ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

The hydrothermal vent fluids from the Gorda Ridge spreading center in the northeast Pacific Ocean create a biological hub of activity in the deep sea. There, in the dark ocean, a unique food web thrives not on photosynthesis but rather on chemical energy from the venting fluids. Among the creatures having a field day feasting at the Gorda Ridge vents is a diverse assortment of microbial eukaryotes, or protists, that graze on chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea.

U.S. corn and soybean varieties have become increasingly heat and drought resistant as agricultural production adapts to a changing climate. But the focus on developing crops for extreme conditions has negatively affected performance under normal weather patterns, a new study shows.

Engineers have developed the first full, three-dimensional (3D), dynamic simulation of a rat's complete whisker system, offering rare, realistic insight into how rats obtain tactile information.

Researchers have described a novel primary immunodeficiency due to a mutation in AIOLOS. This acts through a novel pathogenic mechanism termed 'heterodimeric interference', whereby when two different proteins bind together in a heterodimer, the mutant protein hijacks the function of the normal protein. In a mouse model, they were able to restore some of the lost functions by interfering with the mutated protein, suggesting a possible therapeutic approach to disorders of this nature.

While tropical forests remain threatened and their future is uncertain, the importance of understanding how well individual protected areas avoid deforestation increases.

Researchers have taken a big step toward developing targeted treatments and vaccines against a family of viruses that attacks the gastrointestinal tract.

Echoes from bats are so simple that a sound file of their calls can be compressed 90% without losing much information, according to a new study.

A new study reveals that nearly 20 percent of tropical Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) overlap with concessions for extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas.

Researchers took 3-D printed reconstructions of fossil cephalopods to actual water tanks (including a swimming pool) to see how their shell structure may have been tied to their movement and lifestyle.

Earth's climate was relatively stable for a long period of time. For three billion years, temperatures were mostly warm and carbon dioxide levels high - until a shift occurred about 400 million years ago. A new study suggests that the change at this time was accompanied by a fundamental alteration to the carbon-silicon cycle.

A new tool allows farmers to create a budget balance sheet of any nitrogen reduction plans and see the economic and environmental cost, return and margins, all customized to fields under their management.

To grow and multiply efficiently, bacteria must coordinate cell division with chromosome segregation. Key to this process is a protein called Nucleoid Occlusion Factor or Noc. A small and abundant molecule called Cytidine Triphosphate (CTP) is key to the functions of Noc. CTP binding enables Noc to 'spread' on DNA to form a large protein complex. CTP also 'switches on' the membrane-binding ability of Noc.

In 2015, massive biomass burning events occurred in Equatorial Asia which released a large amount of carbon into the atmosphere, whose signals were captured by in-situ high-precision measurements onboard commercial passenger aircraft and a cargo ship. A simulation-based analysis with those observations estimated the fire-induced carbon emissions to be 273 Tg C for September - October 2015.