News by Subject Biology

Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world. Resettlement of indigenous communities resulted in the spread of invasive species, the absence of human-set fires, and a general cascade in the interconnected food web that led to the largest mammalian extinction event ever recorded. In this case, the absence of direct human activity on the landscape may be the cause of the extinctions, according to a Penn State anthropologist.

In two back-to-back symposia at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 1:30 and 3:30 PM respectively, a cross-disciplinary cohort of scientists will present the first comprehensive investigations of how humans interacted with plant and animal species in different cultures worldwide through time.

Thomas Crowther, ETH Zurich identifies long-disappeared forests available for restoration across the world. In his AAAS session, Crowther describes how such an effort, could absorb as much as 135 gigatons of atmospheric carbon. Crowther will also describe data from thousands of soil samples collected by local scientists that reveal the world's most abundant population of soil organisms in arctic and sub-arctic regions and the most dominant populations of plants and animals in tropical regions.

While previous studies showed elk often move into areas disturbed by fires or timber harvest to take advantage of new plant growth, that isn't happening in Wyoming's Sierra Madre Mountains, where elk strongly avoid beetle-killed areas in the summer.

New research has revealed the fascinating adaptation of some Australian sea snakes that helps protect their vulnerable paddle-shaped tails from predators.

Coccolithophores are microscopic marine algae that use carbon dioxide to grow and release carbon dioxide when they create their miniature calcite shells. Scientists from the CNRS, Le Mans Université, Sorbonne Université, Aix-Marseille Université and the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, have revealed the nano-level 3D structure of their calcite shells, providing new perspectives for assessment of the role of these tiny microorganisms in the global carbon cycle.