Latest Habitats Stories

A new forum paper suggests bridging two important fields of ecological research It is increasingly recognized that protected areas alone are not sufficient for successful biodiversity conservation, and that management of production areas (e.g. forestry and agricultural land) plays a crucial role in that respect. Retention forestry and agroforestry are two land management systems aiming to reconcile the production of human goods with biodiversity conservation. The retention forestry...

ESCONDIDO, Calif., Dec. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Daily commuters may have noticed exciting activity happening near the San Dieguito River recently. Helicopters have been airlifting out wildfire-burned logs and other debris since September, capping a multi-year effort to restore the river back to health - complete with native vegetation and restored habitat for various wildlife species. Federal, state and local conservation agencies and partners have pooled their...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A research team from the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered that tropical montane cloud forest trees drink water from clouds, directly through their leaves. There is just one small problem with this fact, the clouds necessary for the trees survival are disappearing due to climate change. Declines and disappearances of cloud forest animals such as frogs and salamanders have already been correlated to changes in cloud...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to a new study by a trio of Australian and American researchers, large, old trees, which provide shelter for a multitude of animals, are declining in record numbers around the world. “It’s a worldwide problem and appears to be happening in most types of forest,” said lead author David Lindenmayer, an environmentalist with the Australian National University. “It is a very, very disturbing trend. We are talking...

Carnegie Institution Researchers from the Carnegie Institution are rolling out results from the new Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System, or AToMS, for the first time at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meetings in San Francisco. The groundbreaking technology and its scientific observations are uncovering a previously invisible ecological world. To watch a video about how AToMS is helping researchers look at the world in a whole new way, click here. AToMS, which launched in June 2011,...

Landscape corridors and connectivity in conservation and restoration planning We live in a human-dominated world. For many of our fellow creatures, this means a fragmented world, as human conduits to friends, family, and resources sever corridors that link the natural world. Our expanding web of highways, cities, and intensive agriculture traps many animals and plants in islands and cul-de-sacs of habitat, held back by barriers of geography or architecture from reaching mates, food, and...

The new, second edition of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan advances science-based conservation mission and incorporates new objectives focused on locally driven efforts to reverse deteriorating fish habitats. Washington, DC (PRWEB) August 29, 2012 The National Fish Habitat Board today released the second edition of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (Action Plan), setting forth a mission-critical approach to conserving the nation’s aquatic resources for the future. The original...

Long-term study finds that each species plays a role in maintaining a productive ecosystem Vegetation, such as a patch of prairie or a forest stand, is more productive in the long run when more plant species are present, results of a new study show. The long-term study of plant biodiversity found that each species plays a role in maintaining a productive ecosystem, especially when a long time horizon is considered. The research found that every additional species in a plot...

Many of the world’s rarest and richest forests – its high-altitude cloud forests – could be all-but obliterated by 2080 due to the combined impact of man-made climate change and habitat destruction. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change an international scientific team has warned of the near-total loss of one of the world’s most delicate ecosystems, the Mexican cloud forest, along with 70 per cent of its plant and animal species, as a result of human pressures. “Cloud...

Many tropical forests are extremely rich in nitrogen even when there are no farms or industries nearby, says Montana State University researcher Jack Brookshire. It's because of biological interactions that occur naturally in the forests, Brookshire and four colleagues said in a paper they published Jan. 15 in the online version of the journal Nature Geoscience. Disputing some long-held beliefs about high nitrogen levels in forests, Brookshire said pollution isn't always the reason...