Montana’s Response to Interjurisdictional Marketing Challenges

20 pages. Contains references

Montana’s Response to Interjurisdictional Marketing Challenges

20 pages. Contains references

The Montana Constitution and the Right to a Clean and Healthful Environment

The Montana Constitution and the Right to a Clean and Healthful Environmen

Using human genetics to understand the disease impacts of testosterone in men and women.

Testosterone supplementation is commonly used for its effects on sexual function, bone health and body composition, yet its effects on disease outcomes are unknown. To better understand this, we identified genetic determinants of testosterone levels and related sex hormone traits in 425,097 UK Biobank study participants. Using 2,571 genome-wide significant associations, we demonstrate that the genetic determinants of testosterone levels are substantially different between sexes and that genetically higher testosterone is harmful for metabolic diseases in women but beneficial in men. For example, a genetically determined 1 s.d. higher testosterone increases the risks of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio (OR) = 1.37 (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.22-1.53)) and polycystic ovary syndrome (OR = 1.51 (95% CI: 1.33-1.72)) in women, but reduces type 2 diabetes risk in men (OR = 0.86 (95% CI: 0.76-0.98)). We also show adverse effects of higher testosterone on breast and endometrial cancers in women and prostate cancer in men. Our findings provide insights into the disease impacts of testosterone and highlight the importance of sex-specific genetic analyses.A.R.W. and T.M.F. are supported by the European Research Council grant: SZ-245 50371-GLUCOSEGENES-FP7-IDEAS-ERC. R.B. is funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant 104150/Z/14/Z. J.T. is supported by the Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard award which is supported by the Wellcome Trust and GCRF [SBF004\1079]. This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [Unit Programme numbers MC_UU_12015/1 and MC_UU_12015/2]

Patterns of Polymorphism and Demographic History in Natural Populations of Arabidopsis lyrata

Many of the processes affecting genetic diversity act on local populations. However, studies of plant nucleotide diversity have largely ignored local sampling, making it difficult to infer the demographic history of populations and to assess the importance of local adaptation. Arabidopsis lyrata, a self-incompatible, perennial species with a circumpolar distribution, is an excellent model system in which to study the roles of demographic history and local adaptation in patterning genetic variation.We studied nucleotide diversity in six natural populations of Arabidopsis lyrata, using 77 loci sampled from 140 chromosomes. The six populations were highly differentiated, with a median FST of 0.52, and structure analysis revealed no evidence of admixed individuals. Average within-population diversity varied among populations, with the highest diversity found in a German population; this population harbors 3-fold higher levels of silent diversity than worldwide samples of A. thaliana. All A. lyrata populations also yielded positive values of Tajima's D. We estimated a demographic model for these populations, finding evidence of population divergence over the past 19,000 to 47,000 years involving non-equilibrium demographic events that reduced the effective size of most populations. Finally, we used the inferred demographic model to perform an initial test for local adaptation and identified several genes, including the flowering time gene FCA and a disease resistance locus, as candidates for local adaptation events.Our results underscore the importance of population-specific, non-equilibrium demographic processes in patterning diversity within A. lyrata. Moreover, our extensive dataset provides an important resource for future molecular population genetic studies of local adaptation in A. lyrata

Hybridization but No Evidence for Backcrossing and Introgression in a Sympatric Population of Great Reed Warblers and Clamorous Reed Warblers

Hybridization is observed frequently in birds, but often it is not known whether the hybrids are fertile and if backcrossing occurs. The breeding ranges of the great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) and the clamorous reed warbler (A. stentoreus) overlap in southern Kazakhstan and a previous study has documented hybridization in a sympatric population. In the present study, we first present a large set of novel microsatellite loci isolated and characterised in great reed warblers. Secondly, we evaluate whether hybridization in the sympatric breeding population has been followed by backcrossing and introgression

Evidence for increases in vegetation species richness across UK Environmental Change Network sites linked to changes in air pollution and weather patterns

We analysed trends in vegetation monitored at regular intervals over the past two decades (1993–2012)at the twelve terrestrial Environmental Change Network (ECN) sites. We sought to determine the extent to which flora had changed and link any such changes to potential environmental drivers. We observed significant increases in species richness, both at a whole network level, and when data were analysed within Broad Habitat groupings representing the open uplands, open lowlands and woodlands. We also found comparable increases in an indicator of vegetation response to soil pH, Ellenberg R. Species characteristic of less acid soils tended to show more consistent increases in frequency across sites relative to species with a known tolerance for strongly acidic soils. These changes are, therefore, broadly consistent with a response to increases in soil solution pH observed for the majority of ECN sites that, in turn, are likely to be driven by large reductions in acid deposition in recent decades. Increases in species richness in certain habitat groupings could also be linked to increased soil moisture availability in drier lowland sites that are likely to have been influenced by a trend towards wetter summers in recent years, and possibly also to a reduction in soil nitrogen availability in some upland locations. Changes in site management are also likely to have influenced trends at certain sites, particularly with respect to agricultural practices. Our results are therefore indicative of wide-scale responses to major regional-scale changes in air pollution and recent weather patterns, modified by local management effects. The relative consistency of management of ECN sites over time is atypical of much of the wider countryside and it is therefore not appropriate to scale up these observations to infer national scale trends. Nevertheless the results provide an important insight into processes that may be operating nationally. It will now be necessary to test for the ubiquity of these changes using appropriate broader spatial scale survey data

Trends and variability in weather and atmospheric deposition at UK Environmental Change Network sites (1993–2012)

We characterised temporal trends and variability in key indicators of climate and atmospheric deposition chemistry at the twelve terrestrial UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) sites over the first two decades of ECN monitoring (1993–2012) using various statistical approaches. Mean air temperatures for the monitoring period were approximately 0.7 °C higher than those modelled for 1961–1990, but there was little evidence for significant change in air temperature over either the full monthly records or within individual seasons. Some upland ECN sites, however, warmed significantly over the first decade before cooling in the second. Summers at most sites became progressively wetter, and extremes in daily rainfall increased in magnitude. Average wind speeds in winter and spring declined at the majority of sites. Directional trends in summer precipitation could be linked to an atypically prolonged negative deviation in the summer North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index. Several aspects of air quality improved markedly. Concentrations and fluxes of sulphate in precipitation declined significantly and substantially across the network, particularly during the earlier years and at the most polluted sites in the south and east. Precipitation concentrations of nitrate and ammonium, and atmospheric concentrations of nitrogen dioxide also decreased at most sites. There was less evidence for reductions in the loads of wet deposited nitrogen species, while trends in atmospheric ammonia concentration varied in direction and strength between sites. Reductions in acid deposition are likely to account for widespread gradual increases in the pH of soil water at ECN sites, representing partial recovery from acidification. Overall, therefore, ECN sites have experienced marked changes in atmospheric chemistry and weather regimes over the last two decades that might be expected to have exerted detectable effects on ecosystem structure and function. While the downward trend in acid deposition is unlikely to be reversed, it is too early to conclude whether the trend towards wetter summers simply represents a phase in a multi-decadal cycle, or is indicative of a more directional shift in climate. Conversely, the first two decades of ECN now provide a relatively stable long-term baseline with respect to air temperature, against which effects of anticipated future warming on these ecosystems should be able to be assessed robustly

Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe

Local biodiversity trends over time are likely to be decoupled from global trends, as local processes may compensate or counteract global change. We analyze 161 long-term biological time series (15-91 years) collected across Europe, using a comprehensive dataset comprising similar to 6,200 marine, freshwater and terrestrial taxa. We test whether (i) local long-term biodiversity trends are consistent among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, and (ii) changes in biodiversity correlate with regional climate and local conditions. Our results reveal that local trends of abundance, richness and diversity differ among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, demonstrating that biodiversity changes at local scale are often complex and cannot be easily generalized. However, we find increases in richness and abundance with increasing temperature and naturalness as well as a clear spatial pattern in changes in community composition (i.e. temporal taxonomic turnover) in most biogeoregions of Northern and Eastern Europe. The global biodiversity decline might conceal complex local and group-specific trends. Here the authors report a quantitative synthesis of longterm biodiversity trends across Europe, showing how, despite overall increase in biodiversity metric and stability in abundance, trends differ between regions, ecosystem types, and taxa.peerReviewe