By University of Göttingen 2/19/2019 Fairy circles are round gaps in arid grassland that are distributed very uniformly over the landscape and only occur along the Namib Desert in southern Africa and in parts of Australia. Various theories circulate about the actual cause of these unusual spatial patterns, ranging from poisonous Euphorbia plants or rising gases, to ants, termites or…
By Point Blue Conservation Science 2/21/2019 How wildlife respond to climate change is likely to be complex. To better understand the effects of climate change on the bird community in the Sierra Nevada region, new research published today from Point Blue Conservation Science examines the impacts to birds from a recent extreme drought (2013-2016). The drought resulted in the widespread…
By Princeton University 2/20/2019 Tokita, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), is partially funded by a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. He works with Corina Tarnita, an associate professor in EEB, to create computational models for how social groups — including ants and humans — develop properties like division of labor and social networks. Read more here: https://www.princeton.edu/news/2019/02/20/tokita-receives-graduate-student-policy-award-ecological-society-america
By UC Santa Cruz 2/13/2019 Sara Gonzalez, a Ph.D. student in ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, is among the recipients of the Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Awards from the Ecological Society of America (ESA). This award provides graduate students with the opportunity to receive policy and communication training in Washington, D.C., and meet with lawmakers….
By National Science Foundation 2/6/2019 Scientists find that decades of degradation created ‘resistant’ coral reefs Marine biologist Peter Edmunds was prepared for the worst. Back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes had torn through the Caribbean in September 2017. The scientist and his colleagues weren’t sure what they’d find when they visited fragile coral reefs near the island of St. John after the…
By THÜNEN INSTITUTE 2/4/2019 Sustainable exploitation of wild fish is possible, but only when fisheries policies are implemented that ensure precautionary catch regulations Due to overcapacities in fishing fleets and insufficiently regulated catches, many fish stocks in the Northeast-Atlantic had reached very low levels by the end of the 20th century. However, an increasing number of stocks has shown signs…
By The University of Oklahoma 2/6/2019 An OU team from the Geographical Ecology Group conducted 54 experiments in both grazed and ungrazed grasslands to determine the salt cravings of insects and the types of insects that crave salt. NORMAN–A University of Oklahoma team from the Geographical Ecology Group has published a new study in the journal Ecology on the nutritional preferences of…
By University of Tasmania 2/7/2019 Monitoring of sea urchins in Port Phillip Bay over a four-year period has revealed that booming urchin populations and the barren grounds they created by overgrazing kelp beds are likely to persist in the long term unless drastic action is taken. High-density populations of the Australian urchin Heliocidaris erythrogrammahave been monitored in Port Phillip Bay since…
By Deakin University 2/1/2019 Decades after their implementation, no-take marine reserves are coming up short in their ability to nurture the Great Barrier Reef’s shark populations back to natural levels, according to new research from a Deakin University ecologist. The research, published today in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, found that after decades of protection, shark populations on the…
By Simon Fraser University 1/25/2019 A species of frog endemic to the Pacific Northwest faces a 50 per cent increase in the probability of extinction by the 2080s due to climate change, according to a new study published by SFU researchers. The mountain-dwelling Cascades frog thrives in extreme climatic conditions, ranging from dozens of feet of snow in winter to…
By Swansea University Prifysgol Abertawe 1/23/2019 A new study of Tasmanian devils has revealed that a transmissible cancer which has devastated devil populations in recent years is unlikely to cause extinction of the iconic species. New research led by Dr Konstans Wells from Swansea University has revealed that it is more likely that the disease will fade-out or that the devils will coexist…
By MBARI 1/17/2019 Oxygen—it’s a basic necessity for animal life. But marine biologists recently discovered large numbers of fishes living in the dark depths of the Gulf of California where there is virtually no oxygen. Using an underwater robot, the scientists observed these fishes thriving in low-oxygen conditions that would be deadly to most other fish. This discovery could help…
By University of Wisconsin-Madison 1/17/2019 The fires in Yellowstone National Park began to burn in June 1988. A natural feature of the landscape, park managers expected the fires to fizzle out by July, when rains historically drenched the forests and valleys of the world’s first national park. But the rains never came. Unusually hot, dry and windy that year, more fires…
By University of Tokyo 1/16/2019 Whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, likely endure periods of starvation and may eat more plants than previously thought, according to the first results of a new health check developed at the University of Tokyo. Ocean scientists now have a powerful, simple tool to discover the diets, migrations, and conservation needs of this endangered species….
By Michigan State University 1/11/2019 A team of scientists from Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Wisconsin analyzed 30 years of data for 365 lakes in the northeastern and Midwestern U.S. to test whether changes in temperature and precipitation affect water clarity, which measures the cloudiness of the water. The group’s work is featured in a paper in…
By University of Washington 1/2/2019 Like most of their stout-bodied, flippered kin, Magellanic penguins spend much of their lives in the ocean. From late autumn through winter and into spring in the Southern Hemisphere, these South American penguins swim off the coast of southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina in search of anchovies, sardines and squid. But as spring turns…
By University of Wisconsin-Madison 1/3/2019 In the United States, some ranchers worry about wolf attacks on their livestock as the native predator is reintroduced to more areas. But for Chilean livestock owners, wolves are not the potential threat. Pumas are. As in the U.S., researchers in Chile are trying to develop non-lethal ways to deter predator attacks and reduce the…