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ScienceDaily -- Alternative Medicine News - Science
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Just 30 species of tree dominate world's most diverse savanna | ScienceDaily
Scientists have found that a mere 30 species of trees in the Cerrado -- the world's largest and most floristically diverse savanna -- account for nearly half of all its trees. The 'hyperdominance' by a few species could help researchers understand how this vast ecosystem functions.
Halo patterns around coral reefs may signal resilience | ScienceDaily
A new study links grazing halo patterns in coral reefs, as well as those in other patchy habitats, to the spatial patterns of the shelter habitat itself. The researchers found that grazing halos are distinct when the coral is clustered but merge into each other when the coral is dispersed.
Replanted rainforests may benefit from termite transplants | ScienceDaily
Termites -- infamous for their ability to destroy wood -- are rarely welcomed into rainforests that have been painstakingly replanted. But a new paper suggests that termite transplants may be necessary to help regenerating forests to thrive. Scientists found that termites are not thriving in replanted rainforests in Australia. Because decomposers like termites are essential for recycling nutrients and carbon, the researchers worry that the insect's slow recovery could hinder the growth and health of the young forests.
Comb jellies reveal ancient origins of animal genome regulation | ScienceDaily
Life depends on genes being switched on and off at exactly the right time. Even the simplest living organisms do this, but usually over short distances across the DNA sequence, with the on/off switch typically right next to a gene. This basic form of genomic regulation is probably as old as life on Earth. A new study finds that the ability to control genes from far away, over many tens of thousands of DNA letters, evolved between 650 and 700 million years ago. It probably appeared at the very dawn of animal evolution, around 150 million years earlier than previously thought. The critical innovation likely originated in a sea creature, the common ancestor or all extant animals.
Fewer parasites in the Indian River lagoon signal big ecosystem problems | ScienceDaily
Parasites are crucial indicators of ecosystem health, and their absence can signal trouble. Once pristine, Florida's Indian River Lagoon (IRL) now faces pollution and algal blooms that have damaged essential habitats like seagrass beds. New research finds parasite levels in the IRL are significantly lower than in comparable ecosystems worldwide -- 11% lower overall and 17% lower for larval parasites requiring multiple hosts. This sharp decline suggests a disrupted food web likely caused by pollution and habitat degradation, and a less resilient and more vulnerable ecosystem.
A fully automated tool for species tree inference | ScienceDaily
Engineers are making it easier for researchers from a broad range of backgrounds to understand how different species are evolutionarily related, and support the transformative biological and medical applications that rely on these species trees. The researchers developed a scalable, automated and user-friendly tool called ROADIES that allows scientists to infer species trees directly from raw genome data, with less reliance on the domain expertise and computational resources currently required.
Genomic survey uncovers evolutionary origins of secretoglobins | ScienceDaily
At a conference in Washington D.C. in 2000, the secretoglobin super family of proteins was named to classify proteins with structural similarities to its founding member uteroglobin. Now, 25 years later, there is still little known about the basic functions of these proteins, prompting a group of researchers to dive into their evolutionary origins. This bioinformatic survey reported that secretoglobins, or SCGBs -- originally thought to be exclusive to mammals -- are also found in turtles, crocodilians, lizards, and birds. These new findings suggest that these proteins evolved earlier than dinosaurs and share a basic function that is not yet discovered.
Invasive rats and rainforest mammals are sharing gut microbes as urban areas grow | ScienceDaily
As urban development continues to creep further into Earth's oldest and most diverse rainforests, a study reveals native and invasive small mammals aren't just adapting to their changing habitats -- they may also be sharing their microbes.
Deciphering the migratory behavior and connectivity of Mediterranean and Atlantic Cory's shearwaters | ScienceDaily
A good wildlife management plan must include information on their migratory processes if the conservation of a species, particularly an endangered species, is to be improved. In the marine environment, for example, regulating fishing activity in certain wintering areas could improve and complement conservation and protection measures carried out on the breeding grounds.
From the front garden to the continent: Why biodiversity does not increase evenly from small to large | ScienceDaily
The number of species does not increase evenly when going from local ecosystems to continental scales -- a phenomenon ecologists have recognized for decades. Now, an international team of scientists has developed a new theory to explain the three distinct phases typical of species distributions across scales. The theory may be crucial for estimating how many species are lost when habitats are destroyed.
Want to understand grasslands? Look at the bigger picture | ScienceDaily
New research asks how local and regional factors determine the makeup of plant species in grasslands. Researchers from a restoration ecology lab are attempting to solve a longstanding question in community ecology: how do regional and local factors jointly determine biodiversity?
When sea stars fall, sea otters rise: Sea otters benefit from prey boom triggered by loss of ochre sea stars | ScienceDaily
In 2013, a sea star wasting syndrome decimated populations of Pisaster along the west coast of North America and along the Monterey Peninsula in California, where this study was conducted. The orange and purple stars have a hungry appetite for mussels in the rocky intertidal. Without the voracious sea stars lurking around, mussel populations exploded, expanding in cover from around five percent to more than 18 percent within three years. In the wake of the sea star die-off, mussels became a major prey surplus for sea otters, revealing a surprising link between the adjacent rocky intertidal and kelp forest ecosystems. The new research into the phenomenon shows how the loss of a keystone predator (Pisaster) in one ecosystem can impart changes to another (sea otters), linking ecosystems.
Restoring oil wells back to nature with moss | ScienceDaily
In what could represent a milestone in ecological restoration, researchers have implemented a method capable of restoring peatlands at tens of thousands of oil and gas exploration sites in Western Canada. The project involves lowering the surface of these decommissioned sites, known as well pads, and transplanting native moss onto them to effectively recreate peatlands. This is the first time researchers have applied the method to scale on an entire well pad. The study found that the technique results in sufficient water for the growth of peatland moss across large portions of the study site.
Keeping tabs on native woodlands in times of flood and drought | ScienceDaily
Like farmland in Australia, native forests struggle with drought and flooding, so future management decisions need more sophisticated systems to monitor and manage their water needs. A new study aims to provide a good estimate of water used by trees and plants and bushes under the treetops (or the forest understorey) to help improve management of native woodlands.
Elephant instead of wild boar? What could have been in Europe | ScienceDaily
Even under today's climatic conditions, the long-extinct straight-tusked elephant could still live in Europe. This is the conclusion of a recent study. For this finding, the research group combined fossil finds with reconstructions of past climates.
Invasive weed threatens Southern California's deserts | ScienceDaily
Once thought resistant to invasion, California's deserts are losing native plants to aggressive weedy species like Saharan mustard. New research shows its spread is disrupting biodiversity and reducing the desert's ability to recover from extreme climate swings.
The oldest ant ever discovered found fossilized in Brazil | ScienceDaily
A 113-million-year-old hell ant that once lived in northeastern Brazil is now the oldest ant specimen known to science, finds a new report. The hell ant, which was preserved in limestone, is a member of Haidomyrmecinae -- an extinct subfamily that only lived during the Cretaceous period. These ants had highly specialized, scythe-like jaws that they likely used to pin or impale prey.
What rattlesnake venom can teach us about evolution: New USF study | ScienceDaily
A new study found that some rattlesnakes are producing simpler venoms containing fewer and more focused toxin families than complex venoms -- a surprising discovery that challenges long-held ideas about how living alongside a variety of other species influences evolution in a world increasingly shaped by human activity.
The eukaryotic cell emerged as an evolutionary algorithmic phase transition | ScienceDaily
An international collaboration has published groundbreaking research, shedding light on the most significant increase in complexity in the history of life's evolution on Earth: the origin of the eukaryotic cell.
How activity in Earth's mantle led the ancient ancestors of elephants, giraffes, and humans into Asia and Africa | ScienceDaily
What roils beneath the Earth's surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even animal activity and evolution. In fact, scientists believe that a plume of hot rocks that burst from the Earth's mantle millions of years ago could be an important part in the story of human evolution.
Unlocking the genetic basis of adaptive evolution: study reveals complex chromosomal rearrangements in a stick insect | ScienceDaily
Scientists report adaptive divergence in cryptic color pattern is underlain by two distinct, complex chromosomal rearrangements, where millions of bases of DNA were flipped backwards and moved from one part of a chromosome to another, independently in populations of stick insects on different mountains.
Environmental variability promotes the evolution of cooperation among humans: A simulation-based analysis | ScienceDaily
Researchers have demonstrated that intensified environmental variability (EV) can promote the evolution of cooperation through simulation based on evolutionary game theory. This result offers a new perspective for the reinterpretation of the variability selection hypothesis (VSH), which attributes improvement in human cognitive abilities to severe EV in Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), as further relevant to the explanation of the evolution of sociality.
Secret to crocodylian longevity | ScienceDaily
Researchers examined teeth and skulls of 99 extinct crocodylomorph species and 20 living crocodylian species to reconstruct their dietary ecology and identify characteristics that helped some groups persist through two mass extinctions. They discovered that one secret tocrocodylian longevity is their remarkably flexible lifestyles, both in what they eat and the habitat in which they get it.
Restoration programs won’t save coral reefs | ScienceDaily
As coral bleaching and deaths become more widespread globally, experts show that over a third of restoration projects fail and might never be scalable enough to have positive effects on reef ecosystems. The results show that major barriers to effective interventions include the small scale of restoration programs, high costs per hectare, and the tendency to restore already compromised reefs that are highly vulnerable to future heat stresses.
In Croatia's freshwater lakes, selfish bacteria hoard nutrients | ScienceDaily
Bacteria play key roles in degrading organic matter, both in the soil and in aquatic ecosystems. While most bacteria digest large molecules externally, allowing other community members to share and scavenge, some bacteria selfishly take up entire molecules before digesting them internally. Researchers now document 'selfish polysaccharide uptake' in freshwater ecosystems.
'Internet of nature' helps researchers explore the web of life | ScienceDaily
A novel paper is widening understanding of how species interact within ecosystems via the so-called 'Internet of Nature.' The paper reveals that species not only exchange matter and energy but also share vital information that influences behavior, interactions, and ecosystem dynamics -- revealing previously hidden characteristics of natural ecosystems.
Coral reefs exude myriad chemicals, fueling dynamic microbial recycling of nutrients | ScienceDaily
New research revealed the remarkable chemical diversity of substances exuded by coral reefs and demonstrated that thousands of different chemicals derived from tropical corals and seaweeds are available for microbes to decompose and utilize.
What's on the menu for Ryukyu's minute mammals? | ScienceDaily
Japan's Ryukyu Islands, which includes Okinawa, are the exclusive home to two rare mammals, the Amami rabbit and Ryukyu long-furred rat. These animals are hard to observe, but conservationists wish to find out specific details about their diets. So researchers inspected the teeth from deceased specimens to find out what the animals were eating, and at different times. Their findings show the rabbits have consistent diets, whereas the rats' change with the seasons.
First ancient genomes from the Green Sahara deciphered | ScienceDaily
An international team has sequenced the first ancient genomes from the so-called Green Sahara, a period when the largest desert in the world temporarily turned into a humid savanna-like environment. By analyzing the DNA of two 7,000-year-old naturally mummified individuals excavated in the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, the team showed that they belonged to a long-isolated and now extinct North African human lineage.