This study reveals the spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics of vegetation net primary production (NPP) across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) outer ecological barrier, and clarifies the joint impacts of vegetation features, climate and human activities on regional ecological functions.

Sealed inside eggs, how can developing zebra finch chicks prepare for the world they will enter after hatching? By playing adult zebra finch ‘heat warning’ calls to chicks developing in eggs, Julia George (Clemson University, USA) and colleagues discovered that experiencing the sound directly changes the chicks’ brains by altering gene activity in the hypothalamus. This could protect the birds from heat stroke. The researchers publish their discovery in Journal of Experimental Biology.

Researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, have rescued eggs of the critically endangered southern dunlin through laboratory incubation, with 15 chicks now hatched and due to be released along the Bothnian Bay coast. The exceptional conservation effort responds to increasing nest losses caused by climate-driven storm surges.

Leaf functional traits are stronger predictors of herbivory than climatic factors or insect richness across Chinese forests, according to a study led by researchers from the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Contrary to the classic resource availability hypothesis, the team found that some carbon-based defense traits may actually backfire.

Disorder brings more life to the forest: Birds and bats react to this in different ways. This is shown by a new study from the University of Würzburg’s Biocenter.