Biodiversity, as a biological phenomenon, denotes the variability and complexity of life across genes, species, populations, communities, and ecosystems, including their functional traits and phylogenetic relationships. It emerges from evolutionary processes such as mutation, selection, gene flow, and drift, and is structured by ecological interactions, environmental gradients, and spatiotemporal dynamics. Biodiversity influences and reflects ecosystem functioning, stability, and resilience through mechanisms like complementarity, redundancy, and trophic interactions. It is quantitatively characterized using metrics of richness, evenness, turnover, and functional or phylogenetic diversity, and its patterns are central to understanding biogeography, ecosystem processes, and responses to environmental change.
Living walls—structures housing flowers and plants fitted to the outside of new and old buildings—can significantly enhance the biodiversity within urban environments, a new study has shown.
Plants & Animals
Jan 22, 2026
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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Kiel have provided experimental evidence showing that reducing plant species diversity alters plant chemical signals across whole communities ...
Ecology
Jan 16, 2026
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An international group of researchers says that biodiversity conservation and scientific research are not benefiting from the vast knowledge about the world's plants held by botanic gardens, because of fragmented data systems ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 10, 2026
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Global terrestrial biodiversity hotspots are among the most ecologically important regions on Earth. These 36 regions, which occupy only 2.5% of the planet's land surface, support nearly half of all plant species and more ...
Environment
Jan 7, 2026
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The millions of species humans share the world with are valuable in their own right. When one species is lost, it has a ripple effect throughout the ecosystems it existed within.
Ecology
Dec 29, 2025
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About 300 years ago, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus set out on a bold quest: to identify and name every living organism on Earth. Now celebrated as the father of modern taxonomy, he developed the binomial naming system ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 23, 2025
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Farmers plant or preserve riparian buffers for various reasons, such as improving water quality, controlling erosion, or maintaining hunting habitat. Now, a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign underscores ...
Ecology
Dec 3, 2025
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64
When I, Erik Meijaard, worked as a wildlife consultant for a timber concession in Borneo, I often chatted with the logging truck drivers—and quickly realized that some of them knew far more about local wildlife populations ...
Ecology
Dec 1, 2025
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Human-driven changes to landscapes worldwide are 'thinning out' the ecological services supplied by wild birds, eroding the functions that support stable and resilient ecosystems.
Plants & Animals
Nov 26, 2025
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23
New research has shed light on the vast and largely unmonitored trade of wildlife around the world, revealing alarming threats to biosecurity and the survival of many species.
Plants & Animals
Nov 12, 2025
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