The nature of science: The fundamental role of natural history in ecology, evolution, conservation, and education.

There is a contemporary trend in many major research institutions to de-emphasize the importance of natural history education in favor of theoretical, laboratory, or simulation-based research programs. This may take the form of removing biodiversity and field courses from the curriculum and the sometimes subtle maligning of natural history research as a "lesser" branch of science. Additional threats include massive funding cuts to natural history museums and the maintenance of their collections, the extirpation of taxonomists across disciplines, and a critical under-appreciation of the role that natural history data (and other forms of observational data, including Indigenous knowledge) play in the scientific process.

Divergence in digestive and metabolic strategies matches habitat differentiation in juvenile salmonids.

Divergent energy acquisition and processing strategies associated with using different microhabitats may allow phenotypes to specialize and coexist at small spatial scales. To understand how ecological specialization affects differentiation in energy acquisition and processing strategies, we examined relationships among digestive physiology, growth, and energetics by performing captive experiments on juveniles of wild coho salmon () and steelhead trout () that exploit adjacent habitats along natural low-to-high energy flux gradients (i.e.

Chinook and Coho salmon hybrids linked to habitat and climatic changes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Between 2013 and 2019, 63 presumed Chinook salmon sampled primarily in the Strait of Georgia (0.63% of total sample) were identified as potential Chinook-Coho () hybrids by the presence of anomalous microsatellite genotypes. Their hybrid origin was confirmed by single nucleotide polymorphism amplification of two species-specific amplicons.

Physiological and genomic signatures of evolutionary thermal adaptation in redband trout from extreme climates.

Temperature is a master environmental factor that limits the geographical distribution of species, especially in ectotherms. To address challenges in biodiversity conservation under ongoing climate change, it is essential to characterize relevant functional limitations and adaptive genomic content at population and species levels. Here, we present evidence for adaptive divergence in cardiac function and genomic regions in redband trout () populations from desert and montane streams.