Related topics: species · extinction · animals · climate change · ocean

Early spring, earlier nesting birds

Did spring arrive early this year? Some people think so. Apparently, some birds do, too. The NestWatch project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology documents when and where birds are nesting.

Decoding the shared genetic toolkit for male sex determination

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen have broken new ground by demonstrating that an HMG-box gene in brown algae is crucial for determining male sex. This breakthrough significantly expands our ...

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Habitat

A habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits") is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular animal or plant species. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.[citation needed]

The term "species population" is preferred to "organism" because, while it is possible to describe the habitat of a single black bear, we may not find any particular or individual bear but the grouping of bears that comprise a breeding population and occupy a certain biogeographical area. Further, this habitat could be somewhat different from the habitat of another group or population of black bears living elsewhere. Thus it is neither the species nor the individual for which the term habitat is typically used.

A microhabitat is a physical location that is home to very small creatures, such as woodlice. Microenvironment is the immediate surroundings and other physical factors of an individual plant or animal within its habitat.

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