Tag Archives: belize

In conversation: scientist Ruth Blake on life aboard the E/V Nautilus

Yale geology and geophysics professor Ruth Blake recently completed a tour of duty as lead scientist aboard the exploration vessel Nautilus, during the Windward Passage leg of the ship’s 2014 exploration season.

The Windward Passage is the body of water between Cuba and Haiti, where the Atlantic Ocean flows into and exchanges water with the Caribbean Sea. Blake’s stint as lead scientist lasted Aug. 18–28.

Blake spoke with YaleNews about the scientific mission at the heart of the journey. (more…)

Read More

Fungi are the rainforest ‘diversity police’

A new study has revealed that fungi, often seen as pests, play a crucial role policing biodiversity in rainforests.

The research, by scientists at Oxford University, the University of Exeter and Sheffield University, found that fungi regulate diversity in rainforests by making dominant species victims of their own success.

Fungi spread quickly between closely-packed plants of the same species, preventing them from dominating and enabling a wider range of species to flourish. (more…)

Read More

Five-Limbed Brittle Stars Move Bilaterally, Like People

Brittle stars and people have something in common: They move in fundamentally similar ways. Though not bilaterally symmetrical like humans and many other animals, brittle stars have come up with a mechanism to choose any of its five limbs to direct its movement on the seabed. It’s as if each arm can be the creature’s front, capable of locomotion and charting direction. Results appear in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — It appears that the brittle star, the humble, five-limbed dragnet of the seabed, moves very similarly to us.

In a series of first-time experiments, Brown University evolutionary biologist Henry Astley discovered that brittle stars, despite having no brain, move in a very coordinated fashion, choosing a central arm to chart direction and then designating other limbs to propel it along. Yet when the brittle star wants to change direction, it designates a new front, meaning that it chooses a new center arm and two other limbs to move. Brittle stars have come up with a mechanism to choose any of its five limbs to be central control, each capable of determining direction or pitching in to help it move. (more…)

Read More

Clustered Hurricanes Reduce Impact on Ecosystems

*New research has found that hurricane activity is ‘clustered’ rather than random, which has important long-term implications for coastal ecosystems and human population.*

The research was carried out by Professor Peter Mumby from The University of Queensland Global Change Institute and School of Biological Sciences, Professor David Stephenson and Dr Renato Vitolo (Willis Research Fellow) at the University of Exeter’s Exeter Climate Systems research centre.

Tropical cyclones and hurricanes have a massive economic, social and ecological impact, and models of their occurrence influence many planning activities from setting insurance premiums to conservation planning. (more…)

Read More