Designing eco-evolutionary experiments for restoration projects: Opportunities and constraints revealed during stickleback introductions.

Eco-evolutionary experiments are typically conducted in semi-unnatural controlled settings, such as mesocosms; yet inferences about how evolution and ecology interact in the real world would surely benefit from experiments in natural uncontrolled settings. Opportunities for such experiments are rare but do arise in the context of restoration ecology-where different "types" of a given species can be introduced into different "replicate" locations. Designing such experiments requires wrestling with consequential questions.

Thermal tolerance of cultured and wild Icelandic arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) at self-selected flow rates.

Climate change is predicted to change not only the temperature of many freshwater systems but also flow dynamics. Understanding how fishes will fare in the future requires knowing how they will respond to both extended variations of temperature and flow. Arctic charr have had their thermal tolerance measured, but never with respect to flow.

The effect of temperature and dietary energy content on female maturation and egg nutritional content in Atlantic salmon.

The environment experienced by a female influences reproductive traits in many species of fish. Environmental factors such as temperature and diet are not only important mediators of female maturation and reproduction but also of egg traits and offspring fitness through maternal provisioning. In this study, we use 3-year-old tank-reared Atlantic salmon from two Finnish populations to investigate the effect of temperature and diet on maturation and egg traits.

Life-history genotype explains variation in migration activity in Atlantic salmon ().

One of the most well-known life-history continuums is the fast-slow axis, where 'fast' individuals mature earlier than 'slow' individuals. 'Fast' individuals are predicted to be more active than 'slow' individuals because high activity is required to maintain a fast life-history strategy. Recent meta-analyses revealed mixed evidence for such integration.

Sensory environment affects Icelandic threespine stickleback's anti-predator escape behaviour.

Human-induced changes in climate and habitats push populations to adapt to novel environments, including new sensory conditions, such as reduced visibility. We studied how colonizing newly formed glacial lakes with turbidity-induced low-visibility affects anti-predator behaviour in Icelandic threespine sticklebacks. We tested nearly 400 fish from 15 populations and four habitat types varying in visibility and colonization history in their reaction to two predator cues (mechano-visual versus olfactory) in high versus low-visibility light treatments.

The effect of temperature on growth performance and aerobic metabolic scope in Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus (L.).

In recent years, Arctic char populations in Iceland have declined and the objective of this experiment was to throw further light on these changes by examining the effect of temperature (5, 9, 13, 17, and 21 °C) on the survival, growth rate, metabolism, and physiological indices of juvenile Arctic charr (initial mean body mass 4.02 ± 0.8 g).

The Atlantic salmon whole blood transcriptome and how it relates to major locus maturation genotypes and other tissues.

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is important to many ecosystems and local economies and has therefore become the focus of a broad range of research questions that have benefited from the availability of high-quality genomic resources. Albeit gene expression studies have been extensive for this species, the transcriptome information for Atlantic salmon whole blood has been lacking. A transcriptome of Atlantic salmon blood would be a valuable resource for future studies, especially those wishing to take non-lethal samples.

Are we ready to track climate-driven shifts in marine species across international boundaries? - A global survey of scientific bottom trawl data.

Marine biota are redistributing at a rapid pace in response to climate change and shifting seascapes. While changes in fish populations and community structure threaten the sustainability of fisheries, our capacity to adapt by tracking and projecting marine species remains a challenge due to data discontinuities in biological observations, lack of data availability, and mismatch between data and real species distributions. To assess the extent of this challenge, we review the global status and accessibility of ongoing scientific bottom trawl surveys.

Cytosine methylation patterns suggest a role of methylation in plastic and adaptive responses to temperature in European grayling () populations.

Temperature is a key environmental parameter affecting both the phenotypes and distributions of organisms, particularly ectotherms. Rapid organismal responses to thermal environmental changes have been described for several ectotherms; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms often remain unclear. Here, we studied whole genome cytosine methylation patterns of European grayling () embryos from five populations with contemporary adaptations of early life history traits at either 'colder' or 'warmer' spawning grounds.

Does range expansion modify trait covariation? A study of a northward expanding dragonfly.

The adaptive value of correlations among phenotypic traits depends on the prevailing environmental conditions. Differences in selection pressures during species range expansions may therefore shape phenotypic integration. In this study, we assessed variation in behavioral and morphological traits, as well as their covariations, in replicated southern and northern European populations of the northward expanding dragonfly Crocothemis erythraea.

Repeatability of Adaptive Radiation Depends on Spatial Scale: Regional Versus Global Replicates of Stickleback in Lake Versus Stream Habitats.

The repeatability of adaptive radiation is expected to be scale-dependent, with determinism decreasing as greater spatial separation among "replicates" leads to their increased genetic and ecological independence. Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) provide an opportunity to test whether this expectation holds for the early stages of adaptive radiation-their diversification in freshwater ecosystems has been replicated many times. To better understand the repeatability of that adaptive radiation, we examined the influence of geographic scale on levels of parallel evolution by quantifying phenotypic and genetic divergence between lake and stream stickleback pairs sampled at regional (Vancouver Island) and global (North America and Europe) scales.

Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries.

Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries.

Subtle temperature increase can interact with individual size and social context in shaping phenotypic traits of a coldwater fish.

Temperature and individual egg size have been long studied in the development of fishes because of their direct effects on individual fitness. Here we studied the combined effects of three important factors for fish development, i.e.

Gene expression in the phenotypically plastic Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus): A focus on growth and ossification at early stages of development.

Gene expression during development shapes the phenotypes of individuals. Although embryonic gene expression can have lasting effects on developmental trajectories, few studies consider the role of maternal effects, such as egg size, on gene expression. Using qPCR, we characterize relative expression of 14 growth and/or skeletal promoting genes across embryonic development in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus).

Peptidylarginine deiminase and deiminated proteins are detected throughout early halibut ontogeny - Complement components C3 and C4 are post-translationally deiminated in halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.).

Post-translational protein deimination is mediated by peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs), which are calcium dependent enzymes conserved throughout phylogeny with physiological and pathophysiological roles. Protein deimination occurs via the conversion of protein arginine into citrulline, leading to structural and functional changes in target proteins. In a continuous series of early halibut development from 37 to 1050° d, PAD, total deiminated proteins and deiminated histone H3 showed variation in temporal and spatial detection in various organs including yolksac, muscle, skin, liver, brain, eye, spinal cord, chondrocytes, heart, intestines, kidney and pancreas throughout early ontogeny.

BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene.

Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series.