493 results match your criteria: "School of Natural Resources and Environment[Affiliation]"
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
May 2019
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1176.
While many studies have highlighted human adaptations to diverse environments worldwide, genomic studies of natural selection in Indigenous populations in the Americas have been absent from this literature until very recently. Since humans first entered the Americas some 20,000 years ago, they have settled in many new environments across the continent. This diversity of environments has placed variable selective pressures on the populations living in each region, but the effects of these pressures have not been extensively studied to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeerJ
February 2019
Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Ecology has reached the point where data science competitions, in which multiple groups solve the same problem using the same data by different methods, will be productive for advancing quantitative methods for tasks such as species identification from remote sensing images. We ran a competition to help improve three tasks that are central to converting images into information on individual trees: (1) crown segmentation, for identifying the location and size of individual trees; (2) alignment, to match ground truthed trees with remote sensing; and (3) species classification of individual trees. Six teams (composed of 16 individual participants) submitted predictions for one or more tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChemosphere
June 2019
The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address:
Temperature in freshwater ecosystems fluctuates daily, seasonally and yearly. Climate change further induces temperature variations. In this study, we hypothesise that water temperatures, in particular thermal extremes, can significantly influence chemical toxicity to ectothermic organisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
February 2019
School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
Count data commonly arise in natural sciences but adequately modeling these data is challenging due to zero-inflation and over-dispersion. While multiple parametric modeling approaches have been proposed, unfortunately there is no consensus regarding how to choose the best model. In this article, we propose a ordinal regression model (MN) as a default model for count data given that this model is shown to fit well data that arise from several types of discrete distributions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
February 2019
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Most large carnivore populations currently occur in heterogeneous landscapes, with source populations embedded in a matrix of human-dominated habitats. Understanding changes in distribution of endangered carnivores is critical for prioritizing and implementing conservation strategies. We examined distribution and dynamics of a dhole Cuon alpinus metapopulation, first in 2007 and subsequently in 2015, based on indirect sign surveys across 37, 000sq.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
February 2019
Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37831-6301, TN, USA.
Increasing atmospheric CO stimulates photosynthesis which can increase net primary production (NPP), but at longer timescales may not necessarily increase plant biomass. Here we analyse the four decade-long CO-enrichment experiments in woody ecosystems that measured total NPP and biomass. CO enrichment increased biomass increment by 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell Host Microbe
February 2019
Department of Pathology and Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address:
Owing to immature immune systems and impaired colonization resistance mediated by the microbiota, infants are more susceptible to enteric infections. Maternal antibodies can provide immunity, with maternal vaccination offering a protective strategy. We find that oral infection of adult females with the enteric pathogen Citrobacter rodentium protects dams and offspring against oral challenge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
September 2019
Independent Researcher, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America.
Thousands of species of bees are in global decline, yet research addressing the ecology and status of these wild pollinators lags far behind work being done to address similar impacts on the managed honey bee. This knowledge gap is especially glaring in natural areas, despite knowledge that protected habitats harbor and export diverse bee communities into nearby croplands where their pollination services have been valued at over $3 billion per year. Surrounded by ranches and farmlands, Pinnacles National Park in the Inner South Coast Range of California contains intact Mediterranean chaparral shrubland.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses
December 2018
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Land use influences disease emergence by changing the ecological dynamics of humans, wildlife, domestic animals, and pathogens. This is a central tenet of One Health, and one that is gaining momentum in wildlife management decision-making in the United States. Using almost 2000 serological samples collected from non-native wild pigs () throughout Florida (U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcology
February 2019
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, PO Box 110430, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA.
Large-scale observational data from citizen science efforts are becoming increasingly common in ecology, and researchers often choose between these and data from intensive local-scale studies for their analyses. This choice has potential trade-offs related to spatial scale, observer variance, and interannual variability. Here we explored this issue with phenology by comparing models built using data from the large-scale, citizen science USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) effort with models built using data from more intensive studies at Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Biol Sci
November 2018
Department of Entomology & Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Sexually selected weapons are among the most exaggerated traits in nature. Sexual selection theory frequently assumes a high cost of this exaggeration; yet, those costs are rarely measured. We know very little about the energetic resources required to maintain these traits at rest and the difference in energetic costs for the largest individuals relative to the smallest individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChemosphere
January 2019
Medical Toxicology and Drug Abuse Research Center (MTDRC), Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran. Electronic address:
The aim of present study was to assess the toxicological effects of transition metal-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO NPs) on histopathological changes, behavioral patterns, and antioxidant responses of goldfish (Carassius auratus) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio). The synthesized nanoparticles were confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-visible, and Vibration Sample Magnetometer. Fish in four experimental groups exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of pure TiO NPs (10 mg L), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), and nickel (Ni) doped TiO NPs for seven days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Chang Biol
December 2018
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
In temperate regions such as the American west, forest trees often exhibit growth sensitivity to climatic conditions of a particular season. For example, annual tree ring growth increments may correlate well with winter precipitation, but not with summer rainfall, suggesting that trees rely more on winter snow than summer rain. Because both the timing and character of seasonal western climate patterns are expected to change considerably over coming decades, variation in the importance of different seasonal moisture sources for trees can be expected to influence how different forest trees respond to climate change as a whole, with shifts in seasonality potentially benefitting some trees while challenging others.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Ecol Evol
October 2018
Southwest Climate Science Center, US Geological Survey, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA; Department of Geosciences and School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
How individual species and entire ecosystems will respond to future climate change are among the most pressing questions facing ecologists. Past biodiversity dynamics recorded in the paleoecological archives show a broad array of responses, yet significant knowledge gaps remain. In particular, the relative roles of evolutionary adaptation, phenotypic plasticity, and dispersal in promoting survival during times of climate change have yet to be clarified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Anim Ecol
January 2019
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
Assemblage similarity decays with geographic distance-a pattern known as the distance-decay relationship. While this pattern has been investigated for a wide range of organisms, ecosystems and geographical gradients, whether these changes vary more cryptically across different forest strata (from ground to canopy) remains elusive. Here, we investigated the influence of ground vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Great Lakes Res
June 2017
Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, University of Wisconsin Extension, Superior, WI 54880, USA.
A comprehensive inventory of ecosystem services across the entire Great Lakes basin is currently lacking and is needed to make informed management decisions. A greater appreciation and understanding of ecosystem services, including both use and non-use services, may have avoided misguided resource management decisions in the past that have resulted in legacies inherited by future generations. Given the interest in ecosystem services and lack of a coherent approach to addressing this topic in the Great Lakes, a summit was convened involving 28 experts working on various aspects of ecosystem services in the Great Lakes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Lett
September 2018
Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA.
Theory predicts that intraspecific competition should be stronger than interspecific competition for any pair of stably coexisting species, yet previous literature reviews found little support for this pattern. We screened over 5400 publications and identified 39 studies that quantified phenomenological intraspecific and interspecific interactions in terrestrial plant communities. Of the 67% of species pairs in which both intra- and interspecific effects were negative (competitive), intraspecific competition was, on average, four to five-fold stronger than interspecific competition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Rev Camb Philos Soc
February 2019
Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, H2V 2J7, Canada.
Network approaches to ecological questions have been increasingly used, particularly in recent decades. The abstraction of ecological systems - such as communities - through networks of interactions between their components indeed provides a way to summarize this information with single objects. The methodological framework derived from graph theory also provides numerous approaches and measures to analyze these objects and can offer new perspectives on established ecological theories as well as tools to address new challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Pollut
August 2018
Institute for Environmental Research, ABBt - Aachen Biology and Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Conventional assessment and evaluation of sediment quality are based on laboratory-based ecotoxicological and chemical measurements with lack of concern for ecological relevance. Microbiotas in sediment are responsive to pollutants and can be used as alternative ecological indicators of sediment pollutants; however, the linkage between the microbial ecology and ecotoxicological endpoints in response to sediment contamination has been poorly evaluated. Here, in situ microbiotas from the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area of the Yangtze River were characterized by DNA metabarcoding approaches, and then, changes of in situ microbiotas were compared with the ecotoxicological endpoint, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediated activity, and level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmbio
January 2019
School of Natural Resources and Environment and Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona, 1311 East 4th Street, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
Migratory species provide important benefits to society, but their cross-border conservation poses serious challenges. By quantifying the economic value of ecosystem services (ESs) provided across a species' range and ecological data on a species' habitat dependence, we estimate spatial subsidies-how different regions support ESs provided by a species across its range. We illustrate this method for migratory northern pintail ducks in North America.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcology
May 2018
Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 202 Louisiana State University Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, USA.
While it is well established that climate change affects species distributions and abundances, the impacts of climate change on species interactions has not been extensively studied. This is particularly important for specialists whose interactions are tightly linked, such as between the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and the plant genus Asclepias, on which it depends. We used open-top chambers (OTCs) to increase temperatures in experimental plots and placed either nonnative Asclepias curassavica or native A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcology
April 2018
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, 110 Newins-Ziegler Hall, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA.
Population density around the natal site is often invoked as an explanation for variation in dispersal distance, with the expectation that competition for limiting resources, coupled with increased intra-specific aggression at high densities, should drive changes in dispersal distances. However, tests of the density-dependent dispersal hypothesis in long-lived vertebrates have yielded mixed results. Furthermore, conclusions from dispersal studies may depend on the spatial and temporal scales at which density and dispersal patterns are examined, yet multi-scale studies of dispersal are rare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Zool
June 2017
Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, 288 Farm Lane, Room 203 East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Understanding the factors that facilitate the emergence of cooperation among organisms is central to the study of social evolution. Spotted hyenas frequently cooperate to mob lions , approaching the lions as a tightknit group while vocalizing loudly in an attempt to overwhelm them and drive them away. Whereas cooperative mobbing behavior has been well documented in birds and some mammals, to our knowledge it has never been described during interactions between 2 apex predators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeerJ
February 2018
Departamento Académico de Ciencias Marinas y Costeras, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
The fishery for octopus in Northwest Mexico has increased to over 2,000 tons annually, but to date the specific composition of the catch has been ignored. With at least three main species targeted by artisanal fisheries in the region with distinct life histories, the lack of basic biological information about the distribution, metapopulation size and structure of each species could impede effective fisheries management to avoid overexploitation. We tested if different life histories of three species of octopus could help predict observed patterns of genetic diversity, population dynamics, structure and connectivity and how this information could be relevant to the sustainable management of the fishery.
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February 2018
Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of America.
Biodiversity forecasts are important for conservation, management, and evaluating how well current models characterize natural systems. While the number of forecasts for biodiversity is increasing, there is little information available on how well these forecasts work. Most biodiversity forecasts are not evaluated to determine how well they predict future diversity, fail to account for uncertainty, and do not use time-series data that captures the actual dynamics being studied.
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