The Role of Geography, Diet, and Host Phylogeny on the Gut Microbiome in the Hawaiian Honeycreeper Radiation.

The animal gut microbiome can have a strong influence on the health, fitness, and behavior of its hosts. The composition of the gut microbial community can be influenced by factors such as diet, environment, and evolutionary history (phylosymbiosis). However, the relative influence of these factors is unknown in most bird species.

High resolution lidar data shed light on inter-island translocation of endangered bird species in the Hawaiian Islands.

Translocation, often a management solution reserved for at-risk species, is a highly time-sensitive intervention in the face of a rapidly changing climate. The definition of abiotic and biotic habitat requirements is essential to the selection of appropriate release sites in novel environments. However, field-based approaches to gathering this information are often too time intensive, especially in areas of complex topography where common, coarse-scale climate models lack essential details.

Wild gut microbiomes reveal individuals, species, and location as drivers of variation in two critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers.

Background: The gut microbiome of animals is an important component that has strong influence on the health, fitness, and behavior of its host. Most research in the microbiome field has focused on human populations and commercially important species. However, researchers are now considering the link between endangered species conservation and the microbiome.

Exercise interventions are delayed in critically ill patients: a cohort study in an Australian tertiary intensive care unit.

Objectives: This study aims to (i) describe the time to exercise commencement (sitting and upright activities) relative to ICU admission and relative to achievement of initial neurological, respiratory and cardiovascular stability; (ii) examine factors associated with whether sitting and upright activities occurred in ICU; and (iii) examine factors associated with time taken to commence these activities after stability has been achieved.

Design: Five-year historical cohort study.

Setting: An Australian tertiary mixed medical, surgical, trauma ICU.

Loss of cultural song diversity and the convergence of songs in a declining Hawaiian forest bird community.

The effects of population decline on culturally transmitted behaviours in animals have rarely been described, but may have major implications to population viability. Learned vocal signals in birds are of critical importance to behaviours associated with reproduction, intrasexual interactions and group cohesion, and the complexity of vocal signals such as song can serve as an honest signal of an individual's quality as well as the viability of a population. In this study, we examined how rapid population declines recently experienced by Hawaiian honeycreepers on the island of Kaua'i (USA) may have influenced the diversity, complexity and similarity of learned honeycreeper songs.

Using population viability analysis to evaluate management activities for an endangered Hawaiian endemic, the Puaiohi (Myadestes palmeri).

Evolution in the Hawaiian Islands has produced a unique avian assemblage. Unfortunately, many of these bird species are highly endangered or extinct. Despite numerous and increasing threats and great effort aimed at saving endemic birds, we lack basic science necessary for understanding many species of concern.

Potential disruption of seed dispersal in the absence of a native Kauai thrush.

Hawaii has experienced a catastrophic decline in frugivorous native birds coupled with the introduction of non-native species. Puaiohi (Myadestes palmeri), a critically endangered thrush, is the sole extant native songbird capable of dispersing fleshy fruited plants in the rainforest of Kauai island, Hawaii. As this species has declined to occupy a small proportion of its original range, a suite of largely omnivorous non-native birds have been introduced to this region, including the common and widespread Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus).

Collapsing avian community on a Hawaiian island.

The viability of many species has been jeopardized by numerous negative factors over the centuries, but climate change is predicted to accelerate and increase the pressure of many of these threats, leading to extinctions. The Hawaiian honeycreepers, famous for their spectacular adaptive radiation, are predicted to experience negative responses to climate change, given their susceptibility to introduced disease, the strong linkage of disease distribution to climatic conditions, and their current distribution. We document the rapid collapse of the native avifauna on the island of Kaua'i that corresponds to changes in climate and disease prevalence.

Local prevalence and transmission of avian malaria in the Alakai Plateau of Kauai, Hawaii, U.S.A.

Avian malaria is among the most important threats to native Hawaiian forest birds. It is caused by the parasite Plasmodium relictum and is transmitted by the introduced mosquito vector Culex quinquefasciatus. Temperature increases and precipitation declines due to climate change over the last decade may be responsible for the observed recent expansion in the range and prevalence of avian malaria on the Alakai Plateau, Kauai Island.

Changing climate and the altitudinal range of avian malaria in the Hawaiian Islands - an ongoing conservation crisis on the island of Kaua'i.

Transmission of avian malaria in the Hawaiian Islands varies across altitudinal gradients and is greatest at elevations below 1500 m where both temperature and moisture are favorable for the sole mosquito vector, Culex quinquefasciatus, and extrinsic sporogonic development of the parasite, Plasmodium relictum. Potential consequences of global warming on this system have been recognized for over a decade with concerns that increases in mean temperatures could lead to expansion of malaria into habitats where cool temperatures currently limit transmission to highly susceptible endemic forest birds. Recent declines in two endangered species on the island of Kaua'i, the 'Akikiki (Oreomystis bairdi) and 'Akeke'e (Loxops caeruleirostris), and retreat of more common native honeycreepers to the last remaining high elevation habitat on the Alaka'i Plateau suggest that predicted changes in disease transmission may be occurring.