Why biodiversity matters

A year on from the COP15 summit of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a new book by UQ ecologist Nigel Dudley builds a case for “Why Biodiversity Matters” and why we should care if species go extinct.

Farming carbon

Farmers have cleared much of Australia’s natural vegetation over the last two hundred years, and while carbon credits have been exploited for private gain rather than public good, replanting schemes can help restore our land and atmosphere to a more sustainable balance.

Amphibian apocalypse

Forty percent of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction according to a global study published in the scientific journal Nature.

A new tool to tackle seafood fraud

A new handheld scanner uses nuclear methods and mathematical models to determine the origin and production of seafood.

Farming the sea

Floating sea farms could help feed the world in the future, according to a new study by University of South Australia researchers.

By gum

As climate change intensifies, city planners are looking for resilient street trees able to provide cooling shade in a hotter climate such as the Spotted Gum.

More food with fewer emissions

Agriculture generates about a quarter of the world’s total greenhouse emissions but new research shows it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, agriculture could become not carbon neutral, but carbon negative in a couple of decades.

Rethinking rice

Rice is a staple crop feeding much of the world’s population, but new cultivation methods which require less water, preserve the soil and reduce carbon emissions will be required in a hotter, drier world transformed by climate change.

The negatives of ‘nature positive’

The “nature positive” slogan adopted by companies and developers all too often greenwashes their activities without affecting their profits or business models, with dubious paper offsets no recompense for the environmental damage they cause.

Greening the desert

Growing plants that have adapted to desert life could help naturally capture and store carbon, according to a perspective piece by international researchers.

Beyond a boundary

Mankind has been wiping out species and changing the landscape since the last ice age, but the sheer weight of our impact on the planet threatens to breach the boundaries of its ability to sustain us.

The high cost of feral invasion

Humans have wiped thousands of species from the face of the Earth, but have also spread other animals and plants around the world to wreak havoc on natural eco-systems.