Biodiversity

In what is being hailed as an historic moment for the environment, world leaders at the UN’s Biodiversity Conference COP15 in Montreal have reached an agreement to ramp up protections of the planet’s precious natural ecosystems.

In an effort to keep the world's coral reefs from disappearing forever, a number of reef restoration projects are currently underway … but how can scientists tell if any one of those projects is working? The answer may lie in listening to the reefs.

Two new studies collected air samples from zoos and demonstrated the ability to identify a range of animals living there from their airborne DNA. This could eventually be used as a non-invasive way to track biodiversity.

Scientists are already able to ascertain what species are present in aquatic environments, by analyzing the cast-off DNA which is present in the water. Now, for the first, a team has conducted an insect survey by analyzing DNA found in the air.

In what is described as the first thorough study to track natural forest expansion, researchers have found that nearly 59 million hectares of forest has naturally regrown since 2000, an area larger than mainland France.

When natural ocean shoreline is replaced by an artificial seawall, a lot of precious intertidal habitat is lost. A new study, however, indicates that by covering those walls with specially designed tiles, a substitute habitat can be created.

A new study has found that climate change is raising nighttime temperatures across the globe faster than daytime temperatures, which could have “significant implications” for the environment, the authors warn.

Drawing on extensive analysis of species populations around the world, a new report from the WWF reveals an average decline of 68 percent in vertebrate species numbers between 1970 and 2016, a decline the authors describe as "catastrophic."

The natural world is a huge source of life-saving drugs and that extends to the organisms that inhabit the seas, with new research describing how a molecule from a sea sponge proved capable of preventing cervical cancer cell growth in the lab.

The XPrize foundation has today launched a new US$10 million competition geared towards preserving the world's rainforests, a process that begins with building new technologies to help us better appreciate what they have to offer.

Earth stands to lose a massive 25 percent of its biodiversity, warned UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay as she launched a Global Assessment study to more than 130 government delegations in Paris. “No one will be able to claim that they did not know,” she said.

​​In the face of climate change, reindeer are resorting to eating kelp seaweed, according to new research. The creatures in question are Svalbard reindeer, a sub-species of wild reindeer.