Long-term climate and hydrologic regimes shape stream invertebrate community responses to a hurricane disturbance.

Disturbances can produce a spectrum of short- and long-term ecological consequences that depend on complex interactions of the characteristics of the event, antecedent environmental conditions, and the intrinsic properties of resistance and resilience of the affected biological system. We used Hurricane Harvey's impact on coastal rivers of Texas to examine the roles of storm-related changes in hydrology and long-term precipitation regime on the response of stream invertebrate communities to hurricane disturbance. We detected declines in richness, diversity and total abundance following the storm, but responses were strongly tied to direct and indirect effects of long-term aridity and short-term changes in stream hydrology.

Spatial and Temporal Resolution of Cyanobacterial Bloom Chemistry Reveals an Open-Ocean as a Talented Producer of Specialized Metabolites.

While the ecological role that sp. play in nitrogen fixation has been widely studied, little information is available on potential specialized metabolites that are associated with blooms and standing stock colonies. While a collection of biological material from a bloom event from North Padre Island, Texas, in 2014 indicated that this species was a prolific producer of chlorinated specialized metabolites, additional spatial and temporal resolution was needed.

Tool use increases mechanical foraging success and tooth health in southern sea otters ().

Although tool use may enhance resource utilization, its fitness benefits are difficult to measure. By examining longitudinal data from 196 radio-tagged southern sea otters (), we found that tool-using individuals, particularly females, gained access to larger and/or harder-shelled prey. These mechanical advantages translated to reduced tooth damage during food processing.

Skimming genomes for systematics and DNA barcodes of corals.

Numerous genomic methods developed over the past two decades have enabled the discovery and extraction of orthologous loci to help resolve phylogenetic relationships across various taxa and scales. Genome skimming (or low-coverage genome sequencing) is a promising method to not only extract high-copy loci but also 100s to 1000s of phylogenetically informative nuclear loci (e.g.

Biological invasions are a population-level rather than a species-level phenomenon.

Biological invasions pose a rapidly expanding threat to the persistence, functioning and service provisioning of ecosystems globally, and to socio-economic interests. The stages of successful invasions are driven by the same mechanism that underlies adaptive changes across species in general-via natural selection on intraspecific variation in traits that influence survival and reproductive performance (i.e.

Phenotypic Convergence Is Stronger and More Frequent in Herbivorous Fishes.

Constraints on phenotypic evolution can lead to patterns of convergent evolution, by limiting the "pool" of potential phenotypes in the face of endogenous (functional, developmental) or exogenous (competition, predation) selective pressures. Evaluation of convergence depends on integrating ecological and morphological data within a robust, comparative phylogenetic context. The staggering diversity of teleost fishes offers a multitude of lineages adapted for similar ecological roles and, therefore, offers numerous replicated evolutionary experiments for exploring phenotypic convergence.

Determining evolutionary origin and phylogenetic relationships of mallard-like ducks of Oceania, greater Indonesia, and the Philippines with ddRAD-seq data.

Aim: We aim to determine the evolutionary origins and population genetics of mallard-like ducks of Oceania, greater Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Location: Oceania, greater Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Taxon: Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Pacific black duck (A.

Intersection of coral molecular responses to a localized mortality event and ex situ deoxygenation.

In July 2016, East Bank of Flower Garden Banks (FGB) National Marine Sanctuary experienced a localized mortality event (LME) of multiple invertebrate species that ultimately led to reductions in coral cover. Abiotic data taken directly after the event suggested that acute deoxygenation contributed to the mortality. Despite the large impact of this event on the coral community, there was no direct evidence that this LME was driven by acute deoxygenation, and thus we explored whether gene expression responses of corals to the LME would indicate what abiotic factors may have contributed to the LME.

Deep mining of the Sequence Read Archive reveals major genetic innovations in coronaviruses and other nidoviruses of aquatic vertebrates.

Virus discovery by genomics and metagenomics empowered studies of viromes, facilitated characterization of pathogen epidemiology, and redefined our understanding of the natural genetic diversity of viruses with profound functional and structural implications. Here we employed a data-driven virus discovery approach that directly queries unprocessed sequencing data in a highly parallelized way and involves a targeted viral genome assembly strategy in a wide range of sequence similarity. By screening more than 269,000 datasets of numerous authors from the Sequence Read Archive and using two metrics that quantitatively assess assembly quality, we discovered 40 nidoviruses from six virus families whose members infect vertebrate hosts.

Distribution of copper in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans using green turtles (Chelonia mydas) as a bioindicator.

Marine pollution by trace elements is a global concern due to potential toxicity to species and ecosystems. Copper is a fundamental trace element for many organisms; however, it becomes toxic at certain concentrations. The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a good sentinel species, due to its circumglobal distribution, long life cycle, coastal habits when juvenile, and is subject to environmental pollution.

Biogeographic response of marine plankton to Cenozoic environmental changes.

In palaeontological studies, groups with consistent ecological and morphological traits across a clade's history (functional groups) afford different perspectives on biodiversity dynamics than do species and genera, which are evolutionarily ephemeral. Here we analyse Triton, a global dataset of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminiferal occurrences, to contextualize changes in latitudinal equitability gradients, functional diversity, palaeolatitudinal specialization and community equitability. We identify: global morphological communities becoming less specialized preceding the richness increase after the Cretaceous-Palaeogene extinction; ecological specialization during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, suggesting inhibitive equatorial temperatures during the peak of the Cenozoic hothouse; increased specialization due to circulation changes across the Eocene-Oligocene transition, preceding the loss of morphological diversity; changes in morphological specialization and richness about 19 million years ago, coeval with pelagic shark extinctions; delayed onset of changing functional group richness and specialization between hemispheres during the mid-Miocene plankton diversification.

Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands.

Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in drylands, remain virtually unknown.

Disaster Plant Pathology: Smart Solutions for Threats to Global Plant Health from Natural and Human-Driven Disasters.

Disaster plant pathology addresses how natural and human-driven disasters impact plant diseases and the requirements for smart management solutions. Local to global drivers of plant disease change in response to disasters, often creating environments more conducive to plant disease. Most disasters have indirect effects on plant health through factors such as disrupted supply chains and damaged infrastructure.

Mesoscale activity drives the habitat suitability of yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares, represents an important component of commercial and recreational fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). We investigated the influence of environmental conditions on the spatiotemporal distribution of yellowfin tuna using fisheries' catch data spanning 2012-2019 within Mexican waters. We implemented hierarchical Bayesian regression models with spatial and temporal random effects and fixed effects of several environmental covariates to predict habitat suitability (HS) for the species.

The effect of sedimentation on spore settlement and recruitment of the endemic Arctic kelp, Laminaria solidungula (Phaeophyceae).

Environmental changes associated with rapid climate change in the Arctic, such as the increased rates of sedimentation from climatic or anthropogenic sources, can enhance the impact of abiotic stressors on coastal ecosystems. High sedimentation rates can be detrimental to nearshore kelp abundance and distribution, possibly due to increased mortality at the spore settlement stage. Spore settlement and viability of the Arctic kelp Laminaria solidungula were examined through a series of lab-based sedimentation experiments.

Exploring Alternatives for Marine Toxicity Testing: Initial Evaluation of Fish Embryo and Mysid Tests.

Current regulations require that toxicity assessments be performed using standardized toxicity testing methods, often using fish. Recent legislation in both the European Union and United States has mandated that toxicity testing alternatives implement the 3Rs of animal research (replacement, reduction, and refinement) whenever possible. There have been advances in the development of alternatives for freshwater assessments, but there is a lack of analogous developments for marine assessments.

Life in the PFAS lane: The impact of perfluoroalkyl substances on photosynthesis, cellular exudates, nutrient cycling, and composition of a marine microbial community.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of great ecological concern, however, exploration of their impact on bacteria-phytoplankton consortia is limited. This study employed a bioassay approach to investigate the effect of unary exposures of increasing concentrations of PFAS (perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FTS)) on microbial communities from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Each community was examined for changes in growth and photophysiology, exudate production and shifts in community structure (16S and 18S rRNA genes).

Transcriptomic profile in carbendazim-induced developmental defects in zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos/larvae.

Carbendazim is a widely used fungicide to protect agricultural and horticultural crops against a wide array of fungal species. Published reports have shown that the wide usage of carbendazim resulted in reprotoxicity, carcinogenicity, immunotoxicity, and developmental toxicity in mammalian models. However, studies related to the developmental toxicity of carbendazim in aquatic organisms are not clear.

Diverse papillomaviruses identified from Antarctic fur seals, leopard seals and Weddell seals from the Antarctic.

Papillomaviruses (family Papillomaviridae) are non-enveloped, circular, double-stranded DNA viruses known to infect squamous and mucosal epithelial cells. In the family Papillomaviridae there are 53 genera and 133 viral species whose members infect a variety of mammalian, avian, reptilian, and fish species. Within the Antarctic context, papillomaviruses (PVs) have been identified in Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae, 2 PVs), Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii, 7 PVs), and emerald notothen (Trematomus bernacchii, 1 PV) in McMurdo Sound and Ross Island in eastern Antarctica.

Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape.

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely.