Background Articles

Vibriosis cases are on the rise, and scientists think the trend is likely to continue as climate change results in rising temperatures and rising sea level.

Wild and free. That’s the new life for a herd of 31 plains bison which have finally been fully reintroduced to the backcountry of Banff National Park for the first time in 140 years.“These are not a captive display herd.

EUMETSAT satellite shows blue-green algae bloom covering Lake Okeechobee.

More than 100 fires are burning in B.C.'s Southeast Fire Region, with half of them caused from a lightning storm earlier in the week.

A persistent algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico has become a huge threat to sea turtles, a species which is already endangered.

Many places across Southern California saw one of the warmest Julys ever recorded in 2018, including downtown Los Angeles and Death Valley

The "business-as-usual warming of the planet" could make areas too warm for human habitation if heat trends continue, climate researchers say.

If you've gotten an unexpectedly large electric bill in the mail, don't worry Manitoba Hydro knows they have a billing issue and are working to correct it.Hydro says the soaring summer heat is causing the issue.

Harmful algae blooms are something Montana has to worry about every summer, and now there have been a couple places in central and western Montana confirmed to have the harmful blue green algae. T...

Foraging strategies and their resulting efficiency (energy gain to cost ratio) affect animals' survival and reproductive success and can be linked to population dynamics. However, they have rarely been studied quantitatively in free-ranging animals. We investigated foraging strategies and efficiencies of wild northern fur seals Callorhinus ursinus during their breeding season to understand potential links to the observed population decline in the Bering Sea. We equipped 20 lactating females with biologgers to determine at-sea foraging behaviours. We measured energy expenditure while foraging using the doubly-labelled water method, and energy gained using (1) the types and energy densities of prey consumed, and (2) the number of prey capture attempts (from acceleration data). Our results show that seals employed 2 foraging strategies: one group (40\%) fed mostly in oceanic waters on small, high energy-density prey, while the other (60\%) stayed over the shallow continental shelf feeding mostly on larger, lower quality fish. Females foraging in oceanic waters captured 3 times more prey, and had double the foraging efficiencies of females that foraged on-shelf in neritic waters. However, neritic seals made comparatively shorter trips, and likely fed their pups similar to 20 to 25\% more frequently. The presence of these strategies which either favor foraging efficiency (energy) or frequency of nursing (time) might be maintained in the population because they have similar net fitness outcomes. However, neither strategy appears to simultaneously maximize time and energy allocated to nursing, with potential impacts on the survival of pups during their first year at sea.

Warmer temperatures in the Arctic may lead to more, and larger, wolf spiders. But this might be good for the region, according to a new study released in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ten caribou herds in Canada's West are on the verge of dying out. For one amateur filmmaker who spent a decade documenting what he thought would be a conservation success story, the recent decline is like a 'huge kick in the gut.'

Scientists aren't sure what is causing this whirlpool of algae but believe it's likely to cause a marine dead zone.

A new project will test ticks found in Alaska to see if the tiny, blood-sucking arachnids carry the pathogens that cause Lyme disease, tularemia or other illnesses.

Nematodes moving and eating again for the first time since the Pleistocene age in major scientific breakthrough, say experts.

From floods to fires, drought to coastal erosion, climate change is already having an impact on Canada's communities, landscapes and wildlife

Blue-green algae has bloomed again in Lake Okeechobee, filling waterways with putrid sludge that can contaminate local water and marine animals.

ALBANY - After years of trying to slow a voracious Chinese beetle that is decimating ash trees, state environmental officials are waving the white flag: The Department of Environmental Conservation dropped a logging quarantine, and said it might be time to cut healthy trees still uninfested. In a brief notice posted online Wednesday, the DEC repealed logging restrictions that had failed to contain the spread of the emerald ash borer (EAB) by limiting shipments of ash. The state created the quarantine in 2015 to slow the insect, which is a shiny green beetle about the size of a penny. The borer likely will ultimately bring about the end of the state's 700 million ash trees - down from earlier estimates of 900 million ash trees before the beetles' arrival - and forever change an industry that uses ash to produce bats for major league baseball.

Culturally vital, ecologically unique, and economically valuable, the yellow cedar’s fate is closely tied to snow

UkrAgroConsult on Tuesday cut its forecast for Ukraine's 2018/19 crop year wheat harvest and exports due to a severe drought across the country during spring and the first half of summer.