News by Subject Policy & Ethics

Southwest forests may decline in productivity on average as much as 75 percent over the 21st century as climate warms. The finding is based on a treasure trove of about 20,000 unanalyzed tree cores discovered in a Utah laboratory about a decade ago. The University of Arizona-led research team published their findings in the Dec. 17 issue of Nature Communications.

A new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution presents a novel approach to identify optimal priority areas for restoration, considering multiple criteria such as biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and reduction of costs. In a context of multiple local, national and global targets for ecosystem restoration, the study presents a flexible tool capable of increasing restoration cost-effectiveness by up to eight times.

The biodiversity catalogue of the Iberian Peninsula spiders is now adding the discovery of a dozen new species -from seven different families- that are mainly found in edaphic environments (soil), according to an article led by Professor Miquel Àngel Arnedo, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.

New research shows that the powerful sense of smell Pacific salmon rely on for migration, finding food and avoiding predators might be in trouble as carbon emissions continue to be absorbed by the ocean.

Despite the looming ecological consequences, glacier motion remains poorly understood. The bedrock, the ice-bed interface and the water-filled cavities all affect friction and influence how the ice will flow, but studying these poses challenges -- remote radar sensing can track glacial movement, but it can't measure detailed properties of the ice and rock. In the Journal of Chemical Physics, Bo Persson describes a new model of ice friction that offers crucial insight into glacier flows.