【推荐1】The sunflower sea star has been listed as a critically endangered species following a groundbreaking population study led by Oregon State University (OSU) and The Nature Conservancy.

“These giant sea stars used to be easy to find and were a hit with divers. Unfortunately, your chances of finding one now are next to nothing in most of the areas near the United States—this listing is one step to extinction—and I don’t think they’re coming back without help,” said OSU’s Sarah Gravem, a research associate in the College of Science and the lead author of the study.

Populations of the sunflower sea star suffered dramatic crashes because of a marine (海洋的) wildlife epidemic event, which began in 2013. Scientists used more than 61,000 population surveys from 31 data sets to calculate a 90.6% decline in the sunflower sea stars and estimated that as many as 5.75 billion animals died from the disease, whose cause has not been determined. Moreover, the research showed no sign of population recovery in any region in the five to seven years since the event.

Sunflower sea stars are a key catcher of purple sea urchins (海胆) and the sea star decline has helped the increase in the urchin population in many regions. Too many urchins are linked to a decline in kelp forests（海藻林) already facing pressure from marine heat wave events, making the future uncertain for ecosystems that provide habitat for thousands of marine animals and help support coastal economies.

“Because most people are not out in the ocean every day, we don’t realize how much it’s being changed and impacted by humans. We need to think about how to keep our ocean healthy. While reducing the release of carbon dioxide is the most pressing need, rebuilding key catcher populations, like the sunflower sea star, can be an important piece of the puzzle too,” said study co-author Sara Hamilton, a Ph. D. candidate in the OSU College of Science.

【推荐2】I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heartbreaking; survival is never certain. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.

I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl(猫头鹰) on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.

I examined the chick(雏鸟) and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree.

The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.

Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.

A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all — LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.

【推荐3】Whether hunting or competing for limited space and resources, humans are the planet’s super predator (捕食者). As the human population expands, it’s getting harder for other creatures to find somewhere to hide during the day. Now new findings indicate animals around the world have come up with another strategy: They are becoming nocturnal (夜间活动的).

In a paper published in Science, researchers analyzed 76 previous scientific studies about human impact on animal activity. They compared animals’ activity during the day and night in areas of high human disturbance (from hunting or farming to hiking and other outdoor recreation) and low human disturbance (relatively natural conditions). The analysis showed animals are becoming an average of 1.36 times more nocturnal due to high human disturbance.

For example, in Poland wild boars go from 48% nocturnal in natural forests to 90% nocturnal in urban areas. Even activities people consider relatively innocuous, such as hiking and wildlife viewing, strongly affected animals’ daily rhythms. “We think that we’re leaving no trace often when we’re outdoors, but we can be having lasting consequences on animal behavior,” says Kaitlyn Gaynor, lead researcher for the study.

This is not the first time animals have had to live at night; during the time of dinosaurs, they were also nocturnal. “Dinosaurs were this ubiquitous (无处不在的), scary force, and only after their extinction did mammals (哺乳动物) emerge into the daylight,” Gaynor says. “And now humans have taken over and are pushing other animals back into the night.”

Scientists suspect becoming nocturnal may hurt those species highly adapted to the sun. They might not be able to live well at night, which would ultimately hurt their chances of survival and reproduction. Perhaps even more alarming effects could be in the wider ecosystem. In California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, coyotes have been more nocturnal in response to hikers and have started to alter their diets from daytime prey, such as squirrels and birds, to nocturnal prey, such as rats and rabbits.

Exactly how ecological communities will change, and whether it will be for better or worse, requires further study. Some nighttime shifts may benefit both animals and humans, Gaynor notes. For instance, tigers in Nepal are avoiding potentially deadly conflicts with people as they become more nocturnal.

Studies like this one will eventually help conservation managers make better decisions about how to protect ecosystems. “We’ll need to understand local dynamics to really understand how we should be changing management of wildlife populations or human activities,” Gaynor notes, “One potential approach might be to manage the timing of human activities so that we leave some of the daylight for other animals.”

【推荐1】To help self-driving cars drive safely, scientists are looking to an unlikely place: the sea. A new type of camera inspired by the eyes of mantis shrimps(螳螂虾) could help autonomous vehicles better assess their surroundings, researchers report October 11 in Optica. The camera has roughly half a million sensors that each capture a wide range of light and dark spots within a single frame, somewhat similar to how mantis shrimps see the world.

The researchers wanted to ''imitate the animals' ability to detect a wide range of light intensities(强度), ''says co-author Viktor Gruev, a bio-engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The shrimps’ visual system allows them to see both light and dark areas while moving in and out of dark cracks in shallow waters, he says.

The newly devised camera can take in a wider range of light intensities, measured in decibels (分贝), than other digital or polarization cameras. Previously, the best polarization cameras operated with a dynamic range of about 60 decibels; the new one works within a 140 decibel range, resulting in a clearer mapping of objects in the same frame.

Depending on the maker, autonomous vehicles currently use a mixture of methods to map the world around them, including lidar (light detection and ranging equipment), cameras and GPS. But the cameras currently guiding autonomous vehicles aren't good at handling sharp lighting transitions and have trouble detecting features in foggy weather. Because the new cameras are small and use many of the same parts as common digital cameras, Gruev says they could cost as little as $10, which means they are car-makers' best choice for their autonomous vehicles.