Displaying items by tag: western lowland gorillas

Sukakpak Mountain lies in the Brooks Range of Alaska. Mountain environments were the subject of a conservation paper that found more protections are needed for the many differing types of montaine environments. “Mountains are super-important for biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the benefits people get from nature. We ignore them at our peril,” said a Society for Conservation Biology researcher.  Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management

Scientists churned out studies on life, the planet and the roles people play in the natural world

This story was originally published by The Revelator.

Every month scientific journals publish hundreds of new papers about endangered species and wildlife conservation. It’s a firehose of information in a world that feels increasingly in flames.

We asked researchers to send us their best or favorite papers of the past year. We received submissions that offer hope, guidance, analysis, and insight into emerging threats.

Aerin Jacob, director of science and research at Nature Conservancy of Canada, sent a coauthored paper from Conservation Biology about mountains — a habitat type that deserves more attention. “People often think that mountain ecosystems are so rugged and inaccessible that they don’t need habitat protection, but that’s not true,” she wrote. “We studied six major mountain regions around the world and found that on average half of them are as modified as the rest of the world; two-thirds of them don’t (yet) meet the 30×30 global protection target; and existing protected areas don’t include the vast majority of mountain ecosystem types. Mountains are super-important for biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the benefits people get from nature. We ignore them at our peril.” 

One noteworthy study of 2024 was the role public information consumption plays in the perception of sharks, such as this endangered Caribbean Reef Shark. A researcher warns misinformation is polluting science.  Brian Gratwicke via Revelator.