Prebiotics are only able to help stabilize the intestinal flora of horses to a limited degree. Before they can reach the intestines, commercially available supplements partially break down in the animals’ stomachs, which can lead to inflammation of the stomach lining. Prebiotics are often added to horse feed in order to stabilise the horse’s health.…

Researchers have analysed decades’ worth of data on the impact of repeated fires on ecosystems across the world. Their results show that repeated fires are driving long-term changes to tree communities and reducing their population sizes. Savannah ecosystems, and regions with extreme wet or dry seasons were found to be the most sensitive to changes…

Intact rainforests across tropical Africa continued to remove carbon from the atmosphere before and during the 2015-2016 El Nino, despite the extreme heat and drought. Theyl removed 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere during the El Nino monitoring period. This rate is equivalent to three times the carbon dioxide emissions…

A 13-million-year-old fossil unearthed in northern India comes from a newly discovered ape, the earliest known ancestor of the modern-day gibbon. The discovery fills a major void in the ape fossil record and provides important new evidence about when the ancestors of today’s gibbon migrated to Asia from Africa. The findings have been published in…

Many Dutch ships passed the West Australian coast while enroute to Southeast Asia in the 1600s — and the national heritage listed shipwreck, Batavia, has revealed through its timbers the history of the shipbuilding materials that enabled Dutch East India Company (VOC) to flourish against major European rivals for the first time. Built in Amsterdam…

Scientists show that an ocean-bottom seismometer deployed close to the calving front of a glacier in Greenland can detect continuous seismic radiation from a glacier sliding, reminiscent of a slow earthquake. Basal slip of marine-terminating glaciers controls how fast they discharge ice into the ocean. However, to directly observe such basal motion and determine what…

A new study provides valuable new data that highlights how species extinction risk is accelerating due to rapid climate change and an increase in extreme climate events, such as glacial calving and sea ice loss. «Scientists have a responsibility to make people aware of the need for change through objective evidence,» explained Jenouvrier. «With the…

Nitrogen fertilizers are critical for growing crops to feed the world, yet when applied in excess can pollute our water for decades. A new study provides six steps to address nitrogen pollution and improve water quality. Since nitrogen persists for so long, management efforts may seem futile and unattractive because it can take a long…

New research reveals monitor lizards should be regarded as ‘ecosystem engineers’ as they provide food and shelter to other reptiles, insects and mammals, helping prevent extinction. In his study published in Ecology, Doody and his Australian collaborators investigated the nesting biology of the Yellow-Spotted monitor lizard, which can measure nearly five feet, and its smaller,…

The newly discovered structures provide game-changing evidence that the imperial power of Teotihuacan exerted considerable influence on Tikal, an ancient Maya capital, as part of a campaign of conquest. But a startling recent discovery by the Pacunam Lidar Initiative, a research consortium involving a Brown University anthropologist, has ancient Mesoamerican scholars across the globe wondering…