~ecology-news-biolog | Bookmarks (425)

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have found that the critically endangered regent honeyeater faces hidden genetic risks while still retaining relatively high genetic diversity, risks that become apparent when combining genomic data across time with ecological modeling.

An extinct lineage of parasitic wasps dating from the mid-Cretaceous period and preserved in amber may have used their Venus flytrap-like abdomen to capture and immobilize their prey.

Scientists don't call it the "Great Dying" for nothing. About 252 million years ago, upward of 80% of all marine species vanished during the end-Permian mass extinction—the most extreme event of its kind in Earth's history.

While sneaking up on prey, cuttlefish employ a dynamic skin display to avoid detection in the last moments of approach, researchers at the University of Bristol have found.

A small international team of marine biologists has observed the first known instance of a shark intentionally making sounds. In their study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group reveals that several of the sharks made clicking noises when they were handled, and they suggest ways the noises might have been made.

Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study, published in New Phytologist, reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods.

A new study has revealed that African elephants have an extraordinary ability to meet their colossal food requirements as efficiently as possible. Data from over 150 elephants demonstrated that these giants plan their journeys based on energy costs and resource availability.

The world's amphibians are in trouble. Because of their sensitivity to climate change, habitat loss, and pollution, they may be the canary in the coal mine for the nascent anthropogenic mass extinction. Approximately 200 amphibian species have become extinct since the 1970s, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that 34% of the 7,296 known remaining species are likewise at risk.

Would you answer someone's cry for help if that someone was sitting unharmed in front of you? Most probably would not, and bats have similar reservations, according to a new study published in Current Biology in which researchers from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the University of Naples Federico II show that bats can reconcile what they see or smell with what they...

Known for their powerful ability to launch out of the water in pursuit of prey, the loss of great white sharks from False Bay in South Africa has scientists and conservationists concerned about the rippling effects on the ecosystem.

How much will strawberry harvests shrink when extreme heat harms pollinators? How much will timber production decline when windstorms flatten forests? How much will recreational value disappear when large wildfires sweep through Colorado's mountain towns?

Georgia Tech scientists are revealing how decades-long research programs have transformed our understanding of evolution, from laboratory petri dishes to tropical islands—along the way uncovering secrets that would remain hidden in shorter studies.

A team of scientists with the Sea Mammal Research Unit, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, in the U.K. has found that gray seals are able to monitor their blood oxygen levels as a means to prevent drowning. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes experiments they conducted at a pool with captured gray seals involving changes to oxygen...

Insecticides may help growers hoping to protect their crops from harmful insects, but they also may contribute to a larger amount of some weeds, according to a study led by researchers at Penn State.

An international team on board Schmidt Ocean Institute's R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea rapidly pivoted their research plans to study an area that was, until last month, covered by ice. On January 13, 2025, an iceberg the size of Chicago, named A-84, broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf, one of the massive floating glaciers attached to the Antarctic Peninsula...

Researchers from the University of Florence and University of Pisa conducted an experiment demonstrating that managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) on Giannutri Island significantly deplete nectar and pollen availability, leading to around an 80% decline in wild bee populations. Results provide strong causal evidence that honeybee competition, rather than environmental change, is responsible for wild bee decline.

Climate change is causing the world's glaciers to disappear at an alarming rate. Scientists have been studying and modeling this process for years, but until now, no research group has specifically examined how glacier melt will affect glacier-fed streams and their ecosystems.

A team of botanists with members from Muse–Museo delle Scienze, Udzungwa Corridor LTD, Via Grazia Deledda and the National Museum of Kenya has discovered a new species of tree growing in the mountainous rain forests of Tanzania. In their paper published in the journal Phytotaxa, the group describes how and where the tree was found and its characteristics.

A new study has discovered that birds in the Galápagos Islands are changing their behavior due to traffic noise, with those frequently exposed to vehicles showing heightened levels of aggression.

Protecting native forests combined with transitioning fallow and unmanaged agricultural lands to 'Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) and other place-based agroforestry systems has direct benefits for local fisheries, according to a new study published in npj Ocean Sustainability by an interdisciplinary team from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, Kamehameha Schools and Seascape Solutions.

Forests provide many ecosystem services, including microclimate regulation, biodiversity preservation, air and water purification, and soil protection. Together with the oceans, they are one of the two most important carbon sinks, due to their capacity to store carbon in the soil and in tree biomass.

The oceans teem with photosynthesizing bacteria, tiny-tailed dinoflagellates gobbling other plankton, algae surrounded by intricate glass skeletons. In the 1960s, the ecologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson pointed out something confusing: Why do so many kinds of plankton exist? Mathematically, they shouldn't all be able to survive when they must compete for the same set of nutrients.

Scientists stalking a small marsupial through a remote Australian rainforest say they may have found a clue to the mystery of why its bigger kangaroo cousins hop instead of walk.

Imagine looking at the world through the stalked compound eyes of krill in the Southern Ocean. All of a sudden, a penguin appears like a voracious giant, streamlined like a torpedo, chasing and consuming thousands of krill at rapid speed.