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Bats Use Water Ripples to Hunt Frogs

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2014Nature, Scienceanti predator strategy, austin, bats, central, echolocation, eeb, frog, frog eating bats, leiden university, male tungara frog, mike ryan, natural form, physalaemus pustulosus, predator, pulsating sac, rachel page, rival, ryan taylor, salisbury university, sonar, south america, stri, trachops cirrhosus, university of texas, water ripples, wouter halfwerk

AUSTIN, Texas — As the male túngara frog serenades female frogs from a pond, he creates watery ripples that make him easier to target by rivals and predators such as bats, according to researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Leiden University and Salisbury University.

A túngara frog will stop calling if it sees a bat overhead, but ripples continue moving for several seconds after the call ceases. In the study, published this week in the journal Science, researchers found evidence that bats use echolocation — a natural form of sonar — to detect these ripples and home in on a frog. The discovery sheds light on an ongoing evolutionary arms race between frogs and bats. (more…)

‘Life as Research Scientist’: Kiwamu Tanaka, Plant Biologist

By BlogArenaJanuary 26, 2014Education, Interview, Media, Natureatp hydrolyzing enzymes, biological nitrogen fixation, ecto apyrases, extracellular atp, kinase domain, kiwamu tanaka, lectin domain, nodulation, plant biologist, plant growth, plant microbe interactions, soil bacteria rhizobia

Dr. Kiwamu Tanaka, an aspiring scientist, is currently doing research on Role of extracellular ATP in plant growth and development at the Division of Plant Sciences in the University of Missouri. He completed his doctoral work at The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences in the Kagoshima University, Japan. Recently we spoke with Dr. Tanaka to know about his research work, especially regarding the study published in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.343.6168.290), and also about why it is important, how life as a research scientist is, and so on. So let’s hear from Dr. Tanaka: (more…)

Fische fangen Rauchschwalben im vollen Flug

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2014Natureadler, afrika, biologe, botswana, der tigerfish, die konventionellen nahrungsquellen, fisch, luft, magazin nature, mapungubwe nationalpark, nico smit, north west university, rauchschwalbe, schwalbenjagd, see, stausee, tigersalmler, wasser, zimbabwe

Hunderte Vögel im südafrikanischen Winterquartier erbeutet

In Afrikas Seen und großen Flüssen ist der Tigerfish oder Tigersalmler weit verbreitet. Hinsichtlich der Ernährung sind die bis zu einen Meter großen Fische wenig wählerisch. Verspeist wird alles, was vor die scharfen Zähne kommt, in der Regel Fische und Krustentiere. Erstmals wurde nun nachgewiesen und im Film festgehalten, dass zur Beute des Tigersalmlers auch über das Wasser fliegende Rauchschwalben gehören. (more…)

Researchers say polar bears are victims in public war of words

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2014Natureclimate change, extinction, polar bear, polar bear hunting, polar bear populations, polar bear trade

Polar bears and Inuit communities have become victims in the public war of words on climate change and wildlife conservation, according to researchers from Britain and Canada.

University of Exeter geographer Dr Martina Tyrrell and Dr Doug Clark from the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Environment and Sustainability examined the fallout from a media campaign in the run-up to the March 2013 proposal to severely limit or prohibit trade in polar bears under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). (more…)

Flippers neuer brasilianscher Bruder

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2014Natureamazonasbecken, araguaia delfin, ausbau, brasilien, deutschland, diverse staudammprojekte, forscher, inia araguaiaensis, inia geoffrensis, la plata delfin, plosbiology, regenwald, roberto maldonado, rosa flussdelfins, schaedel, suedamerika, wasserkraft, wwf, zaehne

WWF: Neue entdeckter Delfin durch Verbauung der Flüsse bedroht

Forscher haben im Regenwald Brasiliens einen neuen Flussdelfin identifiziert. Der WWF freut sich über die sensationelle Entdeckung und weist auf die Gefährdung der Tiere, insbesondere durch den Ausbau der Wasserkraft und diverse Staudammprojekte hin. “Seit fast 100 Jahren wurde keine neue Süßwasserdelfinart entdeckt”, freut sich Roberto Maldonado, Lateinamerikareferent vom WWF Deutschland. Man wusste zwar, dass es in den Flüssen Araguaia und Tocantis im Osten des Amazonasbeckens Zahnwale gibt, allerdings war man bislang davon ausgegangen, dass es sich um Exemplare des Rosa Flussdelfins (Inia geoffrensis) handelt, die in Südamerika relativ breit verbreitet sind. Die neue Art trägt den Namen Inia araguaiaensis, Araguaia Delfin, und unterscheidet sich von ihren Verwandten durch einen längeren Schädel und weniger Zähne. Darüber hinaus beobachteten die Forscher ein ungewöhnliches Jagdverhalten. Forscher berichten, die Tiere treiben ihre Beute gelegentlich ans Ufer und “picken” sie dann auf. (more…)

Salamander Population Size Helps Predict Health of Forest Ecosystems and Inform Forest Management Decisions, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2014Naturebiodiversity, conservation, forest ecosystems, forest management, grant connette, life history, predictor, ray semlitsch, salamander population, salamander recovery, salamander recovery rate, southern appalachian mountains, survival of amphibians, united states, university of missouri, woodland salamanders

Researchers suggest a balance between timber harvest and conservation biology

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Woodland salamanders are small, lungless amphibians that live in moist, forest habitats throughout the U.S. and the world. Salamanders often serve as vital links in forest food chains; their population size and recovery from major disturbances can help predict the health of forest ecosystems. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have determined that salamander population size reflects forest habitat quality and can predict how ecosystems recover from forest logging activity. MU researchers believe these findings can be translated to other species within forest ecosystems throughout the world.

“One of our primary interests is in conservation of amphibians and the habitats that they utilize,” said Ray Semlitsch, Curators’ Professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Science at MU. “We are trying to understand how land use, and particularly forest management, affects the survival of amphibians on the landscape. We also determined that salamander recovery—or the amount of time it takes for salamanders to repopulate a cut forest area—can help forest managers determine appropriate logging schedules.” (more…)

Scientists reveal why life got big in the Earth’s early oceans

By Guest PostJanuary 24, 2014Nature, Scienceangeomorphs, cambrian explosion, canada, canopy flow models, complex life, david gold, david jacobs, david johnston, early ocean, earth, ecology, evolutionary biology, fossil community, fossil record, foundations, guy narbonne, harvard, large life forms, life, marc laflamme, matthew clapham, MIT, modeling technique, multicellular eukaryotes, multicellular organism, newfoundland, nutrient carrying, nutrient uptake, nutrients from seawater, ocean flow, queens university, roger summons, uc santa cruz, ucla biologist, university of toronto, variety of scale

Why did life forms first begin to get larger and what advantage did this increase in size provide? UCLA biologists working with an international team of scientists examined the earliest communities of large multicellular organisms in the fossil record to help answer this question. (more…)

Coral Reefs in Palau Surprisingly Resistant to Naturally Acidified Waters

By Guest PostJanuary 24, 2014Environment, Natureacidified waters, anne cohen, atmosphere, calcification, carbon dioxide, chemical oceanographer, CO2, coral reef ecosystem, coral reefs, creation of a plan, environmental condition, kathryn shamberger, negative change, ocean acidification, oceanographic institution, palau, perfect storm, ph, picrc, protected areas network, republic of palau, rock islands, water chemistry, western pacific ocean, whoi, woods hole, yimnang golbuu

Ocean researchers working on the coral reefs of Palau in 2011 and 2012 made two unexpected discoveries that could provide insight into corals’ resistance and resilience to ocean acidification, and aid in the creation of a plan to protect them.

The team collected water samples at nine points along a transect that stretched from the open ocean, across the barrier reef, into the lagoon and then into the bays and inlets around the Rock Islands of Palau, in the western Pacific Ocean. With each location they found that the seawater became increasingly acidic as they moved toward land. (more…)

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