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In human societies, men tend to have more power, status, dominance, and occupy leadership positions more often than women; similarly, in animal societies, power and dominance are often unequally distributed between males and females. Despite these similarities across societies of humans and animals, the scientific study of power, status, dominance, and leadership have (for the most part) progressed in isolation, with little cross-disciplinary exchange or fertilization between the natural and social sciences. In the social sciences, an extensive body of work has investigated the relation between gender (or sometimes sex) and power, status, dominance, and leadership outcomes (e.g., Eagly & Karau, 2002; Goldin, 2014; Eagly and Heilman, 2016; Meeussen et al., 2016; Hentschel et al., 2018; Von Rueden et al., 2018; Smith et al., 2020; Eckel et al., 2021; Shen et al., in press; Heilman et al., 2024). This effort notwithstanding, many questions remain. For example, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the contexts and circumstances that favor (or undermine) women’s advancement to powerful positions, and about why and when female and male leaders are evaluated differently (Williams and Tiedens, 2016; Cardador et al., 2022). In the natural sciences, empirical investigations in mammalian societies have primarily focused on the evolutionary origins and dynamics of male-female power asymmetries. Specifically, such investigations often focus on a few taxa with female dominance, such as bonobos, lemurs, and spotted hyenas (Kappeler, 1993; Lewis, 2018; Davidian et al., 2022; Smith et al. in this Research Topic). Notably, intersexual dominance–the distribution of power and status between the sexes—is often treated as a binary (i.e., a species is described as either male-dominant or female-dominant) and as a fixed (rather than flexible) trait of a given species (Lewis, 2018; Davidian, 2022). Contrary to this view, recent studies suggest the relative power of

17 juni 2022, Contains fulltext : 252380.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), In our paper "Evaluating expert-based habitat suitability information of terrestrial mammals with GPS-tracking data" (Global Ecology and Biogeography) we use GPS tracking data from 1,498 from 49 different species to evaluate the expert-based habitat suitability data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Therefore, we used the GPS tracking data to estimate two measures of habitat suitability for each individual animal and habitat type: proportional habitat use (proportion of GPS locations within a habitat type), and selection ratio (habitat use relative to its availability). For each individual we then evaluated whether the GPS-based habitat suitability measures were in agreement with the IUCN data. To that end, we calculated the probability that the ranking of empirical habitat suitability measures was in agreement with IUCN’s classification into suitable, marginal and unsuitable habitat types. Our results showed that IUCN habitat suitability data were in accordance with the GPS data (>95% probability of agreement) for 33 out of 49 species based on proportional habitat use estimates and for 25 out of 49 species based on selection ratios. In addition, 37 and 34 species had a >50% probability of agreement based on proportional habitat use and selection ratios, respectively. These findings indicate that for the majority of species included in this study, it is appropriate to use IUCN habitat suitability data in macroecological studies. Furthermore, our study shows that GPS tracking data can be used to identify and prioritize species and habitat types for re-evaluation of IUCN habitat suitability data. In this dataset we provide the measures of habitat suitability for each individual and each habitat type, calculated using different methods. In addition, we provide data on the body mass and IUCN Red List category of the species, as well as whether the species can be considered a habitat specialist or habitat generalist.

Gastrointestinal helminth-microbiota associations are shaped by various ecological processes. The effect of the ecological context of the host on the bacterial microbiome and gastrointestinal helminth parasites has been tested in a number of ecosystems and experimentally. This study takes the important step to look at these two groups at the same time and to start to examine how these communities interact in a changing host environment. Fresh faecal samples (N = 335) from eight wild Eulemur populations were collected over 2 years across Madagascar. We used 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to characterise the bacterial microbiota composition, and faecal flotation to isolate and morphologically identify nematode eggs. Infections with nematodes of the genera Callistoura and Lemuricola occurred in all lemur populations. Seasonality significantly contributed to the observed variation in microbiota composition, especially in the dry deciduous forest. Microbial richness and Lemuricola spp. infection prevalence were highest in a previously intensely logged site, whereas Callistoura spp. showed no such pattern. In addition, we observed significant correlations between gastrointestinal parasites and bacterial microbiota composition in these lemurs, with 0.4–0.7% of the variation in faecal bacterial microbiota composition being explained by helminth infections. With this study, we show effects of environmental conditions on gastrointestinal nematodes and bacterial interactions in wild lemurs and believe it is essential to consider the potential role of microbiome-parasite associations on the hosts’ GI stability, health, and survival.

Contains fulltext : 95146.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)

Although the invention and widespread use of artificial light is clearly one of the most important human technological advances, the transformation of nightscapes is increasingly recognized as having adverse effects. Night lighting may have serious physiological consequences for humans, ecological and evolutionary implications for animal and plant populations, and may reshape entire ecosystems. However, knowledge on the adverse effects of light pollution is vague. In response to climate change and energy shortages, many countries, regions, and communities are developing new lighting programs and concepts with a strong focus on energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. Given the dramatic increase in artificial light at night (0 - 20% per year, depending on geographic region), we see an urgent need for light pollution policies that go beyond energy efficiency to include human well-being, the structure and functioning of ecosystems, and inter-related socioeconomic consequences. Such a policy shift will require a sound transdisciplinary understanding of the significance of the night, and its loss, for humans and the natural systems upon which we depend. Knowledge is also urgently needed on suitable lighting technologies and concepts which are ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable. Unless managing darkness becomes an integral part of future conservation and lighting policies, modern society may run into a global self-experiment with unpredictable outcomes.