By 2050, up to 47 percent of the Amazon could hit critical ecological tipping points, researchers say, transitioning into savanna grasslands or other degraded ecosystems because of deforestation and human-driven global warming. This could mean the large-scale collapse of a biome that has for 65 million years has served as the Earth’s carbon sink, absorbing … Read more
Laser technology is continuing to prove its worth in the Amazon: A team of archaeologists in Ecuador just used the tech to discover thousands of earthen mounds hidden under the forest’s canopy. Would Peter Capaldi Return to Doctor Who? The 2,000-year-old site contains some 6,000 earthen platforms connected by ancient roads, also visible to the … Read more
OMO FOREST RESERVE, Nigeria — Habitat for a dwindling population of critically endangered African forest elephants is under threat, a casualty of the world’s appetite for chocolate. Deforestation driven by planting cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is whittling down Omo Forest Reserve, a protected rainforest in southwestern Nigeria that helps combat climate change and … Read more
HONOLULU (AP) — A wildfire burning in a remote Hawaii rainforest is underscoring a new reality for the normally lush island state just a few months after a devastating blaze on a neighboring island leveled an entire town and killed at least 99 people. No one was injured and no homes burned in the latest … Read more
Bioacoustics can’t fully replace ecology fieldwork, but can provide reams of data that would be extremely expensive to collect by merely sending scientists to remote areas for long stretches of time. With bioacoustic instruments, researchers must return to collect the data and swap batteries, but otherwise the technology can work uninterrupted for years. “Scaling sampling … Read more
Welcome back to The Interchange, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. If you want to receive The Interchange directly in your inbox every Sunday, head here to sign up! After a bit of a quiet period, things in the world of fintech picked up in a big way this … Read more
Officials say the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is facing a severe drought that may affect around 500,000 people by the end of the year ByThe Associated Press September 26, 2023, 2:55 PM View of the much-diminished Negro river shore amid an ongoing drought in Manaus, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. The Brazilian Amazon rainforest is … Read more