A single picture makes you a god! Flies that grow mushrooms, lizards that blow bubbles, fungi that glow...

From insects controlled by parasitic fungi to waxwings feasting on food and lizards blowing bubbles, the winners of the second BMC Ecology and Evolution photo competition have been announced today, showcasing the wonders of nature and highlighting the growing need to protect it from human impact.

The overall winner, Roberto García-Roa of the University of Valencia in Spain, depicts a fungus-infested fly with the fruiting bodies of the parasitic fungus bursting out of its body in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru.

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Senior Editorial Board Member Christy Anna Hipsley recommended the work, saying, “Roberto García-Roa’s powerful work seems straight out of a science fiction novel. It simultaneously depicts life and death, as the death of a fly enables the life of a fungus.”

In addition to the overall winner, the judges also selected the first and second place winners in four categories: Relationships in Nature, Threatened Biodiversity, Life Close-ups and Research in Progress, as well as three commended works.

The winning images highlight the relationships between species, show the details and challenges of life on our planet, and showcase the efforts of researchers to understand and protect nature.

Relationships in nature

Champion Works

Alwin Hardenbol from the University of Eastern Finland won the "Relationships in Nature" category. This photo depicts a waxwing enjoying fermented rowan berries, showing the close relationship between species. The presence of rowan has influenced the migration of waxwings, which can eat hundreds of rowan berries every day and have evolved large livers to metabolize the alcohol in the fermenting berries.

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Senior Editorial Board Member Luck Jacobus said: “This image clearly conveys action, reaction and interaction, instantly grabbing the reader’s attention. The contrasting colours and carefully composed image capture a fleeting moment, and the waxwing seems to respond to the reader.”

Runner-up

The runner-up in the "Relationships in Nature" category was Alexander T. Baugh, a behavioral biologist from Swarthmore College in the United States. This photo, taken at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, shows the conflict between natural selection and sexual selection in nature. The photo records a striated bat (Trachops cirrhosis) capturing a courting South American bubble toad (Physalalamus pustulosus). The bat used the low-frequency calls made by the South American bubble toad to locate the happy prey.

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Threatened biodiversity

Champion Works

The champion of the "Threatened Biodiversity" category was Samantha Kreling of the University of Washington. This work was taken in Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa. When drought hit, African elephants took shelter from the scorching sun under a large baobab tree.

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Samantha Kreling said: “Baobab trees can live for more than 2,000 years and store water in their barrel-shaped trunks during periods of drought. This tree has been stripped of its bark by elephants searching for water. While the trees are normally able to heal quickly, the high temperatures associated with climate change are making this damage more than the baobab can handle. This photo highlights the need for quick action or we could lose this iconic tree forever.”

Runner-up

The second-place photo in this category was submitted by Lindsey Swierk, an assistant research professor at Binghamton University. Lindsey Swierk said that wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) are early spring breeders in temperate North America, gathering in ponds to mate and lay eggs soon after the ice and snow melt. In recent years, climate change has caused warmer early spring temperatures in the northeastern United States, causing wood frogs to breed earlier. However, due to unstable temperatures and the continued cold of winter, the wood frogs and eggs were frozen under the water. The photo shows a male wood frog lying on a large pile of eggs. The frog survived in the end, but many of the eggs died.

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Close-up of life

Champion Works

The winning entry in the “Close-up of Life” category depicts the embryo of a white-spotted tree frog developing in an egg on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. The artist is Brandon André Güell from Boston University in the United States.

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"The eggs pictured here were laid by thousands of frogs during an explosive breeding event triggered by heavy rains," said Brandon André Güell. "If undisturbed, the eggs will hatch after six days of development, but can hatch earlier if they are trying to avoid threats such as predators or flooding."

Runner-up

This photo by Lindsey Swierk shows an Anolis aquaticus underwater with bubbles on its head. Anolis aquaticus are small neotropical lizards that can stay underwater for up to 20 minutes when threatened by predators by diving into the water to escape, breathing through bubbles above their noses.

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Research in progress

Champion Works

The winner of the "Research in Progress" category was taken by Jeferson Ribeiro Amaral of Cornell University in the United States, and the photo shows two researchers from the State University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This photo was taken during a rainstorm during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the researchers in the photo are conducting field research to determine whether isolated trees can help mitigate the impact of human activities by increasing the number of frogs and improving nutrient cycling in ponds.

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“The researchers in the photo represent the many researchers who have continued to work during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jeferson Ribeiro Amaral. “The photos show their strength and their contributions to understanding the world we live in, whether it’s a thunderstorm or a global pandemic, they continue their work.”

Runner-up

A photo submitted by Brandon A. Güell was selected as the runner-up in the "Research in Progress" category. This photo shows Brandon observing white-spotted tree frogs (Agalychnis spurrelli) and thousands of them around him laying eggs on palm leaves. This photo documents my observations, documentation, and data collection for my first study of explosive reproduction in white-spotted tree frogs. The explosive reproduction strategy of white-spotted tree frogs and the various behaviors that may affect adult reproductive success are not well studied. In addition, white-spotted tree frogs are a great example of how the environment can affect hatching, as their embryos can hatch early to avoid predators, food, dryness, and other issues.

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Positive reviews

Work 1

Bioluminescent fungi in the rainforests of Borneo. By Julian Schrader.

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Work 2

The stomach of a seabird filled with plastic waste. By Marine Cusa.

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Work 3

Researchers monitor the eggs of Bermuda petrels. By Letizia Campioni.

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The BMC Ecology & Evolution Photo Competition was created to give ecologists and evolutionary biologists the opportunity to use their creativity to represent their research, highlighting the intersection of art and science.

Source: Science Popularization China

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