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Tag: Ecology

The Microorganism Survival Toolkit: Dormancy

Posted November 20, 2018 by Guest Contributor

Alt Text: Colorized microscope image of multiple soil bacteria.

The author is ScIU guest writer Emmi Mueller, a graduate student in IU’s Department of Biology. What do the deepest parts of the ocean, the human intestine, and outer space have in common? All of these environments are able to harbor a diverse community of microorganisms. Microbes are involved in everything from nitrogen and carbon cycling to… Read more »

How cutting edge technology can help us understand animal migration

Posted September 4, 2018 by Abby Kimmitt

Two undergraduates are working on the device they created to measure the cardinal direction of flight of a moth. One undergrad is adjusting the moth attached to the device; the other undergraduate is checking the computer to make sure it is ready to record data

Scientists have long been interested in understanding animal migration, but gathering migration data proved difficult in the past. For example, the process of catching and recapturing migratory songbirds using mist nets is a laborious process. In the past, recovering songbirds produced data only about the breeding location and their migration destination, and rarely about the migration itself.  Studying… Read more »

Science without borders – why travel across the globe to dig in the dirt?

Posted August 28, 2018 by Adrienne Keller

In May, graduate student Saskia Klink and faculty member Johanna Pausch, both from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, visited the Phillips Lab in the Indiana University Biology Department to collaborate on a project with me. In our increasingly interconnected and globalized world, such international collaborations in scientific research are becoming more and more common…. Read more »

Getting to the root of the global carbon cycle

Posted March 6, 2018 by Adrienne Keller

Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in our atmosphere continue to rise, and global warming has transitioned from a possible future phenomenon to a present environmental reality. Given this reality, scientists are motivated to improve calculations of how much carbon there is on Earth and how it flows from the biosphere to the atmosphere and back to… Read more »

Who’s eating who? Predators that cause disease epidemics & Predators that improve human health

Posted August 8, 2017 by Briana K. Whitaker

A women sits in a blue boat (kayak) holding a double-sided paddle in the middle of a lake. Trees and cloudy background.

Pathogens and parasites are the hidden players of many of nature’s most bizarre and beautiful patterns and processes. For example, the extraordinary levels of plant animal biodiversity we find in the tropics is thought to be due, at least in part to the high levels of disease and natural enemies we find in those environments…. Read more »

There’s no free lunch in nature: for plants, it takes carbon to get nitrogen

Posted May 30, 2017 by Adrienne Keller

a tree shown from an extreme low angle

Did you and your grade school friends ever find yourselves in intricate negotiations around the lunch table, trading that boring snack your mom packed you with the sweeter and more enticing dessert in your friend’s lunchbox? Well, similar to you and your childhood friends, plants also partake in such a trading of commodities around their… Read more »

Horton Hears a Who – Hidden Communities in Leaves

Posted May 23, 2017 by Briana K. Whitaker

A cartoon elephant holds a tiny flower close to his ear using his trunk. On this tiny flower is an even tinier speck of dust.

Maybe you remember reading the classic Dr. Seuss tale as a child, Horton Hears a Who! Or you may have also seen the 2008 movie adaptation on TV or at some recent family vacation? For those who haven’t, or whose memory might be a little fuzzy, Horton the elephant discovers, and becomes the sole champion of, an… Read more »

Earth Day 2017: Onwards and upwards

Posted April 20, 2017 by Kerri Donohue

A picture of a statue of the Lorax

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,  nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax Less than fifty years ago on April 22, 1970, the modern day environmental movement was born and the first Earth Day was celebrated. Rachel Carson, scientist and writer, is credited with raising environmental awareness… Read more »

For a hybrid species of ribbon worm, it only takes one to tango

Posted January 10, 2017 by Guillaume J. Dury

Along the eastern Atlantic coasts of France, at some point in the last 100,000 years, two ribbon worms of different species engaged in worm intercourse (do not fear, I will not discuss the mechanics here). The two species were Lineus sanguineus and L. lacteus. Interspecies sex is uncommon in itself, but what’s especially surprising in this case… Read more »

Proactively combating the continuing threat of pesticide resistance

Posted November 8, 2016 by Mark Juers

Consider briefly the process of evolution and you might imagine a lumbering process, splitting lineages and bringing new species forth from old, or the gradual formation of morphological novelties like wings. While it’s true that evolutionary processes such as  the formation of new species are generally slow by our standards, other effects of evolution that… Read more »

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