Although patterns of population genomic variation are well‐studied in animals, there remains room for studies that focus on non‐model taxa with unique biologies. Here we characterise and attempt to explain such patterns in mygalomorph spiders, which are generally sedentary, often occur as spatially clustered demes and show remarkable longevity. Genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data were collected for 500 indivi...

Reference ranges provide a powerful tool for diagnostic decision-making in clinical medicine and are enormously valuable for understanding normality in pre-clinical scientific research that uses in vivo models. As yet, there are no published reference ranges for electrocardiography (ECG) in the laboratory mouse. The first mouse-specific reference ranges for the assessment of electrical conduction are reported herein generated...

In the world's rivers, alteration of flow is a major driver of biodiversity decline. Global warming is now affecting the thermal and hydrological regimes of rivers, compounding the threat and complicating conservation planning. To inform management under a non‐stationary climate, we must improve our understanding of how flow and thermal regimes interact to affect the population dynamics of riverine biota. We used long‐term gro...

Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soil‐to‐atmosphere CO 2 flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration ( R S ), is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the Earth system. An increasing number of high‐frequency R S...

Although species delimitation can be highly contentious, the development of reliable methods to accurately ascertain species boundaries is an imperative step in cataloguing and describing Earth's quickly disappearing biodiversity. Spider species delimitation remains largely based on morphological characters; however, many mygalomorph spider populations are morphologically indistinguishable from each other yet have considerable...

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and the extent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (preconditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulse...

Aim We explore the evolutionary history of the ogre‐faced spiders ( Deinopis ) from their Early Cretaceous origins to present day. Specifically, we investigate how vicariance and dispersal have shaped distribution patterns of this lineage. Within the Caribbean, we test the role of GAAR landia, a hypothesized land bridge that connected South America to the Greater Antilles during the Eocene–Oligocene transition (~35–33 Ma), in...

Aim We test the hypothesis that the opening of the Western Mediterranean basin drove the diversification of the trap‐door spider genus Ummidia by reconstructing the phylogeny and inferring a temporal framework of diversification. Additionally, we assess niche interchangeability of three Ummidia species to test the role of dispersal in shaping their present‐day distribution. Location Western Mediterranean, encompassing the know...

Aim Phylogeographical studies in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts often find genetic discontinuities that pre‐date the Pleistocene. A recent synthesis of phylogeographical data, called the Mojave Assembly Model, provides a hypothesis for the historical assembly of these desert biotas but does not adequately capture the complexity of pre‐Pleistocene vicariance events. We tested this model and assessed pre‐Pleistocene divergences...

Sky islands are ideal systems for determining the effects of climatic oscillations on species distributions and genetic structure. Our study focused on montane stonefly populations in the Great Basin of western North America. We used niche‐based distribution modelling, phylogeography and traditional species‐based biogeography to test several hypotheses as follows: (i) genetic differentiation among Doroneuria baumanni populatio...