Scientists: 2023 may be the warmest in the history of weather monitoring in the world

Scientists in the European Union announced that the year 2023 may be the warmest in 125,000 years.

The British "Reuters" agency said that scientists reached this conclusion after analyzing meteorological information on temperatures obtained last October by the European Climate Change Service Copernicus.

Last October, when the average temperature reached 15.3 degrees Celsius above zero, according to scientists, became the warmest month in the history of weather monitoring in the world.

According to Reuters, this warming is due to several reasons, including the emission of greenhouse gases due to the burning of fossil fuels, as well as the natural phenomenon of El Niño, which works to heat the surface of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

 It is noteworthy that a team of Chinese climate scientists reported, last September, that 2023 will be the warmest year ever in history and will break the record for average temperatures on Earth that was recorded in 2016.

Ecologists: Many species of European plants and animals are "threatened with extinction"

From their study of the state of 14.6 thousand species of European plants and animals listed in the Red Book, ecologists concluded that about 19 percent of them are at risk of extinction.

The journal PLoS One points out that, according to researchers, 27 percent of plants and 24 percent of invertebrates in Europe are at risk of extinction.

The report, prepared by an international team of scientists headed by Axel Hochkirch, supervisor of the National Museum of History in Luxembourg, stated: “The results of our analysis of the condition of more than 14.6 thousand species of European plants and animals listed in the Red Book showed that 19 percent of them are at risk of extinction, including 27 percent.” Of plant species, 24 percent of invertebrate species, and 18 percent of vertebrate species.

Combining the results of observations of individual groups of plants and animals has shown that 50 species of European plants and animals have disappeared over the past few decades, and another 75 species are considered extinct. The percentage of species threatened with extinction in the near or medium term is 19 percent of the total number of plants and animals listed in the Red Book.

According to researchers, the most endangered plants and animals live in high mountainous regions in Europe, including the Balkan Mountains and the Alps, where the endemic areas of animal and plant species in Europe are concentrated. Their accelerating disappearance is largely due to the increasing use of these ecological areas by humans, while climate change plays a secondary role in these processes.

The researchers point out that about 2.1 thousand of the plants and animals they studied exist only in Europe. Therefore, this issue must be taken into consideration when developing measures and procedures aimed at preserving biological diversity in these areas.

Russian scientists create a "friend-enemy" system to identify harmful plants

Scientists from the Russian Samara University have created a unique system consisting of a spectrometer and a special neural network to identify and eliminate harmful plants.

The system can identify weeds and distinguish them from others. According to experts, the innovation will allow the development of a sensor, spray device, and spray control system, which will not only allow for the detection of harmful weeds, but also eliminate them immediately, separating them from “useful” plants.

The study results were published in the university lecture journal IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science.

As university scientists have noted, weeds grow very quickly, far outpacing the growth of agricultural plants. They withdraw light, water and nutrients, creating unfavorable conditions for the growth of other crops. Young weeds can also act as an intermediary plant in the spread of diseases, and creeping weeds can complicate the harvesting process, leading to significant crop losses.

Researchers from Samara National Scientific Research University proposed a new method to combat weeds. They have developed a system consisting of an ultra-resolution spectrometer and a special neural network to recognize plants of different species, which is capable of separating weeds from cultivated plants as well as separating different types of agricultural plants.

Roman Skidanov, professor at the Department of Technical Computing, said: “We have obtained a system that will be able to solve some applied problems, primarily in the framework of precision agriculture where the hyperspectral camera developed at our university produces 150 spectral channels. It is not always possible to analyze these "The collection of information using simple methods, so the main result of the work was the creation of a neural network that can recognize three types of plants. In the future, as technology develops, the list of recognized crops will expand."

He pointed out that the developed system will allow the creation of a weed sensor that can be used to specifically destroy them without affecting crop plants. To do this, the device must be used with an automated sprayer, and integrated into a sprayer control system. In addition, a neural network with an ultra-resolution spectrometer can be used as the basis for technical vision systems used in unmanned agricultural vehicles. This system can also be used in aerial surveillance to diagnose plant health and monitor crops.

As Skidanov pointed out, innovation will help save money and reduce the cost of some operations in agriculture. He stressed that "the economic benefits could amount to savings of hundreds of rubles per hectare planted."