In a discovery by researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands, offshore wind turbines have become a haven for benthos — the community of marine organisms that live in, on or around the seafloor. There are more soil animals per square meter living in the foundations of offshore wind farms than on the floor of […]
A mountain of unused fast fashion clothing items in the Atacama Desert in Chile has grown so large that satellites have captured clear images of it. SkyFi, a satellite imagery app company, asked members of its Discord channel to help identify the coordinates of the the massive piles of garments. With this information, the company […]
Despite their iconic status and long association with humans, Asian elephants are one of the most endangered large mammals. Believed to number between 45,000 and 50,000 individuals worldwide, they are at risk throughout Asia due to human activities such as deforestation, mining, dam building and road construction, which have damaged numerous ecosystems.
In the UK, experts have expressed concern that some foragers for wild mushrooms and garlic have been taking too many ingredients from protected sites, putting wildlife at risk, reported The Guardian. The National Trust is concerned that people have been gathering foraged foods to sell them, damaging delicately-balanced ecosystems. “Foraging brings us closer to nature […]
Urban environments can be stressful places for wild animals. They are not only exposed to loud noises, vehicles and humans, but to other environmental stressors like lack of adequate food sources and fragmented habitats. In a new study, researchers from Canada’s York University looked at the increased environmental stressors — such as difficulty finding mates […]
While the amount of global plastic pollution is staggering, the United Nations Environment Programme has found that it is still possible to reduce plastic pollution as much as 80% by 2040. It would require major changes, but these efforts would still be convenient and even affordable to take on. The UNEP shared the possibility for […]
New research from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) shows half the number of farms that exist now will be gone by the end of the century, while the average farm size will double, a trend that could pose major risks for global food systems. The study is the first to follow the size […]
There’s a new banana in town, and it’s been genetically modified (GM). Scientists at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed the first GM banana in the world, a variety of Cavendish banana known as QCAV-4, designed to help save the species. The GM version of the tropical fruit was engineered to withstand a […]
In Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight, artificial rockpools installed on seawalls have become habitats for marine life. Researchers established the rockpools back in 2020 and are now finding them to be successful habitats in places where coastal development has restricted natural habitats. Scientists first placed a total of 114 rockpools along seawalls at three […]