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Categories: Ecology: Endangered Species, Engineering: Biometric

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     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Model predictions showed a rapid increase in microplastic accumulation and contamination across the penguins' prey organisms resulting in Galapagos penguin showing the highest level of microplastics per biomass, followed by barracuda, anchovy, sardine, herring, and predatory zooplankton.

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The brown bear is one of the largest living terrestrial carnivores, and is widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike many other large carnivores that went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age (cave bear, sabretoothed cats, cave hyena), the brown bear is one of the lucky survivors that made it through to the present. The question has puzzled biologists for close to a century -- how was this so?

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Plants produce a range of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds that influence their interactions with the world around them. In a new study, researchers investigated how the type and amount of these VOCs change based on different features of tomato plants.

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Reactive oxygen species (ROS), though generally regarded as toxic byproducts of biological processes, serve many important functions in plants. However, the precise mechanism that plants use to regulate the production of ROS remains elusive. In a recent study, researchers clarified how an important ROS-generating enzyme is activated, revealing mechanisms likely conserved across all land plants. Their findings could pave the way for breakthroughs in agricultural and environmental remediation tools.

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Crucial new data about the numbers of Critically Endangered Kordofan giraffe living within Cameroon's B nou National Park has been released, supporting conservation efforts to save the subspecies from extinction.

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Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex form. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of morphological complexity in streptophytes, which include land plants and many green algae. Their research allowed them to go back in time to investigate lineages that emerged long before land plants existed.

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An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable genetic phenomenon in lycophytes, which are similar to ferns and among the oldest land plants. Their study reveals that these plants have maintained a consistent genetic structure for over 350 million years, a significant deviation from the norm in plant genetics.

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The study reveals dramatic regional kelp canopy changes along the California coast over a 100-year period. During this time there was a significant increase in kelp forest canopy along the central coast, the only region of California where southern sea otters survived after being hunted nearly to extinction for their fur in the 1800s. Contrastingly, kelp canopy decreased in northern and southern regions. At the century scale, the species' favorable impact on kelp forests along the central coast nearly compensated for the kelp losses along both northern and southern California resulting in only a slight overall decline statewide during this period.

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The collaboration between scientists, farmers and managers is crucial to improve the protection of the little bustard, an endangered steppe-land bird in Spain due to human activity. The reduction of natural habitats, the increase in irrigation and the urbanization of the land have led to having less surface areas that guarantee the survival of this vulnerable species.

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The new theoretical research proposes that animal size over time depends on two key ecological factors.

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Southern Africa contains the vast majority of the world's remaining populations of both black and white rhinoceroses (80% and 92%, respectively). The region's climate is changing rapidly as a result global warming. Traditional conservation efforts aimed at protecting rhinos have focused on poaching, but until now, there has been no analysis of the impact that climate change may have on the animals. A research team has recently reported that, though the area will be affected by both higher temperatures and changing precipitation, the rhinos are more sensitive to rising temperatures, which will quickly increase above the animals' acceptable maximum threshold.

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Scientists have known about a particular organelle in plant cells for over a century. However, scientists have only now discovered that organelle's key role in aging.

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Fake plants are moving into the 21st century! Researchers developed literal 'power plants' -- tiny, leaf-shaped generators that create electricity from a blowing breeze or falling raindrops. The team tested the energy harvesters by incorporating them into artificial plants.

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The so-called Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (for short: RYMV) is responsible for high crop losses in Africa, particularly among small-scale farmers. A research team has now produced rice lines that are resistant to the disease by means of genome editing. The rice varieties are a preliminary step toward being able to generate resistant locally adapted elite varieties for small-scale food producers in Africa.

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Some invasive plants can form persistent banks of seeds that remain under the soil for years, and this makes their eradication practically impossible. Over time, this invisible population of large quantities of living, buried plants -- in seed form -- will reoccupy ecosystems and displace the typical flora of the natural environment.

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Research using thermal imaging of numbats in Western Australia has found that during hot weather the endangered animals are limited to as little as ten minutes of activity in the sun before they overheat to a body temperature of greater than 40 C.

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A new study shows that human hunting and land use have a decisive influence on red deer density in Europe. Red deer density is only reduced when wolves, lynx and bears co-occur at the same site.

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Engineers have built a new AI that shatters a long-held belief in forensics -- that fingerprints from different fingers of the same person are unique. It turns out they are similar, only we've been comparing fingerprints the wrong way!

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Researchers discovered that plants manage iron deficiency without helping 'bad' bacteria thrive by eliminating the molecular signal for iron deficiency, and that the iron deficiency signaling pathway and the plant immune system are deeply intertwined. Their findings provide a new target for boosting plant resilience in the face of climate change, and offer new insight into plant and animal microbiomes.

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New research delves into the intricate defense mechanisms of tomatoes against the notorious bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst). It's a classic tale of nature's arms race: as pathogens evolve to outsmart plant defenses, plants counter with more sophisticated immune responses.