So far in 2023, Gulf waters are the warmest on record, but what does it mean for hurricane season?
The Gulf of Mexico – the land-fringed head of hurricane alley along whose edge some 16 million Americans live – is observing its warmest start to a hurricane season (and year) since satellite records began in 1981.
The exceptional marine heat is driving up nighttime lows from South Florida to Texas and contributing to oppressive summer heat indices, includinga record 31 consecutive daysof heat indices over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Miami. The environmental impacts of such an intense marine heatwave are far-reaching – from extremecoral bleachingstressing important reef ecosystems to decreasing oxygen levels for marine life, leading to large hypoxic episodes, dead zones and fish kills.
What influence could the record warm Gulf of Mexico have on the hurricane season ahead?
Former Russian PresidentDmitry Medvedevwarned the “completely mad West” that World War III was “fast approaching,”RadarOnline.comhas learned.
Vladimir Putin‘s ally issued the warning as PresidentJoe Bidenmet with fellow G7 leaders at theNATOsummit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
While Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskywasn’t extended the expedited path to NATO membership he desperately pleaded for, G7 leaders vowed to support in the form of a long-termsecuritypackage.
Image caption,The breeding colony at Long Nanny is the UK’s biggest mainland colony which this year attracted a record number of breeding pairs
More than 600 dead Arctic tern chicks have been collected at the biggest mainland breeding colony in the UK following an outrbreak of bird flu.
National Trust rangers initially recorded 2,600 eggs for the peak breeding season at Long Nanny in Northumberland – but within the past two weeks discovered dying chicks.
A number of dead adult seabirds have also been collected from the site.
It is feared the population of rarer little terns could also be infected.
Image caption,Bird flu is posing a big challenge to the seabirds which migrate from their northern hemisphere breeding grounds to the Antarctic and back again each year
James Porteus, lead ranger at the site near Beadnell said: “The season started so well, with over…
A white-tailed buck in Gwinnett County is among the 1 million of its deer species roaming Georgia’s woodlands, farmlands and urban areas. Hank Ohme/Georgia Wildlife Federation
Georgia conservationists are putting hunters on high alert about the possibility of a deadly deer disease crossing the state border after the discovery of a case in north Florida.
The Georgia Wildlife Resources Division will carry out an emergency response once the state has its first detected case of Chronic Wasting Disease. It can take as long as two years before an infected white-tailed deer shows zombie-like symptoms of listlessness, droopy head, severe weight loss, repetitive walking and drooling.
In June, a road-killed doe found 38 miles from Georgia’s southwest border made Florida the 31st state to report a confirmed case of a condition that has no treatment or vaccine and always results in…
Shapps’ remarks came during a U.S.-U.K. climate summit in which both President Biden andKing Charles III participatedon Monday morning. They were made in response to Shell CEO Wael Sawan stating last week that the global energy system continues to “desperately need oil and gas” and that green energy development wasn’t advanced enough to allow nations to abandon fossil fuels.
“There always has to be a transition … but it doesn’t just happen overnight, in fact, it’s idiotic…
New research reveals how climate change can disrupt the evolutionary process and ecological balance. The study on apple maggot flies shows that warmer temperatures predicted for the future can affect these species differently, potentially halting speciation, and creating potential chaos in the ecological timing of insect communities.
New research delves into the potential repercussions of global warming on ecosystems, and how it could derail the development of newspecies.
Across the globe, new species constantly emerge as separate groups of organisms branch off and evolve in divergent paths. But what occurs when climate change becomes a variable in this complex equation?
Illustration of Earth’s tectonic plates. (Andrzej Wojcicki/Getty Images)
Marine life booms with a spate of new species every 36 million years, and tectonic heaving is the indirect reason, new research has found.
A deep analysis of the fossil and geological record reveals a changing sea level that occurs in response to a 36-million-year cycle of tectonic movement.
This, a team led by geologist Slah Boulila of Sorbonne University in France has found, disrupts several ecosystems, causing many species to struggle – and new ones to blossom to fill the new ecological niches that emerge.
“In terms of tectonics, the 36-million-year cycle marks alterations between faster and slower seafloor spreading, leading to cyclical depth changes in ocean basins and in the tectonic transfer of water into the deep Earth,” says geoscientist Dietmar Müller of the University of Sydney.
“These in turn have led to fluctuations in the flooding and drying up of continents, with periods of extensive shallow seas fostering biodiversity.”
A close look at the fossil record shows that biodiversity is not a nice, even constant. Instead, it fluctuates dramatically on scales of tens of millions of years, punctuated by extinction events and the rise of new species.
What hasn’t been clear is what drives these changes; whether each event is unique unto itself, or whether there’s an underlying mechanism that links them.
The research by Boulila and team was a painstaking analysis of multiple geological datasets from the past 250 million years, combined with computational simulations and modeling using tectonic visualization software called GPlates.
Earth’s crust is never still. It consists of separate tectonic plates that are constantly moving and being recycled. Places where the tectonic plates meet beneath the ocean are known as subduction zones; there, water is sucked deep under the mantle, to be spewed out later via volcanic activity.
In their data and simulations, the researchers found a cycle of 36 million years in the diversity of marine life… and this coincided with a cycle found in tectonic, sea-level, and large-scale rock layer data over the same time period.
These findings, they say, constitute compelling evidence that the sea level changes triggered by Earth’s tectonic cycles play a key role in biodiversity cycles and shaping ecosystems.
“This research challenges previous ideas about why species have changed over long periods,” Müller says.
“The cycles are 36 million years long because of regular patterns in how tectonic plates are recycled into the convecting mantle, the mobile part of the deep Earth, similar to hot, thick soup in a pot, that moves slowly.”
There are other triggers throughout Earth’s history that can drive biodiversity. For example, the team also found evidence of a biodiversity cycle of 62 million years.
This could have been driven by changes in carbon dioxide levels, but it needs to be investigated further, the researchers say.
A manatee was found stranded on a beach in Volusia County, Florida, on Wednesday, July 5. Bodycam footage released by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office shows the team effort by at least 12 volunteers to hoist the manatee off the sand.
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A beached manatee in Florida is recovering after life-saving help from a large group of rescuers.
On Wednesday, deputies with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office joined the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Volusia County Beaches and members of the County of Volusia Marine Mammal Stranding Team to help carry the stranded manatee off the beach in Ponce Inlet.
A beached manatee in Florida is recovering after the life-saving help from a large group rescuers who help hoist the marine mammal off the sand.
(Volusia Sheriff’s Office)
The sheriff’s office released bodycam footage showing at least a dozen people using a stretcher to lift the manatee into a vehicle. Nearby beachgoers watched rescuers successfully transport the animal into a vehicle, where it was eventually taken to the Sea World Rehabilitation Center.
Authorities remind residents and visitors not to approach or touch a stranded animal. Instead, you should report them to the Florida Fish and Wildlife.
The sheriff’s office released bodycam footage showing at least a dozen people using a stretcher to lift the manatee into a vehicle.
(Volusia Sheriff’s Office)
Marine mammal strandings are common along the Florida coast, according to the Volusia County Marine Mammal Stranding Team. It occurs when live animals beach themselves or dead animals wash up on the shore.
Many of the reasons why live animals beach themselves are unknown.
Florida manatees and bottlenose dolphins are the most common animals that are found stranded in Volusia County.
Adolphin and its calf have been rescued from the Louisiana pond they were trapped in for nearly two years.
The two animals were stuck in the pond system near Grand Isle in the Pelican State.
Audubon Coastal Wildlife Network (CWN) and partners in the Southeast Region Marine Mammal Stranding Network managed to rescue the stranded mammals on June 17, CWN said on a Facebook post.
The dolphins became stuck due to a storm surge and flooding caused by Hurricane Ida, which battered Louisiana in August 2021.
The CWN had been aware of the pair for some time, monitoring them for over a year.
The Grand Isle is a town on a narrow barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. Although there are some species of dolphin that can survive in freshwater, these particular dolphins need saltwater in order to survive. Luckily, this pond system has enough salinity, as well as food supplies and tidal flow. This meant the dolphins were able to survive for the past two years.
However, there is not any pathway to the Gulf of Mexico, into their natural habitat.
The rescue team was made up of NOAA Fisheries Service in partnership with Audubon Coastal Wildlife Network (CWN), National Marine Mammal Foundation, SeaWorld Orlando, The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, and South Carolina Aquarium.
A video of the rescue showed teams easing the dolphins onto a mat, floating within the pond.
Rescuers can then be seen transporting the dolphins in a boat towards the open ocean. They gently kept the dolphins wet using sponges.
Dolphins need to be kept wet at all times, or they run the risk of becoming dehydrated. Even though they cannot breathe underwater, they still need to be wet in order to live.
At the end of the video, rescuers can be seen releasing the dolphins into the wild.
It is not uncommon for wildlife to become displaced during a hurricane.
Storm surges happen when atmospheric pressure causes sea levels to rise during a severe storm.
Marine wildlife are often at the mercy of these surges when storms occur.
Marine mammals and sea turtles are at particular risk.
“It is common for storm surge and increased coastal flooding associated with hurricanes to cause marine mammals and sea turtles to strand on land or be washed into inland waterways where they are not typically observed, such as lakes, ponds, and canals,” the CWN said in a Facebook post. “Animals may be found in these areas for weeks to months following the hurricane, requiring rescue by trained and authorized responders to return them to their natural habitat.”
A stock photo shows a mother and a calf swimming side by side. Two dolphins were rescued after being stranded in a pond for two years.NALUPHOTO/GETTY
People across the globe observe July 11 asWorld Population Day– designated by the United Nations to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, including their relations to the environment and human development.
Over the past 12 months, the world saw two significant population milestones. First, in November 2022, the global population officially hiteight billionpeople. Second, in April this year,India surpassed Chinato become the world’s most populous country, according to UN estimates.
Illustration of Earth’s tectonic plates. (Andrzej Wojcicki/Getty Images)
