By University of California Riverside 3/4/2020 Entomologists at UC Riverside have documented that a species of native sweat bee widespread throughout North and South America has a daily routine that makes it a promising pollinator. Because the bee can thrive in environments that have been highly modified by humans, such as cities and agricultural areas, it could become a suitable supplement…
By University of Gottingen 3/2/2020 The threat to insects and other small creatures from rainforest clearance and the consequences for the environment in tropical regions are recognised. What has not been studied so far is whether, and how, the oil palm plantations are able to sustain the populations of tiny below-ground animals that work to keep the soil healthy. In a…
By Tufts University 3/2/2020 MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (March 2, 2020)— Using more than 30 years of earth satellite images, scientists at Tufts University and the non-profit conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife have discovered that habitat loss for imperiled species in the U.S. over this period was more than twice as great on non-protected private lands than on federally protected lands. As…
By University of Washington 2/27/2020 The 2014 Carlton Complex wildfire in north central Washington was the largest contiguous fire in state history. In just a single day, flames spread over 160,000 acres of forest and rangeland and ultimately burned more than 250,000 acres in the midst of a particularly hot, dry summer. The wildfire, driven by strong winds and explosive growth,…
By Utah State University 2/27/2020 Utah State University ecologist Noelle Beckman and colleagues Philippe Marchand of the University of Quebec, Liza Comita of Yale University, Joseph Wright of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, Richard Condit of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and internationally renowned ecologist Stephen P. Hubbell of the University of California, Los Angeles, explore these questions…
By University Of California, Santa Barbara 2/27/2020 Deron Burkepile, a professor in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology has been working in southern Africa for longer than a decade, monitoring the complex and diverse plant communities which populate the region. Burkepile first began doing field work in Kruger National Park, South Africa about 15 years ago,…
By University of Copenhagen 2/11/2020 As a result of global warming many species are currently shifting altitudinal distribution in mountain areas. Even though most move to higher altitudes, there are large differences among species, and some even shift downward to lower altitudes. A recently published paper in the acclaimed journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment from the Ecological…
By University of New Hampshire 2/18/2020 DURHAM, N.H.—Small mammals such as mice and chipmunks who are not picky eaters play a more important role than previously known in dispersing the spores of wild mushrooms and truffles, according to new research from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire. Mushrooms and truffles colonize the roots of…
By CU Boulder 2/13/2020 Two words, and a tiny little creature, strike fear in the hearts of many Colorado outdoor enthusiasts: bark beetle. But new research from CU Boulder reveals that even simultaneous bark beetle outbreaks are not a death sentence to the state’s beloved forests. The study, published this month in the journal Ecology, found that high-elevation forests in the southern…
By University of Washington 2/12/2020 Polar bears are spending more time on land than they did in the 1990s due to reduced sea ice, new University of Washington-led research shows. Bears in Baffin Bay are getting thinner and adult females are having fewer cubs than when sea ice was more available. The new study, recently published in Ecological Applications, includes satellite tracking…
By UC Santa Barbara 2/12/2020 In 2014, a disease of epidemic proportions gripped the West Coast of the U.S. You may not have noticed, though, unless you were underwater. Fueled by abnormally hot ocean temperatures, sea star wasting disease ravaged these echinoderms from Alaska to Mexico. The condition, still not fully understood, wiped out a significant marine predator, the sunflower star….
By National Science Foundation 2/6/2020 The chemical signature left behind by hurricanes, fires, cold snaps and droughts can linger in the slow-moving water of the Florida Everglades for up to a decade, researchers report. No one expected evidence of these disturbances to be detectable in the water for so long and to spread across different areas of the Everglades, the…
By Florida International University 2/3/2020 The chemical signature left behind by hurricanes, fires, cold snaps and droughts can linger in the slow-moving water of the Florida Everglades for up to a decade. No one expected evidence of these disturbances to be detectable in the water for so long and spread across different areas of the Everglades. Increased levels of phosphorus, nitrogen,…
By National Science Foundation 1/29/2020 Through research in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens, Evergreen State College scientists have discovered that plants are influencing the ecosystem’s recovery. A new paper reporting the results, “Plant sex influences terrestrial-aquatic interactions,” was published in the journal Ecosphere by Carri LeRoy and her collaborators at the U.S. Forest Service and the Science Museum of Minnesota. The research,…
By The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences 1/23/2020 While some trends suggest that insect abundances generally decrease, there is also a fear that problems with pest insects will increase in the future. The logic is simple – insects are ectothermic and should thereby be favored by ongoing climate warming. It is however not that easy to predict future damage of pest…
By The U.S. Geological Survey 1/23/2020 (Carlisle, Pa.) – Researchers from Dickinson College and the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated on field research to understand the ability of human searchers to detect the invasive brown treesnake (BTS) on the island of Guam. Due to their nocturnal and tree-dwelling habits, these snakes are extremely difficult to detect, especially when they are present…
By University of Michigan 1/23/2020 ANN ARBOR—While conducting fieldwork in Puerto Rico’s central mountainous region in 2016, University of Michigan ecologists noticed tiny trails of bright orange snail excrement on the undersurface of coffee leaves afflicted with coffee leaf rust, the crop’s most economically important pest. Intrigued, they conducted field observations and laboratory experiments over the next several years and…
By UC Santa Barbara 1/29/2020 Anyone who’s read “The Lorax” will recognize that certain species serve as the foundation of their ecosystems. When the truffula trees disappear, so to do the swomee-swans and bar-ba-loots. However, the same is not necessarily true the other way around. Scientists have taken a growing interest in ecological stability — the factors that make an…
By UC San Diego 1/23/2020 Four hours east of Medellín in northern Colombia’s Puerto Triunfo municipality, the sprawling hacienda constructed by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar of “Narcos” fame has become a tourist attraction. When Escobar’s empire crashed, the exotic animals housed at his family’s zoo, including rhinos, giraffes and zebras, were safely relocated to new homes… except for the…
By Pennsylvania State University 1/8/2020 Selective fishing can disrupt the delicate balance maintained between corals and algae in embattled Caribbean coral reefs. Removing large parrotfish, which graze on algae like large land mammals graze on grasses, can allow the algae to overtake the corals, with potentially dire consequences for reef health. New experimental research suggests that maintaining a healthy size…