A fluctuating environment may be perceived as a composition of different environments, or as an environment per se, in which it is the fluctuation itself that poses a selection pressure. If so, then organisms may adapt to this alternation. We tested this using experimental populations of spider mites that have been evolving for 45 generations in a homogeneous environment (pepper or tomato plants), or in a heterogeneous environment composed of an alternation of these two...

Parasite population structure is often thought to be largely shaped by that of its host. In the case of a parasite with a complex life cycle, two host species, each with their own patterns of demography and migration, spread the parasite. However, the population structure of the parasite is predicted to resemble only that of the most vagile host species. In this study we tested this prediction in the context of a vector-transmitted parasite. We...

The SHARE European Earthquake Catalogue (SHEEC) 1000-1899 has been compiled in the frame of the EC project "SHARE" (Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe; 2009-2012).nIt relies on the experience of the EC I3 project "Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology" (NERIES; 2006-2010), a module of which was dedicated to create the Europeann"Archive of Historical Earthquake Data" (AHEAD) and to establish methodologies to homogenously derive earthquake parameters from macroseismic data.nAHEAD has supplied the final earthquake list,...

In the 19th century, the British polecat suffered a demographic contraction, as a consequence of direct persecution, reaching its lowest population in the years that preceded the First World War. The polecat is now recovering and expanding throughout Britain, but introgressive hybridization with feral ferrets has been reported, which could be masking the true range of the polecat and introducing domestic genes into the species. We used a fragment of the mitochondrial DNA control region...

Background: Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells have unique properties favorable to their use in clinical practice and have been studied for cardiac repair. However, these cells are larger than coronary microvessels and there is controversy about the risk of embolization and microinfarctions, which could jeopardize the safety and efficacy of intracoronary route for their delivery. The index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) is an invasive method for quantitatively assessing the coronary microcirculation status. Objectives: To examine heart microcirculation...

Analytical methods that apply coalescent theory to multilocus data have improved inferences of demographic parameters that are critical to understanding population divergence and speciation. In particular, at the early stages of speciation, it is important to implement models that accommodate conflicting gene trees, and benefit from the presence of shared polymorphisms. Here, we employ eleven nuclear loci and the mitochondrial control region to investigate the phylogeography and historical demography of the pelagic seabird White-faced Storm-petrel...

Avian malaria has historically played an important role as a model in the study of human malaria, being a stimulus for the development of medical parasitology. Avian malaria has recently come back to the research scene as a unique animal model to understand the ecology and evolution of the disease, both in the field and in the laboratory. Avian malaria is highly prevalent in birds and mosquitoes around the world and is amenable to laboratory...

1. Exotic tree species are widely used in forest plantations for their often high productivity and performance compared to native trees. However, these advantages may be compromised by herbivore damage. 2. A list of European insect species that have expanded their host range to one of 28 exotic tree species introduced to Europe was compiled from a systematic literature review. The number of successful expansions was analysed using three predictors: (1) phylogenetic relatedness between exotic...

Reproductive interference is considered a strong ecological force, potentially leading to species exclusion. This supposes that the net effect of reproductive interactions is strongly negative for one, or both, of the species involved. Testing this requires a comprehensive analysis of interspecific reproductive interactions, accounting for the order and timing of mating events, and for their effects on either fertility or fecundity. To this aim, we measured reproductive interactions among spider mites, using a focal species,...

Online evolution of behavioural control on real robots is an open-ended approach to autonomous learning and adaptation: robots have the potential to automatically learn new tasks and to adapt to changes in environmental conditions, or to failures in sensors and/or actuators. However, studies have so far almost exclusively been carried out in simulation because evolution in real hardware has required several days or weeks to produce capable robots. In this article, we successfully evolve neural...

Individuals in free-living animal populations generally differ substantially in reproductive success, lifespan and other fitness-related traits and the molecular mechanisms underlying this variation are poorly understood. Telomere length and dynamics are candidate traits explaining this variation, as long telomeres predict a higher survival probability and telomere loss has been shown to reflect experienced “life stress”. However, telomere dynamics among very long-lived species are unresolved. Additionally, it is generally not well understood how telomeres relate with...

The lunar cycle is believed to strongly influence the vertical distribution of many oceanic taxa, with implications for the foraging behaviour of nocturnal marine predators. Most studies to date testing lunar effects on foraging have focused on predator activity at-sea, with some birds and marine mammals demonstrating contrasting behavioural patterns, depending on the lunar-phase. However, to date no study has focused on how the lunar cycle might actually affect predator-prey interactions in the upper layers...

There is considerable evidence for an adaptive role of inversions, but how their genetic content evolves and affects the subsequent evolution of chromosomal polymorphism remains controversial. Here, we track how life-history traits, chromosomal arrangements and 22 microsatellites, within and outside inversions, change in three replicated populations of Drosophila subobscura for 30 generations of laboratory evolution since founding from the wild. The dynamics of fitness-related traits indicated adaptation to the new environment concomitant with directional evolution...

Spider mites are severe pests of several annual and perennial crops worldwide, often causing important economic damages. As rapid evolution of pesticide resistance in this group hampers the efficiency of chemical control, alternative control strategies, such as the use of entomopathogenic fungi, are being developed. However, while several studies have focused on the evaluation of the control potential of different fungal species and/or isolates as well as their compatibility with other control methods (e.g. predators...

Dispersal ecology is a topical discipline that involves understanding and predicting plant community responses to multiple drivers of global change. Propagule movements that entail long-distance dispersal (LDD) events are crucial for plants to reach and colonize suitable sites across fragmented landscapes. Yet, LDD events are extremely rare, and thus, obtaining reliable estimates of the maximum distances that propagules move across and of their frequency has been a long-lasting challenge in plant ecology. Recent advances in...

Seasonal decline in breeding performance is a commonly observed pattern in birds, but disentangling the contributions of environmental conditions (“timing” hypothesis) and individual quality (“quality” hypothesis) to such a pattern is challenging. Moreover, despite the strong selection for early breeding, the individual optimization model predicts that each individual has an optimal breeding window. We investigated the causes and consequences of laying decisions in the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) by combining a long-term dataset on reproductive...

The complexity and spatio–temporal scale of populations’ dynamics influence how populations respond to large-scale ecological pressures. Detecting and attributing synchrony (i.e. temporally coincident fluctuations in populations’ parameters) is key as synchronous populations can become more vulnerable to stochastic events that can affect the viability of harvest and have profound consequences to community structure. Here, we aimed to estimate the level of synchrony in fish growth within and among species across 1 million km2 and identify...

Speciation is a fundamental process in evolution and crucial to the formation of biodiversity. It is a continuous and complex process, which can involve multiple interacting barriers leading to heterogeneous genomic landscapes with various peaks of divergence among populations. In this study, we used a population genomics approach to gain insights on the speciation process and to understand the population structure within the genus Sousa across its distribution in the Indo-Pacifc region. We found 5...

Animal pollination is critical for maintaining the reproduction and genetic diversity of many plant species, especially those in tropical ecosystems. Despite the threat to pollination posed by tropical deforestation, it remains an understudied process. In particular, little is known about these dynamics in multi-paternal, successional plant species whose fruits can contain substantial genetic diversity. Given the importance of successional plants in reforestation, quantifying the factors that impact their reproduction is essential for understanding plant gene...

Aim: Mountains are biodiversity hotspots and are among the most sensitive eco- systems to ongoing global change being thus of conservation concern. Under this scenario, assessing how biological communities vary over time along elevational gra- dients and the relative effects of niche-based deterministic processes and stochastic events in structuring assemblages is essential. Here, we examined how the temporal trends of bird communities vary with elevation over a 20 year-period (1999–2018). We also tested for differences...

Inter-individual variation in behaviour has been recognised as a major driver of population ecology, but its relationship to migratory strategy has been ill-explored. Here, we investigated whether male migrant and resident Cory’s Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis), a long-lived partially migratory seabird, are distinguishable by their temperament at the colony. We tracked a large number of individuals over two winters using GLS devices and assessed whether exploratory behaviour and reaction to extraction from the nest corresponded to...

Finding more efficient ways to monitor, and estimate the diversity of, mammalian communities is a major step towards their management and conservation. Environmental DNA (eDNA) from river water has recently been shown to be a viable method for biomonitoring mammalian communities. Yet, most of the studies to date have focused on the potential for eDNA to detect individual species, with little focus on describing patterns of community diversity and structure. In this study, we focus...

Our understanding of trophic interactions of small insectivorous mammals has been drastically improved with the advent of DNA metabarcoding. The technique has continued to be optimised over the years, with primer choice repeatedly being a vital factor for dietary inferences. However, the majority of dietary studies examining the effect of primer choice often rely on in silico analyses or comparing between species that occupy an identical niche type. Here we apply DNA metabarcoding to empirically...

Much has been learned about the genetics of aging from studies in model organisms, but still little is known about naturally occurring alleles that contribute to variation in longevity. For example, analysis of mutants and transgenes has identified insulin signaling as a major regulator of longevity, yet whether standing variation in this pathway underlies microevolutionary changes in lifespan and correlated fitness traits remains largely unclear. Here we have analyzed the genomes of a set of...

Key message: Ambrosia beetles are emerging globally as important agents of tree death and decline. In this work, we observed highly variable attack intensity by ambrosia beetles in cork oak stands in Tunisia. A correlation between the proportion of infested trees and average temperature was found. Tree diameter and tree phytosanitary variables further contribute to the attack densities of ambrosia beetles. Results can be relevant for preventive measures aiming to conserve this natural forest heritage....