Climate Change or Land Use Dynamics: Do We Know What Climate Change Indicators Indicate?

Different components of global change can have interacting effects on biodiversity and this may influence our ability to detect the specific consequences of climate change through biodiversity indicators. Here, we analyze whether climate change indicators can be affected by land use dynamics that are not directly determined by climate change. To this aim, we analyzed three community-level indicators of climate change impacts that are based on the optimal thermal environment and average latitude of the distribution of bird species present at local communities. We used multiple regression models to relate the variation in climate change indicators to: i) environmental temperature; and ii) three landscape gradients reflecting important current land use change processes (land abandonment, fire impacts and urbanization), all of them having forest areas at their positive extremes. We found that, with few exceptions, landscape gradients determined the figures of climate change indicators as strongly as temperature. Bird communities in forest habitats had colder-dwelling bird species with more northern distributions than farmland, burnt or urban areas. Our results show that land use changes can reverse, hide or exacerbate our perception of climate change impacts when measured through community-level climate change indicators. We stress the need of an explicit incorporation of the interactions between climate change and land use dynamics to understand what are current climate change indicators indicating and be able to isolate real climate change impacts

Training-induced gene expression plasticity in cardiac function and neural regulation for ultra-trail runners

This study aims to assess the gene regulatory response from a group of 16 athletes and to observe the plasticity induced by their training regime on the gene expression response after their participation in an 82km race. Blood samples for differential gene expression (DGE) were collected before and after this effort from two groups of runners with different training regimes: elite and active. Analyses only focused on genes annotated as related to cardiac function (CF) and neural regulation (NR) from the KEGG PATHWAY Database. Thus, 13 pathways were considered accounting for a total of 629 genes. Training regime modulated the response to exercise based on a list of 18 ranked genes with significant DGE for elite runners while remained statistically insignificant for active athletes. UQCR11, COX7C and COX4I1 genes, related to mitochondrial respiratory chain, were down-regulated which may indicate mitochondrial function impairment in cardiac muscle. Increased expression levels were obtained for PIK3R2, PLCG2, IRAK3 genes from the positive signaling cascades of neurotrophins pathway, which may reveal an improved heart rate control thanks to a better cardiac sympathetic innervation.Postprint (author's final draft

EU's conservation efforts need more strategic investment to meet continental commitments

The European Union (EU) has made significant conservation efforts in the last two decades, guided by the Birds and Habitats Directives, currently under evaluation. Despite these efforts a large proportion of priority species are still in unfavorable condition and continue declining. For this reason, a thoughtful review of the implementation of conservation efforts in Europe is needed to identify potential causes behind this poor effectiveness. We compiled information on the distribution of all conservation funds under the LIFE‐Nature, the main financial tool for conservation in Europe. We found that LIFE‐Nature has not adequately covered continental conservation needs. The majority of funds have been directed toward nonthreatened species or regions of low conservation priority. Given the limited resources available, two key aspects are in urgent need for revision and improvement. First, the distribution of funds should be guided by continental and global conservation needs and planned at the EU scale. Second, new mechanisms are required to set conservation priorities in a dynamic fashion, rather than relying on fixed lists (i.e., the Directives’ Annexes) that may rapidly become outdated. These improvements would require new mechanisms to set priorities and redistribution of conservation efforts, supported by adequate policy and a more effective top‐down control on investment.V.H. and M.C. were supported by two Ramón y Cajal contracts funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC‐2013‐13979 and RYC‐2010‐06431, respectivey)

Atomically-thin quantum dots integrated with lithium niobate photonic chips

The electro-optic, acousto-optic and nonlinear properties of lithium niobate make it a highly versatile material platform for integrated quantum photonic circuits. A prerequisite for quantum technology applications is the ability to efficiently integrate single photon sources, and to guide the generated photons through ad-hoc circuits. Here we report the integration of quantum dots in monolayer WSe2 into a Ti in-diffused lithium niobate directional coupler. We investigate the coupling of individual quantum dots to the waveguide mode, their spatial overlap, and the overall efficiency of the hybrid-integrated photonic circuit