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For decades, scientists believed Prochlorococcus, the smallest and most abundant phytoplankton on Earth, would thrive in a warmer world. But new research suggests the microscopic bacterium, which forms the foundation of the marine food web and helps regulate the planets climate, will decline sharply as seas heat up. A study published Monday in the journal Nature Microbiology found Prochlorococcus populations could shrink by as much as half in tropical oceans over the next 75 years if surface waters exceed about 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27.8 Celsius). Many tropical and subtropical sea surface temperatures are already trending above average and are projected to regularly surpass 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) over that same period. These are keystone species very important ones, said François Ribalet, a research associate professor at the University of Washingtons School of Oceanography and the studys lead author. And when a keystone species decreases in abundance, it always has consequences on ecology and biodiversity. The food web is going to change. These tiny organisms hold a vital role in ocean life Prochlorococcus inhabit up to 75% of Earths sunlit surface waters and produce about one-fifth of the planets oxygen through photosynthesis. More crucially, Ribalet said, they convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into food at the base of the marine ecosystem. In the tropical ocean, nearly half of the food is produced by Prochlorococcus, he said. Hundreds of species rely on these guys. Though other forms of phytoplankton may move in and help compensate for the loss of oxygen and food, Ribalet cautioned they are not perfect substitutes. Evolution has made this very specific interaction, he said. Obviously, this is going to have an impact on this very unique system that has been established. The findings challenge decades of assumptions that Prochlorococcus would thrive as waters warmed. Those predictions, however, were based on limited data from lab cultures. For this study, Ribalet and his team tested water samples while traversing the Pacific over the course of a decade. Over 100 research cruises the equivalent of six trips around the globe they counted some 800 billion individual cells taken from samples at every kilometer. In his lab at the University of Washington, Ribalet demonstrated the SeaFlow, a box filled with tubes, wires and a piercing blue laser. The custom-built device continuously pulls in seawater, which allowed the team to count the microbes in real time. We have counted more Prochlorococcus than there are stars in the Milky Way, Ribalet said. Experts warn of big consequences Paul Berube, a research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies Prochlorococcus but was not involved in the work, said the breadth of data is groundbreaking. And he said the results fit with what is known about the microbes streamlined genome, which makes it less adaptable to rapid environmental changes. Theyre at the very base of the food web, and they feed everything else the fish eat the things that eat the phytoplankton and we eat the fish, he said. When changes are being made to the planet that influence these particular organisms that are essentially feeding us, thats going to have big consequences. To test whether Prochlorococcus might evolve to withstand hotter conditions, Ribalets team modeled a hypothetical heat-tolerant strain but found that even those would not be enough to fully resist the warmest temperature if greenhouse emissions keep rising, Ribalet said. He stressed that the studys projections are conservative and dont account for the impacts of plastic pollution or other ecological stressors. We actually tried to put forth the best-case scenario, Ribalet said. In reality, things may be worse. Steven Biller, an associate professor at Wellesley College, said the projected declines are scary but plausible. He noted Prochlorococcus form part of the invisible forests of the ocean tiny organisms most people never think about, but are essential to human survival. Half of all photosynthesis is happening in the oceans and Prochlorococcus is a really important part of that, Biller said. The magnitude of the potential impact is kind of striking. Biller, Berube and Ribalet said that while other microbes may compensate somewhat, the broader risks to biodiversity and fisheries are real. We know what drives global warming. There is no debate among the scientific community, Ribalet said. We need to curb greenhouse gas emissions. He hopes the findings bring more attention to tropical oceans, which could serve as natural laboratories for warming adaptations and as early warning signals for ecological collapse. For the first time, I want to be wrong. I would love to be wrong, he said. But these are data-driven results. Annika Hammerschlag, Associated Press The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a civil jury’s finding that President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for his repeated social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist after she accused him of sexual assault. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s appeal of the defamation award, finding that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable. Trump had argued the damages were unreasonably excessive and pushed for a new trial in light of the Supreme Courts expansion of presidential immunity. But the appeals court roundly rejected those arguments, writing that Trumps extraordinary and unprecedented broadsides against Carroll justified the steep award. Given the unique and egregious facts of this case, we conclude that the punitive damages award did not exceed the bounds of reasonableness, the three-judge panel concluded. Attorneys for Trump didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the decision. Earlier today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed, in a comprehensive 70-page ruling, that E. Jean Carroll was telling the truth, and that President Donald Trump was not,” Kaplan wrote in a statement, noting that her client had received threats during the legal process and that they look forward to an end to the appellate process. The ruling centered on the second and far more expensive of two defamation awards issued to Carroll over Trumps yearslong attacks on her character, which began after she accused Trump in her 2019 memoir of sexually assaulting her decades-earlier at a Manhattan department store. In her memoir and again at a 2023 trial, Carroll described how a chance encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodmans Fifth Avenue in 1996 started with the two flirting as they shopped, then ended with a violent struggle inside a dressing room. Carroll said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. At the initial trial, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault, but concluded he hadnt committed rape as defined under New York law. Trump repeatedly denied that the encounter took place and accused Carroll of making it up to help sell her book. He also said that Carroll was not my type. The 2023 jury awarded Carroll $5 million to compensate her for both the alleged attack and statements Trump made denying that it had happened. After that first verdict, the court held a second trial with a new jury for the purpose of deciding damages for additional statements Trump made attacking Carrolls character and truthfulness. Trump skipped the first trial but attended the second, which took place as he was running for president in 2024. Speaking to reporters throughout the second trial, Trump portrayed the lawsuit as part of a broader effort to smear him and prevent him from regaining the White House. His lawyers complained that the judge, in setting rules for the damages trial, had barred Trump and his defense team from claiming in front of the jury that he was innocent of the attack. The judge ruled that that issue had been settled by the first jury and didnt need to be revisited. In its ruling Monday, the appeals court agreed, concluding that the trial judge did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jurys duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case. Jake Offenhartz, Associated Press
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The Department of Government Efficiency made its reputation on staff cuts. Under Elon Musk, DOGE slashed the federal payroll in the name of cost-cutting. Now, the divisions new leader is urging the government to start hiring again. Amy Gleason, acting head of DOGE, spoke last week at the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association International Health IT Summit about the need to hire and empower great talent in government. “There’s not enough tech talent here,” she said at the time. “We need more of it.” That’s a pretty major reversal for DOGE. While the government hasnt provided an exact tally of layoffs earlier this year, The New York Times estimates 135,000 employees were fired or resigned, with another 150,000 at risk. Gleason isnt calling for all of them to return, but she did argue for hiring more technical staff to modernize outdated government systems within five years. That plan faces immediate obstacles. The government remains under a hiring freeze, extended twice already, through at least October 15. (And it has already been extended twice, once in April and once again in July.) It’s also something of an open question as to which of those public-facing systems will continue. The Trump administration canceled the IRS Direct File programending free online tax filing for eligible taxpayers after just one seasonand ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to halt nearly all operations, effectively shuttering the agency. (The CFPB relies on user-submitted complaints to detect wrongdoing.) Gleason was named acting administrator of DOGE in February, and has kept a low profile during her tenure, never appearing alongside Trump on any public comments about DOGEs work since being named to the role. (The White House did not respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment.) Since its creation early in Trumps presidency, DOGE has been mired in controversy. It claims to have saved $205 billion, but those figures are widely disputed. An independent tracker, The Musk Watch DOGE Tracker, estimates savings closer to $16.3 billion. Musk initially promised DOGE would save $2 trillion. By March, he lowered the target to $1 trillion. Then at an April cabinet meeting, he scaled it back again, telling Trump and other officials that DOGE now expected to cut $150 billion during the 2026 fiscal yearwhich runs from October 2025 through September 2026, months after the agency is scheduled to be disbanded. An expansion of government hiring would add even more volatility to those numbers, should government officials take Gleason’s suggestion. The hiring would be slow, even if the freeze ends, however. Under new rules set by Trump, government agencies will only be able to hire one person for every four workers who leave.
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