【推荐2】European shepherds (牧羊人) and ranchers (大牧场主) are taking the lead in forest fire prevention, by leading their animals to clear away underbrush that allows fires to grow too big, a new study shows.

In thinner forested areas, large herbivores (食草动物) were found in a study to be greatly effective in reducing forest fire risk. “In general terms, it is clear that wild and semi-wild herbivores like horses can reduce wildfire risk through their eating grass,” says Julia Rouet-Leduc, lead author of the study. “Such herbivores can be particularly effective in remote areas, where careful management can prevent wildfire and benefit wild nature in other ways.”

Smaller animals like goats and sheep are ideal for areas that lack natural predators (捕食者). There are no large predators in all of Italy, and without the risk of losing an expensive animal, the eating habits of these smaller animals kept on a farm make them perfect for clearing underbrush and things which larger herbivores can’t stomach.

But there were laws that prevent goats and sheep from entering woods in order to protect them. Since natural numbers of red deer, and other native herbivores have long since disappeared from European forests, the loss of sheep and goats meant that nothing prevented grass from spreading in forests, turning brushfires into dangerous disasters.

That’s why shepherds on Sardinia have written a letter to the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, asking not only to allow their animals to eat grass within the woods, but to create a restoration project of rural areas in Montiferru, where Italy’s worst wildfire in 40 years recently burned its way from the mountain tops to the sea.

Their plan is to bring in more shepherds to better control the fires, and encourage eco-tourism in the area, to incentivize the shepherds to stay. This is already seeing success through both private and public inspiring measures in Catalunya, Spain.

【推荐3】I think my hometown Belarus is a lucky place because it doesn't experience dangerous natural disasters such as volcano eruptions, earthquakes, or hurricanes.

However, sometimes spring floods happen in low areas of my town. It can be strong enough to damage crop fields, roads, and plants. Moreover, it is dangerous for the livestock which might die in the water. As you can see, a flood is rather harmful for the countryside.

In the summer time, hail and heavy rainstorms visit Belarus, but they never cause serious damage to buildings or people's deaths. Even though some trees or other plants might be uprooted or destroyed, people actually don't pay a lot of attention to these disasters because they don't occur very often.

In winter, we sometimes experience snowstorms with heavy snow and strong winds. Several years ago,for instance,people couldn't arrive at their jobs because a lot of snow was on the streets. Schools were closed on that day, but children weren't anxious about it. They really enjoyed the snow mountains outdoors.

As for me, I was unhappy about that day. My apartment building is located on a hill. It isn't big, so I had never had any problems with driving a car near my home. However, it took me almost two hours to arrive home from the foot of the hill because there was so much snow on the road that my car couldn't move. I had to ask people in the street to help me to push the car out of the snow. Later, when everything was over, my friends and I were laughing when we imagined how funny I was while pushing a heavy car.

As you may notice, natural disasters in my country depend on the seasons of the year. Although we experience several kinds of natural weather conditions, they are not very dangerous. And people often try to have fun during or after them.

【推荐3】Look up how to increase your life expectancy (预期寿命), and you will probably see plenty of results recommending that you have a healthy diet, get sufficient sleep, work out and cut out tobacco and too much alcohol consumption. But what many of us don’t know is that our relationships also affect our life expectancy. Social integration is associated with greater life satisfaction, better health and increased life expectancy. People with wide social networks are more likely to be happy, experience fewer health issues, enjoy better mental health and to live a lot longer.

Now this doesn’t mean that we should dive head first into a relationship whenever we’re lonely in order to avoid dying young. Harmful relationships can be as isolating as being alone, so who we choose to break bread with is absolutely vital to our overall health.

Have you ever wondered why some people are single and happy, while others are drowning in suffering? Or why some married couples exist in a consistent state of bliss, while others are practically enemies?

Research shows that marriage has greater benefits for men than it does for women. Being coupled allows men to receive the essential emotional support that they would lack if they were single. They also get the added benefit of being physically taken care of thanks to the gender roles society still subscribes to.

Women, on the other hand, don’t have as much luck when it comes to being coupled. A woman in a harmful relationship is likely to experience the mental, emotional and physical consequences that come with that. On the contrary, a woman in a healthy relationship is likely to live well. Research shows that the women who are happily married tend to be coupled with partners who take on their fair share of household responsibilities.

But that’s not all, age gaps also need to be factored in to determine relationship satisfaction. Couples with wider age gaps are more likely to be harmonious compared to their peers.

【推荐1】A new study reveals that trees can communicate and warn each other of danger. “For the first time, researchers have been able to visualize plant-to-plant communication,” said Masatsugu, senior author of the study.

The idea of talking trees started to take root in the 1980s. Two scientists found that damaged trees began producing chemicals that made their leaves unappetizing and indigestible to discourage insects. The trees then sent chemical signals to one another through the air. Over the past four decades, scientists have observed this cell-to-cell communication in more than 30 plant species.

Past research shows plants communicate with their surroundings by releasing chemicals known as volatile (易挥发的) organic compounds. One class of these compounds are released when a plant is injured: green leafy volatiles. These are released by, as the name suggests, pretty much every green plant with leaves, and are produced when a plant experiences physical damage. An example of these compounds is the smell released from fresh-cut grass.

In the new study, Masatsugu and his colleagues manually damaged leaves and placed insects on tomato plants to trigger the release of various green leafy volatiles. After testing many of them, the team found it seemed to increase calcium ions (钙离子) inside cells. The calcium signaling is like a switch to turn on the defense responses from the plants.

With this new understanding, researchers say plants could be immunized against threats and stressors before they even happen. For instance, exposing healthy plants to insect-ridden plants or the associated green leafy volatiles could boost their genetic defenses, so farmers use less pesticides. The revelation could also help make plants more resilient (有复原力的) during a drought, signaling the plants to conserve more water.

【推荐3】You must have been amused by videos of dogs waving tails happily at their owner’s home-coming greetings, or pictures of cats looking so guilty after making the house a mess. A variety of domestic animals can distinguish between their owner’s voice and the voices of others, and can even detect changes in tone. But whether wild animals can recognize individual humans is a bit unclear.

A new study led by Roberta Salmi is the first to show that wild gorillas, too, are able to recognize familiar human voices based on their relationship with the speaker.

Over the course of about six months, the researchers played the gorillas audio recordings of three groups: long-term keepers who knew and worked with the gorillas for at least four years and had positive relationships with them; people who the gorillas knew and had negative interactions with, including vets and the service workers; and people who were unfamiliar to the animals. All the participants said the same phrase, “Good morning. Hello,” which is how keepers typically greet the gorillas.

The gorillas had the least reactions to the voices of their keepers. However, when they heard the voices of people they didn’t know or with whom they’d had negative experiences, the gorillas responded with signs of vigilance. They stopped eating their treats or whatever else they were doing and started looking toward the sound to judge whether the voices were a threat.

“It’s something we do too,” said Salmi, “If it’s not a threatening sound, I keep doing my own business. If I hear that there is someone in my house, I immediately stop what I’m doing to hear what’s going on.”

If wild gorillas are able to distinguish by voice and have different reactions to humans, according to whether they are hunters or researchers, it would be extremely helpful. “They know when something is wrong and can try to hide or escape danger,” Salmi said. “It would help me sleep better to know that researchers aren’t making the gorillas become easier targets to hunters.”