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Categories: Ecology: Invasive Species, Offbeat: Plants and Animals

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Birds native to the tropical Andes are threatened by increasing agricultural development in the region. A new study combines a meta-analysis of papers on birds across the Andes with five years of fieldwork in Peru, revealing that open farmlands result in up to a 60% decline in the number of species in an area. The study documents how specific species are affected and provides tailored guidance for conservationists trying to protect them.

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Engineers in Australia have found a way of making stronger concrete with roasted used-coffee grounds, to give the drink-additive a 'double shot' at life and reduce waste going to landfills. The team developed a technique to make concrete 30% stronger by turning waste coffee grounds into biochar, using a low-energy process without oxygen at 350 degrees Celsius.

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When a sabertooth tiger called out, what noise did it make -- a mighty roar or a throaty purr? A new study examined the data behind the arguments for each vocalization and found that the answer was more nuanced than they thought -- and that it could depend on the shape of a few small bones.

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An extremely rare collection of 160-million-year-old sea spider fossils from Southern France are closely related to living species, unlike older fossils of their kind.

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Imagine using insects as a source of chemicals to make plastics that can biodegrade later -- with the help of that very same type of bug. That concept is closer to reality than you might expect. Researchers will describe their progress to date, including the isolation and purification of the insect-derived chemicals and their conversion into their bioplastics.

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More mock seafood options are needed because of unsustainable fishing and aquaculture practices, which can harm the environment. Now, researchers have a new approach for creating desirable vegan seafood mimics that taste good, while maintaining the healthful profile of real fish. They 3D-printed an ink made from microalgae protein and mung bean protein, and their proof-of-concept calamari rings were air-fried into a snack.

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For now, cyborgs exist only in fiction, but the concept is becoming more plausible as science progresses. And now, researchers are reporting that they have developed a proof-of-concept technique to 'tattoo' living cells and tissues with flexible arrays of gold nanodots and nanowires. With further refinement, this method could eventually be used to integrate smart devices with living tissue for biomedical applications, such as bionics and biosensing.

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Fossilized feces preserve evidence of ancient parasites that infected an aquatic predator over 200 million years ago, according to a new study.

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Researchers hope that a new, publicly available database they have created will shrink, not grow, over time. That's because it is a compendium of the thousands of understudied proteins encoded by genes in the human genome, whose existence is known but whose functions are mostly not.

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City life favors species that are adaptable and not too fussy about what they eat, among other characteristics. A worldwide consortium of scientists calls the resulting collection of traits an 'Urban Trait Syndrome.'

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Current efforts to protect and restore native biodiversity is being threatened by difficulties in identifying wild and domestic cats, and categorization is likely to remain fraught for the foreseeable future, experts have warned.

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A remarkable new fossil from China reveals for the first time that a group of reptiles were already using whale-like filter feeding 250 million years ago.

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Engineers have developed nanoscale tattoos -- dots and wires that adhere to live cells -- in a breakthrough that puts researchers one step closer to tracking the health of individual cells.

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Heliconius butterflies are capable of spatial learning, scientists have discovered. The results provide the first experimental evidence of spatial learning in any butterfly or moth species.

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A new study reveals how a succession of strategies can take control of an invasive species population.

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A new study suggests that Cytochromes P450 (CYP450s) enzymes can sense and respond to stimuli, acting like soft robots in living systems.

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Tropical forests can harbor hundreds of species of trees in one square mile. Researchers reveal key factors in the spatial distribution of adult trees.

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Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate. Scientists are working on several fronts to better understand and predict these events and what they mean for the carbon cycle and biodiversity.

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A newly published study describes the response to sea level rise by the silver rice rat, an endangered species only found in the Florida Keys.

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It's an elegant solution: Remove the habitat of a parasite-carrying aquatic snail and reduce the level of infection in the local community; all while generating more feed and compost for local farmers.