Biodiversity

Indications of Understorey Management Practices impact on Vascular Plant and Arthropod Diversity in Olive Groves on Lesvos, Greece

Byadmin

This study investigates the impact of three understorey management practices – herbicide application, understorey clearing, and undisturbed understorey – on the biodiversity of plant and arthropods in olive groves in the Gera region on Lesvos, Greece. The study found that herbicide application had a negative effect on plant diversity, but less pronounced effects on arthropods….

Lessepsian migration in the Mediterranean Sea in an era of climate change: Plague or boon?

Byadmin

The eastern Mediterranean Sea has suffered severe impacts from climate change, causing the decline of native biodiversity. Based on a global systematic review, we found that climate change has been the main driver of local extinctions globally since the 1990s; the eastern Mediterranean is flagged as an extinction hotspot. This region is also a bioinvasions…

New warnings of a ‘Butterfly Effect’ — in reverse

New warnings of a ‘Butterfly Effect’ — in reverse

Byadmin

A Yale-led study warns that global climate change may have a devastating effect on butterflies, turning their species-rich, mountain habitats from refuges into traps. Think of it as the “butterfly effect” — the idea that something as small as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can eventually lead to a major event such as a hurricane…

Greece gives green light to oil drilling while expanding marine protected areas

Greece gives green light to oil drilling while expanding marine protected areas

Byadmin

Environmental lawyers say that the new concessions threaten endangered species in the biodiversity-rich Hellenic Trench. Greece is allowing US fossil fuel giant Chevron to drill next to a protected coastal area, sparking a legal complaint from green NGOs. The government announced in January that it would be opening up new areas for offshore oil and…

Study raises the possibility of a country without butterflies

Study raises the possibility of a country without butterflies

Byadmin

Butterflies are disappearing in the United States. All kinds of them. With a speed scientists call alarming, and they are sounding an alarm. A sweeping new study published in Science for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly…

Successful strategies for collaborative species conservation

Successful strategies for collaborative species conservation

Byadmin

Researchers at Göttingen University show keys to nature conservation measures at landscape level How can the loss of species and habitats in agricultural landscapes be stopped? Up to now, measures have mostly been implemented by individual farms. In contrast, agri-environmental measures that are planned across farms at landscape level offer greater potential for creating suitable…

Why Earthworms, Ants, and Termites Matter for Climate Health

Why Earthworms, Ants, and Termites Matter for Climate Health

Byadmin

A new Nature publication shows how soil invertebrates influence the world beneath our feet and thus also ecosystem services worldwide. Since the Industrial Revolution, global changes have led to a decline in biodiversity. To address these changes, it is crucial to understand what constitutes healthy ecosystems – and how to protect and build them. A…

Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: What’s the Link?

Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: What’s the Link?

Byadmin

Environmental Degradation, Climate Change and Infectious Diseases: What’s the Link? Anthropogenic changes in global landscapes and the climate increase the risk of infectious diseases by altering the environmental niche of the disease vector or animal reservoir hosts and the adaptation of some pathogens to a warming planet. — The One Health approach, developed by the…

Restoring wildlife habitats in wealthy nations could drive extinctions in species-rich regions

Restoring wildlife habitats in wealthy nations could drive extinctions in species-rich regions

Byadmin

Some efforts to preserve or rewild natural habitats are shifting harmful land use to other parts of the world – and this could drive an even steeper decline in the planet’s species, according to a team of conservation scientists and economists led by the University of Cambridge.    Researchers from over a dozen institutions worldwide have…

Where do invasive species spread and why? Researchers take a novel approach to find the answer

Where do invasive species spread and why? Researchers take a novel approach to find the answer

Byadmin

Science tells us invasive species — like the spotted tilapia — are always on the move, making it difficult for scientists to simulate their spread and predict where they will go next. Researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences took a deep dive to understand why certain locations are more…