The relationship between plant species diversity and its productivity

sea-maid submitted, created time 8 months 2 weeks (www.pnas.org)

Plant species diversity has a high effect on productivity in natural settings. In this article, they found that aboveground net primary production increased with the number of plant species. They point out that the effect of biodiversity in natural ecosystems may be much larger than currently thought

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Drought mediates the importance of stochastic community assembly

davidd submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.pnas.org)

Historically, the biodiversity and composition of species in a locality was thought to be influenced primarily by deterministic factors. In such cases, species' niches create differential responses to environmental conditions and interspecific interactions, which combine to determine that locality's biodiversity and species composition

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Distribution and abundance of Ponto-Caspian amphipods in the Belarusian section of the Dnieper River

Alone submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (aquaticinvasions.ru)

During a survey of the Belarusian part of the Dnieper River conducted on 19-22 July 2006, we revealed five invasive Ponto-Caspian amphipod species in its benthos community: Chaetogammarus ischnus, Chelicorophium curvispinum, Dikerogammarus haemobaphes, Dikerogammarus villosus and Pontogammarus robustoides. All of them except C. curvispinum are reported in Belarus for the first time. The number of alien amphipod species and their abundance were found to decrease gradually in the upper sections of the river.

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Legal ruling may put endangered species in danger

fiona submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.biologynews.net)

Ecologists and philosophers across the nation are protesting a new and narrowed definition of "endangered species."

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Hunters kill one of last Amur Leopards

Slide Show: Hundreds of Troubled Species Await Official Protection

Changes to pesticide spraying could reduce GM harm

deirdre submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.nature.com)

Leaving just 2% of transgenic crop rows unsprayed could boost diversity. British crop researchers are claiming that they have developed a method to stop transgenic crops from damaging the biodiversity of weeds and seeds. By leaving two rows in every 100 unsprayed with pesticides, enough diversity can be preserved to prevent knock-on effects on birds and other animals, they calculate.
The method could help farmers to reap the economic benefits of planting herbicide-resistant crops while avoiding the environmental damage of blanket pesticide spraying

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Disappearing dinos didn't clear the way for us

addict submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.nature.com)

The extinction of the dinosaurs had little impact on the evolution of today's mammals, say researchers. After building a family tree of nearly every living mammal, they show that the main groups arose millions of years before the dinosaurs went extinct, and did not become dominant until millions of years after they disappeared. The wipe-out of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period some 65 million years ago opened up room and resources for others. But it did not specifically clear a path for the diversity of animals that would evolve into today's mammals, including humans

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Temper your enthusiasm for the tropics: moderate climates show great biodiversity

Hecate submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.nature.com)

I remember reading about this a long time ago. The Kitlope watershed, in Canada, was called a "northern rainforest," because even though it had fewer species overall, those species were more distantly related. This seems to contradict that in some ways. The article describes evolution moving at a faster pace in areas where the seasons change.

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Population pressure shapes urban parks

sciencebaby submitted, created time 1 year 10 months (www.eurekalert.org)

A study does show that population levels affect both native and nonnative species diversity. Species selections are made with consideration of survival in environments with repeated human disturbances.

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