A massive new nature reserve has just been declared in South Africa’s Drakensberg mountain range. It’s good news for communities, landowners, the land and local wildlife.
Wild turkeys were overhunted across the US through the early 1900s, but made a strong comeback. Now, though, numbers are declining again. Two ecologists parse the evidence and offer an explanation.
Knowing which parts of Africa best help to store carbon means funding and policy efforts can be directed to protecting and increasing this carbon ‘land sink’.
The state’s largest wildfire on record tore across the heart of Texas cattle country, and more days of strong winds were forecast. A rangeland ecologist explains why the flames spread so fast.
The successful quest to find a species last seen more than 50 years ago has added to the urgency of protecting the vanishing grassland habitat of a lizard that had been feared extinct.
Governments and wildlife advocates are working to protect 30% of Earth’s lands and waters for nature by 2030. An ecologist explains why creating large protected areas should be a top priority.
Contrary to the idea that apes evolved their upright posture to reach for fruit in the forest canopy, the earliest known ape with this stature, Morotopithecus, lived in more open grassy environments.
Reservoirs and streams are in good shape in California and the Great Basin, but groundwater and ecosystems are another story. And then there’s the Colorado River Basin.
Humanity’s biggest challenges are not technical, but social, economic, political and behavioural. Effective actions are still possible to stabilise the climate and the planet, but must be taken now.
Large-scale tree-planting projects are politically popular and media-friendly, but without effective planning and long-term management, they can do more harm than good.