Rory Arnold is the Editor of Earth.com and contributes a wide variety of content for the site. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Media, Culture, &amp; Communication. He loves dogs and giraffes.

Rory Arnold

Rodielon Putol

Olivia Harvey is a freelance writer and award-winning scriptwriter from outside Boston, Massachusetts. She's a big fan of scented candles, getting dressed up, and the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley.

Olivia Harvey

Kyla is based out of California and serves as the Earth.com weekend editor. Kyla has written for numerous news outlets and has been a key contributor to the growth and development of Earth.com.

Kyla Cathey

Kay Vandette is a freelance writer and has written everything from film and food reviews to travel and lifestyle articles.
She has been featured in national publications and blogs and runs a website dedicated to providing tips for beginner freelance writers.
Kay is passionate about living a more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle and loves writing for Earth.com.

Kay Vandette

Katherine has a background in environmental policy and believes in information sharing and education to address the challenge of climate change. She lives in Ontario, Canada with her cat and husband and enjoys nature, yoga and cooking.

Katherine Bucko

As a serial entrepreneur, Eric Ralls has long aspired to merge technology with a love for nature and our planet. Founder at Earth.com, EarthSnap, PlantSnap, redOrbit.  "My goal has always been to bring people back to nature, to help them realize that humanity is a part of nature, not 'apart' from nature," says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-ralls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eric Ralls</a>, Founder and CEO of EarthSnap. "Homosapiens are only one species out of over 8 million species of life with whom we share this planet. Yet humanity treats the earth like it is ours alone to do with as we please, even though we've only been here for a few hundred thousand years out of the 3.5 billion years that this beautiful blue marble has been zipping through the universe."

Eric Ralls

Connor Ertz lives in Boston and works as the Marketing Writer for Boston Children's Hospital's Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center. He holds degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Gettysburg College, and has been writing for science and news outlets for the last three years. 
&nbsp;

Connor Ertz

In my role as Chief News Editor, I strive to publish studies that are not only fascinating, but also informative. I am grateful for the opportunity to share urgent climate news with Earth.com readers all over the world. 

In order to address the greatest environmental challenge of our lifetime, we must first understand what we are up against.

Chrissy Sexton

Andrei Ionescu is a Staff Writer at Earth.com, covering the latest scientific discoveries in fields including health &amp; medicine, climate science, biology &amp; evolution, paleontology, astrophysics, chemistry, and geology. He holds a PhD from the University of Padua, Italy, and conducted extensive interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the sciences and the humanities at universities in various countries, which resulted in publications at Bloomsbury, Johns Hopkins University Press, and Taylor &amp; Francis.

Andrei Ionescu

I am a biologist at heart, and interested in all aspects of the natural world. I studied a BSc in Zoology and Botany at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and then received my PhD in Zoology at the same institution. I have subsequently spent much of my life teaching others about the fascinating natural world we have inherited. I am lucky enough to live in South Africa, where wildlife and wild places still abound. 

Writing for Earth.com is a privilege as it enables me to keep in touch with the latest research trends while also being able to inform others about the amazing science currently being done in the various fields of biology.

Alison Bosman

In a groundbreaking study conducted by the <a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/">University of Sussex</a>, moths have been found to be more efficient pollinators at night than day-flying pollinators like bees. This research comes at a time when there is growing concern about the decline of wild pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies, which are vital for maintaining healthy ecosystems.



During July 2021, researchers studied 10 sites in southeast England, focusing on the pollination of bramble flowers. They discovered that 83 percent of insect visits to the flowers occurred during the day.&nbsp;



However, despite the fact that moths made fewer visits during the shorter summer nights, accounting for only 15 percent of the visits, they were able to pollinate the flowers more quickly. This led the researchers to conclude that moths are more efficient pollinators than day-flying insects, including bees.



"Bees are undoubtedly important, but our work has shown that moths pollinate flowers at a faster rate than day-flying insects," said study co-author Professor Fiona Mathews. "Sadly, many moths are in serious decline in Britain, affecting not just pollination but also food supplies for many other species ranging from bats to birds."



The study not only highlights the importance of moths as pollinators but also the significance of bramble, a shrub often considered unfavorable and regularly cleared away. In reality, bramble is crucial for nocturnal pollinators.&nbsp;



The researchers used camera traps to monitor the numbers of insects visiting flowers and conducted experiments to determine how quickly pollen was deposited at different times of the day.



Dr. Max Anderson, who was a PhD student at the University of Sussex at the time of the research and is now at the Butterfly Conservation, emphasized the need for further research and support for moths. "Moths are important pollinators, and they are greatly under-appreciated and under-studied," he said. "Now we know that moths are also important pollinators, we need to take action to support them by encouraging some bramble and other flowering scrub plants to grow in our parks, gardens, road verges, and hedgerows."



Pollinating insects are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems and supporting agricultural systems. They play a vital role in the reproduction of many plants, which in turn impacts a wide range of ecological processes. Some of the reasons why pollinating insects are so important include:



<ol>
<li>Plant reproduction: Pollination is the process by which plants transfer pollen from the male reproductive structures (anthers) to the female reproductive structures (stigmas) of the same or different flowers. This transfer, often facilitated by pollinating insects, is a necessary step for fertilization and the production of seeds and fruits. Without pollination, many plants would be unable to reproduce, which would have far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and food production.</li>



<li>Food production: Pollinating insects are essential for the production of many of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts that make up a significant portion of the human diet. It is estimated that around one-third of the food we consume relies on pollination by insects. Without these pollinators, our food systems would be severely impacted, leading to reduced crop yields and potential food shortages.</li>



<li>Biodiversity: Pollinating insects help maintain and promote biodiversity by facilitating plant reproduction. A diverse range of plant species supports a variety of other organisms, including birds, mammals, and other insects. This leads to more stable and resilient ecosystems that can better withstand environmental changes and disturbances.</li>



<li>Ecosystem services: The work of pollinating insects supports various ecosystem services, such as soil formation, water purification, and climate regulation. These services are essential for the overall health of our planet and contribute to human well-being.</li>



<li>Habitat provision: By supporting the growth and reproduction of various plant species, pollinating insects help create habitats for other organisms. These habitats provide shelter, food, and breeding grounds for a wide range of species, supporting the intricate web of life within ecosystems.</li>
</ol>



In summary, pollinating insects are essential for the health of ecosystems, agricultural systems, and human well-being. Their role in facilitating plant reproduction, food production, and the maintenance of biodiversity makes them crucial for the survival and functioning of ecosystems worldwide. Protecting pollinator populations is, therefore, of utmost importance for ensuring the long-term health of our planet and the continued availability of the resources we rely on.



This research underscores the importance of protecting both night-flying and day-flying pollinators to allow natural ecosystems to thrive. To that end, researchers are calling on the public to help protect moths by planting white flowers, cultivating patches of scrub and rough grass, and turning off night lights. By doing so, we can promote a healthier and more diverse environment for all species that depend on these crucial pollinators.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLoS ONE</a>.



—-



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Study: Moths are more efficient pollinators than bees

In a groundbreaking study conducted by the University of Sussex,...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ants-can-effectively-adapt-to-urban-environments/">Ants</a> are ubiquitous around the globe, with over 14,000 different species currently found on every continent except Antarctica. With an estimated four quadrillion individual ants on Earth, scientists have long wondered how ants became so successful. Now, a new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrad008">Evolution Letters</a> has shed new light on this mystery by exploring how ants and plants have evolved together over the past 60 million years.



“When you look around the world today, you can see ants on nearly every continent occupying all these different habitats, and even different dimensions of those habitats - some ants live underground, some live in the canopies of trees. We’re trying to understand how they were able to diversify from a single common ancestor to occupy all these different spaces,” said study lead author Matthew Nelsen, a research scientist at the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> in Chicago.



By combining fossils, DNA, and data on the habitat preferences of modern species, the experts reconstructed the evolutionary paths of ants and flowering plants, or angiosperms, and found that these paths were deeply intertwined, with the spread of angiosperms from forests coinciding with the movement of ants into new habitats. About 60 million years ago, some of the plants in forests began to release more water vapor through tiny holes in their leaves, creating a wetter environment that encouraged ants to move their nests out from underground and up into the trees. This movement coincided with other organisms, such as frogs, snakes, and epiphytic plants, taking to the trees as well, creating new arboreal communities.



As some of the flowering plants moved outward into drier regions, some ants followed in search of the food opportunities provided by these plants. “Other scientists have shown that&nbsp;plants in these arid habitats were evolving ways of making food for ants— including things like elaiosomes, which are like fleshy appendages on the seeds,” Nelsen explained. Moreover, when ants take the seeds to get the elaiosomes, they help disperse them – a clear win for the parent plants – which highlights the mutual benefits of the relationship between ants and plants.



These findings are particularly relevant given the current climate and biodiversity crises that our planet is facing. “This study shows the important role that plants play in shaping ecosystems. Shifts in plant communities— such as those we are seeing as a consequence of historic and modern climate change— can cascade and impact the animals and other organisms relying on these plants,” Nelsen concluded.



—



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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Ants co-evolved with plants over the past 60 million years

Ants are ubiquitous around the globe, with over 14,000 different...

Coastal ecosystems are natural carbon storehouses, making them a valuable resource in the fight against climate change. However, the effectiveness of these ecosystems in capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is dependent on various factors, including tidal range, wave climate, sediment supply, coastal slope, and changes in sea level.



Now, by using a recently developed computer model, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.vims.edu/">Virginia Institute of Marine Science</a> (VIMS) has conducted a study to gain a better understanding of coastal carbon storage and to simulate how carbon moves among different coastal ecosystems as their boundaries and relative sizes shift due to rising seas.&nbsp;



While previous studies of coastal or “blue” carbon had mostly focused on its fate within static habitats, the current approach is a more realistic modeling of marsh dynamics, revealing that the rate of sea-level rise plays a crucial role in determining whether blue carbon enters a long- or short-term coastal reservoir or “sink.” Long-term storage, which could span centuries or even millennia, is the most effective way to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.



“Our key takeaway is that the coastal system is resilient and can continue to store increasing amounts of carbon at moderate rates of sea-level rise. But if rise rates get too fast, the marsh is unable to keep pace, the marsh system collapses, and coastal carbon storage decreases,” said lead author Kendall Valentine, an ecogeomorphologist at the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a>, who conducted the study during a postdoctoral fellowship at VIMS.



“Our research shows that sea-level rise is a double-edged sword for coastal carbon sequestration. While moderate rates&nbsp;of sea-level rise enhance plant productivity and carbon preservation in soils, rapid sea-level rise changes the location of carbon storage - from relatively stable forests to more vulnerable marshes,” added co-author Matt Kirwan, an associate professor of Coastal Geomorphology and Ecology at VIMS.



By modeling the behavior of coastal ecosystems at rates of sea-level rise ranging from one to 15 millimeters per year, the scientists found that carbon storage more than doubles when the rate of sea-level rise increases from two to five mm/yr. However, past a 10 mm/year “tipping point,” carbon storage begins to decline as marsh replaces forest and the seaward edge of the marsh experiences faster erosion rates.



These findings have major implications for policies governing blue-carbon offsets, which - like those governing tree planting and other land-based or “green carbon” solutions - only count carbon that is captured within a particular ecosystem to avoid double-counting of carbon initially captured elsewhere. “Corroborating results from previous field experiments, we found that up to 50 percent of the carbon in marsh soils is created elsewhere,” Valentine said.



Better understanding the dynamics of coastal ecosystems in the context of rising sea levels could help policymakers develop more effective strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36803-7">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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Sea-level rise influences coastal carbon storage capacity

Coastal ecosystems are natural carbon storehouses, making them a valuable...

By using observations from NASA’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html">Hubble Space Telescope</a>, the retired <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html">Cassini</a> probe, and other space missions, an international team of scientists has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturns-rings-may-have-formed-from-a-shattered-moon/">Saturn’s rings</a> are heating the planet’s upper atmosphere - an unexpected phenomenon never seen before in our solar system, which could potentially provide a tool for predicting whether other planets have Saturn-like ring systems.



The evidence of how this heating effect is produced was provided by the detection of an excess of ultraviolet radiation in the form of hot hydrogen in Saturn’s atmosphere, indicating that something was contaminating and heating the upper atmosphere from the outside. According to the experts, the most plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that icy ring particles raining down onto Saturn’s atmosphere cause the heating effect, influenced by Saturn’s gravitational field pulling the particles into the planet. Cassini probe’s measurements at the end of its mission in 2017 confirmed that many particles are falling in from the rings.



Using archival ultraviolet-light (UV) observations from four space missions that studied Saturn, and calibrating them with measurements from Hubble’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/observatory-instruments-space-telescope-imaging-spectrograph">Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph</a> (STIS), the scientists discovered that the spectra were consistent across all the missions, suggesting that the steady “ice rain” from Saturn’s rings is the best explanation.



These findings suggest that the slow disintegration of Saturn’s rings influences the atomic hydrogen of the planet, changing the composition of the upper atmosphere. The discovery of the heating effect of Saturn’s rings on the planet’s upper atmosphere could provide a tool for predicting whether other planets around other stars have Saturn-like ring systems and thus deepen our understanding of the evolution of planets and their atmospheres in our solar system and beyond.



“This [discovery] was possible because we have the same reference point, from Hubble, on the rate of transfer of energy from the atmosphere as measured over decades,” said study lead author Lotfi Ben-Jaffel, an astrophysicist at <a href="https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/en">Sorbonne University</a> in Paris and the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a>. “We are just at the beginning of this ring characterization effect on the upper atmosphere of a planet. We eventually want to have a global approach that would yield a real signature about the atmospheres on distant worlds. One of the goals of this study is to see how we can apply it to planets orbiting other stars. Call it the search for “exo-rings.’”



—



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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Saturn’s rings are heating the planet’s atmosphere

By using observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the retired...

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A new study led by <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/">Binghamton University</a> has found that heavy <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/small-amounts-of-alcohol-have-big-impacts-on-brain-health/">alcohol</a> use can have a major impact on an individual’s cognitive functions such as decision-making and impulse control, leading to a vicious cycle that can be difficult to break. According to the experts, the brain’s immune system may be involved in this process, which can have long-lasting effects, making heavy drinkers more likely to continue to drink.&nbsp;



The researchers investigated the link between alcohol consumption and the immune signaling molecule interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in mice models. By comparing the brains of alcohol-dependent mice to those of mice with moderate or no alcohol consumption, they found that the former had twice as many cells producing IL-1β in the medial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that regulates cognitive function. In alcohol-dependent mice, IL-1β increased inflammation and the release of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which regulates neural activity in the brain. These changes were found to persist even when the mice no longer consumed alcohol.



The neuroimmune system, a specialized immune system for the brain, is responsible for eliminating pathogens and promoting proper healing after injury and healthy brain function. Although alcohol activates the neuroimmune system only “mildly,” changes from this mild activation can accumulate over time as an individual drinks more heavily and more often. Thus, heavy and prolonged alcohol use will likely affect neuroimmune signaling, which can lead to the cognitive decline observed in people suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD).



“So, in the healthy brain, the neuroimmune system will resolve the ‘mild’ problem and the neurons will return to a healthy state,” said study lead author Florence Varadoyan, a psychologist at Binghamton. “In the chronic ethanol brain, there will be ongoing inflammation that is likely an exaggerated response to the size of the initial problem. This will likely lead to more widespread neuron damage that isn’t recoverable.”



These findings could lead to improved treatments for substance abuse, particularly since drugs that block the activity of IL-1β are already approved by the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/">U.S. Food and Drug Administration</a> (FDA) to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. “We plan to follow up on this study with more work on exactly how targeting specific components of the IL-1β pathway might be useful in treating alcohol use disorder,” concluded senior author Marisa Roberto, a neuroscientist at the <a href="https://www.scripps.edu/">Scripps Research Institute</a>.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.02.020">Brain, Behavior, and Immunity</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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Alcohol use affects the brain’s immune system

A new study led by Binghamton University has found that...