University of Alberta biologist Stan Boutin uses a simple analogy to describe a breakthrough research paper on the behaviour of squirrels. “You try to prepare your kids for what they’ll face when they get out in the big, real world,” said Boutin. “Female squirrels in our study were doing that too for their offspring.” Boutin is the [...]

Read More...

Courtesy of The University of British Columbia News A rare double-barrier reef in the Philippines is facing grave threats and urgently needs increased protection, according to new photographic evidence released today by a team of marine conservationists and photographers organized by Project Seahorse, a partnership of the University of British Columbia and the Zoological Society [...]

Read More...

Courtesy of University of Alberta News Dinosaurs are long extinct but their role in understanding life on Earth in the 21st century is vital, says a dinosaur researcher at the University of Alberta. “Humans have been around for about 200,000 years; dinosaurs ruled for Earth for 160 million years,” says U of A paleontologist Scott Persons. [...]

Read More...

Darcy McKinley Lester does not like baked beans and spaghetti on toast for breakfast, but she said that dish is hard to avoid when you study abroad in Australia. The Mechanicsburg, Pa., native studied at the Australian National University in Canberra last spring. Now a senior studying forest science, Lester wanted to travel to Australia [...]

Read More...

The University of Melbourne and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne today launched Australia’s largest green roof research and outreach project at the University’s Burnley Campus near Richmond. The Burnley Green Roofs Project will determine the best plant species and soils to use on city roofs, demonstrate how green roofs can use storm water and reduce [...]

Read More...

Courtesy of UBC University of British Columbia researchers have found that when the animals at the top of the food chain are removed, freshwater ecosystems emit a lot more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. “Predators are disappearing from our ecosystems at alarming rates because of hunting and fishing pressure and because of human induced changes [...]

Read More...

Courtesy of  The University of Alberta A University of Alberta polar bear researcher and 11 international co-authors are urging governments to start planning for rapid Arctic ecosystem change to deal with a climate change catastrophe for the animals. U of A professor Andrew Derocher co-wrote a policy perspective urging governments with polar bear populations to [...]

Read More...

Courtesy of The Australian National University Ecosystems worldwide are in danger of losing large, old trees forever, without more research and policy changes to better protect them, warns a new study published in Science. Lead author of the paper, Professor David Lindenmayer from the Fenner School of Environment and Society in the ANU College of [...]

Read More...

From the University of Sheffield Greenland’s longest observed glacier has suffered one of the highest shrinkages in its history, a climate expert from the University of Sheffield working with a team of Scandinavian researchers has found. Following fieldwork surveying the Mittivakkat Gletscher on Ammassalik Island in southeast Greenland – which has been analysed every year [...]

Read More...

From the University of Melbourne The world’s corals and coral reefs face severe degradation if global-mean temperatures rise 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, an international study has found. The study was published today in Nature Climate Change. The study by a research team from Australia, Germany and Canada, looked at more than 2000 coral reef [...]

Read More...