Environmental heterogeneity promotes spatial resilience of phototrophic biofilms in streambeds.

abstract：:The majority of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and urban areas are expanding faster than any other land-use type. In response to this phenomenon, two opposing arguments have emerged: whether cities should 'sprawl' into the wider countryside, or 'densify' through the development of existing urban...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dallimer M,Tang Z,Bibby PR,Brindley P,Gaston KJ,Davies ZG

更新日期：2011-10-23 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：:In group-living mammals, the eviction of subordinate females from breeding groups by dominants may serve to reduce feeding competition or to reduce breeding competition. Here, we combined both correlational and experimental approaches to investigate whether increases in food intake by dominant females reduces their te...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dubuc C,English S,Thavarajah N,Dantzer B,Sharp SP,Spence-Jones HC,Gaynor D,Clutton-Brock TH

更新日期：2017-04-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Unrelated same-sex individuals pairing together and cooperating to raise offspring over many years is a rare occurrence in the animal kingdom. Cooperative breeding, in which animals help raise offspring that are not their own, is often attributed to kin selection when individuals are related, or altruism when individu...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Young LC,Zaun BJ,Vanderwerf EA

更新日期：2008-08-23 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：:The Red Queen hypothesis is based on the assumption that parasites must genetically match their hosts to infect them successfully. If the parasites fail, they are assumed to be killed by the host's immune system. Here, we tested this using sympatric (mostly susceptible) and allopatric (mostly resistant) populations of...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： King KC,Jokela J,Lively CM

更新日期：2011-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:An audience can have a profound effect on the dynamics of communicative interactions. As a result, non-human primates often adjust their social decision-making strategies depending on the audience composition at a given time. Here we sought to test how the unique vocal behaviour of multiple audience members affected d...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Toarmino CR,Wong L,Miller CT

更新日期：2017-01-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Domestic dogs have been recognized for their social sensitivity and aptitude in human-guided tasks. For example, prior studies have demonstrated that dogs look to humans when confronted with an unsolvable task; an action often interpreted as soliciting necessary help. Conversely, wolves persist on such tasks. While do...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Udell MA

更新日期：2015-09-01 00:00:00

abstract：:A large number of episodes of forest mortality associated with drought and heat stress have been detected worldwide in recent decades, suggesting that some of the world's forested ecosystems may be already responding to climate change. Here, we summarize a special session titled 'Drought-induced forest decline: causes...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Martínez-Vilalta J,Lloret F,Breshears DD

更新日期：2012-10-23 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：:Many studies have focused on the effects of anthropogenic noise on animal communication, but only a few have looked at its effect on other behavioural systems. We designed a playback experiment to test the effect of noise on predation risk assessment. We found that in response to boat motor playback, Caribbean hermit ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Chan AA,Giraldo-Perez P,Smith S,Blumstein DT

更新日期：2010-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Despite hopes that the processes of molecular evolution would be simple, clock-like and essentially universal, variation in the rate of molecular evolution is manifest at all levels of biological organization. Furthermore, it has become clear that rate variation has a systematic component: rate of molecular evolution ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bromham L

更新日期：2009-06-23 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：: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：:Partial migration occurs in many taxa and ecosystems and may confer survival benefits. Here, we use otolith chemistry data to determine whether fish from a large estuarine system were resident or migratory, and then examine whether contingents display differences in modelled growth based on changes in width of otolith...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gillanders BM,Izzo C,Doubleday ZA,Ye Q

更新日期：2015-03-01 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：:Genetic estimates of the variability of immune responses are rarely examined in natural populations because of confounding environmental effects. As a result, and because of the difficulty of pinpointing the genetic determinants of immunity, no study has to our knowledge examined the contribution of specific genes to ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bonneaud C,Sinsheimer JS,Richard M,Chastel O,Sorci G

更新日期：2009-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Male bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia form two levels of alliances; two to three males cooperate to herd individual females and teams of greater than three males compete with other groups for females. Previous observation suggested two alliance tactics: small four to six member teams of relatives th...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Connor RC,Watson-Capps JJ,Sherwin WB,Krützen M

更新日期：2011-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:During the last half million years, pulses of gigantism in the anagenetic lineage of land snails of the subgenus Poecilozonites on Bermuda were correlated with glacial periods when lower sea level resulted in an island nearly an order of magnitude larger than at present. During those periods, the island was colonized ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Olson SL,Hearty PJ

更新日期：2010-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Information on migration patterns is critical to using no-take migratory corridors and marine reserves to protect the spawning stock of commercially exploited species. Both active and passive acoustic tracking methods quantified movement of commercially and ecologically important blue crabs in the White Oak River estu...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Eggleston DB,Millstein E,Plaia G

更新日期：2015-05-01 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：:Recent evidence for feathers in theropods has led to speculations that the largest tyrannosaurids, including Tyrannosaurus rex, were extensively feathered. We describe fossil integument from Tyrannosaurus and other tyrannosaurids (Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Tarbosaurus), confirming that these large...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bell PR,Campione NE,Persons WS 4th,Currie PJ,Larson PL,Tanke DH,Bakker RT

更新日期：2017-06-01 00:00:00

abstract：:There is increasing evidence from non-human animals that males adjust their ejaculate expenditure according to the risk of sperm competition. In this study we show that, after controlling for lifestyle factors known to influence semen quality, human males viewing images depicting sperm competition had a higher percent...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Kilgallon SJ,Simmons LW

更新日期：2005-09-22 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：:Agricultural intensification is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, especially for threatened and near-threatened species. One widely implemented response is 'wildlife-friendly farming', involving the close integration of conservation and extensive farming practices within agricultural landscapes. However, th...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pywell RF,Heard MS,Bradbury RB,Hinsley S,Nowakowski M,Walker KJ,Bullock JM

更新日期：2012-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Anthropogenic salinization of rivers is an emerging issue of global concern, with significant adverse effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Impacts of freshwater salinization on biota are strongly mediated by evolutionary history, as this is a major factor determining species physiological salinity tolera...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Kefford BJ,Buchwalter D,Cañedo-Argüelles M,Davis J,Duncan RP,Hoffmann A,Thompson R

更新日期：2016-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Flight feather moult in small passerines is realized in several ways. Some species moult once after breeding or once on their wintering grounds; others even moult twice. The adaptive significance of this diversity is still largely unknown. We compared the resistance to mechanical fatigue of flight feathers from the ch...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Weber TP,Borgudd J,Hedenström A,Persson K,Sandberg G

更新日期：2005-03-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs possess a strongly recurved, hypertrophied and hyperextensible ungual claw on pedal digit II. This feature is usually suggested to have functioned as a device for disembowelling herbivorous dinosaurs during predation. However, modelling of dromaeosaurid hindlimb function using a roboti...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Manning PL,Payne D,Pennicott J,Barrett PM,Ennos RA

更新日期：2006-03-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Nutritional ecological theory predicts that predators should adjust prey capture and consumption rates depending on the prey's nutritional composition. This would affect the predator's functional response, at least at high prey densities, i.e. near predator satiation. Using a simple fruitfly-wolf spider laboratory sys...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bressendorff BB,Toft S

更新日期：2011-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Prior to the 1920s, the northeast Arctic (NA) cod were caught at spawning grounds ranging from the southernmost to the northernmost parts of the Norwegian coast, but have for the last 50 yr mainly been caught around the Lofoten archipelago and northwards. The NA cod have their feeding and nursery grounds in the Barent...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Opdal AF

更新日期：2010-04-23 00:00:00