Global warming, ticks hitting New Hampshire moose population – ‘It’s not just polar bears that are going to be affected’

By ANNMARIE TIMMINS 28 July 2013 (Concord Monitor) — In 1950, New Hampshire was home to just 50 moose. Today, the count is near 5,000, but state biologists fear that climate change – by way of winter ticks and other parasites – is threatening the herd. “Shorter winters are a problem for moose because they […]

Invasive snow crabs in Barents Sea heading toward fragile ecosystems of Svalbard – ‘It could be a disaster’

By Christi Turner24 June 2013 (Barents Observer) – Scientists recently learned that the total biomass of snow crabs is ten times higher than king crabs in the Barents Sea. What’s more, the snow crabs have reached these high numbers in a far shorter period of time: the king crab was intentionally released into the Barents […]

Going to seed: Climate change could spark small mammal invasion

By Henry Gass 8 July 2013 (Scientific American) – Invasive animals are a scourge the world over, and on many islands they have decimated local plants and animals. New Zealand has contended with such losses for centuries as rats and stoats (short-tailed weasels) from abroad have helped to wipe out 19 bird species. These small […]

Maine lobsters threatened by climate change, scientists and industry warn

By Roxanne Palmer3 July 2013 (Associated Press) – Polar bears aren’t the only animals affected by climate change — a warmer world could soon be threatening that centerpiece of a New England summer: the Maine lobster. And what’s bad news for the Maine lobster is likely bad news for Maine. These tasty cockroaches of the sea […]

Video: Locust plague threatens to trigger severe food crisis in Madagascar – FAO expects that two-thirds of the country will be infested by locusts

  ROME, 26 June 2013 (FAO) – Madagascar is in the grips of a largely uncontrolled locust plague and risks a serious food crisis. A large-scale emergency control campaign urgently requires a minimum of  $22 million in funding to start in time for the next crop planting season in September. So far, FAO emergency appeals […]

Beetles to blame for Colorado fires? Blame climate change instead

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor25 June 2013 (NBC News) – Tiny, winged bark beetles have been the ecological bad guys of the West for more than a decade, and rightfully so. They’ve killed off millions of acres’ worth of trees in Colorado. Now all those dead trees are feeding the flames across tens of thousands […]

Blind, starving cheetahs: the new symbol of climate change?

By Adam Welz    21 June 2013 (The Guardian) – The world’s fastest land animal is in trouble. The cheetah, formerly found across much of Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, has been extirpated from at least 27 countries and is now on the Red List of threatened species. Namibia holds by far the […]

Cassava disease spreading across Africa at alarming rate – ‘The new strain looks to us to be much more aggressive’

By MICHELLE FAUL7 May 2013 JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Scientists say a disease destroying entire crops of cassava has spread out of East Africa into the heart of the continent, is attacking plants as far south as Angola and now threatens to move west into Nigeria, the world’s biggest producer of the potato-like root that helps […]

Giant swamp rats are literally eating Louisiana – ‘I just don’t know how these people who love their home so much are going to go on living here’

By Joanna M. Foster 7 May 2013 (Takepart.com) – On the southern edge of Louisiana, there is almost as much water as land. You can’t drive to anyone’s house, you have to travel by boat, and sometimes there are hours of water between neighbors. It takes a special breed to make a home here, in […]

Burned rainforest vulnerable to grass invasion

24 April 2013 (mongabay.com) – Rainforests that have been affected by even low-intensity fires are far more vulnerable to invasion by grasses, finds a new study published in special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The findings are significant because they suggest that burned forests may be more susceptible to […]

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