Environmental News Agency

Nature Ecology & Evolution, Published online: 20 September 2021; doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01541-wThe authors assess the risks to global biodiversity and Indigenous lands arising from projects financed by China’s policy banks between 2008 and 2019, and compare that with the risks associated with similar projects financed by the World Bank.

Nature Ecology & Evolution, Published online: 20 September 2021; doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01550-9The authors measure numerous ecosystem functions across an elevational gradient on Mt Kilimanjaro and find that species richness impacts function more than species turnover across sites. They also show that variation in species richness impacts ecosystem functioning more strongly at the landscape scale than at the local scale.

Nature Ecology & Evolution, Published online: 15 September 2021; doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01563-4Author Correction: Resource–diversity relationships in bacterial communities reflect the network structure of microbial metabolism

A new study from the Kalahari Desert finds that teamwork allows birds to cope with brutally unpredictable environments.

Climate change poses a huge risk to both the global trade of agricultural commodities and food security, a new report reveals.

Nearly 2,500 rare rhino horns were destroyed Wednesday in the first ceremony of its kind in northeastern India as part of an anti-poaching drive to mark World Rhino Day.

In recent years, black bears (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) encounter humans in rural and suburban areas of Japan leading to the deaths and injuries of people living near mountainous areas. Unfortunately, this means the suspected bears are exterminated to prevent further casualties. It would be desirable to predict when black bears are more likely to enter human habitats to effectively warn residents to prevent possible encounters.

In her many years as the director of the animal ambassador programs for SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, Julie Scardina was a favorite guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and the "Today" show. Thanks to her high TV profile, the energetic animal lover brought adorable baby penguins, a blanket-wrapped baby gibbon and a free-flying Scarlet ibis to millions of homes across America.

A group of investors worth more than $10.6trn in assets under management has issued a statement ahead of the Convention on Biological Diversity's COP15 next month, calling for heightened global action to end deforestation and ensure sustainable land use.

The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets has announced the formation of an independent governance body for carbon markets and credits that will aim to set a global benchmark in proving the social value and carbon reduction potential of carbon credits and offsetting.

The Budweiser Brewing Group has unveiled plans to trial the production of beer cans with its lowest lifecycle carbon footprint, by collaborating with key companies across the value chain including aluminium producer EN+ Group.

A group of mobility platforms, including Uber, Lime and Arrival, have all committed to fully decarbonising their networks by 2035 at the latest, as part of a new collaborative manifesto to increase the uptake of low-carbon transport.

edie has today (21 September) been announced as an official "Accelerator" of the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign as part of a concerted effort to build momentum for the global race to net-zero emissions in the run-up to the COP26 climate talks.

Historical processes of long-distance migration and ocean-wide expansion feature the global biogeographic pattern of Rhizophora species. Throughout the Indian Ocean, Rhizophora stylosa and Rhizophora mucronata seem to be a young phylogenetic group with an expansion of R. mucronata toward the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) driven by the South Equatorial Current (SEC). Nuclear microsatellites revealed genetic patterns and breaks; however, the estimation of propagule dispersal routes requires maternally inherited cytoplasmic markers. Here, we examine the phylogeography of 21 R. mucronata provenances across a >4,200 km coastal stretch in the WIO using R. stylosa […]

Illegal bushmeat hunting is a major driver of wildlife population declines in Northern Botswana. Such declines raise concerns about the principles and integrity of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) and regional economic stability which is heavily reliant on wildlife-based tourism. The KAZA landscape between Northern Botswana's protected areas consists of non-state land utilized communally by small agropastoralist communities. These communities are economically challenged by international beef trade policies, restricted access to grazing in nearby wildlife management areas and high conflict costs from living in close proximity to wildlife; some of the […]

The question of how to transform human–wildlife relations from conflict to coexistence, rather than merely mitigating conflicts, has become a central focus of research and practice. In this article, we address this important question by exploring the factors that may contribute to promoting successful coexistence between humans and brown bears within Europe and elsewhere. We do this through comparative analysis of two cases in rural Bulgaria evidencing different degrees of conflict and coexistence between members of the two species. Through this comparison, we highlight the main factors that lead to conflict in […]

Asiatic wild ass, or kulan (Equus hemionus kulan) were once a key species of the Eurasian steppes and deserts. In Kazakhstan they went extinct by the 1930s. Early reintroductions have reestablished the species in two protected areas, but the species has reclaimed

Managing human-wildlife conflicts (HWCs) is an important conservation objective for the many terrestrial landscapes dominated by humans. Forecasting where future conflicts are likely to occur and assessing risks to lives and livelihoods posed by wildlife are central to informing HWC management strategies. Existing assessments of the spatial occurrence patterns of HWC are based on either understanding spatial patterns of past conflicts or patterns of species distribution. In the former case, the absence of conflicts at a site cannot be attributed to the absence of the species. In the latter case, the presence […]

Macropores are an important part of soil structure. However, in alpine regions, the effects of soil macropores on soil properties and vegetation growth are not clear. We used the X-ray computed tomography (CT) method to obtain 3D images and visualize the distribution and morphology of soil macropores. By combining principal component analysis (PCA) and stepwise regression methods, we studied the relationships between soil macropores and both soil properties and vegetation growth in three types of grassland [alpine degraded steppe (ADS), alpine typical steppe (ATS), and alpine meadow steppe (AMS)] on the Tibetan […]

Cognition, defined as the processes concerned with the acquisition, retention and use of information, underlies animals’ abilities to navigate their local surroundings, embark on long-distance seasonal migrations, and socially learn information relevant to movement. Hence, in order to fully understand and predict animal movement, researchers must know the cognitive mechanisms that generate such movement. Work on a few model systems indicates that most animals possess excellent spatial learning and memory abilities, meaning that they can acquire and later recall information about distances and directions among relevant objects. Similarly, field work on several […]

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)-infected tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) attractive to bumblebees (Bombus terrestris L.), which are important tomato pollinators, but which do not transmit CMV. We investigated if this effect was unique to the tomato-CMV pathosystem. In two bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars, infection with the potyviruses bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) or bean common mosaic necrosis virus (BCMNV), or with the cucumovirus CMV induced quantitative changes in VOC emission detectable by coupled gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. In free-choice olfactometry assays bumblebees showed an innate preference for […]

Bioluminescence, or the ability of a living organism to generate visible light, occurs as a result of biochemical reaction where enzyme, known as a luciferase, catalyzes the oxidation of a small-molecule substrate, known as luciferin. This advantageous trait has independently evolved dozens of times, with current estimates ranging from the most conservative 40, based on the biochemical diversity found across bioluminescence systems (Haddock et al., 2010) to 100, taking into account the physiological mechanisms involved in the behavioral control of light production across a wide range of taxa (Davis et al., 2016; […]

Increasing evidence suggests that artificial light at night (ALAN) can negatively impact organisms. However, most studies examine the impacts of ALAN on a single species or under high levels of artificial light that are infrequent or unrealistic in urban environments. We currently have little information on how low levels of artificial light emanating from urban skyglow affect plants and their interactions with herbivores. We examined how short-term, low levels of ALAN affect grass and insects, including growth rate, photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance in grass, and foraging behavior and survival in crickets. We […]

Given the time scale based on the duration of exposure to global warming, natural climate-gradient studies and experimental manipulations have detected long-term (decades to centuries) and short-term (years to decades) ecological responses to global warming. Combination of these two complementary approaches within a single study may enable prediction of the likely responses of ecological processes to global warming. To understand how global warming affects plant–herbivore interactions within a canopy of Erman’s birch, we combined an elevational gradient study and a warming experiment involving mature birch trees in which the soil and tree […]

A plus-tree progeny test of full- and half-sib “superior” loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) was installed in 1969 on the Crossett Experimental Forest (CEF) to consider the performance of 28 improved families with unimproved planting stock from the CEF (family W29). Performance was evaluated using data from young (3-year-old; early 1970s), maturing (25-year-old; 1994), and mature (48-year-old; 2017) trees. With the exception of a single improved family, early survival was high (>80%), with most families exceeding 90%. Three years post-planting, fusiform rust infection rates were also low, with most families having less than […]

The leaf economic spectrum describes a comprehensive framework of how the surrounding environment modulates leaf functional traits (LFT) and how these are associated between them. This framework has traditionally focused on physiological, chemical, and biomass assignation traits, but rarely in leaf anatomical traits. Here we compare leaf anatomical metrics and traits of 40 liana and tree species from two lowland tropical forests in Panama with contrasting rainfall regimes: Parque Natural Metropolitano (dry-forest) and Parque Nacional San Lorenzo (wet-forest). Then we evaluate how anatomical traits are associated with well-established LFTs. Anatomical metrics were […]

Alaska is globally significant for its large tracts of intact habitats, which support complete wildlife assemblages and many of the world’s healthiest wild fisheries, while also storing significant amounts of carbon. Alaska has 1/3 of United States federal lands, the bulk of the United States’ intact and wild lands, and over half of the country’s total terrestrial ecosystem carbon on federal lands. Managing Alaska’s public lands for climate and biodiversity conservation purposes over the next 30–50 years would provide meaningful and irreplaceable climate benefits for the United States and globe. Doing so […]

Our existential sustainability challenges involve human–environment–technology systems that are complex, dynamic and tightly coupled. But at Universities, knowledge, in teaching and research, is mostly organized into discrete parcels, the disciplines. These are further divided into the categories of natural sciences, social science and the humanities. This paper addresses the question of how in their training of researchers, universities can equip them to better understand their roles and also to act as change agents. It describes a doctoral school course in transferable skills that is offered across faculties. The unique aim of the […]

The concept of the circular economy is being proposed as an alternative for the current linear economy. However, little research has been done on how to integrate this topic within education. Serious games are suggested as an appropriate way to create awareness about and stimulate behavioral change toward sustainable development. Therefore, the serious game ecoCEO has been developed to introduce the circular economy concept within upper secondary education. The game's intention is to introduce students to the challenge of resource scarcity, circular product design, sustainable entrepreneurship and circular business models. EcoCEO has […]

The interdependent character of sustainability challenges calls for collaboration among actors with different capabilities, interests, and knowledge frames. Behavioral simulations offer good opportunities to learn about dealing with these differences. They are based on an “experiential learning” approach that integrates the direct experience of the participants during a simulation exercise with reflection, theorizing, and acting. As such the simulation is able to mobilize the “minds, hearts, and hands” of the participants to stimulate not only cognitive, but also affective and moral learning in an embodied way. This is considered of utmost importance […]

In leadership positions at UCL, we have spent more than a decade seeking to fulfil our university's founding commitment—inspired almost two centuries ago by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham—to innovation, accessibility, and relevance for the benefit of humanity. Our guiding principle has been to make our institution and its activities greater than the sum of its parts. To enable us to have most impact in “sustainable human progress,” we have focused our approach on cross-disciplinarity—by which we mean collaboration between experts in different disciplines that transcends subject boundaries—because the problems faced by […]

The sustainable development goals, adopted in 2015, include achievement of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns as the 12th goal. To achieve SCP patterns, it is necessary not only to reduce environmental load caused by production and manufacturing but also to improve the sufficiency of fundamental human needs and the quality of life of consumers. The living-sphere approach aims to design products for a target living sphere by determining the sufficiency of fundamental human needs among local residents through products using the fundamental human needs framework proposed by Max-Neef. This framework consists […]

Discussions on addressing the climate crisis and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic often ignore the most critical tool we have: nature. The IUCN World Conservation Congress is one of several global meetings scheduled for the coming months that could determine the fate of our planet. As the conservation community gathers in Marseille, IUCN Members must back ambitious plans to protect existing intact ecosystems, restore degraded ones, and invest in natural infrastructure; writes Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), an IUCN Member organisation.

The catastrophic European floods in July 2021 demonstrated the urgent need to deploy landscape level nature-based solutions that make people and property safer. Solutions, such as the “natural sponge” concept, which involves restoring the absorptive capacity of soils in Europe’s upper valley have to be recognised, designed, and applied. The time to embrace the potential of natural sponges and scale up the investment in nature-based solutions for people and the environment is now; writes Jane Madgwick, CEO of Wetlands International, an IUCN Member organisation.

We depend on nature, but are we doing enough to ensure that commitments made to conserving and restoring nature are delivered on the ground? Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity will soon agree the post-2020 global biodiversity framework to guide future conservation, and scale up efforts to make our economies more equitable and sustainable. But governments cannot do this in isolation. Only by working outside silos, and across sectors, can we achieve the targets of an ambitious framework and a life in harmony with nature; writes Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, […]

As noted in IUCN Resolution 105 (WCC-2020-Res-105) the world has already lost 50% of its coral reefs and time is running out to prevent more from disappearing. This loss is largely due to climate change and more acidic waters, pollution, sedimentation, overfishing and destructive fishing practices. All nations must work hard to preserve the critical ecosystem services provided by coral reefs. Our very survival, especially those of us from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), is directly linked to the health of our reefs; writes Jean Wiener of Fondation pour la Protection de […]

Many governments and companies have committed to ambitious action to tackle nature loss, but we have yet to see this translate into the global biodiversity framework negotiations. The environmental crisis is also a humanitarian crisis, so a robust and inclusive framework is our best chance to secure a safer and better future for all; writes Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International, an IUCN Member organisation.

This paper investigates the use of the Knowledge Attitude Practices (KAP) survey and suggests its extension to Knowledge Attitude Skills Practices (KSAP). It brings value to tourism theories at the level of the tourist and hosts, and argues that communities must be capacitated with the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices that transcend tourism. This is a conceptual paper, compiled using secondary data that already exists in the public domain. The paper suggests carrying out surveys that incorporate KSAP regarding CBT at level 1, tourism at level 2, and livelihoods at level 3, […]

The lifespan of people with cognitive disabilities (ID) has increased significantly, but the cognitive aspects together with the functional ones comparing normal aging and those with intellectual disabilities had not been previously studied. Objective: This study analyzed the cognitive and functional differences in older adults aging with ID (and with DS), compared with their peers without disabilities, in order to identify the most adapted interventions. Methodology: This study evaluated the outcome variables of MEC, Set-Test, Barthel, Lawton–Brody, and Tinetti with 247 participants: 146 without ID and 101 ID (29 with DS and […]

Present water consumption in the UK is unsustainable, with increasing societal and environmental pressures driving water stress. Personal use of water is a significant contributor to water demand and considering the number of universities and students in the UK the water use practices therein cannot be ignored. Therefore, this paper aims to deepen the theme of water consumption in the United Kingdom from the point of view of use practices for students. The originality in this research lies in better understanding whether UK Masters level students have a basic awareness of personal […]

Intelligent transport systems enable vehicles to communicate with each other and with the environment, ensuring road safety. Their implementation can help reduce the number of accidents, especially in stretches of s-curves, where speed control is essential to ensure the safety of drivers, and under hazardous weather conditions. Such systems promptly notify drivers about potentially dangerous road conditions, such as fog, so that they can better adapt their driving behavior. This study evaluates the driver’s speed profile in different scenarios (clear weather, fog weather, and fog with an in-vehicle fog warning system) considering […]

Urban energy and water consumption varies substantially across spatial and temporal scales, which can be attributed to changes of socio-economic variables, especially for a city undergoing urban transformation. Understanding these variations in variables related to resource consumptions would be beneficial to regional resource utilization planning and policy implementation. A geographically weighted regression method with modified procedures was used to explore and visualize the relationships between socio-economic factors and spatial non-stationarity of urban resource consumption to enhance the reliability of predicted results, taking Taichung city with 29 districts as an example. The results […]

What opportunities, and risks, does government participation offer to the Scottish Green Party? And what will happen next?

What will Joe Biden be remembered for? It likely depends on the fate of two pieces of legislation that encompass nearly the entirety of his once-in-a-generation agenda, including infrastructure, climate, voter rights, higher taxes for the wealthy, equal justice for people of color and low incomes, healthcare, and greater assistance for low-income families and children.

In this spirit, let us set forth with truth, love and justice as our guides, mourning the cost of needless harm while nurturing the promise of radical transformation. Let us move, in a word, from despair to beloved community.

The documents of victimisation and exploitation are also the documents of agency and resistance – even if, of course, so much has been lost to history.

And, maybe, the South Town Fork Creek neighborhood will eventually be seen as more of a destination, rather than somewhere you speed past on your way to and from downtown.

A large international research team has identified three key indicators that together summarize the integrative function of terrestrial ecosystems: 1. the capacity to maximize primary productivity, 2. the efficiency of using water, and 3. the efficiency of using carbon. The monitoring of these key indicators will allow a description of ecosystem function that shapes the ability to adapt, survive and thrive in response to climatic and environmental changes.

The networks of predator fish and their prey found on coral reefs all over the world are remarkably similar, and those predator fish are pickier eaters than previously thought. These delicate ecosystems become even more vulnerable when these specialized hunters go extinct.

Most coral reef biodiversity consists of tiny organisms living deep within the three-dimensional reef matrix. New research reveals that the species which dominate experimental coral reef communities shift due to climate change, but the total biodiversity does not decline under future ocean conditions of warming and acidification predicted by the end of the century.

The capacity of coral reefs to provide ecosystem services such as food and jobs, relied on by millions of people worldwide, has declined by half since the 1950s, according to a new study. Other findings are equally bleak: the authors found that global coverage of living corals had declined by about half since the 1950s and consequently, the diversity of species had also declined, by more than 60 per cent. Finding targets for recovery and climate adaptation would require a global effort, while also addressing needs at a local level, authors say.

The cold polar oceans give rise to some of the largest food webs on Earth. And at their base are microscopic, photosynthetic algae. But human-induced climate change, a new study suggests, is displacing these important cold-water communities of algae with warm-adapted ones, a trend that threatens to destabilize the delicate marine food web and change the oceans as we know them.

A large international research team has identified three key indicators that together summarize the integrative function of terrestrial ecosystems: 1. the capacity to maximize primary productivity, 2. the efficiency of using water, and 3. the efficiency of using carbon. The monitoring of these key indicators will allow a description of ecosystem function that shapes the ability to adapt, survive and thrive in response to climatic and environmental changes.

The networks of predator fish and their prey found on coral reefs all over the world are remarkably similar, and those predator fish are pickier eaters than previously thought. These delicate ecosystems become even more vulnerable when these specialized hunters go extinct.

Most coral reef biodiversity consists of tiny organisms living deep within the three-dimensional reef matrix. New research reveals that the species which dominate experimental coral reef communities shift due to climate change, but the total biodiversity does not decline under future ocean conditions of warming and acidification predicted by the end of the century.

A new study rules out that extreme volcanic episodes had any influence on the massive extinction of species in the late Cretaceous. The results confirm the hypothesis that it was a giant meteorite impact what caused the great biological crisis that ended up with the non-avian dinosaur lineages and other marine and terrestrial organisms 66 million years ago.

New study shows home sweet home can be too sweet for some wildlife, and easing conservation standards can benefit both wildlife and people.