Able to retreat into their hard shells, snails seem to have a pretty good defense against would-be predators. But there’s a type of snake that has evolved unique adaptations and…
Stretching across the southeastern U.S., wetland forests provide ecosystem services totaling $500 billion, according to a 2018 report by environmental watchdog group Dogwood Alliance. Today, America’s natural wetland forests exist…
In 1998, severe flooding caused by heavy rains and exacerbated by deforestation killed more than 4,000 people in southern China. To reduce the chances of such an event happening again,…
Dotted by historic cities nestled in a patchwork countryside of fields and pasture, today’s Europe is at once urban and bucolic. But where sheep range over grassy knolls, bison used…
Droughts aren’t usually a problem for rainforests, which, as their name implies, are generally typified by lots of precipitation. But in the past few years, there’s been a noticeable drying…
PUERTO CONCORDIA, Colombia — Councilman Ricardo Vargas* sits at the bus depot in the riverside hamlet of Puerto Concordia where narco-inspired corridos play on the radio and a sea of oil palm expands…
Evolution takes time and space. Enough time needs to pass for genetic differences to crop up in a population of animals and make them distinct from their forebears. And enough…
Scientists have long suspected a relationship between deforestation and some infectious diseases. For instance, the 2014 Ebola crisis has been linked to logging that may have put workers and their…
Scientists started to get worried in the 1970s when frogs in Australia and Central and South America began disappearing. The culprit seemed to be a chytrid fungus that colonized frogs’…
For years, scientists have been puzzling over what exactly deforestation does to temperature. But a study published recently purports to have figured it out on the small scale. It finds…
Straddling the interface of land and sea, mangrove forests are of two worlds. Their branches provide homes for lizards, snakes and nesting birds, while their roots, when submerged, become protective nurseries…
LANGKAWI, Malaysia – In Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, part of Langkawi UNESCO Global Geopark, a man in T-shirt and shorts laughs with his friends as one of the long-tailed macaques…
Selective logging has long been considered the lesser evil compared to clear-cutting when it comes to habitat preservation. But a new study adds to a growing chorus of concern that…
Urban and community areas in the U.S. are losing their trees, according to a new study conducted by the U.S. Forest Service. And this loss is happening at a fast…
As they grow, trees and other plants take carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and, through photosynthesis, use it to build their tissues by converting it to a type…
High up in the treetops of Borneo live “exploding ants,” so named because of their unique defensive behavior. When a potential enemy threatens their colony, these ants kill themselves by…
In a move described as “unprecedented,” Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos announced Tuesday that the country intends to add 8 million hectares (80,000 square kilometers or 31,000 square miles) to…
Monarch butterflies depend on milkweed and its poisonous compounds that are deadly to most other insects. But a new study finds global warming may be making the very plant monarch…
East Africa’s Albertine Rift extends nearly a thousand miles from the border between northwestern Uganda and northeastern DRC down through Rwanda and Burundi to Malawi. Dotted with mountains and pockmarked…
An industrial rubber plantation is currently developing land right on the edge of Cameroon’s Dja Faunal Reserve. And it's getting closer, according to an analysis of satellite data released by…
