African-Americans, Nature and Environmental Justice
Journalist Bob Hirshon reports from the Taking Nature Black conference, reporter Shahla Farzan talks about tracking copperhead snakes, and nanoscientist Ondrej Krivanek discusses microscopes with subangstrom resolution.
Hawaii’s Invasive Predator Catastrophe
Feral cats and pigs and black rats are putting many species on the fast track toward extinction
Researchers Call for Rare Tree’s Conservation Decades after Its Declared Extinction
Mistakenly presumed extinct for 22 years, the rare tree Wendlandia angustifolia now has an opportunity for priority preservation
Clearing Opium Fields Hurts Honeybees
Originally published in August 1911
Why Some Birds Are Likely To Hit Buildings
Those that eat insects, migrate or usually live in the woods are most likely to fly into buildings that feature a lot of glass.
An ‘Extinction Hotspot’ in Appalachia
The discovery of a lost plant species highlights the need to protect other endangered species in one of the most biodiverse regions in the U.S.
Ships Hit Smaller Sea Animals More Often than Researchers Thought
New research sheds light on the range of creatures killed and injured by collisions
Animals Appreciate Recent Traffic Lull
Researchers saw a third fewer vehicle collisions with deer, elk, moose and other large mammals in the four weeks following COVID-19 shutdowns in three states they tracked.
Warming Could Lower One Barrier to Invasive Fish Reaching Great Lakes
Mussels in the lakes, themselves invasive species, may not be able to outcompete Asian carp for food, as previously thought
Drones Capture Close Encounters between Great White Sharks and Beachgoers
Over the past decade, the number of encounters between humans and sharks swimming off the coast of California has risen dramatically. Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, says this summer is shaping up to be a major year for these sharks along the state’s 840-mile coastline.
“We’re already seeing a lot of activity, more than we’ve seen in some of the past years,” he says. “This year is looking to be a big season.”
In 2019 Lowe and his team launched an ambitious two-year shark study using drones, buoys and underwater robots with a $3.75-million grant from California. Prior to the new funding, the Shark Lab’s annual budget was between $20,000 and $40,000.
Now the laboratory has dramatically ramped up its efforts in order to better understand how many of the cartilaginous fish are out there and how they interact with people. The researchers are sharing their information with local lifeguards and the public to enhance safety at the beach.
“The goal is to come up with what we'd call an encounter assessment,” Lowe says. “Who is most likely to encounter sharks—and under what conditions? Are sharks attacking aggressively? Are they attracted to people? Are they repelled by people, or do they just ignore people? So we're right in the middle of a two-year study, and hopefully, by the end of this study, we’ll be able to answer those questions.”
Forests Getting Younger and Shorter
Old, big trees are dying faster than in the past, leaving younger, less biodiverse forests that store less carbon worldwide.
Australian Plant Species Face ‘Imminent Extinction’ from Invasive Pathogen
The once common native guava has nearly vanished—killed off by an invasive fungus that arrived just 10 years ago. Other plant species may soon follow