Researchers issue warning about Effects of warming

 Earth is getting warm day by day and the effects would be catastrophic

The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions, and an increase in the wind intensity and rainfall from tropical cyclones. Our world is getting hotter, and this has complicated effects on our environment, including the parts we use for food. Coastal cities, such as the Gold Coast region in Australia, are experiencing rapid urbanisation, driven by population growth and the appeal of coastal living. However, this growth poses significant challenges, including environmental preservation and vulnerability to coastal hazards like flooding and erosion. Understanding how urban expansion interacts with shifting coastal boundaries is crucial for sustainable urban planning, particularly in the context of climate change. 

Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting and plants and trees are blooming sooner. Researchers have identified one such worrisome interaction while studying striped bass in the Atlantic, according to Yale Environment 360. The striped bass has been in decline for a long time due to overfishing. Last fall's fishing season seemed like an exception with anglers catching abundant bass, but those numbers have not been reflected in the number of fish coming to nearby bays to spawn in spring. John Waldman, an aquatic conservation biologist from the City University of New York, called the low level of successful striped bass spawning "a real mystery," per Yale Environment 360. One possible clue comes in the form of the striped bass' major food source, a herring species called the menhaden. They have also been failing to return from the ocean to spawn. "I don't know if this is a larger cyclical pattern, if it's driven by how they're managed, or if it's because the water temperature is increasing," said doctoral student Janelle Morano, who has been study changes in menhaden distribution at Cornell University, according to Yale Environment 360. "But something is going on, and it is real."

Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves. The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming. Reduced activity during these fish's traditional spawning seasons could be caused by what researchers call a "phenological mismatch." "Phenology" is the seasonal cycle of various animal and plant behaviours, like flowers blooming in spring and pollinators emerging at the same time to feed on them. There are many manifestations of phenology that are connected in intricate, delicate ways. If one species misses seasonal cues or starts its cycle early or late, then all the species which interact with that first species are also impacted.

For example, monarch butterflies used to fly south when the milkweed they fed on started dying off for the winter in US. But with warmer temperatures, monarchs are now leaving later in the season, failing to find food en route, and dying off before reaching their winter homes. If menhaden and striped bass are failing to spawn because of warmer waters and changes in available food, then both populations will plummet, affecting every species that relies on them for food or population control, with effects rippling out and touching every species from plankton to dolphins. This is also part of a wider pattern of phenology mishaps affecting species humans rely on, such as wine grapes. While this phenomenon has been well studied on land, researchers are just beginning to investigate it in the sea. So far, there has not been a proposed way to intervene directly.

Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body established to assess the science related to climate change, modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years. Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since 1850-1900.1 The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all around the globe. The severity of effects caused by climate change will depend on the path of future human activities. More greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet. However, those future effects depend on the total amount of CO2 we emit. So, if we can reduce emissions, we may avoid some of the worst effects.

Urban growth is concentrated in established centres, such as Surfers Paradise and Currumbin, while peripheral areas experience slower development. These patterns are influenced by natural barriers, such as waterways, and socio-economic factors, including access to economic opportunities and tourism. So it emphasises the need for a nuanced, region-specific approach to urban planning which balances growth with environmental sustainability. It also highlights the role of advanced technologies, such as remote sensing, GIS and geospatial intelligence, including digital twins, in supporting data-driven planning and resilience strategies in coastal environments. This research offers valuable insights for policymakers and urban planners addressing the challenges of coastal urbanisation. However, we can help slow the world's rising temperature by switching to less polluting energy sources, supporting eco-friendly brands and taking care for the environment. The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future around the world.

The Atlantic ocean is changing to brown

Something Huge and Brown is taking over the Atlantic Ocean : Record 37.5 Million tons of toxic seaweed suffocates Caribbean beaches 

Since 2011, a monstrous structure has taken shape in the Atlantic Ocean almost every year, sprawling from the West African coast to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, a gargantuan bloom of a brown free-floating seaweed. In May, the seaweed belt hit a record biomass of 37.5 million tons. In a study, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Harbour Branch Oceanographic Institute outline the rapidly growing seaweed’s development during the last four decades. Unsurprisingly, human activity is involved in a widespread ecological change. A vast and perplexing brown tide is sweeping across the Atlantic Ocean, alarming scientists as it disrupts ecosystems and threatens coastal communities from Africa to the Americas. Some of the important points are as follows:-

 A massive brown tide known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is spreading across the Atlantic Ocean.

The phenomenon highlights the interconnectedness of global ecosystems and the impact of human actions.

Coastal communities face economic and health risks as the seaweed clogs beaches and releases harmful gases.

Scientists link the growth to human activities which introduce excessive nutrients into the ocean.

A peculiar ecological phenomenon is sweeping across the Atlantic Ocean, drawing the attention of scientists and policymakers alike. This vast expanse of floating seaweed, known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, is not merely a natural curiosity but a potent indicator of the profound ways human activities are reshaping marine environments. The bloom, which now stretches from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, has reached unprecedented levels, posing significant challenges to coastal communities and ecosystems. As researchers strive to understand this phenomenon, the implications for our oceans, and the people who rely on them, are becoming increasingly urgent. The influx of nutrients from major rivers, including the Mississippi and the Amazon, acts as a catalyst for this growth. Researchers have identified these rivers as key drivers of the bloom’s expansion, providing the necessary nutrients which allow sargassum to thrive. The scale of this bloom is unprecedented, with the biomass reaching a record 37.5 million tons recorded recently. This massive accumulation of seaweed is reshaping entire ocean basins and challenging our understanding of marine ecosystems.

The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has been expanding dramatically, transforming from a localized phenomenon into a massive oceanic bloom. This belt of floating sargassum has spread from its traditional habitat in the Sargasso Sea to encompass a vast swath of the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean currents like the Loop Current and the Gulf Stream play a crucial role in this expansion, distributing nutrient-rich waters which fuel the seaweed’s growth. Satellite imagery has captured the rapid increase in sargassum biomass, doubling in just days under optimal conditions. “The expansion of sargassum isn’t just an ecological curiosity, it has real impacts on coastal communities. The massive blooms can clog beaches, affect fisheries and tourism, and pose health risks,” Brian Lapointe, lead author of the study and a marine scientist at FAU Harbor Branch, said. “Understanding why sargassum is growing so much is crucial for managing these impacts,” he added. “Our review helps to connect the dots between land-based nutrient pollution, ocean circulation, and the unprecedented expansion of sargassum across an entire ocean basin.”

The surge in sargassum biomass can be traced back to human activities which introduce excessive nutrients into the ocean. According to Brian Lapointe, land-based nutrient inputs are the primary drivers of this growth. Agricultural runoff, wastewater discharge and atmospheric deposition contribute to the nutrient-rich conditions which favour sargassum blooms. The chemical composition of sargassum has changed over the years, with nitrogen levels increasing significantly while phosphorus has declined. This shift indicates the profound impact of terrestrial processes on marine ecosystems. By altering the nutrient balance in the ocean, human activities are reshaping the growth patterns of marine species, with sargassum being a prime example. The seaweed’s ability to thrive in nutrient-poor waters by recycling marine waste further complicates management efforts and underscores the interconnectedness of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Scientists previously believed that sargassum was mostly limited to the Sargasso Sea’s nutrient-poor waters. More recent research, however, has revealed the organism to be quite the traveller, tracing sargassum’s movement from nutrient-rich coastal areas, such as the western Gulf of Mexico, to the open ocean, hitching a ride on the Loop Current (one of the fastest currents in the Atlantic) and the Gulf Stream. In the open ocean, nutrients are usually concentrated at great depth.

The spread of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has far-reaching consequences for coastal communities. The dense mats of seaweed can clog beaches, disrupt fisheries and pose health risks to local populations. Popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and Florida have experienced significant economic losses due to emergency clean-ups and decreased tourism revenue. Sargassum blooms also create oxygen-depleted zones beneath the dense mats, affecting marine life and fisheries. The decomposing seaweed releases hydrogen sulfide gas, which can cause respiratory problems for nearby residents. In extreme cases, such as the 1991 shutdown of a Florida nuclear power plant, the impacts of these blooms have disrupted critical infrastructure. As the belt continues to expand, these disruptions are likely to become more frequent, posing on going challenges to coastal economies and public health. In 2004 and 2005, satellite imagery revealed massive sargassum windrows, long bands of floating sargassum, in the western Gulf of Mexico, a region where rivers, including the Mississippi and Atchafalaya, are increasingly dumping nutrients. 

Understanding the dynamics of sargassum growth requires an examination of its nutrient composition over time. Researchers have studied the changes in nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon levels across different regions of the Atlantic to identify the environmental forces driving this phenomenon. Factors such as river flows, rainfall and Amazon basin floods play a significant role in influencing the bloom’s biomass. In fact, research since the 1980s revealed that the seaweed grows faster and is more productive in shallow nutrient-rich waters than nutrient-poor open ocean waters. In other words, more nutrients mean more sargassum. In certain conditions, the biomass of Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans can increase twofold within few days. By analysing the nutrient composition of sargassum, scientists are gaining insights into the complex interactions between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The seaweed’s ability to adapt to varying nutrient levels and recycle marine waste highlights its resilience and complicates management strategies. As researchers continue to investigate the factors driving sargassum growth, the findings hold important implications for understanding how human activities influence marine environments on a global scale.

Phosphorus and nitrogen are crucial nutrients for sargassum. From the 1980s to the 2020s, while the seaweed’s nitrogen content rose by over 50%, its phosphorus declined. “These changes reflect a shift away from natural oceanic nutrient sources like upwelling and vertical mixing, and toward land-based inputs such as agricultural runoff, wastewater discharge and atmospheric deposition,” Lapointe explained. In other words, human activity. Carbon levels in sargassum are creeping upwards, demonstrating how outside nutrients are changing its makeup and affecting ocean plant life, he added. The team also highlights, however, that sargassum windrows are able to also grow in nutrient-poor waters by recycling nutrients in marine animal poop, among other methods. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt serves as a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of global ecosystems. The bloom’s expansion reflects how human activities, such as nutrient pollution from agriculture and urban development, can have far-reaching impacts on marine environments. As scientists work to unravel the complexities of this ecological phenomenon, the broader implications for ocean health and coastal communities remain a pressing concern. 

“Our review takes a deep dive into the changing story of sargassum, how it’s growing, what’s fuelling that growth, and why we’re seeing such a dramatic increase in biomass across the North Atlantic,” Lapointe explained. “By examining shifts in its nutrient composition, particularly nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon, and how those elements vary over time and space, we’re beginning to understand the larger environmental forces at play.” The study is just one more example of how human activity is driving deeply rooted ecological changes, with the extent of its farthest-reaching consequences still terrifyingly unknown to the world around us.

Secret fresh water under the ocean

 Scientists tap "secret fresh water" known to exist in shallow salt waters

Deep in Earth’s past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern US. Nearly 50 years ago, a US government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see what it could find. It found, of all things, drops to drink under the briny deeps, fresh water. This summer, a first-of-its-kind global research expedition followed up on that surprise. Drilling for fresh water under the salt water off Cape Cod extracted thousands of samples from what is now thought to be a massive, hidden aquifer stretching from New Jersey as far north as Maine. It's just one of many depositories of "secret fresh water" known to exist in shallow salt waters around the world which might some day be tapped to slake the planet's intensifying thirst, said Brandon Dugan, the expedition's co-chief scientist. "We need to look for every possibility we have to find more water for society," Dugan, a geophysicist and hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines, said who recently spent 12 hours on the drilling platform. The research teams looked in "one of the last places you would probably look for fresh water on Earth." They found it, and will be analysing nearly 50,000 litres (13,209 gallons) of it back in their labs around the world in the coming months. They're out to solve the mystery of its origins, whether the water is from glaciers, connected groundwater systems on land or some combination. The potential is enormous. So are the hurdles of getting the water out and puzzling over who owns it, who uses it and how to extract it without undue harm to nature. It's bound to take years to bring that water ashore for public use in a big way, if it's even feasible.

The work at sea unfolded over three months from Liftboat Robert, an oceangoing vessel that, once on site, lowers three enormous pillars to the seafloor and squats above the waves. Normally it services offshore petroleum sites and wind farms. But this drill mission was different. "It's known that this phenomena exists both here and elsewhere around the world," Expedition 501 project manager Jez Everest, a scientist who came from the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, Scotland, said of undersea water. "But it's a subject that's never been directly investigated by any research project in the past." By that, he means no one globally had drilled systematically into the seabed on a mission to find freshwater. Expedition 501 was quite literally ground breaking, it penetrated Earth below the sea by as many as 1,289 feet or nearly 400 meters. But it followed a 2015 research project which mapped contours of an aquifer remotely, using electromagnetic technology and roughly estimated salinity of the water underneath. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, reported evidence of a "massive offshore aquifer system" in this area, possibly rivalling the size of America's largest, the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies water to parts of eight Great Plains states. Two developments in 1976 had stirred interest in searching for undersea freshwater. In the middle of Nantucket island, the US Geological Survey drilled a test well to see how far down the groundwater went. It extracted fresh water from such great depths which made scientists wonder if the water came from the sea, not the sky.

The federal agency mounted a 60-day expedition aboard the drilling vessel Glomar Conception along a vast stretch of the Continental Shelf from Georgia to Georges Bank off New England. It drilled cores in search of the sub-seabed's resources, like methane. It found an eye-opening amount of fresh or freshened water in borehole after borehole. That set the stage for the water-seekers to do their work a half-century later. Soon after Robert arrived at the first of three drilling sites, samples drawn from below the seabed registered salinity of just 4 parts per thousand. That's far below the oceans' average salt content of 35 parts per thousand but still too briny to meet the US freshwater standard of under 1 part per thousand. "Four parts per thousand was a eureka moment," Dugan said, because the finding suggested that the water must have been connected to a terrestrial system in the past, or still is. As the weeks wore on and Robert moved from site to site 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 km's) off the coast, the process of drilling into the waterlogged subsea sediment yielded a collection of samples down to 1 part per thousand salt content. Some were even lower.

In months of analysis ahead, the scientists will investigate a range of properties of the water, including what microbes were living in the depths, what they used for nutrients and energy sources and what by products they might generate; in other words, whether the water is safe to consume or otherwise use. "This is a new environment that has never been studied before," said Jocelyne DiRuggiero, a Johns Hopkins University biologist in Baltimore who studies the microbial ecology of extreme environments and is not involved in the expedition. "The water may contain minerals detrimental to human health since it percolated through layers of sediments," she said. "However, a similar process forms the terrestrial aquifers that we use for freshwater, and those typically have very high quality." By sequencing DNA extracted from their samples, she said, the researchers can determine which microorganisms are there and "learn how they potentially make a living."

In just five years, the UN says, the global demand for fresh water will exceed supplies by 40%. Rising sea levels from the warming climate are souring coastal freshwater sources while data centres which power AI and cloud computing are consuming water at an insatiable rate. The fabled Ancient Mariner's lament, "Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink," looms as a warning to landlubbers as well as to sailors on salty seas. Cape Town, South Africa, came perilously close to running out of fresh water for its nearly 5 million people in 2018 during an epic, three-year drought. South Africa is thought to have a coastal undersea freshwater bonanza, too, and there is at least anecdotal evidence that every continent may have the same. In Virginia alone, a quarter of all power produced in the state goes to data centres, a share expected to nearly double in five years. By some estimates, each midsize data centre consumes as much water as 1,000 households. Each of the Great Lakes states has experienced groundwater shortages. Canada's Prince Edward Island, Hawaii and Jakarta, Indonesia are among places where stressed freshwater supplies coexist with prospective aquifers under the ocean. Try Expedition, a $25 million scientific collaboration of more than a dozen countries backed by the US government's National Science Foundation and the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling. Scientists went into the project believing the undersea aquifer they were sampling might be sufficient to meet the needs of a metropolis the size of New York City for 800 years. They found fresh or nearly fresh water at both higher and lower depths below the seafloor than they anticipated, suggesting a larger supply even than that.

Techniques will also be used to determine whether it came from glacial ice melt thousands of years ago or is still coming via labyrinthian geologic formations from land. Researchers will date the water back in the lab, and that will be key in determining whether it is a renewable resource which could be used responsibly. Primordial water is trapped and finite; newer water suggests the aquifer is still connected to a terrestrial source and being refreshed, however slowly. "Younger means it was a raindrop 100 years ago, 200 years ago," Dugan said. "If young, it's recharging." Those questions are for basic science. For society, all sorts of complex questions arise if the basic science affirms the conditions necessary for exploiting the water. Who will manage it? Can it be taken without an unacceptable risk of contaminating the supply from the ocean above? Will it be cheaper or environmentally friendlier than today's energy-hungry desalination plants? Dugan said if governments decide to get the water, local communities could turn to the aquifers in time of need, such as drought, or when extreme storms flood coastal freshwater reserves and ruin them. The notion of actually using this old buried water is so new that it has not been on the radar of many policymakers or conservationists.

"It's a lesson in how long it can take sometimes to make these things happen and the perseverance that's needed to get there," said Woods Hole geophysicist Rob Evans, whose 2015 expedition helped point the way for 501. "There's a ton of excitement that finally they've got samples." Still, he sees some red flags. One is that tapping undersea aquifers could draw water away from onshore reserves. Another is that undersea groundwater which seeps out to the seafloor may supply nutrients vital to the ecosystem, and that might not be right. "If we were to go out and start pumping these waters, there would almost certainly be unforeseen consequences," he said. "There's a lot of balance we would need to consider before we started diving in and drilling and exploiting these kinds of things." For most in the project, getting to and from Liftboat Robert meant a voyage of seven hours or more from Fall River, Massachusetts, on a supply boat that made round trips every 10 days or so to replenish stocks and rotate people.

On the platform, around the clock, the racket of metal bore pipes and machinery, the drilling grime and the speckled mud mingled with the quieter, cleaner work of scientists in trailers converted to pristine labs and processing posts. There, samples were treated according to the varying needs of the expedition's geologists, geochemists, hydrologists, microbiologists, sedimentologists and more. Passing through clear plastic tubes, muck was sliced into disks like hockey pucks. Machines squeezed water out. Some samples were kept sealed to enable study of ancient gases dissolved in the water. Other samples were frozen, filtered or left as is, depending on the purpose. After six months of lab analysis, all the science teams of Expedition 501 will meet again, this time in Germany for a month of collaborative research that is expected to produce initial findings that point to the age and origin of the water.

Ocean lifeline vanishes due to climate disruption

 Climate disruption effects Panama’s ocean lifeline for first time in 40 years

Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute warned that the upwelling, which makes the waters of the Gulf of Panama colder and richer in nutrients every summer, did not occur in 2025 for the first time in at least 40 years. Upwelling events in the Gulf of Panama primarily occur during Central America’s dry season (December to April) due to the northern trade winds. Every year, Panama’s Pacific coast benefits from powerful seasonal winds that drive nutrient-rich waters to the surface, sustaining fisheries and protecting coral reefs. But for the first time in at least four decades, this crucial upwelling did not occur. Scientists suspect weakened trade winds linked to climate disruption played a role, leaving cooler waters absent and fisheries under stress. Upwelling events support highly productive fisheries and help protect coral reefs from thermal stress. 

During the dry season in Central America (generally between December and April), northern trade winds generate upwelling events in the ocean waters of the Gulf of Panama. Upwelling is a process that allows cold, nutrient-rich waters from the depths of the ocean to rise to the surface. Thanks to this movement of water, the sea along Panama's Pacific beaches remains cooler during the "summer" vacation season. This dynamic supports highly productive fisheries and helps protect coral reefs from thermal stress. STRI scientists have studied this phenomenon, and their records indicate that the seasonal upwelling had been a constant and predictable feature of the Gulf for at least 40 years; however, in 2025, it “did not occur for the first time.” Consequently, the temperature decrease and increased productivity typical of this time of year were reduced. Scientists suggest that a significant reduction in wind patterns caused this unprecedented event.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) says that this seasonal upwelling, which occurs from January to April, has been a consistent and predictable feature of the gulf. However, researchers recently recorded that in 2025, this vital oceanographic process did not occur for the first time. As a result, the typical drops in temperature and spikes in productivity during this time of year were diminished. Scientists suggest that a significant reduction in wind patterns was the cause of this unprecedented event. Still, further research is needed to determine a more precise cause and its potential consequences for fisheries. This situation reveals “how climate disruption can quickly alter fundamental oceanic processes that have sustained coastal fishing communities for thousands of years.” The STRI also argues that this finding highlights the growing vulnerability of tropical upwelling systems, which, despite their enormous ecological and socioeconomic importance, remain sparsely monitored.

This finding highlights the growing vulnerability of tropical upwelling systems, which, despite their enormous ecological and socioeconomic importance, remain poorly monitored. It also underscores the urgency of strengthening ocean-climate observation and prediction capabilities in the planet's tropical regions. This result marks one of the first major outcomes of the collaboration between the S/Y Eugen Seibold research vessel from the Max Planck Institute and STRI. The STRI, based in Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution which promotes understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human well-being. It also trains students to conduct tropical research and fosters conservation by raising public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. 

Earth's rotation is slowing down

 Earth’s rotation is slowing and it could be why we have oxygen for life       

Ever since its formation around 4.5 billion years ago, Earth's rotation has been gradually slowing down, and its days have gotten progressively longer as a result. While Earth's slowdown is not noticeable on human timescales, it's enough to work significant changes over eons. One of those changes is perhaps the most significant of all, at least to us: lengthening days are linked to the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere, according to a study earlier. Specifically, the blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) which emerged and proliferated about 2.4 billion years ago would have been able to produce more oxygen as a metabolic by-product because Earth's days grew longer. Imagine a time when a full day on Earth lasted just 18 hours, a world where nightfall came racing faster than today’s steady 24-hour rhythm. Over billions of years, our planet’s spin has been gradually slowing down, and this subtle cosmic shift might actually explain why the air we breathe today is rich in oxygen. It’s not just an interesting quirk of physics, the lengthening of Earth’s days could have played a vital role in shaping life itself. Recent research reveals a fascinating connection between the slowdown of Earth’s rotation and the rise of breathable oxygen, showing how even the smallest changes in our planet’s spin influenced the evolution of life on a grand scale.

When Earth first formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago, it spun much faster than it does now. Thanks to the Moon’s gravitational tug, our planet has been gradually losing speed, stretching those youthful 18-hour days to the 24-hour day we know today. This happens because the Moon’s gravity pulls on Earth’s oceans, creating tides, a process that works like a subtle brake, adding about 2 milliseconds to the length of each day every century. "An enduring question in Earth sciences has been how did Earth's atmosphere get its oxygen, and what factors controlled when this oxygenation took place," microbiologist Gregory Dick of the University of Michigan explained. "Our research suggests that the rate at which Earth is spinning, in other words, its day length, may have had an important effect on the pattern and timing of Earth's oxygenation." There are two major components, at first glance, don't seem to have a lot to do with each other. The first is that Earth's spin is slowing down. The reason Earth's spin is slowing down is because the Moon exerts a gravitational pull on the planet, which causes a rotational deceleration since the Moon is gradually pulling away. We know, based on the fossil record, that days were just 18 hours long 1.4 billion years ago, and half an hour shorter than they are today 70 million years ago. Evidence suggests that we're gaining 1.8 milliseconds a century. The second component is something known as the Great Oxidation Event, when cyanobacteria emerged in such great quantities that Earth's atmosphere experienced a sharp, significant rise in oxygen. Without this oxidation, scientists think life as we know it could not have emerged; so, although cyanobacteria may cop a bit of side-eye today, we probably wouldn't be here without them.

You might wonder how this tiny change impacts something as essential as oxygen. The answer lies in the ancient microbes called cyanobacteria, tiny blue-green algae which first began turning sunlight into oxygen through photosynthesis approximately 2.4 billion years ago. This monumental event, known as the Great Oxidation Event, dramatically increased oxygen levels in the atmosphere and paved the way for complex life. Cyanobacteria depend heavily on sunlight to produce oxygen. When days were shorter, their window for oxygen production was limited. As the Earth’s days grew longer, these microbes had more time to soak up the sun and pump out oxygen, slowly but steadily enriching the atmosphere. There's still a lot we don't know about this event, including such burning questions as why it happened when it did and not sometime earlier in Earth's history. It took scientists working with cyanobacterial microbes to connect the dots. Scientists have found a modern-day reflection of ancient Earth’s microbial world beneath Lake Huron, at the Middle Island Sinkhole. Here, purple cyanobacteria, oxygen producers, compete with white sulfur-consuming microbes in microbial mats. These communities shift their dominance between day and night, revealing the delicate balance which influenced early oxygen dynamics. In the early morning, sulfur-eating microbes top the mats, feeding vigorously. As sunlight intensifies, the purple cyanobacteria take over, starting their photosynthetic oxygen production. But there’s a catch, the cyanobacteria don’t immediately jump into action. They need a few hours to “wake up” and reach their full oxygen-producing potential. This delay means shorter days limit how much oxygen they can release.

Oceanographer Brian Arbic and his team were intrigued by the question: Would the gradual lengthening of Earth’s days allow cyanobacteria to maximize oxygen production? By combining field studies, lab experiments, and computer modeling, they confirmed that longer, uninterrupted periods of sunlight let these microbes work more efficiently. Interestingly, two quick 12-hour days don’t equal one long 24-hour day in oxygen output. The reason is molecular diffusion, a slow process that governs how oxygen leaves microbial cells. When daylight cycles switch too fast, oxygen can’t diffuse away efficiently—prolonged sunlight lets microbes release oxygen steadily and more abundantly. Purple cyanobacteria that produce oxygen via photosynthesis and white microbes which metabolize sulfur, compete in a microbial mat on the lakebed. At night, the white microbes rise to the top of the microbial mat and do their sulfur-munching thing. When day breaks, and the Sun rises high enough in the sky, the white microbes retreat and the purple cyanobacteria rise to the top. "Now they can start to photosynthesize and produce oxygen," said geomicrobiologist Judith Klatt of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany.

This research didn’t only connect Earth’s spin slowdown to the first oxygen surge billions of years ago. It also linked the lengthening of days to a second oxygen rise during the Neoproterozoic era, between about 550 and 800 million years ago. This second burst of oxygen coincided with the emergence of multicellular life, making the slow deceleration of Earth’s spin a key factor in shaping the conditions which allowed diverse and complex life forms to flourish. What this means is truly profound: the gradual increase in day length wasn’t just a matter of timekeeping. It fundamentally influenced the composition of Earth’s atmosphere and the development of life as we know it. Our very breath, rich in oxygen, owes something to the long, slow drag of the Moon’s gravity. This means the window of daytime in which the cyanobacteria can pump out oxygen is very limited, and it was this fact that caught the attention of oceanographer Brian Arbic of the University of Michigan. He wondered if changing day length over Earth's history had had an impact on photosynthesis. "It's possible that a similar type of competition between microbes contributed to the delay in oxygen production on the early Earth," Klatt explained. Reflecting personally, it’s amazing to realize how minute changes, like milliseconds added to a day every century, can lead to monumental shifts over time. It reminds us that the small, steady choices we make daily can quietly shape our lives in ways we don’t always notice right away. Just as Earth’s rotation nudges life toward complexity, our habits nudge us toward growth.

To demonstrate this hypothesis, the team performed experiments and measurements on the microbes, both in their natural environment and a laboratory setting. They also performed detailed modelling studies based on their results to link sunlight to microbial oxygen production, and microbial oxygen production to Earth's history. "Intuition suggests that two 12-hour days should be similar to one 24-hour day. The sunlight rises and falls twice as fast, and the oxygen production follows in lockstep," explained marine scientist Arjun Chennu of the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany. "But the release of oxygen from bacterial mats does not, because it is limited by the speed of molecular diffusion. This subtle uncoupling of oxygen release from sunlight is at the heart of the mechanism." This intimate link between Earth’s rotation and atmospheric oxygen highlights the incredible interconnectedness of cosmic forces with life’s evolution. It’s a vivid example of how planetary mechanics ripple through biological systems to create the world we inhabit. It also sparks a deeper question: Had Earth’s rotation stayed fast with shorter days, would oxygen have risen enough to support the spectacular variety of life we see today? Or might our planet have remained a simpler, less hospitable place? By understanding this delicate balance between day length and oxygen production, we gain new appreciation for how finely tuned the conditions for life really are. 

These results were incorporated into global models of oxygen levels, and the team found that lengthening days were linked to the increase in Earth's oxygen, not just the Great Oxidation Event, but another, second atmospheric oxygenation called the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event around 550 to 800 million years ago. "We tie together laws of physics operating at vastly different scales, from molecular diffusion to planetary mechanics. We show that there is a fundamental link between day length and how much oxygen can be released by ground-dwelling microbes," Chennu said. "It's pretty exciting. This way we link the dance of the molecules in the microbial mat to the dance of our planet and its Moon."

Earth's seasons observed from space

 Earth's seasons aren't the same everywhere, Scientists discover from space

The annual clock of the seasons, winter, spring, summer, autumn, is often taken as a given. But our new study in Nature, using a new approach for observing seasonal growth cycles from satellites, shows that this notion is far too simple. A new study about Nature reveals that Earth's seasons don't actually line up the same everywhere. By looking at 20 years of satellite data, researchers found big differences in when plants grow, even between places which are pretty close together. So, the idea of what everyone shares the same spring or fall? Not really true. We present an unprecedented and intimate portrait of the seasonal cycles of Earth's land-based ecosystems. This reveals "hotspots" of seasonal asynchrony around the world, regions where the timing of seasonal cycles can be out of sync between nearby locations. We then show these differences in timing can have surprising ecological, evolutionary, and even economic consequences.

By applying a new analysis to 20 years of satellite imagery, we made a better map of the timing of plant growth cycles around the globe. Alongside expected patterns, such as delayed spring at higher latitudes and altitudes, we saw more surprising ones too. Average seasonal cycles of plant growth around the world. Each pattern varies from its minimum (tan) to its maximum (dark green) throughout the year. One surprising pattern happens across Earth's five Mediterranean climate regions, where winters are mild and wet and summers are hot and dry. These include California, Chile, South Africa, southern Australia and the Mediterranean itself. These regions all share a "double peak" seasonal pattern, previously documented in California, because forest growth cycles tend to peak roughly two months later than other ecosystems. They also show stark differences in the timing of plant growth from their neighbouring dry lands, where summer precipitation is more common.

The seasons set the rhythm of life. Living things, including humans, adjust the timing of their annual activities to exploit resources and conditions which fluctuate through the year. The study of this timing, known as "phenology", is an age-old form of human observation of nature. But today, we can also watch phenology from space. The average seasonal growth cycles of Earth's land-based ecosystems, estimated from 20 years of satellite imagery gives a different results. With decades-long archives of satellite imagery, we can use computing to better understand seasonal cycles of plant growth. However, methods for doing this are often based on the assumption of simple seasonal cycles and distinct growing seasons. This works well in much of Europe, North America and other high-latitude places with strong winters. However, this method can struggle in the tropics and in arid regions. Satellite-based estimates of plant growth can vary subtly throughout the year here, without clear-cut growing seasons.

The biggest "out-of-sync" hotspots showed up in Mediterranean climates and tropical mountains, think California, Chile, South Africa or the Mediterranean itself. These timing gaps can shape which species thrive by changing how plants reproduce and spread genes. This even matches up with the complex geography of Colombia's coffee harvests, where nearby farms can have out-of-sync cycles. This complex mix of seasonal activity patterns explains one major finding of this work: the Mediterranean climates and their neighbouring dry lands are hotspots of out-of-sync seasonal activity. In other words, they are regions where the seasonal cycles of nearby places can have dramatically different timing. Consider, for example, the marked difference between Phoenix, Arizona (which has similar amounts of winter and summer rainfall) and Tucson only 160 km away (where most rainfall comes from the summer monsoon). Other global hotspots occur mostly in tropical mountains. The intricate patterns of out-of-sync seasons we observe there may relate to the complex ways in which mountains can influence airflow, dictating local patterns of seasonal rainfall and cloud. These phenomena are still poorly understood, but may be fundamental to the distribution of species in these regions of exceptional biodiversity.

Scientists tracked "phenology" basically, when plants and animals do their seasonal things, using global satellite imagery. Older methods mostly worked for places with clear-cut winters and summers but missed all the weird timing in tropical and dry regions. This study created the most detailed map yet of how seasonal events play out around the world. Identifying global regions where seasonal patterns are out of sync was the original motivation of the work. And final finding overlap with many of Earth's biodiversity hotspots, places with large numbers of plant and animal species, may not be a coincidence. In these regions, because seasonal cycles of plant growth can be out of sync between nearby places, the seasonal availability of resources may be out of sync, too. This would affect the seasonal reproductive cycles of many species, and the ecological and evolutionary consequences could be profound. One such consequence is that populations with out-of-sync reproductive cycles would be less likely to interbreed. As a result, these populations would be expected to diverge genetically, and perhaps eventually even split into different species. If this happened to even a small percentage of species at any given time, then over the long haul these regions would produce large amounts of biodiversity.

For a wide range of plant and animal species, satellite-based map predicts stark on-ground differences in the timing of plant flowering and in genetic relatedness between nearby populations. Understanding seasonal patterns in space and time isn't just important for evolutionary biology. It is also fundamental to understanding the ecology of animal movement, the consequences of climate change for species and ecosystems, and even the geography of agriculture and other forms of human activity around the world.

Glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking

 Shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas linked to monsoon changes and heat  

High Mountain Asia, often called the “Third Pole,” holds the largest store of ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Its glaciers have shaped landscapes, nourished rivers, and sustained communities for thousands of years. But today, these frozen giants are shrinking at a troubling pace. Shifting precipitation patterns, driven by climate change, could reshape water security and environmental hazards for one of world’s most populated regions, research shows. Glaciers across High Mountain Asia are losing more than 22 gigatons of ice per year, the equivalent to nearly 9 million Olympic swimming pools, according to research from the University of Utah and Virginia Tech. The impact of a warming climate on glacial loss is undisputed, this new study provides the first evidence that seasonal shifts in rainfall and snowfall patterns, particularly of the South Asian monsoons, are also exacerbating glacier melting across the region. Scientists have long agreed that warming temperatures drive the retreat, yet new evidence reveals another culprit: shifting rainfall and snowfall patterns, especially those tied to the South Asian monsoon.

“These findings highlight that glaciers dominated by the South Asian monsoons, such as the Central Himalaya, Western Himalaya and Eastern Himalaya, are especially vulnerable,” said Sonam Sherpa, assistant professor at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. “If the timing and intensity of the monsoon continues to alter, it could accelerate ice loss and threaten water availability for millions downstream.” While rising temperatures explain much of the retreat, researchers show that the timing and type of precipitation now play a major role. Rain falling instead of snow fuels melt, and shorter or weaker monsoon seasons reduce the ice that glaciers can accumulate. High Mountain Asia is known as the “Third Pole” because it holds the world’s largest reserve of glacier ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic. The region’s glaciers feed lakes and rivers which supply freshwater to more than 1.4 billion people across South and Central Asia, sustaining agriculture, hydropower and drinking water. As glaciers retreat more rapidly, rivers will depend less on glacial melt and increasingly on rainfall as their main source of water. “Looking ahead, a faster retreat of mountain glaciers will shift the main source of river flow from glacier melt to rainfall, thereby heightening the risk of droughts in downstream regions for future generations,” said Susanna Werth, assistant professor at Virginia Tech and co-author of the study.

High-lying glaciers in the southern parts of the Central Himalayas accumulate during the summer, rather than in the winter. At higher elevations, cold temperatures turn annual monsoon precipitation into intense snowfall which feeds the glaciers. Glaciers retreat because they either receive less snowfall or experience more melting than usual. While warming itself drives melting, it also alters rain and snowfall patterns. This can shorten the precipitation season, reduce precipitation amount or cause a shift from snow to rainfall on the glaciers, driving even more melting due to less accumulation on glaciers. To understand these shifts, the researchers used satellite gravimetry from NASA’s GRACE and GRACE-FO missions. These satellites can “weigh” changes in water storage, including ice, by measuring gravity variations. Scientists corrected the data to account for groundwater use, soil moisture, surface water and snow. They paired this with climate reanalysis models, dividing the year into four phases: winter, premonsoon, monsoon, and postmonsoon. By analyzing rainfall and snowfall separately, they revealed how timing and precipitation type affect glacier mass. The experts found that glaciers respond more strongly to seasonal precipitation than to annual totals. 

Accelerated glacier-melt patterns also carry significant risks. Faster melting can increase the likelihood of glacial lake outburst floods, a growing threat in mountain regions worldwide as receding glaciers retreat in response to climate change. Together with follow-up cascading hazards, including landslides and river flooding, unstable glaciers can devastate vulnerable communities. Cycles repeating every 3 to 4.5 years and 5 to 8 years match the natural rhythm of South Asian monsoons. In the Central Himalaya, glacier loss was tied to reduced premonsoon rainfall. In the Eastern Himalaya, declining postmonsoon snowfall accelerated retreat. In the Western Himalaya, increased summer rain caused rain-on-ice events that sped melting. These details show that the seasonality of rain and snow is as important as overall precipitation amounts. Different climate systems influence each subregion. Monsoon-fed glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya show the highest rates of ice loss. Glaciers dominated by the Westerlies, such as those in the Pamir–Hindu Kush and Karakoram, show slower declines or in some cases slight gains. The Tien Shan, influenced by Siberian systems and western cyclones, also shows significant losses. These contrasts highlight how winds and precipitation phase shifts shape glacier health differently across the mountains.

Climate projections suggest stronger and more intense monsoons in the coming decades, with possible changes in their timing. By 2100, ice loss in monsoon-dominated basins could reach 38–58%, depending on future emissions. Such a shift would profoundly affect river flows, agriculture and disaster risks. The study emphasizes that improved monitoring networks are urgently needed to capture rain, snow and temperature changes across high-altitude regions. Rapid melting brings hazards which are both immediate and long-term. Glacial lake outburst floods are becoming more common as ice retreats, creating unstable lakes held back by fragile moraine walls. Landslides and river floods often follow, putting downstream communities at risk. “This risk is not only about long-term water shortages but also about immediate threats to lives and infrastructure,” said Sherpa. High Mountain Asia’s glaciers are retreating under the combined weight of heat and shifting monsoons. Seasonal timing and the balance of rain versus snow now shape their fate more than annual totals.

Protecting communities downstream will require better observation and planning that accounts for these seasonal fingerprints. The research makes clear that what happens in these mountains will ripple far beyond their valleys, potentially impacting the lives of more than a billion people. The key findings of the analysis are given below:-

In the central and western Himalayan regions where glaciers typically grow during the summer, ice losses are now linked with increased rainfall. 

Repeating patterns in glacier retreat occur at 3–4.5-year and 5–8-year cycles, aligning with natural variability in monsoon patterns. This raises urgent questions about how future climate-driven monsoon shifts will impact long-term glacier health.

In eastern regions of the Himalaya, ice dynamics could be associated with reduced snowfall.

The researchers emphasize the urgent need for denser and more accurate monitoring networks of rainfall, snowfall and related climate variables. Improved observation systems are critical for predicting the impacts of monsoon alterations and guiding adaptation strategies around the whole area.

Svalbard lost “Record-breaking” ice in 2024

 In 2024, Svalbard lost “Record-breaking” ice, more than any year on record

Glaciers in Arctic Svalbard experienced unprecedented melting during summer 2024, contributing to global sea-level rise. New research shows the summer of 2024 was a “record-breaking” melt season in Svalbard, raising concerns about the scale of future glacial ice melts under climate change. Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago which is technically a part of Norway, lies about halfway between the northernmost part of Norway and the North Pole. Currently, about 60% of Svalbard's surface is covered in glaciers, but these glaciers are melting rapidly. During the summer of 2024, Svalbard experienced a record-breaking heat wave which melted more of its glaciers than ever before.

The team was made up of a collaboration of scientists including researchers from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The loss of glacial ice in the Norwegian archipelago is predicted to have significant impacts on the local and global environment possibly leading to rising sea levels and impacting the ocean currents. Svalbard experienced extraordinarily high temperatures last summer. The researchers found that the sea surface temperatures of the surrounding areas in the Barents and Norwegian Seas were 3.5 to 5°C above the 1991–2020 baseline. The impact of these kinds of events is not limited to the local region, but has far-reaching consequences and can act as a harbinger of things to come. Massive glacier melts contribute to global sea-level rise and impact ocean circulation, marine ecosystems and local communities. Determining glacial mass loss and placing it in a historical and future climate context is essential for understanding these impacts.

“Combining in situ observations, remote sensing, and modelling, we quantify the mass loss of all glaciers on Svalbard during the record-warm summer of 2024, that by far exceeds previous levels,” write the researchers. “The summer of 2024 on Svalbard thus provided a window into Arctic glacier meltdown in a warmer future.” The analysis shows that the summer glacial melt in Svalbard in 2024 resulted in around 61.7 gigatons of ice melting. This is 1% of Svalbard total ice mass. This loss contributed to approximately 0.16mm of water to global sea level rise although, when considering the melting of nearby areas too, this figure jumps to 0.27mm. Thomas Vikhamar Schuler, a researcher from the University of Oslo in Norway, and his team set out to quantify the impact of the six-week heat wave of the summer of 2024. To do this, they utilized in situ glacier measurements from aluminium poles fixed in the ice as reference markers to record changes in the glacier's surface, remote sensing data from satellites and climate modelling using the CryoGrid model. They determined mass loss through both surface melt and ice calving, when chunks of ice break off glaciers and fall into the ocean, at marine glacier fronts.

“Affecting global sea-level rise, mass loss from Arctic glaciers has implications far beyond their geographical location,” write the authors. “By injecting buoyant freshwater, meltwater runoff from land to the ocean has far-reaching implications for ocean circulation near shore and in fjords and fuels a variety of ecological communities across a wide range of the food chain.” Svalbard is home to 6% of the world’s glacier area outside of Greenland and Antarctica. If the all the glaciers on Svalbard were to melt, scientists predict this would account for a 1.7cm sea level rise. Despite being 50 times smaller than Greenland, the amount of ice lost in Svalbard is on par with Greenland's ice loss of 55 ± 35 gigatons. Most of this melting occurred during a six-week period. Even past models did not predict this magnitude of ice loss until much later. The region of circum-Barents, which includes Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, lost a total of 102.1 ± 22.9 gigatons of ice in 2024. This amounts to a contribution of 0.27 ± 0.06 mm to global sea-level rise. That may not sound like much, but the study authors explain that this contribution corresponds to half of the sea-level contribution of all Arctic glaciers estimated for 2006–2015, placing the circum-Barents region among the strongest contributors to the global sea-level rise in 2024.

The research team found much of the melting occurred within a 6-week period. Across this time, the atmospheric conditions were warmer than usual, and the area was experiencing a marine heat wave. Under current climate conditions, these temperatures are extremely rare however, some climate models suggest that these levels may become more common by the end of the 21st century. “We find that temperature levels as in 2024 represent a rare situation for contemporary climate conditions but will be frequently reached in a few decades,” write the authors. The team also conducted climate modelling based on their findings, which predicted that these kinds of extreme summers will become common by 2100, even under optimistic emission scenarios. "Our study shows that 2024 summer temperatures will be frequently reached in just a few decades and exceeded toward the end of the 21st century. The summer of 2024 on Svalbard thus provided a window into Arctic glacier meltdown in a warmer future, highlighting the severe mass loss of glaciers and its repercussions in other regions of the Arctic beyond Svalbard," the study authors write. “This suggests further that the summer of 2024 may represent the normal situation in 2100, and the observed mass loss of glaciers in 2024 indeed provides a view into future glacier meltdown in Svalbard and probably other parts of the Arctic.” Just last year, a NASA study found that the Greenland Ice sheet lost more ice than previously estimated with 179 of the 207 glaciers in focus having retreated significantly since 1985. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, 5 of the past 6 years have seen the most glacier retreat in human record, with 2022–2024 claiming the largest 3-year loss of glacier mass in recent history.