According to a study Josep Peñuelas has published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the size of herbivorous megafauna was crucial to their survival in a cold, dry, largely barren environment. The study's data were obtained by incorporating the hugely significant effect of herbivores into innovative mathematical models capable of simulating landscape evolution.

Birds for their feathers, but many other animals too, suffer the path to extinction because of human whims.

A new video of CREAF Talks conferences is now available. Scott Ollinger, from University of New Hampshire, USA, talks about basic relations among foliar N and CO2 assimilation in forests, relationships between N concentrations and a suite of functionally convergent plant traits that influence canopy reflectance, and implications for broad-scale N mapping and ecosystem—climate interactions.

The researcher from McGill University, in Quebec, and CREAF associated, visited us again to talk about animal innovation from different points of view, from the ecological implications to the physiological characteristics that allow it.

Jaume Terradas reminds Joan Puigdefàbregas, desertification expert.

Two CREAF researchers have taken part in the study, which shows that small, irregularly shaped fields on farmland boost the number and abundance of species. This is because pollinators use crop borders as highways or corridors for movement and protection. The trend of ever larger crop fields is endangering insect pollinator populations and their ability to pollinate crops

Plants' annual growing season has lengthened, exposing them to frost more often at a time when they are particularly sensitive. That can be detrimental to their activity and lead to substantial crop yield losses.

Nature establishes relationships between species and organisms, forming a very complex network where often great-interconnected nodes appear. They are called 'hubs'. But humans also create this kind of networks, such as airports as nodes and flights as connections.

To Nacho and Marc.

The fourth video of the CREAF Talks conferences is now available. Roderick Dewar, from the Australian National University, presents an approach inspired by how complex systems are modelled in physics.

CREAF and the companies Altran and Starlab have led the design of RitmeNatura.cat, a citizen observatory that encourages members of the public to ‘adopt’ a plant, record the changes it undergoes and provide data that can be used to study the effects of climate change.