abstract：:The plight of the marine fisheries is attracting increasing attention as unsustainably high exploitation levels, exacerbated by more extreme climatic conditions, are driving stocks to the point of collapse. The North Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), a species which until recently formed a major component of the demersal f...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hutchinson WF

更新日期：2008-12-23 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：: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：:Trophically transmitted parasites often alter their intermediate host's phenotype, thereby predisposing hosts to increased predation. This is generally considered to be a parasite strategy evolved to enhance transmission to the next host. However, the adaptive value of host manipulation is not clear, as it may be asso...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Seppälä O,Jokela J

更新日期：2008-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Intraguild predation (IGP) is common in communities, yet theory suggests it should not often persist and coexistence of participating species should be rare. As parasitism can play keystone roles in interactions between competitors, and between predators and prey, here we examine the role of parasites in maintaining I...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hatcher MJ,Dick JT,Dunn AM

更新日期：2008-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The use of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) for biomonitoring environmental stress is limited by the lack of work on how FA in particular traits responds to specific stresses. Here, by manipulating the number of individuals in an enclosed fallow deer (Dama dama) population, we describe, for the first time, clear density dep...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Serrano E,Angibault JM,Cargnelutti B,Hewison AJ

更新日期：2008-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Inbreeding may lead to morphological malformations in a wide variety of taxa. We used genetic markers to evaluate whether malformed urodeles were more inbred and/or had less genetic diversity than normal salamanders. We captured 687 adult and 1,259 larval tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum tigrinum), assessed each ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Williams RN,Bos DH,Gopurenko D,Dewoody JA

更新日期：2008-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The direct effects of CO2 level changes on plant water availability are usually ignored in plant habitat models. We compare traditional proxies for water availability with changes in soil water (fAWC) predicted by a process-based ecosystem model, which simulates changes in vegetation structure and functioning, includi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Rickebusch S,Thuiller W,Hickler T,Arau Jo MB,Sykes MT,Schweiger O,Lafourcade B

更新日期：2008-10-23 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：:Human-induced environmental change is occurring at an unprecedented rate and scale. Many freshwater habitats, in particular, have been degraded as a result of increased salinity. Little is known about the effects of anthropogenic salinization on freshwater organisms, especially at sublethal concentrations, where subtl...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Squires ZE,Bailey PC,Reina RD,Wong BB

更新日期：2008-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:General models of plant vascular architecture, based on scaling of pipe diameters to remove the length dependence of hydraulic resistance within the xylem, have attracted strong interest. However, these models have neglected to consider the leaf, an important hydraulic component; they assume all leaves to have similar...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Coomes DA,Heathcote S,Godfrey ER,Shepherd JJ,Sack L

更新日期：2008-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Nectar concentration is assumed to remain constant during transport by honeybees between flowers and hive. We sampled crop contents of nectar foragers on Aloe greatheadii var. davyana, a major winter bee plant in South Africa. The nectar is dilute (approx. 20% w/w), but the crop contents of bees captured on flowers ar...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Nicolson SW,Human H

更新日期：2008-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Animals living around humans may habituate to us, but little is known about the consequences of this habituation. Some wildlife managers assume that habituation to humans makes individuals less likely to respond to natural predators, which is something to be avoided in captive breeding programmes where animals are des...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Coleman A,Richardson D,Schechter R,Blumstein DT

更新日期：2008-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:While we can usually understand the impacts of invasive species on recipient communities, invasion biology lacks methodologies that are potentially more predictive. Such tools should ideally be straightforward and widely applicable. Here, we explore an approach that compares the functional responses (FRs) of invader a...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bollache L,Dick JT,Farnsworth KD,Montgomery WI

更新日期：2008-04-23 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：:Predicting the spread of wildlife disease is critical for identifying populations at risk, targeting surveillance and designing proactive management programmes. We used a landscape genetics approach to identify landscape features that influenced gene flow and the distribution of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Wiscon...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Blanchong JA,Samuel MD,Scribner KT,Weckworth BV,Langenberg JA,Filcek KB

更新日期：2008-02-23 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：:Lateralization is a well-described phenomenon in humans and other vertebrates and there are interesting parallels across a variety of different vertebrate species. However, there are only a few studies of lateralization in invertebrates. In a recent report, we showed lateralization of olfactory learning in the honeybe...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Letzkus P,Boeddeker N,Wood JT,Zhang SW,Srinivasan MV

更新日期：2008-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Wolves from the Great Lakes area were historically decimated due to habitat loss and predator control programmes. Under the protection of the US Endangered Species Act, the population has rebounded to approximately 3000 individuals. We show that the pre-recovery population was dominated by mitochondrial DNA haplotypes...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Leonard JA,Wayne RK

更新日期：2008-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Since the modern evolutionary synthesis was first proposed early in the twentieth century, attention has focused on assessing the relative contribution of mutation versus natural selection on protein evolution. Here we test a model that yields general quantitative predictions on rates of protein evolution by combining...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gillooly JF,McCoy MW,Allen AP

更新日期：2007-12-22 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：:We examined the impact of winner and loser effects on dominance hierarchy formation when individuals are capable of estimating their opponent's resource holding power (RHP). The accuracy of such estimates was a variable in our simulations, and we considered cases in which all individuals err within the same bounds, as...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dugatkin LA,Dugatkin AD

更新日期：2007-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Although over 50 twin and adoption studies have been performed on the genetic architecture of antisocial behaviour, far fewer studies have investigated prosocial behaviour, and none have done so on a non-western population. The present study examined mothers' ratings of prosocial behaviour in 514 pairs of 2- to 9-year...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hur YM,Rushton JP

更新日期：2007-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The shape of the association between age and the cost of reproduction varies across species. However, it is unclear whether there are any general patterns in the way the cost of reproduction varies with life history, taxon or ecological function. Using a simple theoretical method, we identified three characteristic pa...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Proaktor G,Milner-Gulland EJ,Coulson T

更新日期：2007-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The risk of parasitism is considered to be a general cost of sociality and individuals living in larger groups are typically considered to be more likely to be infected with parasites. However, contradictory results have been reported for the relationship between group size and infection by directly transmitted parasi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bordes F,Blumstein DT,Morand S

更新日期：2007-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:In April 2006, a dedicated survey of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) was conducted on the former whaling ground in West Greenland to determine the current wintering population abundance. This effort included a double platform aerial survey design, satellite tracking of the movements of nine whales, and estimation ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Heide-Jørgensen MP,Laidre K,Borchers D,Samarra F,Stern H

更新日期：2007-10-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The outcomes of agonistic interactions modulate access to resources and thereby affect fitness. Success in agonistic encounters may depend on intrinsic physical and physiological performance, and on social experience. Here we test the hypothesis that previous experience will override physical strength in determining t...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Seebacher F,Wilson RS

更新日期：2007-10-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) suffered a sharp population decline over much of its European distribution range in the middle of the twentieth century. Still declining in some areas, the species has recently experienced a notable population recovery in certain regions. We examined the genetic diversity variation ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ortego J,Aparicio JM,Calabuig G,Cordero PJ

更新日期：2007-10-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Increasing numbers of climbers are attempting Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. We compiled interview data and computed the probabilities of summiting and of dying as a function of climber age and gender (2211 climbers, spring season) for the period of 1990-2005. Men and women had similar odds of summiting...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Huey RB,Salisbury R,Wang JL,Mao M

更新日期：2007-10-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Although the adaptive value of flight may seem obvious, it is the most difficult behaviour of birds to monitor. Here, we describe a technique to quantify the frequency and the duration of flights over several months by implanting a data logger that records heart rate (fH), hydrostatic pressure (diving depth) and the b...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pelletier D,Guillemette M,Grandbois JM,Butler PJ

更新日期：2007-08-22 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：:The past population dynamics of four domestic and one wild species of bovine were estimated using Bayesian skyline plots, a coalescent Markov chain Monte Carlo method that does not require an assumed parametric model of demographic history. Four domestic species share a recent rapid population expansion not visible in...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Finlay EK,Gaillard C,Vahidi SM,Mirhoseini SZ,Jianlin H,Qi XB,El-Barody MA,Baird JF,Healy BC,Bradley DG

更新日期：2007-08-22 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：:The evolution of fluorescence is largely unexplored, despite the newfound occurrence of this phenomenon in a variety of organisms. We document that spiders fluoresce under ultraviolet illumination, and find that the expression of this trait varies greatly among taxa in this species-rich group. All spiders we examined ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Andrews K,Reed SM,Masta SE

更新日期：2007-06-22 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：: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：:Reciprocity constitutes the prevalent mating mechanism among simultaneous hermaphrodites. Yet, when copulations in the female role confer fitness costs through male manipulation, it becomes advantageous sometimes to mate unilaterally in the male role only. In the sea slug Siphopteron quadrispinosum, acting males stab ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Anthes N,Michiels NK

更新日期：2007-04-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The evolution of visual warning signals is well known in animals but has received scant attention in plants. The coevolutionary hypothesis is the most influential hypothesis on warning signals in plants proposing that red and yellow leaf colours in autumn signal defensive strength to herbivores. So far, evidence in su...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Schaefer HM,Rolshausen G

更新日期：2007-02-22 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