https://phys.org/biology-news/ecology/ en-us The latest science and research news on ecology Every spring, millions of people around the world head outdoors to admire wildflowers. But flowering is much more than a beautiful seasonal display. It is one of the most important stages in a plant's life cycle, determining not only its ability to reproduce but also the survival of pollinators and the health of entire ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rainfall-reshape-entire-communities.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:40:07 EDT news703779421 On a pristine Rhode Island beach teeming with noisy seabirds, a group of biologists armed with nets sneak up on a pair of American oystercatcher chicks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-oystercatchers-sharp-bills-beady-eyes.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:20:06 EDT news703774238 Postdoctoral researcher Renato Borras-Chavez's area of study—pinnipeds in the Southern Ocean—often takes him far from the University of Rhode Island campus. Now, the researcher in Sarah Kienle's CEAL Lab is sharing more about declining populations of certain seals and will present on the topic at the SCAR Open Science Conference in Oslo, Norway, this August. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-vulnerable-southern-ocean-species.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:40:09 EDT news703772761 Microbial communities are considered particularly diverse—in soil, water and the human body. A common assumption in ecology is that the greater the diversity of available nutrients, the more species can coexist. A research team at the University of Tübingen has now shown that the opposite can be true. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-greater-nutrient-variety-counterintuitively-microbial.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:00:09 EDT news703772102 Marine biologists have observed the Arctic bobtail squid in its natural habitat in the North Atlantic Ocean for the first time, including the rare discovery of a mature female with eggs. Dr Paige Maroni, from The University of Western Australia's School of Biological Sciences, is lead author of the study published in Polar Biology, which recorded the Arctic bobtail squid, Rossia moelleri, in Northeast Greenland National Park. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rare-sighting-reveals-arctic-bobtail.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:20:03 EDT news703771202 St. Louis is a plant science powerhouse, but outside the neatly tended rows of crops and gleaming greenhouses sits another treasure trove of biological data: The wild plants tucked into yards, sidewalk cracks, ditches and fields have much to reveal. WashU's plant scientists are also among the most skilled in the country at teasing out their secrets. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wild-shifting-disease-threats-conditions.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:00:02 EDT news703770002 What determines which tasks bees perform in their colony? Biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main have investigated the role neural activity plays in this process. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they explain that by manipulating a specific gene, they can selectively inhibit neural circuits in bees and thus influence their work behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bee-brains-reveal-colonies-central.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news703766341 Scientists are calling for wildlife surveys to be conducted within hours of prescribed burns after new research revealed that evidence of animal deaths can disappear in less than two weeks, significantly underestimating the true toll of fire on Australia's wildlife. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-lethal-lizards.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:40:06 EDT news703753862 Honeybees do not like cold weather. When temperatures dip, they can become sluggish and unable to fly. But no matter the conditions in the outside world, they try to keep their hives close to a comfortable 34°C–36°C (93°F–97°F). However, extreme weather, both hot and cold, can overwhelm this internal temperature control and ultimately cut their lives short. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bees-probiotic-diet-extreme-temperatures.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:00:06 EDT news703758461 The choices people make to control mosquitoes in their own backyards may be helping some of those mosquitoes survive the very insecticides meant to kill them, according to two new studies from North Carolina State University. The paper on the emergence and spatial distribution of resistance appears in Parasites & Vectors. The paper on socioeconomic predictors of resistance appears in Royal Society Open Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wealthier-north-carolina-neighborhoods-hotspots.html Evolution Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:40:08 EDT news703757343 University of Michigan researchers have used an AI tool to demonstrate that birds in the group Passeriformes evolved in rapid evolutionary bursts and that these bursts frequently coincided with climate shifts throughout Earth's history. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-tool-reveals-climate-shifts.html Evolution Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:06 EDT news703496694 A coral reef, missing and presumed dead, has been found alive and well off the coast of Benin. Surveys in the 1960s, focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-water coral reef but assumed it must be dead. Now, using a modern sonar survey and the Deep Sea Camera System provided by the National Geographic Exploration Technology Lab, scientists have found an apparently healthy reef. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-underwater-drones-coral-reefs-benin.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:05 EDT news703491408 To track the impacts of environmental change and enable conservation efforts, we must first understand the composition of our ecosystems. A new online resource provides a comprehensive overview of hard coral distribution across the Ryukyu Islands, based on extensive environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-coral-environmental-dna.html Ecology Sun, 19 Jul 2026 20:00:01 EDT news703491602 Dragonflies are renowned for their remarkable flying abilities. Male dragonflies often compete for territory and mating opportunities, engaging in fascinating in-flight battles. Researchers at Imperial College London and Taipei Zoo recently carried out a study investigating the aerial maneuvers male dragonflies use while fighting competitors and the overall purpose of these battles. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-dragonfly-aerial-simple.html Plants & Animals Sun, 19 Jul 2026 17:00:01 EDT news703496366 A new Murdoch University study has uncovered alarming levels of pesticide contamination in the food sources of endangered Carnaby's cockatoos in the Wheatbelt—including concentrations well above regulatory limits found in seed spills near grain silos. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-carnaby-cockatoos-exposed-dangerous-pesticide.html Ecology Sun, 19 Jul 2026 12:30:01 EDT news703497043 If you've driven down two-lane highways in rural parts of North Florida recently, you may have noticed a spate of new signs that designate the grassy knolls bordering the asphalt as wildflower areas. The signs likely feel redundant right about now as thousands of milkweeds produce thick umbels packed full of pentagonal buds and fully developed flowers. Many of these flowers and all the monarchs they attract have the same attention-grabbing orange color as the safety vests worn by workers who carefully planted each milkweed by hand months earlier. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-butterfly-experts-milkweed-florida-roadsides.html Plants & Animals Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:30:01 EDT news703499199 Ireland's waters continue to provide an important seasonal refuge for the endangered basking shark, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-century-sightings-reveals-ireland-haven.html Plants & Animals Sat, 18 Jul 2026 10:00:04 EDT news703420137 Europe's great cormorant has recovered from near extinction to overabundance in half a century, stoking a long-running debate over population control between fishers troubled by its voracious appetite and conservationists. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-chainsaw-massacre-europe-mulls-culls.html Ecology Sat, 18 Jul 2026 04:20:03 EDT news703566876 Mosquitoes are widely known for transmitting diseases such as malaria and dengue fever to humans, but less is known about the diseases they can transmit to wild birds. The Plasmodium parasite that causes avian malaria is common in wild birds around the world, including in the U.K., but little is known about which mosquito species are responsible for transmitting it. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-uk-mosquito-species-potential-carriers.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:20:01 EDT news703497075 Just as careful blending of eye shadow can make a difference to our looks, a recent study has shown how flowers go to considerable trouble to fine-tune their shades. In the relentless competition to attract bees, a slight edge can make the difference between life and death for a gene. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wild-snapdragons-subtle-bees.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:00:14 EDT news703500019 Despite burning hundreds of miles away, Canadian wildfires have become a familiar source of disruption in New York state. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-canadian-wildfire-linked-bird-sightings.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:00:02 EDT news703497886 A new study identifying the ecological conditions needed for biodiversity offsetting to achieve conservation goals could provide important guidance for governments and industries as they expand biodiversity net gain (BNG) and nature restoration policies. The research is published in the journal Conservation Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-conditions-successful-term-biodiversity-net.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 12:10:02 EDT news703505887 Ticks that survive less-than-lethal doses of pesticide are able to withstand dangerous cold, which could help them spread tick-borne diseases farther north, a UC study has found. Biologists with the University of Cincinnati and the U.S. Department of Agriculture examined the effects of pesticide on two common species of dog ticks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-survive-pesticides-colder-winters.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:00:14 EDT news703497067 As sea levels rise due to climate change, encroaching seawater will likely make freshwater environments saltier. In a new study, MIT researchers have shown how that increase in salinity might affect microbial ecosystems found in environments such as rivers and estuaries. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-influx-salt-affect-microbial-ecosystems.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:00:12 EDT news703496766 Human activities are fundamentally altering the chemical makeup of coral reefs, according to a study led by the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and published in Nature Communications. The research team discovered that 25 contaminants from agricultural, industrial and pharmaceutical sources accumulated in the soft tissues of corals around Maui, Hawai'i. Additionally, in areas affected by human activities, energy and nutrient availability within coral tissue decreases, making corals significantly less resilient to environmental stressors such as warmer or more acidic waters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-human-compromise-coral-health-resilience.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:40:04 EDT news703496762 Research carried out three years after installation at the Hollandse Kust Zuid offshore wind farm in the North Sea has found that distinct marine communities have developed inside offshore wind turbine foundations equipped with water replenishment holes. The foundations include holes in the walls of the large, hollow steel monopiles—so-called water replenishment holes—that allow seawater to flow through the structure. The findings suggest that water exchange may play an important role in shaping ecological conditions inside the monopiles. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-exchange-linked-distinct-marine-communities.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:28:02 EDT news703499256 Seen from the air, Channel Country resembles a vibrant, vast tapestry, with a network of waterways crisscrossing the land. Spread across more than 280,000 square kilometers (108,000 square miles) in outback Australia, it is one of the world's last free-flowing desert river systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-aboriginal-people-harvested-native-grass.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:20:01 EDT news703488661 Neil the Seal became a social media sensation almost overnight. Neil is a 5-year-old male southern elephant seal who weighs roughly 1 metric ton (1.1 tons). He was born on the Tasman Peninsula in October 2020 and has made an annual trip to Tasmania since. This is because many seal species regularly return to the place they were born, as well as the sites where they breed and rest. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-neil-behavior-marine-biologist.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jul 2026 08:40:03 EDT news703487641 A YSE-led study published in Environmental Research Letters found that current federal rules regulating American ginseng harvest—based on plant age and leaf count—poorly predict the biological traits that matter most for conservation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-federal-ginseng-poorly-health.html Ecology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 07:40:05 EDT news703483982 When University of Rhode Island researchers slipped beneath the surface of the Moosup River recently, they did not expect to find a living freshwater mussel community. The discovery marked the first documented record of freshwater mussels in the river in more than three decades and included rare native species considered sensitive indicators of river health. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rare-freshwater-mussels-moosup-river.html Ecology Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:00:05 EDT news703418087