Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Animals
Experiment: Are we there yet? Test how migratory birds navigate
In this experiment, use real data to figure out how migratory birds navigate from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds.
- Microbes
Let’s learn about useful bacteria
Bacteria do many useful jobs almost everywhere on Earth, from the soil to the seafloor to our stomachs.
- Plants
To spy this palm’s blooms and fruits, start digging underground
Plants across 33 families are known for subterranean flowering or fruiting. But this palm is extremely rare. It does both.
- Animals
Here’s why thousands of octopuses gather at the ‘Octopus Garden’
Underwater cameras and other instruments investigated why so many pearl octopuses gather here to mate and nest.
- Life
Bacterial fossils exhibit earliest hints of photosynthesis
Microscopic fossils from Australia suggest that some bacteria evolved structures for oxygen-producing photosynthesis by 1.78 billion years ago.
- Animals
Pollen-seeking honeybees sometimes turn to theft
Observations of honeybee pollen theft from bumblebees suggest it may be a crime of convenience, based on ease of access to the prized food.
- Animals
Cats play fetch — but only when they feel like it
Most cats that play fetch pick up the behavior on their own, a study finds. And those felines tend to dictate when fetching sessions begin and end.
- Animals
Which way is up? Insects may lose track near artificial lights
Flying insects may use light to figure out where the sky is. But artificial lights can send them veering off course, high-speed video suggests.
- Plants
Scientists Say: Marcescence
Autumn turns to winter, yet some trees' dead leaves keep hanging on.
- Animals
Reindeer can chew food in their sleep
Brain waves and behaviors suggest that reindeer can doze while chewing.
- Animals
Spiders that fall into water use reflected light to find land
When elongate stilt spiders fall into water, they head for areas that don’t reflect light, studies show. This cue appears to signal dry land.
- Ecosystems
A weird upside-down world lurks beneath Antarctica’s ice
A vast swath of ocean surrounds Antarctica, hidden under the ice. Here, strange creatures burrow into the dark underbelly of a floating glacier.
