Killer whale populations are invading the Arctic, causing significant disruptions to an ecosystem already deeply affected by climate change. A team of McGill researchers has discovered new clues to understand how killer whales impact their environment—by reconstructing their diets using the lipids in their blubber.

Global biodiversity assessments require the collection of data on changes in plant biodiversity on an ongoing basis. Researchers from the universities of Zurich and Montréal have now shown that plant communities can be reliably monitored using imaging spectroscopy, which in the future will be possible via satellite. This paves the way for near real-time global biodiversity monitoring.

More than 98% of U.S. waters outside the central Pacific Ocean are not part of a marine protected area, and the ones that are tend to be "lightly" or "minimally" protected from damaging human activity, research led by Oregon State University shows.

Microplastics are being transported to some of the most remote places on Earth by the wind, according to new research involving the University of East Anglia. A new study published today in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment shows how wind transports these particles great distances, and much faster than water can.

In 2018, an international research group bored for soil samples in three sites around the Isfjorden fjord in Svalbard, which is part of Norway. The same phenomenon was seen at each boring site: mineral soil covered by a thin layer of organic matter. In other words, this layer contains a lot of carbon extracted from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.