Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...

Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...

Rhizaria are a diverse group of unicellular protists characterized by their threadlike cytoplasmic extensions known as pseudopodia. These structures aid in both locomotion and feeding, giving Rhizaria an amoeboid appearance. Their amoeboid morphology once led to taxonomic confusion, but molecular phylogenetics has clarified their evolutionary placement and emphasized their shared use of pseudopodia despite divergent lineages.This clade comprises diverse lineages such as Chlorarachniophyta,...

Overview

The group Stramenopiles include some phototrophic microorganisms. Members of this group possess flagella covered in numerous short, hairlike extensions, a feature that inspired the group's name, derived from the Latin words for "straw" and "hair." Some of the main categories of Stramenopiles include diatoms, golden algae, and brown algae.Diatoms are unicellular, photosynthetic eukaryotes, with over 200 known genera. They play a key role in the planktonic communities of both marine and...

When an object is placed in a fluid, it either floats or sinks. All objects in a fluid experience a buoyant force. For example, a metal ball sinks, while a rubber ball floats. Similarly, a submarine can sink and float by adjusting its buoyancy.  The concept of buoyancy raises several interesting questions. For instance, where does this buoyant force come from? How much buoyant force is required to make an object sink or float? Do objects that sink get any support at all from the...