While vultures across Asia teeter on the brink of extinction, the vultures of Cambodia are increasing in number, providing a beacon of hope for these threatened scavengers, according wildlife conservation experts. [More]

Even though organic methods may increase farm biodiversity, a combination of conventional farming and protected areas could sometimes be a better way to maintain food production and protect wildlife. [More]

By integrating satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys, scientists have revealed the first high-resolution maps of carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted by land-use practices. [More]

How many species of insects exist? Researchers found that in tropical mountains there are six times more insects than shown in global calculations. The insects in these areas are also highly specialized in their choice of food. [More]

Widespread reports of a decline in the population of bees and other flower-visiting animals have aroused fear and speculation that pollination is also likely on the decline. A recent study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination, while also pointing to climate change as a possible contributor. [More]

Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new study finds. Columns of angered ants will crawl up into elephant trunks to repel the ravenous beasts from devouring tree cover throughout drought-plagued East African savannas, playing a potentially important role in regulating carbon sequestration in these ecosystems. [More]

A researcher in Israel has developed an improved tool for translating lizard body lengths to weights. The new equations calculate this valuable morphological feature to estimate the weight of a lizard species in a variety of different ecosystems. [More]

Previous research has claimed that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 is helping restore quaking aspen in risky areas where wolves prowl. But apparently elk hungry for winter food had a different idea. They did not know they were supposed to be responding to a "landscape of fear." [More]

A distinct decline in horseshoe crab numbers has occurred that parallels climate change associated with the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study that used genomics to assess historical trends in population sizes. [More]

Researchers writing a new article examine four possible explanations for why human well-being is increasing despite the global degradation of ecosystem services. Gains in food production, technological innovation generally, and time lags in the consequences of ecosystem degradation all find some support; observable trends suggest these factors may be limited in the future. [More]

Coral reefs are sensitive to climate change and track sea level. New observations show that an extensive coral reef existed in the southern Pacific Ocean thousands of years ago. Researchers used multi-beam sonar, coring, and dating to examine a relict reef discovered in water about 20-25 meters (65-82 feet) deep around Lord Howe Island in the southern Pacific Ocean. [More]

A unique 'natural laboratory' in the Mediterranean Sea is revealing the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels on life in the oceans. The results show a bleak future for marine life as ocean acidity rises, and suggest that similar lowering of ocean pH levels may have been responsible for massive extinctions in the past. [More]

It may seem like birds have the freedom to fly wherever they like, but researchers have shown that what's on the ground has a great effect on where a bird flies. This information could be used by foresters and urban planners to improve bird habitats that would help maintain strong bird populations. [More]

With a simple click of the camera, wildlife conservation scientists have developed a new way to accurately monitor long-term trends in rare and vanishing species over large landscapes. [More]

Normally, the brilliant red of a male cardinal signals to females that he is a high-quality mate. But that may not be true of cardinals living in urban areas, a new study suggests. Researchers found that the bright red feather coloration of male northern cardinals was less related to body condition for birds living in urban forests than it is for those in rural forests. In other words, even cardinals in relatively poor condition may appear bright red in urban areas. [More]

Proponents of organic farming often speak of nature's balance in ways that sound almost spiritual, prompting criticism that their views are unscientific and naive. At the other end of the spectrum are those who see farms as battlefields where insect pests and plant diseases must be vanquished with the magic bullets of modern agriculture: pesticides, fungicides and the like. [More]

A new study of a deepwater dispersed oil plume formed in the aftermath of the damaged BP wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico shows that microbial activity, spearheaded by a new and unclassified species, degrades oil much faster than anticipated. [More]

Scientists have found that fuel treatments -- even of only a few acres -- can reduce fire severity and protect older trees desirable for their timber, wildlife, and carbon-storage value. [More]

Emissions of carbon dioxide are causing ocean acidification as well as global warming. Scientists have previously used computer simulations to quantify how curbing of carbon dioxide emissions would mitigate climate impacts. New computer simulations have now examined the likely effects of mitigation scenarios on ocean acidification trends. They show that both the peak year of emissions and post-peak reduction rates influence how much ocean acidity increases by 2100. [More]

To gain new insights on the impact of fishing on coral reefs, marine biologists are taking advantage of an ongoing "natural experiment" at two isolated Pacific atolls -- one inhabited by people, the other off-limits to fishing. [More]

Global plant productivity that once was on the rise with warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline because of regional drought, according to a new study of NASA satellite data. [More]

Controlling urban growth and increasing forested land are the most effective ways to decrease future water runoff and flooding, according to a new study. [More]

Scientists have created the first frozen bank for Hawaiian corals in an attempt to protect them from extinction and to preserve their diversity in Hawaii. [More]

New satellite imagery has given scientists the most comprehensive and exact data on the distribution and decline of mangrove forests from across the world. The research reveals forest distribution is 12.3% smaller than earlier estimates. [More]

Researchers are a step closer to understanding the rapid decline of our coral reefs, thanks to a breakthrough study linking coral immunity with its susceptibility to bleaching and disease. [More]

Initial field observations indicate that a dramatic rise in the surface temperature in Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated coral populations. [More]

At Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, Calif., a fierce battle is taking place between an invasive plant and a native plant, but one with a new twist. European beachgrass provides cover that allows a timid deer mouse to get close enough to the lupine to snip off stalks of lupine fruits without being nabbed by overflying birds. The two plants aren't in direct competition, but the beachgrass in this indirect way threatens the lupine's ability to survive. [More]

The growing amount of human noise pollution in the ocean could lead fish away from good habitat and off to their death. [More]

An international team of scientists has been exploring Australia's Moreton Bay, close to Brisbane, as a possible 'lifeboat' to save corals from the Great Barrier Reef at risk of extermination under climate change. In a new research paper, they say that corals have been able to survive and flourish in the Bay, which lies well to the south of the main GBR coral zones, during about half of the past 7000 years. [More]

How toxic, blue-green algae out-compete other organisms through a form of selfish "enslavement" -- and by so doing proliferate dangerously in freshwater bodies -- has been described by a researcher. [More]

Global warming may present a threat to animal and plant life even in biodiversity hot spots once thought less likely to suffer from climate change, according to a new study. [More]

In a "Perspective" article in the Aug. 13 edition of Science, Chris Somerville of UC Berkeley, Steve Long of UIUC, and colleagues from Berkeley's Energy Biosciences Institute suggest that a diversity of plant species, adaptable to the climate and soil conditions of specific regions of the world, can be used to develop agroecosystems for fuel production that are compatible with contemporary environmental goals. [More]

Scientists from Japan, studying chimpanzees in Guinea, have published research revealing why nonhuman primates attack humans and what preventive measures can be taken. The study suggests that while rare, attacks by primates on humans may increase as wild habitat is increasingly converted for agriculture. [More]

Tiny aquatic organisms known as "water fleas" play an important role in carrying bacteria to lake and ocean habitats that are otherwise inaccessible due to stratified density boundaries. For animals as small as bacteria, the boundary between water masses of different temperature and salinity may as well be a brick wall. Hitching a ride on larger zooplankton helps them break through to greener pastures. [More]

Years after a forest fire, soil bacteria communities have changed and convert more ammonia to nitrates, increasing soil fertility. [More]

A new study looking at how to curb the rapid growth of lionfish, an invasive species not native to the Atlantic Ocean, suggests that approximately 27 percent of mature lionfish will have to be removed monthly for one year to reduce its population growth rate to zero. [More]

The way that humanity reacts to climate change may do more damage to many areas of the planet than climate change itself unless we plan properly, an important new study by a group of leading scientists has concluded. [More]

A new infectious disease spreading rapidly across the northeastern United States has killed millions of bats and is predicted to cause regional extinction of a once-common bat species, according to new findings. Estimates show over 99 percent of Northeast's little brown bat population may become extirpated in 20 years due to white-nose syndrome. [More]

Scientists currently performing field research in North Dakota have discovered the first evidence of established populations of genetically modified plants -- canola -- in the wild. [More]

By 2100 only 18-45 percent of the plants and animals making up ecosystems in global, humid tropical forests may remain as we know them today, according to new research. This is one of the first studies to combine effects from new deforestation and selective logging data with climate-change projections for all humid tropical forest ecosystems. The work will help conservationists be more effective. [More]

It has been widely reported that the build up of carbon dioxide in the air, which is caused by human behavior, will likely lead to climate change and have major implications for life on earth. But less focus has been given to global warming's evil twin, ocean acidification, which occurs when CO2 lowers the pH of water bodies, making them more acidic. This lesser known phenomenon may have catastrophic effects on all sea life. [More]

HIV-AIDS. SARS. Ebola. Bird flu. Swine flu. Rabies. These are emerging infectious diseases where the viruses have jumped from one animal species into another and now infect humans. This is a phenomenon known as cross-species transmission and scientists are working to determine what drives it. [More]

Divers identified and killed a 15-cm-long lionfish in Fish Bay along the southern coast of St. John, making this the fourth such capture and kill of the invasive fish in the Virgin Islands National Park. [More]

A 15-year experiment in an outdoor "laboratory" shows that naturally colonizing wetlands can offer just as many, if not more, ecological services as will wetlands planted by humans. Researchers have been comparing the behavior of two experimental marshes on the campus, one that was planted in 1994 with wetland vegetation and another that was left to colonize plant and animal life on its own. [More]

The world’s oceans are host to an enormous diversity of drifting, microscopic organisms, known as plankton. How this biodiversity has arisen has puzzled biologists for decades. An international team of researchers has now succeeded in elucidating how new planktonic species are formed, providing an explanation for the large biodiversity seen today. [More]

Lack of sufficient iron may be a significant factor in controlling massive blooms of Emiliania huxleyi, a globally important species of marine algae or phytoplankton, according to researchers. [More]

The numbers of top-level predators in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, such as halibut and swordfish, have decreased significantly over what existed 100 years ago, according to a new NOAA report. The National Marine Sanctuaries Conservation Series report describes fish populations in the sanctuary that are resilient, but have suffered declines in numbers and species diversity over time. [More]

Researchers have discovered that the deep open ocean, by far the largest habitat for life on Earth, is currently the most under-explored area of the sea, and the one we know least about. [More]