~ecology-news-biolog | Bookmarks (437)

A collaborative study reveals the distinct mechanisms by which plants and animals respond to climate change in their life-cycle phenology. This research, led by Piao Shilong's team and Zhang Yao's team from the Institute of Carbon Neutrality at Peking University, provides comprehensive global-scale evidence on the asynchronous phenological changes between plants and animals.

Despite their reputation as buzzing nuisances, flies serve a critical role as some of the Earth's most prolific pollinators—and new research led by Penn State scientists suggests they are increasingly at risk due to rising global temperatures.

La Brea Tar Pits scientists have identified a previously unknown juniper species as Juniperus scopulorum, commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Juniper. The successful identification, along with the first-ever radiocarbon dating of these fossil plants in Southern California, expands our ability to track past environmental changes and highlights the vulnerability of junipers and the environments they shape in the face of modern climate change.

Desert locusts typically lead solitary lives until something—like intense rainfall—triggers them to swarm in vast numbers, often with devastating consequences.

A team of biology and optics researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in Spain has found that the unique undercoating of the barn owl helps to make it less visible to prey when flying under the moon and starlit skies.

Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and their partners reveal their pick of the top 10 plants and fungi named new to science in 2024.

Covering over 70% of Earth's surface, the oceans are home to countless life forms that maintain ecological balance and support human well-being. Among these, brown algae (Phaeophyceae) play a crucial role in sustaining coastal habitats, supporting marine biodiversity, and combating climate change through carbon capture. While they have long captured the interest of the scientific world, the genomic and evolutionary history of these organisms...

A new scientific study from Temple University's College of Science and Technology (CST) has identified 35 new species of forest lizards, all from islands in the Caribbean. However, that same study has also found that these species of lizards won't be around for long unless significant conservation efforts are undertaken to protect them.

The phytoplankton that populate oceans are known to play a key role in marine ecosystems and climate regulation. Like terrestrial plants, they store atmospheric CO₂, and produce half of our planet's oxygen via photosynthesis. However, the mechanisms that control their distribution remain poorly understood.

Try taking a picture of each of North America's roughly 11,000 tree species, and you'll have a mere fraction of the millions of photos within nature image datasets. These massive collections of snapshots—ranging from butterflies to humpback whales—are a great research tool for ecologists because they provide evidence of organisms' unique behaviors, rare conditions, migration patterns, and responses to pollution and other forms of...

Andean bears carefully select the best foraging locations and plants to maximize nutrition and avoid livestock, according to a study published December 18, 2024, in PLOS ONE by Nicholas Pilfold at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in California, U.S., and colleagues.

Which microbes thrive below us in darkness—in gold mines, in aquifers, in deep boreholes in the seafloor—and how do they compare to the microbiomes that envelop the Earth's surfaces, on land and sea?

A team of marine biologists, zoologists, and cetologists from Université Paris-Saclay, Université d'Antananarivo and Ambodiforaha Sainte Marie has learned more about the ways baby humpback whales and their mothers communicate.

In South Florida, two Caribbean lizard species met for the first time. What followed provided some of the clearest evidence to date of evolution in action.

A group of international scientists—including two from the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)—has developed a new method for examining the effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on two sandy beach crustacean species.

Artificial light can wake sleeping fish and attract predators, changing nighttime coral reef communities, according to new research using novel underwater infrared cameras.

A ground squirrel with cheeks stuffed with nuts, seeds or grains is a common sight. But a new study provides the first evidence that California ground squirrels also hunt, kill and eat voles. The study, led by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and University of California, Davis, is the first to chronicle widespread carnivorous behavior among squirrels.

Apes orphaned by the illegal trade in bushmeat and pets can overcome trauma and develop social abilities like those of their mother-reared peers.

A study reveals corals must be within only a few meters of each other to successfully reproduce, leaving them vulnerable in a warming world.

When we think of climate change we often think of extreme events like flooding rains and large bushfires. But climate change can also have slower, more subtle impacts on our landscapes.

Weedy rice is a close relative of cultivated rice that infests rice fields worldwide and drastically reduces yields. To combat this agricultural pest, rice growers in the southeastern United States have been planting rice cultivars that were tweaked to allow them to apply herbicides that target weedy rice without harming the crop.

A century-old grapevine cutting is providing new clues into the history of a deadly plant pathogen that is decimating crops across the globe.

Researchers from Swansea and Deakin Universities have found that marine animals across mammals, birds and reptiles swim at similar relative depths when traveling and not feeding to save energy.

Climate change is bleaching and killing off vast amounts of the world's coral due to rising sea temperatures. Dr. Benyamin Rosental of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and his colleagues have proposed an out of the box potential solution: transplanting stem cells from resilient individuals to revive them.