Ecosystems
Articles on ecosystems
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
By Janet Raloff -
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.
By Susan Milius -
Agriculture
‘Wildlife-free’ farms don’t make salads safer
Scientists find that removing wildlife from farms did not make raw vegetables safer to eat.
-
Agriculture
Made in the shade
Agroforestry combines woody plants and agriculture. Growing trees alongside crops and livestock benefits wildlife, environment, climate — and farmers.
-
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.
By Brooke Borel -
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
By Janet Raloff