Around 6,000 years ago, more than two-thirds of Europe was covered in forest, a 2018 study found. But because of land clearing for agriculture and the use of wood for fuel, that number has more than halved, and today only around one third of Europe is woodland. In some countries like the UK and the […]
The importance of bees as pollinators of the world’s food crops is well-known, but wasps, flies, beetles and other insects are also vital pollen conveyors. Pollination by insects is necessary for the growth of about 75 percent of the world’s food and more than 80 percent of wild plants. Crop pollination across the globe is […]
Rashes are irritating for humans, as well as other animals, especially when they itch. When a dolphin gets a rash, they can’t just run down to the pharmacy and pick up some ointment for it, but they may have a treatment method. Scientists have observed Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in the Northern Red Sea getting in […]
At the bottom of a 630-foot sinkhole in China lies a green surprise: an ancient forest with trees stretching nearly 130 feet out of the depths. The unusual sinkhole was first discovered by cave explorers in China’s southern Guangxi region, who alerted scientists to their find, according to The Guardian. After confirming the forest’s existence, researchers […]
A mysterious deep-sea whale washed up on a California beach on Sunday. The 16-foot beaked whale was discovered by a passerby at Mendocino County’s Jug Handle State Natural Reserve near Fort Bragg, which is 3.5 hours north of San Francisco, SFGate reported. Because beaked whales live deep beneath the waves and can dive down as far as 10,000 feet, scientists seldom get a chance to observe them.
President Joe Biden’s Interior Department confirmed on Wednesday that it has canceled three lease sales that would have opened millions of acres of ocean to oil and gas drilling. Two of the lease sales would have taken place in the Gulf of Mexico and a third would have taken place off the coast of Alaska […]
Oftentimes, where there are trees, there are birds, whether the landscape is woodland, forest, an urban park or rural farmland. In Australia, farmland is being revegetated to attract woodland bird species, a team of researchers wrote in The Conversation. Trees bordering paddocks are being planted, and stands of trees and shrubs that run beside creeks […]
Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have caught a particularly elusive deep-sea fish on camera. The highfin dragonfish (Bathophilus flemingi) can grow to be seven inches long and usually lives at depths of 740 to 4,500 feet below sea level, according to NPR. “MBARI researchers have observed a few different dragonfishes in […]
Have you observed that the number of insects landing on your car windscreen has decreased over the past decades? If so, you aren’t alone. Two conservation groups in the UK set out to test the oft-observed “windscreen phenomenon,” and the result was shocking: The number of flying insects landing on British cars fell by almost […]