Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Jamaica, which is the third largest island in the Caribbean. Jamaica is located at the boundary of the Gonâve and Caribbean tectonic plates, and tectonic activity has contributed to the island's diverse landscapes.



"The ongoing convergence of these plates causes uplift, giving Jamaica its mountainous topography as well as frequent earthquakes," says NASA. "The highest point on the island, Blue Mountain Peak, rises 7,402 feet above sea level."



"Much of Jamaica’s landscape is underlain by limestone. Over geologic time, cockpit karst terrain (such as sinkholes) has formed because limestone is dissolvable in water. The simultaneous dissolution of bedrock and the tectonic uplift lead to a range of elevations across the island."



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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Tectonic activity influences the topography of Jamaica

Today's Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features...

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in the southeastern corner of Spain.



"The park’s semi-arid climate and volcanic features contribute to the peculiar landscape along more than 60 kilometers of the Mediterranean coastline," reports NASA.



The Tabernas Desert, which is considered mainland Europe’s only desert, lies 30 kilometers to the north of Cabo de Gata-Níjar Park.



"Both the desert and the park are part of Spain’s Almería Province, the driest area of Europe. The region receives just 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain per year, though the coastal areas are somewhat more humid," explains NASA. "There is enough moisture to support nearly 1,000 species of plants, such as the European fan palm and a thorny shrub known as jujube."



"When viewed from orbit, the park’s most obvious features are volcanic - that is, the 5 percent of the volcanic complex that rises above the water. The remaining 95 percent is hidden from view below the sea’s surface."



According to NASA, volcanic activity began here about 16 million years ago and ended about 8 million years ago.&nbsp;



"Wind and seawater have eroded some of the lava flows into smooth, strange shapes. Other structures just offshore have partially crumbled away. For instance, the tall, jagged rocks jutting from the water at Arrecife de la Sierena are thought to be remains of an old volcanic structure."



The image was captured on May 17, 2022 by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&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

Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in Spain

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Lake Abert in southern Oregon, which has been shrinking in recent years. The shallow, salty lake is a critical feeding stopover for a large number of migratory birds.



"Every year, tens of thousands of birds flock to Lake Abert as they journey from parts of the Great Basin toward the Pacific flyway, a migration route that extends from Alaska and Canada, through California, to Mexico and South America," says NASA.



"Under normal circumstances, the lake’s water is too salty for fish. Instead, it supports large quantities of alkali flies and tiny crustaceans called brine shrimp (below), which have long provided a feast for several species of migrating birds."



However, the lake mostly dried up in 2014, 2015, 2021, and 2022 due to dry weather. The remaining water was often too salty - even for brine shrimp and flies.



A team of researchers led by the University of Maryland and NASA research scientist Dorothy Hall set out to gain a better understanding of why Lake Abert is drying up. The study revealed that fewer days of snow cover and hotter surface temperatures have led to higher levels of evaporation over the lake.&nbsp;



“Lake Abert is largely fed by snowmelt emanating from the mountains to the west of the lake,” said Hall. “What we’re seeing in Lake Abert is worrying, and it is consistent with what you'd expect from this region because of climate warming.”



“We haven’t seen Lake Abert so low since the Dust Bowl,” said study co-author Ron Larson, a retired biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “There has been little or no inflow from the Chewaucan River, at the south end of the lake for the past two years.”



The image was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on October 18, 2022.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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Why is Lake Albert drying up?

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> captures an impressive display of natural and man-made landmarks where the Netherlands meets the North Sea.



The man-made infrastructure was designed to help protect the low-lying country from rising sea levels, while the natural wetlands serve as a biodiversity hotspot.



The world’s largest system of unbroken mud flats, the Wadden Sea, supports 10,000 species of plants and animals, including harbor seals and Eurasian spoonbills.&nbsp;The sea extends&nbsp;along the coasts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.



According to NASA, the Wadden Sea provides a critical resting and feeding place for millions of birds as they make their yearly migration along the East Atlantic Flyway.&nbsp; 



The coastline of the Netherlands consists of sandy beaches and estuaries of long rivers. The country was dealing with sea-level rise and river flooding long before global warming became an issue for the rest of the world. 



Due to a dense population, along with intensive use of the sea and area surrounding it, there have been various environmental issues affecting the sea's ecosystems. Adverse environmental issues in the Netherlands – such as overfishing and dumping&nbsp;– have led to a number of efforts to prevent degradation.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

The Netherlands and the North Sea

Today's Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory captures...

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features a dam on the Blue Nile that is set to become Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam upon its completion in 2023.



In Ethiopia, only about half of the citizens have access to electricity. To address this issue, the government launched the dam project in 2011.



"With three spillways and 13 turbines, the concrete structure will rise 475 feet and create a reservoir that will cover 724 square miles of land, an area about the size of Houston, Texas. Called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), it should more than double Ethiopia’s output of electricity," reports NASA.



Beyond generating electricity, GERD is expected to reduce destructive seasonal floods in Sudan, provide a more reliable supply of water for irrigation, and extend the lifespan of other dams by trapping sediment.



At the same time, however, the dam could potentially impact millions of people who live and farm downstream in Egypt and parts of Sudan.



"After 10 years of construction, GERD is almost complete. In 2020, water managers started filling the reservoir, a process that could take from a few years to a decade depending on weather conditions and how much of the Blue Nile’s flow the dam managers hold back," says NASA.



"Ethiopia has an incentive to fill the reservoir quickly to start generating power and start paying for the $5 billion dollar project. However, rapid filling could significantly reduce the water downstream since the Blue Nile provides 60 percent of the water that flows into the Nile."



Essam Heggy is a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who recently co-authored a study analyzing the potential hydrological and economic consequences of filling the dam at various rates.



“While the dam will certainly have positive effects in regards to flood control and hydroelectric power, there are important unanswered questions about how quickly the reservoir should be filled, and how it will be managed long term,” said Heggy.



“Filling the reservoir too quickly - in less than seven years - could lead to measurable water shortages downstream that impact food production, especially if the initial filling occurs under drought conditions."



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile

For decades, immunobiologists have pondered what are the long-term effects of infections on people’s immune systems. For instance, after the organism fights off a pathogen, does the immune system return to a previous baseline, or could a single infection change it in ways that alter how it will respond not only to an already familiar virus or bacteria but also to a new pathogenic threat?



Now, a team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> and the <a href="https://www.niaid.nih.gov/">National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases</a> (NIAID) has systematically analyzed immune responses of healthy people who had received the flu vaccine, and compared the responses between those who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and those who experienced mild cases but recovered.



The analysis revealed that the immune systems of men previously infected with the new coronavirus responded more robustly to flu vaccines than previously-infected women or people who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. These findings suggest that the immune statuses of men previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 was altered in ways that changed their response to a different type of future exposure.



“This was a total surprise,” said study senior author John Tsang, an immunobiologist at Yale. “Women usually mount a stronger overall immune response to pathogens and vaccines, but are also more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases.”&nbsp;



According to the scientists, this discovery could also be linked to an intriguing aspect noticed already early in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-origins-of-covid-19-will-most-likely-remain-a-mystery/">Covid-19</a> pandemic: men appeared much more likely to die from a runaway immune response than women after contracting Covid. The new study shows that even mild cases of Covid-19 may trigger stronger inflammatory responses in males than females, resulting in stronger functional changes to the male immune system, even a long time after recovery.



When analyzing the participants’ response to flu vaccinations, the experts found that males previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 produced more antibodies to influenza and increased levels of interferons (proteins produced by cells in response to infections or vaccines). This was surprising since, in general, healthy females have stronger interferon responses than males.



Since hundreds of millions – if not, according to some estimates, several billions – of people worldwide have been infected with the new coronavirus so far, and the emergence of long-Covid symptoms in some people is currently a major health concern, understanding the lingering effects of Covid on the immune system is crucial.&nbsp;



“Our findings point to the possibility that any infection or immune challenge may change the immune status to establish new set points. The immune status of an individual is likely shaped by a multitude of prior exposures and perturbations,” Sparks concluded.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05670-5">Nature</a>.



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



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What are the lingering immune system effects of Covid?

For decades, immunobiologists have pondered what are the long-term effects...

In the Chesapeake Bay wetlands, evolution has occurred faster than previously thought. This may be minimizing the chance that coastal marshes can withstand future sea level rise.



Researchers at the <a href="https://www.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame</a> evaluated the role evolution plays in the Chesapeake Bay by studying a type of grass-like plant called chairmaker’s bulrush.&nbsp;



The research team used historical seeds, modern plants, and computational models to demonstrate that “resurrected” plants were allocating more resources in their roots below ground, allowing them to store carbon more quickly than modern plants. This provides evidence that supports assumptions about evolutionary change.



“We think this surprising reduction in below-ground growth might be a response to increased pollution in Chesapeake Bay,” said Professor Jason McLachlan.



“Decades of pollution have resulted in higher levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the waters, and since these are plant nutrients, evolution might now favor plants that ‘invest’ less in expensive roots.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



The seeds from the historical plants had remained underground since the mid-1900s. Using resurrection ecology, the historical plants were collected to germinate and grow.&nbsp;



While modern plants and samples from the mid-1900s grew above ground, they invested less into rooting deeper below ground. This created less biomass below ground and could reduce the capacity of wetlands to withstand flooding.



Using computational models, the researchers showed that the modern plants store carbon in soils 15 percent slower than the plants did in the mid-1900s.



“The research shows the role evolution plays as ecosystems are increasingly stressed by the impacts of human society,” said Professor McLachlan.&nbsp;



It can't be said with certainty that plants are investing more of their energy above ground because of pollution. However, the experts believe that the combination of their research techniques can support novel predictions of the impact of evolution. This could motivate others to further study the causes that drive evolutionary change.



“For reasons of inconvenience, science has often ignored what happens below ground. But we have learned so much in this study; there are so many secrets happening below ground," said study first author Megan Vahsen.



According to Professor McLachlan, the research further demonstrates the role evolution plays as ecosystems are increasingly stressed by the impacts of human society.&nbsp;



“Evolutionary change over almost a century played a destabilizing role for coastal ecosystems. Other species in other ecosystems might have responded differently to human environmental impact, perhaps providing more resilience to ecosystems, or perhaps having no impact at all."



The researchers hope that others will consider how evolutionary change can affect ecosystem resilience during future studies on the biological response to environmental change.&nbsp;



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



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Can coastal marshes withstand future sea level rise?

In the Chesapeake Bay wetlands, evolution has occurred faster than...

Mountains host about half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and action is urgently needed to protect these ecosystems. According to Professor Robert Marchant at the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a>, these critically important <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/green-turtle-recovery-greatly-depends-on-foraging-habitats/">habitats</a> should be prioritized in biodiversity policies.



Professor Marchant is calling on national governments to focus on mountain ecosystems while addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. He says that national policy simply isn’t keeping pace with land use change, development, population growth and the impacts of climate change on global mountain systems.



“Government environmental and business policies are rarely joined up and we are seeing continued widespread land degradation in mountain habitats. This includes uncontrolled grazing, deforestation, or overdevelopment - and much of it is resulting from weak policies and changing tenure laws," explained Professor Marchant.



Even though mountain ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change and human development, they do not receive the necessary attention and investment from their governments.&nbsp;



In Kenya, for example, the area around Mount Kilimanjaro has endured a major increase in population density and agriculture over the last two decades. Companies have bought land to drill boreholes and extract water from the mountain’s aquifer.



“Once you’ve paid for that borehole, that water is a free resource to you. But these services are provided by nature – and no one is presently paying for either the water resources or for stewardship of that land. Asking companies to pay for this kind of service, by issuing controllable permits for example,&nbsp; would be a step towards treating our mountain resources with more respect.”



Professor Marchant is calling on countries to invest more in mountain ecosystem restoration activities, and to develop effective climate change policies. His policy brief will be presented later this month at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada.



"We are hoping for some progress at COP15, but what is really needed is an international treaty or code of practice that accepts the value of our mountain ecosystems, and I suspect that is some way off.”



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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.

Mountain ecosystems are in urgent need of protection

Mountains host about half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and...

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The Electronic Field Book will revolutionize research expeditions Today&#8217;s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> introduces a new tool called the Electronic Field Book, software that was designed to help scientists overcome the challenge of poor connections in remote locations. 

The device integrates data sharing, voice chat, and real-world positioning with inputs from external tools such as microscopes and spectrometers. The Electronic Field Book will revolutionize research expeditions as shown above in the video will also show the way the device works and the revolutionary difference it makes. Together, they will revolutionize the study of the most distant objects in the Universe.  

This innovative tool can record every step of a scientific research expedition while documenting all communication. Technology has forever changed the way billions travel either for pleasure or business.  

An upgraded version of the Electronic Field Book was used for the first time during the Pangaea 2018 campaign in Lanzarote, Spain. By making an electronic version of the book freely down-loadable on the net, comments have been only received from fellow Internet physicists around the world and from WWW ‘hit’ statistics it seems that the book serves as a frequently used Internet resource. 

Also the electronic revolution was a global phenomenon that required recordkeepers to undertake global approaches and cooperation. And finally, recordkeeping specialists had essential knowledge and skill, but it was misapplied and they were so professionally diffuse that no-one understood what they had to offer. The recent <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/study-highlights-desperate-need-for-electronic-waste-management/">electronic</a> revolution has been based on semiconductors. However, the first electronic revolution was made possible by the invention of the vacuum tubes.
&#8212; 

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

Video Credit: European Space Agency