Ecology

• Birdsongs provide population clues

  Microphone array improves estimate of ovenbird density.

  27 November 2009

• Mexico's transgenic maize under fire - Premium content

  Experimental planting scheme has insufficient controls to prevent gene flow to native crops, critcs say.

  25 November 2009

• Efforts to sustain biodiversity fall short - Premium content

  But the issue is gaining attention as nations prepare for next year's summit.

  18 November 2009

• Biodiversity: Biodiversity's bright spot

  While species losses mount worldwide, conservationists in Brazil have made great strides towards saving the golden lion tamarin and its forest habitat from destruction. Gene Russo reports.

  18 November 2009

• Biodiversity: Putting a price on nature - Premium content

  Gretchen Daily knows the value of ecosystems — but can ascribing financial worth to them help to maintain biodiversity? Emma Marris meets an ecosystem-services evangelist.

  18 November 2009

• Biodiversity: On the origin of bar codes - Premium content

  Genetic sequences in a cell's mitochondria can be used to accurately determine species. Could this be because they are responsible for creating what they identify? Nick Lane investigates.

  18 November 2009

• Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action - Premium content

  A new species of finch may have arisen in the Galapagos.

  16 November 2009

• How the sponge stays slim - Premium content

  One species' rapid cell shedding explains its huge carbon-catching capacity.

  16 November 2009

• Snapshot: Glider eavesdrops on whales - Premium content

  Probe tunes in to cetacean song.

  11 November 2009

• Whale-song recording goes deep - Premium content

  Underwater glider eavesdrops on cetacean communication.

  9 November 2009

• Conservation biology: Reflecting the past

  Unsatisfied with merely halting environmental destruction, some conservationists are trying to reconstruct ecosystems of the past. Emma Marris travels back in time with the rewilders.

  4 November 2009

• US habitat rule threatens species - Premium content

  Conservationists call for change to Bush-era definition of 'endangered'.

  3 November 2009

• Lions' taste for human flesh dissected - Premium content

  Two maneaters devoured dozens in the late nineteenth century but one ate the lion's share.

  2 November 2009

• Amphibians rarely give earliest warning of pollution - Premium content

  Long-standing 'canary in the coal mine' role questioned.

  29 October 2009

• Fatal frog fungal disease figured out - Premium content

  Electrolyte imbalance stops amphibians' hearts.

  22 October 2009

• Fossil primate challenges Ida's place - Premium content

  Controversial German specimen is related to lemurs, not humans, analysis of an Egyptian find suggests.

  21 October 2009

• Climate: Counting carbon in the Amazon

  If the next climate treaty tackles deforestation, tropical nations will need to monitor the biomass of their forests. One ecologist has worked out a way to do that from the sky, finds Jeff Tollefson.

  21 October 2009

• Bleached corals ruin fish camouflage - Premium content

  No hiding place from ecosystem collapse on the reef.

  21 October 2009

• Lazy male spiders avoid dinner date - Premium content

  Trespassing redbacks reap the rewards of reproduction without the costs of courting.

  21 October 2009

• Hazy goals hold up conservation - Premium content

  Lack of targets hampers efforts to save species.

  19 October 2009