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Tag: "ecological" at biology news

Molecular biology fills gaps in knowledge of bat evolution

...complete, according to Springer. Bats play a major ecological role as plant pollinators and insect predators. For Springer, this latest research is significant because it shows that molecular information can contribute to resolving and illuminating long-standing problems in evolutionary biology. The current f...

Growth in the sea comes down to a struggle for iron

... an ongoing effort that began in 2001 to study the ecological consequences of injecting iron into the ocean. Fo...n throughout the world's oceans may have important ecological consequences as well. Their results will contribute to the diverse oceanographic understanding neede...

Anti-bacterial additive widespread in U.S. waterways

...ironmental Protection Agency for evaluation of the ecological andhuman health risks of triclocarban."Along with its chemical cousin triclosan, the antimicrobial compoundtriclocarban should be added to the list of polychlorinated organiccompounds that deserve our attention due to unfavorable environmentalcharact...

Ecological destruction fuels emerging diseases

...ntal catastrophe, warns a Canadian zoologist. This ecological damage also endangers human health by turning parasites into "evolutionary land mines." Dr. Daniel (Dan) Brooks, a parasitologist at the University of Toronto, says the decline of global biodiversity is linked to the emergence of new human and wildl...

Researchers reveal the infectious impact of salmon farms on wild salmon

...bits. "There's a double bottom line here. The full ecological costs of industrial scale salmon farming must be quantified as well as the economic ones," says Volpe. "For the migratory runs we studied, there may be very little time left." ...

Essential mangrove forest threatened by cryptic ecological degradation

...t species. The authors emphasize that such cryptic ecological degradation must be acknowledged by policy and decision makers if mangrove protection is an aim. The research team argues that early detection of such changes should be adopted and is essential for the prevention of further mangrove degradation. F. ...

South America's vast pantanal wetland may become next everglades, UNU experts warn

... this project could potentially modify various key ecological processes in the Pantanal, including the flood pul... in the Cuiabá River, however, could have profound ecological impacts in the northern Pantanal. "Inter-linkages approach" needed to manage the Pantanal The comp...

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...millions of people whose well-being is tied to its ecological health." The Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands hotspot is a 178,095-square-mile area encompassing Mexico's main mountain chains, some isolated mountaintops in Baja California, and a few scattered patches in the southern United States (represented by the Ma...

Gray wolves maintain the food chain in winter

...ttled top predator - may be even more important as ecological conditions deteriorate. ### Citation: Wilmers CC, Getz WM (2005) Gray wolves as climate change buffers in Yellowstone. PLoS Biol 3(4): e92. ...

Microbial forensics: The next great forensic challenge

...ts," Murch said. Additionally, the biological and ecological complexity of most biothreat agents present forensic microbiologists with a number of significant analytical and interpretive challenges. "It is doubtful that any one single technique will be sufficient, but rather a 'multivariate approach' will be r...

Reservoirs may accelerate the spread of invasive aquatic species, researchers say

...recently assembled communities of stocked fish. An ecological hypothesis known as the fluctuating resource availability hypothesis suggests that these characteristics will enhance the susceptibility of reservoirs to invasion. Because reservoirs are more saline that freshwater lakes, Havel, Lee, and Vander Zande...

To control germs, scientists deploy tiny agents provocateurs

...iofilms can coat plant roots and symbiotically aid ecological processes such as nitrogen fixation. But at the darker end of the scale, biofilms can form infection-inducing layers on implanted medical devices and cause deadly lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Biofilms have long baffled researchers bec...

Super predators and mass extinctions

...y apocalypse gradually mutate to fill the existing ecological niches - and the cycle begins again. The period of the cycle depends on mutation rates in the model. The lower the mutation rate, the longer the periods between super predators. For a sufficiently low mutation rate, the model can lead to cycles that...

Small species back-up giant marsupial climate change extinction claim

...nimals and there had been few attempts to document ecological and sediment data. "Our samples show that species...abitat specific remain." Analysis of sediment and ecological data shows that it became increasingly arid during the late Pleistocene, which led to the disappeara...

Anammox bacteria produce nitrogen gas in oceans' snackbar

... Nitrogen compounds act as fertilizers and are the ecological basis for any lifeform on earth as these compounds limit the overall growth rate. The researchers discovered this type of bacteria for the first time a few years ago in the oxygen poor Black Sea and now also in the open ocean. This discovery has maj...

Habitat use by North Pacific right whales, Eubalaena japonica, in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska

...the Southern Hemisphere. To help define areas and ecological parameters critical to the survival of this remnant population of right whales, habitat use was investigated by scientists at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service's, National Marine Mammal Laboratory, in Seattle, Washington by examining all ava...

New project aims to make large-scale lobster farms feasible

....S. market. Overfishing of lobster has also led to ecological problems in some areas that might be relieved through successful culture and release to the wild. The main barrier to successful commercial spiny lobster culture, which has been explored through pilot programs in various countries, has been the need...

Undesirable expatriates: Preventing the spread of invasive animals

...e range, many invasive species become economic and ecological burdens. Successful invaders can displace native a...ey can act as biological pollutants that result in ecological and economic damages. "The best way to combat invasive species is to prevent them from being introdu...

Oceans more vulnerable to agricultural runoff than previously thought, study finds

...es plan to conduct follow-up studies to assess the ecological impact of runoff events in the Yaqui Valley. They also expressed concern about the impact of large farming operations in other vulnerable subtropical and tropical oceans, including Southeast Asia, West Africa, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. "...

Putting ecology back into river restoration

An ambitious plan is under way in the ecological community to agree a set of standards for ecologic...silience; doing no lasting harm; and completing an ecological assessment. The first step should be articulating a "guiding image" describing the ecologically hea...

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