Featured
-
-
Article
| Open Access
FSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC
Camera-trap images of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa reveal greater animal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-certified forests, especially for large mammals and species of high conservation priority.
- Joeri A. Zwerts
- , E. H. M. Sterck
- & Marijke van Kuijk
-
News & Views |
Climate change predicted to exacerbate declines in bee populations
What effects will climate change have on insect communities? Analyses of data collected over decades robustly document consequences specific to bee populations, and this evidence might aid future conservation efforts.
- Nicole E. Miller-Struttmann
-
Article
| Open Access
Climate velocities and species tracking in global mountain regions
An analysis of the rate at which isotherms are shifting in mountain regions worldwide identifies 17 key regions with particularly high vertical isotherm shift velocities, and provides insight into how these shifts affect species ranges.
- Wei-Ping Chan
- , Jonathan Lenoir
- & Sheng-Feng Shen
-
Obituary |
Christophe Boesch (1951–2024), primatologist and chimpanzee champion
Zoologist whose understanding of chimpanzee behaviours has helped to assure their survival.
- Kathelijne Koops
- & Richard Wrangham
-
Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them
Endangered apes are increasingly being put at risk by human diseases.
- Rachel Nuwer
- & Benjamin Thompson
-
Editorial |
It’s time for countries to honour their million-dollar biodiversity pledges
Promises to safeguard biodiversity need to be translated into money in the bank.
-
News & Views |
From the archive: river pollution, and a minister for science
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Where I Work |
I listen to the sounds this remote wetland makes to learn its rhythms
Peter Chatanga uses weeks-long audio recordings to build a picture of biodiversity in Lesotho’s crucial wetlands.
- Linda Nordling
-
Career Q&A |
I took my case to Nepal’s highest court to improve conservation
After seeing an endangered-animal pelt displayed on television, Kumar Paudel embarked on a five-year legal battle, advocating for equitable enforcement of wildlife laws.
- Saugat Bolakhe
-
-
News & Views |
Ecosystem effects of sea otters limit coastal erosion
Conservation is bringing back certain predators that are high in the food chain, but how this affects an ecosystem overall is debated. Rigorous fieldwork provides strong evidence that sea otters help to mitigate coastal erosion.
- Johan S. Eklöf
-
Article |
Top-predator recovery abates geomorphic decline of a coastal ecosystem
Sea otters recolonizing an estuary in California indirectly reduce erosion by reducing burrowing crab abundance, suggesting that restoring predators could be a key mechanism to improve the stability of coastal wetlands and other ecosystems.
- Brent B. Hughes
- , Kathryn M. Beheshti
- & Brian R. Silliman
-
Nature Video |
‘Like a moth to a flame’ — this strange insect behaviour is finally explained
Many explanations have been put forward for insects’ attraction to light, but high tech cameras now suggest a different answer.
- Dan Fox
-
Research Briefing |
Predator die-off reshapes ecosystems in expected and unexpected ways
Mass-mortality events of predators are becoming more common, but their precise effects on food webs remain unclear. Experimentally induced predator die-offs led both to reduced predation and to fertilization from the bottom up. Together, these effects stabilized food webs.
-
News Feature |
Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them
Humans are increasingly passing pathogens to animal populations, imperilling endangered species such as chimpanzees and gorillas.
- Rachel Nuwer
-
News |
Can foreign coral save a dying reef? Radical idea sparks debate
Devastation brought on by climate change and other threats prompts a last-resort proposal to rescue Caribbean corals.
- Heidi Ledford
-
Where I Work |
How I fuse Western science with Traditional Knowledge
Indigenous Canadian ecologist Jennifer Grenz abandons colonial restoration dogma to reshape land systems according to community needs.
- Virginia Gewin
-
Research Highlight |
Life is short for baby monkeys amid the oil palms
Young southern pig-tailed macaques, an endangered species, are less likely to reach their first birthday if they spend time on plantations.
-
News |
Tasmanian devil die-off is shifting another predator’s genetics
Devil population crashes caused by contagious tumours have knock-on effects elsewhere in the food chain.
- Miryam Naddaf
-
Nature Podcast |
The Nature Podcast highlights of 2023
The team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
-
Article
| Open Access
Disproportionate declines of formerly abundant species underlie insect loss
An analysis of more than 500 sites distributed worldwide finds that declines in the abundance of terrestrial insects are attributable mainly to decreases in species that were formerly abundant, rather than being the result of losses of rare species.
- Roel van Klink
- , Diana E. Bowler
- & Jonathan M. Chase
-
News |
Humans might have driven 1,500 bird species to extinction — twice previous estimates
Humans are probably responsible for the extinction of 12% of bird species, many of which were never documented.
- Gemma Conroy
-
Where I Work |
How I’m protecting Clanwilliam sandfish
Cecilia Cerrilla’s PhD project is to protect a tiny species of fish from predatory bass.
- Jack Leeming
-
Where I Work |
Hard data: looking deep into Indigenous forests
Louis De Grandpré studies the traditional lands of Canada’s Pessamit people in the face of widespread logging.
- Nicola Jones
-
Article
| Open Access
Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes
Results from 316 Bombus terrestris colonies at 106 agricultural sites across eight European countries find pesticides in bumble bee pollen to be associated with reduced colony performance, especially in areas of intensive agriculture.
- Charlie C. Nicholson
- , Jessica Knapp
- & Maj Rundlöf
-
Research Highlight |
Seabirds’ lonely travels pose a conservation challenge
Tracking devices show that protecting these solitary wanderers will require regulation over enormous stretches of open ocean.
-
Where I Work |
Manatees and conservation: how I protect these massive, vulnerable animals
Nataly Castelblanco Martínez works to raise awareness of the perils faced by the much-loved marine mammals.
- Nikki Forrester
-
News |
How to keep wildcats wild: ancient DNA offers fresh insights
Ancient-genomics studies are boosting efforts to save Scotland’s endangered ‘Highland tigers’ — and keep them separate from domestic cats.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News |
How AI can help to save endangered species
Scientists are using artificial intelligence to fight biodiversity loss by analysing vast amounts of data, monitoring ecosystems and spotting trends over time.
- Tosin Thompson
-
News & Views |
Convictions show scale of wildlife hunting in China
An analysis of convictions reveals that around one-fifth of China’s terrestrial vertebrate species were illegally hunted over a six-year period. Improved efforts to reduce such crimes are needed to control this threat to biodiversity.
- David P. Edwards
-
Article |
Assessing the illegal hunting of native wildlife in China
Analysis of a database of convictions for illegal hunting in China reveals the scale of the threat to biodiversity posed by illegal hunting in China.
- Dan Liang
- , Xingli Giam
- & David S. Wilcove
-
News & Views |
Assessing the scale of rubber deforestation in southeast Asia
Understanding the extent of deforestation associated with agriculturally harvested crops has implications for conservation efforts. A method to assess satellite data offers an accurate way to estimate rubber deforestation.
- Carlos Souza Jr
-
Article
| Open Access
High-resolution maps show that rubber causes substantial deforestation
Satellite data used to generate high-resolution maps across Southeast Asia show that rubber-related deforestation is at least twofold to threefold higher than suggested by estimates used for setting policy.
- Yunxia Wang
- , Peter M. Hollingsworth
- & Antje Ahrends
-
News Feature |
Apple revival: how science is bringing historic varieties back to life
Exploring the genomes of half-forgotten and heirloom apple varieties could help to ensure the future of the incomparable fruits.
- Christopher Kemp
-
Article
| Open Access
Ongoing declines for the world’s amphibians in the face of emerging threats
The second Global Amphibian Assessment finds that the status of amphibians is continuing to deteriorate globally, driven predominantly by climate change, disease and habitat loss.
- Jennifer A. Luedtke
- , Janice Chanson
- & Simon N. Stuart
-
News & Views |
Measuring the ecological benefits of protected areas
Are protected areas slowing down global biodiversity declines? A global analysis provides evidence that they are, although effects vary across groups of species, and what happens outside protected areas matters, too.
- Ana S. L. Rodrigues
- & Marie-Morgane Rouyer
-
News & Views |
The geography of climate governs biodiversity
To explain the interplay of climate, area and isolation that underlies the marked global differences in biodiversity, a switch in focus from geographic space to climatic space offers a way forwards.
- Antonin Machac
-
Article |
Protected areas slow declines unevenly across the tetrapod tree of life
An analysis of 2,239 terrestrial vertebrate populations shows that they decline more slowly in protected areas than outside protected areas, but the benefits vary across vertebrate classes and depend on the regional context of the protected area.
- A. Justin Nowakowski
- , James I. Watling
- & Luke O. Frishkoff
-
Article |
Weather explains the decline and rise of insect biomass over 34 years
Insect biomass data covering 27 years were reanalysed using sample-specific information on weather conditions during sampling and weather anomalies during the insect life cycle, finding that biomass is driven by complex weather conditions.
- Jörg Müller
- , Torsten Hothorn
- & Annette Menzel
-
-
Matters Arising |
Reply to: Global effects of marine protected areas on food security are unknown
- Enric Sala
- , Juan Mayorga
- & Boris Worm
-
Article |
Projected decline in European bumblebee populations in the twenty-first century
A quantitative study of past, present and future ecological suitability of Europe for bumblebees finds that for 38–76% of species now considered non-threatened, suitable territory could decrease by at least 30% by 2061–2080.
- Guillaume Ghisbain
- , Wim Thiery
- & Simon Dellicour
-
Where I Work |
Protecting peccaries, preserving a people’s knowledge
While working to safeguard habitat for pig-like animals in Argentina, Micaela Camino relies on the region’s Indigenous communities.
- Patricia Maia Noronha
-
News |
Legacy of racist US housing policies extends even to bird data
A discriminatory strategy called redlining, which was implemented in the 1930s, has repercussions today for records of urban biodiversity.
- Anil Oza
-
Comment |
Four steps to curb ‘ocean roadkill’
There is increasing evidence that ship strikes are a major cause of mortality for whales, sharks and other ocean giants. With the global fleet growing, some simple actions can turn things around.
- Freya C. Womersley
- , Alexandra Loveridge
- & David W. Sims
-
Research Highlight |
The right kind of farm helps forest birds prosper
Species in Costa Rica decline on large-scale industrial farms — except species that tend to thrive in degraded habitats.
-
News & Views |
Rethinking the effect of marine heatwaves on fish
Marine heatwaves are on the rise. A surprising result from the analysis of data for fish populations in Europe and North America could change ways of thinking about the ecological consequences of such events.
- Mark R. Payne
-
News |
Most rare kākāpō parrots have had their genome sequenced
DNA from more than 100 of the critically endangered birds could help to save the species from extinction.
- Katharine Sanderson
-
News & Views |
Corals have algal friends for dinner
Biologists have long sought to understand the factors that enable coral reefs to thrive. A careful analysis of nutrient cycling now points to an unexpected food source that helps to sustain corals during food scarcity.
- Virginia M. Weis
Wildlife boost in African forests certified for sustainable logging