Tidal wetlands, the green lungs along coastlines, play a huge role in keeping ecosystems balanced. They give homes to many species, shield shorelines from floods, lock away carbon, and clean the water that flows through them. But people’s activities and a warming planet are shrinking these vital
Scientists are tackling a sneaky problem: invasive snakes that eat native lizards and upset local ecosystems. The California kingsnake, originally from North America, has spread to places like the Canary Islands, where it hunts rare reptiles. Traditional traps catch everything, including harmless lo
Researchers recently found a bright purple-and-orange moth hidden in Crete’s White Mountains, and they gave it an unusual name: the Pope Leo moth. The new species wasn’t just another discovery—it was hiding in plain sight. For years, scientists had been calling it by another name, Pyralis kachetical
The Missouri Botanical Garden wasn’t always a global leader in plant science. When Peter Raven took over in 1971, it was just a pretty garden with a few researchers. But Raven saw something bigger: plants weren’t just decorations—they were the foundation of life. Two-thirds of Earth’s species live i
Research into how well protected areas stop wildlife loss has grown a lot since 2000, but the picture is still unclear. Most studies use matching techniques to compare places with and without protection, focusing mainly on forest loss as the main measure. Only a single paper even used the Biod
Scientists used a modern DNA trick called eDNA metabarcoding to map fish life in Turkey’s rivers. Instead of catching every fish, they filtered water from 29 spots spread over seven big river basins. The DNA that sloshes through the water was amplified and read by a high‑throughput machine, producin
A new study shows that the way local governments borrow money could help keep bats alive and improve county finances. When a fungal disease called white‑nose syndrome killed many North American bats, farmers lost an inexpensive natural pest controller. Without the insects that bats eat, farms
Scientists once believed that having many different plant species in grasslands kept food supplies steady. The idea was that if some plants struggled, others would thrive, balancing things out. But new research shows this doesn’t always work when climate change and human activity push ecosystems to
The limestone caves that run across northwestern Cambodia are still a mystery. A recent field trip to the province of Battambang revealed several animals that science has never seen before. Among them are a bright turquoise pit viper, a snake that can glide through the air, new kinds of geckos, tiny
The planet is home to roughly ten million living kinds, from tiny fungi to giant whales. Every day, people around the world tap their phones and add a picture of something they spot to a free app that gathers this information. About six million people use it each month, giving scientists fresh data
