https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. For millions of years, a variety of large herbivores, or megafauna, influenced terrestrial ecosystems. Among many others, these included elephants in Europe, giant wombats in Australia, and ground sloths in South America. However, these animals experienced a wave of extinctions coinciding with the worldwide expansion of humans, leading to dramatic but still not fully understood changes in ecosystems. Even the survivors of these extinctions strongly declined, and many are currently threatened with extinction. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-global-wild-megafauna-ecosystem-properties.html Plants & Animals Fri, 09 Feb 2024 05:00:02 EST news626630775 Terrestrial ecosystems respire nearly 120–130 Gt of carbon into the atmosphere each year. But it is not yet clear how ecosystem respiration will change under global warming. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-evidence-widespread-thermal-optimality-ecosystem.html Ecology Tue, 05 Sep 2023 10:32:02 EDT news613128721