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The Montseny brook newt ( Calotriton arnoldi ), a glacial relict endemic to a small, isolated massif in northeast Spain, is considered the only Critically Endangered urodele in Europe. Its restricted range is divided by a deep valley that acts as an impassable barrier to dispersal, separating two isolated metapopulations (Western and Eastern) that correspond to independent lineages with different evolutionary trajectories, based on genetic and genomic data. Here, we address the ecological differentiation between lineages and discuss its potential effect on the phenotypic distinctness of each lineage. Based on multiple lines of evidence, we formally describe the Western Montseny brook newt as a new subspecies: Calotriton arnoldi laietanus ssp. nov. Finally, our study underscores the importance of considering taxonomic progress in the conservation policies of endangered species, ensuring appropriate management and protection of the newly described taxa., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2024 Talavera et al.)

The Montseny brook newt ( Calotriton arnoldi ), considered the most endangered amphibian in Europe, is a relict salamandrid species endemic to a small massif located in northeastern Spain. Although conservation efforts should always be guided by genomic studies, those are yet scarce among urodeles, hampered by the extreme sizes of their genomes. Here, we present the third available genome assembly for the order Caudata, and the first genomic study of the species and its sister taxon, the Pyrenean brook newt ( Calotriton asper ), combining whole-genome and ddRADseq data. Our results reveal significant demographic oscillations which accurately mirrored Europe's climatic history. Although severe bottlenecks have led to depauperate genomic diversity and long runs of homozygosity along a gigantic genome, inbreeding might have been avoided by assortative mating strategies. Other life history traits, however, seem to have been less advantageous, and the lack of land dispersal has driven to exceptional levels of population fragmentation., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors.)

In fire-prone regions, fire is a major natural disturbance which shapes ecosystem function and community composition. Fire has a direct and dramatic effect on soil fauna and, especially, on non-mobile species such as land snails. The factors that make the Mediterranean Basin a fire-prone region may also lead to the appearance after fires of certain functional traits related to ecological and physiological characteristics. Knowledge of how community structure and function change along the post-fire succession will be useful for understanding the processes that drive biodiversity patterns in burnt areas and for implementing appropriate biodiversity management strategies. Here, we examine long-interval taxonomic and functional changes occurred in a snail community four and 18 years after a fire in the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park (NE Spain). Our field-based study demonstrates that the land snail assemblage responds both taxonomically and functionally to fire and that there was a clear replacement of dominant species from the first to the second sampling period. Variation in community composition between different post-fire ages can be attributed to snail species traits and successional changes in post-fire habitat conditions. At taxonomic level, there was great variation in snail species turnover between both periods, being the development of the understorey vegetation structure the main driver of this variation. The replacement of functional traits between times since fire suggests that xerophilic and mesophilic preferences play an important role after fire and are largely determined by the complexity of post-fire microhabitats. Our analysis indicates that immediately after a fire there is a time-window of opportunity that attracts species specializing in early successional habitats, which thereafter are replaced due to the changing conditions resulting from succession. Consequently, knowing the functional traits of species is important for determining the impacts of disturbances on the taxonomic and functional communities., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To analyse the evolution of state of mind in adolescents in the province of Barcelona for the last six years and the specific impact of the pandemic and its experience. Likewise, analyse the associated factors both in pre-pandemic period and during., Methods: Since 2015/2016 a Questionnaire on health related habits was carried out among 4 th year high school students to which a COVID-19 chapter was added in the 2020/2021 academic year. There was a representative provincial pre-pandemic sample (N=15,118) and a sample during the pandemic (N=4,966). The dichotomous aggregate variable of positive/negative state of mind was constructed with six specific items to which the bivariate analyses and a multivariate generalized mixed linear model were carried out for both periods. Analysis performed with SAS., Results: The pandemic significantly intensified the trend of worsening the state of mind adolescents, and widened the gender gap. Boys went from 17.9% (pre-pandemic) to 25.7% (during pandemic) with a negative mood, while girls from 31.9% to 52.9%. In modelling during pandemic, socioeconomic and family factors appeared relevant and significant. Sex, perceived poor health, being victim of harassment, self-perception of weight, excessive use of the internet and a poor perception of the residential environment remained significant as in the pre-pandemic model., Conclusions: The specific negative impact of the pandemic on adolescents' mental well-being is perceived, but it is too early to tell whether it is reversible or not and to assess the effectiveness of interventions to tackle it., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Water quality and riparian communities are among the most affected stream components by agriculture. However, little is known about the effects of riparian management for both aquatic and terrestrial taxa at different spatial scales. Here, we surveyed aquatic (diatoms) and terrestrial taxa (bryophytes, vascular plants, litter-dwelling snails, and ground and volant arthropods), to compare the abundance and richness of riparian taxa and chemical quality between reference and exposed sites in two stream reaches each of c. 3.5 km in northwestern Spain. Impacts in exposed sites were mainly due to traditional farming practices (TFPs), which included traditional meadow management, weirs built for now-unused water mills and sporadic timber harvesting. Therefore, we measured ten covariates and predictors related to the intensification of TFPs at local and within-stream scales and explored associations with riparian and water-quality measures to study the potential effects of TFPs in more detail. Reference and exposed sites did not differ significantly in water properties (diatom-biotic indices, conductivity, total organic carbon and nitrates), but exposed sites had less concentrations of soil metals Cd, Cu, Ni and Zn and less cover and richness of riparian trees, as inferred by the index QBR. Exposed sites had more volant insect decomposers and reference sites a greater abundance or richness of snails, ground predators and decomposers. Bryophyte richness was greater in reference sites. Our inferences may inform the joint cumulative downstream effects of weirs, meadow uses and riparian alterations but were generally consistent with most riparian taxa benefiting from having larger forested areas. Given the contrasting responses among taxa, we argue that land snails, terrestrial flies, and centipedes may be valuable additions to current riparian assessments mostly based on plants, beetles and spiders as indicator taxa. Our study also suggests caution when inferring farming impacts on streams from the surface area of pastoral land., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Authors declared no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Species with small geographic ranges do not tend to have a high genetic structure, but some land snail species seem to be an exception. Xerocrassa montserratensis, an endangered land snail endemic to Catalonia (northeastern Iberian Peninsula), is an excellent model to study the processes affecting the phylogeography of specialized species of conservation concern. This species is restricted to xerophilous stony slopes and occurs within a small and fragmented area of ca. 500 km 2 . We sequenced the COI barcode region of 152 individuals from eight sites covering the entire range of the species. We found four genetic groups mostly coincident with their geographic distribution: a central ancestral group containing shared haplotypes among five localities and three groups restricted to a single locality each. Two of these derived groups were geographically and genetically isolated, while the third and most differentiated group was not geographically isolated. Geomorphologic and paleoclimatic processes during the Pleistocene can explain the divergence found between populations of this low dispersal species with historical fragmentation and secondary contacts. Nonetheless, recent passive large dispersal through streams was also detected in the central group. Overall, our study uncovered four evolutionary units, partially matching morphologically described subspecies, which should be considered in future conservation actions.

Wildlife diseases are contributing to the current Earth's sixth mass extinction; one disease, chytridiomycosis, has caused mass amphibian die-offs. While global spread of a hypervirulent lineage of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BdGPL) causes unprecedented loss of vertebrate diversity by decimating amphibian populations, its impact on amphibian communities is highly variable across regions. Here, we combine field data with in vitro and in vivo trials that demonstrate the presence of a markedly diverse variety of low virulence isolates of BdGPL in northern European amphibian communities. Pre-exposure to some of these low virulence isolates protects against disease following subsequent exposure to highly virulent BdGPL in midwife toads (Alytes obstetricans) and alters infection dynamics of its sister species B. salamandrivorans in newts (Triturus marmoratus), but not in salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). The key role of pathogen virulence in the complex host-pathogen-environment interaction supports efforts to limit pathogen pollution in a globalized world.

The Montseny brook newt ( Calotriton arnoldi ) is a critically endangered amphibian species which inhabits a small 20 km 2 holm oak and beech forest area in NE Spain. Calotriton arnoldi strictly lives in running waters and might be highly vulnerable to hydrological perturbations expected to occur under climate and vegetation cover changes. Knowledge about the potential response of the species habitat to environmental changes can help assessing the actions needed for its conservation. Based on knowledge of the species and supported by observations, we proposed daily low and high streamflow event thresholds for the viability of C. arnoldi . We used the rainfall-runoff model PERSiST to simulate changes in the frequency and duration of these events, which were predicted under two climate and four vegetation cover scenarios for near-future (2031-2050) and far-future (2081-2100) periods in a reference catchment. All future scenarios projected a significant decrease in annual streamflow (from 21% to as much as 67%) with respect to the reference period. The frequency and length of low streamflow events will dramatically increase. In contrast, the risk of catastrophic drift linked to high streamflow events was predicted to decrease. The potential change in vegetation toward an expansion of holm oak forests will be more important than climate changes in determining threshold low flow conditions. We thus demonstrated that consideration of potential changes in vegetation and not only changes in climate variables is essential in simulating future streamflows. This study shows that future low streamflow conditions will pose a severe threat for the survival of C. arnoldi and may help taking management actions, including limiting the expansion of holm oak forest, for ameliorating the species habitat and help its conservation., Competing Interests: None declared.

Objective: The health system in Spain rests mostly in the Autonomous Communities (similar to the states in the US). The public health activities of many local governments are little studied. The objective of this work was to bring knowledge about the public health activities of the municipalities, providing information obtained from a recent survey in Catalonia., Methods: Descriptive study based on a survey to public health officers in the 119 municipalities above 10,000 population in Catalonia, excluding the city of Barcelona. The survey was conducted between May and October 2016, with 103 municipalities (86.6%) reporting on their services in 2015, prior to the survey. Data were collected and descriptive analyses performed., Results: A consolidation of both political and professional public health structures of the municipalities was observed. Most frequent activities in health protection were related to legionella control, the control of urban pests and the management of complaints and requests by citizens. Most frequent activities in the field of health promotion were related to physical activity and health, prevention in tobacco and alcohol, food and nutrition. There were relatively few changes reported in public health structures and their officers, as well as in human resources., Conclusions: In Catalonia, municipalities above 10,000 population have a remarkable level of activity in public health. Both the areas of health protection (with mandatory minimum services for local governments) and of health promotion show high levels of activity. The system seems stable regarding political changes and budget constraints. There are opportunities for improvement in the training of professionals and service accreditation. It would be desirable to find ways to improve coordination among these services., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

The atrioventricular node (AV) is considered the electrical connection between the atria and ventricles. There is an electrical pause between activation of the atria and the ventricles (PR segment), but to date the mechanism responsible for this interruption remains unclear. The present communication focuses on the hypothesis that magnetic field dynamics could provide the answer. Proof of this hypothesis is that in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, where there is physical connection between the atria and ventricles (bundle of Kent), there is electrical AV continuity, no PR segment is detected, and catheter ablation of the abnormal bundle restores AV discontinuity. Spontaneous initiation of the heart at the level of the sinus node, the pacemaker of the heart, could also be explained via field dynamics. The known transmembrane pacemaker protein CHN4, present in both sinoatrial and AV nodal cells, could interact with field information to provide specificity in an electronic key-to-lock mechanism interaction., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)-has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

Fire is a major agent involved in landscape transformation and an indirect cause of changes in species composition. Responses to fire may vary greatly depending on life histories and functional traits of species. We have examined the taxonomic and functional responses to fire of eight taxonomic animal groups displaying a gradient of dietary and mobility patterns: Gastropoda, Heteroptera, Formicidae, Coleoptera, Araneae, Orthoptera, Reptilia and Aves. The fieldwork was conducted in a Mediterranean protected area on 3 sites (one unburnt and two burnt with different postfire management practices) with five replicates per site. We collected information from 4606 specimens from 274 animal species. Similarity in species composition and abundance between areas was measured by the Bray-Curtis index and ANOSIM, and comparisons between animal and plant responses by Mantel tests. We analyze whether groups with the highest percentage of omnivorous species, these species being more generalist in their dietary habits, show weak responses to fire (i.e. more similarity between burnt and unburnt areas), and independent responses to changes in vegetation. We also explore how mobility, i.e. dispersal ability, influences responses to fire. Our results demonstrate that differences in species composition and abundance between burnt and unburnt areas differed among groups. We found a tendency towards presenting lower differences between areas for groups with higher percentages of omnivorous species. Moreover, taxa with a higher percentage of omnivorous species had significantly more independent responses of changes in vegetation. High- (e.g. Aves) and low-mobility (e.g. Gastropoda) groups had the strongest responses to fire (higher R scores of the ANOSIM); however, we failed to find a significant general pattern with all the groups according to their mobility. Our results partially support the idea that functional traits underlie the response of organisms to environmental changes caused by fire.

Ectotherm vertebrates show physiological mechanisms that reduce metabolic costs during prolonged fasting. Once feeding, these animals adopt a wide variety of metabolic responses such as changes in gastrointestinal organ masses. Up-regulatory responses after feeding have been widely explored in infrequently feeding snakes like pythons, whereas few studies have been devoted to frequently feeding snakes. In this study, we have considered the gastrointestinal responses after feeding in a frequent feeder, the viperine snake Natrix maura, in the Ebro Delta rice fields. In this habitat, viperine snakes are exposed to long periods of food deprivation due to the lack of available prey as a consequence of the man-induced rice cycle. We weighed prey items and full gut masses, and measured length of combined esophagus and stomach, and intestine of viperine snakes belonging to a wide range of sizes. Snakes concentrate foraging activity when rice fields were flooded. In this period, gut masses increased. Likewise, intestines increased in length during the feeding period, which suggests that viperine snakes probably experience a postfeeding hypertrophy of their small intestines that contributes to their larger length. Once the intestine length was corrected for the snake size, it was shown that adults present longer intestines than immature snakes, reflecting an increase in the posterior part of the body linked to the gonads development. This study contributes to explore the physiological responses to feeding in frequently feeding snakes modelled by abrupt shifts of food availability.

There is a growing concern in many countries over the low recruitment into psychiatry among medical graduates. This has led to studies that aim: (1) to study the attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry, (2) to determine factors that influence such attitudes, (3) to assess the possible causes of this low recruitment and (4) to try to change students' views of psychiatry during their medical education to improve recruitment.

Four pregnancies at risk for mucopolysaccharidosis VII were monitored by chorionic villus sampling obtained in the first or second trimester of gestation. One fetus showed reduced beta-glucuronidase activity following simultaneous sampling of chorionic villus and amniotic fluid at 17 weeks of gestation. The pregnancy was terminated. Subsequent assay of beta-glucuronidase activity in the fetal tissues was consistent with a diagnosis of mucopolysaccharidosis VII, thus confirming that chorionic villus samples provide useful information for diagnosis of this condition.

A phenotypically normal mother of a mucopolysaccharidosis VII child, is reported with an unusually low beta-glucuronidase activity. Low enzyme activity was systemic (6-10% of controls) and residual beta-glucuronidase in leukocytes had an apparently normal Km value. [35S]sulphate incorporation and chase assays in fibroblasts gave values similar to control cells. A normal excretion pattern of glycosaminoglycan was found in this woman's urine. Low enzymatic activity can be related to a non-pathological 'pseudodeficiency' allele for beta-glucuronidase; this woman appears to be an apparent compound heterozygote for this allele and mucopolysaccharidosis VII. Her next pregnancy was monitored by chorionic villus sampling and a heterozygous fetus was suspected. These studies stress the need for complete enzyme investigations of obligate carriers for mucopolysaccharidoses in order to prevent difficulties at prenatal analysis.

A patient with infantile onset methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria (Cbl-C mutant) is described. Therapy with hydroxycobalamin, folate and vitamin B6 improved his condition. As hypomethioninaemia and homocystinaemia persisted, he was treated with intramuscular methylcobalamin, but without success. Treatment with betaine started at 25 months of age, normalized plasma methionine and elicited disappearance of homocystinaemia. Results of biochemical studies in cultured fibroblasts paralleled those described for other Cbl-C patients except that methylmalonyl-coenzyme A mutase activity in disrupted fibroblasts was in the normal range.