“There are more than 150 species of known glassfrogs in the world, and yet we’re really just starting to learn about some of the really incredible ways they interact with their environment,” said co-lead author Jesse Delia, a Gerstner postdoctoral fellow in the Museum’s Department of Herpetology.

Glassfrogs, which live in the American tropics, are nocturnal amphibians that spend their days sleeping upside down on translucent leaves that match the color of their backs — a common camouflage tactic. Their tummies, however, show something surprising: translucent skin and muscle that allows their bones and organs to be visible, giving the glassfrog its common name. Recent research has proposed that this adaptation masks the frogs’ outlines on their leafy perches, making them harder for predators to spot.

Transparency is a common form of camouflage among animals that live in water, but it’s rare on land. In vertebrates, attaining transparency is difficult because their circulatory system is full of red blood cells that interact with light. Studies have shown that ice fish and larval eels achieve transparency by not producing hemoglobin and red blood cells. But glassfrogs use an alternative strategy, according to the findings of the new study.

“Glassfrogs overcome this challenge by essentially hiding red blood cells from view,” said Carlos Taboada, the study’s co-lead author from Duke University. “They almost pause their respiratory system during the day, even at high temperatures.”

At Duke, the researchers used a technique called photoacoustic imaging, which uses light to induce sound-wave propagation from red blood cells. This allows researchers to map the location of the cells within sleeping frogs without restraint, contrast agents, sacrifice, or surgical manipulation — particularly important to this study because glassfrog transparency is disrupted by activity, stress, anesthesia, and death.

The researchers focused on one particular species of glassfrog, Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni. They found that resting glassfrogs increase transparency two- to threefold by removing nearly 90 percent of their red blood cells from circulation and packing them within their liver, which contains reflective guanine crystals. Whenever the frogs need to become active again, they bring the red blood cells back into the blood, which gives the frogs the ability to move around — at which point, light absorption from these cells breaks transparency.

In most vertebrates, aggregating red blood cells can lead to potentially dangerous blood clots in veins and arteries. But glassfrogs don’t experience clotting, which raises a set of significant questions for biological and medical researchers.

“This is the first of a series of studies documenting the physiology of vertebrate transparency, and it will hopefully stimulate biomedical work to translate these frogs’ extreme physiology into novel targets for human health and medicine,” Delia said.

Other authors on the study include Maomao Chen, Chenshuo Ma, Xiaorui Peng, Xiaoyi Zhu, Tri Vu, Junjie Yao, and So?nke Johnsen from Duke University; Laiming Jiang and Qifa Zhou, from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Lauren O’Connell, from Stanford University.

This study was supported in part by the National Geographic Society, grant # NGS-65348R-19; the Human Frontier Science Program postdoctoral fellowship # LT 000660/2018-L; the Gerstner Scholars Fellowship provided by the Gerstner Family Foundation and the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History; start-up funds from Stanford University; start-up funds from Duke University; the National Institutes of Health, grant #s R01 EB028143, R01 NS111039, RF1 NS115581 BRAIN Initiative; a Duke Institute of Brain Science Incubator award; the American Heart Association Collaborative Sciences award 18CSA34080277; and a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant 2020- 226178.

“In short, we found biology textbooks are failing to share adequate information about climate change, which is a generation-defining topic in the life sciences,” says Jennifer Landin, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of biological sciences at NC State. “These books are the baseline texts for helping students understand the science of life on Earth, yet they are providing very little information about a phenomenon that is having a profound impact on habitats, ecosystems, agriculture — almost every aspect of life on Earth.”

For the study, researchers analyzed coverage of climate change in 57 college biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. The researchers found that climate coverage has varied substantially over those five decades.

Prior to 1990, textbooks had a median of fewer than 10 sentences addressing climate change. In the 1990s, the median length of climate content was 30 sentences. The median length of climate content rose to 52 sentences in the 2000s, which is not surprising given the amount of emerging research into climate change and its impacts. However, the researchers found that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks actually declined in the 2010s — dropping to a median of 45 sentences.

In addition to length, the nature of the content has also changed substantially over time. For example, sentences dedicated to actionable solutions to climate change peaked in the 1990s at more than 15% of the climate content. However, in more recent decades, actionable solutions make up only about 3% of the climate content.

“One of the most troubling findings was that textbooks are devoting substantially less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s — even as they focus more on the effects of climate change,” Landin says. “That suggests to students that nothing can be done, which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism regarding climate change.”

In addition, the position of climate change sections keeps moving further back in the books, from the last 15% of the overall text in the 1970s to the last 2.5% of the text in the 2010s.

“This is important because most instructors present textbook content in order, which means topics at the end of the book are often skipped,” Landin says.

“However, it’s not all bad news,” Landin adds. “Textbooks in the 2000s and 2010s began including a wider variety of climate-relevant information, such as how climate is affecting species distributions, which can help students understand the various impacts of climate change.

“However, we are hoping that this study will serve as a wake-up call for publishers and instructors. We need to do a much better job of incorporating climate change into our courses if we want to prepare students to understand the role that climate change is playing in shaping life on Earth and how we study it.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by North Carolina State University. Original written by Matt Shipman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Combining data from the long-term Hawai’i Ocean Time-series program with new climate model simulations conducted on one of South Korea’s fastest supercomputers, the scientists revealed that a mechanism, known as nutrient uptake plasticity, allows marine algae to adapt and cope with nutrient-poor ocean conditions expected to occur over the next decades in response to global warming of the upper ocean.

Phytoplankton are tiny algae which drift at the ocean’s surface and form the basis of the marine food web. While photosynthesizing, these algae absorb nutrients (e.g., phosphate, nitrate), take up dissolved carbon dioxide and release oxygen, which makes up for about 50% of the oxygen that we breathe. Knowing how marine algae will respond to global warming and to associated decline of nutrients in upper ocean waters is therefore crucial for understanding the long-term habitability of our planet.

How the annual phytoplankton production rate will change globally over the next 80 years remains highly uncertain. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states an uncertainty of -20% to +20%, which implies an uncertainty as to whether phytoplankton will increase or decrease in future.

Global warming affects the upper layers of the ocean more than the deeper layers. Warmer water is lighter and hence the upper ocean will become more stratified in future, which reduces mixing of nutrients from the subsurface into the sun-lit layer, where phytoplankton reside. Earlier studies suggested that the expected future depletion of nutrients near the surface would lead to a substantial reduction of ocean’s phytoplankton production with widespread and potentially catastrophic effects on both marine ecosystems and climate.

But according to a new study in Science Advances, this may not happen. New analyses of the upper ocean phytoplankton data from Hawai’i Ocean Time-series program shows that productivity can be sustained, even in very nutrient-depleted conditions. “Under such conditions individual phytoplankton cells can substitute phosphorus with sulfur. On a community level, one might see further shifts towards taxa that require less phosphorus,” says David Karl, a coauthor of the study, Professor in Oceanography at the University of Hawai’i and co-founder of the Hawai’i Ocean Time-series Study program, to illustrate the concept of phytoplankton plasticity. Further supporting evidence for plasticity comes from the fact that in subtropical regions, where nutrient concentrations in the surface waters are low, algae take up less phosphorus per amount of carbon stored in their cells, as compared to the global mean.

To study how this unique metabolic “hack” will impact global ocean productivity over the next few decades, the team ran a series of climate model simulations with the Community Earth System model (version 2, CESM2) on their supercomputer Aleph. By turning off the phytoplankton plasticity in their model, the authors were able to qualitatively reproduce previous model results of a decline in global productivity by about 8%. However, when turning on the plasticity parameter in their model, in a way that captures the observations near Hawai’i for the past 3 decades, the computer simulation reveals an increase in global productivity of up to 5% until the end of this century. “Regionally, however, these future productivity differences can be much higher, reaching up to 200% in subtropical regions,” says Dr. Eun Young Kwon, first author of the study and a researcher at the IBS Center for Climate Physics at Pusan National University, South Korea. With this extra productivity boost, the ocean can also take up more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and eventually sequester it below the ocean’s surface.

Inspired by the results of their sensitivity computer model simulations, the authors then looked at 10 other climate models, whose data were used in the recent 6^th Assessment Report of the IPCC. The results confirmed the author’s initial conclusions. “Models without plasticity tend to project overall declining primary production for the 21^st century, whereas those that account for the capability of phytoplankton to adapt to low nutrient conditions show on average increasing global productivity” says Dr. M.G. Sreeush, co-corresponding author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the IBS Center for Climate Physics.

“Even though our study demonstrates the importance of biological buffering of global-scale ecological changes, this does not imply that phytoplankton are immune to human induced climate change. For instance, worsening ocean acidification will reduce the calcification rates of certain types of phytoplankton, which can lead to large-scale shifts in ecosystems.” warns Dr. Eun Young Kwon. These factors are neither well understood nor represented yet in climate models.

“Future Earth system models need to use improved observationally-based representations of how phytoplankton respond to multiple stressors, including warming and ocean acidification. This is necessary to predict the future of marine life on our planet” says Prof. Axel Timmermann, a coauthor of this study and director of the IBS Center for Climate Physics.

Until now, when people talked about electric vehicles, they were talking about automobiles. But as cars reach a tipping point, and electric options for SUVs, pickups, and even school buses begin to proliferate, innovators are starting to look to the skies. Electric airplanes may be the next big thing in sustainable transportation.

Electric Vehicles

Twenty years ago, many people argued that electric vehicles would never take off. Many people thought that the drawbacks of EVs – short range, high cost, limited charging stations – would keep mainstream consumers from making the switch. Today, there is plenty of consumer demand, and there are high-performance options to meet it. From sports cars to pickup trucks, EV drivers are no longer limited by a hippie aesthetic.

How much your EV benefits the environment compared to a gas-powered vehicle depends in large part on the source of your electricity. Consumers are waking up to this reality and showing increased interest in charging their EVs with solar power – you can even buy a combined solar panel/EV charging system from IKEA now. Corporations are switching to electric fleets, and vehicle-to-grid technology allows communities to use publicly owned fleets as a climate resilience strategy to store electricity for use during natural disasters.

Impacts of Air Travel

Air travel contributes about 3% of the global greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. That’s only a small part of the emissions from the transportation sector as a whole, which is still dominated by road transport, especially in the U.S. But Americans contribute more than their fair share of aviation emissions, too; flights from airports in the United States were responsible for almost one-quarter of global passenger flight-related carbon dioxide emissions.

On average, a flight produces more than 53 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile. A round trip transatlantic flight generates about 986 kilograms of CO2 per passenger. That is more than a year’s worth of emissions from the average person in 56 countries, and enough to melt 32 square feet of Arctic summer sea ice. Because airplanes directly release emissions at high altitudes, their impact may be even more pronounced.

You can try to make your flights more sustainable through waste-reduction and purchasing carbon offsets. But since flying is often a discretionary activity, some people are rethinking the decision to fly at all, choosing to just stay home, take the train, or explore slow travel.

Electric Airplanes

Not everyone can or will choose to stay on the ground. So it’s important to reduce the emissions from airplanes. Although changes have not been adopted across the industry, there has been some progress. Some airlines have worked to develop more efficient engines and biofuels. In 2016, 191 nations signed an agreement to reduce aviation-related carbon dioxide emissions 50% by 2050. Considering the success of EVs, electric aircraft engines are among the most promising options for achieving that goal.

Battery technology is the limiting factor in developing viable electric planes. Batteries are about 30 times heavier than the volume of kerosene jet fuel that could provide the same amount of energy. As with road-based EVs, hybrid technology may be the solution that gets electric flight off the ground. Using a combination of electric batteries and jet fuel helps balance the power to weight ratio. Researchers are working to address the power to weight ratio in other ways, for example, by reducing the weight of the engine itself and of the power converters.

Not Ready for Takeoff

Los Angeles-based Wright Electric is developing commercial jets with 100 and 186 seats. But most of the companies working towards electric flight are starting small. Icelandair is partnering with Heart Aerospace to develop an electric plane for domestic flights. The aircraft will have a range of about 200 kilometers with 30 passengers on electricity alone, or 400 kilometers with a combination of electricity and sustainable jet fuel. With the passenger count reduced to 25, the plane could travel up to 800 kilometers. Although not scheduled for delivery until 2028, the company already received nearly 100 orders from several countries.

While electrified commercial flights are still a few years out, the technology is not completely untested. In August, Icelandair performed a test of the first “passenger flight” of an electric aircraft. The Icelandic president and prime minister were the passengers on the inaugural flight of Pipistrel’s new Velis Electro. It is a fully electric small plane designed for pilot training.

In September, Eviation, a start-up based in Washington state, tested its prototype electric passenger plane. It built the plane to carry nine passengers as proof of concept for a fully electric commercial commuter plane. Powered by more than 21,500 battery cells that make up half the weight of plane’s frame, “Alice” reached 3,500 feet and flew for eight minutes. Although the test was considered a complete success, Eviation admits that the current technology is insufficient for commercial purposes and estimates it will take five years to complete a financially viable commercial electric airplane.

Bacteriophages or “phages” is the terms used for viruses that infect bacteria. The UAB researchers, led by Terje Dokland, Ph.D., in collaboration with Asma Hatoum-Aslan, Ph.D., at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have described atomic models for all or part of 11 different structural proteins in phage Andhra. The study is published in Science Advances.

Andhra is a member of the picovirus group. Its host range is limited to S. epidermidis. This skin bacterium is mostly benign but also is a leading cause of infections of indwelling medical devices. “Picoviruses are rarely found in phage collections and remain understudied and underused for therapeutic applications,” said Hatoum-Aslan, a phage biologist at the University of Illinois.

With emergence of antibiotic resistance in S. epidermidis and the related pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, researchers have renewed interest in potentially using bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections. Picoviruses always kill the cells they infect, after binding to the bacterial cell wall, enzymatically breaking through that wall, penetrating the cell membrane and injecting viral DNA into the cell. They also have other traits that make them attractive candidates for therapeutic use, including a small genome and an inability to transfer bacterial genes between bacteria.

Knowledge of protein structure in Andhra and understanding of how those structures allow the virus to infect a bacterium will make it possible to produce custom-made phages tailored to a specific purpose, using genetic manipulation.

“The structural basis for host specificity between phages that infect S. aureus and S. epidermidis is still poorly understood,” said Dokland, a professor of microbiology at UAB and director of the UAB Cryo-Electron Microscopy Core. “With the present study, we have gained a better understanding of the structures and functions of the Andhra gene products and the determinants of host specificity, paving the way for a more rational design of custom phages for therapeutic applications. Our findings elucidate critical features for virion assembly, host recognition and penetration.”

Staphylococcal phages typically have a narrow range of bacteria they can infect, depending on the variable polymers of wall teichoic acid on the surface of different bacterial strains. “This narrow host range is a double-edged sword: On one hand, it allows the phages to target only the specific pathogen causing the disease; on the other hand, it means that the phage may need to be tailored to the patient in each specific case,” Dokland said.

The general structure of Andhra is a 20-faced, roundish icosahedral capsid head that contains the viral genome. The capsid is attached to a short tail. The tail is largely responsible for binding to S. epidermidis and enzymatically breaking the cell wall. The viral DNA is injected into the bacterium through the tail. Segments of the tail include the portal from the capsid to the tail, and the stem, appendages, knob and tail tip.

The 11 different proteins that make up each virus particle are found in multiple copies that assemble together. For instance, the capsid is made of 235 copies each of two proteins, and the other nine virion proteins have copy numbers from two to 72. In total, the virion is made up of 645 protein pieces that include two copies of a 12th protein, whose structure was predicted using the protein structure prediction program AlphaFold.

The atomic models described by Dokland, Hatoum-Aslan, and co-first authors N’Toia C. Hawkins, Ph.D., and James L. Kizziah, Ph.D., UAB Department of Microbiology, show the structures for each protein — as described in molecular language like alpha-helix, beta-helix, beta-strand, beta-barrel or beta-prism. The researchers have described how each protein binds to other copies of that same protein type, such as to make up the hexameric and pentameric faces of the capsid, as well as how each protein interacts with adjacent different protein types.

Electron microscopes use a beam of accelerated electrons to illuminate an object, providing much higher resolution than a light microscope. Cryo-electron microscopy adds the element of super-cold temperatures, making it particularly useful for near-atomic structure resolution of larger proteins, membrane proteins or lipid-containing samples like membrane-bound receptors, and complexes of several biomolecules together.

In the past eight years, new electron detectors have created a tremendous jump in resolution for cryo-electron microscopy over normal electron microscopy. Key elements of this so-called “resolution revolution” for cryo-electron microscopy are:

• Flash-freezing aqueous samples in liquid ethane cooled to below -256 degrees F. Instead of ice crystals that disrupt samples and scatter the electron beam, the water freezes to a window-like “vitreous ice.”
• The sample is kept at super-cold temperatures in the microscope, and a low dose of electrons is used to avoid damage to the proteins.
• Extremely fast direct electron detectors are able to count individual atoms at hundreds of frames per second, allowing sample movement to be corrected on the fly.
• Advanced computing merges thousands of images to generate three-dimensional structures at high resolution. Graphics processing units are used to churn through terabytes of data.
• The microscope stage that holds the sample can also be tilted as images are taken, allowing construction of a three-dimensional tomographic image, similar to a CT scan at the hospital.

The analysis of Andhra virion structure by the UAB researchers started with 230,714 particle images. Molecular reconstruction of the capsid, tail, distal tail and tail tip started with 186,542, 159,489, 159,489 and 159,489 images, respectively. Resolution ranged from 3.50 to 4.90 angstroms.

A satellite built for NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) to observe nearly all the water on our planet’s surface lifted off on its way to low-Earth orbit at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft also has contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with a prime mission of three years. The satellite will measure the height of water in freshwater bodies and the ocean on more than 90% of Earth’s surface. This information will provide insights into how the ocean influences climate change; how a warming world affects lakes, rivers, and reservoirs; and how communities can better prepare for disasters, such as floods.

After SWOT separated from the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ground controllers successfully acquired the satellite’s signal. Initial telemetry reports showed the spacecraft in good health. SWOT will now undergo a series of checks and calibrations before it starts collecting science data in about six months.

“Warming seas, extreme weather, more severe wildfires – these are only some of the consequences humanity is facing due to climate change,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The climate crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and SWOT is the realization of a long-standing international partnership that will ultimately better equip communities so that they can face these challenges.”

SWOT will cover the entire Earth’s surface between 78 degrees south and 78 degrees north latitude at least once every 21 days, sending back about one terabyte of unprocessed data per day. The scientific heart of the spacecraft is an innovative instrument called the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn), which marks a major technological advance. KaRIn bounces radar pulses off the water’s surface and receives the return signal using two antennas on either side of the spacecraft. This arrangement – one signal, two antennas – will enable engineers to precisely determine the height of the water’s surface across two swaths at a time, each of them 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide.

“We’re eager to see SWOT in action,” said Karen St. Germain, NASA Earth Science Division director. “This satellite embodies how we are improving life on Earth through science and technological innovations. The data that innovation will provide is essential to better understanding how Earth’s air, water, and ecosystems interact – and how people can thrive on our changing planet.”

Among the many benefits the SWOT mission will provide is a significantly clearer picture of Earth’s freshwater bodies. It will provide data on more than 95% of the world’s lakes larger than 15 acres (62,500 square meters) and rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) across. Currently, freshwater researchers have reliable measurements for only a few thousand lakes around the world. SWOT will push that number into the millions.

Along the coast, SWOT will provide information on sea level, filling in observational gaps in areas that don’t have tide gauges or other instruments that measure sea surface height. Over time, that data can help researchers better track sea level rise, which will directly impact communities and coastal ecosystems.

Such an ambitious mission is possible because of NASA’s long-standing commitment to working with agencies around the world to study Earth and its climate. NASA and CNES have built upon a decades-long relationship that started in the 1980s to monitor Earth’s oceans. This collaboration pioneered the use of a space-based instrument called an altimeter to study sea level with the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite in 1992.

“This mission marks the continuity of 30 years of collaboration between NASA and CNES in altimetry,” said Caroline Laurent, CNES Orbital Systems and Applications director. “It shows how international collaboration can be achieved through a breakthrough mission that will help us better understand climate change and its effects around the world.”

SWOT measurements will also help researchers, policymakers, and resource managers better assess and plan for things, including floods and droughts. By providing information on where the water is – where it’s coming from and where it’s going – researchers can improve flood projections for rivers and monitor drought effects on lakes and reservoirs.

“SWOT will provide vital information, given the urgent challenges posed by climate change and sea level rise,” said Laurie Leshin, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory director. JPL developed the KaRIn instrument and manages the U.S. portion of the mission. “That SWOT will fill gaps in our knowledge and inform future action is the direct result of commitment, innovation, and collaboration going back many years. We’re excited to get SWOT science underway.”

More Mission Information

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project. For the flight system payload, NASA is providing the KaRIn instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. CNES is providing the Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground control segment. CSA is providing the KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly. NASA is providing the launch vehicle and the agency’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is managing the associated launch services.

To learn more about SWOT, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/swot

News Media Contacts

Tylar Greene

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0030

[email protected]

Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874

[email protected] / [email protected]

Leejay Lockhart / Laura Aguiar

Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

321-747-8310 / 321-593-6245

[email protected] / [email protected]

A group led by scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) have devised a way to track and measure the true picture of how one of the world’s most-traded commodities moves from the water to the plate within a country. Their findings in Nature Food about sub-Saharan Africa revealed surprising gaps in the traditional supply-and-demand analysis of fish and opens opportunities to get the right fish to those who need it most.

And the innovations they deployed, they say, can be useful anywhere.

“We know that all fish aren’t created equal in terms of containing the right nutrition for certain people in certain circumstances,” said co-author Abigail Bennett, assistant professor at MSU. “Effective policy needs new data that that reveals how variation in the supply, price, and form of fish in different places throughout a country shapes who can access that fish, with special attention to people who are poor and vulnerable to malnourishment.”

Existing data on food production indicate food supply, but not whether food reaches those who need it. Meanwhile, consumption data describe who ultimately ends up accessing food, but not where it came from or how it reached them. The group bridged that gap by looking at how fish moves across space through value chains after it is harvested and at household demographics.

They studied in Malawi in sub-Saharan Africa, looking at the trips two freshwater fish — small sardine-like usipa and medium-sized chambo, a variety of tilapia — took to end up at peoples’ tables, which meant understanding why fish ended up at certain markets, and whether people could afford them.

The little usipa is the bigger catch, both in volume and dollar value. It’s affordable, often sun-dried and consumed whole. Chambo is usually eaten fresh and is pricier.

The team, led by co-author Park Muhonda when he was a postdoctoral researcher at MSU, surveyed more than 900 people throughout the fish food journey. He now is at Oregon State University.

The group found that usipa is distributed much more widely than chambo — available in 72 or the 79 markets surveyed across Malawi — while chambo was available in only 16 of those markets, which skewed to urban areas. Usipa also packs more nutritional punch than chambo, being higher in protein, vitamins, and minerals critical to nursing women and their children.

But the group found that policies were championing the fancier chambo.

“While most fisheries policy in Malawi has previously focused on the larger high-value tilapia species, these results indicate the need for a shift in policy focus towards the small pelagic species to better support food security and nutrition,” said co-author Edith Gondwe, an MSU PhD student in fisheries and wildlife.

The work in “Spatial analysis of aquatic food access can inform nutrition-sensitive policy,” which revealed disconnects between policy and need, can help guide policy beyond Malawi.

“Our work on spatial analysis of fish in Malawi goes beyond Malawi and fish food systems,” said master’s student Emma Rice. “Most countries, including the United States, face food and nutrition security issues in different forms and contexts. This approach of spatial analysis of food systems could be adopted in any context to understand what types of food flow to which populations and through what mechanisms.”

Bennett, Gondwe, Rice and Muhonda are members of MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, as is co-author Dana Infante.

The paper authored also was authored by Emmanuel Kaunda, Sam Katengeza, Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, Ben Belton, Jared Ross and John Virdin. The work was funded by the Michigan State University Alliance for African Partnership.

EMIT media reel

EMIT fact sheet

Video of EMIT launch and first-light

Methane ‘Super-Emitters’ Mapped by NASA’s New Earth Space Mission

Observations from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and other NASA science instruments will be part of a global survey of point-source emissions of methane from solid waste sites such as landfills. The multiyear effort is being developed and conducted by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper organization.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, the source of roughly a quarter to a third of global warming caused by humans. The aim of the new initiative is to establish a baseline assessment of global waste sites that emit methane at high rates. This information can support decision-makers as they work to reduce the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere and limit climate change.

Methane produced by the waste sector contributes an estimated 20% of human-caused methane emissions. Ton for ton, methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. But where carbon dioxide remains in the air for centuries, methane has an atmospheric lifetime of only about a decade or two. That means some immediate slowing of atmospheric warming could be achieved if methane emissions were significantly reduced.

“Currently, there is limited actionable information about methane emissions from the global waste sector. A comprehensive understanding of high-emission point sources from waste sites is a critical step to mitigating them,” said Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren. “New technological capabilities that are making these emissions visible – and therefore actionable – have the potential to change the game, elevating our collective understanding of near-term opportunities in this often overlooked sector.”

Carbon Mapper received a grant from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment to support its operations related to the waste-site initiative, including potential funding to cover airborne methane surveys using NASA airborne assets. The project will entail conducting an initial remote-sensing survey in 2023 of more than 1,000 managed landfills across the United States and Canada, and in key locations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. To collect data from these regions, researchers will use aircraft-based sensors, including the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG), which was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. In addition, they will use Arizona State University’s Global Airborne Observatory from the Center of Global Discovery and Conservation Science, which uses another JPL-built imaging spectrometer.

As part of the Carbon Mapper project, researchers will analyze methane data from EMIT as well. The JPL-managed imaging spectrometer was installed on the International Space Station in July 2022 to measure the mineral content at the surface of Earth’s major dust-producing regions.

In October, scientists demonstrated that EMIT can also identify methane plumes from “super-emitters.” In so doing, the team added another tool to help with NASA’s broader efforts to monitor greenhouse gases.

“NASA JPL has a decadelong track record of using airborne imaging spectrometers to make high-quality observations of methane point-source emissions,” said Robert Green, EMIT’s principal investigator at JPL. “With EMIT we have employed the same technology in a spaceborne instrument, enabling us to collect information on localized methane sources from orbit.”

After the first year of the Carbon Mapper project, researchers will conduct a broader survey of more than 10,000 landfills around the world using two satellites in the Carbon Mapper satellite program. The pair of spacecraft will be equipped with imaging spectrometer technology developed at JPL. The team is targeting a launch in late 2023 in coordination with Planet Labs PBC, among other partners.

Data from the project will be accessible at the Carbon Mapper Data Portal.

For additional details about EMIT, visit:

https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/

More About the Missions

EMIT was selected from the Earth Venture Instrument-4 solicitation under the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. The instrument’s data will be delivered to the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for use by other researchers and the public.

The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) was built at JPL and designed to measure wavelengths of light from 380 to 2,510 nanometers. It has flown numerous missions, studying phenomena such as plant ecology, mineralogy, snow and ice hydrology, and environmental hazards.

Carbon Mapper is a nonprofit organization focused on facilitating timely action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Its mission is to fill gaps in the emerging global ecosystem of methane and carbon dioxide monitoring systems by delivering data at facility scale that is precise, timely, and accessible to empower science-based decision making and action. The organization is leading the development of the Carbon Mapper constellation of satellites supported by a public-private partnership composed of Planet Labs PBC, JPL, the California Air Resources Board, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and RMI, with funding from High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and other philanthropic donors.

News Media Contacts

Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307

[email protected] / [email protected]

Kelly Vaughn

Carbon Mapper, Pasadena, Calif.

970-401-0001

[email protected]

Young people are experiencing climate change to a greater extent than any previous generation. It’s hard to imagine what the climate will be like when they are senior adults. Although this is a very daunting topic, the adults of tomorrow must understand climate change causes, challenges, and solutions. Fortunately, there are numerous children’s books exploring the topic. If you’re looking for an informative gift for your young bookworm, you might consider an age-appropriate book about climate change.

Children’s books are an excellent way not just to impart knowledge but foster a reverence for the natural world and ultimately encourage protecting it. Overwhelming children with information about climate change issues without presenting solutions can create anxiety and resignation, so it is a balancing act. Here are some of our favorites on the topic that impart knowledge but not despair, while exploring positive actions.

Earth911 teams up with affiliate marketing partners to help fund our Recycling Directory. If you purchase an item through one of the affiliate links in this post, we will receive a small commission.

Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World

Written and illustrated by Allan Drummond
Ages: Elementary school

This is an inspiring tale of how a windy island in Denmark harnessed the wind to become largely energy independent and reduced its carbon emissions by 140%. This narrative tale includes sidebars with background information on the problems with fossil fuels, climate change, and how wind energy works. The upbeat illustrations show people working together to find solutions and briefly explore solar energy, electric vehicles, biomass, and biofuels.

Eyewitness Climate Change – DK Witness

Ages: Late elementary to middle school

This book presents a solid overview of the climate, both past and present, and the impacts of climate change. It has many photos and illustrations and presents a nice overview of numerous issues, including disease, food production, water resources, and who is most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The book concludes with positive actions on how to cut carbon emissions through green transportation, energy efficiency, nuclear power, and renewable energy.

The Lonely Polar Bear

Written and illustrated by Khoa Le
Ages: Preschool to early elementary school

This lovely book is about a polar bear that wakes up alone and meets a mysterious little girl and animal friends. The touching tale by a talented Vietnamese author introduces young children to the concept of climate change in a gentle manner and with gorgeous illustrations. Although the story is about habitat loss in the fragile Artic in a general sense, it doesn’t examine the science of climate change.

Our World Out of Balance: Understanding Climate Change and What We Can Do

By Andrea Minoglio, illustrated by Laura Fanelli
Ages: Mid-elementary to early middle school

Well-written and beautifully illustrated, this book is an excellent introduction to climate change and other environmental issues facing the planet, including air pollution, rising sea levels, coral reef health, and wildfires. It is concisely written and helps instill a sense of wonder for earth’s ecosystems and how to work together to protect them.

Rebel Girls Climate Warriors: 25 Tales of Women Who Protect the Earth

Ages: Elementary and early middle school

This colorful book spotlights inspiring women conservationists, activists, authors, and philanthropists from around the world. The tales include Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, Indigenous Ecuadorian leader Nemonte Nenquimo, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nigerian activist Esohe Ozigbo, and Thai landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom. These stories remind readers that there are female climate warriors from many different walks of life, helping build confidence in girls that they can make a difference.

A Warmer World: From Polar Bears to Butterflies, How Climate Change Affects Wildlife

By Caroline Arnold, illustrated by Jamie Hogan
Ages: Middle and late elementary school readers

This beautifully illustrated book examines how many species across the globe are both successfully and unsuccessfully adapting to climate change, with a warmer climate, rising sea levels, and melting ice. Although it is written factually, it can help instill a sense of compassion and concern for penguins, foxes, toads, fishes, walruses, krill, and other species as they respond to a changing climate.

What’s the Weather?: Clouds, Climate, and Global Warming

By Fraser Ralston and Judith Ralston
Ages: Elementary school

This informative and entertaining book features bright, eye-catching illustrations and is an excellent resource. Each two-page spread focuses on a different aspect of the weather, introducing intriguing topics like weather-proof animals, city microclimates, weird weather, and volcanic weather. It is both visually appealing and easy to comprehend.