Ecology & Zoology

Trees Nitrogen Fixation Paradox Gets A Theory

Nitrogen is essential to all life on Earth, and determines how much carbon dioxide ecosystems can absorb from the atmosphere, says UC Davis assistant professor Benjamin Houlton. There are puzzling aspects of the nitrogen cycle in temperate and tropical for ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 18 2008 - 10:33pm

Female Red Squirrels Are, Basically, Tramps

Researchers have found that female red squirrels showed high levels of multimale mating and would even mate with males that had similar genetic relatedness, basically mating with their relatives. Researchers from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alb ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2008 - 2:00pm

Massive Moths! (Genomes, Not So Big)

Like several other insect orders, the Lepidoptera is staggeringly diverse-- there are about 180,000 described species in the order and an untold number that remain unknown to biologists. (For comparison, there are about 5,000 mammal species). Most people ...

Article - T. Ryan Gregory - Jun 22 2008 - 12:30pm

Pre-Hatched Baby Crocodiles Communicate

Researchers have shown that the pre-hatching calls of baby Nile crocodiles actually mean something to their mothers- and even to their siblings. To us, they sound like "umph! umph! umph!" but to the others in the nest it's a signal that it&# ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 23 2008 - 12:43pm

X-Man Or African Frog?

Biologists at Harvard University have determined that some African frogs puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes when threatened, using the bones as claws capable of wounding predators. It's not quite the X-Men's Wolverine (they ca ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 23 2008 - 1:53pm

The Sexy Scent Of Lemur Lovin'

For lemurs, genetic diversity and scent complexity go hand in hand during the breeding season, say researchers from Duke University and the Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive (CNRS / Universités Montpellier 1, 2 and 3 / ENSA Montpellier / CI ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 24 2008 - 8:38pm

Penguin Recognition Project Monitors Without Capture

Ground-breaking technology that will enable biologists to identify and monitor large numbers of endangered animals, from butterflies to whales, without being captured, will be shown to the public for the first time at this year's Royal Society Summer ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 27 2008 - 11:11pm

How Self-Incompatibility In Plants Maintains Genetic Diversity

The safeguards against unwanted pollination by genetically modified crops may already be built into plants, according to new research. Plants are very selective when it comes to choosing mates. Flowering plant pollination systems are clever devices for att ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 28 2008 - 9:30am

Glycosylation Discovery Means Breakthrough In Plant Medicine Production

A research team of scientists from Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands has succeeded in further unravelling and manipulating the glycosylation of proteins in plants. The scientists expect that this knowledge will allow plants to be ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 29 2008 - 11:54am

In Time For Independence Day- Patriotic Lilacs

Lilacs, though native to East Asia and Southeast Europe, were brought to North America by the first settlers and were sold in American nurseries as early as 1800. The oldest living lilacs in North America may be those at the Governor Wentworth estate in Po ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2008 - 1:07pm