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Categories: Ecology: Trees, Offbeat: Plants and Animals

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Biology: General Biology: Marine Ecology: General Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Landslides Geoscience: Oceanography Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Coastal species persist on high seas on floating plastic debris      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The high seas have been colonized by a surprising number of coastal marine invertebrate species, which can now survive and reproduce in the open ocean, contributing strongly to the floating community composition. Researchers found coastal species, representing diverse taxonomic groups and life history traits, in the eastern North Pacific Subtropical Gyre on over 70 percent of the plastic debris they examined. Further, the debris carried more coastal species than open ocean species.

Biology: General Biology: Zoology Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

New details of Tully monster revealed      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For more than half a century, the Tully monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium), an enigmatic animal that lived about 300 million years ago, has confounded paleontologists, with its strange anatomy making it difficult to classify. Recently, a group of researchers proposed a hypothesis that Tullimonstrum was a vertebrate similar to cyclostomes (jawless fish like lamprey and hagfish). If it was, then the Tully monster would potentially fill a gap in the evolutionary history of early vertebrates. Studies so far have both supported and rejected this hypothesis. Now, using 3D imaging technology, a team in Japan believes it has found the answer after uncovering detailed characteristics of the Tully monster which strongly suggest that it was not a vertebrate. However, its exact classification and what type of invertebrate it was is still to be decided.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Botany Biology: General Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Trees in areas prone to hurricanes have strong ability to survive even after severe damage      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The island of Dominica took a direct hit from Category 5 Hurricane Maria. Nine months afterward, researchers found that while 89% percent of trees located in nine previously documented forest stands were damaged, but only 10 percent had immediately died. The most common damage was stem snapping and major branch damage. The damage with the highest rates of mortality were uprooting and being crushed by a neighboring tree. Large individual trees and species with lower wood density were susceptible to snapping, uprooting and mortality. Those on steeper slopes were more prone to being crushed by neighboring trees.

Biology: Biochemistry Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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This elephant's self-taught banana peeling offers glimpse of elephants' broader abilities      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Elephants like to eat bananas, but they don't usually peel them first in the way humans do. A new report however, shows that one very special Asian elephant named Pang Pha picked up banana peeling all on her own while living at the Berlin Zoo. She reserves it for yellow-brown bananas, first breaking the banana before shaking out and collecting the pulp, leaving the thick peel behind.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Thermodynamics Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals Physics: Optics
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New textile unravels warmth-trapping secrets of polar bear fur      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have invented a fabric that concludes the 80-year quest to make a synthetic textile modeled on polar bear fur. The results are already being developed into commercially available products.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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Researchers create embryo-like structures from monkey embryonic stem cells      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Human embryo development and early organ formation remain largely unexplored due to ethical issues surrounding the use of embryos for research as well as limited availability of materials to study. Investigators now report on the creation of embryo-like structures from monkey embryonic stem cells. The investigators also transferred these embryo-like structures into the uteruses of female monkeys and determined that the structures were able to implant and elicit a hormonal response similar to pregnancy.

Biology: Botany Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

US forests face an unclear future with climate change      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Climate change might compromise how permanently forests are able to store carbon and keep it out of the air. In a new study, researchers found that the regions most at risk to lose forest carbon through fire, climate stress or insect damage are those regions where many forest carbon offset projects have been set up. The authors assert that there's an urgent need to update these carbon offsets protocols and policies.

Biology: Biochemistry Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Gone for good? California's beetle-killed, carbon-storing pine forests may not come back      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Ponderosa pine forests in the Sierra Nevada that were wiped out by western pine beetles during the 2012-2015 megadrought won't recover to pre-drought densities, reducing an important storehouse for atmospheric carbon.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Molecular Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: The Solar System
Published

How were amino acids, one of the key building blocks of life, formed before the origin of life on Earth?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The amino acid abundances of two Ryugu particles were measured and compared with their rocky components. The results demonstrate the important role that water plays in the formation of amino acids on the giant precursors of asteroids like Ryugu. Our solar system formed from a molecular cloud, which was composed of gas and dust that was emitted into the interstellar medium (ISM), a vast space between stars. On collapse of the molecular cloud, the early sun was formed, with a large disk of gas and dust orbiting it. The dusty material collided to produce rocky material that would eventually grow in size to give large bodies called planetesimals.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Chemistry: Biochemistry Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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A miniature heart in a petri dish: Organoid emulates development of the human heart      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team has induced stem cells to emulate the development of the human heart. The result is a sort of 'mini-heart' known as an organoid. It will permit the study of the earliest development phase of our heart and facilitate research on diseases.

Biology: General Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An illusion involving a hidden thumb confounds capuchin and squirrel monkeys for the same reason it does humans -- it misdirects expected outcomes of actions they can carry out. However, marmosets have five equidistant digits, and were rarely fooled by the magician. The research adds to evidence that animals struggle to predict movements outside of their own 'biomechanical ability'.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems
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Insect decline also occurs in forests      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The number of insects has been declining for years. This has already been well documented for agricultural areas. In forests, however, temporal trends are mostly studied for insect species that are considered pests. Now, a research team has studied the trends of very many insect species in German forests. Contrary to what the researchers had suspected, the results showed that the majority of the studied species are declining.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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Researchers discover birds with neurotoxin-laden feathers      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An expedition into the jungle of New Guinea has resulted in the discovery of two new species of poisonous birds. Genetic changes in these bird species have allowed them to carry a powerful neurotoxin.

Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Extinction Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: General
Published

Predatory dinosaurs such as T. rex sported lizard-like lips      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study suggests that predatory dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, did not have permanently exposed teeth as depicted in films such as Jurassic Park, but instead had scaly, lizard-like lips covering and sealing their mouths.

Biology: Botany Biology: Zoology Ecology: Endangered Species Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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Scientists analyze sounds emitted by plants      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have recorded and analyzed sounds distinctly emitted by plants. The click-like sounds, similar to the popping of popcorn, are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies, beyond the hearing range of the human ear.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Microbiology Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Research into birds killed in window collisions reveals their microbiomes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers collected the bodies of birds that crashed into buildings while migrating, and used these specimens to learn about the relationship between birds and the microbes living in their guts -- which appears to be wildly different from mammals and their microbiomes.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Developmental Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

What should we call evolution driven by genetic engineering? Genetic welding, says researcher      (via sciencedaily.com) 

With CRISPR-Cas9 technology, humans can now rapidly change the evolutionary course of animals or plants by inserting genes that can easily spread through entire populations. An evolutionary geneticist proposes that we call this evolutionary meddling 'genetic welding.' He argues that we must scientifically and ethically scrutinize the potential consequences of genetic welding before we put it into practice.