A century of records paints a worrying picture for Europe's bees
In most parts of Europe, bees have become less widespread during the last 100 years, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research news on biogeography
Biogeography is the scientific study of the spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity, examining how and why the distributions of species, populations, communities, and ecosystems vary across geographical areas and through evolutionary time. It integrates principles from ecology, evolution, geology, and climatology to analyze processes such as dispersal, speciation, extinction, vicariance, and range shifts. Biogeography encompasses subfields including historical biogeography, which reconstructs past distributions using phylogenetic and paleontological data, and ecological biogeography, which investigates how current environmental gradients, habitat structure, and biotic interactions shape present-day distributional patterns and biodiversity gradients, such as latitudinal diversity clines and island faunas.
The road to discovery: DNA in the air maps biodiversity
Curtin University researchers have detected traces of hundreds of plants and animals by collecting DNA from the air as they drove more than 1,100km (684 miles) across Western Australia.
Ecology
22 hours ago
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13% of Earth's land identified as biodiversity conservation hotspots
As governments prepare to gather in Yerevan, Armenia, this week for the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP17), new research identifies 13% of Earth's land area as hotspots for biodiversity conservation, highlighting where ...
Environment
Oct 19, 2026
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India's cobras share genetic ties across the mainland, while Sri Lankan cobras form a distinct genetic lineage
The spectacled cobra (Naja naja) is one of India's "big four" snakes responsible for most serious snakebite cases. It is currently considered one species, which lives across much of South Asia, with regional differences in ...
Urbanization takes a bigger toll on bird diversity in the tropics than it does at other latitudes, study finds
Researchers at McGill University have found that urbanization is weakening one of Earth's most enduring ecological patterns: the tendency for biodiversity to increase toward the tropics, a pattern known as the latitudinal ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 14, 2026
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DNA reveals genetic divide in Australian brolgas, with southern birds facing greater diversity risks
New research on the brolga, an iconic Australian crane species, has shown important genetic differences between northern and southeastern populations, with evidence that those in western Victoria are at increased risk, likely ...
Ecology
Oct 12, 2026
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Colombia's new bee checklist documents 738 species, including 246 newly recorded
A team led by a Penn State professor and doctoral student has compiled a checklist documenting the bee species in Colombia—the first of its kind for any country in the Western Hemisphere.
Plants & Animals
Oct 8, 2026
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Ancient spotted bat samples help researchers understand present-day population dynamics
Understanding changes in North American bat populations is critical to measuring the risk of extinction from emerging threats such as habitat loss, climate change, white-nose syndrome and other disturbances. A study published ...
Ecology
Oct 7, 2026
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Birdsong tells only part of a forest's story: Evolutionary trees reveal the rest
Birds calling back and forth in the morning make up one of the defining sounds of tropical forests. We're likely to assume that hearing or seeing more types of birds indicates a healthy forest.
Evolution
Oct 2, 2026
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Global pollination analysis reveals climate explains specialized partnerships better than latitude
An international study led by researchers from Charles University in Prague (CUNI) and the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences (BC CAS) has mapped how closely flowering plants and their pollinators depend on each ...
Ecology
Oct 1, 2026
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