News tagged with seed dispersal

Related topics: seeds

Diverse ecosystems are crucial climate change buffer

Preserving diverse plant life will be crucial to buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in in the world's drylands, according to a new landmark study.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Climate change driving tropical birds to higher elevations

Tropical birds are moving to higher elevations because of climate change, but they may not be moving fast enough, according to a new study by Duke University researchers.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 08, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Rainforest plant developed sonar dish to attract pollinating bats

The researchers discovered that a rainforest vine, pollinated by bats, has evolved dish-shaped leaves with such conspicuous echoes that nectar-feeding bats can find its flowers twice as fast by echolocation. The study is ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 28, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Hikers spread invasive plant seeds accidentally

Hikers may be inadvertently helping to spread invasive plants across the largest national park in Australia's New South Wales, a study has found.

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Researchers link oceanic land crab extinction to colonization of Hawaii

University of Florida researchers have described a new species of land crab that documents the first crab extinction during the human era.

Biology / Ecology

created May 16, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Genetics of Arctic plants under serious threat from climate change, study says

A new EU study by a team of Austrian, French and Norwegian researchers has found that rising temperatures as a result of climate change will have differing genetic consequences within single Arctic plant species. ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Pilbara mistletoe faces sub-regional extinction

A new study from the Department of Environment and Conservation suggests long-term modern fire regimes could pose a threat to WA mistletoes (Loranthaceae sp).

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Are all alien encounters bad?

The pages of ecological history are filled with woeful tales of destruction from non-native species -- organisms that originated elsewhere.

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 30, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 12

Nuts go furthest with the early bird

Toucans in the tropics disperse nutmegs the furthest in the morning, according to research by Wageningen UR ecologist Patrick Jansen.

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 17, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

War on willows

Willows are major environmental weeds of riverbank habitats across much of south-eastern Australia. They obstruct water flow, increase water temperature, change water chemistry and can displace native riverine ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 29, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Toucans wearing GPS backpacks help Smithsonian scientists study seed dispersal

Nutmeg-loving toucans wearing GPS transmitters recently helped a team of scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama address an age-old problem in plant ecology: accurately estimating ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 28, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Evolution and domestication of seed structure shown to use same genetic mutation

For the first time, scientists have identified a mutation in plants that was selected twice - during both natural evolution and domestication.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jul 07, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Overfished Amazon fish disperse seeds long distances

(PhysOrg.com) -- The gamitana fish, a close relative of the flesh-eating piranha, mostly eats fruit and can carry seeds down the Amazon River as far as 3 miles (5 kilometers), reports a new Cornell study, ...

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Uncertain future for Joshua trees projected with climate change

Temperature increases resulting from climate change in the Southwest will likely eliminate Joshua trees from 90 percent of their current range in 60 to 90 years, according to a new study led by U.S. Geological Survey ecologist ...

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

How spring-loaded filaree seeds self launch

When filaree seeds ripen and burst, they are launched with an inbuilt spring. Scientists based at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University have discovered that the inbuilt spring stores energy as the ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 27, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0