Humans have been farming for thousands of years, but they’re not the only mammal to tend and harvest their crops. A biology professor and an undergraduate student at the University of Florida have discovered that southeastern pocket gophers promote and defend meandering tunnels of underground roots and collect them for food, according to a University […]
Protecting biodiversity isn’t just important for its own sake; it’s essential for human wellbeing too. A new report from the The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) – which is often described as the “IPCC for biodiversity” – found that billions of people depend on 50,000 wild species for food, medicine, fuel […]
The common toad (Bufo bufo) is usually observed hopping along the ground or croaking from a pond or other body of water. That’s why citizen scientists in the UK were surprised when they went looking in trees for bats and dormice and found toads hanging out as high as three meters (approximately 10 feet) from […]
Even if global temperatures start to decrease, after peaking this century due to climate change, biodiversity risks are likely to persist for decades, a new study by London’s Global University (UCL) and University of Cape Town researchers finds. The potential impacts on biodiversity were modeled against pre-industrial levels if temperatures increased by more than 2°C […]
Despite their name, invasive species can be deceptively cute, stunning, or fragrant, inspiring people to introduce them to non-native habitats. But the issue is that some species are moved to a new area, either on purpose or by mistake, and are met with a lack of natural predators, allowing them to crowd out native species.
The European Commission has proposed a new law that would cut pesticide use in half by 2030 and completely ban the use of these chemicals near schools, playgrounds and hospitals. The proposal is part of a larger set of goals to reverse biodiversity loss and restore 20% of land and seas by the end of […]
One-third of the original tropical rainforest is gone. One-third of the original tropical rainforest is degraded. One-third of the original tropical rainforest is still intact. Those were the startling findings from the first-of-its-kind State of the Tropical Rainforest report published in 2020.1 Aside from all of the species and animals being harmed by deforestation, tropical […]
Outdoor recreation and the outdoor community have historically been portrayed as predominantly white, male spaces, in my experience, with little attention given to the contributions of queer recreationalists and outdoor advocates. Here are a few of the many queer environmentalists fighting for representation and access to the outdoors for all. Pattie Gonia (they/he/she) Wyn Wiley […]
In the over three decades that Bob Popp has been traipsing through the Vermont woods as the state’s botanist, he had never encountered a small whorled pogonia within the state. He had seen the yellowish-green orchid on excursions to other states, but never in Vermont, where the flower had been considered locally extinct since 1902. […]