All Stories by Susan Milius
- Ecosystems
Brazil Nut Loss Looms: Harvest may be too heavy to last
A study of 23 spots in Amazonian forests has raised the question of whether the collection of Brazil nuts—praised as a model of gentle forest use—has reached such levels that it may not be sustainable.
- Plants
Sweet Lurkers: Cryptic fungi protect chocolate-tree leaves
A whole world of fungi thrives inside tree leaves without causing any harm, and researchers now say these residents may help fight disease.
- Plants
Warm-Blooded Plants?
Research heats up on why some flowers have the chemistry to keep themselves warm.
- Ecosystems
New Farmers: Salt marsh snails plow leaves, fertilize fungus
A salt marsh snail works the leaves of a plant in what researchers say looks like a simple form of farming.
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Plants, bats magnify neurotoxin in Guam
Researchers have found that the natural neurotoxin BMAA gets magnified as it rises through a food chain on Guam, a finding that strengthens a recent hypothesis that attempts to explain a spike in neurological disease on that island.
- Ecosystems
UK halts badger kill after study of TB
Partial results from a new study have pushed the United Kingdom to stop its controversial, decades-old policy of killing local badgers if cattle catch TB.
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Whales of Distinction: Old specimens now declared a new species
Japanese researchers have named a new category of living baleen whales to explain puzzling specimens dating back to the 1970s.
- Ecosystems
Will Climate Change Depose Monarchs? Model predicts too-wet winter refuges
A computer analysis suggests that eastern monarch butterflies may not be able to tolerate the increasingly moist climate in Mexico, their current wintering site.
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Chronicling a war of beetle vs. leaf
A meshing of family trees provides a rare example of an arms race between toxic Bursera plants and the beetles that manage to eat them anyway.
- Earth
Bioengineered crops have mixed eco effects
An unusually large test of the ecological impact of genetically modified crops finds mixed results, depending on the crop.
- Animals
Not-So-Great Hunter: Said the spider to the fly—Eek! I’m outta here
The poisonous brown recluse spider may turn out not to be a fearsome hunter so much as a scavenger.
- Animals
First Impressions: Early view biases spider’s mate choice
In a new wrinkle on how females develop their tastes in males, a test has found that young female wolf spiders that see a male's courtship display grow up with a preference for that look in mates.
