Transcript

5.14.26 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio WIVESE Diary of Science and Nature. Your
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reader is Kelly Taylor. I'll have articles on the topics
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of science and nature. But first a reminder that RADIOI
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. We'll start out with Time magazine and they
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have an article that is headlined the worst spring drought
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on record is putting US crops at risk. The United
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States experienced its worst spring drought on record last month,
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with more than sixty percent of land in the lower
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forty eight states experiencing moderate drought or worse. The drought
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has sparked alarm among farmers and environmentalists across the country,
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who warn that food supplies may be impacted and wildfires
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may blight areas where they are not usually seen. The
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dry conditions are concentrated in the Southeast, where moderate to
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exceptional drought covered ninety nine percent of the region at
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its peak in April. According to the US Drought Monitor,
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severe to exceptional drought covered more than eighty percent of
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the region, the highest level in April since the monitor
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began collecting data in two thousand. The drought has been
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building for some time. Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina
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experienced record dry conditions between September twenty twenty five and
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March twenty twenty six, with records dating back to eighteen
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ninety five, while heavy rainfall in the South last week
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east conditions in the Deep South. In Texas, the US
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Drought Monitor said that quote drought conditions remained mostly unchanged
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across southeastern Alabama, Georgia, and northwestern Florida, where soil, moisture
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and stream flows remain extremely low end quote. The National
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Lousianic and Atmospheric Administration NOAH found that January through March
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Arch was the driest on record for the continental US,
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with precipitation overall less than seventy percent of average, and
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these dry conditions have expanded to nearly the largest extent
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of drought since November twenty twenty two. The drought is
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threatening to have a severe impact on major agricultural crops,
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from wheat farmers in Kansas to vegetable farmers in Georgia.
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The poor conditions and low yields come at a time
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when farmers are already struggling due to tariffs and the
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rising cost of fertilizer resulting from the war in Iran.
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Virginia farmer Billy Bain, eighty one years old, told a
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local CBS news affiliate that this year is fifty eighth
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year planting crops is the worst drought he has ever seen.
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Quote we had to stop planting because it's so dry,
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Bain said, adding that the costs of his farm have
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gone up in the wake of the fuel crisis sparked
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by the Iraq war. Quote, it's very costly per day,
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especially when you are looking at diesel fuel prices at
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four dollars for off road, over five dollars on road,
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and just another cost when you have dry weather. For
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wheat farmers across the Great Plains, those late April to
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early May weeks are critical, as winter wheat begins to
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mature before the summer harvest. Yet, the US Department of
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Agriculture forecasts that this year's wheat acreage would be the
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lowest since nineteen nineteen. Rachel Cletus, senior policy director with
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the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists,
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wrote last week that climate change was quote fundamentally altering
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conditions for US agriculture, creating unprecedented risks and uncertainties for
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livelihoods of farmers and ranchers in quote, those conditions could
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raise food prices for consumers. She added, dry conditions have
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also fueled wildfires, even in wetland environments like the South
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Florida Everglades. These wildfires have already burned one hundred and
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twenty thousand acres of land in Florida this year, and
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according to NASA, current drought is the most widespread and
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severe to affect the state since twenty twelve. Quote, Florida
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has got one of the worst fire seasons in maybe
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the last thirty or forty years, or it's turning out
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to be that way, says Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
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In Georgia, Governor Brian Kent declared a state of emergency
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in ninety one counties in late April as wildfires burned
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across the southeast of the state, allowing the state National
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Guard to respond to affected areas. The Georgia Forestry Commission
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responded to zero new wildfires in the state on May seventh,
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the first day with no new fires in the state
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since December twenty twenty five, and now we have an
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article from vox which is headlined why the American Southeast
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is becoming a new hotspot for wildfires. This is from
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May twelfth. Drought and fire are a dangerous duo. The
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Southeastern United States is witnessing this firsthand as several major
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blazes have burned tens of thousands of acres across the
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parched region, destroying homes and prompting evacuations in some areas.
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Florida and Georgia have been particularly hard hit, and strong
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winds and unusually low humidity have made it difficult to
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combat the flames. With much of the Southeast in a
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long standing drought since July twenty twenty five, dried out
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vegetation has provided ample fuel for wildfires to spread the
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minute they spark. That can even be something as small
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as a balloon hitting a power line, which is likely
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what ignited one of the largest fires that tour through
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Georgia late last month. Typically, forest manager Ignite planned controlled
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fires known as prescribed burns, early in the season to
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clear this brittle brush, but this technique was on hold
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in certain areas amid the drought over concerns that small
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burns could quickly get out of control. Among this dried
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out vegetation are the felled trees and branches left behind
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by Hurricane Helene in twenty twenty four, showing the lingering
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and compounding risks of climate disasters. Throughout March, I reported
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on the widespread drought afflicting the western US, which experts
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say could ramp up fire risk throughout the summer. The
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situation in the Southeast is proof of that risk. Overall,
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fire is not uncommon during spring in the region, which
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technically has more blazes than any other part of the
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country in a given year, though many are small or
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planned for agriculture or prescribed burns. However, the current spate
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of wildfires stands out. Experts say, quote it's unusual to
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see this level of wildfire activity across the Southeast, and
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April widespread drought has left fuels extremely dry. Drought is
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the driving force behind this fire risk, said ACU weather
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meteorologists Bread and Buckingham. In Florida, fires had burned through
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nearly one hundred twenty thousand acres as of late April
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of this year, after the quote intensity and extent of
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the drought ratcheted up starting in January twenty twenty six,
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according to NASA. Meanwhile, Governor Kemp declared a state of
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emergency in April for much in the southern part of
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the state of Georgia, where just two large fires had
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scorched more than fifty thousand acres. One of them has
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become the most destructive wildfire in the state's history. Despite
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days of fire fighting and a short rain spell over
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one weekend, the flames were far from fully contained. Smaller
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scattered fires burned in other states, such as South Carolina
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and North Carolina, where statewide burn bands remained in place.
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Quote the fact that you have all this vegetation here
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in North Carolina or across the southeast US, and in
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a drought, it gets very dry, and that becomes material
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that can become fuel for the wildfires, it says Lauren Lohman,
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Associate professor in environmental engineering at Wake Forest University. I
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spoke to Loman last March about wildfires in the southeastern
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US when she first explained to me the interplay between
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hurricane damage and wildfire. In September twenty twenty four, Hurricane
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Helene passed through millions of acres of forest land in Florida,
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North Carolina, and Georgia, leaving a graveyard of down trees
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that dried out and provided ample kindling for wildfires. Two
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years later, much of the wood debris remains in part
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of the forest, as does the forest risk of forest
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fire Risk quote there's a ton of old Hurricane Helene
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debris down in the woods. Hawkins, Georgia Forestry spokesperson says,
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it's lying around and it's just a tinder box out there. Quote.
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As climate change accelerates, droughts in the southeastern US are
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expected to become more common. These warming and increasing dry,
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dry conditions could reduce the window of time each year
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when with forest managers can safely implement prescribed fire. Shifts
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from severe rain to drought can lead to rapid swings
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and extremes known as weather whiplash. This dynamic, in turn,
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can fuel a response from plants on the ground what
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Loman calls vegetation whiplash. Quote. You'll get more plants growing
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after these hurricanes and a lot of water, and so
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they become lusher and greener, Loman said. And if that's
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followed by an extreme drought and you know, conditions dry out,
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then you're left with even more wildfire fuel and potential
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to burn afterwards in quote. At the same same time,
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people are increasingly moving closer to this vegetation at the
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wildland urban interface, where homes start to overlap with undeveloped
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land and forests. Given that humans cause the vast majority
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of wildland fires in the US, their presence increases the
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likelihood of ignitions. As the Southeast contends with wildfires ranging
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through the region, communities out west are preparing for their
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own wire fire season after an historic snow drought. Though
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it's difficult to flesh out the global warming connection with
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a single fire season, research shows it's clear that compounding
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climate risks are setting the stage for more frequent and
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severe wildfires to burn in many areas. Quote. That's the
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thing that stands out when you're thinking about climate change
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is just seeing year after year, or day after day
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in some cases records being broken. Loman said. If you're
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going to say, like, what's normal, it's not normal to
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see records broken consistently. Now will turn to a new
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Scientist magazine. The headline for this article is there's been
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a sudden increase in the rate of sea level rise.
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Dated May the eighth, there has been an abrupt change
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in the rate of sea level rise as measured by satellites.
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Around twenty twelve, it's suddenly accelerated and has remained higher
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ever since. It is possible that the sudden jump is
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mainly due to natural variation. However, it could also be
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a response to the accelerating rate of global warming, says
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Lancelot le Clerc at the University of Toulouse in France.
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The average global sea level has already risen by more
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than point two meters over the past fifteen years as
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a result of global warming. This has been caused by
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a number of factors, as well as increasing melting of
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a mountain of mountain and glaciers and the ice sheets
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of Greenland and Antarctica. The oceans are expanding as they warm.
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Satellite measurements of sea level began only in the nineteen nineties,
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and the rate of rise was thought to have been
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fairly steady at around three point six millimeters per year,
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But as more satellite data has come in, le Clerk's
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team has spotted a sudden step change around twenty twelve,
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with the average rate jumping from two point nine millimeters
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a year to four point one millimeters per year. Since
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twenty twelve. It's not a huge signal, says Jonathan Bamber
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at the University of Bristol in the UK. We're not
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talking about centimeters a year of difference or anything like that.
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That said, when the change in the trend in satellite
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data is viewed alongside tide gage data going back around
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a century, it is clear that the rate of sea
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level rise is accelerating, he says. The team's analysis suggests
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this jump is likely to be due to chain changing
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trends in several of the underlying causes of sea level rise,
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rather than just one. Not only are ice sheets melting faster,
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but less fresh waters being stored on land, meaning more
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is ending up in the oceans. Since around twenty ten,
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the rate at which the planet is warming is also
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sped up, and this has been largely driven by falling
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levels of aerosol pollution from countries such as China. Aerosols
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have a cooling effect overall, and high pollution has been
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counteracting the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels. The acceleration
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of sea level rise could also be a result of
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this drop in air pollution. The clerk told the meaning
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of the European Geosciences Union quote. The trend change we
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found around twenty twelve seems to be linked with an
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increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing, resulting at least partly from
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a reduction of aerosol emissions, says team member Any Kazanavy
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at the University of Toulouse. Another study presented at the
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EGU meeting suggests that ocean waters deeper than two kilometers
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have started to warm and expand in the last decade,
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which could also be contributing to this acceleration. Before twenty sixteen,
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all the known causes of rising sea level added up
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to explain the observed rise in average global sea level,
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but since then these factors have no longer accounted for
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the whole observed rise. That suggests we are missing something,
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and the most likely candidate is the deep oceans. We
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don't have systematic, ongoing measurements of sea temperatures more than
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two kilometers below the surface. There is a global array
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of nearly four thousand robotic probes that measure sea temperatures
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at various depths, but these don't descend below two kilometers.
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Scientists have used ocean models to show that warming of
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the oceans below two kilometers can explain the gap in
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the budget. Their findings suggests that much of this deep
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warming is occurring in the North Atlantic off the US
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East coast. The team estimates that deep ocean warming is
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now adding zero point four millimeters to sea level rise
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each year, which would mean it is now responsible for
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around ten percent of the sea level rise. Now we
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go to a BBC Wildlife. They have an article from
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May the fifth and its headlined they are a major
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threat to wildlife around the world as native animals are
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ill equipped to cope with the onslaught of a new predator.
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What is an alien species? An alien species is any
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non native plant, animal, or other organism introduced into a
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place that was never part of its natural range, sometimes
15:58
known as invasive, introduced or exotic species. Alien species are
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a major threat to wildlife and wild places around the world.
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Why are alien species such a threat? Alien species have
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evolved separately from the native wildlife in their new homes,
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which are consequently ill equipped to cope with the onslaught
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of a new predator or aggressive competitor, and the upshot
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is often devastation for local ecosystems. What are the worst examples?
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There are thousands of shocking examples from nile perch in
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Lake Victoria to cane toads in Australia. The problem is
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so severe in New Zealand, where it has been reported
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that rats, stoats, possums and other introduced predators kill twenty
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five million native birds every year that the government announced
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in twenty sixteen a project to try to make the
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nation alien predator free by twenty fifty. Escaped alien species
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in the United Kingdom far from it. There are some
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two thousand established alien species in the UK, including edible dormice,
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munjak deer, ring necked parakeets, and yellow tailed scorpions. Many
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are harmful. American mink, for instance, are responsible for a
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collapse in our water vole population, while Japanese not weed
17:23
completely overwhelms other plants. A more recent concern is the
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harlequin ladybird, which has a voracious appetite not only for
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other ladybirds, but also the eggs of butterflies and moths.
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How do alien species invade new places, usually with the
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help of people accidentally or intentionally stowaways on ships, Disastrous
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attempts to control unwanted pests, and escapes from captivity are
17:52
all to blame alien species even hitch rides on the
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ballast tanks of ships. This is how Eastern European zebra
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must travel to the Great Lakes of North America, where
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they are wreaking havoc among native fish populations and coastal communities.
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Are the problems all ecological no alien species can also
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have economic implications. In twenty fourteen, it was reported that
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one point seven billion euro is spent every year trying
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to control alien species in Britain, and that doesn't include
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the direct economic losses caused by damage to infrastructure, goods
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and crops. While Australia faces an annual bill of twenty
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million pounds just to eliminate introduced fire ants. What is
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being done to tackle the problem. The ultimate aim is
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to remove or at least control harmful alien species using
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anything from pesticides to trapping, and to prevent future invasions
18:53
through education, research and legislation. On the first of January
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twenty fifteen, the EU Regular on Invasive Alien Species came
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into force. But very often alien species go unnoticed until
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it is too late, so is it hopeless. Not necessarily,
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there are some impressive success stories. In twenty eighteen, rats
19:19
were completely eradicated from South Georgia in the South Atlantic
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using poisoned bait scattered from helicopters. They had been eating birds,
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eggs and chicks. But five years and seven and a
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half million pounds later, the last rat has gone and
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birds are returning. And now another article from BBC Wildlife.
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This was headlined Seagrass Saviors. The subtitle is sometimes saving
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the planet requires a bright idea, some practical nohow and
19:58
a bit of tinkering. One day late last summer, as
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wilful clouds tried to photobomb the sun, a strange item
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appeared on the beach at Swansea Bay. With chunky yellow
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struts and a sturdy black netting, It looked like a
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toddler's football goal from a distance. Up close, however, the
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object was confusing. It had two headlights like a car,
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runners like a toboggan, and a set of trimmer blades
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so big they seemed as though they could shave a
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yetty passers by and dog walkers were baffled, but the
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two figures standing over the enigma were beaming with pride.
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This was their baby. In quotes, the culmination of an
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almost two year long project that has involved blood, sweat
20:44
and imploding barrels, all the help save one of the
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UK's rare ecosystems. They call their invention the underwater Lawnmower.
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Rewind to twenty twenty and two friends from university, one
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of wildlife filmer and the other a jetsuit designer, but
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both talented engineers, decided they wanted to use their skills
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to do something to benefit the world. Quote. Growing up,
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we were inspired by TV shows like scrap Heap Challenge
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and MythBusters where they built things, says Sam Rogers. We
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wanted to create something a bit like that, but for
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a good cause. So Sam and his friend Edwin Towler
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co founded Tandem Ventures, a company that creates bespoke inventions
21:31
to aid scientists to help wildlife. They're part of a
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growing breed of innovators applying cutting edge technology to the
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field of conservation. Their business model, however, is unusual. The
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duo makes films about their exploits, which they post on
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social media. Brands that fund their projects enjoy publicity, while
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conservationists are given the inventions for free. The firms called
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Tandem Ventures because we wrote to Tandem at university says Edwin.
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For their first project, the product engineers worked with scientists
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from the charity Whale Wise, who were struggling to safely
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and reliably measure the size of the humpbacks they were studying.
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So Sam and Edwin designed a small, lightweight device called
22:19
a Waser Whaseer, which attaches to the underside of a
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drone and can be used to bounce a harmless laser
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beam off the back of a whale. From this, scientists
22:32
can calculate the distance between the drone and the whale. Then,
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using data from the drone photos, they can determine exactly
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how big the animal is, a vital piece of information
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when assessing this cetacean's health. While working on the Waser,
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the two friends also began talks with scientists from the
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UK charity project Seagrass. Seagrasses are flowering plants that form
22:57
rippling underwater meadows in shallow coastal waters. They are found
23:02
across much of the globe, where they sequester vast quantities
23:05
of carbon, stabilize coastlines, and provide shelter and nutrients for
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the many animals that depend on them for survival. In
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the UK, for example, our two native species of seahorse
23:18
hide out among their undulating leaves, as do numerous species
23:22
of invertebrates and fish, including baby cod, pollock, and other
23:26
commercially important species. Not for much longer, however, if action
23:31
isn't taken to prevent the meadow's rampant decline. Around the world, pollution,
23:37
habitat destruction, and harmful fishing practices such as dredging and
23:42
trawling are decimating seagrass meadows Globally. It's estimated that an
23:48
area the size of two football pitches is lost every day.
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In the UK, about ninety percent of seagrass meadows have
23:54
disappeared half in just the past three decades. This makes
23:59
them one of the us case most endangered ecosystems. Project
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Seagrass aims to reverse this trend. One way its scientists
24:08
do this is to collect and replant the seeds that
24:10
the seagrass produces, a bit like reseating the ball patches
24:14
in a lawn. At the end of each summer, specialist
24:17
divers swim through the meadows with scissors, snipping the fibrous
24:22
seed pods from their stalks and popping them into little
24:25
bags so they can be brought to the surface and
24:27
later resown. It's an expensive, extremely time consuming labor of love,
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so the team at Projects Seagrass set Sam and Edwin
24:36
a challenge to design an automated machine that enables them
24:40
to collect as many seeds as possible and speedily. Project
24:46
Seagrass had already mooted the possibility of an underwater harvesting machine,
24:51
but the specifics were hazy, so Sam and Edwins set
24:55
to work quickly, identifying a handful of key challenges. First,
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they needed to design an underwater mower that cuts the
25:02
seed pods from their stems. Second, they needed to design
25:06
a mechanism that transports the severed pods to the surface. Quote.
25:11
Think of something a bit like a combine harvester, says Sam,
25:14
where you have an arm that swings out and continuously
25:17
unloads the grain as the machine is moving along. An
25:20
underwater version of that. Critically, the invention would need to
25:25
be kind to the environment and the underwater creatures that
25:29
live there, so not to mention safe and user friendly.
25:34
So though the prototype they developed has an almost meter
25:37
long row of triangular teeth sharp enough to slice through
25:41
a pencil like butter, the rustprooit blades come with a
25:44
sturdy plastic protector like the guard on a beard trimmer,
25:48
says Edwin. This means that while seagrass can slip through
25:51
the guard and be sliced, fish invertebrates and human fingers
25:56
cannot in a similarly protective vein. Wide based skids attached
26:01
to the bottom of the moor are designed to glide
26:03
across the silt rather than gouge out trenches. The machine
26:07
is mounted on adjustable legs, so the blade height can
26:11
be altered to suit the type of silt or grass
26:13
that's being cut. This ensures that the more doesn't damage
26:17
the seafloor or accidentally uproot plants growing there. The holes
26:22
in the netting which wrap around the frame have been
26:24
carefully sized to ensure that anything that swims over the
26:28
blade and into the net can swim straight out again.
26:31
And the duo have performed experiments to determine the optimum
26:34
mowing speed that enables seed pods to be harvested but
26:38
allows any fish that swim into the moor to outswim
26:41
its outlet pipe. This equates to a mowing speed of
26:46
about one knot, which is about four times slower than
26:49
a garden lawn mower, or to put it in animal terms,
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roughly the same speed as a sauntering cat. While they
26:57
worked on it between twenty twenty four and twenty five,
27:00
Sam and Edwin made multiple iterations of their design, each
27:03
one an improvement on the last. But the fun and
27:06
games really started when they tested the system they had
27:09
developed to transport the seed pods to the surface. In
27:14
one early incarnation, the lawnmower featured a pump used to
27:17
suck the cut sea grass into barrels on a boat
27:20
via a long bendi tube. Sea grass is protected in
27:24
the UK, so though the machine was developed for seagrass
27:27
meadows its early phases, it couldn't be tested on site. Instead,
27:31
the duo took it to a reservoir in West Sussex,
27:34
where they gently lowered it into the water and fed
27:37
it with regular black grass. With the chunky barrels sitting
27:41
on nearby pontoon. The pump was newly switched on, but
27:45
no one expected the effects of the negative pressure generated.
27:49
We thought the barrels were robusts, as Sam, but they
27:52
just imploded. We turned a bunch of barrels into raisins
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after that it was back to the drawing board and
27:59
the two men developed a new system that can be
28:02
used to suck the cut seagrass from the seafloor, then
28:05
fire it through a specially designed nozzle into a net
28:09
overhanging the side of the boat. The harvester is up
28:13
to a hundred times faster than manual seed collection. That's
28:18
all for today's ansyrous Science and Nature reader was Kelly Taylor.
28:23
Stay tuned for further programming on RADIOI