Oxygen plays a crucial role in energetic metabolism of most eukaryotes. Yet, adaptations to low oxygen concentrations leading to anaerobiosis have independently arisen in many eukaryotic lineages, resulting in a broad spectrum of reduced and modified mitochondrial organelles (MROs). In this study, we present the discovery of two new class-level lineages of free-living marine anaerobic ciliates, Muranotrichea, cl. nov. and Parablepharismea, cl. nov., that, together with the class Armophorea, form a major clade of obligate...

Genetic diversity within and among 42 native populations of Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) was characterized within two regions, the eastern Mediterranean and the western Mediterranean. Two hypotheses were tested for the genetic diversity of these populations: 1) populations from the eastern Mediterranean are more genetically diverse compared with populations to the west, a potential consequence of the species’ westward dispersal with the spread of agriculture and 2) populations across the Mediterranean contain comparable genetic diversity but...

Natural sensory environments, despite strong potential for structuring systems, have been neglected in ecological theory. Here, we test the hypothesis that intense natural acoustic environments shape animal distributions and behavior by broadcasting whitewater river noise in montane riparian zones for two summers. We find that both birds and bats avoid areas with high sound levels, while birds avoid frequencies that overlap with birdsong, and bats avoid higher frequencies more generally. Behaviorally, intense sound levels decrease...

Expansion of anthropogenic noise and night-lighting across our planet is of increasing conservation concern Despite growing knowledge of physiological and behavioural responses to these stimuli from single-species and local-scale studies, whether these pollutants affect fitness is less clear, as is how and why species vary in their sensitivity to these anthropic stressors. Here, we leverage a large citizen science dataset paired with high-resolution noise and light data from across the contiguous United States to assess...

Burgeoning urbanization, development and human activities have led to reduced opportunities for nature experience in quiet acoustic environments. Increasing noise affects both humans and wildlife alike. We experimentally altered human-caused sound levels in a paired study using informational signs that encouraged quiet behaviours in week-on, week-off blocks on the trail system of Muir Woods National Monument, California, USA to test if the soundscape influences both wildlife and human experiences. Using continuous measurements from acoustic recording...

Despite broad recognition that water is a major limiting factor in arid ecosystems, we lack an empirical understanding of how this resource is shared and distributed among neighboring plants. Intraspecific variability can further contribute to this variation via divergent life-history traits, including root architecture. We investigated these questions in the shrub Artemisia tridentata and hypothesized that the ability to access and utilize surface water varies among subspecies and cytotypes. We used an isotope tracer to...

Three-element infrasound arrays installed at El Reventador volcano, in Ecuador, for monitoring and scientific purposes. Since 2015, we have progressively installed 3 infrasound arrays within 4 km of the summit. Data are mainly from infraBSU sensors connected to REF TEK 130 and DATA-CUBE digitizers. However, there are intermittent data from Trillium Compact 130 and MB2005 sensors connected to Quanterra Q330 digitizers.

DNA replication is a ubiquitous, complex, and conserved cellular process. However, regulation of DNA replication is only understood in a small fraction of organisms that poorly represent the diversity of genetic systems in nature. Here we used a combination of computational and experimental approaches to examine the function and evolution of one such system, the replication band (RB) in spirotrich ciliates, which is a localized, motile hub that traverses the macronucleus while replicating DNA. We...

Novel anthropogenic noise has received considerable attention in behavioral ecology, but natural acoustic environments have largely been ignored as ecological niche axes. In riparian sites, within an arid sagebrush steppe ecosystem, we use a natural range of acoustic environments along with experimentally broadcasted whitewater river noise to test our hypothesis that river noise is an important niche axis. We show that orb-weaving spiders (Araneidae and Tetragnathidae) are more abundant in high sound level environments, but...

Artificial nightlight is increasingly recognized as an important environmental disturbance that influences the habitats and fitness of numerous species. However, its effects on wide-ranging vertebrates and their interactions remain unclear. Light pollution has the potential to amplify land-use change, and as such, answering the question of how this sensory stimulant affects behavior and habitat use of species valued for their ecological roles and economic impacts is critical for conservation and land-use planning. Here, we combined...

Telomere length dynamics are an established biomarker of health and aging in animals. The study of telomeres in numerous species has been facilitated by methods to measure telomere length by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). In this method, telomere length is determined by quantifying the amount of telomeric DNA repeats in a sample and normalizing this to the total amount of genomic DNA. This normalization requires the development of genomic reference primers suitable for qPCR, which...

Identifying population genetic structure is useful for inferring evolutionary process as well as defining subspecies boundaries and/or conservation units that can aid in species management. The American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is a widespread species with two described North American subspecies, (F. s. sparverius and F. s. paulus), the latter in the southeastern United States and the former across the remainder of its distribution. In many parts of their range, American kestrels have been declining, but...