ecologist

"It paints a pretty stark and harrowing picture," Connor Bamford, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey and lead author of the study, told AFP.

For many years, ecologists assumed that plants reached remote islands mainly through special traits that allowed long-distance travel, such as fruits that attract birds to eat and later disperse their seeds.

"I am not eating my own rice yet," the ecologist joked.

Many ecologists also want us to look beyond the benefits the wildflowers provide for us.

Schwarz, an urban ecologist, said she was surprised to learn about the extent to which regulations requiring non-grass surfaces for sports and outdoor physical education dictated the design of some schoolyards.