Clinal versus disruptive latitudinal variation in fruit traits of a South American mistletoe.

Fruit traits have historically been interpreted as plant adaptations to their seed dispersers. On the other hand, different environmental factors, which vary spatially and temporally, can shape fruit-trait variation. The mistletoe Tristerix corymbosus has a latitudinal distribution along the South American Pacific rim that encompasses two different biomes, the matorral of central Chile and the temperate forest that extends south of the matorral.

An "orientation sphere" visualization for examining animal head movements.

Animal behavior is elicited, in part, in response to external conditions, but understanding how animals perceive the environment and make the decisions that bring about these behavioral responses is challenging.Animal heads often move during specific behaviors and, additionally, typically have sensory systems (notably vision, smell, and hearing) sampling in defined arcs (normally to the front of their heads). As such, head-mounted electronic sensors consisting of accelerometers and magnetometers, which can be used to determine the movement and directionality of animal heads (where head "movement" is defined here as changes in heading [azimuth] and/or pitch [elevation angle]), can potentially provide information both on behaviors in general and also clarify which parts of the environment the animals might be prioritizing ("environmental framing").

Monitoring canid scent marking in space and time using a biologging and machine learning approach.

For canid species, scent marking plays a critical role in territoriality, social dynamics, and reproduction. However, due in part to human dependence on vision as our primary sensory modality, research on olfactory communication is hampered by a lack of tractable methods. In this study, we leverage a powerful biologging approach, using accelerometers in concert with GPS loggers to monitor and describe scent-marking events in time and space.

Drivers of bird-window collisions in southern South America: a two-scale assessment applying citizen science.

Bird-window collisions are one of the main causes of avian mortality worldwide, with estimations reaching up to almost one billion of dead individuals annually due to this cause in Canada and the USA alone. Although this is a growing conservation problem, most of the studies come from North America, evidencing the lack of knowledge and concern in countries with high biodiversity and growing population development. Our objectives were: (1) to estimate the current situation of bird-window collisions in Argentina, a country with around 10% of the world's avian biodiversity, and, (2) to identify drivers of bird-window collisions at a national and local scale, focusing on a city surrounded by a protected area.

Luck in Food Finding Affects Individual Performance and Population Trajectories.

Energy harvesting by animals is important because it provides the power needed for all metabolic processes. Beyond this, efficient food finding enhances individual fitness [1] and population viability [2], although rates of energy accumulation are affected by the environment and food distribution. Typically, differences between individuals in the rate of food acquisition are attributed to varying competencies [3], even though food-encounter rates are known to be probabilistic [4].

Synergy between roads and disturbance favour L. invasion.

Background: Global change produces pervasive negative impacts on biodiversity worldwide. Land use change and biological invasions are two of the major drivers of global change that often coexist; however, the effects of their interaction on natural habitats have been little investigated. In particular, we aimed to analyse whether the invasion of an introduced grass (; cheatgrass) along roads verges and the disturbance level in the natural surrounding habitat interact to influence the degree of invasion in the latter habitats in north-western Patagonia.

Multi-dimensional Precision Livestock Farming: a potential toolbox for sustainable rangeland management.

Background: Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is a promising approach to minimize the conflicts between socio-economic activities and landscape conservation. However, its application on extensive systems of livestock production can be challenging. The main difficulties arise because animals graze on large natural pastures where they are exposed to competition with wild herbivores for heterogeneous and scarce resources, predation risk, adverse weather, and complex topography.

Towards evenly distributed grazing patterns: including social context in sheep management strategies.

Background. A large proportion of natural grasslands around the world is exposed to overgrazing resulting in land degradation and biodiversity loss. Although there is an increasing effort in the promotion of sustainable livestock management, rangeland degradation still occurs because animals' foraging behaviour is highly selective at different spatial scales.

Prying into the intimate secrets of animal lives; software beyond hardware for comprehensive annotation in 'Daily Diary' tags.

Background: Smart tags attached to freely-roaming animals recording multiple parameters at infra-second rates are becoming commonplace, and are transforming our understanding of the way wild animals behave. Interpretation of such data is complex and currently limits the ability of biologists to realise the value of their recorded information.

Description: This work presents Framework4, an all-encompassing software suite which operates on smart sensor data to determine the 4 key elements considered pivotal for movement analysis from such tags (Endangered Species Res 4: 123-37, 2008).