Conservation translocations require careful assessment of dietary resources to ensure population viability. Here, we used environmental DNA metabarcoding to characterise fungal assemblages across three major habitat types on Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia, prior to the planned reintroduction of two threatened mycophagous species: the boodie ( Bettongia lesueur ) and woylie ( Bettongia ogilbyi ). We detected 243 fungal A...

The order Carnivora is dominated by solitary predatory species, yet sociality exists across about 10–15% of species within the order. The European Badger ( Meles meles ) is a medium sized carnivore that exhibits broad plasticity in its tendency to form social groups. Across its range, populations may exist as individuals, pairs, families and multi-generational groups. The rationale for group living among species of this order...

Buccal swabs offer a minimally invasive DNA sampling method for wildlife but are often considered suboptimal for genomic applications due to low and variable DNA yields. This limitation has restricted their use in reduced-representation sequencing approaches, which typically require relatively high DNA input mass. We evaluated the utility of buccal swabs collected from Red-cockaded Woodpecker ( Dryobates borealis ) nestlings a...

Cancer genetic counseling and testing is potentially lifesaving for individuals at risk of hereditary cancers. Yet, it is severely underutilized among under-resourced Latinas. There has been limited examination of implementing cancer genetic risk screening—the first step of cancer genetic counseling and testing –via community-based organizations (CBOs) serving Latinas. This project explored multilevel barriers and facilitators...

Congenital anomalies are structural or functional abnormalities present at birth, which can be caused by genetic or environmental influences. The availability of genome sequencing has significantly increased our understanding of congenital anomalies, but linking variant identification to functional relevance and definitive diagnosis remains challenging. Many genes have unknown or poorly understood functions, and with a lack of...

As anthropogenic disturbance restructures ecological communities worldwide, ecologists have developed and tested hypotheses about which species “win” and “lose” in the face of human impacts. One heavily invoked paradigm is that of the human shield, which posits that predators avoid areas of human disturbance due to perceived risk from humans, and prey therefore seek refuge in these areas of perceived safety. Since its introduc...

Land‐use change causes community turnover via local extinction and colonisation of species, driving biotic homogenization or heterogenization at larger spatial scales. Quantification of these processes has focused on beta‐diversity metrics, which upweight rarity and overlook the role of widespread species. A key knowledge gap is understanding the impact of land‐use change on both rare and widespread species—zeta‐diversity—allo...

For sessile broadcast spawning marine invertebrates, such as corals, successful sexual reproduction depends on conspecifics spawning synchronously. The precise monthly, lunar, and diel timing and the extent of synchrony, i.e., proportion of population reproducing at the same time, are likely to play a key role in coral population recovery, persistence, and adaptation. Despite its importance, the mechanisms by which different e...