Tag Archives: ecosystems

Ancient gene

Researchers at UD use ancient gene to study virus biology

Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered that an ancient gene — ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), which occurs in all cellular life — provides important biological insights into the characteristics of unknown viruses in the sea. (more…)

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Evolutionary compromises drive diversity

EAST LANSING, Mich. – To paraphrase the Rolling Stones: We can’t always get everything we want in life, but we get what we need. Michigan State University researchers believe this is a powerful principle in evolution as well. Trade-offs, which are evolutionary compromises, drive the diversity of life, said Chris Adami, MSU professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. (more…)

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MU Researcher’s Study of African Forest Elephants Helps Guide Research Efforts in the U.S.

Study finds that human occupation of an area may not contribute to population decline of an endangered species

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Conservation of a protected or endangered species requires frequent monitoring and the dynamic techniques biologists utilize to ensure the survival of threatened animals. Often, scientists study biodiversity at all levels—from genes to entire ecosystems. Currently, researchers at the University of Missouri are employing genotyping to study movement patterns of African forest elephants in protected and unprotected regions of Gabon to better understand how human occupation of these areas might affect elephants on the African continent. Genotyping is helping conservation biologists determine the best course of action to ensure biodiversity and the preservation of various species in the U.S. and abroad. (more…)

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Online Science Expedition Brings Deep Sea Vents to the Computer Screen

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s ‘Dive and Discover’ Begins Jan. 2, 2014

Scientists and engineers using advanced technology and a unique robotic vehicle to study the deep sea will also be using their computers to interact with students, teachers, and the public about the research they are conducting.

Working along the East Pacific Rise, a mid-ocean ridge about 600 miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico, aboard the research vessel Atlantis, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues will examine life in some of the most extreme environments on Earth—deep-sea hydrothermal vents. (more…)

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Useful pesticides

We all know about the harm that can be caused by pesticides. While being misused, pesticides can have a negative impact on the plants, animals and human health. Animals that eat the treated with pesticides plants, have a small amount of pesticides left in their organisms. Being a food to a human, such animals represent a certain risk to human health. Not only the meat can be intoxicated with pesticides but also eggs, milk and the further products of milk production.

While working with pesticides, people accumulate them in the organism, what, in turn, may lead to the chronic diseases. Human needs have increased immensely, and people nowadays can’t eliminate the use of pesticides. (more…)

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Ship noise impairs feeding and heightens predation risk for crabs

A study published in the journal Animal Behaviour found that the noise of passing ships disrupts feeding for the common shore crab.

Perhaps worse, the team from the Universities of Exeter and Bristol also found that when threatened, crabs took longer to retreat to shelter and lost their natural ‘play dead’ behaviour.

In coastal seas around the world noise caused by humans is a dominant feature, with construction and transportation fundamentally modifying ocean soundscapes. 

Working with the same common shore crabs that children delight in catching on crablines in UK harbours, the team found ecologically-critical effects of ship noise-playback on behaviour.  (more…)

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Expressly Unfit for the Laboratory

Berkeley Lab Researchers Find Little Correlation Between Microbial Gene Expression and Environmental Conditions in the Laboratory

A new study challenges the orthodoxy of microbiology, which holds that in response to environmental changes, bacterial genes will boost production of needed proteins and decrease production of those that aren’t. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that for bacteria in the laboratory there was little evidence of adaptive genetic response. In fact, most bacterial genes appear to be regulated by signals unrelated to their function.

“Gene regulation in bacteria is usually described as an adaptive response to an environmental change so that genes are expressed only when they are required, but we’ve shown that in the laboratory gene regulation is often maladaptive,” says Adam Arkin, a systems and synthetic biologist and director of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division. “From our results, we propose that most bacterial genes are under indirect control, which means their expression is a response to signals not directly related to their function, and that their regulatory mechanisms perform poorly in the artificial conditions of a laboratory.” (more…)

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UCLA life scientists present new insights on climate change and species interactions

UCLA life scientists provide important new details on how climate change will affect interactions between species in research published online May 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This knowledge, they say, is critical to making accurate predictions and informing policymakers of how species are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures. 

“There is a growing recognition among biologists that climate change is affecting how species interact with one another, and that this is going to have very important consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems,” said the senior author of the research, Van Savage, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics at UCLA. “However, there is still a very limited understanding of exactly what these changes will be. Our paper makes progress on this very important question.”  (more…)

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