biodiversity10
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Extinction Exposed – The Giant Panda
Captive breeding and species protection are helping the panda recover, but fewer than two thousand still remain.
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Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time
Considered to be the father of wildlife management and conservation and a pioneer of the wilderness system, Aldo Leopold radically influenced the development of environmental ethics and sustainability.
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Critter Corner: News Roundup on Biodiversity – Week of 9/12
Read more about the Iconic Nile Crocodile, Honeyguide Brood Parasitism, Vibrations of a Hummingbird, and Flying Snails in this week’s edition of The Critter Corner.
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A Sea Change, Deep Under Antarctic Waters
The frigid seabottom off Antarctica holds a surprising riot of life: colorful carpets of sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers and many other soft, bottom-dwelling animals, shown on images from robotic submarines. Now, it appears that many such communities could fast disappear, due to warming climate. Scientists sailing on an icebreaker last year have just published a study showing that gigantic…
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Extinction Exposed – The Sea Otter
Despite being a keystone species in important ecosystems that span the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean, sea otters have historically had a complex and sometimes troubling relationship with humans.
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Wondrous Wildlife of The Week – The Pebble Toad
Organisms in the natural world are constantly striving to avoid predation. Some prey depend on morphological characters to outsmart a worthy predator, utilizing camouflage or mimicry to avoid detection; others must engage in battle, relying on agility or strength. The Venezuela pebble toad, however, has an extremely peculiar defense mechanism: it rolls itself into the…
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Critter Corner: News Roundup on Biodiversity – Week of 9/5
Read more about White Nose Syndrome Bats, Hen Sex Strategy, Circadian Clocks in Blind Fish, The Discovery of an Ancient Woolly Rhino, a New Shark Species in this week’s edition of The Critter Corner.
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Have We Crossed the 9 Planetary Boundaries?
“The world needs to awaken itself to the looming catastrophe of global warming,” said Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, at a recent meeting in Muscat. “We must provide a safe operating space where vested interest and lobby-driven policies will not see the world marching into disaster.”
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Synthetic Biology: Creating New Forms of Life
When leading genomic scientist, J. Craig Venter announced in May 2010 that he’d created the first self-replicating organism with a totally synthetic genome (the genetic material of an organism), it was the first time many people had heard of synthetic biology. Venter did not actually create a synthetic living organism—rather his research team created a…
