Global-scale comparisons of human land use: developing shared terminology for land-use practices of significance for global change.

Although archaeological data are needed to understand the impacts of past human land use on the Earth system, synthesis is hampered by a lack of consistent categories. We develop hierarchical and scalable land-use classifications for use across the globe. Human land-use practices have been highly variable over the course of the Holocene, a diversity evident in the differentiated effects of human activity on land cover. Historically, agriculture was one of the most significant forms of land use, but even mobile hunter-gatherers transformed land cover through landscape-scale burning (Bliege Bird 2008). Livestock-keeping, plowing, irrigation, and the production of metal, ceramics, and bricks, have also been drivers of historical change. It is important to understand the aggregate effects of anthropic activities on the Earth system, but significant challenges are posed by: (1) the complexity, diversity and mosaic nature of human land use itself (Fig. 1); (2) the need to develop a uniform vocabulary and terminology for land-use practices around the globe and across the span of human history; (3) the sheer quantity of evidence to be analyzed; and (4) the lack of a tradition of global-scale comparisons. Nevertheless, there is a deep reservoir of expertise about land-use and land-cover transitions waiting to be tapped. One goal of LandCover6k is to improve understanding of the relationships between land-use and land-cover changes (Gaillard et al., this issue). By comparing land-use and land-cover trends, we can better disentangle anthropogenic forms of land- cover change from climatic or other drivers

The Evolution of Bat Vestibular Systems in the Face of Potential Antagonistic Selection Pressures for Flight and Echolocation

PMCID: PMC3634842This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Convergence of gut microbiotas in the adaptive radiations of African cichlid fishes

Ecoevolutionary dynamics of the gut microbiota at the macroscale level, that is, in across-species comparisons, are largely driven by ecological variables and host genotype. The repeated explosive radiations of African cichlid fishes in distinct lakes, following a dietary diversification in a context of reduced genetic diversity, provide a natural setup to explore convergence, divergence and repeatability in patterns of microbiota dynamics as a function of the host diet, phylogeny and environment. Here we characterized by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing the gut microbiota of 29 cichlid species from two distinct lakes/radiations (Tanganyika and Barombi Mbo) and across a broad dietary and phylogenetic range. Within each lake, a significant deviation between a carnivorous and herbivorous lifestyle was found. Herbivore species were characterized by an increased bacterial taxonomic and functional diversity and converged in key compositional and functional community aspects. Despite a significant lake effect on the microbiota structure, this process has occurred with remarkable parallels in the two lakes. A metabolic signature most likely explains this trend, as indicated by a significant enrichment in herbivores/omnivores of bacterial taxa and functions associated with fiber degradation and detoxification of plant chemical compounds. Overall, compositional and functional aspects of the gut microbiota individually and altogether validate and predict main cichlid dietary habits, suggesting a fundamental role of gut bacteria in cichlid niche expansion and adaptation

Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding

We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics

Boosting hot electron flux and catalytic activity at metal-oxide interfaces of PtCo bimetallic nanoparticles

Despite numerous studies, the origin of the enhanced catalytic performance of bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) remains elusive because of the ever-changing surface structures, compositions, and oxidation states of NPs under reaction conditions. An effective strategy for obtaining critical clues for the phenomenon is real-time quantitative detection of hot electrons induced by a chemical reaction on the catalysts. Here, we investigate hot electrons excited on PtCo bimetallic NPs during H-2 oxidation by measuring the chemicurrent on a catalytic nanodiode while changing the Pt composition of the NPs. We reveal that the presence of a CoO/Pt interface enables efficient transport of electrons and higher catalytic activity for PtCo NPs. These results are consistent with theoretical calculations suggesting that lower activation energy and higher exothermicity are required for the reaction at the CoO/Pt interface

Temporal and spatial instability in neutral and adaptive (MHC) genetic variation in marginal salmon populations

The role of marginal populations for the long-term maintenance of species’ genetic diversity and evolutionary potential is particularly timely in view of the range shifts caused by climate change. The Centre-Periphery hypothesis predicts that marginal populations should bear reduced genetic diversity and have low evolutionary potential. We analysed temporal stability at neutral microsatellite and adaptive MHC genetic variation over five decades in four marginal Atlantic salmon populations located at the southern limit of the species’ distribution with a complicated demographic history, which includes stocking with foreign and native salmon for at least 2 decades. We found a temporal increase in neutral genetic variation, as well as temporal instability in population structuring, highlighting the importance of temporal analyses in studies that examine the genetic diversity of peripheral populations at the margins of the species’ range, particularly in face of climate change

The regulation of IL-10 expression

Interleukin (IL)-10 is an important immunoregulatory cytokine and an understanding of how IL-10 expression is controlled is critical in the design of immune intervention strategies. IL-10 is produced by almost all cell types within the innate (including macrophages, monocytes, dendritic cells (DCs), mast cells, neutrophils, eosinophils and natural killer cells) and adaptive (including CD4(+) T cells, CD8(+) T cells and B cells) immune systems. The mechanisms of IL-10 regulation operate at several stages including chromatin remodelling at the Il10 locus, transcriptional regulation of Il10 expression and post-transcriptional regulation of Il10 mRNA. In addition, whereas some aspects of Il10 gene regulation are conserved between different immune cell types, several are cell type- or stimulus-specific. Here, we outline the complexity of IL-10 production by discussing what is known about its regulation in macrophages, monocytes, DCs and CD4(+) T helper cells

Global-scale comparisons of human land use: developing shared terminology for land-use practices for global change

Although archaeological data are needed to understand the impacts of past human land use on the Earth system, synthesis is hampered by a lack of consistent categories. We develop hierarchical and scalable land-use classifications for use across the globe

The unfolded protein response in immunity and inflammation.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a highly conserved pathway that allows the cell to manage endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress that is imposed by the secretory demands associated with environmental forces. In this role, the UPR has increasingly been shown to have crucial functions in immunity and inflammation. In this Review, we discuss the importance of the UPR in the development, differentiation, function and survival of immune cells in meeting the needs of an immune response. In addition, we review current insights into how the UPR is involved in complex chronic inflammatory diseases and, through its role in immune regulation, antitumour responses.This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Rubicon grant 825.13.012 (J.G.); US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants DK044319, DK051362, DK053056 and DK088199, and the Harvard Digestive Diseases Center (HDDC) grant DK034854 (R.S.B.); National Institutes of Health grants DK042394, DK088227, DK103183 and CA128814 (R.J.K.); and European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 260961, ERC Consolidator Grant 648889, and the Wellcome Trust Investigator award 106260/Z/14/Z (A.K.).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nri.2016.6

Differences in the processing of anaphoric reference between closely related languages: neurophysiological evidence

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