Earthweek: a diary of the planet
New Arctic ‘normal’
A new “report card” on how climate change is affecting the Arctic reveals that permafrost is now thawing more quickly, as polar sea ice melts at its fastest pace in 1,500 years. “2017 continued to show us we are on this deepening trend where the Arctic is a very different place than it was even a decade ago,” said NOAA Arctic researcher Jeremy Mathis. He told the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union that what’s happening in the Arctic is affecting the rest of the planet. Earlier studies found that changes in Arctic sea ice and temperature can alter the jet stream — a major influence on weather across North America, Europe and Asia. “The Arctic has traditionally been the refrigerator to the planet, but the door of the refrigerator has been left open,” Mathis said.
Noisy seas
The noise pollution produced by ships and marine construction projects in the Gulf of Maine is drowning out the sounds that Atlantic cod and haddock need to communicate with one another, according to a new study. The U.S. environment agency NOAA says this is altering the behavior, feeding,
mating and socializing of the commercially important fish. The study concludes that because the fish make sounds to attract mates and listen for predators, not hearing those signals could threaten their breeding success and survival.
Social spiders
Images of giant and scary-looking spiders posted on social media are helping scientists identify dozens of species that might never have been documented. Writing in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity, researcher Heather Campbell, formerly of the University of Pretoria, says she made
the discoveries after getting involved with a group of “massive spider nerds.” They venture out at night looking for southern African baboon spiders, then post their findings online. Together, Campbell and the adventurers published the “Baboon Spider Atlas,” which used various Facebook photos posted by the group and other curious arachnophiles. The atlas might have identified 20 to 30 new species.
Aspen clone
An explosion in the number of Utah’s mule deer is threatening the largest and possibly the oldest living organism on the planet. The Pando clone is a forest of more than 47,000 quaking aspens that share a single root system and are genetically identical. The colony emerged about 80,000 years ago from a single seed. But foresters say the Pando clone is tired and aging because its young sprouts are being munched on by the deer, which have grown in numbers since the native wolves disappeared. Its oldest trees, between 110 and 130 years old, aren’t being replaced by new growth because the deer find the sprouts irresistible. A study suggests fencing in young growth could protect it from the deer, and cattle that occasionally tromp on the clone’s root system. Iceland rumblings
Iceland’s dormant Skjaldbreiður volcano is showing signs of unrest, with more than 100 tremors of magnitudes up to 3.8 rattling the glacier that covers it. Skjaldbreiður is Iceland’s most dangerous volcano. It last erupted in 1727-1728.
Antarctic refuge
The world’s largest marine reserve has just been established in Antarctica’s Ross Sea in what conservationists hail as a “watershed moment” for conservation. The agreement began protecting 600,000 square miles of the Ross Sea effective Dec. 1. It bans commercial fishing in about 72 percent of the reserve.
Earthquakes
Iran was hit by two earthquakes, with a magnitude 5.4 quake rocking the border with Iraq, where a stronger temblor last month killed at least 530 people. Earth movements also were felt in northern India’s Himalayan Jammu and Kashmir state, the Czech-Polish border region and northwest Oregon.
©2017 Earth Environment Service