FEATURERestoring Natural Capital In putting a price tag on endangered species and degraded ecosystems, ecologists and economists have joined forces to formulate a new rationale for environmental issues: restoring natural capital© Erich Schlegel/Dallas Morning News/CorbisBY PADDY WOODWORTHEcological restoration is expensive. The United States government is slated to spend almost $8 billion restoring parts of the Florida Evergla

Photo: Steve Bunk Dave Tinnin, field research associate in the University of New Mexico's biology department, takes blood samples and measurements of rodents caught on the research station grounds. At the end of a freeway exit near Soccoro, N.M., the hairpin turn onto a gravel road is marked by a sign that warns, "Wrong Way." But it isn't the wrong way if you want to reach the University of New Mexico's (UNM) long-term ecological research (LTER) station. The sign's subterfuge is the first indi

Forests are resilient, but researchers wonder if climate change will outpace their adaptations.

Blue sharks don't dive as deeply in low-oxygen waters—which become more prevalent as oceans warm—effectively pushing them into areas of high fishing pressure.

Courtesy of Genevieve Anderson If not for Nobel laureates Thomas Hunt Morgan, Eric R. Kandel, and Sydney Brenner, the notion of a general behavioral model might seem odd. Behaviors, after all, are determined by an animal's evolutionary history and ecological niche. They are often idiosyncratic, shared in detail only by closely related species. But, thanks to Morgan's research in the early 20th century, and Kandel's and Brenner's work over the past 35 years, the fly Drosophila melanogaster, t

Traveling to the ends of the earth in pursuit of biological quarry is not part of the job description for the average molecular biologist. But for anthropologist Don Melnick, going to work means trekking through the jungles of Southeast Asia for blood samples from the Javan silvery gibbon and other endangered animals. And the jobs of geneticist John Avise and biologist Brian Bowen entail long nights on tropical beaches waiting for nesting sea turtles. The following are the top ecology journal

Sexual selection doesn’t end when females choose a mate. Females and males of many animal species employ an array of tactics to stack the deck in their reproductive favor.

By Kirsten Weir The Great Haddock Revival In the near-empty seas, one species has surged back to life. Can the others follow? Photography by Alexandra Daley-Clark filmy, pink dawn has just slipped above the horizon as the F/V Stormy Weather arrives at the fishing grounds. After a two-hour cruise from port in Hampton Beach, NH, the vessel has reached the southwest corner of Jeffrey's Ledge, a winding offshore glacial

SOLVING REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS: MacArthur fellow Vonnie McLoyd's research combines concepts in socioeconomics, psychology, and anthropology. This year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowships will help six scientists advance their cutting-edge, multidisciplinary projects that extend from the ocean depths to distant stars and planets. With grants of about $250,000 or more, the newly named fellows will be able to finance innovative-even maverick-research ideas that might otherwis

Photo: Ori Fragman, Hebrew University Hordeum spontaneum, the plant studied for BARE-1 retroelements. With genome sequences arriving almost as regularly as the morning paper, the public's attention is focused on genes--new genes to protect crops against pests; rogue genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics; faulty genes that, if fixed, could cure diseases such as muscular dystrophy. What many people don't realize is that genes account for only part of an organism's DNA, and in many c