A single gene controls species diversity in an ecosystem

More than 50 years ago on the shoreline of a rocky tide pool, the US ecologist Robert Paine discovered that the removal of a single species from an ecosystem could dramatically alter its structure and function. He had discovered ...

The secret of mycorrhizal fungi

Fungi, specifically those that are "mycorrhizal," are natural allies of the forest because they improve tree nutrient acquisition. But which of the mycorrhizal feeding strategies yields the greatest tree diversity in a forest: ...

Reducing global warming matters for freshwater fish species

The habitats of freshwater fish species are threatened by global warming, mainly due to rising water temperatures. A 3.2-degree Celsius increase in global mean temperature would threaten more than half of the habitat for ...

In symbiosis: Plants control the genetics of microbes

Researchers from the University of Ottawa have discovered that plants may be able to control the genetics of their intimate root symbionts—the organism with which they live in symbiosis—thereby providing a better understanding ...

Why plants in wetlands are highly productive

Environmental scientists of Leiden University have found that the so-called leaf economics spectrum for plants can not only be applied to terrestrial ecosystems, such as forests and grasslands, but also to wetlands. Furthermore, ...

Algal genome provides insights into first land plants

Cornell researchers have sequenced and analyzed the genome of a single-celled alga that belongs to the closest lineage to terrestrial plants and provides many clues to how aquatic plants first colonized land.

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