This post contributed by Lindsay Deel, a Ph.D. student in geography at West Virginia University and Intern with ESA’s journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment Infectious diseases won’t know what hit them. A massive new collaborative effort between funding sources in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) takes aim at infectious diseases [...]
Read more...Katie Kline May 20, 2011 3 Comments
Inside the rounded fruit of a fig tree is a maze of flowers. That is, a fig is not actually a fruit; it is an inflorescence—a cluster of many flowers and seeds contained inside a bulbous stem. Because of this unusual arrangement, the seeds—technically the ovaries of the fig—require a specialized pollinator that is adapted [...]
Read more...Katie Kline Apr 27, 2011 No Comments
Truffle shuffle: According to a letter published in the April issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Buffo the truffle-hunting dog made an unusual find: a one-pound Burgundy truffle in the forests of southern Germany in November. As lead author Ulf Büntgen said in a recent Wired Science article, “This wasn’t a small find, [...]
Read more...Katie Kline Mar 4, 2011 One Comment
There is a world within the canopy of a tropical cloud forest that not many people get to see. In this unique ecosystem—maintained by the exceptionally wet microclimate of cloud cover—orchids, moss, lichens and other epiphytes grow in every crease and pocket of the supporting tree branches. Here, hundreds of species of birds, along with [...]
Read more...Katie Kline Feb 26, 2011 One Comment
The secret to the Japanese jewel beetle’s shine is layers of chitin, threats to the ancient nautilus, a “walking cactus” provides a link between worm and insect, researchers propose drying out Australia’s cane toads, macaques display awareness of their own uncertainty and Florida’s alligator mating season is close at hand. Here is research in ecology [...]
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