Species make comeback 30 years after rainforest devastation

Date:

February 28, 2018

Source:

University of Salford

Summary:

Rainforest loss is fueling a tsunami of tropical species extinctions. However, not all is doom and gloom.

Lake Montcortès in Spain reveals the ecological footprint of climate change from the last 500 years

Date:

February 28, 2018

Source:

Universidad de Barcelona

Summary:

Oxygen decline in water masses is an environmental problem in lakes and ponds around the world. This phenomenon, which alters the conditions of continental water ecosystems, seems to be linked to global warming.

To build up mussels, you need to know your fish

Date:

February 27, 2018

Source:

Michigan State University

Summary:

Times are tough for 31 of Michigan's 45 varieties of freshwater mussels. Sporting evocative names like wavy-rayed lampmussel and round pigtoe, these residents of the state's rivers are imperiled by habitat disruption and pollution and are also threatened by climate change. Michigan State University scientists' recommendation to figure out the best places to focus conservation efforts: Worry about fish

Trees planted in memory of 63 children killed in Khojaly

26 февраля 2018 года On 26 February 2018, IDEA Public Union, State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and Sabunchu District Executive Power held a tree planting ceremony in remembrance of the victims of the Khojaly Genocide, which occurred during the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1992.

For green toads, species with multiple genomes have ancestors that are only distantly related

Date:

February 20, 2018

Source:

Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB)

Summary:

Most vertebrates have two sets of chromosomes, one from their mother and one from their father – including humans who are thus diploid. In contrast, polyploidy, meaning to possess three or more sets of chromosomes is very rare in animals. To find out how new vertebrate species have evolved, and, more generally, how the current biodiversity emerged, evolutionary biologists are studying green toads (Bufo viridis) – an excellent model system for studying various evolutionary processes, because they can be diploid or polyploid.

Azerbaijan to create the first Marine Protected Area in the Caspian Sea

14 February 2018

Azerbaijan is upgrading and expanding the Gizilaghaj State Reserve to become a National Park and include the first Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water on the planet. The new MPA will seek to protect six significant marine species on the brink of extinction, including the Beluga sturgeon and the Caspian salmon.

The State Reserve in south-eastern Azerbaijan was created in 1929 for the purpose of protecting migrant, swamp and wild birds, and was declared a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 2001. In addition, the reserve lies just south of the mouth of the Kura and Aras rivers which provide the spawning grounds for different sturgeon species. As anadromous fish, the young sturgeon will make their way down the river towards the sea for hundreds of kilometres and naturally seek shallow, brackish coastal habitats where they can feed on worms, shrimp, and small fish in the muddy substrate and gradually adapt to changes in salinity and pressure. They spend three to four years in this environment before they head out into the Caspian Sea.

Africas Super Seven / Special (National Geographic)