Multi-species herbivore outbreak follows El Nio drought in Panama
...ere setting up an experimental protocol to monitor herbivores and leaf damage on twenty tree species reachable f...e common as global temperatures rise. And because herbivores hit some tree species harder than others, repeated herbivore outbreaks could change the species comp...Declining fish supply linked to wildlife consumption in West Africa, Science study reports
...nce of 41 species of wild carnivores, primates and herbivores (measured as biomass) in six nature reserves in Ghana declined by 76 percent from 1970 to 1998. From 1976 to 1992, Brashares and his colleagues also saw that the number of reported bushmeat hunters in five wildlife reserves increased when regional f...Dinosaurs in bullet-proof vests
...among the best armoured animals known to us. These herbivores were up to ten metres long, with a tail ending in a huge bony club 'probably used as a weapon', says Torsten Scheyer, 'even though they definitely could not simply swing it back and forth; the whole construction was simply too stiff for that.' Torst...The giant eagle of Middle Earth
...e key factors driving the size increase. The large herbivores were available, and after killing a moa, an eagle would have been able to feed unhindered." Holdaway goes on to say that "it's great to see New Zealand's extinct birds the focus of international research. There are so many unanswered questions abou...Oldest fossil human protein ever sequenced
...requires vitamin C, which is ample in the diets of herbivores like gorillas, but may be absent from the diets of the omnivorous primates such as humans and Neanderthals, orangutans and chimpanzees. Therefore, the ability to form proteins without the presence of vitamin C may have been an advantage to these prim...Highlights from the April issue of Ecology
...to interactions involving inbred plants and insect herbivores Inbreeding is generally seen as detrimental, even... plants, were more resistant to generalized insect herbivores such as aphids while the self-fertilizing inbred plants fared better against leaf-chewing herbivores...Scientists journey to southern Africa to unravel the secret world of elephant communication
...rp proved an effective deterrent against wandering herbivores and curious lions. "Large animals could easily jump over the tarp or go right through it, but I think they perceive it as a solid object," says Tim Rodwell, an epidemiologist who served the dual role of camp doctor and electronics guru. Rodwell and O...Ancient diets of Australian birds point to big ecosystem changes
...t, would have led to the extinction of specialized herbivores and indirectly to the extinction of their non-human predators." In January 2005, Miller and colleagues published a paper in Geology suggesting burning by ancient hunters and gatherers triggered the failure of the annual Australian monsoon over the i......ing Japanese Beetles and Mexican Bean Beetles, two herbivores that feast on snap beans. The presence of silk on snap bean leaves worked as a pest deterrent of sorts, as the beetles did less damage to the silk draped plants than the ones left bare. Rypstra will present the poster, "Silk reduces plant damage cau...Fungus helps tall fescue choke out native plants
...fescue took over test plots much more quickly when herbivores had full access. The research appears in the Aug. ...cal implications of our findings are that the more herbivores there are in an area, the more likely it will be that infected tall fescue grass will spread and sup...Native plant eaters have gourmet palates
...n the forests of upstate New York, all four native herbivores again preferred exotic plants over natives. Three ...w we had essentially four separate studies with 11 herbivores and over 300 plant species collected from all around the continental United States all saying essent...Abalones along Pacific coast may owe their huge, dinner-plate size to sea otters
...on sea urchins and smaller snails, otters kept the herbivores at bay, and the kelp had no need to develop chemical deterrents. Abalones could, for the most part, hide from otters in rock crevices while gorging like couch potatoes on the tasty kelp washed up on their doorstep. "We realized with this study that m...Invasive exotic plants helped by natural enemies
... by nearly 70 percent over native plants. "Exotic herbivores may facilitate the growth of exotic plants by sele... because, on most continents, many of the resident herbivores have been hunted to extinction by early settlers, often times to make room for their own domesticate......pecially the carbon in plant material, the role of herbivores and decomposer organisms in consuming that carbon, and the role of predators in eating the consumers of the carbon. As it turns out, as Allison observes, "the chemical structure of soil carbon makes it far more difficult to consume than plant carbon....Crime scene investigates: The case of the dead cow
...s of plants are rapidly digested in the stomach of herbivores it is often difficult to tell if and how an animal has been poisoned. Such misdiagnoses are costly to the agricultural industry and also mean that statistics on how widespread is poisoning are inaccurate. The practical application of this technique...Overfishing puts Southern California kelp forest ecosystems at risk, report scientists
...es, begin to increase in number. Many of these are herbivores that eat kelp. When their numbers increase, they decrease the amount of kelp, in turn changing how kelp forests look and the type of species that are associated with the kelp forest. "Kelp forests are so sensitive," said Halpern. "If you remove some ......ith diverse species of seagrass dominated by large herbivores into a detritus-based ecosystem dominated by overgrown monocultures of one species of grass." Green turtles feed mostly on turtle grass, while hawksbill turtles prefer marine sponges. "The decline in green turtles has led to a loss of productiv...... mark@berkeley.edu Rapid adaptation of insect herbivores to an invasive plant by Dr E Siemann, Dr. WE Roger...rom natural enemies in their new ranges. However, herbivores may accumulate over time and reduce invasiveness but evidence for this process to date is weak. We r...After insects attack, plants bunker sugars for later regrowth
...tionary dynamics of the interaction often leads to herbivores that are adapted to the plant TM s defences. Resol... caught in cycles of defensive escalation with its herbivores to extricate itself. Wild tobacco, which is native to North America, has developed sophisticated ......d biodiversity may require both predation on these herbivores as well as the fear of predation to further affect...e researchers said, and high populations of native herbivores such as deer or elk or domestic grazers such as cattle or sheep affect native biodiversity....