Ecosystem

Topic description and stories

Saltmarshes starting to be inundated by the tide at Abbots Hall, Cumbria, UK, Credit: Iris Moller

Climate change: can nature help us?

08 May 2013

Hard-engineered sea walls have a limited life span. Could saltmarshes and mangroves offer a different approach to buffering against storm surges and...

After the flood: harnessing the power of mud

31 Jan 2013

On the 60th Anniversary of the ‘big flood’ that devastated the coastline of eastern England, new research shows that integrating ‘natural’ sea...

Trade-offs highlighted at UN conference on biodiversity

24 Oct 2012

Prioritising social and economic objectives alongside environmental concerns is crucial in forest management, says Cambridge researcher at the United...

Detail from the cloud forest of Loma Alta in Ecuador, one of the conservation success stories highlighted in the book Wild Hope.

Spreading the good word from the wild

08 Aug 2012

A new book by a Cambridge professor offers an alternative to the narratives of nature’s annihilation, by shining a light on conservation success...

The crystal ball of conservation

15 Feb 2012

An innovative horizon-scanning exercise, which has just delivered its latest report, highlights emerging topics of relevance to the world’s natural...

A lost world? How zooarchaeology can inform biodiversity conservation

10 Feb 2012

A new study of tropical forests will provide a 50,000-year perspective on how animal biodiversity has changed, explored through an archaeological...

Research, policy, practice: conservation in the round

07 Feb 2012

Conservation scientists working in partnership with practitioners and policy makers are building practical tools for real-world conservation.

Canopy commerce: forest conservation and poverty alleviation

03 Feb 2012

Innovative approaches for protecting the future of Sierra Leone’s Gola Forest – globally important for its biodiversity and its carbon reserves – are...