ecology

Synthetic microbial communities give researchers controlled models for testing how diet reshapes gut microbial ecology, metabolism, and host-relevant responses. The review highlights how SynComs can strengthen causal inference, improve intervention testing, and support future precision nutrition, while noting major challenges in stability, standardization, and ecological realism.

Koalas survived a climate-driven population crash 100,000 years ago, and new genomic research is helping scientists better protect the species today. A major genomic study has transformed scientists’ understanding of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) evolution, showing that the species underwent a dramatic population decline about 100,000 years ago, long before humans reached Australia. Researchers …

Biology teachers around the world commonly introduce their students to the concept of 'trophic cascades'...

A surprising discovery inside desert mosses could reshape scientists’ understanding of plant evolution. In some of the driest places on Earth, the ground itself can be alive. What looks like a thin, dark crust on desert soil may actually be a miniature ecosystem, packed with mosses, fungi, bacteria, algae, and tiny animals. These biological soil [...]

Ecologists and a veterinarian looked at more than 400 studies to see how to stop cats from bringing home unwelcome pathogens.

Meet Drag Me Outside, a Portland, Oregon, hiking group fusing queer community with biology. The post How Drag Me Outside Is Rebranding Queer Nature Walks in Portland appeared first on Outside Online .

Animals from different species often rely on surprisingly sophisticated communication to work together, whether finding food, cleaning parasites, or gaining protection. New research suggests these interspecies “conversations” are flexible, evolved, and far more important to life in nature than scientists once realized.

The urban–rural regional system (URRS)—a mosaic of urban, rural, and transitional areas connected through socioeconomic and ecological processes—constitutes a key spatial domain for the science and practice of landscape ecology and regional sustainability. However, we still lack an adequate understanding of how spatial sampling schemes (e.g., concentric rings vs. transects) and spatiotemporal and…

India has the third largest road network globally, with national and state highways expanding rapidly in recent decades. Highway widening projects, however, face persistent challenges related to environmental concerns, funding limitations, and planning constraints. This study examines the environmental impacts of highway expansion along the Tambaram–Tindivanam stretch of NH45 in Tamil Nadu. Using…

Understanding ecological network resilience is essential for maintaining ecosystem structure and function under increasing anthropogenic disturbance. This study evaluated the spatiotemporal evolution and resilience characteristics of the ecological network in Yantai City from 2003 to 2023 by integrating the InVEST model, circuit theory, and robustness analysis. As a rapidly urbanizing coastal cit…

Abstract Solar salterns are environmentally stable yet biologically extreme ecosystems that serve as vital models for understanding and managing hypersaline environments, including industrial saline effluents. Despite their ecological and biotechnological significance, Indian solar salterns remain functionally underexplored. In this study, we integrated culture-dependent isolation with whole-meta…