Publications by authors named "L Atmore"

Small pelagic fish support profitable fisheries and are important for food security around the world. Yet, their sustainable management can be hindered by the indiscriminate impacts of simultaneous exploitation of fish from multiple distinct biological populations over extended periods of time. The quantification of such impacts is greatly facilitated by recently developed molecular tools-including diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panels for mixed-stock analysis (MSA)-that can accurately detect the population identity of individual fish.

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The Arctic is experiencing the fastest rates of global warming, leading to shifts in the distribution of its biota and increasing the potential for hybridization. However, genomic evidence of recent hybridization events in the Arctic remains unexpectedly rare. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing of contemporary and 122-year-old historical specimens to investigate the origin of an Arctic hybrid population of Atlantic puffins () on Bjørnøya, Norway.

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Healthy insect populations are vital for maintaining natural ecosystems and essential to global food security. The ongoing dramatic loss of insect species and biomass is thus a global cause for concern, with much focus on this topic in the media. Yet, determining the mechanism behind these declines remains difficult, particularly when attempting to differentiate between anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss and long-term natural fluctuations.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Fin whales faced unsustainable hunting practices in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially in the Southern Ocean, resulting in a dramatic decline in their population, with around 730,000 harvested in the Southern Hemisphere alone.
  • - Researchers utilized historical samples like bones and baleen from ex-whaling stations and museums to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of Southern Hemisphere fin whales around the time of whaling.
  • - The analysis of 27 historical mitogenomes and additional genetic data revealed that Southern Hemisphere fin whales are highly diverse and potentially represent a single interconnected population, distinct from their Northern Hemisphere counterparts, marking the first availability of historic genomic data for these whales.
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Our current economic and political structures have an increasingly devastating impact on the Earth's climate and ecosystems: we are facing a biospheric emergency, with catastrophic consequences for both humans and the natural world on which we depend. Life scientists - including biologists, medical scientists, psychologists and public health experts - have had a crucial role in documenting the impacts of this emergency, but they have failed to drive governments to take action in order to prevent the situation from getting worse. Here we, as members of the movement Scientist Rebellion, call on life scientists to re-embrace advocacy and activism - which were once hallmarks of academia - in order to highlight the urgency and necessity of systemic change across our societies.

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