News by Subject Biology

New research finds that global South countries have pledged the largest areas of land to forest restoration, and are also farthest behind in meeting their targets due to challenging factors such as population growth, corruption, and deforestation. 'We've identified countries that need help, not failures,' says UMBC's Matt Fagan. With the right kind of international support -- that listens to locals and generates creative solutions -- communities can implement policy that will make positive change.

Plant life is expanding in the area around Mount Everest, and across the Himalayan region, new research shows.

In eastern Panama, canid species from North and South America are occurring together for the first time. Urban and agricultural development and deforestation along the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor might be generating a new passageway for these invasive species adapted to human disturbance.

Nearly a decade after the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, researchers from the University of Georgia have found that wildlife populations are abundant in areas void of human life.

A new study has found that diverse natural forests with a mix of tree species are more reliable and stable at absorbing and storing carbon than plantations dominated by just a few tree species, both over time and across diverse conditions. Scientists already understand that natural forests are better at sequestering carbon than more uniform, short-rotation plantations whose trees are harvested regularly. Less clear have been the relative carbon-storage benefits of natural forests versus monoculture plantations that remain uncut for long periods.

As the world warms, a new study is helping scientists understand how conifers may respond to drought. The research addresses a classic question in the field: When conditions are dry for long periods of time, do trees survive by growing new roots to tap water sources, or by relying on established roots that already go deep?

Though climate change is becoming one of the greatest threats to the Earth's already stressed ecosystems, it may not be the most severe threat today for all species, say authors of a new report on the effects of deforestation on two lemur species in Madagascar. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Toni Lyn Morelli at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her international team of co-authors point out that species across the globe now face concurrent pressures on many fronts.