Roots and leaves

Why the Belowground Ecosystem Matters

Trees get all the credit. But for biodiversity, look down, too.
Artocarpus heterophyllus

Plant of the Month: Jackfruit

The newly hot alternative to meat has a long history.
Elysia clarki

Solar-Powered Sea Slugs and Survival in Future Seas

These Florida mollusks make off with chloroplasts from algae and cleverly photosynthesize them for their own nutrition.
Downtown Los Angeles skyline

How to Plant Trees in the City: It’s Complicated

Trees in cities have the ability to sequester carbon, provide shade, and mitigate flooding. But no one tree fits all environments.
Oak tree

What Does a Tree See?

A hundred-year-old red oak in a Massachusetts forest told a writer and a team of scientists secrets about change over time.
Illustration of a Pawpaw

Plant of the Month: The Pawpaw

The pawpaw is finding champions again after colonizers' dismissal, increasing globalization and economic needs.
Euhadra snails mating

The Surprisingly Egalitarian Love Lives of Garden Snails

Mating snails stab each other with barbs to increase chances of paternity.
Salmo trutta (Brown trout)

To Study Today’s Ecosystems, Look to History

An unlikely source of data about the decline of trout in modern Spain: a book from the 1850s.
A Rosy-breasted Longclaw specimen

How Ornithologists Figured Out How to Preserve Birds

A very nineteenth-century-science problem: lots of decaying avian specimens.
Black-Tip Reef Sharks in shallow water lagoon, Fakarava, Tahiti

Sharks Are Hiding from Scientists in Plain Sight—Almost

Marine biologists need to count sharks to save them, but the common practice of using video cameras to record populations could be improved.