A new study shows that as climate change enhances tree growth in tropical forests, the resulting increase in litterfall could stimulate soil micro-organisms leading to a release of stored soil carbon. [...more]
Ecologists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center measure the growth rate of sedge grass in a brackish Chesapeake Bay marsh. Fed a diet rich in CO2 and nitrogen, conditions that mimic the rise of atmospheric CO2 and pollution from farming and wastewater, the sedge has been grown and monitored in test chambers by Smithsonian scientist [...] [...more]
Keepers at the Smithsonian's National Zoo perform an artificial insemination procedure on a pair of Stanley Cranes. A Stanley Crane chick was successfully hatched on May 23, 2011. [...more]
A team of scientists have found that because of this, high summer temperatures have been a strong influence in determining bill size in some birds, particularly species of sparrows that favor salt marshes. [...more]
The whole-genome analysis of two Tasmanian devils—one that died of a new contagious cancer known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) and one healthy animal—is at the center of a new management strategy to help prevent the extinction of this species. [...more]
Bird species in rainforest fragments in Brazil that were isolated by deforestation first disappeared and then reappeared during the next quarter-century. [...more]
Some--birds called wire-tailed manakins, residents of tropical forests in the Americas--are cooperators as well as competitors. They cooperate, forming alliances for a common cause. [...more]
Despite the importance of seasonally dry forests, little is known of their ecology. Now, a new book The Ecology and Conservation of Seasonally Dry Forests in Asia, published by Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, explores these unique ecosystems, its animals, plants, and the people that inhabit them. [...more]
This fossil represents a new genus and species of extinct aneuretopsychid, Jeholopsyche liaoningensis, recently described in a paper in the journal ZooKeys by Conrad Labandeira of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Dong Ren and ChungKun Shih of the College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing. The aneuretopsychidae are a family of long-proboscid insects that lived in Asia from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. The paper documents the first formal record of fossil Aneuretopsychidae in China. The new fossils reveal previously unknown and detailed structure of the mouthparts, antennae, head, thorax, legs and abdomen of this distinctive insect lineage.
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