Johannesensuarez3927

g. plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs) were endothermic.Spatially distinct pairs of sites may have similarly fluctuating population dynamics across large geographical distances, a phenomenon called spatial synchrony. However, species rarely exist in isolation, but rather as members of interactive communities, linked with other communities through dispersal (i.e. a metacommunity). Using data on Finnish moth communities sampled across 65 sites for 20 years, we examine the complex synchronous/anti-synchronous relationships among sites using the geography of synchrony framework. We relate site-level synchrony to mean and temporal variation in climatic data, finding that colder and drier sites-and those with the most drastic temperature increases-are important for spatial synchrony. This suggests that faster-warming sites contribute most strongly to site-level estimates of synchrony, highlighting the role of a changing climate to spatial synchrony. Considering the spatial variability in climate change rates is therefore important to understand metacommunity dynamics and identify habitats which contribute most strongly to spatial synchrony.Nitrogen addition affects plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) association greatly. However, although the direct effect of nitrogen addition on AMF colonization has received investigation, its indirect effect through shifts in plant community composition has never been quantified. Based on a 7-year nitrogen addition experiment in an alpine meadow of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, we investigated the effects of nitrogen addition on plant community, AMF diversity and colonization, and disentangled the direct and indirect effects of nitrogen addition on community AMF colonization. At plant species level, nitrogen addition significantly decreased root colonization rate and altered AMF community composition, but with no significant effect on AMF richness. At plant community level, plant species richness and AMF colonization rate decreased with nitrogen addition. Plant species increasing in abundance after nitrogen addition were those with higher AMF colonization rates in natural conditions, resulting in an increased indirect effect induced by alternation in plant community composition with nitrogen addition, whereas the direct effect was negative and decreased with nitrogen addition. Brivudine order Overall, we illustrate the effect of nitrogen addition and plant species in influencing the AMF diversity, demonstrate how shifts in plant community composition (indirect effect) weaken the negative direct effect of nitrogen addition on community-level AMF colonization rate, and emphasize the importance of plant community-mediated mechanisms in regulating ecosystem functions.The putative synergistic action of target-site mutations and enhanced detoxification in pyrethroid resistance in insects has been hypothesized as a major evolutionary mechanism responsible for dramatic consequences in malaria incidence and crop production. Combining genetic transformation and CRISPR/Cas9 genome modification, we generated transgenic Drosophila lines expressing pyrethroid metabolizing P450 enzymes in a genetic background along with engineered mutations in the voltage-gated sodium channel (para) known to confer target-site resistance. Genotypes expressing the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti Cyp9J28 while also bearing the paraV1016G mutation displayed substantially greater resistance ratio (RR) against deltamethrin than the product of each individual mechanism (RRcombined 19.85 > RRCyp9J28 1.77 × RRV1016G 3.00). Genotypes expressing Brassicogethes aeneus pollen beetle Cyp6BQ23 and also bearing the paraL1014F (kdr) mutation, displayed an almost multiplicative RR (RRcombined 75.19 ≥ RRCyp6BQ23 5.74 × RRL1014F 12.74). Reduced pyrethroid affinity at the target site, delaying saturation while simultaneously extending the duration of P450-driven detoxification, is proposed as a possible underlying mechanism. Combinations of target site and P450 resistance loci might be unfavourable in field populations in the absence of insecticide selection, as they exert some fitness disadvantage in development time and fecundity. These are major considerations from the insecticide resistance management viewpoint in both public health and agriculture.Life-history strategies are a crucial aspect of life, which are complicated in group-living species, where pay-offs additionally depend on others' behaviours. Previous theoretical models of public goods games have generally focused on the amounts individuals contribute to the public good. Yet a much less-studied strategic aspect of public goods games, the timing of contributions, can also have dramatic consequences for individual and collective performance. Here, we develop two stage game theoretical models to explore how the timing of contributions evolves. In the first stage, individuals contribute to a threshold public good based on a performance schedule. The second stage begins once the threshold is met, and the individuals then compete as a function of their performance. We show how contributing rapidly is not necessarily optimal, because delayers can act as 'cheats,' avoiding contributing while reaping the benefits of the public good. However, delaying too long can put the delayers at a disadvantage as they may be ill-equipped to compete. These effects lead to bistability in a single group, and spatial diversity among multiple interacting groups.In species that care for their young, provisioning has profound effects on offspring fitness. Provisioning is important in honeybees because nutritional cues determine whether a female becomes a reproductive queen or sterile worker. A qualitative difference between the larval diets of queens and workers is thought to drive this divergence; however, no single compound seems to be responsible. Diet quantity may have a role during honeybee caste determination yet has never been formally studied. Our goal was to determine the relative contributions of diet quantity and quality to queen development. Larvae were reared in vitro on nine diets varying in the amount of royal jelly and sugars, which were fed to larvae in eight different quantities. For the middle diet, an ad libitum quantity treatment was included. Once adults eclosed, the queenliness was determined using principal component analysis on seven morphological measurements. We found that larvae fed an ad libitum quantity of diet were indistinguishable from commercially reared queens, and that queenliness was independent of the proportion of protein and carbohydrate in the diet. Neither protein nor carbohydrate content had a significant influence on the first principle component 1 (PC1), which explained 64.4% of the difference between queens and workers. Instead, the total quantity of diet explained a significant amount of the variation in PC1. Large amounts of diet in the final instar were capable of inducing queen traits, contrary to the received wisdom that queen determination can only occur in the third instar. These results indicate that total diet quantity fed to larvae may regulate the difference between queen and worker castes in honeybees.Like most perceptual attributes, the perception of numerosity is susceptible to adaptation, both to prolonged viewing of spatial arrays and to repeated motor actions such as hand-tapping. However, the possibility has been raised that adaptation may reflect response biases rather than modification of sensory processing. To disentangle these two possibilities, we studied visual and motor adaptation of numerosity perception while measuring confidence and reaction times. Both sensory and motor adaptation robustly distorted numerosity estimates, and these shifts in perceived numerosity were accompanied by similar shifts in confidence and reaction-time distributions. After adaptation, maximum uncertainty and slowest response-times occurred at the point of subjective (rather than physical) equality of the matching task, suggesting that adaptation acts directly on the sensory representation of numerosity, before the decisional processes. On the other hand, making reward response-contingent, which also caused robust shifts in the psychometric function, caused no significant shifts in confidence or reaction-time distributions. These results reinforce evidence for shared mechanisms that encode the quantity of both internally and externally generated events, and advance a useful general technique to test whether contextual effects like adaptation and serial dependence really affect sensory processing.Microbes occupy almost every niche within and on their human hosts. Whether colonizing the gut, mouth or bloodstream, microorganisms face temporal fluctuations in resources and stressors within their niche but we still know little of how environmental fluctuations mediate certain microbial phenotypes, notably antimicrobial-resistant ones. For instance, do rapid or slow fluctuations in nutrient and antimicrobial concentrations select for, or against, resistance? We tackle this question using an ecological approach by studying the dynamics of a synthetic and pathogenic microbial community containing two species, one sensitive and the other resistant to an antibiotic drug where the community is exposed to different rates of environmental fluctuation. We provide mathematical models, supported by experimental data, to demonstrate that simple community outcomes, such as competitive exclusion, can shift to coexistence and ecosystem bistability as fluctuation rates vary. Theory gives mechanistic insight into how these dynamical regimes are related. Importantly, our approach highlights a fundamental difference between resistance in single-species populations, the context in which it is usually assayed, and that in communities. While fast environmental changes are known to select against resistance in single-species populations, here we show that they can promote the resistant species in mixed-species communities. Our theoretical observations are verified empirically using a two-species Candida community.Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is an ultra-rare disorder with devastating sequelae resulting in early death, presently thought to stem primarily from cardiovascular events. We analyse novel longitudinal cardiovascular data from a mouse model of HGPS (LmnaG609G/G609G) using allometric scaling, biomechanical phenotyping, and advanced computational modelling and show that late-stage diastolic dysfunction, with preserved systolic function, emerges with an increase in the pulse wave velocity and an associated loss of aortic function, independent of sex. Specifically, there is a dramatic late-stage loss of smooth muscle function and cells and an excessive accumulation of proteoglycans along the aorta, which result in a loss of biomechanical function (contractility and elastic energy storage) and a marked structural stiffening despite a distinctly low intrinsic material stiffness that is consistent with the lack of functional lamin A. Importantly, the vascular function appears to arise normally from the low-stress environment of development, only to succumb progressively to pressure-related effects of the lamin A mutation and become extreme in the peri-morbid period. Because the dramatic life-threatening aortic phenotype manifests during the last third of life there may be a therapeutic window in maturity that could alleviate concerns with therapies administered during early periods of arterial development.