One of the most widely applicable benefits of aggregation is a per capita reduction in predation risk. Many factors can contribute to this but, for moving groups, an increased difficulty in tracking and targeting one individual amongst many has received particular attention. This “confusion effect” has been proposed to result from a bottleneck in information processing, a hypothesis supported by both modelling and experiment. If the competition for limited attention is localised to the particular...

The effects of the direct interaction between hybridization and speciation—two major contrasting evolutionary processes—are poorly understood. We present here the evolutionary history of the Galápagos marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) and reveal a case of incipient within-island speciation, which is paralleled by between-island hybridization. In-depth genome-wide analyses suggest that Amblyrhynchus diverged from its sister group, the Galápagos land iguanas, around 4.5 million years ago (Ma), but divergence among extant populations is exceedingly young (less than 50...

1. Testing restoration methods is essential for the development of restoration ecology as a science. It is also important to monitor a range of taxa, not just plants which have been the traditional focus of restoration ecology. Here we compare the effects on ground flora and leaf-miners, of two restoration practices used when restoring conifer plantations. 2. Two methods of restoration were investigated: clearfelling of plantations and the gradual thinning of conifers over time. Unrestored...

A common evolutionary response to predation pressure is increased investment in reproduction, ultimately resulting in a fast life history. Theory and comparative studies suggest that short-lived organisms invest less in defence against parasites than those that are longer lived (the pace of life hypothesis). Combining these tenets of evolutionary theory leads to the specific, untested prediction that within species, populations experiencing higher predation pressure invest less in defence against parasites. The Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata,...

High-resolution, male-inherited Y-chromosomal markers are a useful tool for population genetic analyses of wildlife species, but to date have only been applied in this context to relatively few species besides humans. Using nine Y-chromosomal STR and three Y-chromosomal single nucleotide polymorphism markers (Y-SNPs), we studied whether male gene flow was important for the recent recovery of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Northern Europe, where the species declined dramatically in numbers and geographic distribution during...

Data produced by Biolog Phenotype MicroArrays are longitudinal measurements of cells’ respiration on distinct substrates. We introduce a three-step pipeline to analyze phenotypic microarray data with novel procedures for grouping, normalization and effect identification. Grouping and normalization are standard problems in the analysis of phenotype microarrays defined as categorizing bacterial responses into active and non-active, and removing systematic errors from the experimental data, respectively. We expand existing solutions by introducing an important assumption that active...

1. Grassland for livestock production is a major form of land use throughout Europe and its intensive management threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes. Modest increases to conventional grassland biodiversity could have considerable positive impacts on the provision of ecosystem services, such as pollination, to surrounding habitats. 2. Using a field-scale experiment in which grassland seed mixes and sward management were manipulated, complemented by surveys on working farms and phytometer experiments, the impact...

Understanding the relative contributions of intrinsic and extrinsic factors to population structure and genetic diversity is a central goal of conservation and evolutionary genetics. One way to achieve this is through comparative population genetic analysis of sympatric sister taxa, which allows evaluation of intrinsic factors such as population demography and life history while controlling for phylogenetic relatedness and geography. We used ten conserved microsatellites to explore the population structure and genetic diversity of three sympatric...

In attempting to explain the marked interspecific variation evident in many components of life-history in parasitoid wasps, biologists have sought to identify general predictors of suites of ‘important’ life-history traits. Two predictors currently in general use are: (1) the parasitoid mode of larval development in relation to future host growth and development [no further host growth and development (= idiobiosis) versus continued host growth and development (= koinobiosis)]; and (2) the ovigeny index (the degree...

Bees, hoverflies and butterflies are taxa frequently studied as pollinators in agricultural and conservation contexts. Although there are many records of non-syrphid Diptera visiting flowers, they are generally not regarded as important pollinators. We use data from 30 pollen-transport networks and 71 pollinator-visitation networks to compare the importance of various flower-visiting taxa as pollen-vectors. We specifically compare non-syrphid Diptera and Syrphidae to determine whether neglect of the former in the literature is justified. We found...