Depredation (i.e., the killing or injuring of domestic animals by wildlife) is a human-wildlife conflict often addressed in conservation policy, and stakeholder support for such policy is influenced by actions taken or not taken in response to depredation. Mitigating depredation of bear-hunting dogs (Canis lupus familiaris; hereafter dogs) by gray wolves (Canis lupus; hereafter wolves;) is especially challenging.

We explored the possible effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO) on interannual sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the Albora´n Sea, both separately and combined. The probability of observing mean annual SST values higher than average was related to NAO and AO values of the previous year. The effect of NAO on SST was negative, while that of AO was positive. The pure effects of NAO and AO on SST are obscuring each other, due to the positive correlation between them.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) seems associated with reduced birthweight in the offspring. This observation, however, is based on conventional epidemiological analyses, and it might be confounded by unobserved maternal characteristics related to both smoking habits and offspring birth weight. Therefore, we apply a quasi-experimental sibling analysis to revisit previous findings. Using the Swedish Medical Birth Register, we identified 677,922 singletons born between 2002 and 2010 from native Swedish mothers.

The researchers evaluated the direct and indirect influence of climate, land use, phylogenetic structure, species richness and endemism on the distribution of New World threatened amphibians.

Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM) we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM) in “normal” and “hosing” experiments.

New tools for malaria control, artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were recently introduced across India. We estimated the impact of universal coverage of ACT and ACT plus LLINs in a setting of hyperendemic, forest malaria transmission.

Lead exposure in waterfowl was studied using noninvasive fecal sampling in the Guadalquivir Marshes in Spain, an area affected by the 1998 Aznalcóllar mine disaster. Feces of greylag geese (Anser anser, n = 191) and purple gallinule (Porphyrio porphyrio, n = 91) were collected from three different impacted sites (Entremuros, Caracoles and Cerro de los Ánsares) during the winters of 2004 to 2008. Lead and aluminium (an indicator of sediment ingestion) and Pb isotope signatures (to discriminate between sources of Pb exposure) were analyzed in freeze-dried, acid digested samples.

Global average temperature increase during the last century has induced species geographic range shifts and extinctions. Montane floras, in particular, are highly sensitive to climate change and mountains serve as suitable observation sites for tracing climate-induced biological response. The Himalaya constitute an important global biodiversity hotspot, yet studies on species’ response to climate change from this region are lacking.

This study was conducted with the objective of testing the hypothesis that tomato fruits from organic farming accumulate more nutritional compounds, such as phenolics and vitamin C as a consequence of the stressing conditions associated with farming system.

Original Source

A field experiment was conducted to (i) examine the diurnal and seasonal soil carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes pattern in rice paddy fields in central China and (ii) assess the role of floodwater in controlling the emissions of CO2 from soil and floodwater in intermittently draining rice paddy soil. The soil CO2 flux rates ranged from −0.45 to 8.62 µmol.m−2.s−1 during the rice-growing season. The net effluxes of CO2 from the paddy soil were lower when the paddy was flooded than when it was drained.