We explored fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and morphological integration (MI) in the skull of the small, highly inbred and divergent Apennine bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus), to explore its uniqueness and investigate any potential effects of inbreeding depression. We used 3d geometric morphometrics contrasting 17 Apennine bears with other two large outbred bear populations (22 from Scandinavia and 9 from Kamchatka) as controls. Shape divergence and variability were explored by a PCA on aligned coordinates of 39...

Global landscapes are changing due to human activities with consequences for both biodiversity and ecosystems. For single species, terrestrial mammal population densities have shown mixed responses to human pressure, with both increasing and decreasing densities reported in the literature. How the impacts of human activities on mammal populations translates into altered global density patterns remains unclear. Here we aim to disentangle the effect of human impacts on large-scale patterns of mammal population densities using a...

Through the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and the LIFE projects financial investments, Europe has been the world’s experimental arena for biological conservation. With an estimated budget of €20 billion/year, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 has set an ambitious goal of reaching 30% Protected Areas and ensure no deterioration in conservation trends and status of all protected species. We analyzed LIFE projects focused on animals from 1992 to 2018 and we found that investment towards vertebrates...

Variation in genetic diversity across species ranges has long been recognized as highly informative for assessing populations’ resilience and adaptive potential. The spatial distribution of genetic diversity within populations, referred to as fine-scale spatial genetic structure (FSGS), also carries information about recent demographic changes, yet it has rarely been connected to range scale processes. We studied eight silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) population pairs (sites), growing at high and low elevations, representative of the main...

Like most perceptual attributes, the perception of numerosity is susceptible to adaptation, both to prolonged viewing of spatial arrays and to repeated motor actions such as hand-tapping. However, the possibility has been raised that adaptation may reflect response biases rather than modification of sensory processing. To disentangle these two possibilities, we studied visual and motor adaptation of numerosity perception while measuring confidence and reaction-times. Both sensory and motor adaptation robustly distorted numerosity estimates, and these...

Openness, flexibility, innovative approaches, digital dimension, liquidity and high granularity characterize Open Educational Resources (OERs), which therefore are grey literature par excellence. OERs possess these features to a much greater extent than does the Open Science (OS) galaxy, because the manifold constellation of education is broader and much more multifaceted and transversal than the scientific and scholarly community, that is still, for the most part, Polanyi's and Merton's autonomous Republic of Science. Indeed, the peculiarities...

In organisms with dormant stages, life-history responses to past pollution can be studied retrospectively. Here, we study such responses in a rotifer (Brachionus calyciflorus) from the once heavily copper-polluted Lake Orta (Italy). We extracted resting eggs from sediments, established clonal lineages from hatchlings, and exposed newborns of these lineages to one of three copper concentrations that each mimicked a specific period in the lake’s pollution history. For each rotifer, we daily collected life-table data. We...