Potential impacts of climate change on the winter distribution of Afro-Palaearctic migrant passerines.

abstract：:The comb jelly Mertensia ovum, widely distributed in Arctic regions, has recently been discovered in the northern Baltic Sea. We show that M. ovum also exists in the central Baltic but that the population consists solely of small-sized larvae (less than 1.6 mm). Despite the absence of adults, eggs were abundant. Exper...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Jaspers C,Haraldsson M,Bolte S,Reusch TB,Thygesen UH,Kiørboe T

更新日期：2012-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Animal locomotion arises from complex interactions among sensory systems, processing of sensory information into patterns of motor output, the musculo-skeletal dynamics that follow motor stimulation, and the interaction of appendages and body parts with the environment. These processes conspire to produce motions and ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Biewener A,Daniel T

更新日期：2010-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:In cooperatively breeding species, social conflict is typically assumed to underlie destructive behaviours like infanticide. However, an untested alternative hypothesis in birds is that infanticide in the form of egg tossing may simply be a parental response to partial nest predation representing a life-history trade-...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Cheng YR,Rubenstein DR,Shen SF

更新日期：2019-08-30 00:00:00

abstract：:Vocal learning in birds is typically restricted to a sensitive period early in life, with the few exceptions reported in songbirds and parrots. Here, we present evidence of open-ended vocal learning in a hummingbird, the third avian group with vocal learning. We studied vocalizations at four leks of the long-billed he...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Araya-Salas M,Wright T

更新日期：2013-09-25 00:00:00

abstract：:To cope with the post-fire challenges of decreased availability of food and shelter, brown antechinus (Antechinus stuartii), a small marsupial mammal, increase the use of energy-conserving torpor and reduce activity. However, it is not known how long it takes for animals to resume pre-fire torpor and activity patterns...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Stawski C,Hume T,Körtner G,Currie SE,Nowack J,Geiser F

更新日期：2017-05-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Impulsivity, the widespread preference for a smaller and more immediate reward over a larger and more delayed reward, is known to vary across species, and the metabolic and social hypotheses present contrasting explanations for this variation. However, this presents a paradox for an animal such as the honeybee, which ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mayack C,Naug D

更新日期：2015-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The ability to perceive the Earth's magnetic field, or magnetoreception, exists in numerous animals. Although the mechanism underlying magnetoreception has not been clearly established in any species, in salmonid fish, it is hypothesized to occur by means of crystals of magnetite associated with nervous tissue such as...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Fitak RR,Schweikert LE,Wheeler BR,Ernst DA,Lohmann KJ,Johnsen S

更新日期：2018-06-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The tannuolinid Micrina belongs to the tommotiids-a common and widely distributed, but poorly understood, group of Early Cambrian fossil metazoans with multiple external organophosphatic sclerites. Recent findings of sessile articulated tommotiid scleritomes indicate that previous reconstructions of tommotiids as slug...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Holmer LE,Skovsted CB,Brock GA,Valentine JL,Paterson JR

更新日期：2008-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Correct decision making is crucial for animals to maximize foraging success and minimize predation risk. Group-living animals can make such decisions by using their own personal information or by pooling information with other group members (i.e. social information). Here, we investigate how individuals might best bal...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： King AJ,Cowlishaw G

更新日期：2007-04-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Bahamas mosquitofish (Gambusia hubbsi) colonized blue holes during the past approximately 15 000 years and exhibit relatively larger caudal regions in blue holes that contain piscivorous fish. It is hypothesized that larger caudal regions enhance fast-start escape performance and thus reflect an adaptation for avoidin...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Langerhans RB

更新日期：2009-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:During the course of a telemetry study on three species of Australian frogs (Litoria caerulea, Litoria dahlii and Cyclorana australis), we found that many of the surgically implanted transmitters had migrated into the bladder. We subsequently implanted small beads into L. caerulea and they were expelled from the body ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Tracy CR,Christian KA,McArthur LJ,Gienger CM

更新日期：2011-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The role of niche specialization and narrowing in the evolution and extinction of the ichthyosaurs has been widely discussed in the literature. However, previous studies have concentrated on a qualitative discussion of these variables only. Here, we use the recently developed approach of quantitative ecospace modellin...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dick DG,Maxwell EE

更新日期：2015-07-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Adaptive radiations often exhibit high levels of phenotypic replication, a phenomenon that can be explained by selection on standing variation in repeatedly divergent environments or by the influence of ancestral plasticity on selection in divergent environments. Here, we offer the first evidence that plastic loss of ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Foster SA,O'Neil S,King RW,Baker JA

更新日期：2019-01-31 00:00:00

abstract：:In polygynous species, mate choice is an integrated part of sexual selection. However, whether mate choice occurs independently of the genetic relatedness among mating pairs has received little attention, although inbreeding may have fitness consequences. We studied whether genetic relatedness influenced females' choi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Holand O,Askim KR,Røed KH,Weladji RB,Gjøstein H,Nieminen M

更新日期：2007-02-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Regressive evolution of structures associated with vision in cave-dwelling organisms is the focus of intense research. Most work has focused on differences between extreme visual phenotypes: sighted, surface animals and their completely blind, cave-dwelling counterparts. We suggest that troglodytic systems, comprising...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Tobler M,Coleman SW,Perkins BD,Rosenthal GG

更新日期：2010-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Populations facing novel environments are expected to evolve through the accumulation of adaptive substitutions. The dynamics of adaptation depend on the fitness landscape and possibly on the genetic background on which new mutations arise. Here, we model the dynamics of adaptive evolution at the phenotypic and genoty...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gordo I,Campos PR

更新日期：2013-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The temporal stability of plant reproductive features on islands has rarely been tested. Using flowers, fruits/cones and seeds from a well-dated (23 Ma) Miocene Lagerstätte in New Zealand, we show that across 23 families and 30 genera of forest angiosperms and conifers, reproductive features have remained constant for...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Conran JG,Lee WG,Lee DE,Bannister JM,Kaulfuss U

更新日期：2014-10-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Group living can provide individuals with several benefits, including cooperative vigilance and lower predation rates. Individuals in larger groups may be less vulnerable to predation due to dilution effects, efficient detection or greater ability to repel predators. Individuals in smaller groups may consequently empl...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Raihani NJ,Ridley AR

更新日期：2007-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:In many social hierarchies, more subordinate individuals adjust their behaviour according to the presence or behaviour of more dominant individuals. In this study, it is shown that male mice form linear dominance hierarchies characterized by individuals attacking in bursts. Temporal pairwise-correlation analysis revea...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Curley JP

更新日期：2016-05-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The Kommandorskiye Islands population of Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was extirpated ca 1768 CE. Until now, Steller's sea cow was thought to be restricted in historic times to Bering and Copper Islands, Russia, with other records in the last millennium from the western Aleutian Islands. However, Steller's se...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Crerar LD,Crerar AP,Domning DP,Parsons EC

更新日期：2014-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The brown alga Fucus serratus is a key foundation species on rocky intertidal shores of northern Europe. We sampled the same population off the coast of southern Norway in 2000 and 2008, and using 26 microsatellite loci, we estimated the changes in genetic diversity and effective population size (Ne). The unexpectedly...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Coyer JA,Hoarau G,Sjøtun K,Olsen JL

更新日期：2008-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Although plant-arthropod relationships underpin the dramatic rise in diversity and ecological dominance of flowering plants and their associated arthropods, direct observations of such interactions in the fossil record are rare, as these ephemeral moments are difficult to preserve. Three-dimensionally preserved charre...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hartkopf-Fröder C,Rust J,Wappler T,Friis EM,Viehofen A

更新日期：2012-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:It is increasingly recognized that hormetic environmental priming of stress responses can improve resilience to later life stress exposure. However, such phenotypic adjustments may be costly, particularly if the subsequent environment does not match that to which the adjustment was made. Here, we show that hormetic pr...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Costantini D,Monaghan P,Metcalfe NB

更新日期：2014-02-12 00:00:00

abstract：:Although the presence of feathers in the nest is widespread among birds, it has not been previously suggested that feathers can be used as sexual signals. Females of the spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor) regularly carry feathers to their nest, mostly during laying and incubation. We show that the arrangement of the...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Veiga JP,Polo V

更新日期：2005-09-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Novel object trials are commonly used to assess aversion to novelty (neophobia), and previous work has shown neophobia can be influenced by the social environment, but whether the altered behaviour persists afterwards (social learning) is largely unknown in wild animals. We assessed house sparrow (Passer domesticus) n...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Kelly TR,Kimball MG,Stansberry KR,Lattin CR

更新日期：2020-09-01 00:00:00

abstract：:There is growing interest in the capacity of mangrove ecosystems to sequester and store 'blue carbon'. Here, we provide a synthesis of 66 dated sediment cores with previously calculated carbon accumulation rates in mangrove ecosystems to assess the effects of environmental and anthropogenic pressures. Conserved sedime...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pérez A,Libardoni BG,Sanders CJ

更新日期：2018-10-31 00:00:00

abstract：:Muscles are commonly assumed to have uniform activations across their bellies. Yet animal studies have shown that different regions across a muscle can vary in their architecture, fibre type, levels of activation and the transfer of forces to the bones and tendons. The purpose of this study was to test whether regiona...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Wakeling JM

更新日期：2009-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Males of the coqui treefrog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, produce a distinct two-note 'co-qui' advertisement call from sunset to midnight throughout most of the year. Previous work established that both the spectrotemporal aspects of the call and the frequency of highest inner-ear sensitivity change with altitude above se...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Meenderink SWF,Quiñones PM,Narins PM

更新日期：2017-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Long-term memory can be critically important for animals in a variety of contexts, and yet the extreme reduction in body temperature in hibernating animals alters neurochemistry and may therefore impair brain function. Behavioural studies on memory impairment associated with hibernation have been almost exclusively co...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ruczynski I,Siemers BM

更新日期：2011-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Research on social behaviour has largely concentrated on birds and mammals in visually active, cooperatively breeding groups (although such systems are relatively rare) and focused much less on species that rarely interact other than for mating and parental care. We used microsatellite markers to characterize relatedn...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Clark RW,Brown WS,Stechert R,Greene HW

更新日期：2012-08-23 00:00:00