The persistence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment is becoming a major health concern, yet studying their fate and behaviour in complex media is limited due to the lack of suitable analytical methods. Here we proposed that a fluorescent polyfluoroalkyl probe could enable rapid tracing and negate drawbacks associated with current techniques. We synthesised a fluorescent probe containing a maleimide motif...

Effective conservation practice requires decisions based on reliable and relevant evidence, but significant gaps in the evidence base exist. Incorporating well‐designed tests of the effectiveness of interventions for biodiversity in conservation projects is one of the best ways to scale up the rate of evidence generation. Funders of conservation projects are uniquely positioned to support and incentivize such tests as part of...

The flapper skate, Dipturus intermedius (Parnell, 1837), is a large‐bodied, slow‐growing and late‐maturing, Critically Endangered elasmobranch with a constrained population distribution. Here, we use two longitudinal community science datasets to investigate the occurrence of flapper skates in Irish waters. The two datasets are as follows: the Inland Fisheries Ireland mark‐recapture tagging programme (1972–2021; n records = 11...

With the expanding global population, interest has increased in the sustainable aquaculture development of indigenous fishes. In Hawaiʻi, the brassy chub, Kyphosus vaigiensis , has drawn interest as a candidate species for production. However, little is known about its resilience in aquaculture settings where fish are exposed to acute, husbandry‐related stressors. To address the response of brassy chub to handling stress, we c...

Trait‐based approaches to study biodiversity responses to changing environmental conditions have become popular because these approaches provide context to how and why certain taxa shift in abundance within an assemblage. Trait‐based approaches also offer the potential to link shifts in assemblage composition to effects on ecosystem functions like rates of primary production, detrital decomposition, and nutrient uptake. Howeve...

Bisphenols are a group of chemical compounds widely used in the industry, e.g., in the production of plastics, and as precursor of epoxy resins. The three bisphenols investigated in this study, namely bisphenols A (BPA), F (BPF) and S (BPS), seem to have endocrine activity in the same order of magnitude. Thus, an exposure and risk assessment was performed based on urinary concentrations of these bisphenols in 150 urine samples...

The genetic consequences of the subdivision of populations are regarded as significant to long‐term evolution, and research has shown that the scale and speed at which this is now occurring is critically reducing the adaptive potential of most species which inhabit human‐impacted landscapes. Here, we provide a rare and, to our knowledge, the first analysis of this process while it is happening and demonstrate a method of evalu...

Human biomonitoring studies are of increasing importance in regulatory toxicology; however, there is a paucity of human biomonitoring data for the Irish population. In this study, we provide new data for urinary biomarker concentrations of aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, manganese, lead and selenium. One hundred urine samples, collected between 2011 and 2014 from healthy participants of the EuroMOTOR pr...

Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant and a danger to human health. Human biomonitoring of Hg using a dried blood matrix instead of venous blood sampling for exposure assessment is of growing interest. This study aims to develop, validate, and evaluate the application of volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) for Hg biomonitoring in humans. Sampling, drying, and storage conditions were evaluated during method development. Sto...

People in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) areas are frequently exposed to high levels of mercury (Hg). Hg analyses in urine and whole blood are the gold standard of biomonitoring, although this may not provide sufficient information about the source of exposure, e.g., due to the use of Hg for gold extraction or due to nutrition. To evaluate, whether the pharmacokinetic properties of individual Hg species may be us...

Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop yield, as well as to anticipate changes in this service, develop predictions, and...

The 2019–2020 Australian Black Summer wildfires demonstrated that single events can have widespread and catastrophic impacts on biodiversity, causing a sudden and marked reduction in population size for many species. In such circumstances, there is a need for conservation managers to respond rapidly to implement priority remedial management actions for the most‐affected species to help prevent extinctions. To date, priority re...