Global forest loss and fragmentation have strongly increased the frequency of forest patches smaller than a few hectares. Little is known about the biodiversity and ecosystem service supply potential of such small woodlands in comparison to larger forests. As it is widely recognized that high biodiversity levels increase ecosystem functionality and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services, small, isolated woodlands are expected to have a lower potential for ecosystem service delivery than large forests hosting...

Paternity testing using genetic markers has shown that extra-pair paternity (EPP) is common in many pair-bonded species. Evolutionary theory and empirical data show that extra-pair copulations can increase the fitness of males as well as females. This can carry a significant fitness cost for the social father, who then invests in rearing offspring that biologically are not his own. In human populations, the incidence and correlates of extra-pair paternity remain highly contentious. Here, we use...

ABSTRACT Context: Vitamin D status is usually assessed by serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Whether free 25-hydroxyvitamin D measures better correlate with various clinical outcomes is unclear. Objective: To identify correlations between total 25-hydroxyvitamin D (t25-OHD), calculated and direct measures of free 25-OHD, and to identify associations of these measures with other outcomes in children, across the 6 common GC haplotypes. Design: Healthy urban-dwelling children underwent measurement of relevant variables. Setting: Academic medical center Participants: Healthy,...

Plant diversity is an important driver of diversity at other trophic levels, suggesting that cascading extinctions could reduce overall biodiversity. Most evidence for positive effects of plant diversity comes from grasslands. Despite the fact that forests are hotspots of biodiversity, the importance of tree diversity, in particular its relative importance compared to other management related factors, in affecting forest‐associated taxa is not well known. To address this, we used data from 183 plots, located in...

Aim: Biodiversity is known to be unevenly distributed along latitudinal gradients. While this pattern has been observed for many different organisms, it is unclear whether the distributions of ecologically important belowground mutualists, such as orchid mycorrhizal fungi (OMF), also vary according to latitude. Location: Europe. Methods: We sampled 37 populations over a 3000 km latitudinal gradient of the European orchid Spiranthes spiralis to test whether the diversity and community composition of OMF are influenced by...

Electrophysiological evidence suggested primarily the involvement of area MT in depth cue integration in macaques, as opposed to human imaging data pinpointing area V3B/KO. To clarify this conundrum, we decoded monkey fMRI responses evoked by stimuli signaling near or far depths defined by binocular disparity, relative motion and their combination, and we compared results with those from an identical experiment previously performed in humans.Responses in macaque area MT are more discriminable when two cues concurrently...

Marginal agricultural land, which in the UK refers particularly to upland grazings, will see changes in management driven by markets, subsidies, grants and environmental change with implications for biodiversity. Using a large-scale, long-term grazing experiment in the UK uplands we assessed the impact of intensification (tripling sheep numbers), abandonment (removal of sheep) and grazer diversification (partial replacement of sheep by cattle) on vegetation composition in a heterogenous area of grassland. Species benefiting from increased grazing...

The human lateral occipital complex (LOC) is more strongly activated by images of objects compared to scrambled controls, but detailed information at the neuronal level is currently lacking. We recorded with microelectrode arrays in the LOC of two patients, and obtained highly selective single-unit, multi-unit and high-gamma responses to images of objects. Contrary to predictions derived from functional imaging studies, all neuronal properties indicated that the posterior subsector of LOC we recorded from occupies an...

The study of the global mass extinction event at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary can aid in understanding patterns of selective extinction and survival, and dynamics of ecosystem recovery. Outcrops in the Maastrichtian type area (southeast Netherlands, northeast Belgium) comprise an exceptionally expanded K/Pg boundary succession that offers a unique opportunity to study marine ecosystem recovery within the first thousands of years following the mass extinction event. A quantitative analyses was performed on systematically sampled macrofossils...

Computational tools that allow in silico analysis of the role of cell growth and division on photosynthesis are scarce. We present a freely available tool that combines a virtual leaf tissue generator and a two-dimensional microscale model of gas transport during C3 photosynthesis. A total of 270 mesophyll geometries were generated with varying degree of growth anisotropy, growth extent and extent of schizogenous airspace formation in the palisade mesophyll. The anatomical properties of the virtual...

The evolutionary origin of queen pheromones, which regulate reproductive division of labor in insect societies, has been explained by two evolutionary scenarios: the sender-precursor hypothesis and the sensory exploitation hypothesis. These scenarios differ in terms of whether the signaling system was built on preadaptations on the part of either the sender queens or the receiver workers. While some social insect queen pheromones – such as cuticular hydrocarbons – were likely derived from ancestral fertility cues...

While human-induced stressors such as warming and pollutants may co-occur and interact, evolutionary studies typically focus on single stressors. Rapid thermal evolution may help organisms better deal with warming, yet it remains an open question whether thermal evolution changes the toxicity of pollutants under warming. We investigated the effects of exposure to a novel pollutant (zinc oxide nanoparticles, nZnO) and 4°C warming (20°C vs 24°C) on key life history and physiological traits of the water...

Negative emotionality (NE) and positive emotionality (PE) have repeatedly shown to act as vulnerability factors for youth depression. Less research examined the mechanisms through which these reactive temperament traits may differently confer vulnerability to depression. Based on recent integrated models of depression proposing emotion regulation as a key underlying mechanism, the current study aimed to clarify the general and day-to-day relations among temperament, emotion regulation strategies, and depressive symptoms in Dutch-speaking youth (35% boys; M_age...

Pathogens represent a significant threat to human health leading to the emergence of strategies designed to help manage their negative impact. We examined how spiritual beliefs developed to explain and predict the devastating effects of pathogens and spread of infectious disease. Analysis of existing data in Studies 1 and 2 suggests that moral vitalism (beliefs about spiritual forces of evil) is higher in geographical regions characterized by historical higher levels of pathogens. Furthermore, drawing on...