizards.&nbsp;



The researchers were able to conclude that these similarities could be attributed to similar environmental pressures on lizards that lived in the cities, and that the evolution of these traits helped urban lizards to survive and thrive.&nbsp;



Furthermore, analysis of exome DNA (the regions of the genome that code for production of proteins) revealed that there was a genetic basis for the physical changes observed in the urban-living lizards. The researchers identified a set of 33 genes, found in three regions of the lizard genome, that were repeatedly associated with urbanization across populations, including genes related to immune function and metabolism.



“While we need further analysis of these genes to really know what this finding means, we do have evidence that urban lizards get injured more and have more parasites, so changes to immune function and wound healing would make sense. Similarly, urban anoles eat human food, so it is possible that they could be experiencing changes to their metabolism,” said Professor Winchell.



In additional analysis, the researchers found 93 genes in the urban lizards that are important for limb and skin development, offering a possible genetic explanation for the increases in their leg lengths and toe morphology.&nbsp;



“The physical differences we see in the urban lizards appear to be mirrored at the genomic level,” said Professor Winchell. “If urban populations are evolving with parallel physical and genomic changes, we may even be able to predict how populations will respond to urbanization just by looking at genetic markers.”



Animals that adapt to living in urban environments typically experience a change in diet and probably an increased ambient temperature, since urban areas are often “heat islands” when compared to surrounding rural areas. Urban animals would thus be expected to show changes in behavior and metabolism, as well as increased tolerance of heat.&nbsp;



“Understanding how animals adapt to urban environments can help us focus our conservation efforts on the species that need it the most, and even build urban environments in ways that maintain all species."



Do the differences in urban lizards apply to people living in cities? Not necessarily, according to Professor Winchell, as humans aren’t at the whim of predators like lizards are. But humans are subject to some of the same urban factors, including pollution and higher temperatures, which seem to be contributing to adaptation in other species.



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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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Urban lizards show physical and genetic adaptations

As more and more of the world’s population moves to...

Parasites may fill us with revulsion and disgust, but they are integral components of ecosystems and play important ecological roles. They regulate host populations, and influence food webs, competition and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/biodiversity-at-risk-from-palm-oil-expansion/">biodiversity</a>, even shaping community and ecosystem structure. In fact, there are way more parasitic species than there are predators, indicating how widespread this life-history strategy is in nature.&nbsp;



However, while we are deeply concerned about the impacts of global warming on the species we value (think birds and mammals), we don’t often imagine how the world’s parasites will be affected. In a new study, researchers from the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> and colleagues have made use of fish specimens preserved in museum collections over the past 140 years to assess long-term trends in parasite populations.&nbsp;



“People generally think that climate change will cause parasites to thrive, that we will see an increase in parasite outbreaks as the world warms,” said lead author&nbsp;<a href="https://environment.uw.edu/faculty/chelsea-wood/">Chelsea Wood</a>, a UW associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. “For some parasite species that may be true, but parasites depend on hosts, and that makes them particularly vulnerable in a changing world where the fate of hosts is being reshuffled.”



The current study focused on eight species of fish caught in Puget Sound, the second largest estuary on mainland U.S. These species are common in the collections of natural history museums and most of the specimens came from the UW Fish Collection at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. While mammals and birds are preserved with taxidermy, which retains parasites only on skin, feathers or fur, fish are preserved in fluid, which enters their tissues and thus also preserves any parasites living inside them at the time of their death.&nbsp;



The researchers had to dissect and open up the preserved fish specimens and identify any parasites they found inside the body. They counted the parasites before returning the specimens to the preserving fluid. In total, the scientists found 17,259 parasites, of 85 types, in the 699 fish specimens.



“It took a long time. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart,” said Professor Wood. “I’d love to stick these fish in a blender and use a genomic technique to detect their parasites’ DNA, but the fish were first preserved with a fluid that shreds DNA. So what we did was just regular old shoe-leather parasitology.”



The results of the study show that, for some parasite species, numbers decreased dramatically between 1880 and 2019, in fish from Puget Sound. These parasites included multicellular species of arthropods (animals with an exoskeleton), such as crustaceans, as well as what Wood describes as “unbelievably gorgeous tapeworms:” the&nbsp;Trypanorhyncha, whose heads are armed with hook-covered tentacles.&nbsp;



Those parasite species that suffered the largest population declines were the ones that are dependent on three or more host species during their lifecycle. Some parasites have a single host species, but most require more than one and will travel between host species. For example, the eggs of some parasites are carried in one host species, the larvae emerge and infect another host and the adult may reach maturity in a third host before laying its own eggs.



For parasites that rely on three or more host species during their lifecycle – including more than half the parasite species identified in the study’s Puget Sound fish – analysis of historic fish specimens showed an average decline in abundance of 11 percent per decade. Of 10 parasite species that had disappeared completely by 1980, nine relied on three or more hosts.&nbsp;



“Our results show that parasites with one or two host species stayed pretty steady, but parasites with three or more hosts crashed,” said Professor Wood. “The degree of decline was severe. It would trigger conservation action if it occurred in the types of species that people care about, like mammals or birds.”



“Parasite ecology is really in its infancy, but what we do know is that these complex-lifecycle parasites probably play an important role in pushing energy through food webs and in supporting top apex predators,” added Wood, who is one of the authors of a 2020 report laying out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/08/03/new-studies-show-how-to-save-parasites-and-why-its-important/">a conservation plan for parasites</a>.



To understand the possible causes of these declines, the researchers investigated three factors over the 140 year time span; the abundance of the fish species in Puget Sound, pollution levels in the estuary, and water temperature at the ocean surface. The variable that best explained the decline in parasites was sea surface temperature, which rose by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Puget Sound between 1950 and 2019.



For the parasite species that require multiple hosts to complete their lifecycle, warming temperatures just need to affect one of the hosts and this will prevent the parasite from reproducing successfully. These parasites are thus vulnerable to disruption at any point along the way.&nbsp;



“This study demonstrates that major parasite declines have happened in Puget Sound. If this can happen unnoticed in an ecosystem as well studied as this one, where else might it be happening?” Wood said. “I hope our work inspires other ecologists to think about their own focal ecosystems, identify the right museum specimens, and see whether these trends are unique to Puget Sound, or something that is occurring in other places as well.”



“Our result draws attention to the fact that parasitic species might be in real danger. And that could mean bad stuff for us – not just fewer worms, but less of the parasite-driven ecosystem services that we’ve come to depend on.”



The research is published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211903120">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.&nbsp;



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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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Marine parasites are vulnerable to warming oceans

Parasites may fill us with revulsion and disgust, but they...

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> (UBC) has recently investigated over 350 compounds derived from natural sources such as plants, fungi, and sea sponges in order to find new antiviral drugs that can be used to treat Covid-19. By bathing human lung cells in solutions made from these compounds and then infecting the cells with SARS-CoV-2, the experts discovered 26 compounds that completely reduced viral infection in the cells. These findings pave the way for the development of new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-largest-covid-wave-currently-unfolding-across-china/">Covid</a> treatments made from natural sources.



“This interdisciplinary research team is unraveling the important possibilities of biodiversity and natural resources and discovering nature-based solutions for global health challenges such as Covid-19,” said study senior author François Jean, an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC.



“The advantage of these compounds is that they are targeting the cells, rather than the virus, blocking the virus from replicating and helping the cell to recover,” added co-first author, Jimena Pérez-Vargas, a research associate specializing in the same fields at UBC. “Human cells evolve more slowly than viruses, so these compounds could work against future variants and other viruses such as influenza if they use the same mechanisms.”



The scientists used a version of SARS-CoV-2 that causes cells to become fluorescent green when infected, together with a groundbreaking screening technique, in order to identify natural compounds which showed inhibition of Covid infection with low cell damage.&nbsp;



The three most effective compounds were discovered in Canada: alotaketal C from a sea sponge collected in Howe Sound, British Columbia (B.C.), bafilomycin D from a marine bacterium from Barkley Sound, B.C., and holyrine A from marine bacteria from Newfoundland waters.



The analysis revealed that these compounds were effective against the Delta variant, as well as several Omicron variants. Moreover, they appeared to be as safe for human cells as current Covid-19 treatments. Since many of these existing treatments – such as those based on monoclonal antibodies – are ineffective against several Omicron sub-variants, there is an urgent need for new antivirals, which could be combined with other drugs for combating the new coronavirus. For instance, bafilomycin D appeared to be highly effective against the Omicron subvariant BA.2 when used in combination with a&nbsp;recently discovered&nbsp;antiviral (the molecule N-0385).



The scientists aim to test the newly discovered compounds in animal models over the next six months. “Our research is also paving the way for large-scale testing of natural product medicines that can block infection associated with other respiratory viruses of great concern in Canada and around the world, such as influenza A and RSV,” Professor Jean concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2022.105484">Antiviral Research</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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Sea sponges contain compounds that block Covid infection

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

A new study of vegetation across New York City and densely populated surrounding areas has found that, on summer days, photosynthesis by trees and grasses absorbs a massive amount of the carbon dioxide emissions produced by vehicles and other greenhouse-emitting sources. This surprising discovery highlights the underappreciated importance of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/urban-green-spaces-are-urgently-needed-to-improve-health/">urban green spaces</a> in the carbon cycle.



By using fine-grained vegetation maps, the scientists documented massive amounts of previously unrecognized greenery scattered in small spots even in highly developed areas, and found that they are performing a substantial role in the exchange of hazardous atmospheric gases. Since urban areas account for over 70 percent of human CO2 emissions – with New York City as the U.S.’s number one emitter, and third largest in the world – these findings are highly significant, showing that even individual street trees, little backyard gardens, overgrown vacant lots, and other small greenery can play an outsize role in carbon absorption.



“There is a lot more greenery than we thought, and that’s what drives our conclusion,” said study lead author Dandan Wei, a climate expert at <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>. “This tells us that the ecosystem matters in New York City, and if it matters here, it probably matters everywhere else.”



“Most people have assumed that New York City is just a grey box, that it’s biogenically dead. But just because there’s a concrete sidewalk somewhere doesn’t mean there’s not also a tree that’s shading it,” added co-author Roísín Commane, an atmospheric chemist at the same university.



The analysis revealed that tree canopies cover about 170 square kilometers of New York City (about 22 percent of its area), while grasses account for another 94 square kilometers (12 percent of the city’s area). By examining carbon emissions from June to August 2018, the researchers found that the total uptake from the city’s trees and grasses equaled up to 40 percent of a summer afternoon’s total emissions from all sources.



Unfortunately, in relatively chilly New York, carbon uptake occurs only during the local growing season, roughly from mid-April to mid-October. However, vegetation in cities with warmer climates most likely plays an even larger role in carbon uptake.



In future research, the scientists aim to characterize coverage by species, and thus figure out the relative benefits of different types of trees and grasses. “More trees are always going to be better, no matter what they are. But we could use an assessment of which ones are the best,” Wei concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aca68f">Environmental Research Letters</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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New York City greenery absorbs vast amounts of carbon

A new study of vegetation across New York City and...

Heap,Of,Peeled,Almonds,With,Leaf,In,A,Wooden,Spoon

A new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.1042719">Frontiers in Nutrition</a> has found that eating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/a-daily-dose-of-almonds-can-boost-gut-health/">almonds</a> is highly beneficial for recovery after intense bouts of physical exercise. 



The experts discovered that participants who ate 57 grams of almonds daily for one month had higher levels of the beneficial fat 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid (12,13-DiHOME). This substance is known to increase the transport of fatty acid and its uptake by skeletal muscles, with the overall effect of stimulating metabolic recovery after strenuous physical activities - in their blood immediately after a session of intense exercise.



“Here we show that volunteers who consumed 57g of almonds daily for one month before a single ‘weekend warrior’ exercise bout had more beneficial 12,13-DiHOME in their blood immediately after exercising than control volunteers. They also reported feeling less fatigue and tension, better leg-back strength, and decreased muscle damage after exercise than control volunteers,” explained study lead author David Nieman, an expert in Exercise and Nutrition at the <a href="https://www.appstate.edu/">Appalachian State University</a>.



The trial involved 38 men and 26 women aged 30-65, who did not engage in regular weight training. The scientists split them into two groups - one in which participants consumed a daily dose of almonds, and a control group in which they ate a calorie-matched cereal bar – and took blood and urine samples before and after a four-week period of dietary supplementation. 



After a 30 second Wingate anaerobic test, a 50 meters shuttle test run, a vertical jump, and bench press and leg-back stretching exercise, additional blood and urine samples were taken, both immediately following these 90 minute sessions of intense exercise and daily for four days afterwards.



Immediately after exercise, the concentration of the beneficial 12,13-DiHOME was 69 percent higher in the blood plasma of participants in the almond group than in those in the control group (where in fact a reverse pattern was found, with the mildly toxic 9,10-Dihydroxy-12-octadecenoic acid (9,10-diHOME) being 40 percent higher).



According to the scientists, daily consumption of almonds leads to metabolic changes, downregulating inflammation and oxidative stress from exercise and enabling the body to recover faster. 



“Almonds provide a unique and complex nutrient and polyphenol mixture that may support metabolic recovery from stressful levels of exercise. Almonds have high amounts of protein, healthy types of fats, vitamin E, minerals, and fiber. And the brown skin of almonds contains polyphenols that end up in the large intestine and help control inflammation and oxidative stress,” Nieman concluded.&nbsp;



—



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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Almonds accelerate recovery after strenuous exercise

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition...

Abstract,Ocean,Design,Template,With,Underwater,Part,And,Sunset,Skylight

By using samples from an almost century-old, ongoing survey of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/marine-plankton-glow-predators/">marine plankton</a>, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California, San Diego</a> has found that increasing levels of manmade chemicals found in some parts of the world’s oceans might play an important role in monitoring the impact of human activity on ecosystem health, and may be used in the future to examine the connections between ocean pollution and land-based rates of childhood and adult chronic diseases.



“This was a pilot study to test the feasibility of using archived samples of plankton from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey to reconstruct historical trends in marine pollution over space and time,” said senior author Robert K. Naviaux, an expert in Mitochondrial Medicine and Complex Chronic Disorders at UC San Diego. “We were motivated to explore these new methods by the alarming increase in childhood and adult chronic disease that has occurred around the world since the 1980s.”



“Recent studies have underscored the tight linkage between ocean pollution and human health. In this study, we asked the question: Do changes in the plankton exposome (the measure of all exposures in a lifetime) correlate with ecosystem and fisheries health? We also wanted to lay the groundwork for asking a second question: Can humanmade chemicals in plankton be used as a barometer to measure changes in the global chemosphere that might contribute to childhood and adult illness?”



The scientists collected plankton specimens from three different locations in the North Pacific between 2002 and 2020, and assessed their exposure to a variety of humanmade chemicals, including pharmaceutic products, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as industrial chemicals, phthalates and plasticizers (substances derived from plastics), pesticides, and personal care products.



The analysis revealed that, although many of these products have decreased in amount during the past two decades, nearshore areas closest to human activities and subject to terrestrial runoff or aquaculture still had high level of various chemicals that impacted plankton. Moreover, perfluoroalkyl substances – a type of chemicals commonly used to enhance water-resistance in various everyday products (such as packaging, clothing, or cookware), which seem to impact human health by inhibiting mitochondrial proteins - were prominent in the plankton exposome, as were phthalates, which are known to disrupt endocrine functions.



“Plankton are responding to the chemicals in their exposome, in part by changes in their own mitochondria that change their biology, and so too, I would argue, are humans. It is my hope that the use of our methods by research groups around the world will reinforce the connection between ecosystem health and human health, and provide new tools to monitor how the human chemical footprint has changed over the past century. Follow-up studies by epidemiologists and marine ecologists are needed to test if and how the plankton exposome correlates with important medical trends in nearby human populations like infant mortality, autism, asthma, diabetes, and dementia,” Naviaux concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161222">Science of the Total Environment</a>.



—



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</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.

Marine plankton hold a long record of ocean health

By using samples from an almost century-old, ongoing survey of...

The results of a new study modeling the effects of the world’s current emission reduction pledges has concluded that it’s no longer about whether we will overshoot the 1.5 degree Celsius warming target or not; it’s now about how much we will overshoot. This is a stark and sobering finding, against the backdrop of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/on-a-highway-to-climate-hell-cop27-begins-in-egypt/">COP27</a>) currently taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.



According to the study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01508-0">Nature Climate Change</a>, it is now highly likely that the world is going to warm past the 1.5 degree rise in average temperature, set as a goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The world’s current climate pledges are simply insufficient&nbsp;to limit global warming to this level, say the researchers from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory(PNNL), the University of Maryland and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. However, the experts note there is still time to adopt mechanisms that can limit the extent of the overshoot.



Although exceeding the 1.5-degree target appears inevitable, the researchers say that countries can minimize the time spent in a warmer world by adopting more ambitious climate pledges and decarbonizing faster. Their study suggests various mechanisms whereby the overshoot period is shortened, in some cases by decades, and the researchers say this will be critical in reducing the extent of the damage.&nbsp;



“Let’s face it. We are going to breach the 1.5 degrees limit in the next couple of decades,” said corresponding author and PNNL scientist Haewon McJeon. “That means we’ll go up to 1.6 or 1.7 degrees or above, and we’ll need to bring it back down to 1.5. But how fast we can bring it down is key.”



According to the study, every second shaved off the overshoot translates to less time spent courting the most harmful consequences of global warming, from extreme weather to rising sea levels. Forgoing or delaying more ambitious goals could lead to “irreversible and adverse consequences for human and natural systems,” said lead author Gokul Iyer, a scientist alongside McJeon at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a partnership between PNNL and the University of Maryland.



“Moving fast means hitting net-zero pledges sooner, decarbonizing faster, and striking more ambitious emissions targets,” said Iyer. “Every little bit helps, and you need a combination of all of it. But our results show that the most important thing is doing it early. Doing it now, really.”



During COP26 in 2021, the same research team found that the then updated pledges could substantially increase the chance of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. In their new paper, the authors take an additional step in proposing how to move the needle from 2 to 1.5 degrees.



“The 2021 pledges don’t add up to anywhere near 1.5 degrees – we are forced to focus on the overshoot,” said PNNL scientist Yang Ou, who co-led the study. “Here, we’re trying to provide scientific support to help answer the question: What type of ratcheting mechanism would get us back down and below 1.5 degrees? That’s the motivation behind this paper.”



The researchers modelled the predicted consequences of 27 scenarios involving different levels of emissions and climate actions, from the least ambitious to the most. They tracked the effect on global warming if each of these pathways was followed, in order to identify particular approaches that could limit temperature rise or, indeed, return the world to the desired 1.5 degree average temperature rise after overshooting this goal.&nbsp;&nbsp;



As a starting point, the researchers assumed that countries will meet their emissions pledges and long-term strategies on schedule. If countries do uphold their nationally determined contributions through 2030 and follow a two percent minimum decarbonization rate, for example, global carbon dioxide levels would not reach net zero this century.



However, in the more ambitious scenarios, they model the extent to which warming is limited when countries decarbonize faster and advance the dates of their net-zero pledges. Their results underscore the significance of “ratcheting near-term ambition,” which entails rapid reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from all sectors of the energy system, immediately and through 2030.



Taking the most ambitious path outlined could even bring net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2057. Such a path, the authors write, is marked by “rapid transformations throughout the global energy system” along with the scaling up of “low-carbon technologies like renewables, nuclear energy, as well as carbon capture and storage.”



“The technologies that help us get to zero emissions include renewables, hydrogen, electric cars, and so on. Of course those are important players,” said Iyer. “Another important piece of the puzzle is the technologies that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, like direct air capture or nature-based solutions.”



The most ambitious scenarios outlined in their work are meant to be illustrative of the pathways on offer. But the central takeaway remains clear throughout all modeled scenarios: if 1.5 degrees is to be re-attained sooner after we warm past it, more ambitious climate pledges must be adopted.



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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 warming will exceed 1.5 degrees, but by how much?

The results of a new study modeling the effects of...

From April to May 2019, the coral reefs close to the French Polynesian island of Moorea in the central South Pacific Ocean suffered prolonged and severe thermal bleaching, despite the absence of El Niño conditions that year, a phenomenon which intrigued oceanologists around the world. 



Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://hkust.edu.hk/">Hong Kong University of Science and Technology</a> has investigated this surprising and apparently paradoxical event, and discovered that it was related to passage of anti-cyclonic eddies which elevated sea levels and concentrated hot water over the coral reef, leading to a massive underwater marine heatwave that was invisible from the sea surface.



Most studies of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reef-fish-struggle-to-recognize-competitors-after-coral-bleaching/">coral bleaching</a> rely on sea-surface measurements of water temperatures, a method that cannot fully capture the threats from ocean heating to various ecosystems, including coral reefs. By analyzing data collected at Moorea over a period of 15 years (from 2005 to 2019) through a combination of remotely sensed sea-surface temperatures and high-resolution, long-term in-situ temperatures and sea level anomalies, the Hong Kong experts found that the passage of anti-cyclonic eddies in the open ocean near the island raised sea levels, pushing internal waves down into deeper water. As a result, internal wave cooling was shut down in early 2019, leading to unexpected heating over the reef and large-scale coral bleaching and mortality.



Interestingly, in contrast with the situation in 2019, the reefs near Moorea did not undergo significant bleaching mortality in 2016, regardless of the prevailing El Niño conditions which decimated many shallow reefs worldwide. Since relying solely on sea-surface temperature data would have predicted only moderate bleaching in both 2016 and 2019, the new findings stress the importance of collecting temperatures across the whole range of depths that coral reefs occupy.&nbsp;



“The present study highlights the need to consider environmental dynamics across depths relevant to threatened ecosystems, including those due to the passage of underwater ocean weather events.&nbsp;This kind of analysis depends on long-term, in situ data measured across ocean depths, but such data is generally lacking,” said study lead author Alex Wyatt, an expert in Ocean Science at Hong Kong.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Our paper provides a valuable mechanistic example for assessing the future of coastal ecosystems in the context of changing ocean dynamics and climates.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35550-5">Nature Communications</a>.



—



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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Hidden heatwave led to massive coral bleaching event

From April to May 2019, the coral reefs close to...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/">University of Colorado Boulder</a> has found that community gardening is highly beneficial for both physical and mental <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-disrupts-gut-health-increasing-risk-of-other-infections/">health</a>. According to the experts, those who engage in gardening activities eat more fiber and get more physical activity – two known ways to reduce the risk of cancers and other chronic diseases. Moreover, gardeners also typically exhibit lower levels of stress and anxiety.&nbsp;



“These findings provide concrete evidence that community gardening could play an important role in preventing cancer, chronic diseases, and mental health disorders,” said study senior author Jill Litt, a professor of Environmental Sciences at CU Boulder.



The researchers recruited 291 non-gardening adults from the Denver area, with an average age of 41. Over a third of them were Hispanics and more than half came from low-income households. Half of them were assigned to a community gardening group, receiving a community garden plot, together with seeds and seedlings and an introductory gardening course, while the others were assigned to a control group which was asked to wait one year before starting gardening. All participants took periodic surveys about their nutritional intake and mental health, wore activity monitors, and underwent body measurements.



The analysis revealed that, by autumn, those in the gardening group were eating, on average, 1.4 grams more fiber per day than those in the control group. Since fiber is known to exert a powerful effect on inflammatory and immune responses, it influences a variety of processes, ranging from how we metabolize food to how healthy our gut microbiome is and how susceptible we are to conditions such as diabetes or cancer.



Moreover, the gardening group also increased their physical activity levels by about 42 minutes per week, and reported declines in their stress and anxiety levels. Finally, since community gardening allows people to interact, such activities can also boost social relationships.



“Even if you come to the garden looking to grow your food on your own in a quiet place, you start to look at your neighbor’s plot and share techniques and recipes, and over time relationships bloom. It’s not just about the fruits and vegetables. It’s also about being in a natural space outdoors together with others,” Litt explained.



These findings will hopefully encourage health professionals, policymakers, and land planners to consider community gardens – as well as other spaces that encourage people to come together in nature – as a vital part of the public health system.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00303-5">Lancet Planetary Health</a>.&nbsp;



—



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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Gardening is beneficial for physical and mental health

A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder...

According to recent reports from organizations such as BirdLife International, more than half of all shorebird populations are currently in a state of decline. Despite being a global phenomenon, the driving factors behind the dwindling numbers of sandpipers, plovers, avocets, oystercatchers, and other shorebirds remain unidentified.



In a new study, researchers at the <a href="https://www.ulisboa.pt/en">University of Lisbon</a> have pinpointed environmental changes that may help to explain why shorebirds are vanishing.



"Shorebird declines are occurring worldwide but the causes are not fully understood," wrote the study authors. "Recent literature suggests that the deterioration of habitat quality at their non-breeding areas, mostly located in temperate and tropical coastal wetlands, might be a major contributing factor. However, most studies carried out so far tend to be restricted to a few regions."



"Remote sensing can help correct such geographical bias on knowledge by providing a standardized approach on how shorebird habitats have been changing over the last few decades at a global scale."



The team used remote sensing data to analyze <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wooden-shipwrecks-have-become-diverse-microbial-habitats/">habitat</a> changes in 907 sites - known as Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) - over the last two decades. The researchers were especially focused on changes in low tide feeding areas and high tide roosting areas.&nbsp;



"Globally, supratidal areas (used as roosting habitat) have changed more significantly than tidal flats (used as feeding habitat). Yet, we found striking losses of tidal flats in IBAs distributed in several regions of the East Asian - Australasian Flyway," wrote the researchers.



"At supratidal areas, there was a general expansion of marshland, grassland and urban areas, contrasting with a decline of barren land, woodland and cropland. The expansion of marshland occurred in IBAs of most regions of the world. Urban areas also expanded consistently in supratidal areas within the most populated regions of the world."



The experts noted that the loss of barren land is particularly concerning as it may translate into a loss of high-quality roosts. According to the study, changes may be urgently needed to save some species of the East Asian - Australasian Flyway that are facing population collapses due to habitat loss.



“This global approach is a step forward to understand the causes of shorebird declines, a group of birds that is already threatened," said study lead author Carlos David Santos. “Many species of this group are long-distance migrants, some moving more than 20.000 km annually, thus they can be affected by environmental changes occurring at different regions of the world - this is why a global analysis of such changes was so important."



The research was a collaboration between experts from the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) at Ciências ULisboa.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159707">Science of The Total Environment</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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New clues about the mysterious decline of shorebirds

According to recent reports from organizations such as BirdLife International,...

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

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from 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



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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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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



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How the immune system responds to injury

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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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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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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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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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