5,529 results
5,529 results for: Forests
- Animals
Ancient DNA reveals China’s first ‘pet’ cat wasn’t the house cat
The modern house cat reached China in the 7th century. Before that, another cat — the leopard cat — hunted the rodents in ancient Chinese settlements.
- Archaeology
Precolonial farmers thrived in one of North America’s coldest places
Ancestral Menominee people in what’s now Michigan’s Upper Peninsula grew maize and other crops on large tracts of land despite harsh conditions.
- Animals
Guppies fall for a classic optical illusion. Doves, usually, do too
Comparing animals’ susceptibility to optical illusions can show how perception evolved.
- Microbes
Antarctic lake microbes have flexible survival strategies
Life teems under the Antarctic ice sheet. In subglacial Lake Mercer, it is surprisingly versatile and isolated from the rest of the world.
- Plants
Some tropical trees act as lightning rods to fend off rivals
Though being struck by lightning is usually bad, the tropical tree Dipteryx oleifera benefits. A strike kills other nearby trees and parasitic vines.
- Earth
Recycled glass could help fend off coastal erosion
Sand made from recycled glass can be mixed with sediment to make a medium for plants to grow in. That can help with coastal restoration projects.
- Climate
Unearthed ice may be the Arctic’s oldest buried glacier remnant
Thanks to climate change, thawing permafrost in the Canadian Arctic has revealed the buried remnant of a glacier that’s 770,000 years old.
- Animals
Some of Sydney’s koalas are chlamydia-free, but still at risk
Southwestern Sydney's koalas have avoided the chlamydia outbreak threatening the entire species. But their isolation has left them extremely inbred.
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Megadroughts are on the rise worldwide
One of the most extreme megadroughts has helped fuel wildfires in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in California.
- Animals
The mystery of melting sea stars may finally be solved
A bacterium called Vibrio pectenicida may be melting sea stars along North America’s Pacific coast.
- Climate
Some trees are coping with extreme heat surprisingly well
Rising temperatures could reduce trees' ability to photosynthesize. Scientists are trying to figure out just how close we are to that point.
- Life
A new book explores the evolutionary romance between plants and animals
Riley Black’s new book, When the Earth was Green, uses the latest research to envision the ancient worlds of our favorite prehistoric animals.
