Ecosystems

Articles on ecosystems

  1. Microbes

    This microbe thinks plastic is dinner

    The bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis chows down on one type of polluting plastics. That means it could become helpful in cleaning up environmental waste.

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  2. Ecosystems

    As big animals poop out

    Whales move nutrients from deep ocean to surface waters. From there, nutrients move to land and fertilize continents. But the system is in trouble.

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  3. Ecosystems

    Two SNS writers win big

    Here’s a Cool Job: writing about science. Two people who regularly do that for SNS have just picked up awards for stories on the physics of lightning and how nature recycles the dead to feed the living.

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  4. Environment

    Humans are ‘superpredators’

    A new study compares the hunting habits of wild animals and humans. People, it turns out, are unlike any other predator on Earth.

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  5. Agriculture

    ‘Wildlife-free’ farms don’t make salads safer

    Scientists find that removing wildlife from farms did not make raw vegetables safer to eat.

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  6. Agriculture

    Made in the shade

    Agroforestry combines woody plants and agriculture. Growing trees alongside crops and livestock benefits wildlife, environment, climate — and farmers.

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  7. Animals

    Return of the bed bug

    Bed bugs have staged a comeback over the past 15 years. The bloodsucking parasites succeeded through a combination of evolution and luck.

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  8. Plants

    Desert plants: The ultimate survivors

    Creosote, mesquite and other desert plants rely on different adaptations to thrive, even when no rain falls for an entire year.

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  9. Animals

    Tiny — but mighty — food-cleanup crews

    Discarded food wastes can turn city spaces into food courts for disease-carrying rats and pigeons. But a new study shows tiny cleanup crews — especially pavement ants — are doing their best to eliminate such wastes. This, in turn, makes cities less attractive to bigger pests.

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  10. Microbes

    Recycling the dead

    When things die, nature breaks them down through a process we know as rot. Without it, none of us would be here. Now, scientists are trying to better understand it so that they can use rot — preserving its role in feeding all living things.

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  11. Environment

    Native ‘snot’

    The ‘rock snot’ choking rivers may be native algae. Experts blame its sudden and dramatic emergence on changes in Earth’s atmosphere, soils and climate.

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  12. Animals

    These insects thirst for tears

    In some parts of the world, insects will drop by for a savory beverage. Interestingly, neither a croc — nor a scientist who offered his eyes up to ‘tear-sipping’ bees — seemed bothered much by the freeloaders.

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