After 9,000 years of cultivation, rice has reached its thermal limit
Rice has historically been a heat-loving plant. In fact, the wild ancestor of cultivated rice once grew primarily on the…
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African frogs haven’t forgotten the ice ages. Scientists can tell by where they live.
Why are frogs diverse in some parts of Africa’s rainforests and less so in others? The patterns of cooling and…
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The yucca and the moth: How extreme weather impacts the timing of biological events
Whether it is flowers sprouting in the spring, cicadas mating in the blistering heat of summer, or caterpillars hatching to…
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Scientists can now predict how climate change will alter plant growth cycles
On February 2, 1887, residents of Punxsutawney Pennsylvania consulted a large rodent regarding the arrival of spring, marking the first…
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First local extinction in the U.S. due to sea level rise
The United States has lost its only stand of the massive Key Largo tree cactus in what researchers believe is…
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Weather anomalies are keeping insects active longer
As Earth’s climate continues to warm due to the emission of greenhouse gases, extreme and anomalous weather events are becoming…
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Florida mints radiated as peninsula sank and resurfaced during ice ages
During the ice ages of the Pleistocene, the Florida peninsula regularly expanded to twice its current size as glaciers grew…
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Sea urchins keep on trucking while other marine life languishes in the Florida Keys
In the summer of 2020, Florida Museum researchers Tobias Grun and Michał Kowalewski dove into the shallow waters off the…
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Tropical insects are extremely sensitive to changing climates
Insects that are adapted to perennially wet environments, like tropical rainforests, don’t tend to do well when their surroundings dry…
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Adriatic ecosystems withstand major climate shifts but wither under human impact
An analysis of more than 70,000 fossils indicates that mollusk communities were incredibly resilient to major climatic shifts during the…
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