Feature Channels: Nature

• share
• favorite_border

The Bui National Park is one of the few areas where the common hippopotamus resides in Ghana.

• share
• favorite_border

British Trust of Ornithology researchers call for better monitoring of soil invertebrates after new research, collating 100 years of data, suggests significant and previously undetected declines in UK earthworm abundance could have occurred.

• share
• favorite_border

In many countries, the number of fig trees have been declining. While there are numerous explanations, one key problem is fig-wilting disease. A recognized cause of this disease is a fungus, Ceratocystis ficicola, which is transmitted by an ambrosia beetle, Euwallacea interjectus.

• share
• favorite_border

The nature and properties of materials depend strongly on dimension.

• share
• favorite_border

A new peer-reviewed journal article provides an overview of Iowa State University research on the monarch butterfly, a synthesis of years of study that includes field observations, laboratory experiments and simulation modeling. The findings estimate that the state’s monarch conservation plan will increase the size of the monarch population by 10-25% per generation.

• share
• favorite_border

The idea that humans are facing a global extinction of experience of nature is popular, but there is poor empirical evidence of its reality.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Adelaide has provided the first anatomical description of the female snake clitoris, in a first-of-its-kind study.

• share
• favorite_border

It’s often said that ‘from little things, big things grow’. Now, research at the University of South Australia is showing that the simple act of gardening can deliver unique learning experiences for primary school children, helping them engage with their curriculum while also encouraging a sustainable future.

• share
• favorite_border

Zoologist Professor Rainer Willmann, former Director of the Zoological Museum at the University of Göttingen, has described and classified previously unknown species of scorpionflies from Nepal.

• share
• favorite_border

The five-year multidisciplinary initiative is focused on tree species critical to Western Apache tribal communities and includes multiple researchers from throughout NAU.

• share
• favorite_border

NAU professor Jeff Foster was recently awarded a grant by the DoD for a new study, “Demonstration of Metabarcoding for Monitoring Bird Species Habitat Quality on DoD Installations.” This three-year, $900,000 project will focus on five insectivorous species on four military sites.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team, including a researcher from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), report the oldest ancient environmental DNA (eDNA) record to date describing the rich plant and animal assemblages of the Kap København Formation in north Greenland that existed 2 million years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

A global deal to protect nature and the benefits it provides to people will be negotiated during the United Nations COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal, with a key target of the new biodiversity framework calling for at least 30 per cent of global land and sea areas to be conserved by 2030.

• share
• favorite_border

Experimental physicists growing icicles at the University of Toronto are closer to understanding why some form with ripples up and down their outsides, while others form with smooth, slick, even surfaces.

• share
• favorite_border

In Physics of Fluids, researchers have been studying the dynamics of how crescent-shaped sand dunes are formed. Known as barchans, these formations are commonly found in various sizes and circumstances, on Earth and on Mars. Using a computational fluid dynamics approach, the team carried out simulations by applying the equations of motion to each grain in a pile being deformed by a fluid flow, showing the ranges of values for the proper computation of barchan dunes down to the grain scale.

• share
• favorite_border

More and more trees are suffering the consequences of decades of man-made climate change.

• share
• favorite_border

A forest’s resilience, or ability to absorb environmental disturbances, has long been thought to be a boost for its odds of survival against the looming threat of climate change.

• share
• favorite_border

While most animals don’t learn their vocalizations, everyone knows that parrots do – they are excellent mimics of human speech. Researchers aim to add to what we know about animal vocal learning by providing the largest comparative analysis to date of parrot vocal repertoires.

• share
• favorite_border

Human-released greenhouse gasses are causing the world to warm, and with that warming comes increasing stress for many of the planet’s plants and animals.

• share
• favorite_border

Nature in Madagascar, an island off southeast Africa slightly larger than metropolitan France, is so unusual that 82% of its plant species and 90% of its vertebrates are endemic, only occurring there.

• share
• favorite_border

The strongest Arctic cyclone ever observed struck in January 2022. A new analysis shows that while forecasts accurately predicted the massive storm, models seriously underestimated its impact on sea ice. Results suggest places to improve forecast models in a changing Arctic Ocean.

• share
• favorite_border

Bats use distinct structures in the larynx to produce high-frequency echolocation calls and lower-frequency social calls, according to a study.

• share
• favorite_border

Zero deforestation commitments may inadvertently leave vital habitats in Latin America and Africa vulnerable to agricultural expansion, a new study has found.

• share
• favorite_border

From pangolin scales that can stand up to hard hits to colorful but sturdy peacock feathers, nature can do a lot with a few simple molecules.

• share
• favorite_border

As nations meet in Uruguay to negotiate a new Global Plastics Treaty, marine and forensic scientists publish new results this week that reveal the discovery of synthetic plastic fibres in air, seawater, sediment and sea ice sampled in the Antarctic Weddell Sea.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers say that the Chilean Andes could face marked snow loss and roughly 10% less mountain water runoff with a global warming of approximately 2.5 degrees Celsius over the next 30 years. The study has implications for the California Sierra Nevada and highlights the need for carbon mitigation.

• share
• favorite_border

Capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) are among only a few primates that use tools in day-to-day activities.

• share
• favorite_border

A paper published in Environmental Pollution authored by Saint Louis University (SLU) scientists shows that human proximity is the best indicator of microplastics being found in the Meramec River in Missouri.

• share
• favorite_border

Preserving and restoring natural habitats could prevent pathogens that originate in wildlife from spilling over into domesticated animals and humans, according to two new companion studies.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists are calling for a ‘decade of global action’ to reforest the planet, following the overnight publication of a themed international journal led by researchers from Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The Devonian Period, 419 to 358 million years ago, was one of the most turbulent times in Earth’s past and was marked by at least six significant marine extinctions, including one of the five largest mass extinctions ever to have occurred.

• share
• favorite_border

The Horizon Europe NaturaConnect Project will support European Union governments and other public and private institutions in designing a coherent, resilient and well-connected Trans-European Nature Network.

• share
• favorite_border

IUPUI scientists have found evidence that the evolution of tree roots over 300 million years ago triggered mass extinction events through the same chemical processes created by pollution in modern oceans and lakes.

• share
• favorite_border

In the summer of 2020, Florida Museum researchers Tobias Grun and Michał Kowalewski dove into the shallow waters off the coast of the Florida Keys and scoured the ocean floor for sea urchins.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers examined how rogue waves form and analyzed the likelihood that a ship would encounter them while navigating the rough waters of intense storms.

• share
• favorite_border

Life on land may have quieted down during the height of the pandemic, but far offshore the Atlantic Ocean was just as active as ever according to a new study from the University of New Hampshire. Researchers found that there was no significant change in the continental shelf’s underwater soundscape during the year 2020— a surprising contrast to earlier reports of quieter coastal waters during that same timeframe.

• share
• favorite_border

Climate change is emerging as a top threat to biodiversity according to the latest Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Stony Brook University have developed a way to simulate sea spray aerosols in tanks that mirror ocean conditions, allowing them to determine the organic compounds associated with and released by marine microorganisms, and discover clues to the role of these compounds as ice forming particles.

• share
• favorite_border

Nature seems to have an inexhaustible supply of inspiration when it comes to butterflies.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have so far found at least two genetic pathways leading to the same physical outcome: all-black feathers. This change was no random accident. It was a result of nature specifically selecting for this trait. The new study is published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

• share
• favorite_border

One of the reasons for the global threat to biodiversity is that we humans introduce more nutrients into our environment than would naturally be present there, for example, when fertilising agricultural land.

• share
• favorite_border

The soil used for crops provides more than a space to grow.