Ecology

Ordinarily, once a fern's leaf fronds have died, the plant has no further use for them. Such is not the case with the Cyathea rojasiana fern, though – a scientist has discovered that its dead fronds become "zombie leaves" which suck nutrients from the soil.

Hard though it may be to believe, there has apparently never been a confirmed sighting of a live newborn great white shark. Such may no longer be the case, however, thanks to recently analyzed aerial drone footage shot in California.

It almost sounds like a fairytale: a tiny ant dramatically impacting a giant lion. But thanks to a study that reveals just how interconnected all life forms really are, researchers have just figured out that it happened on the savannas of Africa.

If an enemy you were previously safe from turned up in your neighborhood, what would you do? That's a problem currently being faced by barnacles in northern Mexico, which are growing sideways to thwart invasive predatory snails.

Salmon are very much a cold-water fish, so they can get quite stressed when swimming up increasingly warm rivers to spawn. A new study shows that by installing "cooling stations" in those rivers, we could help the threatened fish make the trip.

One inconvenient truth for the clean energy industry – and a source of seemingly great concern to the fossil fuel lobby – is the indisputable fact that wind turbines kill birds. Researchers say smarter turbines could dramatically cut the toll.

Although artificial reefs certainly do help restore damaged marine ecosystems, they're usually made of heavy manmade materials that must be formed into shape. Now, however, scientists are reporting success using readily-available dead pear trees.

In the third BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition, a stunning snap of the invasive orange pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera) has not just encroached on native species’ territory but taken out the top spot in the annual contest.

The European red fox isn't native to Australia, but it does live there now, preying on native species. To help restore the ecological balance, scientists are experimenting with putting foxes off of some of those creatures, by making them barf.

In a twist on using animals as biological control, a method that in the past has often had disastrous outcomes for native wildlife, scientists have successfully trained native bush rats to actively seek out a new food source they’ve never seen before.

With wildfires currently blazing through Greece, Italy and North America, the race is on to develop better responses to potential outbreaks. And as fires increase in size and frequency, AI is shaping up as our best hope in preventing catastrophes.

In a win for both bees and ecologists, a team of roboticists and biologists has developed a robotic honeycomb that both keeps the bees toasty during cold snaps and allows them to be studied unobtrusively.