Fertile ground: what you need to know about soil to keep your garden healthy

Sep 28, 2016 15:27 pm UTC| Nature

Most people think of soil only in terms of the dirt that sticks stubbornly to their hands and shoes. But soil is much more than that. A handful of soil is a small and very complex ecosystem which includes soil...

How trees communicate via a Wood Wide Web

Sep 27, 2016 18:54 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

A new book, The Hidden Life of Trees, claims that trees talk to one another. But is this really the case? The simple answer is that plants certainly exchange information with one another and other organisms such as...

Climate Change Series

Current emissions could already warm world to dangerous levels: study

Sep 27, 2016 18:52 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Current greenhouse gas concentrations could warm the world 3-7℃ (and on average 5℃) over coming millennia. Thats the finding of a paper published in Nature today. The research, by Carolyn Snyder, reconstructed...

Birds, bees and bugs: your garden is an ecosystem, and it needs looking after

Sep 27, 2016 17:44 pm UTC| Nature

Whether you live in an urban apartment or a rural homestead, your outdoor area is more than just a private space. Ecologically, a garden is another jigsaw piece in the landscape. Whatever their size, gardens can...

Climate Change Series

What's holding Russia back from ratifying the Paris climate agreement?

Sep 27, 2016 17:23 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that his country will ratify the Paris climate agreement in October, a significant boost in the campaign to have the agreement become legally binding by the end of the...

How monkeys make friends and influence each other

Sep 27, 2016 13:30 pm UTC| Nature

For us humans, getting involved in an aggressive conflict can be costly, not only because of the risk of injury and stress, but also because it can damage precious social relationships between friends and the same goes...

Climate Change Series

IPCC chair Hoesung Lee: we can meet 2°C global warming target if we act fast

Sep 26, 2016 08:31 am UTC| Nature

Hoesung Lee was elected chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just one month before the landmark Paris climate talks of 2015. The agreement that emerged from that meeting committed the worlds...