Many of us associate the sound of a singing bird with the beauty of nature. In recent years, though, fewer chirps, tweets, and birdsong have been heard. It isn’t because birds have stopped singing, but because there are fewer of them. A 2019 study from Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology estimated that we’ve lost about 3 billion wild birds in North America, leaving 29% fewer than in 1970. Human actions are the principal reason.

It’s not just the birds. A report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services estimates that about one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Woody Turner, program scientist for NASA’s Biological Diversity Research Program, stated: “We are really at a global biodiversity crisis, losing not only entire species but also seeing decreases in the number of plants and animals that are important for natural ecosystems.”

A biodiverse planet means life has many different ways to survive and thrive. But human actions are affecting the natural balance of life on Earth. This includes habitat loss from deforestation, land use changes, and climate change. Rising global temperatures, a more acidic ocean, and extreme weather events — from heat waves and droughts to floods and wildfires — are rapidly changing global ecosystems. Larger organisms often take thousands to millions of years to evolve and adapt to new climates. Earth’s climate is now changing faster than many species can handle.

NASA is working with partners worldwide to monitor biodiversity changes in near real-time, linking satellite data to on-the-ground measurements. Through these measurements, scientists are working swiftly to learn what is happening and its impact on the planet.

Satellites Have Tracked Changes to Life on Earth for Decades

How do we know what is happening to life on Earth? NASA satellites play a vital role in gathering biodiversity data from a distance, often from orbit; this is what we call remote sensing. According to Turner, when satellite imagery is combined with airborne and in-situ or field data, it helps to show where plants and animals are living and thriving at a given time, allowing for long-term tracking of changes.

Dr. Laura Lorenzoni, program manager for NASA’s Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, echoed the importance of sustained and detailed satellite measurements for predicting future changes. Lorenzoni and her colleagues are using remote-sensing and field data, together with models, to answer questions about how climate change is altering marine ecosystems.

NASA has also made a priority of researching impacts to biodiversity on land. For decades, scientists funded by NASA’s Biological Diversity Research Program and Ecological Forecasting Applications Program have been using satellites to track biodiversity and ecosystem changes and to help develop tools to aid in conservation. For instance, NASA-funded researchers are developing forecasting tools for managing wildlife migrations along the Yukon-to-Yellowstone corridor, and others are mapping changes in North American temperate forests due to disease and climate change.

Better Data for Hard-to-Reach Places

New remote-sensing technologies can help expand our view of the environment and how it’s changing. This includes the advancement of satellites to collect hyperspectral data, which identify an object’s or organism’s composition based on how it interacts with light. This means an oak tree leaf will look different from a pine tree leaf.

“Hyperspectral data will move us leaps and bounds in our understanding of biodiversity. It lets you see not just where vegetation is, but what it is, too,” said Dr. Allison Leidner, a conservation biologist and program scientist in NASA’s Earth Science Directorate. For example, instead of seeing just a green forest, scientists can identify that it is a forest of oak trees.

With the data, scientists can help identify how environmental changes impact different types of plants within ecosystems. This new insight can fill in missing information about how ecosystems are changing due to human actions — particularly in remote, hard-to-reach places — providing a more complete global picture.

NASA’s upcoming Earth System Observatory program will provide high-resolution open data to scientists for developing solutions that address both climate change and biodiversity losses. For example, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission aims to uncover how climate change is impacting phytoplankton, the organisms at the center of the marine food web. With its Ocean Color Instrument, the PACE satellite will provide new high-resolution views of this microscopic ocean life. With these data, scientists will be able to track the changing state of phytoplankton in different ocean basins and regions, which is important to understanding ocean biodiversity.

Although scientists do not have all the solutions yet, NASA’s current and upcoming missions provide or will provide critical insights into the effort to slow biodiversity loss. Through continued research and new technology, scientists worldwide are working to find solutions so we can enjoy birdsongs for generations to come.

In a new paper, published in the journal Palaeontology, a Bristol team of palaeobiologists used state-of-the-art statistical methods to perform a large-scale quantitative study, the first of its kind, on the locomotion of Mesozoic marine reptiles.

The researchers collected measurements from 125 fossilised skeletons, and used these to explore changes in swimming styles within lineages and through time, discovering that there was no explosive radiation at the beginning of the Mesozoic, but a gradual diversification of locomotory modes, which peaked in the Cretaceous period.

Lead author Dr Susana Gutarra of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences said: “Changes in anatomy in land-to-sea transitions are intimately linked to the evolution of swimming. For example, sea lions’ flippers have relatively short forearm and large hands, very different from the walking legs of their ancestors. The rich fossil record of Mesozoic marine reptiles provided great opportunity to study these transitions at a large scale.”

Co-author Beatrice Heighton, said: “We included measurements from living aquatic animals, such as otters, seals and turtles, of which we know their swimming behaviour. This is very important to provide a functional reference for the ancient species, with unknown swimming modes.”

In the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction, about 250 million years ago, various groups of reptiles became aquatic hunters, populating the early Mesozoic seas.

Co-author Dr Tom Stubbs said: “After this devastating event, there was a gradual diversification of locomotory modes, which contrasts with the rapid radiation described previously for feeding strategies. This is fascinating because it suggests a ‘head-first’ pattern of evolution in certain lineages.”

This paper sheds light into the swimming of specific groups. Dr Ben Moon explained: “Ichthyosaurs were highly specialised for aquatic locomotion from very early in their evolution. This includes their close relatives, the hupehsuchians, which had a morphology unlike any other known aquatic tetrapod. Further, we see overlap between mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, which is indicative that mosasaurs evolved a swimming mode by oscillating flukes, different from the eel-like body undulation suggested in the past.

“In contrast, we don’t find evidence of convergence between ichthyosaurs and metriorhynchids (the highly aquatic crocodyliform thalattosuchians). This group retained quite primitive-looking hindlimbs, which seems incompatible with swimming by fluke oscillation.”

This study also delves into the evolution of size, a feature related to locomotion, animal physiology and ocean productivity. Professor Mike Benton said: “We know that transition to life in water is usually accompanied by an increase in body mass, as seen in cetaceans, and one of our previous studies shows that large sizes benefit aquatic animals in reducing the mass-specific costs of drag. Thus, it was essential to explore this trait in the wider ensemble of Mesozoic marine reptiles.”

Dr Gutarra added: “Body size follows a similar trend to the diversification of locomotory modes, and the widest spread of body size also occurred in the Cretaceous, confirming a strong connection between the two. The rate of increase and the maximum limits to body size seems to vary a lot between groups. This is a fascinating observation. We need to explore further what factors influence and limit the increase in body mass in each group.”

This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the European Research Council (ERC).

Iron-rich layers formed in ancient sediments were used to narrow down when an area dried out in response to changes in climate, such as the dramatic decline of groundwater in southern Australia.

These ‘relics of drying’ suggest the Nullarbor drastically shifted to dry conditions between 2.4 and 2.7 million years ago, uncovering how these environmental changes were key in shaping Australia’s diverse flora and fauna.

Lead author Dr Maximilian Dröllner, from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said defining the timing of climate change in ancient landscapes had proved challenging for geoscientists around the world.

“Almost half of the Earth’s land surfaces are considered drylands, and they host about three billion people,” Dr Dröllner said.

“Changes to these arid areas can impact both our society and regional biodiversity in profound ways and aridification has been instrumental in shaping the landscapes and ecosystems we see today.”

Determining when climate events occurred in arid areas has been a difficult task for geoscientists, with researchers relying on indirect observations, such as marine sediments in neighbouring areas.

Co-author Associate Professor Milo Barham, also from Curtin’s Timescales of Mineral Systems Group, said directly measuring products of the drying of landscapes can provide a much clearer timeframe.

“The amount of helium trapped in these iron-rich horizons can be used to determine when they were formed,” Associate Professor Barham said.

“Exposing these ‘relics’ of drying to a tiny laser releases helium, which we can measure to constrain the timing of these dramatic environmental responses to Earth’s climate history.”

Determining when these events occurred can help explain how they impacted the biodiversity of the area and, particularly in the case of southern Australia, provides a timeframe for the evolution of several native species.

“The drying of Australia’s interior separated the common ancestors of many species that once roamed freely across Australia,” Dr Dröllner said.

“This separation led to the independent evolution of these isolated populations on the east and west coasts, eventually resulting in distinct species or sister species.”

“Today we observe many examples of sister species of birds, insects, and plants that have common ancestors but now live thousands of kilometres apart, separated by environmental barriers created through ancient climate change.”

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. This Earth Day, you can join us in person and online to see how our fleet of satellites, our airborne campaigns, and our ground-based observations help us monitor the planet’s vital signs and share them with scientists and citizens around the world.

On April 20 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, NASA will host an in-person Earth Day celebration at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The event will include 20 hands-on activities and an opportunity to learn about the many ways NASA conducts Earth science.

Online, visitors can explore the connections between Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, forests, fields, cities, ice caps, and climate through videos and interactive science content, a kid-friendly fun zone, a scavenger hunt, and hundreds of downloadable resources. Some content will be available in Spanish.

NASA’s in-person and virtual Earth Day events are free and open to the public. To participate online, visit go.nasa.gov/NASAScienceNow.

Also on April 20, from 1 to 3 p.m. ET, NASA will hold two live webinars: Discover Your World and Beyond & Earth Day Celebration. Register at go.nasa.gov/NASAScienceNow to attend.

If you are an educator, register your class to learn what it’s like to be a NASA polar scientist during a special Earth Day online event. To find more NASA activities for your classroom, check out the agency’s page on Microsoft Flip.

Keep an eye on NASA Earth’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels this week for:

• A conversation between NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Katherine Calvin and Apollo 8 Astronaut William “Bill” Anders about the iconic Earthrise photograph.
• A Q&A between rapper Post Malone and NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, who are currently living aboard the International Space Station.
• Earth Inside and Out: A Special Earth Day Celebration — On April 20 at 2 p.m., join scientists from NASA centers across the U.S. and a space station astronaut for this special event in partnership with Crayola Education, featuring student art from Crayola’s 2023 Creativity Week.

Finally, do you want to get involved with some real NASA science? Through the agency’s citizen science projects, volunteers have helped make thousands of important scientific observations and some discoveries. More than 400 NASA citizen scientists have even been named as co-authors on peer-reviewed scientific publications. To get involved, join one of NASA’s Citizen Science programs or download the GLOBE Observer App to start your own journey of discovery. Projects are open to everyone around the world, not limited to U.S. citizens or residents.

NASA’s innovative tools and data inform decision-makers around the world as they monitor and manage the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the challenges faced by communities in the path of severe weather. NASA partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, state and local governments, and international organizations to provide information on climate change and other environmental challenges. But NASA is also committed to making data accessible, collaborative, inclusive, and transparent for everyone from the scientist and student to the city manager and citizen — an approach known as “open science.”

To learn more about NASA’s Earth Day activities, visit www.nasa.gov/earth-day-2023.

News Media Contact

Kathryn Cawdrey,

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

[email protected]

Earth911 is honoring the 52 years of Earth Day with 52 Actions for the Earth. Each week through Earth Day 2023, we will share an action you can take to invest in the Earth and make your life more sustainable. Too often, sustainability is framed as an extra thing to do. But sustainability is not an extra step, it’s how you take every step. This week, you can invest in the Earth by learning how to shop more sustainably.

Action: Learn To Shop More Sustainably

Sustainable Shopping

Whatever you are shopping for, sustainable shopping starts in your head. Before you make any specific purchase, ask yourself four questions to evaluate your decision. A little information goes a long way towards helping you shop your values. Learn about different certification systems. What is TCO-certified? What does it mean for a home to be LEED certified? Are all cruelty-free labels equal?

Before making large purchases, study Earth911’s buyers guides to inform your choices for appliances and home improvements from mattresses to patio pavers and refrigerators. It also makes sense to pay particular attention to small purchases you make frequently. Little things like paper towels can really add up over time. Earth911’s greener shopping articles focus deeply on individual items from coffee to shampoo. And of course, we can all learn how to produce less plastic pollution. Food and clothing are two purchase categories that can have an outsized impact.

Clothes

The environmental impact of the textile and fashion industry is shocking. Consumers who quit fast fashion and commit to building a more sustainable wardrobe can make a difference. EarthDay.org’s sustainable shopping toolkit provides good guidelines: shop less, shop locally and secondhand. Prioritize natural fibers over synthetics, and choose organic when you can. Learn how to care for your clothes so they last a long time, and swap or sell them if you can’t keep them until they wear out.

Food

The two biggest steps people can take to reduce their foodprint are to eliminate animal products from their diet and reduce food waste. Even if you’re not ready to quit meat, you can move towards a plant-based diet through meatless Mondays or meatless breakfast. Eating less meat not only cuts your climate emissions, it can also improve your physical and mental health.

There are countless ways to reduce food waste, which benefits your budget as well as the environment. Use helpful apps and learn how meal planning keeps you from buying too much while cooking ahead ensures you use what you buy. Learn how to store produce so it keeps longer, and how to use leftovers to further reduce food waste.

How You Shop

A lot of sustainable shopping is about choosing to buy less and choosing more sustainable products. But you can further reduce your consumer footprint by looking at the “how” of your shopping habits. Carrying reusable shopping bags is an obvious first step. Figure out when it’s better to shop online vs in person and always try to avoid online returns; learn whether to have your groceries delivered; and consider how you get to the store and how many trips you take.

No matter how much or how little you shop, you can do it more sustainably. Let this be the week you learn how.

The findings could eventually help farmers better detect, monitor and control fall armyworm populations, which negatively affect some 350 plant species — including crops like corn and cotton as well as turfgrass and other cultivated grasses.

“Nonanal is emitted by people, birds and even apples,” said Coby Schal, Blanton J. Whitmire Distinguished Professor of Entomology and co-corresponding author of a paper describing the research. “It is a universal attractant that, by itself, doesn’t have much of an effect. But when a certain percentage of nonanal is added to the multi-chemical attractant mixture discovered nearly 40 years ago, it has a highly stimulatory effect — in this case attracting male fall armyworm moths in the lab and then attracting male moths to traps in field experiments.”

Fall armyworms are found mostly in warmer climates; after originating in South America they spread to North America and then to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, China, and, most recently, Australia. Arguably one of the world’s most devastating pests, fall armyworm caterpillars can rapidly chew through crops and lawns.

The researchers started examining ways to attract and then trap male moths as part of a “mating disruption” strategy.

“When you see fall armyworm moths you know that — two weeks later — you’re going to have caterpillars,” Schal said. “So controlling the early flying adults is key. Mating disruption is the way to go when using pheromones, as males will find traps rather than females. Pests have been eliminated from wide areas using several approaches including mating disruption — like pink bollworm, a major cotton pest in the Southwest.” Other uses of the pheromone include detection of the fall armyworm in areas not yet invaded by this pest and lure-and-kill, where the pheromone attracts the fall armyworm to an insecticide or a pathogen.

The researchers used gas chromatography, in which chemical compounds are separated in a controllable oven, to test whether the fall armyworm males would respond to other chemicals besides the known blend of chemicals. By connecting this instrument to the antennae of fall armyworm males and monitoring their electrical activity, the researchers saw that nonanal stimulated male fall armyworms.

The researchers then tested the blend with nonanal in other lab tests. Males were somewhat attracted to the traditional pheromone blend, but adding the “right amount” of nonanal to the blend greatly increased the response. The right amount turned out to be about 1% percent of the total blend, as adding too little nonanal increased the response over the traditional blend, but not by much.

Finally, the researchers used bait-and-trap experiments on NC State cotton and sorghum research fields in Raleigh and Clayton, where they tried to use different pheromone blends to capture male moths. There, they showed that nonanal by itself had no effect on males. Higher doses of nonanal in the traditional blend — at 2% and 4% concentrations — reduced the compound’s effectiveness. Again, 1% nonanal in the blend emerged as the most effective, capturing more males.

Interestingly, the shape of the trapping device also affected the success rates in capturing males. Cone-shaped traps did not perform as well as bucket-shaped traps.

The field studies also showed few other insect species — or female fall armyworms — trapped.

“We have tweaked this system to make it highly species-specific, which is especially important in places where similar moth species live,” Schal said.

The researchers filed a patent on the discovery and have exclusive licensing agreements with industry partners that will further test nonanal’s effectiveness when added to the traditional pheromone blend.

The study appears in Pest Management Science. Ahmed M. Saveer, Eduardo Hatano and Ayako Wada-Katsumata from NC State co-authored the paper, as did Robert L. Meagher from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. Funding was provided by a N.C. Biotechnology Center Flash Grant (2020-FLG-3809), by the USDA Southern IPM Center (2021-1645), by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF IOS1456973) and by the Blanton J. Whitmire Endowment at NC State.

Earth Day 2023, which takes place on April 22, marks the 53rd year that people have come out into the streets to rally for planetary responsibility, joined park and environmental cleanups, and participated in climate learning events. The first Earth Day was the largest public demonstration in history as of that time. Michael Karapetian, the Great Global Cleanup Campaign coordinator for Earth Day Network explains how to participate in this year’s Great Global Cleanup events, which will be focused on improving the management of waste, particularly food waste. See the map of Earth Day events to find cleanups near you.

Cleanup events give everyone — individuals and organizations — the “opportunity to see the positive, tangible impacts their actions have on our environment and in the fight to create a waste-free world.” Getting out to clean up a park or a beach, where finding plastic litter is a powerful reminder about the choices we make when buying and disposing of items made with plastic, which range from fast-fashion polyester clothing to bottles and cigarette butts. Michael also provides updates about Earth Day Network’s End Plastic Pollution movement and discusses recent reforestation projects in India, where The Canopy Project is planting mangrove trees in coastal areas. You can find local cleanups and learn how to participate in Earth Day events all year long at  earthday.org.

The study, led by the University of California, Davis, is published in the journal Ecology and Evolution and was conducted in alpine regions stretching nearly 200 miles from Alpine County just south of Lake Tahoe, along the spine of the Sierra and south to Tulare and Inyo counties.

The study characterizes the niche space of three species of squirrel: the yellow-bellied marmot, Belding’s ground squirrel and the golden-mantled ground squirrel. The authors analyzed nearly 6,000 observations of individual squirrels, collected from field survey data conducted over four years.

For this study, the “niche” describes all the conditions in the environment that are important for an animal to live in an area. Understanding the niche of animals helps scientists learn which changes are expected to most impact a species and, therefore, which animals may be most vulnerable to climate change.

“We’re trying from a conservation perspective to understand what will happen to these species as the world changes,” said lead author Aviva Rossi, who conducted the study while a UC Davis graduate student in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. “A quantitative analysis of what makes a species able to live where it lives allows us to bring that information forward, and better understand differences between species.”

What doesn’t change

Niche was defined not only by climate, but also by topography (like how steep an area was) and land cover (such as meadows or forests). Some of these nonclimate environmental conditions, like slope or the presence of rocks, rarely change.

Although all three squirrel species occur in the same region, they each use that space a little differently because their niche is different.

Grassland meadows were particularly important for yellow-bellied marmots and the Belding’s ground squirrel. Yet, within a meadow, marmots preferred drier conditions, while Belding’s ground squirrels favored wet vegetation.

Golden-mantled squirrels — a common sight at area campgrounds — preferred forested areas and do well with more snow-free days. Belding’s ground squirrels preferred having snow on the ground longer.

Even with these overall selection patterns, there can still be too much of a good thing in extreme years, Rossi said.

Mammals in high-elevation mountains are often perceived as vulnerable to climate shifts, the study notes. Yet, the results underscore the importance of including factors that go beyond climate when defining their niche.

Making better decisions

Rossi notes that climate change is often viewed through a lens of hope or despair, but the study illustrated how its impacts are more complex.

“There’s hope in some areas and not in others,” Rossi said. “If one species is there because of a meadow and another is there because of an outcropping of rocks, as the world changes, it may change where one species lives but not the other. We just want to better understand what’s likely to happen so we can make better conservation decisions.”

The study’s co-authors include Robert Klinger of the U.S. Geological Survey, and Elise Hellwig and Dirk Van Vuren of the UC Davis Department of Wildlife Fish and Conservation Biology.

The study was funded through the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, with support from the Gulch Environmental Foundation.