https://phys.org/biology-news/ecology en-us The latest science and research news on ecology While ecologically important, small mushrooms on monocots (grasses and sedges) are rarely studied and a lack of information about their habitat and DNA sequences creates difficulties in determining their presence or absence in ecological studies and their genetic relationships to other mushroom taxa. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-genus-fungi-grasses.html Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:20:03 EST news628964402 Birds migrating from north to south are a given, but migrating from the southwest to the southeast is a little rarer. A burrowing owl is overwintering on a Tennessee River peninsula near New Johnsonville, Tennessee, marking the first sighting of the species in the state, and a Mississippi State wildlife ecologist is researching the fascinating oddity. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-texas-tennessee-burrowing-owl-odd.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:54:42 EST news628959247 Invasive plants can stay dormant for decades or even centuries after they have been introduced into an environment before rapidly expanding and wreaking ecological havoc, according to a new study led by the University of California, Davis. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-invasive-hidden-ecological-threat.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:39:03 EST news628958341 Engineers from EPFL and partner organizations have developed a method for classifying lacustrine deltas based on morphological parameters, in order to determine which of the deltas severely altered by human activity are best suited for restoration to their natural state. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-lake-deltas.html Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:23:55 EST news628957433 Greg Rouse, a marine biologist at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and other researchers have discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection, co-authored a study describing the new species in the journal PLOS ONE. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-deep-sea-worm-methane-seep.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:00:01 EST news628942718 University of Queensland research has revealed that protecting smaller but more strategic parcels of land will result in better and more cost-effective biodiversity conservation outcomes globally. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-smarter-biodiversity.html Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:00:02 EST news628951384 The corn leafhopper Dalbulus maidis has become a serious problem for farmers. This tiny insect is now widely distributed in the Americas, from the south of the United States to the north of Argentina. In Brazil, it uses only corn plants as hosts, and little is known about its survival mechanisms in the absence of these plants. In corn, it causes damage directly by sucking sap from the phloem, the vascular tissue that conducts sugar and other metabolic products downward from the leaves. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-fungus-corn-leafhopper-extremely-pest.html Ecology Agriculture Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:42:04 EST news628951321 April in the Florida Panhandle. It was hot, humid, and a thunderstorm was lurking. But as a fresh graduate student, I was relieved for the escape from my first brutal Minnesota winter. I was accompanying my adviser, Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido, on a project that would end up dominating my Ph.D. work. Out in the scrubland, my eyes darted at every movement, on the alert for an insect that likes shiny beads. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-robber-flies-track-beetle-prey.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:50:01 EST news628945905 Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, within the Department of Theoretical Biology, characterized a recently discovered dynamical regime of microbial communities and used it to explain empirical patterns of marine plankton. There, strong and diverse interactions, combined with weak dispersal, fuel a continuous turnover of the small set of very abundant species, such that success is ephemeral and every species is equivalent in alternating between rarity and dominance. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-insights-dynamics-microbial-communities.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:31:02 EST news628947061 Global change is altering the physiology of the hibernation and behavior of bats, according to a study led by the University of Barcelona, carried out over 20 years. Given the milder winters in Spain, bats are accumulating less fat reserves in autumn, they shorten their hibernation periods and they leave their winter shelter sooner. These changes could alter the migration pattern of bats and the phenology of their seasonal displacements. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-global-affecting-hibernation.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:28:04 EST news628946881 An international team of wildlife researchers has found that the giant tortoises living on the Galápagos islands may be in danger of losing a major food resource due to the encroachment of invasive Cedrela odorata trees. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-galpagos-giant-tortoises-danger-due.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:20:01 EST news628946004 In a groundbreaking discovery, bumblebees have been shown to possess a previously unseen level of cognitive sophistication. A new study, published in Nature, reveals that these fuzzy pollinators can learn complex, multi-step tasks through social interaction, even if they cannot figure them out on their own. This challenges the long-held belief that such advanced social learning is unique to humans, and even hints at the presence of key elements of cumulative culture in these insects. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-bumblebees-scientists-advanced-social-skills.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942848 It would be a game-changer if all members of a basketball team could see out of each other's eyes in addition to their own. A research duo at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute has found evidence that this kind of collective sensing occurs in close-knit groups of African weakly electric fish, also known as elephantnose fish. This instantaneous sharing of sensory intelligence could help the fish locate food, friends and foes. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-scientists-uncover-evidence-electric-elephantnose.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942854 A theoretical experiment characterized the network architecture of a species-rich ecosystem over eight months. Predator–prey interaction networks play a key role in structuring ecosystems, but ecological research has often treated such networks as static, despite the broadly accepted understanding of ecosystems as dynamic. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-food-web-flexibility.html Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:12:45 EST news628942363 Stingless bees in the Colombian Andes are adapting to a derivative of the ubiquitous insecticide ivermectin, which the bees ingest along with pollen from pasture flowers, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-wild-bees-tolerance-veterinary-drugs.html Evolution Ecology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:08:17 EST news628942095 A new study provides insights into the role of microbes and their interaction as drivers of interspecific differences in coral thermal bleaching. The study was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-microbes-impact-coral-susceptibility.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 09:00:03 EST news628938001 Kyle David, an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Rokas lab, and co-authors have published a new paper, "Saccharomycotina yeasts defy longstanding macroecological patterns," in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This paper, which looks at the ecology of 186 species of yeast, provides evidence that not all life forms follow the rules. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-mold-ecological-norms-yeast-communities.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:56:03 EST news628937761 Researchers with the University of Minnesota hope to release highly specialized parasitic wasps to serve as a biological control method to save Darwin's finches from a dire threat: the invasive avian vampire fly, Philornis downsi. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-highlights-urgency-parasitic-wasp-native.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:07:02 EST news628880821 Strategies deployed for the restoration of degraded land have had promising results in Brazil's semi-arid region, improving the microbial properties of the soil and contributing to a return of native ecosystem services. The techniques include removal of cattle or restriction of their access to specific areas of pasture; cultivation of cover crops; and terracing to control erosion. Recovery of soil microbial properties maintains biodiversity and raises crop yields, contributing to agricultural sustainability. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-degraded-areas-semi-arid-region.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:06:05 EST news628880761 A group of marine biologists specializing in shark ecology, genetics and fisheries have challenged the findings from a recent study suggesting that South Africa's white shark population has not decreased, but simply redistributed eastwards to flee predation from orcas. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-actions-south-africa-declining-white.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:45:04 EST news628879501 Due to the increased demand for food for the growing population, pesticides are widely used to control diseases and boost productivity. A study published in the journal Gene Expression was designed to evaluate the toxic effects of the fungicide Mancozeb (MZ) in the liver of the fish strain Channa punctatus. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-perturbations-redox-status-biochemical-indices.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:36:03 EST news628878962 When biologist Elizabeth Carlen pulled up in her 2007 Subaru for her first look around St. Louis, she was already checking for the squirrels. Arriving as a newcomer from New York City, Carlen had scrolled through maps and lists of recent sightings in a digital application called iNaturalist. This app is a popular tool for reporting and sharing sightings of animals and plants. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-bias-citizen-science.html Ecology Other Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:10:05 EST news628877401 A new feathered face has just popped up in front of the live cameras hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Bird Cams project. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-flying-tigers-university-bird-cams.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:07:02 EST news628877221 Scientists have confirmed the presence of a whale off New England that went extinct in the Atlantic Ocean two centuries ago—an exciting discovery, but one they said that illustrates the impact of climate change on sea life. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-whale-native-north-pacific-england.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:20:01 EST news628867059 The first confirmed baby right whale of the year has been found dead from a collision with a ship, a devastating blow for the vanishing species. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-baby-whale-season-dies-injuries.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:16:57 EST news628867011 Though some crown rust fungi are known to cause widespread damage to oat and barley crops, new research from the University of Minnesota suggests a close relative of these major pathogens could actually be a valuable asset in managing two highly invasive wetland plants in Minnesota. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-crown-rust-fungus-highly-invasive.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:03:02 EST news628866181 Imagine that you're in a comfortable room with your cat. You're both sharing the same space, temperature and lighting. But while you're enjoying the décor, and perhaps a book or the taste of hot chocolate, the cat seems intrigued by something else. Maybe she's looking for a treat or making sure that no one infringes on "her" preferred spot, a comfortable armchair near the heater. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-world-dolphins-super.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:45:04 EST news628865101 Whether you're a gardener growing food for your household, a small-scale farmer or a commercial producer, soil matters. You cannot really tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy soil just by looking at it. But there are organisms in the soil— creatures you can't see with your naked eye—which scientists use to measure soil health. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-tiny-worm-creatures-soil-destroy.html Ecology Agriculture Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:44:03 EST news628865041 There are roughly 100 million managed western honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in hives worldwide, with about half in Europe, Africa and western Asia, where the species is native, and the rest in the Americas, Oceania and eastern Asia, where it is introduced. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-honey-bees-abundant-wild-hives.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:00:03 EST news628858801 Prague zoo said Tuesday it would transport eight endangered wild horses to a Kazakhstan steppe in June in a joint project with the Tierpark Berlin zoo. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-prague-berlin-zoos-reintroduce-wild.html Ecology Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:32:45 EST news628857161