Increased food availability raises eviction rate in a cooperative breeding mammal.

abstract：:Recurrent cycles of climatic change during the Quaternary period have dramatically affected the population genetic structure of many species. We reconstruct the recent demographic history of the coyote (Canis latrans) through the use of Bayesian techniques to examine the effects of Late Quaternary climatic perturbatio...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Koblmüller S,Wayne RK,Leonard JA

更新日期：2012-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Association and linkage mapping have become important tools in understanding the genetics of complex traits, including diseases in humans. As the success of association mapping is reduced by small effect sizes and limited power, linkage studies in laboratory-based model systems are still heavily used. But whether the ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Wilfert L,Jiggins FM

更新日期：2010-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Ecological niche theory asserts that invading species become established only if introduced propagules survive stochastic mortality and can exploit resources unconsumed by resident species. Because their transportation is not controlled by plant health or biosecurity regulations, soil macrofauna decomposers, including...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Melody C,Schmidt O

更新日期：2012-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The loss of environmental heterogeneity threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between environmental heterogeneity and spatial resilience as the capacity of ecological communities embedded in a landscape matrix to reorganize following disturbance. We ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dzubakova K,Peter H,Bertuzzo E,Juez C,Franca MJ,Rinaldo A,Battin TJ

更新日期：2018-10-10 00:00:00

abstract：:Parasites commonly manipulate host behaviour, and among the most dramatic examples are diverse fungi that cause insects to die attached to leaves. This death-grip behaviour functions to place insects in an ideal location for spore dispersal from a dead body following host death. Fossil leaves record many aspects of in...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hughes DP,Wappler T,Labandeira CC

更新日期：2011-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Effects of the social environment on age at sexual maturation are assumed to require direct interactions, such as suppression of subordinates through aggression from dominants. Using green swordtails (Xiphophorus helleri), we demonstrate for the first time that females and males adjust their age at maturation in respo...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Walling CA,Royle NJ,Metcalfe NB,Lindström J

更新日期：2007-04-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The Lake Victoria 'species flock' of cichlids is puzzling because reproductive isolation often occurs in the absence of substantial ecological differences among species. Theory predicts that this cannot evolve with most genetic mechanisms for mate choice. We provide the first evidence that learning, in the form of sex...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Verzijden MN,ten Cate C

更新日期：2007-04-22 00:00:00

abstract：:When populations are exposed to novel conditions of growth, they often become adapted to a similar extent, and at the same time, evolve some degree of impairment in their original environment. They may also come to vary widely with respect to characters which are uncorrelated with fitness, as the result of chance gene...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bell G

更新日期：2013-05-22 00:00:00

abstract：:With an increasing amount of data becoming available, comparative analyses have called attention to the associations between cooperative breeding, monogamy and relatedness. We focus here upon the association between allomaternal care and relatedness among females within a social unit. Previous studies found a positive...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Briga M,Pen I,Wright J

更新日期：2012-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The genetic status of wolves in the western Great Lakes region has received increased attention following the decision to remove them from protection under the US Endangered Species Act. A recent study of mitochondrial DNA has suggested that the recovered wolf population is not genetically representative of the histor...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Wheeldon T,White BN

更新日期：2009-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Interference coloration, in which the perceived colour varies predictably with the angle of illumination or observation, is extremely widespread across animal groups. However, despite considerable advances in our understanding of the mechanistic basis of interference coloration in animals, we still have a poor underst...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pike TW

更新日期：2015-04-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Animals use cues to find their food, in microhabitats within their physiological tolerances. Termites build and modify their microhabitat, to transform hostile environments into benign ones, which raises questions about the relative importance of cues. Termites are desiccation intolerant and foraging termites are attr...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Oberst S,Lenz M,Lai JCS,Evans TA

更新日期：2019-07-26 00:00:00

abstract：:The aerodynamic force on flying insects results from the vortical flow structures that vary both spatially and temporally throughout flight. Due to these complexities and the inherent difficulties in studying flying insects in a natural setting, a complete picture of the vortical flow has been difficult to obtain expe...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Liu Y,Roll J,Van Kooten S,Deng X

更新日期：2018-05-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Two non-coding DNA classes, introns and intergenic regions, of Drosophila melanogaster exhibit contrasting evolutionary patterns. GC content is significantly higher in intergenic regions and affects their degree of nucleotide variability. Divergence is positively correlated with recombination rate in intergenic region...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ometto L,De Lorenzo D,Stephan W

更新日期：2006-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Many geckos use adhesive toe pads on the bottom of their digits to attach to surfaces with remarkable strength. Although gecko adhesion has been studied for hundreds of years, gaps exist in our understanding at the whole-animal level. It remains unclear whether the strength and maintenance of adhesion are determined b...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Stewart WJ,Higham TE

更新日期：2014-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly called drones, are being increasingly used in ecological research, in particular to approach sensitive wildlife in inaccessible areas. Impact studies leading to recommendations for best practices are urgently needed. We tested the impact of drone colour, speed and flight angle on the...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Vas E,Lescroël A,Duriez O,Boguszewski G,Grémillet D

更新日期：2015-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Reciprocal selection pressures in host-parasite systems drive coevolutionary arms races that lead to advanced adaptations in both opponents. In the interactions between social parasites and their hosts, aggression is one of the major behavioural traits under selection. In a field manipulation, we aimed to disentangle ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pamminger T,Modlmeier AP,Suette S,Pennings PS,Foitzik S

更新日期：2012-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Parental effects have been shown to buffer the negative effects of within-generation exposure to ocean acidification (OA) conditions on the offspring of shallow water marine organisms. However, it remains unknown if parental effects will be impacted by the presence of diel CO2 cycles that are prevalent in many shallow...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Jarrold MD,Munday PL

更新日期：2019-02-28 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：:The birth sex ratio of vertebrates with chromosomal sex determination has been shown to respond to environmental variability, such as temperature. However, in humans the few previous studies on environmental temperature and birth sex ratios have produced mixed results. We examined whether reconstructed annual mean tem...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Helle S,Helama S,Jokela J

更新日期：2008-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Despite widespread interest in the interplay between evolutionary and developmental processes, we still know relatively little about the evolutionary history of larval development. Many clades exhibit multiple shifts from planktotrophic (feeding) to non-planktotrophic (non-feeding) larval development. An important que...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Cunningham JA,Jeffery Abt CH

更新日期：2009-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Given the high costs of avian obligate brood parasitism, host individuals are selected to reject parasitic eggs they recognize as foreign. We show that rejection may not necessarily follow egg discrimination when selective removal of the parasitic egg is difficult. We studied egg rejection behaviour in a small host of...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Antonov A,Stokke BG,Moksnes A,Røskaft E

更新日期：2009-04-23 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：: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：: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 response to intradermally injected phytohaemagglutinin (PHA-response) is a commonly used quantification of avian immunocompetence (the ability to resist pathogens). Parasite-mediated sexual selection requires heritable immunocompetence, but evidence for heritability of PHA-response in birds largely stems from full...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pitala N,Gustafsson L,Sendecka J,Brommer JE

更新日期：2007-08-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Trace metals produced by anthropogenic activities are of major importance in urban areas and might constitute a new evolutionary force selecting for the ability to cope with their deleterious effects. Interestingly, melanin pigments are known to bind metal ions, thereby potentially sequestering them in inert body part...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Chatelain M,Gasparini J,Jacquin L,Frantz A

更新日期：2014-03-26 00:00:00

abstract：:Seamounts may influence the distribution of marine mammals through a combination of increased ocean mixing, enhanced local productivity and greater prey availability. To study the effects of seamounts on the presence and acoustic behaviour of cetaceans, we deployed a high-frequency acoustic recording package on the su...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Johnston DW,McDonald M,Polovina J,Domokos R,Wiggins S,Hildebrand J

更新日期：2008-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Cooperative alliances among kin may not only lead to indirect fitness benefits for group-living species, but can also provide direct benefits through access to mates or higher social rank. However, the immigrant sex in most species loses any potential benefits of living with kin unless immigrants disperse together or ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pollack L,Rubenstein DR

更新日期：2015-07-01 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