Extensive Admixture Among Karst-Obligate Salamanders Reveals Evidence of Recent Divergence and Gene Exchange Through Aquifers.

Karst ecosystems often contain extraordinary biodiversity, but the complex underground aquifers of karst regions present challenges for assessing and conserving stygobiont diversity and investigating their evolutionary history. We examined the karst-obligate salamanders of the species complex in the Edwards Plateau region of central Texas using population genomics data to address questions about population connectivity and the potential for gene exchange within the underlying aquifer system. The species complex has historically been divided into three nominal species, but their status, and spatial extent of species ranges, have remained uncertain.

Climate Extremes in Consecutive Years Impacted the Number and Fate of Duck Nests on Great Salt Lake Marshes.

The number of ground-nesting ducks in the marshes of Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah has drastically decreased in the past few decades. One potential cause for this decline is the increase in climate extremes caused by global warming. From 2019 through 2023, GSL marshes experienced 1 year of historic spring rainfall (2019), 2 years of historic droughts (2021 and 2022), and 1 year of record snowfall (2023).

Practitioners' Needs for Addressing the Challenges of Sea-Level Rise-A Qualitative Assessment.

Practitioners at the local and regional scale are under increased pressure to reduce risks to people and property posed by the threats of sea-level rise (SLR) and associated impacts. To achieve this, a dialog between practitioners and scientists is imperative. Current research documents impacts of SLR, evaluates local SLR adaptation activities, identifies barriers to action, and works to assess local adaptive capacity.

Lambs Grazing With Adult Ewes Prefer Forbs With High-Nutrient Content in Native Grasslands Dominated by and .

Grazing livestock in grasslands face the challenge of obtaining sufficient nutrition due to uneven distribution of plant species and fluctuating vegetation productivity and nutrient levels. In northern China, and are the dominant perennial species in native grasslands, but they provide limited nutrition compared to forbs with higher crude protein (CP) content. While dietary ingredients can affect the nutritional intake of grazing livestock, the influence of different grazing strategies on dietary selection remains unclear.

Satellite-Derived, Smartphone-Delivered Geospatial Cholera Risk Information for Vulnerable Populations.

Cholera, an acute waterborne diarrheal disease, remains a major global health challenge. Despite being curable and preventable, it can be fatal if left untreated, especially for children. Bangladesh, a cholera-endemic country with a high disease burden, experiences two peaks annually, during the dry pre-monsoon spring and the wet post-monsoon fall seasons.

Attraction versus Repulsion between Methyl and Related Groups: (CHNHCH) and (CHSeBrCH).

The starting point for this work was a set of crystal structures containing the motif of interaction between methyl groups in homodimers. Two structures were selected for which QTAIM, NCI and NBO analyses suggested an attractive interaction. However, the calculated interaction energy was negative for only one of these systems.

Spodium Bonding to Dicoordinated Group 12 Atoms.

DFT calculations consider the interactions between linear MR and a series of N-bases, where M is Hg or Zn and its R substituents are CCH, CN, or NO. NCH, NH, and NMe were considered as three different N-bases. Zn forms stronger bonds with the N bases than does Hg, and they strengthen along with the electron-withdrawing power of the R substituent, varying over a wide range from 3.

Identifying Children With Hearing Loss: The Key Role of School Nurses in Evidence-Based Screenings.

Undetected hearing loss in school-aged children can impact academic and social functioning and have a life-long impact on the student. The prevalence of hearing loss increases as children reach school age, which highlights the importance of regular, evidence-based hearing screening. This article identifies the barriers to screening that school nurses may face, reviews the two evidence-based methods for childhood hearing screening, and reinforces the need for school nurses to conduct and advocate for regular hearing screening for all students.

Impacts of management practices on habitat selection during juvenile mountain lion dispersal.

Dispersal is a complex series of movements before an individual establishes a home range. Animals must travel and forage in unfamiliar landscapes that include anthropogenic risks such as road crossings, harvest, and urban landscapes. We compare dispersal behavior of juvenile mountain lions () from two geographically distinct populations in California and Nevada, USA.

Variation in near-surface soil temperature drives plant assemblage differentiation across aspect.

Quantifying assemblage variation across environmental gradients provides insight into the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that differentiate assemblages locally within a larger climate regime. We assessed how vascular plant functional composition and diversity varied across microenvironment to identify ecological differences in assemblages in a mountainous fieldsite in northeastern Utah, USA. Then, we looked at how life-history strategies and information about phylogenetic differences affect the relationship between functional metrics and environment.

Transition from covalent to noncovalent bonding between tetrel atoms.

The strength and nature of the bonding between tetrel (T) atoms in RT⋯TR is examined by quantum calculations. T atoms cover the range of Group 14 atoms from C to Pb, and substituents R include Cl, F, and NH. Systems vary from electrically neutral to both positive and negative overall charged radicals.

Anthropogenic and climatic factors interact to influence reproductive timing and effort.

Reproduction, although absolutely essential to a species' persistence, is in itself challenging. As anthropogenic change increasingly affects every landscape on Earth, it is critical to understand how specific pressures impact the reproductive efforts of individuals, which directly contribute to the success or failure of populations. However, organisms rarely encounter a single burden at a time, and the interactions of environmental challenges can have compounding effects.

Do biological control agents adapt to local pest genotypes? A multiyear test across geographic scales.

Parasite local adaptation has been a major focus of (co)evolutionary research on host-parasite interactions. Studies of wild host-parasite systems frequently find that parasites paired with local, sympatric host genotypes perform better than parasites paired with allopatric host genotypes. In contrast, there are few such tests in biological control systems to establish whether biological control parasites commonly perform better on sympatric pest genotypes.

Types of noncovalent bonds within complexes of thiazole with CF and SiF.

The five-membered heteroaromatic thiazole molecule contains a number of electron-rich regions that could attract an electrophile, namely the N and S lone pairs that lie in the molecular plane, and π-system areas above the plane. The possibility of each of these sites engaging in a tetrel bond (TB) with CF and SiF, as well as geometries that encompass a CH⋯F H-bond, was explored DFT calculations. There are a number of minima that occur in the pairing of thiazole with CF that are very close in energy, but these complexes are weakly bound by less than 2 kcal mol and the presence of a true TB is questionable.

Wolfium bonds in homodimers of MXY (M = Mo, W; X = F, Cl, Br; Y = O, S, Se).

The term "wolfium bond" has been recently introduced to describe the noncovalent attraction between an atom of group 6 and a nucleophile a σ-hole binding site. Crystal structures commonly contain a motif wherein two MXY units are arranged in close proximity, where M represents either Mo or W, and X and Y refer to halogen and chalcogen atoms respectively. DFT calculations were thus applied to a wide range of homodimers of these molecules so as to assess their preferred arrangements, and to characterize the types of bonding that are present in each in a systematic manner.

Enhanced metabolic detoxification is associated with fluroxypyr resistance in .

Auxin-mimic herbicides chemically mimic the phytohormone indole-3-acetic-acid (IAA). Within the auxin-mimic herbicide class, the herbicide fluroxypyr has been extensively used to control kochia (). A 2014 field survey for herbicide resistance in kochia populations across Colorado identified a putative fluroxypyr-resistant (Flur-R) population that was assessed for response to fluroxypyr and dicamba (auxin-mimics), atrazine (photosystem II inhibitor), glyphosate (EPSPS inhibitor), and chlorsulfuron (acetolactate synthase inhibitor).

Variance in heat tolerance in bumble bees correlates with species geographic range and is associated with several environmental and biological factors.

Globally, insects have been impacted by climate change, with bumble bees in particular showing range shifts and declining species diversity with global warming. This suggests heat tolerance is a likely factor limiting the distribution and success of these bees. Studies have shown high intraspecific variance in bumble bee thermal tolerance, suggesting biological and environmental factors may be impacting heat resilience.

Pd and Pt metal atoms as electron donors in σ-hole bonded complexes.

Quantum calculations provide a systematic assessment of the ability of Group 10 transition metals M = Pd and Pt to act as an electron donor within the context of pnicogen, chalcogen, and halogen bonds. These M atoms are coordinated in a square planar geometry, attached to two N atoms of a modified phenanthrene unit, as well as two ligand atoms Cl, Br, or I. As the Lewis acid, a series of AF molecules were chosen, which could form a pnicogen bond (A = P, As, Sb), chalcogen bond (A = S, Se, Te) or halogen bond (A = Cl, Br, I) with M.

Field sampling of fig pollinator wasps across host species and host developmental phase: Implications for host recognition and specificity.

Previous genetic studies of pollinator wasps associated with a community of strangler figs ( subgenus , section ) in Central Panama suggest that the wasp species exhibit a range in host specificity across their host figs. To better understand factors that might contribute to this observed range of specificity, we used sticky traps to capture fig-pollinating wasp individuals at 13 species, sampling at different phases of the reproductive cycle of the host figs (e.g.

, a new genus of Ichneumoninae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Peruvian Amazonia.

A new monotypic genus of ichneumonine parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ichneumoninae) is described from Peru; is described to accommodate The new genus is morphologically very distinctive and can be easily separated from all known ichneumonine genera. By describing from the lowland rain forests of Peru, we aim to draw attention to the considerable diversity and morphological variation of the Amazonian ichneumonine fauna.

What drives seed dispersal effectiveness?

Seed dispersal is a critical phase in plant reproduction and forest regeneration. In many systems, the vast majority of woody species rely on seed dispersal by fruit-eating animals. Animals differ in their size, movement patterns, seed handling, gut physiology, and many other factors that affect the number of seeds they disperse, the quality of treatment each individual seed receives, and consequently their relative contribution to plant fitness.

Heavy pnicogen atoms as electron donors in sigma-hole bonds.

DFT calculations evaluate the strength of σ-hole bonds formed by ZH and ZMe (Z = N, P, As, Sb) acting as electron donor. Bond types considered include H-bond, halogen, chalcogen, pnicogen, and tetrel bond to perfluorinated Lewis acids FH, FBr, FSe FAs, FGe, respectively, as well as their monofluorinated analogues. All of the Z atoms can engage in bonds of at least moderate strength, varying from 3 to more than 40 kcal mol.

Stepping stones to extirpation: Puma patch occupancy thresholds in an urban-wildland matrix.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are the leading causes of species range contraction and extirpation, worldwide. Factors that predict sensitivity to fragmentation include high trophic level, large body size, and extensive spatial requirements. Pumas () exemplify these qualities, making them particularly susceptible to fragmentation and subsequent reductions in demographic connectivity.