~ecology-news-biolog | Bookmarks (441)

Newly published research from UNC Greensboro biology professor Dr. Bryan McLean and colleagues shows that the masked shrew, a small, mole-like mammal found in the Appalachian Mountains, shrinks its body and braincase to conserve energy during winter months.

If you think doomscrolling leads to sleepless nights, imagine waking up in bed with a blood-sucking monster the size of a basset hound. That's the waking nightmare one species of Australian fruit fly must contend with each night as hungry mites stalk and attach themselves like a tick while the fly is sleeping in the fruit orchards and rainforests of Queensland.

A new DNA probes allow for efficient surveying of the hidden lives of squids and octopuses in the deep sea. This development by Kobe University provides an effective tool for marine ecological research and conservation efforts.

If you like watching, reading, or learning about pretty, colorful birds, you're not alone. But it turns out that love for the bright and beautiful is impacting scientific study and limiting what we know about how their drab counterparts impact our ecology, which could ultimately affect conservation efforts for less striking birds.

A novel paper led by Dr. Ulrich Brose of the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena is widening the understanding of how species interact within ecosystems via the so-called "Internet of Nature."

The four billion tons of marine organisms that global fisheries extracted from the ocean between 1960 and 2018 resulted in the depletion of over 560 million tons of essential nutrients vital to ecosystem health, new research has found.

Hantavirus recently made news headlines as the cause of death for Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, but little is commonly known about it other than its connection to rodents.

Local climate can be used to predict the venom characteristics of a deadly snake that is widespread in India, helping clinicians to provide targeted therapies for snake bite victims, according to a study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases by Kartik Sunagar and colleagues at the Indian Institute of Science.

In the largest study of its kind to date, a team of international researchers has investigated how pharmaceutical pollution affects the behavior and migration of Atlantic salmon. The study, "Pharmaceutical pollution influences river-to-sea migration in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)," has been published in Science.

A study published in Frontiers in Bee Science has shown that physical distance plays a leading role in protecting bumblebees against a flying insect parasite, the bumblebee wax moth Aphomia sociella. The researchers discovered that the source of a potentially lethal infection came from the nearby hives of domestic honeybees.

Researchers from the Physics and Biology Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have discovered two species of tapeworms, or cestodes, in the guts and stomachs of wild-caught oval squid (Sepiotheutis lessoniana).

Marine food webs are highly complex. Until now, researchers have been unable to understand exactly how they are affected by climate change, overfishing and other threats. Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Geesthacht have now achieved a breakthrough. They have developed a new computer model that can be used to simulate food webs more accurately than ever before. The work, which has been published...

Bacteria play key roles in degrading organic matter, both in the soil and in aquatic ecosystems. While most bacteria digest large molecules externally, allowing other community members to share and scavenge, some bacteria selfishly take up entire molecules before digesting them internally.

A team of oceanographers and marine biologists at the Hakai Institute, working with a colleague from the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, and another from the Institute of Ocean Sciences, all in Canada, has found that the highly endangered sunflower star, a type of sea star, has found some degree of refuge in Canadian fjords (spelled fiord in Canada).

From dire wolves to woolly mammoths, the idea of resurrecting extinct species has captured the public imagination. Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas-based biotech company leading the charge, has made headlines for ambitious efforts to bring back long-lost animals using cutting edge genetic engineering.

Water levels in the Caspian Sea—the world's largest landlocked water body—are getting lower, as hotter temperatures cause more water to evaporate than is flowing in. Even if global warming is limited to below 2°C, it is likely that the level of the Caspian Sea will decline by 5 to 10 m, but if temperatures rise further, water levels could drop by as much as...

For the first time, a study led by University of Oxford researchers has listened in to the fascinating courtship displays of fiddler crabs using geophones. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, provide new insights into how the animals communicate effectively on the noisy seashore.

New research reveals the remarkable chemical diversity of substances exuded by coral reefs and demonstrates that thousands of different chemicals derived from tropical corals and seaweeds are available for microbes to decompose and utilize.

Insecticides can help protect crops against troublesome pests, but they also pose a risk for beneficial insects such as pollinators. A study led by researchers at Penn State provides insight into how even sublethal doses of insecticides can negatively affect pollinators by disrupting the mating process.

Infections with parasites often entail no recognizable signs in many wildlife species, but can still have negative effects across generations. Infected animals often have a slightly reduced body size and their offspring have a harder start in life.

Everyone is familiar with the light dome that shows from afar where cities are brightly lit at night. Artificial light that is scattered in the atmosphere and brightens the night sky can have an effect far from where it is emitted. This phenomenon is known as artificial skyglow. Skyglow can affect biodiversity over long distances.

On our planet, at any one moment, billions of animals are on the move. From migratory birds, insects, marine mammals and sharks connecting distant continents and seas, to bees and other insects pollinating our crops, to grazing animals roaming across the plains, and the foxes and hedgehogs visiting urban gardens.

Rhinos that flourished across much of North America 12 million years ago gathered in huge herds, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati.

Ancient DNA extracted from a sediment core from a high-altitude Pyrenean lake in Spain reveals that fish may have been added to the lake by humans as early as the 7th century CE. The findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that fish were present in Lake Redon much earlier than previously suggested by historical evidence and provide further insight into the impact of human...