Ecology

Humans are the only species on Earth known to use language. They do this by combining sounds into words and words into sentences, creating infinite meanings.... Read more

Metals and hormone-disrupting substances such as estrogens present a genuine risk to the sustainability of agriculture and water management in Europe. This is the conclusion of doctoral research conducted by Chinese environmental scientist Yuwei Jia at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Her research provides new insights into the distribution, availability,... Read more

A community garden in the heart of a city can be an oasis—an island of greenery where people can escape the sounds of traffic, sink their hands into the earth, and connect with the natural world. These spaces can be especially important in lower-income neighborhoods, where historical and ongoing discrimination... Read more

Digger wasps make a short burrow for each egg, stocking it with food and returning a few days later to provide more. A new study reveals that mother wasps can remember the locations of up to nine separate nests at once, rarely making mistakes, despite the fact nests are dug... Read more

Antarctic krill not only react to external environmental influences such as light or food. They also use their internal clocks to adapt to the extreme conditions of the polar environment.... Read more

Falling vulture numbers in the Americas could have serious implications for public health and ecosystems, new research has found.... Read more

A study in the journal Forests highlights the critical need for understanding and managing nonnative forest specialist and generalist pests.... Read more

The North Korean government engages in unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade, which includes species protected under its own laws and poses a threat to biodiversity recovery in the region, finds a new study by UCL researchers.... Read more

An international team of primate researchers has published the 25 most endangered primate species in Asia, Africa, Madagascar and South America for the years 2023 to 2025. The publication emphasizes how urgently global conservation measures need to be implemented now to save irreplaceable biodiversity.... Read more

Elk could roam the English countryside for the first time in 3,000 years after funding was approved to explore plans for their eventual reintroduction into the wild.... Read more

Insects are all around us—an ant on the sidewalk, a bee buzzing by, a butterfly floating on the breeze—and they shape the world we experience. They pollinate flowering plants, decompose waste, control pests, and are critical links in food chains.... Read more

Scientists have found that a mere 30 species of trees in the Cerrado—the world's largest and most floristically diverse savanna—account for nearly half of all its trees.... Read more

A debate continues among scientists over whether tree composition in forests in eastern North America historically have been influenced more by climate or by cultural burning, which is the intentional and controlled use of fire by Indigenous people to manage their environment.... Read more

They are large rafts that drift thousands of kilometers across the ocean surface, moving with the currents in an otherwise featureless marine environment. Tracked by satellites, the rudimentary floats—which may also be outfitted with long, submerged tails of netting—are used to attract schools of fish that can be scooped up... Read more

The biodiversity of Earth's oceans is disproportionately concentrated in coral reefs—the vibrant undersea ecosystems where thousands of known marine species reside.... Read more