SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
And it is time now for our science news roundup from Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. And I am joined by the show's two hosts, Regina Barber and Emily Kwong. Hey there.
REGINA BARBER, BYLINE: Hey.
EMILY KWONG, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: You have brought three science stories that caught your attention this week. What's going on?
BARBER: We have an ambitious plan to protect monarch butterflies from climate change.
KWONG: New research about a massive migration in the world's oceans.
BARBER: And seven new frog species found in Madagascar.
DETROW: I love monarch butterflies, their journeys, everything about them. They're such a beautiful animal.
BARBER: Yeah. So millions of these orange butterflies migrate every year across North America. And unlike birds, monarchs have never made this journey in their lifetimes before. So imagine millions of, like, first-generation monarchs flapping in the sun in the forests of Mexico.
CUAUHTEMOC SAENZ-ROMERO: So usually, you don't listen to flapping of a monarch, but there are so many that you can hear, like, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap. So that is very impressive, and it's very unique.
KWONG: This is Cuauhtemoc Saenz-Romero at the University of Michoacan in Mexico. And like many scientists, Cuauhtemoc wants to protect the monarchs. These butterflies are threatened because of pesticide use, habitat loss but also climate change, which renders these forest sites too warm for monarchs to safely rest in their journey.
DETROW: What is his plan to save them, then?
KWONG: His plan is to save the trees. So Mexico's monarchs - they like to spend the winter in these trees called oyamel, or sacred firs. And Cuauhtemoc wondered, what if we planted oyamel at higher and thus colder elevations, which may be protected for longer from climate change?
DETROW: Interesting - so moving the trees.
KWONG: Yeah.
DETROW: Not like the ents of "Lord Of The Rings" but rather planting them in new locations.
KWONG: Exactly.
BARBER: Yes. This is called assisted migration, similar to work that's been done in Idaho and British Columbia.
DETROW: This is really interesting. How did scientists decide how high up the slope to plant new trees, then?
KWONG: Using statistical modeling, they chose a dormant volcano called Nevado de Toluca. Last winter a giant colony of monarchs showed up there.
DETROW: It would make sense to follow the butterflies' lead.
KWONG: Yeah, absolutely. So in July 2021, community scientists, many from the local tribe, joined Cuauhtemoc's research team in planting over 600 oyamel seedlings up the volcano. And after two years of monitoring, the research team found these seedlings had pretty good survival rates at these higher elevations. They published their results in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change this week.
DETROW: The trees are growing at these higher altitudes.
KWONG: Yeah.
DETROW: They're going well, but this is a long-term play. How are they going to...
KWONG: Yeah.
DETROW: ...Make sure that the butterflies are actually going there down the line?
BARBER: Yeah. It's a gamble. Critics say we shouldn't be taking such an active role to change the forest. And the paper itself says monarchs may not even use these sites, so only time will tell.
KWONG: And climate change is happening fast. So Scott Hoffman Black, the executive director at the Xerces Society, understands the urgency of plans like these. I mean, planting trees is a proactive step. Other species may use these trees someday. And Scott emphasized that work must continue to protect the current oyamel trees where they stand in Mexico.
DETROW: What is the next migration we're going to be talking about here today?
BARBER: Plankton migration, specifically a bioluminescent plant plankton. And what's interesting is the word plankton comes from the Greek word for wanderer because these microscopic organisms at the base of the, like, entire marine food web were thought to just drift up and down with the tide and currents.
KWONG: Scientists have known about this movement from deeper waters to the surface for more than a century, but they didn't know how these plankton were doing this. And a new study out this week in Current Biology may provide some answers.
DETROW: What do they find in it?
KWONG: All right, so a team of Stanford researchers took samples off the coast of Hawaii, and they found that these plankton travel vertically, just from around 250 feet or 75 meters deep in the sea all the way up to the surface of the ocean.
BARBER: Yeah. And then the researchers then built a device in the lab that allowed them to, like, simulate that journey and study what's happening with these plankton along the way. And they found that they do this by inflating up to six times their original size and filtering fresh water into themselves.
DETROW: I'm just picturing quickly leaving an awkward social interaction by just puffing myself up and flying away.
BARBER: Yeah. That's right.
DETROW: Got to go.
BARBER: Just floating away from the situation...
KWONG: Right.
BARBER: ...From the depths. Here's one of the researchers, Manu Prakash. This is how he describes it.
MANU PRAKASH: It's almost as if the cell is a tiny, little desalination plant, and it's pumping these sets of water to change its buoyancy.
BARBER: This pumping action makes the plankton less dense, letting them travel straight up to the surface instead of, like, relying on water currents.
DETROW: This is interesting. Do they know why they're doing it, though?
BARBER: Yeah. So these plankton are plants. So they eat by photosynthesizing, which requires light. And they can only get like that by going much closer to the ocean's surface because at 75 meters down, there isn't much light.
KWONG: So they're doing it to eat. And this migration is a life cycle. Plankton float up. Then they sink back deep down. Manu said the cycle happens every seven days. But once a plankton gets to the surface, it will actually divide into two new cells, and those new baby plankton sink down and go through the whole cycle again.
DETROW: I really like this mental image. It seems soothing.
BARBER: Yeah.
KWONG: Yeah.
DETROW: Let's shift back to Land and to Madagascar and these newly discovered frogs, Regina.
BARBER: Yeah. So seven new species of frogs - they were described in Madagascar, and they're not just any frogs.
KWONG: Oh, no.
BARBER: They're named after "Star Trek" characters.
KWONG: Oh, yes.
DETROW: From which series, though?
KWONG: Oh.
DETROW: Or are we just going across the "Star Trek" genre with these frogs?
BARBER: Scott, it's, like, everybody, OK? So, like, researchers - first, they say they named these things because it sounds like "Star Trek" sound effects, like the communicator. But I don't really think it does. I do love the names, though.
MARK SCHERZ: We have Captain Kirk's frog, which Boophis kirki...
(SOUNDBITE OF CAPTAIN KIRK'S FROG CHIRPING)
SCHERZ: ...Captain Picard's frog, which is Boophis picardi...
(SOUNDBITE OF CAPTAIN PICARD'S FROG CHIRPING)
SCHERZ: ...Pikei - Boophis pikei and Boophis archeri for Captain Pike and Captain Archer.
DETROW: I can hear the "Star Trek"-esque...
BARBER: Kind of, right?
DETROW: Yeah.
KWONG: Is it like they're being beamed? Is that what they're trying to convey?
BARBER: No, it's - the old communicator sound in the original series...
KWONG: Oh.
BARBER: ...That they're trying to get to. But...
KWONG: Got it. All right.
BARBER: It's getting into some, like, deep cuts with, like, "Star Trek" names...
DETROW: Yeah.
BARBER: ...Because Mark Scherz is a huge Trekkie. Mark's the amphibian and reptile curator at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. And he's the senior author on the paper describing these frogs, which came out this week in the journal Vertebrate Zoology.
DETROW: Pulling myself away from the "Star Trek" aspect of the story. What...
KWONG: What restraint (laughter).
DETROW: Thank you. You know, sometimes it's tough work.
KWONG: Yeah.
DETROW: What do these frogs look like?
KWONG: They all look pretty identical, honestly. Even one of the researchers has a hard time telling them apart, but I can tell you they're an inch long, brown with striking eyes. They're so similar-looking, though, that the whistles are what really set them apart and they're genetic information...
DETROW: Interesting.
KWONG: ...Among other things. Yeah.
BARBER: And Mark says the names of these, like, seven new species are meant to convey a sense of wonder in nature and all the undiscovered.
SCHERZ: "Star Trek" is about science. It's about discovery. It's about exploration and the importance of those things to humanity and our place in the universe.
KWONG: That's right. There are over 400 amphibian species in Madagascar right now. But Mark guesses there could be hundreds more that scientists have not described.
BARBER: Yeah. And just under half of known amphibians on Madagascar are threatened. And even just describing species, like in this paper, can help conservation efforts by understanding them better.
DETROW: We have been talking with Emily Kwong and Regina Barber from NPR's science podcast, Short Wave. Subscribe now for new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines. Instead of saying goodbye to both of you, I will say, live long and prosper.
KWONG: Wow.
BARBER: Yes. Live long and prosper.
KWONG: Live long and prosper to you, too.
DETROW: We all did...
BARBER: Yeah.
DETROW: ...The hand.
BARBER: We did.
KWONG: Oh, yeah, the Vulcan...
DETROW: Yeah.
KWONG: ...Salute.
BARBER: Yeah. I did it with my left hand, even. That's harder (laughter).
KWONG: Thank you so much, Scott.
BARBER: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOLA YOUNG SONG, "CONCEITED") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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