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Categories: Ecology: Sea Life, Offbeat: Plants and Animals

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New research explains how eating feces (known as coprophagy) shapes wild birds' digestive tracts (gut biota), enabling them to absorb lost or deficient nutrients and adjust to seasonal variations in food sources.

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A perfect storm of environmental factors has seen a monumental loss of fish and coral life at a popular area of Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia's Gascoyne region -- however research into the event shows there is hope it will recover. In March 2022, during the annual coral spawning event, calm weather and limited tidal movement combined to trap the coral's eggs within Bills Bay, at the town of Coral Bay. This led to an excess of nutrients in the water which consumed more oxygen than usual -- causing massive numbers of fish and corals to die from asphyxiation.

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Despite being scattered across more than a million square kilometers, new research has revealed that remote coral reefs across the Seychelles are closely related. Using genetic analyses and oceanographic modelling, researchers demonstrated for the first time that a network of ocean currents scatter significant numbers of larvae between these distant islands, acting as a 'coral superhighway.'

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A new study has answered a long-held question about why medium-sized land animals like cheetahs tend to be fastest.

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While most small insects and mammals urinate in droplets, cicadas urinate in jets. Researchers say the finding could be used to create better robots and small nozzles.

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A team of researchers has uncovered a direct genetic link between fluorescence and color in sea anemones -- those soft and tentacled tide pool creatures often encountered by beachgoers.

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Scientists reveal new lineages of giant sea anemones in Japan and their surprising associations with anemonefish.

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A Halloween toy was among hundreds of plastic items found in the guts of dead sea turtles in the Mediterranean, a new study reveals.

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For the first time, scientists have developed artificial nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, with several additional properties in the laboratory.

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While the majority of the world's reefs are now under threat or even damaged potentially beyond repair, a new study offers some encouraging news: efforts to restore coral reefs not only increase coral cover, but they can also bring back important ecosystem functions, and surprisingly fast.

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Producing coral skeleton components in the easy-to-use soft-bodied sea anemone Nematostella creates a perfect lab system for studying, and eventually helping, corals threatened by a changing climate.

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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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The oldest fossilized forest known on Earth -- dating from 390 million years ago -- has been found in the high sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coast of South West England.

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Despite marine sponges being widespread on our planet, their biodiversity and distribution is still poorly known. Even though the Mediterranean Sea is the most explored sea on Earth, a study reveals the presence of new sponge species and new records in unexplored habitats such as underwater caves or mountains around the Balearic Islands.

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In order to keep the population of harbour porpoises in Danish coastal waters stable, only 24 can perish in fishing nets each year. However, over 900 die each year.

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A new study provides insights into the role of microbes and their interaction as drivers of interspecific differences in coral thermal bleaching.

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Scientists have discovered the gene that enables marine algae to make a unique type of chlorophyll. They successfully implanted this gene in a land plant, paving the way for better crop yields on less land.

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Bumblebees successfully learned a two-step puzzle box task through social observation. This task was too complex for individual bees to learn on their own. Observing trained demonstrator bees performing the first unrewarded step was crucial for successful social learning. Individual bees failed to solve the puzzle without previous demonstration, despite extensive exposure.

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The findings suggest that subtropical seagrasses are less resilient to heavy grazing from marine herbivores, in part because they receive less sunlight relative to their tropical counterparts. As tropical herbivores move into subtropical waters, overgrazing may prevent subtropical seagrass meadows from persisting in these environments.

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Marine biologists have discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.