https://phys.org/biology-news/ecology en-us The latest science and research news on ecology Colors are widely used in communication within and among animal species. For example, peacocks proudly display their vibrant tails, adorned with iridescent eyespots, to attract peahens for courtship. This is a classic example of sexual selection using color signaling. Conspicuous colors are also displayed by toxic animal species, including many venomous snakes and the brilliantly colored poison frogs of Central and South America, as a warning to potential predators. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-vision-animals-million-year-explosion.html Evolution Ecology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 17:07:03 EST news650221621 The radiation levels experienced by the frogs living in Chernobyl have not affected their age or their rate of aging. These two traits do not differ, in fact, between specimens captured in areas with high levels of radiation and those living in control areas without radiation. Nor have differences been found in the levels of corticosterone, a hormone associated with the response to stress, depending on the radiation received by these amphibians. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-chernobyl-frogs-exposed-aging-stress.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 15:35:17 EST news650216113 The densely-populated island of Luzon is home to over half of the Philippines' population, many of whom consume shellfish on a regular basis. An international team of scientists has just confirmed the presence there of two species of Pseudo-nitzschia diatoms capable of producing a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause severe sickness and memory loss. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-amnesia-diatoms-luzon-shellfish-farms.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 14:58:05 EST news650213882 Mirroring the mechanisms that make human faces and bodies—and those of many multicellular organisms—symmetrical, bee colonies build symmetrical nests when they are placed on either side of a double-sided comb. The finding, published in Current Biology, extends examples of symmetry in biology to the behavior of communities and the architectural structures that they build. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-symmetry-biology-bees-mirroring-patterns.html Evolution Ecology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 14:51:15 EST news650213472 University of Maryland entomologists have uncovered a unique relationship between two species of fungi known for their ability to invade, parasitize and kill insects efficiently. Instead of violently competing for the spoils of war, the two fungi peacefully cooperate and share their victims. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-insect-fungi-unexpected-harmony-war.html Evolution Ecology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 14:36:04 EST news650212562 Killer whales off Canada's Atlantic coast continue to be contaminated with dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals that put them at elevated risk of severe immune-system and reproductive problems, a recent McGill-led study has found. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-atlantic-killer-whales-dangerously-high.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 10:54:04 EST news650199242 Why is human culture—the shared body of knowledge passed down across generations—so much more powerful than animal cultures? https://phys.org/news/2024-11-evolutionary-anthropologist-hypothesis-humans-dominating.html Evolution Ecology Thu, 07 Nov 2024 05:00:01 EST news650107581 Research led by the University of New Hampshire sheds light on how coyotes, North America's most successful predators, are responding to various environmental pressures, including human development, hunting and competition with larger carnivores. Surprisingly, the study's findings suggest that human hunting practices may actually contribute to increasing the number of coyotes. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-coyotes-human-predator-pressures-large.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Nov 2024 16:30:04 EST news650133001 In a study of salmon samples from Seattle, Washington, grocery stores and sushi restaurants, DNA analysis revealed that 18% were mislabeled. Tracie Delgado and colleagues at Seattle Pacific University, WA, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 6, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-grocery-reliable-sushi-restaurants-salmon.html Ecology Agriculture Wed, 06 Nov 2024 14:00:01 EST news650105034 Albatrosses are exceptionally mobile and use the wind to travel hundreds of thousands of miles to feed on squid, fish, or other animals found near the water surface in the open ocean. In fact, some larger species of albatrosses are so reliant on the wind that they struggle to even take off when the conditions are calm. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-reveals-stormy-conditions-affect-albatrosses.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:21:03 EST news650118061 At less than 3mm long, you may not think Dunatothrips aneurae seem like much. And—as I have shown in a new study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology—you'd be absolutely right. That's because these may be the world's laziest insects. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-tiny-insects-world-laziest-bugs.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 06 Nov 2024 11:51:16 EST news650116272 Romance is a complex affair in humans. There's personality, appearance, seduction, all manner of physical and social cues. Mosquitoes are much more blunt. Mating occurs for a few seconds in midair. And all it takes to woo a male is the sound of a female's wingbeats. Imagine researchers' surprise when a single change completely killed the mosquitoes' libidos. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-deaf-male-mosquitoes-dont.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:22:04 EST news650024521 Swallows infected with parasites move less and in smaller ranges than healthy ones—with detrimental effects on their foraging success and their survival. As a result, infected individuals foraged in less productive areas, such as cultivated farmland, clearly avoided by their healthy conspecifics. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-mini-transmitters-infections-parasites-affect.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 05 Nov 2024 08:47:05 EST news650018821 Mosquito larvae grow faster if they're exposed to particular bacteria, according to a new study that could help global health programs. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-bacteria-discovery-mosquito-schemes.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:00:01 EST news649932301 A German-American research team has discovered two highly unusual bacterial species in the tissue of two deep-sea corals from the Gulf of Mexico. These previously unknown coral symbionts have an extremely reduced genome and lack the ability to obtain energy from carbohydrates, the team reports in an article published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-deep-sea-corals-home-previously.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:41:04 EST news649942862 A multi-institutional team of environmental scientists and physical limnologists has found that there may be a scientific explanation for Jesus' "miraculous catch of fish"—one that does not involve miracles. In their paper published in the journal Water Resources Research, the group describes their study of natural fish die-offs in Lake Kinneret, which is believed to be the Biblical Sea of Galilee mentioned in the Bible. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-jesus-miraculous-fish-explanation.html Ecology Other Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:39:55 EST news649939191 If carbon emissions are curbed and local stressors are addressed, coral reefs have the potential to persist and adapt over time. That's according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-coral-reefs-survive-climate.html Ecology Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:09:03 EST news649933741 Increased land management by Aboriginal people in southeastern Australia around 6,000 years ago cut forest shrub cover in half, according to our new study published in Science of fossil pollen trapped in ancient mud. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-mud-reveals-australia-history.html Ecology Paleontology & Fossils Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:00:02 EST news649674022 Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) are collaborating with colleagues from Frankfurt/Main, Oxford and Würzburg to investigate how the complex, cooperative behavior of honeybees (Apis mellifera) is genetically programmed so that it can be passed on to subsequent generations. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-honeybee-gene-behavior.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:00:01 EDT news649668421 Echolocating bats have been found to possess an acoustic cognitive map of their home range, enabling them to navigate over kilometer-scale distances using echolocation alone. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-echolocating-acoustic-cognitive.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:00:01 EDT news649584601 Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) aims to collect millions to billions of high-quality, highly contextualized vocalizations in order to understand how sperm whales communicate. But finding the whales and knowing where they will surface to capture the data is challenging—making it difficult to attach listening devices and collect visual information. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-framework-autonomous-drones-rendezvous-sperm.html Ecology Biotechnology Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:10:38 EDT news649595434 A team of computer scientists, ecologists and statisticians at Stony Brook University, working with a colleague from the U.S. Geological Survey, has found that it is possible to use AI applications to find images captured by ecotourists for use in studying remote animal species. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-ai-method-captures-ecotourism-photos.html Ecology Biotechnology Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:42:47 EDT news649586549 Marine animals like jellyfish, corals and sea anemones often live with algae inside their cells in a symbiotic relationship. The animals give the algae nutrients and a place to live; in return, algae give the animals some of the food they make from sunlight via photosynthesis. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-algae-jellyfish-relationship-insight-immune.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:57:03 EDT news649522621 A commercialized New Age ritual is causing not only "unwanted energies" to go up in smoke, but also foreign wild plants. A study by Utrecht University researchers Isabela Pombo Geertsma and Anastasia Stefanaki, alongside colleagues from Wageningen UR and Naturalis Biodiversity Center, reveals that dried plant bundles sold in the Netherlands for ritual burning often include plants from distant regions. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-age-ritual-bad-energies-contribute.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:41:52 EDT news649521707 Large herbivores like bison or elk have continuously lived in the Yellowstone National Park region for about 2,300 years, according to a new analysis of chemicals preserved in lake sediments. John Wendt of Oklahoma State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 30, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-dung-large-herbivores-yellowstone-national.html Ecology Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:00:01 EDT news649500087 The development of primate brains is shaped by various inputs. However, these inputs differ between independent breeders, such as great apes, and cooperative breeders, such as the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) and humans. In these species, group members other than the parents contribute substantially to raising the infants from birth onwards. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-prolonged-brain-marmosets-human-evolution.html Evolution Ecology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:00:01 EDT news649500071 In the past, African giant pouched rats have learned to detect explosives and the tuberculosis-causing pathogen. Now, a team of researchers have trained these rats to pick up the scent of pangolin scales, elephant ivory, rhino horn, and African blackwood. These animals and plants are listed as threatened and at high danger of extinction. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-giant-rats-illegal-wildlife-sniffing.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 01:00:01 EDT news649410601 Anecdotes abound of wildlife behaving "drunk" after eating fermented fruits, but despite this, nonhuman consumption of ethanol has been assumed to be rare and accidental. Ecologists challenge this assumption in a review published October 30 in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. They argue that since ethanol is naturally present in nearly every ecosystem, it is likely consumed on a regular basis by most fruit- and nectar-eating animals. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-alcohol-consumption-human-animals-rare.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:01 EDT news649411561 Jake Lewis, an entomologist in the Environmental Science and Informatics Section at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), is fascinated by weevils, a diverse group of beetles that includes many species with elephant trunk-like mouthparts (called a rostrum). Weevils provide various ecosystem services such as pollination and decomposition, but some species are serious pests known to decimate crop fields and timber forests. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-advanced-imaging-uncovers-weevil-species.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:00:01 EDT news649410901 Climate change is altering species distributions across the world, and this is particularly marked in the Arctic where warming is occurring most rapidly. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-big-shifts-tiny-players-climate.html Ecology Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:29:04 EDT news649423742