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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Yangtze Dolphin Not Gone Yet!

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.nytimes.com)

A large white mammal, possibly one of the China's rare baiji dolphins, proclaimed extinct just weeks ago, was sighted in the Yangtze River and videotaped. Heartening though this is, the article leaves out one important idea:

Scientists have said, even while they were searching for surviving dolphins, that even if a few individuals remained, they would not be enough to preserve the species.

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Caribbean Corals In Danger Of Extinction: Climate Change, Warmer Waters Cited As Leading Cause

claudia submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.sciencedaily.com)

"Caribbean coral species are dying off, indicating dramatic shifts in the ecological balance under the sea, a new scientific study of Caribbean marine life shows. The study found that 10 percent of the Caribbean's 62 reef-building corals were under threat, including staghorn and elkhorn corals. These used to be the most prominent species but are now candidates to be listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species."

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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

Alarming Decline of Sharks Causing Other Species to Vanish

sciencebaby submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.livescience.com)

The precipitous decline in large predator sharks in the Atlantic Ocean in the past decade has made ecologists worry about a trickle-down effect on the ocean ecosystem.Large sharks have been functionally eliminated from the East Coast of the U.S., meaning that they can no longer perform their ecosystem role as top predators. When one predator disappears from an ecosystem, others that eat the same prey usually take over and keep the balance of the ecosystem in check。But this time is different, The loss of top predators has a domino effect on the rest of the ecosystem.

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