Ecology2722 articles archived since 1845

Pygmy Sloths Could Gain Much-Needed Endangered Species Protection

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) last week announced that the world’s rarest and smallest sloth could deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act (pdf).

Climbing Mount Everest: Risking Life and Limb for Science

Editor's Note: This is the fourth post in a series by Ulyana Horodyskyj, a geologist who is trying to determine how airborne particles such as soot that settle on massive glaciers affect how fast the ice melts...

Largest Active Volcano on Earth Rumbles Back to Life

Recent quake swarms signal that magma is squeezing into Mauna Loa's magma storage chambers in the same spots below where the 1984 eruption occurred

The World Cup's Climate Wild Card

When I read that the soccer balls used for World Cup games have been specially designed for the climate in Brazil, that got me wondering - which climate?

Excavations Reveal a Surprising Mix of Dinosaurs from Lost Continent

The American West once harbored multiple communities of dinosaurs simultaneously—a revelation that has scientists scrambling to understand how the land could have supported so many behemoths...

Gentoo Penguins Thrive, While Adelies and Chinstraps Falter in a Climate-Changed World

Penguin species show there are winners and losers from global warming

Diseases in the Wild: the Frog Apocalypse

The best way to prevent a disease from turning into an epidemic is to closely monitor its development and put systems in place before it starts spreading rapidly through populations.

African Elephants at Risk, Record Ivory Seizures

Should We Stop Selling Nautilus Shells?

Nautilus shells are big business. The U.S. imports more than 100,000 of the iconic mollusk shells every year, according to a recent study by the U.S.

Snakes Mimic Extinct Species

In order to avoid predators, scarlet kingsnakes in North Carolina have evolved to more closely resemble a poisonous lookalike no longer found in the area

King Penguin's Island-Hopping History Revealed

Receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age led to the flightless birds' move to the Crozet Islands

Island Sanctuary Could Save Sex-Crazed Northern Quoll

Life is tough if you’re a northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus). These rare, cat-sized Australian marsupials don’t have very long life spans—especially males, which tend to die after their first mating experience when less than a year old...

Bees Living in Cities Are Building Their Homes with Plastic

It’s the first documentation of insects incorporating plastic trash into nests

Sea Stars Are Wasting Away

Die-offs have been documented everywhere from California to Alaska and Maine through New Jersey

Fact or Fiction?: Mammoths Can Be Brought Back from Extinction

Is de-extinction a real possibility?

Light Colors Become Fashion Rage for Northern Europe's Insects

As northern Europe warms, the light-colored butterflies and dragonflies typically found in the Mediterranean are moving north, and outcompeting their darker-colored rivals. Erika Beras reports
 ...

Global Fish Survey Expands Horizons Underwater

In 1888, the Tasmanian Parliament placed a 1-pound bounty on the world's largest carnivorous marsupial - the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), better known as the Tasmanian tiger.

How Fish Cool Off Global Warming

Fish save the world billions of dollars in damages by helping store carbon dioxide in the oceans

Do GMO Opponents Have a Problem with Cheese?

A couple of years ago, my fiancée and I wanted to try to make some home-made mozzarella cheese, but ran into a problem. In order to turn milk into cheese, you have to add a substance called “rennet,” which causes the milk to coagulate, allowing you to separate the curd (mostly fats and hydrophobic proteins) [...]..

Dredge Project to Restart, Ending Efforts to Save Coral