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This year, the Great Barrier Reef has been hit by the most severe coral bleaching event on record, with climate change causing an increase in ocean temperatures. This has compounded existing strains on the reef with poor water quality, increasing industrial development, unsustainable fishing practices and other pressures causing a decline in corals and other marine animals.

Yew Tree Heath, New Forest Below me, the heath drops steadily away through hectares of heather, with patches of grey-green gorse and burgeoning bracken

To seek a commanding view of Yew Tree Heath, I climb a wartime relic. In 1939, an anti-aircraft battery was set up here, with a control centre whose mound offers me the view that I’m after. The tree-line has etched the horizon for millennia. It still does where the chimneys of Marchwood’s industry have not intruded with jagged fingers of concrete, and huge metallic structures are not rearing over it like an alien army poised to attack.

Below me, the heath drops steadily away through hectares of heather, with patches of grey-green gorse and burgeoning bracken, segmented by gritty footpaths. Nearby, two bronze age burial mounds have watched over this ground from long before it was heathland.

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It began with Margaret Wertheim and her sister working on a crochet of a single coral. They invited others to contribute and before long, a single piece of woollen coral was a crocheted coral reef.

Farmers and environmentalists alike are facing anxiety as the shadow of Brexit looms over Britain’s countryside.

Analysis of DNA from some of the world's first farmers shows that they had surprisingly diverse origins.

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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Haunting images taken by photographer Keow Wee Loong, who with two friends sneaked into the ‘exclusion zone to explore four towns that were abandoned after the 2011 nuclear disaster

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Three endangered Persian leopard cubs are intended to reintroduce the species to the Sochi area but new plans for a ski trail put the future of the reserve and the animals at risk

Three Persian leopard cubs have been released into the Sochi area of Russia’s western Caucasus, a day after Unesco threatened to deem the area a “world heritage site in danger” because of a planned ski resort expansion.

Persian leopards once prowled across the Caucasus mountains in great numbers but poaching, poisoning and human encroachment wiped out the species in Russia, in the early 20th century.

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A scientific paper that claimed a 2012 exhibition of Damien Hirst works led to the release of dangerous formaldehyde fumes is retracted by one of its authors after further tests.

New environment minister, Andrea Leadsom, faces problem of paying the retrospective fines on top of dealing with the end of EU farming subsidies

British taxpayers will still be paying fines to the EU over the mishandling of farming subsidies after the country has left the bloc, the National Audit Office warned on Friday.

At least £660m has already been paid in fines, owing to delays in implementing the rules of the common agricultural policy in the six years to 2013. More fines will follow for the intervening years, as they are levied retrospectively, and leaving the EU does not absolve the UK from responsibility.

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A Bengal tiger with her cubs, osprey chicks and a forest lit up by thousands of fireflies are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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An international team of scientists has issued a warning that biodiversity is dropping below safe levels for the support and wellbeing of human societies.

Free-market red tape slashers are pitched against ministers backing a clean, green economy as the UK’s best long term bet. But who will win out?

The cast has changed following Theresa May’s reshuffle, but the play remains the same. It’s a struggle pitching free-market red tape slashers against those backing a clean, green economy as the UK’s best long term bet. The big question is whether this performance will have a different ending.

The performance directed by David Cameron was full of good lines - “the greenest government ever” – but the reviews, even by him, were poor: “cut the green crap”.

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Toxic fumes may be the primary cause of skin ageing in polluted cities such as London, New York and Beijing, scientists say

Air pollution is prematurely ageing the faces of city dwellers by accelerating wrinkles and age spots, according to emerging scientific research.

The effects of toxic fumes on skin are being seen in both western cities, such as London and New York, as well as in more visibly polluted Asian cities and in some cases may be the primary cause of ageing. The pollution is also being linked to worsening skin conditions such as eczema and hives.

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New study shows humans are influence the growth patterns of plants, but it’s not as simple as ‘greener is better’

The Earth’s climate is changing – in fact, it always changes. But in the current context of human influence, scientists try to decipher how much of the change is natural compared to human-induced.

One clear way humans influence the Earth is through the biosystem. For instance, farming changes the biosystem. By removing natural growth and planting annual crops that are harvested, we change the system in a way that could in turn affect other parts of the Earth system. In addition, the use of nitrogen based fertilizers can increase growth rate and lead to a greening of areas that are subject to fertilization.

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Outdoor learning can have a positive impact on children's development but it needs to be formally adopted by national curricula, a report suggests.

Ex-ministers and environmental groups condemn decision to axe ministry as downgrading action to tackle climate change

The abolition of the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been condemned by former ministers as a major setback to British efforts to combat global warming.
Decc was closed in a series of sweeping changes to the government unveiled by the new prime minister, Theresa May, on Thursday. Its functions, which include representing the UK at international climate talks, responsibility for meeting carbon targets and levying subsidies for green energy, have been transferred to a beefed-up business department led by Greg Clark.

But Ed Davey, who served as Liberal Democrat secretary of state at Decc between 2012 and 2015, criticised the decision.
“This is a major setback for the UK’s climate change efforts. Greg Clark may be nice and he may even be green, but by downgrading the Whitehall status of climate change, Theresa May has hit low carbon investor confidence yet again,” he told the Guardian.
His view was echoed by Ed Miliband, the department’s first secretary of state when it was created in 2008 by Labour, who tweeted that the move was: “Plain stupid. Climate not even mentioned in new dept title. Matters because depts shape priorities, shape outcomes.”
Many environmental groups strongly criticised the decision as downgrading action on climate only months after more than 170 countries signed the Paris climate deal in New York. The UK is under pressure to ratify the agreement, both as part of the EU and domestically.
“This is shocking news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that the new prime minister has already downgraded action to tackle climate change, one of the biggest threats we face,” said Craig Bennett, the CEO of Friends of the Earth.
ClientEarth, a group of environment lawyers who won a court battle against the government last year on air pollution, said the closure sent the wrong signals to the world.
“At a time when the challenge of climate change becomes ever more pressing, the government has scrapped the department devoted to tackling it. This is a statement of disregard for one of the most challenging economic, social and environmental issues humans have ever faced,” said its chief executive, James Thornton.
“It sends a terrible signal at the worst possible time, undermining efforts to secure a clean, safe energy future.”
Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP and chair of the energy and climate change committee, said he was astonished by the abolition of Decc, as it came after government policy changes had already created uncertainty for investors.
Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP, said: “Scrapping Decc sends a terrible signal to the world. [It is] yet another concession to Tory Brexiteers and a blow to moderate, outward-looking Britain.”
The Green party said the axing of Decc was deeply worrying and long-time energy policy observers said it was a sign that energy and climate were slipping down the agenda, and that merging them with other departments before had failed to produce clear policy.
The New Economics Foundation thinktank said: “This reshuffle risks dropping climate change from the policy agenda altogether.” John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace, said: “Although, some might say ‘what’s in a name’, there is a very real worry that the progress made on tackling climate change could be relegated to the bottom of the intray.”

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Fleas get a free ride - and there's not much in it for the dog. Kristian Niemi/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

To call someone a “parasite” is an insult. But the word has rather a different meaning in biology.

Etymologically speaking, the earliest known record of the word parasite in the English language was in 1539, when it was defined as “a hanger-on, a toady, a person who lives on others”. The word itself was derived from the Greek parasitos, meaning “a person who eats at the table of another”.

The social use appears to precede the scientific use, which was first recorded in 1646 as “an animal or plant that lives on others”.

Parasite might trigger distant memories of school lessons about fleas and tapeworms. But is this view accurate? As with most things in life, the answer is not as straightforward as it first appears.

It’s complicated

Parasites are a group of often unrelated organisms that share a way of life. Parasitism is only one example in the spectrum of ways organisms relate to each other.

Today, ecologists use “symbiosis” to refer to any relationship between two organisms. Anton de Bary, the pioneering mycologist (a fungi specialist), defined symbiosis when he wrote in his 1879 monograph Die Erscheinung der Symbiose that “any two organisms living in close association, commonly one living in or on the body of the other, are symbiotic, as contrasted with free living”.

Symbiosis can be subdivided into four broad categories, with clear examples in each, but the boundaries between them are sometimes blurred.

Parasitism

Parasitism is a relationship in which one partner (the parasite) benefits at the expense of the other (the host). Parasites hurt their hosts in many ways, ranging from general or specialised pathology and impairment of sexual characteristics, to the modification of host behaviour. Parasites increase their own fitness by exploiting hosts for food, habitat and/or dispersal.

Less obvious but familiar examples include the cuckoo, which is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nests of other bird species. This relieves the parasitic parent from the investment of rearing young or building nests, enabling them to spend more time foraging and producing more offspring.

The risk of losing an egg to raiders such as small mammals is reduced by distributing the eggs among different nests – literally not putting all their eggs in one basket.

Another interesting example, a parasite for life and not just at Christmas, is mistletoe. This plant grows on a wide range of host trees and commonly stunts their growth, but can kill them with heavy infestation.

Mistletoe is not completely dependent on its host and has its own leaves that do some photosynthesis. It uses the host mainly for water and mineral nutrients.

A lion eating a wildebeest or zebra is certainly benefiting from the other organism’s loss, but lions are predators, not parasites. Well-adapted parasites have typically evolved not to kill their hosts.

What about mosquitoes, which drink human blood? Parasites usually live in a very intimate relationship with their host, depending on it for more than nutritional requirements. The host is a source of food and at the same time provides a more-or-less permanent habitat. So, a mosquito is more properly a tiny predator.

But mosquitoes also transmit disease-causing micro-organisms such as the malaria protozoan or dengue virus. These are true parasites.

Mutualism

Mutualism is a relationship in which both partners benefit from the interaction.

The classic example of mutualism is lichen, a long-term association between a fungus and a green alga (or blue-green cyanobacterium). It is this that the German mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary described as “the living together of unlike organisms”.

The fungus benefits from the relationship because algae or cyanobacteria produce food by photosynthesis. The algae or cyanobacteria benefit by being protected from the environment by the filaments of the fungus, which also gather moisture and nutrients from the environment and (usually) provide an anchor to it.

A further example may be observed in a tropical aquarium. Well known to fans of the Disney film Finding Nemo, the clownfish is protected by a sea anemone, which stings the fish’s predators; in turn, the clownfish removes ectoparasites from the anemone.

Commensalism

Commensalism is a similar concept, but only one partner benefits, while the other is unaffected. The cattle egret is a classic example of a commensal.

This bird forages in fields among cows and horses, feeding on insects stirred up when the animals graze. The egret benefits from this relationship because the livestock inadvertently help it find a meal, while they are seemingly unaffected by its presence.

Another, more recently appreciated example is the colonisation of the human gut by so-called “good bacteria”, also known as probiotics, which multiply in the mammalian gut and apparently aid digestion. Whether this relationship is in fact commensal or mutual may depend on the species of bacteria involved.

Some biologists argue that any close relationship between two organisms is unlikely to be completely neutral for either party, and that relationships identified as commensal are more likely mutualistic or even parasitic in a subtle way that has not been identified.

Competition

Competition is an interaction between organisms in which the fitness of one, or potentially both, is lowered by the presence of the other. In some cases, both partners may be harmed by the relationship.

The behaviour of male red deer during the rutting season is an example of competition within a species, while trees of different species compete for light in a rainforest.

So, the next time you are tempted to call someone a parasite, think again. Your relationship with them may in fact be an example of competition, commensalism or perhaps even mutualism: you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

Andrew Taylor-Robinson 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.

British astronaut Tim Peake says that he is concerned about the future of scientific research in Britain, following the vote to leave the European Union.

Spain’s gleaning movement has grown rapidly in response to austerity, harvesting imperfect fruit and veg - that would otherwise be wasted - for food banks. Now its own line of jams, soups and sauces is taking off too

Under a blazing Catalan sun, Abdelouahid wipes the sweat from his brow in a cabbage patch full with clouds of white butterflies. “It’s really not warm today,” he says. “It’s only hot if you stop working.”

Around him, unemployed workers and environmentalists squat in green bibs, black gloves and hats, plucking cabbages that would otherwise be threshed, to distribute at food banks around Barcelona.

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