News by Subject Biology

As cities physically expanded worldwide between 1970 and 2010, the population in those cities became less dense, according to a study led by a Texas A&M university professor.

Growing consumption of energy and fossil fuels over four decades did not play a significant role in increasing life expectancy across 70 countries. New research, led by the University of Leeds, has quantified the importance of different development factors to improvements in physical health on an international scale.

Since pre-industrial times, the world's oceans have warmed by an average of one degree Celsius (1°C). Now researchers report in Current Biology on March 26th that those rising temperatures have led to widespread changes in the population sizes of marine species. The researchers found a general pattern of species having increasing numbers on their poleward sides and losses toward the equator.

The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased out production of ozone-destroying substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Beginning around 2000, concentrations of those chemicals in the stratosphere started to decline and the ozone hole began to recover. In this study, researchers have shown that around the year 2000, the circulation of the Southern Hemisphere also stopped expanding polewards -- a pause or slight reversal of the earlier trends.

Researchers from Curtin University have used next generation DNA sequencing to learn more about the different species of plants, insects and animals present in the Pilbara and Perth regions of Western Australia.