Ecology2767 articles archived since 1845

Yellowstone's Iconic High Mountain Pines Dying by Beetle's Mouth

Whitebark pine, denizen of the high country around Yellowstone National Park, faces an invading pest as climate shifts

Elephants are Worth 76 Times More Alive Than Dead: Report

Ivory from a poached elephant sells on the black market for about $21,000. A living elephant, on the other hand, is worth more than $1.6 million in ecotourism opportunities.

Arctic Seabirds Expose Mercury’s Hiding Places [Slide Show]

By tracking the birds as they migrate, scientists can hone in on hotbeds of the ocean toxin

Seattle Suburb Making Progress against E. Coli in Water Supply

A Seattle suburb was making progress cleansing its E. coli-contaminated water supply through system-wide flushes and chlorine injections, a task made more urgent after the potentially deadly bacteria sickened a child, officials said on Tuesday...

To Help Sharks, Conservationists Spy on Them

Carbon Capture Begins at First Full-Sized, Coal-Fired Power Plant

On October 2, the Boundary Dam power plant in Saskatchewan became the first full-sized coal-fired boiler to capture the copious carbon dioxide that had previously billowed from its smokestack, preventing the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere...

Manure Fertilizer Increases Antibiotic Resistance

Faeces from antibiotic-free cows helps resistant bacteria to flourish in soil, puzzling researchers.

Wildlife Population Plummeted Since 1970

A World Wildlife Fund report estimates losses of 40 percent of all individual land and sea animals, and a 70 percent population crash of all river animals, since 1970. David Biello reports

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Merchants of Doubt Author Slams "Corrosive" Climate Change Skepticism

Historian of science Naomi Oreskes, now at Harvard, first came to my attention 20 years ago, when she and two co-authors argued in Science that “verification and validation of numerical models of natural systems is impossible.” In The End of Science, I cited the Oreskes et al...

Racerunner Lizards of the World Unite

Today we're here because of the lacertid lizards, the Old World clade that includes Eurasian wall lizards, green lizards, fringe-toed lizards and a great number of less familiar species groups that rarely get much attention outside of the specialist literature...

Sloth Bears Confirmed Extinct in Bangladesh

A massive project to assess the health of wildlife in Bangladesh has confirmed conservationists' longstanding suspicions that sloth bears no longer exist in that country.

Reindeer Spit Smacks Down Plant Toxins

Compounds in reindeer and moose saliva interfere with the production of toxins in plants that ordinarily stop animals from dining on the vegetation. Karen Hopkin reports

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Microbes and Pathogen Genes Fill New York City Soil

With all the attention to the Ebola virus and other pathogens floating around in bodily fluids and the air, we may not be aware that the dirt beneath our feet is home to thousands of bacteria and other microorganisms...

European Commission Cuts Deep Sea Fishing Quotas

The European Commission proposed an overall cut in quotas for deep sea fishing in the northeast Atlantic for the next two years, but environmental groups said it should have reduced some catch limits to zero to allow stocks to recover...

Good Palm Oil Yields Could Be Bad News

Increased palm oil yields could unintentionally have the effect of creating a bigger demand for land for even more palm oil planting. Cynthia Graber reports

 

U.S. on Track to Become World’s Leading Liquid Petroleum Producer

The U.S. is on track to become the world’s leading liquid petroleum producer. According to IEA, domestic production of oil was about 11.5m barrels a day in August, and the Financial Times reports that we are likely to surpass Saudi Arabia’s production for the first time in 23 years...

Systems Science: How Biodiverse Is Your Backyard?

An animal-focused adventure from Science Buddies

Lack of Ice Forces Some 35,000 Walruses to Chill on Alaska Shore

Fast-melting Arctic sea ice has forced some 35,000 Pacific walruses to retreat to the Alaska shoreline, scientists from several federal agencies said on Wednesday.

Montana Seeks to Give Away Bison from Yellowstone to 5 States

By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - Montana wants 145 bison that originated in Yellowstone National Park given away to six organizations in five states, including New York's Bronx Zoo, to further the conservation of America's last pure-bred wild buffalo, under a plan released on Wednesday...

Central Park Features Worldwide Soil Microbes

The soil in Manhattan's Central Park contains microbial life that also exists in deserts, frozen tundra, forests, rainforests and prairies. Steve Mirsky reports