Tag: "threatened" at biology news

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...ns worldwide where 75 percent of the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians survive within habitat covering just 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface (roughly equivalent to the combined areas of the five largest U.S. states). This habitat originally covered 15.7 percent of the Earth's surface, an...

Some Brain Cells 'Change Channels' To Fine-tune The Message

...ors, and so too much calcium gets inside. If these threatened nerve cells can swap their calcium-allowing channels for the kind that keeps calcium out, it might be possible to harness that switch to prevent the cells from dying. "But that's a big 'if' at this point," says Huganir. ...

Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery

...fensive cells. The finding helps explain why, when threatened by microbes like the leprosy bug, this initial defense sometimes succeeds in limiting the damage, but in other cases yields to a dangerous, spreading infection. Led by Stephan R. Krutzik of UCLA, a team of scientists that includes Barry R. Bloom, De...

Scientists journey to southern Africa to unravel the secret world of elephant communication

...ell recorded the dramatic cries of a breeding herd threatened by lions at Mushara waterhole. "The elephants got really scared, and the matriarch made these very powerful warning calls, and then the herd took off screaming and trumpeting," she recalls. "Since then, every time we've played that particular call at...

A New Species of Monkey is Discovered in Tanzania: The First in Africa for More Than 20 Years

...hardt observes that, “With the addition of another threatened species of primate to those species previously documented, the Udzungwa Mountains are arguably the most important site in Africa for primate conservation. The Udzungwas remain a focus for conservation ecology research, as should the Southern Highlan...

To Stop Evolution: New Way Of Fighting Antibiotic Resistance Demonstrated By Scripps Scientists

...so they turn on the mutation process when they are threatened with extinction. Romesberg reasoned that since mutations can be turned on full-force, perhaps they could be shut off as well. Doing so, he says, would put a halt to evolution -- an interesting prospect because the mutations responsible for evolution...

Sugar beet virus mutation requires Texas touch

...ecrotic yellow vein virus emerged. The new strain threatened sugar beet production in California and Minnesota. Getting answers was important because the affected area in California holds records for production and Minnesota boasts the most concentrated sugar beet growing region in the world, Rush said. Beet ...

Primates on the brink

...lemurs, none found anywhere else in the world, are threatened with extinction. Without immediate steps to protec...odiversity Science. "Although some of the region's threatened primates are taken as pets-notably orangutans and gibbons -they are most often hunted and traded for...

Bugs, even 'bad' ones, can be educationally beneficial, new book says

...a purchasi), accidentally imported from Australia, threatened California's early citrus industry. At times these pests, whose sucking beaks are permanently attached to and suck juice out of leaves, infested trees so densely that the trees appeared to be covered with snow. Introduction of 129 Australian ladybir...

Some Brain Cells Change Channels

...ors, and so too much calcium gets inside. If these threatened nerve cells can swap their calcium-allowing channels for the kind that keeps calcium out, it might be possible to harness that switch to prevent the cells from dying. "But that's a big 'if' at this point," says Huganir. The researchers were funded ...

Newly discovered protein an important tool for sleeping sickness research

...n people in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa are threatened daily by a deadly parasitic disease known as African sleeping sickness. The disease is caused by organisms called trypanosomes, which are spread by the tsetse fly. African sleeping sickness affects approximately 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, ...

Breakthrough System for Understanding Ocean Plant Life Announced

...n people in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa are threatened daily by a deadly parasitic disease known as African sleeping sickness. The disease is caused by organisms called trypanosomes, which are spread by the tsetse fly. African sleeping sickness affects approximately 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, ...

Census of Marine Life explorers surprised by diversity, density of Arctic creatures

...ration of albatross, 19 of 21 species of which are threatened and the other two near-threatened. ...

UN: World in big ecological mess

...f the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction. * Ecosystem degradation is a barrier to achieving the MDGs. In all the four plausible futures explored, scientists project progress in eliminating hunger, but at far slower rates than needed to halve the scourge by 2015. Changes in ...

Ocean climate predicts elk population in Canadian Rockies

... warming. However, he added that the elk are not a threatened because wolves, their main predator, cannot kill and eat fast enough to wipe out the whole population. Also, wolves tend to kill one another as their available prey dwindles, so a stasis is maintained naturally. Nevertheless, Hebblewhite is excited ...

Vietnam war technology could aid elephant conservation

...ica, as these populations are relatively small and threatened by poaching," Wood says. The team will now work on improving the system by using an array of geophones which will allow them to use beam forming techniques. According to Wood: "Using a geophone array has additional advantages. Seismic equipment is d...

Expanding forests darken the outlook for butterflies, study shows

...tterflies." Only a few species of butterflies are threatened in the Canadian Rockies, but many more are threatened in Europe, where the problem of shrinking alpine meadows is older and more acute. Roland believes th...

Researchers identify new catfish family

...s are concerned about the fish's habitat, which is threatened by exploitation of the forests and possible damming of the rivers it lives in. ...

Team of international scientists departs today to discover the unknown in China's Himalayan region

...sit to China, they will study the golden monkey, a threatened species in China. "At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we ... golden monkey, giant and red pandas are among the threatened species found only in this hotspot. The biodiversity hotspots are 34 regions worldwide where 75 pe...

Leading scientists rank endangered dolphins, porpoises most in need of immediate action

...se populations around the world which are severely threatened by entanglement in fishing gear and recommended ni...ldlife Fund. These nine projects highlight species threatened by bycatch that will most likely benefit from immediate action and will continue to languish without...

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