Tag: environment
Antlers: The long and short of it
Antlers play a central role in deer mating behaviour as both a weapon for competition between rivals, and a visual signal of mate quality. However, antler growth is energetically costly and the allocation of resources must be balanced against survival. Research led by Dr Bronson Strickland and Dr Steve Demarais, co-directors of the Deer Ecology and Management Research Laboratory at […]
Measure what you treasure How Global Footprint Network is using data to show people how to protect our planet
There is only one Earth, but humans are consuming biological resources as if there were more Earths available. Last year, Global Footprint Network marked ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ on 1st August; humanity had used our budget of resources for the year five months early. For over a decade, Global Footprint Network has been striving to reduce this ecological deficit through education […]
Into the deep: understanding swordfish eco-physiology
Cold-blooded vertebrates, such as fish, are extremely susceptible to changes in the temperature of their surroundings. Yet one successful ocean predator, the swordfish, migrates from tropical to temperate seas, and dives daily from warm surface waters to cooler depths, with seeming ease. Drs Diego Bernal and Chugey Sepulveda of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the Pfleger Institute of Environmental […]
Extinct giants, a new wolf and the key to understanding climate change
After its last excavation in the 1970s, a group of palaeontologists, genetics experts and cavers led by vertebrate palaeontologist and mammalian carnivore specialist Dr Julie Meachen of Des Moines University, have re-opened excavations at Natural Trap Cave (NTC) in North America. During this project, Dr Meachen hopes to uncover the secrets of the mass extinction of the last ice age […]
Florida’s Archbold Biological Station gives online access to unusual natural history collection
The Archbold Biological Station, a world-renowned ecological field station based in Florida, USA, is uploading its natural history collection onto the Internet for the first time. The diverse collection, containing 270,000 specimens of more than 10,000 species will provide researchers and students around the world, with access to this rich source of ecological data. This highly collaborative project, which involves […]
Development of immunity in basal metazoans
Dr Mauricio Rodriguez-Lanetty from Florida International University (FIU), is currently conducting research that focuses on immunological priming in corals and anemones, a process by which an animal can resist pathogens through repeated, non-lethal exposure. As corals are at risk due to climate change, this is an important project to help further our understanding of their immunology. The project also includes […]