Transcript

9.17.26 · Science Show KY

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio Eye's Diary of Science and Nature. Your
0:04
Speaker 1: reader is Kelly Taylor. I have articles on the topics
0:08
Speaker 1: of science and nature, but first a reminder that Radio
0:12
Speaker 1: Eye is a reading service intended for people who are
0:15
Speaker 1: blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
0:19
Speaker 1: read printed material. We'll start with an article from the
0:23
Speaker 1: Lexington Herald-Leader. The headline reads, This is the most prominent
0:28
Speaker 1: invasive plant in Kentucky. How to Spot and Control It.
0:33
Speaker 1: This is dated September 15th. Invasive species are more than
0:39
Speaker 1: just ugly weeds that grow where they are not welcome,
0:42
Speaker 1: creating a ratty landscape. Some invasive species may blend in
0:47
Speaker 1: with the nearby native plants, and in cases such as
0:49
Speaker 1: the bush honeysuckle, bloom small flowers or red berries that
0:54
Speaker 1: you may admire as you walk by. The flowers and
0:58
Speaker 1: berries that hang off of the plant may be pleasing
1:00
Speaker 1: to the eye, but not to the native species around it.
1:04
Speaker 1: Invasive species, which are not native to the area they
1:07
Speaker 1: are found in, are likely to disrupt the order of
1:10
Speaker 1: the environment they inhabit. According to Small Game Program Coordinator
1:14
Speaker 1: at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Jimmy Woods,
1:19
Speaker 1: bush honeysuckle can wreak havoc on native ecosystems. What is
1:25
Speaker 1: bush honeysuckle? Bush honeysuckle is an invasive plant that comes
1:29
Speaker 1: from parts of Asia, and it's one of the worst
1:32
Speaker 1: invasive plants in Kentucky. It is able to grow prosperously
1:36
Speaker 1: in Kentucky because the environmental conditions are similar to that
1:40
Speaker 1: of its native area in Asia, as the two regions
1:44
Speaker 1: are along the same latitude line. Though conditions are similar,
1:48
Speaker 1: the existence of natural predators is not similar, and that
1:51
Speaker 1: causes the plant to grow vigorously and without boundaries, Woods said.
1:57
Speaker 1: The leaves of bush honeysuckles are ovular and green, according
2:01
Speaker 1: to the Kentucky Native Plant Society. The flowers are a
2:05
Speaker 1: tube or a bell shape and are white before fading
2:09
Speaker 1: to yellow. The red or orange berries of the plant
2:12
Speaker 1: are produced in the late summer and persist through the
2:14
Speaker 1: winter months. The plant grows first thing in the spring,
2:20
Speaker 1: with the most growth being in the early summer. It
2:22
Speaker 1: creates a thicket. It shades the ground, creating an unsustainable,
2:27
Speaker 1: environment for the species underneath. In the short term, bush
2:32
Speaker 1: honeysuckle is not good for wildlife and in the long
2:34
Speaker 1: term can cause an ecological shift. Quote, the plants shade
2:39
Speaker 1: out the ground so intensely that if you were to
2:41
Speaker 1: look underneath the expanse of bush honeysuckle and crawl underneath
2:45
Speaker 1: that canopy, you would find bare dirt and a few
2:48
Speaker 1: leaves and basically nothing else, Woods said. The lack of
2:53
Speaker 1: natural predators causes overgrowth and overgrowth causes a lot of
2:57
Speaker 1: sunlight causes a loss of sunlight on the forest floor,
3:02
Speaker 1: making it difficult or impossible for vegetation that animals depend
3:06
Speaker 1: on to grow. How to control the invasive plant. Quote,
3:12
Speaker 1: many hands make like work, Wood said. When dealing with
3:17
Speaker 1: something as aggressive as bush honeysuckle, it can take a
3:20
Speaker 1: lot of work to keep the infestations at bay. So
3:23
Speaker 1: a lot of people must play their part to eradicate
3:25
Speaker 1: the species. There are resources for getting rid of bush
3:29
Speaker 1: honeysuckle on your land, both private and by the state.
3:33
Speaker 1: Contractors can be found through the state's service contractor database.
3:38
Speaker 1: Kentucky Fish and Wildlife have private land biologists across the
3:42
Speaker 1: state that can visit landowners and help them determine the
3:46
Speaker 1: steps they need to take to meet their wildlife goals,
3:48
Speaker 1: including invasive species. While the biologists do not have the
3:53
Speaker 1: resources to serve everyone, Woods said, They can provide guidance
3:57
Speaker 1: and advise people on what they can do to solve
3:59
Speaker 1: the problem of bush honeysuckle. An eradication technique growing more
4:04
Speaker 1: popular in recent years, Wood said, is goats. You can
4:09
Speaker 1: hire certain contractors who let their goats graze in your
4:12
Speaker 1: forest and they will feed on the bush honeysuckle. Though
4:15
Speaker 1: goats can clear the infestation fairly quickly, the plants will
4:19
Speaker 1: grow back since they are not being removed at the root.
4:23
Speaker 1: If you want to do the work yourself, there are
4:25
Speaker 1: a few options. Pull plants out of the ground. Cut
4:30
Speaker 1: the bush down and treat the stems with herbicides. And
4:34
Speaker 1: foliar treatment. Spray herbicides on the leaves. Kentucky has numerous
4:40
Speaker 1: prominent invasive species, according to interviews with the Kentucky Department
4:43
Speaker 1: of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Other invasive plants include Callery
4:49
Speaker 1: pear or Bradford pear, and Tree of Heaven. Feral hogs,
4:57
Speaker 1: zebra mussels, and silver, black, bighead, and grass carp are
5:04
Speaker 1: invasive animals commonly found in the Commonwealth. The emerald ash
5:09
Speaker 1: borer is an invasive bug that removes forests in the
5:13
Speaker 1: area it inhabits. To see more of Kentucky's invasive species,
5:18
Speaker 1: you can visit fw.ky.gov. Our next article comes from the
5:27
Speaker 1: Washington Post. August was the planet's hottest month on record,
5:33
Speaker 1: report says, dated September the 10th. August was the Earth's
5:38
Speaker 1: hottest month on record. That's according to Copernicus, the Earth
5:42
Speaker 1: Monitoring Division of the European Union Space Program. Last month's
5:47
Speaker 1: global average surface air temperature tied with July of 2023.
5:52
Speaker 1: August also had the hottest sea surface temperature in the
5:56
Speaker 1: extrapolar regions, or those lying just outside the Arctic and
6:01
Speaker 1: Antarctic circles. Global surface air temperatures for August were 2.97
6:06
Speaker 1: degrees Fahrenheit above normal, the pre-industrial baseline. Sea surface temperatures
6:13
Speaker 1: in the eastern Pacific were recorded hot due to the
6:16
Speaker 1: ongoing near-record-strong El Nino. Those hot water temperatures are fueling
6:22
Speaker 1: a hyperactive Pacific hurricane season. Curiously, all that rising Pacific
6:27
Speaker 1: air is balanced by subsidence or sinking over the Atlantic,
6:31
Speaker 1: in part responsible for the dearth of Atlantic hurricanes. During
6:35
Speaker 1: El Nino's, the anomalously hot ocean surface in the Pacific
6:40
Speaker 1: transfers some of that heat energy to the atmosphere. That's
6:44
Speaker 1: part of the reason global temperatures have been nudged into
6:47
Speaker 1: record territory. The notably warm August worldwide comes as the
6:53
Speaker 1: contiguous United States experienced its warmest summer on record, according
6:58
Speaker 1: to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now we turn
7:06
Speaker 1: to the weather channel. The Gulf Stream is speeding up.
7:10
Speaker 1: Scientists say it's a big deal. The Gulf Stream, a
7:15
Speaker 1: warm ocean current near the U.S. East Coast, shifts warm
7:19
Speaker 1: water from the Caribbean and the Gulf to the North Atlantic.
7:24
Speaker 1: But a recent study shows that this current is speeding
7:26
Speaker 1: up and has been for about a decade. This current
7:29
Speaker 1: can affect wildlife and seafood availability for the East Coast.
7:34
Speaker 1: there are some potential impacts on the price of your
7:37
Speaker 1: favorite seafood. Now turning to BBC Wildlife. Whales versus dolphins.
7:45
Speaker 1: They might look similar, but how alike are these incredible
7:49
Speaker 1: marine mammals really? This is from September the 15th. There
7:54
Speaker 1: are currently around 90 recognized species of whale, dolphin, and
7:58
Speaker 1: porpoise in Earth's oceans. They share similarities, and they have
8:02
Speaker 1: a lot in common with us, too. All are mammals,
8:09
Speaker 1: have warm blood, and breastfeed their young with milk. They
8:12
Speaker 1: also all breathe air, so they have to regularly pop
8:17
Speaker 1: up to the surface. Unlike humans, whales and dolphins are
8:20
Speaker 1: conscious breathers, which means they must be awake to take
8:23
Speaker 1: a breath, and they use sound underwater to communicate, find prey, socialize,
8:29
Speaker 1: and navigate. There are lots of differences between whales and
8:33
Speaker 1: dolphins too, but it can get complex. To begin with,
8:37
Speaker 1: which species do we even call whales? The term whale
8:40
Speaker 1: or dolphin doesn't tell us an awful lot, and we
8:43
Speaker 1: should really look at them all collectively as whales, either
8:46
Speaker 1: baleen whales or toothed whales. However, for the purposes of
8:51
Speaker 1: this article, we will separate them into the whale or
8:54
Speaker 1: dolphin camps. One of the more obvious differences between dolphins
8:59
Speaker 1: and whales is size. In general, whales tend to be
9:03
Speaker 1: bigger than dolphins, and both are bigger than porpoises. all
9:06
Speaker 1: three classed as cetaceans. The biggest creature on the planet
9:11
Speaker 1: is the blue whale, measuring around 30 meters in length
9:14
Speaker 1: and weighing 150,000 kilograms. The biggest dolphin is the orca,
9:20
Speaker 1: also known as the killer whale. We said it could
9:23
Speaker 1: get complex. Orcas measure nearly 10 meters in length and
9:27
Speaker 1: weigh up to 6,600 kilograms. That leaves the little porpoise.
9:33
Speaker 1: Smaller than dolphins, these are there are seven species. They
9:38
Speaker 1: tend to be less than two and a half meters long.
9:42
Speaker 1: They're also characteristically chunkier than dolphins and have a small head,
9:46
Speaker 1: little or no beak, and a small triangular dorsal fin,
9:51
Speaker 1: with the exception, of course, of the finless porpoises. Now,
9:57
Speaker 1: back to the dental differences. Teeth are a great help
10:00
Speaker 1: if your daily diet is octopus and larger fish, but
10:04
Speaker 1: even teeth differ. Porpoise teeth are spade-shaped, whilst dolphins are conical.
10:10
Speaker 1: When it comes to whale teeth, some have lots, some
10:13
Speaker 1: only have a few, whilst others have none. Whales with
10:17
Speaker 1: no teeth are known as and feed on smaller foodstuffs
10:21
Speaker 1: such as krill and plankton. They have no need for teeth. Instead,
10:25
Speaker 1: the fringed plates, the baleen, hanging inside their mouths are
10:30
Speaker 1: used to strain seawater for food. There are 15 species
10:35
Speaker 1: of baleen whale, including the blue whale, and they are
10:38
Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as the great whales due to their
10:41
Speaker 1: overall larger size. Another visible difference is the blowhole. Baleen
10:47
Speaker 1: whales have two blowholes, whilst toothed whales, as well as
10:51
Speaker 1: all dolphins and porpoises, have one. On the social front,
10:56
Speaker 1: dolphins tend to hang out in groups or pods, whereas
11:00
Speaker 1: whales are likely to be more solitary. Dolphins are found
11:04
Speaker 1: more in shallow waters, closer to shore. Whales can hold
11:08
Speaker 1: their breath for longer periods of time than dolphins, with
11:11
Speaker 1: some species able to stay underwater for up to two hours.
11:15
Speaker 1: This enables them to dive down in the deeper ocean spaces.
11:19
Speaker 1: While some smaller whales, such as the beluga, can drift
11:22
Speaker 1: into river estuaries, there are species of dolphin that only
11:26
Speaker 1: live in freshwater rivers and lakes. The Bato, B-O-T-O, and
11:32
Speaker 1: the South Asian river dolphin are two examples. Some dolphin
11:36
Speaker 1: species move between fresh and seawater habitats, such as the Tukukse,
11:41
Speaker 1: the Irrawaddy dolphin, which we named one of the weirdest
11:45
Speaker 1: animals in the world, and the finless porpoise. There are
11:49
Speaker 1: some dramatic differences in lifespan, too. For example, the harbor
11:53
Speaker 1: porpoise can live to around 12 years, whereas bowhead whales
11:57
Speaker 1: have lived to 200 years. Imagine the tales they could tell.
12:03
Speaker 1: Bottlenose dolphins routinely dive for five or so minutes, though
12:08
Speaker 1: they can push that up to 14 minutes on deep
12:10
Speaker 1: dives in search of squids. In the same family, orcas
12:14
Speaker 1: can last at least 55 minutes on a single breath,
12:18
Speaker 1: but there is a good argument for treating all the
12:20
Speaker 1: toothed whales as dolphins because bottlenoses are more closely related
12:25
Speaker 1: to narwhals, belugas, and beaked whales than to some species
12:29
Speaker 1: that go by the name of dolphin. On that basis,
12:34
Speaker 1: beaked whales can hold their breath longer than any other dolphin,
12:39
Speaker 1: up to three hours and 45 minutes, reaching depths of
12:42
Speaker 1: nearly three kilometers. Both whales and dolphins are smart, possessing
12:48
Speaker 1: high intelligence and using complex communication systems. It's hard to
12:52
Speaker 1: compare the intelligence of a whale or a dolphin with
12:54
Speaker 1: our own, mainly as we can't use the same methods
12:57
Speaker 1: to measure both, but they behave in ways that suggest
13:01
Speaker 1: a sophisticated mind. Not only do they learn as individuals,
13:05
Speaker 1: but they can pass their knowledge on to others. It
13:08
Speaker 1: has been said that play is a great expression of
13:11
Speaker 1: intelligence and whales and dolphins are gold medalists in this field.
13:18
Speaker 1: Pods of dolphins leap, tumble, backflip and spin together. And
13:22
Speaker 1: there's often no explicable reason for this behavior other than
13:25
Speaker 1: pure social enjoyment. There are even cases of whales and
13:29
Speaker 1: dolphins playing together. The ability to recognize yourself in a mirror,
13:35
Speaker 1: the mirror test, is often used by developmental psychologists as
13:39
Speaker 1: a measure of intelligence and self-awareness. This skill is rare
13:43
Speaker 1: and a test that some dolphins pass with flying colors.
13:47
Speaker 1: Besides humans, only bottlenose dolphins, chimpanzees, elephants, and magpies have
13:53
Speaker 1: been shown to recognize themselves in a mirror. Whale and
13:57
Speaker 1: dolphin brains contain specialized brain cells called spindle neurons. These
14:03
Speaker 1: are associated with advanced abilities such as recognizing, remembering, reasoning, communicating, perceiving,
14:10
Speaker 1: adapting to change, problem solving, and understanding. They appear to
14:14
Speaker 1: be deep thinkers. Scientists agree that whales and dolphins communicate
14:19
Speaker 1: in sophisticated and at times novel and interactive ways. For some,
14:24
Speaker 1: such as bottlenose dolphins and orcas, the complexity of their
14:28
Speaker 1: communication and social interactions is immense. They are incredibly chatty.
14:33
Speaker 1: So there you have it. There are lots of similarities
14:36
Speaker 1: between whales and dolphins and lots of differences, but one
14:39
Speaker 1: thing is certain. When it comes to these mysterious creatures
14:42
Speaker 1: of the ocean, we humans don't know the half of it.
14:45
Speaker 1: There's so much more that we have to learn from
14:48
Speaker 1: and about them, which is why they fascinate us and
14:51
Speaker 1: why we need to protect them and the places they
14:54
Speaker 1: call home. We are now discovering more and more about
14:57
Speaker 1: their important role within ocean ecosystems. by regulating the food chain,
15:03
Speaker 1: generating and moving nutrients through the water, and by capturing carbon,
15:07
Speaker 1: they help keep the ocean healthy, and a healthy ocean
15:10
Speaker 1: is vital in our fight against climate breakdown. Now we'll
15:17
Speaker 1: turn to popular mechanics. A monster threat is coming for
15:21
Speaker 1: America's trees, and scientists are racing to stop it. This
15:26
Speaker 1: is written by Darren Orff. Trees are among humanity's greatest
15:35
Speaker 1: allies in the fight against climate change in more ways
15:38
Speaker 1: than one. The branching immensity of a towering pine or
15:41
Speaker 1: the large bowels of a stately oak provide crucial shade
15:45
Speaker 1: for an increasingly warming world. Trees are also natural carbon
15:50
Speaker 1: dioxide sponges, soaking up and storing the perilous greenhouse gas
15:56
Speaker 1: in their tissues while filtering runoff before it can foul
16:00
Speaker 1: nearby rivers. Simply put, the planet has no better friend
16:03
Speaker 1: than a tree, but like all living things, trees are
16:06
Speaker 1: also susceptible to how quickly the world is changing. A
16:10
Speaker 1: new study published in the journal Nature, Ecology, and Evolution
16:14
Speaker 1: analyzed records related to 1 million trees spread across the U.S.
16:20
Speaker 1: and parts of Canada and found that 60% of them
16:23
Speaker 1: will experience a 30% increase in insect pressure by 2050.
16:29
Speaker 1: Warmer temperatures and milder winters means insects can survive longer
16:34
Speaker 1: or reproduce faster. While this is bad for trees in
16:37
Speaker 1: colder and wetter parts of the continent, insect-induced tree mortality
16:41
Speaker 1: could decrease or even reverse in warm, arid climates. Quote,
16:46
Speaker 1: the forests that exist today aren't going to be the
16:49
Speaker 1: ones existing in 2040, says University of British Columbia's senior author,
16:54
Speaker 1: Jonathan Davies. quote, the process is happening already. I think
16:59
Speaker 1: we've got to put everything on the table because the
17:01
Speaker 1: status quo is no longer tenable, end quote. The study
17:07
Speaker 1: highlights how certain pests, which have already plagued North America
17:10
Speaker 1: for more than a century, will only become a bigger
17:13
Speaker 1: headache as climate change progresses from bad to worse. First
17:18
Speaker 1: introduced from Asia in the 1920s, the woolly adelgid attacks
17:23
Speaker 1: hemlock and spruce trees as it feeds on its sap.
17:27
Speaker 1: While kept in check by predators and parasites in Asia,
17:30
Speaker 1: in the eastern U.S., the 1-millimeter aphid-like pest decimates forests unchecked.
17:37
Speaker 1: Sub-zero winter temperatures typically kill off the adelgid, but milder
17:41
Speaker 1: winters mean higher survival rates, increasing insect pressure on an
17:46
Speaker 1: already ravaged ecosystem. The balsam woolly adelgid, will also make
17:52
Speaker 1: it life difficult for more northern and mountain-growing trees, such
17:57
Speaker 1: as the subalpine fir. Insect threats don't even need to
18:02
Speaker 1: be invasive to become a growing threat. In Alaska and
18:05
Speaker 1: western Canada, the spruce beetle, whose populations are similarly supercharged
18:10
Speaker 1: by mild winters, attacks spruce trees relentlessly, leaving ghostly dead
18:16
Speaker 1: black spruce across vast expanses of the taiga biome. Unlike
18:23
Speaker 1: the adelgid, the spruce beetle is native to the ecosystem,
18:27
Speaker 1: and when in healthy balance, the beetle clears sick and
18:31
Speaker 1: old trees to make way for emerging saplings. But as
18:36
Speaker 1: Alaska's interior becomes warmer and drier, the beetle completes its
18:39
Speaker 1: life cycle faster, while surviving winters at higher rates. This
18:45
Speaker 1: excess arboreal death also means more fuel for wildfires, which
18:49
Speaker 1: are only increasing in the region as well. Members of
18:53
Speaker 1: the family Panaceae aren't the only trees on the menu.
18:57
Speaker 1: The spongy moth damages hardwood trees across the eastern and
19:03
Speaker 1: midwestern U.S., but the study says their impact will expand
19:07
Speaker 1: as the world warms. Another study published in the journal
19:10
Speaker 1: Nature Climate Change came to the same conclusion, finding that hotter,
19:16
Speaker 1: drier climates will limit the growth of a fungus that
19:20
Speaker 1: typically keeps the moths spread in check. Quote, forests are
19:24
Speaker 1: a fundamental part of our lives, but climate change is
19:27
Speaker 1: reshaping those ecosystems. This research is another early warning sign
19:33
Speaker 1: of how we're altering the climate system and the impact
19:36
Speaker 1: it's going to have, says researcher Davis in a press statement.
19:44
Speaker 1: This new perspective, on the fate of American forests isn't
19:48
Speaker 1: just more doom and gloom. The researchers hope that these
19:51
Speaker 1: maps can serve as a guide to help governments and
19:54
Speaker 1: forest managers erect pest barriers or locate regions where hardier
19:59
Speaker 1: trees may need to be planted. Because since time immemorial,
20:03
Speaker 1: trees have kept the planet healthy so humans could eventually
20:06
Speaker 1: rise as the world's dominant species Now it's time to
20:11
Speaker 1: return the favor. Now we'll turn to Ars Technica. This
20:17
Speaker 1: article dated September 15th is headlined, This Atlantic hurricane season
20:23
Speaker 1: is about to do something that hasn't happened in 175 years.
20:28
Speaker 1: Last week, the Atlantic hurricane season blew through its traditional peak,
20:32
Speaker 1: which comes around September 10th, with nary a tropical wave
20:36
Speaker 1: in sight, let alone a storm or hurricane. This is remarkable. Usually,
20:41
Speaker 1: this is the time of year when sea surface temperatures
20:43
Speaker 1: reach their warmest in the tropics, and with a favorable atmosphere,
20:47
Speaker 1: it should be smooth skating for tropical systems. But this year,
20:51
Speaker 1: the main region where most tropical systems develop is choked
20:55
Speaker 1: with Saharan dust and wind shear. No one is complaining.
20:59
Speaker 1: Landfalling hurricanes are incredibly destructive for coastal areas and have
21:03
Speaker 1: the potential for considerable inland rainfall. Even storms at sea
21:08
Speaker 1: in the Gulf of Mexico can send energy prices skyrocketing,
21:12
Speaker 1: the last thing needed this year. Nevertheless, the quietude is historic.
21:17
Speaker 1: Beginning in 1944, the United States began monitoring the Atlantic Basin,
21:21
Speaker 1: which includes the Gulf, Caribbean Sea, and Northern Atlantic Ocean,
21:26
Speaker 1: with aircraft to detect hurricanes. Dating back to 1944, a
21:31
Speaker 1: hurricane had formed every year by September 11th. The latest
21:35
Speaker 1: first Atlantic hurricanes came in 2002 with Gustav and in
21:42
Speaker 1: 2013 with Humberto on this date. Atlantic hurricane records officially
21:47
Speaker 1: go back to 1851, although older records are less reliable
21:51
Speaker 1: because observations of storms developing at sea were reliant on
21:55
Speaker 1: reports from shipping vessels. So some storms were missed. If
21:59
Speaker 1: we extend the hurricane record all the way back to 1851...
22:03
Speaker 1: every year still records at least one Atlantic hurricane. But
22:08
Speaker 1: in 1941, the first hurricane did not form until September 17th.
22:12
Speaker 1: This is the date of the latest first Atlantic hurricane
22:16
Speaker 1: on record. I'm here to tell you that the Atlantic
22:20
Speaker 1: will not produce a hurricane by the end of Thursday.
22:23
Speaker 1: The National Hurricane Center is presently monitoring a single disturbance
22:26
Speaker 1: in the Atlantic, but it gives this system a near
22:29
Speaker 1: 0% chance of becoming a tropical depression or storm during
22:33
Speaker 1: the next two days. The likelihood of it ever becoming
22:37
Speaker 1: a hurricane is very low. The Atlantic season still has
22:41
Speaker 1: some runway left. It often produces hurricanes in October and
22:45
Speaker 1: officially runs to the end of November. So it remains
22:48
Speaker 1: too early to predict the possibility of an Atlantic season
22:51
Speaker 1: without a hurricane, but the odds are rising and that
22:54
Speaker 1: would be historic. By other measures, this season is also
22:58
Speaker 1: extraordinarily quiet. A common metric used to gauge overall activity
23:03
Speaker 1: during a season is accumulated cyclone energy. For data back
23:07
Speaker 1: to 1950, this year's accumulated cyclone energy ranks 77th out
23:14
Speaker 1: of 77 years, with a value of just 7% of
23:18
Speaker 1: normal levels racked up by five relatively weak tropical storms.
23:23
Speaker 1: So what's going on out there? The short answer is
23:26
Speaker 1: that a strengthening El Nino in the Pacific Ocean has
23:29
Speaker 1: put the kibosh on the main development region of the
23:32
Speaker 1: Atlantic this year. The El Nino anomaly this year, nearly
23:36
Speaker 1: 3 degrees Celsius above baseline in the Pacific, is stronger
23:41
Speaker 1: than any observed at this time of year in the
23:44
Speaker 1: modern record. This generally produces hostile wind shear levels over
23:48
Speaker 1: the Atlantic, and that has been measured this year. This
23:52
Speaker 1: clearly is having some benefit in the tropical Atlantic in
23:55
Speaker 1: the form of fewer tropical systems this year. But on balance,
23:59
Speaker 1: El Nino will probably be far more disruptive than beneficial
24:03
Speaker 1: when it peaks this fall and winter, with diminished rains
24:07
Speaker 1: already impacting travel through the Panama Canal and possibly leading
24:11
Speaker 1: to poor rice harvests in Asia and famine elsewhere. And
24:17
Speaker 1: then there is El Nino's impact on global temperatures, which
24:20
Speaker 1: often lags the phenomena by several months. This would set
24:28
Speaker 1: up peak heating next summer. Almost assuredly, 2027 will be
24:34
Speaker 1: the planet's hottest year on record, and summer in the
24:37
Speaker 1: northern hemisphere is likely to be brutal for large chunks
24:40
Speaker 1: of the planet. And now we'll go to National Geographic.
24:47
Speaker 1: This article's headlined, Inside the Long Shot Experiment to Resurrect
24:51
Speaker 1: Elm Trees with the Disease that Decimated Them. Walking through
24:57
Speaker 1: a field in rural Vermont last July, Gus Goodwin passes
25:01
Speaker 1: row after row of young elm trees. He points out
25:04
Speaker 1: trees that appear healthy, with green leaves shooting from multiple branches.
25:08
Speaker 1: But nearby, another tree has drooping leaves and a sparse canopy,
25:12
Speaker 1: a clear sign that it has fallen victim to Dutch
25:14
Speaker 1: elm disease. Looking around the field, he sees another disease
25:18
Speaker 1: tree and another. For Goodwin, a naturalist and elm tree
25:22
Speaker 1: expert for the Nature Conservancy in Montpelier, Vermont, these trees
25:27
Speaker 1: are the focus of his professional life. To see this
25:30
Speaker 1: disease spreading through so many is a heartbreak, but one
25:33
Speaker 1: that doesn't surprise him. After all, he infected them. Goodwin
25:38
Speaker 1: and his colleagues from the Nature Conservancy and the United
25:41
Speaker 1: States Forest Service had injected every one of more than 5,000
25:46
Speaker 1: trees with the disease six weeks earlier. It's part of
25:49
Speaker 1: their plan to save the species by breeding it to
25:52
Speaker 1: fight back against a pathogen that in just the past
25:56
Speaker 1: 50 years has all but wiped out one of America's
25:59
Speaker 1: greatest trees. The American elm, a native of eastern North America,
26:04
Speaker 1: can live up to 300 years and reach as tall
26:07
Speaker 1: as 80 feet. Lining streets, their limbs once formed archways
26:11
Speaker 1: whose sprawling branches shaded sidewalks. By the early 20th century,
26:16
Speaker 1: it was widely planted throughout America's rapidly growing towns and
26:19
Speaker 1: cities and in its native northeastern habitat. It tolerates both
26:25
Speaker 1: frigid weather and waterlogged soil, making it uniquely well-suited to
26:30
Speaker 1: anchoring floodplains. But across much of the country, Gone are
26:36
Speaker 1: the verdant city streets and forested river plains where elm
26:39
Speaker 1: trees once towered. The decline of the American elm has
26:44
Speaker 1: emptied floodplains and city streets alike. The National Park Service
26:50
Speaker 1: estimates that as many as 100 million elms have been
26:54
Speaker 1: killed since Dutch elm disease first arrived in the U.S.
27:00
Speaker 1: For decades, Scientists and others have been searching for a
27:03
Speaker 1: way to return the elm to something approaching its former glory.
27:07
Speaker 1: This quiet plot in rural Vermont may be their best hope.
27:13
Speaker 1: The disease is caused by a fungal pathogen transmitted by
27:16
Speaker 1: several species of bark beetle. It is believed to have
27:21
Speaker 1: originated in Asia, but earned its name after it was
27:24
Speaker 1: first identified in the Netherlands in the 1920s. As the
27:30
Speaker 1: fungus grows inside an elm tree, the tree attempts to
27:34
Speaker 1: prevent its spread by releasing cells and chemicals that block
27:37
Speaker 1: the channels trees use to remove water and nutrients, essentially
27:41
Speaker 1: walling off affected areas. Well, that's all for today's Diary
27:47
Speaker 1: of Science and Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor. Now
27:49
Speaker 1: stay tuned for further programming on Radio Eye.