CBD News Headlines

• Science: Working lands play a key role in protecting biodiversity
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  With a body the size of a fist and wings that span more than a foot, the big brown bat must gorge on 6,000 to 8,000 bugs a night to maintain its stature. This mighty appetite can be a boon to farmers battling crop-eating pests.
• Insects Are Rapidly Disappearing Around The World, Leaving Scientists Horrified
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations.
• 'Largest living thing,' an 80,000-year-old Utah forest, is dying, scientists warn
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  An ancient forest in Utah considered to be the largest single living thing in the world is dying, according to scientists. The Pando aspen, a gigantic expanse of 40,000 trees that are are all clones with identical compositions, has long been known as the "trembling giant" and covers over 106 acres in Utah's Fishlake National Forest.
• Second nature: an adventure into rewilding
  [released on: 17/10/2018]
  Standing on the southern edge of our 3,500-acre rewilding project on a June day, on the brow of one of Knepp Estate's few elevations, one would be forgiven for imagining oneself gazing on African savannah.
• Landscapes that work for biodiversity and people
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  Biodiversity, the product of 3.8 billion years of evolution, is under siege. Not only are both marine and terrestrial species experiencing accelerated rates of local and global extinction (1-3), but even common species are declining (2, 4, 5).
• New tool helps align investment with objectives in biodiversity conservation
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  One of the balancing acts faced by conservation agencies is how to conserve and protect as many species as possible from extinction with limited funding and finite resources. In the U.S., conservation agencies are supported and guided by the Endangered Species Act, the seminal wildlife conservation tool signed by President Nixon in 1973, but which is currently being reviewed by Congress.
• Declaration of Black River Morass, Pedro Cays as protected areas to be advanced
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  THE process to have the Black River Morass and the Pedro Cays and surrounding waters declared as protected areas will be advanced this financial year.
• Jurassic-era piranha is world's earliest flesh-eating fish
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  Scientists have unearthed the fossilised remains of a piranha-like species that they say is the earliest known example of a flesh-eating fish. This bony creature, found in South Germany, lived about 150 million years ago and had the distinctive sharp teeth of modern-day piranhas.
• How plants bind their green pigment chlorophyll
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  Chlorophyll is the pigment used by all plants for photosynthesis. There are two versions, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. These are structurally very similar to one another but have different colors, blue-green and yellowish green, respectively. Both pigments fulfill different jobs during photosynthesis and are therefore bound very selectively by the proteins of the photosynthesis apparatus in plants. But it is still unknown how these plant proteins recognize the two chlorophylls and thus bind them selectively.
• Genetic behavior reveals cause of death in poplars essential to ecosystems, industry
  [released on: 19/10/2018]
  Scientists studying a valuable, but vulnerable, species of poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species' inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease. Their finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to more successful hybrid poplar varieties for increased biofuels and forestry production and protect native trees against infection.