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.
The Amazon region, Earth's most important ecosystem, is home to more than 400 Indigenous groups that use thousands of rainforest plant species. They pass on their knowledge of the flora primarily through oral tradition, usually ...
Environment
Jul 8, 2026
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Healthy ecosystems depend on more than just having lots of species—they rely on the complex relationships between plants, prey and predators, according to new international research led by the University of Waikato and the ...
Ecology
Jul 3, 2026
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In the humid jungle of Vietnam, Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela and Monte Neate-Clegg spent hours patiently waiting to spot the rare "Halloween bird." Officially known as the collared laughingthrush, this songbird has striking orange, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 2, 2026
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In ecology, the principle holds that the more diverse and heterogeneous a habitat is, the more different species it supports. To promote species diversity in forests, clearings are therefore created for nature conservation ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 29, 2026
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A global analysis of fish biodiversity using environmental DNA (eDNA) reveals how human activity and climate influence biodiversity patterns in river ecosystems. An international research team led by the University of Zurich, ...
Ecology
Jun 24, 2026
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New research from the University of St. Andrews has shown that higher extinction risk is associated with a higher frequency of decreasing local prevalence of species, in an analysis of one of the most comprehensive long-term ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2026
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An international research team, which included University of Tartu visiting doctoral student Wen-Gang Zhang and Professor of Botany Meelis Pärtel, has found a new solution to one of ecology's long-standing controversies—Darwin's ...
Evolution
Jun 16, 2026
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Most of my ecology and evolution undergraduates have never held a pair of binoculars or looked at a bug through a magnifying glass. They don't know how to use a key to identify a plant or insect, let alone why they should ...
Ecology
Jun 16, 2026
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Plants, animals and microorganisms constantly communicate through chemical signals. A research team has now shown that these signals merge in the environment to form complex "chemical landscapes" that have effects far beyond ...
Ecology
Jun 16, 2026
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In a seismic shift since Kew's inaugural State of the World report 10 years ago, the sixth State of the World's Plants and Fungi report, published June 16, 2026, brings together expertise from more than 400 scientists across ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 15, 2026
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