News by Subject Biology

ORNL Story Tips: Pandemic impact, root studies, neutrons confirm, lab on a crystal and modeling fusion.

New system infuses 'R0' models with climate information to help public health agencies forecast places and times when environmental conditions might enhance transmission of dengue, Zika and other Aedes-borne diseases

Soils harbour a substantial part of the world's biodiversity, yet data on the patterns and processes taking place below ground does not represent all relevant ecosystems and taxa. For example, tropical and subtropical regions largely remain a blind spot when it comes to soil biodiversity. This is one of the results of a new study published in Nature Communications and led by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Leipzig University (UL).

Dr Arne Witt, lead author of the study published in the journal Bothalia, said that over half of farmers surveyed in the Karonga District of Malawi believe the weed, which more than 40 years ago had already been considered to be one of the 76 worst weeds in the world, believed the M. diplotricha to have reduced crop yields.

Inbred birds don't live as long and have fewer offspring. Inbreeding is equally harmful regardless of where the birds live.

Miniscule plants growing on desert soils can help drylands retain water and reduce erosion, UNSW researchers have found.

A team of researchers, led by Simon Brandl and Jacob Johansen, recently studied cryptobenthic reef fishes in the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman and found that the more thermally extreme coral reef habitat in the Arabian Gulf adversely impacted the diversity and productivity of these important fishes.