Life
Has the Endangered Species Act saved species from extinction?
After 50 years, this landmark law has kept many species alive — but few wild populations have recovered enough to come off the “endangered” list.
MS-LS2-5
Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
More Stories in MS-LS2-5
- Environment
Making yards more diverse can reap big environmental benefits
Replacing grass with native plants uses less water and fewer chemicals while providing additional benefits to people and wildlife.
- Environment
Microplastic pollution aids viruses and prolongs their infectivity
The tiny plastic bits give these germs safe havens. That protection seems to increase as the plastic ages and breaks into ever smaller pieces.
- Animals
Study finds big drop in animal populations since 1970
But the same thing is not happening throughout the kingdom. For instance, more than half of vertebrate populations are stable or increasing.
- Animals
Cougars pushed out by wildfires took more risks around roads
After an intense burn in 2018 in California, big cats in the region crossed roads more often. That put them at higher risk of becoming roadkill.
- Animals
Some spikes in malaria cases may be tied to amphibian die-offs
Amphibian deaths from a fungal disease may have led to more mosquitoes — and an increase in malaria cases in Costa Rica and Panama.
- Animals
Gophers might be farmers, a controversial study suggests
Pocket gophers air out and fertilize the soil in a way that amounts to simple farming, two researchers claim. But not everyone agrees.
- Animals
Palm-size marsupials may face extinction from wild ‘house’ cats
After surviving Australian bushfires, the Kangaroo Island dunnart is losing ground as it's targeted by hungry predators.
- Space
The first plants ever grown in moon dirt have sprouted
This tiny garden shows farming on the moon may be difficult, although not impossible.
- Animals
Here’s why cricket farmers may want to go green — literally
Crickets are great sources of protein, but they often kill each other in captivity. Green light could help solve the problem, two teens find.
