By UC Berkeley 7/2/2019 Spotted owl populations are in decline all along the West Coast, and as climate change increases the risk of large and destructive wildfires in the region, these iconic animals face the real threat of losing even more of their forest habitat. Rather than attempting to preserve the owl’s remaining habitat exactly as is, wildfire management —…
By Pennsylvania State University 7/18/2019 New guidelines drafted by a consortium of concerned experts could enable corals to adapt to changing environments and help restore declining coral populations in the Caribbean. The guidelines provide a definitive plan for collecting, raising, and replanting corals that maximizes their potential for adaptation. A new paper outlining the guidelines, authored by the restoration genetics…
By University of Liverpool 7/19/2019 A study by the University of Liverpool and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) has found that parasites reduced female seabirds’ reproductive success by 30%, whilst seeming to have little effect on male seabirds. A seven year study of European shags on the Isle of May off the East coast of Scotland sought to explore the impact…
By Florida State University 6/11/2019 Research by an evolutionary biologist from Florida State University has shown parasites have important and far-reaching effects on predatory fish and the ecosystems they inhabit. These findings, published this week in the journal Ecology, provide important evidence for the little-studied role of parasites in trophic cascades, which are powerful, indirect interactions that can affect entire…
By Manchester Metropolitan University 7/4/2019 A rare tree has been re-discovered in a remote area of Indonesia decades after it was thought to be extinct. Liam Trethowan, an ecology PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University, spotted a cluster of ‘Kalappia’ trees some 200 km from where it was last seen in the 1970s while conducting fieldwork in the Indonesian rain…
By Villanova University 6/19/2019 Three Villanova University researchers, part of a team that through a five-year study in Alberta, Canada determined the “critical load”—or recommended maximum amount of nitrogen that can enter the region’s peat bogs through precipitation without causing damage to its ecosystem—have released their findings in an article published June 18 in Ecological Monographs. Titled “Experimental Nitrogen Addition Alters…
By University of Göttingen 6/18/2019 For a long time, ecologists have relied on their senses when it comes to recording animal populations and species diversity. However, modern programmable sound recording devices are now the better option for logging animal vocalisations. Scientists lead by the University of Göttingen have investigated this using studies of birds as an example. The results were…
By São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) 5/15/2019 Plants in the Brazilian savanna, the Cerrado, have evolved to deal with fire. When fire is used intelligently as part of a carefully planned land management method, it is indispensable to the conservation of this superb ecosystem, the world’s most biodiverse savanna. Two months suffice for the Cerrado to burst into flower after…
By University of Rennes, Earth Sciences and Astronomy Observatory (OSUR) 6/12/2019 Demographic and health factors that condition female dispersal decisions. In an article entitled “Disease avoidance, and breeding group size and dispersal patterns of western lowland gorilla females” published in the journal Ecology in June 2019, Alice Baudouin, Pascaline Gouar, Jean-Sebastien Pierre and Nelly Ménard (ECOBIO) explore the mechanisms of social dispersal…
By University of Illinois 6/18/2019 If current climate and crop-improvement trends continue into the future, Midwestern corn growers who today rely on rainfall to water their crops will need to irrigate their fields, a new study finds. This could draw down aquifers, disrupt streams and rivers, and set up conflicts between agricultural and other human and ecological needs for water,…
By Zoological Society of London 6/12/19 Six different colour morphs of the elusive Asiatic golden cat have been discovered in Northeast India – with the findings being hailed as “an evolutionary puzzle” – as the world’s greatest number of different coloured wild cat species in one area are reported. The Indian scientists from ZSL and UCL discovered the colour morphs, during…
By University of Jyväskylä 6/10/2019 Reproducing in a fearful world is tricky. How do rodents get information of prevailing risk of death, and how do they respond to the information? A research team of evolutionary biologists from University of Jyväskylä, Finland and University of Vienna, Austria reported that rodent mothers are more likely to become pregnant after smelling odors produced…
By University of Guelph 6/7/2019 Call it the “Little Bog of Horrors.” In what is believed to be a first for North America, biologists at the University of Guelph have discovered that meat-eating pitcher plants in Ontario’s Algonquin Park wetlands consume not just bugs but also young salamanders. In a paper published this week in the journal Ecology, the research…
By Wildlife Conservation Society 6/5/2019 A new analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment shows that the world’s protected areas (PAs) are experiencing major shortfalls in staffing and resources and are therefore failing on a massive scale to safeguard wildlife. The analysis looked at more than 2,100 protected areas around the world and found that less than a…
By Macquarie University 6/4/2019 New Guinea is one of the only places in the world where frogs are safe from the species-destroying chytrid fungus. An international team of scientists has published a new paper that shows how to keep it that way, but they need help to carry out their plan. The chytrid fungus has wiped out more than 90…
By Florida State University 6/3/2019 Every beachgoer can spot seaweed in the ocean or piling up on the beach, but Florida State University researchers working with colleagues in the United Kingdom have found that these slimy macroalgae play an important role in permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Their work is published in the journal Ecological Monographs by the Ecological Society…
Blogpost from ESA President Laura Huenneke
By UC Davis 5/29/2019 Thinning forests and conducting prescribed burns may help preserve trees in future droughts and bark beetle epidemics expected under climate change, suggests a study from the University of California, Davis. The study, published in the journal Ecological Applications, found that thinning and prescribed fire treatments reduced the number of trees that died during the bark beetle…
By Max Planck Society 5/28/2019 The females of some bat species migrate hundreds of kilometres after hibernation to give birth to their offspring in insect-rich regions. Unlike birds, it is largely unknown how bats keep their energy consumption low during flight. Dina Dechmann and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz equipped female common noctule bats…
By Gianluca Piovesan 5/28/2019 Beech trees older than 600 years discovered in the Pollino Massif: This high-mountain old-growth Mediterranean forest harbors the oldest deciduous hardwoods. Discovering, studying, and preserving old trees is a top priority for conservation biology and sustainable development. We used tree-ring data from a high-mountain old-growth Mediterranean beech forest to reconstruct long-term growth patterns in trees of…