Long range gene flow beyond predictions from oceanographic transport in a tropical marine foundation species.

The transport of passively dispersed organisms across tropical margins remains poorly understood. Hypotheses of oceanographic transportation potential lack testing with large scale empirical data. To address this gap, we used the seagrass species, Halodule wrightii, which is unique in spanning the entire tropical Atlantic.

Assessing the contribution of mangrove carbon and of other basal sources to intertidal flats adjacent to one of the largest West African mangrove forests.

Mangrove forests are productive habitats and major potential exporters of organic matter and nutrients to adjacent habitats. Here we examine the extent to which mangrove carbon is transferred to adjacent intertidal food webs in the second largest mangrove-covered area in Africa, in Guinea-Bissau. Applying stable isotope analysis and mixing models, we made comparisons at two spatial scales: (1) a large scale, comparing intertidal flats with (mangrove sites) and without (control sites) adjacent mangrove forests regarding the carbon isotopic signature of macrozoobenthos and sediment organic matter (SOM), and the relative importance of potential primary food sources in sustaining macrozoobenthos, and (2) a fine scale, performing stable carbon isotope measurements along 200 m transects from the coastline out to open intertidal flats, to trace mangrove carbon in macrozoobenthos and in the SOM.

A community-based transcriptomics classification and nomenclature of neocortical cell types.

To understand the function of cortical circuits, it is necessary to catalog their cellular diversity. Past attempts to do so using anatomical, physiological or molecular features of cortical cells have not resulted in a unified taxonomy of neuronal or glial cell types, partly due to limited data. Single-cell transcriptomics is enabling, for the first time, systematic high-throughput measurements of cortical cells and generation of datasets that hold the promise of being complete, accurate and permanent.