Galactic conformity measured in semi-analytic models

We study the correlation between the specific star formation rate of central galaxies and neighbour galaxies, also known as 'galactic conformity', out to 20 Mpc/h using three semi-analytic models (SAMs, one from L-GALAXIES and other two from GALFORM). The aim is to establish whether SAMs are able to show galactic conformity using different models and selection criteria. In all the models, when the selection of primary galaxies is based on an isolation criterion in real space, the mean fraction of quenched galaxies around quenched primary galaxies is higher than that around star-forming primary galaxies of the same stellar mass. The overall signal of conformity decreases when we remove satellites selected as primary galaxies, but the effect is much stronger in GALFORM models compared with the L-GALAXIES model. We find this difference is partially explained by the fact that in GALFORM once a galaxy becomes a satellite remains as such, whereas satellites can become centrals at a later time in L-GALAXIES. The signal of conformity decreases down to 60% in the L-GALAXIES model after removing central galaxies that were ejected from their host halo in the past. Galactic conformity is also influenced by primary galaxies at fixed stellar mass that reside in dark matter haloes of different masses. Finally, we explore a proxy of conformity between distinct haloes. In this case the conformity is weak beyond ~ 3 Mpc/h (<3% in L-GALAXIES, <1-2% in GALFORM models). Therefore, it seems difficult that conformity is directly related with a long-range effect.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Covid-19 ¿Cómo recobrar el aliento?

Brief reflective commentary on the impact of the pandemic on contemporary culture, from a philosophical point of view.Breve comentario reflexivo sobre el impacto de la pandemia en la cultura contemporánea, desde un punto de vista filosófico

Contrasting patterns of selection between MHC I and II across populations of Humboldt and Magellanic penguins

Indexación: Web of ScienceThe evolutionary and adaptive potential of populations or species facing an emerging infectious disease depends on their genetic diversity in genes, such as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). In birds, MHC class I deals predominantly with intracellular infections (e.g., viruses) and MHC class II with extracellular infections (e.g., bacteria). Therefore, patterns of MHC I and II diversity may differ between species and across populations of species depending on the relative effect of local and global environmental selective pressures, genetic drift, and gene flow. We hypothesize that high gene flow among populations of Humboldt and Magellanic penguins limits local adaptation in MHC I and MHC II, and signatures of selection differ between markers, locations, and species. We evaluated the MHC I and II diversity using 454 next-generation sequencing of 100 Humboldt and 75 Magellanic penguins from seven different breeding colonies. Higher genetic diversity was observed in MHC I than MHC II for both species, explained by more than one MHC I loci identified. Large population sizes, high gene flow, and/or similar selection pressures maintain diversity but limit local adaptation in MHC I. A pattern of isolation by distance was observed for MHC II for Humboldt penguin suggesting local adaptation, mainly on the northernmost studied locality. Furthermore, trans species alleles were found due to a recent speciation for the genus or convergent evolution. High MHC I and MHC II gene diversity described is extremely advantageous for the long term survival of the species.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.2502/epd

Evolvability meets biogeography: evolutionary potential decreases at high and low environmental favourability

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Royal Society via the DOI in this record.Understanding and forecasting the effects of environmental change on wild populations requires knowledge on a critical question: Do populations have the ability to evolve in response to that change? However, our knowledge on how evolution works in wild conditions under different environmental circumstances is extremely limited. We investigated how environmental variation influences the evolutionary potential of phenotypic traits. We used published data to collect or calculate 135 estimates of evolvability of morphological traits of European wild bird populations. We characterised the environmental favourability of each population throughout the species’ breeding distribution. Our results suggest that the evolutionary potential of morphological traits decreases as environmental favourability becomes high or low. Strong environmental selection pressures and high intra-specific competition may reduce species’ evolutionary potential in low and high favourability areas, respectively. This suggests that species may be least able to adapt to new climate conditions at their range margins and at the centre. Our results underscore the need to consider the evolutionary potential of populations when studying the drivers of species distributions, particularly when predicting the effects of environmental change. We discuss the utility of integrating evolutionary dynamics into a biogeographical perspective to understand how environmental variation shapes evolutionary patterns. This approach would also produce more reliable predictions about the effect of environmental change on population persistence and therefore on biodiversity.We acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (grants CGL2012-34685, CGL2015-70639-P, and CGL2016-76173-P) and thanks to the ERA-Net BiodivERsA, with the national funder FCT (Project: BIODIVERSA/0003/2011). AE has a contract funded by the project 1098/2014 (Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales, Spain)

IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON ADOLESCENTS’ PERCEPTION OF SCIENCE, SCIENTISTS AND HEALTH CARE WORKERS, AND CHANGE OF CAREER CHOICES

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists and health care workers provided information based on scientific evidence for the general public, increasing their exposure on social and mainstream media. Society witnessed science-in-the-making while scientists and health care workers were dedicated to improve understanding and develop tools for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control of this novel disease. This study aims to assess the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ perception of science, scientists and health care workers; to understand whether it changed their career choices; and to learn about the resulting first-year applications and enrollments in scientific and medical careers for the 2020-2021 school year in Mexico. We conducted a voluntary national anonymous online survey and analyzed the official database of the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions in Mexico (ANUIES) to answer these questions. With 983 valid responses (CI 95%) we found that by mid-2021, 9 out of 10 respondents aged 14-19 in Mexico had a positive perception of science; that the ongoing pandemic improved their perception of science (69%), scientists (70%) and health care workers (72%); and that their experience during the pandemic changed their career choices to pursue science (23%) and health care (28%) careers. The selected main reason (40-50%) for studying science and health care careers was “liking that type of knowledge”; while only 3% agreed that the pandemic was the main reason for their choice. A thorough analysis of the official ANUIES database showed an increase in first-year applications for scientific (22%) and health care (17%) careers for the 2020-2021 school year compared to the previous, non-pandemic 2019-2020 school year. Enrollment was partly limited by the number of places available. With this study we conclude that a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic could be the improvement of the perception of science, scientists and health care workers and possibly, the creation of a new generation of scientists, medical doctors, and health care workers. Future studies would need to investigate the duration and further positive consequences of this pandemic effect and to understand whether these results are consistent in other parts of the world where adolescents experienced different public policies, public messages and COVID-19 outcomes