Appearing in Nature Communications, a new study of dog fossils suggests that the evolutionary path of whole groups of predators can be a direct consequence of climate change. “It’s reinforcing the idea that predators may be as directly sensitive to climate and habitat as herbivores,” said study co-author Christine Janis, professor of ecology and evolutionary […]
Re-examining biodiversity data from one hundred long-term ecosystem monitoring studies done around the world, a new paper has revealed that the number of species in many of these places has not changed much – or has actually increased. But the researchers did discover something changing rapidly:which species were thriving. University of Vermont researcher Nick Gotelli’s […]
A general belief by conservationists that fences can help prevent the spread of diseases, protect wildlife from poachers, and help manage populations of threatened species has been overturned by a new study that shows fences are actually causing extinctions and destroying ecosystems. The counterintuitive new findings, appearing in the journal Science, reviewed the pros and […]
Rising before daylight and perched on a bench at his Sauk County shack in Depression-era Wisconsin, pioneering wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold (pictured) routinely took notes on the dawn chorus of birds. Beginning with the first pre-dawn calls of the indigo bunting or robin, Leopold would jot down the bird songs he heard, when he heard […]
A newly discovered microorganism that lives in the open ocean is able to “fix” nitrogen but does not rely on photosynthesis for energy, forcing scientists to revise their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems. Researcher Jonathan Zehr, a marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, describes the organism as […]
