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A single shift of a parasite from one host species to another can trigger catastrophic infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this, scientists continue to debate the role of species diversity in natural environments on the spread of these parasites.

What makes Mexican jumping beans jump? New research from Binghamton University reveals that Mexican jumping bean larvae respond to different colors of light, jumping more vigorously under different hues, which can help them avoid potentially dangerous temperatures. However, when their 'bean' hosts are damaged, larvae find it much harder to jump away from stressors.

Can organisms without a brain still show signs of intelligence? Researchers at Tohoku University and Nagaoka College had this question in mind when conducting a study to measure the decision-making processes in fungi. While it may sound like science fiction, this level of basal cognition is possible even in fungi.

A new climate change prediction tool provides insight into population-level vulnerability to global change through combining genomic, geographic and environmental data. The toolbox, published in the journal in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, will enable researchers and conservation practitioners to understand and predict how global environmental change may impact wildlife populations by integrating genomic, geographic and environmental data.

There are nearly 4,000 native bee species in the United States, contributing to pollination in agricultural, urban and natural landscapes. Honey bees, however, are not native to the U.S., which has led to concerns that managed honey bee populations might negatively impact wild bees via competition for resources and sharing of pathogens, according to researchers at Penn State.

A team of entomologists at Center National de Lutte Antiacridienne's Mauritanian National Desert Locust Center has found that male locusts will mount a female when she is laying eggs during the heat of day.

An entomologist and his ecologist daughter have outlined the dramatic changes that have occurred over the past half-century in the forests of White Oak Canyon in the Shenandoah National Park due to a canker fungus.

A PeerJ study has revealed a significant departure of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) from the central portion of the Gulf of California, is linked to the collapse of the jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) population, their primary prey.

New research from the University of Sydney shows that international conservation efforts account for approximately 10% of fish stocks on coral reefs.

In some parts of the world, animals are going extinct before scientists can even name them. Such may be the case for mouse lemurs, the saucer-eyed, teacup-sized primates native to the African island of Madagascar. There, deforestation has prompted the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to classify some of these tree-dwelling cousins as "endangered" even before they are formally described.

A common theory that guides financial investment strategies may be a handy tool to protect an endangered Puerto Rican frog. A new study uses modern portfolio theory to identify future "investments" in natural resource management that may help managers decide which actions to take to protect coquí llanero populations in Puerto Rico. The work is published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.

Forests with a greater diversity of trees are more productive—potentially leading to greater efficiency in capturing planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a new study reveals.

Global warming could increase the threat posed to whale sharks from large ships, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change, titled "Climate-driven global redistribution of an ocean giant predicts increased threat from shipping."

The event that wiped out the dinosaurs wasn't all bad. The low-light environment caused by the meteor impact some 66 million years ago favored the spread of fungi that feed on organic matter, which was abundant at the time as plants and animals were dying in droves.

An international team of biologists, planetary scientists and conservationists has conducted a large-scale study of non-human primate populations around the world to gauge their risk of extinction due to climate change.

A new study from researchers at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) shows environmental conditions in migratory birds' winter homes carry over to affect their ability to survive spring migration and the breeding season.

New research shows how growing Queensland regions can learn from biodiversity and carbon offsetting efforts to better meet water quality targets.

With data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, researchers have revealed seasonal variations in intertidal seagrass across Western Europe and North Africa. As a key indicator of biodiversity, these new findings offer valuable insights for the conservation and restoration of these vital ecosystems.

When humans began farming crops thousands of years ago, agriculture had already been around for millions of years. In fact, several animal lineages have been growing their own food since long before humans evolved as a species.

The extinction of hundreds of bird species caused by humans over the last 130,000 years has led to substantial reductions in avian functional diversity—a measure of the range of different roles and functions that birds undertake within the environment—and resulted in the loss of approximately 3 billion years of unique evolutionary history, according to a new study published in Science.

The wealth of data hosted in natural history collections can contribute to finding a response to global challenges ranging from climate change to biodiversity loss to pandemics. However, today's practices of working with collected bio- and geodiversity specimens lack some efficiency, which limits what scientists can achieve.

Oysters once formed extensive reefs along much of Europe's coastline—but these complex ecosystems were destroyed over a century ago, new research shows. The paper, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, is titled "Records reveal the vast historical extent of European oyster reef ecosystems."

By studying rare fossils of jaws and other skull parts of a long-extinct Caribbean monkey, a team of researchers that includes a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor says it has uncovered new evidence documenting the anatomy and ecology of an extinct primate once found on Hispaniola—the Caribbean island on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are located.

Endosymbiosis is a fascinating biological phenomenon in which an organism lives inside another. Such an unusual relationship is often beneficial for both parties. Even in our bodies, we find remnants of such cohabitation: mitochondria evolved from an ancient endosymbiosis. Long ago, bacteria entered other cells and stayed. This coexistence laid the foundation for mitochondria and thus the cells of plants, animals, and fungi.