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Categories: Ecology: Nature, Offbeat: Plants and Animals

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Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Marine Biology: Microbiology Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Nature Ecology: Sea Life
Published

'Janitors' of the Sea: Overharvested sea cucumbers play crucial role in protecting coral      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers discovered that sea cucumbers -- sediment-eating organisms that function like autonomous vacuum cleaners of the ocean floor -- play an enormous role in protecting coral from disease.

Biology: General Ecology: Nature
Published

Temperature, humidity may drive future transmission of parasitic worm infections      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Studies on climate and infectious disease typically focus on temperature's role on disease transmission. However, an international team found that both temperature and humidity contribute to future trends in the transmission of parasitic worm infections.

Ecology: Nature Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Reforestation schemes are not enough to recover the carbon created by harvesting wood      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Forests have a critical role to play in capturing and storing carbon from the Earth's atmosphere -- but some models exaggerate their carbon removal potential by almost three-fold, according to a leading professor of forest economics.

Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Geography
Published

Birds and bee lessons as Pacific field trips also solve 'Michener's mystery'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Eight new Pacific bee species and new insights into Fijian bird behaviour on Viti Levu Island have been described in new scientific studies. The research highlights the potential for species discovery, ecological and conservation knowledge and cultural engagement from Asia-Pacific research collaborations.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Predatory fish use rapid color changes to coordinate attacks      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Striped marlin are some of the fastest animals on the planet and one of the ocean's top predators. When hunting in groups, individual marlin will take turns attacking schools of prey fish one at a time. Now a new study helps to explain how they might coordinate this turn-taking style of attack on their prey to avoid injuring each other. The key, according to the new work, is rapid color changes.

Biology: General Biology: Microbiology Ecology: Nature Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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Global warming increases the diversity of active soil bacteria      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Warmer soils harbor a greater diversity of active microbes, according to a new study. The study represents a significant shift in our understanding of how microbial activity in the soil influences the global carbon cycle and possible feedback mechanisms on the climate. Until now, scientists have assumed that higher soil temperatures accelerate the growth of microbes, thus increasing the release of carbon into the atmosphere. However, this increased release of carbon is actually caused by the activation of previously dormant bacteria.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Botany Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Nature
Published

Altering the circadian clock adapts barley to short growing seasons      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To ensure that plants flower at the right time of year, they possess an internal clock, which enables them to measure the amount of daylight during a day. Biologists now describe that the mutation of a specific gene makes the flowering time of barley almost entirely independent of day length. This mutation can be useful for breeding varieties adapted to altered climatic conditions with relatively mild winters and hot, dry summers.

Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Biology: Microbiology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Lab-spun sponges form perfect scaffolds for growing skin cells to heal wounds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new technique for electro-spinning sponges has allowed scientists to directly produce 3D scaffolds -- on which skin grafts could be grown from the patient's own skin.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature
Published

Snakes do it faster, better: How a group of scaly, legless lizards hit the evolutionary jackpot      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

More than 100 million years ago, the ancestors of the first snakes were small lizards that lived alongside other small, nondescript lizards in the shadow of the dinosaurs.

Ecology: Nature Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Cooler, wetter parts of Pacific Northwest likely to see more fires, new simulations predict      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get warmer and drier.

Biology: Biochemistry Ecology: Nature Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Carbon emissions from the destruction of mangrove forests predicted to increase by 50,000% by the end of the century      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The annual rate of carbon emissions due to the degradation of carbon stocks in mangrove forests is predicted to rise by nearly 50,000% by the end of the century, according to a new study. Mangroves in regions such as southern India, southeastern China, Singapore and eastern Australia are particularly affected.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Ecology: Animals Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research
Published

Mice surprise: Researchers discover new native species      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Australia can lay claim to two new species of native rodent thanks to a new study. The aptly named delicate mouse was previously thought to be a single species spanning a massive stretch of the country from the Pilbara in Western Australia, across parts of the Northern Territory and through Queensland down to the New South Wales border. We now know there are three distinct species.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: General Biology: Zoology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Scientists can tell where a mouse is looking and located based on its neural activity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have paired a deep learning model with experimental data to 'decode' mouse neural activity. Using the method, they can accurately determine where a mouse is located within an open environment and which direction it is facing, just by looking at its neural firing patterns. Being able to decode neural activity could provide insight into the function and behavior of individual neurons or even entire brain regions.

Biology: Botany Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Modeling tree masting      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The effects of a phenomenon called tree masting on ecosystems and food webs can be better understood thanks to new theoretical models validated by real world observations.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Microbiology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Fossils
Published

High resolution techniques reveal clues in 3.5 billion-year-old biomass      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To learn about the first organisms on our planet, researchers have to analyze the rocks of the early Earth. These can only be found in a few places on the surface of the Earth. The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia is one of these rare sites: there are rocks there that are around 3.5 billion years old containing traces of the microorganisms that lived at that time. A research team has now found new clues about the formation and composition of this ancient biomass, providing insights into the earliest ecosystems on Earth.

Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Nature Environmental: Biodiversity
Published

Increasingly similar or different? Centuries-long analysis suggests biodiversity is differentiating and homogenizing to a comparable extent      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The tendency of communities and the species within them to become more similar or more distinct across landscapes -- biotic homogenization and differentiation -- are approximately balanced, according to a new study. This analysis is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive assessment of how local and regional biodiversity changes combine across landscapes over centuries.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Why are fish getting smaller as waters warm? It's not their gills      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A collaborative team of scientists recently found that there is no physiological evidence supporting a leading theory -- which involves the surface area of fish gills -- as to why many fish species are 'shrinking' as waters grow warmer due to climate change. Known as the Gill Oxygen Limitation (GOL) theory, it has been proposed as the universal mechanism explaining fish size and has been used in some predictions of future global fisheries yields. However, the researchers conducted a series of long-term experiments on brook trout and found that, though increased temperatures do lead to significantly decreased body size, gill surface area did not explain the change.