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The West Indies can be considered as a laboratory of biogeography and evolution, and the Caribbean Islands constitute one of the planet's biodiversity hotspots. Within the region, Cuba is the largest island and is crucial to gaining an understanding of the origin and evolutionary history of Caribbean flora and fauna. This paper provides an introduction to a Special Issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society on current Cuban plant and animal biodiversity, with an emphasis on evolutionary biology and biogeography. The present issue includes 10 contributions and addresses a wide diversity of species and taxonomic groups, study levels, and research tools. This collection of articles not only provides an integrative vision of Cuba's biodiversity and the potential patterns and processes involved in its evolutionary history, but could also provide food for future research on its biodiversity from an evolutionary perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

He studies nutritional properties of feed materials and principles of biomass transformation in the metabolism of agricultural livestock with particular interest on minerals, functional dietary compounds including antinutritive substances, and the impact of livestock feeding on food quality, food safety, and environment. Keywords: biomass; circularity; ecology; livestock; pasture; sequestration EN biomass circularity ecology livestock pasture sequestration 28 34 7 04/19/23 20230401 NES 230401 Implications Agricultural land is a scarce resource globally and will continue to encounter challenges to sustainably increase food production in the face of global change. The agroecological potential of livestock primarily relates to the fact that they are able to upcycle copious quantities of nonedible biomass into nutritious foods, while also recycling plant nutrients back to the land, improving soil health, and sequestering carbon (see the next section, below). [Extracted from the article]

Species delimitation is essential to informing conservation policy and understanding ecological and evolutionary processes. Most of our recent gains in knowledge on animal diversity rely on morphological characteristics and mitochondrial (mt) DNA variation. Concordant results based on both have led to an unprecedented acceleration in the identification of new species and enriched the field of taxonomy. However, discordances are also found commonly between morphological and mtDNA evidence. This confounds species delimitation, especially when gene flow or mt genome introgression has occurred. Here, we illustrate how mt genome introgression among species of the Odorrana grahami complex confounds species delimitation using the combined evidence of morphological characters, mt variation, and thousands of nuclear single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). Fifty-eight samples across the distribution of the O. grahami complex were included. The mtDNA matrilineal genealogy indicated 2 clades, with O. grahami and Odorrana junlianensis clustered together. In contrast, all nuclear evidence including gene trees, species trees, and genetic structure analyses based on GBS data support 3 species with distinct genetic clusters. These 3 distinct genetic clusters also correspond to distinct morphological characters. They affirm the distinct taxonomic entities of both O. grahami and O. junlianensis , as well as a third clade distinct from either. Which species the third clade belongs to remains unclear and will require further testing. The nuclear genomic loci contradict the COI evidence, with indications of rampant historical mt genome introgression among the species of the O. grahami complex. These discordant signals previously confused species delimitation efforts in this group. Based on these findings, we recommend the integration of independent data, especially nuclear genomic evidence, in species delimitation so as to be robust against the pitfalls of mt introgression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral ecologists have long studied the role of coloration as a defense against natural enemies. Recent reviews of defensive coloration have emphasized that these visual signals are rarely selected by single predatory receivers. Complex interactions between signaler, receiver, and environmental pressures produce a striking array of color strategies—many of which must serve multiple, sometimes conflicting, functions. In this review, we describe six common conflicts in selection pressures that produce multifunctional color patterns, and three key strategies of multifunctionality. Six general scenarios that produce conflicting selection pressures on defensive coloration are: (1) multiple antagonists, (2) conspecific communication, (3) hunting while being hunted, (4) variation in transmission environment, (5) ontogenetic changes, and (6) abiotic/physiological factors. Organisms resolve these apparent conflicts via (1) intermediate, (2) simultaneous, and/or (3) plastic color strategies. These strategies apply across the full spectrum of color defenses, from aposematism to crypsis, and reflect how complexity in sets of selection pressures can produce and maintain the diversity of animal color patterns we see in nature. Finally, we discuss how best to approach studies of multifunctionality in animal color, with specific examples of unresolved questions in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While human perception can play a role in influencing public support for species conservation, the mechanisms underlying human perception remain poorly understood. Some previous studies on perception have focused on a few specific taxa, which makes the understanding of the public perception of species at large a resource- and time-intensive task. Here, we introduce the World Archives of Species Perception project that consists of an animal survey and a plant survey to construct the first systematic database to study the human perception of the floral and faunal diversity at a global scale. We provide a description of our survey method, species selection, survey implementation and a discussion of the potential uses of our databases in multidisciplinary research. In the animal survey, we cover 1980 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)–evaluated species, representing 25 classes, 192 orders, 1037 families and 1705 genera. In the plant survey, we cover 2000 IUCN-evaluated species, representing 13 classes, 93 orders, 386 families and 1968 genera. Data from the survey will be collected and made available 24 months after the publication of the article. Database URLhttp://wasp-project.net/ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are most herbivorous insects so specialized? How do generalists and specialists differ ecologically? And what sensory and cognitive processes determine which host species an insect recognizes and uses? We review sensory cues involved at different stages of interaction with host plants and outline a unified scheme of insect–host interaction mechanisms. Generalist species may be best understood as specialized organisms with a longer tail of secondary host species that they accept to a lessening extent. Secondary hosts have fewer attractive cues, and hence a lower probability of meeting the stimulation threshold required for egg laying. We then discuss the alternative theories of co-evolution and sequential evolution used to explain the diversification of insect herbivores. We conclude that 'escape and radiate' co-evolution rests on unrealistic assumptions and empirical evidence favours sequential evolution of plants and herbivores, and the unique life cycles of insect herbivores may sufficiently explain their extreme diversity within the animal kingdom. We also outline a new speciation-oriented hypothesis to explain why specialists are far more diverse than generalists. Generalists tend to have large, contiguous distributions and therefore lower speciation rates. Natural selection in novel environments may also result in narrowing of the host range more often than broadening, further increasing specialist diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For sequences assigned as Firmicutes, cattle co-grazed with camels had the highest rate of abundance at 24.8%, followed by 19.3% for camels grazed alone, and 14.8% for camels co-grazed with cattle. Graph: Figure 2. class="chapter-para">Bacterial distribution between cattle co-grazed with camels, camels grazed alone, and camels co-grazed with cattle evaluated at the family taxonomical level. The Microbial Ecology of the Forestomach of the Arabian Camel The camel's forestomach is home to a vast number and diverse microbiota, including bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and archaea. Co-grazing camels with cattle has altered the forestomach bacterial community in camels and cattle. [Extracted from the article]

Given these abilities, it is not surprising that Josh attracted the most interested undergraduate students for his course projects, and the most bright and hard working MSc and PhD candidates. For those of us who knew about his two-year struggle against cancer, the news should not have come as a total surprise; yet the message that Josh Van Buskirk (Fig. JOSH AS A TEACHER AND SUPERVISOR Josh's broad knowledge and fascination for science and nature also made him an excellent and versatile teacher and supervisor. Josh as a Co-director in the Departmental Board There is no better indication of Josh's commitment to the local scientific community than his long-term service on the directorial board of the I Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies i . [Extracted from the article]

Intermediate strategies due to mixed selection pressures can be equally optimal as coloration produced by a single selection pressure for a "pure" strategy ([2]). The evolution of protective and aggressive animal coloration is driven by selection caused by the viewer's perception, cognition, and behavior together with the visual properties of the environment where the viewer encounters the coloration. Thus, to distinguish whether a coloration represents an intermediate strategy due to multiple conflicting selection pressures or a maximized strategy as a response to a single or multiple concurring selection pressures is probably not as straightforward as it might superficially appear. [Extracted from the article]