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A substantial literature has developed on facultative endosymbionts of insects, often portrayed as having large effects on their hosts, ranging from mutualistic to parasitic. The aphid endosymbiont Regiella insecticola occurs naturally in Myzus persicae and has potential biocontrol applications. Here, we examined the effects of native Regiella in two clones of M. persicae from Australia collected two decades apart, to assess w...
Calibration of the species threat abatement and restoration metric's threat abatement component in a Costa Rican landscapeNARA Subscribed
Achieving global conservation policy goals requires the ability to set and measure progress toward science‐based targets for biodiversity. The species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric was developed to enable actors to set science‐based targets for species. STAR scores quantify the potential contribution of actions to abate threats and restore habitat to reduce species extinction risk in a particular place and can...
Interpretable deep learning reveals spatiotemporal MRI features of brain aging that align with neurodegenerationNARA Subscribed
Cortical thinning and atrophy are hallmarks of brain aging that have been characterized using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Brain aging involves many neuroanatomic features whose effects on brain structure remain unexplored. To address this challenge, we trained interpretable deep neural networks (DNNs) to estimate brain age (BA) from T 1 -weighted ( T 1 w) MRI. By identifying MRI features unapparent to humans, DNNs can fi...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) disproportionately affects women and carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4), yet little is known about how sex and APOE interact to influence white matter (WM) integrity during disease progression. We integrated diffusion MRI and matched blood transcriptomic data to investigate these interactions and their underlying biological mechanisms. WM microstructure was quantified using diffusion te...
Measuring Fluxes of Nitrous Oxide ( N 2 O ) From an Intensively Farmed Wasted Peatland Field in the UK Using the Eddy Covariance MethodNARA Subscribed
While the number of studies quantifying emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) from peatland farming has increased in recent years, high uncertainty regarding the magnitude and drivers of emissions of the powerful GHG nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from farmed peatland soils remains. This study used eddy covariance to measure fluxes of N 2 O over a 3‐year period from a commercial farm in the...
Endosymbionts impact ladybird predation rates of aphids in a temperature-dependent mannerNARA Subscribed
Aphids are pests that cause major economic losses to growers on a global scale. Current management strategies rely heavily on pesticides, but some effective pesticides are being withdrawn, and the efficiency of remaining pesticides is decreasing, as aphids build up resistance. Biological control using predators can provide an important sustainable alternative to pesticides under some circumstances, and the deliberate introduct...
Predicting the progression of MCI and Alzheimer’s disease on structural brain integrity and other features with machine learningNARA Subscribed
Machine learning (ML) on structural MRI data shows high potential for classifying Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression, but the specific contribution of brain regions, demographics, and proteinopathy remains unclear. Using Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) data, we applied an extreme gradient-boosting algorithm and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) values to classify cognitively normal (CN) older adults, th...
Remotely Sensed Fire Heterogeneity and Biomass Recovery Predicts Empirical Biodiversity ResponsesNARA Subscribed
Aim To compare field‐based evidence of plant and animal responses to fire with remotely sensed signals of fire heterogeneity and post‐fire biomass recovery. Location South‐eastern Australia; New South Wales. Time Period 2019–2022. Major Taxa Studied A total of 982 species of plants and animals, in eight taxonomic groups: amphibians, birds, fish, insects, mammals, molluscs, plants and reptiles. Methods We collated 545,223 plant...
Deleterious effects of the endosymbiont Rickettsiella viridis in Myzus persicae are environmentally dependentNARA Subscribed
Endosymbionts living within insect cells can modify host fitness and could provide new tools for pest control. The endosymbiont Rickettsiella viridis has been transferred experimentally into the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, a globally important agricultural pest. This Rickettsiella spreads via vertical and horizontal transmission and induces host fitness costs which could potentially suppress pest populations. Endosymbio...
Given the United Nations’ ambitious goal—endorsed by more than 100 nations, including Canada—of protecting 30% of the world’s marine ecosystems by 2030 (UN, 2023), the need to establish, expand, and track the effectiveness of protected areas is becoming more pressing each year. Effective planning for and monitoring of marine protected areas (MPAs) rely on the availability of quality baseline ecological and oceanographic inform...
Seaweed aquaculture is gaining traction globally as a solution to many climate issues. However, seaweeds themselves are also under threat of anthropogenically driven climate change. Here, we summarize climate-related challenges to the seaweed aquaculture industry, with a focus on the developing trade in the North Atlantic. Specifically, we summarize three main challenges: i) abiotic change; ii) extreme events; and iii) disease...
Influence of genetic and environmental factors on the success of endosymbiont transfers in pest aphidsNARA Subscribed
There is increasing interest in exploring how endosymbionts could be useful in pest control, including in aphids, which can carry a diversity of endosymbionts. Endosymbionts often have a large impact on host traits, and their presence can be self‐sustaining. Identifying useful host‐endosymbiont combinations for pest control is facilitated by the transfer of specific endosymbionts into target species, particularly if the specie...
Genetic sex determination improves Canadian Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) population assessmentsNARA Subscribed
Estimating egg deposition for Atlantic salmon population assessments is made difficult by their lack of sexual dimorphism prior to the autumn spawning season. We quantified the effect of sex misclassification from subjective examination of external morphology on egg deposition estimates in four Atlantic salmon populations across multiple years. Sex classification of Canadian salmon using the genetic sex marker ( sd Y) was accu...
A diversity of endosymbionts across Australian aphids and their persistence in aphid culturesNARA Subscribed
There is increasing interest in the use of endosymbionts in pest control, which will benefit from the identification of endosymbionts from potential donor species for transfer to pest species. Here, we screened for endosymbionts in 123 Australian aphid samples across 32 species using 16S DNA metabarcoding. We then developed a qPCR method to validate the metabarcoding data set and to monitor endosymbiont persistence in aphid cu...
Motivation Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater ecosystem health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in macroecological studies and applied freshwater research is missing. We aim to fill t...