The Evolutionary History of Coronavirus in Human-Wildlife Relationships

Campos, F. S., & Lourenço-de-Moraes, R. (2020). Ecological Fever: The Evolutionary History of Coronavirus in Human-Wildlife Relationships. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 8, 1-4. [575286]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.575286The rapid dissemination of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV−2) has opened up an environmental dilemma—investigating the relationship between the evolutionary history of coronaviruses (CoVs) and the zoonotic spillover in humans to avoid new rapidly evolving pathogens. To guide politicians in health policy decision-making, scientists have an urgent need to explore how cross-species virus transmission can help prevent pandemics (Zhou et al., 2020). The emergence of new epidemic diseases varies among different taxonomic groups, and the human-made change in natural environments causes eco-evolutionary consequences. Therefore, the alteration of this natural role caused by human pressures on wild species, we label as “ecological fever” —a new One Health perspective from ecology to society. Following the new phylogenies of coronavirus proposed by Gorbalenya et al. (2020) and Zhang et al. (2020), we explore the adaptive evolution of coronaviruses across mammal species and its importance for wildlife conservation. Here, we show reconstructed ancestral states of coronaviruses under maximum-likelihood estimations across an entire class of host organisms (i.e., Mammalia). In this opinion paper, we explore the evolution and cross-species transmission of coronaviruses and highlight the need to preserve natural habitats of wildlife in order to prevent future pandemics.publishersversionpublishe

implications for conservation planning in a Neotropical Hotspot

Covre, A. C., Lourenço-De-Moraes, R., Campos, F. S., & Benedito, E. (2022). Spatial relationships between fishes and amphibians: implications for conservation planning in a Neotropical Hotspot. Environmental Management, 70(6), 978–989. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1479895/v1, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01707-7 ---- This work received financial support from CAPES (Finance Code 001), CNPq (151473/2018-8), FCT (PTDC/CTA-AMB/28438/2017), and MagIC/NOVA IMS (UIDB/04152/2020).Species distribution patterns are widely used to guide conservation planning and are a central issue in ecology. The usefulness of spatial correlation analysis has been highlighted in several ecological applications so far. However, spatial assumptions in ecology are highly scale-dependent, in which geographical relationships between species diversity and distributions can have different conservation concerns. Here, an integrative landscape planning was designed to show the spatial distribution patterns of taxonomic and functional diversity of amphibians and fishes, from multiple species traits regarding morphology, life history, and behavior. We used spatial, morphological, and ecological data of amphibians and fishes to calculate the functional diversity and the spatial correlation of species. Mapping results show that the higher taxonomic and functional diversity of fishes is concentrated in the West Atlantic Forest. Considering amphibians, are located in the East portion of the biome. The spatial correlation of species indicates the regions of the Serra do Mar and the extreme southern part of the Central Corridor as the main overlapped species distribution areas between both groups. New key conservation sites were reported within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest hotspot, revealing cross-taxon mismatches between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. This study offers useful spatial information integrating suitable habitats of fishes and amphibians to complement existing and future research based on terrestrial and freshwater conservation. New priorities for biodiversity conservation in rich-species regions highlight the importance of spatial pattern analysis to support land-use planning in a macroecological context.authorsversionpublishe

Ecological Connectivity for Amphibians Under Climate Change

Campos, F. S., Lourenço-de-Moraes, R., Ruas, D. S., Mira-Mendes, C. V., Franch, M., Llorente, G. A., ... Cabral, P. (2019). Searching for Networks: Ecological Connectivity for Amphibians Under Climate Change. Environmental Management, 65(1), 46-61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-019-01240-0Ecological connectivity depends on key elements within the landscape, which can support ecological fluxes, species richness and long-term viability of a biological community. Landscape planning requires clear aims and quantitative approaches to identify which key elements can reinforce the spatial coherence of protected areas design. We aim to explore the probability of the ecological connectivity of forest remnants and amphibian species distributions for current and future climate scenarios across the Central Corridor of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Integrating amphibian conservation, climate change and ecological corridors, we design a landscape ranking based on graph and circuit theories. To identify the sensitivity of connected areas to climate-dependent changes, we use the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate by means of simulations for 2080–2100, representing a moderated emission scenario within an optimistic context. Our findings indicate that more than 70% of forest connectivity loss by climate change may drastically reduce amphibian dispersal in this region. We show that high amphibian turnover rates tend to be greater in the north-eastern edges of the corridor across ensembles of forecasts. Our spatial analysis reveals a general pattern of low-conductance areas in landscape surface, yet with some well-connected patches suggesting potential ecological corridors. Atlantic Forest reserves are expected to be less effective in a near future. For improved conservation outcomes, we recommend some landscape paths with low resistance values across space and time. We highlight the importance of maintaining forest remnants in the southern Bahia region by drafting a blueprint for functional biodiversity corridors.authorsversionpublishe

Diet of juveniles of the venomous frog <em>Aparasphenodon brunoi</em> (Amphibia: Hylidae) in southeastern Brazil

Seventy juvenile individuals of Aparasphenodon brunoi were collected on the low parts of tree trunks in an Atlantic Forest remnant. Arthropods were the dominant prey found in their stomachs. Coleoptera (adult and larvae) was the most important prey regarding prey frequency, number, weight, and index of relative importance. Secondary preys included Hymenoptera that was important regarding number of prey and Hemiptera that was important regarding prey weight. Trophic ontogeny was detected. The diversity of prey suggests A. brunoi is an opportunistic sit-and-wait predator

Diet of juveniles of the venomous frog Aparasphenodon brunoi (Amphibia: Hylidae) in southeastern Brazil

Seventy juvenile individuals of Aparasphenodon brunoi were collected on the low parts of tree trunks in an Atlantic Forest remnant. Arthropods were the dominant prey found in their stomachs. Coleoptera (adult and larvae) was the most important prey regarding prey frequency, number, weight, and index of relative importance. Secondary preys included Hymenoptera that was important regarding number of prey and Hemiptera that was important regarding prey weight. Trophic ontogeny was detected. The diversity of prey suggests A. brunoi is an opportunistic sit-and-wait predator

Diet of juveniles of the venomous frog Aparasphenodon brunoi (Amphibia: Hylidae) in southeastern Brazil

Seventy juvenile individuals of Aparasphenodon brunoi were collected on the low parts of tree trunks in an Atlantic Forest remnant. Arthropods were the dominant prey found in their stomachs. Coleoptera (adult and larvae) was the most important prey regarding prey frequency, number, weight, and index of relative importance. Secondary preys included Hymenoptera that was important regarding number of prey and Hemiptera that was important regarding prey weight. Trophic ontogeny was detected. The diversity of prey suggests A. brunoi is an opportunistic sit-and-wait predator

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum

Performance of the CMS Level-1 trigger in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

At the start of Run 2 in 2015, the LHC delivered proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13\TeV. During Run 2 (years 2015–2018) the LHC eventually reached a luminosity of 2.1× 10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, almost three times that reached during Run 1 (2009–2013) and a factor of two larger than the LHC design value, leading to events with up to a mean of about 50 simultaneous inelastic proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing (pileup). The CMS Level-1 trigger was upgraded prior to 2016 to improve the selection of physics events in the challenging conditions posed by the second run of the LHC. This paper describes the performance of the CMS Level-1 trigger upgrade during the data taking period of 2016–2018. The upgraded trigger implements pattern recognition and boosted decision tree regression techniques for muon reconstruction, includes pileup subtraction for jets and energy sums, and incorporates pileup-dependent isolation requirements for electrons and tau leptons. In addition, the new trigger calculates high-level quantities such as the invariant mass of pairs of reconstructed particles. The upgrade reduces the trigger rate from background processes and improves the trigger efficiency for a wide variety of physics signals