In 2013, a sea star wasting syndrome decimated populations of Pisaster along the west coast of North America and along the Monterey Peninsula in California, where this study was conducted. The orange and purple stars have a hungry appetite for mussels in the rocky intertidal. Without the voracious sea stars lurking around, mussel populations exploded, expanding in cover from around five percent to more than 18 percent within three years. In the wake of the sea star die-off, mussels became a major prey surplus for sea otters, revealing a surprising link between the adjacent rocky intertidal and kelp forest ecosystems. The new research into the phenomenon shows how the loss of a keystone predator (Pisaster) in one ecosystem can impart changes to another (sea otters), linking ecosystems.

Researchers led by the University of Cincinnati’s Anna Kruyer and the University of Houston’s Demetrio Labate have published research in the journal Science Advances applying object recognition technology to track changes in brain cell structure and provide new insights into how the brain responds to heroin use, withdrawal and relapse.

Human populations need at least 2.7 children per woman – a much higher fertility rate than previously believed – to reliably avoid long-term extinction, according to a new study published April 30, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Takuya Okabe of Shizuoka University, Japan, and colleagues.

SAN DIEGO (April 30, 2025) — Many are aware of the dire challenges with plastic waste polluting the ocean, but new research shows it may harm wildlife in ways not previously understood. In a new study just published in the journal Environmental Pollution, researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance found that plastic swallowed by northern fulmars— seabirds found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans—can leak chemicals that interfere with the birds’ hormone systems.

A good wildlife management plan must include information on their migratory processes if the conservation of a species, particularly an endangered species, is to be improved. In the marine environment, for example, regulating fishing activity in certain wintering areas could improve and complement conservation and protection measures carried out on the breeding grounds. These are some of the conclusions of the study featured on the cover of the journal Diversity and Distributions and led by experts from the Seabird Ecology Lab of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.