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Categories: Biology: Evolutionary, Ecology: Endangered Species
Published Island-inhabiting giants, dwarfs more vulnerable to extinction
(via sciencedaily.com) Island-dwelling mammal species often expand or contract in size, becoming giant or dwarf versions of their mainland counterparts. A new Science study from a global team shows that those giants and dwarfs have faced extreme risk of extinction -- an existential threat exacerbated by the arrival of humans.
Published Anthropogenic climate change poses systemic risk to coffee cultivation
(via sciencedaily.com) Coffee is important to the economies of coffee producing regions. A new study suggests that climate change may significantly affect land where coffee is cultivated.
Published eDNA holds the key to safeguarding pollinators amid global declines
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have uncovered new evidence of western pygmy possums interacting with native flowers, providing an eDNA study to simultaneously detect mammal, insect and bird DNA on flowers.
Published Plant roots fuel tropical soil animal communities
(via sciencedaily.com) A research team has shed new light on the importance of plant roots for below-ground life, particularly in the tropics. Millions of small creatures toiling in a single hectare of soil including earthworms, springtails, mites, insects, and other arthropods are crucial for decomposition and soil health. For a long time, it was believed that leaf litter is the primary resource for these animals. However, this recent study is the first to provide proof that resources derived from plant roots drive soil animal communities in the tropics.
Published An internal thermometer tells the seeds when to germinate
(via sciencedaily.com) Germination is a crucial stage in the life of a plant as it will leave the stage of seed resistant to various environmental constraints (climatic conditions, absence of nutritive elements, etc.) to become a seedling much more vulnerable. The survival of the young plant depends on the timing of this transition. It is therefore essential that this stage be finely controlled. Botanists have now discovered the internal thermometer of seeds that can delay or even block germination if temperatures are too high for the future seedling. This work could help optimize plant growth in a context of global warming.
Published Wheat's ancient roots of viral resistance uncovered
(via sciencedaily.com) The DNA sequence of a gene in wheat responsible for resisting a devastating virus has been discovered, providing vital clues for managing more resistant crops and maintaining a healthy food supply.
Published Scientists use satellites to track earth 'greening' amid climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers found changes in 'greening,' or the amount of leaves plants are able to produce, will play a significant role in how much carbon dioxide plants capture and store.
Published Illuminating the evolution of social parasite ants
(via sciencedaily.com) The findings offer a new way to understand how some ants become total layabouts.
Published Fluorescent protein sheds light on bee brains
(via sciencedaily.com) An international team of bee researchers has integrated a calcium sensor into honey bees to enable the study of neural information processing including response to odors. This also provides insights into how social behavior is located in the brain.
Published Earlier take-off could lead to fewer bumblebees and less pollination
(via sciencedaily.com) With the arrival of spring, bumblebee queens take their first wing beat of the season and set out to find new nesting sites. But they are flying earlier in the year, as a result of a warmer climate and a changing agricultural landscape, according to new research.
Published Deforestation in the tropics linked to a reduction in rainfall
(via sciencedaily.com) Deforestation is resulting in reduced rainfall across large parts of the tropics, according to new research. People living in tropical forest communities have often complained that the climate gets hotter and drier once trees are cleared but until now, scientists have not been able to identify a clear link between the loss of tree cover and a decline in rainfall.
Published Pink + pink = gold: hybrid hummingbird's feathers don't match its parents
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists thought a gold-throated hummingbird was a new species. DNA revealed that it's a hybrid of two different species, each with pink throats. The discovery sheds light on how birds produce feather colors and how hummingbirds evolved their dazzling hues.
Published Better metric for prioritizing conservation of 'evolutionarily distinctive' species
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have published an updated metric for prioritizing species' conservation that incorporates scientific uncertainty and complementarity between species, in addition to extinction risk and evolutionary distinctiveness.
Published Parental investment may have aided evolution of larger brains
(via sciencedaily.com) A review of evidence from prior research provides new support for the possibility that the evolution of larger brains in some species was enabled through increased energy investment by parents in their offspring.
Published Jurassic shark: Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved
(via sciencedaily.com) Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic.
Published Flower power: The role of ants in forest regeneration
(via sciencedaily.com) Ants play a key role in forest regeneration, according to a new article.
Published Australia's rarest bird of prey disappearing at alarming rate
(via sciencedaily.com) Australia's rarest bird of prey -- the red goshawk -- is facing extinction, with Cape York Peninsula now the only place in Queensland known to support breeding populations.
Published Breathing is going to get tougher
(via sciencedaily.com) Not all pollution comes from people. When global temperatures increase by 4 degrees Celsius, harmful plant emissions and dust will also increase by as much as 14 percent, according to new research.
Published Who are the first ancestors of present-day fish?
(via sciencedaily.com) What is the origin of the ancestors of present-day fish? What species evolved from them? A 50-year-old scientific controversy revolved around the question of which group, the 'bony-tongues' or the 'eels', was the oldest. A study has just put an end to the debate by showing through genomic analysis that these fishes are in fact one and the same group, given the rather peculiar name of 'Eloposteoglossocephala'. These results shed new light on the evolutionary history of fish.
Published Evolutionary history of detoxifying enzymes reconstructed
(via sciencedaily.com) Biochemists have succeeded in resurrecting the ancestral genes of five detoxifying enzymes which are present in all tetrapods to show how their divergence in function has occurred.