Large swarms of locusts have laid waste to vast tracts of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with authorities expecting the plague to worsen as the weather heats up. The locust plague began in the pastureland of the Ili River Valley and Taer Basin in
On April 15 peruvian president Alan García signed a decree allowing the import and planting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country. The official decree puts at risk the genetic diversity of the Peruvian Andes, including the tuberous crop we know as
Experts are trying to figure out why thousands of dead walleye fish have been washing up on a roughly 25-mile stretch of Lake Erie between the northern Ohio cities of Toledo and Port Clinton over the past few weeks. The mysterious deaths add to the millions of others
A team of scientists in the United Kingdom and the United States has warned that the native fauna and unique ecology of the Southern Ocean, the vast body of water that surrounds the Antarctic continent, is under threat from human activity. Their study is published
Two small islands in South Asia’s first marine biosphere reserve have sunk into the sea primarily as a result of coral reef mining. The islets were in a group in the Gulf of Mannar, between India and Sri Lanka.The Indo-Pacific region is considered to contain some of
Beekeepers fear an alarming phenomenon that is wiping out bees and leading to reduced food crops around the world has now reached New Zealand. Colony collapse disorder has caused American beekeepers to report losses of up to 90 per cent in some cases, prompting fears
Global warming is taking its toll on our food, according to the first study to demonstrate a link between global crop yields and climate change. It concludes that the steep rise in temperatures since 1980 has cut into yields of staple crops, offsetting gains from
The world is facing starvation as climate change disrupts food production and the population booms and science’s last hope may be locked inside Syria’s forgotten wild plants.The race is on to develop and test improved crop varieties to feed the world’s growing
ICARDA and GlobalRust researchers meeting at a scientific conference in Aleppo this week reported that aggressive new strains of wheat rust diseases – called stem rust and stripe rust – have decimated up to 40% of farmers’ wheat fields in recent harvests. Areas
Researchers find that plants in East Africa with promising antimalarial qualities – ones that have treated malaria symptoms in the region’s communities for hundreds of years – are at risk of extinction. Scientists fear that these natural remedial qualities, and
