Researchers from around the world have entered the 2022 BMC Ecology and Evolution photography competition this year and produced a spectacular collection of images showcasing nature's wonders. The collection highlights the need to protect nature from the increasing negative human impact on the planet.
Like in the past years, researchers who participated in the contest were composed of ecologists and evolutionary biologists from around the world who are eager to show the wonder of the natural world. The Senior Editorial Board Members lent their expertise to judge the submissions and selected the overall winner, best image, and runner-up for every category.
Overall Winner: Fungus Making a Fly Its 'Zombie' Slave
The striking photo of the parasitic "zombie" fungus Ophiocordyceps is hailed as the overall winner of the competition. It was captured by evolutionary biologist Roberto Garcia-Roa, who is also a conservation photographer affiliated with the University of Valencia in Spain and Lund University in Sweden.
ARS Technica reported that Garcia-Roa was trekking through a Peruvian jungle when he found the fungus, which belongs to the Cordyceps family, composed of 400 different species. These insects target ants, dragonflies, cockroaches, aphids, and beetles. They serve as nature's own population control mechanism that ensures a balanced ecosystem.
García-Roa said that Ophiocordyceps is just like its zombifying relatives that infiltrate the exoskeletons and brains of their hosts via spores scattered in the air that are attached to their bodies. While inside, they sprout long tendrils known as mycelia that grow into the brain and release chemicals to make it their zombie slave.
The chemicals help the fungus move inside the host to the most favorable location so that it can thrive and grow. The fungus easily feeds on the host until new sprouts appear throughout its body.
As seen from the award-winning photo of Gacia-Roa, these sprouts burst and release even more spores into the air that will again infect other unsuspecting hosts. Garcia-Roa calls this "a conquest shaped by thousands of years of evolution." Christy Anna Hipsley, a member of the Editorial Board, praised the photo for its depth and composition, which shows life and death simultaneously.
Ophiocordyceps sphecocephala fungus growing on a dead wasp
Other Winners and Runners-Up in Each Category
The full list of winners for the 2022 BMC Ecology and Evolution photography competition appeared on its website. Here are the other categories of the competition and their runners-up:
- Relationships in Nature
- Winner- Plant-frugivore relationship of the Bohemian Waxwings and rowan berries by Alwin Hardenbol, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland.
- Runner-up- Predator-prey relationship of a hungry fringe-lipped bat and a male tungara frog by behavioral biologist Alexander T. Baugh of Swarthmore College, USA.
- Biodiversity Under Threat
- Winner- A group of African elephants under a large Baobab tree in Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa was captured by Samantha Kreling from the University of Washington.
- Runner-up- A male wood frog and its eggs trapped under the ice by assistant research professor Lindsey Swierkfrom Binghamton University (State University of New York).
- Life close-up
- Winner- A picture of gliding tree frogs in the early stage of development while they are still in eggs is from Costa Rican-American Ph.D. student Brandon André Güell.
- Runner-up- A photo of an anole lizard diving by breathing underwater is also taken by Lindsey Swierkfrom.
- Research in Action
- Winner- Biologist Jefferson Ribeiro Amaral from Cornell Universitycaptured a photo of two Ph.D. researchers from the State University of Rio de Janeiro performing fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic under thunderstorms.
- Runner-up- A photo that shows Brandon A. Güell amidst thousands of gliding treefrogs, Agalychnis spurrelli, and their recently laid eggs on palm fronds.
Watch the video below to see more incredible photos that captured the wonders of nature:
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