Did the Romans introduce the Egyptian mongoose (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Herpestes ichneumon</Emphasis>) into the Iberian Peninsula?

New finds of bones of the Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), one from Portugal and one from Spain, were directly ¹⁴C dated to the first century AD. While the Portuguese specimen was found without connection to the Chalcolithic occupation of the Pedra Furada cave where it was recovered, the Spanish find, collected in the city of Mérida, comes from a ritual pit that also contained three human and 40 dog burials. The finds reported here show that the Egyptian mongoose, contrary to the traditional and predominant view, did not first arrive in the Iberian Peninsula during the Muslim occupation of Iberia. Instead, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the species was first introduced by the Romans, or at least sometime during the Roman occupation of Hispania. Therefore, radiocarbon dating of new archaeological finds of bones of the Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in the Iberian Peninsula push back the confirmed presence of the species in the region by approximately eight centuries, as the previously oldest dated record is from the ninth century. With these new dates, there are now a total of four ¹⁴C dated specimens of Egyptian mongooses from the Iberian Peninsula, and all of these dates fall within the last 2000 years. This offers support for the hypothesis that the presence of the species in Iberia is due to historical introductions and is at odds with a scenario of natural sweepstake dispersal across the Straits of Gibraltar in the Late Pleistocene (126,000–11,700 years ago), recently proposed based on genetic data.     

Trail laying during tandem-running recruitment in the ant Temnothorax albipennis

Tandem running is a recruitment strategy whereby one ant leads a single naïve nest mate to a resource. While tandem running progresses towards the goal, the leader ant and the follower ant maintain contact mainly by tactile signals. In this paper, we investigated whether they also deposit chemical signals on the ground during tandem running. We filmed tandem-running ants and analysed the position of the gasters of leaders and followers. Our results show that leader ants are more likely to press their gasters down to the substrate compared to follower ants, single ants and transporter ants. Forward tandem-run leaders (those moving towards a new nest site) performed such trail-marking procedures three times more often than reverse tandem leaders (those moving towards an old nest site). That leader ants marked the trails more often during forward tandem runs may suggest that it is more important to maintain the bond with the follower ant on forward tandem runs than on reverse tandem runs. Marked trails on the ground may serve as a safety line that improves both the efficiency of tandem runs and their completion rates.     

Ecological restoration as a strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change: lessons and challenges from Brazil

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects biophysical systems and human well-being. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 2016 with the objective of strengthening the global response to climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. The agreement requires all Parties to submit their “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Extensive tropical forest loss and degradation have increased awareness at the international level of the need to undertake large-scale ecological restoration, highlighting the need to identify cases in which restoration strategies can contribute to mitigation and adaptation. Here we consider Brazil as a case study to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing large-scale restoration programs in developing countries. The Brazilian NDC included the target of restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares of forests for multiple uses by 2030. Restoration of native vegetation is one of the foundations of sustainable rural development in Brazil and should consider multiple purposes, from biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation to social and economic development. However, ecological restoration still presents substantial challenges for tropical and mega-diverse countries, including the need to develop plans that are technically and financially feasible, as well as public policies and monitoring instruments that can assess effectiveness. The planning, execution, and monitoring of restoration efforts strongly depend on the context and the diagnosis of the area with respect to reference ecosystems (e.g., forests, savannas, grasslands, wetlands). In addition, poor integration of climate change policies at the national and subnational levels and with other sectorial policies constrains the large-scale implementation of restoration programs. The case of Brazil shows that slowing deforestation is possible; however, this analysis highlights the need for increased national commitment and international support for actions that require large-scale transformations of the forest sector regarding ecosystem restoration efforts. Scaling up the ambitions and actions of the Paris Agreement implies the need for a global framework that recognizes landscape restoration as a cost-effective nature-based solution and that supports countries in addressing their remaining needs, challenges, and barriers.

     

Sublethal concentrations of azinphos-methyl induce biochemical and morphological alterations in Rhinella arenarum embryos

Considering that amphibians are good sentinels of environmental conditions, Rhinella arenarum embryos were used to investigate the effects of sublethal concentrations of the organophosphorus insecticide azinphos-methyl, focusing on its anticholinesterasic or pro-oxidant actions and its possible connection with the appearance of morphological alterations. Early amphibian embryos exposed to azinphos-methyl displayed a protective response through glutathione S-transferase induction, along with superoxide dismutase inhibition. At intermediate embryonic stages, embryos exposed to azinphos-methyl displayed superoxide dismutase inhibition and morphological alterations, although cholinesterase activity was not altered, suggesting that molecular targets other than cholinesterase were involved in the development of morphological alterations. At the end of embryonic development, decreases in reduced glutathione and cholinesterase inhibition were observed, along with a significant increase in the number of malformed embryos. The connection between biochemical alterations and the appearance of malformations was not evident in R. arenarum embryos. However, increased glutathione S-transferase and decreased superoxide dismutase activities could be considered as early markers of exposure to azinphos-methyl. The results obtained demonstrate that sublethal concentrations of azinphos-methyl are a serious threat to toad embryos in their natural habitats because biochemical and morphological alterations could impair their ability to deal with environmental stresses.     

Temporal separation of two fin whale call types across the eastern North Pacific

Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) produce a variety of low-frequency, short-duration, frequency-modulated calls. The differences in temporal patterns between two fin whale call types are described from long-term passive acoustic data collected intermittently between 2005 and 2011 at three locations across the eastern North Pacific: the Bering Sea, off Southern California, and in Canal de Ballenas in the northern Gulf of California. Fin whale calls were detected at all sites year-round, during all periods with recordings. At all three locations, 40-Hz calls peaked in June, preceding a peak in 20-Hz calls by 3–5 months. Monitoring both call types may provide a more accurate insight into the seasonal presence of fin whales across the eastern North Pacific than can be obtained from a single call type. The 40-Hz call may be associated with a foraging function, and temporal separation between 40- and 20-Hz calls may indicate the separation between predominately feeding behavior and other social interactions.     

Alterations in some renal parameters of rats induced by aqueous soil extracts

Soil ingestion can be an important route of exposure to contaminants present in the environment. This study examined the effects of exposure to contaminants in aqueous soil extracts from an industrial urban settlement in renal biochemical parameters of treated rats. Male Wistar rats were gavaged with an aqueous soil extract, from the municipality of Rio Grande, Southern Brazil. After exposure, plasma and urine concentrations and plasma protein were assessed compared to rats treated with aqueous soil from relatively unpolluted site (control soil). There was increase in plasma creatinine and total protein in urine, and a decreased glomerular filtration rate in treated rats compared to control. It is possible that Cd, Cr, As, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ni analyzed in the soil samples and unidentified components may have provoked the observed changes in renal biochemistry of the exposed rat. This may suggest that exposure to contaminated soils can cause damage to the viscera in mammals and it is of public health importance.     

Living close, doing differently: small-scale asynchrony in demography of two species of seabirds

Studies on spatiotemporal pattern of population abundance predict that close populations should exhibit a high level of synchrony, reflected in a parallel time variation of at least one demographic parameter. We tested this prediction for two threatened species of Procellariiformes sharing similar life history traits: the European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus). Within each species, we compared adult survival, proportion of transients (breeders that do not settle), and average productivity at two neighboring colonies. Physical and environmental features (e.g., food availability) of the breeding sites were similar. However, while Balearic Shearwater colonies were free of predators, aerial predators occurred especially in one colony of the European Storm Petrel. Despite this difference, we found similar results for the two species. A high proportion of transient birds was detected in only one colony of each species, ranging between 0.00-0.38 and 0.10-0.63 for the petrels and shearwaters, respectively. This seems to be an emergent feature of spatially structured populations of seabirds, unrelated to colony size or predator pressure, that can have important demographic consequences for local population dynamics and their synchrony. Local survival of resident birds was different at each colony, an unexpected result, especially for predator-free colonies of Balearic Shearwater. Productivity varied between the two colonies of European Storm Petrels, but not between the two colonies of Balearic Shearwaters. We demonstrated that within each species, several demographic parameters were colony specific and sufficiently different to generate short-term asynchronous dynamics. Our findings suggest that, in spatially structured populations, local factors, such as predation or small-scale habitat features, or population factors, such as individual quality or age structure, can generate unexpected asynchrony between neighboring populations.     

How experienced individuals contribute to an improvement in collective performance in ants

Certain groups of organisms are capable of improving their collective performance with experience. In a recent study, we demonstrated that, over successive emigrations, colonies of the ant Temnothorax albipennis are able to improve their collective performance by reducing the time taken to complete an emigration (Langridge et al., Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:523–529, 2004). In this paper, by recording the performance of individually marked workers during repeated emigrations, we were able to analyse some of the ways in which time gains are achieved. We found that: (1) those transporters that also transported in the preceding emigration began to transport earlier in the current emigration and, in the majority of emigrations, transported more items than those transporters that had not transported in the preceding emigration; (2) the time that elapsed before the first item was transported into the new nest reduced over successive emigrations, and this first item was, in the majority of emigrations, carried by a transporter that had also transported in the preceding emigration; (3) the number of adults that were transported reduced over successive emigrations. Our results strongly suggest that the behaviour of transporters that also transported in a preceding emigration may be modified as a result of their experience and that, consequently, their efforts in the next emigration make a major contribution to the improved performance of the colony as a whole.     

Assessing ecological function in the context of species recovery

Species interactions matter to conservation. Setting an ambitious recovery target for a species requires considering the size, density, and demographic structure of its populations such that they fulfill the interactions, roles, and functions of the species in the ecosystems in which they are embedded. A recently proposed framework for an International Union for Conservation of Nature Green List of Species formalizes this requirement by defining a fully recovered species in terms of representation, viability, and functionality. Defining and quantifying ecological function from the viewpoint of species recovery is challenging in concept and application, but also an opportunity to insert ecological theory into conservation practice. We propose 2 complementary approaches to assessing a species’ ecological functions: confirmation (listing interactions of the species, identifying ecological processes and other species involved in these interactions, and quantifying the extent to which the species contributes to the identified ecological process) and elimination (inferring functionality by ruling out symptoms of reduced functionality, analogous to the red-list approach that focuses on symptoms of reduced viability). Despite the challenges, incorporation of functionality into species recovery planning is possible in most cases and it is essential to a conservation vision that goes beyond preventing extinctions and aims to restore a species to levels beyond what is required for its viability. This vision focuses on conservation and recovery at the species level and sees species as embedded in ecosystems, influencing and being influenced by the processes in those ecosystems. Thus, it connects and integrates conservation at the species and ecosystem levels.     

Using Decision Analysis to Choose Phosphorus Targets for Lake Erie

Lake Erie water quality has improved dramatically since the degraded conditions of the 1960s. Additional gains could be made, but at the expense of further investment and reductions in fishery productivity. In facing such cross-jurisdictional issues, natural resource managers in Canada and the United States must grapple with conflicting objectives and important uncertainties, while considering the priorities of the public that live in the basin. The techniques and tools of decision analysis have been used successfully to deal with such decision problems in a range of environmental settings, but infrequently in the Great Lakes. The objective of this paper is to illustrate how such techniques might be brought to bear on an important, real decision currently facing Lake Erie resource managers and stakeholders: the choice of new phosphorus loading targets for the lake. The heart of our approach is a systematic elicitation of stakeholder preferences and an investigation of the degree to which different phosphorus-loading policies might satisfy ecosystem objectives. Results show that there are potential benefits to changing the historical policy of reducing phosphorus loads in Lake Erie.