California gnatcatcher: Umbrella species failure?
...tal sage scrub insects studied, Rubinoff calls the bird a "false" umbrella species. "Assuming that any single species will function as conservation surrogate may be an error worse than making decisions without the use of umbrellas at all," he says....NSF awards $55 million in grants to study biocomplexity in the environment
...ns among urban development, land cover change, and bird diversity; coupling rhizosphere biogeochemical cycles to plant growth under differing levels of carbon dioxide; meta-genome analysis of extreme microbial symbiosis; and developing instrumentation to measure the emission and transport of biological ae...Mountain cloud forests imperiled by lowland deforestation, says Science study
... crash in frog and toad populations and changes in bird ranges, suggest that the base of its cloud bank may be rising, lifting the nourishing veil that allows the forests to flourish. To further examine this phenomenon, the Science study authors looked to lowland areas upwind of the mountain forests--th...Betting on climate change: Alaskan gambling contest yields treasure trove of scientific data
...ks at the annual timing of natural events, such as bird migrations. "Phenology used to be dismissed as a hobby of eccentric British naturalists, some of whom have family records dating back to the 1750s of when the first leaf appeared on a particular tree in spring," Sagarin says. Ingenious contraption Th...Beware of leap year when predicting climate change, warns researcher
...phenology, which uses historical records of annual bird migrations, ice melts and other natural events to establish trends in global warming. In October, he co-authored a study in the journal Science documenting the early arrival of spring in Alaska based on the Nenana Ice Classic a popular betting cont...A little larceny comes naturally to Northwestern crows
...hours over 18 months, watching a randomly selected bird for five minutes. All observed birds, which were in groups ranging between five and 50 individuals, were within one meter of the exposed tidal zone where food was available. The birds were observed through binoculars from a distance of 30 to 50 meter...Bhutan signs conservation agreement at Field Museum Jan. 22
...an as an environmental jewel. Training; mammal and bird inventory; museumThe first role of The Field Museum will be to develop a training program for Bhutanese biodiversity specialists. WWF has already played an important role in building the capacity of Bhutanese nationals on biodiversity conservation, s...Perception is stored in single neurones
...xperience with them. What most people would call a bird is "obviously" a sparrow, sandpiper, or cockatiel for a birdwatcher. Expertise sharpens our ability to notice details. The more we learn about objects and the more familiar they become, the more details we recognize. Thus, we continue to make general...Counterintuitively, after extreme droughts, wading birds flourish
...verglades, but also worldwide among diverse wading bird populations. The cause remains a mystery, but Fre...so would tend to encourage fish and, by extension, bird populations, Frederick said. Although it may have many causes besides drought, the pattern of pulsed...Reserve creates model for science-based indigenous stewardship of land
...e. "The number of threatened and near-threatened bird species recorded from even this brief survey of th...ke this region one of the most important sites for bird conservation anywhere in the eastern Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, or northern Peru," notes Thomas Sch...New theory of the evolution of bird flight linked to parental care
... rate at which the physical features of the modern bird were acquired." The origin of bird flight is a fundamental issue in avian biology and in overall evolutionary theory. Many scientists p...West Nile Virus heading toward Texas
... infected mosquitoes. "West Nile is essentially a bird virus," said Tizard. "A disease like this could be... devastating to Texas birds, especially the exotic bird industry and the whooping crane population. Although citizens should know that it is illegal to hand...Satellites vs. mosquitoes: Tracking West Nile Virus in the U.S.
...on-wide temperatures, distributions of vegetation, bird migration routes and areas pinpointing reported cases. The combined data helps scientists predict disease outbreaks by showing where conditions are right for the insects to thrive and where the disease appears to be spreading. "The images are deriv...Chemical evidence proves the old adage, Birds of a feather flock together
...onists suspect is partly responsible for declining bird populations in Appalachia and other parts of North... U.S. and Canada for 20 years, but only one banded bird has ever been found in the Caribbean, he said, noting that attempts at tracking warbler migrations w...Predators drive evolution of virtual prey appearance
... daily session. Half of the displays seen by each bird had no embedded moths. At the end of each day, the accuracy and speed of the birds were scored and entered into a genetic algorithm, which favored the moths that were the most difficult to detect as parents for the next generation. The moth populati...Researchers link migratory birds' winter, summer ranges
...tropical migrants, which are a significant part of bird diversity in North America, as well as in the Neot...ry movements with conventional techniques, such as bird banding or radiotelemetry," said Dustin Rubenstein, senior author of the paper, a 1999 Dartmouth gra......y that amazed landholders and scientists. Over 100 bird species were recorded, as well as 145 different types of ants, over 250 species of native plants and over 60 species of cryptogams the often overlooked mosses, lichens and bryophytes that hold the soil surface together. Theres a lot more living and ...Living in large groups could give you a better memory
...ree different settings: either alone, with another bird of the opposite sex, or in a large group of about 45 other birds. After 40 days the researchers examined three specific regions of the birds' brains to check development. The researchers found that compared with the other birds, those living in la...Unique national park for orchids to be declared in Africa
...on, the plateau is home to 12 globally significant bird species, including breeding colonies of blue swallows, mountain marsh widowbirds, and Denholms bustards. The announcement to create this park is an innovative and laudable step demonstrating Tanzanias commitment to conserving biodiversity, said Dr Ti...New process by Temple grad student can place loose fossils back into the strata or determine fakes
...them together with the bones of a newer species of bird and tried to pass it off as a very important new species, says Patrick, a native of Northeast Philadelphia. The archeoraptor would have been considered a major find, but it happens more frequently with smaller fossils, she adds. It happens on a dai...