• HighGeekly Search: Ecology

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  • Micro-climate moulds and reshapes northern insect communities, herbivory and predation

    11 days ago - By Phys.org

    Climate and changes in it have direct impacts on species of plant and animals-but climate may also shape more complex biological systems like food webs. Now a research group from the University of Helsinki has investigated how micro-climate shapes each level of the ecosystem, from species' abundances in predator communities to parasitism rates in key herbivores, and ultimately to damage suffered by plants. The results reveal how climate change may drastically reshape northern ecosystems.
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  • Accounting for the gaps in ancient food webs

    11 days ago - By Phys.org

    If you want to understand an ecosystem, look at what the species within it eat. In studying food webs-how animals and plants in a community are connected through their dietary preferences-ecologists can piece together how energy flows through an ecosystem and how stable it is to climate change and other disturbances. Studying ancient food webs can help scientists reconstruct communities of species, many long extinct, and even use those insights to figure out how modern-day communities might change in the future. There's just one problem: only some species left enough of a trace for...
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