Satellite images of farms in northwest Minnesota show neat patches of different crops among recently harvested fields. It's an enchanting view of nurtured farmland from hundreds of miles above the countryside.

But when looking at the same view through a different filter, the farmers of the land may see another story. Satellite images can help them spot infestation, over-watering, and pesticides encroaching on organic crops.

A growing group of Midwest farmers rely on satellite imagery from Landsat to maximize their harvest and minimize damage to their fields, accortding to NASA. "It's become another crucial tool like their tractors and sprinklers."

From space, Noreen Thomas' farm in northwest Minnesota looks like a patchwork quilt, NASA said in a caption published with these images on its Earth Observatory Web site last week. "Fields change hue with the season and with the alternating plots of organic wheat, soybeans, corn, alfalfa, flax, or hay."

The top true-color image, taken by the Landsat satellite on September 10, 2009, shows Thomas's organic farm along the banks of the Buffalo River near the center of the image. "Lush green fields dominate the image, though some crops have already been harvested leaving squares of tan and brown," NASA says.

The lower image shows the same scene in false color. Made with infrared light, the false-color image provides a wealth of information about crop conditions.

"To the untrained eye, the false-color images appear a hodge-podge of colors without any apparent purpose. But Thomas is now trained to see yellows where crops are infested, shades of red indicating crop health, black where flooding occurs, and brown where unwanted pesticides land on her chemical-free crops."

The images help the Thomases root out problems caused by Canadian thistle and other weeds, NASA adds. "They help confirm that their crops are growing at least 10 feet from the borders of a neighboring farm--required to maintain organic certification. They can also spot the telltale signs of bottlenecking in the fields---where flooding is over-saturating crops--and monitor the impact of hail storms."

Said Thomas, "We'd have to walk our entire 1,200 hundred-plus acres on a regular basis to see the same things we can see by just downloading satellite images."

Thomas recently began providing her farm's coordinates to her buyers in Japan. "There's no more ideal way I know to show how healthy our crops are to someone thousands of miles away," she said.

NASA images created by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey. Original NASA caption by Gretchen Cook-Anderson.

Related Links:

Landsat at NASA

Landsat at USGS

UMAC's Agriculture Public Access Resource Center

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Recent flooding in parts of Turkey has underscored the need to focus on ecologically sound flood management practices to shield urban areas from extreme weather events, particularly those caused by climate change, WWF-Turkey said today.

"The presence of deadly floods right in the heart of Istanbul first of all points at the insufficient infrastructure of the city," said Filiz Demirayak, the CEO of WWF-Turkey. "Unregulated urban development and infrastructure have become barriers preventing rain water to reach the sea via its natural path."

Turkey's Thracian region and the capital Istanbul this week received a month's worth of rainfall during two days--or four times the total amount of average precipitation for this entire month--causing massive flooding that led to the death of 30 people and widespread damage estimated at U.S.$90 million dollars, WWF said in a statement.

The floods follow flash floods in July that killed at least six people in the north-eastern province of Artvin, and inundated more than 100 homes and businesses in the Black Sea province of Giresun.

Flooding occurred mostly because natural irrigation channels had been damaged and unplanned developments blocked the rain water from dissipating into the sea, WWF said.

"The insufficiency of water absorbing green areas and forests in the heart of the city is another factor that blocks water in the midst of concrete," Demirayak said.

"In the periphery of Istanbul and Tekirdağ river beds have been narrowed down, filled up by residential and industrial areas, thus blocking natural flood control mechanisms. The local municipalities and the government need to resolve the infrastructural problems of the city and prepare climate adaptation plan immediately."

Weather-related problems such as floods could worsen because of climate change unless ecological flood prevention techniques are adopted, WWF warned. "These consist of river delta conservation and forest conservation. In addition, urban settlements along river beds must be closely monitored.

"Ecological flood management is the safest and most cost-effective solution," Demirayak said. "If future damage is to be prevented, the climate change adaptation process has to start immediately.

"The current infrastructure in Turkey cannot handle the consequences of climate change. WWF-Turkey calls upon the government and the municipalities to take immediate action for adaptation to climate change."

The first integrated analysis for all coastal areas of the world has ranked hotspots of human impact.

The hottest hotspot is at the mouth of the Mississippi River, says Benjamin S. Halpern, lead author of the study, with the other top 10 in Asia and the Mediterranean.

Nutrient runoff from farms draining into the Mississippi has caused a persistent "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, where the river runs into the ocean. The dead zone is caused by an overgrowth of algae that feeds on the nutrients and takes up most of the oxygen in the water.

Image by NASA

The Mississippi mouth and the other hotspots are areas where conservation efforts will almost certainly fail if they don't directly address what people are doing on land upstream from these locations, said Halpern, who is based at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB).

The study was published in the Journal of Conservation Letters.

Global hotspots where human activities on land are impacting coastal marine ecosystems. The numbers show the rank order of the hottest hotspots (red dots). The blue and green dots are land-based activities that are having an important effect on marine systems but not as much as those areas marked by the red dots.

Illustration courtesy B. Halpern and colleagues, NCEAS

"Resource management and conservation in coastal waters must address a litany of impacts from human activities, from the land, such as urban runoff and other types of pollution, and from the sea," Halpern said.

"One of the great challenges is to decide where and how much to allocate limited resources to tackling these problems."

"One of the great challenges is to decide where and how much to allocate limited resources to tackling these problems," he said. "Our results identify where it is absolutely imperative that land-based threats are addressed--so-called hotspots of land-based impact--and where these land-based sources of impact are minimal or can be ignored."

The study surveyed four key land-based drivers of ecological change:

• nutrient input from agriculture in urban settings
• organic pollutants derived from pesticides
• inorganic pollutants from urban runoff
• direct impact of human populations on coastal marine habitats.

Not All Coastal Waters Fully Impacted

A large portion of the world's coastlines experience very little effect of what happens on land, nearly half of the coastline and more than 90 percent of all coastal waters, Halpern said.

"This is because a vast majority of the planet's landscape drains into relatively few very large rivers, that in turn affect a small amount of coastal area.

"In these places with little impact from human activities on land, marine conservation can and needs to focus primarily on what is happening in the ocean. For example: fishing, climate change, invasive species, and commercial shipping."

Coauthors from NCEAS are Colin M. Ebert, Carrie V. Kappel, Matthew Perry, Kimberly A. Selkoe, and Shaun Walbridge. Fiorenza Micheli of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station and Elizabeth M. P. Madin of UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology are also co-authors. Selkoe is also affiliated with the University of Hawaii's Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.

NCEAS is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the National Marine Sanctuaries, and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provided additional support for this research.

Parks, forests, and historic places require a significant increase in annual funding if they are to be preserved for future generations, a major assessment of U.S. outdoor resources has found.

A report by the private, bipartisan Outdoor Resources Review Group (ORRG) was presented today at a Capitol Hill briefing to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), who served as honorary co-chairs of the project.

In its report, the task force analyzed efforts to conserve and protect the U.S. outdoor heritage--including parks, wildlife refuges, and open space.

"The report draws a strong link between the availability and quality of these resources and the health of Americans, the economy, and communities nationwide," says a statement by ORRG. "It also points to the tremendous hurdle in securing adequate funding for parks, recreation, and related purposes at the state and local levels, which are on the front line in providing these services."

In the foreword to the report, Senators Bingaman and Alexander said, "Americans all across the country, of all backgrounds and of all political views, care deeply about the health of our land and water resources--the wildlife, parks, forests, farms and ranchlands, and historic places that have sustained and enriched us as a people over generations...We are past due for a serious look at where we stand as a country in achieving our goal of safeguarding these resources...Today, with a new President and a new Administration, we have the opportunity to put our conservation efforts on solid footing for generations to follow."

National Geographic Chairman Gil Grosvenor delivers "Great Outdoors America," a report on the recreational use of the nation's resources, to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. (center), Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. (second from right) and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (right).

NGS photo by Megan Seldon

"Healthy, productive land and water resources, wildlife habitat, parks and open space, culturally and historically significant landscapes, and available and accessible recreation lands are fundamental to the American way of life and our future prosperity," the report notes.

"At stake now and for future generations is the health of our people, our economy, our communities, and the lands and waters on which we depend, in short, the quality of life we enjoy in our cities and towns and rural places."

Independent Conservation Trust Proposed

A key proposal in the report, which is flagged for further study, is the development of an independent conservation trust within the federal establishment, with dedicated and sustained funding reaching U.S. $5 billion annually, the ORRG statement said.

"One potential funding source, the report suggests, could be a percentage of royalties and revenues collected from development of new renewable and conventional energy resources and transmission capacity on public lands and on the outer continental shelf."

NGS photo of Yellowstone National Park by J. Baylor Roberts

The report anticipates conflicts over specific projects if a substantial push is made to develop energy resources on public lands that are valued as wildlife habitat or for recreation. It also calls for a national climate program to help fund the adaptation of land and water resources in a warming world.

The ORRG report is the first major assessment of outdoor resources since the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors in 1987.

Outdoor Pursuits Have Grown in Popularity

"In the more than 20 years since that study, a wide range of outdoor pursuits--including such activities as bird watching, water-related sports, rock climbing, mountain biking, and off-road vehicles--have grown in popularity, even as more traditional activities such as hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing retain strong core followings," ORRG says.

The report recommends creating a new nationwide system of "Blueways" and water trails to energize grassroots activity to improve water quality and water-related recreation opportunities.

NGS photo of Everglades National Park by Robert Sisson

The 17-member ORRG task force was organized by Henry Diamond, partner at Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., an environmental law firm headquartered in Washington, and former commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation; Patrick Noonan, chairman emeritus of The Conservation Fund; and Gilbert Grosvenor, chairman of the board of the National Geographic Society.

Are pollutants causing a surge in cancers in wildlife, threatening the conservation and even survival of some species? And is their fate a flashing light for the health of humans?"

"Cancer is one of the leading health concerns for humans, accounting for more than 10 percent of human deaths," said Denise McAloose, chief pathologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Global Health Program.

"But we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates."

Photo by Sharon Deem

McAloose is the lead author of an article published in the July issue the journal Nature Reviews Cancer, which makes the point that some wild animal species suffer from cancer at the same rates that humans and some species serve as early-warning sentinels for animal and human health.

Many species living within polluted aquatic environments suffer high rates of cancerous tumors, and studies strongly suggest links between wildlife cancers and human pollutants, says the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, in a statement about the research.

"These whales have an extraordinarily high rate of intestinal cancer, which is their second leading cause of death.

"One type of pollutant in these waters--polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs)--is a well-known carcinogen in humans, and PAHs are suspected carcinogens for beluga whales as well."

A beluga whale in New York Aquarium. Wild belugas in the nearby St. Lawrence River system suffer from intestinal cancer.

NGS photo by Winfield Parks

Fish in other industrialized waterways, including brown bullhead catfish and English sole, also exhibit high levels of cancer.

Virus-induced cancers can affect the ability of some wildlife populations to reproduce.

"Genital tumors in California sea lions on North America's western coast occur at much higher rates than previously documented. Oceanic dolphin species, such as the dusky dolphin and Burmeister's porpoise (both found in the coastal waters of South America), are also showing higher rates of genital carcinomas."

Other virus-induced cancers can affect the feeding ability or eyesight of wildlife.

"Green sea turtles--a migratory species in oceans across the globe--suffer from fibropapillomatosis, a disease that causes skin and internal organ tumors. A virus is suspected as the cause these tumors, and environmental factors such as human-manufactured carcinogens might exacerbate their severity or prevalence."

Green turtle with a tumor.

Photo by Cynthia Lagueux

In certain situations, cancer threatens the survival of entire species.

"The Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, is at risk of extinction due to a cancer known as devil facial tumor disease. This form of contagious cancer spreads between individual Tasmanian devils through direct contact (primarily fighting and biting).

The authors highlight the critical need to protect both animals and people through increased health monitoring.

"Monitoring the health of wildlife can illuminate the causes of cancer in animal populations; thereby, better safeguarding animals and humans against possible disease.

"Evaluating cancer threats in wildlife populations requires the collaborative efforts of biologists, veterinarians, and pathologists as well as the earnest engagement of governments and international agencies."

The paper concludes that more resources are necessary to support wildlife health monitoring.

"Examining the impact of cancer in wildlife, in particular those instances when human activities are identified as the cause, can contribute to more effective conservation and fits within the One World-One Health approach of reducing threats to both human and animal health," said William Karesh, vice president and director of WCS's Global Health Program.

Biologists have discovered that amphibian diseases are spread by bait shops.

National Science Foundation illustration by Nicolle Rager-Fuller

Salamander larvae sold as live bait for freshwater fishing may be spreading amphibian diseases, including the chytrid fungus that is killing many of the world's frogs, the National Science Foundation says.

Waterdogs, as the larvae of tiger salamanders are called, are used to catch largemouth bass, channel catfish and other freshwater fishes.

Fishers may be in for more than they bargained for, the NSF said in a statement released yesterday. "Salamanders in bait shops in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are infected with ranaviruses, and those in Arizona, with a chytrid fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)."

These diseases have spread with the global trade in amphibians, says James Collins, assistant director for biological sciences at the NSF. Collins is currently on leave from Arizona State University. "The commercial amphibian bait trade may be a source of 'pathogen pollution,'" he says in the NSF news release. Pathogens are disease-causing agents such as some viruses and bacteria.

The scientists also organized bait-shop surveys to determine whether tiger salamanders are released back into the wild after being housed in shops, the NSF says.

A majority of anglers--as high as 73 percent--in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico uses waterdogs as bait.

Photo by Angela Picco, ASU

"We found that all tiger salamanders that ended up in the bait trade were originally collected from the wild," says Picco. "In general, they were moved from east to west and north to south--bringing with them multiple ranavirus strains."

Results of the research show that 26 to 73 percent of fishers used tiger salamanders as bait; 26 to 67 percent of anglers released tiger salamanders bought as bait into fishing waters; and 4 percent of bait shops put salamanders back in the wild after the waterdogs were housed with infected animals.

"The tiger salamander bait trade in the western U.S. is a good model for understanding the consequences of unregulated movement of amphibians and their pathogens," says Collins.

Examples of pathogen pollution are many and dramatic, the NSF statement says.

Nile Delta vegetable farmer photo by Dean Conger/NGS

The coastal Mediterranean fishery off the Nile Delta has expanded dramatically since the 1980s, thanks to run-off of fertilizers and sewage discharges in the region, according to a researcher at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

Autumn Oczkowski, a URI doctoral student, used stable isotopes of nitrogen to demonstrate that 60 to 100 percent of the current fishery production is supported by nutrients from fertilizer and sewage, according to a university news statement.

Her research is reported today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image of Three Gorges Dam, May 2006, courtesy NASA Earth Observatory

Annual flooding behind the world's largest hydro-electric dam, the Three Gorges Dam in China, will be unlike that of the Amazon River or anything else found in nature.

As the reservoir of Yangtze River water rises and falls by as much as 100 feet every six months there will be a profound impact on the landscape over time, many environmental experts worry.

Among the concerns: The reservoir will contain factory toxins and raw sewage and sediment might cause the water level to rise higher than planned, threatening to flood a large city upstream and possibly even send water spilling over the top of the dam.

But perhaps the flooding phenomenon can also be put to good use, according to a wetlands expert at Ohio State University.

The news was presented to the annual World Water Week conference in Stockholm, capital of Sweden, where 2,500 experts from 140 countries are pondering solutions to the world's water crisis.

The International Water Management Institute told the conference that more than half of farmland near three dozen cities surveyed in developing countries is watered with untreated sewage.

Photo David Alan Harvey/NGS