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Press Releases

Prescribed Burns Over the Long Haul: Ponderosa Pine Vegetation Resists Effects of Low-Severity Fire

By U.S. Forest Service – Pacific Northwest Research Station 5/23/2019 Prescribed burning is an important active management approach that can address the fuel buildup and wildfire hazards that currently face western forests after a century of fire exclusion and suppression. Although prescribed burns are applied widely across the United States, their effects aren’t always well-documented. That means managers can’t anticipate…

Lengthy Study Shows Value of Soil Health and Forest Restoration after Damaging Events

By UC Merced 5/23/2019 A nine-year experiment by a UC Merced Department of Life and Environmental Sciences professor and his colleagues is illuminating the importance of soil carbon in maintaining healthy and functioning ecosystems because of its influence on the microbial communities that live in soil. These communities’ health can help researchers understand the effects of climate change. Professor Stephen C….

Study finds link between backyard birds and tiger sharks

By Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium 5/21/2019 A new study has found that songbirds are a remarkably common part of young tiger sharks’ diets. The study is described in the article “Tiger sharks eat songbirds: scavenging a windfall of nutrients from the sky,” which was published today in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology. Scientists investigated the stomach contents of 105 neonate (i.e. newborn) tiger sharks…

ESA announces the recipients of the 2018 Student Awards

The Ecological Society of America recognizes Sara P. Bombaci, Jacqueline J. Peña, and Joshua Scholl for awards for outstanding student research. The Murray F. Buell and E. Lucy Braun awards are given for exceptional oral and poster presentations at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the Society in New Orleans, Louisiana in August 2018. The Forest Shreve Research Fund award supports graduate or undergraduate student ecological research in the hot deserts of North America.

Baby tiger sharks eat songbirds

By Field Museum 5/21/2019 Tiger sharks have a reputation for being the “garbage cans of the sea”—they’ll eat just about anything, from dolphins and sea turtles to rubber tires. But before these top predators grow to their adult size of 15 feet, young tiger sharks have an even more unusual diet. Scientists have just announced in a new paper in…

Intensive silviculture accelerates Atlantic Rainforest biodiversity regeneration

By São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) 5/22/2019 An experiment conducted in Brazil in an area of Atlantic Rainforest suggests that intensive silviculture, including the use of herbicide and substantial amounts of fertilizer, is a more effective approach to promoting the regeneration of tropical forest and biomass gain than the traditional method based on manual weeding and less fertilizer. The study…

Temperatures in the African savanna affect ant/plant mutualism

By University of Florida 5/16/19 In the wide world of tropical flora, insects often take up the mantle of protecting the plants that shelter them, each mutually satisfied in a happy marriage of nature’s making. This is particularly true for acacia trees that tower over the African savanna. Their tiny protectors are carnivorous ants that dissuade animals from browsing on…

Species facing climate change could find help in odd place: urban environments

By Tufts University 5/14/19 When it comes to wildlife conservation efforts, urban environments could be far more helpful than we think, according to new research. A study published today in Ecology shows that animals move faster through ‘low quality’ habitats – evidence that could change the way conservationists think about managing landscapes to help species move in response to climate…

What keeps ocean kelp forest ecosystems stable?

By National Science Foundation 5/14/2019 An ecosystem is made up of species, populations, communities, and a network of communities across a region. A team led by NSF-funded researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) has published a paper in the journal Ecology showing how these different levels combine to form an ecosystem. The research was conducted in an underwater giant kelp…

Dexterous Herring Gulls learn new tricks to adapt their feeding habits

By University of Southampton 5/9/2019 Observations of Herring Gulls by scientists from the University of Southampton have shown how the coastal birds have developed complicated behaviour to ‘skin’ sea creatures to make them safe to eat. Researchers think this feeding habit may be a response to urbanisation and changes in food availability. The gulls (Larus argentatus) of Dún Laoghaire Marina…

Many agricultural water protection policies around the world recommend 5 to 50 m wide uncropped buffers around water bodies to protect wetlands from contamination by fertilizers and pesticides. In the April issue of Ecosphere, Sawatzky and Fahrig found that such wetland buffers do not effectively protect wetlands from contamination by agricultural contaminants, but conserving ~40% uncropped land within a 150–300 m radius of wetlands may alleviate such contamination.

Ecosphere