Many animal species become smaller or larger in recent decades, with climate change often mentioned as a cause. Red knots, shorebirds travelling 10 thousand kilometers every year between breeding grounds in Arctic Russia and wintering grounds in West Africa, are becoming smaller. Researchers have now discovered why: in the period that the chicks grow up, their most important food source is less available. They publish their findings this week in Global Change Biology.

In the global carbon cycle microorganisms have evolved a variety of methods for fixing carbon. Researchers from Bremen and Taiwan have investigated the methods that are utilized at extremely hot, acidic and sulfur-rich hydrothermal vents in shallow waters off the island of Kueishantao, Taiwan. A team working with first author Joely Maak of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has now published their study in the professional journal Biogeosciences.

Dr Kelly Dunning is the Timberline Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation at the University of Wyoming. She leads the Wildlife & Wilderness Recreation Lab that is focused on biodiversity conservation and the human dimensions of natural resources in tourism prone areas.

In a new Frontiers in Conservation Science article, she, together with co-authors, discussed the politicization of wildlife management. The team analyzed hundreds of documents to track the case of grizzlies being taken off or staying on the list of endangered species. In this editorial, Dunning highlights the issues that come with wildlife management becoming ever more political.