A new study by York University biologists Amro Zayed and Laurence Packer has shown that a lone insect can initiate a biological invasion.

During the last glaciation, which ended about 10 000 years Before Present (BP), the Brazilian Atlantic forest extended over all the eastern side of the country, covering more than 1 200 000 kmІ, 15% of Brazil’s territory. Now only 95 000 kmІ of this natural habitat survives, just 8% of its initial extent. It is still a large biodiversity reservoir in Brazil, second only to the Amazonian forest.

IRD researchers showed that Epinephilus maculates, a fairly abundant species of grouper off New Caledonia, was parasitized by 12 species of microscopic monogenean worms. This diversity of parasites has just been confirmed also in the malabar grouper, Epinephilus malabaricus, another the coral reef species.

Global warming may be to blame for the gradual extinction of cold-loving species, and the European land leech in particular, according to Ulrich Kutschera and colleagues from the University of Kassel in Germany and the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz in Austria.

Rainforests are the world’s treasure houses of biodiversity, but all rainforests are not the same. Biodiversity may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others and, therefore, may require different management and preservation strategies. That is one of the conclusions of a large-scale Smithsonian study of a lowland rainforest in New Guinea, published in the Aug. 9 issue of the journal Nature.

A little-known species of deer called a large-antlered muntjac has been photographed for the first time in the wild, according to a survey team from the Nam Theun 2 Watershed Management and Protection Authority (WMPA) and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

A limpet no bigger than a coin could reveal the possible fate of cold-blooded Antarctic marine animals according to new research published this week in The Journal of Experimental Biology.

In the July/August 2007 issue of BioScience, Mark D. Spalding of The Nature Conservancy and fourteen colleagues from around the world describe a new biogeographic classification of the world’s marine coastal and shelf areas, Marine Ecoregions of the World, that is expected to be a valuable tool for conservation planning.

The Defense Department’s program to provide land buffers near its bases has been effective in relieving military training and testing operations from encroachment pressures, but the program’s funding and activities should be accelerated before land development hinders future buffering opportunities, according to a RAND Corporation report issued today.

On June 28 the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a supplemental US$7.35 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for Mexico to promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity through the consolidation of the National Protected Areas System.

Though the dense humid forests of Central Africa have been regarded as among the most pristine on Earth, the expansion of industrial logging and the accompanying proliferation of road density are threatening the future of this important ecosystem.

On the eve of World Oceans Day, a group of over 100 scientists from 15 countries has revealed new evidence for the declining state of Europe's 4 regional seas