News by Subject Agriculture

Twelve years of data on the health of two Atlantic bottlenose dolphin populations paints a grim reality concerning the wellbeing of the Atlantic Ocean. The research compiles findings from Georgia Aquarium, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution at Florida Atlantic University and contributing partners as part of the Health and Environmental Risk Assessment Project (HERA) from 2003-2015. It informs researchers about the health of dolphins and prompted additional studies on how the environment may impact human health.

New mapping methods developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory can help urban planners minimize the environmental impacts of cities' water and energy demands on surrounding stream ecologies.

Continuing to uncover fossil evidence along the coast of South Carolina, researchers, led by a faculty member at College of Charleston, have discovered a species of extinct dolphin.

Predator animals have long been known to avoid devouring brightly coloured and patterned prey, and now an international study has revealed more about how they recognise toxic species. University of Queensland Visual Ecology Lab member Dr Karen Cheney, of the School of Biological Sciences, said researchers examined sea slugs, or nudibranchs, which had bright color patterns to warn predators they contained toxic defenses.

The vulnerability and conservation value of sub-tropical reefs south of the Great Barrier Reef -- regarded as climate change refuges -- has been highlighted in a new study. University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences researcher Dr Brigitte Sommer said the study of Eastern Australian reefs revealed coral species would likely shift their distribution southward in response to climate change.

Take a fish out of water and its stress hormones will go up. Adrenaline and noradrenaline, the 'fight or flight' hormones, peak first, followed more gradually by cortisol. A new study finds that largemouth bass whose cortisol levels rise most after a brief bout of stress are inherently harder to catch by angling.

Baleen whales are amongst the largest animals to have ever lived and yet very little is known about their breeding habits. One researcher's second look at previously found baleen whale fossils from Japan provides new evidence of a now long-gone breeding ground of the extinct baleen whale Parietobalaena yamaokai dating back over 15 million years.