Ecosystems

  1. Earth

    Obama administration should lead energy transition

    R.K. Pachauri, an engineer and economist by training, is director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India, and a corecipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his role as chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC periodically issues consensus reports on the science of climate change. Senior editor Janet Raloff spoke with him about changes he hopes to see from the Obama administration.

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  2. Ecosystems

    Thwarting Tree Poachers

    A new federal rule makes it harder to destroy protected forests.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Honeybee CSI: Why dead bodies can’t be found

    Virus could explain one symptom of colony collapse.

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  4. Life

    Protect biodiversity hot spots and the rest will follow

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  5. Ecosystems

    Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet by Oliver Morton

    HarperCollins, 2008, 460 p., $28.95.

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  6. Ecosystems

    Costs of Choked-Up Waters

    Scientists tally the economic toll of fertilizing pollutants on water quality.

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  7. Animals

    Farm chemicals can indirectly hammer frogs

    A widely used agricultural weed killer teams up with fertilizer to render frogs especially vulnerable to debilitating parasites.

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  8. Ecosystems

    Slave ants rebel

    Species vulnerable to enslavement may evolve ways to fight their captors.

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  9. Ecosystems

    Coastal dead zones expanding

    The number of coastal areas known as dead zones is on the rise. A new tally reports more than 400 of the oxygen starved regions worldwide.

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  10. Plants

    Bittersweet fruits

    A new study provides strong evidence that fruits harm predators with the same chemicals that, for example, give chili peppers their spice.

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  11. Ecosystems

    Nomadic ants hunt mushrooms

    A species of ants not well understood surprises researchers with a nomadic lifestyle, roaming the rainforest on fungal forays.

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  12. Ecosystems

    Fish Houses

    Tanked half-way houses allow people and fish to get acquainted on their own terms — and exhibit their individual personalities.

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