News by Subject Biology

New research, led by Durham University and published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, investigates the impacts of potential climate change scenarios on the network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Scientists have identified a new phylum of microbes found around the world that appear to be playing an important (and surprising) role in the global carbon cycle by helping break down decaying plants without producing the greenhouse gas methane. The phylum is named Brockarchaeota after Thomas Brock, a pioneer in the study of microbes that live in extreme environments who died on April 4.

Melting glaciers redistributed enough water to cause the direction of polar wander to turn and accelerate eastward during the mid-1990s, according to a new study in AGU's Geophysical Research Letters.

An antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections in humans is showing promise in treating stony coral, found throughout the tropical western Atlantic, including several areas currently affected by stony coral tissue loss disease. Preserving M. cavernosa colonies is important due to its high abundance and role as a dominant reef builder in the northern section of Florida's Coral Reef. Results show that the Base 2B plus amoxicillin treatment had a 95 percent success rate at healing individual disease lesions.

Climate change is driving some fish into cooler, deeper waters. Now they may be faced with another challenge: how to make sense of a world drained of color. Duke and Exeter researchers report that even small increases in depth could make it harder for fish to discern the hues they use to find food, friends and family. They are trying to predict which species will be most impacted, and whether they'll be able to adapt.

Substantial cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions could be achieved by raising water levels in agricultural peatlands, according to a new study in the journal Nature. A team of researchers led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology estimates halving drainage depths in these areas could cut emissions by around 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year, which equates to 1 per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities.

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have designed an enzyme-activated compostable plastic that could diminish microplastics pollution. Household tap water or soil composts break the hybrid plastic material down to reusable small molecules, called monomers, in just a few days or weeks.