bioGraphic

bioGraphic is a non-profit magazine that operates independently and is supported by the California Academy of Sciences. Its mission is to highlight the beauty of nature and explore effective ways to protect life on our planet. Through our stories, we aim to inspire discussions, change viewpoints, and generate innovative solutions to address the urgent environmental issues facing Earth today.

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A Spanish Lagoon Was Granted Legal Personhood. Then What Happened?

1 week ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Mar Menor, a 135-square-kilometer (52-square-mile) lagoon in southern Spain, is the only ecosystem in Europe that can be named a victim in a legal case. In September 2022, the Spanish Senate granted the largest saltwater lagoon in the Mediterranean legal personhood. From then on, any human who wanted to help Mar Menor could represent it in court.
The Big Picture 2025

1 week ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Now in its 12th year, the California Academy of Sciences’ BigPicture Photography Competition celebrates some of the world’s best photographers and the year’s most striking images. Judged by an esteemed panel of nature and conservation photography experts, and chaired by wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas, the competition’s winning images and finalists highlight Earth’s biodiversity and illustrate the many threats our planet faces.
Machiavellian Mothering

2 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

In England’s Hertfordshire county, a fork-jawed nomad bee (Nomada ruficornis) dangles from a single blade of grass, covered in morning dew. It rests in preparation for another day of calculated trickery. Nomad bees are known less for their pollination roles and more for their cunning brood-rearing habits.
The Potential and Perils of AI for Conservation

2 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It has always been challenging to study nocturnal birds, especially if they use camouflage to blend into their surroundings. “They are highly mobile, so they are really, really hard to study,” says Elly Knight, a University of Alberta researcher who studies common nighthawks (Chordeiles minor), a medium-size bird in the nightjar family.
The Bird Who Needs Less

3 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Sometimes less is more. Especially for the ground-dwelling bird known as the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax). In the dry steppes of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, the little bustard relies on low-intensity agriculture for habitat.
Is a Smart Gate the Key to Habitat Connectivity?

3 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

What do a wildlife conservationist, a herd of trained elephants, a jazz composer, and an architect have in common? In the South African bush, this unlikely quartet has banded together to develop an artificial intelligence-powered gate and sound system to help the region’s swelling elephant population make better use of its available range.
Lens of Time: A Watershed in Motion

1 month ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Katie Garrett is a producer of natural history films that combine intimate cinematography with personal stories from people living and working alongside nature. With a degree in biology and background in the arts sector, she is particularly passionate about amphibian conservation.
Dispatches from the Last Ice Area

1 month ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

There is nothing easy about visiting the Last Ice Area, the last stronghold of permanent, multiyear sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The million-square-kilometer expanse of jagged, fractured, floating ice is located in the Canadian and Greenlandic High Arctic. Despite its character and location, Mathieu Ardyna, a biological oceanographer at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, felt compelled to visit.
How Penguin Poop Helps Antarctica Keep its Cool

1 month ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In December 2022, Matthew Boyer hopped on an Argentine military plane to one of the more remote habitations on Earth: Marambio Station at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, where the icy continent stretches toward South America. Months before that, Boyer had to ship expensive, delicate instruments that might get busted by the time he landed.
A Home Made of Microplastics

1 month ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Duprat lined an aquarium tank with gold flakes, diamonds, and pearls. Then he added caddisfly larvae and sat back to watch them work. Caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are nature’s aquatic collagists. They live most of their lives as larvae on the beds of rivers and streams before emerging as winged insects and briefly taking flight. As larvae, caddisflies craft tiny apartments of sand, pebbles, and bits of wood, mortaring them together with a silk-like material they secrete from their mouths.