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Categories: Ecology: Animals, Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms

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An international multidisciplinary team consisting of solar physicists, geophysicists, and historians from nine countries analysed observations of an extreme solar-terrestrial storm reported in historical records from February 1872. Their findings confirm that a moderate sunspot group triggered one of the largest magnetic storms ever recorded, almost covering the entire night sky with colourful aurorae in both hemispheres. If such an extreme storm occurred today, it would severely disrupt modern technological infrastructure. Their study emphasizes the importance of looking at historical records in light of modern scientific knowledge.

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By studying the skull shapes of dipsadine snakes, researchers have found how these species of snakes in Central and South America have evolved and adapted to meet the demands of their habitats and food sources.

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Maize is one of the world's most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant was first domesticated.

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Scientists have analyzed more than 3.8 million volunteer hours of birdwatching data to identify Australia's most elusive species.

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Ancient animals were walking around on bird-like feet over 210 million years ago, according to a new study.

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A new study has confirmed that pesticides, commonly used in farmland, significantly harm bumblebees one of the most important wild pollinators. In a huge study spanning 106 sites across eight European countries, researchers have shown that despite tightened pesticide regulations, far more needs to be done. 

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Bees, wasps and ants belong to the Hymenoptera order and inject a whole cocktail of venomous ingredients when they sting. Despite their tremendous ecological and economic importance, little was previously known about the origins of their venom. Through extensive genomic studies, a team of researchers has now discovered that typical venomous components were already present in the earliest ancestors of Hymenoptera and must therefore have evolved before the stingers of bees and other insects. What's more, and contrary to previous assumptions, the gene for the venom melittin is found solely in bees.

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Researchers have discovered a new relationship between the Sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year.

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Biologists investigated the snook’s almost 400-mile migration up into the rainforest habitat of the Usumacinta River. They have found that the snook, which connect aquatic food webs and support fisheries, spawn and start their lives in coastal nursery habitats before moving into river habitats that offer an array of food resources.

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A new article predicts that vampire bats -- currently only found in Mexico and Central and South America -- are on the move, with the United States being a viable home in 27 years.  

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As the planet gets hotter, animal and plant species around the world will be faced with new, potentially unpredictable living conditions, which could alter ecosystems in unprecedented ways. A new study investigates the importance of temperature in determining where animal species are currently found to better understand how a warming climate might impact where they might live in the future.

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Striped skunks are less likely to evolve with their famous and white markings where the threat of predation from mammals is low, scientists have discovered.

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In 2020 and 2021, California experienced fire activity unlike anything recorded in the modern record. When the smoke cleared, the amount of burned forest totaled ten times more than the annual average going back to the late 1800s. We know that wildlife in western forests evolved with changing habitat and disturbances like wildfire. Each species responds differently, some benefiting from openings, others losing critical habitat. What we don't know is how increasing fire severity at large scales is impacting their habitat and survival, because many species are not adapted to these types of 'megafires.'

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Innovative aquaculture system turns waste wood into nutritious seafood. Researchers hoping to rebrand a marine pest as a nutritious food have developed the world's first system of farming shipworms, which they have renamed 'Naked Clams'.

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Wild caviar, a pricey delicacy made from sturgeon eggs, has been illegal for decades since poaching brought the fish to the brink of extinction. Today, legal, internationally tradeable caviar can only come from farmed sturgeon, and there are strict regulations in place to help protect the species. However, by conducting genetic and isotope analyses on caviar samples from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine -- nations bordering the remaining wild sturgeon populations -- a team of sturgeon experts found evidence that these regulations are actively being broken. Their results show that half of the commercial caviar products they sampled are illegal, and some don't even contain any trace of sturgeon.

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After a massive cyclone transformed the ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park, researchers studied the immediate and knock-on impacts to garner lessons for wildlife managers around the world.

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Australia's only vulture, and a fearsome extinct eagle, are among the earliest recorded birds of prey from the Pleistocene period more than 50,000 years ago -- and now researchers are bringing them to 'life' again.    Along with new scientific information, a bold new pictorial reconstruction of a newly named eagle and the only known Australian vulture will be unveiled at the World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves in South Australia's Limestone Coast this month.  

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Many songbirds are nesting earlier in spring because of warmer temperatures brought about by climate change. But the shift brings another danger that is especially deadly for nestlings: greater exposure to temperature variability in the form of cold snaps and heat waves. 

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Human trade and transport have led to the intentional and accidental introductions of non-native species outside of their natural range globally. These biological invasions can cause extinctions, cost trillions, and spread diseases. A study has investigated how many of these non-native species already exist worldwide and which species groups are particularly prone to become non-native.

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Many mammals, from domestic cats and dogs to giant pandas, use scent to communicate with each other. A new study shows how domestic cats send signals to each other using odors derived from families of bacteria living in their anal glands.