Biodiversity

"The Trump administration is poised to approve a deal that would allow a contentious road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wild area in southwestern Alaska, according to internal Interior Department documents reviewed by The New York Times."

"A UN treaty to protect marine diversity in the high seas was struck Friday after Morocco and Sierra Leone ratified the agreement, clinching the threshold of at least 60 ratifications needed to enact it as international law." 

"A regulator has approved a world-first vaccine to protect koalas from chlamydia infections, which are causing infertility and death in the iconic native species that is listed as endangered in parts of Australia."

"A recent study has revealed that the majority of shark meat available to American shoppers is mislabeled, with much of it coming from endangered species."

"A growing population, leaking pipes and changing climate threaten the state’s water supply. Texas lawmakers hope a $20 billion investment will help."

"USDA’s staffing cuts, scuttled conservation programs, and misdirected crop insurance are hitting farmers hard."

"Deep in the Amazon, sound designer Eric Terena has been capturing the sounds of the rainforest while sitting silently beneath the dense, towering treetops with his recording equipment. He has noticed some huge changes."

"Protecting wild places was once a radical idea. It still is."

"The Trump administration set strict import bans on fisheries in more than 40 nations that do not meet standards for conserving marine mammals like whales and dolphins." 

"For decades, scientists believed Prochlorococcus, the smallest and most abundant phytoplankton on Earth, would thrive in a warmer world. But new research suggests the microscopic bacterium, which forms the foundation of the marine food web and helps regulate the planet’s climate, will decline sharply as seas heat up."