Earth never stops! Find out what exciting developments are happening from around the world.
Underwater robots have uncovered new evidence about life in the Arctic and, for the first time, revealed the moment the region’s marine ecosystem springs into life after the dark winter season.
The unique data was gathered by autonomous ocean-going ‘gliders’ and will help marine scientists understand more about the so-called ‘Arctic spring bloom’, which kick-starts the ecosystem and is crucial in providing food for animals in the region.
Gliders work around the clock for months on end, taking measurements such as ocean temperature, oxygen levels and salinity. Researchers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) have been able to observe seasonal changes as they happen in the Arctic, thanks to a continuous glider presence in the Barents Sea between January and July this year.
It might be easy to dismiss the earth beneath our feet as just so much dirt. But without it humankind would not exist.
As former US president Franklin D Roosevelt once said:
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
He was speaking in the 1930s after years of severe drought and relentless winds turned states across America into the ‘dust bowl’. The notorious disaster wiped out crops and livestock and forced countless families across America to abandon their farms.
Phillip Whelpdale of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust admits to being tongue in cheek with his bold, questioning reference to cult science fiction comedy The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, in which a supercomputer mysteriously calculates the meaning of life as 42.
But working out where species will thrive in future, as global warming pushes them north seeking cooler places, and key habitat is lost as industries and housing spread, is a serious problem.
The programme pulls in data from conservationists’ understanding of where wildlife is now and where animals might move in future.
It is 15 years since the UK sweltered in the record-breaking 2003 summer heatwave. While the sunshine was welcome to many, it also brought deadly consequences, with more than 2,000 people across England and Wales dying in the stifling heat. Some 800 of those deaths were due to air pollution.
The death toll spurred the government to improve a nationwide heatwave warning system using scientific research from NERC. The new system provided more accurate predictions of growing smog as temperatures soared.
In May 2015 the sudden death of more than 200,000 saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan baffled the world.
In just three weeks, entire herds of tens of thousands of healthy animals died of haemorrhagic septicaemia. The deaths took place in the Betpak-Dala region of Kazakhstan, across a landscape equivalent to the area of the British Isles, and the number dead represented more than 60% of the species’ global population.
