Latest Ecology Stories

Although there has been growing recognition among researchers and policy-makers that ship-borne invasive species cause a considerable economic toll, this environmental problem often goes unaddressed because of the difficulty in quantifying annual impacts on ecosystem services. However, a new paper by researchers from the University of Notre Dame, the University of Wyoming and the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, assigns a dollar figure on the cost to the Great Lakes from...

Simultaneously attaining a reliable water supply for California and protecting and rehabilitating its Bay-Delta ecosystem cannot be realized until better planning can identify how trade-offs between these two goals will be managed when water is limited, says a new report from the National Research Council. Recent efforts have been ineffective in meeting these goals because management is distributed among many agencies and organizations, which hinders development and implementation of an...

A team of scientists from the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of Córdoba in Spain recently developed a new methodology that measures the economic impact of forest fires on timber resources. When evaluating and planning fire management program activities, it is important to know the value of the forest ecosystems protected. However, determining the true volume or economic value of the resources lost during a fire can be difficult. For example,...

Paris-based DIVERSITAS to spearhead global investigation into the '5 Ws' of biodiversity loss and how to mitigate it Concluding a four-year global consultation, international experts have agreed on key efforts needed to reduce the on-going loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. On Day 2 of the Planet under Pressure conference in London (planetunderpressure2012.net) March 27, leaders of the global biodiversity research programme DIVERSITAS described the urgent need to...

Removal of the Tamaligi tree (Falcataria moluccana), an invasive and destructive non-native tree on Tutuila Island, American Samoa greatly improves the health of its diverse native forests, according to a recently published study appearing in the journal Biological Invasions. A team of scientists from the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station–Hilo and the National Park of American Samoa (NPSA) investigated how Tamaligi trees affected the composition, biomass, and soil...

It can be difficult to uncover the behavior of small, shy, nocturnal primates like the brown mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus), especially in the dense rainforests of Madagascar where this lemur lives. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology shows that the social interactions of brown mouse lemurs can be monitored by mapping the transfer of tagged lice. Brown mouse lemurs are the only known host of the parasitic louse Lemurpediculus verruculosus. The lice...

Brett Smith for RedOrbit.com Discovery of a new giant wasp species last year has led to the discovery of an even larger species than had been sitting in a collection for 80 years. Megalara garuda hails from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the same island where a team led by professor Lynn Kimsey (UC Davis) discovered the wasp’s slightly smaller relative Dalara garuda. Both species belong to the digger wasp family, a diverse group of wasps that sting and paralyze prey insects....

By analyzing vegetation information collected by satellites over time instead of for just one day, scientists in the Michigan State University Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) have developed a novel procedure to assess the composition of plant species in an area. Researchers long have used multi-spectral images (which include radiation outside human perception, such as infrared) and other remotely sensed data to create maps of vegetation around the globe. But...

PORT ORANGE, Fla., March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Animal Control Management today announces an aggressive expansion of their nuisance wildlife removal services by offering protected territory franchise opportunities. Long established as a leader in the humane removal of annoying, pest-category wildlife in Central Florida, Animal Control Management handles all types of animal removal and exclusion using proprietary, state of the art materials and techniques that permit them to offer an...