Sustainability
11 Nov 2016
Not all trees influence the environment equally
When adding more green to your neighborhood, are all trees the same? Not quite, according to recent research led by Heikki Setälä from the University of Helsinki.
Type at least 3 characters
95 news posts in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Life sciences
05 Aug 2016
Butterflies use differences in leaf shape to distinguish between plants
The preference of Heliconius butterflies for certain leaf shapes is innate, but can be reversed through learning, says a study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. These results support a decades-old theory for explaining the evolution of the exceptional diversity of leaf shapes in passionflowers. The tropical butterfly Heliconius eratodistinguishes between shapes, and uses them as a cue for choosing the plants on which to feed and lay eggs, shows new research by scientists from the University of Cambridge and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The butterfly has an innate preference for passionflowers with particular leaf shapes, but can learn to overcome this preference in favor of other shapes, especially those that are the most abundant in the local flora. These preferences can promote the evolution of plant biodiversity. Heliconius erato, the red passionflower butterfly, is a large (5 to 8 cm wingspan), white-red-black butterfly that occurs throughout Central America and tropical South America. Females lay their eggs on passionflowers (Passiflora), a genus of tropical vines with extreme variation in leaf shape, both between and within species. For example, related species can have triangular, elongated, elliptic, lobed, or spear-shaped leaves, while even on the same plant leaf shape may vary […]
Life sciences
22 Apr 2016
DNA proves mammoths mated beyond species boundaries
By Tania FitzGeorge-Balfour, Frontiers science writer Several species of mammoth are thought to have roamed across the North American continent. A new study in the open-access journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, provides DNA evidence to show that these mammoths, which should only mate within their species boundaries, were in fact likely to be interbreeding. A species can be defined as a group of similar animals that can successfully breed and produce fertile offspring. By using differences in the size and shape of their fossilized teeth, a number of North American mammoth species have been identified. But, some scientists are not confident this method of species categorization tells the whole story. “Species boundaries can be very blurry. We might find differences in features of the teeth or skeleton that closely correspond to what we think are real species boundaries. But other features may not correspond to those boundaries, suggesting that what we formerly regarded as separate species are in fact not at all,” explains Hendrik Poinar, a Professor at McMaster University in Canada, who co-led the new study with his former graduate student Jake Enk and collaborator Ross MacPhee, a Professor at the American Museum of Natural History. Professor Poinar […]
Life sciences
28 Mar 2016
Fifteen shades of photoreceptor in a butterfly’s eye
When researchers studied the eyes of Common Bluebottles, a species of swallowtail butterfly from Australasia, they were in for a surprise. These butterflies have large eyes and use their blue-green iridescent wings for visual communication – evidence that their vision must be excellent. Even so, no-one expected to find that Common Bluebottles (Graphium sarpedon) have at least 15 different classes of “photoreceptors” — light-detecting cells comparable to the rods and cones in the human eye. Previously, no insect was known to have more than nine. “We have studied color vision in many insects for many years, and we knew that the number of photoreceptors varies greatly from species to species. But this discovery of 15 classes in one eye was really stunning,” says Kentaro Arikawa, Professor of Biology at Sokendai (the Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama, Japan and lead author of the study. Have multiple classes of photoreceptors is indispensable for seeing color. Each class is stimulated by light of some wavelengths, and less or not at all by other wavelengths. By comparing information received from the different photoreceptor classes, the brain is able to distinguish colors. Through physiological, anatomical and molecular experiments, Arikawa and colleagues were able […]
Life sciences
22 Apr 2015
Latest section “Urban Ecology” now open for submissions
Urban Ecology is a new specialty section available through the community-run open-access journals Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. “Urban ecology is highly interdisciplinary and there are very few journals that have the right scope for the most exciting new papers. Research in urban ecology can bring together disciplines as diverse as biology, physical science, engineering, social science, and urban planning and design. The new speciality section will be a great new venue for these papers.” – Diane Pataki, Specialty Chief Editor, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution – Urban Ecology The Urban Ecology section invites submissions that advance our understanding of the structure, function, and dynamics of urban ecosystems from a diverse range of perspectives. Urban ecology is a broad ranging field that incorporates methods and perspectives from many disciplines to understand the complex components and processes of cities and settlements as well as interactions between human settlements and larger regions. We use the term “urban” broadly to refer to human settlements and their transitions over a range of scales and definitions, from local political and land use/land cover–based definitions to larger geographic boundaries and ecological footprints. Submissions related to biophysical as well as social processes in urban ecosystems are welcome, including studies of urban socioeconomic dynamics, […]