Ecology

The Perfect Dust Storm

A desolate basin on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert supplies 45 million tons of dust that naturally fertilizes the Amazon rainforest each year.

Wildlife

Wolverine Declines Continue

Wolverines have disappeared from many parts of North America over the last century, and recent research shows that some of the remaining populations continue to plummet.

Hundreds of New Animal Species Discovered

While using advances in technology for genetic research, scientists have unexpectedly found new species of animals.

Caribou Retreat As Development Proceeds

When roads, logging, oil drilling, power lines or even tourist resorts move into caribou range, the sensitive animals move out.

Moose Seek Food More Than Shelter

New research calls into question previous conclusions that moose in the Rocky Mountains need large areas of mature, closed-canopy coniferous forest to survive snowy winters.

Invasive Species

Rare Alga Morphs Into Widespread Nuisance

A once rare and innocuous freshwater alga seems to have recently mutated into an amazing menace.

Forests

Warm Climate Opens Boreal Forest to Pine Beetles

Temperatures in boreal forests extending across Canada will soon be warm enough to accommodate mountain pine beetles.

Wolves and Elk Shape Aspen Forests

The deep-green coniferous forests lining the valley bottoms of Jasper National Park arise from people manipulating wolves, elk and wildfire over the past century.

Climate Change

Coldest, Hottest Places Depend on What's Measured

The town or city in the continental United States that can lay claim to being the hottest or coldest location hinges on how temperature is calculated.

Fish

Wild Adult Salmon Aren't Exacerbating Lice Epidemic

Marine biologists were surprised to find that the numbers of sea lice on juvenile salmon didn't climb when louse-infested wild adults swam by on their way to spawning.