A review carried out by a group of international specialists has identified several emerging issues that are likely to damage biodiversity in the coming years.
The review was conducted by 22 specialists from 20 institutions, including the University o…
Biodiversity around the world is increasingly threatened by global warming, habitat loss, and other human impacts. But what does this loss of species mean for the functioning of ecosystems that humans depend on for goods and services? Can ec…
The preliminary results of the Semporna Marine Ecological Expedition (December 2010) indicate that Semporna may have the world’s highest marine biodiversity. The expedition yielded a record number of 43 species of mushroom corals. Furthermore, some …
Just when everyone thought that almost every plant species on the Iberian Peninsula had been discovered, Spanish researchers have discovered Taraxacum decastroi and Taraxacum lacianense, two dandelions from the Pyrenees and the Cordillera Cant…
Cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rainforests in Colombia and threatening the region’s “hotspots” of plant and animal diversity, scientists are reporting in a new study. The findings, which they say unders…
EAST LANSING, Mich. — It’s commonly known, at least among microbiologists, that microbes have an additional option to living or dying — dormancy.
Dormant microbes are less like zombies and more like hibernating bears. What isn’t known, howev…
An influx of invasive species can stop the dominant natural process of new species formation and trigger mass extinction events, according to research results published today in the journal PLoS ONE.
The study of the collapse of Earth’s marine…
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Habitat destruction and species extinction may lead to an increase in diseases that infect humans and other species, according to a paper in the journal Nature co-authored by a University of Florida ecologist.
In the paper t…
A measure widely advocated as a means of assessing the health of marine ecosystems is an ineffective guide to trends in biodiversity, and more direct monitoring is needed, a new study has found.
The findings — published this week in Nature — fo…
Nagoya, Japan, 20 October 2010 — The economic importance of the world’s natural assets is now firmly on the political radar as a result of an international assessment showcasing the enormous economic value of forests, freshwater, soils and co…
In a Policy Forum article in today’s issue of Science, a group of leading biodiversity scientists, including NJIT’s Daniel Bunker, have argued that targets to be met by 2020 under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) must consider the real v…
Biodiversity decreases towards the poles almost everywhere in the world, except along the South American Pacific coast. Investigating fossil clams and snails Steffen Kiel and Sven Nielsen at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) could s…