Category: Ecosystems
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Autumn Leaf Color Decided 35 Million Years Ago
Scientists… believe that red-leafed trees in America and Asia only exist because they and their insect pests managed to survive a series of ice ages long ago.
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When Flowering Plants Re-Made The World
The flowers' secret… was to exploit a change in soil fertility, and create a feedback loop that allowed new flowers to feed off dead ones.
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Toxics As Tonic
It is interesting to think about the effect of the prairie dog, which was an amazing ecosystem engineer on a very large scale here in North America… these animals may have driven the evolution of selenium hyperaccumulation as an elemental defense against herbivory in many different plant species.
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The Little Guys Win
Until now most of the thinking has suggested that to be a good competitor in the forest, you have to be a big plant …But our research shows it‘s virtually the other way around.
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The Serengeti ‘s Ultimate Gardeners
Walks through a forest are often made all the more enjoyable by the chance to watch brightly coloured birds flit between the trees. But birds are not just mere inhabitants of forests — in some parts of the world, they are the key to the trees' survival.
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Where The Tall Trees Are
This global pattern to plant height has been discovered for the first time, after scientists reviewed the size and locations of more than 7000 species.
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Nature Preserves More Than Just The Sum Of Their parts
The biodiversity in a patch of habitat can extend outside the borders of a protected area; this effect is magnified when the habitats are connected by corridors. Their findings provide a strategy for managing nature preserves to maximize biodiversity in the small spaces that are already formally protected.
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The Wild Maize Problem Persists
Genes from genetically engineered corn have been found in traditional crop strains in Mexico, said a new study that is likely to reignite a bitter controversy over biotech maize.
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Orchids Can Still Surprise
Oh my God, you've found the missing link. Everyone's been trying to find evolution in action.
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Breaking Up Is Just Bad
This does support the concept that landscape fragmentation is restricting the movement of pollinators, and that may be a part of our pollination problem. If we get to the point where almost all patches of forests are fragmented, it's possible that could completely disrupt forest plant ecosystems.