Anthropogenic effects, as a biological process, encompass the direct and indirect impacts of human activities on biological systems, altering organismal physiology, behavior, population dynamics, community structure, and ecosystem function. These effects arise from mechanisms such as habitat modification, pollution, overexploitation, introduction of invasive species, and climate forcing via greenhouse gas emissions. At the biological level, anthropogenic effects drive phenotypic plasticity, rapid evolutionary change, altered life-history strategies, and disrupted species interactions (e.g., predation, competition, mutualism). They also modify biogeochemical cycles, primary productivity, and trophic networks, frequently resulting in biodiversity loss, shifts in species ranges, and changes in ecosystem resilience and stability.
Permits revoked, lawsuits filed, the threat of state takeovers. Deadly flooding in Indonesia has prompted unprecedented government action against companies accused of environmental destruction that worsened the disaster.
Environment
Feb 19, 2026
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20
Humans have climbed to the top of the food chain by skillfully hunting, trapping, and fishing for other animals at scales that far exceed other predators, altering how the animals behave and earning the tag of a "super-predator." ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 17, 2026
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739
Current global climate models (GCMs) support with high confidence the view that rising greenhouse gases and other anthropogenic forcings account for nearly all observed global surface warming—slightly above 1 °C—since the ...
Human-caused climate change had an important impact on the recent ferocious wildfires that engulfed parts of Chile and Argentina's Patagonia region, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning ...
Environment
Feb 11, 2026
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35
The Trump administration on Thursday will revoke a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the White House announced.
Environment
Feb 11, 2026
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11
New research led by the University of Michigan is painting a more comprehensive picture of how noise pollution is impacting birds around the world. "The major takeaway from this study is that anthropogenic noise affects many ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 10, 2026
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50
Many ecologists hypothesize that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 9, 2026
5
1476
A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology has shown in a new study that ants returning from habitats affected by air pollution are attacked when they re-enter the colony. The cause: air pollution, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 2, 2026
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19
Less than a year ago, United States company Colossal Biosciences announced it had "resurrected" the dire wolf, a megafauna-hunting wolf species that had been extinct for 10,000 years.
Ecology
Feb 2, 2026
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20
A new study using Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) has revealed land-use change—particularly deforestation and unplanned agricultural expansion—is dramatically intensifying heat waves across Africa, with findings ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 28, 2026
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17
