Bits of Ecology

Nature: climate change leads to 67-84 percent intraspecific biodiversity loss by 2080 – Holocene Mass Extinction within this century

The better we define the richness of life on Earth, the larger the percentage we are going to lose becomes. Life won’t go extinct. The number of domains and kingdoms will very-very likely remain the same. But as we go … Continue reading →

Tropical forest CO2 fertilisation: self-mitigation of emissions possibly around 15 percent

In which case increased tropical forest density would sort of average out emissions of tropical deforestation. [Is it just us or do you share the feeling something is uncomfortably unsustainable about that comparison?] A couple of days ago we reported … Continue reading →

Urban areas expand by 950,000 square kilometres by 2030

Global patterns of urban population growth are recorded fairly accurately and predictions put the number of people living in urban areas in 2030 at 1.47 billion higher than it is now. But how urban areas evolve to accommodate such great … Continue reading →

Crop geoengineering #3: doubling root depth would store 230 Gt carbon in agricultural soils – minus 118 ppm CO2

Breeding crops with deeper (and larger) root systems could help to lower atmospheric CO2 levels, while also making the crops better drought-resistant, Douglas Kell, a Professor of Bioanalytical Science at the University of Manchester says.

Closing in on CCD: a cocktail of cocktails is killing the bees

Although that would of course be much more convenient when trying to solve the problem, research shows Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, that sudden die-off of bee populations in Europe, North America and Asia, cannot be attributed to one single … Continue reading →