News: Environment Institute
When pets become pests: the exotic pet trade producing invasive species
![Exotic pets like these, on display at the 2018 Repticon in West Palm Beach, can escape and form invasive communities. Photo courtesy of Adam Toomes](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/media/images/2019-06/lizards-adam-toomes_0.jpg?h=29234840&itok=9gqi1Fce)
Scientists are learning more about what drives the exotic pet trade to help reduce the threat of new invasive animal and bird species.
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Higher biodiversity means healthier humans
![News biodiversity](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/media/images/2019-05/news-biodiversity-43.jpg?h=f2f60c54&itok=tZN7Fmpg)
Scientists find restoring environments to include a wider range of species can promote ‘good’ bacteria over ‘bad’.
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Uncovering long-term growth histories in fishery species
![Fishery growth research by Jasmin Martino](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/media/images/2019-05/news-fishery-growth-jasmin-martino.jpg?h=2f83cd36&itok=YcGIAeWS)
Jasmin Martino investigates the use of ear stone chronologies for understanding long-term trends and drivers of growth in fisheries.
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Urban biodiversity to lower chronic disease
![Urban rewilding](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/media/images/2019-03/rewilding.jpg?h=c274347c&itok=rAPH9mxv)
Replanting urban environments with native flora could be a cost effective way to improve public health.
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The secret lives of fish
![Snapper image](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/media/images/2018-12/news-snapper.jpg?h=036f3151&itok=7xukuORl)
Biologists need a careful understanding of population characteristics and dynamics to sustainably manage wild fish.
Why we're watching the giant Australian cuttlefish
![Juvenile giant Australian cuttlefish developing under rocks in the waters of South Australia. Fred Bavendam, Author provided](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/2018-11/news-cuttlefish.jpg?h=8869a3dd&itok=rmrP6lLq)
We're spying on hundreds, even thousands of tentacled organisms with their unusual distinctive W-shaped eye pupils, and pulsating colours.
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Plant fossils show the Snowy Mountains were once a lush rainforest
![Lilly Pilly or Syzygium smithii growing in forest at Nymboida National Park](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/2018-11/news-lilly-pilly-fruit.jpg?h=fc5862a8&itok=mLrnpH2N)
Lilly Pilly fossils found in old gold mines of the Snowy Mountains, prove the region was once a lush rainforest without snow.
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Researchers discover some fish species might actually benefit from climate change
![A damselfish at the volcanic seep in New Zealand.](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/2018-11/news-damselfish.jpg?h=d4dcf2e0&itok=xD2CUkuk)
Research on damselfish living in high CO2 conditions shows that some populations of fish species might actually benefit from climate change.
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Scientists dive deep to save sinking oyster population
![Image - Scientists dive deep to save sinking oyster population](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/2018-11/news-oyster.jpg?h=d4dcf2e0&itok=smk-wiIY)
School of Biological Sciences and Environment Institute researchers are involved in Australia’s largest ever oyster reef restoration project.
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Weeds take over kelp in high carbon dioxide oceans
![Kelp image](/sites/default/files/styles/ua_landscape/public/2018-11/news-kelp.jpg?h=f9db93db&itok=zQT2Uw1K)
Weedy plants will thrive and displace long-lived, ecologically valuable kelp forests under forecast ocean acidification, new research from the University of Adelaide shows.
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