Seascape Genomics and Phylogeography of the Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus).

Permeable phylogeographic barriers characterize the vast open ocean, boosting gene flow and counteracting population differentiation and speciation of widely distributed and migratory species. However, many widely distributed species consists of distinct populations throughout their distribution, evidencing that our understanding of how the marine environment triggers population and species divergence are insufficient. The sailfish is a circumtropical and highly migratory billfish that inhabits warm and productive areas.

Phenotypic variation of a new synthetic allotetraploid enhanced in natural environment.

The phenotypic variation of vegetative organs and reproductive organs of newly synthesized and natural genotypes was investigated in both a controlled environment and a natural environment in an experimental garden. When we compared the variation of their leaf shape as a vegetative organ, the synthetic individuals grown in the garden showed larger variation compared with the individuals incubated in a growth chamber, suggesting enhanced phenotypic variation in a natural fluctuating environment. In contrast, the natural genotypes did not show significant change in variation by growth condition.

Blue shark (Prionace glauca) occurrence and relative abundance in the western South Atlantic Ocean influenced by spatiotemporal variability, environmental variables, and oceanographic processes.

The aim of this study was to evaluate spatiotemporal patterns in the distribution and relative abundance of blue sharks and their relationship with environmental variables and oceanographic processes in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. We modeled data on catch records from the Brazilian pelagic tuna longline fleet using generalized additive models (GAMs). The distribution of Prionace glauca was influenced by salinity, chlorophyll-a and temperature.

Impact of model assumptions on demographic inferences: the case study of two sympatric mouse lemurs in northwestern Madagascar.

Background: Quaternary climate fluctuations have been acknowledged as major drivers of the geographical distribution of the extraordinary biodiversity observed in tropical biomes, including Madagascar. The main existing framework for Pleistocene Malagasy diversification assumes that forest cover was strongly shaped by warmer Interglacials (leading to forest expansion) and by cooler and arid glacials (leading to forest contraction), but predictions derived from this scenario for forest-dwelling animals have rarely been tested with genomic datasets.

Results: We generated genomic data and applied three complementary demographic approaches (Stairway Plot, PSMC and IICR-simulations) to infer population size and connectivity changes for two forest-dependent primate species (Microcebus murinus and M.