Spider Major Ampullate (MA) silk, with its combination of strength and extensibility, outperforms any synthetic equivalents. There is thus much interest in understanding its underlying materiome. While expression of the different silk proteins (spidroins) appears an integral component of silk performance, our understanding of the nature of the relationship between the spidroins, their constituent amino acids, and MA silk mechanics is ambiguous. To provide clarity on these relationships across spider species we performed a meta-analysis...

The global aquarium trade can introduce alien freshwater invaders, potentially impacting local aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity. The role of the aquarium trade in spreading freshwater red macroalgae that hitchhike on ornamental aquatic plants and animals is unassessed. We investigated this human-mediated phenomenon via a broad biodiversity survey and genetic analysis of freshwater red algae in the field and aquarium shops in East Asia. Results We found 26 molecular operational taxonomic units (mOTUs) in Taiwan,...

The degree that individuals migrate among particular breeding, migration, and wintering sites can have important implications for prioritizing conservation efforts. Four subspecies of Dunlin (Calidris alpina) migrate along the East Asian−Australasian Flyway (EAAF). Each subspecies has a distinct and well-defined breeding range, but their migration and winter ranges are poorly defined or unknown. We assessed the migratory connectivity of 3 of these subspecies by evaluating a dataset that encompasses 57 years (1960–2017), and comprises more...

Variation in lighting environments creates different demands of visual systems for the successful detection and interpretation of visual signals in a given setting. Eye size is a critical property of the visual system as it is has strong effects on visual acuity and visual sensitivity. While many comparative studies have examined eye size across fishes that live in disparate lighting environments (i.e., caves versus surface habitats, mesopelagic versus pelagic depths, turbid versus clear water), fewer...