Latest Ecology Stories
Humans may be able to avert major environmental catastrophes that now loom if we learn to make better use of ‘borrowed time’, an eminent marine biologist will tell the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra tomorrow. “There is mounting evidence that we have already passed or may soon pass several critical boundaries affecting life on Earth, as well as our own future wellbeing,” the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University,...
Understanding warming requires long term studies that account for real-life complexity In the northern hardwood forest, climate change is poised to reduce the viability of the maple syrup industry, spread wildlife diseases and tree pests, and change timber resources. And, according to a new BioScience paper just released by twenty-one scientists, without long-term studies at the local scale—we will be ill-prepared to predict and manage these effects. Following an exhaustive review of...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Tropical mangrove forests, which have one foot on land and one foot in the sea, are being decimated by human activity and need to be approached with sustainability in mind, according to a new policy brief released by a coalition of conservation groups from across the United Nations. The report, titled "Securing the Future of Mangroves,” said that the world has lost about 20 percent of its mangrove forests since 1980 and the remaining...
OLYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Jim Buck received the highest award from the forestry association at the Washington Forest Protection Association's (WFPA) 104(th) annual meeting last week. The award is in memory of the late Stu Bledsoe, a visionary and leader in the legislature, agriculture and forestry communities. The award goes to those "who have made a difference" in their careers, and in this case, made a difference in the future of forestry in...
A new study led by researchers from the University of York suggests protected areas in East Africa are not conserving plants such as the iconic Acacia tree. Acacia, the thorny flat-topped tree that characterizes the African savannas, is an important component of ecosystem diversity. However, the researchers found that the majority of Acacia biodiversity 'hotspots' receive little protection through the protected area network, which includes national parks, nature and forest reserves. The...
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory A new analysis led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has estimated how much the growth of plants worldwide is limited by the amount of nutrients available in their soil. The maps produced from the research will be particularly useful in evaluating how much carbon dioxide Earth's ecosystems may be able to soak up as greenhouse gas levels increase. A research team led by JPL research scientist Josh Fisher used 19 years of data from NASA,...
University of California - Santa Barbara Predation by otters keeps urchin populations in check, allowing kelp –– a favorite food of urchins –– to flourish. But what if otters were harvested to near extinction for their fur? The resulting overabundance of urchins would decimate the kelp forest, leaving little food or shelter for fish and invertebrates. And so it may go, as declines in these species are likely to affect others. Such is the potential trickle-down effect on the food...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A mass extinction, wiping out numerous species including the dinosaurs, marked the end of the Cretaceous Period. A new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals that the structure of North American ecosystems made the extinction worse than it might have been. Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula is home to the now-buried Chicxulub impact crater, caused by a mountain-sized asteroid. This impact is...
Patterns Also Shed Light on How Environmental Disturbances Affect Aquatic Organisms The ability of deep-sea corals to harbor a broad array of marine life, including commercially important fish species, make these habitat-forming organisms of immediate interest to conservationists, managers, and scientists. Understanding and protecting corals requires knowledge of the historical processes that have shaped their biodiversity and biogeography. While little is known about these processes,...
Landscape corridors and connectivity in conservation and restoration planning We live in a human-dominated world. For many of our fellow creatures, this means a fragmented world, as human conduits to friends, family, and resources sever corridors that link the natural world. Our expanding web of highways, cities, and intensive agriculture traps many animals and plants in islands and cul-de-sacs of habitat, held back by barriers of geography or architecture from reaching mates, food, and...
Latest Ecology Reference Libraries
The Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) was occasionally previously known as Man O’War or man of War, a reflection of its rakish lines, aerial piracy of other birds, and speed. It’s widespread in the tropical Atlantic, breeding colonially in the trees in Florida, the Caribbean and the Cape Verde Islands. In addition, it breeds along the Pacific coast of the Americas from Mexico to Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands, as well. It is known as a vagrant as far from its...
The Guadalupe Storm Petrel is an extinct species of the Hydrobatidae family. It was a small seabird, almost undistinguishable from its relative, Leach’s Storm Petrel. The only ways to tell them apart was their circannual rhythm and the fact that the Guadalupe Storm Petrel is larger in size and its paler under coverts. They bred only on Guadalupe Island off Baja, California. The breeding season was set between the local subspecies of Leach’s Storm Petrel, the winder breeding Oceanodroma...
Profilicollis is a genus of acanthocephalan parasites that are found in crustaceans and shorebirds. Profilicollis parasites use decapod crustaceans as intermediate hosts and species of shorebirds as definitive hosts. The parasite first develops in mole crabs of North and South America. After it infects a mole crab, it becomes dormant until the crab is eaten by a suitable bird, such as a Surf scoter or Herring Gull. Once the parasite has passed through the stomach of the bird, it develops...
The oriental small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) is also known as the Asian small-clawed otter. The range of this otter includes Burma, Bangladesh, India, Taiwan, Laos, southern China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. This otter was thought to be a single member in the genus Amblonyx, but it has been recently classified as Aonyx due to research on its mitochondrial DNA. The oriental small-clawed otter prefers to live in freshwater wetlands and mangrove swamps...
Conservation Biology is a peer-reviewed academic journal of the Society for Conservation Biology. It was established in 1987 and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. Conservation Biology was originally developed to provide a global voice for an emerging discipline. It quickly became the most important journal dealing with the topic of biological diversity. Editor-in-chief is Gary Meffe; managing editor is Ellen Main. Stanley A. Temple, President of the SCB from 1991-1993, said: “The...
