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Tag: "forests" at biology news

Study of energy and health in Africa focuses spotlight on charcoal and forest management

...cally increasing pollution and decimating tropical forests would be an excellent way to help achieve several of the United Nations' 'millennium development goals' at the same time. It also presents an opportunity for the developed world to invest in the African continent, as many promised at the January meet...

Scientists find viruses can't stick to sea bugs in the dark

...ctly the same way as the photosynthetic plants and forests on land act as the other part of the planet's lungs. But the whole delicate balance of the seas, and so the overall fate of the planet, relies on even smaller microbes called cyanophages - marine viruses that specifically attack and infect cyanobacte...

U.N. mulls the protection of Earth's forests

... result in firm commitments to protect the world's forests or, some environmentalists worry, merely an agreem...what they promise. A better alternative is to link forests to other sustainable development goals that include the environment, health, nutrition and energy. F...

Bugs, even 'bad' ones, can be educationally beneficial, new book says

...wners typically think of termites as pests, but in forests termites are important for recycling dead wood. Waldbauer spent 15 years studying the cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia), which he collected by driving along streets in Urbana, Ill., and retrieving cocoons from trees. With its colorful 5- to 6-inch...

Primates on the brink

...nka. Habitat loss due to the clearing of tropical forests for agriculture, logging, and the collection of fuel wood continues to be the major factor in the declining number of primates, according to the report. Hunting for subsistence and commercial purposes also is a major and insidious threat, especially ...

No relief for Pacific Northwest drought

...on, and more isolated but severe fire potential in forests near Eugene, Roseburg, Bend and the Portland area in Oregon. Other severe fires are forecast for parts of southwestern Idaho and parts of Montana. Unlike short-term weather forecasts, these projections are ultimately based on long-term, global clim...

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in the pine forests of Michoacan. Threats to the hotspot include logging and intentional burning to clear land for livestock or agriculture. Hotspots Revisited was produced by CEMEX, one of the world's largest cement manufacturers, in collaboration with Conservation In...

Camera Traps Catch Eye of the Tiger

...gered by movement. WWF put 30 camera traps in the forests -- one per tiger home range (about 40 square miles) -- and checks them every 3-4 weeks. Because the cameras have been placed in remote locations, it takes at least a day to hike to each (the team can check all 30 within a month). Cameras must be move...

Live fast, die young true for forests too

Trees in the world¹s most productive forests -- forests that add the most new growth each year -- also tend to die young, according to a U.S. Geological Sur...

Cricket's finicky mating behavior boosts biodiversity

...yland have identified a cricket living in Hawaii's forests as the world's fastest-evolving invertebrate. Finicky mating behavior appears to be the driving force behind the speedy speciation of the Laupala cricket, the scientists wrote in the Jan. 27 issue of Nature magazine. Females in the Laupala genus de...

Falling ants glide back to trunk to avoid dangers of forest floor

...re important from the perspective of survival, the forests are flooded as much as half the year, so an ant falling into the water will most likely end up as fish food. "That's what I think is the major evolutionary driving mechanism behind the behavior," he said. "In Amazon forests, you really don't want to...

South America's vast pantanal wetland may become next everglades, UNU experts warn

...kilometers of savannah, into open fields. Riparian forests along rivers have been cut down or degraded which has led to increased erosion and sedimentation, and disruption of the local hydrologic pattern. This has made navigation difficult and also hindered waterfowl and fish migration." Local cattle raisin...

New research indicates a 'troubled' greenhouse is brewing

... 55 million years ago, tropical mangroves and rain forests spread as far north as England and Belgium and as far south as Tasmania and New Zealand," Retallack says. "Turtles, alligators and palm trees graced Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, which is now the treeless abode of musk oxen and polar bears...

Essential mangrove forest threatened by cryptic ecological degradation

...onditions, this function is taken up by mangroves, forests thriving at the edge of land and sea that are ecologically and socio-economically important for local people in tropical countries on all continents. Using biology, geography, hydrology, socio-economic interviews, and 18th-century history, an interna...

Study Links Ebola Outbreaks To Animal Carcasses

All recent Ebola virus outbreaks in humans in forests between Gabon and the Republic of Congo were the result of handling infected wild animal carcasses, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its regional partners. Appearing in the February edition of the journal Emerging I...

Ecological destruction fuels emerging diseases

...tage Site that features habitats ranging from rain forests to savannas, the ATBI is documenting an estimated 250,000 species of plants and animals, including everything from viruses to jaguars. For his part, Dr. Brooks has looked for parasites in more than 4,000 individuals from species ranging from frogs t...

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