News

Australia’s beloved animals are again under threat as the H5N1 strain of bird flu spreads, with more mass deaths expected. Scientists are bracing for another wave of ecological loss and are particularly concerned about rare and threatened species.

Nature is not doing well in Australia. Many unique mammals, birds and insects are struggling. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. In response, the federal government signed a global pledge in 2022 to protect and restore nature. The global goal is to restore 30% of degraded ecosystems.

UQ's Food Systems Transformation Hub has been transforming how agricultural professionals, government officers, and development practitioners across the Indo-Pacific think, lead, and act.

Historically, mangrove forests have been dismissed as inhospitable places to avoid and have been extensively cleared. But these fascinating trees are now gaining attention for how they support biodiversity, store carbon and buffer the effects of storms, cyclones and tsunamis.

University of Queensland research has shown microbes could give Australian-grown chocolate an edge in the global market.

UQ Dr Rachakonda Sreekar has co-authored a study showing Sumatra's Tapanuli orangutan, the world's rarest great ape, is being pushed toward extinction by combined industrial, agricultural, and climate threats.

UQ's Dr Christopher Lawson argues that as H5N1 bird flu spreads through Australian wildlife, the country's chronically underfunded conservation system must properly support the volunteer carers it's long relied on rather than sideline them.

Professor Phil Hugenholtz has been named a finalist in this year’s Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for his work on The Genome Taxonomy Database.

A team from the UQ-CoralWatch program completed a 9-day journey across regional Queensland, sharing coral reef science to communities hundreds of kilometres from the coast.

Scientists have documented thousands of different microbes contributing to healthy reef communities as a step to using them to measure and monitor changes.