Do Mangoes Like It Hot? Climate Change And Your Favorite Fruit
Can your favorite fruits and vegetables survive the effects of climate change? Scientists are finding creative solutions to this problem.
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Author: Julia Bebout
Not All Forestry Is Equal: How High Retention Logging Might Protect the Understory
Retention logging is the practice of harvesting trees while leaving some fraction of the forest in place. Studies have shown that this type of logging speeds forest recovery and maintains forest habitat for animals. But studies mostly watched forests recover for only a few years, while forests can take decades to recover from deforestation. Does retention logging really help forest ecosystems in the long run?
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“Remembering” Past Climates May Help Trees Survive in a Changing World
Tree growth rate can depend on both past and present environmental conditions. With increasingly frequent and intense droughts, the importance of this environmental “memory” for growth may be changing in two-needle piñon trees.
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Parasitic Plants Can (Sometimes) Help Competing Plants Coexist
Did you know that plants can be parasites of other plants? It’s true, and these parasitic plants might help maintain biodiversity!
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Resetting the Internal Clock: Adaptable Butterflies’ Response to Climate Warming
As the climate warms, habitats near the poles are becoming increasingly hospitable for many plants, animals, and insects. But it remains uncertain whether species’ range expansions might eventually be hindered by differences in daylength at higher latitudes. Wall brown butterflies are making the journey northwards from Europe in response to climate warming. How do differences in daylength at higher latitudes affect them, and what can they do to survive in these new conditions?
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Urban Gardens Provide Stable Nectar Supply for Pollinators
Insect pollinators are in trouble, and many plants on farms or in the wild need them to be able to grow fruits and reproduce. With so much at stake for plants around the world, and the humans who depend on them, how can we stop the decline of insect pollinator populations? Urban gardens may have a role to play in supporting pollinators, especially if we plant flowers that provide a stable supply of nectar, their most important food.
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Buried Alive: How Plants Bounce Back from Volcanic Debris
When a volcano erupts, what happens to plants growing nearby? Some are buried by volcanic tephra, dust and rocks thrown into the air by the volcano. Amazingly, newly published results suggest that this might not kill the plant community under the debris.
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Predicting Wildfire Hazards: How It Works and Why It Matters
By using remote sensing at the Haard forest in Germany, researchers have shown that predicting wildfire hazards could be practical for large forests all around the world.
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Shark Movements Can Be Used to Design Better Marine Protected Areas
Marine protected areas can be very effective at protecting marine life, and they’re even more effective when the actual movements of wildlife are used to guide the drawing of their borders. By using telemetry, scientists can make shark-friendly protected areas and watch how effective they are at reducing commercial fishing.
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Why are some animals hoarders?
Why do some animals, like mice and squirrels, bury their food? Isn’t that risky? The answer has to do with natural cycles of tree seed quantity.
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