Trait-specific sensitive developmental windows: Wing growth best integrates weather conditions encountered throughout the development of nestling Alpine swifts.

The size and growth patterns of nestling birds are key determinants of their survival up to fledging and long-term fitness. However, because traits such as feathers, skeleton and body mass can follow different developmental trajectories, our understanding of the impact of adverse weather on development requires insights into trait-specific sensitive developmental windows. We analysed data from nestling Alpine swifts in Switzerland measured throughout growth up to the age of 50 days (i.

Population density effects on gamete traits and fertilisation dynamics under varying sperm environments in mussels.

Gamete traits can vary widely among species, populations and individuals, influencing fertilisation dynamics and overall reproductive fitness. Sexual selection can play an important role in determining the evolution of gamete traits with local environmental conditions determining the strength and direction of sexual selection. Here, we test for signatures of post-mating selection on gamete traits in relation to population density, and possible interactive effects of population density and sperm concentration on sperm motility and fertilisation rates among natural populations of mussels.

High-resolution environmental and host-related factors impacting questing at their northern range edge.

The geographic range of tick populations has expanded in Canada due to climate warming and the associated poleward range shifts of their vertebrate hosts. Abiotic factors, such as temperature, precipitation, and snow, are known to directly affect tick abundance. Yet, biotic factors, such as the abundance and diversity of mammal hosts, may also alter tick abundance and consequent tick-borne disease risk.

Assessing long-term diatom changes in sub-Arctic ponds receiving high fluxes of seabird nutrients.

Algal bioindicators, such as diatoms, often show subdued responses to eutrophication in Arctic lakes because climate-related changes (e.g., ice cover) tend to be the overriding factors influencing assemblage composition.

Seasonal dynamics in the mammalian microbiome between disparate environments.

Host-associated bacterial microbiomes can facilitate host acclimation to seasonal environmental change and are hypothesized to help hosts cope with recent anthropogenic environmental perturbations (e.g., landscape modification).

The timing of reproduction is responding plastically, not genetically, to climate change in yellow-bellied marmots ().

With global climates changing rapidly, animals must adapt to new environmental conditions with altered weather and phenology. The key to adapting to these new conditions is adjusting the timing of reproduction to maximize fitness. Using a long-term dataset on a wild population of yellow-bellied marmots () at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), we investigated how the timing of reproduction changed with changing spring conditions over the past 50 years.

Eastern monarch larval performance may not be affected by shifts in phenological synchrony with milkweed.

Interacting species are experiencing disruptions in the relative timing of their key life-history events due to climate change. These shifts can sometimes be detrimental to the fitness of the consumer in trophic interactions but not always.The potential consequences of phenological asynchrony for the monarch butterfly () and its host plant ( spp.

Divergent natural selection alters male sperm competition success in .

Sexually selected traits may also be subject to non-sexual selection. If optimal trait values depend on environmental conditions, then "narrow sense" (i.e.

Autumn larval cold tolerance does not predict the northern range limit of a widespread butterfly species.

Climate change is driving range shifts, and a lack of cold tolerance is hypothesized to constrain insect range expansion at poleward latitudes. However, few, if any, studies have tested this hypothesis during autumn when organisms are subjected to sporadic low-temperature exposure but may not have become cold-tolerant yet. In this study, we integrated organismal thermal tolerance measures into species distribution models for larvae of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly, (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae), living at the northern edge of its actively expanding range.

Bigger is not always better: Viability selection on body mass varies across life stages in a hibernating mammal.

Body mass is often viewed as a proxy of past access to resources and of future survival and reproductive success. Links between body mass and survival or reproduction are, however, likely to differ between age classes and sexes. Remarkably, this is rarely taken into account in selection analyses.

Seasonality of floral resources in relation to bee activity in agroecosystems.

The contribution of wild insects to crop pollination is becoming increasingly important as global demand for crops dependent on animal pollination increases. If wild insect populations are to persist in agricultural landscapes, there must be sufficient resources over time and space. The temporal, within-season component of floral resource availability has rarely been investigated, despite growing recognition of its likely importance for pollinator populations.

Do traits of plant species predict the efficacy of species distribution models for finding new occurrences?

Species distribution models (SDMs) are used to test ecological theory and to direct targeted surveys for species of conservation concern. Several studies have tested for an influence of species traits on the predictive accuracy of SDMs. However, most used the same set of environmental predictors for all species and/or did not use truly independent data to test SDM accuracy.

Identifying the drivers of computationally detected correlated evolution among sites under antibiotic selection.

The ultimate causes of correlated evolution among sites in a genome remain difficult to tease apart. To address this problem directly, we performed a high-throughput search for correlated evolution among sites associated with resistance to a fluoroquinolone antibiotic using whole-genome data from clinical strains of , before validating our computational predictions experimentally. We show that for at least two sites, this correlation is underlain by epistasis.

Researcher engagement in policy deemed societally beneficial yet unrewarded.

Maintaining the continued flow of benefits from science, as well as societal support for science, requires sustained engagement between the research community and the general public. On the basis of data from an international survey of 1092 participants (634 established researchers and 458 students) in 55 countries and 315 research institutions, we found that institutional recognition of engagement activities is perceived to be undervalued relative to the societal benefit of those activities. Many researchers report that their institutions do not reward engagement activities despite institutions' mission statements promoting such engagement.

Circulating Selenium Concentration Is Inversely Associated With the Prevalence of Stroke: Results From the Canadian Health Measures Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Background Observational studies have suggested that selenium (Se) may have beneficial effects against certain cardiovascular outcomes, with a possible U-shaped association. We assessed the hypothesis that blood Se concentration might be inversely associated with the prevalence of stroke and the relationship would be nonlinear. Methods and Results Data collected from adult participants (aged ≥20 years) in the Canadian Health Measures Survey ( CHMS 2007-2011, n=7065) and the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey ( NHANES 2011-2012, n=5030) were analyzed.

Urbanization and the temporal patterns of social networks and group foraging behaviors.

Urbanization causes dramatic and rapid changes to natural environments, which can lead the animals inhabiting these habitats to adjust their behavioral responses. For social animals, urbanized environments may alter group social dynamics through modification of the external environment (e.g.

Patterns and biases in an Arctic herbarium specimen collection: Implications for phenological research.

Premise Of The Study: Herbarium specimens are increasingly used in phenological studies. However, natural history collections can have biases that influence the analysis of phenological events. Arctic environments, where remoteness and cold climate govern collection logistics, may give rise to unique or pronounced biases.

The emergence, maintenance, and demise of diversity in a spatially variable antibiotic regime.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global threat that, in the absence of new antibiotics, requires effective management of existing drugs. Here, we use experimental evolution of the opportunistic human pathogen to explore how changing patterns of drug delivery modulates the spread of resistance in a population. Resistance evolves readily under both temporal and spatial variation in drug delivery and fixes rapidly under temporal, but not spatial, variation.

[Wastewater-based epidemiology: applications towards the estimation of drugs of abuse consumption and public health in general. The Spanish network ESAR-Net].

This manuscript introduces Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) and its potential in the assessment of diverse aspects related to public health. This methodology can provide data in a relatively short temporal and local scale (typically dialy-weekly at the municipal level) on consumption patterns of illicit drugs (e.g.

Our use, misuse, and abandonment of a concept: Whither habitat?

The foundational concept of habitat lies at the very root of the entire science of ecology, but inaccurate use of the term compromises scientific rigor and communication among scientists and nonscientists. In 1997, Hall, Krausman & Morrison showed that 'habitat' was used correctly in only 55% of articles. We ask whether use of the term has been more accurate since their plea for standardization and whether use varies across the broader range of journals and taxa in the contemporary literature (1998-2012).

Reduced reproductive performance associated with warmer ambient temperatures during incubation in a winter-breeding, food-storing passerine.

Timing of reproduction can influence individual fitness whereby early breeders tend to have higher reproductive success than late breeders. However, the fitness consequences of timing of breeding may also be influenced by environmental conditions after the commencement of breeding. We tested whether ambient temperatures during the incubation and early nestling periods modulated the effect of laying date on brood size and dominant juvenile survival in gray jays (), a sedentary boreal species whose late winter nesting depends, in part, on caches of perishable food.

Temperature-related geographical shifts among passerines: contrasting processes along poleward and equatorward range margins.

Climate change is causing widespread geographical range shifts, which likely reflects different processes at leading and trailing range margins. Progressive warming is thought to relax thermal barriers at poleward range margins, enabling colonization of novel areas, but imposes increasingly unsuitable thermal conditions at equatorward margins, leading to range losses from those areas. Few tests of this process during recent climate change have been possible, but understanding determinants of species' range limits will improve predictions of their geographical responses to climate change and variation in extinction risk.

Seasonal phytochemical variation of anti-glycation principles in lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium).

Diabetic hyperglycaemia promotes the production of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which play a significant role in the development of complications associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Vaccinium angustifolium, a medicinal plant used for the treatment of diabetes, produces a variety of phenolic metabolites with putative anti-diabetic activities. To assess optimal cultivation time, seasonal changes in the concentration of six phenolic compounds in leaves and twelve compounds in stems were examined using HPLC-DAD and examined in relation to seasonal changes in AGE inhibition activity, assessed with a fluorescence-based assay.