According to a new UN report, invasive species do more than US$423 billion in damage worldwide every year. Four articles explore examples, from mollusks to poisonous fish.
Native trees have been found at new heights in the Scottish Highlands, demonstrating how mountain woodland could recover from deforestation – benefiting humans, wildlife and climate issues.
Paul Hardisty, Australian Institute of Marine Science and Line K Bay, Australian Institute of Marine Science
We used to focus just on protection of vital ecosystems like the reef. But as climate change and other threats accelerate, we need to actively help nature get ready for the heat.
Our activities now affect the entire planet. But there’s a vital debate over when we started disrupting these systems. Was it 1950 – or hundreds and thousands of years earlier?
Miguel Montoro Girona, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT); Guillaume Grosbois, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), and Mélanie Arsenault, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)
Beavers are an important ecosystem engineer in the boreal forest and researchers are demystifying their secrets.
Mangroves and salt marshes pump out methane – but soak up carbon dioxide. Overall, the world’s coasts are a net greenhouse sink – and we must preserve them
Reintroducing wolves can restore important ecological processes, but it can have unintended effects when smaller predators like coyotes are driven closer to people, a team of ecologists found.
Claudio Mura, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC); Patricia Raymond, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), and Sergio Rossi, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
The rapidly changing climate presents many challenges for the sustainability of forest ecosystems. Assisting the migration of trees is a tool to address these challenges.
Fascination with shiny technological gadgets may divert scarce resources from the on-the-ground approaches we need to restore degraded ecosystems around the world.
Although it has been considerably less studied than other environmental problems, salinization presents major challenges for biodiversity in freshwater and coastal areas.
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University