Diet, trophic interactions and possible ecological role of commercial sharks and batoids in northern Peruvian waters.

The Peruvian sea represents one of the most productive ocean ecosystems and possesses one of the largest elasmobranch fisheries in the Pacific Ocean. Ecosystem-based management of these fisheries will require information on the trophic ecology of elasmobranchs. This study aimed to understand the diet, trophic interactions and the role of nine commercial elasmobranch species in northern Peru through the analysis of stomach contents.

Commercial Harvesting Has Driven the Evolution of Camouflage in an Alpine Plant.

Color in nature mediates numerous among and within species interactions, and anthropogenic impacts have long had major influences on the color evolution of wild animals. An under-explored area is commercial harvesting, which in animals can exert a strong selection pressure on various traits, sometimes greater even than natural selection or other human activities. Natural populations of plants that are used by humans have likely also suffered strong pressure from harvesting, yet the potential for evolutionary change induced by humans has received surprisingly little attention.

Male and female genotype and a genotype-by-genotype interaction mediate the effects of mating on cellular but not humoral immunity in female decorated crickets.

Sexually antagonistic coevolution is predicted to lead to the divergence of male and female genotypes related to the effects of substances transferred by males at mating on female physiology. The outcome of mating should thus depend on the specific combination of mating genotypes. Although mating has been shown to influence female immunity in diverse insect taxa, a male-female genotype-by-genotype effect on female immunity post mating remains largely unexplored.

Migrant birds and mammals live faster than residents.

Billions of vertebrates migrate to and from their breeding grounds annually, exhibiting astonishing feats of endurance. Many such movements are energetically costly yet there is little consensus on whether or how such costs might influence schedules of survival and reproduction in migratory animals. Here we provide a global analysis of associations between migratory behaviour and vertebrate life histories.

The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution.

Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools.

Riverine plastic pollution from fisheries: Insights from the Ganges River system.

Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear represents a substantial proportion of global marine plastic pollution and can cause significant environmental and socio-economic impacts. Yet little is known about its presence in, and implications for, freshwater ecosystems or its downstream contribution to plastic pollution in the ocean. This study documents fishing gear-related debris in one of the world's largest plastic pollution contributing river catchments, the Ganges.

Quantifying selection on standard metabolic rate and body mass in Drosophila melanogaster.

Standard metabolic rate (SMR), defined as the minimal energy expenditure required for self-maintenance, is a key physiological trait. Few studies have estimated its relationship with fitness, most notably in insects. This is presumably due to the difficulty of measuring SMR in a large number of very small individuals.

Assessment during Intergroup Contests.

Research on how competitors assess (i.e., gather information on) fighting ability and contested resources, as well as how assessment impacts on contest processes and outcomes, has been fundamental to the field of dyadic (one-on-one) contests.

Heat and dehydration induced oxidative damage and antioxidant defenses following incubator heat stress and a simulated heat wave in wild caught four-striped field mice Rhabdomys dilectus.

Heat waves are known for their disastrous mass die-off effects due to dehydration and cell damage, but little is known about the non-lethal consequences of surviving severe heat exposure. Severe heat exposure can cause oxidative stress which can have negative consequences on animal cognition, reproduction and life expectancy. We investigated the current oxidative stress experienced by a mesic mouse species, the four striped field mouse, Rhabdomys dilectus through a heat wave simulation with ad lib water and a more severe temperature exposure with minimal water.

Divergence in environmental adaptation between terrestrial clades of the Bacillus cereus group.

The Bacillus cereus group encompasses beneficial and harmful species in diverse niches and has a much debated taxonomy. Investigating whether selection has led to ecological divergence between phylogenetic clades can help understand the basis of speciation, and has implications for predicting biological safety across this group. Using three most terrestrial species in this group (B.

Plastic pollution in aquatic systems in Bangladesh: A review of current knowledge.

Rivers play a crucial role in transporting land-based plastic waste to the ocean, with the Ganges reported as the second largest contributing river of plastic pollution globally. To better quantify global plastic pollution transport and effectively reduce the sources and risks imposed, a clear understanding of the origin, transport, fate, and effects of riverine plastic debris is important. In this review paper, we discuss the current state of knowledge of plastic pollution in aquatic systems in Bangladesh and evaluate existing research gaps.

Open-access platform to synthesize knowledge of ape conservation across sites.

Despite the large body of literature on ape conservation, much of the data needed for evidence-based conservation decision-making is still not readily accessible and standardized, rendering cross-site comparison difficult. To support knowledge synthesis and to complement the IUCN SSC Ape Populations, Environments and Surveys database, we created the A.P.

Threshold assessment, categorical perception, and the evolution of reliable signaling.

Animals often use assessment signals to communicate information about their quality to a variety of receivers, including potential mates, competitors, and predators. But what maintains reliable signaling and prevents signalers from signaling a better quality than they actually have? Previous work has shown that reliable signaling can be maintained if signalers pay fitness costs for signaling at different intensities and these costs are greater for lower quality individuals than higher quality ones. Models supporting this idea typically assume that continuous variation in signal intensity is perceived as such by receivers.

Life history and population regulation shape demographic competence and influence the maintenance of endemic disease.

Host life history and demography play important roles in host-pathogen dynamics, by influencing the ability of hosts and their pathogens to coexist. We introduce the concept of demographic competence to describe the ability of host populations to sustain endemic infectious disease. Hosts with high demographic competence are more likely to act as keystone hosts and constitute reservoirs of infection that can spill over into other species.

Exploitative leaders incite intergroup warfare in a social mammal.

Collective conflicts among humans are widespread, although often highly destructive. A classic explanation for the prevalence of such warfare in some human societies is leadership by self-serving individuals that reap the benefits of conflict while other members of society pay the costs. Here, we show that leadership of this kind can also explain the evolution of collective violence in certain animal societies.

Macronutrient intake and simulated infection threat independently affect life history traits of male decorated crickets.

Nutritional geometry has advanced our understanding of how macronutrients (e.g., proteins and carbohydrates) influence the expression of life history traits and their corresponding trade-offs.

Vulnerability of northern gannets to offshore wind farms; seasonal and sex-specific collision risk and demographic consequences.

There is a pressing need to quantify the risks of renewable energy developments such as offshore wind farms for protected populations. However, assessments are often based on incomplete data, or fail to consider variation in risk between sexes and at different times of year. We tracked northern gannets foraging from the world's largest colony (Bass Rock, Scotland) across five consecutive breeding seasons.

Genomic Analyses Reveal Genetic Adaptations to Tropical Climates in Chickens.

The genetic footprints of adaptations to naturally occurring tropical stress along with domestication are poorly reported in chickens. Here, by conducting population genomic analyses of 67 chickens inhabiting distinct climates, we found signals of gene flow from Tibetan chickens to Sri Lankan and Saudi Arabian breeds and identified 12 positively selected genes that are likely involved in genetic adaptations to both tropical desert and tropical monsoon island climates. Notably, in tropical desert climate, advantageous alleles of and , which could inhibit replication of viruses in cells, suggest immune adaptation to the defense against zoonotic diseases in chickens.

Multilayer and Multiplex Networks: An Introduction to Their Use in Veterinary Epidemiology.

Contact network analysis has become a vital tool for conceptualizing the spread of pathogens in animal populations and is particularly useful for understanding the implications of heterogeneity in contact patterns for transmission. However, the transmission of most pathogens cannot be simplified to a single mode of transmission and, thus, a single definition of contact. In addition, host-pathogen interactions occur in a community context, with many pathogens infecting multiple host species and most hosts being infected by multiple pathogens.

Evolutionary insight from a humble fly: sperm competition and the yellow dungfly.

Studies of the yellow dungfly in the 1960s provided one of the first quantitative demonstrations of the costs and benefits associated with male and female reproductive behaviour. These studies advanced appreciation of sexual selection as a significant evolutionary mechanism and contributed to the 1970s paradigm shift toward individual selectionist thinking. Three behaviours in particular led to the realization that sexual selection can continue during and after mating: (i) female receptivity to remating, (ii) sperm displacement and (iii) post-copulatory mate guarding.