Showing 20 articles starting at article 121
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Ecology: Research, Ecology: Trees
Published Lemur's lament: When one vulnerable species stalks another



What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by another vulnerable species, a carnivore called a fosa.
Published Marine microbial populations: Potential sensors of the global change in the ocean



Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial populations due to the impossibility of isolating, culturing and analyzing the genetic content of the different species and their individuals in the laboratory. Therefore, although it is known that populations of microorganisms include a great diversity, this remains largely uncharacterized.
Published Unique field study shows how climate change affects fire-impacted forests



During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
Published Coral reef microbes point to new way to assess ecosystem health



A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem health.
Published Tropical forests can't recover naturally without fruit-eating birds



Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and restore healthy forests.
Published Where have all the right whales gone?



Marine researchers have mapped the density of one of the most endangered large whale species worldwide, the North Atlantic right whale, using new data to help avoid right whales' harmful exposure to commercial fisheries and vessel strikes. The resulting maps, spanning 20 years of whale observations, are publicly available to inform risk assessments, estimations of whale harm/disturbance, marine spatial planning, and industry regulations to mitigate risk to right whales.
Published Geobiology: New placozoan habitat discovered



Traces of DNA in the stomachs of predatory snails give a team og geobiologists new insights into the ecology of placozoans.
Published Ants in Colorado are on the move due to climate change



Ant species living in Boulder's foothills have shifted their habitat over the last six decades, potentially affecting local ecosystems, suggests a new study.
Published Deforestation harms biodiversity of the Amazon's perfume-loving orchid bees



A survey of orchid bees in the Brazilian Amazon, carried out in the 1990s, is shedding new light the impact of deforestation on the scent-collecting pollinators, which some view as bellwethers of biodiversity in the neotropics.
Published 'Teacher Toads' can save native animals from toxic cane toads



Scientists from Macquarie University have come up with an innovative way to stop cane toads killing native wildlife by training goannas to avoid eating the deadly amphibians.
Published Impact of climate change on marine life much bigger than previously known



Fish and invertebrate animals are far more affected by warmer and more acidic seawater than was previously known. The big gain of the new method is that more details become known about effects of climate change on species.
Published Humans can increase biodiversity, archaeological study shows



Through the ages, the presence of humans has increased the heterogeneity and complexity of ecosystems and has often had a positive effect on their biodiversity.
Published Scientists discover new phage resistance mechanism in phage-bacterial arms race



Scientists describe a new mechanism impacting the phage-bacterial arms race, a nanosized epibiotic parasite, TM7x, which helps its host bacterium (a Schaalia odontolytica strain called XH001) achieve resistance to lytic phages.
Published Integrated dataset enables genes-to-ecosystems research



A new dataset bridging molecular information about the poplar tree microbiome to ecosystem-level processes has been released. The project aims to inform research regarding how natural systems function, their vulnerability to a changing climate, and ultimately how plants might be engineered for better performance as sources of bioenergy and natural carbon storage.
Published Common loons threatened by declining water clarity



The Common Loon, an icon of the northern wilderness, is under threat from climate change due to reduced water clarity, according to a new study. The study followed up an earlier paper that showed substantial reproductive decline in the author's study area in northern Wisconsin.
Published eDNA methods give a real-time look at coral reef health



The study underscores the crucial role of microbes in maintaining coral reef health, akin to the human gut microbiome. Hurricanes and disease outbreaks affect coral reef water microbial communities, leading to changes that may support further reef decline. Microbial analysis enables prompt assessment of disturbances' impacts on coral reefs, facilitating timely interventions to support reef ecosystems. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis offers a noninvasive approach to study coral microbial communities and diagnose reef health.
Published Four in five bird species cannot tolerate intense human pressures



In a recent study, researchers found that 78% of the world's bird species do not thrive in the most modified human-dominated environments. These species are also most likely to have declining populations.
Published What four decades of canned salmon reveal about marine food webs



Researchers have shown that levels of anisakid worms -- a common marine parasite -- rose in two salmon species in the Gulf of Alaska and Bristol Bay over a 42-year period. The team discovered this by studying salmon caught, killed and canned from 1979 to 2021. Since anisakid worms have a complex life cycle involving multiple types of hosts, the researchers interpret their rising numbers as a potential sign of ecosystem recovery, possibly driven by rising numbers of marine mammals thanks to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Published Tracing the largest solar storm in modern times from tree rings in Lapland



A research group was able to measure a spike in radiocarbon concentration of trees in Lapland that occurred after the Carrington flare. This discovery helps to prepare for dangerous solar storms.
Published New sunflower family tree reveals multiple origins of flower symmetry



A new sunflower family tree used skimmed genomes to increase the number of species sampled, revealing that flower symmetry evolved multiple times independently, a process called convergent evolution, among the members of this large plant family.