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Here's the second installment of your favourite bits from the last 12 months...

By Adelle Havard

Sometimes the smallest of things can have the greatest of impacts. We’ve all woken up to find we’ve no milk in the fridge and got to wondering how we ever did without it! Well, as strange as it may sound the Pacific Herring is a little like that.

Commonly referred to as “the silver of the sea”, these oily little fish have proved to be the most commercially important part of the fishing industry. Being a staple part of the human diet since at least 3000 B.C. Although, it’s not just humans who have developed a taste for these delicate bait bits. With a list of predators as long as your arm, it’s not surprising that they have developed a way of breeding which ensures their survival.

Herring spawning grounds on the Alaskan coast. 

Ecological biomass is a term used to describe how living biological organisms group together to defend their species against the many predators they face, there is after all power in numbers! This isn’t an uncommon technique, and we see similarities in the breeding habits of many animals, particularly those who live in herds.

What is truly spectacular however is how a species can be pushed to it’s absolute limits, and come back again in full force! Although clearly hardy, Herring remain a sensitive species being affected by overfishing in general, overfishing of its young as well as environmental events. Thankfully, scientists and fishermen are making efforts to rebuild and protect stocks, assuring that humans and animals can enjoy this vitamin rich fish for years to come!

These silver fellows don’t just rely on us for help though. They have an incredibly effective camouflage that uses embedded crystals within their bodies to create a glistening effect! Keeping them concealed in the surrounding water. However some predators have worked out a very clever way of overcoming this feature, as you can see in this video below.

A feeding frenzy!

Three against one seems hardly fair, but then again that’s the circle of life. In a few weeks time, the adult Herring will have reached their shallower waters and will begin to breed. In just two weeks the eggs produced, that have been sheltering near rocks or on seaweed, will flood the coastlines in numbers over 800 billion! Not only will this ensure that the next generation will be stronger than ever before, but also that resident predators will get the much-needed meal and by the time this arrives there’s quite a queue for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You’ll probably find, sea lions, seabirds, dolphins, sharks, porpoises, seals, whales, tuna, halibut and cod to name a few on an almost endless list.

We've taken a look at some of your favourite bits from the last 12 months and decided to share them all over again. The first is one of our favourites too, the birth of a new island.

When people think of new things in nature, they usually think of baby animals. And that's usually what's captured on camera... until now.

Check out this incredible video of a volcanic island being born in the Solomon Islands.

Join us on Facebook to see exclusive content or visit the Life Is website for more nature stories, videos and images. Or, if you want a rare look behind the scenes, visit the BBC Earth website.

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By the BBC Earth Team

Without sunlight, life on Earth would not exist. Every organism that has evolved on the surface of our planet has received energy either directly or indirectly from the sun.

Even creatures that lie at the depths of our oceans and have never felt the sun’s rays, not only survive but can actually flourish thanks to solar energy. 120 kilometres off of the Californian coast at a depth of 1,250m a diverse ecosystem is thriving in the darkness. Rising up 2280 metres from the seafloor, the Davidson Seamount, an underwater mountain, is an ‘oasis in the deep’.

Corals and other marine invertebrates make up 95% of life in the oceans and are responsible for a tenth of the planet’s land.

Thought to have formed between 9 and 15 million years ago from volcanic eruptions, the ancient seamount is home to some of the slowest growing communities in the ocean. For example Paragorgia arborea more commonly known as pink bubblegum coral, grows to over three metres in height and is over 100 years old.

But how has this seamount managed to sustain more biodiversity with a higher species count than that of the neighbouring seafloor?

Its elevated position creates complex current patterns which influences what can live there. The mountain provides a place for species, such as coral, to attach to it which in turn provide food and shelter for other species. Due to these unique conditions seamounts demonstrate a high degree of endemism. Much of the deep sea is fed by the "compost" or “marine snow” from the upper sunlit portions of the sea. As plants and animals at the surface die and decay, they fall toward the sea floor. This snow provides carbon and nitrogen to feed many of the scavengers in the deep sea; testament to the fact that the sun’s rays touch far beyond where they can be seen.

But what happens when there are no nutrient-rich currents to feed from? No organic material falling down from above? Or when the extreme conditions make life almost impossible?

Over the last 30 years, researchers have discovered deep sea-ecosystems that live independently of the sun’s energy. These communities survive by utilising chemical rather than solar energy. Deep-sea organisms such as mussels, shrimps and squat lobsters host methane fixing bacteria, which convert the chemical energy from methane bubbling out of the sea bed into nutrients.

In this remarkable video from BBC Earth’s Life series, David Attenborough shows us exactly how an assumed barren seabed, became an abundant source of food and life.

These extremophiles have found a way to survive by utilising the energy source which is most abundant to them, begging the question: If life has been found to flourish in even the darkest, saltiest, most inhospitable places where might we find it next?

The search continues…

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By BBC Earth

Facts, numbers, data, letters on a page, they're not always so easy to understand. Over the past few years data visualisation has become increasingly popular; it's a way to help explain complex data. Here are two alternative ways to show how the extent of Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 20 years.

The Age of Arctic Sea Ice (1984-2011)

Average of Arctic Sea Ice Extent (1979-2011)

Credit - Designed by Rupert Burton. 

Visit our Life Is website for more fantastic BBC Earth inside looks!

By the BBC Earth Team

Our world may be very big, but sometimes it is the smallest stories that teach us the most. BBC Earth brings you three incredible videos where an innovative use of technology has captured the true magic of nature.

Did you know you can see colonies of grass cutter ants from space?

Producer Rupert Barrington explains how he managed to get closer than ever before to a nest of up to 5 million grass cutter ants.

A filming-first for the BBC Earth team is not the only example of innovation in natural history. Executive Producer Mike Gunton, gives a fascinating insight into the imagination of the male Vogelkop bowerbird.

Developing technology to capture the minuscule and the marvelous is one thing, but what happens when what you’re trying to film is located underneath eight feet of solid ice?

Producer Neil Lucas gives us an insight into the incredibly rewarding, but painstaking task of filming in these challenging conditions.

Armed with a passion for the natural world and the desire to communicate its incredible stories, BBC Earth filmmakers will continue to surprise and delight us for years to come.