Feature Channels: Nature

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Harmful parasite of monarch butterflies uses multiple transmission strategies to keep infection levels high

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A research team led by the University of Washington has developed a model that could help foresters predict which nonnative insect invasions will be most problematic. This could help managers decide where to allocate resources to avoid widespread tree death.

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As global temperatures continue to rise, the thawing of permafrost is accelerated and mercury trapped in the frozen ground is being released in into surrounding waterways, soil and air. Research at the University of New Hampshire show this can result in the transformation of mercury into more mobile and potentially toxic forms that can lead to environmental and health concerns for wildlife, the fishing industry and people in the Arctic and beyond.

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Scientists have found a key link between fertility and the response strength of pheromone-sensing neurons. They found that a channel known as PPK25 amplifies courtship signals in olfactory receptor neurons of male flies. PPK25 heightens males’ sensitivity to their mates’ odors at the age of peak fertility, thus promoting courtship.

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With the help of new technologies, a team led by the University of Washington has confirmed that piranhas lose and regrow all the teeth on one side of their face multiple times throughout their lives. How they do it may help explain why the fish go to such efforts to replace their teeth.

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According to a research team at the University of Georgia, abandoned dwellings in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone provide shelter for an endangered equine species and a resource for conservationists who want to ensure their survival.

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The economic potential of the oceans is expected to double from US$1.5 trillion in 2010 to US$3 trillion by 2030. Yet managing this growth should be undertaken in a safe and just manner caution a team of international researchers.

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Deep-sea mussels, which rely on cooperative symbiotic bacteria for their food, harbor a surprisingly high diversity of these bacterial "cooks": Up to 16 different bacterial strains live together in the mussel's gills, each with its own abilities and strengths. Thanks to this diversity of symbiotic bacterial partners, the mussel is prepared for all eventualities. The mussel bundles up an all-round carefree package, a German-Austrian research team including Jillian Petersen from the University of Vienna and Rebecca Ansorge and Nicole Dubilier from the Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology now reports in Nature Microbiology.

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“In the jungle, you have to do things differently.” It’s a simple statement, too simple to fully capture what Dr. David Rodriguez does. On the one hand, the cutting-edge technology he uses performs all the same functions as a normal on-campus molecular biology lab.

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Anthropogenic noise pollution (ANP) is a globally invasive phenomenon impacting natural systems, but most research has occurred at local scales with few species. Researchers in this study investigated continental‐scale breeding season associations with ANP for 322 bird species to test whether local‐scale predictions related to breeding habitat, migratory behavior, body mass, and vocal traits are consistent at broad spatial extents for an extensive group of North American bird species in the continental United States.

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Travellers are willing to pay a little more for flights if they know the extra money will be used to address carbon emissions, a new study from the UBC Sauder School of Business has found.

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The winners of the 2019 AIP Science Communication Awards are announced for their topical works on robotics inspired by animals, the nature of the universe, climate change, the awe and excitement of space, and the mystery of black holes. The winners are David L. Hu, Marcia Bartusiak, Nathaniel Rich, Raman Prinja, and Rushmore DeNooyer.

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Scientists have pieced together the first complete picture of the Florida panther genome – work that could serve to protect that endangered population and other endangered species going forward.

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New research from Cornell University sheds light on the secret to the survival of monarch butterflies by revealing how the species developed immunity to fatal milkweed toxins.

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A multidisciplinary team with the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab has created StaPOPd, an interactive online tool that tells users exactly how many plants or animals they need to introduce into a habitat in order to establish a stable population.

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In a recent article in Annals of the American Association of Geographers, geographers from the State University of New York (SUNY) found that Native American land use—in particular, the use of fire—was critical in shaping the distribution of oak savannas in Western New York at the end of the 1700s.

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How did the Alabama cave shrimp get into two distinct cave systems that don't share a watershed?

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Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) announces the publication of the scientific paper Restoration of common loons following the North Cape Oil Spill, Rhode Island, USA, in the journal Science of the Total Environment (now available online). This loon restoration study, conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a 15-year period, resulted in the acquisition or conservation easements of nearly 607,028 ha (1.5 million acres) of Maine forests and waters to support the protection of 119 loon pairs in perpetuity.

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Data show that since 1970, the U.S. and Canada have lost nearly 3 billion birds, a massive reduction in abundance involving hundreds of species, from beloved backyard songbirds to long-distance migrants.

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Smell is one of the most poorly understood of the major senses. But now an international research team led by Laurel Yohe of Stony Brook University suggests a new method to quantify olfactory receptors by sequencing them in vampire bats may hold the key to unraveling the mysteries of smell.

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Malaysia’s plans to create a Pan-Borneo Highway will severely degrade one of the world’s most environmentally imperilled regions, says a research team from Australia and Malaysia.

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Wilderness areas, long known for intrinsic conservation value, are far more valuable for biodiversity than previously believed, and if conserved, will cut the world’s extinction risk in half, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.

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Most of the pups born in an elephant seal colony in California over a span of five decades were produced by a relatively small number of long-lived "supermoms", according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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Hearing casual chatter of birds after predator call reassures squirrels to come off high alert

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Jaime Yazzie, a member of the Navajo Nation, brought her community's priorities to the scientific process as she studied climate change and took what she learned back to them, sparking a more holistic conversation about what can be done to combat the effects of warming.

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Researchers from Sweden, Germany, Brazil and the USA have developed a financial mechanism to support the protection of the world's natural heritage.

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Crows can voluntarily control the release and onset of their calls, suggesting that songbird vocalizations are under cognitive control, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Katharina Brecht of the University of Tübingen, and colleagues.

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An international team of scientists reviewed more than 10,000 published climate change studies and has reached a sobering conclusion. Birds and other animals cannot adapt fast enough to keep pace with climate change, throwing species survival in doubt.

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Soil bedding increases microbial and termite decomposition activity

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Moose are picky eaters, and that’s a good thing for their ecosystems.

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Green turtles are more likely to swallow plastic that resembles their natural diet of sea grass, new research suggests.

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Study finds males will follow silk road left by their rivals in search of a mate.

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Lichens are the proverbial “canaries in the coal mine” when it comes to looking at the damaging effects of pollution in a given area. However, urban areas can be viable habitats, as the lichens in Western New York show.

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Approximately 2.4 billion years ago, the Great Oxidation Event, which dramatically increased the oxygen content in Earth’s atmosphere, paved the way for the rise of all lifeforms that use oxygen to break down nutrients for energy. While scientists agree about when the event happened, they are less certain about exactly how it occurred. Now, however, researchers at Missouri S&T say they’ve discovered a possible trigger for the Great Oxidation Event and the arrival of plants and animals on Earth.

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A huge roadbuilding scheme in Papua New Guinea could imperil some of the largest, biologically richest and culturally most diverse forests on the planet, says an international research team led by James Cook University in Australia.

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An international team created a framework for how city planners and municipalities around the world can start to measure the mental health benefits of nature and incorporate those into plans and policies for cities and their residents.

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The imperiled Georgia blind salamander (Eurycea wallacei) was successfully bred for the first time in the labs of the Center for Conservation & Research at San Antonio Zoo.

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The males of one species of butterfly are more attracted to females that are active, not necessarily what they look like, according to a recent research conducted at Augustana University.The paper, “Behaviour before beauty: Signal weighting during mate selection in the butterfly Papilio polytes,” found that males of the species noticed the activity levels of potential female mates, not their markings.