Nitrogen isotopes within samples of bat excrement accurately reflect modern precipitation patterns. So could guano serve as a paleoclimate record?
animals
Posted inNews
Cores from Crater Tied to Dinosaur Demise Validate Impact Theory
Drilling into the famous, deeply buried Chicxulub crater off Mexico, researchers found deformed and porous granite that opens new avenues of research.
Posted inNews
Ant Populations Destabilize Under Warming
In forest experiments in which artificial warming mimicked future climate conditions, heat-tolerant ants thrived, leaving other populations unstable.
Posted inNews
Rock-Chomping Bees Burrow into Sandstone
A previously unknown species of rock-excavating bees, discovered 40 years ago but not reported in the scientific literature, finally gets the spotlight.
Posted inNews
Elephant Seals' Dives Show Slowdown in Ocean Circulation
Data from instruments mounted on elephant seals reveal that melting ice flushes fresh water into the Southern Ocean, suppressing an important arm of the global ocean circulation belt.
Posted inNews
Climate Warming May Have Helped Kill the Dinosaurs
New evidence indicates ancient warming spells that coincided with prodigious volcanism and a powerful meteorite impact, both seen as possible causes of mass extinctions about 66 million years ago.
Posted inNews
Habitat Fragmentation Prevents Migration During Climate Change
East Coast species will face the most difficulty finding routes to cooler homes as climate change forces migration.
Posted inScience Updates
What Does the Pacific Arctic's New Normal Mean for Marine Life?
Climate change has reconfigured Arctic ecosystems. A 5-year project focuses on the relationships among oceanographic conditions and the animals and other life-forms in this region.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Understanding the Distribution of Juvenile Jumbo Squid
An expanding zone of shallow, oxygen-depleted water in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean may be vertically restricting the habitat of this important source of food, according to a recent study.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Bark Beetles Cause Big Tree Die-Offs, but Streams Flow Steadily
Recent beetle epidemics have driven tree die-offs across North America, and previous studies predicted an increase in annual streamflow would follow—but a new study shows this may not be the case.