By University of Jyväskylä 6/10/2019 Reproducing in a fearful world is tricky. How do rodents get information of prevailing risk of death, and how do they respond to the information? A research team of evolutionary biologists from University of Jyväskylä, Finland and University of Vienna, Austria reported that rodent mothers are more likely to become pregnant after smelling odors produced…
By University of Guelph 6/7/2019 Call it the “Little Bog of Horrors.” In what is believed to be a first for North America, biologists at the University of Guelph have discovered that meat-eating pitcher plants in Ontario’s Algonquin Park wetlands consume not just bugs but also young salamanders. In a paper published this week in the journal Ecology, the research…
By Wildlife Conservation Society 6/5/2019 A new analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment shows that the world’s protected areas (PAs) are experiencing major shortfalls in staffing and resources and are therefore failing on a massive scale to safeguard wildlife. The analysis looked at more than 2,100 protected areas around the world and found that less than a…
By Macquarie University 6/4/2019 New Guinea is one of the only places in the world where frogs are safe from the species-destroying chytrid fungus. An international team of scientists has published a new paper that shows how to keep it that way, but they need help to carry out their plan. The chytrid fungus has wiped out more than 90…
By Florida State University 6/3/2019 Every beachgoer can spot seaweed in the ocean or piling up on the beach, but Florida State University researchers working with colleagues in the United Kingdom have found that these slimy macroalgae play an important role in permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Their work is published in the journal Ecological Monographs by the Ecological Society…
In her new role, Cottingham will lead Ecology in publishing research articles from across the biological and ecological sciences.
“Pop-up parks” serve important conservation functions by providing small-scale habitat refuges in urban environments and deliver a suite of ecosystem services to urban residents and wildlife alike.
In a new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a team of researchers gain further insight into the dynamics of the exotic pet trade and the role it plays in the introduction of invasive vertebrate populations across the globe.
By UC Davis 5/29/2019 Thinning forests and conducting prescribed burns may help preserve trees in future droughts and bark beetle epidemics expected under climate change, suggests a study from the University of California, Davis. The study, published in the journal Ecological Applications, found that thinning and prescribed fire treatments reduced the number of trees that died during the bark beetle…
By Max Planck Society 5/28/2019 The females of some bat species migrate hundreds of kilometres after hibernation to give birth to their offspring in insect-rich regions. Unlike birds, it is largely unknown how bats keep their energy consumption low during flight. Dina Dechmann and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz equipped female common noctule bats…
By Gianluca Piovesan 5/28/2019 Beech trees older than 600 years discovered in the Pollino Massif: This high-mountain old-growth Mediterranean forest harbors the oldest deciduous hardwoods. Discovering, studying, and preserving old trees is a top priority for conservation biology and sustainable development. We used tree-ring data from a high-mountain old-growth Mediterranean beech forest to reconstruct long-term growth patterns in trees of…
By U.S. Forest Service – Pacific Northwest Research Station 5/23/2019 Prescribed burning is an important active management approach that can address the fuel buildup and wildfire hazards that currently face western forests after a century of fire exclusion and suppression. Although prescribed burns are applied widely across the United States, their effects aren’t always well-documented. That means managers can’t…
By UC Merced 5/23/2019 A nine-year experiment by a UC Merced Department of Life and Environmental Sciences professor and his colleagues is illuminating the importance of soil carbon in maintaining healthy and functioning ecosystems because of its influence on the microbial communities that live in soil. These communities’ health can help researchers understand the effects of climate change. Professor Stephen C….
By Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium 5/21/2019 A new study has found that songbirds are a remarkably common part of young tiger sharks’ diets. The study is described in the article “Tiger sharks eat songbirds: scavenging a windfall of nutrients from the sky,” which was published today in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology. Scientists investigated the stomach contents of 105 neonate (i.e. newborn) tiger sharks…
The Ecological Society of America recognizes Sara P. Bombaci, Jacqueline J. Peña, and Joshua Scholl for awards for outstanding student research.
By Field Museum 5/21/2019 Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the “garbage cans of the sea”—they’ll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. But before these top predators grow to their adult size of 15 feet, young tiger sharks have an even more unusual diet. Scientists have just announced in a new paper in…
By São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) 5/22/2019 An experiment conducted in Brazil in an area of Atlantic Rainforest suggests that intensive silviculture, including the use of herbicide and substantial amounts of fertilizer, is a more effective approach to promoting the regeneration of tropical forest and biomass gain than the traditional method based on manual weeding and less fertilizer. The study…
By University of Florida 5/16/19 In the wide world of tropical flora, insects often take up the mantle of protecting the plants that shelter them, each mutually satisfied in a happy marriage of nature’s making. This is particularly true for acacia trees that tower over the African savanna. Their tiny protectors are carnivorous ants that dissuade animals from browsing on…
By Tufts University 5/14/19 When it comes to wildlife conservation efforts, urban environments could be far more helpful than we think, according to new research. A study published today in Ecology shows that animals move faster through ‘low quality’ habitats – evidence that could change the way conservationists think about managing landscapes to help species move in response to climate…
By National Science Foundation 5/14/2019 An ecosystem is made up of species, populations, communities, and a network of communities across a region. A team led by NSF-funded researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) has published a paper in the journal Ecology showing how these different levels combine to form an ecosystem. The research was conducted in an underwater giant kelp…