Community ecology is the subfield of ecology that investigates the structure, composition, and dynamics of co-occurring species within a defined area, focusing on how biotic interactions and abiotic factors shape patterns of biodiversity. It examines processes such as competition, predation, mutualism, facilitation, and trophic interactions, and analyzes emergent properties including species richness, evenness, food web architecture, and functional diversity. Community ecologists use observational studies, experiments, and quantitative models to understand mechanisms of coexistence, succession, community assembly, disturbance responses, and the maintenance of ecosystem functioning and stability across spatial and temporal scales.
As the United States continues to lead global oil and gas production—accounting for roughly 20% of worldwide output in 2024—understanding how different extraction methods affect ecosystems has never been more urgent. A new ...
Environment
Mar 10, 2026
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Intact ecosystems have the capacity for self-regulation, which keeps their complex structure of species—such as animals, plants, fungi and bacteria—in balance. For example, when the population of a species increases, its ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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Depending on others for something you need may feel like a risky proposition—and perhaps a human one. It is actually a survival strategy found in the microbial world, and far more frequently than one might expect. Discovering ...
Ecology
Feb 24, 2026
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Can students be on the front lines of conservation? A new Canada-wide study, published in Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, suggests they can. The efforts of some 5,000 students produced data detailed enough to reveal complex ...
Ecology
Feb 23, 2026
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Species numbers alone do not fully capture how ecosystems are changing. In a global study, scientists analyzed long-term data from nearly 15,000 marine and freshwater fish communities. They found that fish food webs have ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 19, 2026
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Up to 30% of bird diversity hotspots, places where large numbers of different bird species occur, in the western United States face threats from high-severity wildfires in the future that could eliminate critical forest habitats, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 18, 2026
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An ecosystem is not a still life. Even where everything looks stable—a woodland, a lake, the soil—the internal "bookkeeping" keeps changing: how many individuals belong to which species, and for how long. Some populations ...
Evolution
Feb 18, 2026
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Most people think of microbes in simple terms: Some make you sick, while others help keep you healthy. But microbes' influence stretches far beyond human bodies. These astonishingly complex organisms regulate the health of ...
Ecology
Feb 13, 2026
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A new study sheds light on how farmer-led collaboration can help create the conditions to address biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes. The research looks at "farmer clusters"—groups of farmers working together across ...
Ecology
Feb 10, 2026
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15
Many ecologists hypothesize that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 9, 2026
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