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Native fish in the wetlands near the River Torrens outlet in Adelaide’s western suburbs have been given help where fish ladders have been built on weirs between Tapleys Hill and Henley Beach Roads to help fish movement and encourage breeding. Project Manager, Steven Gatti said the ladders will help the fishes travel through the weirs at times of low water flow. The team has scheduled a fish survey in September to determine the functionality of the ladders by identifying the assemblages of fish that are present and the numbers in which they’re present.

The rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been found to be “fertilizing” plants in arid regions hence contributing to a 10% rise in foliage. The study by satellite data since the 1980s have shown a flourishing of foliage in semi-arid regions which the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra, Australia attributes to the elevated CO2. Elevated CO2 causes water use of individual leaves to drop and plants respond by increasing their total number of leaves.

Manila has reported an infestation of crown-of-thorns starfish in their famed Verde Island Passage; a 100 kilometres long and 20 kilometre wide passageway known as the “centre of the centre” of the world’s ocean biodiversity. The head of wildlife bureau’s coastal marine management office, Jacob Meimban explains that the crown-of-thorns starfish really kills the corals as it eats the polyps of the coral, leaving the bleached white bodies of the coral behind. Thus far, they have identified at least 500 square metres of coral ruined by the starfish colony that may have had a population boom because many of its natural predators have been removed due to over fishing.

Deforestation in the Brazil rainforest has propelled fast evolution changes in palm populations in the area. Scientists have collected more than 9,000 seeds from 22 palm populations in patches of rain forest and have concluded that seed size has become smaller and have correlated it to the absence of large, seed-dispersing birds such as toucans and contingas. Palm trees in that study area have evolved to produce smaller and less successful seeds which could eventually lead to the loss of these species. Is biodiversity in Malaysia facing the same threat with the loss of similar birds such as the hornbills and cuckoos?