Ecology & Zoology

Lusty Wandering Voles Have More Fun- Because They Forget They Have A Home

Prairie voles, aka Microtus ochrogaster, are common native rodents in the central U.S. and southern Canada. Because they mate for life and are relatively easy to study, the mouse-like creatures have been the subject of much research by scientists probing q ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 28 2008 - 6:54pm

Farming's Carbon Dioxide Impact On The Mississippi River

Midwestern farming has introduced the equivalent of five Connecticut Rivers into the Mississippi River over the past 50 years and is adding more carbon dioxide annually into its waters, according to a study published in Nature by researchers at Yale and Lo ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 30 2008 - 12:05am

Discovery: First New Species Of Giant Elephant-Shrew In 126 Years

Although there is unquestionably much left to be discovered about life on Earth, charismatic animals like mammals are usually well documented, and it is rare to find a new species today—especially from a group as intriguing as the elephant-shrews, monogamo ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 31 2008 - 10:58pm

Seed-eating Mammals Increase Tree Species Diversity

Tropical forests are immensely species-rich. The question of what causes this diversity is a perennial one in tropical biology. In the 1970s Daniel Janzen and Joseph Connell independently came up with the same explanation- if the seeds or seedlings of more ...

Article - Ian Ramjohn - Jan 31 2008 - 4:10pm

Roy Orbison Is Awarded His Own Beetle (Seriously)

An unusual new species of whirligig beetle from India is being named Orectochilus orbisonorum in honor of the late rock ‘n’ roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara. Arizona State University entomologist Quentin Wheeler announced the description and d ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 31 2008 - 3:39pm

MatK Gene Is A "Barcode" DNA For Plants

A 'barcode' gene that can be used to distinguish between the majority of plant species on Earth has been identified. This gene, which can be used to identify plants using a small sample, could lead to new ways of easily cataloguing different type ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 5 2008 - 10:44am

Excess Nitrogen Boosts Tropical Plant Growth By 20 Percent

A study by UC Irvine ecologists finds that excess nitrogen in tropical forests boosts plant growth by an average of 20 percent, countering the belief that such forests would not respond to nitrogen pollution. Faster plant growth means the tropics will take ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 6 2008 - 11:33am

A Guardian Of Grasses

Anoop Sindhu and colleagues report on a gene that may have played a key role in the evolution of grasses. The gene, Hm1, provides resistance against Cochliobolus carbonum race 1 (CCR1), a fungus that is capable of attacking and killing corn at any stage o ...

Article - Ian Ramjohn - Sep 24 2010 - 8:37pm

Research Trails And Sample Plots

Anyone who has conducted field research knows that the very process of collecting data alters the system that you are studying. As you walk across a field, forest or stream to collect data, your footfalls trample vegetation, they compact the soil, they scr ...

Article - Ian Ramjohn - Feb 8 2008 - 2:04am

Flying Lemurs Get Wii Remote Technology Strapped On Their Backs

The colugo doesn't fly and is not a lemur but it's still called a "flying lemur"- and it's the champion of all gliding mammals, able to drop from the forest canopy in Malaysia, glide more than the length of two football fields, exe ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 8 2008 - 11:03am