#Ecology

The Arctic Ocean may have crossed a dangerous tipping point. Scientists say the rapid disappearance of sea ice is triggering a hidden chemical shift that is stripping the ocean of nitrate — a nutrient essential for the tiny plankton that support Arctic…

Scientists exploring deep underwater canyons off the coast of Western Australia uncovered a hidden world packed with bizarre and elusive marine life — including signs of the legendary giant squid.…

Scientists suspect that the behavior could harm the manta rays, suggesting a complex relationship between remoras and their hosts that can sometimes be parasitic

This controversial predation control tactic has been banned since 2023, but now, the Bureau of Land Management will be allowed to use it on a "case-by-case" basis.

Scientists have uncovered a hidden Antarctic threat that could accelerate global sea level rise far faster than expected. Deep beneath floating ice shelves, long channels carved into the ice appear to trap warmer ocean water, dramatically speeding up…

Artificial intelligence can dramatically speed up the painstaking work of tracking wildlife with remote cameras, cutting analysis time from months or even a year to just days while producing nearly the same scientific conclusions as humans.

Munching on the wrong items can lead to illness, but social learning might help the birds avoid making a potentially deadly mistake. The phenomenon could help explain why certain cockatoos have fared so well in urban environments

One day there is a serious earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — “Noah” — issues a tsunami warning for Alaska, which the National Weather Service overrules within an hour.…

From Latest articles | smithsonianmag.com: Australia Has a Surprisingly Successful Truffle Industry. This New Study Could Explain Why

Reef restoration is a slow process, with divers planting coral fragments one at a time by hand. But roboticists are now developing automated planters that could change the game

Gray wolves now living in the Chernobyl exclusion zone also show a new genetic resistance to cancer, researchers have found.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising new picture of human origins that challenges the long-held idea of a single ancestral population in Africa.…

For decades, the Gulf of Panama has relied on strong seasonal winds to trigger upwelling, bringing cool, nutrient-packed water to the surface. But in 2025, this dependable event didn’t happen.…

As Alaska’s rivers warm, invasive northern pike are becoming noticeably more voracious. Scientists discovered that pike of all ages are eating more fish, with young pike increasing consumption by over 60%.…

Forests provide myriad benefits, including timber, wildlife attraction, local cooling and climate resilience. At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, ecologists are testing which tree combinations might create flourishing woodlands

It was not the underprivileged who took the initiative. It was one Luke Iseman, merchant of hardware and software, founder of multiple companies, former director of a “tech incubator,” builder of art installations for the Burning Man festival.

Eco-confessionalism marshals the self-reflexivity of poetic language, its distance from everyday communication, to register commitments without reifying them, to critique the present without lapsing into fatalism about the future.…

After Milton Friedman published a 1975 compilation of writings titled There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, the phrase (lifted from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi novel about a lunar penal colony) became something of a libertarian shibboleth.

Countless people are left in harm’s way because of the state’s refusal to make evacuation plans. The hurricane ends up coming through weaker than expected—but then the levees break. Within hours, 80 percent of the city is underwater.

I saw the outline of the Americas from space. North America was belching out strands of fat pearls, diamonds, gold and silver coins, swimming pools, cars, high-end watches, like the whole landmass was a slot machine with thousands of volcano-size…