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Study reveals startling decline in European birds

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2014Naturecarol mansfield, cyber valley, darian mangu, estrogen treatment, Europe, house sparrows, orv restrictions, rhonda voskuhl, richard inger, roger von haefen, starlings, steven dundas, study, university of exeter, wildlife

Bird populations across Europe have experienced sharp declines over the past 30 years, with the majority of losses from the most common species, say researchers from the University of Exeter, the RSPB and the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) in a new study. However numbers of some less common birds have risen.

The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, reveals a decrease of 421 million individual birds over 30 years. Around 90 percent of these losses were from the 36 most common and widespread species, including house sparrows, skylarks, grey partridges and starlings, highlighting the need for greater efforts to halt the continent-wide declines of our most familiar countryside birds. (more…)

Researchers solve riddle of the rock pools – Study shows rock gobies use rapid colour change camouflage to hide from predators

By Guest PostOctober 25, 2014Nature3d papillae, alzheimer forschung, Britain, camouflaging material, chromatophores, falmouth, from playboy, hirnaktivitaet, james pikul, north africa, researchers, rob shepherd, roger hanlon, southern europe, university of exeter

Research from the University of Exeter has revealed that the rock goby (Gobius paganellus), an unassuming little fish commonly found in rock pools around Britain, southern Europe, and North Africa, is a master of camouflage and can rapidly change colour to conceal itself against its background.

Whether hiding from predators or from families hunting in rock pools, the rock goby can change both its colour and brightness to match its background in just one minute. (more…)

Heritage of Earth’s water gives rise to hopes of life on other planets

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2014Scienceearth, erforschen, evolution of life, exoplanetary systems, exoplanets, Galaxy, gehirnaktivitaet, ilsedore cleeves, magnetfelder im gehirn, momoko watanabe, schlaganfall, stars, university of exeter, university of michigan, water, zika infected organoids

A pioneering new study has shown that water found on Earth predates the formation of the sun – raising hopes that life could exist on exoplanets, the planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy.

The ground-breaking research set out to discover the origin of the water that was deposited on the Earth as it formed.

It found that a significant fraction of water found on Earth, and across our solar system, predates the formation of the sun. By showing that water is ‘inherited’ from the environment when a star is born, the international team of scientists believe other exoplanetary systems also had access to an abundance of water during their own formation. (more…)

Study shows sharks have personalities

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2014Nature, Sciencealison crowe, atlantic, darren croft, elli theobald, group project, group work, kristin bergauer, mediterranean, metaproteomics, personality traits, proteinshake, seafloor, tiefsee mikroorganism, university of exeter, working with friends

Some sharks are ‘gregarious’ and have strong social connections, whilst others are more solitary and prefer to remain inconspicuous, according to a new study which is the first to show that the notorious predators have personality traits.

Personalities are known to exist in many animals, but are usually defined by individual characteristics such as how exploratory, bold or aggressive an individual is. (more…)

Skin colouring of rhesus macaque monkeys linked to breeding success

By Guest PostOctober 9, 2014Natureadvent of cryptocurrency, dana manalang, dinner in dark, garrick hileman, jerry paros, marine faults, potential mates, predict, pressure sensor, sexual selection, southeast asia, university of exeter, wechselspiel der mikroorganismen

Skin colour displayed amongst one species of monkey provides a key indicator of how successfully they will breed, a new study has shown.

The collaborative international research also shows that skin colouration in male and female rhesus macaques is an inherited quality – the first example of heritability for a sexually-selected trait to be described in any mammal. (more…)

Expedition finds Nemo can travel great distances to connect populations

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2014Nature, Scienceamerican, arabian peninsula, archaeal signatures, betina faist, buckingham palace, clark peters, dna fingerprinting, expedition, goettin gula, hasan qasim, human skin microbiome, keilschriftarchiv, kelli canada, klaus oppermann, kurdistan, larval stage, marine environment, mittani reich, most overlooked inventors, new york, ocean, oman, out of jail, ressourcen kulturen, sensual crime, skin moisture, steve simpson, tempel, travel, university of exeter

Clownfish spend their entire lives nestling in the protective tentacles of host anemones, but new research shows that as babies they sometimes travel hundreds of kilometres across the open ocean. Although the process of long-distance dispersal by reef fish has been predicted, this is the first time that the high level exchange of offspring between distant populations has been observed.

Dr Steve Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology and Global Change in Biosciences at the University of Exeter, and colleagues from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (ARC COE CRS), Sultan Qaboos University (Oman) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) have published their findings on the dispersal of Omani clownfish larvae in the journal PLOS ONE. (more…)

Link between vitamin D and dementia risk confirmed

By Guest PostAugust 26, 2014Healthalzheimer, anstrengend, between, dalton conley, daniel kaiser, dementia, hendrik mothes, jason fletcher, link, mantle dynamics, nesting doll minerals, renbiao tao, sport ist mord, university of exeter, vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in older people, according to the most robust study of its kind ever conducted.

An international team, led by Dr David Llewellyn at the University of Exeter Medical School, found that study participants who were severely Vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The team studied elderly Americans who took part in the Cardiovascular Health Study. They discovered that adults in the study who were moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 per cent increased risk of developing dementia of any kind, and the risk increased to 125 per cent in those who were severely deficient. (more…)

Major turtle nesting beaches protected in one of the UK’s far flung overseas territories

By Guest PostAugust 21, 2014Nature1917, annette broderick, atlantic ocean, biodiversity, liberty, picketing, risikogene, sam weber, second world war, south atlantic, treatment of pain, uk, uk government, united kingdom, university of exeter

Sea turtles are not a species one would normally associate with the United Kingdom. But on the remote UK overseas territory of Ascension Island, one of the world’s largest green turtle populations is undergoing something of a renaissance.

Writing in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, scientists from the University of Exeter and Ascension Island Government Conservation Department report that the number of green turtles nesting at the remote South Atlantic outpost has increased by more than 500 per cent since records began in the 1970s. (more…)

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