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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.

Climatic stress events, such as extreme temperatures and prolonged droughts, are increasingly affecting tree growth and phenology—the timing of developmental stages like leaf burst and senescence.

When Jeff Kneebone was a college student in 2002, his research involved a marine mystery that has stumped curious scientists for the last two decades. That mystery had to do with thorny skates in the North Atlantic. In some parts of their range, individuals of this species come in two distinct sizes, irrespective of sex, and no one could figure out why. At the...

A study conducted by researchers from São Paulo State University (UNESP), in Brazil, and collaborators shows that lemon leafcutter ants (Atta sexdens) exhibit behaviors that go beyond so-called social immunity, i.e. the ability to detect pathogens and try to get rid of them for the benefit of the colony.

A major review of over 67,000 animal species has found that while the natural world continues to face a biodiversity crisis, targeted conservation efforts are helping bring many species back from the brink of extinction.

The red coral colonies that were transplanted a decade ago on the seabed of the Medes Islands have survived successfully. They are very similar to the original communities and have contributed to the recovery of the functioning of the coral reef, a habitat where species usually grow very slowly.

Although fungi of the genus Piloderma are common, scientists have now discovered five previously unknown species. One of these is one of the most widely distributed species in Northern Europe, while another is found only in old-growth forests.

Recent research by scientists at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), Texas Tech University, and several other collaborating institutions have identified ancient fossils of a newly described tree species named Astropanax eogetem.

In the summer of 2020, researchers from the University of Manitoba set up a time-lapse camera overlooking the Churchill River Estuary. The goal of their research was to understand the interactions between beluga whales and marine vessels. However, what they captured was unexpected—a group of bowhead whales, a phenomenon never before documented in the area.

On first inspection, the Cuban blue-headed quail dove doesn't look like much: drab brown feathers, a slender beak, and a pronounced strut in its walk, typical of most other doves. You'd be forgiven for overlooking it in favor of Cuba's prismatic parrots. But looks aren't everything. For decades, this unassuming bird has perplexed biologists, who have no idea where it came from, how it...

Underground seed banks in South Africa that date back over 130 years have been found to contain fynbos seeds that are alive. These seed banks are natural storage areas in the soil where certain plants preserve their seeds.

When Jay Falk and Scott Taylor first saw the white-necked Jacobin hummingbird chick in Panama's dense rainforest, the bird biologists didn't know what they were looking at.

A new method of tracking the dietary habits and contaminant exposure of animals in Arctic marine ecosystems is providing critical insights as climate change reshapes the region's food web.

A predator's gotta eat, but sometimes what they eat harms people sharing the landscape, and that often leads to the carnivore's death.

A team of marine biologists, environmental researchers and land management specialists affiliated with several institutions in Australia, working with a colleague from Canada, has conducted a study of the ecological impact of a huge rise in the population of saltwater crocodiles in Australia's Northern Territories.

In the study of why and how animals look the way they do, color is king—at least, the range of color humans can see. A University of Michigan study has examined a color range that humans can't see and often ignore: color in the ultraviolet range. Examining snakes, the researchers categorized how the animals used patterns of UV color and tested for factors that...

A study, led by the University of Southampton (UK), has revealed that brown trout can successfully navigate beaver dams—obstacles which were previously thought to pose a significant barrier to their movement.

Cornell researcher Raina Plowright and her team observed that when bats in Australia lost access to their habitat and natural food sources, they sought food on agricultural lands. And when the animals' diets changed, they shed more virus, increasing the virus' spread to horses, as well as the risk to people.

We all know microplastics are bad for the environment and our health, but do we really know how bad?