Agricultural intensification has accelerated declines in pollinator populations

One-third of the world’s food supply relies on pollinators

By supporting crop production and farmland ecosystems, these animals contribute over $200B to the global economy. A 3% to 5% decrease in this production may result in as many as 427,000 deaths due to nutritional deficiencies.

Efficiency of commercial honeybees may exacerbate population declines in native bees

Commercial beekeepers are increasingly breeding honeybees on public lands, raising concerns among environmentalists that they’ll compete with and introduce new diseases to already threatened native pollinator populations. However, native species alone are often unable to meet the pollination levels required to meet necessary crop yields.

South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are most at risk from falling pollinator numbers

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that declines in pollinator populations would lead to higher rates of nutritional deficiencies, particularly in developing nations. Nations with large populations, such as China and India, would also be significantly impacted.

Butterfly populations have declined by 22% from 2000 to 2020

Research suggests that one in every five butterflies is lost due to pesticide use, habitat loss, and climate change. Playing a vital role in pollination, their declining populations threaten plant reproduction and the health of ecosystems.

Appropriate timing of land management techniques can help support pollinators

The mowing, grazing, and burning practices used to maintain land should be tailored to the life cycles and needs of native pollinators, particularly those of rare or endangered species. For example, mowing is recommended in the fall or winter when flowers are not in bloom.

In Amsterdam, planting organic flowers has increased native bee diversity by 45%

The citywide effort is an example of rethinking conventional agricultural methods, which rely on monocropping and heavy chemical use. Cover crops—plants grown to suppress weeds, prevent erosion, and attract pollinators rather than to be harvested—have also shown environmental benefits, despite not being sold for profit.

Biosphere 2 revealed limitations in maintaining wildlife in unfamiliar environments

Trees appeared to become weak and more prone to breaking because a lack of wind caused them to no longer need to develop stress wood. The extinction of pollinators—potentially due to an explosion in the population of longhorn crazy ants—was also unexpected.

Solar panels can create pollinator-friendly habitats by protecting flowering plants

An example of agrivoltaics, where land is used for solar energy production and agriculture, the panels provide clean energy while also shading plants from excessive sunlight. Pollinator-friendly plants can improve water quality and reduce soil erosion by obstructing the wind.

Coevolution of pollinators and flowering plants diversified both

The first pollinators were beetles, which consumed pollen before flowering plants existed. Over time, plants evolved to attract more insects and improve the uptake of pollen, while insects adapted their biology to enhance the capture of pollen, such as developing specialized mouthparts.

Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide lead plants to produce more pollen

Pollen issues are emerging earlier in the year and lasting longer as rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere boost plants’ pollen production and also simultaneously extend warmer, pollen-producing seasons.

Advances in agriculture are being powered by CRISPR to boost carbon capture

Researchers are using CRISPR to test thousands of plant gene edits, aiming to speed up breeding and maximize carbon retention in soil. By engineering drought tolerance, they also aim to increase crop yields and expand the environments where crops can grow.

The era of advanced farming machines

Traditional agriculture, which for millennia was conducted primarily as subsistence farming by millions of workers, has been transformed since the industrial revolution. Agribusinesses continue to develop newer, more specific tools to streamline the...

What happens when the population grows faster than the food supply?

Human history is shaped by our ability to feed ourselves. See how population growth is tied to farmland, and how food production’s profound environmental effect shows us the need for change.

The risks of bioremediation, from intermediate products to ecological disruption

A step in the series of complex biochemical reactions involved in the implemented bioremediation process may produce dangerous molecules—sometimes more toxic than the initial pollutants—that require ongoing monitoring to ensure optimal conditions for processing these intermediates toward the eventual, safe outputs. Introducing non-native nutrients or species, including GMOs, may alter existing food webs and gene pools.

How a single company hooked the world on herbicides

How harmful are today’s herbicides for us humans, and for the environments they’re seeping into? And do we really need weedkillers to feed the world?

The highly contaminated Chernobyl region suffers from reduced biodiversity

Although isolation and radiation have driven adaptations in some organisms, decades of radiation have caused ongoing harm to wildlife and vegetation, including population declines in birds and insects. Higher rates of deformities and tumors have also been seen compared with animals in surrounding regions.

Rapid environmental changes are exacerbating natural extinction processes

Human activities behind climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and overhunting have resulted in extinction rates up to 1,000 times greater than normal, triggering massive biodiversity loss. This has led scientists to refer to the current geological age as the Anthropocene era, in which humans are the dominant force shaping nature.

Microplastics from sewage sludge persist in farmland soil for decades

A 25-year study in Scotland found that sewage sludge used as fertilizer introduces various microplastics into soil, where they remain and degrade into smaller particles that worsen soil quality. Dyes found in microplastics may also be leaching into the environment, causing additional toxic effects.

Agricultural land remains mostly unchanged after wind projects

From 2012 to 2020, less than 0.05% of available US farmland had commercial wind turbines installed. More than 95% of this land lacks wind farm structures such as turbine pads or roads, leaving most cropland and pasture-rangeland unchanged.

Noise pollution from humans and technology alters animal behavior

Animals may experience chronic stress and health issues due to noise pollution, which often interferes with their mating sounds. Due to traffic, nightingales sing louder on weekday mornings, and birds near airports start singing earlier to avoid upticks in takeoffs and landings.

Autoimmune disease prevalence and incidence are on the rise—but no one knows why

Researchers theorize that environmental factors, including shifts to less healthy diets, air pollution, infections, stress, climate change, and exposures to xenobiotics—substances like pesticides, plastics, and toxins that incite immune responses—may all be fueling epigenetic changes to our bodies that make people's immune responses go awry.

Roughly 80% of US antibiotics sold each year go to agricultural use

Antibiotics have long been used in agriculture to treat diseases in animals and plants. However, antibiotics are also often misused, to treat non-bacterial diseases, to encourage growth in animals, and more. This expansive use of antibiotics has become one of the primary sources of the emergence of new superbugs.

Average hurricane intensity, not frequency, has increased over the past century

While the total number of tropical cyclones globally each year has not significantly shifted since 1920, a greater proportion of them are major, defined as category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The increased energy present in a warmer climate may be contributing to higher intensification rates.

Rachel Carson didn't argue for wholly organic farming

Her 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” inspired many people to consider the chemicals used to grow their food, but Carson didn’t think that manufactured fertilizers needed to be banned from farming, writing that “The ultimate answer is to use less toxic chemicals so that the public hazard from their misuse is greatly reduced.” When she testified to Congress in 1963, she said, “I think chemicals do have a place.”

Bird Flu is spreading—what does that mean for us and other species?

The rapid global spread of H5N1 bird flu—from remote Antarctic islands to US farms—shows how animal spillover, driven by human activity and ecological disruption, is accelerating pandemic risk across species long before sustained human transmission begins.

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.