The number of species of bent toed geckos in the Himalayas has gone up from five to about seventeen, a new study has revealed. The geckos, belonging to the genus Cyrtodactylus, are distant relatives of the common house gecko that adorns our walls.
Lantana is an alien invasive plant species that was introduced in India about 200 years ago. Finding ways to control its proliferation is still a challenge for both scientists and forest managers. A recent study has shone light on the conditions under which lantana proliferates.
A cross-continental study including over 2 million trees from about 4000 species has found that among the factors that affect how forest communities change over time, variation in environmental conditions like temperature, rainfall and fire is the most important. The study shows for the first time that forest communities respond to environmental variation over a decade or two; not over thousands of years as previously thought.