Ecosystems
- Animals
Scientists Say: Lachryphagy
Some insects land on the eyeballs of larger animals. They are seeking out the salt and proteins in the animal’s tears.
- Ecosystems
Analyze This: Shipwrecks provide a home for bottom-dwelling fish
Fish have found a habitat in a submarine and freighter that sunk to the seafloor during World War II.
- Animals
Around the world, birds are in crisis
Human activities around the world are threatening bird species. Numbers of even some of the most common species are starting to fall.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Evolution
Evolution is how species change over time. Individuals in the group vary, and some will pass on their genes. Over time, the whole species changes.
- Animals
Analyze This: Ropes restore a gibbon highway through a rainforest
When endangered Hainan gibbons started making risky leaps across an area mowed down by a landslide, researchers provided them a rope bridge.
- Animals
Jumping ‘snake worms’ are invading U.S. forests
These bad-news invaders are spreading across the United States. As they turn forest debris into bare ground, soils and ecosystems are changing.
- Animals
Polluting microplastics harm both animals and ecosystems
Researchers are beginning to uncover the real-world impacts of polluting microplastic bits on animals and the ecosystems they inhabit.
- Climate
The faster trees grow, the younger they die
As climate change spurs forest tree growth, it also shortens trees’ lives. That results in a quicker release of climate-warming carbon back into the atmosphere.
- Animals
Whales get a second life as deep-sea buffets
When a whale dies and sinks to the seafloor, it becomes a feast for hundreds of different types of creatures.
- Climate
Scientists Say: Desert
Deserts are ecosystems that get less than 250 millimeters (10 inches) of precipitation per year.
- Animals
A wasp nibbled a baby bird for breakfast
Scientists found an injured baby bird in a nest they were studying. The culprit wasn’t another bird or a reptile. It was a wasp.
- Ecosystems
Soggy coastal soils? Here’s why ecologists love them
Coastal wetlands can protect our shores from erosion, flooding and rising sea levels.
