Showing 20 articles starting at article 201

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Environmental: Biodiversity, Geoscience: Volcanoes

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Hydrothermal vents and manganese nodule fields in the deep oceans contain more biodiversity than expected.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have called for simple, effective steps to cut the number of people bitten by venomous snakes.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Ecologists have long known that standing dead trees, commonly referred to as snags, are an important habitat element for forest dwellers and act as a driver of biodiversity. They're so important that in some managed forests, snag creation is part of the conservation tool kit -- i.e., crews sometimes convert a percentage of live trees into dead ones through techniques ranging from sawing off their tops to wounding their trunks to injecting them with disease-causing fungi.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New worldwide maps of temperatures inside tropical forests show that global warming affect different way in different parts of the forests. Undergrowth level temperature of the tropical forests can be even 4 degrees less than average temperature of the area.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex form. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of morphological complexity in streptophytes, which include land plants and many green algae. Their research allowed them to go back in time to investigate lineages that emerged long before land plants existed.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An online survey conducted in Germany and Poland shows that large parts of the participants support the return of large carnivores and herbivores, such as wolves and elk, to the Oder Delta region. Presented with different rewilding scenarios, the majority of survey participants showed a preference for land management that leads to the comeback of nature to the most natural state possible. Locals, on the other hand, showed some reservations.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The collaboration between scientists, farmers and managers is crucial to improve the protection of the little bustard, an endangered steppe-land bird in Spain due to human activity. The reduction of natural habitats, the increase in irrigation and the urbanization of the land have led to having less surface areas that guarantee the survival of this vulnerable species.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Protecting the world ocean against accelerating damage from human activities could be cheaper and take up less space than previously thought, new research has found.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Southern Africa contains the vast majority of the world's remaining populations of both black and white rhinoceroses (80% and 92%, respectively). The region's climate is changing rapidly as a result global warming. Traditional conservation efforts aimed at protecting rhinos have focused on poaching, but until now, there has been no analysis of the impact that climate change may have on the animals. A research team has recently reported that, though the area will be affected by both higher temperatures and changing precipitation, the rhinos are more sensitive to rising temperatures, which will quickly increase above the animals' acceptable maximum threshold.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research has determined key factors that impact biodiversity among spiders and insects in urban areas. The response of specific groups varied significantly, surprising the researchers. The study findings can help urban planners, landscapers, builders and homeowners make choices that increase biodiversity. Dozens of species previously unknown to science came to light through the study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Some invasive plants can form persistent banks of seeds that remain under the soil for years, and this makes their eradication practically impossible. Over time, this invisible population of large quantities of living, buried plants -- in seed form -- will reoccupy ecosystems and displace the typical flora of the natural environment.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Beaches and dunes globally squeezed by roads and buildings. Beaches and dunes are becoming increasingly trapped between rising sea levels and infrastructure. Researchers found that today, when dropped on a random beach anywhere in the world, you only need to walk 390 meters (on average) to find the nearest road or building. And while that short walking distance may seem convenient if you want a day at the beach, it's bad news for our protection against rising sea levels, drinking water supplies and biodiversity.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research using thermal imaging of numbats in Western Australia has found that during hot weather the endangered animals are limited to as little as ten minutes of activity in the sun before they overheat to a body temperature of greater than 40 C.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study shows how state-of-the-art methods and perspectives from archaeology, history, and palaeoecology are shedding new light on 5,500 years of urban life.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Record heat across the world profoundly impacted the global water cycle in 2023, contributing to severe storms, floods, megadroughts and bushfires, new research shows.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international group of researchers finds that conserving about half of global land area could maintain nearly all of nature's contributions to people and still meet biodiversity targets for tens of thousands of species. But the same priority areas are at risk of conflict with human development with only 18% of that land area protected.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Peatlands are affected more by drought than expected. This is concerning, as these ecosystems are an important ally in the fight against climate change. Following long periods of drought, peat is able to absorb little to no extra carbon (CO2). Increasing biodiversity also does little to make peat more drought-resilient.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have found almost identical patterns of tree diversity across the world's tropical forests. The study of over one million trees across 1,568 locations found that just 2.2% of tree species make up 50% of the total number of trees in tropical forests across Africa, the Amazon, and Southeast Asia. Each continent consists of the same proportion of a few common species and many rare species.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The red-swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is a highly invasive species native to American freshwaters but has also invaded many freshwater ecosystems around the world. Now, researchers conducted a comparative analysis to compare reproductive characteristics of American crayfish with Japanese crayfish. They identified morphological characteristics which can aid in distinguishing the invasive properties of crayfish at the peak of their reproductive form, ultimately assisting in their effective population control.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study describes nine new species of carnivorous land snails, all of which are so small they could fit together on a U.S. nickel. They present a rare opportunity to study a group that in many other places is disappearing fast. Worldwide, mollusks account for more than 50% of all recorded extinctions since the year 1500, and many of these were land snails from Pacific islands.