The new T (2016) movie is a magical live-action computer-animated film featuring the voices of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken and other greats. The film features all of our favorite T

We asked various experts in the LSU College of Science and LSU Museum of Natural ScienceRewrite: Discover more about the diverse animal and plant life featured in the movie. Immerse yourself in the world of fauna and flora and get ready to be entertained. Enjoy!

Things You May Not Know by Becky Carmichael, Disturbance Ecologist and Science Coordinator with Communication Across the Curriculum.

9. In T, Mowgli Elephants live in these forests and have long been associated with the management of these fires. Recently, an elephant herd in India accidentally started a wildfire, but they also helped to put it out. Indian dry deciduous forests have experienced man-made fires for 50,000 years. Elephants, who inhabit these forests, have a long-standing relationship with the management of these fires. Recently, an elephant herd in India accidentally started a wildfire, but they also assisted with extinguishing it. Thanks to their quick thinking and natural instincts, the fire was brought under control before it spread too far. This incident serves as a reminder of the vital role that elephants play in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.

Fire has had an impact on the landscapes of India for millennia, both through natural occurrences and through the actions of humans. Dry deciduous forests with large amounts of combustible grasses, savannas, and Himalayan longleaf pine forests are exposed to periodic fires that are started by lightning strikes during the transition from dry to monsoon seasons. These fires can release essential nutrients, reduce competition, and can even encourage the growth of new vegetation.

In T, the animals know fire and what organism “controls” it. Some estimates suggest that about 90% of all forest fires are anthropogenicPeople have played an integral role in the occurrence of fires to maintain desirable landscapes for grazing livestock, engaging in shifting cultivation, acquiring forest products such as honey, and to ward off dangerous wildlife. As a result, the flora and fauna in these ecosystems have developed mechanisms to either flee or withstand recurrent fire events in these areas.

Things You May Not Know by Sophie Warny, associate professor in the LSU Department of Geology & Geophysics and Curator in the LSU Museum of Natural Science

10. T story of the Peace Rock emerging in a drought season parallels climate changes today.

The story of Mowgli is set in the lush jungles of India, where an intense drought threatened the survival of the animals and the tropical forest. The shortage of water led to a truce between the animals, forbidding them from preying on one another. But when the drought finally breaks, Shere Khan, the Bengal Tiger, is ready to end the truce and hunt down Mowgli.

In regard to the drought, the movie poignantly connects life to climate. Protecting life as it is in the face of a shifting climate is a complex matter. Louisiana locals understand all too well the struggles one can experience adapting to the impacts of a rising temperature and related sea-level rise, higher precipitation, and more severe hurricane activity in the Gulf.

Understanding the variability of climate and predicting how the Earth system will respond to changes is not an easy task.  Modelers have to combine the various effects influencing our climate to predict its future. Studying past climatic changes and understanding their driving forces is one of the research areas conducted in the LSU Department of Geology & Geophysics and Museum of Natural ScienceAnthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are one of the factors that are having an effect on the current climate. However, there are many natural components that have been influencing the Earth’s climate over geological time and continue to do so today. These include plate tectonics, weathering, vegetation cover, albedo (the proportion of light reflected by the Earth’s surface), and Earth orbital cycles, to name a few. All these variables, both human-induced and natural, can interact with each other in positive or negative ways, ultimately impacting our future climate.

Understanding India’s climatic history requires a grasp of its current monsoonal system. The monsoon brings abundant rainfall to India during the summer months, as land temperatures rise more quickly than the ocean, drawing humid air from the sea towards the land. This moisture-laden air then rises along the high Himalayan Mountains, cools, and condenses, resulting in precipitation. Conversely, during the winter, the land cools quicker than the ocean, with dry, cooler air moving inland and towards the ocean. This pattern of hot, wet summers and cold, dry winters is perhaps what Rudyard Kipling had in mind when he wrote his works. If the life-giving summer rains fail, the whole of India is adversely affected.

Bonus Fact: LSU researchers are using ancient pollen to study the history of monsoons in India

Because the Indian monsoonal system is directly linked to the current tropical position of the subcontinent and the massive development of the Himalayan mountains, we know it did not always exist, and certainly not in its current intensity. To date, the inception and quantify the evolution of the Indian summer monsoon, the IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) acquired a series of cores (samples of sediments extracted by drilling) in the Arabian Sea from March to May 2015. According to the expedition leaders, Dr. Dhananjai Pandey and Dr. Peter CliftThe purpose of IODP Expedition 355 was to gain insight into the relationship between the uplift of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau and the evolution of the Indian summer monsoon. By studying the Arabian Sea sediment records and other evidence, scientists hoped to better understand the monsoon and its impact on the region. By analyzing the data collected during the expedition, researchers were able to gain a better understanding of the history of the monsoon and its effects on the environment. Additionally, the expedition provided valuable information about the effects of climate change on the Indian summer monsoon, helping to inform future climate change models.

The palynological lab at LSU (CENEX)Rewriting the HTML content in English for higher ranking: Our team has been selected to conduct a palynological analysis of Arabian Sea cores. This analysis will involve the extraction of pollen and spores that were deposited in the sediments over the last 23 million years. We will work to identify these particles, as well as reconstruct the ancient vegetation that produced them. This will enable us to infer the climatic conditions that existed at the time of sediment deposition. Our investigation will provide evidence for the beginning of the monsoonal system and indicate any potential strengthening or weakening of the system over the geological timeframe of the cores. Our work is ongoing.