Pollen monitoring is crucial for understanding seasonal patterns, supporting allergy diagnosis and informing early warning tools to mitigate allergic diseases. The Southern Hemisphere lacks long-term pollen seasonal data, with extremely few records from Africa. We present pollen calendars based on five years of data from South Africa. Airborne pollen from 2019 to 2024 across South African biomes was collected in seven cities u...

Fire blight, caused by the bacterial pathogen Erwinia amylovora , is a persistent problem for pear ( Pyrus spp.) growers across most production regions around the world. Growing resistant cultivars is one of the best options for managing fire blight. The resistant P. communis cultivars ‘Potomac’ and ‘Old Home’, and the hybrid selection NJA2R59T69 were used in a previous study to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) linked t...

Anthropogenic habitat transformation has led to population declines and increasing isolation of populations of many species, particularly top predators, where small and fragmented populations often experience limited dispersal and reduced genetic diversity. Jaguars ( Panthera onca ), for example, have lost half of their historical range and most populations outside the Amazon biome are small, isolated and highly threatened. He...

Keymessage Standardized microhaplotype databases for eight diverse crops enable multiallelic analyses, comparative genetics, and breeding decisions. Abstract Microhaplotypes are short genomic segments that contain multiple tightly linked variants, providing multi-allelic data that can enhance genetic resolution compared to traditional biallelic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Here, we present the creation and uti...

Objective This study aimed to determine the minimum toenail mass needed for reliable fluoride analysis, and to compare fluoride extraction efficiency (%FE) using two protocols. Methods Toenail samples (n = 98 from 11 participants) were grouped into masses ranging from 1.0 to 5.0 mg (± 0.5 mg). Fluoride content was analyzed using a hexamethyldisiloxane(HMDS)-facilitated diffusion method and a fluoride-ion selective electrode. P...

Effective marine protected area (MPA) networks require accurate knowledge of habitat distribution, yet in remote oceanic archipelagos, the logistical and financial costs of comprehensive surveys render this difficult to obtain. Species distribution models (SDMs) offer a practical alternative, however their application to MPA placement evaluation in data-deficient oceanic archipelagos remains limited. The Azores archipelago has...

This study evaluates epidote chemistry as a discriminator of and vector to skarn mineralization, based on LA-ICP-MS analyses of epidote from the Devonian Dolphin Tungsten (W) skarn and Neoproterozoic mafic volcanic rocks (up to 6.5 km northeast from the deposit) on King Island, Tasmania. Epidote from the mafic volcanics has distinctive compositions relative to skarn epidote and metamorphic signatures and records a distal footp...

Introduction Ringed seals ( Pusa hispida ) are sentinel species of Arctic change, yet baseline microbiome data across their circumpolar range remain limited. Methods We profiled nasal and anal microbiomes from 90 free-ranging ringed seals across eight Arctic and sub-Arctic locations in Canada using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Results Body site was the primary determinant of microbiome structure, with nasal and anal asse...