Researchers sampled lowland tapirs across three Brazilian sites with differing degrees of agricultural development—a Cerrado agricultural mosaic, the largely pristine Pantanal, and an Amazon farm bordering protected forest—to examine how land use affects microplastic exposure in wildlife. The study found that microplastic abundance in tapirs correlated with the degree of human land conversion at each site, with the most disturbed, agriculture-heavy landscape showing the highest levels.
nature.com
· 2026-11-11
Researchers reviewing fire science literature argue that the suppression of Indigenous cultural burning practices after European colonisation contributed to shrub encroachment and the conditions behind Australia's intensifying bushfires. The analysis draws on multiple studies, including work on the 2019-20 mega-fire season and broader global fire trends under climate change.
nature.com
· 2026-10-07
At a Zurich ceremony on September 3, researchers received Ig Nobel awards for offbeat but rigorous studies, including a biomechanics team that produced a cross-species definition of kissing excluding food-sharing behavior, a physics group that engineered urinal designs to minimize splashback, and soil scientists who buried and later exhumed 1,000 pairs of underwear to study decomposition rates linked to land use.
nature.com
· 2026-09-03
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