Latest Biodiversity Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Global warming is a scientific reality, whether we want to ascribe it to natural processes or man-made effects. One of the questions raised by this phenomenon is how will it affect biodiversity on the planet. A new study by the Universities of York, Glasgow and Leeds, reveals answers that conflict with past studies. The new research involved analysis of fossil and geological records going back 540 million years and it suggests that...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Twenty percent of the invertebrate species across the globe -- spineless creatures ranging from earthworms to bees to butterflies to lobsters and beyond -- are facing the possible risk of extinction unless more is done to protect them, say researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). As part of their 87-page study, ZSL scientists joined forces with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to review...

To be successful, nature conservation measures must account for the complexity of the human impact and how nature responds to them, at different spatial and temporal scales. "Scale-sensitive research" emerges as a new, interdisciplinary field in nature conservation where researchers adjust concepts, analyses, and tools to the scale in which these might be used. Policy-makers, on their side, must ensure that the decisions they take resolve ecological problems at the relevant administrative and...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A half liter of seawater can contain evidence of local fish and whale faunas and combat traditional fishing methods, says a new study from the University of Copenhagen. Researchers there have created a new way for monitoring marine biodiversity and resources by using DNA traces in seawater samples. The results of this study are now published in the journal PLoS ONE. "The new DNA-method means that we can keep better track of life...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Invasive species cost the world a whopping $1.4 trillion dollars a year. Humans are the main culprit behind the introduction of invasive species such as plants, animals or even microbes. Specific examples of these include zebra mussels in the Hudson River, Burmese pythons in the Florida everglades, giant hogweed in the Czech Republic, and gray squirrels in the UK. Invasive species are responsible for the loss of natural resources...

A new study by researchers from the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, and the Wildlife Conservation Society has found that locally managed marine protected areas within Fiji are playing an increasingly important role in the nation's strategy to protect inshore habitats. The study estimates that by 2020, locally managed marine protected areas within the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area...

In the face of a changing climate many species must adapt or perish. Ecologists studying evolutionary responses to climate change forecast that cold-blooded tropical species are not as vulnerable to extinction as previously thought. The study, published in the British Ecological Society's Functional Ecology, considers how fast species can evolve and adapt to compensate for a rise in temperature. The research, carried out at the University of Zurich, was led by Dr Richard Walters, now at...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An international team of researchers recently rated every coastal nation on their contribution to the health of the world's oceans. The United States rated just above average, with food provision, tourism and recreation identified as leading concerns. The report, published in the journal Nature, gave each nation a score between 0-100 in ten separate categories like clean water, biodiversity, food provision, carbon storage, coastal...

BOSTON, NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Conservation International, The National Geographic Society, the New England Aquarium and the Pacific Life Foundation today unveiled the Ocean Health Index, the first comprehensive measure of ocean health for 171 coastal regions worldwide. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120815/NY58138LOGO ) The new index is a quantitative measure of ocean health that considers human beings as part of the ocean's ecosystem....

The small fragments of tropical forests left behind after deforestation are suffering extensive species extinction, according to new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Publishing today in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers carried out a comprehensive assessment to estimate the long-term impact of forest fragmentation and hunting on tropical biodiversity in Brazil. They studied the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil, including the region's largest and least disturbed...