Bison are political animals. A federal decision to revoke grazing leases for bison on public lands on the rolling plains of ...

What do bison, beaver, wolves and sea otters all have in common? They're keystone species. That means they have an outsized impact on their ecosystem. It took humans driving some of these to near ...

Ecologists have long understood food chains. The animal at the top, the prime predator in an ecosystem, was believed to be the most significant. That predator helped keep their prey in check. That ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The reemergence of a keystone species sparked joy among scientists, ecologists, and biologists. The Santa Cruz kangaroo rat — a ...

For decades, ecologists have theorized that the extinction of one important species could set off a chain reaction of losses ...

Microbial communities are thought to contain keystone species, which can disproportionately affect the stability of the communities, even if only present in low abundances. Identifying these keystone ...

Some species play an outsize role in the environment they inhabit. Beavers build dams that create ponds where fish thrive. Otters in kelp forests eat enough sea urchins so that the kelp can grow ...

A few years ago, the United Nations reported on nature’s unprecedented decline in biodiversity. Since then, finding ways to give plants, insects and animals a boost has been a priority for many around ...