Invasive species sound off about impending ecosystem changes Anticipating changes to ecosystems is often at best an educated guess, but what if there was a way to better tune into possible changes occurring? Researchers have discovered that the silent growth of non-native invasive plants can affect the soundscape of an ecosystem. These altered soundscapes, the acoustic patterns of a landscape through space and time, may provide a key to better observing the hard-to-see physical and biological changes occurring in an ecosystem as they are beginning.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2024/04/2404

Lemur's lament: When one vulnerable species stalks another What can be done when one threatened animal kills another? Scientists studying critically endangered lemurs in Madagascar confronted this difficult reality when they witnessed attacks on lemurs by another vulnerable species, a carnivore called a fosa.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2024/04/2404

Marine microbial populations: Potential sensors of the global change in the ocean Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial populations due to the impossibility of isolating, culturing and analyzing the genetic content of the different species and their individuals in the laboratory. Therefore, although it is known that populations of microorganisms include a great diversity, this remains largely uncharacterized.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2024/04/2404

Curtis Lubbe: Going Belowground in Central European Meadows In our latest post, Curtis Lubbe – a researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences – discusses the fascinating subterranean world of roots, the diversity of plant forms and species in meadows, and what the future in this field may bring. Profile I am completely fascinated by the variety of subterranean plant organs and their traits, especially those involved in …
https://functionalecologists.c....om/2024/04/18/curtis

Unique field study shows how climate change affects fire-impacted forests During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2024/04/2404