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En días calurosos y húmedos, es posible que usted salte al agua para refrescarse, pero para el pequeño pez mangrove rivulus, refrescarse es saltar fuera del agua… según un nuevo estudio de la Universidad de Guelph.

En el estudio publicado en la revista Biology Letters la semana pasada, los investigadores... 

Researchers who examined thousands of migratory birds arriving in the United States from Central and South America have determined that three percent carry ticks species not normally present in the United States. Some of the birds, they say, carry disease-causing Ricksettia ticks.

Despite global efforts to increase the area of the ocean that is protected, only four per cent of it lies within marine protected areas (MPAs), according to a University of British Columbia study.

UBC Institute for Ocean and Fisheries researchers found that major swaths of the ocean must still be protected to reach even the most basic global targets.

In 2010, representatives from nearly 200 countries met in Nagoya, Japan, and adopted the United Nations' Aichi Targets, in a bid to stem the rapid loss of biodiversity. The countries committed to protecting at least 10 per cent of the ocean by 2020.

More than 100 years ago today, a 63-year-old Michigan schoolteacher took the first ride ever down Niagara Falls in a barrel. Annie Edson Taylor may have survived, but the future will tell if the waterfalls available for such (now-illegal) escapades will. Here are a few threats to waterfalls we can’t ignore if we want to preserve these natural wonders.

1. Drought

Last year, Yosemite Falls went dry for five months. While the falls have always been ephemeral, meaning they flow seasonally, California’s severe drought had stopped them two months earlier than usual in June until December rains started them again a month late. In The Atlantic, outdoorsman and author Michael Lanza wondered if the world’s sixth-highest falls would actually disappear, with climate change leading to less and less snowfall. Snowpack in the Cascade Range has already decreased 15 to 30 percent in the past 70 years.

Mientras se debate sobre regulaciones de la EPA propuestas este mes para limitar la liberación del metano, ese potente gas de efecto invernadero, durante las operaciones de fracturamiento hidráulico, un nuevo estudio de la Universidad de Vermont financiado por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias muestra que los pozos de petróleo y gas abandonados cerca de sitios de fracking, pueden ser conductos de escape de metano que no se está midiendo actualmente.