Arthropod Food Webs in the Foreland of a Retreating Greenland Glacier: Integrating Molecular Gut Content Analysis With Structural Equation Modelling.

The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979, resulting in rapid glacier retreat and exposing new glacier forelands. These forelands offer unique experimental settings to explore how global warming impacts ecosystems, particularly for highly climate-sensitive arthropods. Understanding these impacts can help anticipate future biodiversity and ecosystem changes under ongoing warming scenarios.

Resolving Heterogeneity in CO Uptake Potential in the Greenland Coastal Ocean.

The oceans play a pivotal role in mitigating climate change by sequestering approximately 25% of annually emitted carbon dioxide (CO). High-latitude oceans, especially the Arctic continental shelves, emerge as crucial CO sinks due to their cold, low saline, and highly productive ecosystems. However, these heterogeneous regions remain inadequately understood, hindering accurate assessments of their carbon dynamics.

Fabulous but Forgotten Fucoid Forests.

Fucoid forests are areas dominated by marine brown seaweed in the taxonomic order Fucales that, like the better-known marine foundation species-corals, kelps, seagrasses, salt marshes, and mangroves-are threatened by anthropogenic stressors. Fucoid forests are fabulous and important because they, like the better-known marine foundation species (i) span large areas, bioregions, and ecosystems, (ii) provide ecological functions such as high productivity, biodiversity, and habitat for iconic and endemic species, and (iii) support a variety of ecosystem services, like commercial fisheries, regulation of nutrients and carbon, and cultural values. Fucoid forests are, based on a new citation analysis, forgotten worldwide, because they are described orders of magnitude less than the better-known marine foundation species, in ecology and marine biology textbooks, in Google Scholar and Scopus databases over scientific literature, and in recent reports and reviews about seaweed forests.

Dune Hares: Population Indices, Home Range Size, and Habitat Selection of the European Hare on a Danish Island.

Population indices, such as transect counts of animals, can provide important information concerning population changes over time. Moreover, data concerning the home range size and habitat selection of individuals can provide valuable insight into spatial requirements of animals and how they can adapt to variable environments. Here, we describe the population development of European hares () and investigated home range sizes and habitat selection of six radio-tagged individuals on the small (80 ha) Danish Wadden Sea island Langli.

Demographic History and Inbreeding in Two Declining Sea Duck Species Inferred From Whole-Genome Sequence Data.

Anthropogenic impact has transitioned from threatening already rare species to causing significant declines in once numerous organisms. Long-tailed duck () and velvet scoter () were once important quarry sea duck species in NW Europe, but recent declines resulted in their reclassification as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. We sequenced and assembled genomes for both species and resequenced 15 individuals of each.

An annotated image dataset of pests on different coloured sticky traps acquired with different imaging devices.

The sticky trap is probably the most cost-effective tool for catching insect pests, but the identification and counting of insects on sticky traps is very labour-intensive. When investigating the automatic identification and counting of pests on sticky traps using computer vision and machine learning, two aspects can strongly influence the performance of the model - the colour of the sticky trap and the device used to capture the images of the pests on the sticky trap. As far as we know, there are no available image datasets to study these two aspects in computer vision and deep learning algorithms.

Comparative transcriptome and methylome of polar bears, giant and red pandas reveal diet-driven adaptive evolution.

Epigenetic regulation plays an important role in the evolution of species adaptations, yet little information is available on the epigenetic mechanisms underlying the adaptive evolution of bamboo-eating in both giant pandas () and red pandas (). To investigate the potential contribution of epigenetic to the adaptive evolution of bamboo-eating in giant and red pandas, we performed hepatic comparative transcriptome and methylome analyses between bamboo-eating pandas and carnivorous polar bears (). We found that genes involved in carbohydrate, lipid, amino acid, and protein metabolism showed significant differences in methylation and expression levels between the two panda species and polar bears.

callsync: An R package for alignment and analysis of multi-microphone animal recordings.

To better understand how vocalisations are used during interactions of multiple individuals, studies are increasingly deploying on-board devices with a microphone on each animal. The resulting recordings are extremely challenging to analyse, since microphone clocks drift non-linearly and record the vocalisations of non-focal individuals as well as noise. Here we address this issue with callsync, an R package designed to align recordings, detect and assign vocalisations to the caller, trace the fundamental frequency, filter out noise and perform basic analysis on the resulting clips.

Harbour porpoises respond to recreational boats by speeding up and moving away from the boat path.

Recreational boats are common in many coastal waters, yet their effects on cetaceans and other sensitive marine species remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we used drone video footage recorded from a recreational boat to quantify how harbour porpoises () responded to the boat approaching at different speeds (10 or 20 knots). Furthermore, we used a hydrophone to record boat noise levels at full bandwidth (0.

Where east meets west: Phylogeography of the high Arctic North American brant goose.

Genetic variation in Arctic species is often influenced by vicariance during the Pleistocene, as ice sheets fragmented the landscape and displaced populations to low- and high-latitude refugia. The formation of secondary contact or suture zones during periods of ice sheet retraction has important consequences on genetic diversity by facilitating genetic connectivity between formerly isolated populations. Brant geese () are a maritime migratory waterfowl (Anseriformes) species that almost exclusively uses coastal habitats.

Using the R package to assess the sustainability of offtake in birds.

The R package was designed to help assess the sustainability of offtake in birds when only limited demographic information is available. In this article, we describe some basics of harvest theory and then discuss several considerations when using the different approaches in to assess whether observed harvests are unsustainable. Throughout, we emphasize the importance of distinguishing between the scientific and policy aspects of managing offtake.

Long-term community shifts driven by local extinction of an iconic foundation species following an extreme marine heatwave.

Gradual ocean warming combined with stronger marine heatwaves (MHWs) can reduce abundances of foundation species that control community structures, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. However, few studies have documented long-term succession trajectories following the more extreme events that cause localized extinctions of foundation species. Here, we documented long-term successional changes to marine benthic communities in Pile Bay, New Zealand, following the Tasman 2017/18 MHW, which caused localized extinctions of dominant southern bull kelp ( sp.

Stable pollination service in a generalist high Arctic community despite the warming climate.

Insects provide key pollination services in most terrestrial biomes, but this service depends on a multistep interaction between insect and plant. An insect needs to visit a flower, receive pollen from the anthers, move to another conspecific flower, and finally deposit the pollen on a receptive stigma. Each of these steps may be affected by climate change, and focusing on only one of them (e.

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands.

Anthropogenic heathlands are semi-natural ecosystems with a unique cultural and biodiversity value, considered worthy of preservation across most of the world. Their rate of loss, however, is alarming. Currently, we know little about the heathlands' actual span of resilience affordances and their association with abiotic and anthropogenic factors, including how much additional intervention they need to persist.

Scrub encroachment promotes biodiversity in temperate European wetlands under eutrophic conditions.

Wetlands are important habitats, often threatened by drainage, eutrophication, and suppression of grazing. In many countries, considerable resources are spent combatting scrub encroachment. Here, we hypothesize that encroachment may benefit biodiversity-especially under eutrophic conditions where asymmetric competition among plants compromises conservation targets.

Forecasting shifts in habitat suitability of three marine predators suggests a rapid decline in inter-specific overlap under future climate change.

Understanding how environmental and climate change can alter habitat overlap of marine predators has great value for the management and conservation of marine ecosystems. Here, we estimated spatiotemporal changes in habitat suitability and inter-specific overlap among three marine predators: Baltic gray seals (), harbor seals (), and harbor porpoises () under contemporary and future conditions. Location data (>200 tagged individuals) were collected in the southwestern region of the Baltic Sea; one of the fastest-warming semi-enclosed seas in the world.

Phylogeography using mitogenomes: A rare Dipodidae, , in North-western Europe.

Repeated climatic and vegetation changes during the Pleistocene have shaped biodiversity in Northern Europe including Denmark. The Northern Birch Mouse () was one of the first small rodent species to colonize Denmark after the Late Glacial Maximum. This study analyses complete mitochondrial genomes and two nuclear genes of the Northern Birch Mouse to investigate the phylogeographical pattern in North-western Europe and test whether the species colonized Denmark through several colonization events.

From genotype to phenotype: Genetic redundancy and the maintenance of an adaptive polymorphism in the context of high gene flow.

A central question in evolution is how several adaptive phenotypes are maintained within a species. Theory predicts that the genetic determination of a trait, and in particular the amounts of redundancy in the mapping of genotypes to phenotypes, mediates evolutionary outcomes of phenotypic selection. In Mediterranean wild thyme, numerous discrete chemical phenotypes (chemotypes) occur in close geographic proximity.