Ecology & Zoology

How Honeybee Queens Avoid Inbreeding

Genetic variation is important in a healthy population and recombination, or crossing-over, which occurs when sperm and egg cells are formed and segments of each chromosome pair are interchanged, is a vital part of maintaining genetic variation. Honeybees ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 29 2015 - 10:20am

Chickens Aren't Vegetarian

I like to use the Sneetches With Stars analogy (I did so again two days ago) because Theodor Seuss Geisel, famously known as Dr. Seuss, was spot on with the idea that humans would find a reason to be different from one another. In the Sneetch community, wh ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - May 8 2015 - 4:49pm

Grading The President's Strategy To Promote Bee Health

In 2006 there was a serious decline in the number of honey bee colonies in parts of Europe and the United States and it brought renewed concern about another Colony Collapse Disorder, which had last occurred in the mid-1990s. ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 29 2015 - 1:33pm

Creswell Crags And The Neanderthal Dawn Chorus

A new analysis of Ice Age birds has revealed that many of the birds were larger- despite what is commonly believed, the authors say it reflects the richness and greater productivity of the environment in the Ice Age. They picture an unusual mix of birds in ...

Article - News Staff - May 21 2015 - 1:16pm

Virgin Births Happen In 3 Percent Of Wild Sawfish In Florida Estuary

A Virgin Birth- parthenogenesis- may be a big deal in human culture but among wild sawfish in Florida it is apparently downright common. A new study finds that around 3 percent of the sawfish living in a Florida estuary are apparently the products of this ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 1 2015 - 11:00am

Pregnant Pipefish Fathers Are Not Super Dads

Many aquatic species have a reputation for negligent parenting. Having cast their gametes to the currents, they abandon their offspring to their fate. However, hands-on parenting is taken to a whole new dimension in the Syngnathidae fish family. Instead o ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2015 - 9:00am

Why Some Threatened Corals Swap “Algae” Partners After Bleaching Events

A new research study showed why threatened Caribbean star corals sometimes swap partners to help them recover from bleaching events. The findings are important to understand the fate of coral reefs as ocean waters warm due to climate change. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2015 - 10:00am

Ranavirosis: Frogs Face Risk In Garden Ponds

Researchers have found that the severity of ranavirosis, a devastating disease that kills thousands of frogs each year, increases in the presence of exotic fish. The use of garden chemicals was also associated with increased severity of the disease.  ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 9 2015 - 8:41am

'Vampire' Plants Can Have Positive Impacts Up The Food Chain

New research has revealed that parasitic 'vampire' plants that attach onto and derive nutrients from another living plant may benefit the abundance and diversity of surrounding vegetation and animal life. By altering the densities of the hemipar ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 12 2015 - 10:00am

Wound Signals In Plants- Feeding Caterpillars Make Leaves Shine

When a plant is attacked by herbivores, this triggers a number of physiological responses in the plant and calcium ions are important messengers for the processing of wound signals in plant cells. They regulate signal transduction and indirectly control p ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2015 - 4:00pm