Plants are responding in unexpected ways to increased carbon dioxide in the air, according to a twenty-year study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota and published in the journalScience. For the first 12 years, researchers found what they expected regarding how different types of grasses reacted to carbon dioxide. However, researchers' findings took an unanticipated turn during the last eight years of the study.
the first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else.
Wednesday
Grassland plants react unexpectedly to high levels of carbon dioxide
Tuesday
Scientists discover balance of thermal energy and low climate stress drive coral species diversity
Study to inform plans to protect coral reefs with the greatest chances of surviving the changing climate
- May 1, 2018
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Marine scientists have identified two key factors that create the ideal conditions needed for high species diversity in coral reefs: thermal energy in the form of warm water and low climate stress.
- Marine scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), University of Warwick, and University of Queensland have identified two key factors that create the ideal conditions needed for high species diversity in coral reefs: thermal energy in the form of warm water and low climate stress.
Monday
If pigs could fly: How can forests regenerate without birds?
The trunk of a native cycad, Cycas micronesica, arches gracefully over the karst floor of a limestone forest on Guam.
Credit: Lauren Gutierrez
Human activity continues to shape environmental systems around the world creating novel ecosystems that are increasingly prevalent in what some scientists call the Anthropocene (the age of humans). The island of Guam is well known as a textbook case for the devastating effects of invasive species on island ecosystems with the extirpation of most of the forest dwelling birds due to brown tree snake predation. The loss of native birds has resulted in a loss of forest seed dispersers. Recent research conducted by lead author Ann Marie Gawel, based on her University of Guam master's thesis, has found an unlikely forest ally, feral pigs.
If pigs could fly: How can forests regenerate without birds?
- April 30, 2018
- University of Guam
- Research on ungulates in the limestone forests of northern Guam has yielded surprising results.
The trunk of a native cycad, Cycas micronesica, arches gracefully over the karst floor of a limestone forest on Guam.Credit: Lauren GutierrezHuman activity continues to shape environmental systems around the world creating novel ecosystems that are increasingly prevalent in what some scientists call the Anthropocene (the age of humans). The island of Guam is well known as a textbook case for the devastating effects of invasive species on island ecosystems with the extirpation of most of the forest dwelling birds due to brown tree snake predation. The loss of native birds has resulted in a loss of forest seed dispersers. Recent research conducted by lead author Ann Marie Gawel, based on her University of Guam master's thesis, has found an unlikely forest ally, feral pigs.
Rugosity and concentricity: In urban planning, look to edges, not just the core
- April 26, 2018
- University of California - Davis
- Planners should view high rugosity (highly non-concentric) urban areas as symptomatic of vigor in urban and agricultural markets. Greater planning efforts are required to coordinated the co-joined health of both agricultural and urban land-uses. Empirical analysis is supported by land-use policies from 30 case study counties.
Traditional urban planning favors 'concentric' layouts with a downtown core surrounded by suburbs and farmland (right). But Catherine Brinkley argues instead that cities should plan for 'rugosity' (left) with more interfaces between functions.Credit: UC DavisCatherine Brinkley is a professor of human and community development and human ecology at UC Davis. So it's interesting that in a recent published paper, she advocates that cities should work more like coral reefs -- supporting a diversity of niches and uses for sustained vigor and resilience. In ecology and medical sciences, the term for a physical form with such topographic complexity is rugosity.
Bleaching of coral reefs reduced where daily temperature changes are large
By taking a closer look, scientists find resilience in face of heat stress
- April 26, 2018
- University of California - Irvine
- Coral reef bleaching is stark evidence of the damage being inflicted by global climate change on marine ecosystems, but a research team has found some cause for hope. While many corals are dying, others are showing resilience to increased sea surface temperatures, pointing to possible clues to the survival and recovery of these vitally important aquatic habitats.
- Coral reef bleaching is stark evidence of the damage being inflicted by global climate change on marine ecosystems, but a research team led by scientists at the University of California, Irvine has found some cause for hope. While many corals are dying, others are showing resilience to increased sea surface temperatures, pointing to possible clues to the survival and recovery of these vitally important aquatic habitats.
Protect forest elephants to conserve ecosystems, not DNA
date April 25, 2018
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
New research has found that forest elephant populations across Central Africa are genetically quite similar to one another. Conserving this critically endangered species across its range is crucial to preserving local plant diversity in Central and West African Afrotropical forests -- meaning conservationists could save many species by protecting one.
Although it is erroneously treated as a subspecies, the dwindling African forest elephant is a genetically distinct species. New University of Illinois research has found that forest elephant populations across Central Africa are genetically quite similar to one another. Conserving this critically endangered species across its range is crucial to preserving local plant diversity in Central and West African Afrotropical forests -- meaning conservationists could save many species by protecting one.
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