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A sea cow's fossil offers a rare glimpse into Miocene-era predation
Trees are searching for colder temperatures, with far-reaching consequences for the entire ecosystem.
Otters remarkably managed to fix this ecosystem — even down to its geology.
The tiny ant is more powerful than you'd think.
Hidden in one of the driest environments on the planet are lagoons teeming with life
Trees are burning and grasslands are taking their place.
We're leaving no stone unturned.
Archaea are probably the most successful beings on Earth. They've been around for billions of years and can survive almost anywhere.
"If you gave me your shoe, I could tell you with about 90% accuracy the city you came from," the authors boast.
Scientists are concerned about the irreversible damage done to global ecosystems.
Greater plant diversity benefits everyone in the ecosystem, a new study reports. Higher levels of plant diversity allow ecosystems to utilize more energy and more efficiently, new research found. Ecosystems with 60 or more plant species contained twice the amount of living biomass, on average, than ecosystems built on plant monocultures. This is the first […]
When it rains, it pours.
Diversity, 100% biological.
"Greenhouse gas emissions trap more heat in the lower atmosphere which leads to a cooling of the upper atmosphere. Those colder temperatures in the upper atmosphere are slowing the recovery of the ozone layer."
The Earth's great recycle bin.
Well, this is an unusual problem to have.
Things are heating up.
... but if we keep on with the "business as usual" approach, things will be much worse.
This successful first trial might one day save the reef.
Orange is the new forest.
Incoming climate change will have a drastic effect on pristine mountain habitats, a new study has found.
Humans -- tyrants of creators? Two researchers explored this duality by studying both extinct species and those who had evolved as a direct influence of man.
Human activity has been wreaking havoc on ocean life. One group however seems to thrive where others struggle to survive: new evidence shows that cephalopods' numbers have significantly increased over the last six decades.
The results of a new study offer insight into the workings of predator-prey mechanisms, more specifically how the number of herbivores and other animals that are preyed upon affect the number of carnivores.
The more researchers study ecosystems, the more we learn that an ecosystem behaves, in many ways, just like a living organism: thousands of years after human hunters wiped out big land animals like giant ground sloths, the ecosystems they lived in are still suffering from the effects, much like a body suffers from past trauma. […]
The world’s oceans are teeming with life, a new census estimating almost 1 million species out there; but marine life is declining, with the main causes being overfishing, ocean acidification and coastal damage. Avoiding a crisis The new numbers are just estimates, but they are much lower than previous studies, which put the number of […]
Some 250 million years ago, life on Earth passed through its toughest time so far, as 96% of all marine species and over three quarters of land vertebrates went extinct. According to British researchers, the mass extinction was so severe that it took life 10 million years to recover. With less than 10 percent of […]
A new research from a team of international marine geoscientists has found that seagrass meadows, found in coastal regions, can store up to twice as much carbon as temperate or tropical forests. The scientists involved in the study, thus, believe that seagrasses can potentially become a viable solution to climate change, if scaled and preserved […]
Antarctica is home to one of harshest environments in the world, but exactly because of this it exhibit a unique set of fauna to the world. As the local arctic climate warms, however, and an increasing number of tourists and scientists are bringing in thousands of seeds, once pristine ecosystems are now at risk. Seeds […]
Climate change and over-fishing are held responsible for the swift collapse of coral reefs and the propagation of mass extinction among marine life. According to the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), which presented the study this Tuesday to the U.N., the Earth is faced with its biggest spate of mass extinctions […]
Bacteria and small plants at the bottom of the ocean require significant quantities of iron to survive and grow, just like us humans do. But their situation is extremely different, and they can’t just opt for an iron rich diet. So where does their iron come from ? Pyrite, or fool’s gold (as it […]
Boy I’ve gotta tell you, my jaw really dropped when I heard this one. There are actual lakes, on the bottom of oceans, especially in the Gulf of Mexico region; they’ve got their own shores and all. The brine water of these lakes actually hosts unique wildlife, creating an absolutely amazing environment. The fact that […]
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) published some quite awesome pictures showing that Antarctica isn’t the lifeless frozen wasteland most people believe it to be; ice fish, octopus, sea pigs, giant sea spiders, rare rays and gorgeous basket stars all thrive in the extreme temperatures in Antarctica’s waters. Well, thrive is perhaps a too strong word, […]
