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Tag: "ecosystems" at biology news

NASA study solves ocean plant mystery

...ts its growth scientists can better understand how ecosystems respond to climate change. The study focused on phytoplankton in the tropical Pacific Ocean. It is an area of the ocean that plays a particularly important role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide and the world's climate. This area of the ocea...

Afghanistan to protect wildlife and wild lands

... the greatest mountains in the world. These alpine ecosystems support a surprisingly wide range of large mammal species, including the Marco Polo sheep, the world's largest sheep and the namesake of one of the first European travelers along the silk routes to east Asia and who described the giant sheep in his w...

Ocean acidification threatens cold-water coral ecosystems

...ious and wide-reaching impacts, not only for coral ecosystems but for all life in the oceans. Many species of marine plankton use carbonate ions and occupy the base of most marine food webs, so a reduction in their numbers could lead to harmful effects throughout marine ecosystems." Only a decrease in the bu...

Biodiversity key to sustainable biofuel according to University of Minn. researcher's findings

... landmark papers in 1994. Biodiversity of global ecosystems has decreased as global population has increased because diverse ecosystems such as forests and prairies have been cleared to make way for agricultural fields planted with mono...

Pesticides in the nation's streams and ground water

... may have substantially greater effects on aquatic ecosystems than on humans based on a screening-level comparison of USGS measurements to water-quality benchmarks for aquatic life and fish-eating wildlife. More than 80 percent of urban streams and more than 50 percent of agricultural streams had concentrations...

Not just the birds

...uching the sea receives more nutrients from marine ecosystems than a large island due to the differences in surf... with varying effects. Most studies on land-based ecosystems have been smaller in scale. These studies have not revealed the large community-wide indirect effec...

Invasive exotic plants helped by natural enemies

... findings have serious implications for conserving ecosystems and reducing the economic damage that invasive exotic species cause. "Restoring native vertebrate herbivores to their natural ranges, while reducing the number of exotic herbivores, could be an effective tool in reducing invasive exotic plants," sa...

Higher carbon dioxide, lack of nitrogen limit plant growth

...els may rise even faster than anticipated, because ecosystems likely will not store as much carbon as had been p...y of Michigan. Estimating the role of terrestrial ecosystems as current and future sinks--or storage places--for excess carbon dioxide hinges on an ability to un...

The secret life of algae

...ent. This has implications for how we consider the ecosystems in the world's oceans." Professor Julia Goodfello...that we can discover how to maintain the health of ecosystems at a global level." ...

UC San Diego partners with Venter Institute to build marine microbial genomics cyberinfrastructure

...ill be used by scientists studying marine life and ecosystems to examine--in an unprecedented manner--the genomic complexities of natural communities of micro-organisms as they have evolved in their local environments," said UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. "This project will change the way large-scale science c...

Expedition discovers marine treasures

...n the area around the submerged atoll. The fragile ecosystems of Saba Bank get damaged by anchors and chains of ships that wait at the atoll to avoid anchoring fees in territorial waters of St. Eustatius. The large ships also endanger local fishermen of Saba in their small boats, forcing them away from traditi...

The Amazon in 2050: Implementing the law could save a million square kilometers of rainforest

...orest. Our model shows that several unique forest ecosystems and entire watersheds will be badly degraded over the next 45 years if we don't rapidly increase our capacity to govern this dynamic region. By developing the first empirically-based, policy sensitive model of Amazon deforestation to assess forest l...

Genome sequencing is for ecologists, too

...here the goal is to understand the complexities of ecosystems by getting a handle on how species in natural settings respond genetically to their environments," said Daphnia Genomics Project leader John Colbourne. "Ecologists and evolutionary biologists would also want to learn more about how genetic variation ...

CU, USDA team to curb two invasive, poisonous vines

...m the growth of and their steady conquest of local ecosystems in the northern United States and Canada, Cornell University is teaming up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), which operates a federal laboratory at Cornell. Pale and black swallow-wort -- twining vin...

Marine mammals are on the frontline of failing ocean health

... sentinels for human health because they share our ecosystems and prey. We may see impacts in sea lions before ...nue to gain insight into what is going on with the ecosystems in which marine mammals live. This information will help us tackle how to ensure the future health ...

Carbon nanotube absorption measured in worms, cancer cells

... the food webs and possibly threaten the health of ecosystems and lead to uptake by humans, Petersen said. "This approach has virtually limitless potential for facilitating important future investigations of the behaviors of carbon nanotubes in environmental and biomedical applications," Petersen said. ...

Overfishing in inland waters reduces biodiversity and threatens health

...aters as a "dangerous" imbalance, since freshwater ecosystems are by some accounts more threatened than marine ecosystems. Fishing is a crucial source of livelihoods in developing nations, and in 2000 constituted an estimated 15.3 percent of human consumption of animal protein. About 1 billion people rely on f...

Research: Snails were overlooked contributors to marsh destruction

... of evidence showing strong top-down regulation of ecosystems processes, including sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and wolves in Yellowstone Park," Silliman said. Native and abundant, dime- to quarter-sized periwinkle snails can often be seen hanging on cordgrass above the water line. Contrary to appearances, th...

Some good news for the world's poor

... Millions of hectares of forests and other fragile ecosystems would have been lost. Between 1.5 and 2 percent more children would have been malnourished in developing countries. This seemingly small figure in percentage terms translates into millions of better-fed children in actual terms. However, Dr. Fan wa...

Overfishing may drive endangered seabird to rely upon lower quality food

...ifacts of the profound changes that coastal marine ecosystems world-wide have undergone because of overfishing," said Steve Beissinger, professor of conservation biology in UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and principal investigator of the study. "What better place to in...

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