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This study aimed to investigate how ecological constraints influence individual player skill demands in community-level junior Australian Football (AF). Footage from 68 junior AF games, incorporating 1874 unique players, were analysed for individual skill demands such as disposals, kicks, handballs, tackles, marks, and shots at goal per player per game. Multiple linear mixed effect models were created for each skill, using player as a random effect. The impact of age, relative area per player (RAPP), number of players on the team, quarters in midfield, and weather on skill demands was assessed in U9-U14 boys. Finally, the influence of sex on the same skills was explored in U11-U14 boys and girls. Younger players were found to have fewer disposals and handballs, but more tackles, per player than older players (all p < 0.05). Further, more quarters in the midfield increased all skill demands (all p < 0.001). Finally, girls had fewer disposals and marks, but more tackles, per player than boys (all p < 0.05). Overall, age, sex, and position significantly impacted players' exposure to skills in junior AF. Game designers should consider methods to improve skill involvement and reduce tackling exposure early in the junior pathway, with further emphasis on the girls' game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delineation of urban development boundaries (UDBs) is an essential part of spatial planning and a powerful tool for implementing spatial governance. With the central city of Nanjing as an example, we used various models, including the logistic regression analysis model, InVEST model, and cellular automaton (CA) model, to evaluate the ecological importance, simulate the spatial expansion of construction land, and delineate the UDBs of various urban spatial units under ecological constraints, and determine the eco-environmental effects of the obtained UDBs. The results revealed that the important ecological lands, which were mostly woodlands, covered 422.05 km2 and acted as the ecological bottom line for regional sustainable development. The simulated UDBs under ecological constraints considered the dual demands of urban spatial expansion and a high-quality eco-environment; they effectively prevented urban expansion from occupying important ecological lands and destroying regional eco-environmental quality. The obtained UDBs were highly consistent with the proposed urban layout of local governments, and our simulated results of the UDBs could provide differentiated development orientations from the perspective of land use protection and development. Finally, we noted that urban expansion is dynamic, complex, and systematic and is also affected by the interaction of multiple factors, and the constraint of ecological importance should be emphasized to coordinate the relationship between land development and ecological protection.

Object retrieval skills requiring means‐end exploration are an area of relative weakness in young children with Down syndrome (DS). The current pilot study examined the object retrieval skills of a small sample of young children with DS for tasks with varying level of complexity. Thirteen children with DS (31.55 ± 4.14 months) and 13 mental age‐matched typically developing (TD) children (17.31 ± 1.64 months) completed three tasks involving retrieving a toy from a transparent box (Task 1), an opaque box (Task 2) and a transparent box hidden inside an opaque box (Task 3). Both DS and TD group performed similarly for the simpler Task 1, but for Tasks 2 and 3, the DS group had a lower success rate, less frequent use of complex asymmetric hand actions and/or longer execution times compared to the TD group. Future studies should examine the developmental trends and specificity of means‐end exploratory behaviours in children with DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of the ecological quality of the environment in El Kala National Park plays an important role in the protection and management of its tourist potential in the face of ecological constraints that have arisen. The present study is based on the use of remote sensing data; its main objective is to analyze the ecological quality in a protected area using the remote sensing ecological index which is based on the calculation of vegetation indices based on Landsat images taken in 2013 and 2023. This observation period shows that the values of drought, temperature, and humidity in the study area increased while the greenness values decreased. The RSEI index was calculated using principal component analysis of the fourth indicators (NDVI, WET, NDBSI, and LST) which made it possible to quantitatively analyze, monitor, and dynamically evaluate changes in the ecological quality of the environment in this park over the past 10 years. The results obtained show that the spatio-temporal distribution of the ecological quality of the environment of the park experienced a downward trend from 2013 to 2023 with a regression rate of -10.16% for the classes of good and excellent quality ecological. This study is considered a reference for the formulation of measures aimed at protecting the quality of the environment in El Kala National Park, and also a database to determine monitoring indicators for sites characterized by significant tourism potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Movement is a key part of life for many animals. However, a number of temporal constraints, from changes in light and temperature to varying risks of predation, limit not only where animals can move, but also when. Such constraints are likely to be most pronounced when animals must make large displacements, as is the case when individuals disperse. However, little is known about how dispersers overcome temporal constraints on movement, despite significant implications for the success of dispersal. We outline a general framework for identifying the strategies animals use to achieve large displacements in the face of constraints on when and how to move, which we predict should follow one of three patterns: increasing their movements during those times when they typically move more, uniformly across the day, or when they previously moved least. Using high-resolution GPS tracking of dispersing and resident vulturine guineafowl, Acryllium vulturinum , we show that dispersers expressed the greatest increases in movement at the same times of day that they moved most prior to dispersing. Our results suggest that individuals face the same ecological constraints during dispersal as they do in daily life and achieve large displacements by maximizing movement when conditions are most favourable. • During dispersal, individuals often displace over increased distances. • Ecological constraints typically limit animal movements to certain times of the day. • We test three hypotheses for how animals should achieve greater daily displacements. • Dispersing birds increased movement more at times of day they previously moved most. • Constraints on movement persist even for seasonally dispersing species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human language encompasses almost endless potential for meaning, and folklore can theoretically incorporate themes beyond time and space. However, actual distributions of the themes are not always universal and their constraints remain unclear. Here, we specifically focused on zoological folklore and aimed to reveal what restricts the distribution of trickster animals in folklore. We applied the biogeographical methodology to 16 taxonomic categories of trickster (455 data) and real (93 090 848 data) animals obtained from large databases. Our analysis revealed that the distribution of trickster animals was restricted by their presence in the vicinity and, more importantly, the presence of their corresponding real animals. Given that the distributions of real animals are restricted by the annual mean temperature and annual precipitation, these climatic conditions indirectly affect the distribution of trickster animals. Our study, applying biogeographical methods to culture, paves the way to a deeper understanding of the interactions between ecology and culture.

Urban expansion is influenced by complex and variable social, economic, natural, and policy-related factors. Given their nonlinear interactions, accurately modeling these urban expansion processes poses a challenge. While most studies treat the city as an independent entity, prioritizing internal urban factors, urban land expansion is influenced by intercity interactions and the ecological environment. This study proposes a new approach that couples the gravitational field model, ecological constraints, and the Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model, comprehensively considering the impact of intercity interaction and the ecological environment. The experiment in Henan Province in China assessed the effects of factors such as basic spatial variables (Slope and distance to the city center), urban gravitational field, and ecological constraints on urban expansion through the optimal parameters-based geographical detector (OPGD) model. The feasibility of the method was confirmed by this case study, which shows that it improves the simulation accuracy of the urban agglomeration scale, particularly for central cities. We identified the urban gravitational field and ecological constraints as two important factors affecting the expansion of urban agglomerations. Areas with stronger urban spatial fields are more likely to attract neighboring resources and promote urban expansion, whereas ecological factors constrain the expansion behavior of cities under the condition of ecological and environmental resource protection needs, and both of them work together to influence the expansion behavior of urban clusters. Therefore, we posit that intercity interactions and ecological constraints are important considerations for the future spatial planning of urban agglomerations and for coordinating the harmonious development of urbanization and ecological conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperatively breeding species exhibit a range of social behaviours associated with different costs and benefits to group living, often in association with different environmental conditions. For example, recent phylogenetic studies have collectively shown that the evolution and distribution of cooperative breeding behaviour is related to the environment. However, little is known about how environmental variation may drive differences in social systems across populations within species, and how the relationship between environmental conditions and sociality may differ across species. Here, we examine variation in social group size along a steep environmental gradient for two congeneric cooperatively breeding species of fairywrens (Maluridae) and show that they exhibit opposing ecogeographic patterns. Purple-backed fairywrens, a species in which helpers increase group productivity, have larger groups in hot, dry environments and smaller groups in cool, wet environments. By contrast, superb fairywrens, a species with helpers that do not increase group productivity despite the presence of alloparental care, exhibit the opposite trend. We suggest differences in the costs and benefits of sociality contribute to these opposing ecogeographical patterns and demonstrate that comparisons of intraspecific patterns of social variation across species can provide insight into how ecology shapes social systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction and operation of linear infrastructure has major impacts on biodiversity through loss of habitat, increased mortality and loss of connectivity. In particular, minimising the impact of roads which pass through ecologically sensitive areas on surrounding species at the construction and operational phases is critical for conservation. However, potential impacts are rarely known perfectly at the construction phase and early in the operational phase. To address this problem, a company could build flexibility into road operation so that it can respond rapidly to future ecological impacts if necessary. In this paper we analyse the value of this flexibility using stochastic dynamic programming and use the results to guide a global search algorithm to find high value roads in the region. We consider flexibility in terms of the proportion of traffic volume routed along the road, with the remainder passing along an existing higher-cost, lower-impact road. We applied this to an example scenario where a road must be routed through a region with a vulnerable species present. By incorporating flexibility, the proposed model was able to find a road that met a desired ending population of animals and was more valuable than roads found under existing design alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral studies in team sports are typically constrained by dynamic factors, such as positioning of defenders for interception. Handball player have to coordinate their steps when running to throw a ball on goal from a different positions. In this study were analyzed the movement patterns during locomotors pointing, throwing velocity and accuracy of 12 succesful elite handball players under defensive constraints (defender- absent, defender-far, defender-near, or defender pairing). It was captured data from the locomotors patterns of the attacking participant by speed camera with 120Hz, throwing speed by sports radar gun and throwing accuracy by camera. ANOVA with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test and Friedman test was used to analyze effects of these constraints on gait and throwing parameters. In addition to Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient test was used to analyze speed-accuracy trade off (P

• Various models were adopted to delineate UDBs under ecological constraints. • Multi-source data were integrated to support model simulation. • The delineated UDBs had a high consistency with the proposed urban layout. • Ecological constraints should be considered in determining eco-friendly UDBs. The delineation of urban development boundaries (UDBs) is an essential part of spatial planning and a powerful tool for implementing spatial governance. With the central city of Nanjing as an example, we used various models, including the logistic regression analysis model, InVEST model, and cellular automaton (CA) model, to evaluate the ecological importance, simulate the spatial expansion of construction land, and delineate the UDBs of various urban spatial units under ecological constraints, and determine the eco-environmental effects of the obtained UDBs. The results revealed that the important ecological lands, which were mostly woodlands, covered 422.05 km2 and acted as the ecological bottom line for regional sustainable development. The simulated UDBs under ecological constraints considered the dual demands of urban spatial expansion and a high-quality eco-environment; they effectively prevented urban expansion from occupying important ecological lands and destroying regional eco-environmental quality. The obtained UDBs were highly consistent with the proposed urban layout of local governments, and our simulated results of the UDBs could provide differentiated development orientations from the perspective of land use protection and development. Finally, we noted that urban expansion is dynamic, complex, and systematic and is also affected by the interaction of multiple factors, and the constraint of ecological importance should be emphasized to coordinate the relationship between land development and ecological protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) is one of the most colonial mammal species in the world. Females exclusively nurse their pups for 9 to 11 months, during which they alternate frequent foraging trips at sea with suckling periods ashore. The survival of the pup thus depends on the ability of the mother–pup pair to relocate each other among thousands of individuals. Previous work has demonstrated identity information encoded in pup-attraction (PAC) and female-attraction (FAC) calls. Here, we investigated vocal recognition between mother and pup using playbacks of PAC and FAC performed during the breeding season at Pelican Point, Namibia. Both females and pups were able to specifically discriminate the voice of their pup or their mother from non-affiliated pup or mother. Females were able to memorize previous versions of their pup's calls (evidence of recognition up to 73 days after pup's calls recording). Vocal recognition was demonstrated in pups from 1- to 13-weeks old age. Females and pups did not respond differently to the non-filial or non-mother (for pups) stimulus even if it had a strong acoustic similarity with the filial or mother stimulus. This suggested that Cape fur seal mother–pup pairs have high perceptual and cognitive abilities, allowing individuals to identify kin's vocalizations in a very noisy and confusing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Non-random associations within and among groups of social animals can provide valuable insight into the function of group living and the evolution of social behaviour. Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis) demonstrate extremely high levels of reproductive skew, and dispersal is considered to be male-biased in onset and frequency, although asymmetry in dispersal distance is yet to be investigated. Dispersal may be positively correlated with increasing favourable environmental conditions, such as rainfall, however, the effects of ecological constraints on dispersal and colony fission–fusion dynamics have not previously been demonstrated on a spatial scale. Here we provide the first spatial population genetic study for this species. We investigated genetic structure in a population of Damaraland mole-rats from the southern Kalahari in South Africa over 3 years, combining observational dispersal data from mark-recapture with population genetic data to evaluate (1) sex-bias in frequency and distance of dispersal in this species, and (2) the effect of rainfall on fission–fusion dynamics of colonies. Results Our results demonstrate (1) that both males and females favour local dispersal but on rare occasions may disperse over distances greater than 400 m, (2) that males may disperse over greater distances than females, and (3) that males more frequently immigrate into established neighbouring colonies than females, who predominantly disperse by colony fission, i.e. multiple individuals “budding” from their native colony into a neighbouring territory, thereby establishing new colonies. Furthermore, our results demonstrate (4) elevated dispersal and colony fission in association with increased rainfall, supporting the hypothesis that rainfall may play a significant role in the maintenance and/or disruption of reproductive skew in Damaraland mole-rat populations. Conclusion This study represents the first fine-scale spatial population genetic study in Damaraland mole-rats, and provides relevant insights into colony fission–fusion dynamics in a social and cooperatively breeding species.

The rapid expansion of cities in tropical regions has triggered a series of problems such as the destruction of rare natural resources and decreases in the environmental resource carrying capacity and ecological security, which seriously threaten the sustainable development of tropical cities. In this study, the city of Sanya, Hainan, China, is taken as an example. A bottom-line ecological security pattern is constructed based on the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) for urban growth boundary (UGB) delineation. The results show that Sanya has a good ecological background, but the overall ecological quality decreased from 2014 to 2018 due to the expansion of construction in hot spot areas. Under the natural growth scenario, the urban built-up area in Sanya in 2030 will be 73.81% greater than in 2018, mainly occupying a large amount of agricultural and ecological space, and urban expansion will not be effectively suppressed. Delineation of the UGBs combined with the ecological constraints can effectively protect the regional ecological security and control the urban sprawl, which is relatively consistent with the current planning. The results of this study demonstrate that the RSEI-PLUS-based UGB delineation perspective has a high scientific and applicability, and they provide a reference for the coordinated ecological–economic sustainable development of ecologically fragile cities in tropical areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansion is influenced by complex and variable social, economic, natural, and policy-related factors. Given their nonlinear interactions, accurately modeling these urban expansion processes poses a challenge. While most studies treat the city as an independent entity, prioritizing internal urban factors, urban land expansion is influenced by intercity interactions and the ecological environment. This study proposes a new approach that couples the gravitational field model, ecological constraints, and the Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model, comprehensively considering the impact of intercity interaction and the ecological environment. The experiment in Henan Province in China assessed the effects of factors such as basic spatial variables (Slope and distance to the city center), urban gravitational field, and ecological constraints on urban expansion through the optimal parameters-based geographical detector (OPGD) model. The feasibility of the method was confirmed by this case study, which shows that it improves the simulation accuracy of the urban agglomeration scale, particularly for central cities. We identified the urban gravitational field and ecological constraints as two important factors affecting the expansion of urban agglomerations. Areas with stronger urban spatial fields are more likely to attract neighboring resources and promote urban expansion, whereas ecological factors constrain the expansion behavior of cities under the condition of ecological and environmental resource protection needs, and both of them work together to influence the expansion behavior of urban clusters. Therefore, we posit that intercity interactions and ecological constraints are important considerations for the future spatial planning of urban agglomerations and for coordinating the harmonious development of urbanization and ecological conservation.

Under the demand of urban expansion and the constraints of China's 'National Main Functional Area Planning' policy, urban agglomerations are facing with a huge contradiction between land utilization and ecological protection, especially for Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration who owns a large number of land used for the protection of agricultural production and ecological function. To alleviate this contradiction and provide insight into future land use patterns under different ecological constraints' scenarios, we introduced the patch-based land use simulation (PLUS) model and simulated urban expansion of the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration. After verifying the accuracy of the simulation result in 2018, we predicted future urban expansion under the constraints of three different ecological scenarios in 2026. The morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method and minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model were also introduced to identify different levels of ecological security pattern (ESP) as ecological constraints. The predicted result of the optimal protection (OP) scenario showed less proportion of water and forest than those of natural expansion (NE) and basic protection (BP) scenarios in 2026. The conclusions are that the PLUS model can improve the simulation accuracy at urban agglomeration scale compared with other cellular automata (CA) models, and the future urban expansion under OP scenario has the least threat to the ecosystem, while the expansion under the natural expansion (NE) scenario poses the greatest threat to the ecosystem. Combined with the MSPA and MCR methods, PLUS model can also be used in other spatial simulations of urban agglomerations under ecological constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group‐living animals are often faced with complex reproductive decisions, namely how to partition within‐group reproduction, how to obtain extra‐group reproduction and how these two means of reproduction should be balanced. The solutions to these questions can be difficult to predict because ecological conditions can affect the scopes for within‐group and extra‐group reproduction in complex ways. For example, individuals that are restricted from moving freely around their habitats may have limited extra‐group reproductive opportunities, but at the same time, groups may live in close proximity to one another, which could potentially have the opposite effect. The group‐living cichlid fish Neolamprologus multifasciatus experiences such ecological conditions, and we conducted an intensive genetic parentage analysis to investigate how reproduction is distributed within and among groups for both males and females. We found that cohabiting males live in "high‐skew" societies, where dominant males monopolize the majority of within‐group reproduction, while females live in "low‐skew" societies, where multiple females can produce offspring concurrently. Despite extremely short distances separating groups, we inferred only very low levels of extra‐group reproduction, suggesting that subordinate males have very limited reproductive opportunities. A strength of our parentage analysis lies in its inclusion of individuals that spanned a wide age range, from young fry to adults. We outline the logistical circumstances when very young offspring may not always be accessible to parentage researchers, and present strategies to overcome the challenges of inferring mating patterns from a wide age range of offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispersal from the natal site to breeding sites is a crucial phase in the life history of animals and can have profound effects on the reproductive ecology and the structure of animal societies. However, few studies have assessed dispersal dynamics in subterranean mammals and it is unknown whether dispersal distances are constrained by living underground. Here we show, in social, subterranean Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis), that a subterranean lifestyle does not preclude long distance dispersal and that both sexes are capable of successfully dispersing long distances (>4 km). Body condition did not predict dispersal distance, but dispersers from larger groups traveled farther than individuals from smaller groups. Subsequently we show in a phylogenetically controlled comparative analysis of dispersal distances in subterranean and surface-dwelling rodents that living underground does not constrain dispersal distances and that dispersal capacity is mainly a consequence of body size in both lifestyles.

This article argues that a theory of human needs is essential to buttress and give content to the concept of consumption corridors. In particular it enables us to, first, define a safe, just, and sustainable space for humanity, and second, to decompose and recompose consumption based on a distinction between necessities and luxuries. After an introduction, the article is divided into four parts. The first compares different concepts of human needs and concentrates on universalizable need theories. The second presents a method for agreeing on contextual need satisfiers, and the third discusses current research identifying the floors of poverty and necessities. A fourth section then sets out how sustainable needs can underpin the upper bound of the corridor and how this ceiling might be measured in income and consumption terms. However, once we move from a national to a global perspective a profound dilemma is encountered as rich country corridors diverge from a global consumption corridor.

Mining is considered one of the dimensions of development that human activities affect ecosystems. In land sustainable management (LSM), ecosystem changes that occur in areas during mining -as one of the appropriate measures to determine the ecological vulnerability- is very important. In the present study, based on ecological sustainability, environmental degradation model of Tabas city were evaluated and classified. In this regard, a set of environmental factors including topography, vegetation, climate, groundwater, soil, and geology data layers were prepared using satellite images and stationary data. According to the results, environmental factors of topographic, precipitation, and vegetation have the highest sensitivity, respectively. According to studies, mines accounted for 15.3 percent of the study area. Most exploratory mines were classified in a semi-sensitive class. Soil and geological (edaphic) factors with the highest ecological limitation were more diverse than other factors in this region. Accordingly, due to the high sensitivity of the soil and the possibility of erosion, especially in areas with low vegetation or barren lands in eastern and southwestern areas that have more vulnerable, should be less priority in mining activities.

The ability to recognize the identity of conspecifics is a key component for survival of many animal species and is fundamental to social interactions such as parental care, intra-sexual competition or mate recognition. In group-living species, the simultaneous co-existence of many individuals increases the number of interactions and reinforces the need for individual recognition. Acoustic signals are widely used by birds and mammals to communicate and to convey information about identity, but their use in very dense colonies becomes challenging due to the high level of background noise and the high risk of confusion among individuals. The Cape fur seal (CFS) is the most colonial pinniped species and one of the most colonial mammals in the world, with colonies of up to 210,000 individuals during the breeding season. Here, we investigated the individual stereotypy in vocalizations produced by pups, females and male CFS using Random Forests and index of vocal stereotypy (IVS). We thus compared IVS values of CFS to other pinniped species. Within CFS we identified individuality in all call types but the degree of individual stereotypy varies in regard to their social function: affiliative calls produced in a mother–pup reunion context and territorial calls produced by mature bulls holding harem were more individualized than vocalizations involved in agonistic interactions. Our inter-species comparisons among pinnipeds showed that CFS affiliative and territorial calls displayed higher degrees of individuality compared to other species with similar or lower ecological constraints (colony density and social structure). Significance statement: Individual recognition is primordial for the establishment of social interactions and notably occurs through acoustic signals in many birds and mammalian species. Understanding the role of social complexity in the development of individual vocal recognition improves our general knowledge on acoustic communication in a social system. This study investigated the vocal stereotypy in the Cape fur seal (CFS), a species that is an extreme illustration of social complexity. The CFS is the most colonial pinniped species, and this results in high selective pressure for individual recognition during mother–pup reunions and male territorial behaviour. By comparing the degree of individuality contained in CFS vocalizations with other pinniped species, we can assess how ecological (environmental and social) constraints drive communication systems in vertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of national key ecological function areas constitutes a pivotal policy tool for China's environmental preservation and restoration initiatives. Nevertheless, the economic ramifications of policy implementation on the growth of regional enterprises remain substantial. This research employs the quasi-natural experiment framework provided by the national key ecological function area, focusing on 102 counties in Hebei Province from 2014 to 2018. By employing the difference-in-difference method, this study scrutinizes the policy's impact on enterprises surpassing designated size thresholds, ensuring the robustness of results through multiple tests. The findings reveal a pronounced negative effect on regional enterprise development subsequent to policy implementation, as evidenced by a 12.57 percent decline in the developmental metrics of enterprises exceeding the specified size threshold. Furthermore, this adverse impact exacerbates with prolonged policy duration, thereby accentuating the imposition of "ecological constraints" that restrict enterprise expansion in the pursuit of comprehensive ecological protection. Heterogeneity analysis underscores disparate policy impacts, particularly affecting counties characterized by low levels of industrialization and substantial local fiscal expenditure. This study posits that the prevalent utilization of environmental surveillance and punitive measures may contribute to these adverse effects, fostering a passive rather than innovative enterprise comportment. • Policy hampers regional enterprises, causing significant size-related development decline. • Policy implementation worsens adverse impact on regional enterprises cumulatively over time. • Less industrialized, high fiscal expenditure counties suffer disproportionately, showing stronger negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of cities in tropical regions has triggered a series of problems such as the destruction of rare natural resources and decreases in the environmental resource carrying capacity and ecological security, which seriously threaten the sustainable development of tropical cities. In this study, the city of Sanya, Hainan, China, is taken as an example. A bottom-line ecological security pattern is constructed based on the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) for urban growth boundary (UGB) delineation. The results show that Sanya has a good ecological background, but the overall ecological quality decreased from 2014 to 2018 due to the expansion of construction in hot spot areas. Under the natural growth scenario, the urban built-up area in Sanya in 2030 will be 73.81% greater than in 2018, mainly occupying a large amount of agricultural and ecological space, and urban expansion will not be effectively suppressed. Delineation of the UGBs combined with the ecological constraints can effectively protect the regional ecological security and control the urban sprawl, which is relatively consistent with the current planning. The results of this study demonstrate that the RSEI-PLUS-based UGB delineation perspective has a high scientific and applicability, and they provide a reference for the coordinated ecological–economic sustainable development of ecologically fragile cities in tropical areas.

Questions: Does urbanization promote biotic differentiation or homogenization of swamp plant communities? What is the contribution of natives and exotics to swamp response to urbanization? Location: Quebec City, Canada. Methods: Plant communities of 34 swamps located in low, moderately or highly urbanized landscapes were sampled, and species classified into three exclusive groups: native wetland, native upland and exotic plants. Urbanization's influence on the richness of each plant group was assessed using mixed models. Between‐site compositional similarities were calculated to identify variations in beta diversity with urbanization level using tests for homogeneity in multivariate dispersion. Beta diversity was further partitioned into species replacement and richness difference for each plant group. Finally, the relationships of ten environmental variables representing soil water saturation and microtopography with plant assemblages were determined by redundancy analysis. Results: Although the richness of exotics increased with urbanization intensity, revealing increasing propagule pressure, it remained six to 27 times lower compared to the richness of natives, which remained stable with urbanization. On the other hand, beta diversity increased with urbanization, with higher dissimilarities in species composition between highly urbanized swamps than between low‐urbanized ones. This pattern resulted from high species replacement among natives, while richness difference mainly contributed to exotic beta diversity. Changes in plant assemblages were mostly associated with bryophyte cover and soil drainage and red mottle size, suggesting that hydrological conditions likely acted as a strong driver of swamp plant community response to urbanization. Conclusions: Swamp plant communities experienced biotic differentiation with increasing urbanization. This differentiation pattern likely was linked to the unpredictable effect of urbanization on hydrological regimes, which promoted high native turnover while limiting exotic spread. Long‐term monitoring is recommended to ensure that exotics do not outcompete natives through time. Designing sustainable cities requires a greater understanding of the multifaceted effect of urbanization on biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In species with flexible grouping dynamics (i.e., fission-fusion), party (or subgroup) size is often shaped by available resources. Food resources are thought to limit party size in a range of mammalian species, reflecting a strategy of reducing feeding competition. In montane habitats, where food is highly seasonal, we may expect to see strong effects of ecological constraints on party size. In the montane forest of Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, we quantified changes in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) party size. We used path analysis to analyze the direct and indirect effects of (i) ecological variables and (ii) a reproductive variable (estrous females) on party size. Our path analysis adds precision and directionality to the hypothesis that food availability and estrous females influence party size. We found that the presence of estrous females had the strongest effect on party size. Interestingly, the availability and distribution of important and preferred fruits did not directly influence party size but did influence the presence of estrous females. These findings indicate that fruit distribution may be the ecological precondition that attracts estrous females, which is the main driver of larger parties. Party size was, however, positively correlated with patch size, indicating that specific fruit species may be of particular importance to the ecology of these chimpanzees. Significance statement: In montane habitats with lower fruit tree density and diversity than lowland sites, it may be expected that ecological factors play a more important role in fission-fusion grouping patterns than reproductive factors. This is because the cost of competition for food among group members may be higher in a more resource-limited (montane) environment. We investigated the ecological and reproductive factors that influence grouping patterns of chimpanzees in a montane forest that encompasses the upper limit of this species’ altitudinal range. Our results showed that the presence of estrous females had the strongest influence on party size. These results have implications for evaluating ecological and reproductive drivers of chimpanzee party size across differing habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human language encompasses almost endless potential for meaning, and folklore can theoretically incorporate themes beyond time and space. However, actual distributions of the themes are not always universal and their constraints remain unclear. Here, we specifically focused on zoological folklore and aimed to reveal what restricts the distribution of trickster animals in folklore. We applied the biogeographical methodology to 16 taxonomic categories of trickster (455 data) and real (93 090 848 data) animals obtained from large databases. Our analysis revealed that the distribution of trickster animals was restricted by their presence in the vicinity and, more importantly, the presence of their corresponding real animals. Given that the distributions of real animals are restricted by the annual mean temperature and annual precipitation, these climatic conditions indirectly affect the distribution of trickster animals. Our study, applying biogeographical methods to culture, paves the way to a deeper understanding of the interactions between ecology and culture., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests, (© 2024 The Authors.)

This article argues that a theory of human needs is essential to buttress and give content to the concept of consumption corridors. In particular it enables us to, first, define a safe, just, and sustainable space for humanity, and second, to decompose and recompose consumption based on a distinction between necessities and luxuries. After an introduction, the article is divided into four parts. The first compares different concepts of human needs and concentrates on universalizable need theories. The second presents a method for agreeing on contextual need satisfiers, and the third discusses current research identifying the floors of poverty and necessities. A fourth section then sets out how sustainable needs can underpin the upper bound of the corridor and how this ceiling might be measured in income and consumption terms. However, once we move from a national to a global perspective a profound dilemma is encountered as rich country corridors diverge from a global consumption corridor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the actual problems encountered in the specific poverty alleviation work, this article designs a management system specifically designed for poverty alleviation workers to solve poverty alleviation data sharing and online editing and uploading of poverty alleviation logs. Based on the neural network and network characteristics, a system model is constructed, and the application of structural disturbance theory in dynamic networks is studied. Moreover, in this study, the dynamic change information between time-series networks is taken into account for structural disturbances. By combining structural disturbances and local topology, a new similarity measurement method suitable for dynamic networks is proposed. In addition, this study proposes an algorithm based on evolutionary clustering and density clustering to detect the structure of dynamic communities. Finally, this study compares the proposed method with the classic method in the artificial network and the real network and analyzes the performance of the research model through data analysis. The research results show that the model constructed in this paper has good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most primates experience seasonal fluctuations in the availability of food resources and face the challenge of balancing energy expenditure with energy gain during periods of resource scarcity. This is likely to be particularly challenging in rugged, montane environments, where available energy is relatively low and travel costs are high. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show extensive behavioral diversity across study sites. Yet, as most research has focused on low‐ and mid‐elevation sites, little is known on how chimpanzees respond to periods of low fruit availability in harsh montane environments. We use focal follow and phenology data to investigate how fruit availability influences daily path length and monthly home range in chimpanzees living in Nyungwe National Park, a montane forest in Rwanda. Nyungwe chimpanzees decreased their daily travel distances during periods of fruit scarcity. However, this decrease in travel effort did not correspond with a decrease in foraging area. Instead, monthly homes ranges shifted location across the study period. Nyungwe chimpanzees occupy a relatively wide altitudinal range and the shifts in monthly home range location may reflect differences in the altitudinal distribution of food resources. Chimpanzee monthly diet was often dominated by one or two species and each of these species were confined to different elevation zones. One important species, Podocarpus latifolius, grew only at high elevations (2,600–2,950 m) and chimpanzees ranged at the altitudinal peak of their range for 2 consecutive months while feeding on this species. Thus, while high elevations are often thought to be harsh environments for primates, they can be an important part of a species' home range when they provide a refugium for densely distributed, important food species. Highlights: Chimpanzees in a montane forest decreased their daily path length and shifted their home range during periods of fruit scarcity.High elevations provide a habitat for densely distributed, important food species and are a valuable part of their home range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical habitats are characterized by strong wet and dry seasons, but the effects of seasonality on the costs and benefit of sociality are largely unknown for tropical insects. This is an important gap in our understanding of sociobiology because many social bees and wasps are in the tropics. We found evidence of seasonal effects on the costs and benefits of social and solitary behavior in the tropical sweat bee Megalopta genalis. Productivity, whether measured as brood cell production per nest, or brood cell production per female, was greater in the dry season than the wet, likely reflecting floral resource availability. Per nest productivity was greater in social nests than solitary, but this difference was only significant in the dry season. Conversely, per capita productivity was greater in solitary than social nests, but again only in the dry season. Nest failure rates were also higher in the wet season, although roofs protecting nests from rain did not increase survival, suggesting that increased foraging effort in the face of declining resources rather than wetness per se led to nest failure. Newly initiated nests had higher failure rates than established nests, but these were not affected by season. Social nests collected late in the wet season after reproduction has largely ceased show that M. genalis can live in social groups without reproduction; these bees are likely waiting together until provisioning resumes in the subsequent dry season. Our results suggest that the productivity benefits of social nesting are greatest in the dry season, but that insurance-based benefits to social nesting may be greater in the wet season. This reveals that the costs and benefits underpinning sociality are dynamic across seasons, even in tropical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperatively breeding animals occur in virtually every ecosystem on earth. Comparative and biogeographic studies suggest that both benign and harsh—as well as stable and fluctuating—environments can favor the evolution of cooperative breeding behavior. The fact that cooperative societies occur in environments of such contrasting quality creates a paradox of environmental quality and sociality. The dual benefits framework—which leads to the prediction that the ecological consequences of sociality (e.g., range size) vary depending on the benefits that individuals of each species receive by forming social groups—offers a potential resolution to this paradox. Here we use a case study of two avian lineages, starlings (Sturnidae) and hornbills (Bucerotidae), in which environmental unpredictability appears to have opposite effects on the evolution of cooperation to test the dual benefits framework. Consistent with previous work, harsh and unpredictable environments promote cooperative breeding behavior in starlings, which in turn leads to larger geographic ranges. However, cooperatively breeding hornbills occur in benign and stable environments, but sociality does not influence range size. Our study suggests that the paradox of environmental quality and sociality arises largely because cooperative breeding is an umbrella term encompassing social species that form groups for different reasons. We demonstrate that differentiating among the functional causes of social group formation is critical for developing a predictive framework for understanding the evolution of cooperative breeding behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In trying to structure our discussions of temporal experience in music, it could be useful to look at some basic ecological constraints of timescales, production, and perception of music. This may hopefully help us to distinguish between on the one hand readily perceived features of sound and music-related body motion, i.e. concrete sonic, kinematic, and proprioceptive features, and on the other hand, more generic, amodal, and abstract elements in musical discourse, manifest in various symbolic representations such as notation, numbers, and diagrams. Given easily accessible music technologies, it is possible to experiment with different editions of musical works, i.e. concatenate fragments in a different order and then evaluate the emergent contextual effects in listening experiments. Also, given the faculties of musical imagery (defined as our ability to mentally re-experience musical sound and body motion in the absence of physically present sound and body motion), we can at will recombine chunks of music in our minds and mentally scan through large musical works. The contention here is that such recombination in actual re-editing of musical sound or in musical imagery will still be related to the basic ecological constraints of the timescales, production, and perception in music.

ABSTRACT: Why do some animals mate with one partner rather than many? Here, I investigate factors related to (i) spatial constraints (habitat limitation, mate availability), (ii) time constraints (breeding synchrony, length of breeding season), (iii) need for parental care, and (iv) genetic compatibility, to see what support can be found in different taxa regarding the importance of these factors in explaining the occurrence of monogamy, whether shown by one sex (monogyny or monandry) or by both sexes (mutual monogamy). Focusing on reproductive rather than social monogamy whenever possible, I review the empirical literature for birds, mammals and fishes, with occasional examples from other taxa. Each of these factors can explain mating patterns in some taxa, but not in all. In general, there is mixed support for how well the factors listed above predict monogamy. The factor that shows greatest support across taxa is habitat limitation. By contrast, while a need for parental care might explain monogamy in freshwater fishes and birds, there is clear evidence that this is not the case in marine fishes and mammals. Hence, reproductive monogamy does not appear to have a single overriding explanation, but is more taxon specific. Genetic compatibility is a promising avenue for future work likely to improve our understanding of monogamy and other mating patterns. I also discuss eight important consequences of reproductive monogamy: (i) parentage, (ii) parental care, (iii) eusociality and altruism, (iv) infanticide, (v) effective population size, (vi) mate choice before mating, (vii) sexual selection, and (viii) sexual conflict. Of these, eusociality and infanticide have been subject to debate, briefly summarised herein. A common expectation is that monogamy leads to little sexual conflict and no or little sexual selection. However, as reviewed here, sexual selection can be substantial under mutual monogamy, and both sexes can be subject to such selection. Under long‐term mutual monogamy, mate quality is obviously more important than mate numbers, which in turn affects the need for pre‐mating mate choice. Overall, I conclude that, despite much research on genetic mating patterns, reproductive monogamy is still surprisingly poorly understood and further experimental and comparative work is needed. This review identifies several areas in need of more data and also proposes new hypotheses to test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract It is well established that in ombrotrophic bogs, water-table depth (WTD) is the primary environmental control on testate amoeba distribution. However, the environmental controls on testate amoebae in minerotrophic fens are less well known and successional change in their assemblages associated with fen-bog peatland development has been scarcely investigated. Here we investigate a peatland space-for-time sequence resulting from postglacial rebound on the west coast of Finland, to assess successional patterns in testate amoeba communities and their relationships with environmental variables during peatland development. Sample sites along a 10-km transect from coast to inland ranged from a recently emerged wet meadow to a mature bog. Environmental variables (e.g., peat thickness, carbon and nitrogen content, pH, WTD and vegetation) were measured alongside testate amoeba samples. Results showed that even though the distribution of testate amoebae was to some extent determined by the succession stage, many taxa had wide WTD and pH ranges. The primary environmental control for many taxa changed along the succession. In conclusion, the ecological constraints on testate amoebae in minerotrophic systems are more complex than in bogs. The detected patterns also complicate the use of testate amoebae as a primary proxy in palaeoecological reconstructions where fen-to-bog shifts occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Delayed dispersal is a key step in the evolution of familial animal societies and cooperative breeding. However, no consensus has been reached on the ecological and social circumstances driving delayed dispersal. Here, we test predictions from the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses as well as the recently proposed dual benefits hypothesis to better understand the evolution of group‐living and cooperative breeding. Furthermore, we consider how individual social circumstances within groups affect dispersal decisions. We examine 11 years of life‐history information on a wild population of cooperatively breeding southern pied babblers Turdoides bicolor. We investigate the effects of ecological conditions, natal‐group membership and individual social context on male and female dispersal delays, disperser survival and acquisition of dominance. Female dispersal decisions are generally unconstrained by ecological or social circumstances. In contrast, males disperse in response to relaxed ecological constraints, decreases in nepotistic tolerance or when low social rank in the queue for dominance decreases their likelihood of gaining a dominant breeding position. Early dispersal by end‐of‐queue males often leads to a head‐of‐queue subordinate position in a non‐natal group, thereby increasing access to dominant breeding positions. However, males and females remaining in natal groups gain benefits of philopatry via increased survival and, for head‐of‐queue males, very high likelihood of acquisition of a breeding position. Overall, predictions from the dual benefits hypothesis best describe these results, while some predictions from each of the ecological constraints and benefits of philopatry hypotheses were supported. The benefits of living and working together (collective action benefits) in large stable groups are of central importance in shaping dispersal delays in southern pied babbler societies. In addition, position in the subordinate social queue for dominance is the key in determining access to reproduction, particularly for males. This research highlights the importance of considering the costs and benefits of individual social circumstances in dispersal decisions and illustrates how the dual benefits hypothesis offers new perspectives in understanding delayed dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Long duration autonomy considers robots that are deployed over long time scales. As a result, the robots' ability to operate across changing environmental conditions and perform tasks that require more time to complete than what can be supported on a single battery charge, have implications for how the control design task should be approached. By drawing inspiration from ecology, which concerns itself with the strong coupling between organism and the environment it inhabits, we encode these "survival constraints" through Boolean compositions of multiple control barrier functions, and show how this construction supports long duration autonomy in the context of persistent environmental monitoring on a team of mobile robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do we observe so many examples in nature in which individuals routinely delay or completely forgo their own reproductive opportunities in order to join and remain within a group? Cooperative breeding theory provides a rich framework with which to study the factors that may influence the costs and benefits of remaining philopatric as a non-breeder. This is often viewed as an initial step in the development of costly helping behavior provided by non-breeding subordinates. Despite many excellent empirical studies testing key concepts of the theory, there is still debate regarding the relative importance of various evolutionary forces, suggesting that there may not be a general explanation but rather a dynamic and taxonomically varied combination of factors influencing the evolution and maintenance of sociality. Here, we explore two potential improvements in the study of sociality that could aid in the progress of this field. The first addresses the fact that empirical studies of social evolution are typically conducted using either comparative, observational or manipulative methodologies. Instead, we suggest a holistic approach, whereby observational and experimental studies are designed with the explicit view of advancing comparative analyses of sociality for the taxon, and in tandem, where comparative work informs targeted research effort on specific (usually understudied) species within the lineage. A second improvement relates to the broadening of tests of cooperative breeding theory to include taxa where subordinates do not necessarily provide active cooperation within the group. The original bias toward “helpful subordinates” arose from a focus on terrestrial taxa. However, recent consideration of other taxa, especially marine taxa, is slowly revealing that the theory can and should encompass a continuum of cooperative social systems, including those where subordinates do not actively help. This review summarizes the major hypotheses of cooperative breeding theory, one of the dominant frameworks to examine social evolution, and highlights the potential benefits that a combined methodological approach and a broader application could provide to the study of sociality.