蘑菇有着多方面的作用,尽管它们具有重要的生态意义,但它们往往受到不够的关注。重要的是要解决栖息地丧失和破碎化、污染和环境污染、气候变化和不可持续的采伐问题。
能源部必须处理5400万加仑的放射性废物,这些废物存放在华盛顿州汉福德市老化且易泄漏的地下储罐中。DOE还必须每隔几年制定一次计划,对不同的废物处理方案进行建模和评估
An international research team including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena has discovered that the striking orange and black wings of monarch butterflies not only send the message to predators that these butterflies are highly toxic, but that the storage of toxins and development of the colourful wings come at a cost to the butterfly’s body. The team reared monarch caterpillars on their milkweed food plants that had different levels of toxins. Monarchs that had ingested high levels of toxins from their food plants as caterpillars, experienced high levels of oxidative damage after storing these toxins in their bodies, and were less conspicuous in their coloration. The study demonstrated experimentally that the storing of toxins is costly for insects that are highly specialized on their food plants.
许多被捕食动物的眼睛斑点可以阻止捕食者攻击,例如孔雀蝴蝶。在一项新的研究中,来自马克斯·普朗克化学生态学研究所和纽卡斯尔大学的研究人员表明,眼睛斑点的排列方式对猎物的生存产生影响。当眼睛斑点看起来像是直接注视着捕食性幼鸟时,它们对捕食者的威慑力更大。最有效的威慑是同心圆,这些圆圈从任何角度接近都主观上看起来保持着眼神接触。