Biodiversity
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Exploring How and Why Trees ‘Talk’ to Each Other
Ecologist Suzanne Simard has shown how trees use a network of soil fungi to communicate their needs and aid neighboring plants. Now she’s warning that threats like clear-cutting and climate change could disrupt these critical networks.
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Wildlife Farming: Does It Help Or Hurt Threatened Species?
Wildlife farming is being touted as a way to protect endangered species while providing food and boosting incomes in rural areas. But some conservation scientists argue that such practices fail to benefit beleaguered wildlife.
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Science in the Wild: The Legacy Of the U.S. National Park System
As the National Park Service marks its centennial this month, the parks are being celebrated for their natural beauty and priceless recreational opportunities. But they also provide a less recognized benefit: the parks serve as a living laboratory for critical scientific research.
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Video Contest Winner - 1st Place
The Dungeness Crab Faces Uncertain Future on West Coast
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Rocky Flats: A Wildlife Refuge Confronts Its Radioactive Past
The Rocky Flats Plant outside Denver was a key U.S. nuclear facility during the Cold War. Now, following a $7 billion cleanup, the government is preparing to open a wildlife refuge on the site to the public, amid warnings from some scientists that residual plutonium may still pose serious health risks.
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Video Contest Winner - Runner Up
An Amazon Tribe’s Deadly Fight To Save Its Land From Logging
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Video Contest Winner - Runner Up
Chocolate in the Jungle: The Battle To Save a Disappearing Rainforest
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Floating Solar: A Win-Win for Drought-Stricken Lakes in U.S.
Floating solar panel arrays are increasingly being deployed in places as diverse as Brazil and Japan. One prime spot for these “floatovoltaic” projects could be the sunbaked U.S. Southwest, where they could produce clean energy and prevent evaporation in major man-made reservoirs.
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Can Virtual Reality Emerge As a Tool for Conservation?
New advances in technology are sparking efforts to use virtual reality to help people gain a deeper appreciation of environmental challenges. VR experiences, researchers say, can be especially useful in conveying key issues that are slow to develop, such as climate change and extinction.
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For India’s Captive Leopards, A Life Sentence Behind Bars
As sightings of leopards in populated areas increase, Indian authorities are trapping the animals and keeping them in captivity — often in small cages without adequate food or veterinary care. The real solution, wildlife advocates say, is to educate the public on how to coexist with the big cats.
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What Would a Global Warming Increase of 1.5 Degrees Be Like?
The Paris climate conference set the ambitious goal of finding ways to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, rather than the previous threshold of 2 degrees. But what would be the difference between a 1.5 and 2 degree world? And how realistic is such a target?
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A Tiny Pacific Nation Takes the Lead on Protecting Marine Life
Unhappy with how regional authorities have failed to protect fish stocks in the Western Pacific, Palau has launched its own bold initiatives creating a vast marine sanctuary and conducting an experiment designed to reduce bycatch in its once-thriving tuna fishery.
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A Rather Bizarre Bivalve Stirs Controversy in the Puget Sound
The Asian market for the odd-looking giant clams known as geoducks has spawned a growing aquaculture industry in Washington's Puget Sound. But coastal homeowners and some conservationists are concerned about the impact of these farming operations on the sound’s ecosystem.
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At 1,066 Feet Above Rainforest, A View of the Changing Amazon
A steel structure in the Amazon, taller than the Eiffel Tower, will soon begin monitoring the atmosphere above the world’s largest tropical forest, providing an international team of scientists with key insights into how this vital region may be affected by global warming.
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Saving Amphibians: The Quest To Protect Threatened Species
The decline of the world’s amphibians continues, with causes ranging from fungal diseases to warmer and drier climates. Now, researchers are looking at ways to intervene with triage measures that could help save the most vulnerable populations.