Tag Archives: habitats

Snapping Turtles Finding Refuge in Urban Areas While Habitats are Being Polluted or Developed, MU Researcher Finds

By Guest PostAugust 31, 2013Naturebill peterman, butler university, central canal, habitats, interaction with humans, jessica stephens, midwest, pollution, refuge, sean sterrett, snapping turtles, snapping turtles habitats, travis ryan, university of missouri, urban areas, waterways

Stopping pollution from flowing into waterways could restore natural habitats

COLUMBIA, Mo. – In the Midwest, people have a fear of encountering snapping turtles while swimming in local ponds, lakes and rivers. Now in a new study, a University of Missouri researcher has found that snapping turtles are surviving in urban areas as their natural habitats are being polluted or developed for construction projects. One solution is for people to stop using so many chemicals that are eventually dumped into the waterways, the scientist said.

“Snapping turtles are animals that can live in almost any aquatic habitat as long as their basic needs for survival are met,” said Bill Peterman, a post-doctoral researcher in the Division of Biological Sciences at MU. “Unfortunately, suitable aquatic habitats for turtles are being degraded by pollution or completely lost due to development. We found that snapping turtles can persist in urbanized areas, despite the potential for more interaction with humans.” (more…)

Fetch, Boy! Study Shows Homes with Dogs Have More Types of Bacteria

By Guest PostJune 17, 2013General, Healthallergies, dataset, DNA, dogs, habitats, holly menninger, households, human fecal bacteria, jessica henley, jonathan leff, kitchen counter, microbial populations, noah fierer, north Carolina, organisms, phylotypes, rob dunn, state university, television screen, types of bacteria, united states, university of colorado

New research from North Carolina State University and the University of Colorado shows that households with dogs are home to more types of bacteria – including bacteria that are rarely found in households that do not have dogs. The finding is part of a larger study to improve our understanding of the microscopic life forms that live in our homes.

“We wanted to know what variables influence the microbial ecosystems in our homes, and the biggest difference we’ve found so far is whether you own a dog,” says Dr. Rob Dunn, an associate professor of biology at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “We can tell whether you own a dog based on the bacteria we find on your television screen or pillow case. For example, there are bacteria normally found in soil that are 700 times more common in dog-owning households than in those without dogs.” (more…)

British butterfly desperate for warm weather this summer

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Environment, Naturebritish butterfly, climate, computer modeling, fluctuation, habitats, jenny hodgson, jonathan bennie, microclimates, silver spotted skipper, summer, sussex wildlife trust, temperature, university of exeter, university of liverpool, university of york, variable climate, warm weather, warmer conditions, zoe davies

Butterflies are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature and new research has revealed that when summer weather turns bad the silver-spotted skipper battles for survival.

The butterfly, which previously faced extinction from habitat loss, is recovering following conservation efforts but the recent cool wet summers in England have almost stalled its progress.

A 27 year study by researchers at the University of Exeter in collaboration with the University of York, the University of Liverpool, Sussex Wildlife Trust, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the charity Butterfly Conservation has been published in the journal Ecology Letters. The study estimated changes in temperature across a range of silver-spotted skipper habitats and found that localised fluctuations in temperature lead to extreme fluctuations in the butterfly population size and in the probability of the butterflies colonising new sites. (more…)

Male lions use ambush hunting strategy

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2013Nature3d maps, africa, african savanna, ambush style hunting, animal behavior, balance, cao aircraft, carnegie, carnegie airborne observatory, craig tambling, female lions, females, gps tracking, greg asner, habitats, hunting, kruger national park, lidar scanner, male lions, open grassy savannas, petr kratochvil, predators, prey, savanna vegetation, scott loarie, South Africa, species, university of pretoria, viewsheds

Washington, D.C.— It has long been believed that male lions are dependent on females when it comes to hunting. But new evidence suggests that male lions are, in fact, very successful hunters in their own right. A new report from a team including Carnegie’s Scott Loarie and Greg Asner shows that male lions use dense savanna vegetation for ambush-style hunting in Africa. Their work is published in Animal Behavior.

Female lions have long been observed to rely on cooperative strategies to hunt their prey. While some studies demonstrated that male lions are as capable at hunting as females, the males are less likely to cooperate, so there were still questions as to how the males manage to hunt successfully. The possibility that male lions used vegetation for ambushing prey was considered, but it was difficult to study given the logistics and dangers of making observations of lions in densely vegetated portions of the African savanna. (more…)

Exhaustive Family Tree for Birds Shows Recent, Rapid Diversification

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2012Natureanalysis, arne mooers, avian diversity, basic hypotheses, behavioral innovation, biodiversity expert, bird species, birds, bumblebees, canada, diversification rate, dna data, earth, eurasia, evolution, evolutionary history, extinction, family tree, fossil, g h thomas, geographic context, geographic space, geographical information, global phylogenies, global picture, habitats, islands, j b joy, k hartmann, life, mainlands, north american, simon fraser university, south america, Space, tasmania, time, tropical species, tunafish, walter jetz, western hemisphere, yale, zeitgeist

A Yale-led scientific team has produced the most comprehensive family tree for birds to date, connecting all living bird species — nearly 10,000 in total — and revealing surprising new details about their evolutionary history and its geographic context.

Analysis of the family tree shows when and where birds diversified — and that birds’ diversification rate has increased over the last 50 million years, challenging the conventional wisdom of biodiversity experts.

“It’s the first time that we have — for such a large group of species and with such a high degree of confidence — the full global picture of diversification in time and space,” said biologist Walter Jetz of Yale, lead author of the team’s research paper, published Oct. 31 online in the journal Nature. (more…)

Gut Microbe Networks Differ From Norm in Obese People, Systems Biology Approach Reveals

By Guest PostJanuary 13, 2012Scienceabundance of enzymes, alfred p sloan foundation, biomarkers, body weight, building blocks of proteins, cohesive system, disease resistance, elhanan borenstein, energy, gene set, gut, habitats, human anatomy, human body, human genes, human gut, human host, human microbiome, immunity and nutrition, in silico modeling, inflammatory bowel disease, integrated biological system, microbes, microorganism, modeled network, modularity, multiple microbial species, organism, periphery, peter j turnbaugh, sharon greenblum, species, supra organism, university of washington, vitamins

For the first time, researchers have analyzed the multitude of microorganisms residing in the human gut as a complex, integrated biological system, rather than a set of separate species. Their approach has revealed patterns that correspond with excess body weight.

The senior author of the paper, Elhanan Borenstein, assistant professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, said, “Our research introduces a novel framework, applying systems biology and in-silico (computer) modeling to study the human microbiome – the complex ensemble of microorganisms that populate the human body – as a single cohesive system.” (more…)

Over the Hump: Ecologists Use Power of Network Science to Challenge Long-Held Theory

By Guest PostSeptember 26, 2011Nature, Sciencealpine tundra, british ecologist, bugle lily, ecologists, effects of environmental change on biodiversity, elizabeth borer, emperor new clothes, global sampling, grime unimodal pattern, habitats, henry gholz, hump shaped model, j philip grime, mt gilboa, national science foundation, peter adler, plant and animal species, productivity of the habitat, scientist, South Africa, utah state university

*Global sampling of 48 sites on five continents yields unprecedented data set*

For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down principles explaining why some habitats have many more plant and animal species than others.

Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the number of species is determined by the productivity of the habitat.

Shouldn’t a patch of prairie contain a different number of species than an arid steppe or an alpine tundra? (more…)

Coral Algae Discovered in Black Corals at Never Before Seen Depths

By Guest PostOctober 25, 2010Naturealgae, black corals, coral, coral biology, daniel wagner, discovery, habitats, hawaii institute of marine biology, himb, jewelry industry, photosynthetic algae, photosynthetic symbiotic algae, shallow water reef building corals, symbiodinium, tropical, university of hawaii at manoa, zooxanthellae

Hawaiian Black Coral. Image credit: Daniel Wagner, HIMB

Researchers at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), an organized research unit in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology have made a remarkable new discovery.

When most people envision coral, they typically think of shallow-water reef-building corals found along beaches and tropical nearshore habitats. These “typical” corals are dependent upon photosynthetic algae (also known as Symbiodinium or zooxanthellae) found in their tissues to obtain nutrients to live off of.

In deeper less known waters, closely related black corals were considered to be void of these algae because of the light shortage to support photosynthesis. In fact, all black corals were considered to lack Symbiodinium (algae), because they are typically found at great depths where light levels are very low. (more…)