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Doug Yanega studies insects for a living, yet he has repeatedly missed out on one of North America's most awe-inspiring entomological events: the septdecennial (meaning once every 17 years) emergence of a swarms of cicadas known as Brood X.
Biodiversity faces its biggest threat. Can humans offer salvation instead of a death sentence? The planet is facing its sixth mass extinction, the first in 65 million years. And biodiversity is in peril.
Around 6,000 years ago, more than two-thirds of Europe was covered in forest, a 2018 study found. But because of land clearing for agriculture and the use of wood for fuel, that number has more than halved, and today only around one third of Europe is woodland. In some countries like the UK and ...
More than a fifth of the world’s reptile species are threatened with extinction, according to a global assessment of more than 10,000 species, which shows crocodiles and turtles are among the most at-risk.
The task of training an effective cadre of biodiversity scientists has grown more challenging in recent years, as foundational skills and knowledge in organismal biology have increasingly required complementary data skills and knowledge. Writing in BioScience, Dr. Anna K. Monfils, of Central Mic ...
The task of training an effective cadre of biodiversity scientists has grown more challenging in recent years, as foundational skills and knowledge in organismal biology have increasingly required complementary data skills and knowledge.
When you imagine a visit to a natural history museum, the first thing that springs to mind could be dinosaur bones or taxidermized animals.
Humanity is closer than ever to irreversible climate breakdown 60 years on from the birth of the modern green movement, the head of the Environment Agency will warn today.
Researchers studied the impact of non-native plants on the Carolina chickadee, an ideal representative for bird species in the eastern and southeastern US.
Although bumblebees and honeybees get all the attention, other bees are just as important to a thriving ecosystem. According to recent research, pollinator diversity is far more important than the bees that are frequently in the spotlight.
For decades, scientists have wrestled with rival theories to explain how interactions between species, like competition, influence biodiversity. Tracking microbial life across the planet, researchers from McGill University show that biodiversity does in fact foster further diversity in microbiom ...
A Spanish and French team of researchers including Universidad de Alicante (UA) researcher Santiago Soliveres, members of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, the National Agronomy Research Institute of France (INRA) and the Spanish National Research Council has studied the multiple facets of vegeta ...
Biodiversity losses in countries with smaller, less-developed economies, impact large, developed economies, according to a new study.
Since 1500, Earth has lost around a tenth of its 2 million known species. Experts have recently confirmed that the planet’s sixth mass extinction is underway - and it's being caused by human activity.
Biodiversity throughout the globe might be in a worse state than beforehand thought as present biodiversity assessments fail to bear in mind the lengthy-lasting effect of abrupt land modifications, a brand new examine has warned.
The most diverse bee communities have the lowest levels of three common viral pathogens. A new U.S. National Science Foundation-funded analysis of thousands of native and non-native Michigan bees shows that the most diverse bee communities have the lowest levels of three common viral pathogens.
Truly grasping the importance of biodiversity means diving down into the microscopic organisms in our soils and out to human social relationships affecting our ecosystems. The more we know, the better we can address threats to species diversity.
The Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) approved the Summary for Policy Makers of the Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature on 9 July 2022 in its ninth plenary meeting in Bonn, Germany.
Animal and plant species are disappearing at alarming rates. Imperial scientists discuss what’s needed to tackle this global challenge.
A new study, involving dozens of researchers working in 100 countries, estimates the world to have 73,300 species of tree, with 9,000 not even yet discovered. It is thought 40% of all undiscovered tree species are in South America.
Nearly half of the food eaten in the UK is grown abroad. Take your morning tea or coffee. These are just two of the many crops grown in tropical and sub-tropical climates that depend on animal pollination and countless other services provided by wildlife before they can reach our kitchen tables. ...
Biodiversity experts are calling for the preservation of often endangered wild species, which could provide food and income for billions worldwide.
Africa is home to more than half the world’s biodiversity. The continent is full of knowledge to maximize the use of abundant nature while living in harmony. Insightful presentations by African delegations, together with JICA’s intervention on its activities in Africa, will provide the partici ...
The world faces an increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a shortage of carbon in the soil. However, bioenergy sorghum can provide meaningful relief from both problems, according to a new study by Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists.
A study published in Cretaceous Research expands the paleontological richness of continental fossils of the Lower Cretaceous with the discovery of a new water plant (charophytes), the species Mesochara dobrogeica.
A recent study by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences uncovered the distinct biogeographical patterns of bacterial communities and ARG (antibiotic resistance genes) profiles in inland waters of southeast China under low-anthropogenic impact at a large scale.
Can the biodiversity of ecosystems be considered a factor of production? A group of researchers under the direction of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are studying the economic benefits that farmers and foresters can obtain by focusing on several species instead of just one.
The decline in biodiversity and the associated loss of plant species are greatly affecting ecosystems. Thus far, this has been shown by studies in the so-called grasslands, i.e. in areas that are not covered by buildings or are dominated by woody vegetation. A team of biologists from the Univers ...
Biologists led by the University of Iowa discovered the presence of the invasive New Zealand mud snail by detecting their DNA in waters they were inhabiting incognito.
The brains of most fish and amphibian species contain two types of conspicuously large nerve cells. These are the largest cells found in any animal brain. They are called Mauthner cells and trigger lightning-fast escape responses when predators approach.
The era of COVID-19 and the need to constantly wash one's hands and sanitize things have brought microbes to new levels of scrutiny, particularly for their impact on an individual's health.
For nearly 100 years, biologists have argued about how exactly natural selection can possibly work. If nature selects the individuals with the best genes, then why aren't all organisms the same? What maintains the genetic variation that natural selection acts upon, the genetic variation that has ...
The recent discovery of a new lineage of microbes has overturned biologists' understanding of the evolution of complex life on Earth. Genomic studies of Asgard archaea revealed that they carry many genes previously thought to be found only in nucleus-bearing eukaryotes, suggesting they may be cl ...
An insect larva found in the caves of Intervales State Park, an Atlantic Rainforest remnant in the municipality of Ribeirão Grande, São Paulo State, Brazil, was initially of no interest to the research group led by biochemist Vadim Viviani, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UF ...
Who among us hasn’t stared up at a hawk or a vulture circling lazily in the sky and wondered how they stay aloft so long? Or wondered how sky-darkening flocks of migrating birds can travel thousands of miles so quickly and so effortlessly?
Science and engineering have consistently looked to nature to improve upon new or existing technology. Biomimicry has helped shape and create some of your favorite everyday products and even services.
Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed biosensors that make it possible to monitor sugar levels in real time deep in the plant tissues—something that has previously been impossible. The information from the sensors may help agriculture to adapt production as the world faces ...
With the help of trees, microplastic-polluted soils could be remediated. For the first time, researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have shown that birch trees absorb microplastics through their roots during the growth phase.
A team of researchers from Indonesia and Singapore has found evidence of the continued existence of a bird long thought extinct. In their paper published in the journal BirdingASIA, the team describes the history of the bird, why it was thought to be extinct and how it was found in Borneo.
When European settlers began arriving to eastern North America in the 16th century, they were met by staggering numbers of seabirds.
Many birds are able to change their egg-laying date to cope with variable conditions, new research shows.The study examined birds and mammals, and found birds in particular showed the ability to find the "optimum" laying date.
A bird study led by the Australian National University (ANU) provides new understanding of the ways birds and mammals respond to a rapidly warming world.
Coffee grown under a tree canopy is promoted as good habitat for birds, but recent University of Delaware research shows that some of these coffee farms may not be as friendly to our feathered friends as advertised.
Diversity plays a key role in maintaining the stability of plant and animal life in an area. But it's difficult to scale up smaller experiments to understand how changes will impact larger ecosystems.
The tweets of a little song sparrow and its "bird brain" are a lot more complex and akin to human language than anyone realized. A new study finds that male sparrows deliberately shuffle and mix their song repertoire possibly as a way to keep it interesting for their female audience.
Every year, billions of songbirds migrate thousands of miles between Europe and Africa—and then repeat that same journey again, year after year, to nest in exactly the same place that they chose on their first great journey.
For a long while, it was assumed that only humans have personalities or can exercise self-control. Now, biologists are beginning to discover that birds and other wild animals share these traits with humans.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, an increase in people taking an interest in birdwatching revealed our deep need to connect with nature and community during stressful times. It demonstrated the link between engagement with the natural world and social activism.
A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in France has recorded the details and characteristics of an undersea volcano that was born in 2018. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the group describes the volcano as the largest undersea eruption ever recorded.
A small team of researchers from Switzerland, the U.S., Italy and Peru reports evidence that suggests ancestors of modern sperm whales were used as fat sources by ancient sharks.