Genomic data from historical specimens can provide insights into populations and processes no longer evident from modern samples. Identifying viable sources of historical DNA is key to this. Here we aimed to explore the viability of trophy hunting paws as sources of historical DNA, and to use this data for preliminary analyses to evaluate changes in population structuring over time. We aimed to search for the presence of genom...

Plants host diverse assemblages of fungi on their foliar tissues, both in internal compartments and on exterior surfaces. When plant distributions shift, they can move with their fungal associates (i.e., co‐introduction) or acquire new associates present in the novel environment (host‐jumping). The fungal communities that plants acquire influence a plant's ability to establish and spread in this new environment. Here, we aimed...

Viviparous rockfishes ( Sebastes spp., family Scorpaenidae) mate and store sperm in the ovaries for several months prior to fertilization, as oocytes develop for the parturition season. Although multiple paternity has been documented in single‐brooding rockfishes, paternity in consecutive broods of multiple‐brooding species has not been studied. Analyses of multilocus microsatellite genotypes in both residual larvae left in th...

The population of harbor seals ( Phoca vitulina vitulina ) along the coast of Maine, U.S.A., has experienced rapid growth in abundance following passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 but current information on trends in abundance is lacking. In this study, we apply a Bayesian hierarchical model to aerial survey data of nonpups and pups. Prior to 2001, estimates of growth rates from 8‐year moving averages reached...

The application of metabarcoding to environmental and invertebrate‐derived DNA (eDNA and iDNA) is a new and increasingly applied method for monitoring biodiversity across a diverse range of habitats. This approach is particularly promising for sampling in the biodiverse humid tropics, where rapid land‐use change for agriculture means there is a growing need to understand the conservation value of the remaining mosaic and degra...

Aim Climate variability threatens to destabilize production in many ecosystems. Asynchronous species dynamics may buffer against such variability when a decrease in performance by some species is offset by an increase in performance of others. However, high climatic variability can eliminate species through stochastic extinctions or cause similar stress responses among species that reduce buffering. Local conditions, such as s...

Marine species with pelagic larvae typically exhibit little population structure, suggesting long‐distance dispersal and high gene flow. Directly quantifying dispersal of marine fishes is challenging but important, particularly for the design of marine protected areas (MPAs). Here, we studied kelp rockfish ( Sebastes atrovirens ) sampled along ~25 km of coastline in a boundary current‐dominated ecosystem and used genetic paren...

Summary We reconstructed the complete 2.4 Mb‐long genome of a previously uncultivated epsilonproteobacterium, C andidatus Sulfuricurvum sp. RIFRC ‐1, via assembly of short‐read shotgun metagenomic data using a complexity reduction approach. Genome‐based comparisons indicate the bacterium is a novel species within the S ulfuricurvum genus, which contains one cultivated representative, S . kujiense . Divergence between the speci...

Invasive plants provide ample opportunity to study evolutionary shifts that occur after introduction to novel environments. However, although genetic characters pre‐dating introduction can be important determinants of later success, large‐scale investigations of historical genetic structure have not been feasible. Common ragweed ( A mbrosia artemisiifolia L .) is an invasive weed native to N orth A merica that is known for its...