Wetland ecosystems are transitional habitats between terrestrial and aquatic systems that are characterized by periodic or permanent inundation, hydric soils, and vegetation adapted to water-saturated conditions. They encompass diverse types such as marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens, each defined by hydrological regime, nutrient status, and dominant plant functional groups. Wetlands exhibit high biogeochemical activity, particularly in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling, driven by redox gradients and microbial processes under anoxic or fluctuating oxygen conditions. They support high biodiversity, act as sinks or sources of greenhouse gases (e.g., CO₂, CH₄, N₂O), regulate hydrology via water storage and attenuation, and are focal systems in research on ecosystem services, climate feedbacks, and landscape connectivity.
Beavers should be embraced as key allies in the fight against biodiversity loss according to scientists at the University of Stirling, after new research revealed the significant ecological benefits the animals bring to wetland ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 26, 2026
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The structure of the plant communities that grow on the thawing permafrost in the Arctic is changing, with grasses displacing slower-growing shrubs. Although these grasses bind more carbon dioxide than previous plant communities, ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 26, 2026
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In the heart of the Marais Poitevin regional nature park, the second-largest wetland in France, a scientific team led by a CNRS researcher has demonstrated the ability of clay soils to self-organize into geometric patterns. ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2026
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Hidden beneath the surface of the world's rivers, some of Earth's great animal movements unfold—migrations that rival, in sheer biomass, the famous mass movements of zebra and wildebeest across the Serengeti.
Ecology
Mar 25, 2026
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Urban stormwater ponds provide important habitats for birds, including both resident and migrating species, according to research led by the University of Toronto. For the study, researchers placed audio recorders at 16 stormwater ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 24, 2026
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Across Europe, beaver numbers are increasing after a long period of decline. As these aquatic mammals recolonize rivers, they are gradually rebuilding wetlands that once existed across many river valleys.
Plants & Animals
Mar 18, 2026
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Beavers could engineer riverbeds into promising carbon dioxide sinks, according to a new international study led by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The paper, published in Communications Earth & Environment, ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 18, 2026
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In the middle of the old-growth forests of Congaree National Park in South Carolina, fireflies put on an otherworldly display every May. Thousands of male insects belonging to the species Photuris frontalis flash together ...
Ecology
Mar 13, 2026
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57
Research led by the University of Cambridge and the RSPB shows that farming wetland-adapted crops on wetter peat—known as paludiculture—can support richer and more diverse bird communities than drained grassland.
Plants & Animals
Mar 12, 2026
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14
The Amazon rainforest is famous for storing massive amounts of carbon in its trees and soils, helping regulate the global climate. Yet a paper published in New Phytologist shows that one of South America's largest carbon-storing ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 12, 2026
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