This exploratory qualitative study utilizes a conceptual content analysis to better understand the prog-left media ecosystem. Prog-left media is short for the progressive left media in the U.S. The use of the term, “progressive” distinguishes them from the center left of the American political spectrum. We performed two rounds of coding on seven prog-left programs that appeared between June 2019 and January 2021. During the second cycle of coding, we used pattern coding to categorize...

Montane meadows are highly productive ecosystems that contain high densities of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). However, anthropogenic disturbances that lead to channel incision and disconnected floodplain hydrology have altered the C balance of many meadows, converting them from net C sinks to net sources of C to the atmosphere. Restoration efforts designed to reconnect floodplain hydrology may slow rates of soil C loss from degraded meadows and restore conditions for C sequestration and...

Abstract Nevada, like the rest of the United States, is undergoing substantial challenges with opioid misuse and overdose deaths, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While much of the attention around opioid overdose prevention is centered on treatment and recovery, it is important to understand the factors that influence initiation of use, and the function opioids play in people’s everyday lives. We conducted qualitative semi-structured individual interviews using purposive and snowball sampling among 35 people...

Additional file 2: Table A2. Description of the Linear Regression Syntax for SAS.

Some invasive ants have worldwide distributions and impose substantial impacts on human society and native biodiversity. Yet we know little about how ants impact soil ecosystems in general, much less how soil ecosystems shift when invasive ants move in. We excavated the coarse roots of a monodominant savanna tree in invaded and uninvaded areas to test the hypothesis that the presence of invasive ants would be associated with changes in root distribution and biomass across...

Estimating the direction of ambient fluid flow is a crucial step during chemical plume tracking for flying and swimming animals. How animals accomplish this remains an open area of investigation. Recent calcium imaging with tethered flying Drosophila has shown that flies encode the angular direction of multiple sensory modalities in their central complex: orientation, apparent wind (or airspeed) direction, and direction of. Here we describe a general framework for how these three sensory modalities can...

The microbiome is critical to an organism’s phenotype, and its composition is shaped by, and a driver of, eco-evolutionary interactions. We investigated how host ancestry, habitat, and diet shape gut microbial composition in a mammalian hybrid zone that occurs across an ecotone between distinct vegetation communities. We found that habitat is the primary determinant of diet, while host genotype is the primary determinant of the gut microbiome—a finding further supported by intermediate microbiome composition in...

Additional file 2: Table A2. Description of the Linear Regression Syntax for SAS.

Abstract Background Definitive evidence shows sedentary time (ST) is an independent risk factor for chronic disease, irrespective of physical activity. Despite calls to limit youth ST, studies demonstrate a spike in ST at the transition from childhood to adolescence. Identifying periods of the day (e.g., before school, during school, afterschool, and evenings) during which ST is higher in adolescents vs. children—that is, specifying when within daily routines ST disparities emerge—may be important to inform intervention...

In this research, we examine and identify the implications of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on a range of health outcomes, with particular focus on a number of mental health disorders. Many previous studies observed that traumatic childhood events are linked to long-term adult diseases using the standard Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire. The study cohort was derived from the Healthy Nevada Project, a volunteer-based population health study in which each adult participant is invited to take...

Abstract Sexual selection is central to many theories on mate selection and individual behavior. Relatively little is known, however, about the impacts that human-induced rapid environmental change are having on secondary sexually selected characteristics. Honest signals function as an indicator of mate quality when there are differences in nutrient acquisition and are thus potentially sensitive to anthropogenically altered nutrient inputs. We used the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), to investigate differences in...

1. Population growth and fitness are typically most sensitive to adult survival in long-lived species, but variation in recruitment often explains most of the variation in fitness, as past selection has canalized adult survival. Estimating juvenile survival until age of independence has proven challenging, because marking individuals in this age class may directly affect survival. For Greater Sage-grouse, uniquely marking juveniles in the first days of life likely results in adverse effects to survival, detection...

1. Non-native ungulate grazing has negatively impacted native species across the globe, leading to massive loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Despite their pervasiveness, interactions between non-native grazers and native species are not fully understood. We often observe declines in demography or survival of these native species, but lack understanding about the mechanisms underlying these declines. Physiological stress represents one mechanism of (mal)adaptation but data are sparse. 2. We investigated glucocorticoid levels in a native...

1. Harvest of wild organisms is an important component of human culture, economy, and recreation, but can also put species at risk of extinction. Decisions that guide successful management actions therefore rely on the ability of researchers to link changes in demographic processes to the anthropogenic actions or environmental changes that underlie variation in demographic parameters. 2. Ecologists often use population models or maximum sustained yield curves to estimate the impacts of harvest on wildlife...

Supplemental feeding of wild animal populations is popular across many areas of the world and has long been considered beneficial, especially to avian taxa. Over four billion dollars are spent by hobby bird feeders in the United States each year alone. However, there is mixed evidence whether wildlife feeding is beneficial, including when it is implemented as a conservation management tool, a targeted experimental design, or an avocation. Much of the current evidence suggests that...

1. Maternally transmitted microbes are ubiquitous. In insects, maternal microbes can play a role in mediating the insect immune response. Less is known about how ecological factors, such as resource use, interact with maternal microbes to affect immunity. 2. In the context of a recent colonization of a novel host plant by the Melissa blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa), we investigated the interaction between host plant use and vertically transmitted, extracellular egg-associated microbes in determining the...

Non-native grazers compete with native species across the globe. In the northwestern Great Basin of the western United States competition among livestock, feral horses, and Greater Sage-grouse has been the subject of numerous legal actions and management policies, yet spatially explicit temporal data documenting the details of this competition are lacking. We present a novel approach to studying the composition of the herbaceous understory across three study areas within the Great Basin with different historic...

Understanding the contribution of neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes to population differences is often necessary for better-informed management and conservation of rare species. In this study, we focused on Pinus torreyana Parry (Torrey pine), one of the world’s rarest pines, endemic to one island and one mainland population in California. Small population size, low genetic diversity, and susceptibility to abiotic and biotic stresses suggest Torrey pine may benefit from inter-population genetic rescue to preserve the...

Abstract Background Definitive evidence shows sedentary time (ST) is an independent risk factor for chronic disease, irrespective of physical activity. Despite calls to limit youth ST, studies demonstrate a spike in ST at the transition from childhood to adolescence. Identifying periods of the day (e.g., before school, during school, afterschool, and evenings) during which ST is higher in adolescents vs. children—that is, specifying when within daily routines ST disparities emerge—may be important to inform intervention...

Additional file 1: Semi-structured interview guide.

Additional file 1: Table A1. Accelerometer Data Processing Specifications [35, 36].

Analyses of the factors shaping genetic variation in widespread plant species are important for understanding evolutionary history and local adaptation and have applied significance for guiding conservation and restoration decisions. Thurber’s needlegrass (Achnatherum thurberianum) is a widespread, locally abundant grass that inhabits heterogeneous arid environments of western North America and is of restoration significance. It is a common component of shrubland steppe communities in the Great Basin Desert, where drought, fire, and invasive grasses have...

Herbivory by wild and domestic ungulates can influence tree recruitment and understory forest communities throughout the world. Herbivore-driven declines in tree recruitment have been observed for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), a foundation species whose health and management is recognized as a critical priority throughout much of its range. Livestock fencing is commonly used to promote aspen regeneration, but its effectiveness is rarely assessed, especially across large spatial scales. Using a livestock-reduction experiment, we evaluated the...

Aim: Intraspecific trait variation is fundamental to understanding a species’ adaptive capacity. Assessing phenotypic variation at different ecological scales is useful for evaluating species’ vulnerability to changing environmental conditions. Here we quantify the ecological scale of variation of phenotypic functional traits for a widespread dryland tree species in the western United States, Pinus monophylla, and evaluate the strength of trait-environment relationships across spatial gradients and in response to interannual variability in weather conditions. Location: Western...

Abstract The impact of fertility decline on economic development remains central to population studies. Recent scholarship emphasizes parental investment in education as a mediator. We further develop the theoretical foundation, and empirical evidence, for the role of child health—specifically how fertility changes promote children’s physical and cognitive development and thereby complement human capital accumulation through educational gains. We test this using a two-generation model applied to Indonesian longitudinal data from 1993 to 2015. Characteristics of...