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Biodiversity May Thrive Through Games of Rock-Paper-Scissors
Recent findings add weight to the evidence that the intransitive competitions between species enrich the diversity of nature.
Biodiversity Alters Strategies of Bacterial Evolution
In evolution, context is everything: Bacteria with neighbors evolve to rebuff viruses in a different way.
New Hybrid Species Remix Old Genes Creatively
Clues from fish diversity suggest that interbreeding between species could be a major mechanism of fast speciation.
What’s in a Name? Taxonomy Problems Vex Biologists
Researchers struggle to incorporate ongoing evolutionary discoveries into an animal classification scheme older than Darwin.
Rapid Oxygen Changes Fueled an Explosion in Ancient Animal Diversity
Skyrocketing animal diversity a half-billion years ago was linked to spikes and dips in marine oxygen levels, according to a detailed geological study.
Scientists Discover Nearly 200,000 Kinds of Ocean Viruses
New work raises the estimated diversity of viruses in the seas more than twelvefold and lays the groundwork for a better understanding of their impact on global nutrient cycles.
Heat-Loving Microbes, Once Dormant, Thrive Over Decades-Old Fire
In harsh ecosystems around the world, microbiologists are finding evidence that “microbial seed banks” protect biodiversity from changing conditions.
She Finds Clues to Future Sustainability in Old Food Webs
By reconstructing prehistoric food webs and analyzing the diverse interactions of humans with other species, the ecologist Jennifer Dunne is developing a new understanding of sustainability through network science.
A Thermodynamic Answer to Why Birds Migrate
New modeling studies suggest that birds migrate to strike a favorable balance between their input and output of energy.