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New York, New Orleans and Miami are among the eight cities along the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts facing the highest flood risk, according to a new study published in Science Advances. Scientists developed a new AI-driven framework and combined it with historical flood-damage data to not only identify high-risk coastal areas but also pinpoint the underlying factors driving that risk.

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Community help is no longer just nice to have in the world of bat conservation, it is essential to large-scale bat monitoring and the protection of threatened and understudied species, according to new research from Murdoch University's School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences. The study reveals that collaboration between universities, not-for-profits, government agencies and community members is the key to ensuring data collection is accurate, and that it flows into policy and practice.

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Canvas canopies, hand fans, damp cloths and solar reflective paint may not sound like elaborate medical interventions. But in Pakistan’s hottest neighborhoods, they can act as a lifeline for pregnant women and newborns from low-income households. In a recent trial of affordable cooling solutions led by researchers at Pakistan’s Aga Khan University, low-tech interventions were able to cut indoor temperatures by 3-4° Celsius (5-7° Fahrenheit). Air-conditioning, and even fans, are often not available due to unreliable electricity supply. “Many commonly recommended heat interventions assume reliable electricity, formal workplaces, and universal phone access, making them impractical for many women in low-income countries,” Gregory Wellenius, director of the Center for Climate and Health at Boston University, told Zuha Siddiqui for Dialogue Earth. Temperatures in Pakistan often reach 40°C (104°F), with “feels like” temperatures nearing 50°C (122°F) in the summer. Climate change is making heat waves in the region much more likely and frequent, according to World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists studying extreme weather events. “The heat exhausts me. My body feels like lead,” Asiya, a woman identified only by her first name, told Siddiqui. Asiya lives in Lyari, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Karachi, and is pregnant with her third child. “During my last pregnancy two years ago, I took showers thrice a day to cool down because I could feel my baby kicking in distress,” she added. The urban heat island effect traps heat in densely built urban areas, elevating city temperatures. In Karachi, Pakistan’s largest…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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A new study finds that bacteria can actively block the transfer of beneficial genes to neighboring cells, using specialized proteins to specifically destroy shared DNA before it spreads. This challenges the long-held view that bacteria freely exchange genetic material and reveals a more competitive system in which microbes tightly control who gets access to valuable traits, an insight that could help scientists better understand and potentially limit the spread of antibiotic resistance.

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A new paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science presents lessons learned from and practical strategies for how small coastal communities can respond to increasing risks from sea-level rise and coastal flooding through coordinated actions, as outlined by the ResilientWoodsHole (RWH) initiative.

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In a first-of-its-kind finding, researchers at University of Iowa Health Care discovered that specific genetic sequences have an outsized impact on humans' language abilities and that these sequences evolved before humans and Neanderthals diverged.

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A new study has found that when deforestation and land use change break up key habitats vital to amphibian life cycles, those disconnects can play havoc with the animals’ microbiome, leaving them more susceptible to disease. This troubling finding could also apply to a host of other species, the study researchers say, but may also have positive implications for conservation to counteract the problem. Habitat split, first associated with amphibian decline in a 2007 study, occurs when multiple “classes” of aquatic and terrestrial habitat — such as forests, streams and ponds — vital to a species’ life cycle are separated by human activities (such as agriculture), causing the species to decline. Studies have already shown that this phenomenon is a driver of localized frog extinctions in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. In the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists investigated the effect of “habitat split” on the microbiome of four frog species (Haddadus binotatus, Rhinella ornata, Boana faber and Ischnocnema henselii), all dwelling in the highly fragmented Atlantic Forest. They found that where forest and aquatic habitats are linked, frogs are more likely to host skin microbes that inhibit the deadly fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus, known as chytrid, is responsible for large-scale declines of hundreds of amphibian species across the globe. Importantly, the skin microbiome of frogs living in areas where these habitats were split hosted fewer pathogen-fighting microbes, leaving the frogs more susceptible to infection. Two of the frog species sampled also…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Thousands of earthquakes affecting Portugal's São Jorge Island in the Azores in March 2022 were triggered by a vast sheet of magma (molten rock) rising from more than 20km below Earth's surface and stalling just 1.6km beneath the island, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

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BANGKA, Indonesia — Residents of a centuries-old coastal settlement in the world’s largest tin-mining outpost — Bangka Island — fear that the environmental damage over just a few decades is behind a frightening rise in reports of violent deaths. In February, local fisher Jauhari became the latest person here on Bangka’s west coast to be killed by an estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). The 40-year-old was likely the 21st victim in the last five years, according to local wildlife charity Alobi Foundation. The saltwater crocodile — the world’s largest reptile — can exceed 6 meters (20 feet) in length weighing up to 2 tons (4,400 pounds) and live more than 70 years. On Bangka Island, it ordinarily lurks quietly beneath the surface of estuaries and lagoons. “This has happened because many swamps and tributaries that are the habitat of estuarine crocodiles have been damaged by illegal tin mining, and then turned into oil palm plantations,” Suhadi, who lives in western Bangka’s Menduk village, told Mongabay Indonesia in late March. The Menduk wetlands, formerly home to estuarine crocodiles, have been converted into palm oil plantations and illegal tin mines. Image by Nopri Ismi/Mongabay Indonesia. For some local people, 40-year-old Jauhari’s passing was a signal of how environmental damage can introduce new forms of violence into communities, a pattern that will intensify as climate pressures compound. One study published in the journal Biological Conservation in 2023 counted 665 cases of crocodile attacks in Indonesia in press reports from 2017 to 2019. Indonesia accounts…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Scientists at the University of Melbourne have uncovered for the first time how Australia's iconic Twelve Apostles were formed, finding tectonic plate movements over millions of years lifted and tilted the giant structures out of the sea.

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Vast online archives of photos, videos and sound recordings collected by the public are reshaping how scientists study the natural world, allowing researchers to answer questions that were once out of reach. A new study led by UNSW Sydney and published in Diversity and Distributions shows how these datasets can be turned into practical tools for conservation, helping scientists identify and track species that have long eluded study.

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María Teresa Hernández
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Xaneri Merino wasn’t meant to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps.

Now a transgender woman, she was identified at birth as a boy in San Pedro Jicayán, an Indigenous community in southern Mexico where men are largely barred from becoming weavers.

Merino was expected to tend cattle or work in the fields. Yet her grandmother defied those rigid gender norms, passing on to her the ancestral practice of the backstrap loom — an ancient, portable device operated using a strap secured around the weaver’s waist.

“She began sharing her knowledge with me in secret,” said Merino, who used to hide in her grandmother’s adobe home to weave at age 13. “She taught me how to make the thread from scratch, to feel the textures and respect nature.”

Merino’s maternal lineage comes from the Mixtec people, where origin stories trace the birth of gods and dynasties to sacred landscapes. Her paternal ancestry is Zapotec, where religious life remains woven into everyday moments, from harvest to marriage and death.

Giving back to the land

One of her grandmother’s most cherished lessons was to give back to the land whatever you take from it. Weavers in her community, Merino said, make the rods that they use to control thread tension out of branches from tamarind trees and find ways to restore what they borrow.

“To care for nature is part of our worldview,” Merino said. “Because it provides us with what we need to walk this world.”

Both her ancestral legacy and her gender identity now play a decisive role in her life. In addition to being a trans woman, Merino identifies as a “muxe.” The term is rooted in Zapotec culture and refers to Indigenous people identified at birth as male who take on women’s roles. It can also be regarded as a third gender.

Merino makes a living as a weaver and instructor, hosting workshops on how the backstrap loom can serve as a craft and an act of resistance.

“Everyone is capable of learning how to weave, and it’s not just about creating a piece,” she said during a recent class she led in Mexico City for LGBTQ+ people. “It’s also about weaving our own stories, as we can come to know ourselves through the loom.”

Defiance bears a cost

Merino was once punished for weaving. She was around 15 when neighbors spotted her kneeling, threads in her hands, on their way to a patron saint feast.

That afternoon went by without incident. Parishioners prayed, laughed and shared a meal. But the following morning, through loudspeakers across the community, a voice called on all men to gather and discuss an urgent matter: There was a boy who dared to weave.

The men sat in a circle while Merino was commanded to stand in the middle, next to her mother and her grandmother.

As Merino recalls, one of the men asked her grandmother, “Why would you allow him to weave, if it’s not something boys are supposed to do? Do you realize what kind of example you’re setting for other children?”

Merino said that her grandmother’s answer was simple: She was merely teaching a child how to be creative, to find a path to keep her culture alive through clothing.

A punishment that lingered

Merino’s punishment for her defiance was sweeping the local church. She occasionally wove in hiding after that. But the experience cast a shadow over her craft and she practically abandoned her loom.

“I developed a deep resentment toward textiles and the customs around them,” Merino said. “Having the ability to create and not being allowed to use it was like having eyes and having them taken away — I could no longer see.”

Reconciliation came a few years later, when she moved from her hometown to Mexico City for college. She majored in communications; her coursework included cultural management, textile studies and postcolonial perspectives on Indigenous resistance.

“That made me see how I could use my reality for a greater good,” she said. “My loom became a means to healing.”

A space to be seen

During her latest workshop, one of Merino’s students who had previously taken another course with her told her classmates that a loom mirrors oneself. The joy and the calmness — as much as the anger and stress, she said — are passed on to the threads.

“I love Xan’s way of teaching because she is very human and patient,” Emilia Freire, a trans woman like Merino, told The Associated Press. “She made me realize that once I had my weaving set up and began to work, everything I carried with me through the week would come out.”

Another student, Kristhian Cravioto, said that this was his first backstrap loom workshop. He celebrated finding a safe space for LGBTQ+ people interested in crafts, and also Merino’s defiance against the preconception that men shouldn’t weave.

“This is very important for us dissidents,” said Cravioto, a designer and enthusiast of Mexico’s Indigenous crafts. “To know that no matter whether you are a man or a woman, what you do matters.”

Threads that endure

A traditional backstrap loom is made up of cords, threads and wooden rods assembled into a portable frame. Women often work seated on the ground, with one end of the loom tied to a tree or post and the other secured around their waist. Leaning back and forward, they control the tension of the threads with their bodies, turning movement into a steady rhythm of weaving.

Crafting each piece takes time. Merino often weaves for about a month, eight hours a day, to finish a short “huipil,” a tunic traditionally worn by Indigenous women in Mexico.

Weavers who migrated from their hometowns often employ threads and wood available in the cities where they relocate. But Merino travels back home to procure her raw materials. Among them is a purple dye drawn from a sea snail found along the coast, a resource that has become increasingly difficult to gather as the species declines.

The nostalgia for her hometown never leaves her, but Merino takes comfort in the fact that younger LGBTQ+ people in her community have followed her example and become weavers in San Pedro Jicayán.

“At least five trans women and two men are weaving,” she said. “We have gained visibility through the loom and that’s what this fight has been about.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The post Once punished for weaving, this Mexican artisan uses her loom for LGBTQ+ resistance appeared first on ICT.

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March's record heat made it the most abnormally warm month in recorded U.S. history, bringing plants into bloom early and coaxing animals out of their winter hiding places ahead of schedule. Among the creatures making an early debut: The southern alligator lizard.

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We've run the numbers and the verdict is in: Honeybees do have the ability to process numerical information. New research led by Monash University has now addressed recent international debate over whether bees are truly assessing numbers or simply reacting to visual patterns.

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How do cells know when to activate or slow down their activity? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) provides new insights by studying TORC2, an essential but still poorly understood protein complex. Using ultra-high-resolution imaging, scientists were able to observe its structure in detail for the first time.

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ANG MO KIO, Singapore — On the edge of a bustling Singapore suburb, Lay Hoon steps into the shade of a forest reserve she’s visited monthly for eight years to search for one of the world’s most threatened primates. Scanning the dense canopy for signs of movement, she listens intently. “Before we see the langurs, we usually hear them,” she says. The foliage rustles above, but it turns out to be a plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus), one of a surprising number of small mammals found here at the Lower Peirce Reservoir Park, a 10-hectare (25-acre) patch of maturing secondary forest to the northeast of Singapore’s Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Hoon is looking for the Raffles’ banded langur (Presbytis femoralis), a leaf-eating monkey confined to pockets of fragmented forest in Singapore and the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, its total global population is estimated to be only 200-250 mature individuals, fewer than 80 of them in Singapore. The extent of habitat loss in Singapore over the past two centuries cannot be overstated. Today, less than 1% of the primary forest that once stretched across much of the main island remains; and of the island’s roughly 20% secondary forest cover, only about 4.3% is considered high-quality mature forest. With their habitats devastated, many groups of terrestrial vertebrates plunged into decline. Yet even after rapid urbanization since the 1960s, small groups of langurs have clung on in isolated forest fragments. However, as treetop specialists,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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COLOMBO — As Sri Lankans celebrate the traditional New Year on April 14 each year, a period marked by family gatherings and renewal, there are no celebrations at Keerthirathna Perera’s home anymore. In 2017, the Perera family was in celebration mode in their two-level home in Meethotamulla, in western Sri Lanka. But their festive lunch was interrupted around 2 p.m. by a faint tremor. Moments later, a neighbor shouted that the stairway was suddenly cracking. Alarmed, the family rushed outside, only seconds before a deafening roar engulfed the area as a massive wave of garbage and earth surged upward. Houses shifted, some collapsed instantly, while others were simply thrust aside. When the noise eventually faded, the neighborhood found itself reduced to a chaotic field of rubble. In this confusion, Keerthirathna searched desperately for his family. He found his wife trapped waist-deep in debris and saw only his granddaughter’s hand nearby, while there was no trace of his daughter and son-in-law. Rescue teams worked through the night, pulling his wife to safety around 10 p.m. and recovering the bodies of his granddaughter and son-in-law. After continuous digging through the unstable waste mound, four days later, his daughter’s lifeless body was finally recovered. The disaster killed at least 32 people, displaced hundreds and destroyed more than 140 homes, leaving more than a thousand homeless. The collapse of the mount at Meethotamulla exposed the catastrophic consequences of unmanaged urban waste accumulation and Sri Lanka’s repeated institutional failure to tackle the solid waste problem.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa will stop sourcing wild dolphins for its aquarium and is suspending its captive-breeding program, according to insiders, reports Mongabay contributor Robin Hicks. Anbarasi Boopal, former co-chief executive of Singapore animal welfare charity Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES), said this was a positive step. However, she called for transparency about the facility’s long-term plans for the animals already in captivity.  While the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) declined to comment on the dolphin sourcing and breeding program , Mongabay learned it is assembling a panel of experts to determine the future of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) currently held at its Oceanarium — “more than 20,” staff at the facility told Mongabay. The youngest is a 7-year-old male named Kenzo.  RWS obtained 27 dolphins from the Solomon Islands in 2008 and 2009. At least four died during transit or from infections. The resort opened its exhibit to the public in 2013 amid widespread criticism from animal welfare groups. The RWS says its dolphins receive high-quality care and that the facility provides educational and conservation value.  “At the Marine Mammal Habitat, the health and well-being of our dolphins is a top priority,” RWS told Mongabay after publication of the article. “They are cared for by a dedicated team of Marine Mammal Specialists, supported by Veterinary Care, Environmental Health and Husbandry professionals, who provide round-the-clock care.” Staff who spoke to Mongabay said they doubted the animals could survive in the wild after so long in captivity. An international…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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A slew of applications by a little-known mining group to explore for critical minerals in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, including within the buffer zone of a nature reserve, has alarmed environmental groups and activists. They warn that the remote and water-scarce region, a globally significant biodiversity hotspot with unique ecosystems and exceptional plant diversity, risks being treated as barren desert. The seven applications from Johannesburg-based Umboso cover a range of minerals considered critical for manufacturing renewable energy components, including cobalt (essential for making lithium-ion batteries), iron ore (used in steelmaking), gallium and germanium (used in making solar panels and cells), uranium, and rare earths needed to make magnets for wind turbines. Prospecting for these minerals could turn the Northern Cape into a “Wild West” for extractive industries, said Liziwe McDaid, strategic lead at the environmental justice organization Green Connection, which has brought several successful court cases against mine prospecting elsewhere in the country. The Umboso Group, which only registered as a company in 2023 and does not publicly list any previous mining experience, applied in February to prospect on seven tracts of land in the Northern Cape — in one case inside the 5-kilometer (3-mile) buffer zone of Gamsberg Nature Reserve, which was set up to safeguard the Nama Karoo and Succulent Karoo biomes. A springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape province. Image by Charles J. Sharp/Sharp Photography via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Thevha Sustainable Services, an environmental impact consultancy also based in Johannesburg, was hired…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News+ ICT

In February, two condors from the Northern California Condor Restoration Program were believed to have laid an egg, after establishing the first wild condor nest in the region for over a century.

The egg appears to have been unsuccessful, based on the birds’ behavior and flight patterns, according to a news release from the Yurok Tribe.

“Even if the egg failed, this is still a major milestone in the condor restoration effort,” Tiana Williams-Claussen, a citizen of the Yurok Tribe and the Yurok Wildlife Department director, told UNN + ICT.

Biologists with the Northern California Restoration Program, run by the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks, believe the egg failed because the nesting condors have spent significant time away from the nest site together. If the egg had hatched, the chick would need lots of parental care to survive, according to the tribe.

Nesting condors spark hope of an egg in northern California

Though this egg appears to have been unsuccessful, that can be common with the first egg for new condor parents. There are a number of things that could have gone wrong including an infertile egg or inadequate incubation chilling the egg or hatching failure, according to the release.

Because the nesting area is in a remote location, biologists will continue to observe the parents’ behavior for several weeks to confirm that the egg did not hatch.

The prospective parents, A0, or Ney-gem’ ‘Ne-chween-kah in Yurok, which translates to “she carries our prayers,” and A1, or Hlow Hoo-let in Yurok, which translates to “at least I (or we) fly!,” could attempt to reproduce again as soon as this spring.

“A0 and A1 have figured out how to find an ideal nesting location, and whether they reproduce this season or next, we expect to see our first condor chick in the very near future,” Williams-Claussen told UNN + ICT. “Over the next few short years, several of our condors are going to reach breeding age and they will have the benefit of mentors in A0 and A1, which will make a big positive difference. I am extremely excited about what the future holds for our condor flock.”

This story is co-published by Underscore Native News and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.

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In late January, Kenyan authorities arrested two men in possession of more than a hundred kilos of ivory in the town of Namanga, on the border with Tanzania. According to Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), police and wildlife officers were on a covert operation at a hotel when they caught three men — identified as Imani Manasi Msumbwa and Justin Mwalima, both Tanzanian, and Alton Jilaoneka, a Kenyan — likely negotiating a deal. Mwalima escaped; the remaining two led investigators to a car with 20 pieces of elephant tusks, weighing a total 110 kilograms (243 pounds). They were arrested, and news of the seizure made headlines. Since then, however, it’s not clear what progress has been made, either in finding the escaped suspect or in identifying the prospective buyer or the wider trafficking network. Despite repeated inquiries from Mongabay, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officials have declined to confirm whether those arrested were granted bail or if they remain in custody. Chris Morris, founder of Nairobi-based wildlife crime monitoring group Saving Elephants through Education and Justice (SEEJ), told Mongabay that the suspects are scheduled to appear in Kajiado Magistrate’s Court on April 28. SEEJ monitored more than 100 elephant ivory trafficking prosecutions between 2023 and 2025 to assess the integrity of law enforcement in pursuing trafficking cases beyond the headline arrests. Some of the offences date back to 2015. By the end of its two-year monitoring period, only 72 of the 125 cases had concluded, with a conviction rate of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Scientists in Sweden have taken an important step toward fighting potato late blight, a plant disease that once triggered a historic famine in Ireland and now threatens to spread globally due to climate change. A new study reports the synthesis of a peptide that specifically attacks Phytophthora infestans (P. infestans) to protect potato and tomato crops—without harm to other plants. The work was carried out by researchers at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in collaboration with research partners in Italy, India and Australia.

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The expansion of two vast Pacific marine parks near Chile have been suspended for six weeks, leaving protections for around 337,000 square kilometers (130,000 square miles) of ocean in limbo. Former President Gabriel Boric signed a decree creating marine parks Juan Fernández II and Nazca-Desventuradas II on March 10, his last day in office. Together the parks would protect roughly 10% of the nation’s exclusive economic zone. However, the subsequent president José Antonio Kast, suspended the decree on his first day in office as part of a broader review of environmental measures. The suspension has created unease among local communities and conservation groups. “We are concerned, obviously, with how long this is taking,” Max Bello, an ocean policy expert at the Blue Marine Foundation, a global conservation nonprofit, told Mongabay in an audio message. “We know that there are pressures, particularly from fishing interests, specifically the highly illegal and unsustainable semi-industrial swordfish fisheries … who have not agreed with the expansion.” The decree grants the highest levels of marine protection, permitting only scientific research and tourism, Bello told Mongabay. It prohibits all extractive activities, including any type of fishing. Artisanal fishing is permitted in the multiple-use coastal marine area directly surrounding the Juan Fernández archipelago.    Bello said there are concerns that the protections for Juan Fernández II and Nazca-Desventuradas II could be weakened. “That would be truly dangerous, regrettable and concerning.” Chile’s Environment Ministry told the Blue Marine Foundation that the suspension is part of a routine review and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Eastern Africa's Turkana Rift is both a hotbed for fossil discoveries of our earliest ancestors and a literal hotbed of volcanic activity caused by shifting tectonic plates. Now researchers have found that Earth's underlying crust in the region has been significantly thinned, presaging Africa's eventual breakup—and with that finding, the researchers offer a new perspective on how Turkana's world-famous fossil record of human evolution came to be. The findings are published in Nature Communications.

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