108 posts · 71,682 views
EcoTone is a blog produced by the Ecological Society of America. The blog showcases ecology and ecologists, focusing on ecological science in the news and its use in policy and education. EcoTone welcomes guest submissions and suggestions of timely, relevant news of importance to the broad ecological community. EcoTone is moderated by ESA’s communications officer, Katie Kline. To submit feedback or suggest a post, please e-mail esablog@esa.org.
Katie Kline
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- July 13, 2009
- 10:19 AM
- 1,175 views
A better diversity index?
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
A paper out online in the August issue of Ecology Letters presents a new index for estimating biodiversity. John Harte of UC Berkeley and his colleagues have developed a method that they say yields more precise measures of biodiversity than classic indices, such as Simpson’s and Shannon’s diversity indices.
In an argument similar (but reversed) to [...]... Read more »
Harte, J., Smith, A., & Storch, D. (2009) Biodiversity scales from plots to biomes with a universal species-area curve. Ecology Letters, 12(8), 789-797. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01328.x
- May 1, 2009
- 09:48 AM
- 1,151 views
The advantages of infidelity
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Although not all birds mate for life, many do, and often mated pairs will stay together at least for the duration of a reproductive season. Birds are sneaky, however, and some “sneaker” males will often try to stealthily mate with females within pairs. Behavioral ecologists have many theories about why females engage in these extra-pair [...]... Read more »
Magrath, M., Vedder, O., van der Velde, M., & Komdeur, J. (2009) Maternal Effects Contribute to the Superior Performance of Extra-Pair Offspring. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.068
- March 12, 2009
- 02:07 PM
- 1,139 views
A realistic map of scientific thought
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Tracking citation data (i.e., which papers cite which other papers) has traditionally been the method for understanding the interconnectivity of different fields and subfields of research. But in the age when most researchers access their information online, the printed word can sometimes be years out of date.
In a paper published this week in Public Library [...]... Read more »
Bollen, J., Van de Sompel, H., Hagberg, A., Bettencourt, L., Chute, R., Rodriguez, M., & Balakireva, L. (2009) Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science. PLoS ONE, 4(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004803
- October 22, 2009
- 12:11 PM
- 1,029 views
Pollutants melting out of glaciers, into lakes
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
A mountain lake in Glacier National Park, Montana.
Organic pollutants have been on the decline in most natural areas in recent years, due to stricter regulations and improvements to products including the contaminants, such as certain pesticides. But a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology shows that these pollutants are showing a [...]
... Read more »
Bogdal, C., Schmid, P., Zennegg, M., Anselmetti, F., Scheringer, M., & Hungerbühler, K. (2009) Blast from the Past: Melting Glaciers as a Relevant Source for Persistent Organic Pollutants. Environmental Science , 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/es901628x
- September 3, 2009
- 09:20 AM
- 988 views
Human-induced erosion as powerful as glaciers
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University.
Soil erosion has always been a big problem for ecosystems, and often increases with decreased ecosystem health, such as the dry conditions often encouraged by climate change. We normally think of rivers and glaciers as the most powerful eroders, but a study out today in [...]
... Read more »
Koppes, M., & Montgomery, D. (2009) The relative efficacy of fluvial and glacial erosion over modern to orogenic timescales. Nature Geoscience, 2(9), 644-647. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo616
- July 2, 2009
- 11:54 AM
- 979 views
Plants, our saviors from a deep freeze
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
As plants become starved for CO2, rock weathering diminishes. Credit: study coauthor David Beerling
Earth is currently in an ice age. (People, especially climate change naysayers, sometimes forget that.) The growth of the Antarctic ice sheet began about 25 million years ago, and by about 3 million years ago we had a full-blown ice age. [...]... Read more »
Pagani, M., Caldeira, K., Berner, R., & Beerling, D. (2009) The role of terrestrial plants in limiting atmospheric CO2 decline over the past 24 million years. Nature, 460(7251), 85-88. DOI: 10.1038/nature08133
- June 3, 2009
- 12:59 PM
- 978 views
Seeding with the fishes
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Seed plants rely heavily on animals to disperse their seeds. These dispersers are crucial to the survival and fitness of plants - the pattern of dispersal can determine survivorship at the individual level, population dynamics at the community level and eventual evolution at the species level. From bats to mice to robins and monkeys, mammals [...]... Read more »
Anderson, J., Saldaña Rojas, J., & Flecker, A. (2009) High-quality seed dispersal by fruit-eating fishes in Amazonian floodplain habitats. Oecologia. DOI: 10.1007/s00442-009-1371-4
- June 8, 2010
- 09:28 AM
- 956 views
Female jumping spiders fight to the death
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Male jumping spiders (Phidippus clarus) size one another up before engaging in a fight—whether the aggression is based on rights to mating or territory—and in many cases, the pre-fight displays are sufficient to deter physical contact. The males do not nest but instead wander between female nests looking for opportunities to mate. The females, on the other hand, are not nomads—they build nests from silk and leaves in which they wait while they draw closer to sexual maturity.
... Read more »
Elias, D., Botero, C., Andrade, M., Mason, A., & Kasumovic, M. (2010) High resource valuation fuels "desperado" fighting tactics in female jumping spiders. Behavioral Ecology. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arq073
- June 26, 2009
- 10:38 AM
- 940 views
Eco-engineering sustainable seawalls
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
People love living on the coast, and one of the most destructive human infrastructure practices is replacing natural shorelines with human-made seawalls. These walls are often tall, flat, and featureless, making them bad habitat for shore animals and plants. Biodiversity in these areas, of course, declines.
In a paper published online today in Oecologia, Gee Chapman [...]... Read more »
M. G. Chapman, & D. J. Blockley. (2009) Engineering novel habitats on urban infrastructure to increase intertidal biodiversity. Oecologia.
- June 12, 2009
- 10:01 AM
- 937 views
Evolution at its finest: Plant roots in snow
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Ecologists have discovered yet another astonishing way that plants defy all manner of physical obstacles to get what they need. Researchers have discovered alpine plant roots that grow upwards, against gravity, and out of the soil…into the snow.
A group of researchers centered at VU University in Amsterdam discovered the plant roots high in the mountains [...]... Read more »
Onipchenko, V., Makarov, M., van Logtestijn, R., Ivanov, V., Akhmetzhanova, A., Tekeev, D., Ermak, A., Salpagarova, F., Kozhevnikova, A., & Cornelissen, J. (2009) New nitrogen uptake strategy: specialized snow roots. Ecology Letters. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01331.x
- August 26, 2010
- 05:22 PM
- 935 views
Inside out: cannibalism, nutrition and swarm formation in locusts
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
It may be difficult to picture just one locust singled out from a swarm. But believe it or not, desert locusts—insects infamous for their contribution to plagues and famine—are naturally solitary creatures. So what causes the group uprising that farmers are so familiar with? Research has shown that the internal workings of a solitary locust can affect the swarming behavior of the entire group.
... Read more »
Anstey, M., Rogers, S., Ott, S., Burrows, M., & Simpson, S. (2009) Serotonin Mediates Behavioral Gregarization Underlying Swarm Formation in Desert Locusts. Science, 323(5914), 627-630. DOI: 10.1126/science.1165939
Bazazi, S., Romanczuk, P., Thomas, S., Schimansky-Geier, L., Hale, J., Miller, G., Sword, G., Simpson, S., & Couzin, I. (2010) Nutritional state and collective motion: from individuals to mass migration. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1447
- April 24, 2009
- 10:27 AM
- 897 views
The silent force in the food web
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Addition of parasites (red spheres) visibly increases connectivity of species in this representation of an Arctic food web.
Studies of food webs fascinate community ecologists. There seems to be a never-ending supply of interactions to observe, analyze and use in predictions. From the largest apex predators, feeding once a week, to the smallest alga, constantly [...]... Read more »
Amundsen, P., Lafferty, K., Knudsen, R., Primicerio, R., Klemetsen, A., & Kuris, A. (2009) Food web topology and parasites in the pelagic zone of a subarctic lake. Journal of Animal Ecology, 78(3), 563-572. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01518.x
Beckerman, A., & Petchey, O. (2009) Infectious food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology, 78(3), 493-496. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2009.01538.x
- June 17, 2010
- 04:22 PM
- 888 views
Flowers make it rain (and then some)
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
The Amazon rainforest—with its millions of creaking, chirping and buzzing insects, sticky frogs, vibrant birds, and unique fish—may owe its diversity primarily to flowers, said researchers from the University of Chicago. And, they say, just as flowering plants formed the building block of biodiversity in this region, their removal could result in a cascade of declining diversity.
... Read more »
Boyce, C., & Lee, J. (2010) An exceptional role for flowering plant physiology in the expansion of tropical rainforests and biodiversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0485
- March 31, 2009
- 12:54 PM
- 879 views
Seabirds: ‘Climate change is here’
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
To convince naysayers that climate change is real, maybe all we need to tell them is to look up in the sky - or down into the ocean. Two recent studies show that seabirds can be important sentinels of a changing climate.
Says Dee Boersma, University of Washington ecologist and one of the world’s penguin experts, [...]... Read more »
Boersma, P., Rebstock, G., Frere, E., & Moore, S. (2009) Following the fish: penguins and productivity in the South Atlantic. Ecological Monographs, 79(1), 59-76. DOI: 10.1890/06-0419.1
Wolf, S., Sydeman, W., Hipfner, J., Abraham, C., Tershy, B., & Croll, D. (2009) Range-wide reproductive consequences of ocean climate variability for the seabird Cassin's Auklet. Ecology, 90(3), 742-753. DOI: 10.1890/07-1267.1
- May 13, 2009
- 11:20 AM
- 869 views
Every plant for itself: A tale of backstabbing fungi
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
An ericoid mycorrhizal fungus similar to the ones found in rhododendrons.
Mycorrhizae are fungi that form mutually beneficial associations with plant roots. The mutualism works like this: The mycorrhiza grows in and around the plant’s root tissue, and its hyphae, or thread-like vegetative parts, serve plants by branching out in the soil and absorbing nutrients [...]... Read more »
Wurzburger, N., & Hendrick, R. (2009) Plant litter chemistry and mycorrhizal roots promote a nitrogen feedback in a temperate forest. Journal of Ecology, 97(3), 528-536. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2009.01487.x
- June 8, 2009
- 03:08 PM
- 863 views
Migratory Canada geese caused Hudson crash
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Scientists at the Smithsonian have identified the birds that caused US Airways Flight 1549 to crash into the Hudson River on Jan 15. The birds were identified as migratory Canada geese. The researchers reported their results online today in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and held a press briefing at the Smithsonian.
Working out of [...]... Read more »
Marra, P., Dove, C., Dolbeer, R., Dahlan, N., Heacker, M., Whatton, J., Diggs, N., France, C., & Henkes, G. (2009) Migratory Canada geese cause crash of US Airways Flight 1549. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1890/090066
- September 29, 2009
- 04:07 PM
- 858 views
Laser-imaging bird habitats
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
A paper out in the October issue of Ecological Applications puts forth a new use for light detection and ranging technology, or LiDAR: the prediction of bird habitats.
LiDAR technology uses laser imaging techniques to develop maps of forest vegetation structure by sending laser beams from aircrafts that fly over a study area. In this case, [...]
... Read more »
Seavy, N., Viers, J., & Wood, J. (2009) Riparian bird response to vegetation structure: a multiscale analysis using LiDAR measurements of canopy height. Ecological Applications, 19(7), 1848-1857. DOI: 10.1890/08-1124.1
- March 23, 2009
- 02:53 PM
- 856 views
Wikipedia: A scientific and educational opportunity
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Emilio Bruna of the University of Florida wanted to assign students in his graduate seminar on plant -animal interactions something different than a term paper. So he devised a novel plan that would help them learn some crucial concepts while writing concisely: rewriting Wikipedia entries. I caught up with Emilio and student Kristine Callis, who [...]... Read more »
Callis, K., Christ, L., Resasco, J., Armitage, D., Ash, J., Caughlin, T., Clemmensen, S., Copeland, S., Fullman, T., Lynch, R.... (2009) Improving Wikipedia: educational opportunity and professional responsibility. Trends in Ecology . DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.01.003
- July 15, 2010
- 05:35 PM
- 854 views
Gut flora and the human rainforest
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Scientists have known for decades that the human intestinal tract is home to an abundance of diverse bacteria. This microbial rainforest is introduced incrementally to infants as they grow—primarily from their mothers during birth and breastfeeding and from everyday encounters. Many of these microbes aid in digestion and fight off pathogens, but until recently, researchers were not certain if phages, viruses that infect bacteria, were also present in the human gut.
... Read more »
Reyes, A., Haynes, M., Hanson, N., Angly, F., Heath, A., Rohwer, F., & Gordon, J. (2010) Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their mothers. Nature, 466(7304), 334-338. DOI: 10.1038/nature09199
- June 18, 2010
- 05:40 PM
- 832 views
Insect-eating not (just) for the birds
by Katie Kline in EcoTone
Nutritious, chemical-free and all-natural, insects are featured as the main protein several Latin American, Asian and African countries. For example, in the Santander region of Colombia, leaf-cutter ants (called "hormigas culonas") are sometimes eaten roasted, salted and have a slightly acidic taste. Mopane worms—the caterpillar for the moth Gonimbrasia belina—are popular in Botswana and are served dried or rehydrated with sauces and other ingredients.
... Read more »
Vogel, G. (2010) For More Protein, Filet of Cricket. Science, 327(5967), 811-811. DOI: 10.1126/science.327.5967.811
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