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Categories: Ecology: Nature, Mathematics: General

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A curious aspect of tree frogs is that they often lay their eggs on the ground where the risk of predation by natural enemies is greater than in the trees where they live. A research team suggested that the reason for this behavior is to protect the eggs from low temperatures. Their findings highlight the challenge faced by tree frogs: Should they attempt to maintain an optimal temperature for their eggs or risk predation?

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Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the Arctic.

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We expect tropical animals to handle a certain degree of heat, but not wild swings in temperature. That seems to be true for tropical ectotherms, or 'cold-blooded' animals such as amphibians, reptiles, and insects. However, in a new study of 'warm-blooded' endotherms, a research team found tropical birds can handle thermal variation just fine.

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Existing ship control systems using Model Predictive Control for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) do not consider the various forces acting on ships in real sea conditions. Addressing this gap, researchers developed a novel time-optimal control method, that accounts for the real wave loads acting on a ship, enabling effective planning and control of MASS at sea.

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Through steady advances in the development of quantum computers and their ever-improving performance, it will be possible in the future to crack our current encryption processes. To address this challenge, researchers are developing encryption methods that will apply physical laws to prevent the interception of messages. To safeguard communications over long distances, the QUICK space mission will deploy satellites.

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Emperor penguin populations have been exceedingly difficult to monitor because of their remote locations, and because individuals form breeding colonies on seasonal sea ice fastened to land (known as fast ice) during the dark and cold Antarctic winter. New research that incorporates very high-resolution satellite imagery with field-based validation surveys and long-term data has provided the first multi-year time series that documents emperor penguin global population trends.

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A new study has found that the summer solstice acts as a 'starting gun' to synchronize beech tree reproduction across vast distances in Europe, affecting ecosystem functions.

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Imported giant sequoia trees are well adapted to the UK, growing at rates close to their native ranges and capturing large amounts of carbon during their long lives, finds a new study.

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A comprehensive study of the floristic diversity of Agguttinni Territorial Park, Nunavut's newest and largest Territorial Park, has documented 141 vascular plant, 69 bryophyte, and 93 lichen species from this unique protected area on northern Baffin Island. Through a combination of extensive fieldwork in 2021 and examination of hundreds of existing herbarium specimens, the authors have documented species newly reported for Baffin Island and have crafted a biodiversity baseline important for park management and conservation.

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A new study of rice paddy snakes in Southeast Asia gives key details to their diversification and natural history, adding molecular evidence that the rise of the Khorat Plateau and subsequent environmental shifts in Thailand may have altered the course of the snakes' evolution some 2.5 million years ago.

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Rainforest seedlings are more likely to survive in natural forests than in places where logging has happened -- even if tree restoration projects have taken place, new research shows.

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Fish populations that experience rapid-range shift decline noticeably, up to 50 per cent over a decade. The populations affected most are those living on the northern poleward edges of their species' range. Researchers combined data from two large databases to examine the population numbers of range-shifting species. Their analysis revealed that extremely fast poleward shifting species, defined as upward of 17 kilometers per year, show marked declines in population, compared to negligible increases in populations that did not shift.

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A new article looked at 40 years of data collected on 40 pronghorn herds residing in the Wyoming Basin Shrub Steppe. Overall, 80% of the herds saw a decrease in productivity, and nearly 43% saw a significant decrease. After looking at a number of variables that could potentially contribute to the decline, the researchers identified the two most strongly associated: development of oil and gas resources and woody encroachment.

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Giraffes, with their bizarre body plan, have always held a special place in the minds of evolutionary biologists and non-experts alike. In a new study whole-genome sequencing data was used to investigate the evolutionary processes occurring within giraffes. In particular, the authors were interested in establishing whether different populations of giraffes really have been isolated from each other for extended periods of time, which is normally a requirement before new species can arise.

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A new study of Joshua trees, kit foxes and solar energy developments highlights the need to consider climate-induced range shifts for species as we expand clean energy.

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When you teach a child how to solve puzzles, you can either let them figure it out through trial and error, or you can guide them with some basic rules and tips. Similarly, incorporating rules and tips into AI training -- such as the laws of physics --could make them more efficient and more reflective of the real world. However, helping the AI assess the value of different rules can be a tricky task.

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The chance sighting of a dead snake beside a sandy track in remote Western Australia, and the investigation of its stomach contents, has led researchers to record the first known instance of a spotted mulga snake consuming a pygmy spiny-tailed skink, raising concerns for a similar-looking, endangered lizard species.

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In a new study, researchers have used the fossil record to better understand what factors make animals more vulnerable to extinction from climate change. The results could help to identify species most at risk today from human-driven climate change.

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Researchers propose that governments apply a new method for calculating the benefits that arise from conserving biodiversity and nature for future generations.

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A new safety-check technique can prove with 100 percent accuracy that a planned robot motion will not result in a collision. The method can generate a proof in seconds and does so in a way that can be easily verified by a human.