https://phys.org/biology-news/ecology/ en-us The latest science and research news on ecology Populations of many pollinators, including bumblebees, have been crashing over the last few decades, thanks to the widespread use of chemical pesticides, loss of habitat and the acceleration of climate change. But it can be hard to know just how bad the problem is, or whether conservation strategies are helping, without relying on lethal traps—which can kill tens of thousands of bees in order to get an accurate count of their populations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai-bee-lethal.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:40:05 EDT news711817081 Imagine encountering a rattlesnake in your backyard or while on a hike. It will most likely "freeze" to avoid attracting attention, but if it feels especially threatened, it may rattle and even strike, delivering a painful dose of venom. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rattlesnakes-alike-personality-venom.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:40:01 EDT news711793881 Although the main prey of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), migratory ungulates such as blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), now spend substantially less time within hyena territories than they did 30 years ago, hyena clans in the central Serengeti have remained largely stable. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-serengeti-hyenas-clans-stable-climate.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:40:08 EDT news711805081 Researchers at Keele University have discovered that migratory butterflies may use different navigation systems to find their way during migrations, highlighting the importance of understanding how different species may respond to environmental changes. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-butterfly-reveal-migrating-species-natural.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:20:01 EDT news711801421 Vultures were long thought to make few and fairly simple sounds. Yet no one had investigated in detail how the birds use sound to communicate. For his master's thesis in Jorg Massen's Vulture Cognition Lab, Connor Proudfoot studied the critically endangered Rüppell's vulture. He and his colleagues found that the birds produce a wide range of complex sounds, which they use in a range of social situations. The findings, published today in PLOS One, could help improve the success of captive breeding programs and shed light on the evolution of communication. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-silent-vultures-wide-range-communicate.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:00:01 EDT news711733021 Marine heat waves are usually seen as destructive events that can disrupt entire ocean ecosystems and trigger massive environmental damage. In 2018 and 2019, an extreme heat wave hit the Bering Sea, causing spring sea ice levels to plummet. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bering-sea-linked-boom-hybrid.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:30:02 EDT news711795170 The oxygen in about every other breath we take comes from microscopic cells—phytoplankton—drifting in the surface of the ocean. Among them is Prochlorococcus, the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism in the seas. It single-handedly accounts for roughly 10% of all the carbon that the land and the oceans pull from the atmosphere each year. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ocean-abundant-loner-microbe-sticky.html Ecology Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:00:06 EDT news711791161 In most parts of Europe, bees have become less widespread during the last 100 years, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-century-picture-europe-bees.html Plants & Animals Tue, 20 Oct 2026 15:10:28 EDT news711722531 In a deep, dark part of the Gulf of Mexico, the number of marine animals plummeted by about 60% in the years following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, a new study found. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-marine-life-declined-gulf-mexico.html Ecology Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:39:07 EDT news711693484 Researchers have discovered honey beehives act as "living immune systems" that help protect the bee colony, its offspring and food supplies from disease. The finding underlines the need to protect bee habitat to ensure their health. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-beehives-immune-layered-antimicrobial-defenses.html Plants & Animals Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:00:11 EDT news711643621 For the first time, scientists have observed bleached corals on the brink of death fully recover through brief contact with healthy clones. Ghostly white corals returned to full health in a laboratory setting within seven weeks, the fastest documented recovery to date, according to a study published in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-reverse-coral.html Ecology Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:01 EDT news711300075 Close social relationships are known to contribute to the survival of many animals, including humans. Maintaining social bonds over time, however, can also require effort and sacrifices. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-social-bonds-wild-jackdaws.html Plants & Animals Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:20:01 EDT news711373350 Scientists know a great deal about how lions hunt, breed and survive, but the microscopic communities living inside them have remained largely unexplored. Now, a study of wild lions in Namibia is beginning to change that, while revealing how much biology is still missing from the world's genomic databases. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lion-yield-previously-unknown-microbial.html Ecology Sun, 18 Oct 2026 08:00:01 EDT news711199822 When scientists talk about scavengers, you might imagine an animal sniffing out or stumbling across a carcass, eating as much as possible and slinking away. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-australian-scavengers-dont-approach-carcass.html Plants & Animals Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:00:01 EDT news711284249 A German cockroach races across a kitchen floor. Someone grabs a bottle of essential oil spray, soaks the insect and watches it die. The product worked, but a new University of Kentucky study suggests the larger infestation probably did not notice. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-essential-oil-sprays-cockroaches-contact.html Plants & Animals Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:20:07 EDT news711372242 A plant's roots do much of their work out of sight, pulling in water and nutrients and holding the plant in place. That makes it hard to see how plants respond when conditions underground change, and how a warming climate affects them. New Dartmouth-led studies look at the strategies plants use below the surface to adapt and survive. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-climate-tree-roots-soil-microbes.html Plants & Animals Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:40:01 EDT news711369664 Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering mustard plant used worldwide as the primary genetic model in plant biology, was long believed incapable of forming relationships with underground fungal networks. New research published in Current Biology led by professor Katie Field demonstrates for the first time that it can establish a fully functional, resource-sharing partnership with an ancient soil fungus known as a Mucoromycotina fine root endophyte (MFRE). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-fungus-secret-major-food.html Ecology Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:00:01 EDT news711366938 When corals are stressed by pollution, high water temperatures or other environmental changes, they can lose the microscopic algae living inside them and on which they depend for food. As a result, they turn white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. They will not die straight away, but it will be game over if the stress continues long enough for them to starve. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-coral-fusion-reefs-lifeline.html Ecology Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:20:02 EDT news711275792 A super El Niño fueling record ocean temperatures poses a "terrifying" threat to the world's fragile coral reefs, the chair of the U.N.'s expert nature panel told AFP. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-el-nio-threat-coral-reefs.html Ecology Thu, 15 Oct 2026 14:22:51 EDT news711292889 In an effort to conserve the world's plants and animals, governments have pledged to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030. Official figures suggest that attempts to reach this target on land have stalled, but a new study led by the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom shows 27% of land may already be conserved for biodiversity if you also count areas that aren't globally recognized but still support wildlife. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-world.html Ecology Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:40:14 EDT news711287461 They can't fly or swim, so why do their closest relatives appear on different continents? Grey Gustafson, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, discovered through DNA sequencing that the ancestors of some of today's tiger beetles existed in South America and Africa before the two continents separated. What's more, North America's largest tiger beetles are related to these ancestral South American giant tiger beetles. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mystery-flightless-beetle-transatlantic-journey.html Evolution Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:20:11 EDT news711279724 Researchers from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) Ocean Observatory have documented ancient forests that grew on the Mozambican coast thousands of years ago and have been found beneath the sea, where they now serve as hotspots teeming with marine life similar in biodiversity to coral reefs. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-year-forests-reborn-peat-reefs.html Plants & Animals Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:00:16 EDT news711275883 Researchers at McGill University have found that urbanization is weakening one of Earth's most enduring ecological patterns: the tendency for biodiversity to increase toward the tropics, a pattern known as the latitudinal diversity gradient. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-urbanization-bigger-toll-bird-diversity.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Oct 2026 18:40:04 EDT news711212581 Thousands of Adélie penguins found dead in Antarctica in 2024 were primarily victims of avian cholera, not high pathogenicity avian influenza (H5N1) as researchers initially suspected, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The findings highlight an underrecognized threat to Antarctic wildlife and the importance of comprehensive disease investigations, particularly as H5N1 continues to raise concerns for seabird and marine mammal populations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-avian-cholera-major-penguin.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:10:01 EDT news711214621 In the 1970s, researchers began to observe drastic amphibian declines in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a global hotspot of frog biodiversity. For decades, these disappearances remained a mystery. Now, new research from scientists at the Center for Conservation Genomics at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) and Pennsylvania State University (PSU), published today in the journal Molecular Ecology, points to amphibian chytridiomycosis, a devastating infectious disease, as the likely culprit. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-museum-specimens-reveal-pathogen-decades.html Ecology Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:00:01 EDT news711196682 Fishing is increasing in most marine reserves worldwide in spite of conservation pledges, a study published Wednesday found. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-marine-areas-curb-fishing.html Ecology Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:40:25 EDT news711207566 Scientists have announced a new genus of deep-sea segmented marine "spaghetti worms" with suction cups on their bodies, showing just how much undiscovered biodiversity is out there in the deep seas around Australia. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-scientists-genus-deep-sea-spaghetti.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:20:23 EDT news711195902 A new study by researchers at the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University has demonstrated that a DNA sequencing tool can rapidly identify harmful algae in coastal waters, offering a new approach for monitoring species that could lead to improved methods for detecting potentially dangerous species before blooms become widespread. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dna-tool-algal-blooms.html Ecology Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:00:37 EDT news711185581 Protecting seabirds and restoring natural vegetation could give low-lying tropical atoll islands a fighting chance against the threat of sea-level rise, a new study reveals. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rats-native-atolls-seas.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:00:26 EDT news711185942 Honeybees are outcompeting wild pollinators in the U.K., and new research has found evidence of their aggressive behavior, recording for the first time the extent to which they restrict access to food sources and attack and chase other species. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ivy-bees-honeybees-pollinators.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:20:02 EDT news711187921