Ecosystems

More Stories in Ecosystems

  1. A close up photo of several leeches on a transparent background.
    Animals

    Freshwater leeches’ taste for snails could help control snail-borne diseases

    A freshwater leech species will eat snails, raising the possibility that leeches could be used to control snail-borne diseases that infect humans and livestock.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  2. A photo of a painted lady butterfly resting on a lion paw print in the dirt.
    Animals

    The last leg of the longest butterfly migration has now been identified

    After a long journey across the Sahara, painted lady butterflies from Europe set up camp in central Africa to wait out winter and breed.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  3. A photo of a small purple fist swimming near some plant life and what appears to be a robot arm.
    Animals

    A ‘fire wolf’ fish could expand what we know about one unusual deep-sea ecosystem

    Unlike other known methane seeps, Jacó Scar is slightly warmer than the surrounding water and is a home for both cold-loving and heat-loving organisms.

    By Darren Incorvaia
  4. A shoreline in southern Louisiana shows green marsh grass where it meets still water
    Environment

    The Deepwater Horizon oil spill ruined long-term shore stability

    For at least eight years, the oil disaster continued to kill soil-retaining marsh plants along the Louisiana coast, accelerating shoreline loss.

    By Joshua Rapp Learn
  5. A photo of smoke rising above a forest.
    Climate

    Wildfires in boreal forests released a record amount of CO2 in 2021

    Boreal forests store about one-third of the world’s land-based carbon. With wildfires increasing there, fighting climate change could get even harder.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  6. An illustration of a large, predatory fish known as coelacanths and eel-like conodonts swimming in the ocean.
    Paleontology

    In the wake of history’s deadliest mass extinction, ocean life may have flourished

    Ocean life may have recovered in just a million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, fossils from South China suggest.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  7. An Amami rabbit sitting on the ground.
    Animals

    A rare rabbit plays an important ecological role by spreading seeds

    Rabbits aren’t thought of as seed dispersers, but the Amami rabbit of Japan has now been recorded munching on a plant’s seeds and pooping them out.

    By Darren Incorvaia
  8. Three Halteria ciliates shown on a blue background
    Microbes

    Scientists have found the first known microbes that can eat only viruses

    Lab experiments show that Halteria ciliates can chow down solely on viruses. Whether these “virovores” do the same in the wild is unclear.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  9. An underwater photo of a tiger shark with an orange camera on its side
    Ecosystems

    Tiger sharks helped discover the world’s largest seagrass prairie

    Instrument-equipped sharks went where divers couldn’t to survey the Bahama Banks seagrass ecosystem.

    By Nikk Ogasa