The concept of ecosystem services allows researchers to quantify the benefits that nature contributes to people into monetary units. A study publishing April 5th in the open-access journal PLOS Sustainability and Transformation by Jeannine Cavender-Bares and Stephen Polasky at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, United States, and colleagues suggests that trees provide greater economic value when used to regulate climate and air quality than the value they produce as wood products, food crops, and Christmas trees.

In Panama, scientists, lawyers and politicians are working together to dismantle current legal systems and popular mindsets about Nature. And, they’re collaborating to build it back better for the future of their country and the planet. 

U.S. wildlife officials have reversed their previous finding that a widely used and highly toxic pesticide could jeopardize dozens of plants and animals with extinction

Big and scary-looking Joro spiders have spread from Asia to the southern United States and are now poised to colonize the country's cooler climes—but they're nothing to fear and might end up actually helping local ecosystems. That's according to scientists who have been studying the arachnid invaders since they first arrived in Georgia around 2013.

The Amazon rainforest is moving towards a "tipping point" where trees may die off en masse, say researchers. A study suggests the world's largest rainforest is losing its ability to bounce back from damage caused by droughts, fires and deforestation. Large swathes could become sparsely forested savannah, which is much less efficient than tropical forest at sucking carbon dioxide from the air.

Tires shed a lot of mass in their lifetime—what’s lost can end up in fish.

The Oldest Tree in the World by Summer Price We all know trees can live really long lives. It’s no surprise that they typically live longer than humans and everything else on the planet. Trees can live anywhere from less than 100 years to more than a few thousand years depending on the species...

No recovery plan for the Australian marsupial was in place despite it being identified as a requirement nine years ago

Many North American migratory birds are shrinking in size as temperatures have warmed over the past 40 years. But those with very big brains, relative to their body size, did not shrink as much as smaller-brained birds, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis. The study is the first to identify a direct link between cognition and animal response to human-made climate change.

As climate change worsens, their findings highlight the importance of conserving natural river flows to enable freshwater species to respond and adapt.

Tiffany Kersten saw 726 species in 48 states, setting a new record for the mind-boggling achievement birders call a Big Year.

More than a century ago, billions of American chestnuts were wiped out by an invasive fungus. Now, scientists are working to restore the tree to its former glory.

The animals were first brought illegally into Columbia decades ago and now their descendants have become an invasive species.

Climate change could threaten humans' protection from fungal infections. It's time to fear the fungi.

Just as with planetary or molecular systems, mathematical laws can be found that accurately describe and allow for predictions in chaotically dynamic ecosystems too – at least, if we zoom out enough.

Oxygen levels, necessary for fish, are up and dangerous phosphorus levels are down in the historically polluted waterway. But a new report points to climate change as a possible wildcard.

Climate change is affecting Earth so seriously, its consequences can be seen from space. In August, climate scientists from around the world wrote the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, a state of affairs of human-caused climate change.

Accidentally released on a Finnish island 30 years ago, the parasites are spreading.

From willow bark to mosquitoes, nature has been a source of vital medications for centuries. But species die-off caused by human activity is putting this at risk

Wild sandalwood populations in Australia have been slowly collapsing for decades. New research found the Western Australian government has been warned repeatedly for a century.