Featured
-
-
Nature Podcast |
Dead trees play an under-appreciated role in climate change
How insects help release carbon stored in forests, and the upcoming biodiversity summit COP 15.
- Shamini Bundell
- & Nick Petrić Howe
-
Article |
How deregulation, drought and increasing fire impact Amazonian biodiversity
Remote-sensing estimates of fires and the estimated geographic ranges of thousands of plant and vertebrate species in the Amazon Basin reveal that fires have impacted the ranges of 77–85% of threatened species over the past two decades.
- Xiao Feng
- , Cory Merow
- & Brian J. Enquist
-
Article |
The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition
Multi-year field experiments across six continents suggest that insects have an important contribution to decomposition and carbon release from forest deadwood.
- Sebastian Seibold
- , Werner Rammer
- & Jörg Müller
-
Correspondence |
Boost for Africa’s research must protect its biodiversity
- Nils Chr. Stenseth
- & Sebsebe Demissew
-
Editorial |
The world’s scientific panel on biodiversity needs a bigger role
IPBES, the international panel of leading biodiversity researchers, should be consulted on how best to measure species loss.
-
News |
Brazilian road proposal threatens famed biodiversity hotspot
Scientists and environmentalists say the road, slated to pass through Iguaçu National Park, could harm research projects and precious ecosystems.
- Meghie Rodrigues
-
News |
COVID vaccine inequity, species swaps — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key infographics from the week in science and research.
-
News Feature |
The world’s species are playing musical chairs: how will it end?
Many communities aren’t losing biodiversity, but ecosystems are changing rapidly and the future is far from rosy.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
-
Comment |
Biodiversity needs every tool in the box: use OECMs
To conserve global biodiversity, countries must forge equitable alliances that support sustainability in traditional pastoral lands, fisheries-management areas, Indigenous territories and more.
- Georgina G. Gurney
- , Emily S. Darling
- & Stacy D. Jupiter
-
Editorial |
Vulnerable nations lead by example on Sustainable Development Goals research
A United Nations study of world science is a wake-up call that richer countries must also shift science towards the SDGs.
-
Correspondence |
UK biodiversity: close gap between reality and rhetoric
- Sophus O. S. E. zu Ermgassen
- , Joseph W. Bull
- & Ben Groom
-
-
Book Review |
It takes a wood to raise a tree: a memoir
An ecologist traces forests’ support networks — and finds parallels in her own life.
- Emma Marris
-
Correspondence |
French vote for river barriers defies biodiversity strategy
- Simon Blanchet
- & Pablo A. Tedesco
-
Correspondence |
Trade resolution further threatens Brazil’s amphibians
- Joice Ruggeri
- & Lucas Rodriguez Forti
-
News |
Controversial forestry experiment will be largest-ever in United States
At the Elliott State Forest in Oregon, researchers will explore how best to balance timber production with conservation.
- Jeff Tollefson
-
Comment |
Nature-based solutions can help cool the planet — if we act now
Analysis suggests that to limit global temperature rise, we must slash emissions and invest now to protect, manage and restore ecosystems and land for the future.
- Cécile A. J. Girardin
- , Stuart Jenkins
- & Yadvinder Malhi
-
Editorial |
Ocean protection needs a spirit of compromise
A proposal that weighs up options for meeting climate, conservation and food-provision goals deserves serious consideration.
-
Editorial |
Growing support for valuing ecosystems will help conserve the planet
The idea that ecosystems have monetary value now has global support — and creates a route to protecting Earth’s endangered regions.
-
Editorial |
The UN Environment Programme needs new powers
Fifty years after its creation, the agency’s member states must agree to be held accountable for their green promises.
-
Where I Work |
My race against time to capture the sounds of ancient rainforests
Electro-acoustics researcher David Monacchi preserves the soundscapes of endangered forests to convey the risks they face.
- James Mitchell Crow
-
Book Review |
Outstanding reportage from the front lines of geoengineering
In her latest book, Elizabeth Kolbert asks: could some environmental fixes be worse than the problems?
- Gaia Vince
-
Editorial |
How science can put the Sustainable Development Goals back on track
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the UN’s flagship plan to end poverty and protect the environment. Researchers need to launch a rapid response.
-
Outlook |
Natural solutions for agricultural productivity
Scientists are pursuing sustainability strategies for intensifying production to tackle food security and environmental crises.
- Michael Eisenstein
-
Matters Arising |
Reply to: Crop asynchrony stabilizes food production
- Delphine Renard
- & David Tilman
-
Editorial |
World leaders are waking up to the ocean’s role in a healthy planet
Fourteen nations have made an unprecedented and welcome commitment to use marine ecosystems sustainably. It is equally important to establish a system to hold them to account.
-
Article |
Clustered versus catastrophic global vertebrate declines
In the geographically and taxonomically divided systems of vertebrates in the Living Planet Index, a small percentage of clusters showed extreme declines or increases, whereas most vertebrate populations across all systems showed no mean global trend.
- Brian Leung
- , Anna L. Hargreaves
- & Robin Freeman
-
Nature Podcast |
Audio long-read: The enigmatic organisms of the Ediacaran Period
New fossil finds and new techniques reveal evidence that early animals were more complex than previously thought.
- Traci Watson
- & Benjamin Thompson
-
Editorial |
Get Africa’s Great Green Wall back on track
A plan to green 7,000 kilometres of Africa’s drylands is struggling to take off. Researchers must help.
-
News Feature |
These bizarre ancient species are rewriting animal evolution
Early fossils with guts, segmented bodies and other sophisticated features reveal a revolution in animal life — before the Cambrian explosion.
- Traci Watson
-
Obituary |
Joseph H. Connell (1923–2020)
Ecologist who transformed the study of natural communities.
- Jane Lubchenco
- & Wayne P. Sousa
-
Obituary |
Georgina Mace (1953–2020)
Pioneer of biodiversity accounting who overhauled the Red List of threatened species.
- Nathalie Pettorelli
-
Article |
Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration
Multicriteria optimization identifies global priority areas for ecosystem restoration and estimates their benefits for biodiversity and climate, providing cost–benefit analyses that highlight the importance of optimizing spatial planning and incorporating several biomes in restoration strategies.
- Bernardo B. N. Strassburg
- , Alvaro Iribarrem
- & Piero Visconti
-
News |
‘Apocalyptic’ fires are ravaging the world’s largest tropical wetland
Infernos in South America’s Pantanal region have burnt twice the area of California’s fires this year. Researchers fear the rare ecosystem will never recover.
- Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
-
Editorial |
China’s researchers have valuable experiences that the world needs to hear about
As China prepares to take on a crucial role in the governance of global biodiversity, its researchers must be at the table.
-
Article |
Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy
To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.
- David Leclère
- , Michael Obersteiner
- & Lucy Young
-
News Q&A |
How Mauritius is cleaning up after major oil spill in biodiversity hotspot
The spill released a new type of low-sulfur fuel, and its ecological effects aren't well studied, says environment advocate Jaqueline Sauzier.
- Dyani Lewis
-
Where I Work |
Mesmerized by maritime marvels
Marine biologist Greg Rouse is elated to have been on a research cruise that discovered the world’s longest creature.
- Chris Woolston
-
Article |
Zoonotic host diversity increases in human-dominated ecosystems
Wildlife communities in human-managed ecosystems contain proportionally more species that share human pathogens, and at a higher abundance, than undisturbed habitats, suggesting that landscape transformation creates increasing opportunities for contact between humans and potential hosts of human disease.
- Rory Gibb
- , David W. Redding
- & Kate E. Jones
-
Article |
New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora
A catalogue of the vascular flora of New Guinea indicates that this island is the most floristically diverse in the world, and that 68% of the species identified are endemic to New Guinea.
- Rodrigo Cámara-Leret
- , David G. Frodin
- & Peter C. van Welzen
-
Article |
Ecosystem decay exacerbates biodiversity loss with habitat loss
Analysis of 123 studies of assemblage-level abundances of focal taxa from fragmented habitats finds that increasing fragmentation has a disproportionately large effect on biodiversity loss, supporting the ecosystem decay hypothesis.
- Jonathan M. Chase
- , Shane A. Blowes
- & Felix May
-
Article |
Antarctica’s wilderness fails to capture continent’s biodiversity
Historical records reveal that although 99.6% of Antarctica is defined as wilderness, areas undisturbed by humans comprise less than 32%, largely in regions of low biodiversity.
- Rachel I. Leihy
- , Bernard W. T. Coetzee
- & Steven L. Chown
-
Editorial |
Time to revise the Sustainable Development Goals
The pandemic has set back efforts to achieve the original 2015 targets. The need for change to make them more attainable is stronger than ever.
-
Editorial |
Fewer than 20 extinctions a year: does the world need a single target for biodiversity?
A proposal for one, simple goal, equivalent to the 2 °C climate target, needs to be thoroughly assessed.
-
News |
The biodiversity leader who is fighting for nature amid a pandemic
Elizabeth Mrema has a mighty task ahead of her, leading countries as they negotiate new biodiversity targets.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
Editorial |
Include the true value of nature when rebuilding economies after coronavirus
The pandemic is devastating economies. As countries look to revive growth, recovery must go with — not against — the grain of nature.
-
Article |
The projected timing of abrupt ecological disruption from climate change
Using annual projections of temperature and precipitation to estimate when species will be exposed to potentially harmful climate conditions reveals that disruption of ecological assemblages as a result of climate change will be abrupt and could start as early as the current decade.
- Christopher H. Trisos
- , Cory Merow
- & Alex L. Pigot
-
News Feature |
Why a landmark treaty to stop ocean biopiracy could stymie research
Several cancer and HIV drugs have come from marine organisms, but scientists worry that a new agreement to save species could hinder some research.
- Olive Heffernan
-
Article |
Global conservation of species’ niches
Protected areas would need to expand to 33.8% of the total land surface to adequately represent environmental conditions across the habitats of amphibians, birds and terrestrial mammals, far exceeding the current 17% target.
- Jeffrey O. Hanson
- , Jonathan R. Rhodes
- & Richard A. Fuller