All posts; Tags Include "Ecology"
- September 2, 2010
- 11:02 AM
- 8 views
War & Fish
by Journal Watch Online in Journal Watch Online
War isn’t the answer — but it wasn’t so bad if you were a Scottish haddock. A 6-year pause in commercial fishing caused by World War II helped cod, haddock and whiting populations in Europe’s North Sea recover from years of pre-war exploitation, according to a new analysis. The “accidental” reserve suggests that cold-water fish […] Read More »... Read more »
Doug Beare , & Eddie McKenzie . (2010) An unintended experiment in fisheries science: a marine area protected by war results in Mexican waves in fish numbers-at-age. Naturwissenschaften. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-010-0696-5
- September 1, 2010
- 08:41 PM
- 29 views
New land for agriculture coming mainly at the expense of tropical ecosystems
by Phil Camill in Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture
There have traditionally been two ways to produce more food for an increasing population: Convert native ecosystems like forests and grasslands into agricultural fields (what we call “extensification”) or make the yields on existing croplands go up, through the use of things like machinery, fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides, and GMOs (what we call “intensification”).
Historically, these processes [...]... Read more »
H. K. Gibbs, A. S. Ruesch, F. Achard, M. K. Clayton, P. Holmgrene, N. Ramankutty, and J. A. Foley. (2010) Tropical forests were the primary sources of new agricultural land in the 1980s and 1990s. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. info:/
- September 1, 2010
- 02:04 PM
- 27 views
Prairie Dogs: Small Creatures, Big Vocabulary
by Kari Kenefick in Promega Connections
It is summer, July already! Vacation time for kids and the people that love them. Though many years past, I recall fondly one of our first family trips to the Black Hills of South Dakota. While en route, we stopped in the Badlands National Park. Though the Badlands might appear a barren, treeless desert (and [...]... Read more »
Slobodchikoff CN, Paseka A, & Verdolin JL. (2009) Prairie dog alarm calls encode labels about predator colors. Animal cognition, 12(3), 435-9. PMID: 19116730
- September 1, 2010
- 09:51 AM
- 26 views
Millipedes and mites do not cospeciate. But do they coevolve?
by Timothée Poisot in Timothée Poisot
Coevolution is a really cool evolutionary process in which a genetically driven change in the phenotype of one species is responsible for a change in the evolutionary pressures on a second species. The term was coined in the 1960s, and the concept (formalized by Janzen in 1980) is receiving an increasing interest ever since. One [...]... Read more »
James W Demastes, & Mark Hafner. (1993) Cospeciation of Pocket Gophers (Geomys) and Their Chewing Lice (Geomydoecus) . Journal of Mammalogy, 74(3). DOI: 10.2307/1382271
Yves Desdevises, Serge Morand, Olivier Jousson, & Pierre Legendre. (2002) Coevolution between Lamellodiscus (Monogenea: Diplectanidae) and Sparidae (Teleostei): The Study Of a Complex Host-Parasite System. Evolution, 14(12). DOI: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2002.tb00171.x
Janzen, Daniel H. (1980) When is it Coevolution?. Evolution, 34(3). DOI: 10.2307/2408229
Strauss SY, Sahli H, & Conner JK. (2005) Toward a more trait-centered approach to diffuse (co)evolution. The New phytologist, 165(1), 81-89. PMID: 15720623
Lynn Swafford, & Jason E Bond. (2010) Failure to cospeciate: an unsorted tale of millipedes and mites. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. info:/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01499.x
John N Thompson. (2010) Four Central Points About Coevolution. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 57(1). DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0200-x
- September 1, 2010
- 09:05 AM
- 38 views
New cooperation theory has major Mommy issues
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
The cover article for last week's issue of Nature promised to be the last word in a long-running scientific argument over the evolution of cooperation—but it really just rejiggers the terms of the debate. Instead of solving the problem of how cooperative behavior can evolve, the new paper presents a model of maternal enslavement [$a]. These are not, it turns out, quite the same thing.
Group selection versus kin selection
Let's start with some background. Unselfish, cooperative behavior has l........ Read more »
Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W. (1981) The evolution of cooperation. Science, 211(4489), 1390-1396. DOI: 10.1126/science.7466396
Hamilton, W.D. (1964) The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 1-16. DOI: 10.1016/0022-5193(64)90038-4
Hamilton, W.D. (1964) The genetical evolution of social behaviour. II. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 17-52. DOI: 10.1016/0022-5193(64)90039-6
Nowak, M., Tarnita, C., & Wilson, E. (2010) The evolution of eusociality. Nature, 466(7310), 1057-62. DOI: 10.1038/nature09205
- September 1, 2010
- 08:37 AM
- 28 views
Dispersants! Part III: Do dispersants really promote degradation of oil?
by Holly Bik in Deep Sea News
Promoting microbial degradation of oil has been one of the main arguments in favor of dispersant use. Interestingly, the PWSRCAC review (covering literature from 1997-2008) did not identify any recent study that explicitly found dispersant use enhancing the biodegradation of oil. Actually, ~50% of studies found that chemical additives inhibited microbial degradation and the other half . . . → Read More: Dispersants! Part III: Do dispersants really promote degradation of oil?... Read more »
Venosa AD, & Holder EL. (2007) Biodegradability of dispersed crude oil at two different temperatures. Marine pollution bulletin, 54(5), 545-53. PMID: 17316707
Yoshida A, Nomura H, Toyoda K, Nishino T, Seo Y, Yamada M, Nishimura M, Wada M, Okamoto K, Shibata A.... (2006) Microbial responses using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to oil and chemical dispersant in enclosed ecosystems. Marine pollution bulletin, 52(1), 89-95. PMID: 16202430
- August 31, 2010
- 05:45 AM
- 27 views
caterpillar drool enhances plants' calls for help
A while ago now I discussed how some plants are able to warn others when they're under attack by grazing animals. Now it seems that these responses and interactions are even more subtle - a new paper describes how signalling...... Read more »
Allmann S, & Baldwin IT. (2010) Insects betray themselves in nature to predators by rapid isomerization of green leaf volatiles. Science (New York, N.Y.), 329(5995), 1075-8. PMID: 20798319
- August 30, 2010
- 03:30 PM
- 35 views
Yicaris – Progenitor of the Crustacea
by Kevin Zelnio in Deep Sea News
Finding any new fossil is rare. Finding invertebrate fossils is made even more rare because of the squishy nature of most invertebrates. Sometimes the wandering paleontologist, toiling away with utmost care through dust and debris, can find parts of squishy invertebrates like scolodonts (polychaete jaws), coral rubble, carbonate shell cement, or maybe sea star or sponge . . . → Read More: Yicaris – Progenitor of the Crustacea... Read more »
Zhang, X., Siveter, D., Waloszek, D., & Maas, A. (2007) An epipodite-bearing crown-group crustacean from the Lower Cambrian. Nature, 449(7162), 595-598. DOI: 10.1038/nature06138
- August 30, 2010
- 09:05 AM
- 34 views
On competition, ecological opportunity, and Sahney et al.
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
There's already been a lot of blogospheric discussion of the BBC's recent declaration that "Darwin may have been wrong" based on a recently-published paleontology paper. I hadn't paid it much attention, because while sloppy science journalism irritates me, it's not quite in my wheelhouse, expertise-wise. Then I actually got around to reading the paper, and it turns out that it's directly related to some of my own work—and the conclusion that led to the sensationalistic sub-headline doesn't mak........ Read more »
Sahney, S., Benton, M., & Ferry, P. (2010) Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land. Biology Letters, 6(4), 544-7. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024
Yoder, J.B., Des Roches, S., Eastman, J.M., Gentry, L., Godsoe, W.K.W., Hagey, T., Jochimsen, D., Oswald, B.P., Robertson, J., Sarver, B.A.J.... (2010) Ecological opportunity and the origin of adaptive radiations. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 23(8), 1581-96. DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02029.x
- August 30, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 29 views
Yummy mummies
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
When you think of cleaner fish, you probably think of those dramatically coloured little fish on tropical coral reefs, dancing in and out of the jaws of moray eels and other large predators. But coral reef fish aren’t the only ones that pick up parasites.
Pacific salmon get lice. Sea lice, to be exact. And you have to think these are about as unpleasant as human lice. Obviously, since salmon are heavily exploited, biologists are going to be interested in ways to control potentially harmful pa........ Read more »
Losos CJC, Reynolds JD, & Dill LM. (2010) Sex-selective Predation by Threespine Sticklebacks on Sea Lice: A Novel Cleaning Behaviour. Ethology. info:/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01814.x
- August 30, 2010
- 06:18 AM
- 34 views
Bipartite networks: from description to prediction
by Timothée Poisot in Timothée Poisot
Food webs, since introduced by Elton in 1927, have proven to be useful descriptors of ecological communities, and have generated an impressive amount of theory and data (see e.g. the PEaCE Lab or the IWDB). In their simplest expression, food webs are visualized as a matrix with one population (e.g. the preys) as rows and [...]... Read more »
Bersier, L., Banašek-Richter, C., & Cattin, M. (2002) QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTORS OF FOOD-WEB MATRICES. Ecology, 83(9), 2394-2407. DOI: 10.2307/3071801
Blüthgen N, Menzel F, & Blüthgen N. (2006) Measuring specialization in species interaction networks. BMC ecology, 9. PMID: 16907983
Ayco J. M. Tack, Sofia Gripenberg, & Tomas Roslin. (2010) Can we predict indirect interactions from quantitative food webs? – an experimental approach. Journal of Animal Ecology. info:/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01744.x
- August 27, 2010
- 11:41 AM
- 190 views
It’s just a little pre-digested; it’s still good, it’s still good.
If you want to know about the life and habitat of a woolly mammoth, there is scarcely a better place to look than in its dung. Found frozen in the permafrost or extracted from the intestines of well-preserved specimens, mammoth coprolites are fecal records of the plants which existed in the animal's local environment and [...]... Read more »
VANGEEL, B., APTROOT, A., BAITTINGER, C., BIRKS, H., BULL, I., CROSS, H., EVERSHED, R., GRAVENDEEL, B., KOMPANJE, E., & KUPERUS, P. (2008) The ecological implications of a Yakutian mammoth's last meal. Quaternary Research, 69(3), 361-376. DOI: 10.1016/j.yqres.2008.02.004
van Geel, B., Guthrie, R., Altmann, J., Broekens, P., Bull, I., Gill, F., Jansen, B., Nieman, A., & Gravendeel, B. (2010) Mycological evidence of coprophagy from the feces of an Alaskan Late Glacial mammoth. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.008
- August 26, 2010
- 05:22 PM
- 34 views
Inside out: cannibalism, nutrition and swarm formation in locusts
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
It may be difficult to picture just one locust singled out from a swarm. But believe it or not, desert locusts—insects infamous for their contribution to plagues and famine—are naturally solitary creatures. So what causes the group uprising that farmers are so familiar with? Research has shown that the internal workings of a solitary locust can affect the swarming behavior of the entire group.
... Read more »
Anstey, M., Rogers, S., Ott, S., Burrows, M., & Simpson, S. (2009) Serotonin Mediates Behavioral Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts. Science, 323(5914), 627-630. DOI: 10.1126/science.1165939
Bazazi, S., Romanczuk, P., Thomas, S., Schimansky-Geier, L., Hale, J., Miller, G., Sword, G., Simpson, S., & Couzin, I. (2010) Nutritional state and collective motion: from individuals to mass migration. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1447
- August 26, 2010
- 10:05 AM
- 33 views
Fossil Plant Debris Key to UK Dinosaur Preservation
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When I think of dinosaur bones, the rocky and shrub-flecked expanses of western North America immediately come to mind, but it should not be forgotten that some of the first dinosaurs recognized by science were discovered across the Atlantic in England. Paleontologists have been searching for dinosaurs there longer than anywhere else, and among the [...]... Read more »
Sweetman, S., & Insole, A. (2010) The plant debris beds of the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, southern England: their genesis and palaeontological significance. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 292(3-4), 409-424. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.055
- August 26, 2010
- 03:35 AM
- 40 views
Global Temperature Proxy Reconstructions ~ now with CO2 forcing
by apeescape in mind of a Markov chain
Previously, I did a simple Bayesian projection of recent temperature using proxy data and the methods shown in McShane and Wyner (2010). I showed that when you take out the last 30 years of data (1969~1998), the projection does not track the recent uptick in temperatures well. The “projection” is a simple unparametric bootstrap which [...]... Read more »
BLAKELEY B. MCSHANE AND ABRAHAM J. WYNER. (2010) A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE TEMPERATURE PROXIES: ARE RECONSTRUCTIONS OF SURFACE TEMPERATURES OVER THE LAST 1000 YEARS RELIABLE?. Annals of Applied Statistics, 4(3). info:/
- August 25, 2010
- 12:00 PM
- 48 views
The history of the Joshua tree, threats new and old
by Jeremy in Voltage Gate
And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as [...]... Read more »
Cole, K., Ironside, K., Eischeid, J., Garfin, G., Duffy, P., & Toney, C. (2010) Past and ongoing shifts in Joshua tree support future modeled range contraction. Ecological Applications, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1890/09-1800.1
- August 24, 2010
- 10:50 PM
- 28 views
Plumes, Microbes, and Hypoxia…Did, Do, or Will They Exist in the Gulf
by Dr. M in Deep Sea News
The internets are a buzz with a new paper published in Science. You may recall I covered the new paper by Camilli et al. in Science demonstrating that a deep-water oil plume did exist, conclusively, in Gulf of Mexico at the time the researchers sampled, approximately May-June. One of the interesting findings was that at the . . . → Read More: Plumes, Microbes, and Hypoxia…Did, Do, or Will They Exist in the Gulf... Read more »
Hazen, T., Dubinsky, E., DeSantis, T., Andersen, G., Piceno, Y., Singh, N., Jansson, J., Probst, A., Borglin, S., Fortney, J.... (2010) Deep-Sea Oil Plume Enriches Indigenous Oil-Degrading Bacteria. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1195979
- August 24, 2010
- 09:01 PM
- 38 views
What would a Zostera blog be without a Zostera entry?
by John Carroll in Chronicles of Zostera
In the most recent issue of Marine Biology, there is a manuscript addressing the issue of 2 introduced species and their interactions with one another. Its an interesting read - one of the species is a commercially important bivalve, the Manila clam, which was introduced in the early 20th century and is now one of the most commercially harvested clams on the west coast of the US. The second is Zostera japonica, dwarf eelgrass, an introduced seagrass species which can establish itself on tidal ........ Read more »
Tsai, C., Yang, S., Trimble, A., & Ruesink, J. (2010) Interactions between two introduced species: Zostera japonica (dwarf eelgrass) facilitates itself and reduces condition of Ruditapes philippinarum (Manila clam) on intertidal flats. Marine Biology, 157(9), 1929-1936. DOI: 10.1007/s00227-010-1462-0
Irlandi, E., & Peterson, C. (1991) Modification of animal habitat by large plants: mechanisms by which seagrasses influence clam growth. Oecologia, 87(3), 307-318. DOI: 10.1007/BF00634584
Judge M, Coen L, Heck KL. (1993) Does Mercenaria mercenaria encounter elevated food levels in seagrass beds? Results from a novel technique to collect suspended food resources. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 141-150. info:/
- August 24, 2010
- 08:15 PM
- 42 views
Ant Nestmate Recognition is Fast and Dynamic with Minimal Neural Processing
by Michael Long in Phased
Nathalie Stroeymeyt (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and coworkers have shown that ant chemical recognition of nestmates can be fast, is adaptable to evolving conditions, and does not require extensive neural processing. This news feature was written on August 24, 2010.... Read more »
Stroeymeyt, N., Guerrieri, F. J., van Zweden, J. S., & d'Ettorre, P. (2010) Rapid Decision-Making with Side-Specific Perceptual Discrimination in Ants. PLoS ONE, 5(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012377
- August 24, 2010
- 09:05 AM
- 42 views
Are mutualists monogamists, while antagonists play the field?
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
Two of the most diverse groups of living things on Earth are flowering plants and the insects that make their living from flowering plants. Biologists have long thought that the almost incessant, intimate interactions between plants and plant-eating insects might be the evolutionary cause of each group's spectacular diversity. On a smaller scale, this means that we're interested in the reasons that specific insects and plants interact in the first place—what evolutionary trails leads one insec........ Read more »
Drummond, C., Xue, H., Yoder, J., & Pellmyr, O. (2009) Host-associated divergence and incipient speciation in the yucca moth Prodoxus coloradensis (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae) on three species of host plants. Heredity, 105(2), 183-96. DOI: 10.1038/hdy.2009.154
Kawakita, A., & Kato, M. (2006) Assessment of the diversity and species specificity of the mutualistic association between Epicephala moths and Glochidion trees. Molecular Ecology, 15(12), 3567-81. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.03037.x
Kawakita, A., Okamoto, T., Goto, R., & Kato, M. (2010) Mutualism favours higher host specificity than does antagonism in plant-herbivore interaction. Proc. Royal Soc. B, 277(1695), 2765-74. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0355
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