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Wednesday, August 12, 2015

ScienceDaily: Nature News

ScienceDaily: Nature News


Deceptive woodpecker uses mimicry to avoid competition

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 02:15 PM PDT

Birds of a feather may flock together, but that doesn't mean they share a genetic background. Though birds were first classified into groups primarily based on appearance, research demonstrates that this method isn't necessarily accurate: in a group of very similar-looking South American woodpecker species, genetic analysis has now shown one to be only a distant cousin of the others, in an intriguing case of visual mimicry.

Bringing the Tasmanian devil back to mainland Australia would restore ecosystem health

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 07:36 AM PDT

Australian researchers have conducted the first study assessing the ecological impact of returning Tasmanian devils to mainland Australia, as a way to replace culled dingoes as apex predators.

Controlling feral animals, plants will save unique species, billions of dollars

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 07:35 AM PDT

Feral animals and pest plants threaten many Australian species in the Lake Eyre Basin, the world's largest internally draining lake system in central Australia. A three-year study has prioritized the strategies for pest control to save the area's unique and endangered species and in the process lift agricultural productivity by 10 percent.

Environmental impacts of land use have been underestimated

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 06:19 AM PDT

Environmental impacts of land use have been widely assessed in recent years. In particular, carbon footprints of food and bioenergy production have been studied. Environmental impact assessments are used in decision-making of public authorities, industry and individuals. Surprisingly, environmental impacts of land use have been underestimated in the majority of the life cycle assessment studies, according to a recent study.

Mass extinction survival is more than just a numbers game

Posted: 11 Aug 2015 06:19 AM PDT

Widespread species are at just as high risk of being wiped out as rare ones after global mass extinction events, says new research by UK scientists.

Catastrophic invertebrate extinction in Hawai'i, and globally

Posted: 10 Aug 2015 02:24 PM PDT

A team of researchers recently published the first rigorous assessment of extinction of invertebrates in Hawai`i. In a companion study the team addressed invertebrate extinction globally. Based on their findings, the researchers show that the suspected biodiversity crisis is real and stressed the need to include assessments of invertebrates in order to obtain a more realistic picture of the current situation, known widely as the 'sixth mass extinction.'

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