https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Hydrilla verticillate (hydrilla), one of North America's most invasive species, has been found for the first time in Canada. Dr. Rebecca Rooney, a biology professor, and members of her Waterloo Wetland Laboratory were surveying a secluded section of the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area in Leamington, Ontario, when they found the unexpected species. Upon review, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry confirmed their findings. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-team-invasive-hydrilla-canada.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:48:03 EDT news646584481 Orchids, with their captivating beauty, have become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Unfortunately, many species are on the brink of extinction, particularly in Vietnam, due to unsustainable wild harvesting and minimal enforcement of laws restricting it. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-fresh-curb-illegal-orchid-trafficking.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:34:03 EDT news646583641 Like people, bacteria have their preferences when it comes to relationships. Some are totally independent, while others prefer company. Salmonella and many other kinds of bacteria are of the social type: They can live and even thrive inside a host cell. But unlike us, these bacteria do not spend a long time wooing the cell in the hope that it will welcome them in. Instead, they inject proteins that take control of the host cell's systems. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-sequencing-method-unprecedented-glimpse-relationship.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:45:59 EDT news646580753 Humanity may be no better prepared for the impacts of climate change today than in the 1970s. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nature-climate.html Environment Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:50:01 EDT news646572706 A species of tropical tree snail is no longer extinct in the wild following a successful reintroduction project. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-extinct-snails-french-polynesia-successful.html Plants & Animals Ecology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:38:18 EDT news646573090 Scientists have found that different populations of a plant species, which is closely related to many crops of worldwide importance, use very different strategies to adapt to environmental changes, which gives experts new options to engineer crops to better survive climate change and tackle future food security. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-species-methods-extreme-environments.html Plants & Animals Evolution Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:29:04 EDT news646568941 Squinting into the treetops won't reveal the tiny organisms up there. But these creatures leave clues, in the form of DNA, on the leaves and branches. Now, researchers report in Environmental Science & Technology that they have developed a way to collect this genetic material: a drone with a specialized fabric probe. The team flew the drone above the rainforest and, based on DNA collected by the probe, identified the invertebrates in the canopy. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-rainforest-treetops-dna-drone-insights.html Ecology Biotechnology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:37:22 EDT news646565838 At a tranquil nature reserve in South Michigan, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist and her collaborators connected olden wild bee sample collections and modern technology to better decode the ecological traits and habits of pollinators, critical links to environmental stability. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-vintage-museum-modern-intersect-century.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:53:04 EDT news646501982 Until now, it was believed that plants of the grape family arrived at the European continent less than 23 million years ago. A study on fossil plants draws a new scenario on the dispersal of the ancestors of grape plants and reveals that these species were already on the territory of Europe some 41 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-fossil-species-reshapes-grape-family.html Plants & Animals Evolution Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:02:10 EDT news646498922 Sunlight filters through the canopy of pines, holly, sweet gum, and red maple while bird calls echo in the distance. These coastal forests may seem like others in the Mid-Atlantic, but a hidden challenge looms. Standing tall next to their salt marsh neighbors, where the wind carries the sharp scent of sulfidic seawater, these trees are more than just part of the landscape—they are living monuments to a rapidly changing environment. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-waning-forests-scientists-tree-sea.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:26:03 EDT news646496754 A new beetle species has been named to honor a fellow Husker, bridging the worlds of academia and wildlife conservation. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-beetle-national-geographic.html Plants & Animals Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:37:35 EDT news646486651 In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers at the UH Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Toonen- Bowen "ToBo" Lab have identified scenarios under which eight of the most common species of coral found in Hawaiʻi can adapt to and survive ocean warming and acidification. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-curtailed-carbon-emissions-corals-survive.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:15:03 EDT news646481701 For the first time, scientists successfully extracted and analyzed DNA from ancient cheese samples found alongside the Tarim Basin mummies in China, dating back approximately 3,600 years. The research, published September 25 in the journal Cell, suggests a new origin for kefir cheese and sheds light on the evolution of probiotic bacteria. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-bronze-age-lactobacillus-genomes-reveal.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646472251 An international team of scientists has made a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how global biodiversity evolved. By reconstructing the evolution of species over the past 45 million years, researchers found that the geographic origins of many plants, insects and mammals are more closely linked than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-evolutionary-biodiversity.html Evolution Ecology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:28:03 EDT news646478881 An international team of botanists, agriculturists and historians has successfully grown a mature tree from an ancient seed found in a cave in Israel. In their paper, published in the journal Communications Biology, the group describes where the seed was found, the work that was done to discover its origins and what they have learned about its history as it has sprouted and grown into a mature tree. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-medicinal-tree-successfully-grown-year.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:10:02 EDT news646476275 It's been 35 years since this "cerulean blue and cinnamon" colored bird has flown free in the wild. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-palm-sized-birds-extinct-wild.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 09:00:01 EDT news646472779 Over a third of threatened or understudied oak tree species in Mesoamerica are not held in managed botanical collections anywhere in the world, and for many species, protection of their native habitats is lacking. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-mesoamerican-oak-tree-species-urgent.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:09:12 EDT news646412949 In a recent study published in Forest Ecosystems, a team of researchers in China collected data from 1,076 sample plots of Pinus sylvestris plantations across the boreal zone of China. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-high-density-monoculture-boosts-biomass.html Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 14:55:02 EDT news646408501 Until a few years ago, the butterfly known as the southern small white could barely be found north of the Alps. That was before a Europe-wide invasion that brought a huge increase in the insect's distribution—at the same time as a rapid decrease in genetic diversity within the species. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-butterfly-invasion-minimizes-genetic-diversity.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:28:11 EDT news646399685 The Eiffinger's tree frog (Kurixalus eiffingeri), found on Ishigaki and Iriomote islands in Japan, has a unique biological adaptation: its tadpoles do not defecate during their early developmental stages. This finding by researchers at Nagoya University in Japan contributes to our understanding of how these small frogs survive in the tiny bodies of water where they spawn. The findings were published in the journal Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-tree-frog-tadpoles-unique-contaminating.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:28:04 EDT news646399680 Many human medications can directly inhibit the growth and alter the function of the bacteria that constitute our gut microbiome. EMBL Heidelberg researchers have now discovered that this effect is reduced when bacteria form communities. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-gut-microbiome-communities-resilience-drugs.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:27:03 EDT news646399621 Coral reefs will continue to experience severe heat stress as rising temperatures cause the oceans to become unbearably hot—but a new study shows that altering their feeding habits could allow local populations to avoid total extinction. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-coral-reefs-aid-recovery-events.html Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:24:05 EDT news646399441 A hammerhead shark species discovered by FIU scientists finally has a name and its namesake is the late Paul G. Allen, philanthropist and cofounder of Microsoft. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-shark-species-late-microsoft-founder.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 09:15:37 EDT news646388131 With a dramatic scoop of an excavator, water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta surged onto a 3,400-acre stretch of land this week for the the first time in a century. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-imperiled-delta-smelt-gain-acres.html Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 07:50:01 EDT news646381888 A new species of flatworm has been discovered and has already invaded several states in the southern United States. The particularity of the new species is that it looks a lot like Obama nungara, a species that has invaded much of Europe. The new species has been named Amaga pseudobama in reference to this resemblance. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-species-flatworm-states.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 07:00:01 EDT news646301041 Scientists in New Zealand said Tuesday they have discovered a new species of "ghost shark", a type of fish that prowls the Pacific Ocean floor hunting prey more than a mile down. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-zealand-scientists-ghostly-spookfish.html Plants & Animals Tue, 24 Sep 2024 04:00:00 EDT news646369195 Since the 1970s, coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) have experienced catastrophic declines in coral cover, with as much as a 50% reduction between 1998 and 2011 alone. Although coral reefs within the FKNMS have been heavily studied, research in the mesophotic zone, which extends from about 100 to 500 feet deep, has historically been more limited in this region. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-deeper-corals-shallow-reefs-recover.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 23 Sep 2024 11:46:04 EDT news646310761 A study published in PeerJ Life and Environment has uncovered alarming levels of seafood mislabeling and the use of ambiguous market names in Calgary's seafood market, often concealing species of conservation concern. This research marks the first Canadian study to investigate both invertebrate and finfish mislabeling and the implications of unclear market names. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-reveals-high-seafood-mislabeling-ambiguous.html Plants & Animals Ecology Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:10:05 EDT news646301401 Top ocean experts have published a report that redefines the concept of "sustainable fishing" and proposes 11 "golden rules" that radically challenge the flawed approach that currently prevails in fisheries management. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-golden-sustainable-fishing.html Ecology Agriculture Mon, 23 Sep 2024 05:00:01 EDT news646040231 It's been 20 years since a paper in the journal Science showed the environmental accumulation of tiny plastic fragments and fibers. It named the particles "microplastics." https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-microplastics-alarming-conclusion-humanity.html Environment Sun, 22 Sep 2024 09:00:01 EDT news646048549