Ecosystems
- Ecosystems
West Nile virus fells endangered condor
A 3-month-old California condor chick, one of only four of this highly endangered species born in the wild this year, succumbed to a West Nile virus infection.
By Janet Raloff - Ecosystems
Tallgrass Prairie
The Openlands Project played a key role in converting the former Joliet Arsenal in Illinois into the first national tallgrass prairie. This Web site traces the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie’s history and provides a variety of classroom activities for students in grades 1 to 12. Lessons include plant investigations, predator and prey relationships, prairie climate, […]
By Science News - Ecosystems
Empty Nets
New research has begun challenging long-held assumptions about the consequences for fish stocks of harvesting the biggest fish first.
By Janet Raloff - Ecosystems
Pesticide makes bees bumble
The pesticide spinosad, previously thought safe for bees, may damage their ability to forage for nectar.
- Ecosystems
Decades of Dinner
Sunken whale carcasses support unique marine ecosystems that display stages of succession and change, just as land ecosystems do.
By Susan Milius - Ecosystems
Where Tuna Go: Atlantic fish mix for feeding, not spawning
The largest high-tech tag study yet of Atlantic bluefin tuna suggests that two groups mix on feeding grounds but spawn on opposite sides of the ocean.
By Susan Milius - Ecosystems
Ambush Ants: Beware the moldy patch on that branch
Tiny tropical ants build shaggy platforms on plants and hide underneath them, poised to reach out and capture insects that may be far larger than themselves.
By Susan Milius - Ecosystems
Quick Fix: How invasive seaweed repairs its wounds
Scientists have discerned the chemistry underlying the rapid wound-healing process in an invasive green alga that is wreaking havoc in the Mediterranean Sea.
- Ecosystems
Return of the Wetlands? Restoration possible for some Iraqi marshes
Field studies conducted in Iraq last year suggest that some of the region's ecologically devastated marshes could be returned to health.
By Sid Perkins - Ecosystems
Bivalve Takeover: Once-benign clams boom after crab influx
European green crabs invading a California bay have triggered a population explosion of a previously marginal clam.
By Susan Milius - Ecosystems
Fallout Feast: Vent crabs survive on victims of plume
Researchers in Taiwan propose an explanation for how so many crabs can survive at shallow-water hydrothermal vents.
By Susan Milius - Ecosystems
The Birds Are Falling: Avian losses could hit ecosystems hard
If many bird populations dip toward extinction in the coming century, widespread harm could come to ecosystems that depend on these birds.
By Ben Harder