A new model for understanding biodiversity

Researchers develop a unified theory of ecosystem change by combining spatial modelling and food web analysis

Animals like foxes and raccoons are highly adaptable. They move around and eat everything from insects to eggs. They and other “generalist feeders” like them may also be crucial to sustaining biological diversity, according to a new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

McGill biology researchers have developed a unified, spatially based understanding of biodiversity that takes into account the complex food webs of predators and prey. “Biodiversity exists within a landscape. Predators and prey are continuously on the move as their habitats change – it’s a complex dynamic system,” says lead author Pradeep Pillai, a former doctoral candidate at McGill, now a research associate at the University of Oregon.

UN's latest global biodiversity outlook calls for swift action

Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth.This is one principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the current state of biodiversity and the implications of its continued loss for human well-being.

The third edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), produced by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), confirms that the world has failed to meet its target to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.

Wilder weather exerts a stronger influence on biodiversity than steadily changing conditions

An increase in the variability of local conditions could do more to harm biodiversity than slower shifts in climate, a new study has found.

Climate scientists predict more frequent storms, droughts, floods and heat waves as the Earth warms. Although extreme weather would seem to challenge ecosystems, the effect of fluctuating conditions on biodiversity actually could go either way. Species able to tolerate only a narrow range of temperatures, for example, may be eliminated, but instability in the environment can also prevent dominant species from squeezing out competitors.

"Imagine species that have different optimal temperatures for growth. In a fluctuating world, neither can get the upper hand and the two coexist," said Jonathan Shurin, an ecologist at the University of California, San Diego who led the project. Ecologists have observed similar positive effects on populations of organisms as different as herbacious plants, desert rodents, and microscopic animals called zooplankton.

2010: International Year of Biodiversity

In a bid to curb the unprecedented loss of the world's species due to human activity - at a rate some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression - the United Nations is marking 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, with a slew of events highlighting the vital role the phenomenon plays in maintaining the life support system on Planet Earth.

"Humans are part of nature's rich diversity and have the power to protect or destroy it," the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said in summarizing the Year's main message, with its focus on raising awareness to generate public pressure for action by the world's decision makers.

Suit Filed to Stop Hawaii longline fishery from tripling sea turtle kill

Deadly Hooks Also Snag Whales, Seabirds, and Sharks

Conservation groups Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity, and KAHEA, all represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Honolulu challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service’s issuance of a rule that removes all limits on effort in the Hawaii-based longline swordfish fishery and allows the fleet to catch nearly three times as many loggerhead sea turtles as was previously permitted.

The new rule conflicts with the Fisheries Service’s own assessment that the North Pacific loggerhead sea turtle is in danger of extinction. That report, released only four months ago, noted that incidental capture in longline fisheries is a primary threat to the species’ continued existence.

Final moments of bee landing tactics revealed

Landing is tricky: hit the ground too fast and you will crash and burn; too slow and you may stall and fall. Bees manage their approach by monitoring the speed of images moving across their eyes. By slowing so that the speed of the looming landing pad's image on the retina remains constant, bees manage to control their approach.

But what happens in the final few moments before touch down? And how do bees adapt to landing on surfaces ranging from the horizontal to upside-down ceilings?

Spider web glue spins society toward new biobased adhesives

Photo: Randolph Femmer, National Biological Information InfrastructureWith would-be goblins and ghosts set to drape those huge fake spider webs over doorways and trees for Halloween, scientists in Wyoming are reporting on a long-standing mystery about real spider webs: It is the secret of spider web glue.

The findings are an advance toward a new generation of biobased adhesives and glues – "green" glues that replace existing petroleum-based products for a range of uses. A report on the study was published in ACS' Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.

Shedding light on microscopic flower petal ridges

Scanning electron microscope view of plant cell nanoridges. Photo: John OhlroggeMicroscopic ridges contouring the surface of flower petals might play a role in flashing that come-hither look pollinating insects can't resist. Michigan State University scientists and colleagues now have figured out how those form.

The result could help researchers learn to enhance plants' pollination success and even could lead to high-grip nanomaterials and "green chemical" feedstocks."Surprisingly, our work on plant surface biochemistry became a birds and bees and flowers story," said John Ohlrogge, MSU University Distinguished Professor of plant biology.

Seeing how evolutionary mechanisms yield biological diversity

An international team of scientists has discovered how changes in both gene expression and gene sequence led to the diversity of visual systems in African cichlid fish.

In research published in the December 21, 2009 issue of the journal PLoS Biology, Assistant Professor Karen Carleton, together with post-doctoral associate Chris Hofmann and graduate student Kelly O'Quin, in the University of Maryland Department of Biology, and collaborators Justin Marshall, University of Queensland; Tom Cronin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC); and Ole Seehausen, University of Bern; describe how over 60 species of cichlid fish from Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria have adapted their visual sensitivity in response to specific ecological factors, including what they eat and the clarity of the water in which they swim.

Loud and lazy but didn't chew gum: Ancient koalas

Photo:Arnaud Gaillard/WikimediaSkull fragments of prehistoric koalas from the Riversleigh rainforests of millions of year ago suggest they shared the modern koala's "lazy" lifestyle and ability to produce loud "bellowing" calls to attract mates and provide warnings about predators.

However, the new findings published as the featured cover article in the current issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology suggest that the two species of koalas from the Miocene (24 to five million years ago) did not share the uniquely specialized eucalyptus leaf diet of the modern koala (Phascolarctos cinereus).

How the daisy got its spots

Photo:Meredith Murphy ThomasDevelopment and morphology of insect-mimicking spots on the flower petals of a South African beetle daisy

Dark spots on flower petals are common across many angiosperm plant families and occur on flowers such as some lilies, orchids, and daisies. Much research has been done on the physiological and behavioural mechanisms for how these spots attract pollinators. But have you ever wondered what these spots are composed of, how they develop, or how they only appear on some but not all of the ray florets?

New report underlines multiple benefits, new challenges to biodiversity-rich sites

Deforestation in the Usambara Mountains in Lushoto District, Tanga Region, Tanzania.Photo:Mohsin S. Karmali/WikimediaAn agreement in Copenhagen to fund reduced emissions from deforestation may generate multiple environmental and economic benefits if investments simultaneously target sites that are both carbon and biodiversity-rich.

But the new report, published in the journal Conservation Letters, also warns of challenges in countries such as Brazil and parts of East Africa unless safeguards are followed. This is because funding Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) might also displace and intensify activities such as agriculture in lower carbon but equally biodiversity-rich locales. Such areas include parts of East Africa and Brazil.

Soap opera in the marsh: Coots foil nest invaders, reject impostors

The American coot is a drab, seemingly unremarkable marsh bird common throughout North America. But its reproductive life is full of deception and violence.

According to biologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, coots have evolved a remarkable set of cognitive abilities to thwart other coots that lay eggs in their neighbors' nests. In 2003, the researchers showed that coots can count their own eggs and reject ones laid in their nests by other coots. Their latest findings, published this week in Nature, show that coot parents can tell the difference between their own chicks and any impostors that manage to hatch in their nest, and they will violently reject most impostor chicks.

Warming climate chills Sonoran Desert's spring flowers

Researchers from Larry Venable's lab at the University of Arizona have been studying how climate affects the growth of winter annuals since 1982. This picture shows part of the study site, which is at Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, home of UA's Desert Laboratory. Photo: Kathy Gerst.Global warming is giving a boost to Sonoran Desert plants that have an edge during cold weather, according to new research.

Although the overall numbers of winter annuals have declined since 1982, species that germinate and grow better at low temperatures are becoming more common."It's an unexpected result – that global warming has led to an increase in cold-adapted species," said lead author Sarah Kimball, a research associate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "Because the winter rains are arriving later, they are occurring under colder temperatures."

New bacterial behaviour observed

PNAS study documents puzzling movement of electricity-producing bacteria near energy sources

Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon. Their study, published online in PNAS Early Edition, describes what appears to be an entirely new bacterial behaviour.The metal-metabolising Shewanella oneidensis microbe does not just cling to metal in its environment, as previously thought. Instead, it harvests electrochemical energy obtained upon contact with the metal and swims furiously for a few minutes before landing again.

Protecting unique wild coffee forests in Ethiopia

Photo:Charlesfres/Flickr/BirdLifeNABU (BirdLife in Germany), in cooperation with the Ethiopian Government and other partners, will run a special project to protect the last natural forests where the world famous 'arabica' coffee is produced. In the last 10 years, almost 43 per cent of these forests have disappeared, as they have been transformed into arable land, causing a huge loss of biodiversity.

"The clearing of tropical forests is a major source of greenhouse gases. Over the past 40 years, 35 per cent of Ethiopian forests have been lost through deforestation. If we do not act now, Ethiopia will lose all its forests by 2020"

When it comes to fish families, the bigger and bossier the better

Photo:Chrumps/WikimediaIf you are spending the holidays with big Uncle Frank or bossy Aunt Minnie and wondering whether you would be better off with another family, spare a thought for the humble cichlid fish.

A research team from McMaster University and the University of New South Wales has found that among cichlids, a species that lives in groups, members make strategic decisions about their living situation. The results appear in the current issue of Biology Letters.

Tool use in an invertebrate: The coconut-carrying octopus

Photo:Nick Hobgood/WikimediaScientists once thought of tool use as a defining feature of humans. That's until examples of tool use came in from other primates, along with birds and an array of other mammals. Now, a report in the December 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, adds an octopus to the growing list of tool users.

The veined octopus under study manages a behavioural trick that the researchers call stilt walking.

Sucker-footed bats don't use suction after all

Photo:Brown UniversityIn first-time experiments in the wild, a researcher at Brown University has discovered that a species of bat in Madagascar, Myzopoda aurita, uses wet adhesion to attach itself to surfaces. The finding explains why the bat – unlike almost all others – roosts head-up. It also helps to explain how it differs from a similar head-up roosting species. Results appear in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.

There are approximately 1,200 species of bats worldwide. Of that total, only six are known to roost with their heads pointed upward. Investigators did not know why, because they knew next to nothing about one key group.

Female fruit flies can be 'too attractive' to males

Females can be too attractive to the opposite sex – too attractive for their own good – say biologists at UC Santa Barbara. They found that, among fruit flies, too much male attention directed toward attractive females leads to smaller families and, ultimately, to a reduced rate of population-wide adaptive evolution.

In an article published in the December 8 issue of Public Library of Science Biology, the authors described their experiments on the sex lives of fruit flies.