Contrary to the long-held belief that plants in the natural world are always in competition, new research has found that in severe environments adult plants help smaller ones and grow well as a result.

The research, led by Dr Rocio, studied adult and seedling (幼苗) plants in the ecological desert in the south-east of Spain.

Dr Rocio said, “If you’re a seedling in a poor land — the top of a mountain or a sand hill, for example—and you’re lucky enough to end up underneath a big plant, your chances of survival are certainly better than if you landed somewhere on your own. What we have found, which was surprising, is an established large plant, called a ‘nurse’, protects a seedling; it also produces more flowers than the same plants of similar large size growing on their own.”

Other benefits of nurse-seedling partnerships include that more variety of plants growing together can have a positive effect on the environment. For example, vegetation areas with nurse plants with more flowers might be able to attract higher numbers of pollinators (传粉者) in an area, in turn supporting insect and soil life and even provide a greater range of different fruit types for birds and other animals.

“The biggest winner for this system of nursing a plant is biodiversity (生物多样性),” Dr Rocio said. “The more biodiversity an area, the greater number of species of plants, insect life, mammals and birds, and the better the chances of long-term healthy functioning of the environment and ecosystems.” This system is win-win for adult and seedling plants in unfavorable environments.

The research is of value to those who manage and protect plants in tough environments. Most home gardeners and farmers plan to ensure their soil and conditions are the best they can be for plant growth, but the findings might be of value to those who garden in bare places.

The unusual day of February 29 comes up on the calendar only every four years. In American English, February 29 is called a leap day. And the entire 12-month period with a February 29 in it is called a leap year. The year 2020 is such a year.

As a verb, the word “leap” means to jump, or to move quickly. “Leap” can also be a noun, meaning a jump or a sudden move. In a leap year, the dates jump over one day of the week. In 2017, the last day of the year December 31, fell on a Sunday. In 2018, it fell on a Monday. In 2019, it fell on the Tuesday. But in 2020, December 31 will fall on a Thursday. It just leaps right over Wednesday. “Leap” is also an important word for two American expressions. One is a kind of warning. If you want someone to investigate a situation completely before taking action, you might say “look before you leap”. The other expression is a phrase of hope. Urging someone to “take a leap of faith” invites the person to take action, even if not everything about a situation is known.

Interestingly, both phrases are completely reasonable to say to someone who is about to get married.

On that note, some people choose to marry on February 29 because it is an unusual day. But some ancient people would likely tell couples not to do it. Leap years were believed to be difficult, and leap days were unlucky and a bad time to begin anything new.

Whatever you think about them, the changes in the calendar will be gone soon enough. Then we can return to normal, and leap over February 29 as usual.

Rising ocean temperatures killed about 14% of the world’s coral reefs in just under a decade, according to a new analysis from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. In other words, the amount of coral lost between 2008 and 2019 equals more than all of the living corals in Australia. The report — the first of its kind since 2008 — found that warming caused by climate change has placed coral reefs under “continuous stress.”

But it also found signs of hope, noting that many of these reefs may be able to recover if immediate action is taken to fight future warming. “People around the world depend on healthy coral reefs and the services they provide for food, entertainment, and protection from storms,” said Jennifer Koss, director of the NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. “It is possible to reduce the losses we are seeing and save these reefs, but doing so relies on us as a global community making more environmentally friendly decisions in our everyday lives.”

NOAA calls this the largest global analysis of coral reef health ever made: “The analysis used data from nearly two million observations from more than 12,000 collection sites in 73 countries over 40 years (1978 to 2019), representing the work over 300 scientists.” The study identifies “coral bleaching (褪色) events caused by rising sea surface temperatures” as the biggest cause of coral loss.

They also observed some recovery in 2019, with coral reefs regaining 2% of their coral cover. “This suggests that if pressures on these critical ecosystems ease, then coral reefs have the ability to recover, potentially within a decade, to the healthy reefs that were common pre-1998,” reads a GCRMN release. On the other hand, continued warming could cause greater damage. Sharp decreases in coral cover agreed with increases in sea surface temperature, which experts say shows coral’s vulnerability (易受伤害) to the sudden large increases — a phenomenon they say could happen more frequently as the planet continues to warm.