Latest Ecology Stories

Ancient plants grown in state-of-the-art growth chambers recreating environmental conditions from more than 400 million years ago have shown scientists from the University of Sheffield how soil dwelling fungi played a crucial role in the evolution of plants. This ground breaking work provides fundamental knowledge of how plants colonized the land before roots evolved and the co-evolution of one of the most ancient relationships, between fungi and early plants that played a founding role in...

A new study led by Carrie Schloss, an analyst in environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington, finds that nine percent of the Western Hemisphere's mammals, and nearly forty percent in particular regions, will fall victim to the changing climate. Some mammals are merely too slow to escape climate change in their natural habitats and are unable to move into different areas. The study seeks to understand if the mammals can actually adapt to these conditions by moving or not....

Accurate Predictions Found in Early Test Results The drive to develop crops for use as biofuel, continues to raise questions about additional uses of forest land.  A cutting edge computer model developed at North Carolina State University offers detailed insight to predict the environmental impact – along with understanding forest ecosystem response to global climate change. “We think the model will help policy makers and forest managers make informed decisions to maintain forest...

HARRISBURG, Pa., May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While this spring's weather has been a little more variable than usual, Pennsylvania Game Commission officials say one thing for certain is the arrival of this year's young wildlife, as well as the almost certainty that Pennsylvanians will encounter young wildlife from their backyards to the mountains. "Whether enjoying your backyard or hiking in the woods, it is time for our annual message for Pennsylvanians to leave wildlife...

A modeling study from the European Alps suggests that population declines to be observed during the upcoming decades will probably underestimate the long-term effects of recent climate warming on mountain plants. A European team of ecologists around Stefan Dullinger from the Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology of the University of Vienna presents a new modeling tool to predict migration of mountain plants which explicitly takes population dynamic processes...

Long-term study finds that each species plays a role in maintaining a productive ecosystem Vegetation, such as a patch of prairie or a forest stand, is more productive in the long run when more plant species are present, results of a new study show. The long-term study of plant biodiversity found that each species plays a role in maintaining a productive ecosystem, especially when a long time horizon is considered. The research found that every additional species in a plot...

Key database monitoring climate change received its one-millionth report from a network of "citizen scientists" On April 30, 2012, the USA National Phenology Network (NPN), partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), received its one-millionth nature observation from volunteers--many of whom are non-scientists or "citizen scientists." The observation will help understand the impacts of climate change on Earth's plants and animals. Scientists and citizen volunteers...

Unprecedented long-term study conducted over 14-year period at U's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Vegetation, such as a patch of prairie or a forest stand, is more productive in the long run when more plant species are present, a new University of Minnesota study shows. The unprecedented long-term study of plant biodiversity found that each species plays a role in maintaining a productive ecosystem, especially when a long time horizon is considered. The study found that every...

Big trees three or more feet in diameter accounted for nearly half the biomass measured at a Yosemite National Park site, yet represented only one percent of the trees growing there. This means just a few towering white fir, sugar pine and incense cedars per acre at the Yosemite site are disproportionately responsible for photosynthesis, converting carbon dioxide into plant tissue and sequestering that carbon in the forest, sometimes for centuries, according to James Lutz, a University of...

Plants are leafing out and flowering sooner each year than predicted by results from controlled environmental warming experiments, according to data from a major new archive of historical observations assembled with the help of a NASA researcher. Researchers use experiments that manipulate the temperature of the environment surrounding small plots of plants to gauge how specific plants will react to higher temperatures. The observed plant responses can then be incorporated into models that...