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    A global roadmap to seize the opportunities of healthy longevity

    Building from this background the NAM took on these issues as its first-ever grand challenge, as a critical issue of import and urgency for us all. In 2018, the NAM empaneled an international, independent and multidisciplinary commission to create a global roadmap for healthy longevity, complete with evidence-based, targeted and actionable recommendations to move societies forward from an almost-exclusive focus on ‘coping with aging populations’ toward enabling individuals and societies to age successfully, and to reap the economic and societal benefits of longevity. The commission offers a way forward for governments and societies by beginning with recommendations for the next five years, and how these solutions can be financially sustainable through the creation of a virtuous cycle.To support these goals, the commission was to “(1) comprehensively address the challenges and opportunities presented by global aging population; (2) catalyze breakthrough ideas and research that will extend the human healthspan; and (3) generate transformative and scalable innovations world wide”8. The resulting comprehensive report, which was delayed in good measure by the COVID-19 pandemic, was released in June 2022 (ref. 8). We report here a summary of the high-level vision, goals, findings and recommendations of this global roadmap.The evidence for opportunities of longevity and the costs of inactionWe are seeing longer lives with increasing years spent in ill health (that is, the decompression of morbidity)9. The implications of longevity without health are costly ones for the individual, their families and for society. By contrast, scientific evidence shows that the majority of chronic diseases are preventable, and that prevention works at every age and stage of life. Further, the subset of individuals who are the beneficiaries of cumulative health-promoting conditions across the life course are demonstrating healthy longevity, defined as “the state in which years in good health approach the biological lifespan, with physical, cognitive and social functioning, enabling well-being across populations”8. However, only a minority of people in any country have the benefit of the necessary investments that promote health, and disparities in access to these investments across the life course are a major cause of unhealthy longevity. The costs of inaction in the face of widening disparities include the high risk of young people aging with more ill health, and the attendant costs to them and society.Further, the commission reports that when people have health and function in older age, the considerable cognitive and socioemotional capabilities and expertise that accrue with aging, and the prosocial goals of older age, constitute human and social capital assets that are unprecedented in both nature and scale. Contrary to disproven myths, workforce participation not only brings these valuable capabilities (such that intergenerational teams in the workplace are more productive and innovative than single-age-group teams), but older people working is also associated with more jobs for younger individuals10. In the USA and EU, it has been shown that older adults contribute 7% of gross domestic product (GDP) through paid work and the economic value of volunteering and caregiving11, even before opportunities are specifically expanded for the increasing older population. Societies that recognize this potential and invest to create both healthy longevity and the societal organizations and policies through which older adults can contribute to societal good will develop the opportunity for all ages to thrive. The return on investment will be to create older ages with health, function, dignity, meaning, purpose and opportunities — for those who desire it — to work longer, care for others or contribute in ways that they value to their community and future generations.The definition, principles and vision of ‘Vision 2050’ for healthy longevityThe global roadmap builds on the WHO ‘Decade of Healthy Ageing’, the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and other reports. It sets out principles for achieving healthy longevity using data and meaningful metrics to track achievement of outcomes and guide decision making. The report offers a vision empowered by the evidence: that, by 2050, societies will value the capabilities and assets of older people; all people will have the opportunity to live long lives with health and function; barriers to full participation by older people in society will have been solved; and that older people, with such health, will have the opportunity to engage in meaningful and productive activities. In turn, this societal engagement will create unprecedented social, human and economic capital, contributing to intergenerational well-being and cohesion, and to GDP.Implementing Vision 2050Accomplishing this vision demands ‘all-of-society’ intent — with aligned goals for healthy longevity and transformative action across public, private and academic sectors, and all of civil society and communities — and the implementation of evidence across the full and extending life course. Transforming only one component or sector (for example, health systems) will not be sufficient to create healthy longevity or its full opportunities. Rather, given that nations are complex systems, this vision for our future requires governmental leadership and transformation of all sectors of our complex societal system (Fig. 1).Fig. 1: Relevant actors for an all-of-society approach to healthy longevity.Healthy longevity requires government leadership and cooperation across all sectors. Adapted with permission from figure S-2 of ref. 8.Full size imageInvestment for healthy longevity — across the enabling sectors of health systems, social infrastructure and protections, the physical environment, and work and volunteering contributions — will require intentional planning and leadership to transform those components in tandem, and to resolve disrupters such as ageism, the social determinants of health and inequity, and pollution. These investments across all sectors will create the conditions for achieving healthy longevity and build new capital (human, social and economic) that will benefit all of society. As a result of these investments, society will see younger people thrive and move into a position to age with healthy longevity; those individuals who are already older will be recognized as valuable contributors to society in a ‘pay-it-forward’ stage of life. The underpinning social compact between citizens and government will support valuing each age group’s capabilities and goals, and the building of a society of well-being and cohesion across generations. This is at the center of the virtuous cycle for healthy longevity (Fig. 2)Fig. 2: The virtuous cycle of healthy longevity.Healthy longevity (top) is an outcome of a virtuous cycle, itself contributing to capital development (bottom left). Bottom right, capital (human, financial and social) supports enablers (work, physical environment, health systems and social infrastructure). The enablers propel the cycle, contributing to healthy longevity. Intentional investment for healthy longevity across all enabling sectors will create new capital that will benefit all of society. Adapted with permission from figure 1-4 of ref. 8.Full size imageGoals for initiating the transformation to healthy longevityThe commission identified the following changes that should occur from now to 2027 to start transformation of all of society, towards Vision 2050 and the creation of healthy longevity for all:

    Creating social cohesion, social engagement and addressing the social determinants of health through social infrastructure are among the most effective determinants of slowed aging and the prevention of chronic conditions across the life course. Financial security in older age is essential for all.

    Governments, the private sector and civil society should partner to design physical environments and infrastructure that are user-centered, and function as cohesion-enabling intergenerational communities for healthy longevity. Initiatives should focus on the inclusion of older people in the design, creating public spaces that promote social cohesion and intergenerational connection as well as mobility, physical activity and access to food, transportation, social services and engagement.

    By 2027, governments should develop strategies and plans to arrive at adequately sized, geriatrically knowledgeable public health, clinical and long-term care workforces, and an integration of the pillars of the health system and social services. Together, these dimensions would foster and extend years of good health and support the diverse health needs and well-being of older people.

    Governments should work to build the dividend of health longevity in collaboration with the business sector and civil society, to develop policies, incentives, and supportive systems that enable and encourage lifelong learning, and greater opportunities and necessary skills to engage in meaningful work or community volunteering across the lifespan.

    We summarize the commission’s recommended goals for each of these sectors in brief in Box 1. Across all sectors, the key first steps that the commission identified are ones that can resolve obstacles to change and plan the change needed to shift multiple complex systems through both top-down and bottom-up approaches, in ways appropriate to each country and context. These initiatives should create enough momentum to foster early returns on investment and optimism to propel sustained investment for subsequent stages. This would need to begin for all governments by 2023, establishing calls to action to develop and implement data-driven, all-of-society plans to build the systems, policies, organizations and infrastructure needed, and for tracking change.Box 1 Goals for 2022–2027 to initiate the transformation to healthy longevityThese goals are reproduced from Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity8.
    Social infrastructure

    Develop evidence-based multipronged strategies to reduce ageism against all groups.

    Develop plans for ensuring basic financial security for all older people.

    Develop strategies to increase financial literacy and mechanisms for promoting working longer, pension options and savings over the life course.

    Plan opportunities for purposeful and meaningful engagement by older people at the family, community and societal levels.

    Physical environment

    At the societal level, improve broadband accessibility to reduce the digital divide and develop public transportation solutions that address first- and last-mile transportation.

    At the city level, implement mitigation strategies to reduce the negative effects of the physical environment and related emergencies on older people (for example, air pollution and climate-induced events, including extreme heat and flooding) and design environments for connection and cohesion.

    At the neighborhood level, promote and measure innovative policy solutions for healthy longevity, including affordable housing and intergenerational living, zoning and design for connection and cohesion, and the enabling of social capital.

    At the home level, update physical infrastructure and policies to address affordability, provide coliving arrangements that match people’s goals and needs, and resolve insufficiencies and inefficiencies in housing stock.

    Health systems

    Establish healthy longevity as a major goal.

    Increase investments in public health systems, which are needed to promote health and prevent disease, disability and injury at the population level, across the full life course. This may require rebalancing investments between this type of public health and medical care, recognizing that such public health is a public good and, as such, tends to be underinvested in.

    Provide adequate primary care that includes preventive screening, addresses risk factors for chronic conditions and promotes positive health behaviors, and offers a continuum of medical care, including geriatrically knowledgeable care for older adults.

    Make culturally sensitive, person-centered and equitable long-term care systems available, which (to the degree possible) offer dignity and honor people’s preferences about care settings.

    Building the healthy longevity dividend

    Governments, in collaboration with the business sector and civil society, should design (1) work environments and develop new policies that enable and encourage older adults who want or need to remain in the work force longer, and (2) engagement opportunities that strengthen communities at every stage of life.

    Governments, employers and educational institutions should prioritize redesigning education systems to support lifelong learning and training, and invest in the science of learning and training for middle-aged and older adults.

    Pilot innovations that incentivize and allow middle-aged and older adults to retool for multiple careers and/or participate as volunteers across their lifespan in roles with meaning and purpose. More

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    UPRLIMET: UPstream Regional LiDAR Model for Extent of Trout in stream networks

    UPRLIMET is our response to a need for a consistent method for predicting the upper extent of trout in all streams across land ownerships within our region. By developing and implementing the model using LiDAR-derived flowline hydrography, we offer a standardized, spatially explicit, spatially contiguous (where LiDAR hydrography is available), and high-quality fish-distribution layer based on the probability of fish presence. UPRLIMET maps both the probability of trout and the upper limit of trout across landscapes, ownerships, and jurisdictions, and better captures the upper extent of fish in headwater reaches relative to previous approaches allowing for a cross-boundary distribution map on which decision-makers and managers can base policies and regulations.This work provides a transferable prediction modeling framework for systematically and comprehensively estimating the upper distribution limit of fish, which could be calibrated and implemented in watersheds and for fish species around the globe. Although the dependency on LiDAR-derived data here may be seen as a limitation to broader implementation of this method, the method is scalable to any resolution, and LiDAR is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the United States through the U.S. Geological Survey 3D Elevation Program, which is funding LiDAR acquisitions across the United States. Furthermore, LiDAR data is available globally via data from GEDI and ICESAT-2 satellites that offer coarser resolution (~ 25-m) data that are still superior to either ASTER or SRTM derived-DEMs26, 27.Minimizing prediction errors for the upper limit of trout is important to decision support and management planning because it ensures that forest-harvest regulations and management prescriptions are aligned. It is important to note that the prediction error estimates from this study are derived from the NSpCV process, except for models using 20% slope thresholds or unaltered parameterization of Fransen’s model13, because it is likely that the NSpCV estimates are conservative. They tended to overestimate error, as evidenced by the fact that the Refit model (i.e. Fransen’s optimal model13 refit to our data) exhibited a larger MAE than the unchanged optimal Fransen model13. This unexpected result was likely due to applying the NSpCV routine on the Refit model, resulting in the use of many intermediate models to characterize predictive performance using randomized subsets of independent training and test data. In contrast, the optimal Fransen model13 was developed independently using the data in this study and thus error could be evaluated directly without subsampling imposed by NSpCV.The relatively low error for the two-stage model that becomes UPRLIMET suggests that it more accurately characterizes the upper limit of fish than all other models considered in this study, including the Fransen model13, which has been used for estimating upper limit of fish regionally. Although some of the models exhibited relatively small differences in error relative to the model that became UPRLIMET, small differences in predicted upper limit locations when considered in aggregate across multiple watersheds can potentially alter management decisions and expected outcomes. Differences in predictive performance and error between UPRLIMET and the optimal Fransen model13 are likely attributed to high-accuracy hydrography and hydro-topographic data (as LiDAR-derived DEMs were not available in western Washington in 2006), which allowed a finer-scale of analysis (i.e., 5-m vs 10-m reaches). Additionally, the fact that UPRLIMET was fit to data solely from western Oregon likely offers predictive performance gains when applied to western Oregon when compared to the Fransen model13 that was fit to data from western Washington.Quantifying the predicted accuracy associated with applying UPRLIMET to western Washington will require new data and is outside the intended scope of this study. However, we think it is reasonable to infer findings from UPRLIMET across regions with similar climatic and hydro-topographic conditions including northwestern California, western Oregon, western Washington, and southwestern British Columbia, especially given the broad availability of LiDAR-derived DEMs. This conclusion is supported the fact that both the Fransen13 and Refit models produced similar logistic regression coefficients (Data S5) and similar Matthews Correlation Coefficients (Data S6), suggesting that feature space of the two models is similar. This evidence is further corroborated by the high degree of overlap observed among the distributions of each of the four predictor variables for both western Oregon and Washington. We acknowledge that UPRLIMET does not contain identical predictor variables to Fransen’s model13 but maintain that they are similar enough in purpose that it is reasonable to assume that the feature space similarities are retained.When we undertook this study, we hypothesized that a prediction model based on RF would offer superior predictive performance over those based on LR, given the availability of 67 predictor variables and RF’s demonstrated superior predictive performance in ecological applications23,24,25. However, our results suggests no improvement is offered by including more than four of the 67 environmental predictors examined, and that no clear advantage is offered by employing the more complex RF model, as evidenced by the top three of the top five prediction models being four-variable LR model algorithms (Fig. 3; Data S3.) The general importance of these variables to so many models is likely due to the strong linear relationships in the response of fish or no fish in logit space given the slopes of the curves in the partial dependence profiles (Fig. 4). This finding is congruent with the fundamental premise of LR, which is to explain and predict a response with a functional relationship, whereas RF deliberately focuses only on maximizing prediction accuracy with many decision trees28. Additional advantages to prediction models based on LR include the following: relatively better extrapolation performance over RF29, the simplicity of transferring a LR model to another processing platform using the model coefficients (versus the black box of RF decisions), and the immensely reduced computational processing times associated with LR model fitting and prediction. These advantages are especially key to this work, where there may be a desire to implement the model on other landscapes without the requisite expertise in doing so using the R software30. However, there are tradeoffs, as LR is more sensitive to the influence of outliers and multi-collinearity among variables, and overfitting is an increasing concern as the number of predictor variables increase, whereas RF tends to be robust to these concerns, but is more likely to produce a high-variance, low-bias prediction model31.Although there is no single, general explanation for distribution limits of species32, the intersection of stream size, slope, and elevation together locate the upper limit of fish. Stream size corresponds to major ecosystem changes along a stream continuum including for energy sources, ecosystem metabolism, habitat characteristics, and biodiversity33, as well as the upper distribution limit of fish, as shown here. As expected, stream size accounts for the top two variables in the model suggesting that it is the major driver of the upper distribution limit of fish with the probability of trout increasing with increasing upstream stream length and upstream drainage area. Our finding proposes that downstream stream reaches are more likely to have fish. Although the underlying mechanisms have multiple influences, factors related to increasing stream size, such as increasing habitat size, habitat complexity, stability, or temperature variability34 have been shown to be important. Similarly, stream size is the most sensitive factor in intrinsic potential models for Chinook Salmon (O. tshawytscha35). Slope, the next variable of importance influencing the upper extent of fish, exerts control on physical habitats in streams, including channel morphology, hydraulics, sediment transport, substrate, and habitat36. Steep slopes drastically prevent trout from reaching areas above waterfalls or impassable chutes of over 25% slope, but trout can be found in streams channels without barriers at slopes as high as 28%7, 14, 37. Other fishes, such as Coho Salmon (O. kisutch) and steelhead (O. mykiss) are generally not found above 12% slope38. Interestingly, survival of fishes that make it upstream or are introduced above barriers may be facilitated by a geomorphic setting that is less prone to debris flows and other episodic sediment fluxes and has a greater resilience to flooding resulting from wider valley and greater floodplain connectivity39. Elevation or vertical topographic position may indirectly integrate broad influences of other landscape-scale or climate factors or also indirectly capture stream size, influencing the likelihood of fish presence. Frequently, species richness increases at lower elevations40, and we suggest that elevation also contributes to species distribution limits, as is the case for the Endangered Species Act listed Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus)41. The multiple factors associated with elevation correspond to the relationship found for stream size that smaller streams are less likely to have fish. Ultimately, the intersection of stream size, slope, and elevation guide us to finding the upper extent of fish in streams.Physical influences have been proposed to be more limiting to fish distributions upstream, such as near the upper extent of fish, whereas biological factors are probably more important downstream33. Although 67 environmental predictor variables representing geologic, soil, climatic, and hydro-topographic conditions at local and patch scales are evaluated (Data S1), only the hydro-topographic variables of stream size, slope, and elevation are important to predicting the upper limit of fish in UPRLIMET. In fact, the top 9 models (Fig. 3; Data S3) relied on just four to five hydro-topographic variables, most of which were patch-scale variables or elevation at 1000 m, all of which incorporate a broader extent of influence. This suggests that local scale variables that contribute to fish limits, including slope or riparian influences may need to be further explored. In addition, some of the remaining 63 variables present in UPRLIMET, such as precipitation and air temperature, are important drivers of within-network trout distributions and contribute to their connectivity. Some of these predictor variables appear in the 10th ranked 26-variable RF-O-SR1 model (Data S2; Data S4; Data S8), but the influence appears to be dubious for isolating the upper limit and explaining variation in fish occurrence because MAE of upper limit was substantially higher than the 9 models with lower MAEs (Fig. 3; Data S3), and the lower MCC of the associated RF-O sub-model (Data S6). It is likely that other combinations of the 67 predictor variables, including precipitation, may be more important when this model development and evaluation framework is applied elsewhere, especially if those areas contain fishes or are places that are vulnerable to changing water temperatures and streamflow regimes. In addition, biological factors may be a concern in other watersheds, including invasive species and fish stocking which can limit the longitudinal distribution and the upstream extent of fishes.Given the large geographic extent of this study, we expected other variables such as precipitation to be more important drivers, however due to a combination of a wet water year, a lack of precipitation gradient in the study area, coarse grain data, and location of fish in streams this was not the case. For example, 2017 was a wetter than normal water year53, and it may be that the gradient of precipitation variation in western Oregon was not strong enough to explain the variation in the spatial distribution of trout occurrence. All climate data, including the precipitation data were sourced from relatively coarse-scale (800 m) PRISM data. The inability to adequately downscale precipitation to characterize how precipitation truly varies within and between patches, especially along elevational gradients, likely confounded how the model interprets the influence of precipitation. Trout occurrence was on perennial streams, which is likely far enough downstream of locations where variation in precipitation was the dominant influence on streamflow permanence and consequently would not have been a factor.Stream network structure plays a key role in the upper limits of fish. Upper limits for fish can occur at either lateral or terminal points13 and when mapping these points, differences were seen for UPRLIMET relative to other datasets. Lateral limits end in the tributary stream just above where it connects with a mainstem stream. Terminal limits include both mid-stream terminal limits where fish drop out in the middle of a stream channel owing to a soft (i.e., transient barrier or puttering out) or hard (i.e., waterfall) edge, and confluence terminal limits where the upper limit of fish ends at the confluence. For example, when closely examining the 14 watersheds where we have overlapping information across various datasets and models, UPRLIMET and the Fransen optimal model13 exhibit substantial agreement in their lateral limits. However, the largest differences are in their terminal ends, especially terminal mid-stream limits, probably owing to hydro-topographic changes that contribute to fish occurrence at confluences, which are more pronounced than mid-stream. Accordingly, the logic in the stopping rule is likely important in identifying specific upper extent of fish distributions in reaches that end mid-stream.Differences among databases for the upper distribution limits of fish come from both the upper limit points and depiction of fish-bearing reaches, underscoring the importance of having a shared map with common coverage of the fish extent across landscapes and ownerships. Differences among mapped distributions can result from source information, relating to whether it is modeled or occurrence data. Models, such as UPRLIMET, can be applied across a broad extent based on model parameters and training data, thereby offering broad coverage for distributions (and quantifiable error) across the landscape, ownerships, and jurisdictions. However, models are limited by accuracy and fit. As such, they can incorrectly predict distributions in some areas, especially if there are prediction features not yet trained with the model data where prediction would require extrapolation of the model. This makes both the training dataset and modeled extent important considerations, as models are only as good as the data used to develop them. Updating UPRLIMET with new data as it becomes available will help to expand the prediction domain, improve accuracy, and allow the model to do more interpolation than extrapolation.Distributions based on occurrence information depend heavily on data availability, data quality, and access. Differences in data availability can lead to inconsistent coverage across landscapes and ownerships, with high coverage in some watersheds and low to no coverage in others. Inconsistent coverage can lead to errors that are difficult to quantify across landscapes, ownerships, and survey crews. Occurrence information also depends on the ability to survey watersheds and gain access across ownership types, including on private lands that do not have the same assurances of access as public lands, resulting in information asymmetry42, 43. Data quality also depends on the spatial accuracy of the points of uppermost fish, which are a function of GPS quality and error, and can drastically change the modeled results, as these points are used in the training dataset. Differences among mapped distribution limits also result from differences in field protocols on designating last fish. For example, some crews note fish distribution limits where they visually see the last fish, whereas others note it upstream of where they saw last fish, based on habitat features that would limit fish. With the advent of LiDAR-derived DEMs and associated LiDAR-derived stream hydrography, like those available in much of western Oregon, have revealed additional flowlines in watersheds compared to previous topographic maps, which adds more potential tributaries to survey for fish-distribution assessments. When these new previously unmapped tributaries are paired with a model, such as UPRLIMET, a common information set is available across landowners, managers, and agencies for the upper extent of fish. This helps policymakers determine where to apply regulations that support fisheries and forest management, based on the upper fish limit.Next steps for applying and expanding the model include addressing current data gaps. More information and observations about the upper distribution limits of fish beyond western Oregon would be needed to properly expand the spatial scope of the model. The upper extent of fish is at the detection limit of many current technologies, including global nativation satellite system (GNSS), geographic information systems (GIS), and LiDAR, especially in forested landscapes. Better precision of GNSS coordinates from observations would help greatly. From an ecological perspective, we could focus on fish distribution limits that vary seasonally or interannually to better understand which stream features and hydrologic parameters influence those endpoints. We also need information related to locations of barriers, including culverts, waterfalls, and knickpoints to understand their influence on contemporary distributions. Incorporating variables representing riparian conditions as well as leveraging higher-resolution DEMs ( More

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    Oscillating flower colour changes of Causonis japonica (Thunb.) Raf. (Vitaceae) linked to sexual phase changes

    Time-course observations on 43 flowers of Causonis japonica revealed changes in flower disc colour and sexual expression (Table 1). Temporal changes in floral features showed no difference between diploid (19 flowers) and triploid (24 flowers) individuals. For example, flowering onset times did not differ substantially between ploidy level (diploid: from 07:07 to 13:27, triploid: from 06:58 to 14:49). However, the flowering duration varied significantly from flower to flower, ranging from a minimum of one day to a maximum of six days. Regardless of the ploidy level, all flowers with damaged styles (14 flowers) exhibited brown stigmas after the male phase, then ceased floral development prior to the female phase.Table 1 Characteristics of 43 flowers of Causonis japonica.Full size tableFigure 1 shows the typical time-course changes of C. japonica flower features (flower ID 35 in Table 1) according to the RGB values (representing the activities of nectar secretion: see below). As in the other 42 examined cases shown in Table 1, the initial colour of this flower disc immediately after anthesis (male phase) was orange (Stage 1, Fig. 1a, RGB: 255, 88, 16), as reported earlier7. Immediately after the petals and stamens fell off, the flower disc colour changed to pink (Stage 2, Fig. 1b, RGB: 255, 82, 102). The styles were not yet elongated at this stage, and the flowers were asexual. In 12 cases with damaged styles and brown stigmas, the flower discs remained pink until the flowers fell off (shown as “O–P” in Table 1).Figure 1Colour change process of a flower disc in Causonis japonica (flower ID 35 in Table 1). Disc colour changed from orange (a, RGB: 255, 88, 16) to pink (b, RGB: 255, 82, 102) before recovering to orange (c, RGB: 255, 88, 16) again, then pink (d, RGB: 255, 120, 94) again. In the last stage, the flower disc turned brownish pink (e, RGB: 232, 162, 169) then fell off. The two orange colour stages were synchronised with flower sexual activity. (a) First orange stage shows stamen activity (male phase); (c) second orange stage indicates stigma maturation (female phase). Nectar secretion was active only in the orange stages and more active in the female phase; the same tendency was observed in the other cases shown in Table 1.Full size imageHowever, in the remaining 31 flowers with normally elongated styles, maturation of the styles (female phase) coincided with the flower discs again exhibiting a distinct orange colour (Stage 3, Fig. 1c, RGB: 255, 88, 16). After the female phase, the flower discs turned pink again (Stage 4, shown as “O–P–O–P” in Table 1), and brownish colouration appeared in the stigmas (Fig. 1d, RGB: 255, 120, 94). Finally, the flower discs turned to a faded pink (Fig. 1e, RGB: 232, 162, 169) just before the flowers fell off. Therefore, the above observations imply that colour-change has a strict correlation with sexual phase.The timings of the disc colour change to the second orange stage (female phase) varied depending on the onset time of each flower. Most flowers that opened before 10:00 reached the second orange stage (female phase) on the afternoon of the same day (except for two flowers, ID 1 and 2 in Table 1). Conversely, flowers that bloomed after 10:00 reached the second orange stage (female phase) at approximately noon the following day. These flowering processes were not fully synchronised in the same inflorescence; therefore, pink and orange discs often coexisted in the same inflorescence. Indeed, we can collect various stages of flowers at a time point from one population as shown in Fig. 2a.Figure 2Histology of floral discs of C. japonica. (a) Floral disc colour change observed in a triploid individual. Flowers were hand-sectioned along the longitudinal axis to show inside colouration of floral disc. Floral phase was judged from the stigma length and colour of the stigma tip; from left, initial stage with orange floral disc and short style, first pink stage with short style, second orange stage with elongated style with matured stigma, and second orange stage with elongated style. Unit of scale bar = 1 mm. (b–e) Longitudinal sections of floral discs in the initial orange stage (b, d) and pink stage (c, e). Scale bar = 500 µm. (b, c) Hand sections of living floral discs showing pigmentation of vacuoles in some scattered cells. (d, e) Resin-embedded sections of floral discs showing histology.Full size imageFigure 1 also shows the typical time-course changes of nectar activities (flower ID 35 in Table 1), which indicates active nectar secretions during both orange colour stages. That is, the flower discs secreted nectar in both male and female phases, with no visible nectar secretion in the pink stages. Moreover, nectar secretion in the female phase of this flower was higher than that in the male phase, a tendency that was also observed in other flowers; however, the total volume of nectar varied among the flowers shown in Table 1. During anthesis, we confirmed that bees, wasps, ants and other insects visited the flowers as previously described7 (Supplementary Fig. 1).Longitudinal sections of flowers in the pink-coloured and orange-coloured stages (Fig. 2a) revealed that pigmentation occurred only in a subset of parenchymatous cells in both cases (Fig. 2b, c). No structural or cytological changes were observed between the initial orange stage and the pink stages (Fig. 2d, e), suggesting that the observed oscillating colour change depends on the degradation and biosynthesis of orange pigments.To understand what pigments are involved in the dual colour change of the C. japonica flower disc, we extracted carotenoids and chlorophyll with Acetone. Anthocyanin was also extracted with Methanol-HCl. As a result, while anthocyanin content was not significantly altered throughout the stages examined, we found that carotenoid level strongly correlated with the colour change detected by naked eye. More specifically, in stages 1 and 3 the carotenoid content was high (63.8 and 65.3 µg/g dry weight, respectively), but significantly decreased in stages 2 and 4 (14.3 and 36.5 µg/g dry weight, respectively) (Table 2). Interestingly, an increase in chlorophyll content was confined to stage 4 (Table 2). Together, the observed dual colour change was ascribed to the decrease (stage 2) and the increase (stage 3) of carotenoid contents in the flower discs.Table 2 Chlorophyll and Carotenoid contents in the flower discs of C. japonica.Full size table More

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    Individual variability in habitat selection by aquatic insects is driven by taxonomy rather than specialisation

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    Vultures for climate

    Pablo Ignacio Plaza and Sergio Agustín Lambertucci from the National University of Comahue and the Argentine Research Council in Argentina quantified the contribution of vultures to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by developing two contrasting scenarios. The first assumes that all the dead animals that the vultures can consume are disposed of, whereas in the second scenario, the dead animals are left to decompose in the environment without scavengers. The results show that the current vulture population can reduce emissions by up to 60.7 teragrams CO2 equivalent per year. A decline in vulture populations decreases their mitigation capacity by 30%. The study highlights that vultures are essential to keep our climate cool. More