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| Red Maple leaf Drawing by Linda Chafin |
The first item is my top pick for this week:
Can Rewilding Large Predators Regenerate Ecosystems?
As some conservationists and researchers begin to return large carnivores to areas where they once roamed, scientists intensify efforts to study the ecological roles of predators.
In Defense of Plants: Southercn Beehes and Biogeography. How do plants get to where they are?
NYTimes review of "The Gardener's Botanical: An Encyclopedia of Latin Plant Names"
Microbes that can get water directly from rocks in the Atacama Desert
The iconic Colorado River carries less water, as the climate warms and winter snow disappears
New research quantifies water scarcity in the southwestern USA: expect more drought, with serious socioeconomic consequences
In some spiders there is a great size disparity between the smaller males and the larger (sometime MUCH larger) females. Why this evolved is an interesting question.
7 ways to fix this pandemic - and stop the next one.
The Asian Giant Hornet has been found in Washington state.
And the honeybees in Paris are bothered by a related species.
Four ways that plants deal with fires.
Slingshot Spiders Pull More Gs than Cheetahs
Using their silk threads as a catapult, members of a family of orb-weaving arachnids rocket themselves and their webs through the air to capture prey.
Herbivore Body Size Influences Grazing Behavior, Poop Quality
Researchers disentangle complex connections among vegetation, herbivores, and dung in the South African savanna.
Daddy Long Legs
I know it's a little late, but this NYTimes link has a number of interesting videos. It's behind a paywall, but, if you haven't exhausted your monthly limit of page views you can see it.
This Halloween, Consider the Unappreciated Beauty of Spiders
Arachnids get a bad rap, particularly this time of year, but they're quite lovely in their own, deadly, leaping, eight-legged, cannibalistic way.
The tropical net-casting spider Deinopis spinosa joins several other arachnid species that can hear sounds from afar without the help of a web, or even ears-an ability that aids its unique hunting tactics.
Octopods that build shells and swim the open sea.
