The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology has used the latest satellite technology to launch new digital maps showing the differences of the UK countryside. The maps show the UK's most built-up, most wooded and most farmed counties.

Take a look at some of the amazing techniques scientists use to follow nature's clues.

Ancient mainstays of our woodlands, hedgerows and parklands are at risk from a surge of pests and diseases - but a new research programme is bringing experts together from many fields to find solutions.

Working in the field always makes research more challenging, and doing atmospheric science deep in the rainforest is especially tricky. Ben Langford describes how mosquito repellent, gaffer tape and children's balloons helped keep his project on track.

Recent investigations in western Amazonia have revealed vast peatlands, up to 8m thick in places. Because they are so remote, we know little about them compared to peatlands in the northern hemisphere. Tom Kelly and Freddie Draper explain how their work will help us understand these ecosystems and revel how big they really are.

A drought in 2010 caused the Amazon basin to release more carbon into the atmosphere than it took in, new research has revealed.

This week in the Planet Earth podcast, Richard Buggs and Lizzy Sollars of Queen Mary University of London describe the latest UK efforts to breed ash trees that are resistant to the dieback disease that's currently ravaging East Anglia and the south east of England.

This week in the Planet Earth podcast, Bethan Purse from NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and Matt Elliott and Colin Edwards from the Forestry Commission, talk about a new map that could help control the spread of sudden oak death, a disease that threatens trees and plants like oak, beech, larch and bilberry.