Desert blooms transform barren landscapes into carpets of wildflowers when rare rainfall triggers seeds that can lie dormant for decades. Climate change is making these spectacular events both more intense and less predictable, threatening delicate ecosystems adapted to specific moisture patterns.
Bioluminescent bays—where microscopic dinoflagellates turn ocean waters into glowing galaxies—are among Earth's rarest ecosystems, found in fewer than ten locations worldwide. The phenomenon is driven by a luciferin-luciferase chemical reaction that evolved independently at least 40 times across life's tree. Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico holds the world record for brightness, sustaining over 700,000 dinoflagellates per liter. These bays require a precise combination of shallow sheltered water, ...
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