~ecology-news-biolog | Bookmarks (441)

A new study by researchers at the University of Galway's School of Natural Sciences has revealed why some spiders possess venom that is far more potent than others.

Clownfish have been shown to shrink in order to survive heat stress and avoid social conflict, Newcastle University research reveals.

Just a few meters beneath the clear, blue waters of Okinawa, reef-building corals known as Scleractinia have quietly lived for centuries. Slowly, layer by layer, they have constructed intricate, rigid structures made of calcium carbonate to form the vibrant coral reefs of today.

How do organisms adapt to climate change? A new study reveals the complex interplay between genetic diversity and temperature tolerance evolution.

A new study by Danish researchers has demonstrated that it is possible to develop a consortium of bacteria that can inhibit bacterial pathogens in aquaculture. This could potentially reduce the use of antibiotics in aquaculture and possibly other applications. The study was published in Microbiology Spectrum.

Two important concepts in evolutionary biology, mutualism and altruism, were first made famous by the colorful anarchist prince Peter Kropotkin. He argued that cooperation could be an equally powerful driver of evolution as competition.

As global temperatures rise, many species are scrambling to adapt—or risk extinction. Scientists refer to these animals as "species on the move," but new research suggests the scientific community may be overlooking the wide variety of ways these species are adapting.

Biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have released the first broad-scale, comparative, fine-grained analysis linking the amplitude, or volume, of a bird's song to its vocal frequency, or pitch. Though biologists have long wondered whether birds are able to control their pitch as they get louder or if their vocal abilities are mechanically limited, until now there has been no wide-ranging data with...

Songbirds who make the arduous flight from their nesting sites in northern boreal forests to warm, southern climates in the winter may be rewarded for their journey with greater genetic diversity, according to a University of Michigan study.

Bermuda's Walsingham cave system harbors a wide diversity of cave-dwelling animals not found anywhere else in the world. Now, one more joins their ranks as researchers at the University of Cambridge, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Senckenberg am Meer German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research report the discovery of a new copepod species.

As global warming alters ecosystems, the need to predict the reorganization of Earth's biodiversity has become urgent. New research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that neglecting the ecological differences between male and female plants can lead to inaccurate biodiversity forecasts.

Most land plants form mutually beneficial symbioses with fungi. The plant and the fungus exchange vital nutrients. A team led by Prof. Dr. Caroline Gutjahr at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology has uncovered a molecular mechanism that enables nutrient exchange between plants and fungi.

Did you know goldfish can learn to drive cars? Have you heard bumblebees can learn to pull on a string? Would you believe some primates can perform calculations with Arabic numerals?

Forests on Indigenous lands in Panama have remained remarkably stable over the past two decades—more so than in protected areas—thanks in no small part to deeply rooted cultural values, a McGill-led study suggests.

The call of American bullfrogs was deafening when scientists from the University of California, Davis, first began researching the impact of invasive bullfrogs on native northwestern pond turtles at Yosemite National Park.

A six-month expedition to the tropical island of New Guinea has led to a remarkable discovery by a young Czech doctoral candidate from the Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of South Bohemia. František Vejmělka has become the first person to scientifically document in the wild Mallomys istapantap, one of the largest murine rodents in the world. This elusive...

New research published in BioScience reveals that climate change is rapidly emerging as a third major threat to Earth's wild animals, joining habitat alteration and overexploitation in what scientists call a shift from "twin to triple threats."

New research from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, has revealed that puff adders (Bitis arietans) can be highly efficient at controlling rodent populations that threaten agricultural production on the continent.

It turns out humpback whales' epic migrations to tropical waters aren't as essential as previously thought for giving birth: calves can be born as far south as Tasmania or New Zealand, 1,500 km further south than previously known.

Curtin University research has revealed that high densities of European honey bees could be harming Australian native bees' fitness by reducing their reproductive success and altering key traits linked to survival.

A research team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has released a long-term, high-resolution dataset that tracks global cropland water-use efficiency (WUE) from 2001 to 2020. Published in Scientific Data, the dataset provides annual WUE estimates for croplands worldwide at a 1-kilometer spatial resolution. It is expected to be a valuable resource for promoting sustainable agricultural water...

Fertilizer might be stronger than we thought. A new international study featuring faculty members at Binghamton University, State University of New York found that fertilizer can help plants survive short-term periods of extreme drought, findings which could have implications for agriculture and food systems in a world facing climate stressors.

People have assumed climate change solutions that sequester carbon from the air into soils will also benefit crop yields. But a new study from Cornell University finds that most regenerative farming practices to build soil organic carbon—such as planting cover crops, leaving stems and leaves on the ground and not tilling—actually reduce yields in many situations.

On an island off the coast of Panama lives a population of wild primates with a remarkable culture. White-faced capuchins on Jicarón Island in Coiba National Park use stone tools; and scientists have been monitoring this unique tradition with an array of motion-triggered cameras on the island since 2017.