Ecology Research News

June 7, 2024

Top Headlines

Mapping the Seafloor Sediment Superhighway

June 3, 2024 — A new scientific model is giving researchers an unprecedented, global look at the activities of clams, worms, and other invertebrate animals that burrow at the bottom of the ...

Urgent Need for Action Now for Increasing Threat from Invasive Alien Species

June 3, 2024 — Urgent action now is needed to tackle the major and growing global issue of invasive alien species, says a team of 88 experts from 47 countries. The paper follows the (IPBES) thematic assessment ...

Tracing the Evolution of Ferns' Surprisingly Sweet Defense Strategy

May 30, 2024 — Plants and the animals that eat them have evolved together in fascinating ways, creating a dynamic interplay of survival strategies. Many plants have developed physical and chemical defenses to fend off herbivores. A well-known strategy in flowering ...

New Coral Disease Forecasting System

May 30, 2024 — Research has led to a new tool for forecasting coral disease that could help conservationists step in at the right times with key interventions. Ecological forecasts are critical tools for conserving and managing marine ecosystems, but few ...

Latest Headlines

updated 3:32pm EDT

How Do You Know Where a Fish Goes?

June 6, 2024 — An acoustic transmitter -- or tag -- emits unique signals or 'pings' when scientists want to study the long-distance movement of marine animals. However, this method has limitations. Using a movement ...

Antibiotic Pollution Disrupts the Gut Microbiome and Blocks Memory in Aquatic Snails

May 29, 2024 — Antibiotics prevent snails from forming new memories by disrupting their gut microbiome -- the community of beneficial bacteria found in their ...

Marine Protected Areas Don't Line Up With Core Habitats of Rare Migratory Fish, Finds New Research

May 29, 2024 — 62% of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated to protect rare migratory fish species are outside of their core habitats, according to a new ...

Global Activity of Seafloor Biodiversity Mapped

May 28, 2024 — A team of scientists has used artificial intelligence (AI) to map the activities of seafloor invertebrate animals, such as worms, clams and shrimps, across all the oceans of the ...

Future Climate Impacts Put Whale Diet at Risk

May 22, 2024 — A new study predicts future climate change impacts could disrupt the krill-heavy diet that humpback whales in the southern hemisphere ...

Regional Differences in Bird Diversity in Agroforestry Systems

May 21, 2024 — The diversity and ecological functionality of bird communities in tropical agroforestry systems are shaped by the surrounding landscape, in particular the extent and composition of the ...

Smoke Covered 70% of California During Biggest Wildfire Years

May 22, 2024 — As much as 70 percent of California was covered by wildfire smoke during parts of 2020 and 2021, according to a new ...

Conservation of Nature's Strongholds Needed to Halt Biodiversity Loss

May 21, 2024 — To achieve global biodiversity targets, conservationists and governments must prioritize the establishment and effective management of large, interconnected protected areas with high ecological ...

A Rise in Sea Urchins and Related Damage to Kelp Forests Impacts Oregon's Gray Whales and Their Food

May 21, 2024 — A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray ...

Access to Gardens and Citizen Science Helps Encourage Conservation Among Children, Study Shows

May 15, 2024 — Access to gardens and citizen science projects at school can help promote pro-conservation behaviour among pupils, a new study ...

Rocky Shores of Pacific Northwest Show Low Resilience to Changes in Climate

June 4, 2024 — A 15-year period ending in 2020 that included a marine heat wave and a sea star wasting disease epidemic saw major changes in the groups of organisms that live along the rocky shores of the Pacific ...

Digging Up Good News for Microbial Studies

May 20, 2024 — Findings indicate that soil stored under refrigerated or air-dried conditions can still retain the needed information for understanding microbial community composition and structure for many ...

From Roots to Resilience: Investigating the Vital Role of Microbes in Coastal Plant Health

May 15, 2024 — Understanding how salt marsh grass stays healthy is of crucial ecological importance, and studying the ways bacteria interact with these plants is key. Thanks to recent advances in genomic ...

Climate Change Is Most Prominent Threat to Pollinators

May 15, 2024 — A new article has found that climate change is the most prominent threat to pollinators -- such as bumblebees, wasps, and butterflies -- who are essential for biodiversity conservation, crop yields ...

Mosaic Grassland Landscapes Are the Most Beneficial

May 14, 2024 — Grassland provides many services for humans, animals and nature, such as feed production, carbon storage and recreation. Researchers spent two years investigating permanent grassland, its ...

Island Birds More Adaptable Than Previously Thought

May 13, 2024 — The researchers found that birds were more evolutionarily similar on smaller, more isolated islands than on larger, less remote places. The team had expected to find that forested areas had more ...

Saturated Soils Could Impact Survival of Young Trees Planted to Address Climate Change

May 9, 2024 — New research has looked into the potential effects of increased rainfall in regions being earmarked for expansion of temperate rainforests. Amid global calls for more trees to be planted as part of ...

Rapid Oyster Reef Restoration Gives Hope for Repairing the Sea

May 9, 2024 — After a century of functional extinction on the Australian mainland, a Flat oyster reef has been successfully restored along a metropolitan Adelaide ...

Limited Adaptability Makes Freshwater Bacteria Vulnerable to Climate Change

May 8, 2024 — Freshwater bacteria with small genomes frequently undergo prolonged periods of adaptive stagnation. Based on genomic analyses of samples from European lakes, researchers uncovered specific ...

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Is Shifting the Ecological Balance of Caribbean Reefs

May 3, 2024 — A new study shows stony coral tissue loss disease is causing drastic changes in the Caribbean's population of corals, which is sure to disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem and threaten ...

Climate Change Could Become the Main Driver of Biodiversity Decline by Mid-Century

Apr. 25, 2024 — Global biodiversity has declined between 2% and 11% during the 20th century due to land-use change alone, according to a large multi-model study. Projections show climate change could become the main ...

Deer Are Expanding North, and That's Not Good for Caribou

Apr. 25, 2024 — In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther ...

Unveiling the Lionfish Invasion in the Mediterranean Sea

Apr. 25, 2024 — Researchers have published a comprehensive study on the invasion of lionfish in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting a rapid spread and the potential ecological impacts. The research shows the ...

Diversity and Productivity Go Branch-in-Branch

Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. The study unveiled how tree functional trait diversity plays a pivotal role in ...

Lemur's Lament: When One Vulnerable Species Stalks Another

Apr. 19, 2024 — What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by ...

Invasive Species Sound Off About Impending Ecosystem Changes

Apr. 20, 2024 — Anticipating changes to ecosystems is often at best an educated guess, but what if there was a way to better tune into possible changes occurring? Researchers have discovered that the silent growth ...

Marine Microbial Populations: Potential Sensors of the Global Change in the Ocean

Apr. 18, 2024 — Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial ...

Unique Field Study Shows How Climate Change Affects Fire-Impacted Forests

Apr. 17, 2024 — During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb ...

Coral Reef Microbes Point to New Way to Assess Ecosystem Health

Apr. 16, 2024 — A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem ...

Tropical Forests Can't Recover Naturally Without Fruit-Eating Birds

Apr. 15, 2024 — Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds ...