Ecology / Conservation posts
- April 28, 2015
- 11:35 AM
- 250 views
Snowshoe Hares Pass Down Stress to Multiple Future Generations
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
It's hard to be a showshoe hare. The northern animals are in a constant race for survival with their predators, always cycling between population booms and busts. In hard years, hares are understandably stressed. And that stress can leave its signature not just on those animals, but on several future generations.
When life is good, populations of showshoe hares (Lepus americanus) can roughly double every year. But the hare's predators—lynx, foxes, coyotes—also increase in numbers as ........ Read more »
Sheriff, M., McMahon, E., Krebs, C., & Boonstra, R. (2015) Predator-induced maternal stress and population demography in snowshoe hares: the more severe the risk, the longer the generational effect. Journal of Zoology. DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12249
- April 27, 2015
- 12:28 PM
- 276 views
Boron and the Permian extinction: a glimpse into the past gives a hint of the future
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
How will ocean acidification from anthropogenic CO2 emissions affect marine life? Recent work studying a similar time during the Permian extinction 200 million years ago gives a clue.... Read more »
Clarkson MO, Kasemann SA, Wood RA, Lenton TM, Daines SJ, Richoz S, Ohnemueller F, Meixner A, Poulton SW, & Tipper ET. (2015) Ocean acidification and the Permo-Triassic mass extinction. Science (New York, N.Y.), 348(6231), 229-32. PMID: 25859043
- April 26, 2015
- 03:14 PM
- 294 views
Fatal attraction: the intuitive appeal of GMO opposition
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A team of Belgian philosophers and plant biotechnologists have turned to cognitive science to explain why opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has become so widespread, despite positive contributions GM crops have made to sustainable agriculture. They argue that the human mind is highly susceptible to the negative and often emotional representations put out by certain environmental groups and other opponents of GMOs. The researchers urge the general public to form opinions on GMOs........ Read more »
Blancke, S., Van Breusegem, F., De Jaeger, G., Braeckman, J., & Van Montagu, M. (2015) Fatal attraction: the intuitive appeal of GMO opposition. Trends in Plant Science. DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.011
- April 24, 2015
- 04:19 PM
- 307 views
Diabetes drug found in freshwater potential cause of intersex fish
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
A medication commonly taken for Type II diabetes, which is being found in freshwater systems worldwide, has been shown to cause intersex in fish –or male fish that produce eggs. The study determined exposure to the diabetes medicine metformin causes physical changes in male fish exposed to doses similar to the amount in wastewater effluent.... Read more »
Niemuth, N., & Klaper, R. (2015) Emerging wastewater contaminant metformin causes intersex and reduced fecundity in fish. Chemosphere, 38-45. DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.03.060
- April 24, 2015
- 04:59 AM
- 229 views
Will climate change affect competitive relationships between species?
by sceintists from the Marine group at CEES in Marine Science blog
Climate warming is known to affect predator-prey relationship and phenology. Less is known about competitive relationships specifically in a nonlinear framework. In a recent study, we studied this topic on…
passerine birds.
... Read more »
Stenseth, N., Durant, J., Fowler, M., Matthysen, E., Adriaensen, F., Jonzen, N., Chan, K., Liu, H., De Laet, J., Sheldon, B.... (2015) Testing for effects of climate change on competitive relationships and coexistence between two bird species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1807), 20141958-20141958. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1958
Stenseth, N. (2002) Ecological Effects of Climate Fluctuations. Science, 297(5585), 1292-1296. DOI: 10.1126/science.1071281
Saetre, G., Post, E., & Kral, M. (1999) Can environmental fluctuation prevent competitive exclusion in sympatric flycatchers?. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 266(1425), 1247-1251. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1999.0770
- April 23, 2015
- 03:17 PM
- 92 views
Changes in ecological baselines can be notably amplified when translated into socio-economics
by sceintists from the Marine group at CEES in Marine Science blog
In this study we assessed the chances of recovery of the Baltic Sea cod stock and conclude that it will never come back to the status it had more than three decades ago and that the economic losses associated to this new baseline amount to 120 million euros per year.
... Read more »
Blenckner, T., Llope, M., Mollmann, C., Voss, R., Quaas, M., Casini, M., Lindegren, M., Folke, C., & Chr. Stenseth, N. (2015) Climate and fishing steer ecosystem regeneration to uncertain economic futures. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1803), 20142809-20142809. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.2809
Llope, M., Licandro, P., Chan, K., & Stenseth, N. (2012) Spatial variability of the plankton trophic interaction in the North Sea: a new feature after the early 1970s. Global Change Biology, 18(1), 106-117. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02492.x
Llope, M., Daskalov, G., Rouyer, T., Mihneva, V., Chan, K., Grishin , A., & Stenseth, N. (2011) Overfishing of top predators eroded the resilience of the Black Sea system regardless of the climate and anthropogenic conditions. Global Change Biology, 17(3), 1251-1265. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02331.x
- April 23, 2015
- 08:00 AM
- 456 views
Two Species of Cottonmouths? This Scientist Says Yes!
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
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... Read more »
Burbrink, F. T., & Guiher, T. J. (2015) Considering gene flow when using coalescent methods to delimit lineages of North American pitvipers of the genus Agkistrodon. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 173(2), 505-526. info:/
- April 22, 2015
- 03:06 PM
- 257 views
Earth Day Turns 45
by Whitney Campbell in Green Screen
Ever since Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970, the event has adapted to the environmental issues of the times. During its inaugural year, 20 million people across the U.S. attended teach-ins and learned about the quality of the nation's water. Months earlier, coastal Santa Barbara had experienced an oil spill, while Time photographs had brought the fires of Ohio's Cuyahoga River to the country's attention. The teach-ins prompted widespread awareness of the pollution, and withi........ Read more »
Liu C, Gallagher JJ, Sakimoto KK, Nichols EM, Chang CJ, Chang MC, & Yang P. (2015) Nanowire-Bacteria Hybrids for Unassisted Solar Carbon Dioxide Fixation to Value-Added Chemicals. Nano Letters. PMID: 25848808
- April 22, 2015
- 11:42 AM
- 245 views
Earth Day spotlight: a survey of the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
Five years ago, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill changed the trajectory of ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. We take a look at how species have been affected and what we can do to prevent another disaster.... Read more »
Cornwall W. (2015) Deepwater Horizon: after the oil. Science (New York, N.Y.), 348(6230), 22. PMID: 25838362
- April 22, 2015
- 08:00 AM
- 274 views
Boys Will Be Boys… And Then Girls
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
Country teenagers still make summer money detasseling corn, but do you know why it has to be done? This is part of the interesting story of the many breeding systems in plants. Self-pollination is a bad idea, so some plants go to the trouble of switching sexes several times in a week just to avoid it!... Read more »
Casimiro-Soriguer I, Buide ML, & Narbona E. (2013) The roles of female and hermaphroditic flowers in the gynodioecious-gynomonoecious Silene littorea: insights into the phenology of sex expression. Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany), 15(6), 941-7. PMID: 23174011
Pérez-Barrales, R., Vargas, P., & Arroyo, J. (2006) New evidence for the Darwinian hypothesis of heterostyly: breeding systems and pollinators in Narcissus sect. Apodanthi. New Phytologist, 171(3), 553-567. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2006.01819.x
Miller, J., & Diggle, P. (2003) Diversification of andromonoecy in Solanum section Lasiocarpa (Solanaceae): the roles of phenotypic plasticity and architecture. American Journal of Botany, 90(5), 707-715. DOI: 10.3732/ajb.90.5.707
- April 20, 2015
- 04:18 PM
- 311 views
Urban green spaces: Insights from Valencia
by Sarah Stephen in An ecological oratorio
http://www.researchblogging.org"> alt="ResearchBlogging.org" src="http://www.researchblogging.org/public/citation_icons/rb2_large_gray.png" style="border:0;"/>Visiting the city of Valencia in Spain for the first time, we were pleasantly greeted by the subtle aroma of orange blossoms in the air and the sight of beautiful oranges dangling from the orange trees that line the street pavements. Whilst many parts of the city are bordered with trees, there are also other green spaces, ........ Read more »
Searle, S., Turnbull, M., Boelman, N., Schuster, W., Yakir, D., & Griffin, K. (2012) Urban environment of New York City promotes growth in northern red oak seedlings. Tree Physiology, 32(4), 389-400. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tps027
- April 18, 2015
- 04:45 AM
- 360 views
Major Advance in Artificial Photosynthesis
by Perikis Livas in Chilon
A potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions before they are vented into the atmosphere and then, powered by solar energy, convert that carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products, including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels.... Read more »
Liu, C., Gallagher, J., Sakimoto, K., Nichols, E., Chang, C., Chang, M., & Yang, P. (2015) Nanowire–Bacteria Hybrids for Unassisted Solar Carbon Dioxide Fixation to Value-Added Chemicals. Nano Letters, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01254
- April 17, 2015
- 11:15 AM
- 265 views
The downfall of coal: job trends in a changing energy landscape
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
Coal jobs have decreased dramatically in the past seven years, but are renewable energy and natural gas jobs compensating? New policy work reveals the geographical patterns in job changes that do not bode well for coal-producing states.... Read more »
Haerer, D., & Pratson, L. (2015) Employment trends in the U.S. Electricity Sector, 2008–2012. Energy Policy, 85-98. DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.03.006
- April 17, 2015
- 10:44 AM
- 262 views
Sick Coyotes Are More Likely to Come into Cities
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Run-ins are on the rise between coyotes and city-dwelling humans, and scientists aren't sure why. Now researchers in Alberta think they've found a piece of the puzzle. Coyotes are more likely to creep into human spaces if they're unhealthy.
Conflict between humans and coyotes has increased during the last 20 years, write University of Alberta graduate student Maureen Murray and her coauthors. Yet coyotes were expanding their range for decades before that. They've spread to inhabit nearly ... Read more »
Murray, M., Edwards, M., Abercrombie, B., & St. Clair, C. (2015) Poor health is associated with use of anthropogenic resources in an urban carnivore. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1806), 20150009-20150009. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0009
- April 15, 2015
- 08:20 AM
- 231 views
Eyes on Environment: the organic side of fracking
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
Little research to date has looked into the organic chemicals from fracking fluid that get into surrounding groundwater - here's how science can help!... Read more »
Ferrer, I., & Thurman, E. (2015) Chemical constituents and analytical approaches for hydraulic fracturing waters. Trends in Environmental Analytical Chemistry, 18-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.teac.2015.01.003
- April 15, 2015
- 08:00 AM
- 295 views
Boy Plants Are From Mars …..
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
Darwin missed the boat on plants. He recognized sexual dimorphism and sexual selection in animals, but didn’t see the same thing in flowers. Boy plants can look, grow, smell or locate very different from female plants. And it matters – some beetles seek out boy plants for their smell and deliver pollen to girl plants as a bribe for letting them lay eggs there! They have learned to tell guy from gal.
... Read more »
Davis, S., Dudle, D., Nawrocki, J., Freestone, L., Konieczny, P., Tobin, M., & Britton, M. (2014) Sexual Dimorphism of Staminate- and Pistillate-Phase Flowers of Saponaria officinalis (Bouncing Bet) Affects Pollinator Behavior and Seed Set. PLoS ONE, 9(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093615
HEMBORG,., & BOND, W. (2005) Different rewards in female and male flowers can explain the evolution of sexual dimorphism in plants. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 85(1), 97-109. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00477.x
Bonduriansky, R., Maklakov, A., Zajitschek, F., & Brooks, R. (2008) Sexual selection, sexual conflict and the evolution of ageing and life span. Functional Ecology, 22(3), 443-453. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01417.x
Pickup, M., & Barrett, S. (2011) Reversal of height dimorphism promotes pollen and seed dispersal in a wind-pollinated dioecious plant. Biology Letters, 8(2), 245-248. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0950
Okamoto, T., Kawakita, A., Goto, R., Svensson, G., & Kato, M. (2013) Active pollination favours sexual dimorphism in floral scent. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1772), 20132280-20132280. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2280
- April 9, 2015
- 07:02 AM
- 243 views
Restore Or Protect: How To Save Biodiversity?
by Gunnar de Winter in United Academics
Mathematical model can help conservationists choose.... Read more »
Possingham, H., Bode, M., & Klein, C. (2015) Optimal Conservation Outcomes Require Both Restoration and Protection. PLOS Biology, 13(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002052
- April 8, 2015
- 08:00 AM
- 322 views
Why Do Males And Females Look Different?
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
You see a spotted hyena – is it a male or female. There’s no way of telling without a blood test or a litter of pups. Other animals have obvious differences between males and females; eclectus parrots have green males but red and blue females, while male elephant seals weigh 10x as much as females. Are the differences for sexual selection or natural selection?... Read more »
Dunn, P., Armenta, J., & Whittingham, L. (2015) Natural and sexual selection act on different axes of variation in avian plumage color. Science Advances, 1(2). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400155
Neumann, D., & Kureck, A. (2013) Composite structure of silken threads and a proteinaceous hydrogel which form the diving bell wall of the water spider Agyroneta aquatica. SpringerPlus, 2(1), 223. DOI: 10.1186/2193-1801-2-223
Cunha, G., Risbridger, G., Wang, H., Place, N., Grumbach, M., Cunha, T., Weldele, M., Conley, A., Barcellos, D., Agarwal, S.... (2014) Development of the external genitalia: Perspectives from the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). Differentiation, 87(1-2), 4-22. DOI: 10.1016/j.diff.2013.12.003
Hammond, G., Miguel-Queralt, S., Yalcinkaya, T., Underhill, C., Place, N., Glickman, S., Drea, C., Wagner, A., & Siiteri, P. (2012) Phylogenetic Comparisons Implicate Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin in “Masculinization” of the Female Spotted Hyena . Endocrinology, 153(3), 1435-1443. DOI: 10.1210/en.2011-1837
Krüger, O. (2005) The Evolution of Reversed Sexual Size Dimorphism in Hawks, Falcons and Owls: A Comparative Study. Evolutionary Ecology, 19(5), 467-486. DOI: 10.1007/s10682-005-0293-9
- April 6, 2015
- 08:47 PM
- 249 views
Evolving Arctic habitats: how global warming may disrupt the prey-predator balance
by Jonathan Trinastic in Goodnight Earth
Does global warming affect all species equally? Probably not says new modeling research predicting how habitats will evolve in Alaska over the next century.... Read more »
Marcot, B., Jorgenson, M., Lawler, J., Handel, C., & DeGange, A. (2015) Projected changes in wildlife habitats in Arctic natural areas of northwest Alaska. Climatic Change. DOI: 10.1007/s10584-015-1354-x
- April 3, 2015
- 11:39 AM
- 238 views
The Jay Who Came to Dinner (on a Sloth)
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
Kelsey Neam was strolling through the trees in Costa Rica and looking for sloths when she spotted something unusual. High on a tree branch, a three-toed sloth was eating leaves at an unhurried pace. It seemed oblivious to three brown jays that perched nearby and were watching it intently. Then one jay scooted closer and plunged its beak into the sloth's fur.
Neam is a graduate student in ecology at Texas A&M University. She was in the Costa Rican cloud forests to study three-toed slot... Read more »
Neam, K. (2015) The odd couple: interactions between a sloth and a brown jay. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 13(3), 170-171. DOI: 10.1890/1540-9295-13.3.170
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