Balancing the management of powerline right-of-way corridors for humans and nature.

Green space in electric powerline rights of way (ROWs) can be a source of both ecosystem services and disservices in developed landscapes. Vegetation management within the ROW may influence tradeoffs that maximize potential services or disservices. Frequently mowed ROWs managed as lawn harbor less biodiversity than ROWs with taller vegetation, but may be preferred by people for aesthetic reasons and because they provide space for recreational activities.

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover.

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors.

When a pest is not a pest: Birds indirectly increase defoliation but have no effect on yield of soybean crops.

Natural habitats near agricultural systems can be sources of both ecosystem services and disservices on farms. Ecosystem disservices, those aspects of an ecosystem that have negative impacts on humans, may disproportionately affect conservation decisions made by farmers. Birds, in particular, can have complex effects on crops, ranging from positive to neutral to negative.

Butterfly declines in protected areas of Illinois: Assessing the influence of two decades of climate and landscape change.

Despite increasing concern regarding broad-scale declines in insects, there are few published long-term, systematic butterfly surveys in North America, and fewer still that have incorporated the influence of changing climate and landscape variables. In this study, we analyzed 20 years of citizen science data at seven consistently monitored protected areas in Illinois, U.S.

Assessing four methods for establishing native plants on urban vacant land.

Urban greening increases vegetation and can restore ecological functions to urban systems. It has ties to restoration ecology, which aims to return degraded land to diverse, functional ecosystems. Both practices can be applied to maximizing ecosystem services and habitat in vacant lots, which are abundant in post-industrial cities, including Chicago, Illinois (USA), where our study took place.

Histoecology: Applying Ecological Principles and Approaches to Describe and Predict Tumor Ecosystem Dynamics Across Space and Time.

Cancer cells exist within a complex spatially structured ecosystem composed of resources and different cell types. As the selective pressures imposed by this environment determine the fate of cancer cells, an improved understanding of how this ecosystem evolves will better elucidate how tumors grow and respond to therapy. State of the art imaging methods can now provide highly resolved descriptions of the microenvironment, yielding the data required for a thorough study of its role in tumor growth and treatment resistance.

Birds suppress pests in corn but release them in soybean crops within a mixed prairie/agriculture system.

Birds provide ecosystem services (pest control) in many agroecosystems and have neutral or negative ecological effects (disservices) in others. Large-scale, conventional row crop agriculture is extremely widespread globally, yet few studies of bird effects take place in these agroecosystems. We studied indirect effects of insectivorous birds on corn and soybean crops in fields adjacent to a prairie in Illinois (USA).

Increased DMT1 and FPN1 expression with enhanced iron absorption in ulcerative colitis human colon.

Iron deficiency anemia is a common complication of ulcerative colitis (UC) that can profoundly impact quality of life. Most iron absorption occurs in the duodenum via divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1)-mediated uptake and ferroportin-1 (FPN1)-mediated export across the apical and basolateral membranes, respectively. However, the colon also contains iron transporters and can participate in iron absorption.

Assessing social and biophysical drivers of spontaneous plant diversity and structure in urban vacant lots.

Vacant lots are typically viewed as urban blight but are also green spaces that provide wildlife habitat and ecosystem services in urban landscapes. Vacant lot vegetation results from interacting biophysical and social forces, and studying vacant lot ecology is an opportunity to examine urban socio-environmental intersections. Here, we assess vegetation patterns in vacant lots across Chicago, IL (USA), and ask two questions: 1) How does diversity and structure vary, and 2) how do social and biophysical drivers contribute to this variation? We conducted vegetation surveys in 35 vacant lots in the summer of 2015.

Chronic, Recreational Chloroform-Induced Liver Injury.

Historically used as an anesthetic, chloroform is a halogenated hydrocarbon that is associated with central nervous system depression, arrhythmias, and hepatotoxicity. It is no longer used clinically, but accidental and intentional poisonings still occur. We report a case of chronic chloroform abuse leading to severe hepatotoxicity in a 26-year-old male graduate student.

Dextran sulfate sodium-induced chronic colitis attenuates Ca-activated Cl secretion in murine colon by downregulating TMEM16A.

Attenuated Ca-activated Cl secretion has previously been observed in the model of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Prior studies have implicated dysfunctional muscarinic signaling from basolateral membranes as the potential perpetrator leading to decreased Ca-activated Cl secretion. However, in our chronic model of DSS-colitis, cholinergic receptor muscarinic 3 ( Chrm3) transcript (1.

Restored connectivity facilitates recruitment by an endemic large-seeded tree in a fragmented tropical landscape.

Many large-seeded Neotropical trees depend on a limited guild of animals for seed dispersal. Fragmented landscapes reduce animal abundance and movement, limiting seed dispersal between distant forest remnants. In 2006, experimental plantings were established in pasture to determine whether plantings enhance seed dispersal and, ultimately, seedling recruitment.

The city as a refuge for insect pollinators.

Research on urban insect pollinators is changing views on the biological value and ecological importance of cities. The abundance and diversity of native bee species in urban landscapes that are absent in nearby rural lands evidence the biological value and ecological importance of cities and have implications for biodiversity conservation. Lagging behind this revised image of the city are urban conservation programs that historically have invested in education and outreach rather than programs designed to achieve high-priority species conservation results.

Effect of Number of Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Visits on Eggplant Yield.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is a crop with perfect flowers capable of self-pollination. Insect pollination enhances fruit set, but little is known about how pollination success varies by number of visits from bumble bees.

Diversity of wild bees supports pollination services in an urbanized landscape.

Plantings in residential neighborhoods can support wild pollinators. However, it is unknown how effectively wild pollinators maintain pollination services in small, urban gardens with diverse floral resources. We used a 'mobile garden' experimental design, whereby potted plants of cucumber, eggplant, and purple coneflower were brought to 30 residential yards in Chicago, IL, USA, to enable direct assessment of pollination services provided by wild pollinator communities.

Pathology to enhance precision medicine in oncology: lessons from landscape ecology.

A major goal of modern medicine is increasing patient specificity so that the right treatment is administered to the right patient at the right time with the right dose. While current cancer studies have largely focused on identification of genetic or epigenetic properties of tumor cells, emerging evidence has clearly demonstrated substantial genetic heterogeneity between tumors in the same patient and within subclones of a single tumor. Thus, molecular analysis from populations of cells (either a whole tumor or small biopsy of that tumor) is, at best, an incomplete representation of the underlying biology.

Having our yards and sharing them too: the collective effects of yards on native bird species in an urban landscape.

Residential yards comprise a substantial portion of urban landscapes, and the collective effects of the management of many individual yards may “scale up” to affect urban biodiversity. We conducted bird surveys and social surveys in Chicago-area (Illinois, USA) residential neighborhoods to identify the relative importance of yard design and management activities for native birds. We found that groups of neighboring yards, in the aggregate, were more important for native bird species richness than environmental characteristics at the neighborhood or landscape scale.

Predicting and mapping potential Whooping Crane stopover habitat to guide site selection for wind energy projects.

Migratory stopover habitats are often not part of planning for conservation or new development projects. We identified potential stopover habitats within an avian migratory flyway and demonstrated how this information can guide the site-selection process for new development. We used the random forests modeling approach to map the distribution of predicted stopover habitat for the Whooping Crane (Grus americana), an endangered species whose migratory flyway overlaps with an area where wind energy development is expected to become increasingly important.

AMD-associated variants at the chromosome 10q26 locus and the stability of ARMS2 transcripts.

Purpose: To analyze the effect of variants including age-related macular degeneration (AMD)-associated combinative insertion/deletion polymorphism (indel) at 3'UTR of ARMS2 and possibly associated R38X on the stability of ARMS2 transcripts.

Methods: ARMS2 transcription from minigene vectors carrying different alleles at variants R38X and the indel were assessed in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Dual luciferase assays were applied to evaluate the effect of the indel on gene expression.

Ascorbate induces ten-eleven translocation (Tet) methylcytosine dioxygenase-mediated generation of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine.

Background: Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase converts 5-mC to 5-hmC in DNA.

Results: Ascorbate significantly and specifically enhances Tet-mediated generation of 5-hmC.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that ascorbate enhances 5-hmC generation, most likely by acting as a co-factor for Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase to generate 5-hmC.

Landscape connectivity and seed dispersal characteristics inform the best management strategy for exotic plants.

Exotic plant invasions have triggered environmental and economic problems throughout the world. Our ability to manage these invasions is hindered by the difficulty of predicting spread in fragmented landscapes. Because the spatial pattern of invasions depends on the dispersal characteristics of the invasive species and the configuration of suitable habitat within the landscape, a universal management strategy is unlikely to succeed for any particular species.

A multiscale network analysis of protected-area connectivity for mammals in the United States.

Protected areas must be close, or connected, enough to allow for the preservation of large-scale ecological and evolutionary processes, such as gene flow, migration, and range shifts in response to climate change. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether the network of protected areas in the United States is connected in a way that will preserve biodiversity over large temporal and spatial scales. It is also unclear whether protected-area networks that function for larger species will function for smaller species.

The role of landscape connectivity in assembling exotic plant communities: a network analysis.

Landscape fragmentation and exotic species invasions are two modern-day forces that have strong and largely irreversible effects on native diversity worldwide. The spatial arrangement of habitat fragments is critical in affecting movement of individuals through a landscape, but little is known about how invasive species respond to landscape configuration relative to native species. This information is crucial for managing the global threat of invasive species spread.

Graph models of habitat mosaics.

Graph theory is a body of mathematics dealing with problems of connectivity, flow, and routing in networks ranging from social groups to computer networks. Recently, network applications have erupted in many fields, and graph models are now being applied in landscape ecology and conservation biology, particularly for applications couched in metapopulation theory. In these applications, graph nodes represent habitat patches or local populations and links indicate functional connections among populations (i.

A graph-theory framework for evaluating landscape connectivity and conservation planning.

Connectivity of habitat patches is thought to be important for movement of genes, individuals, populations, and species over multiple temporal and spatial scales. We used graph theory to characterize multiple aspects of landscape connectivity in a habitat network in the North Carolina Piedmont (U.S.