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Categories: Biology: Evolutionary, Environmental: Ecosystems

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Research testing new technology to more effectively locate polar bear dens across the Arctic is showing promising results. Researchers hope that improving detection tools to locate dens -- which are nearly invisible and buried under snow -- will help efforts to protect mother polar bears and their cubs. 

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The crown-of-thorns starfish is nature's ultimate coral predator that has a circle of life perfectly adapted to warming waters.

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According to researchers, there is a need for changing the way of accounting greenhouse gases from agriculture. The current inventory of nitrous oxide from plant residues relies solely on the amount of nitrogen in the residues, while crucial factors such as the degradability of plant residues are not included. According to the researchers, this leads to misleading inventories, which also misrepresents possible mitigation measures.

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The symbiotic communities of invertebrates in dead coral gravel on the shallow, warm-temperate coast of the Kii Peninsula in western Japan. New bivalve species and sideswimmer have been found to live communally with the greenish Bonellia spoonworm. Live-in symbionts share the burrows of other organisms in sand and mud on the seabed. However, studies on burrow niches in rigid substrates, such as rocks on the seabed, have been scarce.

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They set out to study the Congo Basin's carbon cycle and in the process have become aware of one of the world's darkest blackwater rivers: the Ruki. In the first study on this major jungle river, an international research team explains how this blackness comes about and what it says about the river system's carbon balance.

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Octopuses are fascinating animals -- and serve as important model organisms in neuroscience, cognition research and developmental biology. To gain a deeper understanding of their biology and evolutionary history, validated data on the composition of their genome is needed, which has been lacking until now. Scientists have now been able to close this gap and, in a new study, determined impressive figures: 2.8 billion base pairs -- organized in 30 chromosomes. What sounds so simple is the result of complex, computer-assisted genome analyses and comparisons with the genomes of other cephalopod species.

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Whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding population. Because there is enough genetic diversity, current conservation measures should help the population rebound without becoming inbred. The future of fin whales in the Gulf of California depends on the recovery of the Eastern North Pacific population.

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Because the bumblebee that an orchid relies on for pollination does not exist on a remote island, the plant gets pollinated by an island wasp. Researchers found that this came at the cost of being hybridized with another orchid species adapted to being pollinated by the wasp. The finding showcases how plants in ecological relationships adapt to changing circumstances.

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Using lake sediment cores, scientists determined how these subalpine ecosystems recovered after 4,800 years of fire.

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A team has studied the mountainous star coral, Orbicella faveolata, to determine whether coral populations that have survived higher temperatures can pass their heat tolerance on to their offspring.  To the scientists' surprise, the results showed the opposite: The offspring from a population that is less heat-tolerant performed better when exposed to high temperatures than their counterparts from a heat-tolerant population. The findings counter the commonly held notion among scientists that if coral parents can handle the heat, so should their offspring. 

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Scientists measured microplastic concentrations in the highly productive Barents Sea and suggest that ocean circulation, ice melt, tourism, inadequate waste management, shipping and fishing are all likely contributors.

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Animal sounds are a very good indicator of biodiversity in tropical reforestation areas. Researchers demonstrate this by using sound recordings and AI models.

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In the world of threatened and endangered species conservation, the genomic revolution has raised some complicated questions: How can scientists justify assessing species genetic diversity without consulting entire genomes now that they can be sequenced? But then again, how can scientists justify the time and expense of genome sequencing when age-old measures of neutral genetic diversity are much cheaper and easier to obtain? A new study suggests making a transition from 'old school' genetics to 'new school' genomics for species conservation purposes probably isn't necessary in all cases.

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A new article describes 'a missing law of nature,' recognizing for the first time an important norm within the natural world's workings.   In essence, the new law states that complex natural systems evolve to states of greater patterning, diversity, and complexity. In other words, evolution is not limited to life on Earth, it also occurs in other massively complex systems, from planets and stars to atoms, minerals, and more.

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A new study has reconstructed the well-preserved but damaged skull of a great ape species that lived about 12 million years ago. The species, Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, may be crucial to understanding great ape and human evolution.

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Populations of charismatic animals have recovered since hunting ban but now struggle to find enough food.

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One of the building blocks of ocean life can adapt to cope with the effects of climate change, according to new research. The discovery holds promises for biotechnology developments that could counter the negative effects of changing environmental conditions, such as ocean warming and even the reduction in the productivity of crops. 

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Despite steps toward decreasing deforestation, uncontrolled wildfires are threatening environmental gains in Brazilian Amazonia, one of the world's most critical carbon sinks and a region of high biological and cultural diversity.  

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Phytoplankton, tiny photosynthetic organisms in the ocean, play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle and influence Earth's climate. A new study reveals how variations in the physiology of phytoplankton, particularly regarding nutrient uptake, can impact the chemical composition of the ocean and even the atmosphere. This suggests that changes in marine phytoplankton physiology can affect global climate.

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Researchers have extracted and analyzed DNA from fruit flies housed in museum collections in Lund, Stockholm and Copenhagen. Surprisingly, the researchers found the fruit flies collected in Sweden in the early 1800s were more genetically similar to 21st century flies than the Swedish samples from the 1930s.