Researchers monitoring San Francisco Bay for algal toxins have found a surprising array of different toxins in the water and in mussels collected from the bay. Four different classes of toxins, including one produced in freshwater environments, occur regularly throughout the bay, according to a study led by UC Santa Cruz researchers and published March 10 in Harmful Algae.

Human encroachment is the leading cause of death among Ontario’s at-risk birds of prey, according to a first-ever University of Guelph study.

Replanting trees after events like last year’s catastrophic Western wildfires not only is critical to forest recovery, but could actually help soils take up more carbon from the atmosphere than if the burned areas were just left idle or cultivated.

A botanist, a retired businesswoman, and a high school student walk into a bar. Or, maybe not a bar, what with the high school student. A museum. They and their team have a common problem—too many plant photos to analyze—and they find a solution: creating an online tool that lets regular, non-scientist people help do that analysis.

The Mekong River, one of the world’s largest, traverses six Southeast Asian countries and supports the livelihoods of millions of people. New efforts to provide hydroelectric power to a growing and modernizing population include more than eight proposed main-stem dams and 60 or more existing tributary dams in the lower Mekong basin. A new article from University of Illinois and Iowa State University scientists lays out what dam construction could mean for residents and the environment in the region.

With the rise of herbicide-resistant weeds in most grain and vegetable crops, farmers are looking for alternatives to herbicides to control weeds. Cover crops offer one potential weed management tool. Their use in specialty crops is limited, and no testing has been done so far in edamame. However, a new University of Illinois study reports that early-killed cereal rye shows promise for edamame growers.

A study led by recent Simon Fraser University PhD alumnus Kyle Artelle has unveiled new findings that challenge the widespread assumption that wildlife management in North America is science-based.

Accepted ecological theory says that poor soils limit the productivity of tropical forests, but adding nutrients as fertilizer rarely increases tree growth, suggesting that productivity is not limited by nutrients after all.

A new study shows that, during the Ice Age, both the East Asian summer monsoon and desertification in Eurasia were driven by fluctuating Northern Hemisphere ice volume and global sea level. 

For many ecologists, fieldwork involves majestic mountains or rushing rivers or large tracts of wilderness. At the very least, it means exploring natural areas that aren’t defined by human development.