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Categories: Ecology: Animals, Mathematics: Statistics
Published Making crops colorful for easier weeding
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy counterparts. This could involve altering the crops' genomes so that they express pigments that are already produced by many plants, for example, anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, or carotenoids, which make carrots orange. Then, they say, weeding robots could be trained to remove only the weeds using machine learning.
Published Reproductive success improves after a single generation in the wild for descendants of some hatchery-origin Chinook salmon
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers who created 'family trees' for nearly 10,000 fish found that first-generation, wild-born descendants of hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in an Oregon river show improved fitness.
Published New tagging method provides bioadhesive interface for marine sensors on diverse, soft, and fragile species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Tagging marine animals with sensors to track their movements and ocean conditions can provide important environmental and behavioral information. Existing techniques to attach sensors currently largely rely on invasive physical anchors, suction cups, and rigid glues. While these techniques can be effective for tracking marine animals with hard exoskeletons and large animals such as sharks, individuals can incur physiological and metabolic stress during the tagging process, which can affect the quality of data collection. A newly developed soft hydrogel-based bioadhesive interface for marine sensors, referred to as BIMS, holds promise as an effective, rapid, robust, and non-invasive method to tag and track all sorts of marine species, including soft and fragile species. The BIMS tagging, which is also simple and versatile, can help researchers better understand animal behavior while also capturing oceanographic data critical for helping to better understand some impacts of climate change and for resource management.
Published Tropical forests can't recover naturally without fruit-eating birds
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 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 Newly sequenced genome reveals coffee's prehistoric origin story -- and its future under climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study charts the family history of Arabica, the world's most popular coffee species, through Earth's heating and cooling periods over the last millennia.
Published How seaweed became multicellular
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or 'seaweed,' to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed multicellularity independently and during very different time periods by acquiring genes that enable cell adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, and cell differentiation, researchers report. Surprisingly, many of these multicellular-enabling genes had viral origins. The study, which increased the total number of sequenced macroalgal genomes from 14 to 124, is the first to investigate macroalgal evolution through the lens of genomics.
Published Iconic savanna mammals face genetic problems due to fences and roads
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Wildebeest migrations have become a rarer sight in Africa as humans continue to interrupt their historic migratory routes with roads, fences, cities, livestock and farmland. This has led to genetic decay in those herds that are no longer able to roam freely, according to new research.
Published Africa's iconic flamingos threatened by rising lake levels
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It is one of the world's most spectacular sights -- huge flocks or 'flamboyances' of flamingos around East Africa's lakes -- as seen in the film Out of Africa or David Attenborough's A Perfect Planet. But new research has revealed how the lesser flamingo is at danger of being flushed out of its historic feeding grounds, with serious consequences for the future of the species.
Published Mapped: 33 new big game migrations across American West
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new set of maps that document the movements of ungulates was published today in the fourth volume of the Ungulate Migrations of the Western United States. The maps in this collaborative report series reveal the migration routes and critical ranges used by ungulates, or hooved mammals, in the western U.S., furthering scientists' understanding of the geography of big game migrations.
Published Ants in Colorado are on the move due to climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 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 What's quieter than a fish? A school of them
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Swimming in schools makes fish surprisingly stealthy underwater, with a group able to sound like a single fish. Engineers working with a high-tech simulation of schooling mackerel offer new insight into why fish swim in schools and promise for the design and operation of much quieter submarines and autonomous undersea vehicles.
Published 'Teacher Toads' can save native animals from toxic cane toads
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 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 How climate change will impact food production and financial institutions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a new method to predict the financial impacts climate change will have on agriculture, which can help support food security and financial stability for countries increasingly prone to climate catastrophes.
Published How scientists are accelerating chemistry discoveries with automation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have developed an automated workflow that could accelerate the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs and other useful products. The new automated approach could analyze chemical reactions in real time and identify new chemical-reaction products much faster than current laboratory methods.
Published Dinosaur study challenges Bergmann's rule
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study calls into question Bergmann's rule, an 1800s-era scientific principle stating that animals in high-latitude, cooler climates tend to be larger than close relatives living in warmer climates.
Published Heat stress from ocean warming harms octopus vision
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source While climate change has led to an increase in the abundance of octopuses, heat stress from projected ocean warming could impair their vision and impact the survivability of the species.
Published Four in five bird species cannot tolerate intense human pressures
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 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 Rusty-patched bumblebee's struggle for survival found in its genes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The rusty-patched bumblebee, once common in the United States, has declined from about 90% of its former range. Researchers conducted the first range-wide genetic study of the endangered species to inform recovery efforts.
Published Demand for critical minerals puts African Great Apes at risk
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A recent study shows that the threat of mining to the great ape population in Africa has been greatly underestimated.
Published More social birds are more adventurous feeders
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has found that birds that are more social are more likely to use novel sources of food.