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Species losses on isolated Panamanian island show importance of habitat connectivity
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Free from human disturbance for a century, an inland island in Central America has nevertheless lost more than 25% of its native bird species since its creation as part of the Panama Canal’s construction, and scientists say the losses continue.
The Barro Colorado Island extirpations show how forest fragmentation can reduce biodiversity when patches of remnant habitat lack connectivity, according to a study by researchers at Oregon State University.
Even when large remnants of forest are protected, some species still fail to survive because of subtle environmental changes attributable to fragmentation, and those losses continue over many decades, the scientists say.
Introduction: Sustainability and the history of scientific environments | Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
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How will the biggest tropical trees respond to climate change?
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Credit: James Herndon
A new type of collective behaviour in ants has been revealed by an international team of scientists, headed by biologist Professor Iain Couzin, co-director of the Cluster of Excellence Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz and director at the co-located Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, and Matthew Lutz, a postdoctoral researcher in Couzin s lab. Their research shows how ants use self-organized architectural structures called scaffolds to ensure traffic flow on sloped surfaces. Scaffold formation results from individual sensing and decision-making, yet it allows the colony as a whole to adjust dynamically to unpredictable environmental challenges.