Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Ecosystems
Analyze This: In movies, wetlands often get a bad rap
Swamps in films are often linked to danger, death and strange things. But movies also highlight wetlands’ biodiversity and resources.
- Ecosystems
There’s life beneath the snow — but it’s at risk of melting away
The organisms that make winter homes in this subnivium help forests thrive year-round. But climate change is making this ecosystem disappear.
- Animals
Wayward baby puffins get help from a community-led Puffling Patrol
Fitted with ID tags or tracking devices, birds from one Iceland colony give scientists an eye into puffins’ largely unknown lives at sea.
-
As the climate warms, polar bears are facing more germs
Polar bears have been exposed to more viruses, bacteria and parasites in recent decades, a new study shows. These may come from their diet.
- Plants
Catapulting pollen helps this flower beat out its rivals
With explosive blasts of pollen, male Hypenia macrantha flowers remove rival pollen from hummingbird beaks before the birds reach female flowers.
- Animals
To keep their pools clean, some tadpoles don’t poop for weeks
Eiffinger’s tree frog tadpoles store their solid waste in an intestinal pouch. This releases less toxic ammonia into their watery cribs.
- Health & Medicine
Why you shouldn’t just brush off dandruff
Research points to certain yeast and bacteria as culprits behind some dandruff. Special shampoos or prescription cleansers can help.
- Plants
Insect-eating plants digest faster with a fungal friend
Insects stuck in sundews’ sticky goo break down faster when the plants host an enzyme-making fungus.
- Animals
This spider traps flashy fireflies as bait to catch related prey
When stuck in an orb weaver spider’s web, male fireflies start to blink more like female fireflies — luring in more males.
- Animals
Werewolves could learn from other critters when to hunt
Werewolves aren’t the only creatures that undergo transformation under the full moon. But could weak werewolves be at risk of becoming prey?
- Animals
Let’s learn about animal cannibals
The animal kingdom is full of creatures that eat their parents, their babies, their siblings or their mates.
- Animals
Magic helped this researcher trick birds for research
At the National University of Singapore, Elias Garcia-Pelegrin looks at how magic can help us understand animal intelligence.
