Seaweeds Against Climate Change: How Algae Provide Us with Ecosystem Services

If you’ve ever been near the ocean, chances are you’ve had an involuntary encounter with seaweed. It’s slimy. It’s smelly. It’s just overall not pleasant—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful for both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Here we’ll review some of the ecosystem services they provide so we can start looking past the inconvenience they represent and start appreciating them as the valuable organisms they are.

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What can Hawaiian Lava Tubes Teach Us about Life on Mars?

What do Hawaii and Mars have in common? They both might have suitable habitats for microbes that can survive the extreme conditions in space. Read on to learn about how scientists are using lava tubes from Hawaiian volcanoes to learn about how life might survive on Mars.

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When Pests Infest – A new tool for identifying at-risk forests

Forests globally are facing threats from insect and pathogen outbreaks. In this battle, drought and unsustainable logging have weakened forests, making them more vulnerable to attacks by insects and pathogens. Luckily, scientists joined the fight and have developed a tool to help identify forests that are at risk. Still, the world’s forests are not out of the woods yet.

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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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