Showing 20 articles starting at article 421
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Ecology: Research, Geoscience: Earthquakes
Published Beetles and their biodiversity in dead wood
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Which energy type promotes the biodiversity of beetles living in dead wood in the forest? That depends entirely on where the beetles are in the food chain.
Published Exploring the underground connections between trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fungal networks interconnecting trees in a forest is a key factor that determines the nature of forests and their response to climate change. These networks have also been viewed as a means for trees to help their offspring and other tree-friends, according to the increasingly popular 'mother-tree hypothesis'. An international group of researchers re-examined the evidence for and against this hypothesis in a new study.
Published Small wildlife surveys can produce 'big picture' results
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Small-scale wildlife surveys can reveal the health of entire ecosystems, new research shows.
Published Viruses could reshuffle the carbon cycle in a warming world
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The roles microbes play in ecosystems are changing with global warming. Microbes are also affected by infection by viruses, but scientists know relatively little about how these viral infections could change how microbes react to warming. In this study, scientists describe different ways that increasing temperatures could affect viruses and their microbial hosts. Their preliminary models show that viruses could alter carbon balance, causing some ecosystems to switch from net carbon sources to net carbon sinks.
Published Archaea in a warming climate become less diverse, more predictable
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using a long-term multifactor experimental field site researchers showed that experimental warming of a tallgrass prairie ecosystem significantly altered the community structure of soil archaea and reduced their taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity.
Published Vanishing glaciers threaten alpine biodiversity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source With glaciers melting at unprecedented rates due to climate change, invertebrates that live in the cold meltwater rivers of the European Alps will face widespread habitat loss, warn researchers. Many of the species are likely to become restricted to cold habitats that will only persist higher in the mountains, and these areas are also likely to see pressures from the skiing and tourism industries or from the development of hydroelectric plants.
Published Indo-Pacific corals more resilient to climate change than Atlantic corals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In the face of global warming and other environmental changes, corals in the Atlantic Ocean have declined precipitously in recent years, while corals in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are faring better. By describing several species of symbiotic algae that these corals need to grow, an international team has found that these mutualistic relationships from the Indo-Pacific may be more flexible and ultimately resilient to higher ocean temperatures than those in the Atlantic.
Published Fossil find in California shakes up the natural history of cycad plants
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source According to researchers, a new analysis of an 80-million-year-old permineralized pollen cone found in the Campanian Holz Shale formation located in Silverado Canyon, California, offers a more accurate cycad natural history -- one where the plants diversified during the Cretaceous.
Published Early-nesting ducks at increased risk due to changes in climate, land use
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Each year approximately 10 million waterfowl fly north to their breeding grounds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, but the landscape that greets them has changed. Weather patterns and agricultural practices have significantly transformed the pothole-dotted native grasslands that waterfowl have used for thousands of years.
Published How the Amazon rainforest is likely to cope with the effect of future drought
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A major collaboration involving 80 scientists from Europe and South America has identified the regions of the Amazon rainforest where trees are most likely to face the greatest risk from drier conditions brought about by climate change. Based on the analysis, the scientists predict trees in the western and southern Amazon face the greatest risk of dying. They also warn that previous scientific investigations may have underestimated the impact of drought on the rainforest because those studies focused on the central-eastern part of the forest, which is the least vulnerable to drought.
Published Prehistoric scat reveals 'Waves' of extinction in Colombia
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fungal spores found in dung have revealed that large animals went extinct in two 'waves' in the Colombian Andes.
Published A healthy but depleted herd: Predators decrease prey disease levels but also population size
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nature documentaries will tell you that lions, cheetahs, wolves and other top predators target the weakest or slowest animals and that this culling benefits prey herds, whether it's antelope in Africa or elk in Wyoming. This idea has been widely accepted by biologists for many years and was formalized in 2003 as the healthy herds hypothesis. It proposes that predators can help prey populations by picking off the sick and injured and leaving healthy, strong animals to reproduce.
Published Woodpecker guides post-fire forest management
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What's good for the Black-backed Woodpecker is good for restoration of burned California forests. The birds' unique relationship with fire underpins the latest research into improved post-fire management. A study describes a new tool that factors in how fires burn into forest management decisions and turns science into action for wildlife conservation.
Published Creating a tsunami early warning system using artificial intelligence
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers develop an early warning system that combines acoustic technology with AI to immediately classify earthquakes and determine potential tsunami risk. They propose using underwater microphones, called hydrophones, to measure the acoustic radiation produced by the earthquake, which carries information about the tectonic event and travels significantly faster than tsunami waves. The computational model triangulates the source of the earthquake and AI algorithms classify its slip type and magnitude. It then calculates important properties like effective length and width, uplift speed, and duration, which dictate the size of the tsunami.
Published Significant variation in anatomy of human guts
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research finds there is significant variation in the anatomy of the human digestive system, with pronounced differences possible between healthy individuals. The finding has implications for understanding the role that the digestive tract's anatomy can play in affecting human health, as well as providing potential insights into medical diagnoses and the microbial ecosystem of the gut.
Published Newly sequenced hornet genomes could help explain invasion success
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The genomes of two hornet species, the European hornet and the Asian hornet (or yellow-legged hornet) have been sequenced.
Published Ridgecrest faults increasingly sensitive to solid Earth tides before earthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Faults in the Ridgecrest, California area were very sensitive to solid earth tidal stresses in the year and a half before the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence.
Published Puerto Rico tsunami deposit could have come from pre-Columbian megathrust earthquake
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Tsunami deposits identified in a coastal mangrove pond in Northwest Puerto Rico could have come from a megathrust earthquake at the Puerto Rico Trench that occurred between 1470 and 1530, according to new research.
Published Biologists discover bees to be brew masters of the insect world
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have made a remarkable discovery about cellophane bees -- their microbiomes are some of the most fermentative known from the insect world. These bees, which are named for their use of cellophane-like materials to line their subterranean nests, are known for their fascinating behaviors and their important ecological roles as pollinators. Now, researchers have uncovered another aspect of their biology that makes them even more intriguing.
Published Turkey's next quake: Research shows where, how bad -- but not 'when'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using remote sensing, geophysicists have documented the massive Feb. 6 quake that killed more than 50,000 people in Eastern Turkey and toppled more than 100,000 buildings. Alarmingly, researchers found that a section of the fault remains unbroken and locked -- a sign that the plates there may, when friction intensifies, generate another magnitude 6.8 earthquake when it finally gives way.