Feeding habits of the frog Pleurodema diplolistris (Anura, Leptodactylidae) in Quaternary sand dunes of the Middle Rio São Francisco, Bahia, Brazil

In this work, we investigate the feeding habits of Pleurodema diplolistris, the most abundant anuran species of the São Francisco sand dunes, during a period of slightly over one year. The fieldwork was undertaken during four excursions to a sand dune in the semiarid Caatinga, Brazil, and the analyses were based on stomach contents. Pleurodema diplolistris were not active during the dry season. The important food categories in diet were Isoptera (winged forms), Coleoptera, and Formicidae. Small and large animals had different food comsumption patterns: small frogs showed positive electivity for termites and large frogs, for ants. The pattern was strongly influenced by large male food electivity. High levels of termite comsumption ocurred during the days of greater capture success. The pattern of high comsumption of termites detected here is different from that described in another study on lizards from the same locality and sampled in the same periods. We discuss alternative hypotheses that could explain the observed patterns

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Species Responses to Environmental Change at Multiple Scales

In face of environmental changes, species, either move, changing their distributions, or maintain their ranges. Staying in place and facing the new conditions demand adjustments by changes in phenology, acclimation, via behavioral or phenotypic plasticity, or adaptation. Failure to adjust or move consequently leads to population decline and eventual extinction.The overarching goal of this work is to investigate the mechanisms by lizard species of two tropical genera, Leposom (Gymnophthalmidae) and Enyalius (Leiosauridae), respond to environmental changes at multiple spatial and temporal scales, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. I apply a highly integrative approach that combines species distribution modeling, climate data, phylogeography, morphology and thermal physiology and show (1) how geographic isolation, shifts in habitat use, and historical climatic stability explain the patterns of concordance/discordance between genetic divergence and phenotypic disparity in Leposoma scincoides, (2) how climatic variation and current environmental gradients, both at the macro- and microclimatic scales, affect thermal sensitivity across the two species' ranges and (3) how habitat suitability shape species' distribution ranges and spatial patterns of genetic structure in Enyalius catenatus and E. pictus .Despite deep phylogeographic structure in L. scincoides, and therefore ample opportunity for intra-specific lineages to diverge phenotypically, there is an overall pattern of phenotypic stasis in morphology and physiology. This is most likely due to similar environmental conditions acting on morphology at the climatically stable core of the distribution, and to constraints on thermal tolerances. However, geographically isolated lineages inhabiting more seasonal areas, that were unstable climatically during the Pleistocene, are morphologically distinct. Among those, similarity in morphology was observed between lineages that further broadened their habitat use, occupying more open areas as well as forested habitats. Moreover, morphological variation correlates with climate. These results highlight how distinct phenotypic traits likely to respond to environmental change show very different patterns of variation, conditional on evolutionary lability, plasticity and (possibly) interaction among traits.Macroclimatic data are not a good proxy for the environmental conditions experienced by the two lizard species in their microhabitats; there is great overlap in temperature availability in similar microhabitats along a macroclimatic gradient in the Central Brazilian Atlantic Forest and climate variables correlated with thermal physiological traits only at the microclimate scale. Both species show narrow thermal tolerances and differences in thermal physiology between the two species can explain some of their ecological differences. Thermal sensitivity is conserved among lineages within L. scincoides, whereas plasticity and acclimation are prominent in E. catenatus' thermal physiology, but the capacity to acclimate to extreme temperatures in the later is limited. These results are alarming if confronted with the rapid anthropogenic changes in habitat cover and climate change predicted to afflict this region.There is strong phylogeographic structure and high levels of genetic diversity in Enyalius catenatus and E. pictus. These results are consistent with the notion that in this region, Quaternary forest refuges provided stable climatic conditions that promoted persistence of phylogeographic diversity and stable populations. Nevertheless, divergence times, between E. catenatus and E. pictus and among intraspecific lineages, earlier than the late Pleistocene point to a long and complex history of diversification in Enyalius, that requires a variety of factors to explain spatial patterns of genetic structure. Instances of discordance between the species distribution models and genetic structure were pondered carefully in the context of ecological and natural history and the limitations of the models.My findings show that patterns and mechanisms of divergence and disparity are complex and multifaceted in this region, with geographic as well as ecological components playing important. This study presents an integrated approach to test evolutionary hypotheses that combine phylogeographic and phenotypic data and put it in the context of the landscape, taking into account geographic, environmental, and historical aspects of the habitat. It adds to the growing body of literature that explores phylogeographic patterns of prevalent elements of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest fauna and if/how they responded to climatic oscillations in the Pleistocene. More broadly, it contributes to the growing literature on South America's biogeography and the origin and maintenance of Neotropical diversity

Use of food resources and diet electivities of an anuran terrestrial assemblage from the dunes of the midlle São Francisco River, Bahia, Brazil

A surpreendente descoberta de uma assembléia de anuros terrícolas extremamente abundante, sintópica à fauna peculiar de lagartos, serpentes e anfisbenas, numa localidade dos mares de areia do médio Rio São Francisco (estado da Bahia, Brasil) motivou: (1) o estudo do uso de alimento e eletividades na dieta dos anuros locais, (2) a investigação de evidências de adaptação na sua dieta ao ambiente desafiador das dunas e (3) a avaliação do possível impacto que os anuros causam na assembléia sintópica de Squamata anteriormente estudada. O uso de alimento e as eletividades na dieta das três espécies de anuros mais abundantes, assim como suas variações ontogenéticas, foram descritas e premissas sobre adequação das estimativas de uso e disponibilidade de recursos alimentares foram testadas. Evidências de adaptação nas dietas dos anuros às dunas foram feitas comparando-se sua dieta com as de espécies filogeneticamente próximas. As estimativas de uso e de disponibilidade utilizadas foram consideradas adequadas. Bufo granulosus apresentou eletividade positiva por formigas. Pleurodema diplolistris e Physalaemus albifrons apresentaram ambos eletividade positiva por besouros e eletividade negativa por cupins e por formigas, respectivamente. Não houve variação ontogenética nos tipos de presa consumidas por nenhuma das espécies estudadas e isso não pôde ser atribuído à avaliação de uma pequena extensão de tamanhos dos anuros. Variações ontogenéticas no tamanho das presas foram observadas apenas para B. granulosus e P. diplolistris. Não houve evidência de apomorfia na dieta de B. granulosus e não houve dados disponíveis suficientes para realizar essa análise para P. diplolistris. As apomorfias registradas na dieta de P. albifrons podem ser explicadas por interações competitivas com outros componentes da herpetofauna local. Os anuros não parecem causar impacto forte sobre a assembléia de Squamata sintópica, devido a divergências nas eletividades por alimento e nos horários de atividade entre a maioria deles e grande parte desse padrão divergente parece ter se estabelecido antes da formação dessa assembléia. A eletividade positiva por formigas de B. granulosus e do tropidurídeo Tropidurus psammonastes pode apontar interação competitiva contemporânea entre eles, devido a suas grandes abundâncias locais. No entanto, é necessário haver indícios de limitação de recursos para levantar tal hipótese, porque a divergência nos horários de atividade deles impede competição por interferência. Mas formigas são abundantes na área.The discovery of an extremely abundant anuran terrestrial assemblage, that is syntopic to a peculiar fauna of lizards, snakes, and worm snakes, in a locality at the sand dune fields of the Middle São Francisco River (Bahia state, Brazil) motivated: (1) the study of food use and electivities of local anurans, (2) investigations about evidences of adaptation in anurans diet to the challenges of a semi-arid environment, and (3) the assessment of the impact caused by anurans on the Squamata syntopic assemblage already studied. Food use, food electivities, and ontogenetic variation in diet of the three most abundant anuran species were described, and premises about the adequacy of the used estimates of food use and food availability were tested. Evidences of adaptation in diet were assessed by comparison of the diet of anurans from the dunes and that of phylogenetically related species. Estimates of food use and availability were considered suitable. Bufo granulosus showed positive electivity for ants. Pleurodema diplolistris and Physalaemus albifrons had both positive electivities for beetles and negative electivities for termites and ants, respectively. No species changed the types of prey it consumed during ontogeny and this was not a spurious result of a narrow range of anurans size analyzed. B. granulosus and P. diplolistris ate bigger preys as they grew. There was no evidence of adaptation in B. granulosus diet and insufficient data precluded this analysis with P. diplolistris diet. Apomorphies registered in P. albifrons diet can be explained by ecological contemporary interactions with local herpetofauna components. Anurans do not seem to cause a big impact on Squamata syntopic species, because in general anurans and squamates show divergent food electivities and/or activity times. Moreover, most of this divergent pattern has probably evolved before the establishment of the current assemblage. Coincident positive electivities for ants of B. granulosus and the tropidurid Tropidurus psammonastes can be an indicative of contemporary competitive interactions between them, principally because they are very abundant at the dunes. But evidence of limiting resources are necessary to rise this hypothesis because divergent activity times preclude interference competition, but ants are very abundant at the dunes

Species Responses to Environmental Change at Multiple Scales

In face of environmental changes, species, either move, changing their distributions, or maintain their ranges. Staying in place and facing the new conditions demand adjustments by changes in phenology, acclimation, via behavioral or phenotypic plasticity, or adaptation. Failure to adjust or move consequently leads to population decline and eventual extinction.The overarching goal of this work is to investigate the mechanisms by lizard species of two tropical genera, Leposom (Gymnophthalmidae) and Enyalius (Leiosauridae), respond to environmental changes at multiple spatial and temporal scales, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. I apply a highly integrative approach that combines species distribution modeling, climate data, phylogeography, morphology and thermal physiology and show (1) how geographic isolation, shifts in habitat use, and historical climatic stability explain the patterns of concordance/discordance between genetic divergence and phenotypic disparity in Leposoma scincoides, (2) how climatic variation and current environmental gradients, both at the macro- and microclimatic scales, affect thermal sensitivity across the two species' ranges and (3) how habitat suitability shape species' distribution ranges and spatial patterns of genetic structure in Enyalius catenatus and E. pictus .Despite deep phylogeographic structure in L. scincoides, and therefore ample opportunity for intra-specific lineages to diverge phenotypically, there is an overall pattern of phenotypic stasis in morphology and physiology. This is most likely due to similar environmental conditions acting on morphology at the climatically stable core of the distribution, and to constraints on thermal tolerances. However, geographically isolated lineages inhabiting more seasonal areas, that were unstable climatically during the Pleistocene, are morphologically distinct. Among those, similarity in morphology was observed between lineages that further broadened their habitat use, occupying more open areas as well as forested habitats. Moreover, morphological variation correlates with climate. These results highlight how distinct phenotypic traits likely to respond to environmental change show very different patterns of variation, conditional on evolutionary lability, plasticity and (possibly) interaction among traits.Macroclimatic data are not a good proxy for the environmental conditions experienced by the two lizard species in their microhabitats; there is great overlap in temperature availability in similar microhabitats along a macroclimatic gradient in the Central Brazilian Atlantic Forest and climate variables correlated with thermal physiological traits only at the microclimate scale. Both species show narrow thermal tolerances and differences in thermal physiology between the two species can explain some of their ecological differences. Thermal sensitivity is conserved among lineages within L. scincoides, whereas plasticity and acclimation are prominent in E. catenatus' thermal physiology, but the capacity to acclimate to extreme temperatures in the later is limited. These results are alarming if confronted with the rapid anthropogenic changes in habitat cover and climate change predicted to afflict this region.There is strong phylogeographic structure and high levels of genetic diversity in Enyalius catenatus and E. pictus. These results are consistent with the notion that in this region, Quaternary forest refuges provided stable climatic conditions that promoted persistence of phylogeographic diversity and stable populations. Nevertheless, divergence times, between E. catenatus and E. pictus and among intraspecific lineages, earlier than the late Pleistocene point to a long and complex history of diversification in Enyalius, that requires a variety of factors to explain spatial patterns of genetic structure. Instances of discordance between the species distribution models and genetic structure were pondered carefully in the context of ecological and natural history and the limitations of the models.My findings show that patterns and mechanisms of divergence and disparity are complex and multifaceted in this region, with geographic as well as ecological components playing important. This study presents an integrated approach to test evolutionary hypotheses that combine phylogeographic and phenotypic data and put it in the context of the landscape, taking into account geographic, environmental, and historical aspects of the habitat. It adds to the growing body of literature that explores phylogeographic patterns of prevalent elements of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest fauna and if/how they responded to climatic oscillations in the Pleistocene. More broadly, it contributes to the growing literature on South America's biogeography and the origin and maintenance of Neotropical diversity

Do litter arthropods respond to microhabitat gradients? A case study from Brazilian sand dunes in semiarid Caatinga

Many studies on terrestrial arthropod assemblages rely on low taxonomic resolution (organisms identified to above species level) to discriminate sites with different structural complexities. Whole assemblages are seldom used to evaluate arthropods relationships with microhabitats. We tested if/how microhabitat influences terrestrial arthropods great groups relative abundances. Our study site was a semiarid sand dune field in the Caatinga (Bahia, Brazil), which harbours an endemic biota and presents low microhabitat complexity. We used a General Linear Model to test the influence of microgeographic position, area covered by litter and by trees+shrubs on the most abundant arthropod groups. We used as response variable one NMDS axis representing the relative abundance of arthropod great groups (assemblage structure) for diurnal and nocturnal/crepuscular faunas in the beginning and the end of the rainy season. For both seasons, there is a negative association between Formicidae and Coleoptera during the night and a negative association between of Formicidae and Araneae during the day. Such changes were not explained by the microhabitat variables. Lack of association between microhabitat and assemblage structure could mean that arthropods do not respond to those variables or could derive from responses of individual species

A new Crossodactylodes Cochran, 1938 (Anura: Leptodactylidae: Paratelmatobiinae) from the highlands of the Atlantic Forests of southern Bahia, Brazil

Jr, Mauro Teixeira, Recoder, Renato Sousa, Amaro, Renata Cecília, Damasceno, Roberta Pacheco, Cassimiro, José, Rodrigues, Miguel Trefaut (2013): A new Crossodactylodes Cochran, 1938 (Anura: Leptodactylidae: Paratelmatobiinae) from the highlands of the Atlantic Forests of southern Bahia, Brazil. Zootaxa 3702 (5): 459-472, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3702.5.

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background: Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods: We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5-19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI &lt;18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For school-aged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI &lt;2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI &gt;2 SD above the median). Findings: From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation: The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesity. Funding: UK Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (Research England), UK Research and Innovation (Innovate UK), and European Union