Impact of the antidepressant Bupropion on the Dynamic Energy Budget of Daphnia magna.

Psychiatric drugs are considered among the emerging contaminants of concern in ecological risk assessment, due to their potential to disrupt homeostasis in aquatic organisms. Bupropion is an antidepressant that acts by selective reuptake inhibition of norepinephrine and dopamine. Little is known about this compound's effects on aquatic organisms, despite being detected in significant concentrations in both water and biota close to waste-water treatment plants and densely populated areas.

Inferring temperature adaptation from thermal performance curves of somatic growth rate: The importance of growth measurements and mortality.

When comparing somatic growth thermal performance curves (TPCs), higher somatic growth across experimental temperatures is often observed for populations originating from colder environments. Such countergradient variation has been suggested to represent adaptation to seasonality, or shorter favourable seasons in colder climates. Alternatively, populations from cold climates may outgrow those from warmer climates at low temperature, and vice versa at high temperature, representing adaptation to temperature.

Insights into the quantification and reporting of model-related uncertainty across different disciplines.

Quantifying uncertainty associated with our models is the only way we can express how much we know about any phenomenon. Incomplete consideration of model-based uncertainties can lead to overstated conclusions with real-world impacts in diverse spheres, including conservation, epidemiology, climate science, and policy. Despite these potentially damaging consequences, we still know little about how different fields quantify and report uncertainty.

Divergence in rates of phenotypic plasticity among ectotherms.

An individual's fitness cost associated with environmental change likely depends on the rate of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, and yet our understanding of plasticity rates in an ecological and evolutionary context remains limited. We provide the first quantitative synthesis of existing plasticity rate data, focusing on acclimation of temperature tolerance in ectothermic animals, where we demonstrate applicability of a recently proposed analytical approach. The analyses reveal considerable variation in plasticity rates of this trait among species, with half-times (how long it takes for the initial deviation from the acclimated phenotype to be reduced by 50% when individuals are shifted to a new environment) ranging from 3.

Evolution of population dynamics following invasion by a non-native predator.

Invasive predatory species are frequently observed to cause evolutionary responses in prey phenotypes, which in turn may lead to evolutionary shifts in the population dynamics of prey. Research has provided a link between rates of predation and the evolution of prey population growth in the lab, but studies from natural populations are rare. Here, we tested for evolutionary changes in population dynamics parameters of zooplankton following invasion by the predator into Lake Kegonsa, Wisconsin, US.