‘Earth’s Heartbeat’ – Do Animals Control Earth’s Oxygen Level?
For the first time, researchers have measured how the production of algae and the Earth’s oxygen level affect each other – what you might call…
Biodiversity
Earth’s Stunning Biodiversity is a Puzzle Worth Exploring
Life on Earth is amazingly diverse, and exhibits striking geographical global patterns in biodiversity. A pair of companion papers published September 13th in Science reveal…
Earth Is Teeming With Strange Life Forms—With Many Species at the Equator
UChicago scientists investigate biodiversity question with innovative approach. Earth is teeming with strange life forms—crabs with 12-foot-long legs scuttling off the Japanese coast, mushrooms that…
New Research Reveals Scale is a Key Ingredient When Tracking Biodiversity
To fully understand biodiversity and how it is changing, you need to look near, far, and in-between, according to a new study. Researchers at Yale…
Ants Help Researchers Understand Why Biodiversity is Higher in Tropical Regions
It’s a puzzle that has confounded biologists for centuries: the earth’s tropical regions are home to an enormous variety of plant and animal species, but…
Yale Study Shows Geoengineering the Climate Could Have Dangerous Consequences
One of the scientific tools being considered to reduce the impacts of climate change is solar geoengineering, or the injection of aerosols into the atmosphere…
Biologists Track Global Reductions in Terrestrial Mammalian Movements
Humans change entire landscapes – by building cities and roads, by farming land and by exploiting natural resources. What effects does this have on animals…
New Research Reveals That Trade is a Major Driver of Biodiversity
A newly published study shows that trade is one of the major drivers of biodiversity among lizard species in the Caribbean islands, finding that the…
New Study Links Expanding Human Population to Threats of Animal Extinction
A newly published study paints a grim outlook for the future of certain mammals and birds, suggesting that the average growing nation should expect at…
The Effects of Ice Retreat and Biodiversity in the Arctic Deep Sea
2012 saw the greatest Arctic ice minimum ever recorded, allowing researchers to document the effects of ice retreat and biodiversity in the Arctic deep sea….
Biodiversity and Disease Risk for Humans
A newly published study pokes holes in widely accepted theory that connects biodiversity abundance with a reduced disease risk for humans, finding that the links…
DNA in Flesh-Eating Flies’ Guts Reveal Biodiversity
When blowflies and flesh flies settle on dead animals, they aren’t just feasting on the carrion, they are in fact sampling their DNA. Scientists have…
At Least a Third of All Marine Species are Still Unknown
The most comprehensive assessment of ocean life has revealed that one third to two thirds of all species are still unknown to science. The scientists…
Projections of Urban Growth Highlight at Risk Areas
Researchers are trying to make detailed predictions about how urban areas are likely to grow in order to forecast how the next few decades of…
Survey of Brazil’s Atlantic Forests Reveals Loss of Key Species
According to a new survey of Brazil’s Atlantic forests, mammal extinctions are occurring at least twice as fast as previous estimates suggested. Jaguars, lowland tapirs,…
Biodiversity on Earth Increases with Global Warming
It would seem logical that periods of global warming in Earth’s history started the extinction pulses that defined the geological record. However, that’s not the…
A Fifth of All Invertebrates on Earth Threatened by Extinction
One in five of Earth’s invertebrate species are currently threatened with extinction. These creatures represent 99% of the biodiversity on Earth. Until now, scientists haven’t…
Ocean Health Index, A Comprehensive Assessment of the Ocean and its Ecosystems
Scientists have completed the first comprehensive assessment of the ocean and its ecosystems, called the Ocean Health Index. The overall index score was 60 out…