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Walkhampton, Dartmoor A shepherd on his quad bike remarks on the contrast with last week’s rain, wind and mud

From the western edge of Dartmoor, heat haze obscures views towards familiar territory in the Tamar Valley. Up here, by Lowery Cross, in sight of glittering ripples on Burrator Reservoir, ponies graze among dazzling yellow gorse; drab turfy banks are starred with a few violets, and the sound of chiffchaff echoes from coniferous plantations.

Nearby, a bridge, rebuilt in 2015, is part of the footpath and cycleway on a section of the long-defunct Plymouth and Dartmoor railway; across the bridge and via the gently sloping trail, Princetown is seven miles away, twice the distance that a crow might fly.

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Humane Society applies for lethal shark control programs to be listed as ‘threatening’ under conservation act

Environmentalists are attempting to list shark culling and the use of drum lines as threats to endangered species under federal law.

Humane Society International has applied for lethal shark control programs in in New South Wales and Queensland to be listed as “key threatening processes” under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

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As centralised and distributed energy markets continue to diverge, can the curse of capital allocation be managed in a way that creates value (or at least minimises loss) for shareholders?

Five environmental groups point to ‘trophy’ hunting – largely by Americans who travel to Africa – among key threats to animals

Conservationists have lodged a formal request for the US government to list giraffes as endangered in a bid to prevent what they call the “silent extinction” of the world’s tallest land animal.

A legal petition filed by five environmental groups has demanded that the US Fish and Wildlife Service provide endangered species protections to the giraffe, which has suffered a precipitous decline in numbers in recent years.

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19 April 1913: Author and wildlife illustrator Ernest Thompson Seton gives a lecture in London about his first job as a ‘wolver’

Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton opened his last lecture at the Aeolian Hall, London, on Thursday with the hollow call of a wolf’s rallying cry, the reality of which sent a perceptible shudder over his audience. One realised as he told in illustration of his subject, “Animal Heroes,” the story of the French wolf which was killed in the mountains of Gévaudan, what terror “the beast” must have inspired in the hearts of the 40,000 peasants who turned out to round up this hero-murderer of a hundred children.

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Windlab's 240MW Ararat Wind Farm now operating at full capacity, powering 120,000 homes – 37,000 of them in Canberra.

Renewable energy accounts for 51 per cent of German electricity production for whole week, with total for year to date at 36.5 per cent.

Federal energy minister to lead trade delegation to Israel, including visit to what will be world's tallest solar tower.

Rocky Mountain Institute's Amory Lovins says attempts to reboot coal and nuclear power like defibrillating a corpse: "it will jump but won’t revive.”

Competitive auctions are causing developers to drop their expectations for government subsidies for off-shore wind projects.

First-quarter decline in investment reflects partly falling cost of capital for renewables, allowing investors to install same capacity for less cash.

By the early 2020s, unsubsidized wind and solar prices will beat the Variable Costs of Operating Coal and Natural Gas Plants

A study that attached cameras with suction cups to the backs of Antarctic whales has revealed never before seen feeding habits and social interactions.

Environment minister says federal government ‘would welcome any proposal to protect human life first’ after attack on surfer Laeticia Brouwer

The federal government would consider any strategies to prevent further shark attacks off Australia’s coast, following the death of teenager surfer Laeticia Brouwer.

“In light of the recent shark attack the commonwealth would welcome any proposal to protect human life first and foremost,” the federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, told the West Australian.

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A new resident off the coast of a Canadian town has turned it into a cool tourist spot.

Giant sloths: killed by rainy weather? Kamraman/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Wet weather at the end of the last ice age appears to have helped drive the ecosystems of large grazing animals, such as mammoths and giant sloths, extinct across vast swathes of Eurasia and the Americas, according to our new research.

The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution today, shows that landscapes in many regions became suddenly wetter between 11,000 and 15,000 years ago, turning grasslands into peat bogs and forest, and ushering in the demise of many megafaunal species.

By examining the bone chemistry of megafauna fossils from Eurasia, North America and South America over the time leading up to the extinction, we found that all three continents experienced the same dramatic increase in moisture. This would have rapidly altered the grassland ecosystems that once covered a third of the globe.

The period after the world thawed from the most recent ice age is already very well studied, thanks largely to the tonnes of animal bones preserved in permafrost. The period is a goldmine for researchers – literally, given that many fossils were first found during gold prospecting operations.

Our work at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA usually concerns genetic material from long-dead organisms. As a result, we have accrued a vast collection of bones from around the world during this period.

But we made our latest discovery by shifting our attention away from DNA and towards the nitrogen atoms preserved the fossils’ bone collagen.

Lead Author Tim Rabanus-Wallace hunts for megafaunal fossils in the Canadian permafrost in 2015. Julien Soubrier Chemical signatures

Nitrogen has two stable isotopes (atoms with the same number of protons but differing number of neutrons), called nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15. Changes in environmental conditions can alter the ratio of these two isotopes in the soil. That, in turn, is reflected in the tissues of growing plants, and ultimately in the bones of the animals that eat those plants. In arid conditions, processes like evaporation preferentially remove the lighter nitrogen-14 from the soil. This contributes to a useful correlation seen in many grassland mammals: less nitrogen-14 in the bones means more moisture in the environment.

We studied 511 accurately dated bones, from species including bison, horses and llamas, and found that a pronounced spike in moisture occurred between 11,000 and 15,000 years ago, affecting grasslands in Europe, Siberia, North America, and South America.

Alan Cooper inspects ice age bones from the Yukon Palaeontology Program’s collection, Canada, 2015. Julien Soubrier

At the time of this moisture spike, dramatic changes were occurring on the landscapes. Giant, continent-sized ice sheets were collapsing and retreating, leaving lakes and rivers in their wake. Sea levels were rising, and altered wind and water currents were bringing rains to once-dry continental interiors.

The study shows that a peak in moisture occurred between the time of the ice sheets melting, and the invasion of new vegetation types such as peatlands (data shown from Canada and northern United States). http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0125

As a result, forests and peatlands were forming where grass, which specialises in dry environments, once dominated. Grasses are also specially adapted to tolerate grazing – in fact, they depend upon grazers to distribute nutrients and clear dead litter from the ground each season. Forest plants, on the other hand, produce toxic compounds specifically to deter herbivores. For decades, researchers have discussed the idea that the invading forests drove the grassland communities into collapse.

Our new study provides the crime scene’s smoking gun. Not only was moisture affecting the grassland mammals during the forest invasion and the subsequent extinctions, but this was happening right around the globe.

Extinction rethink

This discovery prompts a rethink on some of the key mysteries in the extinction event, such as the curious case of Africa. Many of Africa’s megafauna — elephants, wildebeest, hippopotamus, and so on — escaped the extinction events, and unlike their counterparts on other continents have survived to this day.

It has been argued that this is because African megafauna evolved alongside humans, and were naturally wary of human hunters. However, this argument cannot explain the pronounced phase of extinctions in Europe. Neanderthals have existed there for at least 200,000 years, while anatomically modern humans arrive around 43,000 years ago.

We suggest instead that the moisture-driven extinction hypothesis provides a much better explanation. Africa’s position astride the Equator means that its central forested monsoon belt has always been surrounded by continuous stretches of grassland, which graded into the deserts of the north and south. It was the persistence of these grasslands that allowed the local megafauna to survive relatively intact.

Our study may also offers insights into the question of how the current climate change might affect today’s ecosystems.

Understanding how climate changes affected ecosystems in the past is imperative to making informed predictions about how climate changes may influence ecosystems in the future. The consequences of human-induced global warming are often depicted using images of droughts and famines. But our discovery is a reminder that all rapid environmental changes — wet as well as dry — can cause dramatic changes in biological communities and ecosystems.

In this case, warming expressed itself not through parched drought but through centuries of persistent English drizzle, with rain, slush and grey skies. It seems like a rather unpleasant way to go.

Alan Cooper receives funding from the Australian Research Council

Matthew Wooller receives funding from US National Science Foundation

Tim Rabanus-Wallace does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

When a team of scientists went to the Yukon to study the Slims River, all they found was a "skinny lake".

Unlikely coalition of fossil fuel firms, environmental groups and Republicans are calling on president to stay despite his pledge to ‘cancel’ agreement

Donald Trump’s aides have abruptly postponed a meeting to determine whether the US should remain in the Paris climate agreement, with an unlikely coalition of fossil fuel firms, environmental groups and some Republicans calling on the president to stick with the deal.

Trump’s top advisers were set to meet on Tuesday to provide the president with a recommendation ahead of a G7 meeting in May. However, a White House official said the meeting had been postponed due to conflicting schedules. It is unclear when it will now take place.

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From Harrogate to Tokyo cherry blossom is in full bloom at the peak of spring

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Some of them may know where to find food but not how to access it while others know how to get at it but not where it is hidden.