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. A new paper published in Nature Communications reveals how the way tree species are arranged in a forest can help optimize ecosystem functioning and productivity. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-virtual-forest-simulations-randomly-productivity.html Plants & Animals Wed, 09 Jul 2025 11:50:04 EDT news671280602 Forests provide biodiversity, ecosystem functions, income and much more. How can these diverse and seemingly diverging demands be met? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has addressed this question by analyzing the effects of enriching beech forests in Germany with commercially valuable native (to mountainous regions of Europe) and non-native conifer species—in this case, the Norway spruce and Douglas fir, respectively. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-diverse-diverging-demands-forests-germany.html Plants & Animals Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:45:55 EST news650821552 A study led by Prof. Liu Xiaojuan from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) has demonstrated that the association between multitrophic diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality is stronger than the relationship between the diversity of individual trophic groups and multifunctionality. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-experimental-evidence-links-diversity-ecosystem.html Plants & Animals Fri, 13 Sep 2024 10:14:03 EDT news645441242 A study published in the journal BioScience sheds light on the importance of gray wolves in the western United States. Led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University and the Conservation Biology Institute, the research delves into the implications of large predator absence on plant and animal communities, and ecosystem functions. It calls attention to "shifting baselines" wherein increasingly degraded conditions are viewed as reflecting the historical state of a system. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-illuminates-ecological-importance-gray-wolves.html Plants & Animals Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:33:54 EDT news638012027 Establishing an integrated ecological security pattern (ESP) is an effective way to achieve higher and more comprehensive ecological goals in the future. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-identification-priority-areas-essential-ecosystem.html Ecology Thu, 29 Feb 2024 13:18:40 EST news628435118 Many dung beetles use mammalian feces as a food source and build and relocate dung balls to lay eggs and shelter their larvae. This behavior provides many ecosystem services including nutrient cycling, secondary seed dispersal, soil excavation, and parasite and pest control. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dung-beetle-idna-additional-tool.html Ecology Mon, 20 Nov 2023 14:16:02 EST news619712161 The increasingly urgent climate crisis has led to a boom in commercial tree plantations in an attempt to offset excess carbon emissions. However, authors of an opinion paper published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution argue that these carbon-offset plantations might come with costs for biodiversity and other ecosystem functions. Instead, the authors say we should prioritize conserving and restoring intact ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-carbon-capture-tree-plantations-threaten-tropical.html Plants & Animals Tue, 03 Oct 2023 11:00:09 EDT news615541711 Some of the world's most distinct and ancient animal species, which play crucial roles in our planet's ecosystems, are exploited for the wildlife trade across large parts of the world, according to new research from the University of Sheffield. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-global-wildlife-evolutionary-history-ecosystem.html Evolution Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:17:04 EDT news609592621 Human activity has degraded ecosystems and damaged biodiversity around the world, but ecosystem restoration offers hope for the future. Scientists studying the restoration of underwater seaweed forests which provide other species with food and shelter have found that 10 years of restoration efforts have helped a damaged forest regrow to richness and strength comparable to forests that have never been disturbed. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-underwater-forest-recovery-marine-globe.html Ecology Fri, 02 Jun 2023 00:00:01 EDT news604846187 Planting forests with diverse species can help ensure their success, according to a new study published May 18 from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and The Nature Conservancy. The discovery is the result of a decade of research from BiodiversiTREE, a large-scale reforestation project at SERC designed to run for 100 years, testing the effects of different tree planting strategies on sapling survival and other ecosystem functions. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-long-term-tree-species-diversity-likelihood.html Plants & Animals Tue, 23 May 2023 14:58:46 EDT news604072719 In a study tracking climate-induced changes in the distribution of animals and their effects on ecosystem functions, North Carolina State University researchers show that resident species can continue managing some important ecological processes despite the arrival of newcomers that are similar to them, but resident species' role in ecosystem functioning changes when the newcomers are more different. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-tracks-newcomers-ecosystem-functions.html Plants & Animals Wed, 17 May 2023 11:47:03 EDT news603542821 The ecological impact of biodiversity ecosystem functioning (BEF) is currently one of the most vibrant research areas in ecology. In forest ecosystems, however, BEF relationships tend to be spatially scale dependent. These scale-dependent BEF relationships challenge prevailing BEF theories, and the extent to which findings from BEF studies can be scaled up to inform natural forest management remains controversial. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-mycorrhizal-dominance-mechanism-scale-dependent-biodiversity-ecosystem.html Ecology Wed, 01 Mar 2023 10:17:02 EST news596888221 A new examination of ancient and current species of reptiles conducted by a University of Texas at Austin paleobiologist reveals the serious impact of the disappearance of even a few species of reptiles in some island areas. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has startling conclusions about how, on smaller islands in the Caribbean where human impact was greatest, extinctions have led to the loss of up to two-thirds of the supports for the ecosystem that native reptile species once provided there. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-loss-reptiles-poses-threat-small.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Feb 2023 15:00:05 EST news594889882 Recent experiments have shown that the loss of species from a plant community can reduce ecosystem functions and services such as productivity, carbon storage and soil health. With the loss of functioning the ecosystem may also become destabilized in its ability to maintain ecosystem functions and services in the long-term. However, assessing this is only possible if experiments can be maintained for a sufficient length of time. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-grassland-ecosystems-resilient-age-long-term.html Ecology Fri, 13 Jan 2023 10:37:03 EST news592828622 What a tangled web we weave. When it comes to the impact of the climate crisis on marine food webs, we apparently have not known the half of it. That's according to a new University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) study, which compared ancient and modern ocean ecosystems in a bid to understand how to make them healthier and more resilient. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-ancient-underwater-food-webs-future.html Ecology Mon, 28 Nov 2022 17:18:20 EST news588878295 Biodiversity conservation aims to preserve the ecosystem functions embedded in different species. The positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) has been proven in experiments. However, the relationship remains uncertain in the natural environment. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-submerged-macrophyte-biodiversity-buffers-impact.html Ecology Wed, 23 Nov 2022 12:37:03 EST news588429422 A global cross-disciplinary team of scientists led by UNSW Sydney researchers has developed the first comprehensive classification of the world's ecosystems across land, rivers and wetlands, and seas. The ecosystem typology will enable more coordinated and effective biodiversity conservation, critical for human well-being. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-entire-planet-ecosystems.html Ecology Wed, 12 Oct 2022 12:10:08 EDT news584795401 Rutgers University has conducted the first study showing how many more species of bees are needed to maintain crop yields when a longer-term time frame is considered. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-bee-biodiversity-critical-ecosystems.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 Sep 2022 16:02:11 EDT news581785328 A new study analyzes human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in 72 lakes distributed across four large neotropical wetlands of Brazil—Amazon, Araguaia, Pantanal and Paraná. The research spans a 3.7million km gradient of human activities in Brazil. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-large-scale-brazilian-wetlands-biodiversity-loss.html Ecology Fri, 05 Aug 2022 07:50:28 EDT news578904626 Microorganisms, plants, and animals accomplish great feats every day. For example, by decomposing material, producing plant biomass, or pollinating flowers, they keep nature 'up and running," thereby securing the livelihood of humans. Numerous studies have shown that a high biodiversity can have a positive impact on these as well as on other ecosystem functions. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-diversity-species-richness-ecosystems.html Plants & Animals Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:54:07 EDT news551696043 Ruminant animals like cattle contribute to the maintenance of healthy soils and grasslands, and proper grazing management can reduce the industry's carbon emissions and overall footprint, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-grazing-cattle-agriculture-carbon-footprint.html Ecology Tue, 10 Aug 2021 11:39:08 EDT news547814344 According to statistics, rubber plantations have covered more than 2 million ha in the tropics in the last decade globally. It has improved the economic status of farmers, but altered the habitat's ecology and ecosystem functions. However, few studies have focused on the impacts of rubber plantations on ecosystem functions of rubber plantation and no clear overview is available. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-ecosystem-functions-rubber-plantations-tropical.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Jul 2021 09:36:03 EDT news545992561 Stemflow refers to a part of precipitation that is intercepted by leaves, twigs, and branches and eventually channeled into soil through trunk or stem, which further could be transported and redistributed into deeper soil layers through preferential pathways such as roots. Numerous field observations indicate that stemflow, as a highly localized point input of rainwater and solutes around tree/shrub bases, plays a wide array of roles in ecosystem functioning, likely generating hot spots and moments of water and nutrients fluxes. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-scientists-reveal-effects-biotic-abiotic.html Plants & Animals Thu, 01 Jul 2021 10:51:46 EDT news544355502 In building cities, we have created some of the harshest habitats on Earth—and then chosen to live in them. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-urban-gardens-boost-biodiversity-cities.html Environment Tue, 29 Jun 2021 08:15:38 EDT news544173335 Insects that fall from the surrounding forest provide seasonal food for fish in streams. Researchers at Kobe University and The University of Tokyo have shown that the lengthening of this period has a profound effect on food webs and ecosystem functions present in streams. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-falling-insect-season-length-impacts.html Plants & Animals Fri, 05 Mar 2021 10:26:56 EST news534162410 Intensive land-use reduces beneficial effects of biodiversity on ecosystem services. This is the main result of a study led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the University of Bern. It assessed the effects of land management on the links between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services, identified thresholds of management intensity, most important species groups for driving services, and the ecosystem services at risk. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-forest-grasslands.html Ecology Mon, 26 Oct 2020 13:27:34 EDT news522937648 In a longitudinal study, an international research team led by Leipzig University has investigated the consequences of changes in plant biodiversity for the functioning of ecosystems. The scientists found that the relationships between plant traits and ecosystem functions change from year to year. This makes predicting the long-term consequences of biodiversity change extremely difficult, they write in Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-relationship-traits-ecosystem-function.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:34:08 EDT news521285644 A recent research find indicates that climate change increases the functional diversity of microbes living in streams. Consequently, climate change may, in certain cases, be beneficial to ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-continental-scale-functional-diversity-stream-microbes.html Ecology Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:14:02 EDT news511438430 A new study reveals clear evidence highlighting the importance of fish biodiversity to the health of spectacular tropical coral reef ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-biodiverse-coral-reefs-vulnerable-climate.html Ecology Mon, 18 May 2020 11:00:11 EDT news509004978 As thousands of wildfires and deforestation escalate in the Amazon rainforest, a team of international scientists has called for governments to enact six key goals to protect the vital wilderness. https://phys.org/news/2019-11-scientists-goals-amazon.html Environment Wed, 20 Nov 2019 07:56:40 EST news493458992