Transcript

3.13.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio Wise Diary of Science and Nature. Your
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reader is Kelly Taylor. I have some articles related to
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the topics of science and nature, but first a reminder.
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RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
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blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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read printed material. Dealing with a bit of a head
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cold this week, so I appreciate you indulging my congestion.
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Will carry on though with a story from Fox Weather.
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Butterfly populations disappearing at dire rate. This is from March
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the ninth. The United States has seen a stunning decline
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in butterfly populations, with rates continuing to show decreases that
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have been described as quote dire. A recent study published
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in the journal Science calculated the decline at twenty two
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percent since the year two thousand, with the potential for
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cascading effects on other organisms quote. Numerous declines have been
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documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect
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losses are dire. Study authors stated entomologists reached their conclusions
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by analyzing seventy six thousand surveys across the lower forty
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eight states, which counted for twelve point six million individual butterflies.
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Of the species studied, two thirds showed declines of more
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than ten percent, with every region outside the West Coast
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experiencing plunging numbers. Quote species level declines were widespread, with
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thirteen times as many species declining as increasing. The prevalence
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of declines throughout all regions in the United States highlights
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an urgent need to protect butterflies from further losses, the
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study said. In addition to their beauty, biologists consider butterflies
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to be critical to ecosystems as they play vital roles
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as pollinators and food sources. Factors such as habitat loss,
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climate change, and pesticide use are all suspected contributors to
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the decline in butterfly populations. Rising temperatures and extreme weather
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events are believed to have exacerbated the problem, with species
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generally experiencing more significant declines in the southern parts of
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the country. One of the hundreds of species impacted is
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the monarch butterfly, which was recently estimated by the Xerxes
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Society for Invertebrate Conservation to have a population of fewer
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than ten thousand individuals. The species was once estimated to
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have a population of between one and two million during
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the nineteen nineties, but has significantly declined in numbers across
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North America. Researchers warn that the continued depletion of butterfly
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populations could have cascading effects on biodiversity. Previous studies have
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documented declines in moths, bees, and beetles, potentially leading to
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hardships for amphibians and birds. The study highlighted actions such
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as preserving and restoring native habitats and performing manual relocations
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as potential solutions. In addition to limiting the use of insecticides.
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The United States Department of Agriculture suggested that the planting
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of milkweed can help enhance some butterfly populations. Monarch butterflies
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are known to only lay their eggs on milkweed, and
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caterpillars only feed on milkweed leaves. Quote Many insects have
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the potential for rapid population growth and recovery, but habitat restoration,
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species specific interventions, and reducing pesticide use are all likely
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needed to curb population declines, the study stated. Next up,
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an article from Popular Mechanics whoops scientists may have miscalculated
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our global warming timeline. This is March the ninth. Whatever
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your stance is on climate change, it's real. Let's move on.
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It's impossible to have missed the near ubiquitous call to
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action to quote keep temperatures from exceeding one point five
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degrees celsius compared to pre industrial levels. Over the past
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few years, the somewhat bureaucratic phrase has become a rallying
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cry for the climate conscious. This ambitious target first surface
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following the Paris Climate Agreement and describes a sort of
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climate threshold. If we pass a long term average increase
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in temperature of one point five degrees celsius and hold
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at those levels for several years, we're going to do
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some serious damage to ourselves in our environment. Well. A
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paper from the University of Western Australia has some bad news.
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The world might have blown past that threshold four years ago.
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Published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The paper reaches
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this conclusion via an unlikely route, analyzing six sclero sponges,
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a kind of sea sponge that clings to underwater caves
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in the ocean. These sponges are commonly studied by climate
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scientists and are referred to as quote natural archives in
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quote because they grow so slowly, like a fraction of
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a millimeter a year slow. This essentially allows them to
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lock away climate data in their limestone skeletons, not entirely
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unlike tree rings or ice cores. By analyzing strontium to
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calcium ratios in these spoones, the team could effectively calculate
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water temperatures dating back to seventeen hundred. The sponges watery
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home in the Caribbean is also a plus, as major
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ocean currents don't muck up or distort temperature readings. This
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data could be particularly useful as direct human measurement of
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sea temperature only dates back to roughly eighteen fifty, when
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sailors dipped buckets into the ocean. That's why the Intergovernmental
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Panel on Climate Change uses eighteen fifty and nineteen hundred
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as its pre industrial baseline. According to the website Grist quote,
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the big picture is that the global warming clock for
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emissions reductions to minimize the risk of dangerous climate change
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has been brought forward by at least a decade, says
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Malcolm McCullough, lead author of the study, basically times running out.
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He says the study concludes that the world started warming
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roughly eighty years before the IPCC's estimates, and that we
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already surpassed one point seven degrees celsius in twenty twenty.
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That's a big woe, if true moment, but some scientists
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are skeptical. One such scientist, speaking with Live Science, said
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that it begs credulity to claim that the instrumental record
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is wrong based on paleosponges from one region of the world.
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It honestly doesn't make any sense to me. In quote,
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other experts expressed wanting to see more data before completely
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upending the IPCC's climate goal posts, which say the Earth
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is currently at a long term temperature change of around
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one point two degrees celsius. Unfortunately, even if the sponges
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are wrong, there's mounting evidence that we are in the
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process of crossing that one point five degree threshold as
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we speak. This January was the hottest on record, clocking
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in at one point seven degrees above pre industrial temperatures.
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According to new scientists, that means we've been above one
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point five degrees are changed for at least a year.
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It doesn't jump the long term average over the one
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point five line, but it's certainly a sign We're getting
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close fast. Regardless of the percentage. One thing is certain,
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climate change is in all hands on deck crisis. In
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order to save the planet for future habitability, humans need
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to curtail emissions immediately after all the sea sponges are
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telling us. So. Turning now to USA Today, the headline
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for this article reads, quote put them on the menu
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in quote, Americans should eat more of these invasive animals,
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officials say. This is from March sixth. What do iguanas, rodents, fish,
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and wild boares having common They're on a list of
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invasive species that federal officials are encouraging people to eat
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in an effort to limit damage to ecosystems. The US
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Fish and Wildlife Service released the list of February twentieth
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for National Invasive Species Awareness Week, which took place from
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February twenty fourth to the twenty eighth. Quote. Invasive species
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out compete native wildlife, destroy habitats, and mess up ecosystems,
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the agency wrote, But rather than just complaining about them,
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let's put them on the menu in quote. According to
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the agency, invasive species can damage the ecosystems they become
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part of, and eating them is just one way to
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protect native wildlife. Quote. It's not a complete solution and
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should be combined with other conservation efforts to effectively control
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these species, the FWS said, calling the species quote downright
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delicious end quote. So find out which species made the
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list below. Neutria, a native species to South America, are
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invasive to the Gulf of America or formerly Gulf of Mexico,
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the Atlantic Coast, and the Pacific Northwest. They are oversized
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wetland loving rodents who were initially brought to the US
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as part of the fur trade. Now they're devouring marshlands
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for fish and Wildlife Service said. The agency said those
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who want to eat nutrient can try gumbo recipes quote.
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Their meat is lean, mild, and taste like rabbit the
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northern snakeheads. Next on the service's list of invasive species
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for checks to chow down on is the northern snakehead
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fish or the Channa argus. The fish can breathe air
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and can live outside of water for several days. They
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are native to East Asia, but have become invasive in
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mid Atlantic and southeastern US waterways. Snakehead fish compete with
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native species for food and habitats, and there is concern
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that they may out compete or displace important native species
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or other predatory fish. According to US Geological Survey, the
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northern snakehead fish can be fried, grilled, or turned into tacos.
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According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, they're delicious with
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a firm, white, flaky meat. Invasive carp, which includes big head,
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silver black carp, and grasscarp, are native to East Asia.
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They've been found in multiple Midwest and Southeast rivers and lakes.
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These high jumping fish are clogging waterways and out competing
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native species. The Fish and Wildlife Service added that they
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are surprisingly tasty and are delicious when grilled, blackened, or
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made into crispy fish cakes. Next up is a green
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iguana native to Central and South America. The species is
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invasive in Florida and other warm states, where they eat
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Florida's native plants and destabilize sea walls. The solution iguana stew.
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The Fish Wildlife Service said their meat is often called
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chicken of the trees for its mild flavor. Lastly, there's
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the feral hog or wild boar, known scientifically as sus scropha.
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Wild bores are native to Europe and Asia, but have
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become invasive in the southeastern US, Texas, California and other areas. Quote,
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they aren't just invasive, they're a full blown ecological disaster.
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Fish and Wildlife Service said, Rooting, trampling, and devouring everything
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in their path, these piggies are tearing up farmland, forests,
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and wetlands across the country. The agency said, wild boar
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account for some of the best tasting invasive meat you
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can get. Their meat is leaner and more rich in
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flavor than pork sold in stores. Their meat can be
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turned into smoked barbecue, chili, burgers, tacos, or wild boar
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ragout over pasta. Feral hog hunting is encouraged in many states,
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so you're not just getting a great meal, you're doing
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conservation work with every bite, the agency said. The agency
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said it's important for residents to check local regulations and
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restrictions first, though, quote, then get cooking and help control
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these invasive species one bite at a time. The Fish
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and Wildlife Service said. Now we'll go to Smithsonian and
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they have an article that is headlined tiny Antarctic krill
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benefit the planet in big ways, but face a barrage
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of threats. This is from March eleventh, A single Antarctic
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krill is about the size of your pinky finger, but
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with an estimated population of more than seven hundred trillion
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in the Southern Ocean, the tiny crustacean's collective impact across
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the entire planet is enormous. Their swarms are so massive
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they can be seen from space, their food by the
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millions for seals, penguins, and whales, and they sequester huge
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amounts of carbon, more than fifteen billion dollars worth per year,
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according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. Increasingly, though,
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Antarctic krill face threats from warming seas and a growing fishery.
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Scientists say that without international action to bolster marine protected
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areas and back climate change, krill populations and the resulting
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carbon sequestration could drop off sharply in the coming decades.
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Antarctic krill act as one of the world's largest biological pumps.
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That's a term scientists used to describe the process by
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which marine organisms send carbon to the depths of the ocean,
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where it can be stored for hundreds of years. A
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study published last September in Nature Communications found that Antarctic
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krills sequester similar amounts of carbon to coastal marshans, mangroves,
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and seagrass habitat scientists consider some of the planet's most
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prolific carbon sinks. Krill feed on phytoplankton, which, like land
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based plants, consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen as they photosynthesize.
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When krill waste sinks to the bottom of the ocean,
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all that carbon goes with it, essentially locking it away
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and freeing up space at the surface for more carbon
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to be absorbed from the air. Quote. Krill are by
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a fact of life, living and molting and pooping and
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dying and all that is very important to bring carbon
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from the surface ocean to the deep sea, says Matthew Savoca,
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ecologist at Stanford University. Quote. When krill are doing that
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at the population level, they end up being an important
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ally in the climate change fight. But Antarctic krill also
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faced a host of challenges, including from warming oceans and
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an emboldened fishing industry that researchers say require urgent attention.
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A study led by researchers at the British Antarctic Survey
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this past December found that an increase in plastic pollution
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in the Southern Ocean could inhibit krill's ability to seek
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wester carbon by twenty seven percent. While the sheer number
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of krill in the Southern Ocean means the species is
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unlikely to face an acute threat to its survival in
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the near term. Sivoka is quick to point out that
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numbers are no guarantee of success. Quote, you only have
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to look as far as our own country for the
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story of passenger pigeons to show how quickly something can
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go from being incredibly abundant to extinct. He says. The
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Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which
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regulates fishing activity in the Southern Ocean, failed at a
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meeting last October to renew a key measure aimed at
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preventing excessive krill harvests in any one area. The Commission,
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which makes decisions by consensus among his twenty six member
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states and the European Union, has been at a year's
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long standstill over that measure and several proposed marine protected areas,
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amid opposition from China and Russia. The result, says Zephyr Sylvester,
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and environmental researcher at University of Colorado, is that fishing
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vessels are freed act on their companies directives until a
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new regulation is adopted. A lack of enforcement could allow
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the fishery to concentrate operations in a smaller area where
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it would have a larger environmental impact. Krill are used
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in products ranging from nutritional supplements to livestock feed, and
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the WWF estimates the Antarctic krill fishery to be worth
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about two hundred and fifty million dollars annually. We'll learn
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a lot about the integrity of the fishery now that
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the conservation measure has lapsed. Sylvester heads, saying that external pressure,
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like the diplomatic and public awareness campaign in support of
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the Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area a decade ago,
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remains among the most effective methods to turn scientists recommendations
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into policy. Still, she says it shouldn't be the burden
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of consumers to enforce sustainable fishing practices. At the same time,
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declining sea ice is exacerbating challenges for Antarctic krill. From
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the earliest stages of life, krill larvae don't have the
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lipid reserves of adult krill to get through the dark
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Antarctic winter. Instead, larvae stick to the sea ice, feeding
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on ice algae until the sun and the photoplankton returns
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in spring. Sea ice is critically important for Antarctic krill.
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Without these algae that grow inside the sea ice, they
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will simply not survive. The Antarctic Peninsula, which juts northward
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and where huge numbers of krill are concentrated, is warming
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five times faster than the global average, according to research
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backed by the National Science Foundation. As a result, scientists
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say krill may be concentrating farther south in search of
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more stable sea ice. A twenty twenty three study in
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Nature Reviews Earth and Environment found that changes in the
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distribution of krill around Antarctica driven by warming waters threatened
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to increase interactions between fishing vessels and the animals that
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feed on krill, such as whales and penguins. The studies
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lead author so Kaboguchi, a crill ecologist at Australian Antarctic Division,
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says scientists are still trying to understand exactly how climate
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change will affect Antarctic krill. From his lab in Tasmania,
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where he has a research querehum filled with twenty thousand krill,
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Kabagucci has shown that if carbon emissions remain unchecked, crill
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hatch rates in parts of the Southern Ocean could decrease
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by seventy percent within the next century. But he cautions
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that the effort to decode Antarctica's shifting marine ecosystems is
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still in its early stages. There are lots of other
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things we need to consider, he says, it's just the start. Well,
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let's turn over to Scientific American Now, and they have
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an article from March the tenth that is headlined microplastics
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are messing with photosynthesis in plants. Microplastics are now a
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ubiquitous part of our daily physical reality. These minuscule fragments
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of degrading plastic now suffuse our air, our soil, the
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food we eat, and the water we drink. They're being
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detected everywhere researchers look, from Antarctic sea ice to human brains.
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As scientists develop a better idea of where microplastics are
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accumulating in the environment, they're just beginning to understand how
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these pollutants affect one of the most essential and widespread
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kingdoms of life on Earth, plants. A new study published
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in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals
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how microplastics hinder photosynthesis across a wide range of plant species,
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including crucial food crops. It's really scary, says Marcus Erickson,
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marine scientists at the Five Geyers Institute, a nonprofit plastic
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pollution research organization. The researchers found that the presence of
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microplastics can reduce photosynthesis by as much as seven to
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twelve percent on average. That could range from six to
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eighteen percent in terrestrial crops, two to twelve percent in
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marine plants such as seaweed, and four to fourteen percent
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in freshwater algae. The exposure to microplastics was not surprising
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at all, Ericson says what surprised me was the level
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of impact. A generalized reduction in photosynthesis at such a
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scale would have major implications for the global food supply.
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With the current rates of worldwide plastic production and resulting
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microplastic exposure, farmers could see a four to thirteen and
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a half percent yield loss per year in staple crops
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such as corn, rice and wheat over the next twenty
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five years. Additionally, seafood production could drop by up to
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seven percent as aquatic ecosystems lose the algae that forms
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the base of their food webs. This would seriously impact
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the global economy and exacerbate food insecurity for hundreds of
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millions of people. According to the studies authors, decreased photosynthesis
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could also hamper efforts to fight climate change. As plants photosynthesize,
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they draw carbon dioxide from the air into their tissues
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and store it in the form of sugars. Most climate
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models assume plants will be able to take up atmospheric
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carbon at a consistent rate over the next several decades,
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but if less carbon is sequestered in forests, grasslands, and
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kelp beds, then researchers had predicted that will make mitigating
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warming that much harder. Beyond photosynthesis, microplastics have been linked
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to health issues in humans and other animals. They are
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associated with an increase in people's risk of heart attack
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and stroke, and they have been found to hamper growth
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and reproduction in a number of species. The new paper
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further highlights the need for a global treaty on plastic issues,
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says marine biologist Richard Thompson, who specializes in microplastic pollution
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at the University of Plymouth. In England. Its team estimates
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that reducing the amount of plastic particles currently in the
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environment by just thirteen percent could mitigate photosynthesis loss by
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thirty percent. Efforts to develop an international agreement on plastic
24:46
have been under way since twenty seventeen, but the latest
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United Nations led negotiations, held in Busan, South Korea, ended
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without a resolution. Still, Thompson says it is crucial to
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keep trying, especially as large junks of plastic in the
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environment continued to degrade into microplastics. If you don't take
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action now, he adds, within the next seventy to one
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hundred years, we'll see much more wide scale ecological harm.
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Now from AFP, we have an article that's headlined stuck
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in eternal drought, UAE turns to AI to make it ring.
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Speaker 2: This is from March eleventh. In the marbled halls of
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a luxury hotel, leading experts are discussing a new approach
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to an age old problem, how to make it rain.
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In the UAE, the wealthy Gulf state that lies in
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one of the world's biggest deserts, Decades of work and
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millions of dollars have been plowed into easing endless drought
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in the oil rich UAE, whose mainly expatriate population is
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soaring undeterred by a dry, hostile climate and hair dryer
25:58
summer heat. Despite the United Arab Emirates' best efforts, rainfall
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remains rare. But at last month's International Rain Enhancement Forum
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in Abu Dhabi, officials held out a new hope, harnessing
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artificial intelligence to ring more moisture out of often cloudless skies.
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Among our initiatives is an AI system to improve cloud seating,
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the practice of using planes to fire salt or other
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chemicals into clouds.
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Speaker 1: To increase rain. It's pretty much finished, said Luca del
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Monache monatch Monach, deputy director of the Center for Western Weather,
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the University of San Diego's scripts Institution of Oceanography. We're
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doing the final touches. However, del Monache conceded that AI
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was not a silver bullet for the UAE, which, like
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other countries, has pursued cloud seating for decades. Cloud seating
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works by increasing the size of droplets with which then
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fall is rain. It's estimated to increase rainfall by ten
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to fifteen percent, but it only works with certain types
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of puffy cumulus clouds and can even suppress rainfall if
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not done properly. You've got to do it in the
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right place at the right time. That's why we use
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artificial intelligence, they say. The three year project, funded with
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a one and a half million dollar grant from the
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UAE's Rain Enhancement Program, feeds satellite, radar and weather data
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into an algorithm that predicts where setable clouds will form
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in the next six hours. It promises to advance the
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current method where cloud seating flights are directed by experts
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studying satellite images. Hundreds of such flights occur annually in
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the UAE. With only about one hundred millimeters of annual rainfall.
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The uaes nearly ten million people mainly rely on desalinated
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water piped from plants that produce about fourteen percent of
27:58
the world's total, according two official figures. Well, that's all
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for today's Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was
28:09
Kelly Taylor. Now please stay tuned for the Health Corner
28:14
on RADIOI