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    Towards process-oriented management of tropical reefs in the anthropocene

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    Source apportionment of soil heavy metals with PMF model and Pb isotopes in an intermountain basin of Tianshan Mountains, China

    The plots of Igeo, PERI, and PLI of HMs in the topsoil of the tourist area of Sayram Lake (Fig. 5) reveal the degree of HM pollution and eco-risk in this study area on the one hand and, on the other hand, indicate the direction for the relevant agencies to target soil environmental protection and HM pollution prevention and control measures. In this study, the Igeo results showed that Cd was the most highly enriched HM, and Pb, Zn, Cd, and Ni were slightly enriched in a few sample sites. The unnatural accumulation of these elements is usually closely associated with human activities in the area34. Tourism is the main economic activity in the district, and published studies have reported that tourism infrastructure construction (e.g., roads, buildings, etc.) and tourism wastes (e.g., plastic bags, batteries, hotel wastewater) release Cd into the soil35. Additionally, the accumulation of Pb, Zn, Cu and Ni in soils is usually associated with traffic emissions36. The PERI showed that the study area was at low risk overall, with only point ss04 exhibiting medium risk; however, this result was caused by the abnormally high Cd concentration value (Fig. 4) at point ss04 (Cd (concentration): 1.08 mg/kg, Cd (background): 0.34 mg/kg). This anomalous concentration value has a large influence on the PERI calculated based on the measured concentration, the background value and the toxicity coefficient. Therefore, references to this point can be appropriately removed when considering eco-risk. The PLI of each sampling point was greater than 1 and less than 2, which means that the area was in a moderately contaminated state. In general, the degree of soil HM contamination in this area was low; however, due to HM toxicity, bioaccumulation, and persistence37, the HM contamination of this area still requires sustained attention.Figure 5Contamination and ecological risk indices: (a) geoaccumulation index (Igeo) of HMs; (b) ecological risk of individual HMs; (c) potential ecological risk index (PERI) of HMs; (d) pollution load index (PLI) of HMs.Full size imageCorrelation analysis is an efficient way to reveal correlations among HMs through Pearson correlation coefficients, and HMs with significant correlations may originate from the same source38. As shown in Table S5, the elemental pairs Cd-Cu (p  More

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    Indication of a personality trait in dairy calves and its link to weight gain through automatically collected feeding behaviours

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    Surprising effects of cascading higher order interactions

    Study siteWe conducted laboratory studies at the field site in Finca Irlanda, which is a 300-hectare organic shaded coffee farm located at 1100-m altitude, in the municipality of Tapachula, the state of Chiapas in Southern Mexico (92° 20′ 29″ W and 15° 10′ 65″ N). For the laboratory experiments, all organisms were freshly collected from Finca Irlanda or reared in the lab from insects collected from the field close by. The lab and field work was performed with a permit from the farm owner the Peters family.Ant aggression testTo examine the effect of phorid flies (P. lascinosus) on the aggressivity of ants (A. sericeasur) towards the parasitoids of the beetle larvae (A. orbigera), we conducted an ant aggression test with two treatments: with and without phorids. In the first treatment, a small coffee branch containing two leaves with scale insects (C. viridis) and 20 ant workers were both introduced into a one-liter plastic container. This was done to mimic as much as possible field conditions where the ants are tending scale insects. After waiting for at least 15 min for the ants to calm down and start tending the scale insects, one third- or fourth-instar larva of the beetle was introduced. In the second treatment, all settings were the same except for the addition of 3–4 phorid flies. Once the two treatments were established, one female parasitoid wasp (H. shuvakhinae) was released into each container. During a forty-minute trial, each time that a parasitoid wasp encountered an ant worker, the response of the ant individual was recorded. Ant responses to parasitoids were classified into two categories: (1) the ant ignores the wasp; (2) the ant attacks the wasp. All insects were used for a single replicate and then discarded. A total of four replicates were completed for both the presence and absence of phorids. For each trial, we calculated the proportion of actions (either aggressive or none) by ants when encountering the parasitoid wasp in the treatments with and without phorid flies. We used R36 to conduct a two-sample Mann–Whitney U test on the proportion of ant actions.Parasitism experiments and analysesTo examine the parasitoid wasp’s host preference and the effect of the 1st degree and the 2nd degree HOIs on the beetle’s parasitism and sex ratio, we conducted a laboratory experiment in insect tents (60 cm × 60 cm × 60 cm) with three treatments: (1) no ants (no HOIs but only the wasp and the beetle larvae), (2) ants (1st degree HOI), and (3) ants and phorids (1st and 2nd degree HOIs) (Fig. 1-B). We randomly assigned insect tents to each treatment in each trial, and the tents for each treatment were also shuffled in each trial. All beetle larvae used for these experiments were reared in the laboratory for at least two generations from freshly collected beetle adults. In each tent we placed a coffee branch with 4–6 leaves infested with approximately 100 scale insects inside a plastic container at the center of an insect tent. The set up for the three treatments of species combinations were as follows: (1) 4–5 third or fourth instar beetle larvae and a parasitoid wasp; (2) 4–5 third or fourth instar beetle larvae, a parasitoid wasp, and about 60–80 ant workers; (3) 4–5 third or fourth instar beetle larvae, a parasitoid wasp, about 60–80 ant workers and 3–4 phorid flies. Organism densities in these treatments were close to those observed in the field. To allow for acclimation, we introduced organisms into the tents in the following order: first, we introduced the coffee branch containing scales, immediately followed by the ants (in treatments 2 and 3). After the ants settled down and started tending the scale insects, we introduced the beetle larvae. Once the larvae began moving on the coffee leaves, we introduced the phorids (in treatment 3). When the three treatments were established, and the organisms exhibit normal behavior, we released one lab-reared female parasitoid wasp (H. shuvakhinae) in each tent (treatments 1, 2, and 3). We allowed the organisms to interact for 24 h. After 24 h, we collected all beetle larvae in each treatment and reared them with sufficient scale insects as food, until beetle adults emerged or parasitism symptoms appeared (parasitized larvae turned into hardened black mummies). The treatments of no HOI and 1st + 2nd degree HOI were repeated for 10 consecutive times, and the treatment of 1st degree HOI was repeated for 11 consecutive times, with new individuals of each organism. We recorded parasitism instances and beetle sexes upon emergence. To estimate the sex ratio without parasitoid influence, 78 randomly selected beetle individuals were reared on coffee leaves with scale insects without any interaction with other organisms.To analyze the effect of the parasitoid, the ant and the phorid fly on the parasitism rate and the sex ratio of the beetle, we developed a nested model, starting from$$logitleft(widehat{P}(S)right)=a+bA$$where (widehat{P}(S)) is the probability of an individual being parasitized, A is a binary variable, standing for the absence (0) and presence (1) of ants, a is the baseline probability of parasitism, and b is the magnitude of parasitism altered by ants in the logistic function. We further hypothesized that phorid attacks modify the strength of the interaction modification that ants exert upon the host-parasitoid interaction. Therefore,$$b=g+hP$$where P is another binary variable, standing for the presence (1) and absence (0) of phorids. Substituting b, we obtain the following function,$$logitleft(widehat{P}(S)right)=a+gA+hAP$$where g represents the effect of ants on the parasitism rate of A. orbigera larvae, and h represents the effect of the fly’s facilitation, via interfering with the ant’s interference on the parasitism rate of A. orbigera larvae. We used binary responses (1: survival; 0: parasitized) of all available beetle individuals across the three treatments. We performed model selection based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and likelihood ratio tests. For the latter, we started model selection by fitting the full model and preceding each step by eliminating the term that had the least significance (the greatest p-value) on the explanation of the dependent variable. The analysis was performed with the application of the bbmle package in R. By doing this, we determined the maximum likelihood estimates of survival probability of the beetle, (widehat{P}(S)), in the three treatments: (1) A = 0, AP = 0 (no HOI); (2) A = 1, AP = 0 (one HOI: ant interference) and (3) A = 1, AP = 1 (interacting HOIs: phorid interference with ant interference), and errors associated with these estimates.The same idea applies to the sex ratio of the beetle under the influence of various organisms. We developed the following equation,$$logitleft(widehat{P}(F|S)right)= r+mA+nAP$$where (widehat{P}(F|S)) is the probability of a parasitism survivor being female. A and P are both binary variables. Respectively, they represent the ant and the phorid fly, and the numeric attributes, 0 and 1, denote their absence and presence. As before, model selection and parameter estimates were conducted with AIC. By doing this, we determined (widehat{P}(F|S)), the estimate of being a female beetle given survival, for the three treatments: (1) A = 0, AP = 0 (no HOI); (2) A = 1, AP = 0 (one HOI: ant interference) and (3) A = 1, AP = 1 (interacting HOIs: phorid interference with ant interference), and errors associated with these estimates. We employed the mle2 function in the bbmle package in R to estimate the female probability (1) in the absence of HOI (the beetle and the parasitoid alone), (2) in the presence of the 1st degree HOI (the beetle, the parasitoid and the ant), and (3) in the presence of the 1st and the 2nd degree HOIs (the beetle, the parasitoid, the ant and the phorid fly).Probabilities of per capita female and per capita male survival from parasitism under the influence of ant and the phorid flyTo test whether the sex ratio of beetle survivors’ population is due to sex-differential survival probability, Bayes’ theorem was employed. Per capita female survival probability from parasitism in each treatment of the parasitism experiment was derived based on (widehat{P}(F)), (widehat{P}left(F|Sright),) and (widehat{P}(S)), and per capita male survival probability was derived based on (widehat{P}(M)), (widehat{P}left(M|Sright),) and (widehat{P}(S)). According to the Central Limit Theorem, the estimates of proportions, (widehat{P}left(S|Fright)) and (widehat{P}left(S|Mright)), are approximately normally distributed,$$widehat{P}left(S|Fright)sim Nleft(widehat{P}left(S|Fright), sqrt{frac{widehat{P}(S|F)times left(1-widehat{P}left(S|Fright)right)}{{n}^{*}}}right)$$$$widehat{P}left(S|Mright)sim Nleft(widehat{P}left(S|Mright), sqrt{frac{widehat{P}(S|M)times left(1-widehat{P}left(S|Mright)right)}{{n}^{*}}}right)$$with means (widehat{P}left(S|Fright)) and (widehat{P}(S|M)), and standard deviations (sqrt{frac{widehat{P}left(S|Fright)times (1-widehat{P}left(S|Fright))}{{n}^{*}}}) and (sqrt{frac{widehat{P}left(S|Mright)times (1-widehat{P}left(S|Mright))}{{n}^{*}}}), where (widehat{P}(S|F)) and (widehat{P}(S|M)), respectively, are the population proportions of females and males. Here we employ n*, the smallest sample size among those of the three variables in the Bayesian formulas for males and females. Since the three variables have different sample sizes, n* guarantees a conservative estimate of standard error, and thus confidence interval, of each derived probability. More

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    Building a truly diverse biodiversity science

    npj Biodiversity aims to be a common forum where discoveries in all areas of biodiversity science can be discussed, so that the research in specific topics with broad implications for other disciplines permeates the whole community. This requires that scientific debates are made in egalitarian terms between people with different backgrounds and points of view. We will strive to provide safe spaces where all biodiversity research can be showcased without bias, and theoretical and practical advances can be subject to calm and civil debate. As journal editors we will implement measures to work towards a fairer and more inclusive science, such as giving proper recognition to all researchers involved in the research published13, or ensuring in revisions that former research made by different identity groups and local scientists is adequately acknowledged14. We will also acknowledge diversity by maintaining a diverse editorial board15 and engaging external peer-reviewers16 that represent local specialists, the diversity of approaches in each field, as well as early-career researchers across demographic groups. We will also encourage access to research and engage in the FAIR principles for data management and sharing17. Here, good practice includes making data available for reanalysis or compilation in larger databases by researchers anywhere in the world, promoting open software, and sharing reproducible code18,19. Our hope is that this extends the capacity of developing meta-analyses and macroecological and macroevolutionary research beyond the borders of high-income countries.npj Biodiversity seeks to promote scientific discussion and synthesis. As editors, we will act as guides and moderators rather than as gatekeepers that merely decide which papers are above the threshold of publication20. Thus, we encourage debate as a central part of the editorial process, allowing well-grounded and clearly-identified speculation and policy-related statements in published papers when appropriate. This may include publishing non-conventional papers that foster discussion in established topics or open new research avenues21, if and only if they are well supported by data or published evidence. In this sense, we welcome Comments on areas currently under discussion, as well as Reviews and Perspectives that allow synthesis in theoretical and practical topics that are not necessarily general, but can help advance specific subdisciplines or topics. Last but not least, we want to facilitate communication between basic research and applied practitioners through Perspectives that translate the implications of recent research for management, conservation and adaptation to global change, or that identify which theoretical advances or additional empirical evidence would be needed to tackle specific problems.Creating the appropriate publishing environment for journals to be true forums for debate and provide value to the scientific community is a challenging enterprise. Above all, it requires escaping from the haste imposed by the “publish or perish model”, and making an explicit effort to raise the quality of the editorial process. In npj Biodiversity we will seek to follow ‘slow publishing’ principles, putting emphasis on meaningful debate between authors, editors and reviewers22. Current research environments can prevent researchers from having time to think, but true advance stems from digesting ideas and discussing them with the detail, depth and time they may need (http://slow-science.org/)23,24,25. Therefore, to contribute to a healthier, gentler and more thoughtful approach to biodiversity science, we will provide thorough and thoughtful reviews. We will make editorial decisions that, when paired with equally thorough and thoughtful work by authors, can reduce the number of times a paper bounces back and forth in successive rounds of peer review and revision. Note that this does not necessarily mean longer editorial times! Paradoxically, when authors, reviewers and editors commit to these “slow” publishing principles, the publication process can speed up. And most importantly, it will promote the spirit of productive debate that we aim for in npj Biodiversity. More

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    Biogenic climate change could have driven the demise of life on early Mars

    Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.This is a summary of: Sauterey, B. et al. Early Mars habitability and global cooling by H2-based methanogens. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01786-w (2022). More

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    The fate of terrestrial biodiversity during an oceanic island volcanic eruption

    To our knowledge, this is the only work done on the terrestrial biodiversity status in the direct vicinity of a limited duration volcanic eruption. In this contribution, we document and assess the impact on the main plant and animal groups within the ecosystems during a volcanic eruption (Table 1). While some groups were clearly disadvantaged: ferns and herbaceous plants as well as invertebrates and saurians (lizards and geckos); other groups such as conifers and woody shrubs showed better resilience, as did the birds.This study is particularly important because of its location in a Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot13,14, harbouring a unique ecosystem of oceanic island organisms (38% of the Canary archipelago endemicity). Islands indeed exhibit a disproportionate amount of the world’s biodiversity but unfortunately a high number of extinctions have also occurred there14. The biodiversity in the south of the island is poorer than in the north. This is probably explained in part by the relatively frequent volcanic activity featuring seven major eruptions since 1585, including this one in 2021 (see15), which led to alternating destruction and neo-colonization processes.Concerning the flora, the Canary pine forest was the most affected ecosystem and vegetation type, as it is dominant in the vicinity of the new volcanic vents. The southern slopes of this forest were the most disturbed area due to the location of the volcano, combined with the prevailing northeasterly trade winds (Fig. 1). Tephra fallout and sulphurous gases were the main factors that affected the pine forest, over a vast surface area. Furthermore, the local xerophytic and thermophilous habitats also lost much of their surface area. In contrast to the pine forest, this drastic reduction was caused by the progressive downslope expansion of the lava flows.The Canary Island pine was thus notably affected by tephra fall, sulphuric acid aerosol12, and short episodes of acid rain. However, this conifer shows high resistance to temperature, confirming its great adaptation to volcanic events16, which is probably also one of the keys to its resistance to the more frequent present-day wildfires17. This pine species has evolved among volcanoes for the last 13 My16 and has adapted successfully to high temperatures. Moreover, thunderstorms with lightning occur in the Canaries together with abundant rainfall; consequently, wild forest fires should presumably not have been so frequent in the island’s past, before human colonization. In this habitat it is also remarkable that epiphytic lichens (U. articulata) apparently resisted on the pines until the 12th week, considering their high sensitivity to anthropogenic pollution18.The life cycle of flowering plants was drastically disrupted due to all the above factors, with great impact on foliage, photosynthesis, and growth. However, soil changes due to the deposition of tephra and its lixiviation by rain is one of the most dramatic factors affecting plants and a long-term impact of volcanic eruptions19. The nearest individuals to the crater were most directly affected by intense tephra falls and concentrated volcanic gases (SO2, HCl, HF, CO2). However, plants located in the nearest 200 m to the lava flows but at more than 2 km from the crater were presumably more disturbed by the high temperature of the slow-cooling lava and its lesser gas emissions.Large woody plants exhibited a better frequency of survival than smaller ones in the face of this extreme stress (Table S1 and19). In the Hekla area (Iceland), most trees have thickened trunks, indicating that those trees that survive have had a long life subjected to frequent volcanic damage19. Secondary woodiness of island plants (sensu20) has been traditionally related to drought20,21, ecological shift22 or a counter-selection of inbreeding depression in founding island populations23. However, this adaptation also favours the resistance of many shrubby plants to high temperatures close to craters and lava flows but primarily their resistance to the intense tephra falls that affect a much larger area. In addition, plant and stem height plays a fundamental role in overcoming the deep layers of deposits. This latter effect was particularly important up to 2.5 km from the crater (tephra thickness  > 30 cm) (Figs. 1 and 2), as the herbaceous plants were completely buried, sometimes to more than 1.5 m depth. Therefore, the seed bank has also probably been rendered largely non-functional. However, deposits were recorded over almost the whole island, indicating that longer lasting or more intense eruptions would severely affect an even larger area. Such events have been hitherto ignored in the intensely discussed “island woodiness” debate21,23,24,25,26,27. We found surviving populations of endemic woody taxa heavily impacted by tephra deposits close to lava flows, across a wide range of genera such as Rumex (R. lunaria), Echium (E. brevirame), Euphorbia (E. lamarckii, E. canariensis and E. balsamifera), Aeonium (A. davidbramwellii), Rubia (R. fruticosa), Schizogyne (S. sericea), Carlina (C. falcata) or Sonchus (S. hierrensis) (Table S2), which coincide with the general list of woody Canary plants20. Most members of these genera in other ecosystems on continents are mainly herbaceous. As such eruptions and their impacts due to ash depositions are frequent events on volcanic islands, e.g. several times within a century on La Palma, this is a “frequent” selective process at evolutionary time scales.With regard to the fauna, the invertebrate community collapsed during the first two weeks (Table S2), probably due to rapid deterioration of the growth state of plants. These changes in the invertebrates were caused by the tephra contacting the cuticular lipid layer28 and water loss due to tegument abrasion29. In this period, many insect pests (especially whitefly pupae) in banana plantations (farmers’ observations) were drastically reduced. This sudden decrease in insect populations affected the whole food web and probably caused part of the ecological collapse of saurian and some passerine communities30. In the case of lizards, smaller individuals seem to resist the adverse conditions better than large ones, as observed in other eruptions3. This could be linked to their lower food requirements and greater ease in finding refuges. Loss of body condition in lizards post-eruption has been recorded and negatively affects reproduction quality31. However, some lizards have shown a good ability to find food in the tephra substrate32. We found abundant tephra particles in some vertebrate droppings (lizards, birds, and mammals) during the eruption, probably involuntarily ingested. At least in bats, ingestion during feeding produces physiological stress that is likely related to baldness, high ectoparasite loads or possible mineral deficiencies33.As described in the Canary Islands, some passerines show high fidelity to their territories (see34). During the eruption, Sardinian warblers (Curruca melanocephala) maintained their territories until the imminent arrival of lava flows. Larger birds (kestrels F. tinnunculus, ravens C. corax and buzzards B. buteo) were well able to continue flying in the areas surrounding the crater. Furthermore, some cases like F. tinnunculus showed great feeding plasticity in the first couple of weeks. At least six times, kestrels tried to catch birds (especially small passerines and doves), contrary to their usual diet based on abundant lizards and insects35. Widening of trophic niches in island organisms has traditionally been interpreted as linked to disharmony in island ecosystems36,37,38. However, this plasticity is tremendously beneficial in ecological catastrophes, where food becomes exceptionally scarce. In the case of bats, their flight is limited by the delicate structure of their patagium, which can be damaged by the frequent pyroclastic tephra fall. Furthermore, scarcity of insects in the first few kilometres from the crater probably led to their displacement to other more distant and richer food resource zones.As we learned from the movement capacity of the vertebrate animals that still inhabited the affected area, those with greater mobility, birds and bats, resisted the eruptive process much better than those with less mobility, e.g. saurians.Lastly, during this destructive event on La Palma, we had the opportunity to increase our knowledge of how ecological-evolutionary adaptations have favoured the survival of insular organisms. Such responses are traditionally mentioned in the context of island biology. As already mentioned, one of the most interesting findings verifies the remarkable adaptation of Canary Island pine trees (P. canariensis) to volcanism (see16), including extremely harsh ecological conditions. Other insular trends related to the prevalence of woodiness in insular flowering plants20,21, or the high trophic plasticity of some vertebrates on oceanic islands36, have not previously been associated with their potential evolution along with volcanic processes. However, such evolutionary adaptations most likely played an important role in the survival of plants and animals affected by the volcano. For this reason, it is worth considering and debating whether these previously mentioned evolutionary processes are in fact also linked to repeated volcanic episodes on oceanic islands. More