Tag Archives | extinction

coffee_wild

Wild Arabica coffee facing extinction

Scientists who have predicted the possible extinction of wild Arabica coffee (Coffea Arabica) within 70 years say urgent conservation measures are needed to future-proof Arabica’s genetic diversity and ensure the long-term sustainability of Arabica coffee production. The new insights into the second most traded commodity after oil have been compiled by scientists in the UK […]

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ammonite_tobin

Double whammy dinosaur extinction theory

Widely credited to have wiped out the dinosaurs, the giant asteroid that smashed into the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago may have been preceded by a volcanic extinction event that warmed the planet dramatically and killed nearly all of the life on the ocean floor. University of Washington researchers say they have evidence that […]

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fp_froggie

Wildlife extinction rates hugely over-reported

Calculating species extinction rates is a tricky business at the best of times, but a new research paper in Nature suggests the most widely used methods are “fundamentally flawed” and overestimate extinction rates by as much as 160 percent. Paper co-author Stephen Hubbell, a distinguished professor of ecology at UCLA, explained why he believed extinction […]

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disaster

Toxin producing algae key to mass extinctions, claims new study

Algae, rather than asteroids, were the key to the end of the dinosaurs, claims a new study that notes that current environmental conditions show a significant similarity to the periods in the past when mass extinctions occurred. Clemson University geologist James W. Castle and ecotoxicologist John H. Rodgers have spent two years analyzing data from […]

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frog_h_fasciatus

Frog communities undergoing “McDonaldization”

Under pressure from a fungal disease that has been labeled an “extinction filter” by researchers, frog communities in South America are undergoing “a vast homogenization” that is leaving behind impoverished communities that increasingly resemble one another. “We’re witnessing the McDonaldization of the frog communities,” says Kevin G. Smith, from Washington University in St. Louis. The […]

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dino_dynasty_small

Lost world… found?

New evidence suggests that dinosaur bones found in the San Juan Basin date from after the supposed dino-doomsday, and that dinosaurs may have survived in what is now New Mexico and Colorado for up to half-a-million years. This controversial new research, published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, is based on detailed chemical investigations of the […]

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africanelephantheadon

Elephant Extinction Mooted

African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989, says a researcher from the University of Washington (UW). But the public outcry that resulted in that ban is absent today, says Samuel Wasser, a UW biology professor. The elephant death […]

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pollinators

Species Extinction Threat Vastly Underestimated

Extinction risks for populations of endangered species are likely being underestimated by as much as 100-fold because of a mathematical “misdiagnosis,” suggests a new study by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher. CU-Boulder’s Brett Melbourne said current mathematical models used to determine extinction threat, or “red-listed” status, of species worldwide overlook random differences between […]

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frog

Gloomy Prognosis For Amphibians

A study published in the journal BioSciencesuggests that many amphibious species are at risk of extinction because they are failing to adapt to rapidly changing environments around the globe. The gloomy outlook, penned by Oregon State University (OSU) researchers, underscores how the erratic and slow process of evolution is simply not up to the job […]

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earth_catastrophe

Smoking Gun For Permian-Triassic Extinction Found

Scientists have found evidence of a meteor impact in Antarctica that they believe caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth’s history and led to the rise of the dinosaurs. The 300-mile-wide crater lies more than a mile beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and the gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could […]

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