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Categories: Biology: Marine, Environmental: Biodiversity

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A new study has revealed why coral reefs can thrive in seemingly nutrient poor water, a phenomenon that has fascinated scientists since Charles Darwin.

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Without a mirror, it can be hard to tell if you're blushing, or have spinach in your teeth. But one color-changing fish has evolved a clever way to keep watch on the parts of itself that lie outside its field of view -- by sensing light with its skin.

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By increasing the diversity of indigenous plants in urban areas, researchers have seen a seven times increase in the number of insect species in just three years, confirming the ecological benefits of urban greening projects.

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New research has revealed Australia's iconic grasstrees -- known as 'yaccas' -- play a critical role in protecting wildlife from deadly weather extremes, thereby ensuring their survival. But the grasses themselves are under threat due to back burning, clearing and disease.

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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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Researchers demonstrate that a vast multitude of birds and mammals can be detected by simply swabbing the DNA left behind by animals from leaves. They showcased the power of this approach in an ecosystem that hosts a ton of wildlife and where detecting animals has historically proven extremely challenging -- the tropical rainforest.

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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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Conventional wisdom among ecologists holds that the more species there are inhabiting an ecosystem, the less vulnerable any one species will be to a threat like a parasite. A new study of tadpoles illustrates how overlapping biological and environmental factors can complicate how we value protecting diverse animal communities. The researchers found that environmental pollutants like road salt influence whether increased biodiversity helps or hinders disease outbreaks in wildlife, which can complicate how we value protecting diverse animal communities.

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Microscopic analysis has revealed that trends in body ornamentation were shared across Indonesian islands.

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In the waters off the Hawaiian Islands, rates of calcification were measured in the deepest coral colonies.

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Birds likely hold smart insights about coexisting in popular habitats -- especially as climate change looms. Scientists peel back layers of big data to tease out real-life answers.

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With 350 million years of evolution culminating in almost two centuries of scientific discourse, a new hypothesis emerges. Researchers propose a new explanation for why ammonoids evolved a highly elaborate, fractal-like geometry within their shells. Their analysis shows that the increasing complexity of shell structures provided a distinct advantage by offering improved protection against predators.

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Microscopic plastic particles have been found in the fats and lungs of two-thirds of the marine mammals in a graduate student's study of ocean microplastics. The presence of polymer particles and fibers in these animals suggests that microplastics can travel out of the digestive tract and lodge in the tissues.

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Gray whales that spend their summers feeding off the coast of Oregon are shorter than their counterparts who travel north to the Arctic for food, new research shows.

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Pesticides are a leading source of chemical hazards in aquatic environments. Researchers have introduced a new tool to help evaluate toxicity at high resolution and suggests that targeting a small number of pesticides in a few watersheds could significantly reduce aquatic toxicity in California's agricultural centers.

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A study of 12 species of highly migratory fish predators -- including sharks, tuna, and billfish such as marlin and swordfish -- finds that most of them will encounter widespread losses of suitable habitat and redistribution from current habitats in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWA) and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by 2100. These areas are among the fastest warming ocean regions and are projected to increase between 1-6°C (+1-10°F) by the end of the century, a sign of climate-driven changes in marine ecosystems.

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Groupers produce distinct sounds associated with courtship, territoriality or reproduction. An autonomous mobile wave glider and passive acoustics were deployed to survey two marine protected areas on the western shelf of Puerto Rico to locate spawning aggregations of two commercially important species -- the Nassau and red hind groupers. Findings show these sites are critical habitat for both species and multiple previously unknown grouper species, which highlight the importance of expanding existing seasonal regulations.

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New research indicates that mitigating both local land and sea-based human impacts, especially in terms of pollutants and over-fishing, provides coral reef ecosystems with the best opportunity to persist under climate change. Along some highly populated areas on the shorelines of Hawai'i, wastewater pollution and urban runoff combine with fishing pressures to put immense stress on coral reefs.

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Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of conservation educational activities in the Cape Verde Island of Maio.

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Scientific findings don't always translate neatly into actions, especially in conservation and resource management. The disconnect can leave academics and practitioners disheartened and a bit frustrated.