Why Sharks Could Lose Their Fearsome Bite

However, as the Guardian reports, a group of climate communications experts is rebuilding the climate.gov content at climate.us through a new nonprofit. The organization will offer services about climate to others such as local governments that are trying to adapt to global warming. The website is in development, and the organization has a presence on social media accounts like BlueSky and Facebook. 

According to Rebecca Lindsey, who was the managing editor of the government’s old site, the new entity includes several of her former federal colleagues, many of whom are grieving over losing not only a job but also a vocation. Lindsey added that there is a need for content that helps people develop climate literacy. Being outside of government gives the new group new opportunities to have fun by using platforms like TikTok.

The organization has launched a crowdfunding effort and hopes to get more permanent operating support from a foundation. Lindsey said that all of the climate information released prior to July 1 is still up on a government site, but you have to know where to look for it.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is trying to rapidly hire 450 people, including some meteorologists to fill jobs that were cut by DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency. Hundreds of forecasters were cut at NOAA after Trump took office, and there were warnings that there could be dangerous consequences if weather predictions were slowed.

However, applicants for the new meteorologist positions are being asked how they would promote Trump’s agenda by identifying one or two of his executive orders that they find significant, and how they would implement them if hired. Some experts are alarmed that the ideology of a potential weather forecaster could be considered. One told the Associated Press that he questioned whether forecasts would be made better based upon someone’s ideology.

Now, a new study from scientists at UC, San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography; UC, Riverside; San Diego State University; the National Science Foundation; and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) says the residents are not imagining things. The research found that the contaminated river is contaminating the air—releasing large quantities of the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide—commonly known as “sewer gas” because of its rotten egg smell.

In September 2024, the team had set up air quality monitors in San Diego’s Nestor community in the South Bay. One location was where water tumbles from a culvert, which as it falls, creates enough turbulence to send aerosolized particles of pollutants from the river into the air.

The scientists measured peak concentrations of hydrogen sulfide that were some 4,500 times what is typical for an urban area. In addition, they identified hundreds of other gases released into the air by the river and its ocean outflow, showing for the first time, a direct link between poor water quality and bad air quality—a connection lead investigator Kimberly Prather says had not been made before.

Untreated sewage and industrial waste have plagued the Tijuana River for decades, causing long-term closures of beaches. In July, the U.S. and Mexico signed a memorandum of understanding that requires both nations to expedite stormwater and sewage infrastructure projects on each side of the border.  

Last week, EPA announced the completion of a ten-million-gallon-per-day expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego, which could help mitigate the issue, but as inewsource reports, it’s unclear as to when it will be operating at its new capacity.

The paper was published in the journal Science.

However, prairie dogs are a keystone species that provides food and habitat for more than 120 other species, and they are an important food source for hawks, eagles, and ferrets. Now, a new study shows that black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) can play a role in limiting the spread and intensity of wildfires.

While doing research on fire, birds, and grazing, scientists led by Courtney Duchard of the University of Arizona found that where prairie dog colonies were present in the Great Plains, wildfires behaved differently because the animals dig burrows, eat vegetation, and keep plants short.

Duchard said that in those colonies you can see a shift from grasses to small, flowering plants, and the dogs keep ground areas bare, acting as a kind of firebreak. The scientists noted there are conflicts when it comes to prairie dog management, but the animals may be providing ecosystem services that haven’t been quantified.

The study was published in the journal BioScience.

German researchers say that as more CO2 is released into the atmosphere and oceans become acidic, it's taking the bite out of shark teeth by making them brittle and weak.

Ocean water has stayed fairly basic (alkaline) for thousands of years, hanging out at around 8.1 pH on average, but it’s predicted to drop to 7.3 by 2300—which would be almost ten times more acidic than it is today. Acidification weakens corals and makes it harder for creatures like mussels, clams, and oysters to create their protective shells by reducing the availability of carbonate—an essential building block. So, the team wanted to understand what acidification could mean for sharks.

They studied freshly fallen teeth of blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) living in an aquarium in Germany. The blacktips are good candidates to study because they swim with their mouths open to breathe, constantly exposing their teeth to water. The researchers put the teeth in two tanks of water for eight weeks—one with the current ocean pH and the other at the projected pH of 7.3. They found that the teeth in more acidic water had surface damage such as cracks and holes, increased root corrosion, and structural degradation.

Although sharks can continuously replace their teeth, the authors say new ones may also be susceptible to deterioration. Even moderate drops in pH could affect more sensitive species with slow tooth replication, leader author Maximilian Baum of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf said in a press release.

A caveat for the study is that it was conducted with sharks in captivity. Sharks in the wild could potentially remineralize or replace their damaged teeth more quickly, but the team says the process could cost the animals more energy in acidified oceans.

Sharks with fragile teeth could find it more difficult to feed and defend themselves, which would reduce populations and destabilize marine ecosystems. A toothless grin would add to the stressors the creatures already face, such as overfishing and plastic pollution. 

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.