Ecosystems

Ecosystems

Tougher Weeds? Borrowed gene helps wild sunflower

Feeding concerns about developing superweeds, a test of sunflowers shows for the first time that a biologically engineered gene moving from a crop can give an advantage to wild relatives under naturalistic conditions.

Ecosystems

Males live longer with all-year mating

Male butterflies live longer in Madeira, where females are available year-round, than in Sweden, where females mature in one burst.

Ecosystems

Pfiesteria’s Bite: Microbe may kill fish by skinning, not poisoning

At least one kind of Pfiesteria—accused of killing fish and threatening human health—does not produce a toxin but kills by eating holes in fish's skin, some researchers say.

Ecosystems

Making Scents of Flowers

Science gets the tools to start sniffing around the ecology of floral scent.

Ecosystems

The Buzz over Coffee

Most people consider the continued spread of Africanized honeybees in the Americas as horrifying news. Nicknamed killer bees, these notorious social insects rile into stinging mobs with little provocation. But new research finds evidence that these irritable insects have been performing a hitherto unrecognized service for people around the world. They’ve helped keep down the […]

Ecosystems

Plight of the Iguanas: Hidden die-off followed Galápagos spill

Residues of oil spilled in the Galapágos Islands in January 2001 may have caused a 60 percent decline in one island's colony of marine iguanas.

Ecosystems

Famine reveals incredible shrinking iguanas

Marine iguanas in the Galápagos Islands are the first vertebrates known to reduce their size during a food shortage and then regrow to their original body lengths.

Ecosystems

Deprived of Darkness

From anecdotal reports of little-studied phenomena, researchers suspect that artificial night lighting disrupts the physiology and behavior of nocturnal animals.

Ecosystems

Climate Upsets: Big model predicts many new neighbors

The biggest effects of climate change during the next 50 years may not be extinctions but major reshuffling of the species in local communities.

Ecosystems

Are They Really Extinct?

A few optimists keep looking for species that might already have gone extinct.

Ecosystems

Cryptic Invasion: Native reeds harbor aggressive alien

A mild-mannered reed native to the United States is getting blamed for the mayhem caused by an evil twin.

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hot Spots: Top 10 sea locales make sobering list

Biologists have identified the world's most vulnerable coral reefs, each with organisms found nowhere else and threatened by human influence.