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Air pollution is fertilizing tropical forests
Studies at two remote Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory sites in Panama and Thailand show the first evidence of long-term effects of nitrogen pollution in tropical trees. [...more]
Archive | conservation biology
New DNA study suggests coral reef biodiversity is seriously underestimated
The first DNA barcoding survey of crustaceans living on samples of dead coral taken from the Indian, Pacific and Caribbean oceans suggests that the diversity of organisms living on the world’s coral reefs—one of the most endangered habitats on Earth—is seriously underestimated. [...more]
conservation biology, zoology Comments (0)
Meet Our Scientist: Rachel Collin, an expert in the evolution and development of snails who is working in Panama
Meet Rachel Collin, a staff scientist and director of the Bocas Research Station at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Rachel studies the evolution of marine gastropods (snails) and oversees multiple disciplines of marine biology at the Collin Lab in Bocas del Toro. [...more]
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Sea turtle “hitchhikers” ID’d in survey
For three years—2001, 2002 and 2008—on Teopa Beach in Jalisco, Mexico, researchers examined the shell, neck and flippers of female turtles that had come out onto the beach to nest, collecting and carefully documenting all the organisms—known as epibionts—they found. [...more]
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Siemens donates SOMATOM Emotion 6 CT scanner to National Museum of Natural History
With the gift of a Siemens SOMATOM Emotion 6 CT scanner from Siemens Healthcare, Smithsonian researchers are acquiring information about museum objects that is fundamentally changing the way scientists examine specimens [...more]
New Acquisitions, anthropology, conservation biology, materials science Comments (1)
New genetic evidence confirms coyote migration route to Virginia and hybridization with wolves
In a new study researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics used DNA from coyote scat (feces) to trace the route that led some of the animals to colonize in Northern Virginia. [...more]
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Tree dwelling animals were first to fly, study shows
Adding wings to a robotic bug helped it run faster and better, but was it enough to achieve takeoff? [...more]
conservation biology, zoology Comments (1)
Super tough seed coat keeps Michaux’s sumac on critically endangered list
It is one of the rarest shrubs in the southeastern United States but for scientists trying to save it, the critically endangered Michaux’s sumac (Rhus michauxii) is not cooperating. [...more]
conservation biology Comments (1)
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Science Spotlight
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)
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