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Over a six-year period in southcentral Pennsylvania, measures of biodiversity among wild bee communities declined and one-third of species experienced decreases in abundance, according to a team of researchers. View the full article

Soil microbes can have a great impact on the spread of harmful invasive species as they can either hinder or facilitate the plant's growth. Researchers studied the role of soil microbiota in the success of garden lupine, which is an invasive species in the Finnish nature. View the full article

A growing number of Native American households in Nevada have no access to indoor plumbing, a condition known as 'plumbing poverty,' according to a new study. View the full article

An event that occurs only once every 120 years, the large-scale flowering, seeding, and dying of dwarf bamboo (Sasa borealis), has been found to provide ideal breeding conditions for Japanese field mice. View the full article

Old-growth forests and managed forests with old-growth characteristics can provide relief from climate change for some bird species, research suggests. View the full article

A research group has found that sudden changes in the development of a nighttime cold-air pool over a small mountain basin in Japan are related to leaf expansion and leaf fall in mountain forests. The researchers concluded that leaf area index influences seasonal changes in cold-air pool formation. Future studies will likely assess the effects of seasonal forest changes in mountain areas on nocturnal climates of inland areas. View the full article

New research has mapped the DNA from more than 150 species of native rodents from across Australia, New Guinea and Melanesian islands, painting a clearer picture of how they're related and how they ended up spreading across the Pacific. View the full article

A study more than 30 years in the making finds reintroducing bison would double plant biodiversity in a tallgrass prairie. View the full article

Hydropower developments should avoid flooding forests to minimize biodiversity loss and disruptions to ecosystems in Amazonian forest islands, new research finds. Deforestation, habitat loss and fragmentation are linked and are driving the ongoing biodiversity crisis, with hydropower to blame for much of this degradation. View the full article

A review of decades of research revealed more than a dozen kinds of animals in addition to slugs and snails have caused rat lungworm disease in people around the world. View the full article

While only four species of slow-moving aquatic herbivores of the order Sirenia remain on Earth, many different kinds of sea cows lived over the past 47 million years. Sea cows have lived along the coasts of every continent but Antarctica, and at times numerous species coexisted. A new article has assembled the most complete story yet of these unique creatures' ancestry. View the full article

A report into the global status of ladybirds reveals the threats they face and lays out a roadmap for conservation. These vital pest controllers for farmers and gardeners are considered to be in decline globally due to human activities, and species are poorly understood. View the full article

A multi-year study in the tropical forests of the Panama Canal found that the species most frequently damaged by lightning tended to be the most capable of surviving it. View the full article

A new analysis of a beaver anklebone fossil found in Montana suggests the evolution of semi-aquatic beavers may have occurred at least 7 million years earlier than previously thought, and happened in North America rather than Eurasia. View the full article

After a comprehensive study of plants across the United States, researchers have arrived at the unexpected conclusion that plants able to fix atmospheric nitrogen are most diverse in arid regions of the country. This finding runs counter to the prevailing assumption that nitrogen-fixers should be comparatively most diverse in environments where nitrogen in the soil is in limited supply. View the full article

For the first time, researchers have completed threat assessments for all 881 native tree species in the contiguous United States, resulting in a comprehensive checklist and synthesis that will serve as a critical baseline to guide future tree conservation efforts. View the full article

New study proves that single introduction of 24 animals shipped from England in 1859 caused the infamous invasion and argues that wild genetic traits gave these rabbits a devastating advantage over earlier arrivals. View the full article

A new study investigates how different mammals react to climate change. Animals that live for a long time and/or produce less offspring -- like bears and bison -- are more resilient than small animals with a short life -- like mice and lemmings. View the full article

The flash of lightning and the dance of auroras contain a fourth state of matter known as plasma, which researchers have harnessed to produce a gas that may activate plant immunity against wide-spread diseases. View the full article

While researchers predict that climate change will have an adverse effect on most staple crops, including rice, corn and soybeans, a new study finds that breadfruit -- a starchy tree fruit native to the Pacific islands -- will be relatively unaffected. To conduct the study, the researchers first determined the climate conditions required to cultivate breadfruit. Then, they looked at how these conditions are predicted to change in the future (between the years 2060 and 2080). They found that the suitable area for growing breadfruit decreased by a modest 4.4 to 4.5%. View the full article

A new framework for classifying the positive impacts of non-native species will allow conservationists and policymakers to make better-informed management decisions, according to a new article. View the full article

A deep dive into bird survey data has found that some of Australia's favorite backyard visitors considered 'common' are actually on the decline as cities and suburbs opt for less greenery. The study used citizen science data to examine the prevalence and diversity of bird species across Greater Brisbane, Greater Sydney, Greater Perth and Greater Melbourne. The team found that introduced species, historically prominent in Australian urban bird communities, were decreasing in prevalence in all four regions, while a small group of native urban exploiters were becoming more prevalent. View the full article

How can biodiversity be preserved whilst securing the economic livelihood of smallholder farmers growing vanilla in Madagascar? There is a way, according to a new study. The research team shows that vanilla plantations established on fallow land do not differ in terms of yield from those established in the forest. Cultivation on fallow land also increases biodiversity there. View the full article

Even relatively modest climate warming and associated precipitation shifts may dramatically alter Earth's northernmost forests, which constitute one of the planet's largest nearly intact forested ecosystems and are home to a big chunk of the planet's terrestrial carbon. View the full article

Climate change has led to warming temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, leading some insect species to expand their range into more northerly oak savannas, according to new research. View the full article