Adaptation to siliceous versus carbonate substrates is thought to be an important driver of speciation in the alpine flora. The role of the pollination system in the formation and maintenance of such species is presently unclear. Here, we chose three species pairs in the genera Gentiana , Primula , and Rhododendron which often occur in geographic proximity or even sympatry to study the existence of pollination barriers in thes...

A variety of human activities have been identified as driving factors for the release and spread of invasive earthworm species in North America. Population genetic markers can help to identify locally relevant anthropogenic vectors and provide insights into the processes of population dispersal and establishment. We sampled the invasive European earthworm species Lumbricus terrestris at nine sites and several bait shops within...

Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set, which...

The notion that procedural learning and memory is spared in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has important implications for interventions aiming to build on intact cognitive functions. However, despite these clinical implications, there are mixed findings in the literature about whether or not procedural learning remains intact. This meta-analysis examines the standard mean difference of all published studies regarding procedural lear...

The sense of smell is an essential modality for many species, in particular nocturnal and crepuscular mammals, to gather information about their environment. Olfactory cues provide information over a large range of distances, allowing behaviours ranging from simple detection and recognition of objects, to tracking trails and navigating using odour plumes from afar. In this review, we discuss the features of the natural olfacto...

Cigarette smoke (CS) exposure is one of the leading risk factors for human health. Nicotine-containing inhalable products, such as e-cigarettes, can effectively support tobacco harm reduction approaches. However, there are limited comparative data on the effects of the aerosols generated from electronic vapor products (e-vapor) and CS on bone. Here, we report the effects of e-vapor aerosols and CS on bone morphology, structure...

Aim Lumbricid earthworms are invasive across northern North America, causing notable changes in forest ecosystems. During their range expansion, they encountered harsher climatic conditions compared to their native ranges in short time (~400 years). This study investigated if (a) dispersal barriers, (b) climatic selection or (c) anthropogenic activities, that is fishing bait disposal, structure the dispersal of free‐living ear...

In this paper, we investigate the fundamental linkage between underwater electric potential (UEP) signatures and their related electric fields above the waterline, which are introduced as above water electric potential (AEP) signatures. As a first step, the field distribution for an underwater point source excitation (fundamental solution) is derived analytically, using an adjusted method of images. Subsequently a numerical ap...