New Jersey’s numerical nutrient criterion used to protect streams is too high
A new way of measuring the relative habitability of freshwater environments for fish and aquatic insects suggests that New Jersey's water monitoring and treatment...
Invasive forage grass leads to grassland bird decline
The prairies of North America once covered vast stretches of land, with towering grasses creating ideal nesting and forage habitat for grassland birds. But...
Bee social or buzz off: Study links genes to social behaviors, including autism
Those pesky bees that come buzzing around on a muggy summer day are helping researchers reveal the genes responsible for social behaviors. A new...
Biodiversity can also destabilize ecosystems
Ecosystems have a variety of benefits: They provide us with food, water and other resources, as well as recreational space. It is therefore even...
PPR virus poses threat to conservation
A team of conservationists from the Royal Veterinary College, WCS, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna published...
Indigenous fire practice protecting the Gibson Desert’s biodiversity
Traditional Indigenous burning practices are protecting plant biodiversity in Australia's Gibson Desert, according to University of Queensland research.
The study analysed how environments dominated by...
Becoming promiscuous to ensure reproduction
Females of a socially monogamous passerine, the Japanese great tit (Parus minor), become more promiscuous after hatchings fail in the first breeding attempt --...
Maximizing the carbon and biodiversity benefits of riparian forest restoration
Restoring forests has become a world-wide strategy for simultaneously addressing the challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation. In a new study, scientists at...
Polar bears eat whales to survive warm periods
Polar bears likely survived past warm periods in the Arctic, when sea ice cover was low, by scavenging on the carcasses of stranded large...
Tropical frogs found to coexist with deadly fungus
Amphibian biologists from around the world watched in horror in 2004, as the frogs of El Copé, Panama, began dying by the thousands. The...
Cobra cannibalism more prevalent than previously thought
Last spring, researchers in South Africa's Kalahari Desert found a large male cape cobra devouring another smaller male of the same species. Surprised by...
How Sacred Ibis mummies provided the first test of evolution
A debate over mummified birds brought to France after Napoleon's conquest of Egypt played a central role in delaying acceptance of evolutionary theory; an...
How some algae may survive climate change
Green algae that evolved to tolerate hostile and fluctuating conditions in salt marshes and inland salt flats are expected to survive climate change, thanks...
Climate change not main driver of amphibian decline
While a warming climate in recent decades may be a factor in the waning of some local populations of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders,...
Improving ‘silvopastures’ for bird conservation
The adoption of "silvopastures"--incorporating trees into pastureland--can provide habitat for forest bird species and improve connectivity in landscapes fragmented by agriculture. But how do...
