News tagged with ecology


Male seahorses like big mates

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Male seahorses have a clear agenda when it comes to selecting a mating partner: to increase their reproductive success. By being choosy and preferring large females, they are likely to have more and bigger eggs, as well as ...


Plants' internal clock can improve climate-change models

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 02, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1

The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. In a study published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Ecology Letters, an international ...


Water webs connect spiders, residents in Southwest

Water webs connect spiders, residents in Southwest

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 25, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- If you are a cricket and it is a dry season on the San Pedro River in Arizona, on your nighttime ramblings to eat leaves, you are more likely to be ambushed by thirsty wolf spiders, or so ...


Plant communication: Sagebrush engage in self-recognition and warn of danger

Plant communication: Sagebrush engage in self-recognition and warn of danger

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 19, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 4

"To thine own self be true" may take on a new meaning—not with people or animal behavior but with plant behavior.


Is the sky the limit for wind power?

Technology / Energy

created Jun 15, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 10

In the future, will wind power tapped by high-flying kites light up New York? A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution and California State University identifies New York as a prime location for exploiting high-altitude ...


Jellyfish joyride a threat to the oceans

Jellyfish joyride a threat to the oceans

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 08, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 3

Early action could be crucial to addressing the problem of major increases in jellyfish numbers, which appears to be the result of human activities.


Siberian jays use complex communication to mob predators

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

When mobbing predators, Siberian jays use over a dozen different calls to communicate the level of danger and predator category to other members of their own group. A Swedish study from Uppsala University, published in the ...


Midge keeps invasive mosquito in check, aiding native mosquitoes

Midge keeps invasive mosquito in check, aiding native mosquitoes (w/Podcast)

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 04, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

In a drama played out across the southeastern U.S. in containers as small as a coffee cup, native and invasive mosquito larvae compete for resources and try to avoid getting eaten. One of the invasive mosquitoes, ...


Scientists unravel the mystery of white-nose syndrome

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 03, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 2

The mysterious disease that has killed more than 90 percent of wintering bats in some caves and mines from Vermont to Virginia during the last three years has raised numerous questions about the nature of the disease and ...


Nature parks can save species as climate changes

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 01, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 0

Retaining a network of wildlife conservation areas is vital in helping to save up to 90 per cent of bird species in Africa affected by climate change, according to scientists.


In the turf war against seaweed, coral reefs more resilient than expected

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 01, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

There's little doubt that coral reefs the world over face threats on many fronts: pollution, diseases, destructive fishing practices and warming oceans. But reefs appear to be more resistant to one potential menace - seaweed ...


City rats loyal to their 'hoods, scientists discover

Scientists find city rats are loyal to their 'hoods'

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 26, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

In the rat race of life, one thing is certain: there's no place like home. Now, a study just released in Molecular Ecology finds the same is true for rats. Although inner city rodents appear to roam freely ...


Bolivian rainforest study suggests feeding behavior in monkeys and humans have ancient, shared roots

Feeding behavior in monkeys and humans have ancient, shared roots

Biology / Ecology

created May 20, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Behavioural ecologists working in Bolivia have found that wild spider monkeys control their diets in a similar way to humans, contrary to what has been thought up to now. Rather than trying to maximize their ...


Stopping an invasion at the water's edge

Exotic plant species are more widespread than native on Boston Harbor Islands

Biology / Ecology

created May 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The recent findings by a team of Northeastern University ecologists studying plant life on the Boston Harbor Islands may advance societal efforts to stem the damage caused by invading exotic ...


Scientists elucidate which bacteria block artificial bile ducts

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 11, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A consequence of the different cancers of the hepatobiliary system is blocked bile ducts. However, artificial catheters known as "stents" can remediate this problem. Stents are medical implants which reopen narrowed bile ...