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First record of piscivory in ghost pipefishes (Teleostei, Solenostomidae) revealed by micro‐computed tomographyNARA Subscribed
Ghost pipefishes (Solenostomidae) have been regarded as specialist crustacean feeders since the 1960s, an inference resting on two primary dietary accounts. We report the first documented evidence of piscivory in the family based on micro‐computed tomography (micro‐CT) examination of voucher specimens of Solenostomus snuffleupagus and S. cyanopterus . Two head‐first teleost prey, both identified as gobiids, were recovered from...
Community‐based coastal governance is essential for biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods, yet many communities continue to face significant challenges in establishing and sustaining effective governance systems. We sought to improve understanding of the current status of community‐based coastal governance across five countries in the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) region of Africa. Using the Elinor tool and dat...
Mapping wild boar density across Europe: combining spatial models and density estimatesNARA Subscribed
The wild boar population in Europe has been growing in recent decades prior to the arrival of African swine fever (ASF), which has now spread across much of eastern Europe. We obtained two independent sources of wild boar data: occurrence sightings and hunting harvest. We combined these with environmental predictors and used them in two species distribution modelling approaches, a Maxent approach for occurrence data and a GLMM...
The Toxicology Investigators Consortium 2024 Annual ReportNARA Subscribed
Xanthium cockle burrs are invasive weeds in many countries, affecting local ecosystems and agriculture. All Xanthium in Australia are naturalised weeds from multiple overseas sources, but their taxonomic identities are contentious. In particular, species identities of four burr varieties or “complexes” under Xanthium section Xanthium in Australia are unclear. These complexes, commonly referred to as “Noogoora”, “Californian”,...
Establishment, current status and possible origin of the greater white-toothed shrew Crocidura russula in Great BritainNARA Subscribed
Great Britain has three native shrews, while the greater white-toothed shrew (GWT: Crocidura russula ) is native to the European continent and some Channel islands. The GWT shrew was first reported in northern England in 2022. We detail its immediate investigation through national authorities, non-government bodies and individuals. Sixteen GWT were among 595 small mammals live-trapped. Barn owl pellet analysis revealed 56 GWT...
Biotic Mechanisms Strengthen Functional and Phylogenetic Convergence of Reef Fish Assemblages at Higher LatitudesNARA Subscribed
Aim How communities of organisms come together has long fascinated scientists, with renewed interest in using functional and evolutionary patterns to infer mechanisms of community assembly. Ecological theory predicts that biotic interactions could lead to either divergence in the event of niche partitioning or convergence through the exclusion of competitively inferior species, but most macroecological studies attribute the la...
Cross‐Continental Analysis Shows That Disturbance Effects on Reptile Body Condition Do Not Predict Abundance ResponsesNARA Subscribed
Ecological disturbances are discrete events that alter or transform the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of ecosystems. Disturbance can cause animal populations to decline and, according to the risk‐disturbance hypothesis and population collapse framework, these declines can be predicted by declines in animal body condition. However, no research has empirically examined the general relationship between body co...
Consistent Unimodal Body Length Distributions in Hundreds of Reef Fishes Across Diverse Life HistoriesNARA Subscribed
Animal body size distributions result from interactions of growth, mortality and recruitment. In ecology and fisheries science, theoretical models of fish body size distributions are widely used but rely on life‐history parameters—growth coefficient (K) and natural mortality rate (M)—that remain unknown for most species and are challenging to estimate. Analysing data from underwater visual surveys and exhaustive sampling, repr...
The efficacy of experimental intertidal living shorelines to create new reef oyster habitat and protect salt marshes from erosion has generated substantial public interest in their adoption as a nature-based solution to address coastal habitat loss. There is, however, a high degree of variability in natural shoreline physical characteristics, which are important to consider in terms of the likelihood of living shorelines reduc...
Motivation Here, we make available a second version of the BioTIME database, which compiles records of abundance estimates for species in sample events of ecological assemblages through time. The updated version expands version 1.0 of the database by doubling the number of studies and includes substantial additional curation to the taxonomic accuracy of the records, as well as the metadata. Moreover, we now provide an R packag...
Contrasting Population Trajectories of Temperate Reef Fishes and Invertebrates Following Seasonal and Multi‐Decadal Temperature ChangeNARA Subscribed
Temperature perturbations from climate change affect ecosystems through short‐term pulse events, such as heatwaves, and chronic long‐term shifts. Temperate rocky reef ecosystems have been observed to show substantial ecological change as a result of short‐term temperature fluctuations, but the longer‐term impacts of temperature change remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate temperate reef fishes and mobile invertebrates...