Monday, September 25th, 2017
Forest fires in Southeast Asia during the El Niño droughts of 2015 caused considerable disruption to the biodiversity of the region due to the smoke-induced haze they created, according to new research published in the Environmental Research Letters journal and led by Benjamin Lee at the University of Kent and the National Parks Board in
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified, according to a study from biologists at Indiana University. The estimate, based on the intersection of large datasets and universal scaling laws, appears today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study’s authors are Jay T.
Monday, May 2nd, 2016
NEW YORK, April 28, 2016—Scientists on an expedition through Madidi National Park—the world’s most biologically diverse protected area— have now discovered seven animal species new to science, finds that were made in 2015 and recently confirmed through careful comparisons with known species, according to the WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and local partners. In total, Bolivian
Tuesday, April 26th, 2016
Large animals play a key role in mitigating climate change in tropical forests across the world by spreading the seeds of large trees that have a high capacity to store carbon, new research co-led by the University of Leeds has said. The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, sheds important new light on the
Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
Aiken, S.C. – Thirty years ago, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, became the site of the world’s largest nuclear accident. While humans are now scarce in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, continued studies—including a just-published camera study conducted by researchers from the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory—validate findings that wildlife populations
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016
States gathering at the United Nations (UN) in New York next week (28 March) will begin work towards an agreement to protect life in the high seas, closing some of the largest legal loopholes in the ocean. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was negotiated more than 30 years ago but
Friday, February 26th, 2016
Aquatic life can suffer when high concentrations of dissolved salts enter freshwater ecosystems, a process known as salinization. An international, multi-institutional team of researchers that includes a Virginia Tech graduate student recommends ways that humans can protect freshwater from salts in an article Friday (Feb. 26) in the journal Science. The recommendations include the use
Wednesday, February 24th, 2016
With forests and farmland, mountains and desert and almost 900 miles of scenic coastline, California’s vast terrain is both dramatic and varied. The newly published “Ecosystems of California” (UC Press, 2016) provides a comprehensive synthesis of this biologically diverse state examining its myriad landscapes through multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and
Thursday, August 13th, 2015
August 13, 2015 — Conservation organisations and space agencies are being called on to join forces to decide how changes in biodiversity can be monitored globally. What, exactly, should be measured by satellites?
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA are funding three demonstration projects that will lay the foundation for the first national network to monitor marine biodiversity at scales ranging from microbes to whales. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) also plans to contribute.
