(Press-News.org) The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of four research articles recently published across its esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature illuminating and impactful studies. This compilation of papers explores unexpected links between Arctic land and sea, how much beavers could counter the threat of wildfire, whether uniformity within a species is good for biodiversity and what happened after a major sea star die-off.
From Ecology:
Marine meals reshape tundra food webs
Author contact: Sean M. Johnson-Bice (s.johnsonbice@gmail.com)
Researchers uncovered a striking Arctic connection between sea and land: conditions that benefit polar bears also boost Arctic fox populations with cascading effects on tundra prey. By compiling data on wildlife and environmental conditions over several years in Canada’s Wapusk National Park, the research team found evidence that when polar bears are healthy and well-fed, Arctic foxes also benefit by hunting seal pups and scavenging the seal carcasses left behind by the bears. The extra food allows fox numbers to rise, and in summer, these predators turn their attention to goose nests. As a result, Canada goose reproductive success declines in years when marine resources are plentiful. The study highlights how food from one ecosystem can drive knock-on effects in another and strengthen top-down control of predators on their prey. With climate change reducing snow cover and sea ice, both foxes and polar bears face long-term declines, threatening this land-sea connection. The findings underscore how shifting Arctic conditions can ripple through multiple species and ecosystems.
Read the article: Marine resources alter tundra food web dynamics by subsidizing a terrestrial predator on the sea ice
From Ecological Applications:
Beaver comeback could boost fire and water resilience
Author contact: Jessie A. Moravek (morav042@umn.edu)
Beavers have been largely absent from California’s Sierra Nevada for centuries, but a new study shows that restoring their numbers could provide major climate resilience benefits. Researchers used a suite of models to estimate historical and current opportunities for beaver dams within the mountain range’s watersheds and then projected how those dams could store water and reduce wildfire risk. They found that the region retains only about half of its historic potential, mostly due to agricultural development that has wiped out the plants that beavers would need. If restored, however, those dams could store up to 120 million cubic meters of surface water and create 2,200 square kilometers of fire-resilient habitat — critical in drought- and wildfire-prone areas. The team also identified five priority watersheds where reintroducing beavers would deliver the greatest combined benefits. The study shows how wildlife conservation and nature-based solutions can work together to protect ecosystems from global change.
Read the article: Maximizing the potential benefits of beaver restoration for fire resilience and water storage
From Ecological Monographs:
Specialization: a double-edged sword for plants
Author contact: Blanca Arroyo-Correa (blanca.arroyo.correa@gmail.com)
How much does individual variation matter for species survival? Quite a lot, it seems, according to a new study combining computer simulations with detailed field data from a Spanish shrubland. Researchers explored how differences among plants within the same plant species affect the persistence of plant biodiversity in the long run. The research team focused on whether individual plants interact with a broad range of pollinators or attract only specific ones (“specialization”) to their flowers. Using a theoretical model, they first tested how these patterns influence the makeup of plants and pollinators over time. Then, they integrated real-world data on plant-pollinator interactions and plants’ fruit and seed production from three shrub species. The results show that when a plant species grows alone, populations with individuals that differ in which pollinators they attract tend to thrive and support vibrant pollinator communities. However, in settings with multiple competing plant species, this advantage disappears. In fact, specialization can make plant species more vulnerable to competition. The study suggests that a mix of specialists and generalists within species may be key to maintaining biodiversity. Such individual-level variation could be critical for preserving biodiversity as environmental change threatens to make populations more uniform and less adaptable.
Read the article: Bridging the gap between individual specialization and species persistence in mutualistic communities
From Ecosphere:
Sea stars show surprising resilience after disease outbreak
Author contact: Bruce A. Menge (mengeb@oregonstate.edu)
A decade after sea star wasting disease devastated ochre sea star populations along the U.S. West Coast, new research reveals a complex recovery story. Scientists analyzed two long-term datasets: predation rates by the sea stars on their prey, tracked for 16 years at seven Oregon sites, and density and size measurements collected over 23 years at eight sites. These records captured the dramatic 2014 crash due to sea star wasting disease and an unexpected baby boom in 2015, when juvenile sea stars surged by more than 8,000 percent. While overall density and biomass have rebounded — sometimes exceeding pre-disease levels — average body size has recovered at only a few sites, and predation rates remain low in some areas. The study suggests that the epidemic shifted populations from a stable, adult-dominated state to one marked by fluctuations in sea star sizes and ages over time and among sites. This resilience offers hope, but lingering instability underscores the importance of continued monitoring as marine diseases and climate change reshape coastal ecosystems.
Read the article: Metapopulation-scale resilience to disease-induced mass mortality in a keystone predator: From stasis to instability
###
The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org
Follow ESA on social media:
Twitter/X – @esa_org
Bluesky – @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
Instagram – @ecologicalsociety
Facebook – @esa.org
END
(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – November 6, 2025) The enzyme RNA polymerase II transcribes genes into messenger RNA. This process is guided by modifications to the enzyme’s “tail” called phosphorylation patterns. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital explored these patterns, identifying 117 kinases that could phosphorylate multiple locations within the protein tail. This greatly expands upon the set of kinases previously known to phosphorylate RNA polymerase II. The work also links the enzyme’s activity to ...
Why This Matters:
Accelerates Crop Innovation: Cuts months off the process of developing gene-edited crops, speeding up the path from gene discovery to field-ready varieties.
Expands Accessibility: Reduces reliance on specialized tissue culture labs, making advanced bioengineering feasible for more research institutions and crop species.
Boosts Global Food Security: Has the potential to enable faster breeding of crops with better resilience, nutrient efficiency and disease resistance.
A team of plant biotechnologists ...
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in collaboration with Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), the City of Worcester, and more than 30 regional partners, has been awarded $5.2 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to establish the BioHub, a transformative initiative designed to power the bioindustrial revolution in Central Massachusetts.
The award was announced by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at an event held at WPI, where she also recognized 14 other innovation and technology projects funded by the state to strengthen Massachusetts’ growing innovation economy.
The BioHub will ...
The United States is falling far behind China in remote sensing research, according to a comprehensive new study that tracked seven decades of academic publishing and reveals a notable reversal in global technological standing.
China now accounts for nearly half of all peer-reviewed journal publications in this critical field, while American output has declined to single digits.
"This represents one of the most significant shifts in global technological leadership in recent history," said Debra ...
A new study identified large clusters of food deserts, where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food, in East London—particularly Newham, Redbridge, and Barking and Dagenham—and in parts of west London such as Ealing and Brent. The findings were published November 6th in the open-access journal PLOS Complex Systems by Tayla Broadbridge of the University of Nottingham, UK, and colleagues.
Poor diet and unequal access to healthy food are linked to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. To effectively target interventions to areas where residents face barriers ...
An unprecedented heatwave and drought in 2023 turned the Amazon’s lakes into shallow simmering basins, with water temperatures soaring to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (ºC) in one case and water levels plunging to record lows, researchers report. The extreme temperatures had impacts ranging from isolating remote riverine communities to driving mass die-offs in fish and endangered Amazon river dolphins. The findings confirm a worrisome warming trend across the Amazon’s poorly monitored lakes and rivers and portend escalating ...
New research reveals how genetic changes in the barley MKK3 gene fine-tune seed dormancy, determining whether grains stay dormant or sprout too soon. The findings offer breeders new genetic tools to balance seed dormancy and crop resilience under changing climate conditions. The rise of agriculture was driven by the intentional selection of crops with improved traits. One key trait under selection, particularly in cereal crops, is grain dormancy – the period before which a seed can germinate. In wild cereals, grain dormancy helps ensure plant survival under unpredictable conditions. ...
A new record of Arctic sea-ice coverage – informed by the slow and steady sedimentation of cosmic dust on the sea floor – reveals that ancient ice waxed and waned with atmospheric warming, not ocean heat, over the last 300,000 years. The findings provide rare insights into how modern melting in the region could reshape the Arctic’s nutrient balance and biological productivity. The Arctic is warming more rapidly than any other region on Earth, driving a precipitous decline in sea ice coverage. This loss not only affects the region’s marine ecosystems and coastal communities, but it also has far-reaching implications on global ...
Models that inform how magma moves and volcanic eruptions unfold may need an update, according to a new study. It reports that gas bubbles in magmas can form through the mechanical forces of shear as magmas flow and deform– a new physical mechanism for magma bubble nucleation that challenges conventional degassing models. The formation of gas bubbles within magma – also known as nucleation – is a fundamental process that shapes how volcanic eruptions unfold. The timing and rate at which these bubbles appear and expand influences key magma features, including its buoyancy, viscosity, and explosive potential. Understanding nucleation is therefore vital for ...
Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 42% since 1979, when regular satellite monitoring began. As the ice grows thinner and recedes, more water is exposed to sunlight. Ice reflects sunlight but dark water absorbs it, advancing warming and accelerating ice loss. Climate models indicate that the Arctic will see ice-free summers within the coming decades, and scientists still aren’t sure what this will mean for life on Earth.
Researchers have known for some time that fine-grained dust from space blankets the surface of Earth, falling from the cosmos at a constant rate and settling into ocean sediments. A study published Nov. 6 in Science shows that tracking where cosmic dust has ...
