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As predicted, vibratory signal form was diet-dependent in S. crassipalpata, while visual ornamentation (brush area) was diet-dependent in S. bilineata. We then compared the species-specific reliance on vibratory and visual signaling by recording mating across artificially manipulated signaling environments (presence/absence of each modality in a 2 × 2 full factorial design). In accordance with our diet dependence results for S. crassipalpata, the presence of vibratory signaling was important for mating success. In contrast, the light and vibratory environment interacted to influence mating success in S. bilineata, with vibratory signaling being important only in the absence of light. We found no differences in overall activity patterns. Given that these species overlap in much of their range and microhabitat use, we suggest that competition for signaling space may have led to the divergence and differential use of sensory modalities between these sister species.Human-wildlife interactions are believed to be increasing in urban areas. In Britain, numerous media reports have stated that urban foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are becoming "bolder," thereby posing a risk to public safety. However, such claims overlook how an individual's personality might influence urban fox behavior. Personality determines multiple aspects of an animal's interactions with both conspecifics and its environment, and can have a significant impact on how people perceive wildlife. Furthermore, describing urban foxes as "bold" confounds two different but inter-related behaviors, both of which influence an animal's propensity to take risks. Neophobia affects an animal's reaction to novelty, wariness its reaction to potential threats. Since urban wildlife frequently encounters both novel and threatening stimuli, a highly adaptable species such as the red fox might be predicted to exhibit reduced neophobia and wariness. We investigated how social status influenced both behaviors in Bristol's fox population. Dominant foxes were significantly more neophobic and warier than subordinates, which adopt a more exploratory and risk-taking lifestyle to meet their energetic and other needs. We found no seasonal effect on neophobia and wariness, although this may be due to sample size. The presence of conspecifics decreased neophobia for dominants, and wariness for both dominants and subordinates. We highlight the importance of considering animal social status and personality when planning management protocols, since interventions that destabilize fox social groups are likely to increase the number of subordinate foxes in the population, thereby increasing rather than decreasing the number of interactions between humans and urban foxes.Tree spatial patterns in dry coniferous forests of the western United States, and analogous ecosystems globally, were historically aggregated, comprising a mixture of single trees and groups of trees. Modern forests, in contrast, are generally more homogeneous and overstocked than their historical counterparts. As these modern forests lack regular fire, pattern formation and maintenance is generally attributed to fire. Accordingly, fires in modern forests may not yield historically analogous patterns. However, direct observations on how selective tree mortality among pre-existing forest structure shapes tree spatial patterns is limited. In this study, we (a) simulated fires in historical and contemporary counterpart plots in a Sierra Nevadan mixed-conifer forest, (b) estimated tree mortality, and (c) examined tree spatial patterns of live trees before and after fire, and of fire-killed trees. Tree mortality in the historical period was clustered and density-dependent, because trees were aggregated and segregated by tree size before fire. CDK assay Thus, fires maintained an aggregated distribution of tree groups. Tree mortality in the contemporary period was widespread, except for dispersed large trees, because most trees were a part of large, interconnected tree groups. Thus, postfire tree patterns were more uniform and devoid of moderately sized tree groups. Postfire tree patterns in the historical period, unlike the contemporary period, were within the historical range of variability identified for the western United States. This divergence suggests that decades of forest dynamics without significant disturbances have altered the historical means of pyric pattern formation. Our results suggest that ecological silvicultural treatments, such as forest restoration thinnings, which emulate qualities of historical forests may facilitate the reintroduction of fire as a means to reinforce forest structural heterogeneity.Anthropogenic carbon emissions released into the atmosphere is driving rapid, concurrent increases in temperature and acidity across the world's oceans. Disentangling the interactive effects of warming and acidification on vulnerable life stages is important to our understanding of responses of marine species to climate change. This study evaluates the interactive effects of these stressors on the acute response of gene expression of postlarval American lobster (Homarus americanus), a species whose geographic range is warming and acidifying faster than most of the world's oceans. In the context of our experiment, we found two especially noteworthy results First, although physiological end points have consistently been shown to be more responsive to warming in similar experimental designs, our study found gene regulation to be considerably more responsive to elevated pCO2. Furthermore, the combined effect of both stressors on gene regulation was significantly greater than either stressor alone. Using a full fa environment.Predators affect community structure by influencing prey density and traits, but the importance of these effects often is difficult to predict. We measured the strength of blue crab predator effects on mud crab prey consumption of juvenile oysters across a flow gradient that inflicts both physical and sensory stress to determine how the relative importance of top predator density-mediated indirect effects (DMIEs) and trait-mediated indirect effects (TMIEs) change within systems. Overall, TMIEs dominated in relatively benign flow conditions where blue crab predator cues increased oyster survivorship by reducing mud crab-oyster consumption. Blue crab DMIEs became more important in high sensory stress conditions, which impaired mud crab perception of blue crab chemical cues. At high physical stress, the environment benefitted oyster survival by physically constraining mud crabs. Thus, factors that structure communities may be predicted based on an understanding of how physical and sensory performances change across environmental stress gradients.