The United States government is rolling back conservation policies in a way that demonstrably risks accelerating already at-risk coral reefs around its island territory Guam in the Pacific Ocean. Part of the issue is the way the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is defined. Researchers from the University of Tokyo, University of Guam, University of Technology Sydney and Cornell University strongly suggest broadening key species categories such that reefs are more generally protected. At present, overly specific terminology means anything outside key categories doesn't fall under the ESA and is therefore open to further human interference. 

Twenty graduate students make up this year’s cohort of Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Awardees.

When it comes to biodiversity, researchers and the public tend to focus on large-scale patterns. This overlooks a hidden but precious diversity: small, inconspicuous wasps, midges, flies, beetles and other insects that live in plants. These tiny creatures are actually very common, as shown by a team of researchers at the University of Göttingen and the Hungarian HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research. The researchers measured, dissected and searched for insects in over 23,000 shoots of grass. They found 255 species of insects in ten perennial grass species, which last year-round, but not a single one in five annual, short-lived grass species. The longer the shoots of the perennial grass species, the higher the diversity of insects found in them. Around a third of the insect species feed directly on the grass. The remaining species, mostly wasps, live parasitically on the insects that feed on plants. Almost two-thirds of insects specialize in grasses, half of them even in specific grass species. The conclusion is that areas in grassland should not be mown for several years: stable insect populations need undisturbed refuges with intact shoots of grass. The results were published in Basic and Applied Ecology.