Ecology – Page 3 – Science Sushi

Birds of a Feather Hunt Better Together

le there's no I in TEAM, each penguin benefits from hunting together. Photo credit Sergey Uryadnikov — While there’s no I in TEAM, each penguin benefits from hunting together. Photo credit Sergey Uryadnikov

They say that many hands make light work. Well, for African penguins, many beaks make for bountiful hunts, according to a new study in Royal Society Open Science. The results suggest that dwindling populations may have greater consequences than previously realized.

African penguins (Spheniscus demersus), or “jackass” penguins after their donkey-like calls, are currently endangered. Found only on the southern tip of Africa, populations of these flightless birds have dropped from an estimated 4 to 5 million in 1800 to a mere 50,000 or so animals today. Their situation is considered so dire that, if the penguins do not begin to rebound soon, it’s predicted they’ll go extinct in about a decade. Continue reading “Birds of a Feather Hunt Better Together”

Tiny Bat Shrugs Off Stings From Deadly Scorpion

These tough bats can tussle with the deadliest scorpions in North America and win. Photo by Connor Long — These tough bats can tussle with the deadliest scorpions in North America and win.
Photo by Connor Long

Pallid bats (Antrozous pallidus) are quirky little creatures, the sole species in their genus. Their long ears, which can equal half their body length, make them look quintessentially batty, but unlike most of their night hunting relatives, they prefer to tackle ground-dwelling dinners—a strategy called “gleaning.” Pallid bats glean as much as half their body weight in prey every night, and their diet includes a wide range of crunchy little critters, including crickets, praying mantis, and beetles.

It is their taste for scorpions, though, that is particularly intriguing, and piqued the curiosity of scientists. It was unknown whether the bats have a trick for catching scorpions that keeps them from being stung, or whether they are resistant to the animals’ agonizing toxins. In a new PlosONE paper, researchers show it’s the latter: the bats’ laissez-faire attitude towards venom stems from an invulnerability to scorpion neurotoxins due to alterations in the voltage-gated sodium channels that the toxins target. Continue reading “Tiny Bat Shrugs Off Stings From Deadly Scorpion”

Under The Surf Turf War: Watch Male Lionfish Duke It Out

There's nothing romantic about this cheek to cheek dance between tao large male lionfish. Photo Credit: Alex Fogg — There’s nothing romantic about this cheek to cheek dance between two large male lionfish. Photo Credit: Alex Fogg

Understanding animal behavior can be tough, as observing individuals for hours can be incredibly boring and our mere presence can affect how they act. Things get even harder when those animals happen to live in the ocean; our inability to breathe water makes quietly sitting and watching creatures significantly more difficult. So it was lucky to say the least that Alex Fogg captured a clear video of two large male lionfish exhibiting a behavior rarely caught on film: battling for dominance.

Fogg, a biologist with Coast Watch Alliance, a non-profit out of Pensacola, Florida, and his girlfriend were on vacation in Roatan, Honduras when they came across the remarkable sight. As avid divers, the pair had spent the week diving from boats, so to mix things up, they decided upon an afternoon shore dive instead. The water was crystal clear, which allowed Fogg to spot a very large, dark lionfish on an isolated coral patch about 75 feet away. When the pair approached, they realized the ‘lionfish’ was actually two, battling for dominance 55 feet below the waves.

Continue reading “Under The Surf Turf War: Watch Male Lionfish Duke It Out”

African Wild Dogs Can’t Take The Heat, Face Extinction From Climate Change

New study suggests African wild dogs may be doomed by climate change. Photo by Mathias Appel

Things aren’t looking good for Africa’s iconic wildlife. Already, many species are threatened by human activities and habitat loss. Even species once thought to be resilient, like giraffes, are suddenly struggling. Just earlier this week, scientists reported that aardvarks, one of sub-saharan Africa’s most successful and adorable insect-eaters and essential ecosystem engineers—face severe declines and even extinction as rising temperatures and declining rainfall dry out the continent. Now, a new paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology adds African wild dogs to the growing list of species that may be eradicated by our changing climate.

Continue reading “African Wild Dogs Can’t Take The Heat, Face Extinction From Climate Change”

Acidifying Oceans Favor Sea Vermin

A common triplefin, one of the fish species that may dominate acidic temperate habitats in the near future. Photo c/o Wikimedia — A common triplefin, one of the fish species that may dominate temperate habitats in the near, acidic future. Photo c/o Wikimedia

Scientists predict that in the next twenty years, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in our atmosphere will rise from the roughly 404 ppm it is now to over 450 ppm—and as a result, ecosystems worldwide will change. Many impacts will be particularly felt in our planet’s oceans. As atmospheric CO₂levels rise, more of the gas dissolves into our seas, causing a chemical chain reaction which makes the water more acidic. Acidification can act independently or synergistically with rising temperatures, impacting different species in different ways. In a desperate rush to conserve species, scientists are racing against the clock to understand how marine habitats and the species that live in them will be affected by acidification and identify the best ways to retain our marine biodiversity going forward.

The bulk of the research on acidification to date has focused on reef-building corals, and rightfully so, as these reef-producing species are the foundation of some of the richest ecosystems on Earth. But reefs aren’t the only prolific habitats in the sea, and corals certainly aren’t the only species that changing water chemistry will affect. Lab-based studies have found that all kinds of organisms, including fish, are sometimes affected by acidified waters, but how these individual impacts on species translates to ecosystem-level effects is less clear. So to understand how acidification might impact fish communities, a team of scientists led by Professor Ivan Nagelkerken, a marine ecologist in the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute, turned to natural laboratories. Continue reading “Acidifying Oceans Favor Sea Vermin”

Death From Below: Invasive Lionfish Lurking in Deep Reefs, Sending Hungry Reinforcements to the Shallows

Lionfish on a mesophotic reef off Florida. Photo credit: Mike Echevarria, Florida Aquarium via NOAA

In the last few decades, scientists have come to appreciate the incredible creatures living on the reefs that lie just below conventional diving limits in what is called the mesophotic zone. These incredible biodiversity hotspots are home to more endemic species than shallower reefs, and conservationists are hopeful they may serve as refuges—pockets of relatively pristine habitat out of reach of anthropogenic stressors—where species under threat from pollution, overfishing, and even the effects climate change can hang on while we clean up our act.

In a new paper published today in Royal Society Open Science, scientists have added to growing evidence that these ecosystems do serve as refuges—unfortunately, in this case, they’re harboring large, fertile adults of exactly the wrong species: invasive lionfishes. Continue reading “Death From Below: Invasive Lionfish Lurking in Deep Reefs, Sending Hungry Reinforcements to the Shallows”

I am Lionfish, hear me ROAR!

An invasive lionfish in the Bahamas. Photo by Mark Albins.

Ok, well maybe more like grunt or drum. Still, this recording comes from the first study to document that lionfishes—the invasive, venomous scourges of the Atlantic and Mediterranean—make sounds.

Continue reading “I am Lionfish, hear me ROAR!”

Jelly Belly: Elusive Deep Sea Octopus Takes Its Gelatinous Meals To Go

A female seven-arm octopus carrying an egg-yolk jelly. Photo © MBARI

The seven-arm octopus, Haliphron atlanticus, lives a hidden life deep in the dark depths of the oceans. These massive cephalopods—females of which can grow to be more than 12 feet long—earned the moniker for their habit of folding one of their eight arms away. What little is known of their daily lives has largely been gleaned from dead animals pulled from the sea by trawls, as inhabitants of the deep sea, their activities are nearly impossible to observe. Now, a new paper in Scientific Reports provides insights into their diet and behavior, finding they prefer to dine on species we tend to think of as less than palatable: jellyfish. Continue reading “Jelly Belly: Elusive Deep Sea Octopus Takes Its Gelatinous Meals To Go”

Beware the blenny’s bite: scientists uncover the toxins in fang blenny venom

Meiacanthus atrodorsalis—a prettly little fish with a venomous bite. Photo by Klaus Stiefel / Flickr — *Meiacanthus atrodorsalis*—a pretty little fish with a venomous bite. Photo by Klaus Stiefel via Flickr

“Did you tell her the one about George Losey and the blenny?” Rich Pyle asked with a knowing smirk. Pyle and I were sitting in the living room of legendary ichthyologist Jack Randall for a piece I was writing about him for Hakai Magazine. “It’s a good venom story,” Pyle continued, grinning.

Randall’s eyes lit up with mischievious joy as he launched into the tale. He and George Losey were invited to Guam to bear witness to a massive crown of thorns sea star invasion, he explained (“It was one overlapping another as far as you could see,” he recalled; “They decimated the corals of the whole northern coast”). While he and Losey were diving, Randall saw a small blenny—one of a group of blennies that he knew Losey had taken an interest in. Since he had a three-pronged sling-style spear on him, Randall caught the fish, which remained wriggling on the end of his spear tip. He asked Losey if he wanted it to examine later, and Losey did, but he didn’t have any containers to put it in. So, Losey did what seemed like the obvious thing: he tucked the creature into his swim trunks. “Well, it has a venomous bite…” Randall said laughing—a fact which was unknown at the time. “It bit him right here, on the belly,” Randall gestured, “and he let out a yelp!” That was how George Losey first discovered the venomous nature of fang blennies in the genus Meiacanthus, Randall explained—by making the mistake of putting one in his shorts.
Continue reading “Beware the blenny’s bite: scientists uncover the toxins in fang blenny venom”

Obama Goes Big: Expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Makes It The World’s Largest Marine Protected Area

Hawaiʻi is now home to the largest marine protected area on the planet. Again.

Today, White House officials announced that President is acting upon the proposed expansion to the Papah ā naumokuākea Marine National Monument. The expansion has been a hot button issue in the islands since its proposal in January. As Governor David Ige noted, it has been the source of “tremendous” debate, especially due to the exclusion of fishing from the expanded waters. The fishing industry fought hard against the proposal, leveraging TV ads, social media, town hall meetings and in-person testimony in Washington and Honolulu to prevent the expansion. But the pro-expansion movement has been resilient. Bumper stickers, signs, bookmarks and t-shirts with the hashtags “#ExpandPNMN” and “#GoBigObama” have been everywhere on Oʻahu. A flurry of town hall meetings, educational sessions, news conferences and media interviews rallied support. Led by The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Ocean Legacy program, the pro-expansion movement garnered more than 1,409,000 letters and signatures of support, including more than 1500 coral reef scientists that voiced their support during the International Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu in June. “This decision is scientifically supported and provides substantial hope of leaving a legacy of ocean resources and benefits for future generations,” the scientists’ letter stated.

Ultimately, the President agreed. He will be visiting the islands next week to address leaders from the Pacific Island Conference of Leaders and the IUCN World Conservation Congress. Continue reading “Obama Goes Big: Expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Makes It The World’s Largest Marine Protected Area”