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Categories: Archaeology: General, Environmental: Ecosystems

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An international team of research scientists has documented the central role of vegetation for Arctic warming. The new results allow us to make more precise climate predictions, with the researchers pointing out that current models remain flawed.

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For millennia, caves have served as shelters for prehistoric humans. Caves have also intrigued scholars from early Chinese naturalists to Charles Darwin. A cave ecologist has been in and out of these subterranean ecosystems, examining the unique life forms -- and unique living conditions -- that exist in Earth's many caves. But what does that suggest about caves on other planetary bodies? In two connected studies, engineers, astrophysicists, astrobiologists and astronauts lay out the research that needs to be done to get us closer to answering the old-age question about life beyond Earth.

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Over a decade, manta ray populations increased significantly in Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia, highlighting the importance of long-term conservation and management measures such as well-enforced Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and fisheries regulations, says a researcher.

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The preserved footprints found in New Mexico's Lake Otero Basin would upend scientific understanding of how, and when, humans first arrived in North America, if they are accurately dated. A new study brings the age claim into question.

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Researchers are using dust trapped in glacier ice in Tibet to document past changes in Earth's intricate climate system -- and maybe one day help predict future changes.

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The first-ever family tree for aquarium-bred corals provides insights for maximizing genetic diversity and adaptability in corals bred for conservation.

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Researchers report evidence the formation of K'gari and the Great Barrier Reef are linked to a change in the magnitude of sea-level rise and fall due to major climate feedback changes during the Middle Pleistocene Transition.

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The remains of a huge carp fish mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years, according to researchers.

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On average, about half of trees planted in tropical and sub-tropical forest restoration efforts do not survive more than five years, but there is enormous variation in outcomes, new research has found.

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Archeologists have identified one of the largest known sacred buildings of the Etruscans. The temple's strata offer insights into more than 1000 years of development of one of the most important Etruscan cities. The newly discovered temple is roughly the same size and on a similar alignment as the neighboring Tempio Grande, and was built at roughly the same Archaic time. This duplication of monumental buildings in an Etruscan city is rare, and indicates an exceptional finding.

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Almost one fourth of Sweden's last unprotected old-growth forest was logged between 2003 and 2019. At this rate, all of these ecologically unique and valuable forests will be lost in about 50 years. These findings add to the growing body of evidence for widespread cryptic forest degradation across the global north.

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Researchers have unearthed an ivory comb from 1700 BCE inscribed with a plea to eradicate lice. The finding provides direct evidence for the use of the Canaanite alphabet in daily activities some 3700 years ago.

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Extreme heat often follows tropical cyclones, which can complicate disaster recovery even further, researchers have found.

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For centuries, Indigenous communities in the American Southwest imported colorful parrots from Mexico. But according to a recent study, some parrots may have been captured locally and not brought from afar. The research challenges the assumption that all parrot remains found in American Southwest archaeological sites have their origins in Mexico. It also presents an important reminder: The ecology of the past can be very different from what we see today.

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A litany of negative environmental pressures have had little to no effect on sand dollars and heart urchins in the Florida Keys, a new study shows. Scientists arrived at this unexpected conclusion after surveying 27 sites along a 20-mile stretch of coast near Long Key island. Five of the seven most common species known to inhabit the Florida Keys were present and accounted for in the survey and formed robust populations at varying depths.

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The island of Madagascar -- one of the last large land masses colonized by humans - -sits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) off the coast of East Africa. While it's still regarded as a place of unique biodiversity, Madagascar long ago lost all its large-bodied vertebrates, including giant lemurs, elephant birds, turtles, and hippopotami. A human genetic study now links these losses in time with the first major expansion of humans on the island, around 1,000 years ago.

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Plants need light to grow. However, due to excess nutrients and/or the absence of herbivores less light can reach lower vegetation layers in grasslands. Consequently, few fast-growing species dominate and plant diversity declines. So far, this relationship has been established indirectly through experiments, but never directly by means of experimentally adding light in the field. Now biologists have been able to experimentally demonstrate the dominant role of light competition.

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The invasive spotted wing drosophila (SWD) is a well-known pest in agriculture. A recent study by Swiss scientists now shows that the forest ecosystem is also affected by this alien insect. SWD infests the fruits of various forest plants and competes with other fruit-eating species. The decay of fruits attacked by SWD leads to a loss of resources, which can cause considerable ecological damage.

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Using DNA from two ancient humans unearthed in two different archaeological sites in northeast Brazil, researchers have unraveled the deep demographic history of South America at the regional level with some surprising results. Not only do they provide new genetic evidence supporting existing archaeological data of the north-to-south migration toward South America, they also have discovered migrations in the opposite direction along the Atlantic coast -- for the first time. Among the key findings, they also have discovered evidence of Neanderthal ancestry within the genomes of ancient individuals from South America.

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The use of ancient DNA, including samples of human remains around 45,000 years old, has shed light on a previously unknown aspect of human evolution.