Exotic Species News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Climate Is Most Important Factor in Where Mammals Choose to Live, Study Finds

July 26, 2024 — Using data from 6,645 camera traps across the United States, researchers mapped populations of 25 mammal species. They determined that climate, not human activity, was the primary factor in mammals ...

New Zealand's Flightless Birds Are Retreating to Moa Refuges

July 25, 2024 — Researchers have found New Zealand's endangered flightless birds are seeking refuge in the locations where six species of moa last lived before going ...

Tropical Plant Species Are as Threatened by Climate Change as Widely Feared, Study Confirms

July 22, 2024 — Biologists who set out to better understand the effects of climate change on plant species in tropical mountain regions found that even small variations in temperature and moisture can have massive ...

Heat-Sensitive Trees Move Uphill Seeking Climate Change Respite

July 23, 2024 — Trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are migrating in search of more favourable temperatures with species in mountain forests moving uphill to escape rising heat caused by climate ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:14pm EDT

Genome Study Informs Restoration of American Chestnut Tree

July 22, 2024 — Researchers use genomes to help restore the American chestnut population and adjust species breeding to the changing ...

Discovery of a Hybrid Lineage Offers Clues to How Trees Adapt to Climate Change

July 17, 2024 — The discovery of a hybrid population of poplar trees in western Wyoming has provided insight into how natural hybridization informs the evolution of ...

Forests Endure as Carbon Sink Despite Regional Pressures

July 17, 2024 — Despite facing regional threats like deforestation and wildfires, the world's forests continue to be a powerful weapon in the fight against climate change. A new study reveals these vital ecosystems ...

Logged Forests Can Still Have Ecological Value -- If Not Pushed Too Far

July 17, 2024 — Researchers have analysed data from 127 studies to reveal 'thresholds' for when logged rainforests lose the ability to sustain themselves. The results could widen the scope of which forests are ...

Study Examines Urban Forests Across the United States

July 12, 2024 — Tree-planting campaigns have been underway in the United States, especially in cities, as part of climate mitigation efforts given the many environmental benefits of urban forests. But a new study ...

Scientists Use Machine Learning to Predict Diversity of Tree Species in Forests

July 16, 2024 — Researchers used machine learning to generate highly detailed maps of over 100 million individual trees from 24 sites across the U.S. These maps ...

Loss of Oxygen in Lakes and Oceans a Major Threat to Ecosystems, Society, and Planet

July 15, 2024 — Oxygen is a fundamental requirement of life, and the loss of oxygen in water, referred to as aquatic deoxygenation, is a threat to life at all ...

Study Examines Tree Adaptability to Climate Change

July 9, 2024 — Many trees could expand their ranges by more than 25 percent based on their potential temperature ...

First Local Extinction in the US Due to Sea Level Rise, Study Suggests

July 9, 2024 — The United States has lost its only stand of the massive Key Largo tree cactus in what researchers believe is the first local extinction of a species caused by sea level rise in the ...

Climate Change Drives Tree Species Towards Colder, Wetter Regions

July 3, 2024 — Climate change is likely to drive tree species towards colder and wetter ...

Near Chromosome-Level Genome of the Mojave Poppy Bee

July 2, 2024 — Scientists have developed a near chromosome-level genome for the Mojave poppy bee, a specialist pollinator of conservation ...

Sixty-Million-Year-Old Grape Seeds Reveal How the Death of the Dinosaurs May Have Paved the Way for Grapes to Spread

July 1, 2024 — Scientists discovered the oldest fossil grapes in the Western Hemisphere, which help show how after the death of the dinosaurs, grapes spread across the ...

Projected Loss of Brown Macroalgae and Seagrasses With Global Environmental Change

June 27, 2024 — Researchers predict that climate change will drive a substantial redistribution of brown seaweeds and seagrasses at the global scale. The projected changes are alarming due to the fundamental role ...

Invasive Ants Spread by Hitchhiking on Everyday Vehicles

June 27, 2024 — Ants might spread to new locations by stowing away on everyday vehicles. Previously, this was thought to occur mostly on agricultural ...

Frog 'Saunas' a Lifeline for Endangered Frog Populations

June 26, 2024 — New biologist-designed shelters will help endangered frogs survive the devastating impacts of a deadly fungal disease by regulating their body temperature to fight off ...

Fuel Treatments Reduce Future Wildfire Severity

June 24, 2024 — There is a common belief that prescribed burning, thinning trees, and clearing underbrush reduce risks of the severity of future fires. But is that true? A new project analyzing 40 studies where ...

Non-Native Plants and Animals Expanding Ranges 100 Times Faster Than Native Species

June 19, 2024 — An international team of scientists has recently found that non-native species are expanding their ranges many orders of magnitude faster than native ones, in large part due to inadvertent human ...

Restored Rat-Free Islands Could Support Hundreds of Thousands More Breeding Seabirds

June 18, 2024 — Archipelago case-study shows that removing invasive rats and restoring native vegetation could help bring back hundreds of thousands of breeding pairs of seabirds lost to tropical islands. ...

Frequent Mowing Puts Poisonous Weed Into Survival Mode

June 3, 2024 — A study has found that frequent mowing of Solanum elaeagnifolium, also known as silverleaf nightshade, may help create a 'superweed.' A professor of entomology and plant pathology has been ...

Urgent Need for Action Now for Increasing Threat from Invasive Alien Species

June 3, 2024 — Urgent action now is needed to tackle the major and growing global issue of invasive alien species, says a team of 88 experts from 47 countries. The paper follows the (IPBES) thematic assessment ...

Mussels Downstream of Wastewater Treatment Plant Contain Radium, Study Reports

May 31, 2024 — Burrowed into streambeds and rarely moving for their decades-long lifespans, freshwater mussels are biomonitors, meaning they indicate how clean their environment is, according to researchers. As the ...

What Makes Some Plant Groups So Successful?

May 29, 2024 — Researchers involved in cataloguing the world's plant species are hunting for answers as to what makes some groups of plants so successful. One of their major goals is to predict more accurately ...

Fatal Attraction: When Endangered Species Try to Mate With Domestic Relatives, Both Wildlife and People Lose

May 29, 2024 — Sticks and stones aren't enough to thwart biological attraction, but sometimes those are the only tools available to pastoralists trying to prevent wildlife from eloping with their livestock. A ...

Some Species May Tolerate Climate Change Better Than Expected

May 29, 2024 — A new model reassesses the proportion of terrestrial and marine species threatened with extinction by climate change. While the forecasts of traditional models estimate that the diversity of ...

Slugs and Snails Love the City, Unlike Other Animals

May 29, 2024 — Most native species avoid more urbanized areas of Los Angeles, but slugs and snails may actually prefer these environments, according to a new ...

Wild Megalopolis: Study Shows Unexpected Pockets of Biodiversity Pepper Los Angeles

May 29, 2024 — Researchers, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles, have developed the urban association index to help identify how well or poorly individual wildlife species are doing in the city. The ...

Marine Protected Areas Don't Line Up With Core Habitats of Rare Migratory Fish, Finds New Research

May 29, 2024 — 62% of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated to protect rare migratory fish species are outside of their core habitats, according to a new modeling ...

Regional Differences in Bird Diversity in Agroforestry Systems

May 21, 2024 — The diversity and ecological functionality of bird communities in tropical agroforestry systems are shaped by the surrounding landscape, in particular the extent and composition of the ...

Researchers Find Unique Adaptations of Fungus Associated With Bee Bread

May 21, 2024 — The past attempts of honey bee researchers to inventory the fungal diversity in honey bee colonies revealed that Aspergillus flavus is frequently found in hives. In a new study, researchers have ...

A Rise in Sea Urchins and Related Damage to Kelp Forests Impacts Oregon's Gray Whales and Their Food

May 21, 2024 — A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray whales that usually forage in the region, a new study ...