Urgent cuts in carbon emissions are needed if Caribbean coral reefs are to survive past the end of the century, scientists have warned. A new paper, published in the journal Current Biology, says Caribbean reef growth is already much slower than it was 30 years ago. Its authors say that without serious action on climate…

Yesterday was the second World Elephant Day. World Elephant Day was started in 2012 to focus attention on declining elephant numbers and ways that we can collectively do something about it. Fact is, humans are largely responsible! This is and elephantine task, and we are happy to, in our own way, draw attention to the…

New research at the University of California, Davis, and Point Blue Conservation Science shows that song sparrows experience climate change differently at various ages. Two studies show the importance of considering the various stages and ages of individuals in a species to best predict not only how climate change could affect a species as a…

A free online map of the world that is created by its users is helping developing nations become more resilient to disasters, the Open Source Convention in Portland, United States, heard last month (22-26 July).

Does size matter? When referring to primate brain size and its relation to social intelligence, scientists at Duke University do not think the answer is a simple yes or no. In the past, scientists have correlated large brain size to large group size. However, in a new study published in PLoS ONE, scientists at Duke…

New study shows that heat flow from the mantle contributes to the Greenland ice melt The Greenland ice sheet is melting from below, caused by a high heat flow from the mantle into the lithosphere. This influence is very variable spatially and has its origin in an exceptionally thin lithosphere. Consequently, there is an increased…

Experts are warning that Britain’s gray long-eared bats are facing extinction because of the loss of the UK’s marshlands. What’s more, this may be just one casualty of increasing habitat loss. Britain’s Bat Conservation Trust, in a new publication called Conserving Grey Long-Eared Bats in our Landscape, has warned that there may be as few…

Birds’ eggs show just how serious a problem river pollution remains in the UK’s former industrial heartlands, according to a new study. Scientists analysed the eggs of Eurasian Dippers living in 33 rivers in South Wales, comparing the eggs of birds living along urban waterways with those of their rural peers. The city-dwellers’ eggs contained…

Many of us have heard of the Emerald ash borer (EAB) – a highly invasive beetle known for it’s destruction of ash trees. After being discovered in the United States in 2002, this pesky little beetle has killed tens of millions of ash trees in Michigan alone. In addition to the tens of millions of…

Large trees store up to half the above-ground biomass in tropical forests, reiterating their importance in buffering against climate change, finds a study published in Global Ecology and Biogeography. The research, which involved dozens of scientists from more than 40 institutions, is based on data from nearly 200,000 individual trees across 120 lowland rainforest sites…