Ecology & Zoology

'Levy Flight' Theory Of Food Foraging In Albatross Overturned, Say Researchers

An international team of scientists has overturned an ecological study on how some animals search for food. Previously it was believed that wandering albatrosses and other species forage using a Lévy flight strategy- a cluster of short moves connected by i ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 24 2007 - 5:40pm

Vampire Bats Recognize Their Prey's Breathing

Vampire bats, the only mammals to feed exclusively on blood, including human blood, recognize their prey by the sound of its breathing. In a study published today in the open access journal BMC Biology, vampire bats of the species Desmodus rotondus could r ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 31 2007 - 4:46am

Old Trees And Ancient Wood Are Helping Rewrite History

Cornell archaeologists are rewriting history with the help of tree rings from 900-year-old trees, wood found on ancient buildings and through analysis of the isotopes (especially radiocarbon dating) and chemistry they can find in that wood. By collecting t ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 2 2007 - 11:05am

Species Extinction Could Reduce Productivity Of Plants By Half

An international team of scientists has published a new analysis showing that as plant species around the world go extinct, natural habitats become less productive and contain fewer total plants –– a situation that could ultimately compromise important ben ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 6 2007 - 10:25am

Rethinking Natural Ecology And The Limits Of The Nutritional Ecosystem

Anyone who has thrown a backyard barbecue knows that hot dogs are inexplicably packaged in different numbers than buns — eight hot dogs per pack versus 10 hot dog buns. Put in ecological terms, this means that weenie roasts are “hot-dog limited” — the extr ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2007 - 12:47pm

'Smart' Flower Bulbs Help You Find Your Green Thumb

Confused about the right planting depth for flower bulbs? You may not need to worry. Researchers have discovered that some flower bulbs are actually "smart" enough to adjust themselves to the right planting depth. A recent study published in the ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 3 2007 - 12:39pm

Evolutionary Tree Of Life For Flowering Plants

The evolutionary Tree of Life for flowering plants has been revealed using the largest collection of genomic data of these plants to date, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin and University of Florida. The scientists, publishing two pa ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 5 2007 - 11:00am

MUP Makes Male Mice Aggressive

A family of proteins commonly found in mouse urine is able to trigger fighting between male mice, a study in the Dec. 6, 2007, issue of Nature has found. Pheromones are chemical cues that are released into the air, secreted from glands, or excreted in urin ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 5 2007 - 4:18pm

Plants Use Light Changes To Make Their Own "Antifreeze"

New research at the University of Leicester reveals that plants react to change in light quality in order to develop freezing tolerance. It showed that a reduction in the ratio of red to far-red wavelengths (R:FR) of light increases the expression of freez ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 7 2007 - 1:04pm

Bear Hunting Altered Genetics More Than Ice Age Isolation

It was not the isolation of the Ice Age that determined the genetic distribution of bears, as has long been thought, according to an international research team writing in the latest issue of Molecular Ecology. One possible interpretation is that the hunti ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 7 2007 - 9:45pm