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Category: Ecosystems

  • Does Spring Pollen Cause Rain?

    It’s possible that when trees emit pollen, that makes clouds, which in turn makes rain and that feeds back into the trees and can influence the whole growth cycle of the plant.

  • No Mountain Is An Island (for its plant species). Unless It Is.

    In plants, if populations are separated by a landscape barrier such that pollen or seeds are unable to traverse either over or through, then the populations will begin to differ, either via mutations or genetic drift over time. However, habitat fragmentation and distance may not always be barriers, depending on the species and their modes of dispersal. And sometimes studies surprise us with their findings.

  • Poaching Of Large Herbivores And Habitat Loss Alters The Planet

    The decline of the world’s large herbivores, especially in Africa and parts of Asia, is raising the specter of an “empty landscape” in some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, according to a newly published study.

  • To Save Native Species, Dunes Must Be Allowed To Move

    Beginning in the 1880s, coastal dunes in the United States were planted with European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) in an attempt to hold the sand in place and prevent it from migrating. The grass did the job it was brought in to do. As it trapped sand in its deep roots, the dunes at the beachfront grew higher and steeper and less sand moved inland. But, like many attempts to control nature, this one had unintended consequences.

  • What One Invasive Weed Can Do: Garlic Mustard vs. Indian Pipe

    Mounting evidence for negative effects of invasive plant phytochemicals on native mycorrhizal associations outside the Alliaria study system suggests that parasitism disruption has the potential to foster consequences beyond the specific example described here.

  • Replanting The Desert Requires Aspirin (Research Proves it!)

    Using plant ecophysiological techniques, researchers have shown aspirin protects the photosynthesis system—allowing for growth under severe water stress.

  • Preserving Wild Landscape Directly Benefits Neighboring Farmers

    If farmers maintain a natural [wooded] area next to their soy plantation, where these animals can live, they may not have to use as much pesticide

  • Singapore’s Garden City And Invasive Tree Species: How The Forests Are Coping

    Singapore and most of SE Asia are expected to be 2 -4oC warmer by the end of this century, with less predictable changes in rainfall , creating a climate that has not existed anywhere on Earth since the Pliocene. Tolerance of drought and temperature extremes may add to the invasive potential of the exotic tree species that have already escaped from cultivation and may allow other species to do so in future

  • How Mangrove Restoration Goes Bad

    Unfortunately, the focus on initial planting forgets the endproduct – the mature forest. Like graduation ceremonies, tree planting is only the commencement, yet media rarely report, if at all, the massive mortalities of failed plantings.

  • Forests Almost Gone. Only Pieces Left. What Are The Consequences?

    Fragmentation experiments—some of the largest and longest-running experiments in ecology—provide clear evidence of strong and typically degrading impacts of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity and ecological processes. The findings of these experiments extend to a large fraction of the terrestrial surface of the Earth. Much of the Earth’s remaining forest fragments are less than 10 ha in area, and half of the world’s forest is within 500 m of the forest edge