environment/science-environmental/topics/biodiversity

The dawn redwood was believed extinct until Chinese refugees fleeing the Japanese WWII invasion came across several growing in remote villages of western China.

It is common knowledge that ecosystems are important, but why are they so important and what is threatening them? Do you know the answers? Test your knowledge about ecosystems and learn more about how humans depend on, and threaten, natural habitats.

The whole family can have fun taking this quiz about one of our most complex and fascinating biomes, the rainforests! Test your knowledge about the many types of plants and animals that live there!

With nearly five million identified species of plants, animals and insects the world’s rainforests account for almost fifty percent of the total known life forms on Earth. This is even more remarkable when we take into consideration that they only occupy about six percent of the surface area.

Biodiversity is important to all life on earth and it is declining at an alarming rate. Test your biodiversity knowledge and learn how biodiversity impacts you.

A food chain is a system within an ecological community in which every living organism depends on another body for its subsistence. In an ecosystem like the tropical rainforest, each organism is interdependent on the other, and human activities can easily disrupt the balance.

High concentrations of heavy metals in the soil has always been a problem and arsenic is one of the least desirable metals to be found in the ground. Planting ferns seems to be a very interesting and promising way to deal with the problem.

The Mojave Desert is defined predominantly by the range of the Joshua tree. This makes it hard to define a single ecology for the desert. Mojave Desert ecology is best divided into two distinct regions, the north and south.

How do we define fossil records? How are evolution and the fossil record linked? Read about how the fossil record is evidence of Darwin’s theory of evolution and learn about some of the major evolutionary events that are documented in the fossil record.

Are our natural resources becoming scarce, and if so, why? What will be the cost? Understanding this effect can help future generations.