Ecology news

California's Ancient Kelp Forest

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The kelp forests off southern California are considered to be some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet, yet a new study indicates that today's kelp beds are less extensive and lush ...


Wolves, moose and biodiversity: An unexpected connection

Wolves, moose and biodiversity: An unexpected connection

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 4

Moose eat plants; wolves kill moose. What difference does this classic predator-prey interaction make to biodiversity?


Half of the fish consumed globally is now raised on farms, study finds

Half of the fish consumed globally is now raised on farms, study finds

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 07, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 4

Aquaculture, once a fledgling industry, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new report by an international team of researchers. And while the industry is more efficient ...


Dead ahead: Similar early warning signals of change in climate

Dead Ahead: Similar Early Warning Signals of Change in Climate, Ecosystems, Financial Markets, Human Health

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 02, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (19) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- What do abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth's climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and ...


Yellow-bellied sea snake

Venomous sea snakes play heads or tails with their predators

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

In a deadly game of heads or tails venomous sea snakes in the Pacific and Indian Oceans deceive their predators into believing they have two heads, claims research published today in Marine Ecology.


Researchers find key 'conductor' of nature's synchronicity

Researchers Find Key 'Conductor' of Nature's Synchronicity

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 22, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Synchronicity in nature is seen in beating hearts, the flashing of fireflies' lights, the ebb and flow of infectious disease—and the simultaneous rise and fall of populations across vast reaches ...


Did the North Atlantic fisheries collapse due to fisheries-induced evolution?

Biology / Ecology

created May 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

The Atlantic cod has, for many centuries, sustained major fisheries on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the North American fisheries have now largely collapsed. A new paper in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ON ...


Racing the clock: Rapid climate change forces scientists to evaluate extreme conservation strategies

Biology / Ecology

created May 25, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (76) | comments 8

Scientists are, for the first time, objectively evaluating ways to help species adapt to rapid climate change and other environmental threats via strategies that were considered too radical for serious consideration as recently ...


Scientists finding sink holes in Great Lakes

Biology / Ecology

created May 04, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 2

Scientists studying submerged sinkholes in the Great Lakes off the coast of northern Michigan have stumbled onto something they never expected to find: life forms akin to those found in some of Earth's most extreme environments.


Researchers help save rare venomous mammal from extinction

Researchers help save rare venomous mammal from extinction

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 31, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Scientists at the University of Bath are working with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to study an endangered large shrew-like mammal that kills its prey with a venomous bite.


Study unravels why certain fishes went extinct 65 million years ago

Why certain fishes went extinct 65 million years ago

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 26, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 1

Large size and a fast bite spelled doom for bony fishes during the last mass extinction 65 million years ago, according to a new study to be published March 31, 2009, in the Proceedings of the National Ac ...


Headwater stream nutrient enrichment disrupts food web

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Human activity is increasing the supply of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to stream systems all over the world. The conventional wisdom -- bolstered by earlier research -- has held that these additional nutrients ...


Study shows loss of 15-42 percent of mammals in North America

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (9) | comments 5

If the planet is headed for another mass extinction like the previous five, each of which wiped out more than 75 percent of all species on the planet, then North American mammals are one-fifth to one-half the way there, according ...


Europe's flora is becoming impoverished

Europe's flora is becoming impoverished

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

With increasing species richness, due to more plant introductions than extinctions, plant communities of many European regions are becoming more homogeneous. The same species are occurring more frequently, ...


King crab family bigger than ever

King crab family bigger than ever

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Sally Hall, a PhD student at the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) has formally described four new species of king ...