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Brood is critically important in social insect colonies. It carries the colony’s fitness through delivering future reproductive adults as well as workers that will increase the colony’s workforce. Adoption of non-nestmate brood can increase the colony workforce but entails the risk of rearing unrelated sexuals or social parasites. Thus, theory would predict that ant workers will evolve the ability to discriminate between nestmate and alien brood using the chemical cues displayed at the brood’s surface. This appears especially true for eggs and first instar (L1) larvae, which require more resources before becoming adult workers compared to older brood. However, the chemical signature of ant early brood stages and its recognition by workers remains understudied. To fill this gap, we investigated the chemical basis of early brood nestmate and cross-species recognition in six ant species. We also tested the discrimination behaviour of workers in brood retrieval trials. We observed species-level cues and discrimination against hetero-specific brood. We also found that eggs and most L1 larvae displayed a colony signature. However, only some species discriminated against non-nestmate early brood. Interestingly, these species belong to genera subject to brood parasitism. We hypothesize that non-nestmate brood discrimination could arise from species adaptations against brood parasitism.

Telomeres have been advocated to be important markers of biological age in evolutionary and ecological studies. Telomeres usually shorten with age, and shortening is frequently associated with environmental stressors and increased subsequent mortality. Telomere lengthening – an apparent increase in telomere length between repeated samples from the same individual – also occurs. However, the exact circumstances, and consequences, of telomere lengthening are poorly understood. Using longitudinal data from the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), we tested whether telomere lengthening – which occurs in adults of this species – is associated with specific stressors (reproductive effort, food availability, malarial infection and cooperative breeding) and predicts subsequent survival. In females, telomere shortening was observed under greater stress (i.e. low food availability, malaria infection), while telomere lengthening was observed in females experiencing lower stress (i.e. high food availability, assisted by helpers, without malaria). The telomere dynamics of males were not associated with the key stressors tested. These results indicate that, at least for females, telomere lengthening occurs in circumstances more conducive to self-maintenance. Importantly, both females and males with lengthened telomeres had improved subsequent survival relative to individuals that displayed unchanged, or shortened, telomeres – indicating that telomere lengthening is associated with individual fitness. These results demonstrate that telomere dynamics are bidirectionally responsive to the level of stress that an individual faces, but may poorly reflect the accumulation of stress over the lifetime. This study challenges how we think of telomeres as a marker of biological age.

Telomeres are protective, nucleoprotein structures at the end of chromosomes that have been associated with lifespan across taxa. However, the extent to which these associations can be attributed to absolute length vs. the rate of telomere shortening prior to sampling remains unresolved. In a longitudinal study, we examined the relationship between lifespan, telomere length and the rate of telomere shortening in wild, purple-crowned fairy-wrens (Malurus coronatus coronatus). To this end, we measured telomere length using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in the blood of 59 individuals sampled as nestlings and 4-14 months thereafter, and in 141 known-age individuals sampled on average three times across adulthood. We applied within-subject centring analyses to simultaneously test for associations between lifespan and average telomere length and telomere shortening. We reveal that the rate of telomere shortening and to a lesser extent telomere length in the first year of life independently predicted lifespan, with individuals with faster shortening rates and/or shorter telomeres living less long. In contrast, in adulthood neither telomere shortening nor telomere length predicted lifespan, despite a considerably larger data set. Our results suggest that telomere length measured very early in life (during development) and longitudinal assessments of telomere shortening during the first year of life constitute more useful biomarkers of total life expectancy than either telomere length measured after development, or telomere shortening later in adulthood.

Individual variation in telomere length is predictive of health and mortality risk across a range of species. However, the relative influence of environmental and genetic variation on individual telomere length in wild populations remains poorly understood. Heritability of telomere length has primarily been calculated using parent-offspring regression which can be confounded by shared environments. To control for confounding variables, quantitative genetic "animal models" can be used, but few studies have applied animal models in wild populations. Furthermore, parental age at conception may also influence offspring telomere length, but most studies have been cross-sectional. We investigated within- and between-parental age at conception effects and heritability of telomere length in the Seychelles warbler using measures from birds caught over 20 years and a multigenerational pedigree. We found a weak negative within-paternal age at conception effect (as fathers aged, their offspring had shorter telomeres) and a weak positive between-maternal age at conception effect (females that survived to older ages had offspring with longer telomeres). Animal models provided evidence that heritability and evolvability of telomere length were low in this population, and that variation in telomere length was not driven by early-life effects of hatch period or parental identities. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction plate had a large influence on telomere length variation and not accounting for it in the models would have underestimated heritability. Our study illustrates the need to include and account for technical variation in order to accurately estimate heritability, as well as other environmental effects, on telomere length in natural populations.

[poster presented at iMarCo congress, abstract from the Molecular Ecology related article] All metazoans are in fact holobionts, resulting from the association of several organisms, and organismal adaptation is then due to the composite response of this association to the environment. Deciphering the mechanisms of symbiont acquisition in a holobiont is therefore essential to understanding the extent of its adaptive capacities. In cnidarians, some species acquire their photosynthetic symbionts directly from their parents (vertical transmission) but may also acquire symbionts from the environment (horizontal acquisition) at the adult stage. The Mediterranean snakelocks sea anemone, Anemonia viridis (Forskål, 1775), passes down symbionts from one generation to the next by vertical transmission, but the capacity for such horizontal acquisition is still unexplored. To unravel the flexibility of the association between the different host lineages identified in A.viridis and its Symbiodiniaceae, we genotyped both the animal hosts and their symbiont communities in members of host clones in five different locations in the North Western Mediterranean Sea. The composition of within-host–symbiont populations was more dependent on the geographical origin of the hosts than their membership to a given lineage or even to a given clone. Additionally, similarities in host–symbiont communities were greater among genets (i.e. among different clones) than among ramets (i.e. among members of the same given clonal genotype). Taken together, our results demonstrate that A.viridis may form associations with a range of symbiotic dinoflagellates and suggest a capacity for horizontal acquisition. A mixed-mode transmission strategy in A.viridis, as we posit here, may help explain the large phenotypic plasticity that characterizes this anemone.

There are three different species of redfish (Sebastes spp.) in the waters of the Flemish Cap (Division 3M, NAFO Regulatory Area): S. fasciatus, S. mentella, and S. norvegicus. Historically, S. fasciatus and S. mentella have been managed together as a single stock because of similar biology and difficulty in species identification. Here we use multivariate autoregressive state-space models to examine the abundance trajectories of the three species and to determine whether they can be treated as a single stock for management purposes or whether they should be treaty separately. We also included covariates to evaluate relationships with climate, commercial catch, and the abundance of predators and (or) competitors and prey. We did two separate analyses: (i) a single-period analysis over the full time series and (ii) a blocked, two-period analysis over different regulatory periods. In both analyses, the best-fit model included separate trajectories for each species at each depth but one overall stock growth rate; both also included commercial catches as a covariate. These analyses suggest that a single assessment for the Sebastes complex is acceptable., Sí

Special issueThe wrapping up of the IDEADOS project: International Workshop on Environment, Ecosystems and Demersal Resources, and Fisheries.-- 11 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, The pelagic decapod crustacean fauna of two different zones (Sóller and Cabrera) with different hydrographic dynamics and oligotrophy levels was studied around Mallorca (western Mediterranean), the latter with a higher degree of oligotrophy than the former. Samples were taken with a Pelagic Trawl and an IKMT in the upper 600. m of the water column, targeting larger and middle-sized nektonic species, respectively. Fourteen species were collected: five dendrobranchiate shrimps, eight caridean shrimps and one scyllarid lobster. Some species were restricted to the shelf-break: Chlorotocus crassicornis and Plesionika heterocarpus. Others were exclusive of the middle slope: Pasiphaea multidentata, and Sergia robusta. Pasiphaea sivado and Gennadas elegans occurred in all pelagic strata. Multivariate analyses showed several distinct assemblages related to bathymetry and sampling depth. No significant differences were found concerning zone or sampled seasons. Bathymetrically, Deep Scattering Layers showed the highest diversity. No decapod crustaceans occurred in epipelagic daytime samples. The pelagic decapod community sampled was structured by both the geomorphology (and associated hydrographic characteristics over the shelf-break) and the influence of light in the water column. Size analysis showed species-specific patterns concerning size/age movements into the water column throughout the day-night cycle. © 2013 Elsevier B.V., Funding was provided by research projects CTM2008-04489-C03 and CTM2010-22218-C02. DSS acknowledges the pre-doctoral fellowship support by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. APT acknowledges pre-doctoral FPI Fellowship support from the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands, Conselleria d'Educació, Cultura i Universitats, selected as part of an operational program cofinanced by the Fondo Social Europeo. DSS and PA acknowledge partial support from research project CTM2010-22218-C02

Cette étude tente d’analyser un certain nombre de campagnes publicitaires à la lumière de 4 concepts clés relevant du domaine des études culturelles : le stéréotype culturel illustré par une campagne de publicité anglaise, le prototype culturel illustré par une campagne de publicité écossaise, l’approche multiculturelle interprétée à travers la campagne publicitaire réalisée par HSBC en 2002 et la rencontre interculturelle interprétée à travers la célèbre campagne Benetton.Pour terminer, elle souligne l’imprévisibilité qui sous-tend la rencontre interculturelle et l’écart qui peut exister entre l’intention de communication et la réaction du récepteur, comme en témoignent certains heurts culturels engendrés par la campagne Benetton. This article proposes to analyse contemporary cultural advertising in the light of 4 key concepts from the field of Cultural Studies: cultural stereotypes as illustrated by an English advertising campaign, cultural prototypes as illustrated by a Scottish advertising campaign, multiculturalism as interpreted by the 2002 HSBC advertising campaign and the intercultural encounter as interpreted through the famous Benetton campaign.To conclude, it underlines the unpredictability of intercultural encounters where the intention of the emitter may clash with the reaction of the receptor, an occurrence illustrated by a number of cultural clashes in connection with the Benetton campaigns.

Pour remédier au nombre insuffisant de maîtres qualifiés pour enseigner les langues vivantes à l’école primaire en France, de nombreux efforts ont été déployés. Par exemple, dès l’année 2001 une formation de dominante langue a été mise en place dans les IUFM. Elle permet aux stagiaires intéressés par les langues d’améliorer leurs compétences. Cependant, cette formation n’est qu’optionnelle pour le moment. Nous considérons que l’autoformation peut constituer une alternative pour répondre aux besoins des PE (Professeurs des écoles). Cet article décrit une expérience d’autoformation menée à l’IUFM de Nancy en 2004-2005. To increase the insufficient number of primary school teachers qualified to teach foreign languages in primary schools in France, several efforts were made by the Ministry of Education. For example, in 2001 a module called “Dominante Langues vivantes” was created in the Teacher Training Colleges to enable the students interested in languages to improve their competences. However, this module is only optional for second year students. We consider that self-directed learning can constitute an alternative to meet the needs of primary school teachers. This article describes an experiment of self-directed learning carried out in the Teacher Training Colleges of Nancy in 2004-2005.

In an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and ELP (English for Legal Purposes) perspective, this paper studies the construction of professional cultural competence through the cultural substrata woven into the narrative of specialised popular fiction, or FASP.After a brief overview of the theoretical framework retained and the functions of a coroner in England and Wales, the discussion focuses on a coronial FASP, M. R. Hall’s The Coroner (2009), to analyse three cultural strands which relate meaningfully to ELP learner objectives: culture specific to the Coroner’s Office, broader social commentary with regard to issues concerning the legal community as a whole and, finally, locus-related societal and national cultures.The paper concludes by addressing reservations expressed regarding such randomly acquired knowledge by highlighting the advantages of a heuristic and semasiological approach in exploring both target and source culture. Dans le cadre de la didactique des langues et cultures spécialisées du droit, cet article porte sur la construction d’une compétence de culture professionnelle à travers les substrats culturels tissés dans la fibre narrative de la fiction populaire spécialisée, la FASP.Après une brève présentation du cadrage théorique retenu, du professionnel de droit qu’est le coroner au Royaume Uni et de la FASP juridique qui constitue l’objet d’étude, The Coroner (2009) de M. R. Hall, l’analyse dégage trois domaines culturels en lien avec les objectifs de l’apprentissage : la culture spécifique à l’environnement spécialisé du professionnel qu’est le coroner, le commentaire social enchâssé dans le récit qui se rapporte à la communauté juridique dans son ensemble et, finalement, les cultures relatives aux lieux qui servent d’ancrage géographique au récit fictif.Pour conclure, l’auteur répond aux réserves souvent exprimées concernant la nature fragmentaire des connaissances acquises par l’intermédiaire de la FASP en mettant en avant les avantages d’une approche heuristique et sémasiologique dans l’exploration des cultures cible et source.

In the past five years, the number of hours dedicated to learning foreign languages at the Grenoble Law School has been reduced by half making it necessary to design teaching strategies to match the drastic decrease of means while meeting the learners' needs. The following learning scenario is based on the fifth amendment of the American Constitution. It focuses on task-based language learning where every student can take an active part in the learning process in an environment unfavourable to the practise of oral skills. The task involving oral production is carried out outside the classroom and sent via e-mail to the teacher for assessment. The students use their mobile phones or MP3 players in order to record their production., Le volume horaire des langues à la Faculté de Droit de Grenoble a diminué de moitié en 5 ans. Il est donc nécessaire d'adapter la pédagogie de projet afin de concilier les besoins des apprenants et la diminution des moyens à leur disposition. Le scénario pédagogique que nous proposons de présenter s'articule autour du légendaire cinquième amendement de la Constitution américaine. Il tente de respecter la démarche actionnelle dans laquelle tous les étudiants peuvent prendre une part active à leur apprentissage dans un contexte peu propice à la production orale. Les phases de production font l'objet d'un travail en autonomie guidée. La tâche finale de prise de parole en continu est rendue possible en utilisant des moyens multimédia : lecteurs MP3 ou téléphones portables des étudiants comme ressources documentaires et moyens d'enregistrement.

1AbstractIndividuals differ in many ways. Most produce few offspring; a handful produce many. Some die early; others live to old age. It is tempting to attribute these differences in out-comes to differences in individual traits, and thus in the demographic rates experienced. However, there is more to individual variation than meets the eye of the biologist. Even among individuals sharing identical traits, life history outcomes will vary due to individual stochasticity, i.e., to chance. Quantifying the contributions of heterogeneity and chance is essential to understanding natural variability. Inter-individual differences vary across environmental conditions. Heterogeneity and stochasticity depend on environmental conditions. We show that favorable conditions increase the contributions of individual stochasticity, and reduce the contributions of heterogeneity, to variance in demographic outcomes in a seabird population. The opposite is true under poor conditions. This result has important consequence for understanding the ecology and evolution of life history strategies.

Climate change is rapidly warming high latitude and high elevation regions influencing plant community composition. Changes in vegetation composition have motivated the coordination of ecological monitoring networks across the Arctic, including the International Tundra Experiment. We have established a long-term passive warming experiment using open-top chambers, which includes five distinct plant communities (Dry Heath; Tussock Tundra; and Dry, Mesic, and Wet Meadow). We measured changes in plant community composition based on relative abundance differences over 26 years. In addition, relative abundance changes in response to fertilization and warming treatments were analyzed based on a seven-year Community-Level Interaction Program experiment. The communities had distinct soil moisture conditions, leading to community-specific responses of the plant growth forms (deciduous shrubs, evergreen shrubs, forbs, and graminoids). Warming significantly affected growth forms, but the direction of the response was not consistent across the communities. Evidence of shrub expansion was found in nearly all communities, with soil moisture determining whether it was driven by deciduous or evergreen shrubs. Graminoids increased in relative abundance in the Dry Meadow due to warming. Growth form responses to warming are likely mediated by edaphic characteristics of the communities and their interactions with climate.

Alpine and Arctic bryophytes have been found to respond negatively to climate change, but as they are often analysed as one functional group, there is limited knowledge on species-specific responses. In this study, we examine how nearly two decades of experimental warming by open-top chambers and ambient warming have affected the bryophyte community structure in an alpine Dryas octopetala L. heath in Finse, southwest Norway. In contrast to what we expected, we found that bryophyte abundance, species richness, and evenness increased over time in the control plots, indicating a positive response to ambient warming. However, the increase in bryophyte abundance and cover was suppressed in experimentally warmed plots compared with control plots. Bryophyte community composition changed in a similar direction in response to both ambient and experimental warming. Acrocarpous mosses were not affected stronger by warming than pleurocarpous mosses, but individual species and taxa showed contrasting responses. Our study highlights the importance of studying bryophyte responses to environmental change, as well as combining long-term observations with experimental warming.

Understanding and predicting large-scale ecological responses to global environmental change requires comparative studies across geographic scales with coordinated efforts and standardized methodologies. We designed, applied and assessed standardized protocols to measure tundra herbivory at three spatial scales: plot, site (habitat), and study area (landscape). The plot and site-level protocols were tested in the field during summers 2014-2015 at eleven sites, nine of them comprising warming experimental plots included in the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). The study area protocols were assessed during 2014-2018 at 24 study areas across the Arctic. Our protocols provide comparable and easy-to-implement methods for assessing the intensity of invertebrate herbivory within ITEX plots and for characterizing vertebrate herbivore communities at larger spatial scales. We discuss methodological constraints and make recommendations for how these protocols can be used and how sampling effort can be optimized to obtain comparable estimates of herbivory, both at ITEX sites and at large landscape scales. The application of these protocols across the tundra biome will allow characterizing and comparing herbivore communities across tundra sites and at ecologically relevant spatial scales, providing an important step towards a better understanding of tundra ecosystem responses to large-scale environmental change. CGB was funded by the Estonian Research Council (grant IUT 20-28), and the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence EcolChange). JDMS was supported by the Research Council of Norway (262064). OG and LB were supported by the French Polar Institute (program “1036 Interactions”) and PRC CNRS Russie 396 (program “ICCVAT”). DSH, NL, MAG, JB and JDR were supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada). NL, MAG, JB and JDR were supported by the Polar Continental Shelf Program. NL was supported by the Canada Research Chair program and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. NL and JB were supported by Environment Canada and Polar Knowledge Canada. NL and MAG were supported by the Government of Nunavut, the Igloolik Community, and Université de Moncton. NL, MAG and JB were supported by the Northern Scientific Training Program. JMA was funded by Carl Tryggers stiftelse för vetenskaplig forskning and Qatar Petroleum (QUEX-CAS-QP-RD-18_19). IHM-S was funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council Shrub Tundra (NE/M016323/1) grant. ISJ was funded by the University of Iceland Research Fund. Fieldwork in Yamal peninsula (Erkuta, Sabetta and Belyi) for DE, NS and AS was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (No: 18-05-60261 and No: 18-54-15013), Fram Centre project YaES (No: 362259), the Russian Center of Development of the Arctic, and the “Yamal-LNG” company. Fieldwork in Utqiaġvik was supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fieldwork in Svalbard was supported by the Norwegian Research Council (AFG No: 246080/E10), the Norwegian Polar Institute, Climate-ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra – COAT, the Svalbard Environmental protection fund (project number 15/20), and the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the AB-338/AB-838 students of 2018. Sampling at Billefjorden was supported by GACR 17- 20839S.

We measured community-level traits of vascular plants, lichens, and bryophytes in an alpine Dryas octopetala L. heath in Finse, Norway, after nearly two decades of experimental warming by open-top chambers. We hypothesized that under warming (1) vascular plant traits would shift from resource conservative towards more resource acquisitive, and (2) lichen and bryophyte traits would shift to those associated with drier conditions, due to increased evapotranspiration. Both hypotheses were not supported, as vascular plant nitrogen concentration decreased, whereas carbon to nitrogen ratio increased with warming, indicative of a less resource acquisitive strategy, and lichen specific thallus area and water holding capacity were unresponsive. Bryophyte specific shoot length increased, and carbon concentration and water holding capacity tended to decrease under warming, concurrent with increased vegetation height and litter cover indicating stronger competition from vascular plants. Intraspecific variation was most important for vascular plant and lichen traits, whereas species turnover was the main driver of bryophyte trait variation. This indicates that bryophytes may be affected more strongly by future warming than vascular plants and lichens in our study system. We highlight the importance of studying traits of different primary producer groups simultaneously, as they may respond differently to the same environmental changes.

Many parasites induce decreased host movement, known as lethargy, which can impact disease spread and the evolution of virulence. Mathematical models have investigated virulence evolution when parasites cause host death, but disease-induced decreased host movement has received relatively less attention. Here, we consider a model where, due to the within-host parasite replication rate, an infected host can become lethargic and shift from a moving to a resting state, where it can die. We find that when the lethargy and disease-induced mortality costs to the parasites are not high, then evolutionary bistability can arise, and either moderate or high virulence can evolve depending on the initial virulence and the magnitude of mutation. These results suggest, firstly, the transient coexistence of strains with different virulence, which may explain the coexistence of low- and high-pathogenic strains of avian influenza and human immunodeficiency viruses, and secondly, that medical interventions to treat the symptoms of lethargy or prevent disease-induced host deaths can result in a large jump in virulence and the rapid evolution of high virulence. In complement to existing results that show bistability when hosts are heterogeneous at the population-level, we show that evolutionary bistability may arise due to transmission heterogeneity at the individual host-level.

Fisheries discards have become a source of concern for the perennation of marine resources. To reduce discards, the European Union adopted a Landing Obligation under the reform of its Common Fisheries Policy. However, food web consequences of reducing discards remain uncertain since their degree and pathway of reintegration are understudied. We used multi-marker DNA metabarcoding of gut contents and an ecological network approach to quantify marine fauna reliance on discarded fish and functional importance of discard consumers in coastal fishing grounds. We show that potential discard consumption is widespread across fish and invertebrates, but particularly important for decapods, which were also pinpointed as functionally important. Potential discard consumption may represent up to 66% of all interactions involving fish prey in the reconstructed network. We highlight that discard reliance may be more important than previously assessed in some fishing areas and support functionally important taxa. While reducing discarding remains a conservation priority, it is crucial to understand discards reintegration in marine food webs to anticipate changes in the context of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.

The hunting of marine mammals as a source of subsistence, trade, and commercial revenue has formed an important part of human cultures across the North Atlantic. One important prey species has been the Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus), sought after for meat, skin, blubber, ivory, and bone. Unfortunately, biological studies of current walrus populations and studies across the humanities and social sciences into past use and hunting of walruses, have been poorly integrated. Disciplinary boundaries have left a gap in understanding the reciprocal effects of human-walrus interactions. Emerging interdisciplinary methods offer new opportunities to write the historical ecology of Atlantic walruses. The integration of methods such as ancient DNA, isotopes, past population modelling, zooarchaeological assemblages, and ethnographic interviews can now be used to answer previously intractable questions. For example, how has walrus hunting shaped and been influenced by changes in human settlement and trade, what have been the cumulative impacts on walrus populations, the extent of anthropogenic selective pressures or the effect of changing hunting regimes on particular populations of walruses? New, collaborative research approaches applied to the wealth of Arctic archaeological faunal remains already housed in museum collections offer a unique chance to explore the past dynamics of human-animal interactions.

Summary The integration of the growth of the brain and the cranial base suggests that each system may influence the other, notably during the first three years of life, although this influence has never been proven to be exclusive. The aim of our work was to analyse the dynamics of normal growth on the one hand, and the development and ontogenetic allometry of the cranial base in the infant on the other hand. Material and method A total of 32 infants (17 males/15 femeles) having been included in the unexpected infant death french protocol were analyzed. Three-dimensional reconstructions of the cranial base were performed from CT scans. The technique combined manual segmentation of regions of interest, contour extraction and surface reconstruction. Nineteen landmarks were positioned on each of the bone surfaces. Results No correlation was observed between sex assigned at birth and shape, weight, crown-heel length, or head circumference. Principal component analysis showed that 85.5% of the variance observed on the first component was secondary to growth. After Procrustes superimposition, 25% of the shape variance observed was explained by the first principal component. It showed anteroposterior lengthening of the cranial base. In addition, the height, width and length of the posterior fossa increased and the relative position of the basion was displaced inferiorly and anteriorly with flexion of the sphenoid angle. Negative allometry was also observed. Conclusion Our study, carried out in a rigorously selected population of infants, presents a fundamental approach to ontogeny through study of shape, growth and ontogenetic allometry.

Niche construction theory concerns how organisms can change selection pressures by altering the feature–factor relationship between themselves and their environment. These alterations are standardly understood to be brought about through two kinds of organism–environment interaction: perturbative and relocational niche construction. We argue that a reconceptualization is needed on the grounds that if a niche is understood as the feature–factor relationship, then there are three fundamental ways in which organisms can engage in niche construction: constitutive, relational, and external niche construction. We further motivate our reconceptualization by showing some examples of organismic activities that fall outside of the current categorization of niche construction, but nonetheless should be included. We end by discussing two objections to niche construction and show how our reconceptualization helps to undercut these objections. ispartof: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science vol:73 issue:2 pages:351-372 status: published

Trophic cascade studies often rely on linear food chains instead of complex food webs and are typically measured as biomass averages, not as biomass variation. We study trophic cascades propagating across a complex food web including a measure of biomass variation in addition to biomass average. We examined whether different fishing strategies induce trophic cascades and whether the cascades differ from each other. We utilized an allometric trophic network (ATN) model to mechanistically study fishing-induced changes in food web dynamics. Different fishing strategies did not trigger traditional, reciprocal trophic cascades, as measured in biomass averages. Instead, fishing triggered a variation cascade that propagated across the food web, including fish, zooplankton and phytoplankton species. In fisheries that removed a large amount of top-predatory and cannibalistic fish, the biomass oscillations started to decrease after fishing was started. In fisheries that mainly targeted large planktivorous fish, the biomass oscillations did not dampen but slightly increased over time. Removing species with specific ecological functions might alter the food web dynamics and potentially affect the ecological resilience of aquatic ecosystems.

Both the growing number of dispersed generation plants and storage systems and the new roles and functions on the demand side (e.g. demand side management) are making the operation (monitoring and control) of electrical grids more complex, especially in distribution. This paper demonstrates how to integrate phasor measurements so that state estimation in a distribution grid profits optimally from the high accuracy of PMUs. Different measurement configurations consisting of conventional and synchronous measurement units, each with different fault tolerances for the quality of the calculated system state achieved, are analyzed and compared. Weighted least squares (WLS) algorithms for conventional, linear and hybrid state estimation provide the mathematical method used in this paper. A case study of an 18-bus test grid with real measured PMU data from a 110 kV distribution grid demonstrates the improving of the system's state variable's quality by using synchrophasors. The increased requirements, which are the prerequisite for the use of PMUs in the distribution grid, are identified by extensively analyzing the inaccuracy of measurement and subsequently employed to weight the measured quantities.

Background Rodents are among the most notorious invasive alien species worldwide. These invaders have substantially impacted native ecosystems, food production and storage, local infrastructures, human health and well-being. However, the lack of standardized and understandable estimation of their impacts is a serious barrier to raising societal awareness, and hampers effective management interventions at relevant scales. Methods Here, we assessed the economic costs of invasive alien rodents globally in order to help overcome these obstacles. For this purpose, we combined and analysed economic cost data from the InvaCost database—the most up-to-date and comprehensive synthesis of reported invasion costs—and specific complementary searches within and beyond the published literature. Results Our conservative analysis showed that reported costs of rodent invasions reached a conservative total of US$ 3.6 billion between 1930 and 2022 (annually US$ 87.5 million between 1980 and 2022), and were significantly increasing through time. The highest cost reported was for muskrat Ondatra zibethicus (US$ 377.5 million), then unspecified Rattus spp. (US$ 327.8 million), followed by Rattus norvegicus specifically (US$ 156.6 million) and Castor canadensis (US$ 150.4 million). Of the total costs, 87% were damage-related, principally impacting agriculture and predominantly reported in Asia (60%), Europe (19%) and North America (9%). Our study evidenced obvious cost underreporting with only 99 documents gathered globally, clear taxonomic gaps, reliability issues for cost assessment, and skewed breakdowns of costs among regions, sectors and contexts. As a consequence, these reported costs represent only a very small fraction of the expected true cost of rodent invasions (e.g., using a less conservative analytic approach would have led to a global amount more than 80-times higher than estimated here). Conclusions These findings strongly suggest that available information represents a substantial underestimation of the global costs incurred. We offer recommendations for improving estimates of costs to fill these knowledge gaps including: systematic distinction between native and invasive rodents’ impacts; monetizing indirect impacts on human health; and greater integrative and concerted research effort between scientists and stakeholders. Finally, we discuss why and how this approach will stimulate and provide support for proactive and sustainable management strategies in the context of alien rodent invasions, for which biosecurity measures should be amplified globally.

Ash dieback, caused by Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, is a serious disease of common and narrow-leaved ash in Europe. The resistance of individual trees seems to be important for the maintenance of ash in European forests. In this in situ wound inoculation study, the susceptibility and differences in resistance to H. fraxineus between Fraxinus excelsior and F. angustifolia clones were assessed. Neither of the tested clones revealed total resistance to ash dieback; variety between the tested clones was observed. Differences in necroses lengths were significant between clones and between two ash species. Longer necroses were formed in F. angustifolia than in F. excelsior. Some clones exhibiting some resistance to the pathogen were identified.

The use of suitable mass rearing methods is crucial to establish successful inundative or inoculative biological control programs. The development of an artificial diet considerably reduces costs of mass rearing. In this study, the efficacy of a new meridic artificial diet for rearing the predatory bug, Orius albidipennis (Het., Anthocoridae), was studied. The artificial diet was composed of some natural materials including lamb liver, hen yolk, whey protein, honey, royal jelly and some specific vitamins. To determine the artificial diet efficacy life table parameters of the bugs, using the two-sex life table method, fed artificial and factitious diets, Ephestia kuehniella egg + date palm pollen, were compared. Results showed that O. albidipennis could complete its life stages and reproduce when reared on the recommended artificial diet. However, its fecundity and survival rate when fed the artificial diet was lower than the controls. Overall, due to lower production costs the artificial diet can be recommended for mass rearing of O. albidipennis despite the lower fecundity and survival rate.

With today's rapidly-evolving cloud landscape embracing continuous integration and delivery, users of cloud systems must monitor software running on their containers and virtual machines (VMs) to ensure compliance, security, and efficiency. Traditional solutions to this problem rely on manually-created rules that identify software installations and modifications, but these require expert authors and are often unmaintainable. Recently, automated techniques for software discovery have emerged. Some techniques use examples of software to train machine learning models to predict which software has been installed on a system. Others leverage knowledge of packaging practices to aid in discovery without requiring any pre-training, but these practice-based methods cannot provide precise-enough information to perform discovery by themselves. This paper introduces Praxi, a new software discovery method that builds upon the strengths of prior approaches by combining the accuracy of learning-based methods with the efficiency of practice-based methods. In tests using samples collected on real-world cloud systems, Praxi correctly classifies installations at least 97.6% of the time, while running 14.8 times faster and using 87% less disk space than a similar learning-based method. Using a diverse software dataset, this paper quantitatively compares Praxi to systematic rule-, learning-, and practice-based methods, and discusses the best uses for each.

Competition is a driving factor in shaping ecological communities and may act directly or indirectly through apparent competition. We examined a classic example of parasite-mediated competition between northern (Glaucomys sabrinus) and southern flying squirrels (G. volans) via the intestinal nematode, Strongyloides robustus, and tested whether it could act as a species barrier in a flying squirrel hybrid zone. We live-trapped flying squirrels (G. sabrinus and G. volans), grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), and chipmunks (Tamias striatus) from June–September 2019 at 30 woodlots in Ontario, Canada. Fecal samples from squirrels were collected and analyzed for the presence of endoparasite eggs. For each individual, we calculated Scaled Mass Index (SMI) as a measure of body condition to assess the effect of S. robustus on squirrels. We found eggs of S. robustus in all species except chipmunks. Infection with S. robustus did not appear to affect body condition of southern flying squirrels and grey squirrels, but we did find a weak negative effect on northern flying squirrels and red squirrels. Despite a weak asymmetric effect of S. robustus on flying squirrels, we did not find any evidence that parasite-mediated competition could lead to competitive exclusion from woodlots. Furthermore, S. robustus eggs were common in feces of the red squirrel, a species largely sympatric with northern flying squirrel., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Strongyloides robustus was detected in 4 squirrel species. • The highest prevalence of S. robustus was found in red squirrels and northern flying squirrels. • Body condition was lowest in red squirrels and northern flying squirrels infected with S. robustus. • No evidence of parasite-mediated competition between sympatric flying squirrels leading to competitive exclusion.

Thermosensitive genic male sterility (TGMS) has been widely used in two-line hybrid rice breeding. Due to hybrid seed production being highly affected by changeable environments, its application scope is limited to some extent. Thus, it is of great importance to identify potential TGMS genes in specific rice varieties. Here, Diannong S-1 xuan (DNS-1X), a reverse TGMS (RTGMS) japonica male sterile line, was identified from Diannong S-1. Genetic analysis showed that male sterility was tightly controlled by a single recessive gene, which was supported by the phenotype of the F1 and F2:3 populations derived from the cross between DNS-1X and Yunjing 26 (YJ26). Combining simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and bulked segregation analysis (BSA), we identified a 215 kb region on chromosome 10 as a candidate reverse TGMS region, which was designated as rtms1-D.It was narrower than the previously reported RTGMS genes rtms1 and tms6(t). The fertility conversion detected in the natural environment showed that DNS-1X was sterile below 28–30 °C; otherwise, it was fertile. Histological analysis further indicated that the pollen abortion was occurred in the young microspore stage. This study will provide new resources for two-line hybrid rice and pave the way for molecular breeding of RTGMS lines.

Birds harbor complex gut bacterial communities that may sustain their ecologies and facilitate their biological roles, distribution, and diversity. Research on gut microbiomes in wild birds is surging and it is clear that they are diverse and important - but strongly influenced by a series of environmental factors. To continue expanding our understanding of how the internal ecosystems of birds work in their natural settings, we believe the most pressing needs involve studies on the functional and evolutionary aspects of these symbioses. Here we summarize the state of the field and provide a roadmap for future studies on aspects that are pivotal to understanding the biology of avian gut microbiomes, emphasizing prospects for integrating gut microbiome work in avian conservation and host health monitoring.

Endemic plants are important for understanding phylogenetic relationships, biogeographical history, and genetic variation because of their restricted distribution and their role in conserving biodiversity. Here, we investigated the phylogenetic relationships of the Korean endemic Fraxinus chiisanensis by reconstructing the molecular phylogeny of Fraxinus based on two nuclear DNA (nrITS and phantastica) and two chloroplast DNA (psbA-trnH and rpl32-trnL) regions. Within our fossil-calibrated phylogenetic framework, we also inferred the biogeographical history of F. chiisanensis. To provide a scientific basis for the conservation of F. chiisanensis, we determined the levels of genetic diversity and genetic differentiation in this species. Combining information from nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequence data, our molecular phylogenetic analyses identified F. chiisanensis as a genetically distinct unit from its sister group, Fraxinus platypoda from Japan. Our molecular dating analyses using nuclear and chloroplast DNA data sets show F. chiisanensis diverged from its sister F. platypoda in the Early or Middle Miocene and differentiated in the Late Miocene on the Korean Peninsula. Our results suggest that the divergence of F. chiisanensis was associated with the submergence of the East China Sea land bridge and enhanced monsoons in East Asia. When compared to F. platypoda, F. chiisanensis exhibits low genetic diversity within populations and high genetic differentiation among populations. These results help us to understand the evolutionary history of F. chiisanensis and to develop a conservation strategy for this species.

The upper continental crust is formed from chemically diverse granitic plutons. Active debate surrounds the range of physical conditions (P-T-X-fO2) and differentiation processes which occur in mush bodies that solidify to form plutons. Transition metal stable isotopes are increasingly employed to trace magmatic processes in both extrusive lavas and intrusive plutonic suites, with a focus on analysis of whole rock powders. However, studies of plutonic suites often overlook the complex textures represented within coarse grained samples, and how these will influence whole rock isotopic compositions. Here we examine the calc-alkaline Boggy Plain Zoned Pluton, SE Australia, which closely approximates closed system behaviour during magmatic differentiation. We combine petrological examination with Fe and Zn isotopic analysis of biotite, hornblende and magnetite mineral separates and whole rock powders. Whole rock Fe isotopic composition (as δ56Fe) increases from 0.038‰ to 0.171‰ with decreasing MgO content, while mineral separates display heavy Fe isotope enrichment in the order magnetite > biotite = hornblende > pyroxene. A lack of correlation between whole rock Fe and Zn isotopic compositions suggests that the Fe isotopic variation is predominantly driven by closed system fractional crystallisation: specifically by the balance between crystallisation of isotopically heavy magnetite, and isotopically light silicates. To demonstrate this quantitatively, temperature dependent mineral-melt fractionation factors were derived from the mineral separate data (Δ56Femag-melt = 0.17x106/T2 and Δ56Febt/hbd-melt = -0.12x106/T2) and used to construct models that successfully reproduce the observed Fe isotopic variation during fractional crystallisation. These fractionation factors are compared to theoretical and empirical estimates from previous studies. We highlight that accurate determinations of temperature and modal mineralogy are critical when modelling Fe isotopic variations in plutonic suites. Successful interpretation of equilibrium Fe isotopic fractionation in a relatively simple calc-alkaline suite like the Boggy Plain Zoned Pluton paves the way for Fe isotopes to be used to investigate more complex mush bodies.

The code is meaningless unless translated. (Monod 1971, 143) We address issues of a description of the origin and evolution of the genetic code from the semiotics standpoint. Developing the concept of codepoiesis introduced by M. Barbieri, a new idea of semio-poiesis is proposed. Semio-poiesis, a recursive auto-referential processing of a semiotic system, becomes a form of organization of the bio-world when and while notions of meaning and aiming are introduced into it. The description of the genetic code as a semiotic system (grammar and vocabulary) allows us to apply the method of internal reconstruction to it: on the basis of heterogeneity and irregularity of the current state, to explicate possible previous states and various ways of forming coding and textualization mechanisms. The revealed patterns and irregularities are consistent with hypotheses about the origin and evolution of the genetic code.

Funding: Floristic identification in plots in the RAINFOR forest monitoring network have been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grants NE/B503384/1, NE/ D01025X/1, NE/I02982X/1, NE/F005806/1, NE/D005590/1 and NE/I028122/1) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important constraints via predictions using least biased probability distributions. We apply it to over two thousand hectares of Amazonian tree inventories across seven forest types and thirteen functional traits, representing major global axes of plant strategies. Results show that constraints formed by regional relative abundances of genera explain eight times more of local relative abundances than constraints based on directional selection for specific functional traits, although the latter does show clear signals of environmental dependency. These results provide a quantitative insight by inference from large-scale data using cross-disciplinary methods, furthering our understanding of ecological dynamics. Publisher PDF

This paper offers a socio‐historical study of the Prud'homie de peche (the “Prud'homie”), a common‐pool institution (“CPI”) that has managed the fishery commons at Marseille since the Middle Ages. The evidence presented here sheds light on specific challenges faced by the Prud'homie during the early stages of globalization: one challenge is the import of a new fishing technique (the madrague) in the early 17th century, and another challenge is the arrival of migrant fishermen from Catalonia throughout the 18th century. On this basis, this paper explores the ways in which globalization has impacted the Prud'homie and identifies the mechanisms through which these challenges might threaten the functioning of CPIs.

Species records from biological collections are becoming increasingly available online. This unprecedented availability of records has largely supported recent studies in taxonomy, biogeography, macroecology and biodiversity conservation. Biological collections vary in their documentation and notation standards, which have changed through time. For different reasons, neither collections nor data repositories perform the editing, formatting and standardisation of the data, leaving these tasks to the final users of the species records (e.g. taxonomists, ecologists and conservationists). These tasks are challenging, particularly when working with millions of records from hundreds of biological collections. To help collection curators and final users perform those tasks, we introduce plantR, an open-source package that provides a comprehensive toolbox to manage species records from biological collections. The package is accompanied by the proposal of a reproducible workflow to manage this type of data in taxonomy, ecology and biodiversity conservation. It is implemented in R and designed to handle relatively large datasets as fast as possible. Initially designed to handle plant species records, many of the plantR features also apply to other groups of organisms, given that the data structure is similar. The plantR workflow includes tools to (a) download records from different data repositories, (b) standardise typical fields associated with species records, (c) validate the locality, geographical coordinates, taxonomic nomenclature and species identifications, including the retrieval of duplicates across collections, and (d) summarise and export records, including the construction of species lists with vouchers. Other R packages provide tools to tackle some of the workflow steps described above. But in addition to the new tools and resources related to data standardisation and validation, the greatest strength of plantR is to provide a comprehensive and user-friendly workflow in one single environment, performing all tasks from data retrieval to export. Thus, plantR can help researchers better assess data quality and avoid data leakage in a wide variety of studies using species records.

The unique male pregnancy in pipefishes and seahorses ranges from basic attachment (pouch-less species: Nerophinae) of maternal eggs to specialized internal gestation in pouched species (e.g. Syngnathus and Hippocampus) with many transitions in between. Due to this diversity, male pregnancy offers a unique platform for assessing physiological and molecular adaptations in pregnancy evolution. These insights will contribute to answering long-standing questions of why and how pregnancy evolved convergently in so many vertebrate systems. To understand the molecular congruencies and disparities in male pregnancy evolution, we compared transcriptome-wide differentially expressed genes in four syngnathid species, at four pregnancy stages (nonpregnant, early, late and parturition). Across all species and pregnancy forms, metabolic processes and immune dynamics defined pregnancy stages, especially pouched species shared expression features akin to female pregnancy. The observed downregulation of adaptive immune genes in early-stage pregnancy and its reversed upregulation during late/parturition in pouched species, most notably in Hippocampus, combined with directionless expression in the pouch-less species, suggests immune modulation to be restricted to pouched species that evolved placenta-like systems. We propose that increased foeto-paternal intimacy in pouched syngnathids commands immune suppression processes in early gestation, and that the elevated immune response during parturition coincides with pouch opening and reduced progeny reliance. Immune response regulation in pouched species supports the recently described functional MHC II pathway loss as critical in male pregnancy evolution. The independent co-option of similar genes and pathways both in male and female pregnancy highlights immune modulation as crucial for the evolutionary establishment of pregnancy.

Context: Landscape-scale conservation planning is key to the protection of biodiversity globally. Central to this approach is the development of multifunctional rural landscapes (MRLs) that maintain the viability of natural ecosystems and promote animal and plant dispersal alongside agricultural land uses. Objectives: We investigate evidence that non-native grasses (NNGs) in rangelands and other low-intensity agricultural systems pose a critical threat to landscape conservation initiatives in MRLs both in Australia and globally. Methods: We first establish a simple socio-ecological model that classifies different rural landscape elements within typical MRLs based on their joint conservation and agro-economic value. We then quantify the impacts of eight Australian NNGs (Andropogon gayanus, Cenchrus ciliaris, Eragrostis curvula, Hyparrhenia hirta, Nassella neesiana, Nassella trichotoma, Phalaris aquatica and Urochloa mutica) on different landscape elements and then classify and describe the socio-ecological transformations that result at the MRL scale. Results: Our data indicate that two broad classes of NNGs exist. The first reduces both conservation and agro-economic value (‘co-degrading’ species) of invaded landscapes, while the second improves agro-economic value at the expense of conservation value (‘trade-off’ species). Crucially, however, both classes cause hardening of the landscape matrix, agricultural intensification, reduced habitat connectivity, and the loss of multi-value land use types that are vital for landscape conservation. Conclusions: NNGs drive socio-ecological transformations that pose a growing threat to landscape-scale connectivity and conservation initiatives in Australia and globally. There is an urgent need for further research into the impacts of NNGs on habitat connectivity and biodiversity within multifunctional landscapes, and the socio-ecological goals that can be achieved when landscape transformation and degradation by these species is unavoidable.

Understanding the relationship between incursions of insect pests and established populations is critical to implementing effective control. Studies of genetic variation can provide powerful tools to examine potential invasion pathways and longevity of individual pest outbreaks. The major fruit fly pest in eastern Australia, Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt), has been subject to significant long‐term quarantine and population reduction control measures in the major horticulture production areas of southeastern Australia, at the species southern range limit. Previous studies have employed microsatellite markers to estimate gene flow between populations across this region. In this study, we used an independent genetic marker, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences, to screen genetic variation in established and adjacent outbreak populations in southeastern Australia. During the study period, favorable environmental conditions resulted in multiple outbreaks, which appeared genetically distinctive and relatively geographically localized, implying minimal dispersal between simultaneous outbreaks. Populations in established regions were found to occur over much larger areas. Screening mtDNA (female) lineages proved to be an effective alternative genetic tool to assist in understanding fruit fly population dynamics and provide another possible molecular method that could now be employed for better understanding of the ecology and evolution of this and other pest species.

Biologists have long appreciated the critical role that energy turnover plays in understanding variation in performance and fitness among individuals. Whole-organism metabolic studies have provided key insights into fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes. However, constraints operating at subcellular levels, such as those operating within the mitochondria, can also play important roles in optimizing metabolism over different energetic demands and time scales. Herein, we explore how mitochondrial aerobic metabolism influences different aspects of organismal performance, such as through changing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. We consider how such insights have advanced our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning key ecological and evolutionary processes, from variation in life-history traits to adaptation to changing thermal conditions, and we highlight key areas for future research.

Occupancy models have been extended to account for either multiple spatial scales or species interactions in a dynamic setting. However, as interacting species (e.g., predators and prey) often operate at different spatial scales, including nested spatial structure might be especially relevant to models of interacting species. Here we bridge these two model frameworks by developing a multi-scale, two-species occupancy model. The model is dynamic, i.e. it estimates initial occupancy, colonization and extinction probabilities—including probabilities conditional to the other species’ presence. With a simulation study, we demonstrate that the model is able to estimate most parameters without marked bias under low, medium and high average occupancy probabilities, as well as low, medium and high detection probabilities, with only a small bias for some parameters in low-detection scenarios. We further evaluate the model’s ability to deal with sparse field data by applying it to a multi-scale camera trapping dataset on a mustelid-rodent predator–prey system. Most parameters are estimated with low uncertainty (i.e. narrow posterior distributions). More broadly, our model framework creates opportunities to explicitly account for the spatial structure found in many spatially nested study designs, and to study interacting species that have contrasting movement ranges with camera traps.Supplementary materials accompanying this paper appear online.

Identification of pollen vectors is a fundamental objective of pollination biology. The foraging and social behavior of these pollinators has profound effects on plant mating, making quantification of their behavior critical for understanding the ecological and evolutionary consequences of different pollinators for the plants they visit. However, accurate quantification of visitation may be problematic, especially for shy animals and/or when the temporal and spatial scale of observation desired is large. Sophisticated heat‐ and movement‐triggered motion‐sensor cameras (“camera trapping”) provide new, underutilized tools to address these challenges. However, to date, there has been no rigorous evaluation of the sampling considerations needed for using camera trapping in pollination research.We measured the effectiveness of camera trapping for identifying vertebrate visitors and quantifying their visitation rates and foraging behavior on Banksia menziesii (Proteaceae). Multiple still cameras (Reconyx HC 500) and a video camera (Little Acorn LTL5210A) were deployed.From 2,753 recorded visits by vertebrates, we identified five species of nectarivorous honeyeater (Meliphagidae) and the honey possum (Tarsipedidae), with significant variation in the species composition of visitors among inflorescences. Species of floral visitor showed significant variation in their time of peak activity, duration of visits, and numbers of flowers probed per visit. Where multiple cameras were deployed on individual inflorescences, effectiveness of individual still cameras varied from 15% to 86% of all recorded visits. Methodological issues and solutions, and the future uses of camera traps in pollination biology, are discussed. Conclusions and wider implications: Motion‐triggered cameras are promising tools for the quantification of vertebrate visitation and some aspects of behavior on flowers. However, researchers need to be mindful of the variation in effectiveness of individual camera traps in detecting animals. Pollinator studies using camera traps are in their infancy, and the full potential of this developing technology is yet to be realized.

Natural Trap Cave (Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming) preserves an abundance of fossil remains from extinct Late Pleistocene fauna and is situated near a past migration route that likely connected populations in Eastern Beringia and the contiguous US—the ice-free corridor between the Cordilleran and Laurentide icesheets. Some palaeontological evidence supports a correspondingly high affinity between fauna recorded in Natural Trap Cave and Eastern Beringia versus elsewhere in the contiguous US, but this hypothesis has not yet been extensively tested using genetic data. In the present study, we analysed 16 horse specimens and one camel specimen from Natural Trap Cave. Of the horse specimens we analysed, we obtained 10 unique and previously unreported mitochondrial haplotypes belonging to two distinct (extinct) genetic clades—two haplotypes corresponded to a caballine horse (Equus sp.) and eight corresponded to the stilt-legged horse (Haringtonhippus francisci). With only one exception, it appears these newly sequenced individuals all shared a common ancestor more recently with Eastern Beringian individuals than with others from the contiguous US. In addition, mitochondrial data from a specimen assigned to Camelops sp. revealed that it shares a closer affinity with specimens from the Yukon Territory than those from Idaho or Nevada, though all appear to belong to a single species (“yesterday''s camel”; Camelops cf. hesternus). Together, these results are consistent with a high level of genetic connectivity between horse and camel populations in the Bighorn Mountains and Eastern Beringia during the Pleistocene. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA

Competition between animals for limited resources often involves signaling to establish ownership or dominance. In some species, the defended resource relates to suitable thermal conditions and refuge from predators. This is particularly true of burrow-dwelling lizards such as the Qinghai toad-headed agama (Phrynocephalus vlangalii), which are found on the Tibetan plateau of western China. Male and female lizards occupy separate burrows, which are vital for anti-predator behaviour during warmer months when lizards are active and, crucially, provide shelter from harsh winter conditions. These lizards are readily observed signaling by means of tail displays on the sand dunes they inhabit. Given the selective pressure to hold such a resource, both males and females should exhibit territorial behaviour and we considered this study system to examine in detail how social context influences motion based territorial signaling. We confirmed that territorial signaling was used by both sexes and by adopting a novel strategy that permitted 3D reconstruction of tail displays, we identified significant variation due to social context. However, signal structure was not related to lizard morphology. Clearly, the burrow is a highly valued resource and we suggest that additional variation in signaling behaviour might be mediated by resource quality.

As top predators, seabirds can be indirectly impacted by climate variability and commercial fishing activities through changes in marine communities. However, high mobility and foraging behaviour enables seabirds to exploit prey distributed patchily in time and space. This capacity to adapt to environmental change can be described through the study of their diet. Traditionally, the diet of seabirds is assessed through the morphological identification of prey remains in regurgitates. This sampling method is invasive for the bird and limited in terms of taxonomic resolution. However, the recent progress in DNA-based approaches is now providing a non-invasive means to more comprehensively and accurately characterize animal diets. Here, we used a non-invasive metabarcoding approach to characterize the diet of the Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica), which is an endangered burrowing species, endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. We collected 99 fresh faecal samples at two different seasons and in two different sub-colonies. Our aims were to describe the diet of the Westland petrel, investigate seasonal and spatial variation in the petrels’ diet, and assess potential impacts of the New Zealand fishery industry. We found that amphipods were the most common prey, followed by cephalopods and fish. Our results could be the result of natural foraging behaviour, but also suggest a close link between the composition of prey items and New Zealand’s commercial fishing activities. In particular, the high abundance of amphipods could be the result of Westland petrels feeding on discarded fisheries waste (fish guts). Our results also showed significant differences in diet between seasons (before hatching vs chick-rearing season) and between sampling sites (two sub-colonies 1.5 km apart), indicating plasticity in the foraging strategy of the Westland petrel. Due to its non-invasive nature, metabarcoding of faecal samples can be applied to large numbers of samples to help describe dietary variation in seabirds and indicate their ecological requirements. In our example, dietary DNA (dDNA) provided valuable information regarding the dietary preferences of an iconic species in New Zealand’s unique biodiversity. dDNA can thus inform the conservation of endangered or at-risk species that have elusive foraging behaviours.

Knowledge of turtle hatchling ecology is fundamental for managing wild populations. Information on habitat selection by turtle hatchlings is particularly important to ensure that conservation programmes that release hatchlings into the wild give them the best chances of surviving to adulthood. Currently, knowledge of the ecology of turtle hatchlings worldwide is limited, which restricts evidence-based management for threatened species. Here, we used laboratory and field experiments to test for effects of captivity on habitat selection, movement, and short-term survival of Murray River turtle hatchlings (Emydura macquarii). This species has declined > 60% since the 1970s, and a conservation plan is urgently needed to manage their recovery. In both the laboratory and field, we found that hatchlings select aquatic vegetation when it is available. Hatchlings raised in captivity for a month, however, were radio-tracked in habitats significantly further from vegetation after release, and over three times as many of these hatchlings were attacked by predators, compared to those released immediately after hatching. Aquatic vegetation is clearly an important habitat for hatchling E. macquarii, and therefore, (i) hatchling conservation should prioritise areas with appropriate aquatic vegetation, and (ii) aquatic vegetation restoration should be prioritised to ensure E. macquarii hatchling survival in the wild. Moreover, since captivity affects hatchling habitat selection, E. macquarii hatchlings should be released immediately upon hatching. Further research on soft release techniques and longer-term captivity is required to determine whether the impact of captivity can be reduced.

Purpose: The Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), aided by improved global transport, and the expansion of the internet, has facilitated the international demand for exotic reptiles. The risks associated with trafficking of live reptiles requires robust forensic techniques for detecting housed or transported animals. Detection of species of high IWT demand can be challenging due to the illicit nature of the trade, particularly when a specimen is missing. The ability to detect trace DNA in empty holdings and transport containers can be pivotal as a source of evidence. Methods: Vivaria, containing either a corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) or boa (Boa constrictor), were set up and monitored for 24 h simulating reptile holdings. Once removed, Diamond Nucleic Acid Dye™ (DD) was sprayed on experimental glass and plastic tiles recovered from within the vivaria, and trace DNA was visualized using a Polilight. Trace DNA was amplified using a novel reptile target specific qPCR assay and sequenced to identify both species. Results: Movement patterns and scale imprints associated with reptile contact were visible on experimental tiles after DD-staining. Successful qPCR amplification and subsequent bi-directional Sanger sequencing confirmed the presence of both the species in the respective vivaria. DNA recovered from glass tiles had significantly greater amplification success than plastic tiles. Conclusions: DD revealed valuable information about the presence, and movement, of reptiles in the absence of a specimen. Successful amplification of trace reptile DNA demonstrated that this approach could offer an effective tool for biosecurity staff to rapidly identify live reptiles in the IWT.

Aim Amphibians require both terrestrial and aquatic environments to complete their life cycles. Thus, they are subject to complex selection pressures stemming from different environments, and these selection pressures are likely to vary geographically with variation in temperature and precipitation. Studies of genetic differentiation along geographical clines allow identification of footprints of these selection pressures. Location China. Methods To identify possible signatures of local adaptation to particular environmental conditions, we conducted a genome-scan with 20,572 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained with restriction site-associated DNA sequencing of pooled samples from 10 Microhyla fissipes populations spanning a 1,398 km long latitudinal gradient in China. Results The results revealed significant genetic differentiation among populations (F-ST =0.090). Numerous outlier SNPs associated with variation in both annual average temperature (n = 69) and precipitation (n = 248) were detected. Main conclusions The degree and pattern of population differentiation in the SNPs supported the hypothesis that these SNPs have been subject to directional natural selection associated with temperature and precipitation and, hence, are reflective of geographically varying local adaptation. Hence, conservation and management plans for Microhyla fissipes should take into account this heterogeneity in genetic constitution in its populations.

Transposable elements (TEs) are an important source of genome plasticity across the tree of life. Drift and natural selection are important forces shaping TE distribution and accumulation. Fungi, with their multifaceted phenotypic diversity and relatively small genome size, are ideal models to study the role of TEs in genome evolution and their impact on the host’s ecological and life history traits. Here we present an account of all TEs found in a high-quality reference genome of the lichen-forming fungus Umbilicaria pustulata, a macrolichen species comprising two climatic ecotypes: Mediterranean and cold temperate. We trace the occurrence of the newly identified TEs in populations along three elevation gradients using a Pool-Seq approach to identify TE insertions of potential adaptive significance. We found that TEs cover 21.26% of the 32.9 Mbp genome, with LTR Gypsy and Copia clades being the most common TEs. We identified 28 insertions displaying consistent insertion frequency differences between the two host ecotypes across the elevation gradients. Most of the highly differentiated insertions were located near genes, indicating a putative function. This pioneering study of the content and climate niche-specific distribution of TEs in a lichen-forming fungus contributes to understanding the roles of TEs in fungal evolution.