Featured news
16 Jan 2024
From biotechnology innovation to tracking climate change impacts, the KMAP Global Ocean Gene Catalog 1.0 offers diverse applications for science and society.
Environment
07 Mar 2023
By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Dr Marion Chatelain. Occurrence and abundance of the ‘cucumber green spider’ decreased along the rural-urban gradient. Urban spread goes hand in hand with wildlife habitat loss and fragmentation. This impacts all animals, down to the smallest. Scientists found that the level of urbanization impacts arthropod abundance, richness, and diversity, factors which likely alter the foraging behavior of bigger animals. Cities are bursting with life, both human and animal. The smallest of them, insects, spiders, and ants are easily overseen, but their presence – or absence – in cities has wide-reaching effects. Scientists in Austria have published a study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, which found a correlation between the presence of arthropods – invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton; among them are bees, insects, and spiders – and level of urbanization. “We show that richness and diversity of arthropods on trees and bushes decreases along the rural-urban gradient,” said first author Dr Marion Chatelain, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. “More specifically, we show that urbanization disfavors wingless groups, particularly so on trees. Indeed, web spiders and springtails are less likely to be found in the city, where, on the […]
Featured news
16 Dec 2021
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer The ship’s ram as it was found on the seabed off Sicily at a depth of nearly 90m. Image credit: K. Egorov / Società per la Documentazione dei Siti Sommersi – Global Underwater Explorers (SDSS-GUE) Italian researchers found amazing community of 114 species of invertebrates on priceless archeological artifact, including ecological ‘constructors’, ‘binders’, and ‘dwellers’ On March 10, 241 BCE, a sea battle took place near the Aegadian Islands off northwestern Sicily. A fleet equipped by the Roman Republic destroyed a fleet from Carthage, ending the First Punic War in Rome’s favor. But scientists have now shown that this destruction and carnage utimately made a a rich flowering of marine life possible. In a recent study in Frontiers in Marine Science, they reported finding no fewer than 114 species of animals, coexisting in a complex community, on a ship’s ram from a Carthaginian ship sunk in the battle. This is the first study of marine life on a very ancient wreck. The ram is not only a priceless archeological find, but also a unique window into the processes by which marine animals colonize empty sites and gradually form mature, stable, diverse communities. “Shipwrecks are […]
Environment
24 Jun 2021
By Colm Gorey, Frontiers science writer/Prof James Serpell, University of Pennsylvania Prof James A Serpell, University of Pennsylvania. Image: University of Pennsylvania Two distinctly different stories have been created to explain how fearsome, wild wolves were first domesticated by humans, according to Prof James A Serpell of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wallis Annenberg PetShape Leadership Institute. However, in the open access journal Frontiers, he recently published a paper investigating the truth of these claims. Despite being considered mankind’s best friend, the ancestors of modern dogs were a lot less welcoming to human owners. However, trying to trace the timeline of when early humans first domesticated wild wolves to serve their needs has proven difficult. One of the most prevalent origin stories in scientific literature suggests the ‘commensal scavenger hypothesis’. This posited that wolves essentially domesticated themselves by invading ancient human settlements in search of animal remains and other edible waste discarded by hunter-gatherers. Over time, tolerance by humans gave a selective advantage to the bolder, less fearful wolves, which then diverged from the ancestral population as they adapted to the new scavenging niche. An alternative hypothesis – sometimes referred to as the pet keeping or cross-species adoption hypothesis […]
Environment
15 Apr 2021
Only between 2% and 3% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface can be considered ecologically intact, according to a new study published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Environment
14 Jan 2020
Casting a genetic net identifies more marine vertebrates than traditional surveys but has limits: Frontiers in Marine Science
Featured news
26 Nov 2019
Similar birds actually diverged 500,000 years ago: Frontiers in Genetics
Featured news
05 Sep 2019
A new study reveals that scientists are divided on issues such as how to remove hybrids and free-roaming dogs, and whether they should be kept captive, sterilised and released or killed; Frontiers in Ecology in Evolution
Environment
27 Aug 2019
Logging in the timber-rich forests of northern Congo is a major driver of the region’s economic development — and its ecological impoverishment; Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Featured news
18 Dec 2018
Lack of knowledge when designating MPAs lets ecologically important species slip through the net, but small, targeted changes can have big effects on protected area efficiency: Frontiers in Marine Science
Featured news
03 May 2018
A groundbreaking new non-invasive technique may help scientists locate rare whale species in the ocean: Frontiers in Marine Science
Featured news
12 Feb 2018
Extinct herbivorous megafauna — like woolly rhinos, giant sloths and mammoths — were displaced by humans who partly took their place in the ecosystem: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Sustainability
07 Nov 2017
A wild yeast described in Frontiers in Microbiology could be an eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides.
Sustainability
24 Oct 2017
Streetlights affect insects and spiders living beneath the lights, finds a study in Frontiers in Environmental Science
Environment
09 Oct 2017
A new, non-intrusive way to assess seabird diet described in Frontiers in Marine Science could help improve fisheries management and monitor marine biodiversity.