In the chilly waters of Vancouver Island’s Barkley Sound, gardeners are at work on the sea floor. They are scientists from the University of Victoria (UVic) who are trying to regrow kelp forests, a crucial part of the marine habitat, amid threats from heat waves, climate change and voracious sea urchins. Julia Baum, a UVic … Read more
Over 45,000 species are now threatened with extinction — 1,000 more than last year — according to an international conservation organization that blames pressures from climate change, invasive species and human activity such as illicit trade and infrastructural expansion. The International Union for Conservation of Nature released its latest Red List of Threatened Species on … Read more
A rare species of cycad, E. woodii, is the only example scientists have ever discovered – a male plant living a lonely existence in South Africa’s Ngoye Forest, in 1895. Ngoye is an ancient coastal scarp forest that is protected by the oNgoye Forest Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. E. woodii is now considered extinct in the … Read more
A research team at the University of Alberta is looking into why some trees in Alberta are more resilient when faced with drought, disease and the risk of wildfires by sequencing tree genomes. A genome is the genetic makeup of an organism, and the thought behind sequencing tree genomes is that it’ll help inform what trees have … Read more
When Suzanne Simard heard she was going to be named one of the 100 “most influential people” in the world on Wednesday, she had a hard time believing it at first. The Finding the Mother Tree author, who was included in Time magazine’s annual list alongside a handful of fellow Canadians, said she wondered whether her … Read more
As It Happens6:37So long, solar eclipse. An even rarer phenomenon is about to take over the skies Floyd Shockley is planning a road trip to witness a rare natural event that will darken skies across much of the United States — a convergence not of celestial bodies, but of two massive broods of flying, screaming, lustful insects. … Read more
River otters are making a comeback in at least one corner of Prince Edward Island, according to a recent journal article, and as a result measures are now being taken to protect the popular, water-loving mammal. The Kensington North Watersheds Association started tracking river otters with trail cameras in late 2019. They began monitoring … Read more
For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus. The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fuelled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren’t just the hottest for … Read more
As It Happens6:13More than 100 possible new marine species discovered in a single deepsea expedition During a research expedition off the coast of Chile, Erin Easton says her colleagues were constantly showing her some amazing new sea creature they’d just discovered. “It would just be, like, ‘Erin, Erin, Erin, look!’” Easton, a marine scientist at the University … Read more
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled “Our Changing Planet” to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday. This week: From … Read more
