Sex ratios affect population dynamics and individual fitness, and changing sex ratios can be indicative of shifts in sex-specific survival at different life stages. While climate- and landscape-change alter sex ratios of wild bird populations, long-term, landscape scale assessments of sex ratios are rare. Further, little work has been done to understand changes in sex ratios in avian communities. In this manuscript, we analyse long-term (1961-2015) data on five species of ducks across five broad climatic regions of the United States to estimate the effects of drought and long-term trends on the proportion of juvenile females captured at banding. As waterfowl have a 1:1 sex ratio at hatch, we interpret changes in sex ratios of captured juveniles as changes in sex-specific survival rates during early life. Seven of twelve species-region pairs exhibited evidence for long-term trends in the proportion of juvenile females at banding. The proportion of juvenile females at banding increased for duck populations in the western United States and typically declined for duck populations in the eastern United States. We only observed evidence for an effect of drought in two of the twelve species-region pairs, where the proportion of females declined during drought. As changes to North American landscapes and climate continue and intensify, we expect continued changes in sex-specific juvenile survival rates. More broadly, we encourage further research examining the mechanisms underlying long-term trends in juvenile sex ratios in avian communities.

The gut microbiomes of the host are large and complex communities, which helps to maintain homeostasis, improves digestive efficiency, and promotes the development of the immune system. The small mammals distributed in Sichuan Province are the most popular species for biodiversity research in Southwest China. However, the effects of different diets on the structure and function of the gut microbial community of these small mammals are poorly understood. In this study, whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing has been used to analyze the composition and functional structures of the gut microbiota of seven small mammals in Laojunshan National Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province, China. Taxonomic classification revealed that the most abundant phyla in the gut of seven small mammals were Bacteroides, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Moreover, Hafnia, Raoultella and Aeromonas were most abundant genus in the gut microbiomes of these seven species. At the functional level, we annotated a series of KEGG functional pathways, six Cazy categories and 46,163 AROs in the gut microbiomes of the seven species. Comparative analysis found that the difference in the gut microbiomes between the Soricidea and Muridae concentrated on the increase in the F/B (Firmicutes/Bacteroides) ratio in the Soricidea group, probably driven by the high fat and calorie digestive requirements due to their insectivorous diet. The comparative functional profiling revealed that functions related to metabolism and carbohydrates were significantly more abundant in Muridae group, which may be attributed to their high carbohydrate digestion requirements caused by their herbivorous diet. These data suggested that different diets in the host may play an important role in shaping the gut microbiota, and lay the foundation for teasing apart the influences of heritable and environmental factors on the evolution of gut microbial communities.

1. Resource polymorphism is common across taxa and can result in alternate ecotypes with specific morphologies, feeding modes, and behaviours that increase performance in a specific habitat. This can result in high intraspecific variation in the expression of specific traits and the extent to which these traits are correlated within a single population. Although metabolic rate influences resource aquisition and the overall pace of life of individuals it is not clear how metabolic rate interact with the larger suite of traits to ultimately determine individual fitness. 2. We examined the relationship between metabolic rates and the major differences (habitat use, morphology, and resource use) between littoral and pelagic ecotypes of European perch (Perca fluviatilis) from a single lake in Central Sweden. 3. Standard metabolic rate (SMR) was significantly higher in pelagic perch but did not correlate with resource use or morphology. Maximum metabolic rate (MMR) was not correlated with any of our explanatory variables or with SMR. Aerobic scope (AS) showed the same pattern as SMR, differing across habitats, but contrary to expectations, was lower in pelagic perch. 4. This study helps to establish a framework for future experiments further exploring the drivers of intraspecific differences in metabolism. In addition, since metabolic rates scale with temperature and determine predator energy requirements, our observed differences in SMR across habitats will help determine ecotype-specific vulnerabilities to climate change and differences in top-down predation pressure across habitats.

In recent decades, warming temperatures and changes in land use are supposed to have enabled several tick species to expand their distribution limit northwards. The progression of ticks to new areas may introduce new and emerging tick-borne pathogens as well as increase existing diseases. Aside from climatic conditions, ticks are dependent on hosts for survival, and rodents often act as important hosts for ticks and as pathogen reservoirs. At northern latitudes, rodents often undergo multi-annual population cycles, and the periodic absence of hosts may inhibit the further progression of ticks. We investigated the potential role of common shrews (Sorex araneus) to serve as a stable host source to immature life stages of a generalist tick Ixodes ricinus and a specialist tick I. trianguliceps, during decreasing abundances of bank voles (Myodes glareolus). We tested whether ticks would have a propensity to parasitize a certain host type dependent on host population size and composition in two high latitude locations in southern Norway, by comparing tick burdens on trapped animals. We found that I. ricinus larvae showed an equal propensity to parasitize both host types as the host population composition changed, but voles had a higher level of parasitism by nymphs (p< 0.004). An overall larger host population size favored the parasitism of voles by larvae (p= 0.027), but not by nymphs (p= 0.074). I. trianguliceps larvae showed a higher propensity to parasitize shrews, regardless of host population size or composition (p= 0.004), while nymphs parasitized shrews more as vole abundance increased (p= 0.002). The results indicate that common shrews may have the potential to act as a replacement host during periods of low rodent availability, but long-term observations encompassing complete rodent cycles may determine whether shrews are able to maintain tick range expansion despite low rodent availability.

1. Dietary studies in birds of prey involve direct observation and examination of food remains at resting and nesting sites. Although these methods accurately identify diet in raptors, they are time-consuming, resource-intensive, and associated with biases from the feeding ecology of raptors like Gyps vultures. Our study set out to estimate diet composition in Gyps vultures informed by stable isotopes that provide a good representation of assimilated diet from local systems. 2. We hypothesized that differences in Gyps vulture diet composition is a function of sampling location, and that these vultures move between Serengeti National Park and Selous Game Reserve protected areas to forage. We also, theorised that grazing ungulates are the principal items in Gyps vulture diet. 3. Through combined linear and Bayesian modelling, diet-derived from 13C in Gyps vultures consisted of grazing herbivores across sites, with those in Serengeti National Park consuming higher proportions of grazing herbivores (> 87%). 13C differences in vulture feather subsets did not indicate shifts in vulture diet and combined with blood 13C, vultures fed largely on grazers for ~159 days before they were sampled. Similarly, 15N values indicated Gyps vultures fed largely on herbivores. 34S ratios separated where vultures fed when the two sites were compared. 34S variation in vultures across sites resulted from baseline differences in plant 34S values, though it is not possible to match 34S to specific locations. 4. Our findings highlight the relevance of repeated sampling that considers tissues with varying isotopic turnover and emerging Bayesian techniques for dietary studies using stable isotopes. Findings also suggested limited vulture movement between the two local systems. However, more sampling coupled with telemetry is required to fully comprehend this observation and its implications to Gyps vulture ecology and conservation.

Animals with dependent and vulnerable young need to decide where to raise their offspring to minimize ill effects of weather, competition, parasitism, and predation. These decisions have critical fitness consequences through impacting the survival of both adults and juveniles. Birds routinely place their nest in specific sites, allowing species to be broadly classified based on nest location (e.g., ground- or tree-nesting). However, from 2018–2020 we observed 24 American robin (Turdus migratorius) nests placed not on their species-typical arboreal substrates or human-made structures but on the ground at a predator-rich commercial arbor in Illinois, U.S.A. This behavior does not appear to be in response to competition and did not affect nest daily survival rate but was restricted to the early half of the breeding season. We hypothesize that ground-nesting may be an adaptive response to avoid exposure and colder temperatures at sites above the ground early in the breeding season or a non-adaptive consequence of latent robin nest-placement flexibility.

Land-use intensification is the main factor for the catastrophic decline of insect pollinators. However, land-use intensification includes multiple processes that act across various scales and should affect pollinator guilds differently depending on their ecology. We aimed to reveal how two main pollinator guilds, wild bees (specialists) and hoverflies (generalists), respond to different land-use intensification measures, i.e. arable field cover (AFC), landscape heterogeneity (LH) and functional flower composition of local plant communities as a measure of habitat quality. We sampled wild bees and hoverflies on 22 dry grassland sites within a highly intensified landscape (NE Germany) within three campaigns using pan traps. We estimated AFC and LH on consecutive radii (60-3000m) around the dry grassland sites and estimated the local functional flower composition. Wild bee species richness and abundance was positively affected by LH and negatively by AFC at small scales (140-400m). In contrast, hoverflies were positively affected by AFC and negatively by LH at larger scales (500-3000m), where both landscape parameters were negatively correlated to each other. At small spatial scales, though, LH had a positive effect on hoverflies abundance. Functional flower diversity had no positive effect on pollinators, but conspicuous flowers seem to attract abundance of both guilds. In conclusion, landscape parameters contrarily affect two pollinator guilds at different scales. The correlation of landscape parameters may influence the observed relationships between landscape parameters and pollinators. Hence, effects of land-use intensification seems to be highly landscape-specific.

Digital point-occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and other data providers enable a wide range of research in macroecology and biogeography. However, data errors may hamper immediate use. Manual data cleaning is time-consuming and often unfeasible, given that the databases may contain thousands or millions of records. Automated data cleaning pipelines are therefore of high importance. Taking North American Ephedra as a model, we examined how different data cleaning pipelines (using, e.g., the GBIF web application, and four different R packages) affect downstream species distribution models (SDMs). We also assessed how data differed from expert data. From 13,889 North American Ephedra observations in GBIF, the pipelines removed 31.7% to 62.7% false positives, invalid coordinates, and duplicates, leading to datasets between 9,484 (GBIF application) and 5,196 records (manual-guided filtering). The expert data consisted of 704 records, comparable to data from field studies. Although differences in the absolute numbers of records were relatively large, species richness models based on stacked SDMs (S-SDM) from pipeline and expert data were strongly correlated (mean Pearson's r across the pipelines: 0.9986, versus the expert data: 0.9173). Our results suggest that all R package-based pipelines reliably identified invalid coordinates. In contrast, the GBIF-filtered data still contained both spatial and taxonomic errors. Major drawbacks emerge from the fact that no pipeline fully discovered misidentified specimens without the assistance of taxonomic expert knowledge. We conclude that application-filtered GBIF data will still need additional review to achieve higher spatial data quality. Achieving high-quality taxonomic data will require extra effort, probably by thoroughly analyzing the data for misidentified taxa, supported by experts.

To provide the most comprehensive picture of species phylogeny and phylogeography of European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), we analysed mtDNA control region (610 bp) of 1469 samples of roe deer from Central and Eastern Europe and included into the analyses additional 1541 mtDNA sequences from GenBank from other regions of the continent. We detected two mtDNA lineages of the species: European and Siberian one (an introgression of C. pygargus mtDNA into C. capreolus). The Siberian lineage was most frequent in eastern part of the continent and declined towards Central Europe. The European lineage contained three clades (Central, Eastern and Western) composed of 2 to 8 subclades, many of which were separated in space. The Western clade appeared to have a discontinuous range from Portugal to Russia. Most of the subclades in the Central and the Eastern clades were under expansion during the Weichselian glacial period before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), while the expansion time of the Western clade overlapped with the Eemian interglacial. High genetic diversity of extant roe deer is the result of their survival during the LGM in a large, contiguous range spanning from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caucasus Mts. and in two northern refugia.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is a third-generation sequencing technology that is gaining popularity in ecological research for its portable and low-cost sequencing possibilities. Although the technology is primarily developed for long-read sequencing, it can also be applied to sequence amplicons. The downside of ONT is the low quality of the raw reads. Hence, generating a high-quality consensus sequence is still a challenge. We present Amplicon_sorter, a tool for reference-free sorting of ONT sequenced amplicons based on their similarity in sequence and length and for building solid consensus sequences.

1. Context and need for work The effects and extent of the impacts of agricultural insect pests in and around cropping systems is a rich field of study. However, little research exists on the presence and consequence of pest insects in undisturbed landscapes distant from crop hosts. Research in such areas may yield novel or key insights on pest behavior or ecology that is not evident from agroecosystem-based studies. 2. Approach and methods Using the invasive fruit pest Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) as a case study, we investigated the presence and resource use patterns of this agricultural pest in wild blackberries growing within the southern Appalachian Mountain range of North Carolina over two years. 3. Main results We found D. suzukii throughout the sampled range with higher levels of infestation (D. suzukii eggs/g fruit) in all ripeness stages in natural areas as compared to cultivated blackberry samples, but especially in under-ripe fruit. 4. Main results We also explored a direct comparison of oviposition preference between wild and cultivated fruit and found higher oviposition in wild berries when equal weights of fruit were offered, but oviposition was higher in cultivated berries when fruit number was equal. 5. Synthesis and applications D. suzukii were wide-spread in previously unsampled remote, forest habitats. Forest populations laid more eggs in unripe wild-grown blackberries throughout the year than populations infesting cultivated berries. This suggests D. suzukii may change its oviposition and foraging behavior in relation to fruit type. Additionally, as D. suzukii exploits a common forest fruit prior to ripeness, further research is needed to explore how this affects wild food web dynamics and spillover to regional agroecosystems.

Once widespread throughout the tropical forests of the Indian Subcontinent, the sloth bears have suffered a rapid range collapse and local extirpations in the recent decades. A significant portion of their current distribution range is situated outside of the protected areas (PAs). These unprotected sloth bear populations are under tremendous human pressures, but little is known about the patterns and determinants of their occurrence in most of these regions. The situation is more prevalent in Nepal where virtually no systematic information is available for sloth bears living outside of the PAs. We undertook a sign survey-based single-season occupancy study intending to overcome this information gap for the sloth bear populations residing in the Trijuga forest of southeast Nepal. Sloth bear sign detection/non-detection data and field-based covariates data were collected at the 74 randomly chosen 4-km2 grid cells using a varying number of 400m long transects in each grid cell. From our results, the model-averaged estimate of site use probability (ψ ± SE) was estimated to be 0.432 ± 0.039, which is a 13% increase from the naïve estimate (0.297) not accounting for imperfect detections of sloth bear signs. The presence of termite mounds and the distance to the nearest water source were the most important variables affecting the habitat use probability of sloth bears. The average site-level detectability (p ± SE) of sloth bear signs was estimated to be 0.195 ± 0.003 and was significantly determined by the index of human disturbances. We recommend considering the importance of fine-scale ecological and anthropogenic factors in predicting the sloth bear-habitat relationships across their range in the Churia habitat of Nepal.

The timing of different life history events are often correlated, and selection might only rarely be exerted independently on the timing of a single event. In plants, phenotypic selection has often been shown to favour earlier flowering. However, little is known about to what extent this selection acts directly vs. indirectly via vegetative phenology, and if selection on the two traits is correlational. We estimated direct, indirect and correlational phenotypic selection on vegetative and reproductive phenology over three years for the perennial herb Lathyrus vernus. Direct selection favoured earlier flowering and shorter timespans between leaf-out and flowering in all years. However, early flowering was associated with early leaf-out, and the direction of selection on leaf-out day varied among years. As a result, selection on leaf-out weakened selection for early flowering in one of the study years. We found no evidence of correlational selection. Our results highlight the importance of including temporally correlated traits when exploring selection on the phenology of seasonal events.

The natural regeneration of native broadleaved species underneath forest monoculture plantations is important to recover ecosystem functions and to mitigate adverse environmental effects. To understand how seed rain and soil seed banks facilitate natural regeneration, we surveyed their density and composition in a monoculture Chinese fir plantation, a mixed Chinese fir–broadleaf plantation, and an adjacent natural broadleaved forest for two years in southern China. Twenty-eight species (16 families) were in seed rain, and 45 species (27 families) were in soil seed banks. Seed rain density did not differ significantly across stands; however, the number of taxa in seed rain was highest in the mixed plantation and lowest in the natural forest. Seed bank density was significantly higher in the mixed plantation than in the other stands. The Sørensen similarity indices of species composition between seed sources and aboveground vegetation were relatively low (<0.50). In addition, the seeds of native tree species common to the seed banks of the three forests indicated the adjacent natural forest was a seed source for the natural regeneration of native species in forest plantations. To augment regeneration and accelerate the rate of conversion, we recommend direct seeding or planting of desired species.

1. Kānuka (Kunzea serotina, Myrtaceae) dryland shrubland communities of the lowland plains of South Island (Te Wai Pounamu) New Zealand (Aoteoroa) contain a ground cover largely consisting of mosses, predominantly Hypnum cupressiforme. There has been no previous study of the role of mosses in this threatened habitat which is currently being restored within a contemporary irrigated and intensively-farmed landscape that may be incompatible with this component of the ecosystem. 2. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of moss ground cover on hydrology, nitrogen (N) availability and vascular plant interactions, and in relation to nutrient spillover from adjacent farmland. Experimental work was a combination of glasshouse experiments and field-based studies. 3. Extremes of soil temperature and moisture were found to be mediated by the moss carpet, which also influenced N speciation; available N declined with moss depth. The moss layer decreased the amount of germination and establishment of vascular plants but, in some cases, enhanced their growth. Spillover of mineral nitrogen and phosphate from farmland enhanced invasion of exotic grasses which may have benefited from conditions provided by the moss carpet. 4. Synthesis: We found the moss layer to be crucial to ecosystem functioning in these dry habitats with low nutrient substrate. However, when the moss layer is accompanied by nutrient spillover it has the potential to increase exotic weed encroachment. Our results emphasise the importance of non-vascular plant inclusion in restoration schemes but also highlights the importance of mitigating for nutrient spillover.

The reintroduction of endangered plant species is an essential conservation tool. Reintroductions can fail to create resilient, self-sustaining populations due to a poor understanding of environmental factors that limit or promote plant success. Biotic factors, specifically plant-arthropod interactions, have been shown to affect the establishment of endangered plant populations. Lupinus nipomensis (Nipomo Mesa lupine) is a state of California (California Rare Plant Rank: 1B.1) and federally (65 FR 14888) endangered endemic plant with only one extant population located along the central California coast. How arthropods positively or negatively interact with L. nipomensis is not well known and more information could aid conservation efforts. We conducted arthropod surveys of the entire L. nipomensis extant population in spring 2017. Observed arthropods present on L. nipomensis included 17 families, with a majority of individuals belonging to Thripidae. We did not detect any obvious pollinators of L. nipomensis, providing support for previous studies suggesting this lupine is capable of self-pollinating, and observed several arthropod genera that could potentially impact the reproductive success of L. nipomensis via incidental pollination or plant predation.

The subphylum Myriapoda included four extant classes (Chilopoda, Symphyla, Diplopoda and Pauropoda), but very little work has been done to explore their phylogenetic relationships. Herein, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome of Polydesmus sp. GZCS-2019 (Myriapoda: Polydesmida) and the mitochondrial genomes are circular molecules of 15,036 bp, with all genes encoded on + strand. The A+T content is 66.1%, making the chain asymmetric, and exhibits negative AT-skew (-0.236). Several genes rearrangements were detected and we propose a new rearrangement model: “TD (N\R) L + C” based on the genome-scale duplication + (non-random/random) loss + recombination. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that Chilopoda and Symphyla both were monophyletic group, whereas Pauropoda was embedded in Diplopoda to form the Dignatha. Divergence time showed the first split of Myriapoda occurred between the Chilopoda and other classes (Wenlock period of Silurian). We combine phylogenetic analysis, divergence time, and gene arrangement to yield valuable insights into the evolutionary history and classification relationship of Myriapoda and these results support a monophyletic Progoneata and the relationship (Chilopoda + (Symphyla + (Diplopoda + Pauropoda))) within Myriapod. Our results help to better explain the gene rearrangement events of the invertebrate mitogenome and lay the foundation for further phylogenetic study of Myriapoda.

This study compared the microhabitat use, daily activity pattern and diet of Liolaemus etheridgei Laurent 1998 in two Polylepis woodlands: El Simbral (fragmented) and Tuctumpaya (unfragmented), in Arequipa, Southern Peru. In both populations, we did not detect positive selection for any microhabitat; however, the population at El Simbral showed a negative selection for Polylepys trees while the Tuctumpaya population showed negative selection for Polylepis trees and non-thorny bushes. In El Simbral, active individuals were detected between 9:00 and 15:59h, whereas in Tuctumpaya, we detected active individuals from 8:00 to 17:59h. In both populations, observations of active individuals dropped between 11:00 and 11:59h. We recorded 17 and 23 prey categories in the El Simbral and Tuctumpaya populations respectively. The most important animal prey category in each population was found to be Lygaeidae: Hemiptera, and was the only animal prey category that was selected for in El Simbral and Tuctumpaya. In addition, due to the proportions of plant material found, the El Simbral was found to be omnivorous, whereas the Tuctumpaya population was herbivorous. Trophic niche breadth was broader in Tuctumpaya (B_a= 0.202) than the El Simbral (B_a= 0.147) population, despite there being no significant differences in diet (Permanova: F = 1.036, P = 0.409, permutations = 9999), which is coherent with the high value of trophic niche overlap (O_(j,k) = 0.963). Our compiled data reveal that L. etheridgei shows no selection for any of the resources we define in Polylepis woodlands, on the contrary, it selects negatively against Polylepis trees and non-thorny bushes. The daily activity patterns indicate a bimodal pattern with peaks at 9:00-10:59 and 13:00-13:59 h. The diet of L. etheridgei consists mainly of plants (%W: 66.373), and the most important animal prey category is Lygaeidae: Hemiptera (%IRI = 55.3), which is selected positively.