Most recent 40 articles: PHYS.ORG - Biology
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Bacteria for climate-neutral chemicals of the future - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · To produce various chemicals such as plastics, dyes or artificial flavors, the chemical industry currently relies heavily on fossil resources such as crude oil. "Globally, it consumes 500 million tons per year, or more than one million tons per day," says Julia Vorholt, Professor at the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zurich.
"Since these chemical conversions are energy-intensive, the true CO2 footprint of the chemical industry is even six to 10 times larger, amounting to about five percent of total emissions globally." She and her team are looking for ways to reduce the chemical industry's dependence on fossil fuels.
Green methanol
Bacteria that feed on methanol, ... Read more ...
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Early analysis finds eclipse had noticeable effect on birds - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Early results from a study of the April 8 total solar eclipse show a more noticeable effect on bird behavior than during the last eclipse.
"From the data we've analyzed so far, it looks like a similar pattern of aerial biological activity that we documented during the 2017 solar eclipse, but it was even more pronounced," said Cornell Lab researcher Andrew Farnsworth.
"The 13 weather radar stations in the path of the April eclipse measured noticeable decreases in typical daytime biological activities such as the movements of hawks and other soaring and insect-eating birds like swallows - but, as in 2017, the daytime darkness was not enough to trigger nocturnal migration ... Read more ...
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Exploring a molecular mechanism that facilitates thermophilic fungal adaptation to temperature change - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · In early 2010, the team reported that a predominant thermophilic fungus Thermomyces dupontii produced a new class of prenylated indole alkaloids (PIAs), bearing the striking structural features of a key putative versatile precursor that has long been proposed for the well-known complex PIAs in mesophilic fungi.
In their latest study published in the journal Mycology, the team sought to determine why T. dupontii produced such a class of PIAs. They aimed at two P450 genes in the gene cluster responsible for PIAs, because P450 can modify and transform secondary metabolites to generate diverse and complex metabolites.
What's more, the ecological importance of P450 genes ... Read more ...
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In Vietnam, farmers reduce methane emissions by changing how they grow rice - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · That and the giant drone, its wingspan similar to that of an eagle, chuffing high above as it rains organic fertilizer onto the knee-high rice seedlings billowing below.
Using less water and using a drone to fertilize are new techniques that Van is trying and Vietnam hopes will help solve a paradox at the heart of growing rice: The finicky crop isn't just vulnerable to climate change but also contributes uniquely to it.
Rice must be grown separately from other crops and seedlings have to be individually planted in flooded fields; backbreaking, dirty work requiring a lot of labor and water that generates a lot of methane, a potent planet-warming gas that can trap more ... Read more ...
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New algorithm solves century-old problem for coral reef scientists - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Zachary Ferris, a biological sciences Ph.D. student at Florida Tech, led development of the new computer-vision algorithm called ReScape. ReScape removes the perspective distortion from reefscape images by transforming them into top-down views, thus making all corals the correct size for analysis of reef conditions.
"By recovering the correct size of corals, ReScape allows scientists to begin extracting ecological data from countless coral reefscape images that have been archived for the past 140 years," Ferris said. "Now that this data can be extracted, ReScape also enables scientists to begin using reefscape imaging to conduct more extensive surveys because reefscape images ... Read more ...
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Study finds climate change is helping tropical fish invade Australian ocean water - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · A University of Adelaide study of shallow-water fish communities on rocky reefs in south-eastern Australia has found climate change is helping tropical fish species invade temperate Australian waters. The work is published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
"The fish are traveling into these Australian ecosystems as larvae caught in the Eastern Australian Current, which is strengthening due to the warming climate," said the University of Adelaide's Professor Ivan Nagelkerken, Chief Investigator of the study.
"These larvae would not normally survive in the cooler Australian ocean water, but the warming Eastern Australian Current keeps the baby fish warm and increases their ... Read more ...
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Urgent need for logging loophole remedy within proposed Great Koala National Park - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Led by Adjunct Senior Research Fellow Timothy Cadman, from Griffith University's Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law, the new report published in The International Journal of Social Quality highlighted exclusion of prime koala habitat from logging within the proposed park was inconsistent with koala protection efforts.
Dr. Cadman said the plans needed to also consider the integrity of the broader reserve habitat system and be accorded the requisite status of World Heritage.
The Great Koala National Park is set to cover 300,000 hectares of state forest and existing national parks from Grafton to Kempsey in Northern New South Wales.
The Park, to act as a safe ... Read more ...
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US advances review of Nevada lithium mine amid concerns over endangered wildflower - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S., amid anticipated legal challenges from conservationists over the threat they say it poses to an endangered Nevada wildflower.
The Bureau of Land Management released more than 2,000 pages of documents in a draft environmental impact statement last week for the Rhyolite Ridge mine. Lithium is a metal key to the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles - a centerpiece of President Joe Biden's "green energy" agenda.
Officials for the bureau and its parent Interior Department trumpeted the news, saying the progress in the ... Read more ...
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Restoring coastal habitat boosts wildlife numbers by 61% - but puzzling failures mean we can still do better - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Pollution, coastal development, climate change and many other human impacts have degraded or destroyed swathes of mangrove forests, saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, macroalgae (seaweed) forests and coral and shellfish reefs. We've lost a staggering 85% of shellfish reefs around the world and coral is bleaching globally.
When healthy, these coastal habitats help feed the world by supporting fisheries. They are home to more than 100 species of charismatic marine megafauna, ranging from sharks to dugongs. They sequester carbon, thus helping to slow climate change. The list goes on.
Healthy coastal habitats are the gift that keeps on giving. We need them back, so there's a lot ... Read more ...
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Anticipating future risks of climate-driven wildfires in boreal forests - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Boreal forests often bring to mind snowy tundra, vast bogs, and diverse fauna such as reindeer or moose. However, it is increasingly home to a large number of wildfire occurrences. From the large fires in Sweden in 2014 and 2018, to the devastating fires in Siberia in 2021 and Canada in 2023, boreal forests are facing unprecedented levels of disturbance from wildfire events. These serve as a harbinger of what is to come in the upcoming decades, not just to the arctic north, but to forests around the globe.
In their study published in the journal Fire, Shelby Corning and her colleagues, all researchers in IIASA's Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program, utilized their ... Read more ...
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Backyards, urban parks support bird diversity in unique ways - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · The new findings are reported in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.
"These cities are right next to each other, they're touching each other, but they have very different histories," said Henry Pollock, who led the research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Illinois natural resources and environmental sciences professor Carena van Riper and former U. of I. evolution, ecology, and behavior professor Mark Hauber. Pollock is now the executive director of the Southern Plains Land Trust in Lamar, Colorado, and Hauber is the executive director of the Advanced Science Research Center at the City University of New York.
"We wanted to understand how ... Read more ...
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First discovery in decades of blue whales near Seychelles - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Their populations experienced a 89%–97% decline due to commercial whaling activities worldwide that started in the North Atlantic in 1868. Blue whales were primarily valued for their blubber, transformed into oil and used in cosmetics and soap, for the lubrication of industrial equipment, and as lamp oil. In 1978, the last deliberate capture of a blue whale was recorded off Spain.
Today, blue whales are found in all oceans except the Arctic. They usually migrate from their summer feeding grounds where they almost exclusively feed on krill to their winter breeding grounds. However, their migration patterns are still poorly understood, particularly in the Indian Ocean, ... Read more ...
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Mitochondrial DNA copy number contributes to growth diversity in allopolyploid fish - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Understanding the relationship between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and animal growth could provide valuable information for selective breeding in aquaculture. However, the complex interactions between genetics and environmental factors often hinders progress in this field. To that end, a recent study published in Reproduction and Breeding investigated the cross-sectional diameter of skeletal muscle fibers in allotriploid fish with different growth traits.
"Distant hybridization rapidly generates diverse genotypes and phenotypes, offering a rich resource for studying the role of genetic regulation in shaping phenotypes," explains co-corresponding author Li Ren, a researcher at ... Read more ...
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More than coral: The unseen casualties of record-breaking heat on the Great Barrier Reef - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · We're shocked and saddened by images of stark white coral skeletons. But the damage done by heat underwater goes much further. A living coral reef is a complex ecosystem teeming with vastly more species than the corals. Not only that, but 95% of the habitat on the reef is not coral, but sediment and sand, hotspots of hidden biodiversity. So, what happens to this cornucopia of life when subjected to extreme temperature stress?
We are currently on One Tree Island on the southern reef. It's home to a research station and has one of the highest levels of protection within the whole reef.
What have we found? So far, the signs are not good. When we dive underwater, we can ... Read more ...
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Planning at multiple scales for healthy corals and communities - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · The work has been published in Nature Sustainability.
The nature-based approaches evaluated as key watershed (e.g., drainage area) interventions include ecosystem restoration or protection, and sustainable agriculture. Yet determining which areas to target for these interventions requires understanding the complex relationships between terrestrial and marine ecosystems, also known as "land-sea linkages," their benefits to people, and the spatial scale being considered.
This work pushed the boundaries of how scientists analyze biophysical and ecological relationships, using cutting-edge optimization models (for the first time in a coastal context) of how to maximize ... Read more ...
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Without proper management, Brazil's Cerrado becomes disfigured and less resilient to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · The Cerrado, Brazil's savanna biome, is being destroyed at a fast pace, and inadequate management of remnants is transforming large areas of the biome into cerradão, a biodiversity-poor forest formation in which species typical of the Cerrado mingle with generalist species occupying gallery forest and other structures.
Scientists wonder whether areas of cerradão can conserve the biodiversity of the Cerrado. If not, they may evolve into a type of biodiverse forest similar to the Atlantic Rainforest biome, or they may become neither one nor the other.
A long-term study set out to find answers to these questions by investigating changes occurring over a ... Read more ...
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NOAA confirms fourth global coral bleaching event - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Bleaching-level heat stress, as remotely monitored and predicted by NOAA's Coral Reef Watch (CRW), has been—and continues to be—extensive across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. CRW's heat-stress monitoring is based on sea surface temperature data, spanning 1985 to the present, from a blend of NOAA and partner satellites.
"From February 2023 to April 2024, significant coral bleaching has been documented in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of each major ocean basin," said Derek Manzello, Ph.D., NOAA CRW coordinator.
Since early 2023, mass bleaching of coral reefs has been confirmed throughout the tropics, including in Florida in the ... Read more ...
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Wild and domestic ungulates are key to Mediterranean ecosystem sustainability, finds study - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Wild and domestic ungulates complement each other to maintain ecosystems. Therefore, ecology experts recommend maintaining both traditional transhumant grazing and supervising abandoned agroforestry areas that are being reclaimed by nature.
The study, published in the journal Landscape Ecology, represents progress in understanding how Mediterranean ecosystems could evolve in the context of climate change.
In recent years, abandoning traditional practices, in line with climate changes, has transformed agropastoral systems in Mediterranean landscapes. As a result of this phenomenon, there is an increasingly frequent process of renaturalization and change in affected ... Read more ...
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How climate change affects potato cultivation in South Korea - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · A study published in the journal Potato Research presents results on the response of spring and summer potatoes to climate change in South Korea. The study, conducted by scientists from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, investigates the effects of global warming on the potato crop and presents adaptation strategies.
"Our results show that the CO2 fertilization effect can offset the negative effects of rising temperatures and increase yields of spring potatoes by up to 60% if planting times are adjusted," explains Dr. Yean-Uk Kim, main author of the study and scientist at ZALF. The CO2 ... Read more ...
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Africa is full of bats, but their fossils are scarce - why these rare records matter - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · I am a zoologist who has studied bats for many years. Recently, while doing some reading about South Africa's fossils, I started wondering about bat fossils. Given the continent's incredible bat biodiversity, I was sure the country's fossil record would be teeming with bat bones.
I was wrong. While there appear to be many bat fossils from the Pleistocene epoch (about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago) onwards, South Africa's database of bat fossils from before the Pleistocene is surprisingly sparse when compared to Europe and the United States. Investigating even further, I discovered the same results for the rest of the continent.
Why does Africa, today so rich with bat ... Read more ...
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Effects of organic matter input and temperature change on soil aggregate-associated respiration and microbial carbon use - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · As a result, the soil organic matter in this region decomposes slowly and accumulates in large quantities, underscoring its substantial potential for carbon release.
In the face of climate warming, the low-temperature limiting effect of soil ecological processes will be weakened or eliminated, thereby affecting the soil carbon cycling in the regional ecosystem. However, the increased input of organic matter in soil caused by warming would strongly affect soil C cycling and microbial activities.
They found that exogenous organic matter input increased the respiration rate and accumulation of aggregates, and changed the respiration rate pattern among aggregates with ... Read more ...
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Fourteen years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, endemic fishes face an uncertain future - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · In a new study, researchers from Louisiana State University and Tulane University examined the endemic Gulf of Mexico fish species that may have been most impacted by the oil spill to see how their distribution has changed over the years. To get their data, they studied museum specimens from natural history collections, looked at relevant literature, and combed biodiversity databases.
With 1541 fish species known from the region, and 78 endemic fish species, the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most biologically rich and resilient marine environments in the world, but how much of this diversity is still left intact?
The study found that 29 out of the Gulf's 78 endemic fish ... Read more ...
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Marine microbial populations: Potential sensors of the global change in the ocean - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Now, a new study from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) recently published in the journal Microbiome highlights the potential of marine microbial populations as indicators of global change. Specifically, the work analyzes the knowledge generated to date on marine microbial populations and their role in the ecosystem, concluding that their analysis through space and time could reflect the effects of global change.
"This is because small genetic changes in these populations could be more directly correlated with the slight but continuous environmental changes associated with global change, than the analysis of species," explains Ramiro Logares, the study's ... Read more ...
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Respiratory stress response that stunts temperate fish also affects coral reef fish - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · In a recent paper in the journal Fishes, researchers at the University of British Columbia's Sea Around Us initiative gathered additional evidence supporting the idea that fish become sexually active and spawn for the first time in response to growth-induced respiratory stress, which intensifies in warmer, low-oxygen environments.
By assembling and analyzing data on the mean length at maturity and the maximum length reached by 131 species of coral reef fish belonging to 207 populations, the researchers estimated the ratio of the gill surface area, and thus oxygen consumption of each species at these two sizes. Such a ratio affects the rate at which fish's ... Read more ...
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Advanced nuclear magnetic resonance technique reveals precise structural, dynamical details in zeolites - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Atomic-scale analysis of local environments for the hydroxyl species is essential for revealing the intrinsic catalytic activity of zeolites and guiding the design of high-performance catalysts. However, many unfavorable factors prohibit the elucidation of their fine structures such as low quantity, meta-stable property, structural similarity, hydrogen-bonding environment, and long-range disordered nature.
Recently, a research team led by Prof. Hou Guangjin and Prof. Chen Kuizhi from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) unraveled the precise structure of complex hydroxyl groups in zeolites with a comprehensive set of ... Read more ...
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Amazon butterflies show how new species can evolve from hybridization - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · If evolution was originally depicted as a tree, with different species branching off as new blooms, then new research shows how the branches may actually be more entangled. In "Hybrid speciation driven by multilocus introgression of ecological traits," published in Nature, Harvard researchers show that hybrids between species of butterflies can produce new species that are genetically distinct from both parent species and their earlier forebears.
Writing to Charles Darwin in 1861, naturalist Henry Walter Bates described brightly colored Heliconius butterflies of the Amazon as "a glimpse into the laboratory where Nature manufactures her new species." More than 160 years later, ... Read more ...
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Birds of a feather flocking together: Research shows storks prefer to fly with conspecifics during migration - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Now, a study from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, has an explanation for how this collective phenomenon forms: the storks are choosing to fly together. With data on lifetime migrations of 158 storks, the study provides the first evidence of the social preference of storks during migration.
In a paper, appearing in Current Biology, the researchers show that storks chose routes that were heavily trafficked by other storks. Yet, young storks tuned their routes to social hot-spots more than adults did.
"It's exciting to see the first clues that storks are actually choosing to fly with others," says Hester Brønnvik, a doctoral student ... Read more ...
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Climate change is wiping out rare bacteria in a 'greening' Antarctica - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · And until recently, our knowledge of microorganisms in Antarctica was non-existent, where the effects of climate change are arguably the most profound. But a paper published recently in Conservation Biology provides a new snapshot of the changing composition of microorganisms in Antarctica.
Professor Belinda Ferrari with UNSW Sydney's School of Biotech & Biomolecular Science and colleagues visited Casey Station in Eastern Antarctica in 2019 to see whether projections made on soils sampled 14 years earlier about the disappearance of microbes thriving solely on chemicals in the atmosphere were correct.
They were saddened to find that they were.
"These bacteria are ... Read more ...
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Fairy-wrens are more likely to help a mate in the harsh of winter, ornithologists find - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · An international study led by researchers from the Monash School of Biological Sciences—including senior author Professor Anne Peters—and published today (April 17) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, explores how seasonal changes affect the social dynamics and behavior of these avian communities.
"Cooperation among animals has long intrigued scientists, yet understanding the factors driving it has remained elusive," said Professor Peters.
"Cooperation is not merely a result of individual traits or environmental pressures; rather, it emerges from the complex interplay between social structures and external conditions," she ... Read more ...
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Global coral bleaching caused by climate change demands a global response - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · While the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's announcement is not unexpected, it's the second global mass bleaching in the past decade. It heralds a new reality in which we can expect more frequent and severe bleaching events as ocean temperature records continue to be broken.
Cycles of decline and recovery are normal for coral reefs, but the windows for recovery are now shorter. Stress events such as marine heat waves are coming faster, with less warning. These events are also more widespread.
The latest global sea surface temperatures remain above long-term averages.
As the southern hemisphere shifts into winter, the northern hemisphere's ... Read more ...
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Maize cultivation 300 years ago resulted in karst rock desertification, suggest researchers - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · In a study published in Earth's Future on April 5, researchers led by Prof. Wang Kelin from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found that maize cultivation and tree felling three hundred years ago triggered severe rocky desertification in the karst area of southwest China.
Scientists have developed a method to identify historical human disturbances using dating methods from karst depression sediments, including 137Cs, 210Pbex and charcoal 14C. The first-ever pollen record in karst depression sediments, combined with comprehensive dating methods and historical documents was presented.
According to the researchers, the forest ... Read more ...
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Marine plankton behavior could predict future marine extinctions, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · All but the most specialist sea plankton moved to higher latitudes during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, an interval of sustained high global temperatures equivalent to worst case global warming scenarios.
When a team, comprised of researchers from the University of Bristol, Harvard University, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics and the University of Victoria, compared biodiversity and global community structure, they found that the community often responds to climate change millions of years before losses of biodiversity.
The study, "Biogeographic responses in marine plankton functional groups to Cenozoic climatic and environmental changes" published in ... Read more ...
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Migratory birds are on the move and nature-friendly farms can help them on their way - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Migratory birds must make use of food that is only available seasonally. Grass-eating birds like geese follow fresh, green shoots that appear as the season unfolds and the geese move northwards. The brief window when this young, spring grass is at its most nutritious and abundant can last as little as three weeks.
Such a fine-tuned strategy can become a liability. Geese can only eat when they arrive in the right place at the right time, but climate change has disrupted when and how long this seasonal food source is available. Migratory birds may arrive too late in one area if rising temperatures have ushered spring in earlier, for example. If birds cannot replenish their ... Read more ...
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Multi-drug resistant bacteria found on International Space Station mutate to become functionally distinct - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Study findings indicate that under stress, the ISS isolated strains were mutated and became genetically and functionally distinct compared to their Earth counterparts. The strains were able to viably persist in the ISS over time in significant abundances. E. bugandensis coexisted with multiple other microorganisms, and in some cases could have helped those organisms survive.
Closed human-built environments, such as the ISS, are unique areas that provide an extreme environment subject to microgravity, radiation, and elevated carbon dioxide levels. Any microorganisms introduced to these areas must adapt to thrive. By delving into microbial dynamics in extreme environments, this ... Read more ...
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NASA observations find what helps heat roots of 'moss' on sun - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · For decades, scientists have struggled to understand how this mossy region is connected to the sun's lower atmospheric layers and how material there is heated from 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit up to nearly 1 million degrees Fahrenheit—100 times hotter than the bright surface just below.
Observations from these instruments combined with complex 3D simulations have now revealed that electrical currents may contribute to heating the moss. Throughout this region there is a mess of magnetic field lines, like invisible spaghetti. This tangle of magnetic spaghetti creates electrical currents that can help heat material to a wide range of temperatures from 10,000 to 1 million ... Read more ...
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Rewilding amphibians: Protecting endangered species to restore ecosystems - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · In a recent paper published in Biological Conservation, iDiv researchers suggest that given amphibians' ability to act as "canaries in the coal mine" for aquatic environments, they should be reintroduced or rewilded. Rewilding would not only help protect these endangered species but simultaneously promote ecological stability.
Amphibians, such as salamanders, frogs, and newts, are the most threatened of all vertebrates, with over 40% of all species worldwide at risk of extinction. They are also unique in providing early information about aquatic ecosystems' ecological state due to their extremely sensitive and permeable skins.
According to the researchers, the presence ... Read more ...
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Study investigates coronavirus dynamics in bats: Lower biodiversity means more pathogens - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · The West African country of Ghana is known for its sheer abundance in animal species, including its bat populations. However, climate change and increased human encroachment into nature, such as deforestation, threaten the biodiversity in this Sub-Saharan region. A study led by biologists from Ulm University offers insights into the far-reaching ecological and health-related consequences of changes in the composition of species communities.
Specifically, the international research team, which involved scientists from Germany, the Czech Republic, Australia and Ghana, analyzed how the composition of cave-roosting bat communities affects the spread of coronaviruses. Over the ... Read more ...
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Surrogate otter mom at aquarium is rehabilitating pup 'better than any human ever can' - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Millie, a fatigued mother of an infant, was ready for a nap. So she grabbed her baby, flipped it around, threw it on her belly and started grooming its tail - a soothing behavior.
Millie, a sea otter, is rearing what could be the Aquarium of the Pacific's first orphaned pup to return to the wild. As a surrogate mom, she's teaching her adopted baby everything she needs to know to fend for herself - in the hopes she can hack it in the ocean in a few months.
"It's all instinctual, and she's doing it way better than any human ever can," said Megan Smylie, sea otter program manager at the Long Beach aquarium.
Their pairing isn't all about cuddles and relaxation. Just ... Read more ...
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Type of plastic film on high tunnels can filter sunlight, influence plant growth - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · In experiments growing green and purple basil as test crops in 12 high tunnels at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Penn State University Park, the researchers evaluated the effect of four alternative polyethylene films with varying light diffusion and ultraviolet-transparency levels. They documented that the plastic coverings—with varying degrees of light transmission in the ultra-violet, visible or photosynthetically-active and near-infrared ranges—had major effects on the growth of both basil cultivars.
The plastic film coverings showed varying effects on the mineral content, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, total phenolic compounds and ... Read more ...
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Unique field study shows how climate change affects fire-impacted forests - PHYS.ORG - Biology (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · The boreal forests form a single biome that spans the entire Northern Hemisphere. These forests play a key role in the global climate system by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Increasing forest fires, in the wake of climate change, threaten to undermine this ecosystem service.
In the aftermath of the summer 2018 forest fires in Sweden, a team of researchers began the most extensive field campaign ever performed in boreal forests to study how the fires affected 50 forests spread across the country. The research is published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
"We found that climate change may reduce the ability of burnt forests to absorb ... Read more ...
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