http://www.physorg.com/biology-news/ecology/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on ecology (AP) -- Thousands of tuna, their silver bellies bloated with fat, swim frantically around in netted areas of a small bay, stuffing themselves until they grow twice as heavy as in the wild. Is this sushi's future? Tuna raised like chickens or cows? http://www.physorg.com/news179255911.html Biology - Ecology Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:20:02 EST news179255911 When Yeh You-chin was a boy half a century ago, he ate migratory birds with relish, but now he is at the forefront of efforts to preserve the feathered visitors to his south Taiwan home. http://www.physorg.com/news179160507.html Biology - Ecology Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:50:02 EST news179160507 (AP) -- No Asian carp have been spotted so far in a Chicago canal during a massive fish kill aimed at trying to keep the giant fish out of the Great Lakes. http://www.physorg.com/news179087700.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:50:01 EST news179087700 The extinction of plant and animal species can be likened to emptying a museum of its collection, or dumping a cabinet full of potential medicines into the trash, or replacing every local cuisine with McDonald's burgers. http://www.physorg.com/news179066778.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:47:10 EST news179066778 (AP) -- The head of Montana's wildlife agency has given preliminary approval to a plan calling for 74 bison from Yellowstone National Park to go to billionaire Ted Turner's private ranch. http://www.physorg.com/news179052439.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:00:03 EST news179052439 Sweden will this winter allow its first wolf hunt in 45 years following a decision by the Scandinavian country's parliament to limit their number, authorities said on Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news179003923.html Biology - Ecology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:19:01 EST news179003923 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 crab, all from the deep sea. http://www.physorg.com/news178979272.html Biology - Ecology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:28:35 EST news178979272 The largest fish kill in Illinois history -- expected to net 100 tons of fish including, hopefully, some Asian carp -- is to start Wednesday south of Chicago in an attempt to make sure none of the feared carp make it past an electric barrier while it is shut down for maintenance. http://www.physorg.com/news178952297.html Biology - Ecology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:58:48 EST news178952297 Rhino poaching worldwide is on the rise, according to a new report by TRAFFIC and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). http://www.physorg.com/news178915347.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:10:01 EST news178915347 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cotton growers will be better able to keep an eye out for two common pests because of a comprehensive survey by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at College Station, Texas. http://www.physorg.com/news178912351.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:10:04 EST news178912351 The oceans could become the source of more of humanity's food if steps are taken to expand and improve marine aquaculture, according to a study published in the December 2009 issue of BioScience. http://www.physorg.com/news178892701.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:40:01 EST news178892701 Millions of shark fins are sold at market each year to satisfy the demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy, but it has been impossible to pinpoint which sharks from which regions are most threatened by this trade. Now, groundbreaking new DNA research has, for the first time, traced scalloped hammerhead shark fins from the burgeoning Hong Kong market all the way back to the sharks' geographic origin. In some cases the fins were found to come from endangered populations thousands of miles away. http://www.physorg.com/news178868510.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:42:37 EST news178868510 The Aznalcóllar mining accident more than 11 years ago, which contaminated part of the Doņana National Park, also damaged reptile habitat there. Now a team of Spanish researchers, who have been studying the reptile community since 2000, have shown, by setting up artificial refuges, that the disappearance of natural refuges had a serious impact on lizard and snake numbers. http://www.physorg.com/news178801818.html Biology - Ecology Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:30:01 EST news178801818 (AP) -- Indonesia has rejected a push by the resort island of Bali for rare turtles to be legally slain in Hindu ceremonies, siding with conservationists of the protected reptiles against religious advocates, an official said Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news178530601.html Biology - Ecology Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:50:01 EST news178530601 Ecologists have at last worked out a way of using recordings of birdsong to accurately measure the size of bird populations. This is the first time sound recordings from a microphone array have been translated into accurate estimates of bird species' populations. Because the new technique, reported in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, will also work with whale song, it could lead to a major advance in our ability to monitor whale and dolphin numbers. http://www.physorg.com/news178525475.html Biology - Ecology Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:25:08 EST news178525475 Darwin suggested that the action of natural selection can produce new species, but 150 years after the publication of his famous book, 'On the Origin of Species', debate still continues on the mechanisms of speciation. New research finds sexual selection to greatly enlarge the scope for adaptive speciation by triggering a positive feedback between mate choice and ecological diversification that can eventually eliminate gene flow between species. http://www.physorg.com/news178458331.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:00:07 EST news178458331 Poachers "wiped out" the entire elephant herd in Sierra Leone's only wildlife park, wildlife managers said Thursday after police said they had arrested a gang of 10 poachers. http://www.physorg.com/news178459834.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:11:10 EST news178459834 (PhysOrg.com) -- Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have collected 46 new populations of switchgrass in Florida, adding valuable new accessions to the germplasm collection of this potential bioenergy crop. http://www.physorg.com/news178454806.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:10:03 EST news178454806 (AP) -- Australian authorities plan to corral about 6,000 wild camels with helicopters and gun them down after they overran a small Outback town in search of water, trampling fences, smashing tanks and contaminating supplies. http://www.physorg.com/news178441148.html Biology - Ecology Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:20:01 EST news178441148 (AP) -- Scientists say they think toxins from a blue-green algae plaguing lakes and rivers around the West are harming an endangered fish in the Klamath Basin, adding another obstacle to restoring species that have forced irrigation shutoffs for farmers. http://www.physorg.com/news178391924.html Biology - Ecology Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:30:02 EST news178391924 (PhysOrg.com) -- People have cleared more than a quarter of the world`s forests and half of its grasslands, according to a paper published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society by researchers from The University of Queensland and Imperial College London. http://www.physorg.com/news178385437.html Biology - Ecology Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:50:02 EST news178385437 Australia's venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships, a wildlife expert warned Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news178349649.html Biology - Ecology Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:50:01 EST news178349649 Two feared species of Asian carp have zoomed beyond the $9 million electric barriers built to keep them out of Lake Michigan. Now, the only thing left between the carp and the Great Lakes is a lock and dam in southern Chicago. http://www.physorg.com/news178315636.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:40:01 EST news178315636 The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced today a report revealing that the last remaining population of Siberian tigers has likely declined significantly due to the rising tide of poaching and habitat loss. http://www.physorg.com/news178293989.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:08:22 EST news178293989 (PhysOrg.com) -- What constitutes fish food is a matter of debate. A high-profile study a few years ago suggested that fish get almost 50 percent of their carbon from trees and leaves, evidence for a very close link between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. http://www.physorg.com/news178280069.html Biology - Ecology Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:15:44 EST news178280069 (PhysOrg.com) -- If you look closely at individual plant species' responses in the past, you may find that the largest effects of high carbon dioxide (CO2) levels occurred decades ago, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. That is when the botanical structure of the world's grasslands changed dramatically, offering clues to the future. http://www.physorg.com/news178219572.html Biology - Ecology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:50:06 EST news178219572 Since 1996, crop plants genetically modified to produce bacterial proteins that are toxic to certain insects, yet safe for people, have been planted on more than 200 million hectares worldwide. The popularity of these Bt crops, named after the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, comes from their ability to kill some major pests, allowing farmers to save money and lessen environmental impacts by reducing insecticide sprays. http://www.physorg.com/news178213003.html Biology - Ecology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:10:02 EST news178213003 A USDOE and USDA study concluded that 50 million U.S. acres of cropland, idle cropland, and cropland pasture could be converted from current uses to the production of perennial grasses, such as switchgrass, from which biomass could be harvested for use as a biofuel feedstock. Economically viable production of a perennial grass monoculture from which substantial quantities of biomass are removed annually is expected to require nitrogen fertilizer. http://www.physorg.com/news178208915.html Biology - Ecology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:40:01 EST news178208915 The time of day matters to forest trees dealing with drought, according to a new paper produced by a research team led by Professor Malcolm Campbell, University of Toronto Scarborough's vice-principal for research and colleagues in the department of cell and systems biology at the St. George campus. http://www.physorg.com/news178203257.html Biology - Ecology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:10:03 EST news178203257 The mysterious Monarch butterfly, which migrates en masse annually between Canada and Mexico, is now facing a new peril: another insect thriving in Western Mexican forests. http://www.physorg.com/news178046357.html Biology - Ecology Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:19:43 EST news178046357