Researchers measured the rate at which soil absorbed water on grasslands with active pika colonies and in places
where pikas had been exterminated for more than 2 years.
Not exact matches
Johanna Varner is an assistant professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University,
where she teaches courses for both biology majors and non-majors and studies the response of small rabbit - relatives, called
pikas, to environmental change.
Varner is an assistant professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University,
where she teaches courses for both biology majors and non-majors and studies the response of small rabbit - relatives, called
pikas, to environmental change.
Pikas, which include about 30 species all living at different altitudes, have likely evolved special adaptations for living
where they do.
The proteins from high - altitude
pikas appear to be very efficient at this conversion, which helps explain how they thrive high up
where the air is thin.
Her research indicated that
pika are able to regulate their temperature by burrowing much deeper into the talus,
where cool air circulates.
The comprehensive survey found the sites that lost
pikas were on average drier and warmer and at lower latitudes than sites
where the animals remain, said Erik Beever, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist based in Corvallis, Ore., and the study's lead author.
It found that the
pikas no longer existed in seven of 25 sites
where they once were plentiful.
Pikas are severely constrained in their choice of
where to homestead.
The sea butterfly joins the parade of icons like polar bears, penguins,
pika, mangroves and Parmesan's butterflies
where the effects of natural climate variability or direct human interference are obscured and falsely promoted as catastrophic climate change.