Ecological world

Reindeer left hungry, shrinking in warming world Reindeer are shrinking. Warmer winters mean more rain. The rain falls on snow, where it freezes, thus locking-out the reindeer from the food beneath the snow. As a result, the reindeer starve, aborting their calves or giving birth to much lighter young. Credit: © Andreas Gradin / Fotolia Often portrayed as pulling Santa's sleigh, reindeer are a Christmas staple. Now, ecologists have found that reindeer are shrinking due to the impact of climate change on their food supplies. Speaking at the British Ecological Society annual meeting in Liverpool this week, researchers will reveal that over the past 20 years -- during a period of noticeable summer and winter warming in the Arctic -- reindeer on Svalbard have got smaller and lighter. Ecologists from the James Hutton Institute, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and Norwegian University of Life Sciences have worked in the high Arctic since 1994, measuring a

No teeth? No problem: Dinosaur species had teeth as babies, lost them as they grew Discovery may explain why birds are toothless As Limusaurus grew from adolescent to adult, it lost its teeth and did not grow a new set. Credit: George Washington University Researchers have discovered that a species of dinosaur,  Limusaurus inextricabilis , lost its teeth in adolescence and did not grow another set as adults. The finding, published today in  Current Biology , is a radical change in anatomy during a lifespan and may help to explain why birds have beaks but no teeth. The research team studied 19  Limusaurus  skeletons, discovered in "death traps," where they became mired in mud, got stuck and died, in the Xinjiang Province of China. The dinosaurs ranged in age from baby to adult, showing the pattern of tooth loss over time. The baby skeleton had small, sharp teeth, and the adult skeletons were consistently toothless. "This discovery is important

Main Issues and Positions for the 17th COP                                                   The objective of this briefing was to provide Members with an overview of the key issues at stake at the CITES COP 17 and to introduce the new role of the EU as a single Party entity. A short overview of the history of CITES was provided, along with the current positions of the main Parties on key issues of importance. In a final section, the brief identified main conclusions and recommendations for Members of the ENVI Committee to establish their own perspectives on the subject of CITES and the potential role of the EU. The briefing was conducted using published documents, press releases, official position papers, studies and other relevant sources from national, international and EU institutions and NGOs. The document is available for download. http://ecologic.eu/14143

Take a tour through our "Knowledge Garden" Ecologic Institute in five minutes Ecologic Institute is a private not-for-profit think tank for applied environmental research, policy analysis and consultancy with offices in Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Washington DC, and San Mateo CA. Sound complicated? It is! What do we work on? Who do we work for and who are we? What makes Ecologic Institute a ''Knowledge Garden''? This film provides answers to these questions. Das Ecologic Institut ist ein Think Tank für angewandte Umweltforschung, Politikanalyse und Beratung mit Büros in Berlin, Brüssel und Washington DC. Klingt kompliziert? Ist es auch. Womit genau beschäftigen wir uns? Für wen arbeiten wir und wer sind wir? Und warum ist das Ecologic Institut ein „Knowledge Garden"? Dieser Film gibt Antworten. Production: Susanne Müller Animation: Claire Walka Speaker: Katriona McGlade, Andrew Reid Script: Melanie Kemper, Susanne Müller, Ralph Piotrow

NatureServe Board of Directors Challenge Facebook   Twitter   Google Plus   LinkedIn   Our Board of Directors is contributing $175,000, some of them are increasing their gift by as much as 50%, and they  challenge you  to increase your gift to NatureServe by  December 31st . Give generously, as much as your circumstances allow, to elevate our shared conservation  impact.  As we welcome our new President & CEO, Dr. Gregory Miller, our entire Board of Directors is stepping up to provide him with the support and resources he needs. Help us help him lead the way for the NatureServe Network and conservation action.  A family of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in Cape Blossom, Alaska | Photo by IFAW Our world urgently needs NatureServe’s science, now more than ever. The warming climate, expanding human footprint, habit at loss—with each day that passes, these changes threaten biodiversity. NatureServe guides critical actions to  halt the irreversible loss of Earth’s bi

Ecological Systems of Latin America and the Caribbean Overview This ecological classification of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was developed using a standard framework of classification for terrestrial and wetland ecosystems to provide the LAC region’s component of an International Ecological Classification Standard. Its report introduces and outlines the conceptual basis of the classification and summarizes the nearly 800 ecological systems that currently are classified and described for LAC, emphasizing the natural portion of the landscape. We document applications of these ecological systems for conservation assessment, ecological inventory, mapping, and land management. Value While scientists have made considerable progress classifying fine-grained species and communities on the one hand and coarse-grained ecoregions on the other, conservation practitioners have identified a critical need for practical, mid-scale ecological units to inform conservation a

Latin America Faces the Global Ecological Crisis                                                  Because of Latin America’s natural wealth, the region is a great supplier of commodities, food and energy to industrialized economies; and, at the same time, the wealthier countries try to transfer the environmental costs of the dirtiest industries to it Ignacio Sabbatella is a frequent contributor to  Marxismo Ecologico . This article was first published in  Voces en el Fenix . Translation by Laura Mattas. In this article, we will try to outline briefly some of the challenges facing Latin America in relation to the environment. To this end, we will begin by analysing the structural factors underlying the global ecological crisis. We will continue by exposing what we have called environmental inequalities, the forms they assume and the conflicts they may provoke. Finally, we will refer to the conduct of Latin American governments, and the political strategies they