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Category: Ecology

Nature’s ‘engine is grinding to a halt’ as climate change gains pace, says study

Nature’s ‘engine is grinding to a halt’ as climate change gains pace, says study

Phys.org reports: Many ecologists hypothesize that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats at an ever-increasing rate, leading to a rapid reshuffling of ecological communities. A new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and published in Nature Communications shows this is emphatically not the case. The researchers analyzed a massive database of biodiversity surveys,…

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The Amazon is shifting into a ‘hypertropical’ state unseen for millions of years

The Amazon is shifting into a ‘hypertropical’ state unseen for millions of years

Science Alert reports: A new study of the Amazon rainforest has found the region is shifting toward a ‘hypertropical’ state as droughts become longer, hotter, and more frequent. These conditions have “no current analogue” according to the international team of researchers behind the study. Trees are becoming exposed to whole new levels of stress, and the Amazon’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide is being reduced, too. So drastic are the contemporary and impending changes, based on data gathered across the…

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Nature can bounce back if we just give it a chance

Nature can bounce back if we just give it a chance

Emma Marris writes: When the last of four dams on the Klamath River in southern Oregon and Northern California was demolished in October 2024, everyone who knew the river well had a question: How long would it take for salmon to reclaim the upper reaches they’d been cut off from for more than 100 years? About 10 months later, when they began their fall migration, Chinook salmon immediately took advantage of their new river access, looking for places upstream to…

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How humanity has broken a cycle that sustains life on Earth

How humanity has broken a cycle that sustains life on Earth

Jack Lohmann writes: Stored in rock and organic material, phosphorus cycles slowly around Earth, through magma and mountains, down rivers, through waste and into oceans. Without it, there’d be no life – every living being needs it to grow. Unlike other mined materials, we all eat it. In the human body, it gives our cells energy, structure and identity, and it is particularly concentrated in our bones. Rare enough to be notable, common enough to be necessary, phosphorus tracks the…

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Marine mammals are dying in record numbers along the California coast

Marine mammals are dying in record numbers along the California coast

The Los Angeles Times reports: On a spit of sand 12 miles north of Santa Cruz, a small, emaciated sea lion lay on its side. The only sign of life was the deep press of its flippers against its belly, relaxing for a few seconds, then squeezing again. “That’s a classic sign of lepto,” said Giancarlo Rulli, a volunteer and spokesperson with the Marine Mammal Center, pointing to the young animal’s wretched self-embrace. The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, leptospirosis, causes severe abdominal…

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Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope

Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope

Rhett Ayers Butler writes: Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. Over the course of six decades, she moved from an unlikely young researcher in the forests of East Africa to one of the most recognizable scientists and conservationists of her time. Her patient fieldwork at Gombe transformed primatology, overturning entrenched beliefs about the uniqueness of humans and forcing science to reckon…

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How animals heal themselves

How animals heal themselves

Emory University: In 2010, Emory biologist Jaap de Roode published the discovery that monarch butterflies use medicine to cure their offspring of disease. His lab revealed how, if infected with a parasite, the female butterflies prefer to lay their eggs on a species of milkweed containing higher levels of a toxic chemical. The caterpillars eat the milkweed, ingest the toxin, and reduce the parasite load in their bodies. With that finding, de Roode joined the vanguard of scientists uncovering how…

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Hurricane Helene and subsequent cleanup efforts have decimated North America’s most biodiverse waters

Hurricane Helene and subsequent cleanup efforts have decimated North America’s most biodiverse waters

Inside Climate Change reports: In Knoxville, Tennessee, there’s a minuscule warehouse tucked off the side of the road. Its tiny gravel parking lot is full. In the back of the cramped, wood-paneled building are dozens of aquarium tanks filled with endangered, threatened, imperiled, and at-risk fish species. This is Conservation Fisheries Incorporated (CFI), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Appalachian freshwater diversity. It began as a graduate school project in the 1980s and has grown into a conservation powerhouse. One of…

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Nanoplastic pollution of oceans found on a vast scale

Nanoplastic pollution of oceans found on a vast scale

The New York Times reports: What do human brains, placentas and dolphin breath have in common? Signs of plastic pollution in the form of tiny particles known as microplastics. The ocean is also polluted with plastic, and the issue may be even more extensive than previously thought. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature estimates the volume of nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics and invisible to the naked eye, to be at least 27 million metric tons…

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Scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of America’s honeybees

Scientists discover what’s driving record die-offs of America’s honeybees

The Guardian reports: Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers. Last December, his bees were wintering in California when the weather turned cold. Bees grouped on top of hives trying to keep warm. “Every time I went out to…

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New research on fungi suggests they could be demonstrating some form of intelligence

New research on fungi suggests they could be demonstrating some form of intelligence

Hayley Bennett writes: To most of us, mushrooms are just weird-looking woodland growths, and a fungus is something you probably need a cream for. Increasingly, though, scientists are describing fungi as more sophisticated than we previously thought. Some even say ‘intelligent’, with a few researchers going so far as to hint they might be conscious. While such theories are controversial among experts, the rest of us would like to know if, for instance, our breakfast ingredients are thinking about us….

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Study shows that apes are more optimistic after hearing laughter

Study shows that apes are more optimistic after hearing laughter

Indiana University: While laughter is often considered uniquely human, tied to language and sense of humor, all great apes produce remarkably similar vocalizations during play that share evolutionary origins with human laughter. In a new study, an international team led by two Indiana University researchers has discovered that bonobos, our closest living relatives along with chimpanzees, tend to be more optimistic after hearing the laughter of their fellow apes—and these findings have implications for understanding the evolution of positive emotions…

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Ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects

Ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects

The Guardian reports: Reports of falling insect numbers around the world are not new. International reviews have estimated annual losses globally of between 1% and 2.5% of total biomass every year. Widespread use of pesticides and fertilisers, light and chemical pollution, loss of habitat and the growth of industrial agriculture have all carved into their numbers. Often, these were deaths of proximity: insects are sensitive creatures, and any nearby source of pollution can send their populations crumbling. But what [Daniel]…

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Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm

Humans are killing helpful insects in hundreds of ways − simple steps can reduce the harm

Dragonflies, just like bees and butterflies, face threats that humans can help prevent. Christopher Halsch By Christopher Halsch, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Eliza Grames, Binghamton University, State University of New York Insects are all around us – an ant on the sidewalk, a bee buzzing by, a butterfly floating on the breeze – and they shape the world we experience. They pollinate flowering plants, decompose waste, control pests, and are critical links in food chains. Despite…

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David Attenborough: ‘If we save the ocean, we save ourselves’

David Attenborough: ‘If we save the ocean, we save ourselves’

  Oceanographic reports: “After almost 100 years on the planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea,” says Sir David Attenborough, a man who – having spent his working life documenting the world of natural history – is about to launch what he has called “one of the most important films of his career” on the eve of entering his one hundredth year. Perhaps for the first time in those 100…

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Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in two key ways

Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in two key ways

A bee enjoys lunch on a flower in Hillsboro, Ore. HIllsboro Parks & Rec, CC BY-NC-ND By Courtney McGinnis, Quinnipiac University The problem with climate change isn’t just the temperature – it’s also how fast the climate is changing today. Historically, Earth’s climate changes have generally happened over thousands to millions of years. Today, global temperatures are increasing by about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade. Imagine a car speeding up. Over time, human activities such as burning…

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