Showing 20 articles starting at article 241
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Ecology: Nature, Engineering: Graphene
Published 'Itinerant breeding' in East Coast shorebird species



A study has found direct evidence of a species -- the American woodcock, a migratory shorebird from eastern and central North America -- that overlaps periods of migration and reproduction, a rare breeding strategy known as 'itinerant breeding.'
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 Development of organic semiconductors featuring ultrafast electrons



Collaboration has led to the successful observation of these ultrafast electrons within conducting two-dimensional polymers.
Published Fourteen years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, endemic fishes face an uncertain future



The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental spill in history, released almost 100 million gallons of oil, causing significant pollution. A decade later, its long-term effects remain unclear. A study investigating the impact on endemic fish species found 29 of 78 species unreported in museum collections since the spill, suggesting potential loss of biodiversity.
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 Atom-by-atom: Imaging structural transformations in 2D materials



Silicon-based electronics are approaching their physical limitations and new materials are needed to keep up with current technological demands. Two-dimensional (2D) materials have a rich array of properties, including superconductivity and magnetism, and are promising candidates for use in electronic systems, such as transistors. However, precisely controlling the properties of these materials is extraordinarily difficult.
Published East coast mussel shells are becoming more porous in warming waters



Researchers have found that over the last 120 years, the porosity -- or small-scale holes -- in mussel shells along the East Coast of the United States has increased, potentially due to warming waters. The study analyzed modern mussel shells in comparison to specimens in the Museum's historic collection.
Published Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why



Mountain chickadees have among the best spatial memory in the animal kingdom. New research identifies the genes at play and offers insight into how a shifting climate may impact the evolution of this unique skill.
Published Marine plankton behavior could predict future marine extinctions



Marine communities migrated to Antarctica during the Earth's warmest period in 66 million years long before a mass-extinction event.
Published Dog attacks on mountain tapirs highlight a growing threat to endangered wildlife



Researchers who captured footage of dog attacks on endangered mountain tapirs in Colombia are calling for action to protect threatened wildlife.
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 New butterfly species created 200,000 years ago by two species interbreeding



Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago. Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago.
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 CO2 worsens wildfires by helping plants grow



By fueling the growth of plants that become kindling, carbon dioxide is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires, according to a new study.
Published New tagging method provides bioadhesive interface for marine sensors on diverse, soft, and fragile species



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 Seed ferns: Plants experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago



According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as such an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago).
Published Biodiversity is key to the mental health benefits of nature



New research has found that spaces with a diverse range of natural features are associated with stronger improvements in our mental wellbeing compared to spaces with less natural diversity.
Published A single atom layer of gold: Researchers create goldene



For the first time, scientists have managed to create sheets of gold only a single atom layer thick. The material has been termed goldene. According to researchers, this has given the gold new properties that can make it suitable for use in applications such as carbon dioxide conversion, hydrogen production, and production of value-added chemicals.
Published Quantum electronics: Charge travels like light in bilayer graphene



An international research team has demonstrated experimentally that electrons in naturally occurring double-layer graphene move like particles without any mass, in the same way that light travels. Furthermore, they have shown that the current can be 'switched' on and off, which has potential for developing tiny, energy-efficient transistors -- like the light switch in your house but at a nanoscale.
Published Evolution's recipe book: How 'copy paste' errors cooked up the animal kingdom



A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The 'copy-paste' errors allowed animals to keep one copy of their genome or genes for fundamental functions, while the second copy could be used as raw material for evolutionary innovation. Events like these, at varying degrees of scale, occurred constantly throughout the bilaterian evolutionary tree and enabled traits and behaviours as diverse as insect flight, octopus camouflage and human cognition.