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A computationally efficient model is proposed to analyze plasma-assisted combustion using nanosecond repetitive pulsed (NRP) plasmas. The NRP plasma discharge is placed in the oxidizer stream of a counter-flow diffusion flame. The effect of changing the flow rate and the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of a continuous NRP plasma discharge on the temperature and species profiles of a counter-flow diffusion flame is investigated numerically. The results confirm that oxygen atom and nitrogen vibrational states are the most important species to enhance combustion. The results also show that kinetic effects are much more significant for higher PRF and lower pulse voltage. In addition, when steady plasma profiles are used instead of unsteady plasma profiles, the extinction strain rates increase by 25.8%, 21.1%, and 10.8% for PRF equal to 1, 2, and 4 kHz, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic fragmentation of habitat is considered to be a critical factor contributing to the decline of species. However, a general consensus on the degree to which habitat loss and what has been called "habitat fragmentation per se" contribute to the loss of species diversity has not yet emerged. For empirical and theoretical reasons the topic has recently attracted renewed attention, thus reviving the "single large or several small" (SLOSS) debate. To study the effect of fragmentation per se, we use a spatially explicit and continuous, competitively neutral simulation model with immigration from a regional pool. The model accounts for the influence of ecological drift and intrafragment species clustering (due to limited dispersal) on local (plot) and global (landscape) diversity. We find that fragmentation increases global diversity but decreases local diversity, prominently so if fragments become more isolated. Cluster formation is a key mechanism reducing local diversity. By adding external disturbance events that lead to the occasional extinction of entire communities in habitat fragments, we show that the combined effect of such extinctions and cluster formation can create nonlinear interactive effects of fragmentation and fragment isolation on diversity patterns. We conclude that while in most cases fragmentation will decrease local and increase landscape diversity, universal predictions concerning the SLOSS debate should be taken with care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a time of accelerated biological extinctions that has the potential to mirror past mass extinction events. However, the rarity of mass extinctions and the restructuring of diversity they cause complicate direct comparisons between the current extinction crisis and earlier events. Among animals, turtles (Testudinata) are one of few groups that have both a rich fossil record and sufficiently stable ecological and functional roles to enable meaningful comparisons between the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (∼66 Ma) and the ongoing wave of extinctions. Here we analyze the fossil record of the entire turtle clade and identify two peaks in extinction rates over their evolutionary history. The first coincides with the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition, reflecting patterns previously reported for other taxa. The second major extinction event started in the Pliocene and continues until now. This peak is detectable only for terrestrial turtles and started much earlier in Africa and Eurasia than elsewhere. On the basis of the timing, geography, and functional group of this extinction event, we postulate a link to co-occurring hominins rather than climate change as the cause. These results lend further support to the view that negative biodiversity impacts were already incurred by our ancestors and related lineages and demonstrate the severity of this continued impact through human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Anthropogenetic climate change has caused range shifts among many species. Species distribution models (SDMs) are used to predict how species ranges may change in the future. However, most SDMs rarely consider how climate‐sensitive traits, such as phenology, which affect individuals' demography and fitness, may influence species' ranges.Using > 120 000 herbarium specimens representing 360 plant species distributed across the eastern United States, we developed a novel 'phenology‐informed' SDM that integrates phenological responses to changing climates. We compared the ranges of each species forecast by the phenology‐informed SDM with those from conventional SDMs. We further validated the modeling approach using hindcasting.When examining the range changes of all species, our phenology‐informed SDMs forecast less species loss and turnover under climate change than conventional SDMs. These results suggest that dynamic phenological responses of species may help them adjust their ecological niches and persist in their habitats as the climate changes.Plant phenology can modulate species' responses to climate change, mitigating its negative effects on species persistence. Further application of our framework will contribute to a generalized understanding of how traits affect species distributions along environmental gradients and facilitate the use of trait‐based SDMs across spatial and taxonomic scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Many biogeographic analyses require some form of automated state assignment to tips of phylogenetic trees, reflecting a species presence or absence in a particular area, e.g., a biome. As datasets get exponentially larger, such procedures may increasingly induce errors (here called tip‐state‐error), but the specific algorithmic cause and consequence on downstream estimation of dispersal and extinction rates remains poorly known. We aim to improve automated tip‐scoring methods in the context of the alpine biome by leveraging elevation information. We document the profound effect of tip‐state‐errors on Dispersal‐Extirpation‐Cladogenesis (DEC) models. Location: The European Alpine Arc. Taxon: Three thousand three hundred seventeen vascular plant species, emphasizing six focal genera: Campanula, Carex, Festuca, Ranunculus, Saxifraga, and Viola. Methods: We use GBIF data to classify whether species occur above the upper climatic treeline using a newly developed algorithm ElevDistr or a gridded landscape model of thermal belts, under various filtering thresholds. We compared classification performance using the Flora Alpina as validation data. To determine if tip‐state‐error biases the dispersal and extirpation rate estimation, we fit DEC models for selected clades using tip‐states from different classification models. Results: ElevDistr is less error prone than other approaches. Filtering thresholds lower the false positive rate but increase the false negative rate. Inflated false positive rates bias the dispersal rate estimation upward, while inflated false negative rates lead to upward bias in extirpation rate estimation. Main Conclusions: Even moderate tip‐state‐error may lead to profound systematic bias in dispersal and extinction rate estimation if an unbalanced ratio between false positive and false negative rates occurs. Therefore, careful validation is imperative, though ElevDistr alleviates this problem in the context of the alpine environment. Overall, our results suggest contrasting rates of alpine biome shifts across the studied genera and have major implications for studies addressing the likelihood of niche evolution versus geographic dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Global climate change has been linked to shifts in species' geographic and elevational distributions, with taxa varying in responsiveness. This variation may be due to a time lag in response or climate alone not being a simple determinant of distribution limits. To tease apart the role of climate in distribution, we compared the temperature response of predicted occurrence revealed by ecological niche modelling (ENM) on historical climate with that of performance in a multi‐population transplant experiment. Congruence would support that climate is a main driver of distribution limits of a species. Location: North America. Taxon: Arabidopsis lyrata subsp. lyrata. Methods: Seeds of 20 populations of North American Arabidopsis lyrata from across the entire range were collected, propagated and then sown along a latitudinal transect across and beyond the species' range. Lifetime performance was related to the main niche‐ and range‐determining climatic variable revealed by ENM. Results: Lifetime performance did not consistently decline towards the high‐latitude range limit, but it did so towards the low‐latitude range limit. This decline was slightly weaker for low‐latitude populations, indicating divergent climate adaptation. The overall performance curve on the field‐measured minimum temperature in early spring was fairly congruent with the curve of ENM‐predicted suitability on this important niche‐determining variable. ENM‐based projections revealed that the southernmost populations were vulnerable under climate warming. Main Conclusions: Results verified that ENM based on species occurrences can well‐predict plant performance under field conditions. Congruence teaches us that with the climate change so far, the species exhibits a colonisation deficit in the north. Furthermore, the southernmost populations are vulnerable to extinction. A likely outcome is the shrinking of the species' range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Future climate change threatens marine forests across the world, potentially disrupting ecosystem function and services. Nonetheless, the direction and intensity of climate‐induced changes in kelp forest biodiversity remain unknown, precluding well‐informed conservation and management practices. Location: Global. Methods: We use machine‐learning models to forecast global changes in species richness and community composition of 105 kelp forest species under contrasting Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios of climate change (decade 2090–2100): one aligned with the Paris Agreement and another of substantially higher emissions. Results: A poleward and depth shift in species distributions is forecasted, translating into ~15% less area in the extent of the global biome, coupled with marked regional biodiversity changes. Community composition changes are mostly projected in the Arctic, the Northern Pacific and Atlantic, and Australasia, owing to poleward range expansions and wide low latitude losses. Main Conclusions: By surpassing the Paris Agreement expectations, species reshuffling may simplify and impair ecosystem services in numerous temperate regions of Australasia, Southern Africa, Southern America and the Northern Atlantic, and in the tropical Pacific, where complete species losses were projected without replacement. These estimates, flagging threatened regions and species, as well as refugial areas of population persistence, can now inform conservation, management and restoration practices considering future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stingless bees (Meliponini) are expected to play a central role in structuring mutualistic networks in the Neotropics, as they are generalist and often abundant pollinators. Living in populous social colonies with a perennial life cycle, they require continuous large amounts of resources and often forage on abundant flowerings such as mass‐flowering throughout the year.In this field research, we seek to understand how temporal variations on foraging activity of stingless bees and abundance of mass‐flowering partner plants affect the topology of the plant–pollinator mutualistic networks. The networks were compared between spring and summer, periods of high and low abundances of flowerings and mass‐flowering, respectively.Bees were sampled on flowers, in replicates of floodplain fields in Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. Interactions with partner plants were considered effective only when bees had pollen on their bodies (potential pollinators). Through analysis of pollen grains attached to their bodies, several topological metrics of networks and functional categories were obtained. The robustness or networks resistance to secondary species loss due to simulated focal species extinction was also measured.The networks maintained similar general structure throughout the year (high nestedness, moderate modularity and connectance, low community‐level specialisation and negative dependency asymmetry). Particularly, nestedness and dependency asymmetry did not change between the two seasons. Community‐level specialisation was higher in summer, contrary to expectations, when there was a collapse in the supply of floral resources and also a reduction in the abundance and foraging pressure of stingless bees. As there was also a greater number of specialist pollinators in summer, the hypothesis of temporal displacement due to foraging pressure from generalists was proposed. At the same time, stingless bees oscillated between network hubs in spring and connectors in summer, reflecting the variation in their abundance between these two seasons. In spring, the greater concentration of foraging by these generalists in the abundant mass‐flowering probably attenuated their diffuse competitive pressure on all other pollinators, even though the foraging overlap was higher in this period. In this period of high abundance of floral resources, specialist pollinators capable of expanding the realised niche are active.Based on recent theoretical conclusions of dynamic model of mutualistic networks structure that incorporated effects of inter‐specific competition and adaptive foraging, we argue that the adaptive foraging of generalist and abundant stingless bees contributes in an important way to the high nestedness and robustness of networks, which ultimately favour the coexistence of species in the long term. Particularly, taking the high intra‐annual turnover of bee and plant species between the two seasons, and the similar floral constancy of both generalist stingless bees and specialist pollinators, we also infer that stingless bees act as generalised pollinators in the networks rewiring throughout the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of species extinction, ecological destruction and uncertain futures, the separation of nature and culture within conceptualisations of heritage has become increasingly untenable. Although the limitations – and even damage – caused by the separation of these ontological categories is widely accepted within heritage studies, scholarly interventions calling for more connected ontologies are commonly framed within the context of the terrestrial. This article departs from these terra-centric approaches to instead consider the potential of an oceanic imaginary to problematise and even dismantle these dualist categories. With a specific focus on the Belitung, an ancient shipwreck found in Indonesian waters, this paper dwells on the wreck's submerged interlude between loss and discovery. It considers the impact of this millennia-long extended period underwater in terms of marine ecosystems and more-than-human growth and destruction. By attending to the process by which ship becomes wreck becomes reef, this article thus draws necessary attention to the ways in which wreck becomes heritage, thus offering insights into how values are ascribed to underwater cultural heritage, and how this both perpetuates, and disrupts, the nature-culture binary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European grasslands are among the most species-rich ecosystems on small spatial scales. However, human-induced activities like land use and climate change pose significant threats to this diversity. To explore how climate and land cover change will affect biodiversity and community composition in grassland ecosystems, we conducted joint species distribution models (SDMs) on the extensive vegetation-plot database sPlotOpen to project distributions of 1178 grassland species across Europe under current conditions and three future scenarios. We further compared model accuracy and computational efficiency between joint SDMs (JSDMs) and stacked SDMs, especially for rare species. Our results show that: (i) grassland communities in the mountain ranges are expected to suffer high rates of species loss, while those in western, northern and eastern Europe will experience substantial turnover; (ii) scaling anomalies were observed in the predicted species richness, reflecting regional differences in the dominant drivers of assembly processes; (iii) JSDMs did not outperform stacked SDMs in predictive power but demonstrated superior efficiency in model fitting and predicting; and (iv) incorporating co-occurrence datasets improved the model performance in predicting the distribution of rare species. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alalili system is one among the fewest remnant African indigenous and local knowledge systems that is traditionally practiced by Maasai pastoral communities to conserve certain portions of rangeland resources such as pastures and water for subsequent grazing during dry seasons. Despite its existence, East African rangelands face diverse threats from tenure security, unsustainable practices, climate, and land-use change that are notably endangering the biodiversity, livelihoods, and ecosystems in the landscape. Like other indigenous conservation systems, the sustainability of Alalili systems is being threatened, as Maasai communities are in transition due to continuous socio-cultural transformations coupled with increased livestock and human populations. We aimed to capture and document the existing occurrence and potential of Alalili systems as a pathway to improve resilience and sustain both biodiversity conservation and community livelihoods in rangeland areas of northern Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was applied with the adoption of both purposive and stratified random sampling techniques to distinctively characterize the Alalili systems by land use and tenure types. Our results identified the existence of both communal and private Alalili systems. Their sizes varied significantly across types (t = 4.4646, p < 0.001) and land uses (F = 3.806, df = 3, p = 0.0123). While many (82%) of these Alalili systems are found in the communal land, our observations show a re-practice of Alalili systems in the private land is considered largely a re-emerging strategy for securing pastures in the face of local and global change. More than half (73%) of Alalili systems were found within game-controlled areas with little representation (about 8%) in non-protected land. Therefore, their sustainability is threatened by anthropogenic and climatic pressures, making their persistence more vulnerable to extinction. We recommend mainstreaming these practices into core pasture production and management areas, facilitating their reinforcement into policy and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Intergenerational justice entitles future generations to the maximum retention of Earth's biodiversity. The 2022 United Nations COP 15, "Ecological Civilisation: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth", aims to safeguard 30% of Earth's terrestrial environment by 2030, and COP 28 addressed the climate catastrophe. Reproduction biotechnologies, biobanks, and conservation breeding programs (RBCs) are also needed to perpetuate amphibian diversity and prevent extinctions. We focused this review on three core themes: the need and potential of RBCs to satisfy sustainability goals, the technical state and current application of RBCs, and how to achieve the future potentials of RBCs in a rapidly evolving environmental and cultural landscape. The full potential of amphibian RBCs requires a democratic, globally inclusive organisation that focuses on developing facilities in the regions with the highest amphibian diversity. Intergenerational justice entitles the maximum retention of Earth's biodiversity. The 2022 United Nations COP 15, "Ecological Civilisation: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth", is committed to protecting 30% of Earth's terrestrial environments and, through COP 28, to mitigate the effects of the climate catastrophe on the biosphere. We focused this review on three core themes: the need and potential of reproduction biotechnologies, biobanks, and conservation breeding programs (RBCs) to satisfy sustainability goals; the technical state and current application of RBCs; and how to achieve the future potentials of RBCs in a rapidly evolving environmental and cultural landscape. RBCs include the hormonal stimulation of reproduction, the collection and storage of sperm and oocytes, and artificial fertilisation. Emerging technologies promise the perpetuation of species solely from biobanked biomaterials stored for perpetuity. Despite significant global declines and extinctions of amphibians, and predictions of a disastrous future for most biodiversity, practical support for amphibian RBCs remains limited mainly to a few limited projects in wealthy Western countries. We discuss the potential of amphibian RBCs to perpetuate amphibian diversity and prevent extinctions within multipolar geopolitical, cultural, and economic frameworks. We argue that a democratic, globally inclusive organisation is needed to focus RBCs on regions with the highest amphibian diversity. Prioritisation should include regional and international collaborations, community engagement, and support for RBC facilities ranging from zoos and other institutions to those of private carers. We tabulate a standard terminology for field programs associated with RBCs for publication and media consistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grey rockcod, Lepidonotothen squamifrons is an important prey species for seals, penguins and Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) in the Southern Ocean. Across the Kerguelen Plateau, the species was fished to commercial extinction (ca. 152 000 tonnes between 1971 and 1978) prior to the declaration of the French Exclusive Economic Zone in 1979 and the Australian Fishing Zone in 1981. In this study we estimate; age, growth, maturity, sex ratio, body condition (weight-at-length), and population density of grey rockcod using data from 19 trawl surveys from 1990 to 2014. There appeared to be three distinct geographical populations, with differences in biological parameters within each population. This study has identified separate metapopulations within the southern region of the Kerguelen Plateau and we recommend that management should take into account the different characteristics of these populations, and that this meta-population structure may be a factor in why this species required several decades to show signs of recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on and supplements an earlier one in this journal about theodicy. It focuses on species extinctions and on the possible role of humanity as fallible co-creators. Christopher Southgate has suggested that co-creators might shoulder the task of curtailing extinctions. In appraising this view, I distinguish between extinctions resulting from evolution, which humans have limited power to reverse, but which are held to be indispensable for the evolution of complexity, consciousness and self-consciousness, and those caused by humanity itself, which humans should reduce, even if they cannot be halted. Human creativity, however, extends further to the development of skills, trades, the arts and literature. Church Fathers, such as Ambrose, Theodoret and Cosmas Indicopleustes, held that God left the creation incomplete so that humanity could enhance it; certainly, human creativity has introduced agriculture, navigation, technology and culture, adding to the value of the world. Granted belief in creation, this can be understood as co-creation. Granted the value that humanity continues to add to the world, the belief that such creativity flows from the creator's overall plan emerges as a coherent one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a food chain, the role of intake patterns of predators is very influential on the survival and extinction of the interacting species as well as the entire dynamics of the ecological system. In this study, we investigate the affluent and intricate dynamics of a simple three-species food chain model in a discrete-time framework by analyzing the parameter plane of the system with simultaneous changes of two crucial parameters, the predation rates of middle and top predators. From the theoretical viewpoint, we study the model by determining the fixed points' biological feasibility and local asymptotic stability criteria, and performing some analyses of local bifurcations, namely, transcritical, flip, and Neimark–Sacker bifurcations. Here, we initiate the numerical simulation by plotting the changes of the prey population density in terms of a vital parameter of the system, and we observe the switching among different dynamical behaviors of the system. We also draw some phase portraits and plot the time series solutions to show the diverse characteristics of the system dynamics. Further, we move one step ahead to explore the intricate dynamical scenarios appearing in the parameter plane by forming Lyapunov exponent and isoperiodic diagrams. In the parameter plane of the system, we see the emergence of innumerable Arnold tongues. All these Arnold tongues are organized along a particular direction, and the beautiful arrangement of these tongues forms several kinds of period-adding sequences. The study sheds more light on various types of multistability occurring in the model system. We see the coexistence of three periodic attractors in the parameter plane. In this study, the most striking observation is the coexistence of four periodic attractors, which occurs infrequently in ecological systems. We draw the basins of attraction for the tristable and tetrastable attractors, which are complex Wada basins. A system with Wada basin is very sensitive to initial conditions and more erratic in nature than a system with fractal basin. Also, we plot the density of all interacting species in terms of the predation rates of middle and top predators and observe the variation in the population densities of all species with the variability of these two key parameters. In the parameter plane created by the simultaneous changes of two parameters, the system exhibits a variety of intricate and subtle dynamics, which cannot be found by changing only a single parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a two-species amensalism model that includes the fear effect on the first species and the Beddington–DeAngelis functional response. The existence and stability of possible equilibria are investigated. Under different parameters, there exist two stable equilibria which means that this model is not always globally asymptotically stable. Together with the existence of all possible equilibria and their stability, saddle connection and close orbits, we derive some conditions for transcritical bifurcation and saddle-node bifurcation. Furthermore, global dynamics analysis of the model is performed. It is observed that under certain parameter conditions, when the intensity of the fear effect is below a certain threshold value, as the fear effect increases it will only reduce the density of the first species population and will have no influence the extinction or existence of the first species population. However, when the fear effect exceeds this threshold, the increase of the fear effect will accelerate the extinction of the first species population. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to validate theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new assessment by the European Environment Agency reveals that Europe is not adequately prepared for the growing climate risks it faces. Urgent action is needed to address threats to energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability, and people's health. Southern Europe is particularly at risk from wildfires, heatwaves, and water scarcity, while coastal regions face flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion. In Peru, a new species of deer called Pudella carlae has been discovered in the Andes mountains, highlighting the importance of conservation efforts. In Mexico, the critically endangered vacquita porpoise is facing extinction due to illegal trade, and urgent action is needed to stop it. The US Coast Guard has launched a program to protect whales and reduce underwater noise in the Salish Sea. In Brazil, giant anteaters have returned to their habitat after a rewilding project, playing an important role in their ecosystem. In Mexico, conflicts have arisen between Indigenous groups and the government over protected area policies, neglecting socioeconomic issues and Indigenous community participation. In the Galapagos, native finches have been released on Floreana Island after the removal of invasive species, contributing to restoration efforts. In Queensland, Australia, a shark culling program has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of marine animals. [Extracted from the article]

Background and Aims Throughout the Cenozoic, Africa underwent several climatic and geological changes impacting the evolution of tropical rain forests (TRFs). African TRFs are thought to have extended from east to west in a 'pan-African' TRF, followed by several events of fragmentation during drier climate periods. During the Miocene, climate cooling and mountain uplift led to the aridification of tropical Africa and open habitats expanded at the expense of TRFs, which probably experienced local extinctions. However, in plants, these drivers were previously inferred using limited taxonomic and molecular data. Here, we tested the impact of climate and geological changes on diversification within the diverse clade Monodoreae (Annonaceae) composed of 90 tree species restricted to African TRFs. Methods We reconstructed a near-complete phylogenetic tree, based on 32 nuclear genes, and dated using relaxed clocks and fossil calibrations in a Bayesian framework. We inferred the biogeographical history and the diversification dynamics of the clade using multiple birth–death models. Key Results Monodoreae originated in East African TRFs ~25 million years ago (Ma) and expanded toward Central Africa during the Miocene. We inferred range contractions during the middle Miocene and document important connections between East and West African TRFs after 15–13 Ma. Our results indicated a sudden extinction event during the late Miocene, followed by an increase in speciation rates. Birth–death models suggested that African elevation change (orogeny) is positively linked to speciation in this clade. Conclusion East Africa is inferred as an important source of Monodoreae species, and possibly for African plant diversity in general. Our results support a 'sequential scenario of diversification' in which increased aridification triggered extinction of TRF species in Monodoreae. This was quickly followed by fragmentation of rain forests, subsequently enhancing lagged speciation resulting from vicariance and improved climate conditions. In contrast to previous ideas, the uplift of East Africa is shown to have played a positive role in Monodoreae diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Mediterranean ecosystems have a high vascular plant species richness (SR) relative to their surface area. This SR, representing the balance between speciation and extinction, has been attributed to multiple mechanisms that result in both high rates of speciation and/or low rates of extinction. An abiding question is, however, what is special about Mediterranean ecosystems that enables this high SR? Apart from the long-term climatic stability of the region, SR has also been related to resource availability, the many individuals hypothesis, resource spatial heterogeneity, temporal heterogeneity and biotic feedbacks. Methods Spatial patterns of species richness were related to climatic, edaphic and biotic variables and to spatial variability within the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) of South Africa. Boosted regression tree models were used to explore the strength of relationships between SR and environmental predictors related to each hypothesized mechanism. Key Results Water availability (i.e. precipitation) was a stronger predictor of SR than potential evapotranspiration or temperature. Scarcity of nutrients was also related to SR. There was no indication that SR was related to the density of individuals and only temporal heterogeneity induced by fire was related to SR. Spatial heterogeneities of climatic, edaphic and biotic variables were strongly associated with SR. Biotic interactions remain difficult to assess, although we have some evidence for a putative role in regulating SR. Conclusions While the lack of ecosystem-resetting disturbances (e.g. glaciation) is undoubtedly a key requirement for high species accumulation, predictably, no one explanation holds the key to understanding SR. In the GCFR high SR is the product of a combination of adequate water, nutrient scarcity, spatial and temporal heterogeneity, and possibly biotic feedbacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant in vitro cultures can be an effective tool in obtaining desired specialized metabolites. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on phenolic compounds in Rhaponticum carthamoides shoots cultured in vitro. R. carthamoides is an endemic and medicinal plant at risk of extinction due to the massive harvesting of its roots and rhizomes from the natural environment. The shoots were cultured on an agar-solidified and liquid-agitated Murashige and Skoog's medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/L of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and 0.5 mg/L of 6-benzyladenine (BA). The effect of the medium and different treatments of LED lights (blue (BL), red (RL), white (WL), and a combination of red and blue (R:BL; 7:3)) on R. carthamoides shoot growth and its biosynthetic potential was observed. Medium type and the duration of LED light exposure did not affect the proliferation rate of shoots, but they altered the shoot morphology and specialized metabolite accumulation. The liquid medium and BL light were the most beneficial for the caffeoylquinic acid derivatives (CQAs) production, shoot growth, and biomass increment. The liquid medium and BL light enhanced the content of the sum of all identified CQAs (6 mg/g DW) about three-fold compared to WL light and control, fluorescent lamps. HPLC-UV analysis confirmed that chlorogenic acid (5-CQA) was the primary compound in shoot extracts regardless of the type of culture and the light conditions (1.19–3.25 mg/g DW), with the highest level under R:BL light. BL and RL lights were equally effective. The abundant component was also 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, accompanied by 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, a tentatively identified dicaffeoylquinic acid derivative, and a tricaffeoylquinic acid derivative 2, the contents of which depended on the LED light conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural enemies play an important role in controlling plant population growth and vegetation dynamics. Tropical rainforests host the greatest diversity of herbivores, from large mammalian ungulates to microscopic pathogens, generating and maintaining plant diversity.By feeding on the same resources, large mammalian herbivores may interfere with plant consumption and leaf damage by important enemy guilds such as invertebrate herbivores and pathogens, triggering indirect trophic cascades. However, the impact of local extinctions of large herbivores on plant–enemy interactions is relatively unknown.We experimentally tested the effects of defaunation of large mammalian herbivores (e.g. peccaries, tapirs and brocket deer; hereafter, large herbivores) on the leaf damage of 3350 understorey plants in tropical rainforests of Brazil. We examined leaf damage in 10,050 leaves from 333 morphospecies by assigning the area consumed or damaged by five guilds of insect herbivores and leaf pathogens within 86 paired open‐closed plots and investigating the joint effects of defaunation and plant phylogenetic diversity.Plants released from large herbivores had 9% less leaf damage; this difference was due to the lower leaf pathogens incidence (29%) rather than insect herbivory. Evolutionary distinctness was positively correlated with leaf damage in a similar way in all treatments, suggesting additive effects of defaunation and phylogenetic diversity. Total and pathogenic leaf damage (but not insect damage) decreased with plant richness across treatments, and large herbivores exclusion resulted in increased plant species richness. This suggests that large herbivores exclusion leads to a dilution of total and pathogens' leaf damage by increasing plant species richness.Our results suggest that indirect effects of large herbivores decrease the dilution potential of plant communities against pathogens and rather reinforce their top‐down impact on vegetation, demonstrating a previously overlooked cascading effect of large herbivore extinction on forest ecosystems.Synthesis: The extinction of large mammalian herbivores can lead to a decrease in pathogen‐driven leaf damage, a previously unknown indirect effect in forest ecosystems, which might have consequences for plant fitness and ultimately for plant diversity. Large herbivores and plant pathogens might have synergistic effects in regulating the diversity of plant communities in some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human‐induced species declines and extinctions have led to the downsizing of large‐herbivore assemblages, with implications for many ecosystem processes. Active reintroduction of extirpated large herbivores or their functional equivalents may help to reverse this trend and restore diverse ecosystems and their processes. However, it is unclear whether resource competition between native and non‐native herbivores could threaten restoration initiatives, or to what extent (re)introduced species may influence local vegetation dynamics.To answer these questions, we investigated the diets of a novel South American herbivore assemblage that includes resident native species, reintroduced native species and introduced non‐native species. We examined plant composition, diet breadth and the overlap between species to describe the local herbivory profile and the potential for resource competition.Using DNA metabarcoding on faecal samples (n = 465), we analysed the diets of the herbivore assemblage in the Rincón del Socorro rewilding area of Iberá National Park, Argentina. We compared the species richness of faecal samples, the occurrence of plant families/growth forms and the compositional similarity of samples (inter‐ and intraspecifically).Our results indicate species‐level taxonomic partitioning of plant resources by herbivores in this system. Differences in sample richness, composition and diet breadth reflected a diverse range of herbivory strategies, from grazers (capybara) to mixed feeders/browsers (brocket deer, lowland tapir). Differences in diet compositional similarity (Jaccard) revealed strong taxonomic resource partitioning. The two herbivores with the most similar diets (Pampas deer and brocket deer) still differed by more than 80%. Furthermore, all but one species (axis deer) had more similar diet composition intraspecifically than compared to the others.Overall, we found little evidence for resource competition between herbivore species. Instead, recently reintroduced native species and historically introduced non‐natives are likely expanding the range of herbivory dynamics in the ecosystem. Further research will be needed to determine the full ecological impacts of these (re)introduced herbivores. In conclusion, we show clear differences in diet breadth and composition among native, reintroduced and non‐native herbivore species that may be key to promoting resource partitioning, species coexistence and the restoration of ecological function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of animal species and functional diversity can degrade ecosystem functions and services in plant–animal mutualistic networks, but their relative effects have rarely been previously examined in natural communities. Contrary to previously published theoretical results, under natural conditions, changes in pollinator functional niches caused by species and functional diversity losses are dynamic and often unpredictable. The lack of studies on natural networks limits our ability to predict future effects of decreasing pollinator diversity on wild and cultivated plants.We quantitatively evaluated the relative effects of pollinator species and functional diversity loss on plant–pollinator trait matching and pollination success across 40 spatiotemporally variable coastal networks.We found that low pollinator functional diversity (low abundance of long‐tongued pollinators) reduced community‐level plant functional specialization and trait matching between flowers and pollinators by reducing functional floral‐niche partitioning among pollinators. In contrast, pollinator species diversity did not influence community‐level trait matching. Furthermore, decreasing community‐level trait matching had a negative effect on community‐level plant pollination success, regardless of flower morphology.The present study demonstrated that pollinator functional diversity loss, rather than species diversity loss, was the main factor contributing to pollination functional loss in the plant–pollinator networks studied. We also demonstrated the importance of assessing functional aspects of plant–pollinator networks to evaluate community‐level pollination functional loss under global pollinator decline. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African apes are humans' closest evolutionary relatives, yet their fossil record is almost nonexistent. Genomics shows that, despite the fact that African ape lineages originated 6–12 million years ago (Ma), the diversity within the living species is very young (<1 Ma), similar in age to the diversity of recent hominin species, such as modern humans and Neanderthals. The hominin fossil record shows deeper and greater diversity compared with that of the African apes, suggesting that, across hominine evolution, they must have experienced a high rate of extinction, with repeated replacements and dispersals. Recent genomic studies also suggest that African apes had higher levels of diversification in earlier periods, and it is likely that a high rate of extinction and replacement occurred. This raises questions about the last common ancestor, the conditions under which apes evolved, and the adaptive and dispersive nature of the current species. We are accustomed to regular announcements of new hominin fossils. There are now some 6000 hominin fossils, and up to 31 species. However, where are the announcements of African ape fossils? The answer is that there are almost none. Our knowledge of African ape evolution is based entirely on genomic analyses, which show that extant diversity is very young. This contrasts with the extensive and deep diversity of hominins known from fossils. Does this difference point to low and late diversification of ape lineages, or high rates of extinction? The comparative evolutionary dynamics of African hominids are central to interpreting living ape adaptations, as well as understanding the patterns of hominin evolution and the nature of the last common ancestor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological networks describe the interactions between different species, informing us how they rely on one another for food, pollination, and survival. If a species in an ecosystem is under threat of extinction, it can affect other species in the system and possibly result in their secondary extinction as well. Understanding how (primary) extinctions cause secondary extinctions on ecological networks has been considered previously using computational methods. However, these methods do not provide an explanation for the properties that make ecological networks robust, and they can be computationally expensive. We develop a new analytic model for predicting secondary extinctions that requires no stochastic simulation. Our model can predict secondary extinctions when primary extinctions occur at random or due to some targeting based on the number of links per species or risk of extinction, and can be applied to an ecological network of any number of layers. Using our model, we consider how false negatives and positives in network data affect predictions for network robustness. We have also extended the model to predict scenarios in which secondary extinctions occur once species lose a certain percentage of interaction strength, and to model the loss of interactions as opposed to just species extinction. From our model, it is possible to derive new analytic results such as how ecological networks are most robust when secondary species are of equal degree. Additionally, we show that both specialization and generalization in the distribution of interaction strength can be advantageous for network robustness, depending upon the extinction scenario being considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do technologies animate more-than-human geographies after extinction? How can geographical scholarship evoke, or bring presence to, extinct biota? In an epoch simultaneously characterized by biotic loss at an unthinkable scale and the increased presence of representations depicting nonhuman life through mass media and digitization, we examine the epistemic, affective, and ethical possibilities of extinct animal traces to shape more-than-human geographies. We show how technological apparatuses inaugurate afterlives of extinction troubling binaries of extinct–extant and absence–presence. Specifically, we consider audio and visual remains of two taxa producing awkward and unsettling postextinction geographies: the ivory-billed woodpecker and the bucardo. Sound recordings and other historical traces continue to forge contemporary connections between human searchers and the ivory-billed woodpecker, although no sighting of the ghost bird has been universally accepted since 1944. The bucardo was declared extinct in 2000, but it was tentatively reanimated through a failed 2003 cloning project; in this milieu, visual technologies and representations conjure alternative presence and speculative futures beyond technoscientific spectacle. Through conversing our own situated, speculative, and technologically mediated relations with these taxa—and situating the technological assemblages themselves—we present some of the lively, contested, and dispersed ways technological apparatuses affect and inaugurate animated geographies after extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Climate change is causing species distribution to shift across the globe. Lowland taxa are moving upslope with warming, while montane species face extinction. We tested the hypothesis that elevation controls the future distribution of plant species in the Brazilian Cerrado, home of 3.5% of the Earth's flowering plants (c. 5000 endemic species) in just 0.4% of the planet's land surface. Location: Cerrado region in Brazil. Methods: We estimated geographical range shifts of 7398 angiosperm species by 2040 using species distribution models (SDMs). We stacked the SDMs to derive the temporal variations of species richness and composition over the Cerrado. Results: Our results show that between 50 and 52% of the Cerrado flora will experience net range loss due to climate change. While montane species were more likely to lose range, range gain was more common among lowland taxa. We estimate that 68–73% of the Cerrado extent will face net species losses by 2040. Net species loss was more likely to occur below 743–798 metres above sea level. Virtually the entire Cerrado will experience some level of species replacement due to climate change and species turnover will intensify as elevation increases. Main Conclusions: Our findings suggest that upslope migration allows lowland plants to track climate change ('winners'), whereas montane taxa do not ('losers'). As species move upslope, lowlands become local extinction hotspots and mountains harbour novel plant assemblages. Therefore, elevation exerts a central role in shaping Cerrado flora responses to climate change and potentially the long‐term efficacy of conservation and restoration efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the current pattern of climate change, mountain bird populations are generally shifting their ranges to higher elevations, tracking their climatic optima. Nevertheless, space limitations at high altitudes constrain mountain species' resilience to climatic change, making them particularly vulnerable. In extreme cases, the climatic niche of some species can move beyond mountaintops, ultimately driving such species to extinction. This study presents the case of the northern wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe in mainland Spain and compares its breeding distribution from 2003 to 2022. Spain, where the species mostly occupies mountain areas, represents its southernmost distribution limit in Europe. We built environmental favourability models using information from the two most recent Spanish bird atlases and a set of climatic, topographic, human activity and lithological variables to determine the factors affecting the occurrence of the species. The influence of climate compared to all other factors was obtained using variation partitioning analysis. The northern wheatear has suffered a strong reduction (67%) in occupied areas and also in favourability throughout mainland Spain (especially in the south) where climate change may have far‐reaching consequences, including local extinctions. Climate explained more than 90% of the variation in the model obtained for 2022. Interestingly, the occupied areas were, on average, 100 m higher in 2022 than in 2003. If the effects of climate warming persist, the northern wheatear will likely disappear in its southernmost distribution limit, being the Sierra de las Nieves National Park population the most vulnerable in mainland Spain. For this reason, it is necessary to implement monitoring programmes for northern wheatear populations, with priority for mountain systems wherein they already occupy higher elevations, as well as further studies on other mountain species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Animal communities around the world are responding to climate change by altering their taxonomic composition, mainly through an increase in the colonisation rate of warm‐dwelling species and the local extinction of cold‐dwelling ones. We assessed whether the taxonomic composition of bird assemblages in peninsular Spain has changed in accordance with the recent increase in temperature. We also evaluated the role of species thermal affinities and population dynamics on these changes. Location: Peninsular Spain. Taxon: Birds. Methods: We compared assemblages reported in the last Spanish breeding bird atlases (1998–2002 vs. 2014–2018) in 10 × 10 km squares. We described species' thermal niches by overlaying global species breeding distributions and world temperature metrics (based on mean, minimum, maximum and range), and then aggregated them to obtain a set of community thermal indices for each assemblage (CTIs and CTR for ranges). Long‐term average temperatures and local current temperatures were related to changes in CTIs using spatial GLMMs, which considered habitat change. We identified the species most responsible for variation in assemblages and regressed species' influence on thermal affinities and population dynamics. Results: CTIs increased with temperature and warm‐dwelling species became more prevalent to the detriment of cold‐dwelling ones. However, we found a counteracting effect of temperature and habitat. Cold‐dwelling forest species were among the most influential species, mainly through colonisation, while warm‐dwelling farmland species contributed through local extinctions (both attenuated local increases in CTI). The mean thermal breadth of assemblages (CTR) decreased with temperatures. Main conclusions: The taxonomic composition of bird assemblages shifted in line with the main expectations due to global change (thermophilisation), mainly due to local colonisation of warm‐dwelling species, although it did not show the pattern of thermal homogenisation suggested elsewhere. Our results add further evidence of the interplay between climate warming and land‐use change in the ongoing adjustment of animal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest continues to grow in Arctic megafaunal ecological engineering, but, since the mass extinction of megafauna ~ 12–15 ka, key physiographic variables and available forage continue to change. Here we sought to assess the extent to which contemporary Arctic ecosystems are conducive to the rewilding of megaherbivores, using a woolly mammoth (M. primigenius) proxy as a model species. We first perform a literature review on woolly mammoth dietary habits. We then leverage Oak Ridge National Laboratories Distributive Active Archive Center Global Aboveground and Belowground Biomass Carbon Density Maps to generate aboveground biomass carbon density estimates in plant functional types consumed by the woolly mammoth at 300 m resolution on Alaska's North Slope. We supplement these analyses with a NASA Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment dataset to downgrade overall biomass estimates to digestible levels. We further downgrade available forage by using a conversion factor representing the relationship between total biomass and net primary productivity (NPP) for arctic vegetation types. Integrating these estimates with the forage needs of woolly mammoths, we conservatively estimate Alaska's North Slope could support densities of 0.0–0.38 woolly mammoth km−2 (mean 0.13) across a variety of habitats. These results may inform innovative rewilding strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Global climate change is a growing threat to the lives and ranges of reptile species. The present study examines three lizard species (Calotes versicolor, Ateuchosaurus chinensis, and Hemidactylus bowringii) that share a sympatric distribution in the Guangzhou region of Guangdong, China. Mitochondria act as energy-producing centers, and the present study analyses the effects of low temperatures in the context of warm winters on lizards, by examining their responses to low-temperature stress at the level of mitochondrial gene expression. This present study analyses the effects of low temperatures in the context of warm winters on the mitochondrial gene expression of lizards and reveals the implications of the distribution within it. Ecological factors related to climate extremes have a significant influence on the adaptability of organisms, especially for ectotherms such as reptiles that are sensitive to temperature change. Climate extremes can seriously affect the survival and internal physiology of lizards, sometimes even resulting in the loss of local populations or even complete extinction. Indeed, studies have shown that the expression levels of the nuclear genes and mitochondrial genomes of reptiles change under low-temperature stress. At present, the temperature adaptability of reptiles has rarely been studied at the mitochondrial genome level. In the present study, the mitochondrial genomes of three species of lizards, Calotes versicolor, Ateuchosaurus chinensis, and Hemidactylus bowringii, which live in regions of sympatry, were sequenced. We used RT-qPCR to explore the level of mitochondrial gene expression under low-temperature stress, as compared to a control temperature. Among the 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), the steady-state transcript levels of ND4L, ND1, ATP6, and COII were reduced to levels of 0.61 ± 0.06, 0.50 ± 0.08, 0.44 ± 0.16, and 0.41 ± 0.09 in C. versicolor, respectively, compared with controls. The transcript levels of the ND3 and ND6 genes fell to levels of just 0.72 ± 0.05 and 0.67 ± 0.05 in H. bowringii, compared with controls. However, the transcript levels of ND3, ND5, ND6, ATP6, ATP8, Cytb, and COIII genes increased to 1.97 ± 0.15, 2.94 ± 0.43, 1.66 ± 0.07, 1.59 ± 0.17, 1.46 ± 0.04, 1.70 ± 0.16, and 1.83 ± 0.07 in A. chinensis. Therefore, the differences in mitochondrial gene expression may be internally related to the adaptative strategy of the three species under low-temperature stress, indicating that low-temperature environments have a greater impact on A. chinensis, with a small distribution area. In extreme environments, the regulatory trend of mitochondrial gene expression in reptiles is associated with their ability to adapt to extreme climates, which means differential mitochondrial genome expression can be used to explore the response of different lizards in the same region to low temperatures. Our experiment aims to provide one new research method to evaluate the potential extinction of reptile species in warm winter climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the microbes present on tree fruit carpospheres as the fruit enters postharvest processing could have useful applications, as these microbes could have a major influence on spoilage, food safety, verification of packing process controls, or other aspects of processing. The goal of this study was to establish a baseline profile of bacterial communities associated with apple (pome fruit), peach (stone fruit), and Navel orange (citrus fruit) at harvest. We found that commercial peaches had the greatest bacterial richness followed by oranges then apples. Time of harvest significantly changed bacterial diversity in oranges and peaches, but not apples. Shifts in diversity varied by fruit type, where 70% of the variability in beta diversity on the apple carposphere was driven by the gain and loss of species (i.e., nestedness). The peach and orange carposphere bacterial community shifts were driven by nearly an even split between turnover (species replacement) and nestedness. We identified a small core microbiome for apples across and between growing seasons that included only Methylobacteriaceae and Sphingomonadaceae among the samples, while peaches had a larger core microbiome composed of five bacterial families: Bacillaceae, Geodermtophilaceae, Nocardioidaceae, Micrococcaeceae, and Trueperaceae. There was a relatively diverse core microbiome for oranges that shared all the families present on apples and peaches, except for Trueperaceae, but also included an additional nine bacterial families not shared including Oxalobacteraceae, Cytophagaceae, and Comamonadaceae. Overall, our findings illustrate the important temporal dynamics of bacterial communities found on major commercial tree fruit, but also the core bacterial families that constantly remain with both implications being important entering postharvest packing and processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: More than 70% of all vascular plants lack conservation status assessments. We aimed to address this shortfall in knowledge of species extinction risk by using the World Checklist of Vascular Plants to generate the first comprehensive set of predictions for a large clade: angiosperms (flowering plants, c. 330 000 species).We used Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) to predict the extinction risk of all angiosperms using predictors relating to range size, human footprint, climate, and evolutionary history and applied a novel approach to estimate uncertainty of individual species‐level predictions.From our model predictions, we estimate 45.1% of angiosperm species are potentially threatened with a lower bound of 44.5% and upper bound of 45.7%.Our species‐level predictions, with associated uncertainty estimates, do not replace full global, or regional Red List assessments, but can be used to prioritise predicted threatened species for full Red List assessment and fast‐track predicted non‐threatened species for Least Concern assessments. Our predictions and uncertainty estimates can also guide fieldwork, inform systematic conservation planning and support global plant conservation efforts and targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper (Feng et al., J. Differential Equations (2023)), we studied a seasonally interactive model between closed seasons and open seasons with Michaelis-Menten type harvesting, in which we assumed that the harvesting quantity was relatively large (0 < κ = l G c E < 1) and obtained a length threshold of the closed season T ¯ ⁎ depending on the harvesting parameter and the seasonal fluctuation period. It was shown that the origin is globally asymptotically stable if and only if T ¯ ≤ T ¯ ⁎ , and there exists a unique globally asymptotically stable T -periodic solution if and only if T ¯ > T ¯ ⁎. In this paper, we continue to investigate the periodic dynamics of this model when the harvesting quantity is relatively small (κ = l G c E ≥ 1). By finding another smaller length threshold T ¯ ⁎ ∈ (0 , T ¯ ⁎) , we determine the number of periodic solutions and study their stability, which imply the occurrence of bifurcation of periodic solutions. Our results demonstrate that designing the closed harvesting season properly can prevent the species from extinction. Moreover, by comparing with the continuous harvesting model and combining the results in our previous paper and this article, we provide a complete understanding on the global dynamics for the periodic switching model. Some numerical simulations are also carried out to illustrate the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The "woody clade" in Saxifragales (WCS), encompassing four woody families (Altingiaceae, Cercidiphyllaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, and Hamamelidaceae), is a phylogenetically recalcitrant node in the angiosperm tree of life, as the interfamilial relationships of the WCS remain contentious. Based on a comprehensive sampling of WCS genera, this study aims to recover a robust maternal backbone phylogeny of the WCS by analyzing plastid genome (plastome) sequence data using Bayesian inference (BI), maximum likelihood (ML), and maximum parsimony (MP) methods, and to explore the possible causes of the phylogenetic recalcitrance with respect to deep relationships within the WCS, in combination with molecular and fossil evidence. Results: Although the four WCS families were identically resolved as monophyletic, the MP analysis recovered different tree topologies for the relationships among Altingiaceae, Cercidiphyllaceae, and Daphniphyllaceae from the ML and BI phylogenies. The fossil-calibrated plastome phylogeny showed that the WCS underwent a rapid divergence of crown groups in the early Cretaceous (between 104.79 and 100.23 Ma), leading to the origin of the stem lineage ancestors of Altingiaceae, Cercidiphyllaceae, Daphniphyllaceae, and Hamamelidaceae within a very short time span (∼4.56 Ma). Compared with the tree topology recovered in a previous study based on nuclear genome data, cytonuclear discordance regarding the interfamilial relationships of the WCS was detected. Conclusions: Molecular and fossil evidence imply that the early divergence of the WCS might have experienced radiative diversification of crown groups, extensive extinctions at the genus and species levels around the Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary, and ancient hybridization. Such evolutionarily complex events may introduce biases in topological estimations within the WCS due to incomplete lineage sorting, cytonuclear discordance, and long-branch attraction, potentially impacting the accurate reconstruction of deep relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the global dynamics of the Lotka-Volterra systems with anti-symmetric interactions. We prove that the dynamics of system can be determined by some associated linear inequalities, which are of independent interest in linear programming. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions to the linear inequalities are established. When the solutions of the linear inequalities exist, the solutions of corresponding Lotka-Volterra systems are uniformly bounded, and the persistence and extinction of any species can be classified by an index set, which is uniquely determined by the linear inequalities. When the solutions of linear inequalities do not exist, the solutions of the Lotka-Volterra systems are unbounded. As an application, we analyze the three-species case and classify the long-time behaviors of the solutions to the system. • The dynamics of anti-symmetric Lotka-Volterra system are proved to be determined by some linear inequalities. • The associated linear inequalities are of independent interest in the linear programming theory. • Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of solutions to the linear inequalities are established. • The long-time behaviors of the three-species case are completely classified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ochre-breasted pipit Anthus nattereri is a terrestrial bird restricted to natural grasslands of south-eastern South America. The species is globally Vulnerable to extinction and its natural history is still poorly known. We investigated the breeding biology of Ochre-breasted pipits, commenting on its habitat use and the potential impacts of local grasslands management practices with fire on the species' conservation. Fieldwork took place mainly between January and December 2016 in the Upper Rio Grande Grasslands, south-eastern Brazil. Five nests of the species were found between September and November, one of them recently destroyed by fire. Nests were cup shaped and placed on the ground, being built with dry grasses, resembling the pattern documented for other species of Anthus. The eggs were covered with brownish spots and dots to a variable extent and the background colour ranged from greyish white to brownish white. The egg colour pattern also fell within the known range of variation for congeneric species, as did the clutch size (two to three eggs) observed in tropical species of Anthus. Ochre-breasted pipits tended to occupy nesting sites with higher and denser grass cover (eg small patches of vegetation that survived the last fire event) when compared to non-nest sites located in adjacent recently burned areas, which potentially suggests a preference for such habitat attributes. Although the Ochre-breasted pipit is relatively common in the study area, the highest temporal incidence of fire coincides with its breeding season, which can directly impact the local population through the burning of nests and the elimination of suitable nesting sites. Thus, it is important to conduct long-term studies to evaluate the impact of different fire regimes on the reproductive performance of Ochre-breasted pipits, thus allowing the design of better ecosystem management practices to guarantee its conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about the demographic and environmental factors underlying population dynamics is fundamental to designing effective conservation measures to recover depleted wildlife populations. However, sparse monitoring data or persistent knowledge gaps about threats make it difficult to identify the drivers of population dynamics. In situations where small, declining, or depleted populations show continued evidence of decline for unknown reasons, integrated population models can make efficient use of available data to improve our understanding of demography, provide fundamental insights into factors that may be limiting recovery, and support conservation decisions. We used mark‐resight and aerial survey data from 2004 to 2018 to build a Bayesian integrated population model for the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas), which is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. We examined the effects of prey availability and oceanographic conditions on beluga vital rates and conducted a population viability analysis to predict extinction risk across a range of hypothetical changes in beluga survival and reproduction. Our results indicated that while the survival of breeding females (0.97; 95% CI: 0.95–0.99) and young calves (0.92; 0.80–0.98) was relatively high, the survival of nonbreeders (0.94; 0.91–0.97) and fecundity (0.28; 0.22–0.36) may be depressed. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that the population will likely continue to decline, with a 17–32% probability of extinction in 150 years. Our model highlights the utility of integrated population modeling for maximizing the usefulness of available data and identifying factors contributing to the failure of protected populations to recover. This framework can be used to evaluate proposed conservation and recovery efforts for this and other endangered species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconstructing biological invasions from historical sources can provide insights into how they occur but are difficult to do when invasions are poorly documented. Genetic signatures left by invaders can also offer insights into invasion routes, points of origin and general biology but often present conclusions that are contradictory to expectations. Here, we test the ability of continental‐wide microsatellite genotype data from 29 loci and 3122 samples to reconstruct the well‐documented invasion of red foxes Vulpes vulpes from the United Kingdom into Australia over 150 years ago, an invasion that has led to the extinction of many native species. Our analysis reveals several key signals of invasion evident in Australian foxes. They display lower levels of diversity than foxes sampled from the UK, exhibit clines in diversity from the point of introduction (south‐east Australia) to the edge of their range, and show strong evidence of allele surfing in westerly and north‐easterly directions. These characteristics are consistent with a single point of origin followed by rapid expansion in westerly and north‐easterly directions as suggested by historical records. We also find little genetic structure in foxes across Australia with only the vast Nullarbor Plains and Great Victoria Desert region presenting a detectable barrier to their dispersal. As such, no mainland region within the current range of foxes can be considered genetically isolated and therefore appropriate for localised eradication efforts. Overall, our analyses demonstrate the ability of comprehensive population genetic studies to reconstruct invasion histories even after more than 80 years since colonisation was stabilised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus Olivier (Coleoptera: Siliphidae), is a federally threatened species in the United States, occurring in less than 10% of its historic range. The continued monitoring of extant populations found in South Dakota, the northernmost edge of its confirmed range, is imperative to future conservation efforts, especially with the predicted loss of the species in southern regions because of climate change. Proposed strategies to preserve the species include the reintroduction or translocation of individuals from habitats that have become unsuitable. Beyond adequate habitat and carrion resource requirements, community-level silphid interactions may challenge these efforts because of competition. From 2018 to 2020, we used 80 carrion-baited pitfall traps per year to conduct two 5-day surveys in June and August. A total of 25,923 Silphidae belonging to 15 species were collected in 1200 trap nights. Cumulatively, 1150 N. americanus were captured and marked with 263 recaptures. Like past findings, N. americanus was concentrated in western Tripp County with limited occurrence in Gregory and Todd Counties, suggesting no expansion of their known range in the past decade. Generalized linear mixed-effects models indicated N. americanus abundance was significantly predicted by the co-occurrence of the carrion beetles Oieceoptoma inaequale F. and Oiceoptoma noveboracense Forster, whereas pitfall trap catches dominated by the burying beetle Nicrophorus marginatus F. had predictively less N. americanus. Collectively, these data provide insights into the existing, northernmost N. americanus population dynamics and silphid beetle communities. Concurrent with monitoring extant populations, the characterization of silphid communities that co-occur with N. americanus may provide much-needed information for managed relocation opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the mechanisms by which tropical forest fragmentation can affect the persistence of species and populations is of scientific and practical interest. However, nest survival has been one the least addressed of the potentially harmful effects associated with habitat fragmentation, and studies involving nest predator's identification are still underdeveloped. The Pernambuco Endemism Center (PEC) is the part of the Atlantic Forest located north of the São Francisco River, in northeastern Brazil, where large forest tracts no longer exist and a wave of bird extinctions has occurred recently. Here, we investigated the nest survival of forest understory birds from three PEC fragments (690, 979, and 1036 ha), and we used infra-red camera traps for predators' identification. Overall, the apparent nest survival was 15.5%, and nest-day-based survival probability for the four more representative species (including two endemic and threatened taxa) were 2.6, 4.4, 6.9, and 18.9%, being 2.7 to 8.5 times smaller than populations or related taxa from the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. Predators were marmosets (25%), opossums (25%), tegu (19.4%), coati (16.7%), snakes (8.3%), and hawks (5.5%). Jackknife2 model-predicted nest predator's richness was 20.7 (SD = 1.6). We reinforce the evidence that nest predation associated with fragmentation can affect negatively the bird populations from tropical forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Trachycarpus nanus is a national, second-class, rare and endangered plant in China, and a plant species endemic to Yunnan. This species has a high medicinal, ecological, and scientific value, but it is currently on the verge of extinction. Therefore, it is urgent to learn its extinction risk under global warming. We predict its multi-temporal distribution pattern based on the optimized MaxEnt model. The results show that precipitation is the most important factor. In the future, drastic climatic changes and human disturbances may lead to the extinction of this species, so it is necessary to strengthen the protection of this species using specific strategies. Climate change affects the geographical distribution of plant species. Rare Trachycarpus nanus with a narrow distribution range, high medicinal value and extremely small population is facing increasing extinction risks under global climate change. In this study, 96 recorded occurrences and 23 environmental factors are used to predict the potential suitable area of T. nanus based on the optimized MaxEnt (3.4.4) model and ArcGIS (10.7) software. The results show that when the parameters are FC = LQ and RM = 1, the MaxEnt model is optimal and AUC = 0.946. The distribution patterns were predicted in the past, present, and four future phases, i.e., 2021–2040 (2030), 2041–2060 (2050), 2061–2080 (2070), and 2081–2100 (2090). The main factors are the annual precipitation (bio12), mean temperature of the coldest quarter (bio11), temperature seasonality (bio4), precipitation of the wettest quarter (bio16), and isothermality (bio3). The potential distribution of T. nanus is primarily concentrated in central Chuxiong, encompassing a total potential suitable area of 5.65 × 104 km2. In historical periods, the total habitat area is smaller than that in the present. In the future, the potential suitable area is generally increased. The centroid analysis shows that T. nanus will move to a high-altitude area and to the southeast. But its dispersal capacity may not keep up with the climate change rate. Therefore, additional protection sites for this species should be appropriately established and the habitat connectivity should be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drylands, comprising semi‐arid, arid, and hyperarid regions, cover approximately 41% of the Earth's land surface and have expanded considerably in recent decades. Even under more optimistic scenarios, such as limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100, semi‐arid lands may increase by up to 38%. This study provides an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art regarding changing aridity in arid regions, with a specific focus on its effects on the accumulation and availability of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in plant–soil systems. Additionally, we summarized the impacts of rising aridity on biodiversity, service provisioning, and feedback effects on climate change across scales. The expansion of arid ecosystems is linked to a decline in C and nutrient stocks, plant community biomass and diversity, thereby diminishing the capacity for recovery and maintaining adequate water‐use efficiency by plants and microbes. Prolonged drought led to a −3.3% reduction in soil organic carbon (SOC) content (based on 148 drought‐manipulation studies), a −8.7% decrease in plant litter input, a −13.0% decline in absolute litter decomposition, and a −5.7% decrease in litter decomposition rate. Moreover, a substantial positive feedback loop with global warming exists, primarily due to increased albedo. The loss of critical ecosystem services, including food production capacity and water resources, poses a severe challenge to the inhabitants of these regions. Increased aridity reduces SOC, nutrient, and water content. Aridity expansion and intensification exacerbate socio‐economic disparities between economically rich and least developed countries, with significant opportunities for improvement through substantial investments in infrastructure and technology. By 2100, half the world's landmass may become dryland, characterized by severe conditions marked by limited C, N, and P resources, water scarcity, and substantial loss of native species biodiversity. These conditions pose formidable challenges for maintaining essential services, impacting human well‐being and raising complex global and regional socio‐political challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Pygmy grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) have evaded genomic characterization thus far, impeding their evolutionary and molecular genetic analysis. Here, through high-throughput sequencing, we pioneer the first reference-grade chromosomal assembly for the Chinese endemic pygmy grasshopper, Zhengitettix transpicula. This breakthrough genome provides a foundational resource to expedite the conservation of this endangered species and further contribute to primary and comparative research across Tetrigoidea and Orthoptera in general. Our assembly advances best practices for resolving complex genomes in non-model Orthopterans. Annotation identifies an extensive catalog of protein-coding elements, availing access to the functional elements underlying Tetrigidae's unique traits. Comparative analyses reveal lineage-specific evolutionary trajectories related to ecological specialization, unlocking questions regarding the genetic trade-offs underlying extreme adaptations. Beyond evolution, our work enables crucial genetic investigations assessing diversity and inbreeding, essential for habitat management interventions to prevent extinction. Variability in the critical defensive gene could underlie the inability of Tetrigidae to form a population outbreak. Thus, this timely and high-quality pygmy grasshopper genome is an invaluable blueprint for accelerating genotype-phenotype connections, evolutionary interpretations, and applied conservation for obscure and iconic species facing similar anthropogenic threats in increasingly fragile ecosystems. Overall, our multidimensional genomic resource promises to invigorate diverse research directions and breakthrough findings across Orthoptera biology, genomics, evolution, and conservation. The pygmy grasshopper, Zhengitettix transpicula, is a Chinese endemic species with an exceedingly limited distribution and fragile population structure, rendering it vulnerable to extinction. We present a high-continuity, chromosome-scale reference genome assembly to elucidate this species' distinctive biology and inform conservation. Employing an integrated sequencing approach, we achieved a 970.40 Mb assembly with 96.32% coverage across seven pseudo-chromosomes and impressive continuity (N50 > 220 Mb). Genome annotation achieves identification with 99.2% BUSCO completeness, supporting quality. Comparative analyses with 14 genomes from Orthoptera-facilitated phylogenomics and revealed 549 significantly expanded gene families in Z. transpicula associated with metabolism, stress response, and development. However, genomic analysis exposed remarkably low heterozygosity (0.02%), implying a severe genetic bottleneck from small, fragmented populations, characteristic of species vulnerable to extinction from environmental disruptions. Elucidating the genetic basis of population dynamics and specialization provides an imperative guideline for habitat conservation and restoration of this rare organism. Moreover, divergent evolution analysis of the CYP305m2 gene regulating locust aggregation highlighted potential structural and hence functional variations between Acrididae and Tetrigidae. Our chromosomal genomic characterization of Z. transpicula advances Orthopteran resources, establishing a framework for evolutionary developmental explorations and applied conservation genomics, reversing the trajectory of this unique grasshopper lineage towards oblivion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature variation is affecting fish biodiversity worldwide, causing changes in geographic distribution, phenotypic structure, and even species extinction. Incubation is a critical stage for stenothermic species, which are vulnerable to large temperature fluctuations, and its effects on the phenotype at later developmental stages are understudied, despite the fact that the phenotype being essential for organism ecology and evolution. In this study, we tested the effects of heat shocks during the embryonic period on the phenotype of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus). We repeatedly quantified multiple phenotypic traits, including morphology, development, and behavior, over a period of 4 months, from hatching to juvenile stage in individuals that had experienced heat shocks (+ 5°C on 24 h, seven times) during their embryonic stage and those that had not. We found that heat shocks led to smaller body size at hatching and a lower sociability. Interestingly, these effects weakened throughout the development of individuals and even reversed in the case of body size. We also found an accelerated growth rate and a higher body condition in the presence of heat shocks. Our study provides evidence that heat shocks experienced during incubation can have long‐lasting effects on an individual's phenotype. This highlights the importance of the incubation phase for the development of ectothermic organisms and suggests that temperature fluctuations may have significant ecological and evolutionary implications for Arctic charr. Given the predicted increase in extreme events and the unpredictability of temperature fluctuations, it is critical to further investigate their effects on development by examining fluctuations that vary in frequency and intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing food waste could lower pressures on land resources and thereby contribute to the mitigation of global biodiversity loss. The reduction of food waste and biodiversity loss are also specified in the Sustainable Development Goals 12.3 and 15 of the United Nations. However, which supply chain stages and food products to target with policy measures is hardly known. Especially, a differentiation of the impact after sub‐stages and taxa is still missing and is therefore quantified in the present study. The food waste mass at five supply chain stages and seven sub‐stages in Germany was calculated and differentiated after 204 food products. All products were traced back to their countries of origin, in which their land use impact on mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and plants was quantified. A new approach was developed to calculate the detailed feed demand for animal products. Germany's avoidable food waste (food that was edible before its disposal) leads to 0.3 vertebrate and 1.5 plant species being potentially lost globally. Household‐level waste is responsible for 47% of this species loss, while food services show the largest impact per mass, with individual catering being as influential as one‐person households. The most influential products are obtained from pigs and cattle. Among vertebrate taxa, mainly amphibians are affected, occurring in the mainly affected country Brazil. The results can be used to formulate policies that target, for example, individual catering or display the impact of animal products and their feed demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of biodiversity loss worldwide, it is paramount to quantify species' extinction risk to guide conservation efforts. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List is considered the global standard for evaluating extinction risks. IUCN criteria also inform national extinction risk assessments. Bayesian models, including the state‐of‐the‐art JARA ('Just Another Red List Assessment') tool, deliver probabilistic statements about species falling into extinction risk categories, thereby enabling characterisation and communication of uncertainty in extinction risk assessments.We coupled the state‐of‐the‐art VAST ('Vector Autoregressive Spatio‐Temporal') modelling tool and JARA, for better informed Red List assessments of marine fishes. In this framework, VAST is fitted to scientific survey catch rate data to provide indices to JARA whose uncertainty is propagated to JARA outcomes suggesting extinction risk categories (under the population reduction criterion). In addition, VAST delivers a valuable habitat assessment to better understand what may be driving extinction risk in the study region. Here, we demonstrate the coupled VAST‐JARA modelling framework by applying it to five contrasting North Sea species, with or without a quantitative stock assessment and with different conservation statuses according to the latest global Red List assessments.The North Sea application coupled with previous assessments and studies suggest that, among the three elasmobranchs, starry ray is in most need of urgent research (and conservation actions where appropriate), followed by spurdog, while lesser‐spotted dogfish is increasing in biomass. Moreover, both the VAST‐JARA modelling framework and previous research indicate that, while European plaice is not of conservation concern, cod has likely met the IUCN criteria for being listed as Endangered recently.Synthesis and applications. The predictions of the VAST‐JARA modelling framework for North Sea species, including JARA output and VAST habitat assessment, constitute valuable supporting information to make interpretations based on Red List guidelines, which will help decision‐makers in their next North Sea Red List assessment. We foresee applications of the modelling framework to assist Red List assessments of numerous marine fishes worldwide. Our modelling framework has many potential advantageous uses, including informing resource management about climate change impacts on species' extinction risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]