Once winter nights dip below freezing and the days warm up above freezing sap begins to flow in sugar maples marking the start of the syrup season. With climate change, daily temperatures are on the rise, which affects sap flow and sugar content. By 2100, the maple syrup season in eastern North America may be one month earlier than it was during 1950 and 2017, according to a new study.
Read moreAnthropologist contributed a large, multi-institutional study explaining how the human-influenced mass extinction of giant carnivores and herbivores of North America fundamentally changed the biodiversity and landscape of the continent.
Read moreSince they first arrived on land, plants have likely been using the same genetic tools to regulate whether they grow bigger or reproduce. The discovery was made using liverwort, one descendant of the first plants to move out of the ancient oceans and onto land.
Read moreWilderness areas, long known for intrinsic conservation value, are far more valuable for biodiversity than previously believed, and if conserved, will cut the world's extinction risk in half, according to a new study.
Read moreCoastal birds survive because their populations can absorb impacts and recover quickly from hurricanes — even storms many times larger than anything previously observed.
Read moreResearch by ecologists shows strong evidence in a freshwater lake of 'fishing down the food web' – the deliberate shift away from top predatory fish on the food chain to smaller species closer to the base. While the effect has historically been observed almost exclusively in marine ecosystems and ocean fisheries, there has been little evidence of the effect in freshwater ecosystems.
Read moreA new study conducted in songbirds demonstrates that what at first appear to be genetic constraints on birds' song learning abilities could be largely eliminated by tailoring instruction to better match the birds' inborn predispositions.
Read moreThe ancestor of some of the largest flying birds ever has been found in Waipara, New Zealand.
Read moreA new study seeks to understand the type and magnitude of gaps in scientific information as a way to improve conservation planning.
Read moreNew study on guppies shows that animals evolve in response the the environment they create in the absence of predators, rather than in response to the risk of being eaten.
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