Without pollinators, a third of flowering plant species would produce no seeds and half would suffer an 80% or more reduction in fertility. Therefore, even though auto-fertility is common, it by no means fully compensates for reductions in pollination service in most plant species.
Ocean warming caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions will prompt many species of marine plankton to seek out new habitats, in some cases as a matter of survival. Researchers expect many organisms to head to the poles and form new communities — with unforeseeable consequences for marine food webs.
Hot desert sex has resulted in major genetic differences between male and female jojoba plants — one of only 6 percent of plants that require a male and female plant to reproduce. New research suggests male and female jojoba plants have diverged so much, that the jojoba plant has more novel sex genes than any other known living organism. The discovery may help researchers develop a DNA test to identify male and female jojoba plants, which cannot be distinguished from each other as seedlings – and shed light on how plants adapt to environmental stress.
When an asteroid struck 66 million years ago and wiped out dinosaurs not related to birds and three-quarters of life on Earth, early ancestors of primates and marsupials were among the only tree-dwelling (arboreal) mammals that survived, according to a new study.
In the face of declining fisheries, threatened reef habitat, and changing climatic conditions, non-native mangroves may provide, rather than impede, zooplankton habitat availability in novel locations.
After nearly 50 years, scientists have finally figured out what family a strange Amazonian tree with tiny orange fruit belongs to.
Researchers have been studying seed dispersal to understand how chemicals impact interactions between fruit and the animals that eat them.
New research shows sweet corn, when planted at high densities, has steadily increased in yield since the 1930s. The historical view underscores the importance of planting modern density-tolerant hybrids at their optimal densities, and suggests an opportunity to improve density tolerance even more.
Microbiology researchers have shed new light on the mechanisms of carbon cycling in the ocean, using a novel approach to track which microbes are consuming different types of organic carbon produced by common phytoplankton species.
Scientists have discovered that birds know to avoid the plants where toxic animals dwell.