Temporal changes in greenspace in a highly urbanized region.

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：:Natural populations of free-living protists often exhibit high-levels of intraspecific diversity, yet this is puzzling as classic evolutionary theory predicts dominance by genotypes with high fitness, particularly in large populations where selection is efficient. Here, we test whether negative frequency-dependent sel...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Minter EJ,Watts PC,Lowe CD,Brockhurst MA

更新日期：2015-06-01 00:00:00

abstract：:It is well established that grooming underpins sociality in group-living primates, and a number of studies have documented the stress-reducing effects of being groomed. In this study, we quantified grooming behaviour and physiological stress (assessed by faecal glucocorticoid analysis) in free-ranging Barbary macaques...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Shutt K,MacLarnon A,Heistermann M,Semple S

更新日期：2007-06-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Both host phylogenetic placement and feeding strategy influence the structure of the gut microbiome (GMB); however, parsing their relative contributions presents a challenge. To meet this challenge, we compared GMB structure in two genera of lemurs characterized by different dietary specializations, the frugivorous br...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Greene LK,Clayton JB,Rothman RS,Semel BP,Semel MA,Gillespie TR,Wright PC,Drea CM

更新日期：2019-06-28 00:00:00

abstract：:Vegetated habitats contain a variety of fine-scale features that can ameliorate temperate extremes. These buffered microhabitats may be used by species to evade extreme weather and novel climates in the future. Yet, the magnitude and extent of this buffering on a global scale remains unknown. Across all tropical conti...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Scheffers BR,Evans TA,Williams SE,Edwards DP

更新日期：2014-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:A number of widely grown varieties of Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa, the grape used for wine production, are known to have resulted from crosses between Pinot noir and Gouais blanc, although it is not known which was the maternal parent in these crosses. We have analysed microsatellites and a single nucleotide polymorphi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hunt HV,Lawes MC,Bower MA,Haeger JW,Howe CJ

更新日期：2010-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Honeybees maintain their colony throughout the cold winters, a strategy that enables them to make the most of early spring flowers. During this period, their activity is mostly limited to thermoregulation, while foraging and brood rearing are stopped. Less is known about seasonal changes to the essential task of defen...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Nouvian M,Deisig N,Reinhard J,Giurfa M

更新日期：2018-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:In sexually cannibalistic animals, male fitness is influenced not only by successful mate acquisition and egg fertilization, but also by avoiding being eaten. In the cannibalistic nursery web spider, Pisaurina mira, the legs of mature males are longer in relation to their body size than those of females, and males use...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Anderson AG,Hebets EA

更新日期：2016-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Costs associated with extra-territorial movement are believed to have favoured the evolution of delayed dispersal and sociality across a range of social vertebrates, but remain surprisingly poorly understood. Here we reveal a novel mechanism that may contribute substantially to the costs of extra-territorial movement:...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Young AJ,Monfort SL

更新日期：2009-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Waterfowl undergo an annual simultaneous flight-feather moult that renders them flightless for the duration of the regrowth of the flight feathers. In the wild, this period of flightlessness could restrict the capacity of moulting birds to forage and escape predation. Selection might therefore favour a short moult, bu...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Portugal SJ,White CR,Green JA,Butler PJ

更新日期：2018-11-28 00:00:00

abstract：:Ascidian species (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) usually have tailed, hatching tadpole larvae. In several lineages, species have evolved larvae that completely lack any tail tissues and are unable to disperse actively. Some tailless species hatch, but some do not hatch before going through metamorphosis. We show here that asci...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Maliska ME,Pennell MW,Swalla BJ

更新日期：2013-04-03 00:00:00

abstract：:While competition for limited breeding positions is a common feature of group life, species vary widely in the extent to which reproduction is shared among females ('reproductive skew'). In recent years, there has been considerable debate over the mechanisms that generate variation in reproductive skew, with most evid...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Raihani NJ,Clutton-Brock TH

更新日期：2010-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The loss of Arctic sea ice is predicted to open up the Northwest Passage, shortening shipping routes and facilitating the exchange of marine organisms between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Here, we present the first observations of distribution overlap of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) from the two oceans ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Heide-Jørgensen MP,Laidre KL,Quakenbush LT,Citta JJ

更新日期：2012-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Drug resistance is a long-standing economic, veterinary and human health concern in human and animal populations. Efficacy of prophylactic drug treatments targeting a particular pathogen is often short-lived, as drug-resistant pathogens evolve and reach high frequency in a treated population. Methods to combat drug re...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Park AW,Haven J,Kaplan R,Gandon S

更新日期：2015-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Vision of the body, even when non-informative about stimulation, affects somatosensory processing. We investigated whether seeing the body also modulates autonomic control in the periphery by measuring skin temperature while manipulating vision. Using a mirror box, the skin temperature was measured from left hand dors...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Sadibolova R,Longo MR

更新日期：2014-04-23 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：:There is strong evidence for teaching in only a handful of species, most of which are cooperative breeders, leading some researchers to suggest that teaching may be more likely to evolve in such species. Alternatively, this initial distribution could be an artefact of the popularity and tractability of cooperative bre...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Howard M,Hoppitt W

更新日期：2017-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The Himalayas are assumed to be undergoing rapid climate change, with serious environmental, social and economic consequences for more than two billion people. However, data on the extent of climate change or its impact on the region are meagre. Based on local knowledge, we report perceived changes in climate and cons...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Chaudhary P,Bawa KS

更新日期：2011-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Migratory animals present a unique challenge for predicting population size because they are influenced by events in multiple stages of the annual cycle that are separated by large geographic distances. Here, we develop a model that incorporates non-fatal carry-over effects to predict changes in population size and sh...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Norris DR,Taylor CM

更新日期：2006-03-22 00:00:00

abstract：:About 10 per cent of birds' eggs fail to hatch, but the incidence of failure can be much higher in endangered species. Most studies fail to distinguish between infertility (due to a lack of sperm) and embryo mortality as the cause of hatching failure, yet doing so is crucial in order to understand the underlying probl...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hemmings N,West M,Birkhead TR

更新日期：2012-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Understanding the pressures of fisheries on the ecosystem is crucial for effective management. Fishery removals, or catch, are composed of both landings and discards. However, the use of discards data in studies investigating the effect of the fishing pressures is sparse. Here, we explore the individual contribution o...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Viana M,McNally L,Graham N,Reid DG,Jackson AL

更新日期：2013-12-04 00:00:00

abstract：:The somasteroids are Lower Palaeozoic star-shaped animals widely regarded as ancestors of Asterozoa, the group of echinoderms that includes brittle stars and starfish. However, the origin of asterozoans, the assembly of their distinctive body organization, and their relationships with other Cambrian and Ordovician ech...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hunter AW,Ortega-Hernández J

更新日期：2021-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Telomeres are regarded as markers of biological or cellular ageing because they shorten with the degree of stress exposure. Accordingly, telomere lengths should show different rates of change when animals are faced with different intensities of environmental challenges. However, a relationship between telomere length ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mizutani Y,Tomita N,Niizuma Y,Yoda K

更新日期：2013-08-14 00:00:00

abstract：:Understanding the relationship between disease transmission and host density is essential for predicting disease spread and control. Using long-term data on sarcoptic mange in a red fox Vulpes vulpes population, we tested long-held assumptions of density- and frequency-dependent direct disease transmission. We also as...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Devenish-Nelson ES,Richards SA,Harris S,Soulsbury C,Stephens PA

更新日期：2014-10-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME) is often implicated in the transition from the Paleozoic evolutionary fauna (PEF) to the modern evolutionary fauna (MEF). However, the exact timing and details of this progression are unknown, especially regarding the vacating and filling of functional ecological space after t...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dineen AA,Roopnarine PD,Fraiser ML

更新日期：2019-03-29 00:00:00

abstract：:The existence of consistent individual differences in behaviour ('animal personality') has been well documented in recent years. However, how such individual variation in behaviour is maintained over evolutionary time is an ongoing conundrum. A well-studied axis of animal personality is individual variation along a bo...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ahlgren J,Chapman BB,Nilsson PA,Brönmark C

更新日期：2015-04-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Bite force is critical to feeding success, especially in animals that crush strong, brittle foods. Maximum bite force is typically measured as one value per individual, but the force-length relationship of skeletal muscle suggests that each individual should possess a range of gape height-specific, and, therefore, pre...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gidmark NJ,Konow N,Lopresti E,Brainerd EL

更新日期：2013-02-13 00:00:00

abstract：:The study of birds, especially the Galapagos finches, was important to Darwin in the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Birds have also been at the centre of a recent reformulation in understanding cerebral evolution and the substrates for higher cognition. While it was once thought that bird...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Reiner A

更新日期：2009-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Effective communication requires animal signals to be readily detected by receivers in the environments in which they are typically given. Certain light conditions enhance the visibility of colour signals and these conditions can vary depending on the orientation of the sun and the position of the signaller. We tested...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Klomp DA,Stuart-Fox D,Das I,Ord TJ

更新日期：2017-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:A number of previous studies reported that gene expression, tissue specificity, gene essentiality and the number of protein-protein interactions influence the rate of protein evolution. Here we investigated the influence of effective population size (Ne) on these determinants of protein evolution. For this purpose, we...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Subramanian S

更新日期：2018-07-01 00:00:00