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.
A biological process long thought to protect biodiversity and help species coexist may actually threaten diversity when species are separated by natural landscapes, infrastructure, or other barriers, according to new research ...
Evolution
Mar 26, 2026
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Have you ever been in the woods and wondered what bug you're hearing or which bird is singing? These days, new technologies are helping both scientists and the public identify what's trilling, scuttling, tweeting, rustling, ...
Ecology
Mar 24, 2026
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9
As we move through the world, we leave behind invisible traces of ourselves encased in the hair, skin, and other bodily matter we shed. These tiny pieces of DNA—known as environmental DNA or eDNA—have major conservation potential. ...
Ecology
Mar 12, 2026
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Mangrove forests protect tropical coasts from storms, store large amounts of carbon and provide vital habitats for plants and animals, serving, for example, as nurseries for fish and crabs. They also supply local communities ...
Ecology
Mar 12, 2026
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107
Payments that enable landowners to rewild ecologically degraded land—in the form of biodiversity credits bought by investors wishing to offset their impact on nature—could be an effective component of the emerging market ...
Environment
Mar 8, 2026
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Intact ecosystems have the capacity for self-regulation, which keeps their complex structure of species—such as animals, plants, fungi and bacteria—in balance. For example, when the population of a species increases, its ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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A new article introduces a science-based operational framework developed by researchers from several universities and the Danish Biodiversity Council. The framework can help countries assess their genuine national contributions ...
Environment
Mar 2, 2026
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The world has far more bees than anyone realized. Scientists have, for the first time, estimated just how many species of bees are out there on a global scale, offering a clearer look at how these vital pollinators are distributed ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 24, 2026
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182
Biodiversity is changing across the planet, yet governments still lack the robust, consistent data needed to track these changes and guide effective conservation. Now, a new study led by the University of Amsterdam (UvA), ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 23, 2026
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12
Birds currently inhabiting many territories across Africa, Latin America and Asia are, on average, considerably smaller than those that predominated in 1940. This is the conclusion of an international study led by the Institute ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 18, 2026
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