Can a few tree genes call most of the shots in an ecosystem? Many biologists would say

Over the past decade, Green Bay’s perch fishery has plummeted while double-crested cormorants have thrived. Cormorants eat fish, including perch, and a lot of people are wondering whether hungry cormorants are contributing to the perch decline.

Ants that tend and harvest gardens of fungus have been closely studied for dozens of years, and are often cited as a model system for symbiosis. However, two other key players-an antibiotic-producing bacteria and a garden parasite, which have likely been co-evolving with the ants and the fungus for tens of millions of years-have been identified in recent years.

“I’ll Fly Away” may be the theme song of some insect species exposed to elevated levels of ozone, according to groundbreaking research by Edward Mondor and his colleagues in the entomology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They are researching the effects of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and ozone on insect behavior and physiology.

In recent months consumers have become all too familiar with news of oil costs spiking, and most experts agree that higher prices at the pump are likely here to stay. As the demand for alternative forms of energy grows,

Woodcock wrangler Jed Meunier sees a lot of sunsets during his research. Fieldwork in the twilight hours comes with the territory when you’re trapping timberdoodles for science. Meunier, a graduate student in wildlife ecology at the UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, is part of a multi-year study of woodcock in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The project is helping to reveal the reasons underlying woodcock population declines in the upper Midwest.

Given the number of human pharmaceuticals and hormones that make their way into wastewater, some people are concerned about how well treatment plants that turn sewage into reusable water remove these chemicals. New research shows that wastewater treatment plants that employ a combination of purifying techniques followed by reverse osmosis do a good job of removing chemicals that may elicit health effects.

Road density in northern Wisconsin has doubled during the last 60 years, but forest managers have a time window to fight the non-native plants that often come with construction and overwhelm native plant life.

While a rapidly changing climate may alter the composition of northern Wisconsin’s forests, disturbances such as logging also will play a critical role in how these sylvan ecosystems change over time.

Bugs have gotten a bad rap, says Jenny Jandt, coordinator of the UW-Madison Insect Ambassadors. That’s why her cortege of student ambassadors is willing to take their show on the road to spread good will for animals dear to their hearts: insects.