Ecosystems
- Animals
LED lights make moths easy targets for bats
Bright LED lights may bewilder moths, making them vulnerable to predator attacks.
- Animals
How bears engineer Japanese forests
In Japanese forests, black bears climb trees, breaking limbs. Those gaps in the forest provide light to fruiting plants, a new study finds.
- Animals
Caterpillar treats and tricks ants by oozing spiked juice
Caterpillars ooze droplets that lure ants away from colony duties to instead lick and defend their drug source, new lab tests suggest.
- Ecosystems
Encased algae create kaleidoscope of color
The skeletons of diatoms, algae that produce oxygen but also form toxic blooms, can create beautiful microscopic designs.
- Ecosystems
Ocean food source lives by day, dies by night
The most abundant carbon fixer in the oceans lives by day, dies by night, and may be key to the balance of marine ecosystems.
- Genetics
Extinct species may get a second chance
An evolutionary biologist explains the obstacles scientists must overcome to revive extinct species.
- Climate
Tranquil ecosystems may explain wild swings in carbon dioxide stashing
Semiarid ecosystems, such as grasslands and shrublands, are behind the large variation in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide sucked in by land each year.
- Animals
Ants snap jaws, shoot skyward, escape death
Emergency trap jaw launchings help some ants pass death tests.
- Oceans
Mysterious form of phosphorus explained
Mysterious form of phosphorus may be used as shadow currency by marine microbes, potentially upending scientists’ understanding of nutrient exchanges.
- Plants
Medfly control methods were ready for pest’s influx
50 years ago, researchers prepared to greet Mediterranean fruit flies with sterile males.
- Ecosystems
Just 1 percent of Amazon’s trees hold half of its carbon
Roughly 1 percent of tree species in the Amazon rainforest account for half of the jungle’s carbon storage.
- Animals
Only three wolves left on Michigan island
Without an infusion of new wolves, the Isle Royale wolf population, and the famous study associated with it, will die off.
