For centuries, the people of the Gilbert Islands in the central Pacific Ocean have crafted weapons from shark teeth. Joshua Drew, a conservation biologist at Columbia University in New York, has used these teeth to show that the waters around the islands were once home to three species of shark that no longer live in…
As human activities put increasing pressures on natural systems and wildlife to survive, 200 scientists around the world carved up pieces of the puzzle to present a clearer picture of reality and find ways to mitigate the destructive forces at work. Their work, published by Nature’s Advanced Online Publication, examined more than 30 different categories…
By some estimates, a third of Earth’s organisms live in our planet’s rocks and sediments, yet their lives are almost a complete mystery. The recent work of microbiologist James Holden of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and colleagues shines a light into this dark world. In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they…
Shellfish respond to increasing acidification in seawater – such as that produced by climate change – by producing lighter, thinner shells. As more and more carbon dioxide is generated by human beings, it becomes dissolved in the oceans, making them more acidic. And according to British, Australian and Singaporean scientists, this is affecting the size…
Protecting mangroves to lock carbon away in trees may be an economic way to curb climate change, research suggests. Carbon credit schemes already exist for rainforests; the new work suggests mangroves could be included too. But other researchers say the economics depend on the global carbon price. Presenting their results in Proceedings of the National…
Deforestation of protected areas and illegal hunting of endangered species that live there has a greater impact on biodiversity than climate change, overfishing and the degradation of coral reefs, according to a researcher. The “rapid disruption” of protected tropical forests is the greatest threat to wildlife, Bill Laurance, a professor at James Cook University in…
Polar and brown bears diverged between 4 million and 5 million years ago, but they continued to interbreed when the climate warmed. Now, there is evidence that it is happening again.
Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe – and that make clear who the real enemy is
The thieving habits of rodents have emerged as an unlikely salvation of tropical forests, research suggests. Massive mammals known as gomphotheres once ranged the Americas, distributing big tree seeds as they roamed. But they are extinct, and it has not been clear what is spreading seeds now. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,…
For years, scientists have known that man-made underwater noise from an array of sources can deafen or harm whales and other sea mammals. Now, according to The New York Times, scientists say whales can turn down the volume to help protect themselves. “It’s equivalent to plugging your ears when a jet flies over. It’s like a…