In 2004, archaeological anthropologist Renzo Duin joined an expedition into the mountainous tri-border area where Brazil, Suriname and Guyana meet alongside French botanists and ecologists. While the scientific team focused on mapping the biodiversity of what appeared to be untouched vegetation, Duin noticed that the ground told a very different story, rich with traces of pre-Columbian human occupation. “While they investigated what they perceived as pristine rainforest, I found the area dotted with fragments of pottery and other archaeological indications, including a site surrounded by a ditch,” Duin told Mongabay in a video call from The Hague, Netherlands. The evidence uncovered by Duin was one of many showing that the Amazon rainforest of Suriname and the Guianas region has been shaped and inhabited by people for millennia. Over the years, the researcher returned regularly to the region, making him one of the leading Amazon archaeologists, reshaping the knowledge about human occupation in the rainforest. “In the last three decades, archaeological knowledge of the Amazon has made a great stride forward in Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia,” Duin said. “In Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, the picture of the past has improved along the coast and major rivers. Yet, in the inland-uplands we have barely scratched the surface regarding the long-time histories of the Indigenous peoples.” Renzo Duin in the Tumuc-Humac Mountains. Image by © 2004, Renzo Duin /AMIK. As elsewhere in the Amazon, archaeological research in the region has unveiled a wealth of ancient rock art sites, stone tools, pottery and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Stoke Park is a natural haven in a busy British town. Centered in Guildford, Surrey, its rolling fields pop with wildflowers in the spring; birds sing and ducks paddle serenely in a pond beside ornamental gardens; and the sun casts dappled shade on the grass from oak, spruce and beech trees, scattered across 52 hectares (130 acres) of green. Yet as residents and visitors stroll, jog and lounge across Stoke Park’s green reaches, it’s doing even more for them than they realize: According to two recently-published studies, its green areas reduce heat, pollution and noise — and have benefits that extend beyond the park’s borders. Parks have a well-documented benefit to urban areas, particularly given the rising heat of climate change: Many previous studies have established that parks are much cooler than the surrounding area, and that they also tend to reduce air pollution and noise. These previous studies also found that air and surface temperatures were lower for tens or even several hundred meters around green spaces, depending on the park. However, “most of the work in this field has been focused around one benefit — so either you see just health benefits, or how they affect air pollution, or overheating,” Prashant Kumar, professor at the University of Surrey, co-director of the university’s Institute for Sustainability and director of its Global Centre for Clean Air Research, said in a Zoom interview with Mongabay. “You hardly see studies which look holistically at the multiple benefits of the plants [or] the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

It is a peculiar irony: as technology reaches ever deeper into Earth’s living systems, the primal sonic expressions of the natural world—wind, water, leaf, and creature—have never been more imperiled. Soundscape ecology rests on a simple conviction: the collective voices of the nonhuman world are not only eloquent, but essential. Recorded and preserved over time, these biophonies become enduring ledgers of planetary health, as valuable as genetic databases or satellite images. Over more than half a century, I have gathered more than 5,000 hours of marine and terrestrial recordings. Across those decades, I have heard both the vivid symphony of life and its alarming decline. When science came under siege In recent years, the value of these scientific records—and the ethics of preserving them—has been thrown into sharp relief by forces not of nature, but of governance. In 2017, only weeks after a new U.S. administration took office, a chill settled over the scientific community. Colleagues described research suddenly treated as suspect, funding cut, and datasets removed from public view. It became alarmingly clear that science itself was under siege. Archiving natural soundscapes was no longer solely an act of devotion and curiosity. It had become an urgent responsibility. The danger was not only the destruction of habitat or the extinction of a particular songbird; it was also the erasure of a coherent body of knowledge. Beyond political reach I felt compelled to act. With a sense of defiance and duty, I copied my entire field collection—thousands of hours documenting…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The reporting and photography for this story was fully supported by a 2025-2026 grant from the Sitka Foundation and the Science Media Centre of Canada. Four of the five worst years recorded for global forest fires occurred since 2021. And 2026 is no exception, with hundreds of thousands in North America, Europe and Africa forced to flee life threatening blazes. Now, as the Northern Hemisphere’s wildfire season subsides and forest recovery begins, tropical countries including Indonesia, Brazil and Tanzania are grappling with widespread fires. Wildfires — now intensified by climate change — can be devastating, life-altering, even deadly. But for many ecosystems and organisms, fire is an essential primeval force of nature that supports ecosystem health and biodiversity. “All terrestrial animals evolved in landscapes that had fire,” Canadian conservation biologist Karen Hodges said. “It goes all the way back to the beginning.” But we still have much to learn about post-fire recovery: Canadian researchers are studying charcoal-munching fungi, heat-sensing beetles, birds and at-risk carnivores in British Columbia’s fire-affected Interior to find out who thrives after the flames die, and why those responses matter for biodiversity and for us. Lieutenant Dan, Canada’s largest known living ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), stands tall in British Columbia’s Montane Cordillera, the nation’s most biodiverse region. Many organisms like this one have evolved alongside fire for millennia. The surrounding forest is slated for logging. Image by Jakob Dulisse for Mongabay. A landscape shaped by fire Tell someone you’re from British Columbia (B.C.) and they’ll likely think…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Dogs are generally not treated well in Bangladesh, where the majority Muslim population holds a conservative approach to domesticating dogs. Here, kicking a resting or passing stray dog is often seen as amusing. This hostile attitude, for decades, justified the authorities culling stray dogs. In 2019, the passing of the Animal Welfare Act finally put a stop to such institutional killing of dogs. Nevertheless, a deeply entrenched negative prejudice against dogs still persists. For instance, last year, a woman in the northwestern town of Ishwardi, who was disturbed by the neighborhood stray dogs, made the news by allegedly packing puppies in a sack and drowning them in a pond. The resulting public outcry forced authorities to file a criminal lawsuit against her. Bangladesh is home to nearly 1.7 million dogs — 83% of them strays, which suffer from hunger, malnutrition, injury, or cruelty by humans. Consequently, a group of animal lovers has emerged to put a stop to inhumane treatment of stray animals, advocating for their protection. Unlike other parts of the country, the people in the small town of Sarail, located about 95 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the capital, Dhaka, have strived for generations to save a native dog breed named after the town: the Sarail hound. Proud of this heritage, some people in and around Sarail are trying to save this rare breed from extinction. Pet lovers, some from abroad, travel to Sarail in search of a puppy, ready to pay up to 60,000 takas ($500), according…This article was originally published on Mongabay

When Abelardo de la Espriella was declared the winner of Colombia’s presidential elections, he announced his plan to sever diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, saying, “In my government there will be no ties whatsoever with tyrannies.” In October, he followed this by reviving a longstanding maritime dispute with Nicaragua relating to the San Andrés  archipelago in […]

YEREVAN, Armenia — Two years ago at the 2024 U.N. biodiversity conference (COP 16) in Cali, Colombia, a meeting room packed with people representing some of the world’s thousands of Indigenous Peoples, erupted into cheering and applause. After three decades of hard work and negotiations, a seemingly obscure group within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Subsidiary Body on Article 8j, had finally been adopted — forming a body that would significantly boost the voice and decision-making of Indigenous peoples and local communities at future biodiversity COPs. Now, at October’s U.N. biodiversity conference (COP 17) in Armenia, Indigenous representatives are deep in discussions to finalize how it will operate, its governance and the modus operandi of this body — how the permanent body will function day-to-day. This includes establishing co-chairs, advancing 12 tasks under a programme of work and addressing funding mechanisms. “It gives us a proper seat at the table … [but] it’s taken too long,” said Lucy Mulenke, co-chair of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity. Mulenkei was among those who had worked to get the new body over the line. A Masai leader from Kenya, Mulenkei is also executive director of the Indigenous Information Network. A former broadcast journalist, she spent 17 years reporting on environmental issues in East Africa. She eventually switched roles to become an activist focusing on the traditional skills and knowledge of Indigenous nomadic pastoralists and hunter-gathers. Negotiations are going in force, she told Mongabay, though barriers exist. Cristiane Pankararu, an Indigenous…This article was originally published on Mongabay

When customs officials at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port opened a shipping container flagged for inspection in February 2026, they expected to find sea cucumbers and instant noodles as indicated on the consignment paperwork. Instead, they found 3,053 kilograms (6,730 pounds) of dried pangolin scales destined for Cambodia. It was among Indonesia’s largest seizures of the illegal commodity in recent years, sparking an unusual lawsuit against the alleged offenders that experts say could be an innovative way to hold wildlife traffickers accountable for the damage they inflict upon ecosystems and biodiversity. As in many other countries, Indonesia primarily uses criminal laws to prosecute wildlife crimes, an approach that has historically resulted in relatively short prison sentences and fines that rarely approach maximum statutory penalties. However, Indonesian conservation NGO Science for Endangered and Trafficked Species (SCENTS) Foundation is taking a different approach. In parallel to the state-led criminal prosecution, the NGO has raised a civil lawsuit demanding the alleged traffickers pay to repair the ecological harm caused by removing thousands of pangolins from their wild habitats. “What was lost in this case was not merely three tonnes of scales,” Ma’ruf Erawan, director of SCENTS Foundation, said. “Behind those scales were thousands of pangolins removed from the wild, together with ecological functions and the values we all hold for Indonesian nature. The offenders must be held accountable for all the harm they caused.” The organization, represented legally by Jakarta-based law firm NET Attorney, filed the civil lawsuit on Sept. 2 at the East…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From the air, the vivid lithium fields of Chile’s Atacama Desert look like an intricate computer circuit board, hinting at the technological destination of this increasingly crucial mineral. Photographer Tom Hegen has spent the past six years documenting some of the world’s most significant mining regions that supply the critical minerals needed for modern technologies and the green energy transition. Shooting primarily aerial images using small aircraft, drones, and high-resolution cameras, Hegen captures heavily impacted landscapes in meticulous detail. His images depict vast, immersive scenes of the wider consequences of mineral extraction that might otherwise remain hidden from view at ground level: snaking watercourses discolored by mercury, settlements disappearing under piles of mining waste, and coastal sediment plumes smothering artisanal fishing grounds. “An elevated perspective offers a powerful way to observe, understand, and reflect on how we have transformed the Earth’s landscapes,” Hegen told Mongabay. By creating visually striking images, Hegen said he hopes to encourage people to look more closely. Lithium mining in the Atacama Desert, Chile, 2021. Lithium is one of the key elements in electric batteries, with global demand for the metal expected to surge to 25 times the amount being mined today. Image courtesy of Tom Hegen. A prior photographic project documenting the effects of climate change in the Arctic sparked Hegen’s interest in the energy transition and the critical minerals on which it depends. Although research suggests expanded mining to meet the demands of the energy transition would require less mining overall than the current…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The most egregious lie underlying the UniParty’s proxy war in Ukraine is the claim that the latter is just another innocent sovereign nation suffering unprovoked invasion and despoilment at the hands of the world latest land-grabbing tyrant. In fact, however, no nation or state by the name of “Ukraine” ever existed on the maps of […]

Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi‘s Substack:  Much of the Middle East was on edge this past weekend, fearing that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would restart the Iran war. Thankfully, hostilities didn’t resume, but it’s not because of a lack of effort. According to Iranian sources, Israeli fighter jets did […]

“It’s not tariffs… it’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel.” In leaked audio obtained by Axios, Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for senate in Texas, spoke candidly about what he believes are the biggest issues hurting his campaign. The Iran war, which has dragged on for almost eight months now, has put Texans – […]

Shafeeqa, a 40-year-old resident of Cherwan village in Ganderbal district, north of Srinagar in Kashmir Valley, remembers a spring that once flowed with enough force to make diverting its water toward agricultural fields a difficult task. During her teenage years, she recalls, the water rushed so powerfully that her brother was once carried along by the current. Over the past 5-6 years, however, Shafeeqa said the spring’s flow has diminished step by step. What was once a dependable source of water has become a reminder of how much the village may be losing. “Nature has blessed us with a great source, but it is we who have destroyed it with our own hands,” she said. Shafeeqa says she believes climate change has contributed to the spring’s decline. Research in the Sindh Basin lends support to her concern, although the reasons springs lose their flow can vary from one location to another. The answer may lie some distance uphill, beyond the spring’s visible outlet and in the landscapes where rainwater and melting snow seep into the ground. Springs are an essential water source for communities in the Kashmir Himalaya, particularly in mountain settlements where rivers run through deep valleys and are difficult to access. Their water supports households, livestock and agriculture. But changes in spring flow can threaten all three. A Kashmiri Muslim man prays beside a stream on the outskirts of Srinagar, 2020. Image by AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan. A 2023 study in Environment, Development and Sustainability by researchers at the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The constituents of the recently created Mecca Defence Alliance held their maiden meeting with Iran in Tehran on Monday, October 26, seeking ways to end the ongoing conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and a larger understanding over regional security.

The participants agreed “to continue the dialogue to strengthen cooperation among the four regional countries, including for peace and security in the region,” a brief joint press statement, issued after the meeting said.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Türkiye created the Mecca Pact in August amidst the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran and the growing fear of Israeli expansionism. The members have claimed the pact is based on the principle of collective security and was defensive in nature. Some of them have also hinted they are seeking to expand its membership.

On Monday, Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia Khalid Bin Salman, Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, and Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization Director Ibrahim Kalin met with the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Mohsen Rezaei and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

The Mecca Pact officials also met separately with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier in the day.

The meeting came at a time when there is a growing speculation about the renewal of US-Israeli aggression on Iran which has ceased since August. It also coincides with escalation in Saudi Arabia’s conflict with Ansar Allah in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has faced increased retaliatory attacks from Ansar Allah forces in Yemen after it violated a 2022 UN-sponsored ceasefire and attacked Sanaa International Airport in July. Ansar Allah seeks the end of Saudi interference in the country and the lifting of over a decade-long Saudi blockade on the country.

Pakistan and Türkiye have since announced the deployment of their forces in Saudi Arabia.

Citing unknown Pakistan officials, Reuters claimed that the negotiations between the four countries also featured fresh proposals to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Regional cooperation on peace and security

Informing about the meeting, Esmail Baghaei, official spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier said that it could be a prelude to establishing endogenous security in the region.

“From our perspective, the fact that regional countries are seeking to establish, or at least consider, regional security mechanisms based on their own interests and concerns is a welcome development,” Baghaei said, underlining that Iran has long advocated for ending external reliance and building a regional security mechanism.

Iranian resilience against the joint US-Israeli aggression has “shown that sustainable and reliable security in our region can only be achieved through building trust and cooperation among regional countries,” Baghaei had claimed.

After the meeting, Rezaei announced that all the participants have agreed that “the security in West Asia must be endogenous and that any foreign interference must be prevented.”

SNSC’s Deputy Secretary Bagheri Kani also claimed that though there were differences in priorities and approaches, the quadrilateral meeting “reflected a shared understanding among the four parties of the need for cooperation,” Press TV reported.

Reacting to the development, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute claimed that though the meeting had the immediate objective of the Mecca alliance seeking Iranian help to resolve the ongoing conflict between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, it also reflects a changing security dynamic in the region.

Contrary to “Washington’s conventional wisdom,” the countries in the region “are showing greater agency and taking responsibility for the region’s security themselves” as the US pulls back militarily following the humiliation faced in its eight-month-long war against Iran, Parsi claimed.

US is not a reliable partner

“Some regional countries once imagined that by aligning themselves with a major power like the US they could shield themselves from any threat. In practice, however, they discovered that this notion did not align with reality,” he said.

Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have several US military bases in the country. Pakistan has maintained a close military partnership with the US for decades.

Some of the US bases in Saudi Arabia were damaged during Iranian retaliation earlier this year. The US has reportedly refused to come to Saudi’s aid despite it seeking the same to counter Ansar Allah’s advances in Yemen.

The meeting on Monday was a result of the realization “that there is no alternative but to rely on regional engagement and to establish security based on cooperation and synergy among the countries of the region,” Kani said.

He also claimed that the members felt the urgency for the meeting as the Zionist regime has “demonstrated its savagery and an unbridled appetite for expansion” in recent years, indicating the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza and its aggression and occupation in other Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Syria.

It was reported that all parties of the meeting demanded that Israel must end its genocide in Gaza and end its occupation in Lebanon and Syria.

Each November, a suffocating blanket of particulate matter envelops Pakistan’s Punjab province, turning the sky into a hazardous grey canopy. While the public health catastrophe for more than 20 million residents rightfully dominates headlines, a silent crisis unfolds across the region’s agricultural fields, urban green spaces and remaining wetlands. We know exactly what this toxic air does to human lungs, and we even track its precise impact on agricultural assets. A 2023 baseline study closely monitored 10 livestock farms, each housing 90-275 animals across the Lahore and Kasur districts, tracking the exact micrograms of fine particulate matter, carbon dioxide and potentially toxic trace elements inside cattle sheds. Researchers even screened the air for opportunistic bacterial pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus to safeguard the health of livestock. Yet, if a wild bird or mammal landed directly outside those monitored facilities, science would suddenly turn a blind eye. In a region choked by seasonal pollution, wildlife is suffering in a massive monitoring void. Sidra Safdar, associate professor of Wildlife and Ecology at the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in Pakistan and a co-author of the 2023 livestock study, explicitly identifies the root of this discrepancy: lack of funding and political will. “One reason for a massive data gap in wildlife monitoring associated with poor air quality is the lack of suitable resources and specialized equipment,” Safdar notes, emphasizing that real-time air quality tracking demands costly annual calibration. Pakistani farmers working in their field blanketed by smog in Peshawar, November 2019. Image…This article was originally published on Mongabay

On Tuesday, National Court Judge María Tardón requested that the Spanish government urgently declassify all reports from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) concerning the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta from Morocco, which took place on July 30 and 31, 2026. The magistrate set a maximum deadline of 15 calendar days for the submission of the documentation.

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Ceuta Migrant Camp Evacuation: 5 Key Facts on Spain’s Latest Operation

In her request, Tardón asks for all notes and reports produced by the CNI and distributed to authorities from July 30, 2026, onwards, regarding investigations into the events. She also requests any documents pertaining to the actions taken by Moroccan authorities up to the present date.

Furthermore, the judge demands the disclosure of the list of authorities who received the declassified notes from July 27 and 30, as well as any subsequent communications. The requested documents include a note sent by the CNI to Moroccan intelligence services, along with any alerts regarding irregular migration from Morocco to Spain issued throughout the month of July.

In the magistrate’s view, this information is essential for clarifying the facts. The objective is to determine which authorities were aware—and from what point in time—of the planned mass entry scheduled for July 30, 2026, as well as what decisions were taken or, conversely, failed to be taken.

Tardón maintains that these documents will shed light on the actions taken by the authorities of the Kingdom of Morocco. The judicial request notes that the government had already declassified information regarding the migration crisis—including CNI notes and communications—on September 8; therefore, she argues that this new disclosure is entirely compatible with the requirements of state security and defense.

#Spain’s government will declassify around 40 intelligence and security documents related to the mass entry of migrants into #Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 and 31, seeking to clarify what authorities knew ahead of the crisis and whether #Morocco played a role in the unprecedented… pic.twitter.com/fYfEDCzDd9

— Morocco World News (@MoroccoWNews) September 9, 2026

The judge argues that state security may have already been compromised in the context of the events under investigation: “Determining who was responsible for this attack on state security is the objective of the ongoing investigation,” the judicial document states.

In addition to the declassification of information, Judge Tardón has requested that the government urgently authorize CNI (National Intelligence Center) officials to provide testimony in court regarding the events in question. This measure is part of the judicial inquiry into the mass arrival of people in the autonomous city.

On July 30 and 31, more than 80,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco, either by swimming or on foot. While most subsequently returned to Moroccan territory, an indeterminate number of migrants—from both the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa—remained in the city.

Since then, Ceuta has been grappling with a socioeconomic crisis, marked by expressions of discontent toward the government regarding its handling of the emergency. The judicial investigation seeks to establish what information was available prior to the events and what responsibilities may have existed on both the Spanish and Moroccan sides.

#Spain | A Moroccan naval incursion near Ceuta has renewed concerns over maritime sovereignty and border security.
The incident highlights longstanding sensitivities between Madrid and Rabat.#Morocco #Ceuta #teleSUREnglish pic.twitter.com/EBjubtX4rp

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 14, 2026

Over the past century, humanity has invented a dizzying array of novel chemicals for industrial, commercial and domestic use. These synthetic chemicals have been manufactured and released into the world with little caution for the harm they might cause to human health or to ecosystems that we depend on for life as we know it. An estimated 350,000 synthetic chemicals had been registered for production as of 2020, and for the vast majority, we know next to nothing about their health effects. Even their chemical compositions are often hidden as proprietary trade secrets. “The world today is full of manufactured chemicals,” says Philip Landrigan, public health physician and director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College in the U.S., who spoke to Mongabay via video call. But “we have really good data on the health effects for only 30 or 40 of these chemicals,” he warns. Only a handful of chemicals have been banned or restricted in U.S. markets in the last 50 years. The evidence base for some classes of chemicals is more developed than others, but what we know so far gives serious cause for concern, experts say. From thalidomide-induced birth defects to the pesticide DDT’s ecological impacts and cancers linked to polychlorinated biphenyls, the chemical industry has a long history of rushing new synthetics to market while largely asking questions about toxicity later. “I would think of it as an iceberg — there’s a little bit of ice visible above…This article was originally published on Mongabay

CEBU CITY, Philippines — At a coffee meeting in 2007, Philippine environmental lawyer Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio and four other law professors in Cebu City sat laughing at an idea: representing marine mammals in court. Despite their laughter, they were dead serious about their goal: Stop the oil exploration led by Japan Petroleum Exploration (JAPEX) in Tañon Strait. The protected seascape between the islands of Cebu and Negros in the central Philippines is home to 14 whale and dolphin species, as well as coral reefs and mangrove forests, according to advocacy group Oceana. In 2007, the Japanese energy company performed seismic surveys and drilled an exploration well in the strait, driving away cetaceans. It was an ambitious plan, as animals had never been named as petitioners. Eisma-Osorio and fellow lawyer Gloria “Golly” Estenzo Ramos filed the first petition representing the resident marine mammals in December 2007. Their colleagues filed a second petition on behalf of the fishing communities who had been directly affected by the exploration activities. The case, Resident Marine Mammals of the Protected Seascape Tañon Strait v. Secretary Angelo Reyes, went on for several years. In April 2015, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled to void the contract that allowed the exploration, development and exploitation of petroleum resources within the Tañon Strait. Eisma-Osorio joined Oceana Philippines as a consultant in 2015, a year after the NGO was established. At 56, she now leads the campaign and legal departments as senior director of Oceana Philippines. On Oct. 24, 2025, a major…This article was originally published on Mongabay

For 20 years, researchers snorkeled through rivers across the southern U.S., feeling along muddy bottoms for mussels. Many of the shells they pulled up looked like familiar species, but their DNA told a different story. Scientists from Shedd Aquarium, Arkansas State University, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have described five new species of freshwater mussels from rivers in the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, in a study published in Zootaxa. Several are rare and confined to single river basins, the authors write. “Our discovery and descriptions of these new freshwater mussel species demonstrate how much we still have to learn about the biodiversity in our rivers,” Nathan Johnson, a study co-author and research biologist at the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, said in a press release. Mussels are hard to identify from their shells. For example, mussels in headwater streams tend to grow flatter shells, while the same species downstream grow rounder ones. Males and females differ as well. So the researchers turned to genetics. In many cases, they clipped a bit of tissue or took a swab, then returned the mussel alive to the river, according to the study. The team sequenced three genes and compared more than 440 shell outlines. Each major river basin turned out to hold its own genetic lineage. Researchers named the new species for where they live. The Mobile hickorynut (Obovaria sipseyensis) is named for Alabama’s Sipsey River, from a Choctaw word meaning “swamp.” It now survives only…This article was originally published on Mongabay

SINGAPORE — As Singapore comes off its longest streak of unhealthy air since the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, authorities have served notices to 20 firms linked to Indonesia’s fires, but have stopped short of taking further legal action. Half of the notices were sent to concession holders in Sumatra and Kalimantan where the fires originated, while the other half went to Singapore-based entities with ties to them. Of the 10 Indonesian plantation companies identified, three of them — PT Bumi Andalas Permai, PT Bumi Mekar Hijau and PT SBA Wood Industries — have had separate investigations open against them by Singaporean authorities since 2015, with no public outcome. All three are tied to the Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) conglomerate, as is PT Buana Megatama Jaya, which was also issued a notice to extinguish fires in its concession. The other six companies issued the notices requiring them to act against fires are PT Paramitra Mulia Langgeng, PT Sumatera Alam Anugerah, PT Hutan Lestari Raya, PT Bangkanesia, PT Mananjung Hayak and PT Baratama Putra Perkasa. A spokesperson from Singapore’s National Environmental Agency told Mongabay by email it could not disclose further details into existing investigations. The agency did not respond to questions as to whether it would escalate against repeat offenders. Based on the government’s current investigations, Singapore-headquartered APP, Singapore-listed First Resources and Bumitama Agri, and privately held First Borneo Plantations, whose ownership is tied to Singapore, already appear to be linked to the haze-causing fires in Indonesia, Singapore’s senior…This article was originally published on Mongabay