Ecological world

             World leaders assembled in Marrakech for the 22nd annual climate change conference, known as COP22, to come up with an action plan for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Despite the uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s pledge for the US to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, many leaders chose to look ahead. This showed that the Paris Agreement and the underlying cause reach beyond any individual country. Prior to COP22, 55 nations had already ratified the Paris Agreement, representing 55% of the total global emissions which is the minimum percentage required for the agreement to enter force and thus become international law. By the end of COP22, a total of 111 countries have ratified the agreement. Additionally, 11 countries pledged to inject an extra $50 million for the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency Fund for developing countries not only to monitor and track, but to fulfil their existing climate pledges and build upon them. While some de

                        Voting for the Public Award of the REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest is open 1-28 February 2017. Voting is open to all members of the public. The REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest was launched in 2016 and received over fifty project submissions from across Europe. The aim of the contest is to recognize groundbreaking projects and ideas addressing food waste. Public Award: REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest Vote Now:  Public Award REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest (link is external) (link is external)  of the REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest and have the opportunity to present their project at the  REFRESH Food Waste 2017 Conference (link is external) (link is external)   on 18 May 2017 in Berlin. (link is external)  (Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain) and organizes the contest and the conference. Each person can vote once per day for the entire voting period (one vote is allowed per IP address per day). Vot

With the ocean absorbing more carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) over the past decade, less of the greenhouse gas is reaching the Earth's atmosphere. That's decidedly good news, but it comes with a catch: Rising levels of CO 2  in the ocean promote acidification, which breaks down the calcium carbonate shells of some marine organisms. Geographers have determined why the ocean has absorbed more carbon over the past decade. Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan The cause of this recent increase in oceanic CO 2  uptake, which has implications for climate change, has been a mystery. But new research from UC Santa Barbara geographer Timothy DeVries and colleagues demonstrates that a slowdown of the ocean's overturning circulation is the likely catalyst. Their findings appear in the journal  Nature . "Such a slowdown is consistent with the projected effects of anthropogenic climate change, where warming and freshening of the surface ocean from melting ice caps leads to

Hank introduces us to ecology - the study of the rules of engagement for all of us earthlings - which seeks to explain why the world looks and acts the way it does. The world is crammed with things, both animate and not, that have been interacting with each other all the time, every day, since life on this planet began, and these interactions depend mostly on just two things... Learn what they are as Crash Course Biology takes its final voyage outside the body and into the entire world.  Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a new Crash Course in ECOLOGY! 

A newly discovered species of gecko has tearaway skin that leaves predators with nothing but a mouthful of scales when attacked. Many lizards can detach their tails when attacked, but fish-scale geckos have large scales that tear away with ease. The new species is a master of this art, say scientists, having the largest scales of any known gecko. The reptile, named  Geckolepis megalepis ,  is described in PeerJ . The skin of fish-scale geckos is specially adapted to tearing. The large scales are attached only by a relatively narrow region that tears with ease. In addition, beneath the scales there is a pre-formed splitting zone within the skin itself. Image copyright F. GLAW Image caption When grasped by a predator, fish-scale geckos lose not just their scales but also the skin underneath Although several other geckos are able to lose their skin like this if they are grasped firmly, fish-scale geckos are able to do so actively - and at the slightest touch.

A recent review of studies of submarine canyons has identified that they are at risk from human activities, and require better protection. Remains of fishing gear over corals and other benthic fauna on Porcupine Bank. Credit: ICM-CSIC, DOSMARES cruise 2013. The review was published in the journal  Frontiers in Marine Science  by a team of scientists that are part of the International Network for submarine Canyon Investigation and Scientific Exchange (INCISE). INCISE is an initiative that aims to bring together scientists working on all aspects of submarine canyon research, and to stimulate discussions across disciplines. Submarine canyons are major geomorphic features of continental margins, and nearly 10,000 large canyons are estimated to exist around the world. Recent multidisciplinary projects focused on the study of canyons have considerably increased our understanding of their ecological role, the goods and services they provide to human populati

The Amazonian rainforest was transformed over two thousand years ago by ancient people who built hundreds of large, mysterious earthworks. Geoglyph photos. Credit: Jenny Watling Findings by Brazilian and UK experts provide new evidence for how indigenous people lived in the Amazon before European people arrived in the region. The ditched enclosures, in Acre state in the western Brazilian Amazon, were concealed for centuries by trees. Modern deforestation has allowed the discovery of more than 450 of these large geometrical geoglyphs. The function of these mysterious sites is still little understood -- they are unlikely to be villages, since archaeologists recover very few artefacts during excavation. The layout doesn't suggest they were built for defensive reasons. It is thought they were used only sporadically, perhaps as ritual gathering places. The structures are ditched enclosures that occupy roughly 13,000 km 2 . Their discovery challenges assump