Nigel’s News for Shepherd’s Way Show for Monday 17th March 2025

Hi Alan, or should I say Hello Percy Thrower, vegetable grower!

I hope all’s well and things are coming on in the vegetable patch, as
Jenny informs me you’re getting underway – Excellent stuff – Can I
place an order for fresh produce yet please ??

One of the most satisfying and rewarding things to do,(that’s if those
dear little bunnies don’t scoff the lot).

Alan, the news might be a little longer this week, if so, just take out one
of the shorter pieces.

Best wishes to all,
Steve

‘Life finds more than one way’
More than 7000 microbial species have been identified living in the
‘hadal zone’ of the ocean — between 6,000 and 10,000 metres deep.
These species have developed unique strategies to survive in the dark,
nutrient-scarce environment, such as genes that let them use carbon
monoxide as a food source.
Researchers also collected crustaceans called amphipods — one of the
most abundant animals at that depth — and found high levels of
Psychromonas bacteria in the creatures’ guts.
The team suggests that amphipods formed a symbiotic relationship with
the bacteria to help them withstand the high pressures of the deep sea.

Climate change is bringing fungi with it
Climate-change driven rises in temperatures and extreme weather events
are increasing our exposure to highly-adaptable fungal pathogens, say
infectious-disease specialists Angel Desai and George Thompson III.
Invasive fungal infections are currently rare in people with healthy
immune systems, but every encounter with people gives fungi another
chance to adapt to our defences, and drugs to treat systemic fungal
infections are scarce.
Scientists “must strengthen their tracking of fungal pathogens in
humans, animals, and plants”, the authors write, to “help ensure early
detection of emerging or spreading drug-resistant fungi before they
cause significant health problems”.

Bacteria can be selfless in death
Certain strains of bacteria can proactively provide nutrients to their
neighbours after they die.
Researchers killed Escherichia coli by rupturing their cell membranes
and found that an enzyme called Lon protease continued to function.
The enzyme breaks down proteins released from the cells into smaller
molecules, which neighbouring bacteria could use to make proteins for
themselves.
“Those processes continue after death, and they have evolved to do so,”
says biochemist Martin Cann.
“That is a fundamental rethink about how we view the death of an
organism.”

Turtles adapt to warming world
Sea turtles are nesting earlier as a response to a warmer climate.
Temperature determines the sex of baby turtles, as well as the overall
success of the hatching.
A 30-year tracking programme in northern Cyprus shows that green
turtles (Chelonia mydas) brought forward their nesting by 6.47 days for
each degree of increase in ocean temperature.
Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) also brought forward their nesting
season and models suggest this will be enough to stabilise the
populations.
“There is no guarantee that they carry on doing this, though — it’s very
much dependent on how much the temperature rises, and also what they
are eating,” says marine conservation biologist Annette Broderick.

Biodiversity COP agrees finance deal
Nations — minus the United States — have agreed a path to provide
over US$200 billion per year by 2030 to developing nations to support
them in protecting biodiversity.
Talks at the reconvened United Nations biodiversity summit, COP16, in
Rome came after a November’ meeting, hosted in Colombia, ended
abruptly without a deal.

Ocean currents’ fate offers fear and hope
The system of currents that connects all oceans, the Atlantic Meridional
Overturning Circulation (AMOC) might be standing up to global
warming better than feared.
Some researchers have warned that global warming over the next
century could cause AMOC to collapse; if that happened, the global
distribution of heat, salt and resources could be catastrophically
affected.
But models of extreme climate scenarios offer some reason for
optimism, showing that AMOC could withstand a massive influx of
fresh water from melting Greenland ice thanks to strong winds in the
Southern Ocean, writes climate researcher Aixue Hu in an
accompanying analysis.
In Antarctica, the clockwise Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the
strongest on the planet.
It acts like a moat, protecting cold seas from an influx of warmer waters
and from invasive species, write oceanographer Taimoor Sohail and
geophysical fluid-dynamics researcher Bishakhdatta Gayen.
As ice melts and the salty water is diluted, their research suggests that
the current will be 20% slower by 2050.
This could cause disruption to global climate patterns as the current’s
protective ability is reduced, the authors suggest.

For these, and other wildlife, nature, and environmental news items, go
to www.nature.com/nature/