Group items tagged

"From the recent discovery of a species of wasp that enslave unsuspecting spiders to a new report from the United Nations that estimates a 500% growth over the next 10 years in computer waste in India alone, a lot has happened this week in green."

"A funky, psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species."

"One in six mangrove species faces extinction as coastal ecosystems are being destroyed or damaged by development, aquaculture, logging, and climate change, according to a new study. On the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, as many as 40 percent of mangrove species are threatened, the report said."

A new species of bird, the spectacled flowerpecker, has been spotted in the rainforests of Borneo.

When Madagascar broke free from India, ancient blind snakes hopped aboard for the ride, according to new genetic research. "The small burrowing snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica, but are primarily distributed across the southern hemisphere. The earthworm-like snakes use a specially adapted mouth to eat eggs and larvae and may spend all of their lives under ground. Furthermore, researchers have struggled-because of it's almost exclusively subterranean lifestyle-to explain the elusive snake's geographic distribution."

Maps in the new Atlas of Global Conservation show the diversity of bird, animal and plant species populations, which are among 80 that scientists have produced for a comprehensive look at the planet's eco-regions. The maps crosses three types of habitats that exist: terrestrial, freshwater, and marine.

A frog species thought to have been extinct for more than three decades has been sighted in farmland in Australia.

Preserving a species of weed-eating fish may be the key to saving the world's coral reefs from being engulfed by weed as human and climate impacts grow. A new study by the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) has found that weed-eaters like parrotfish and surgeonfish can keep coral reefs clear of weed up to a point.

Darwin would be heart broken----The Galapagos archipelago has already been transformed by global climate changes and human activity, a report has concluded.

This is messed up, "A series of events, including the 1982 El Nino, overfishing and the appearance of urchins that destroy coral, has altered the islands' marine ecosystems. At least 45 Galapagos species have now disappeared or are facing extinction. "

"The Indonesian government has announced plans to sell tigers as pets for £67,000 a pair in what it claims is a move to protect the critically endangered species."

The steady loss of forests, soils, wetlands, fisheries, species and coral reefs around the world is closely tied to the lack of value we put on nature, says three-year study.

Current conservation list criticised for being biased towards vertebrates and neglecting most plants, fungi and invertebrates.

""The declines of species were so dramatic, widespread and so recent. I wish I could have seen what the country was like in 1800s with all this wildlife," Karanth says"

The seed dispersal activities of many animals is essential for the Amazon and other forests, because, as Anderson explains: "plants rely on the seed dispersal activities of these animals (i.e. birds, bats, monkeys, tapirs, rodents, and fish) to move seeds away from the mother tree to good sites for germination […] For pioneer species like Cecropia (a genus of tree that we studied), seeds might need light gaps to germinate-that is, seeds might have very specific requirements for germination."

"The Middlemist's Red exists in only two known locations: a greenhouse in the UK, and a garden in New Zealand. Imported to Britain two hundred years ago from China, back when flowers where a luxury item, it has since been exterminated in its original homeland. The flower is in bloom for the next couple of weeks, and will be the star attraction at the reopening of the Chiswick House, the BBC reports."

"Forres-based charity Trees for Life will keep the six animals in a 30.4 acre enclosure on its Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire. It hopes the boar will control the spread of bracken which shades out other wild plants. Once a native species, the mammal was hunted to extinction in the UK by the 13th Century. "