https://phys.org/biology-news/ecology en-us The latest science and research news on ecology In 2003, Anne Nielsen became the first doctoral student in the U.S. to study the brown marmorated stink bug, which was beginning its ascendancy as an invasive species notoriously damaging to crops. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-ecological-countering-invasive-species.html Plants & Animals Ecology Fri, 21 Jun 2024 06:16:49 EDT news638169402 A new study delving into the lives of one of the UK's rarest beetles shows them to be athletes and adventurers—sometimes traveling the scaled-up equivalent of several kilometers a night in search of food and mates. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-uk-rarest-rainforest-beetles-multi.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:45:49 EDT news638117143 Researchers might have solved the riddle of how to save one of Scotland's most iconic protected species from eating another. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scotland-capercaillie-population-extinction-lifeline.html Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:31:51 EDT news638112704 Insecticide use is a major factor causing a decrease in the size and diversity of butterfly populations across the US Midwest, reports Braeden Van Deynze of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and colleagues in a study published June 20 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-insecticides-contribute-butterfly-species-midwest.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:00:02 EDT news638093342 Chimpanzees appear to consume plants with medicinal properties to treat their ailments, according to a study published on June 20 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Elodie Freymann from the University of Oxford, UK, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-wild-chimpanzees-medicinal-illness-injuries.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:00:02 EDT news638092921 A devastating hurricane transformed a monkey society by changing the pros and cons of interacting with others, new research shows. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-hurricane-game-monkey-society.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:00:02 EDT news638090481 Kara Andres, a postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis, collected samples of water from Simpson Lake, in Valley Park, Mo., as part of a coordinated global effort to use environmental DNA—genetic material shed by organisms into the environment—to document the current state of biodiversity. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-citizen-scientists-edna-samples-global.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:04:01 EDT news638107439 Researchers at La Trobe University's Center for Freshwater Ecosystems have exposed the hidden consequences of climate change on Alpine stream ecosystems, which could see an earlier emergence of insects. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-climate-emergence-insects.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:03:06 EDT news638107382 Global warming has significantly altered plant growth patterns on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) over the past three decades. Plants adjust their growth trajectories in response to climate change, prioritizing leaf and stem growth or root extension to better absorb nutrients from the sun, atmosphere, or soil. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms and dynamics of plant growth in permafrost regions of the TP, where significant amounts of carbon dioxide are absorbed, stored, and emitted. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-reveal-effects-climate-belowground-biomass.html Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:16:30 EDT news638104588 The reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) is a tough swimmer. They can travel hundreds of kilometers to feed themselves. The longest recorded movement for an individual reef manta ray was 1,150km, observed in eastern Australia. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-raja-ampat-reef-manta-rays.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:50:01 EDT news638099521 Nigeria has many freshwater ecotourism attractions. Among them are the Ikogosi warm spring, the Osun-Osogbo river, and the Olumirin, Owu, Arinta and Ekor waterfalls. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nigeria-mountain-streams-haven-special.html Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:30:01 EDT news638099495 The soaring demand for avocados in Europe and North America has led to a trebling of global production in just over 20 years. However, this popular fruit is increasingly controversial because of the environmental impacts of farming and distributing them around the world. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-avocados-bad-environment.html Ecology Agriculture Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:20:02 EDT news638099468 A team of medical researchers and infectious disease specialists affiliated with multiple institutions in China, working with a pair of colleagues, one from Singapore, the other from Canada, has found evidence bolstering theories that suggest as the planet warms, fungi could become more dangerous to humans. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-evidence-climate-fungi-dangerous.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:47:35 EDT news638099250 A new study presents video evidence that at least one species of terrestrial leech can jump, behavior that scientists have debated for more than a century. Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, Fordham University, and City University of New York (CUNY)'s Medgar Evers College published the footage and corresponding analysis in the journal Biotropica. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-conclusive-video-evidence-terrestrial-leech.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:00:01 EDT news638090881 Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology report the discovery of at least six orders of endosymbiont Symbiodolus clandestinus, which lives inside insect cells. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization, they showed that Symbiodolus is present in all life stages and tissues of infected insects. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-hidden-partners-symbiodolus-bacteria-insect.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 09:32:38 EDT news638094754 An invasive, shelled creature was spotted in a popular Georgia lake, as experts warn the public of potential environmental and health risks. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-invasive-shelled-creature-popular-georgia.html Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:20:01 EDT news638086617 Bright yellow, black, red and blue, Alexanor butterflies once fluttered abundantly on southwestern Albania's flowery slopes. Now, like many related species, scientists say they are disappearing due to human impacts, including climate change. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nature-mirror-climate-batters-albania.html Ecology Thu, 20 Jun 2024 04:04:06 EDT news638075039 A river in the foothills of the Himalayas separates tigers and farmers and nurtures both wildlife and agriculture. But now that the river is drying up, conflicts between the two are increasing, endangering the habitat of both. River scientist Kshitiz Gautam is looking for ways to restore the balance between man and nature. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-boundary-farmers-tigers-himalayas.html Ecology Agriculture Wed, 19 Jun 2024 13:26:04 EDT news638022361 An international team of scientists has recently found that non-native species are expanding their ranges many orders of magnitude faster than native ones, in large part due to inadvertent human help. Even seemingly sedentary non-native plants are moving at three times the speed of their native counterparts in a race where, because of the rapid pace of climate change and its effect on habitat, speed matters. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-native-animals-ranges-faster-species.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:15:03 EDT news638018101 The only howl I heard on a recent walk across the Garron plateau in the Glens of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was from a bitter, biting wind. But 300 years ago, the howls would most definitely have been lupine: This place was home to one of the last wolves in what is now the UK. The species clung on in other parts of Ireland until the late 18th century. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-farmers-reveal-reintroducing-lynx-wolves.html Ecology Agriculture Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:02:04 EDT news638017321 Pearl millet, an annual grass used for grain and forage, can be a good food source for honey bees and hover flies, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Entomological Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-pearl-millet-honey-bees-pollinators.html Ecology Agriculture Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:38:21 EDT news638012292 A study published in the journal BioScience sheds light on the importance of gray wolves in the western United States. Led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University and the Conservation Biology Institute, the research delves into the implications of large predator absence on plant and animal communities, and ecosystem functions. It calls attention to "shifting baselines" wherein increasingly degraded conditions are viewed as reflecting the historical state of a system. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-illuminates-ecological-importance-gray-wolves.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:33:54 EDT news638012027 With their bulging red eyes and their alien-like mating sound, periodical cicadas can seem scary and weird enough. But some of them really are sex-crazed zombies on speed, hijacked by a super-sized fungus. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-sex-crazed-zombie-cicadas-scientists.html Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:28:53 EDT news638011728 A team of researchers at the University of Zurich has discovered that plants benefit from a greater variety of interactions with pollinators and herbivores. Plants that are pollinated by insects and have to defend themselves against herbivores have evolved to be better adapted to different types of soil. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-interaction-insects-evolution.html Evolution Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:35:02 EDT news638008501 The hydropower dams on the Columbia River flooded villages, disrupted economies and ways of life and continue to harm people indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, according to a first-of-its-kind federal report released Tuesday. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-biden-administration-acknowledges-columbia-river.html Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:10:01 EDT news638005834 A research paper from University of Vermont's Keller Laboratory examining the impacts of genomically-diverse seedlings on the resilience of red spruce forests in a changing climate was published in Applications in Plant Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-sourcing-genomically-diverse-seedlings-climate.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:00:01 EDT news638005208 More than 48,000 deer, thousands of Pacific newts, close to 100 mountain lions and many thousands of other animals are killed each year by vehicles on California roads, according to the 2024 "roadkill report" from the University of California, Davis' Road Ecology Center. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-roadkill-natural-disaster.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:57:57 EDT news638006269 In 2023, a newborn Javan rhino in Indonesia raised hopes for the highly endangered species. Now, conservationists fear poachers have killed up to a third of the surviving population, possibly with inside help. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-javan-rhino-survival-indonesia-poaching.html Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 04:20:02 EDT news637988549 As night falls in central Scotland, beavers appear in a pond under the fascinated gaze of a group of nature enthusiasts. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scottish-farmers-damn-wild-beaver.html Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 03:57:11 EDT news637988223 Dale McGinnity has been turning over rocks in Mill Creek to study the endangered Nashville crayfish for a decade. He hopes to learn whether this little crustacean that makes its home mainly in the urbanized area around its namesake city is being harmed by all the development surrounding it. The results are encouraging. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-endangered-nashville-crayfish-rebound-good.html Ecology Wed, 19 Jun 2024 03:55:52 EDT news637988145